ward
boldly and openly.

"Edred, have a care how thou answerest me when I shall speak to
thee anon. We have a part to play, and Brother Emmanuel's life may
hang upon how we play it."

Edred nodded assent. He was more weary, because more deeply
excited, than his brother, and no sleep had visited his eyes the
previous night. It had been spent with Brother Emmanuel in vigil in
the chantry. The strain of watching and deeply-seated anxiety was
telling upon the boy. He was glad that Julian had all his wits
about him, for his own head seemed swimming and his mind unhinged.

They stood silent awhile, until both had regained their breath;
then putting on their caps, which for convenience they had carried
in their hands hitherto, they started forth again at a leisurely
pace, and with an air of openness and fearlessness, in the
direction of the main entrance, talking to each other as they went
in no softened tones.

"It was a fine sight!" cried Julian. "I would not have missed it
for worlds. That villainous hunchback! So he was a damnable heretic
after all! I grieve we ever stood his friend. May he perish like
the vile creature he is! I will ask Brother Emmanuel to set me a
penance for having touched him that day when we thought him an
innocent trader.

"Edred, thinkest thou that it can be true that Brother Emmanuel is
himself a heretic? If it be, we must drive him forth with blows and
curses. To sit down at board with a heretic, to hear teaching from
his lips! Beshrew me, but one might as well have a friend from the
pit for an instructor! It cannot be; surely it cannot be."

The boy spoke hotly and angrily. He had stopped short as if in the
heat of argument, and Edred saw by the flash in his eye that he had
caught sight of some lurking spy close at hand.

"Belike no," answered Edred cautiously, but taking his cue
instantly from the other. "I did not well hear what Brother Fabian
said; surely it could be naught so bad as that?"

"I scarcely heard myself. I was something aweary by that time of
the spectacle, and methought all the heretics had been dealt with.
I saw that thou, like myself, wouldst fain stretch thy limbs once
again, and I had shifted too far away to be certain what was said.
But I did hear the name of Brother Emmanuel spoken, and there was a
call for him, and he came not.

"Edred, can it be that he feared to come? Hath he a guilty
conscience? If that be so, shall we strive to find him and keep
watch upo