Page:Idalia, by 'Ouida' volume 2.djvu/317

306 mnttered under the waves of his beard when the blessing before the refection was chanted;—it was a curse on those who covered the lusts of a velvet-voiced-priest with the savour of sanctity, with the odour of rituals. Often, moreover, his passionate eyes flashed over the countenances around him, seeking to read by instinct which amongst them was the brute who had dared bid the lash be raised against her: had he known, scarce every memory of the prudence and the abstinence needful for her sake would have availed to chain back his arm from a blow that would have felled the offender level with the flags of the stone floor.

The meal ended, a fresh torture waited him; the Superior summoned him to the head of the table, and held a long converse with him, the rambling verbosity of old age combined, in the incessant vagaries of his interrogation, with the subtle veiled promptings of curiosity and cunning. There was that in the bearing and the glance of the stranger they harboured which made the priests uneasily suspect that this was too bold a lion for their episcopal lord to welcome were he aware of the shelter they gave. Erceldoune saw the suspicion, and saw that he must allay it, or all hope of sufficient freedom for the purpose he held would be for ever denied him.