axed
ere they would put it to their white teeth; mais elles s'y faisaient;
and the story, and the jest, and the cup went round (by-the-by, they had
flagons made to simulate breviaries); and a monk touched the cittern,
and sang ditties with a voice tunable as a lark in spring. The posies
did turn the faces of the women folk bright red at first: but elles s'y
faisaient."

Here Gerard exploded.

"Miserable wretches! Corrupters of youth! Perverters of innocence! but
for your being there, Denys, who have been taught no better, oh,
would God the church had fallen on the whole gang. Impious, abominable
hypocrites!"

"Hypocrites?" cried Denys, with unfeigned surprise. "Why, that is what I
clept them ere I knew them: and you withstood me. Nay, they are sinners;
all good fellows are that; but, by St. Denys his helmeted skull, no
hypocrites, but right jolly roaring blades."

"Denys," said Gerard solemnly, "you little know the peril you ran that
night. That church you defiled amongst you is haunted; I had it from
one of the elder monks. The dead walk there, their light feet have been
heard to patter o'er the stones."

"Misericorde!" whispered Denys.

"Ay, more," said Gerard, lowering his voice almost to a whisper;
"celestial sounds have issued from the purlieus of that very crypt you
turned into a tavern. Voices of the dead holding unearthly communion
have chilled the ear of midnight, and at times, Denys, the faithful in
their nightly watches have even heard music from dead lips; and chords,
made by no mortal finger, swept by no mortal hand, have rung faintly,
like echoes, deep among the dead in those sacred vaults."

Denys wore a look of dismay. "Ugh! if I had known, mules and wain-ropes
had not hauled me thither; and so" (with a sigh) "I had lost a merry
time."

Whether further discussion might have thrown any more light upon these
ghostly sounds, who can tell? for up came a "bearded brother" from the
monastery, spurring his mule, and waving a piece of vellum in his hand.
It was the deed between Ghysbrecht and Floris Brandt. Gerard valued it
deeply as a remembrance of home: he turned pale at first but to think he
had so nearly lost it, and to Denys's infinite amusement not only gave a
piece of money to the lay brother, but kissed the mule's nose.

"I'll read you now," said Gerard, "were you twice as ill written;
and--to make sure of never losing you"--here he sat down, and taking out
needle and thread, sewed it with f