Produced by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Transcriber's Note: As a long macron over "oe" cannot be represented in UTF-8 text, it is instead shown by [=oe].] THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH _The International Classics_ ADAM BEDE. George Eliot A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Charles Dickens THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH. Charles Reade DAVID COPPERFIELD. Charles Dickens IVANHOE. Sir Walter Scott JANE EYRE. Charlotte Brontë LORNA DOONE. R. D. Blackmore QUENTIN DURWARD. Sir Walter Scott THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Alexandre Dumas TWENTY YEARS AFTER. Alexandre Dumas VANITY FAIR. William Makepeace Thackeray WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Emily Brontë WESTWARD HO! Charles Kingsley ARABIAN NIGHTS. THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Victor Hugo THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR. W. Clark Russell BLACK BEAUTY. Anna Sewell THE TALISMAN. Sir Walter Scott THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP. Charles Dickens [Illustration: ALL IN A MOMENT SHE WAS LOOKING AT HIM, FULL _Fr._ [_P. 593_]] The Cloister and the Hearth A TALE OF THE MIDDLE AGES BY CHARLES READE WITH SIXTEEN COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS BY EVELYN PAUL [Illustration] NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1931 PUBLISHED IN U. S. A., 1922 By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE CORNWALL PRESS, INC. PREFACE A SMALL portion of this tale appeared in _Once a Week_, July--September, 1859, under the title of "A Good Fight." After writing it, I took wider views of the subject, and also felt uneasy at having deviated _unnecessarily_ from the historical outline of a true story. These two sentiments have cost me more than a year's very hard labour, which I venture to think has not been wasted. After this plain statement I trust all who comment on this work will see that, to describe it as a reprint, would be unfair to the public and to me. The English language is copious and, in any true man's hands, quite able to convey the truth; namely, that one fifth of the present work is a reprint, and four fifths of it a new composition. ILLUSTRATIONS All in a moment she was looking at him, full _Frontispiece_ PAGE They had taught him penmanship 4 She turned her head away, and her long eyelashes drooped sweetly 22 Not more than thirty feet below him were Margaret and Martin 70 Suddenly a huge dog burst out of the coppice 102 In that strange and mixed attitude of tender offices and deadly suspicion the trio did walk 150 Denys saw a steel point come out of the Abbot 216 They unbonneted and louted low, and she curtsied 258