"Hush," said Gray, placing a hand upon his mouth.
"Rash boy, and bold as rash, what seek you here in Flanders?" asked the abbot, with gloom, alarm, and almost anger expressed in his face.
"I came on the king's service; but now I seek Murielle Douglas—and Murielle I shall see, father!"
"Beware, lest you find death instead."
"I know the penalty, if discovered," said Gray carelessly; "but in this disguise, and with a face so altered, I may escape, as I have already eluded, the penetrating eyes of the villain Achanna."
"But the earl—he whose projects are so high—so deep—so terrible!" urged the priest in a whispered voice of agony.
"He will not dare to touch me here in a fortified town—"
"What! You expect Earl James to be a saint in Gueldreland, though he is a devil in Galloway? What saith Horace—that those who cross the seas change their climate but not their mind."
"I know with what intention he has crossed the seas, and for what object he will return."
"You do!" said the abbot, in a husky whisper.