initial commit of ebook 6406HEADmain

1 files changed, 18962 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/mnsry10.txt b/old/mnsry10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6c9296
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/mnsry10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,18962 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Monastery, by Sir Walter Scott
+#25 in our series by Sir Walter Scott
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Monastery
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6406]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on December 8, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONASTERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Alan Millar, David Moynihan, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Halbert Glendinning Invoking The White Lady]
+
+[Illustration: WAVERLEY NOVELS ABBOTSFORD EDITION]
+
+             THE WAVERLY NOVELS
+                    by
+              SIR WALTER SCOTT.
+
+                 Complete
+             In Twelve Volumes
+
+                 Printed
+       from the latest English Editions
+                Embracing
+ The Author's Last Corrections, Prefaces, and Notes.
+
+
+              THE MONASTERY.
+
+
+INTRODUCTION--(1830.)
+
+It would be difficult to assign any good reason why the author of
+Ivanhoe, after using, in that work, all the art he possessed to remove
+the personages, action, and manners of the tale, to a distance from
+his own country, should choose for the scene of his next attempt the
+celebrated ruins of Melrose, in the immediate neighbourhood of his own
+residence. But the reason, or caprice, which dictated his change of
+system, has entirely escaped his recollection, nor is it worth while
+to attempt recalling what must be a matter of very little consequence.
+
+The general plan of the story was, to conjoin two characters in that
+bustling and contentious age, who, thrown into situations which gave
+them different views on the subject of the Reformation, should, with
+the same sincerity and purity of intention, dedicate themselves, the
+one to the support of the sinking fabric of the Catholic Church, the
+other to the establishment of the Reformed doctrines. It was
+supposed that some interesting subjects for narrative might be
+derived from opposing two such enthusiasts to each other in the path
+of life, and contrasting the real worth of both with their passions
+and prejudices. The localities of Melrose suited well the scenery of
+the proposed story; the ruins themselves form a splendid theatre for
+any tragic incident which might be brought forward; joined to the
+vicinity of the fine river, with all its tributary streams, flowing
+through a country which has been the scene of so much fierce
+fighting, and is rich with so many recollections of former times,
+and lying almost under the immediate eye of the author, by whom they
+were to be used in composition.
+
+The situation possessed farther recommendations. On the opposite bank
+of the Tweed might be seen the remains of ancient enclosures,
+surrounded by sycamores and ash-trees of considerable size. These had
+once formed the crofts or arable ground of a village, now reduced to a
+single hut, the abode of a fisherman, who also manages a ferry. The
+cottages, even the church which once existed there, have sunk into
+vestiges hardly to be traced without visiting the spot, the
+inhabitants having gradually withdrawn to the more prosperous town of
+Galashiels, which has risen into consideration, within two miles of
+their neighbourhood. Superstitious eld, however, has tenanted the
+deserted groves with aerial beings, to supply the want of the mortal
+tenants who have deserted it. The ruined and abandoned churchyard of
+Boldside has been long believed to be haunted by the Fairies, and the
+deep broad current of the Tweed, wheeling in moonlight round the foot
+of the steep bank, with the number of trees originally planted for
+shelter round the fields of the cottagers, but now presenting the
+effect of scattered and detached groves, fill up the idea which one
+would form in imagination for a scene that Oberon and Queen Mab might
+love to revel in.  There are evenings when the spectator might
+believe, with Father Chaucer, that the
+
+  --Queen of Faery,
+  With harp, and pipe, and symphony,
+  Were dwelling in the place.
+
+Another, and even a more familiar refuge of the elfin race, (if
+tradition is to be trusted,) is the glen of the river, or rather
+brook, named the Allen, which falls into the Tweed from the northward,
+about a quarter of a mile above the present bridge. As the streamlet
+finds its way behind Lord Sommerville's hunting-seat, called the
+Pavilion, its valley has been popularly termed the Fairy Dean, or
+rather the Nameless Dean, because of the supposed ill luck attached by
+the popular faith of ancient times, to any one who might name or
+allude to the race, whom our fathers distinguished as the Good
+Neighbours, and the Highlanders called Daoine Shie, or Men of Peace;
+rather by way of compliment, than on account of any particular idea of
+friendship or pacific relation which either Highlander or Borderer
+entertained towards the irritable beings whom they thus distinguished,
+or supposed them to bear to humanity.  [Footnote: See Rob Roy, Note,
+p. 202.]
