o more till nearly bedtime, when he came in with the
information that all the Germans had been committed to the Castle
dungeon, to await the arrival of King Henry, who had summoned a Council
of Bishops to sit on the question, the Sunday after Christmas. That
untried prisoners should be kept nearly four months in a dark, damp,
unhealthy cellar, termed a dungeon, was much too common an occurrence to
excite surprise. Isel, as usual, lamented over it, and Derette, who had
seen the prisoners marched into the Castle yard, was as warm in her
sympathy as even her mother could have wished. Manning tried, not
unkindly, to silence them both, and succeeded only when they had worn
themselves out.

About ten days later, Derette made her profession, and was installed in
the anchorhold, with Leuesa as her maid. The anchorhold consisted of
two small chambers, some ten feet square, with a doorway of
communication that could be closed by a curtain. The inner room, which
was the bedchamber, was furnished with two bundles of straw, two rough
woollen rugs, a tin basin, a wooden coffer, a form, and some hooks for
hanging garments at one end. The outer room was kitchen and parlour; it
held a tiny hearth for a wood-fire (no chimney), another form, a small
pair of trestles and boards to form a table, which were piled in a
corner when not wanted for immediate use; sundry shelves were put up
around the walls, and from hooks in the low ceiling hung a lamp, a
water-bucket, a pair of bellows, a bunch of candles, a rope of onions, a
string of dried salt fish, and several bundles of medical herbs. The
scent of the apartment, as may be imagined, was somewhat less fragrant
than that of roses. In one corner stood the Virgin Mary, newly-painted
and gilt; in the opposite one, Saint John the Baptist, whom the imager
had made with such patent whites to his eyes, set in a bronzed
complexion, that the effect was rather startling. A very small
selection of primitive culinary utensils lay on a shelf close to the
hearth. Much was not wanted, when the most sumptuous meal to be had was
boiled fish or roasted onions.

Derette was extremely tired, and it was no cause for wonder. From early
morning she had been kept on the strain by most exciting incidents. Her
childhood's home, though it was scarcely more than a stone's throw from
her, she was never to see again. Father or brother might not even touch
her hand any more. Her mother and sister could still