there were men of all ages there, old
wrinkled faces, and smooth ones; but it was not until they were all
standing in their places that he recognised Chris.

There stood the young man, at a stall near the door, his eyes bent down,
and his face deadly pale, his figure thin and rigid against the pale oak
panelling that rose up some eight feet from the floor. Ralph's heart
quickened with triumph. Ah! it was good to be here as judge, with that
brother of his as culprit!

The Prior and Sub-prior, whose places were occupied, stood together in
the centre of the room, as the doctor had ordered. It was their case
that was to come first.

There was an impressive silence; the two Visitors sat motionless,
looking severely round them; the secretaries had their clean paper
before them, and their pens, ready dipped, poised in their fingers.

Then Dr. Layton began.

* * * * *

It was an inexpressibly painful task, he said, that he had before him;
the monks were not to think that he gloried in it, or loved to find
fault and impose punishments; and, in fact, nothing but the knowledge
that he was there as the representative of the supreme authority in
Church and State could have supplied to him the fortitude necessary for
the performance of so sad a task.

Ralph marvelled at him as he listened. There was a solemn sound in the
man's face and voice, and dignity in his few and impressive gestures. It
could hardly be believed that he was not in earnest; and yet Ralph
remembered too the relish with which the man had dispersed his foul
tales the evening before, and the cackling laughter with which their
recital was accompanied. But it was all very wholesome for Chris, he
thought.

"And now," said Dr. Layton, "I must lay before you this grievous matter.
It is one of whose end I dare not think, if it should come before the
King's Grace; and yet so it must come. It is no less a matter than
treason."

His voice rang out with a melancholy triumph, and Ralph, looking at the
two monks who stood in the centre of the room, saw that they were both
as white as paper. The lips of the Prior were moving in a kind of
agonised entreaty, and his eyes rolled round.

"You, sir," cried the doctor, glaring at the Sub-Prior, who dropped his
beseeching eyes at the fierce look, "you, sir, have committed the
crime--in ignorance, you tell me--but at least the crime of preaching in
this priory-church in the presence of his Grac