+
+In evidence of the actual operations of the fairy people even at this
+time, little pieces of calcareous matter are found in the glen after a
+flood, which either the labours of those tiny artists, or the eddies
+of the brook among the stones, have formed into a fantastic
+resemblance of cups, saucers, basins, and the like, in which children
+who gather them pretend to discern fairy utensils.
+
+Besides these circumstances of romantic locality, _mea paupera
+regna_ (as Captain Dalgetty denominates his territory of
+Drumthwacket) are bounded by a small but deep lake, from which eyes
+that yet look on the light are said to have seen the waterbull ascend,
+and shake the hills with his roar.
+
+Indeed, the country around Melrose, if possessing less of romantic
+beauty than some other scenes in Scotland, is connected with so many
+associations of a fanciful nature, in which the imagination takes
+delight, as might well induce one even less attached to the spot than
+the author, to accommodate, after a general manner, the imaginary
+scenes he was framing to the localities to which he was partial. But
+it would be a misapprehension to suppose, that, because Melrose may in
+general pass for Kennaquhair, or because it agrees with scenes of the
+Monastery in the circumstances of the drawbridge, the milldam, and
+other points of resemblance, that therefore an accurate or perfect
+local similitude is to be found in all the particulars of the picture.
+It was not the purpose of the author to present a landscape copied
+from nature, but a piece of composition, in which a real scene, with
+which he is familiar, had afforded him some leading outlines. Thus the
+resemblance of the imaginary Glendearg with the real vale of the
+Allen, is far from being minute, nor did the author aim at identifying
+them. This must appear plain to all who know the actual character of
+the Glen of Allen, and have taken the trouble to read the account of
+the imaginary Glendearg.  The stream in the latter case is described
+as wandering down a romantic little valley, shifting itself, after the
+fashion of such a brook, from one side to the other, as it can most
+easily find its passage, and touching nothing in its progress that
+gives token of cultivation. It rises near a solitary tower, the abode
+of a supposed church vassal, and the scene of several incidents in the
+Romance.
+
+The real Allen, on the contrary, after traversing the romantic ravine
+called the Nameless Dean, thrown off from side to side alternately,
+like a billiard ball repelled by the sides of the table on which it
+has been played, and in that part of its course resembling the stream
+which pours down Glendearg, may be traced upwards into a more open
+country, where the banks retreat farther from each other, and the vale
+exhibits a good deal of dry ground, which has not been neglected by
+the active cultivators of the district. It arrives, too, at a sort of
+termination, striking in itself, but totally irreconcilable with the
+narrative of the Romance.  Instead of a single peel-house, or border
+tower of defence, such as Dame Glendinning is supposed to have
+inhabited, the head of the Allen, about five miles above its junction
+with the Tweed, shows three ruins of Border houses, belonging to
+different proprietors, and each, from the desire of mutual support so
+natural to troublesome times, situated at the extremity of the
+property of which it is the principal messuage. One of these is the
+ruinous mansion-house of Hillslap, formerly the property of the
+Cairncrosses, and now of Mr. Innes of Stow; a second the tower of
+Colmslie, an ancient inheritance of the Borthwick family, as is
+testified by their crest, the Goat's Head, which exists on the ruin;
+[Footnote: It appears that Sir Walter Scott's memory was not quite
+accurate on these points. John Borthwick, Esq. in a note to the
+publisher, (June I1, 1813.) says that _Colmslie_ belonged to Mr.
+Innes of Stow, while _Hillslap_ forms part of the estate of
+Crookston. He adds--"In proof that the tower of Hillslap, which I have
+taken measures to preserve from injury, was chiefly in his head, as
+the tower of _Glendearg,_ when writing the Monastery, I may
+mention that, on one of the occasions when I had the honour of being a
+visiter at Abbotsford, the stables then being full, I sent a pony to
+be put up at our tenant's at Hillslap:--'Well.' said Sir Walter, 'if
+you do that, you must trust for its not being _lifted_ before
+to-morrow, to the protection of Halbert Glendinning: against Christie
+of the Clintshill.' At page 58, vol.  iii., the first edition, the
+'_winding_ stair' which the monk ascended is described. The
+winding stone stair is still to be seen in Hillslap, but not in either
+of the other two towers" It is.  however, probable, from the
+Goat's-Head crest on Colmslie, that that tower also had been of old a
+possession of the Borthwicks.] a third, the house of Langshaw, also
+ruinous, but near which the proprietor, Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood and
+Mellerstain, has built a small shooting box.
