the people concerned and the strange setting in which their fate
was cast.

The village of Birlstone is a small and very ancient cluster of
half-timbered cottages on the northern border of the county of
Sussex. For centuries it had remained unchanged; but within the
last few years its picturesque appearance and situation have
attracted a number of well-to-do residents, whose villas peep out
from the woods around. These woods are locally supposed to be
the extreme fringe of the great Weald forest, which thins away
until it reaches the northern chalk downs. A number of small
shops have come into being to meet the wants of the increased
population; so there seems some prospect that Birlstone may soon
grow from an ancient village into a modern town. It is the
centre for a considerable area of country, since Tunbridge Wells,
the nearest place of importance, is ten or twelve miles to the
eastward, over the borders of Kent.

About half a mile from the town, standing in an old park famous
for its huge beech trees, is the ancient Manor House of
Birlstone. Part of this venerable building dates back to the
time of the first crusade, when Hugo de Capus built a fortalice
in the centre of the estate, which had been granted to him by the
Red King. This was destroyed by fire in 1543, and some of its
smoke-blackened corner stones were used when, in Jacobean times,
a brick country house rose upon the ruins of the feudal castle.

The Manor House, with its many gables and its small diamond-paned
windows, was still much as the builder had left it in the early
seventeenth century. Of the double moats which had guarded its