wanderer pricked up his ears; and as an old war horse, though harnessed
to the plough, when he hears the trumpet sound lifts his head and arches
his neck as proudly and nobly as of yore under his glittering trappings,
so Rufinus drew himself up, his old eyes sparkled, and he exclaimed with
all the enthusiasm and eagerness of youth:

"Very good, very good; I am with you; not merely as an adviser; no, no.
Head, and hand, and foot, from crown to heel! And as for you, young man
--as for you! I always saw the stuff that was in you in spite--in spite.
--But, as surely as man is the standard of all things, those who reach
the stronghold of virtue by a winding road are often better citizens than
those who are born in it.--It is growing late, but evensong will not yet
have begun and I shall still be able to see the abbess. Have you any
plan to propose?"

"Yes; the day after to-morrow at this hour. . . ."

"And why not to-morrow?" interrupted the ardent old man.

"Because I have preparations to make which cannot be done in twelve hours
of daylight."

"Good! Good!"

"The day after to-morrow at dusk, a large barge--not one of ours--will be
lying by the bank at the foot of the convent garden. I will escort the
sisters as far as Doomiat on the Lake. I will send on a mounted
messenger to-night, and I will charter a ship for the fugitives by the
help of my cousin Columella, the greatest ship-owner of that town. That
will take them over seas wherever the abbess may command."