"Finding," she said in a fearless tone, "that the holy walls of this convent were insufficient to restrain lawless men, and fearing that these might be tempted to acts of sacrilege, which might bring down upon them the wrath of the church and the destruction of their souls, I have sent her away."
"Whither has she gone?" Sir Rudolph demanded, half-mad with passion.
"That I decline to say," the lady abbess replied. "She is in good hands; and when King Richard returns his ward shall be delivered to him at once."
"Will you take oath upon the Bible that she is not within these walls?" Sir Rudolph exclaimed.
"My word is sufficient," the lady abbess replied calmly. "But should it be necessary, I should be ready to swear upon the relics that she is not here."
A few hours later Sir Rudolph, attended by his own party and by one hundred of Sir Charles Everest's mercenaries, returned to his castle.
Three days afterward, as Cuthbert was sitting at a rude but hearty meal in the forest, surrounded by Cnut and his followers, a hind entered breathless. Cuthbert at once recognized him as one of the servitors of his mother.
"What is it?" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet.
"Terrible news, Master Cuthbert, terrible news!" exclaimed the man. "The wicked earl came down this morning, with fifty of his men, set fire to the house, and all its buildings and stacks, and has carried off the lady, your mother, a prisoner to the castle, on a charge, as he said, of harboring traitors."
A cry of fury broke from Cnut and his men.