"Belike," said Kenton, "there's an old stone pile, a mere hovel, down
below, where my grandfather said he remembered an old monk, a hermit,
or some such gear--a Papist--as lived in hiding. He did no hurt, and
was a man from these parts, so none meddled with him, or gave notice
to the Queen's officers, and our folk at the farm sold his baskets at
the town, and brought him a barley loaf twice a week till he died,
all alone in his hut. Very like he said his mass here."
John wondered to find that the minister thought this made the place
more suitable. The whole cavern was so low that the two men could
hardly stand upright in it, though it ran about twelve yards back.
There were white limestone drops like icicles hanging above from the
roof; and bats, disturbed by the light, came flying about the heads
of their visitors, while streamers of ivy and old man's beard hung
over the mouth, and were displaced by the heads of the men.
"None is like to find the spot," said John Kenton, as he tried to
replace the tangled branches that had been pushed aside.
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