Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/31

Rh monkhood, if I had held back my hand from her.' He glanced around as he spoke, with the half-amused look which he had worn during the whole proceedings.

'There is no need to go further,' said the Abbot. 'He has confessed to all. It only remains for me to portion out the punishment which is due to his evil conduct.'

He rose, and the two long lines of brothers followed his example, looking sideways with scared faces at the angry prelate.

'John of Hordle,' he thundered, 'you have shown yourself during the two months of your novitiate to be a recreant monk, and one who is unworthy to wear the white garb which is the outer symbol of the spotless spirit. That dress shall therefore be stripped from thee, and thou shalt be cast into the outer world without benefit of clerkship, and without lot or part in the graces and blessings of those who dwell under the care of the blessed Benedict. Thou shalt come back neither to Beaulieu nor to any of the granges of Beaulieu, and thy name shall be struck off the scrolls of the order.'

The sentence appeared a terrible one to the older monks, who had become so used to the safe and regular life of the Abbey that they would have been as helpless as children in the outer world. From their pious oasis they looked dreamily out at the desert of life—a place full of stormings and strivings, comfortless, restless, and overshadowed by evil. The young novice, however, appeared to have other thoughts, for his eyes sparkled and his smile broadened. It needed but that to add fresh fuel to the fiery mood of the prelate.

'So much for thy spiritual punishment,' he cried. 'But it is to the grosser feelings that we must turn in such natures as thine, and as thou art no longer under the shield of holy Church there is the less difficulty. Ho there! lay-brothers—Francis, Naomi, Joseph—seize him and bind his arms! Drag him forth, and let the foresters and the porters scourge him from the precincts!'

As these three brothers advanced towards him to carry out the Abbot's direction the smile faded from the novice's face, and he glanced right and left with his fierce brown eyes,