The Secret Chamber at Chad by Evelyn Everett Green

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"I know that if I refuse to give up Brother Emmanuel I may draw
down upon myself stern admonition, and perchance something worse,
but I mean not that it come to open defiance of any injunction from
the Church. Brother Emmanuel must leave Chad secretly, and be far
away ere the week of grace expires. We are but twenty miles from
the coast. This very day I shall ride thither and see what small
trading vessels are in the bay about to fare forth to foreign
shores. I shall negotiate with some skipper making for some Dutch
port to carry thither the person whom I shall describe to him, and
who will show him this ring"--and Sir Oliver displayed an emerald
upon his own finger--"in token that he is the person to be taken
aboard. Those trading skippers are used to such jobs, and if they
be paid they know how to hold their peace and ask no questions. In
Holland the brother will be safer than in any other land. The spite
of the Prior of Chadwater is not like to pursue him there. But here
his life is not safe from hour to hour."

"And how if it comes to be known that thou hast planned this
escape?" asked the lady, a little anxiously.

"I have thought of that too, dame," replied the knight, smiling.
"Let but the good brother be safely out of the country, and whilst
the hue and cry is still going on here after him I will to the king
and tell him all the story. Our pious Dean Colet, who knows Brother
Emmanuel, and knows, too, that it is meet the corrupt practices
that have crept within the pale of Holy Church should be made
known, that they may be swept away and reformed, will stand my
friend, and together we can so persuade his Majesty that even if
the prior and Mortimer both combine to accuse me before him he will
not allow their spite to touch me. The king knows right well that
there is need of amendment within the Church herself. We have heard
words spoken in the Cathedral of London which would be accounted
rank heresy here. There is light abroad which must one day reach to
the ends of the earth, and truly it sometimes seemeth to me that if
the priests, the abbots, and the monks set their faces steadfastly
against this light, they will fall into some terrible pitfall, but
they will never quench the light with their united strength."

The lady gave one quick glance round, as though afraid that even
the walls might have ears, and such sentiments were not those that
it was safe to blazon abroad. But Sir Oliver, strong in the
consciousness of his own deep and abiding love for the Church and
for all the doctrines which she upheld, was bold to speak his mind
in private when the subject broached was the one of corruptions and
abuses which some of the sturdiest and noblest sons of the Church
were now engaged in examining and denouncing, none dreaming of
charging them with heresy on that account.

But the mother had noted the presence of Edred, who had come in
quietly whilst the discussion was going on, and was now standing
listening to his father's words with kindling eyes; and she made a
sign to her husband which caused him to turn round, and then the
boy spoke.

"The horses are ready at the door, father, and Bertram prays that
he may accompany thee. He is donning his riding dress already."

"With all my heart," answered the knight readily, "an he can ride
the forty miles betwixt this and tomorrow at the same hour; for I
do not purpose to be long absent."

"Bertram would ride all day and all night and feel it not,"
answered Edred with a proud smile; "and he loves the sight and the
smell of the salt sea, and would be loath to miss the chance of
seeing it. Father, art thou going to aid Brother Emmanuel to fly?
Is there peril for him abroad?"

The knight bent a quick, keen glance upon his son.

"I fear so, my boy; and Brother Emmanuel himself thinks that ill is
meant him. And it is better to seek safety in flight at the first
hint of danger than to dally and delay, and perhaps find at last
that it is too late to fly. Thou, my son, wilt for this one day and
night be left in charge of thy mother and thy home and all within
it; for I must needs take with me Warbel and a score of our
stoutest fellows, for the lonely road to the coast is none too safe
for travellers of the better sort. Be thou watchful and vigilant,
and keep thine eyes and thine ears alike open. Heed well that the
gates be closed early, and that all be made safe, and let not
Brother Emmanuel adventure himself without the walls. Use all
discretion and heed, and fare thee well. I shall reach the coast
tonight, and do my business with all speed, and be in the saddle
again with the light of dawn, so thou mayest look to see us again
before noon."

And with a tender farewell to his wife, the knight mounted and rode
away with his gallant little train; and the lady looked after him
from the window, and said to Edred, who quickly came to her to
learn more, if he could, of the words he had recently heard:

"Now may the blessed saints and our Lord Himself be with him! for
no braver and truer gentleman lives in the length and breadth of
this land. There be few, indeed, who would imperil their own safety
rather than yield up one who is after all little more than a
stranger. Heaven send that he repent not this deed! May God be with
him in all his ways!"

