"Breathes there a girl within the four seas who has not read the Idylls of the King?" he pondered, wondering. Then, just as the carriage was starting, he cried out,
"Hi! Goodman! One thing more—as you go through the village, send me up the constable."
CHAPTER VI.
Too often, clad in radiant vest,
Deceitfully goes forth the morn;
Too often evening in the west
Sinks, smilingly forsworn.
Wordsworth.
Claud Cranmer stood still in the road, watching the carriage till it disappeared round a bend in the winding way.
Then he turned, and gravely surveyed the scene of action. The hedge on one side of the lane—the side on which they had found Allonby—was broken and full of gaps. The lane on this side was skirted, first by a hay-field, and further on by the piece of ground known as the "Waste," through which, as has been before stated, an oblique footpath led to the wicket-gate in Mrs. Battishill's flower-garden.
Persons crossing this Waste were in full view of the windows of Poole. The field which adjoined the Waste was to be cut to-morrow. It was full of tall rich grass, through which no mortal could have passed without leaving most evident traces of his passage behind him.