+
+All these ruins, so strangely huddled together in a very solitary
+spot, have recollections and traditions of their own, but none of them
+bear the most distant resemblance to the descriptions in the Romance
+of the Monastery; and as the author could hardly have erred so grossly
+regarding a spot within a morning's ride of his own house, the
+inference is, that no resemblance was intended. Hillslap is remembered
+by the humours of the last inhabitants, two or three elderly ladies,
+of the class of Miss Raynalds, in the Old Manor House, though less
+important by birth and fortune. Colmslie is commemorated in song:--
+
+  Colmslie stands on Colmslie hill.
+  The water it flows round Colmslie mill;
+  The mill and the kiln gang bonnily.
+  And it's up with the whippers of Colmslie.
+
+Langshaw, although larger than the other mansions assembled at the
+head of the supposed Glendearg, has nothing about it more remarkable
+than the inscription of the present proprietor over his shooting
+lodge--_Utinam hane eliam viris impleam amicis_--a modest wish,
+which I know no one more capable of attaining upon an extended scale,
+than the gentleman who has expressed it upon a limited one.
+
+Having thus shown that I could say something of these desolated
+towers, which the desire of social intercourse, or the facility of
+mutual defence, had drawn together at the head of this Glen, I need
+not add any farther reason to show, that there is no resemblance
+between them and the solitary habitation of Dame Elspeth Glendinning.
+Beyond these dwellings are some remains of natural wood, and a
+considerable portion of morass and bog; but I would not advise any who
+may be curious in localities, to spend time in looking for the
+fountain and holly-tree of the White Lady.
+
+While I am on the subject I may add, that Captain Clutterbuck, the
+imaginary editor of the Monastery, has no real prototype in the
+village of Melrose or neighbourhood, that ever I saw or heard of. To
+give some individuality to this personage, he is described as a
+character which sometimes occurs in actual society--a person who,
+having spent his life within the necessary duties of a technical
+profession, from which he has been at length emancipated, finds
+himself without any occupation whatever, and is apt to become the prey
+of ennui, until he discerns some petty subject of investigation
+commensurate to his talents, the study of which gives him employment
+in solitude; while the conscious possession of information peculiar to
+himself, adds to his consequence in society. I have often observed,
+that the lighter and trivial branches of antiquarian study are
+singularly useful in relieving vacuity of such a kind, and have known
+them serve many a Captain Clutterbuck to retreat upon; I was therefore
+a good deal surprised, when I found the antiquarian Captain identified
+with a neighbour and friend of my own, who could never have been
+confounded with him by any one who had read the book, and seen the
+party alluded to. This erroneous identification occurs in a work
+entitled, "Illustrations of the Author of Waverley, being Notices and
+Anecdotes of real Characters, Scenes, and Incidents, supposed to be
+described in his works, by Robert Chambers." This work was, of course,
+liable to many errors, as any one of the kind must be, whatever may be
+the ingenuity of the author, which takes the task of explaining what
+can be only known to another person. Mistakes of place or inanimate
+things referred to, are of very little moment; but the ingenious
+author ought to have been more cautious of attaching real names to
+fictitious characters.  I think it is in the Spectator we read of a
+rustic wag, who, in a copy of "The Whole Duty of Man," wrote opposite
+to every vice the name of some individual in the neighbourhood, and
+thus converted that excellent work into a libel on a whole parish.
+
+The scenery being thus ready at the author's hand, the reminiscences
+of the country were equally favourable. In a land where the horses
+remained almost constantly saddled, and the sword seldom quitted the
+warrior's side--where war was the natural and constant state of the
+inhabitants, and peace only existed in the shape of brief and feverish
+truces--there could be no want of the means to complicate and
+extricate the incidents of his narrative at pleasure. There was a
+disadvantage, notwithstanding, in treading this Border district, for
+it had been already ransacked by the author himself, as well as
+others; and unless presented under a new light, was likely to afford
+ground to the objection of _Crambe bis cocta_.
+
+To attain the indispensable quality of novelty, something, it was
+thought, might be gained by contrasting the character of the vassals
+of the church with those of the dependants of the lay barons, by whom
+they were surrounded. But much advantage could not be derived from
+this. There were, indeed, differences betwixt the two classes, but,
+like tribes in the mineral and vegetable world, which, resembling each
+other to common eyes, can be sufficiently well discriminated by
+naturalists, they were yet too similar, upon the whole, to be placed
+in marked contrast with each other.
