is
demands to his Grace, and that was the mistake--"

The man beat one hand into the other and looked round with a kindling
force--

"That was the mistake! He was too loyal for such work, and did not guess
at their craft. Well, while we waited there, our men began to make off;
their farms were wanting them, and their wives and the rest, and we
melted. Master Aske had to be everywhere at once, it was no fault of
his. My Lord Derby was marching up upon the houses again, and seeking to
drive the monks out once more. But there was not an act of violence done
by our men; not a penny-piece taken or a house burned. They were
peaceable folk, and asked no more than that their old religion should be
given back to them, and that they might worship God as they had always
done."

He went on to explain how the time had been wasted in those fruitless
negotiations, and how the force dwindled day by day. Various answers
were attempted by the King, containing both threats and promises, and in
these, as in all else the hand of Cromwell was evident. Finally, towards
the end of November, the insurgents gathered again for another meeting
with the King's representatives at Doncaster, summoned by beacons on the
top of the high Yorkshire moors, and by the reversed pealing of the
church bells.

"We had a parley among ourselves at Pomfret first, and had a great
to-do, though I saw little of it; and drew up our demands; and then set
out for Doncaster again. The duke was there, with the King's pardon in
his hand, in the Whitefriars; and a promise that all should be as we
asked. So we went back to Pomfret, well-pleased, and the next day on St.
Thomas' hill the herald read the pardon to us all; and we, poor fools,
thought that his Grace meant to keep his word--"

The monk looked bitterly round, sneering with his white strong teeth set
together like a savage dog's; and there was silence for a moment. The
Sub-Prior looked nervously round the faces of his subjects, for this was
treasonable talk to hear.

Then the man went on. He himself it seemed had retired again to the
little cell where he had seen the canons settled in a few weeks
previously; and heard nothing of what was going forward; except that the
heralds were going about the country, publishing the King's pardon to
all who had taken part in the Rebellion, and affixing it to the
market-cross in each town and village, with touching messages from the
King relating to the grief which he had