"
"I do trust you, but it cannot be. Here is money for you in plenty to hire
a passage if you need: it is no shame to take it from me. And now one
thing more. Here is a cord,--you must bind the hands and feet of the old
priest inside, and then you must bind mine likewise."
"Never," quoth Hereward.
"It must be. How else can I explain your having got the key? I made them
give me the key on the pretence that with one who had most cause to hate
you, it would be safe; and when they come and find us in the morning I
shall tell them how I came here to stab you with my own hands,--you must
lay the dagger by me,--and how you and your man fell upon us and bound us,
and you escaped. Ah! Mary Mother," continued the maiden with a sigh, "when
shall we poor weak women have no more need of lying?"
She lay down, and Hereward, in spite of himself, gently bound her hands
and feet, kissing them as he bound them.
"I shall do well here upon the altar steps," said she. "How can I spend my
time better till the morning light than to lie here and pray?"
The old priest, who was plainly in the plot, submitted meekly to the same
fate; and Hereward and Martin Lightfoot stole out, locking the door, but
leaving the key in it outside. To scramble over the old earthwork was an
easy matter; and in a few minutes they were hurrying down the valley to
the sea, with a fresh breeze blowing behind them from the north.
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