CHAPTER XIX.
FATHER ROGER'S STORY.
A day or two passed, and the good Father Roger began to recover a littleof his strength, if not much of his cheerfulness. He was naturally arobust man, and he was, besides, inured to hardship and suffering; therewas nothing actually amiss with him but extreme fatigue and want offood, so that after a few quiet nights and days he began to feel morelike himself, and able to give some account of all that had happenedsince Aunt Orsolya and the rest had betaken themselves to the cavern.
The men, of course, had some of them been going out more or less all thetime, hunting, or--as we have said, stealing, but the accounts they hadbrought back had been not only imperfect, but often so contradictorythat it was hard for the refugees to form any clear idea of what hadreally been going on, and, naturally enough, they were intensely eagerto hear.
No one was more eager than Aunt Orsolya, and it cost her no small effortto repress her curiosity, or rather anxiety; but she did it, and notonly forbore to question Roger herself, but strictly forbade everyoneelse to do so also.
But as soon as she saw that the Canon was able to walk about a little,that his appetite was good, and that he was gradually regaining hisusual calm, she reminded him of his promise; and one evening they allgathered round him in the firelight to hear the story which heafterwards wrote in Latin verse, and to which he gave the title of"Carmen miserabile," or "Lamentable Song."