so hard before, since Emlyn, who owed him many a grudge, saw to it that
he did not lack for tasks that were mean and heavy.

Now that day Thomas and others spied out the Abbey and returned shaking
their heads, for without cannon--and as yet they had none--the great
building of hewn stone seemed almost impregnable. At but one spot indeed
was attack possible, from the back where once stood the dormers and farm
steadings which Emlyn had egged on Thomas to burn. These had been built
up to the inner edge of the moat, making, as it were, part of the Abbey
wall, but the fierce fire had so cracked and crumbled their masonry that
several rods of it had fallen forward into the water.

For purposes of defence the gap this formed was now closed by a double
palisade of stout stakes, filled in with faggots, the charred beams
of the old buildings and other rubbish. Yet to carry this palisade,
protected as it was by the broad and deep moat and commanded from the
windows and the corner tower, was more than they dared try, since if it
could be done at all it would certainly cost them very many lives. One
thing they had learned, however, from the monk Basil and others, that in
the Abbey there was but small store of food to feed so many: three days'
supply, said Basil, and none put it at over four.

That evening, then, they held another council, at which it was
determined to starve the place out and only attempt an onslaught if
their spies reported to them that the rebels were marching to its
relief.

"But," urged Cicely, "then my lord and Jeffrey Stokes will starve also,"
whereon they went away sadly, saying there was no choice, seeing that
they were but two men and the lives of many lay at stake.

The siege began, just such a siege as Cicely had suffered at Cranwell
Towers. The first day the garrison of the Abbey scoffed at them from the
walls. The second day they scoffed no longer, noting that the force of
the besiegers increased, which it did hourly. The third day suddenly
they let down the drawbridge and poured out on to it as though for a
sortie, but when they perceived the scores of Bolle's men waiting bow
in hand and arrow on string, changed their minds and drew the bridge up
again.

"They grow hungry and desperate," said the shrewd Jacob. "Soon we shall
have some message from them."

He was right, since just before sunset a postern gate was opened and a
man, holding a white flag above his head, was seen swimming across the