? The fat monks of
Blossholme must draw their girdles tight this winter. Those stolen lands
bring no luck, it seems, and John Foterell's blood has turned to fire.
Be warned, I say, be warned. Nay, I'll hear no more of your foul tongue.
Lay a finger on that poor lady if you dare, and pay the price," and she
too turned and went.

Ere he left the Nunnery the Abbot had an interview with Mother Matilda.

Cicely must be disciplined, he said; gently at first, afterwards with
roughness, even to scourging, if need were--for her soul's sake. Also
her servant Emlyn must be kept away from her--for her soul's sake, since
without doubt she was a dangerous witch. Also, when the time of the
birth of the child came on, he would send a wise woman to wait upon her,
one who was accustomed to such cases--for her body's sake and that of
her child. In the midst of the great trouble that had fallen upon them
through the terrible fire at the Abbey, which had cost them such fearful
loss, to say nothing of the lives of two of the servants and others
burned and maimed, he had not much time to talk of such small things;
but did she understand?

Then it was that Mother Matilda, the meek and gentle, brought pain and
astonishment to the heart of the Lord Abbot, her spiritual superior.

She did not understand in the least. Such discipline as he suggested,
whatever might be her faults and frailty, was, she declared with vigour,
entirely unsuited to the case of the Lady Cicely, who, in her opinion,
had suffered much for a small cause, and who, moreover, was about to
become a mother, and therefore should be treated with every gentleness.
For her part, she washed her hands of the whole business, and rather
than enforce such commands would lay the case before the Vicar-General
in London, who, she understood, was ready to look into such matters.
Or at least she would set the Lady Harflete and her servant outside the
gates and call upon the charitable to assist them. Of course, however,
if his Lordship chose to send a skilled woman to wait upon her in her
trouble, she could have no objection, provided that this woman were a
person of good repute. But in the circumstances it was idle to talk to
her of bread and water and dark cells and scourgings. Such things
should never happen while she was Prioress. Before they did, she and
her sisters would walk out of the Nunnery and leave the King's Courts to
judge of the matter.

Now the state of the Abbot was very