back at the very glare of him; and the two rows of white monks
strained away from him like poplars in a tempest. The Abbot only
sprang forward with shining eyes; but the chancellor and the
master hung upon either arm and wrested him back out of danger's
way.

"He is possessed of a devil!" they shouted. "Run, brother
Ambrose, brother Joachim! Call Hugh of the Mill, and Woodman
Wat, and Raoul with his arbalest and bolts. Tell them that we
are in fear of our lives! Run, run! for the love of the Virgin!"

But the novice was a strategist as well as a man of action.
Springing forward, he hurled his unwieldy weapon at brother
Ambrose, and, as desk and monk clattered on to the floor
together, he sprang through the open door and down the winding
stair. Sleepy old brother Athanasius, at the porter's cell, had
a fleeting vision of twinkling feet and flying skirts; but before
he had time to rub his eyes the recreant had passed the lodge,
and was speeding as fast as his sandals could patter along the
Lyndhurst Road.



CHAPTER II.

HOW ALLEYNE EDRICSON CAME OUT INTO THE WORLD.


Never had the peaceful atmosphere of the old Cistercian house
been so rudely ruffled. Never had there been insurrection so