It was known throughout the house that a great search was to be instituted after the missing priest, who had, as it were, disappeared into thin air.
Everybody knew that he had been within the precincts of Chad upon the previous day.

Some amongst the few servants who had been left behind to take care of the house had seen him moving quietly about from the chantry to the courtyard and back.

It was now well known that spies were lurking in the forest round Chad with a view of intercepting any attempt at flight, and it was plain they had seen nothing of him.

Therefore, unless he had escaped their vigilance by cunning and artifice, he must still be somewhere within the precincts of the house; and on the whole this appeared the most probable theory.

In a place like Chad, where there were all manner of outbuildings, sheds, and lofts; to say nothing of all the corners and hiding places within the house itself, it would be very tempting to take refuge in one of these nooks and crannies, and to trust to the chance of concealment rather than run the gauntlet of meeting foes in the open.
Brothers from the monasteries, to say nothing of hunted heretics, had the reputation of being marvellous cunning in their methods.