"Thus you shall know her, Galors," he said. "A slim girl, somewhat
under the common size of the country, and overburdened with a curtain
of black hair; and a sullen, brooding girl who says little, and that
nakedly and askance; and in a pale face two grey eyes a-burning."
All this Galors knew better than his Abbot. Now he asked, "But what is
her offence, father? For even with power of life and member the law of
the land has force, that neither man nor maid, witch nor devil, may be
put lightly away."
For this "put away" the Abbot thanked him with a look, and added, that
she was suspected of witchcraft, seeing Mald her mother was a
notorious witch, and the wench herself the byword and scorn of all the
country-side. Sorcery, therefore, or incontinence--"whichever you
will," said he. "Any stick will do to beat a dog with."
Galors had much to say, but said nothing. There was something behind
all this, he was sure, knowing his man by heart. He judged the Abbot
to be bursting with news, and watched him pace the parlour now
struggling with it. Sure enough the murder was out before he had taken
a dozen turns. "Now, Galors," he said, in a new and short vein,
"listen to me. I intend to do what I should have done fourteen years
ago, when I held this girl in my two hands. I let slip my chance, and
blame myself for it; but having slipt it indeed, it was gone until
this charter of ours brought it back fresh. You know how we stand
here, you and I and the Convent-all of us at the disposition of her
ladyship. A great lady, my friend, and a young one, childless, it is
said, without heir of her own. Morgraunt may go to the Crown or Holy
Thorn and Gracedieu may divide it."
"She may marry again," put in Galors.
"She is twice a widow," the Abbot snapped him up, and gave his first
shock. "She is twice a widow, once against her will. She will never
marry again."
"Then, my father," said Galors, "we should be safe as against the
Crown, which the Countess probably loves as little as the rest of her
kind."
"The Countess Isabel," said the Abbot, speaking like an oracle, "is
not childless."
Galors understood.
"Do not misunderstand me in this, Brother Galors," said the Abbot. "We
will do the girl no unnecessary harm. We will slip her out of the
country if we can get any one to take her. Put it she shall be married
or hanged." Galors again thought that he understood. The Abbot went
on. "There shall be no burning, though that were deserved; not even
tumbril, though that were little harm to so hot a piece. There shall
be, indeed, that which the Countess believes to have been already-a
sally at dawn and a flitting. There will then be no harm done. The
tithing will be free of a sucking witch, and the heart of our
benefactress turned from the child of her sin (for such it was to
break troth to the earl, and sin she deems it) to the child of her
spiritual adoption, to wit, our Holy Thorn." He added "You are in my
obedience, Galors. I love you much, and will see to your advancement.
You have a great future. But, my brother, remember this. Between a
woman's heart and her conscience there can be no fight. There is,
rather, a triumph, wherein the most glorious of the' victor's spoils
is that same conscience, shackled and haled behind the
. That you
should know, and on that you must act. Remember you are fighting for
Saint Giles of Holy Thorn, and be speedy while the new tool still
burns in your hand."