to escape him, having no other refuge, though you may think ill of me
for this deed."

"Not I, my child. I should not speak against yonder Abbot, for he is my
superior in the Church, though, mind you, I owe him no allegiance, since
this benefice is not in his gift, nor am I a Benedictine. Therefore I
will tell you the truth. I hold the man not honest. All is provender
that comes to his maw; moreover, he is no Englishman, but a Spaniard,
one sent here to work against the welfare of this realm; to suck its
wealth, stir up rebellion, and make report of all that passes in it, for
the benefit of England's enemies."

"Yet he has friends at Court, or so said my father."

"Aye, aye, such folks have ever friends--their money buys them; though
mayhap an ill day is at hand for him and his likes. Well, your poor
father is gone, God knows how, though I thought for long that would be
his end, who ever spoke his mind, or more; and you with your wealth are
the morsel that tempts Maldon's appetite. And now what is to be done?
This is a hard case. Would you refuge in some other Nunnery?"

"Nay," answered Cicely, glancing sideways at her lover.

"Then what's to be done?"

"Oh! I know not," she said, bursting into a fit of weeping. "How can
I tell you, who am mazed with grief and doubt? I had but a single
friend--my father, though at times he was a rough one. Yet he loved me
in his way, and I have obeyed his last counsel;" and, all her courage
gone, she sank into a chair and rocked herself to and fro, her head