had insisted upon their attending him, and that they were answerable for
his safe return to Aescendune, the country being considered dangerous
for travellers in its present disturbed state.

So he yielded; and before the king had arisen he left the camp, after a
hasty meal, and rode as rapidly as the roads would permit towards his
desolated home.


CHAPTER XXIII. LOVE STRONG AS DEATH.

Meanwhile Father Swithin had gone alone and unprotected, save by his
sacred character, into the very jaws of the lion; or rather, would have
gone, had he been suffered to do so; for when he approached the hall he
found the drawbridge up, and the whole place guarded as in a state of siege.

He advanced, nothing daunted, in front of the yawning gap where the
bridge should have been, and cried aloud--"What ho! porter; I demand
speech of my lord Redwald."

"You may demand speech--swine may demand pearls--but I don't think
you will get it. Deliver me your message."

"Tell your lord, rude churl, that I, Father Swithin, of the holy Order
of St. Benedict, have come, in the name of the rightful owners of this
house, and in the power of the Church, to demand that he deliver up
Elfric of Aescendune to the safe keeping of his friends."

"I will send your message; but keep a civil tongue in your mouth, Sir
Monk, and don't begin muttering any of your accursed Latin, or I will