On the second day the party reached East Grinstead, where they passed the night, a cellar with a truss of straw laid on the floor being allotted to Carver; and starting early on the following morning, they reached Ditchling about noon, and, after an hour’s halt, commenced the ascent of the downs. On arriving at Ditchling, the prisoner earnestly besought Captain Brand to take him to Brightelmstone, in order that he might bid farewell to his wife and children, and aged mother; but the petition was refused, the officer declaring he would not go half-a-dozen miles out of his way to pleasure a heretic. “They can come and see you burned at Lewes to-morrow, if they list,” he added, with a savage grin. Hearing what passed, a young man, mounted on a strong iron-grey horse, who had entered the inn-yard almost immediately after the little cavalcade, inquired the nearest road to Brightelmstone, and immediately galloped off in that direction. Having mounted the steep hill-side, and passed Ditchling Beacon, the party proceeded along the brow of the downs, whence such magnificent views of the weald of Sussex are obtained, though these now received little attention, until they came to Mount Harry, on whose verdant slopes was fought the great battle between Henry III. and the Barons under Simon de Montfort, when the ancient and picturesque town of Lewes, with its towering castle and ruined priory, its numerous churches, gates, and circling walls, burst upon their view. “Welcome! thou city of refuge,” exclaimed Carver, stretching out his hands towards the town. “Thou art gladsome to mine eyes as was Ramoth Gilead to the fugitives from Jordan. There shall I be at rest.” “There will be a rare bonfire in that old town to-morrow,” observed Captain Brand, in a jeering tone, to the prisoner—“a bonfire such as the townsfolk have seldom seen, and which they are likely long to recollect. ’Twill be a grand spectacle to those who look on,” he added with stern significance. “I had rather be the chief actor in the spectacle than a beholder of it,” replied Carver; “and I trust those who witness it will long remember it.” On this, Brand rode on, and Father Josfrid resumed the exhortation which he had been obliged for the nonce to suspend. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] CHAPTER III. HOW DERRICK CARVER WAS PLACED IN A VAULT BENEATH THE STAR INN AT LEWES.