"They were lighted all over the country: Lowbury, Highclere, White Horse, Shirburne Beacon—all sent their boding flames heavenward."
"What does it portend?"
"There were rumours that Matilda, the Empress Queen, had landed somewhere in the south."
"Then we shall have civil war, and every man's hand will be against his brother, which God forbid. Yet when Stephen seized our worthy Bishop in his chamber, eating his dinner of pulse and water——"
"Pheasant, washed down with malmsey, more likely," muttered a voice.
The Abbot heard not, but continued—
"And shut him in a dungeon—the anointed of the Lord—and half starved him——"
"Making him fast for once, in earnest!"
"Until he should deliver his castles of Newark and Sleaford——"