CHAPTER IV--IN THE ABBEY CHURCH

In Shoreby Abbey Church the prayers were kept up all night without

cessation, now with the singing of psalms, now with a note or two upon

the bell.

Rutter, the spy, was nobly waked. There he lay, meanwhile, as they had

arranged him, his dead hands crossed upon his bosom, his dead eyes

staring on the roof; and hard by, in the stall, the lad who had slain him

waited, in sore disquietude, the coming of the morning.

Once only, in the course of the hours, Sir Oliver leaned across to his

captive.

Richard," he whispered, "my son, if ye mean me evil, I will certify, on

my soul's welfare, ye design upon an innocent man. Sinful in the eye of

Heaven I do declare myself; but sinful as against you I am not, neither

have been ever."

"My father," returned Dick, in the same tone of voice, "trust me, I

design nothing; but as for your innocence, I may not forget that ye

cleared yourself but lamely."

"A man may be innocently guilty," replied the priest. "He may be set

blindfolded upon a mission, ignorant of its true scope. So it was with

The Black Arrow