"My mother," said Edred cautiously, "is it that Brother Emmanuel is
in sore peril? He is so devout and faithful a son of the Church
that it is hard to credit it."

"In sooth, my son, these be matters hard to be understood; but thy
father truly holds that he were safer out of this country and out
of reach of the Prior of Chadwater and the Lord of Mortimer. Men's
words can be turned and twisted till the best may be accused of
heresy; and again, if a monk has fallen beneath the wrath of his
superior, no man may tell what would befall were he to return to
the power of his spiritual father. Sure those holy men who founded
the orders of godly recluses little dreamed what those places might
become in time, and with the ever-increasing love of ease and
wealth which seems implanted in the heart of man.

"Heaven pardon me if I speak or think amiss! but it is strange to
hear and see what passes in the world. But one must use all caution
even in thought, and I would not have thee speak aught of this save
in a whisper in thy brother's ear, that he too may use all caution
and discretion till we can find occasion to send Brother Emmanuel
forth in safety.

"We have a week before us ere he will be summoned hence. Strive
that none shall suspect aught of difference or coming change. Keep
well the hours of study. Give none occasion for remark. For all we
know, a spy may be in our midst; and at least any servant of ours
might well be questioned by any of the monks of Chadwater, to whom
he might go to confess, as to what was passing in the house, and
see no hurt in answering questions. Wherefore be very wise and
discreet, and give none occasion for remark.

"Thou dost understand me, my son? I may trust thee? Remember that
thine own father's welfare may be imperilled by the veriest trifle
should men suspect him of striving to outwit the prior."

Edred's eyes expressed a great comprehension and sympathy. He took
his mother's hand and kissed it, slightly bending the knee.

"Thou mayest trust me, sweet mother," he answered. "Methinks I know
well all thou wouldst say. I will be cautious, and I will teach
caution to Julian. No harm shall come to any beneath this roof from
word or deed of ours."

And then the lady went to her delayed household duties, whilst
Edred went in search of his brother, to take him to the room where
their studies were usually prosecuted, that the household wheels
might revolve after the accustomed manner.

But Julian was nowhere to be seen. Edred sought him and called him
lustily, till at length the old seneschal at the gate heard him,
and informed him that his brother had gone a short distance on foot
with the travellers, but that he would doubtless be back ere long.

Julian was light and fleet of foot as a deer, and often ran for
many miles beside his father's charger, the nature of the wooded
country round Chad giving him many advantages. Edred wandered forth
a little way to meet him on his return, and was presently aware of
a cowled figure standing close against a great beech tree, and so
motionless and rigid was the attitude that the boy had to look
somewhat closely to be certain that it was not a part of the tree
trunk itself.

He paused and examined the figure with an intense curiosity not
unmixed with suspicion. His own light footfall did not appear to
have been heard, and the motionless figure, partly concealed behind
the tree, remained in the same rigid attitude, as though intently
watching some approaching object.

For a moment a superstitious thrill ran through the boy's frame. He
had heard stories of ghostly visitants to these woods, some of
which wore the garb of the monks of the neighbouring priory; but he
had never seen any such apparition, and would not have thought of
it now had it not been for the peculiar and unnatural quietude of
this figure. As it was, he paused, gazing intently at it, wondering
if indeed it were a being of flesh and blood.

He was just summoning up courage to go forward and salute it, when
it moved forward in a gliding and cautious fashion. Edred felt
ashamed of his momentary thrill of fear, for he recognized at once
the awkward gait and rolling step of Brother Fabian, and knew that
his preceptor's bitterest foe was lingering in the precincts of his
home.

Resolved not to be seen himself, the boy sprang up a neighbouring
tree as lightly as a squirrel, and from that vantage ground he saw
that his brother Julian was approaching, and that the monk had
stepped out to greet the lad. He heard the sound of the nasal
tones, so different from the refined accents of Brother Emmanuel.

"Peace be with thee, my son."

Julian stopped short, and slightly bent the knee. He looked up into
Brother Fabian's face with a look which Edred well knew, and which
implied no love for his interlocutor. A stranger, however, would be
probably pleased at the frank directness of the gaze, not noting
the underlying hardihood and defiance.

