“Ah, there is Walderne, away far off, just to the left of the eastern range of Downs—­I see it across the plain twelve miles away.  I see the windmills on the hill, and below the church towers, and the tops of the castle towers in the vale beneath.  I shall soon bid them all farewell.”

Then the young knight turned and looked on the fertile valley wherein meandered the Ouse.  The grand priory lay below:  its magnificent church, well known to our readers; its towers and pinnacles.

“And there my poor father wears out his days, now a brother professed.  And he, for whom Europe was not large enough in his youth, now never leaves the convent’s boundaries.  But he is about to travel to Jerusalem by proxy.

“If only I could see Martin again.  I cannot think why Martin and I should be like Damon and Pythias, to whom the chaplain once compared us.  But we are, although one will fain be a friar and the other a warrior.”

He descended the tower after one more lingering glance at the view, but his light nature soon threw off the impression, and none was gayer guest at the noontide meal, the “nuncheon” of Earl Warrenne of Lewes, the lord of the castle.

It was eventide, and the marketplace was filled with an excited population.  There were ruffling men-at-arms, stolid rustics, frightened women and children, overturned stalls, shouts and screams; unsavoury missiles, such as rotten eggs and stale vegetables, were flying about; and in the midst of the open space the figure of a Jew, who had excited the indignation of the multitude, was the object of violent aggression which seemed likely to endanger his life.

A miracle had occurred.  The crucifix over the rood at Saint Michael’s Church had suddenly blazed out with a supernatural light, which had endured for many minutes:  the multitude flocked in to see and adore, and much was the reputation of Saint Michael’s shrine enhanced, when this unbelieving Jew actually had the temerity to assert that the light was only caused by the rays of the sun falling directly upon the figure through a window in the western wall, narrow as the slits we see in the old castle towers, so arranged as on this particular day to bring the rays of the setting sun full upon the gilding of the cross {21}.

But the explanation, probably true, was the signal for frantic cries: 

“Out on the blasphemer!  The accursed Jew!  Let him die the death!”

And it is very probable that he would have been “done to death” had not an interruption, characteristic of the age, occurred.

Two friars, clad in the garb of Saint Francis, just then entered the square and learned the cause of the tumult.  Their action was immediate.  The brethren stalked into the midst of the crowd, which made way for them as if a superior being had commanded their reverence, and one of the two mounted on a cart, and took for his text, in a clear piercing voice which was heard everywhere, “Christ, and Him crucified.”