ay," he
said with a deep oath.

And at that Jason faced about to them.

"You have been mistaken, sirs," he said. "I am not a spy, and neither
am I an assassin."

He walked away with what composure he could command, but he trembled
like a leaf, for by this encounter three new thoughts possessed him;
first, that when his attempt had been made and his work done, he who
believed himself appointed by God as the instrument of His righteous
retribution, would stand no otherwise before man than as a common
midnight murderer; next, that unless he made haste with his design he
would be forestalled by others with baser motives; and, again, that
if his bearing had so nearly revealed his purpose to the Danes it
might suggest it to others with more interest in defeating it.

In his former rashness he had gone everywhere, even where the throngs
were thickest, and talked with everyone, even the six stalwart
constables who had taken the place of the rheumatic watchmen whom he
knew in earlier days. But from the hour of that meeting with the
Danes he found himself going about as stealthily as a cat, watching
everybody, thinking everybody was watching him, shrinking from every
sight, and quaking at every sound. "They can do what they like with
me after it is over," he thought, "but first let it be done."

He felt afraid, who had never before known the taste of fear; he felt
weary, who had never until then known what it was to be tired. "Oh,
what is this that is coming over me?" he thought. "If I am doing
well, why do I tremble?" For even while he planned his daring attempt
a great feebleness seemed to be in all his members.

Thus it chanced that on the next day thereafter, Saturday, he saw
many busy preparations along the line of the High Street and its
byways, such as the swinging of pulley ropes from house front to
house front and the shaking out of bunting, without asking what
festival they purported. But returning to his lodging in the evening
he found his landlady busy with preparations of a like kind about the
entrance to the yard of the Cathedral, and then he knew too well what
new thing was coming. All the same he asked, and his landlady
answered him:

"Lord bless me," she cried, "and haven't you heard that the young
Governor is to be wedded?"

"When?" said Jason.

"To-morrow," said the old body.

"Where?"

"Why, in the Cathedral, surely. It will be a bonny sight, I promise
you. You would like to see it, I make no d