Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/124

 moon of fourteen nights. And in the midst of this chamber, so artificially prepared was spread a banquet of delicates and the most potent wine that was ever pressed from the days of Noe until now; for a few drops of it would turn the most holy of the saints into the most infuriate of sinners. And while they feasted and toyed with one another the magick harmonies seemed to swell into their ears, and thrilled every nerve and vein in their bodies with a sharp and exquisite pleasure. * * * * * In this wise they lived together in the tower of Caldicot Castle, the accused person, Benedictus de Rotherham aforesaid, sometimes leaving his mistress and showing himself to the High Constable and his people, so that no suspicion might be stirred up against him. And when he returned to the dungeon that had been transformed into the temple of Venus, he ever found Loyse hungering for him, and remembering nothing of the Countess or her former virtuous life. But at last, by the great skill and prudence of the clerk from Oxon, their wickedness was discovered and the whole matter brought to light, as has been declared in the evidence delivered before the Ecclesiastical Court, and written down by me, Giles Sandys, appointed as scrivener to the Court on this behalf. And here the accused person Benedictus de Rotherham aforesaid became silent, and would say nothing more; whereupon he was questioned as before, but swooned away, and was pronounced by the physician, employed by the Ecclesiastical Court on his