“One of six, reverend father. We were there in the yew clump with less noise than maketh a bat. They came closer and closer and at last they came close, and now they did not shelter their lantern for they thought, ‘The shoulder of the hill and the yew trees hide, and who should be abroad in this place in the black and middle night, and who should know of a villainy working?’” The Abbot brought his finger tips together. “It is ever discovered!--They dig a pit and fall into it; they open a grave and lift out their own perdition!” “They opened a grave?” “Yes, lord. A very ancient, sunken one.” “Some unknown,” said the Prior. “Some wretch of ancient time, seized by the plague, dying--who knows?--unshriven, lazar mayhap or thief! Proceed, my son!” “Two had spades. They spread a great cloth. They lay the green turf to one side of this, and in the middle the earth of the grave. They work hard and they work fast, and a monk directs--” “Monk of Saint Leofric’s?” “Aye, lord, Dominican. White-and-black. They open the grave and they bring forth bones--the frame of that perished one.” The Abbot groaned. “Perished mayhap in his sins--yea, almost certainly in his sins--and so no better than heathen or than sorcerer!” “They spread a second cloth, and having shaken forth the earth, they put in it the bones of that obscure--yea, right arm and hand with the rest--” “See you, Montjoy?” “Then, having that which they need, they fill in the grave with care. They put over it the sod they had taken away. Rain and sun must presently make it whole. And probably no man hath ever gone that way to look. So the six went away as though they had moth wings, and now with no light--” “Yet they give forth that right hand and arm doth shine, giving light whereby a reading man may read! Wherefore--oh, Hugh!--shone it not by Damson Hill?” Said Montjoy, “All this is enough to father Suspicion, but the child must be named Certainty.” “Then listen further!--Proceed, my son. You two and the hermit followed?” “We followed, reverend father. Under Damson Hill those six parted, and three went by divers ways, belike to their own dwellings. But the three with the bones they had digged went Saint Leofric’s road. We followed Blackfriar and his fellows who would be lay brethren. The moon shone out. We followed to Friary Gate and saw them enter.” “And then?” “Gregory the hermit turned and went again to Damson Wood, and we with him. When we came to his cell there was red east.” “What did you think of what you had seen?” “We could conceive naught, lord. We did not know that which was to be proclaimed in Easter week. But the hermit said thrice, ‘Villainy! Villainy! Villainy! A shepherd hath turned villain!’” Brother Barnaby came in. “He said besides, ‘I see what you cannot see, good brothers! But dimly, and I cannot explain to myself what I see.’” “I had forgot that.” “He said also. ‘Talk not, till you know of what you are talking,’ and he took from us a promise of silence.”