"Answer!" cried Aymer, striking the arm of the Prior's chair with his mailed fist so fiercely that its stout occupant, in sudden terror, fled to the rear of the dais.
Instantly the Abbot seated himself in the vacant place.
"I frighten not so easily as the timid Brother James," he said. "But as the lady is not with us, you are welcome to that knowledge."
"Where is she, then?"
The Cistercian leaned back and stared De Lacy in the face. "If I knew I would not tell you."
"You do know—and either you tell or you hang from your own gate beam."
Aldam half arose from his chair; then dropped back and laughed.
"You would not dare," he said; "and were I the abductor himself."
De Lacy faced toward the door.
"What ho! Without!" he called.