The Lady Clara knew the sword that hung from Marmion’s belt had drawn the blood of her lover, Ralph De Wilton!  Unwittingly the King had given these defenceless women into the care of the man they most dreaded.  To protest was hopeless.  In the bustle of war, who would listen to the tale of a woman and a nun?

The maids and the Abbess were assigned lodgings joining those of Marmion, their guardian.  While there, the unhappy, but alert, holy woman caught sight of the Palmer.  His dress made her feel that she would here find a friend.  Secretly she conveyed to him a message, saying she had a secret to reveal immediately concerning the welfare of the church, and of a sinner’s soul.

With great secrecy she named as a meeting place, an open balcony, that hung high above the street.

Night fell; the moon rose high among the clouds; the busy hum of the city ceased; the din of war and warriors’ roar was hushed.  The music of the cricket, the whirr of the owlets, might easily have been heard, when the holy Dame and the Palmer met.  The Abbess had chosen a solemn hour, to disclose a solemn secret.

“O holy Palmer!” she began,—­“for surely he must be holy whose feet have trod the ground made sacred by a Redeemer’s tomb,—­I come here in this dread hour, for the dear sake of our Holy Church.  Yet I must first speak, in explanation of a worldly love.”  Here was related by unwilling lips, the story of Constance’s fall, of De Wilton’s death or exile after being proved a traitor, of Lady Clara’s faithfulness to the memory of De Wilton, and of her desire to enter the convent of the Abbess.

    “’A purer heart, a lovelier maid,
      Ne’er shelter’d her in Whitby’s shade.’

“Yet, King Henry declares she shall be torn from us, and given to this false Lord Marmion.  I am helpless, a prisoner, with these innocent maidens, and I fear we have been betrayed by Henry, that Clara may fall into the hands of his favorite.  I claim thine aid.

    “’By every step that thou hast trod
      To holy shrine and grotto dim,
      By every saint and seraphim,
        And by the Church of God! 
      For mark:  When Wilton was betrayed,’

“it was by means of forged letters,—­letters written by Constance de Beverley, at the command of Marmion, and placed, by De Wilton’s squire, where they could be used against that noble knight.

“I have in my possession letters proving all this and more.  I must not keep them.  Who knows what may happen to me on my homeward journey?  I now give this packet to thy care, O saintly Palmer!  Bring them safe to the hands of Wolsey, that he may give them to the King, and for this deed there will be prayers offered for thee while I live.  Why!  What ailest thou?  Speak!”

As he took the packet, he was shaken by strong emotion, but before he could reply, the Abbess shrieked, “What is here?  Look at yon City Cross!”

    “Then on its battlements they saw
     A vision, passing Nature’s law.”