Lastly, if we sit with folded hands, our own people may grow cold with doubts and fears and melt away, who now are hot as fire." "If it must be, so let it be.

In God's hands I leave his life," said Cicely in a heavy voice.
That day the King's men, under the captaincy of Bolle, advanced and invested the Abbey, setting their camp in Blossholme village.

Cicely, who would not be left behind, came with them and once more took up her quarters in the Priory, which on a formal summons opened its gates to her, its only guard, the deaf gardener, surrendering at discretion.

He was set to work as a camp servant, and never in his life did he labour so hard before, since Emlyn, who owed him many a grudge, saw to it that he did not lack for tasks that were mean and heavy.
Now that day Thomas and others spied out the Abbey and returned shaking their heads, for without cannon--and as yet they had none--the great building of hewn stone seemed almost impregnable.

At but one spot indeed was attack possible, from the back where once stood the dormers and farm steadings which Emlyn had egged on Thomas to burn.