"Alone, my son?" questioned the brother. "Methought I saw thee not
long since with thy father and brother and the servants. How comes
it thou art now alone?"

"I saw thee not," answered Julian, without attempting to reply to
the question.

"Belike no. I was telling my beads out here in the forest. Thou
didst pass me by all unknowing; but I was nigh thy path the while
nevertheless. Whither--"

"That is something strange," remarked the boy, affecting not to
hear the commencement of another question; "for I could be sworn
that not a squirrel or field mouse crosses my path but that I mark
him down. But I may not linger thus; the hour of our studies is
already here. I wish you good e'en; I must away home."

The boy would have been gone with a bound the next instant had not
the monk laid a detaining hand upon his arm. Edred saw by the
reluctance of his brother's mien that he resented being thus
stayed.

"One moment, good my son," said Brother Fabian. "Tell me whither
thy father and brother have gone. It is something too late in the
day for a hunting party; yet I knew not that the good knight
purposed any journey."

Edred saw the sudden flash that came into Julian's eyes. He was in
an agony lest the boy should betray his father's destination, which
to the astute mind of the monk might betray much more than his
brother himself knew; but as he heard Julian's words he drew his
breath more freely.

"Marry, hast thou not heard that my Lord of Beaumaris and Rochefort
goes a-hunting tomorrow with great muster? My father has gone to
join the goodly company assembling there. Wilt thou not go thither
too, Master Monk, and join the revelry that will make the hall ring
tonight? I trow there is welcome for all who come. I would my
father had taken me."

"Go to, saucy boy, go to!" replied the brother, half piqued, half
amused by the lad's boldness in thus implying that his place was at
a riotous revel such as generally took place when some great baron
invited his friends for a day's sport in the forest.

It was like enough that this hunting party had been arranged for
the morrow, and this road certainly led to Beaumaris and Rochefort.
The reply seemed to satisfy the monk, and he relaxed his grasp of
the boy's arm.

"I must not keep thee from thy studies longer," he said. "Say, what
does Brother Emmanuel teach you?"

"The Latin tongue and the use of the pen. Edred is a fine scribe
already. And he hath taught us our letters in Greek likewise; for
men are saying, he tells us, that it is shame that that language
has been neglected so long, since the Holy Scriptures were written
in it first."

"And he doubtless teaches you from the Holy Scriptures--"

"Ay; and from the writings of the fathers, and the mass book,"
added the boy. "We can all read Latin right well now. But I must be
going, an it please thee-"

"Yea, verily thou wilt make a fine scholar one of these days. I am
glad thou hast so good an instructor. And that reminds me--I would
have speech with Brother Emmanuel some day soon. I have a missal
that I think he would greatly like sight of. I misdoubt me if the
prior would like it carried forth from the library; but if he would
meet me one day here in the forest, I will strive to secrete it and
let him have sight of it. It hath wonderful pictures and lettering
such as he loves. Wilt tell him of it, boy, and ask if he will have
sight of it?"

"I will tell him," answered Julian. "But I trow he will have naught
to do with it an it has been filched away from the library without
the reverend prior's permission. Brother Emmanuel teaches us more
of the doctrine of obedience than of any other. I trow he will not
budge an inch!"

A scowling look passed over the features of the monk, which had
hitherto been smiling and bland. He took Julian by the arm again,
and said in a low voice:

"I have something of import to speak to Brother Emmanuel. He will
do well to heed me, and to hear what I have to say. Bid him be at
this spot two days hence just as the sun goes down. Tell him if he
come not he may live to repent it bitterly."

"Wilt thou not come back with me?" asked the boy, with a quick,
distrustful look into the bloated face beneath the cowl. "Thou
canst speak at ease with him at home. It were better than out here
in the forest. I will lead thee to him straight, and thou canst say
all that is in thine heart."

But the monk dropped his arm and turned quickly away; his voice
bespoke ill-concealed irritation.

"I may not linger longer here. The vesper bell will be ringing by
now. Give Brother Emmanuel my message. I would see him here in the
forest. And now farewell, boy; go home as fast as thou wilt, and
put a bridle on thy forward tongue, lest haply it lead thee one day
into trouble."

The monk strode away in the direction of the priory. Julian took
the path towards Chad, with many backward glances at the retreating
figure, and hardly was it lost in the thick underwood of the forest
than he found his brother standing at his side.

