Deliver us from Evil Read Free Page A

eventually, 'before I say anything more, the obvious question - have either of you have seen a stranger in the Cathedral today? He would needs be well built. A strong-looking man.'
    The first minister swallowed. 'Needs be?' he asked.
    'On the evidence I have witnessed,' Captain Foxe replied. 'In the previous case.'
    The first minister swallowed again. He shrugged. ' I have seen no one,' he said.
    His colleague, though, as he thought, began to frown. ' I remember,' he said at length, 'that there was a man I saw this morning about this very place.'
    This very place? You mean here, the Lady Chapel?' 'Yes. But he had nothing with him, no bundle.' 'Describe him,' ordered Captain Foxe. 'It is difficult' 'Why?'
    'It was dark. His eyes, though, I remember his eyes. They were piercing, exceedingly bright. And his clothes . . .' 'What of them?'
    'Gaudy, again, like his eyes, very bright. It struck me that they seemed curiously old-fashioned, for he had the appearance of one of the old Cavaliers, those who fought for the King in the war. I assumed that he was someone returned from abroad, perhaps on the seditious rumours current in the air, that the Commonwealth is shortly to be overthrown.'
    'Possibly,' was all that Captain Foxe replied. But he appeared very troubled by what the minister had said, and did not attempt to conceal his unease.
    'You have heard reports of such a man, then?' the minister asked him at length.
    'Possibly,' said Captain Foxe once again. He continued to stare at the body by his feet. 'A man dressed and bearded very like a Cavalier was seen last week,' he murmured softly, 'by Clearbury Ring.'
    'Clearbury Ring?' Both ministers seemed scarcely to recognise the name.
    'There was an old man found there last week as well. Mr William Yorke - a scholar and antiquarian from my own village. He had taught Latin and Greek to my son. I knew him well . He was dead though, when I saw him last. He had been murdered - very horribly.'
    'May the Lord have mercy on us all! - exclaimed the first minister. 'Why had I not heard of this before?'
    'The details have been kept secret on my own instructions.'
    'May I ask why, Commissioner?'
    Captain Foxe grimaced, and glanced down at his feet again. 'For the same reason,' he said at last, 'that we must conceal the news of this death as well.'
    'No!' The minister began to wring his hands and his voice, when he spoke again, was almost a wail. 'Not signs of sorcery again?'
    'So it appeared.'
    'And what were they, these signs?'
    'The wounds, the . . . mutilations . .. they were very similar to those
    inflicted on this poor soul' Captain Foxe crouched down, identical, indeed. Violent cruelties - and the body, like this one, drained of all its blood.'
    Emily had started to shudder. Robert turned and held her as tightly as she was clinging to him; he could feel her silent tears scalding his cheeks. 'We must take her to a physician,' he heard his father say, 'so that we may have her injuries exactly determined. Poor child. Poor child! May the good Lord receive her innocent soul'
    Robert stared hurriedly back around, as his father spoke the word 'child'. Captain Foxe had risen to his feet again, and was nestling a little bundle in his arms. 'A cloak,' he whispered, 'please, sir, your cloak.' One of the ministers unfastened his mantle; he handed it across; as Captain Foxe raised his tiny burden so that it could be wrapped in the cloak, Robert and Emily caught their first glimpse of the murdered child. They both gasped. It was a baby; no, too small even to be a baby - as small, Robert thought, as one of Emily's old rag dolls. Its face was blue and its arm, as it hung from over Captain Foxe's hand, seemed almost purple. The fingers were so tiny that Robert could barely see them; and then, when he looked closer, he realised that each one had been snapped, so that they were bent backwards across the hand. He heard Emily cry out, 'No, no, no!'; and then he heard a second noise in his ears, a second sob of