Then, very slowly, to save his life, which he loved well enough, Maldon bent down, and, lifting the crucifix from the snow, held it to his lips and kissed it, muttering—­

“I swear.”  But the oath he swore was very different to that which Christopher had repeated to him, for, like a hunted fox, he knew how to meet guile with guile.

“Now that I, a consecrated abbot, deeming it right that I should live on to fulfil my work on earth, have done your bidding, have I leave to go about my business, Christopher Harflete?” he asked, with bitter irony.

“Why not?” asked Christopher.  “Only be pleased henceforth not to meddle with me and my business.  To-morrow I wish to ride to London with my lady, and we do not seek your company on the road.”

Then, having found his cap, the Abbot turned and walked back towards his own men, drawing the arrow from it as he went, and presently all of them rode away over the rise towards Blossholme.

“Now that is well finished, and I have an oath that he will scarcely dare to break,” said Christopher presently.  “What say you, Nurse?”

“I say that you are even a bigger simpleton than I took you to be,” answered Emlyn angrily, as she rose and stretched herself, for her limbs were cramped.  “The oath, pshaw!  By now he is absolved from it as given under fear.  Did you not hear me whisper to you to put an arrow through his heart, instead of playing boy’s pranks with his cap?”

“I did not wish to kill an abbot, Nurse.”

“Foolish man, what is the difference in such a matter between him and one of his servants?  Moreover, he will only say that you tried to slay him, and missed, and produce the cap and arrow in evidence against you.  Well, my talk serves nothing to mend a bad matter, and soon you will hear it straighter from himself.  Go now and make your house ready for attack, and never dare to set a foot without its doors, for death waits you there.”

Emlyn was right.  Within three hours an unarmed monk trudged up to Cranwell Towers through the falling snow and cast across the moat a letter that was tied to a stone.  Then he nailed a writing to one of the oak posts of the outer gate, and, without a word, departed as he had come.  In the presence of Christopher and Cicely, Emlyn opened and read this second letter, as she had read the first.  It was short, and ran—­

“Take notice, Sir Christopher Harflete, and all others whom it may concern, that the oath which I, Clement Maldon, Abbot of Blossholme, swore to you this day, is utterly void and of none effect, having been wrung from me under the threat of instant death.  Take notice, further, that a report of the murder which you have done has been forwarded to the King’s grace and to the Sheriff and other officers of this county, and that by virtue of my rights and authority, ecclesiastical and civil, I shall proceed to possess myself of the person of Cicely Foterell, my ward, and of the lands and other property held by her father, Sir John Foterell, deceased, upon the former of which I have already entered on her behalf, and by exercise of such force as may be needful to seize you, Christopher Harflete, and to hand you over to justice.  Further, by means of notice sent herewith, I warn all that cling to you and abet you in your crimes that they will do so at the peril of their souls and bodies.