ull charge of
them, with your leave."

"Truly, and my leave you shall have. We shall be right glad to be rid
of the charge, for a heavy one it has been, and a wearisome. A more
obstinate, perverse, ungovernable maid than Cicely never came in my
hands."

"Thank the Lord!" said Dorothy.

"Poor creatures!" said the Prioress. "I suppose you will do your best
to undo our teaching, and their souls will be lost. Howbeit, we were
little like to have saved them. And it will be well, now for the
community that they should go. Wait, and I will send them to you."

Dorothy waited half-an-hour. At the end of that time a door opened in
the wainscot, which she had not known was there, and a tall, pale,
slender girl of eleven, looking older than she was, came forward.

"Dorothy Denny!" said Cissy's unchanged voice, in tones of unmistakable
delight. "Oh, they didn't tell me who it was! Are we to go with
_you_?--back to Colchester? Has something happened? Do tell me what is
going to become of us."

"My dear heart, peace and happiness, if it please the Lord. Master
Ewring and I have come to fetch you all. The Queen is departed to God,
and the Lady Elizabeth is now Queen; and the nuns are ready enough to be
rid of you. If my dear mistress come home safe--as please God, she
shall--you shall be all her children, and Master Ewring hath offered to
take Will when he be old enough, and learn him his trade. Your troubles
be over, I trust the Lord, for some while."

"It's just in time!" said Cissy with a gasp of relief. "Oh, how wicked
I have been, not to trust God better! and He was getting this ready for
us all the while!"

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

WHAT THEY FOUND AT THE KING'S HEAD.

Mr Ewring had stayed at the gate, guessing that Dorothy would not be
long in fulfilling her errand. He cast the reins on the neck of his old
bay horse, and allowed it to crop the grass while he waited. Many a
short prayer for the success of the journey went up as he sat there. At
last the gate was opened, and a boy of seven years old bounded out of it
and ran up to the cart.

"Master Ewring, is that you? I'm glad to see you. We're all coming.
Is that old Tim?"

"That's old Tim, be sure," said the miller. "Pat him, Will, and then
give me your hand and make a long jump."

Will obeyed, just as the gate opened again, and Dorothy came out of it
with the two little girls. Little Nell--no longer Baby--could walk now,
and chatter too,