“An we could but carry off with us our true Lord Abbat Thurstan,” said Father Kynric, “it were a glorious deed.” “But it cannot be,” quoth Kenulph, “for the infirmarer told me anon that Thurstan is sick almost to death; and then he is watched and guarded by all the keenest of the faction, and the faction is too numerous and strong to allow us to proceed by force, or to attempt anything save by stratagem and in secrecy. But, silence! we are watched, and that fox, the sub-sacrist, is getting within ear-shot. So let us separate, and let each of us, before going into the dormitory, and into his cell, speak with such of the house as he can with entire faith depend upon. I will go unto the gate-keeper.” It was the custom of the monks to walk and talk in the cloisters for a space between supper and bed time; and the above discourses were made in the quietest corner of the cloisters a very short time before the second watch of the night. Those who had made them separated, and very soon after they all withdrew to the dormitory; and the sub-prior, as was the bounden duty of his office, went through the dormitory and knocked at every cell-door, and called upon every monk by name, and heard and saw that each monk and each novice was in his cell for the night. And when the sub-prior had thus fulfilled what was _in statutis ordinis_, he went to his own chamber, which was in the turret over the great gateway; and being weary, he went straight to his bed, first putting under his pillow the key of the gate, and the keys of the foul dungeon into which Elfric had been whirled. The prior, the chamberlain, the cellarer, and other chiefs of the faction, sate up awhile in secret conference in the prior’s own private chamber; but then they too separated and went to their beds, comforting themselves with the prospect of the abundance which should henceforward reign in the house, and of the honours and advantages they should severally receive on the morrow from Duke William for their dark treason to their countrymen. Being all worn out with fatigue, they were soon fast asleep, each having proposed to himself to rise at a very early hour in the morning, in order to get in Lord Hereward’s supplies, and to see to the proper decorating of the church for the reception of Duke William, and his brother the fighting bishop, and the rest of the Norman crew. Above and below, the whole abbey of Ely was asleep when the good fathers Kynric, Elsin, Celred, Cranewys, and Kenulph, with two other cloister-monks who had determined to flee from the house, came one by one in perfect silence, and carrying their shoes and sandals in their hands, forth from the dormitory, and into the quadrangle of the abbey, and then under the low arched way, where the gatekeeper, that free layman from Swaffham, was standing ready to unbar the gate, and where the lay-brother that waited upon the sub-prior was waiting for his order to begin. A word from Father Kenulph in his ear, and away went the