upon their way to point to this side or that, to tap the wall, or draw
figures with their swords amid the fallen leafage.

I stood a long time fixed to the ground, and then with a great effort I
stole noiselessly away, and, once on the beaten track, I hasted on to
the moat-house.

With a heart that I could hear beating, I turned my back on the bay,
and, crossing the little drawbridge, craved of a warder at the
gate--half fisher, half ecclesiastic, in a frayed frock and seamen's
shoes--an audience of my Lord the Archbishop for the delivery of a
missive from the Abbot of the Vale, that must be delivered into his hand
alone.




CHAPTER III.

Of my _Lord Maugher_ and his _Familiar Demon_. How he received the
abbot's letter, and how I was courteously entertained at his house of
_Blanchelande_.


And my lord was not difficult of access. He sat in a deep chair in the
hall, and round him were all manner of strange things whose shape and
name I knew not, but little was there save old rolls of parchment to
betoken a Churchman's dwelling. A great table held bottles of many
shapes of glass and earthenware, and optic glasses and tools lay
intermingled. I caught the gleam of much bright steel on settle and