d at Milnrow, more than a mile distant. Many
strange stories he had been told of these warrior monks. But centuries
had elapsed since their suppression. For a moment he almost believed
they were permitted to reappear, doomed at stated periods to re-enact
their unhallowed orgies, their cruelties, and their crimes. The
chamber was lighted by three or four torches, their lurid unsteady
life giving an ever-varying character to the surrounding objects.

Opposite the entrance was a stone bench, occupied by several figures
attired in a similar manner to his conductor. An individual in the
centre wore in addition a belt covered by some cabalistic devices. The
scene was sufficiently inexplicable, and not at all elucidated by the
following interrogation:--

"Thou hast been cited to our tribunal," said the chief inquisitor.

"I know ye not," said Gervase, with great firmness, though hardly
aware of the position he occupied.

"Why hast thou not obeyed our summons?"

"I have not heard of any such; nor in good sooth should I have been
careful to obey had your mandate been delivered."

"Croix Rouge," said the interrogator, "has this delinquent been
cited?"

The person he addressed arose, bowed, and presented a written answer.

"I have here," continued the chief, "sufficient proof that our summons
hath been conveyed to thee, and that hitherto thine answer hath been
contumaciously withheld. What sayest thou?"

"I have yet to learn, firstly," said Gervase, with more indignation
than prudence, "by what authority you would compel me to appear; and
secondly, how and in what form such mandate had been sent?"

"Bethink thee, is our answer to the last: the first will be manifested
in due time. We might indeed leave thee ignorant as to what we
require, but pity for thy youth and inexperience forbids. Clegg Hall
is, thou knowest, along with the estate, now unlawfully holden by the
Ashtons."

"I know that sundry Popish recusants, plotting the overthrow of our
most gracious Queen, do say that other and more legitimate rights are
in abeyance only; but the present owners are too well fortified to be
dispossessed by hearsay."

"In the porch at Clegg thou wast accosted not long ago by a mendicant
who solicited an alms."

"Probably so."

"Did he not hold out to thee the sign of the Rosy Cross, the token of
our all-powerful fraternity of Rosicrucians?"

"I do remember such a signal; and furthermore, I drove him forth as an
impostor a