MISTRESS MOWBRAY had not long to wait. The day after the matter of Newbiggin was settled Father Laurence was crossing Middleton Bridge, when he met “Moll o’ the graves” coming in the opposite direction. He instinctively crossed himself at her approach. She saw his action, and stopping on the side of the bridge in one of the refuges, she pointed her finger at him and laughed a shrill discordant laugh. “Ha, ha, Sir Priest, you think you will triumph in my despite. I dreamed a dream last night and all the devils in hell got hold of thee.”

“Peace, woman, peace, brawl not upon the Queen’s highway.”

“Nay, it is not peace,” she said; “who talketh to me of peace?”

“Mary, you had better go home,” said the priest kindly. “I was glad to hear that little Mistress Aline Gillespie put in a word for you and your folk at Newbiggin yesterday, so that there is the more reason for your peaceful homecoming.”

“Mistress Aline Gillespie,” said the old woman calming down and looking mysteriously about her. “Mistress Aline Gillespie, nay, she is not on our side. I see the hosts gathering for battle and she and thou are with248 the legions of the lost. Nay, Sir Priest, mock me not and mock not the forces that are over against you.”

“Woman,” said Father Laurence, “you speak that you know not, the powers of darkness shall flee before the powers of light.”

“No, never, nothing groweth out of the ground but it withereth, nothing is built that doth not fall to ruin, nothing made that doth not grow old and perish, nothing born that doth not die. Destruction and death alone triumph. Shew me one single thing of all the things that I have seen perish before my eyes and that liveth again. No, you cannot, Sir Priest.”

“The things that are seen are temporal, the things that are unseen are eternal,” he answered.

“And who, thinkest thou, knoweth the unseen, thou or I? I tell thee that all alike shall pass save the darkness and the void into which all, both seen and unseen shall be swallowed up. Yes, in this very valley where we now stand, you shall see iniquity triumph and all your feeble prayers be brought to naught. Avaunt, avaunt, nor may I tarry here longer.”

She brushed past him as she spoke, and the old priest looked sadly after her. “Poor thing,” he said, “she is indeed in the hands of Satan.”

He passed up the road on the way to Holwick and, as he entered Benjamin’s cottage, he met Aline coming forth. The wind blew her hair out somewhat as she stepped into the open, and the sun’s rays caught it, while she herself was still a little in shadow and it shone like a flaming fire. “It is a halo of glory,” said the old man to himself as he looked into the beautiful innocent face. “Child, you did well yesterday,” he said.

249

“Oh, but I am afraid, Father.”

“Afraid of what, my child?”

“Afraid that Mistress Mowbray was not pleased.”

“Fear not, Mistress Mowbray is an honest woman, she will approve of what thou hast said.”

Aline did not like to say more; she wondered whether she had misjudged the lady of Holwick, or whether the old man’s estimate was too charitable.

“God bless you, Aline,” he said, as she turned to go up the hill, and before entering the door he stood and watched her out of sight.

She went straight up to the Hall and found Audry. “I wonder what Ian is doing in Carlisle now,” said Aline. “Let us go down to the secret room. I have just met Sir Laurence Mortham. I think he looked sadder than ever, but he is a right gentle master. Do you remember that talk we had with Ian about our forebodings? I thought that it must have meant Ian’s departure, but it is something more than that. I felt it again strangely to-day when I met Father Laurence, and somehow it seemed to me as though there was some terrible conflict going on somewhere, and Father Laurence was trying to stop it, but that he could not do so.”

“Oh, do not talk like that, Aline, you do not know how creepy you make me feel. Come.”

“The room looks very melancholy now,” Audry said when they had descended. “I always associate this room with Master Menstrie. It seems very curious that we should discover him and the room at the same time.”

“It is very cold down here,” said Audry, “let us light a fire. That will d............