“Ay, verily; and I am glad thou hast skill enough for his needs.

“Be cautious, Edred my son, that the cold gets not to the hurts.  Draw up the collar of thy mantle well over that left cheek of thine, and do not talk whilst the air bites so keenly.  When the sun is up all will be well; but be cautious in the first chill of the dawn.”

The brothers went towards their companion, and rearranged the collar of his riding cloak so as still more to conceal his face.  The hands of the younger lad were trembling somewhat; there was a quivering of the muscles of the face which betokened some repressed emotion.  The muffled rider did not speak or make much movement.  He obeyed the injunction of the lady of Chad to the letter.

Sir Oliver now appeared, and lifted his wife upon her palfrey.  He gave a look to see that his sons were mounted, and his servants standing ready to follow his example when he sprang to the saddle.

Then his charger was led up, and he mounted and gave the word, and the little cavalcade moved out through the gate and into the still, dim forest track, watched intently by more than one pair of keen, sharp, suspicious eyes.

“I trust when I come back,” remarked the knight to his lady, “that yon spies will have grown weary of their bootless watch, and will have taken themselves off.  It is but the malice and suspicion of the Lord of Mortimer which causes the prior to act so.  Alone he would never trouble himself.  He knows that Brother Emmanuel is not at Chad, and has not been these many days.  Wherever he be, he has escaped the malice of his foes this time.  Heaven send that he may long escape!  He was a godly and a saintly man, and no more heretic than thou or I. If the Church will persist in warring thus against her own truest sons, then indeed will she provoke some great judgment upon her own head.  A house divided against itself can never stand, and she above all others should know that.”

The spies had been some time passed before Sir Oliver spoke these words, and when he did so they were only loud enough to reach the ears of his wife and of his sons, who rode immediately behind him.  Two of these turned their heads for a moment to look at him who rode between them, but his face was far too well concealed for its expression to be seen.

A few miles further on and a pause was made.  Julian suggested that he and Edred should be turning back; whilst the mother, who thought that Edred was scarce fit for the saddle yet, seconded the idea with approbation.

They were passing through a very dark part of the forest, where the trees grew dense, and where on one side the sandstone rose up in a wall, quite keeping out the level rays of the rising sun.  It was almost as dim as night in this overgrown spot.