This, then, had to be discussed once more from the beginning. One said
that this was an evident sign that the end was to come and that Madam
was to die; another that, on the contrary, it was plain that this was
not so, but that rather she was to be compelled by greater strictness to
acknowledge her guilt; a third, that it was none of these things, but
rather that Madam was turning Protestant at last in order to save her
life, and had devised this manner of ridding herself of the priest. And
the soldier damned them all round as block-fools, who knew nothing and
talked all the more for it.
* * * * *
The dark was beginning to fall before the group broke up, and none of
them took much notice of a young man on a fresh horse, who rode quietly
out of the yard of the New Inn as the saunterers came up. One of them,
three minutes later, however, heard suddenly from across the bridge the
sound of a horse breaking into a gallop and presently dying away
westwards beyond Perry Lane.
II
Within the castle that evening nothing happened that was of any note to
its more careless occupants. All was as usual.
The guard at the towers that controlled the drawbridge across the outer
moat was changed at four o'clock; six men came out, under an officer,
from the inner court; the words were exchanged, and the six that went
off duty marched into the armoury to lay by their pikes and presently
dispersed, four to their rooms in the east side of the quadrangle, two
to their quarters in the village.
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