+
+Machinery remained--the introduction of the supernatural and
+marvellous; the resort of distressed authors since the days of Horace,
+but whose privileges as a sanctuary have been disputed in the present
+age, and well-nigh exploded. The popular belief no longer allows the
+possibility of existence to the race of mysterious beings which
+hovered betwixt this world and that which is invisible.  The fairies
+have abandoned their moonlight turf; the witch no longer holds her
+black orgies in the hemlock dell; and
+
+  Even the last lingering phantom of the brain,
+  The churchyard ghost, is now at rest again.
+
+From the discredit attached to the vulgar and more common modes in
+which the Scottish superstition displays itself, the author was
+induced to have recourse to the beautiful, though almost forgotten,
+theory of astral spirits, or creatures of the elements, surpassing
+human beings in knowledge and power, but inferior to them, as being
+subject, after a certain space of years, to a death which is to them
+annihilation, as they have no share in the promise made to the sons of
+Adam. These spirits are supposed to be of four distinct kinds, as the
+elements from which they have their origin, and are known, to those
+who have studied the cabalistical philosophy, by the names of Sylphs,
+Gnomes, Salamanders, and Naiads, as they belong to the elements of
+Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. The general reader will find an
+entertaining account of these elementary spirits in the French book
+entitled, "Entretiens de Compte du Gabalis." The ingenious Compte de
+la Motte Fouqu? composed, in German, one of the most successful
+productions of his fertile brain, where a beautiful and even
+afflicting effect is produced by the introduction of a water-nymph,
+who loses the privilege of immortality by consenting to become
+accessible to human feelings, and uniting her lot with that of a
+mortal, who treats her with ingratitude.
+
+In imitation of an example so successful, the White Lady of Avenel
+was introduced into the following sheets. She is represented as
+connected with the family of Avenel by one of those mystic ties,
+which, in ancient times, were supposed to exist, in certain
+circumstances, between the creatures of the elements and the
+children of men. Such instances of mysterious union are recognized
+in Ireland, in the real Milosian families, who are possessed of a
+Banshie; and they are known among the traditions of the Highlands,
+which, in many cases, attached an immortal being or spirit to the
+service of particular families or tribes. These demons, if they are
+to be called so, announced good or evil fortune to the families
+connected with them; and though some only condescended to meddle
+with matters of importance, others, like the May Mollach, or Maid of
+the Hairy Arms, condescended to mingle in ordinary sports, and even
+to direct the Chief how to play at draughts.
+
+There was, therefore, no great violence in supposing such a being as
+this to have existed, while the elementary spirits were believed in;
+but it was more difficult to describe or imagine its attributes and
+principles of action. Shakespeare, the first of authorities in such a
+case, has painted Ariel, that beautiful creature of his fancy, as only
+approaching so near to humanity as to know the nature of that sympathy
+which the creatures of clay felt for each other, as we learn from the
+expression--"Mine would, if I were human." The inferences from this
+are singular, but seem capable of regular deduction. A being, however
+superior to man in length of life--in power over the elements--in
+certain perceptions respecting the present, the past, and the future,
+yet still incapable of human passions, of sentiments of moral good and
+evil, of meriting future rewards or punishments, belongs rather to the
+class of animals, than of human creatures, and must therefore be
+presumed to act more from temporary benevolence or caprice, than from
+anything approaching to feeling or reasoning. Such a being's
+superiority in power can only be compared to that of the elephant or
+lion, who are greater in strength than man, though inferior in the
+scale of creation. The partialities which we suppose such spirits to
+entertain must be like those of the dog; their sudden starts of
+passion, or the indulgence of a frolic, or mischief, may be compared
+to those of the numerous varieties of the cat. All these propensities
+are, however, controlled by the laws which render the elementary race
+subordinate to the command of man--liable to be subjected by his
+science, (so the sect of Gnostics believed, and on this turned the
+Rosicrucian philosophy,) or to be overpowered by his superior courage
+and daring, when it set their illusions at defiance.
