"Yet are we pure from sin? I do think, now, it was a pity--a mistake-- that visit of mine to Sir Piers de Rievaulx. I might have let that girl live--the girl that Belasez loved. Well! she is one of the creeping things now. She--our Belasez! This is a cross-grained, crooked sort of world. Faugh! that smell again! "I suppose this is the wall of Tewkesbury Castle. Is my Lord the Earl at home, I wonder? How I did hate that boy! "What is coming yonder, with those jingling bells? A string of pilgrims to some accursed shrine, most likely. May these heathen idolaters be all confounded, and the chosen people of Adonai be brought home in peace! I could see, I dare say, if I stood on the wall. They may have some vile idol with them, and if I do not get out of the way--" He had sprung upon the parapet, and stood trying so to twist himself as to catch a glimpse of the religious procession which he supposed to be approaching, when suddenly he slipped and fell backwards. A wild cry for "Help!" rang through the startled air. Where was he going? Down, down, plunging overhead into some soft, evil-odoured, horrible mass, from which, by grasping an iron bar that projected above, he just managed so far to raise himself as to get his head free. And then the dreadful truth broke upon him, and his cries for help became piercing. Delecresse had fallen into the open cess-pool of Tewkesbury Castle. Suddenly he ceased to shriek, and all was still. Not that he needed help any the less, nor that he was less conscious of it, but because he remembered what at first he had forgotten in his terror and disgust, that until sunset it was the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Perhaps, by clinging to the iron bar, he could live till the sun dropped below the horizon. At any rate, Delecresse, sternest of Pharisees to his heart's core, would not profane the Sabbath, even for life. But now there was a little stir outside, and a voice shouted-- "What ho!--who cried for help?" "I." "Who art thou, and where?" "I have fallen into the cess-pool; I pray thee, friend, whoever thou art, to bring or send me something on which I can rest till sunset, and then help me forth." "The saints be blessed! a jolly place to fall into. But why, in the name of all the Calendar, dost thou want to wait till sunset?" "Because I am a Jew, and until then is the holy Sabbath." A peal of laughter answered the explanation. "Hope thou mayest enjoy it! Well, if ever I heard such nonsense! Is it worth while pulling a Jew out?--what sayest thou, Anselm?" "He is a man, poor soul!" returned a second voice. "Nay, let us not leave him to such a death as that." "Look here, old Jew! I will go and fetch a ladder and rope. I should pull my dog out of that hole, and perhaps thou mayest be as good." "I will not be taken out till sunset," returned Delecresse stubbornly. "The fellow's a mule! Hie thee, Anselm, and ask counsel of our gracious Lord what we shall do."