Lucia in trabibus celata

Meanwhile Lucia, as she kept an eye on Richard going into the monastery, had climbed onto the  roof of the cloister where she often used to hide (herself) as a girl; for Count Charles was in the habit of bringing her and her mother to the monastery. And so, looking down from the beams Lucia could see Richard sitting alone. At last someone approached Richard.
   ‘Where are our guests?’ asked the newcomer. ‘Are they OK?’
   ‘They’re fine,’ replied the other.
   ‘Is everything ready?’
   ‘Indeed so, Father Abbot.’
Lucia was astounded. The Abbot! She could not hear all their words because the two monks were whispering. 
   ‘Quiet!’ said the Abbot. ‘Someone’s coming, so go away into the church…’ and Richard left. ‘Ah, Father Stephen, greetings.’
   ‘I greet you, Father Abbot,’ replied Stephen. ‘Forgive me, but I bring you serious news, extraordinary for sure, but true.’
   ‘What news do you mean? Tell me, Stephen.’
   ‘One of my students, a shrewd boy, decent, reliable …’
   ‘Which one of your students?’
   ‘Paul. Today, when he was walking towards the town, he saw Danes in the wood in some conspiracy, one of whom he recognised. Father Richard was in the wood with the Danes!’
   ‘Father Richard in the wood? Today? But Richard is not a Dane. The boy is seeing things.’
   ‘But he was with the Danes.’
   ‘Do you believe an error-prone student, Father?’ asked the Abbot. ‘And wasn’t Paul that student who lusted hopelessly after the daughter of Count Charles? Forgive me, but the boy is impetuous with passion,’ laughed the Abbot. ‘He appears to be a student of Venus, not of Christ – eh, Sir?! Let us hear no more of his fables—rather, you should be beating him more frequently. Beat your boy with a rod, as Saint Benedict said, and you will save his soul from death. Rule 28.’
   ‘As you will, my lord, as you will. But I thought the story ought to be reported to you.’
   ‘Of course, Father. Look, now Richard is approaching: let us ask the man himself… Father Richard, would you step over here.’
   ‘I’m always willing to oblige you, my lord …’

Lucia was still motionless on the beams and could not hear everything which the men were saying below. Soon they stopped speaking, and Stephen and Richard went away.
 

Mulus et plaustrum

Meanwhile, after Stephen had left the school to find the abbot, Paul himself went off to find Lucia. Paul warned Augustine and the others who wanted to help to stay in the school in case they were seen by Richard or his associates. Shortly afterwards, when Paul was walking alone through the monastery, he heard the bells ringing for the monks to gather together in the church. Therefore, although he too should be there in the church, he secretly went out of the cloister into the garden, where he saw the mule tied to a cart. ‘Heyup mule! Where are you off to in the dead of night? Where are you pulling this cart? What do we have here?’ Then Paul saw in the cart all the things which had to be looked after in the church. He was quite astonished. ‘Heavens! Why are these in the cart?’
Near the cart there was a large sack. ‘Oh no!’ he groaned. ‘Oh! Poor Stephen!’ In the sack he had found the body of his master, who had been stabbed. ‘O Master, it’s my fault that you have been murdered. You should have stayed in the school!’ wept the youth. ‘I shall go at once to the Abbot and tell him everything.’ And with a groan he fled away into the monastery.