"Anthony Dalaber taken!" spoke Freda, and her face grew white to the lips.

"Oh, speak, good sir; what will they do to him ?" The monk who stood before the sisters, his cowl drawn over his face, his hands folded in his sleeves, took up the word again, which Freda's impulsive ejaculation had interrupted.
"He is not as yet taken prisoner, but he has been commanded to appear before the prior, and I fear me that is but the first step.
He begged of me to come and tell you, and give you that packet," and his eyes rested upon a small parcel which Freda held tightly between her two hands; "so here am I to do his bidding, without staying to know what will befall him at the prior's hands.

He went to answer the summons as I came forth hither." The monk had found the sisters in their garden, having followed Dalaber's directions, and entered by the little door which he himself had so ofttimes used.

At this hour the sisters were wont, in fine weather, to take an hour's exercise up and down the pleasant sheltered walk beneath the wall.

Here the monk had found them, and had presented to Freda a small packet which contained Dalaber's New Testament, of which he knew full well he would speedily be deprived, and a few jewels and valuables which he possessed and desired to make over to her.
"Tell us all that has befallen him!" cried Freda breathlessly.
So far all she had taken in was that Dalaber had been summoned before the prior, but she felt that more lay behind.