"'Tis an easy matter to beguile a woman," said the Bishop, who, being very ignorant of women, believed what he said: "bait but your trap with something fine enough, and they shall walk in by shoals like herrings. Saving these few obstinate simpletons such as Alice Benden, that you can do nought with, they be light enough fish to catch. Catch Gertrude, Brother." CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. BEFORE DICK OF DOVER. "Perkins!" said a rather pompous voice. Perkins was the Cathedral bell-ringer, and the gaoler of Alice Benden. He obeyed the summons of the pompous voice with obsequious celerity, for it belonged to no less a person than the Lord Bishop of Dover. His Lordship, having caught sight of the bell-ringer as he crossed the precincts, had called him, and Perkins came up, his hat in one hand, and pulling his forelock with the other. "I desire to know, Perkins," said the Bishop, "if that man that is your prisoner's brother hath yet been arrested, as I bade?" "Well, nay, my Lord, he haven't," said Perkins, his heart fluttering and his grammar questionable. "And wherefore no?" asked the Bishop sternly. "Well, my Lord, truth is, I haven't chanced on him since." "He hath not visited his sister, then?" "Well," answered Perkins, who seemed to find that word a comfort, "ay, he have; but him and me, we hasn't been at same time, not yet." "Call you that diligence in the keeping of your prisoner?" "Please your Lordship, she's there, all safe." "I bade you arrest _him_," insisted the Bishop. Perkins chewed a sprig of dried lavender, and kept silence. "I am sore displeased with you, Perkins!" Perkins looked provokingly obtuse. If the Bishop had only known it, he was afraid of vexing him further by saying anything, and accordingly he said nothing. "Keep diligent watch for the man, and seize him when he cometh again. As for the woman, bring her before me to-morrow at nine o' the clock. Be careful what you do, as you value my favour." Perkins pulled his forelock again, and departed. "The man is hard as a stone," said the Bishop to one of the Canons, with whom he was walking: "no impression can be made upon him." "He is scantly the worse gaoler for that, under your Lordship's correction," said the Canon carelessly. "He makes an hard keeper, I cast no doubt," answered the Bishop. Perkins's demeanour changed as soon as his Lordship had passed out of sight and hearing. "Dick o' Dover's in a jolly fume!" he said to one of the vergers whom he met. "Why, what's angered him?" "I have, belike, that I catched not yon man, Mistress Benden's brother, a-coming to see her. Why, the loon's full o' wiles--never comes at after sunrise. It'd take an eel to catch him. And I'm not his thief-catcher, neither. I works hard enough without that. Old Dick may catch his eels his self if he lacks 'em."