"Tak care neaw one fonds that chilt, Dolly, if they break in. Hide it
safely; an whon they're gone, tak it to't church, and place it near t'
altar, where no ill con cum to it or thee. Mey life may hong upon it."

And as the poor girl, who, as well as her mother, was almost frightened
out of her wits, promised compliance, he hurried down the steps after
the others, muttering, as the clamour without was redoubled--

"Eigh, roar on till yo're hoarse. Yo winnaw get in yet awhile, ey'n
promise ye."

Meantime, the abbot had been led to the chief room of the mill, where
all the corn formerly consumed within the monastery had been prepared,
and which the size of the chamber itself, together with the vastness of
the stones used in the operation of grinding, and connected with the
huge water-wheel outside, proved to be by no means inconsiderable.
Strong shafts of timber supported the flooring above, and were crossed
by other boards placed horizontally, from which various implements in
use at the mill depended, giving the chamber, imperfectly lighted as it
now was by the lamp borne by Abel, a strange and almost mysterious
appearance. Three or four of the miller's men, armed with pikes, had
followed their master, and, though much alarmed, they vowed to die
rather than give up the abbot.

By this time Hal o' Nabs had joined the group, and proceeding towards a
raised part of the chamber where the grinding-stones were set, he knelt
down, and laying hold of a small ring, raised up a trapdoor. The fresh
air which blew up through the aperture, combined with the rushing sound
of water, showed that the Calder flowed immediately beneath; and, having