to the nave of the church. Bearing the
other, Sir Andrew departed into the vestry, leaving Hugh and Eve seated
together in the darkness of the chancel stalls.

Presently his light reappeared in the confessional, where he sat robed,
and thither at his summons went first Hugh and then Eve. When their
tales were told, those who watched in the nave of the splendid
building--which, reared by the Knights Templar, was already following
that great Order to decay and ruin--saw the star of light he bore ascend
to the high altar. Here he set it down, and, advancing to the rail,
addressed the two shadowy figures that knelt before him.

"Son and daughter," he said, "you have made confession with contrite
hearts, and the Church has given you absolution for your sins. Yet
penance remains, and because those sins, though grievous in themselves,
were not altogether of your own making, it shall be light. Hugh de
Cressi and Eve Clavering, who are bound together by lawful love between
man and woman and the solemn oath of betrothal which you here renew
before God, this is the penance that I lay upon you by virtue of the
authority in me vested as a priest of Christ: Because between you runs
the blood of John Clavering, the cousin of one of you and the brother
of the other, slain by you, Hugh de Cressi, in mortal combat but yester
eve, I decree and enjoin that for a full year from this day you shall
not be bound together as man and wife in the holy bonds of matrimony,
nor converse after the fashion of affianced lovers. If you obey this her
command, faithfully, then by my mouth the Church declares that after
the year has gone by you may lawfully be wed where and when you will.
Moreover, she pronounces her solemn blessing on you both and her
dreadful curse upon any and upon all who shall dare to sunder you
against your desires, and of this blessing and this curse let all the
congregation take notice."

Now Hugh and Eve rose and vanished into the darkness. When they had
gone the priest celebrated a short mass, but two or three prayers and a
blessing, which done, all of them returned to the Preceptory as they had
come.

Here food was waiting for them, prepared by the old Sister Agnes. It was
a somewhat silent meal of which no one ate very much except Grey Dick,
who remarked aloud that as this might be his last breakfast it should be
plentiful, since, shriven or unshriven, it was better to die upon a full
stomach.

Master de Cressi called him