"Thou here, Edred? Whence camest thou?"

Edred pointed to his leafy hiding place, and laid a finger on his
lips in token of caution. Julian pursued his way awhile in silence,
and only when they had increased the distance betwixt themselves
and the monk by many hundred yards, the elder brother said, in low
tones and very cautiously:

"Have a care, Julian; methinks he is not going home. He is here as
a spy, I do not doubt. I saw him watching and spying like a
veritable messenger sent for such a purpose.

"O Julian, I was right glad at the answer thou gavest him about our
father. I trembled lest thou shouldst say he was bound for the
coast."

Both brothers had been too well trained in the creed which allows
and encourages the practice of speaking falsehood and even doing
evil in a good cause, to feel that any kind of shame attached to a
falsehood spoken to conceal from a crafty enemy a thing it would be
perilous to others for him to know. And indeed diplomatic falsehood
has never been eradicated from the world even since purer light has
shone in upon it. It is very hard to meet craft, falsehood, and
treachery by absolute frankness and truthful honesty. In the long
run it does sometimes prove to be the strongest weapon a man can
wield; but the temptation to meet craft by craft, deceit by deceit,
is strong in human nature, and until a much later date was openly
advocated as the only policy sane men could adopt when they dealt
with foes always eager to outwit them. And certainly these lads
would have felt themselves justified in going to far greater
lengths to save their father from suspicion, or their preceptor and
friend from peril.

"Then thou heardest all? I scarce know why I spoke as I did, for
our father has always been the friend of the brethren of Chadwater.
But the look in the man's eye made me cautious, and I minded a few
parting words spoken by Bertram. Tell me, Edred, what it is that is
stirring; I would know more."

"Verily it is that Brother Emmanuel stands in some peril from those
of his own community. He has written something they mislike, and
they mean to have him back to answer for it. Both he and our father
think that if once he enters Chadwater again he will never come
forth alive. Wherefore our father will not give him up to his
enemies, but will contrive for him to escape. That is what he has
gone to the coast for today; and when he knows that a vessel is
ready and about to sail, Brother Emmanuel must be spirited away in
the dead of the night; and when the prior comes to search for
him--as doubtless he will do when we can find him not--it will
puzzle him to lay hands upon him, for he will be away on the high
seas."

"Good!" cried Julian, delighted. "Edred, I mislike those cruel,
crafty monks. Methinks they are little like the saintly men of old
who fled to the cloister to rid themselves of the trammels of the
world. I--"

But Edred laid a hand upon his brother's arm and checked him
suddenly, pointing to another stationary figure a short distance
away amongst the trees--a figure wearing the dress of a lay brother
of the priory, and engaged in keeping a close and careful watch
upon the main entrance to the house.

"Hist!" whispered Edred; "we must not let him hear such words.
Julian, mark my word, this house is watched. The prior has set his
spies upon it. He fears lest Brother Emmanuel shall escape; or else
the watch is set so that any going forth of his may be known, and
he will be set upon and swiftly bound, and carried away to the
priory, whence, I fear me, no man will ever see him re-issue."

Both the boys had stopped short, and now they looked into each
other's faces with dismay.

Their light footfalls had not been heard, nor even the sound of
their voices; for a strong breeze had sprung up, and was rustling
the leaves overhead, and several birds were singing lustily. The
brothers had time to take in the situation without being seen
themselves, and they then drew hack into a leafy covert and spoke
in whispers.

"Edred, do thou go back to the house instantly and openly, and warn
Brother Emmanuel that he go not forth. Belike he might come out in
search of us, since the hour is long past when we should have been
with him. That must not be. Go and tell him all we have seen;
whilst I will creep like a wildcat round the house, and see if
there be other spies keeping watch like those we have seen."

"Ay, do so," replied Edred earnestly. "I fear me we shall find that
every door is watched. But if thou art seen, go forward boldly. Let
none guess that you suspect aught. Doubtless each watcher is well
primed with some excellent reason for being found there. Speak them
friendly, and do not show distrust."

"I will be as wise as a serpent," answered the boy, with one of his
keen looks which bespoke him older in mind than in years.

