Brother Edmund asked hesitantly: “Are we to understand that they leftWorcester alone?” He had not meant to sound either incredulous or censorious,but Brother Herward bowed his head meekly to the implied reproach.

“I would not wish to excuse myself or any of my house. Yet it fell out, perhaps,not quite as you suppose. That attack came in the early morning, but on thesouth side it was held, and we did not hear how grave it showed, or how greatthe force coming against us, until later, when they came about, and broke in bythe north. It so happened that the boy Yves was visiting his sister, and theywere quite cut off from us. The Lady Ermina is, dare I say, a headstrong youngwoman. In such a case, though the sisters thought best to gather in theirchurch and abide the issue there, trusting that even these marauders—for I musttell you many were already drunk and wild—would respect their cloth, and dothem no more harm than to steal, perhaps, their more valuable furnishings—thesisters, I say, held that faith required them to remain, but the Lady Erminathought otherwise, and would slip away out of the town, as so many did, andmake away into some safe and distant refuge. And since she would not bedissuaded, and her brother held with her, the young nun who was her tutor thereoffered that she would go with them, to see them safe into shelter. When allthe raiders were gone, and we had put out the fires, and seen to the dead andwounded, only then did we get word that they had escaped out of the city andintended to reach Shrewsbury. They were well provided, thoughwithout horses, since all were seized at sight. The girl had her jewels, andstore of money, and wit enough not to let them be seen on the way. And sorry Iam to say it, it was well that she would go, for these men of Gloucester did notrespect the sisters as they had hoped and trusted, but ravaged and burned,stole away some, the youngest and best-favored among the novices, and bitterlymisused the prioress who tried to prevent. The girl did well to venture, and Ipray she and her brother, and Sister Hilaria with them, are safe in sheltersomewhere this moment. But alas, I do not know.”