m
who had passed in. Then he re-entered his house, and if I mistake not is
still on the watch at that casement. If we stand here for a minute or
two, perchance he may come out to see what delays you in this dark
corner, in which case I may well give him a clout with my ax which will
settle his prying."

"Better not," Cuthbert said. "We can retire round this corner and so
avoid his observation; and were his body found slain here, suspicion
would be at once excited in the mind of his employer. At present he can
have no ground for any report which may make the knight uneasy, for he
can but know that a gentleman has entered, and remained for two hours at
the convent, and he will in no way connect my visit with the Lady
Margaret."

They had just turned the corner which Cuthbert indicated, when a man
came up rapidly behind them and almost brushed them as he passed,
half-turning round and trying to gaze into their faces. Cnut at once
assumed the aspect of an intoxicated person, and stretching forth his
foot, with a dexterous shove pushed the stranger into the gutter. The
latter rose with a fierce cry of anger; but Cnut with a blow of his
heavy fist again stretched him on the ground, this time to remain quiet
until they had walked on and passed out of sight.

"A meddling fool," Cnut grumbled. "He will not, methinks, have much to
report to Sir Rudolph this time. Had I thought that he had seen your
face, I would have cleft his skull with no more hesitation than I send
an arrow into the brain of a stag in the forest."

As they journeyed along Cuthbert informed Cnut of what the abbess had
told him; and the latter agreed that a watch must be placed on the
convent, and that a force must be kept as near as possible at hand so
as to defeat any attempt which might be made.

The next day one of the forest men who had been a peaceable citizen, but
who had been charged with using false weights and had been condemned to
lose his ears, repaired to Worcester. His person was unknown there, as
he had before lived at Gloucester. He hired a house in the square in
which the convent was situated, giving out that he desired to open a
house of business for the sale of silks, and for articles from the Low
Countries. As he paid down earnest-money for the rent no suspicion
whatever was excited. He at once took up his abode there, having with
him two stout serving-men, and a 'prentice boy; and from that time two
sets of watchers observed without ce