Edred felt that his junior was better fitted to cope with a spy
than he himself; and gladly taking the other office upon himself,
he walked gaily forward, whistling a roundelay as he moved, and
affecting not to see the dark figure by the oak, which pressed
closer and closer out of sight as the lad strode by.

"Verily he means to remain unseen," thought Edred to himself. "If
he had not been a spy he would have greeted me as I passed. He is
after no good. Thank Heaven we have seen and heard what we have! We
can so manage now that Brother Emmanuel set not foot beyond the
courtyard for long enough to come--not till he may sally forth to
make his way to the coast."

And then a sudden fear smote the boy that per chance this night
journey to the coast might not be so easy to accomplish as had been
hoped. If the cunning prior had set a watch upon Chad with the very
object of preventing the escape of his intended victim, might it
not well be that his father's forethought would be of no avail?

But it would not do to lose heart--time might show a way of escape;
and Edred hurried within, and found Brother Emmanuel awaiting his
tardy pupils, the great Bible open before him, the sunset light
illuminating his face till, to the boy's ardent imagination, it
seemed to be encircled by a nimbus.

His story was soon excitedly told, and as Brother Emmanuel heard of
Sir Oliver's sudden journey, a look almost as of pain crossed his
face.

"I have told thy father that I cannot and will not suffer harm to
befall him and his through his kindness to me. Boy, boy, these be
evil days in which to offend the powers that be; and it were
better, far better, I should give myself up to death than that hurt
should fall upon those I love and those who have befriended me with
such generosity and love."

But Edred passionately disclaimed and explained.

"Brother, holy father, speak not so! thou wilt break our hearts! We
love thee! thou knowest that we love thee! And we think, we are
assured, that we can yet save thee, and ourselves too. Do not break
our hearts by giving thyself up ere we have tried our utmost. It
may be--nay, I am assured of it--that our blessed Saviour has a
great work for thee to do for Him somewhere. Has He not Himself
charged His servants if they be persecuted in one city to flee to
another? He has not bid them give themselves up to their foes, to
be hindered from doing the work He has put it into their hearts to
do.

"Pardon my forwardness if I seem to teach my preceptor. I do but
repeat words thou hast taught me. Stay with us--stay at Chad. There
be ways and means both for hiding and for flight of which few know
or dream. Let us have this alms to do for our Lord, that we hide
and save one of His servants. Thou canst little know what grief and
sorrow thou wouldst cause to us, or thou couldst not talk of giving
thyself up."

The boy's earnestness was so deep that it could not but produce an
impression. Although full of heroic courage and capabilities of
self sacrifice, it was against human nature that Brother Emmanuel
should desire to cast away his life, and that not by raising a
protest for any point of conscience, but simply to be quietly put
out of the way, that he might no longer expose the luxury and vice
prevailing in the monastic retreat of which he was a member.

He had seen a row of underground niches, some of which had been
walled up; and tradition asserted that living monks had been thus
buried alive for being untrue to their vows. He quite believed the
prior capable of accusing him of the same sin and ordering him to a
like fate. In the eyes of the haughty ecclesiastic such a betrayal
of cloister secrets would be looked upon as treachery to his vows,
whilst in reality it was his very love for his vows, and his horror
at their violation, which had inspired the pen that had poured
forth burning words of denunciation and scorn. To die openly for
the cause would have been one thing--a martyr has ofttimes spoken
more eloquently by his death than by his life--but to be thus
buried in a living grave would benefit none; and who would not
shrink from such a fate?

The pause which succeeded Edred's impassioned appeal was broken by
the entrance of Julian, flushed and heated.

"It is as we thought. The house is watched. There be six or seven
spies posted around it--most of them lay brothers, but some monks
themselves. Every entrance is watched closely. None can go in or
out unmarked by one or another. Doubtless they have some signal
which may at any time bring all of them together to one spot.

"Brother Emmanuel, thou must not adventure thyself beyond the
courtyard till this watch ceases. Were they spies of my Lord of
Mortimer's, we might go forth and drive them hence. But none may
lay a finger on a monk. They are all ready with a story that they
are on the watch for some heretic in hiding in the woods. I spoke
to one to see what he would say, and he began about the hunchback
of the fair, whom they have not caught yet, and professed to be
watching for him. Doubtless they would all say the same did any
question them; but they strive to keep out of sight as far as may
be, and some have found hollow trees where they might pass days and
nights and none be the wiser."

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