a, and Turguia, and Chembel and Veka, and all the rest?"

"Turguia's gone, these five years; the rest are well--at least I don't
recall any that are not."

"Is old Benefei still at the corner?"

"Ay, he is, and Rubi and Jurnet. Regina is married to Jurnet's wife's
nephew, Samuel, and has a lot of children--one pretty little girl, with
eyes as like Countess as they can be."

"Oh, have you any notion what is become of Countess?"

"They removed from Reading to Dorchester, I believe, and then I heard
old Leo had divorced Countess, and married Deuslesalt's daughter and
heir, Drua. What became of her I don't know."

"By the way, did either of you know aught of the Wise Woman of
Bensington? Mother Haldane, they used to call her. She'll perhaps not
be alive now, for she was an old woman eight years gone. She did me a
good turn once."

"I don't know anything about her," said Leuesa.

"Ah, well, I do," answered Roscius. "I went to her when our cow was
fairy-led, twelve years gone; and after that for my sister, when she had
been eating chervil, and couldn't see straight before her. Ay, she was
a wise woman, and helped a many folks. No, she's not alive now."

"You mean more than you say, Roscius," said Stephen, with a sudden
sinking of heart. What had happened to Haldane?

"Well, you see, they ducked her for a witch."

"And killed her?" Stephen's voice was hard.

"Ay--she did not live many minutes after. She sank, though--she was no
witch: though it's true, her cat was never seen afterwards, and some
folks would have it he'd gone back to Sathanas."

"Then it must have been that night!" said Stephen to himself. "Did she
know, that she sent us off in haste? Was _that_ the secret she would
not tell?" Aloud, he said,--"And who were `they' that wrought that ill
deed?"

"Oh, there was a great crowd at the doing of it--all the idle loons in
Bensington and Dorchester: but there were two that hounded them on to
the work--the Bishop's sumner Malger, and a woman: I reckon they had a
grudge against her of some sort. Wigan the charcoal-burner told me of
it--he brought her out, and loosed the cord that bound her."

"God pardon them as He may!" exclaimed Stephen. "She was no more a
witch than you are. A gentle, harmless old woman, that healed folks
with herbs and such--shame on the men that dared to harm her!"

"Ay, I don't believe there was aught bad in her. But, saints bless
you!--lads are up to anything," s