+
+It is with reference to this idea of the supposed spirits of the
+elements, that the White Lady of Avenel is represented as acting a
+varying, capricious, and inconsistent part in the pages assigned to
+her in the narrative; manifesting interest and attachment to the
+family with whom her destinies are associated, but evincing whim, and
+even a species of malevolence, towards other mortals, as the
+Sacristan, and the Border robber, whose incorrect life subjected them
+to receive petty mortifications at her hand. The White Lady is
+scarcely supposed, however, to have possessed either the power or the
+inclination to do more than inflict terror or create embarrassment,
+and is also subjected by those mortals, who, by virtuous resolution,
+and mental energy, could assert superiority over her. In these
+particulars she seems to constitute a being of a middle class, between
+the _esprit follet_ who places its pleasure in misleading and
+tormenting mortals, and the benevolent Fairy of the East, who
+uniformly guides, aids, and supports them.
+
+Either, however, the author executed his purpose indifferently, or
+the public did not approve of it; for the White Lady of Avenel was
+far from being popular. He does not now make the present statement,
+in the view of arguing readers into a more favourable opinion on the
+subject, but merely with the purpose of exculpating himself from the
+charge of having wantonly intruded into the narrative a being of
+inconsistent powers and propensities.
+
+In the delineation of another character, the author of the Monastery
+failed, where he hoped for some success. As nothing is so successful a
+subject for ridicule as the fashionable follies of the time, it
+occurred to him that the more serious scenes of his narrative might be
+relieved by the humour of a cavaliero of the age of Queen Elizabeth.
+In every period, the attempt to gain and maintain the highest rank of
+society, has depended on the power of assuming and supporting a
+certain fashionable kind of affectation, usually connected with some
+vivacity of talent and energy of character, but distinguished at the
+same time by a transcendent flight, beyond sound reason and common
+sense; both faculties too vulgar to be admitted into the estimate of
+one who claims to be esteemed "a choice spirit of the age." These, in
+their different phases, constitute the gallants of the day, whose
+boast it is to drive the whims of fashion to extremity.
+
+On all occasions, the manners of the sovereign, the court, and the
+time, must give the tone to the peculiar description of qualities by
+which those who would attain the height of fashion must seek to
+distinguish themselves. The reign of Elizabeth, being that of a maiden
+queen, was distinguished by the decorum of the courtiers, and
+especially the affectation of the deepest deference to the sovereign.
+After the acknowledgment of the Queen's matchless perfections, the
+same devotion was extended to beauty as it existed among the lesser
+stars in her court, who sparkled, as it was the mode to say, by her
+reflected lustre. It is true, that gallant knights no longer vowed to
+Heaven, the peacock, and the ladies, to perform some feat of
+extravagant chivalry, in which they endangered the lives of others as
+well as their own; but although their chivalrous displays of personal
+gallantry seldom went farther in Elizabeth's days than the tilt-yard,
+where barricades, called barriers, prevented the shock of the horses,
+and limited the display of the cavalier's skill to the comparatively
+safe encounter of their lances, the language of the lovers to their
+ladies was still in the exalted terms which Amadis would have
+addressed to Oriana, before encountering a dragon for her sake. This
+tone of romantic gallantry found a clever but conceited author, to
+reduce it to a species of constitution and form, and lay down the
+courtly manner of conversation, in a pedantic book, called Euphues and
+his England. Of this, a brief account is given in the text, to which
+it may now be proper to make some additions.
+
+The extravagance of Euphuism, or a symbolical jargon of the same
+class, predominates in the romances of Calprenade and Scuderi, which
+were read for the amusement of the fair sex of France during the
+long reign of Louis XIV., and were supposed to contain the only
+legitimate language of love and gallantry. In this reign they
+encountered the satire of Moliere and Boileau. A similar disorder,
+spreading into private society, formed the ground of the affected
+dialogue of the _Praecieuses_, as they were styled, who formed
+the coterie of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and afforded Moliere matter
+for his admirable comedy, _Les Praecieuses Ridicules_. In
+England, the humour does not seem to have long survived the
+accession of James I.
+
+The author had the vanity to think that a character, whose
+peculiarities should turn on extravagances which were once universally
+fashionable, might be read in a fictitious story with a good chance of
+affording amusement to the existing generation, who, fond as they are
+of looking back on the actions and manners of their ancestors, might
+be also supposed to be sensible of their absurdities. He must fairly
+acknowledge that he was disappointed, and that the Euphuist, far from
+being accounted a well drawn and humorous character of the period, was
+condemned as unnatural and absurd.  It would be easy to account for
+this failure, by supposing the defect to arise from the author's want
+of skill, and, probably, many readers may not be inclined to look
+farther. But as the author himself can scarcely be supposed willing to
+acquiesce in this final cause, if any other can be alleged, he has
+been led to suspect, that, contrary to what he originally supposed,
+his subject was injudiciously chosen, in which, and not in his mode of
+treating it, lay the source of the want of success.
