The men grew more and more excited and fell to pledging themselves to
clean out the ancient monastery before another day should close.
A pale young man in fashionable attire sat apart, drinking deep and
listening with satisfaction to the village swains and their elders'
talk; his eye in imagination upon the dark passage in the monastery
that hid the trapdoor and--no doubt the treasures of the cloister that
lay beneath.
'Twas Cantemir; he had escaped unharmed from the clutches of
Buckingham and Monmouth. The former had caught him hastening from the
monastery and seizing compelled him to give the information he sought
and to give up all papers on his person; which he did cheerfully.
Finding him a cowardly knave, the Duke flung him from him with
disgust. Buckingham had heard, to be sure, that the maid they sought
was a hostage; but whether this was true, or would lead to matters of
more consequence, he had yet to learn.
Buckingham, after a few hours' sleep, left Hornby's Inn, returning
to the village of Crandlemar.
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