THE DEVIL IN A NUNNERY THE DEVIL IN A NUNNERY AND OTHER MEDIAEVAL TALES BY FRANCIS OSCAR MANN [Illustration] LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD _First published 1914_ CONTENTS PAGE THE DEVIL IN A NUNNERY 1 LOVE AND THE LEPER WOMAN 16 HOW THE DEVIL STOLE THE PYX FROM SAINT OSBERT’S CHURCH 31 THE CRUSADER 59 HOW WILLIAM THE MASON AVENGED HIMSELF ON THE TWELVE APOSTLES 81 HOW PETER HEARD THE COCK CROW 115 THE FALL OF CASTLE BEAUMONT 128 MEG OF FOUR LANE ENDS 149 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SAINT SIMON OF BLEWBERRY 176 THE LIE OF THE FLESH 197 The Devil in a Nunnery Buckingham is as pleasant a shire as a man shall see on a seven days’ journey. Neither was it any less pleasant in the days of our Lord King Edward, the third of that name, he who fought and put the French to shameful discomfiture at Crecy and Poitiers and at many another hard-fought field. May God rest his soul, for he now sleeps in the great Church at Westminster.