+
+The manners of a rude people are always founded on nature, and
+therefore the feelings of a more polished generation immediately
+sympathize with them. We need no numerous notes, no antiquarian
+dissertations, to enable the most ignorant to recognize the sentiments
+and diction of the characters of Homer; we have but, as Lear says, to
+strip off our lendings--to set aside the factitious principles and
+adornments which we have received from our comparatively artificial
+system of society, and our natural feelings are in unison with those
+of the bard of Chios and the heroes who live in his verses. It is the
+same with a great part of the narratives of my friend Mr. Cooper. We
+sympathize with his Indian chiefs and back-woodsmen, and acknowledge,
+in the characters which he presents to us, the same truth of human
+nature by which we should feel ourselves influenced if placed in the
+same condition. So much is this the case, that, though it is
+difficult, or almost impossible, to reclaim a savage, bred from his
+youth to war and the chase, to the restraints and the duties of
+civilized life, nothing is more easy or common than to find men who
+have been educated in all the habits and comforts of improved society,
+willing to exchange them for the wild labours of the hunter and the
+fisher. The very amusements most pursued and relished by men of all
+ranks, whose constitutions permit active exercise, are hunting,
+fishing, and, in some instances, war, the natural and necessary
+business of the savage of Dryden, where his hero talks of being
+
+  --"As free as nature first made man,
+  When wild in woods the noble savage ran."
+
+But although the occupations, and even the sentiments, of human beings
+in a primitive state, find access and interest in the minds of the
+more civilized part of the species, it does not therefore follow, that
+the national tastes, opinions, and follies of one civilized period,
+should afford either the same interest or the same amusement to those
+of another. These generally, when driven to extravagance, are founded,
+not upon any natural taste proper to the species, but upon the growth
+of some peculiar cast of affectation, with which mankind in general,
+and succeeding generations in particular, feel no common interest or
+sympathy. The extravagances of coxcombry in manners and apparel are
+indeed the legitimate and often the successful objects of satire,
+during the time when they exist. In evidence of this, theatrical
+critics may observe how many dramatic _jeux d'esprit_ are well
+received every season, because the satirist levels at some well-known
+or fashionable absurdity; or, in the dramatic phrase, "shoots folly as
+it flies." But when the peculiar kind of folly keeps the wing no
+longer, it is reckoned but waste of powder to pour a discharge of
+ridicule on what has ceased to exist; and the pieces in which such
+forgotten absurdities are made the subject of ridicule, fall quietly
+into oblivion with the follies which gave them fashion, or only
+continue to exist on the scene, because they contain some other more
+permanent interest than that which connects them with manners and
+follies of a temporary character.
+
+This, perhaps, affords a reason why the comedies of Ben Jonson,
+founded upon system, or what the age termed humours,--by which was
+meant factitious and affected characters, superinduced on that which
+was common to the rest of their race,--in spite of acute satire, deep
+scholarship, and strong sense, do not now afford general pleasure, but
+are confined to the closet of the antiquary, whose studies have
+assured him that the personages of the dramatist were once, though
+they are now no longer, portraits of existing nature.
+
+Let us take another example of our hypothesis from Shakspeare himself,
+who, of all authors, drew his portraits for all ages. With the whole
+sum of the idolatry which affects us at his name, the mass of readers
+peruse, without amusement, the characters formed on the extravagances
+of temporary fashion; and the Euphuist Don Armado, the pedant
+Holofernes, even Nym and Pistol, are read with little pleasure by the
+mass of the public, being portraits of which we cannot recognize the
+humour, because the originals no longer exist.  In like manner, while
+the distresses of Romeo and Juliet continue to interest every bosom,
+Mercutio, drawn as an accurate representation of the finished fine
+gentleman of the period, and as such received by the unanimous
+approbation of contemporaries, has so little to interest the present
+age, that, stripped of all his puns, and quirks of verbal wit, he only
+retains his place in the scene, in virtue of his fine and fanciful
+speech upon dreaming, which belongs to no particular age, and because
+he is a personage whose presence is indispensable to the plot.
+
+We have already prosecuted perhaps too far an argument, the tendency
+of which is to prove, that the introduction of an humorist, acting
+like Sir Piercie Shafton, upon some forgotten and obsolete model of
+folly, once fashionable, is rather likely to awaken the disgust of the
+reader, as unnatural, than find him food for laughter. Whether owing
+to this theory, or whether to the more simple and probable cause of
+the author's failure in the delineation of the subject he had proposed
+to himself, the formidable objection of _incredulus odi_ was
+applied to the Euphuist, as well as to the White Lady of Avenel; and
+the one was denounced as unnatural, while the other was rejected as
+impossible.
+
+There was little in the story to atone for these failures in two
+principal points. The incidents were inartificially huddled together.
+There was no part of the intrigue to which deep interest was found to
+apply; and the conclusion was brought about, not by incidents arising
+out of the story itself, but in consequence of public transactions,
+with which the narrative has little connexion, and which the reader
+had little opportunity to become acquainted with.
+
+This, if not a positive fault, was yet a great defect in the Romance.
+It is true, that not only the practice of some great authors in this
+department, but even the general course of human life itself, may be
+quoted in favour of this more obvious and less artificial practice of
+arranging a narrative.  It is seldom that the same circle of
+personages who have surrounded an individual at his first outset in
+life, continue to have an interest in his career till his fate comes
+to a crisis. On the contrary, and more especially if the events of his
+life be of a varied character, and worth communicating to others, or
+to the world, the hero's later connexions are usually totally
+separated from those with whom he began the voyage, but whom the
+individual has outsailed, or who have drifted astray, or foundered on
+the passage. This hackneyed comparison holds good in another point.
+The numerous vessels of so many different sorts, and destined for such
+different purposes, which are launched in the same mighty ocean,
+although each endeavours to pursue its own course, are in every case
+more influenced by the winds and tides, which are common to the
+element which they all navigate, than by their own separate exertions.
+And it is thus in the world, that, when human prudence has done its
+best, some general, perhaps national, event, destroys the schemes of
+the individual, as the casual touch of a more powerful being sweeps
+away the web of the spider.
+
+Many excellent romances have been composed in this view of human life,
+where the hero is conducted through a variety of detached scenes, in
+which various agents appear and disappear, without, perhaps, having
+any permanent influence on the progress of the story. Such is the
+structure of Gil Blas, Roderick Random, and the lives and adventures
+of many other heroes, who are described as running through different
+stations of life, and encountering various adventures, which are only
+connected with each other by having happened to be witnessed by the
+same individual, whose identity unites them together, as the string of
+a necklace links the beads, which are otherwise detached.
+
+But though such an unconnected course of adventures is what most
+frequently occurs in nature, yet the province of the romance writer
+being artificial, there is more required from him than a mere
+compliance with the simplicity of reality,--just as we demand from the
+scientific gardener, that he shall arrange, in curious knots and
+artificial parterres, the flowers which "nature boon" distributes
+freely on hill and dale. Fielding, accordingly, in most of his novels,
+but especially in Tom Jones, his _chef-d'oeuvre_, has set the
+distinguished example of a story regularly built and consistent in all
+its parts, in which nothing occurs, and scarce a personage is
+introduced, that has not some share in tending to advance the
+catastrophe.
+
+To demand equal correctness and felicity in those who may follow in
+the track of that illustrious novelist, would be to fetter too much
+the power of giving pleasure, by surrounding it with penal rules;
+since of this sort of light literature it may be especially
+said--_tout genre est permis, hors le genre ennuyeux_. Still,
+however, the more closely and happily the story is combined, and the
+more natural and felicitous the catastrophe, the nearer such a
+composition will approach the perfection of the novelist's art; nor
+can an author neglect this branch of his profession, without incurring
+proportional censure.
+
+For such censure the Monastery gave but too much occasion. The
+intrigue of the Romance, neither very interesting in itself, nor very
+happily detailed, is at length finally disentangled by the breaking
+out of national hostilities between England and Scotland, and the as
+sudden renewal of the truce. Instances of this kind, it is true,
+cannot in reality have been uncommon, but the resorting to such, in
+order to accomplish the catastrophe, as by a _tour de force_, was
+objected to as inartificial, and not perfectly, intelligible to the
+general reader.
+
+Still the Monastery, though exposed to severe and just criticism, did
+not fail, judging from the extent of its circulation, to have some
+interest for the public. And this, too, was according to the ordinary
+course of such matters; for it very seldom happens that literary
+reputation is gained by a single effort, and still more rarely is it
+lost by a solitary miscarriage.
+
+The author, therefore, had his days of grace allowed him, and time, if
+he pleased, to comfort himself with the burden of the old Scots song,
+
+  "If it isna weel bobbit.
+  We'll bob it again."
+
+ABBOTSFORD,
+_1st November_, 1830.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE
+
+FROM CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK, LATE OF HIS MAJESTY'S ---- REGIMENT OF
+INFANTRY, TO THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY.
+
+Sir,
+
+Although I do not pretend to the pleasure of your personal
+acquaintance, like many whom I believe to be equally strangers to you,
+I am nevertheless interested in your publications, and desire their
+continuance;-not that I pretend to much taste in fictitious
+composition, or that I am apt to be interested in your grave scenes,
+or amused by those which are meant to be lively. I will not disguise
+from you, that I have yawned over the last interview of MacIvor and
+his sister, and fell fairly asleep while the schoolmaster was reading
+the humours of Dandie Dinmont. You see, sir, that I scorn to solicit
+your favour in a way to which you are no stranger. If the papers I
+enclose you are worth nothing, I will not endeavour to recommend them
+by personal flattery, as a bad cook pours rancid butter upon stale
+fish. No, sir! what I respect in you is the light you have
+occasionally thrown on national antiquities, a study which I have
+commenced rather late in life, but to which I am attached with the
+devotions of a first love, because it is the only study I ever cared a
+farthing for.
+
+You shall have my history, sir, (it will not reach to three volumes,)
+before that of my manuscript; and as you usually throw out a few lines
+of verse (by way of skirmishers, I suppose) at the head of each
+division of prose, I have had the luck to light upon a stanza in the
+schoolmaster's copy of Burns which describes me exactly. I love it the
+better, because it was originally designed for Captain Grose, an
+excellent antiquary, though, like yourself, somewhat too apt to treat
+with levity his own pursuits:
+
+  'Tis said he was a soldier bred,
+  And ane wad rather fa'en than fled;
+  But now he's quit the spurtle blade,
+                   And dog-skin wallet,
+  And ta'en the--antiquarian trade,
+                I think, they call it.
+
+I never could conceive what influenced me, when a boy, in the choice
+of a profession. Military zeal and ardour it was not, which made me
+stand out for a commission in the Scots Fusiliers, when my tutors
+and curators wished to bind me apprentice to old David Stiles, Clerk
+to his Majesty's Signet. I say, military zeal it was _not_; for
+I was no fighting boy in my own person, and cared not a penny to
+read the history of the heroes who turned the world upside down in
+former ages. As for courage, I had, as I have since discovered, just
+as much of it as serve'd my turn, and not one frain of surplus. I
+soon found out, indeed, that in action there was more anger in
+running away than in standing fast; and besides, I could not afford
+to lose my commission, which was my chief means of support. But, as
+for that overboiling valour, which I have heard many of _ours_
+talk of, though I seldom observed that it influenced them in the
+actual affair---that exuberant zeal, which courts Danger as a
+bride,--truly my courage was of a complexion much less ecstatical.
+
+Again, the love of a red coat, which, in default of all other
+aptitudes to the profession, has made many a bad soldier and some good
+ones, was an utter stranger to my disposition. I cared not a  "bodle"
+for the company of the misses: Nay, though there was a boarding-school
+in the village, and though we used to meet with its fair inmates at
+Simon Lightfoot's weekly Practising, I cannot recollect any strong
+emotions being excited on these occasions, excepting the infinite
+regret with which I went through the polite ceremonial of presenting
+my partner with an orange, thrust into my pocket by my aunt for this
+special purpose, but which, had I dared, I certainly would have
+secreted for my own personal use. As for vanity, or love of finery for
+itself, I was such a stranger to it, that the difficulty was great to
+make me brush my coat, and appear in proper trim upon parade. I shall
+never forget the rebuke of my old Colonel on a morning when the King
+reviewed a brigade of which ours made part. "I am no friend to
+extravagance, Ensign Clutterbuck," said he; "but, on the day when we
+are to pass before the Sovereign of the kingdom, in the name of God I
+would have at least shown him an inch of clean linen."
+
+Thus, a stranger to the ordinary motives which lead young men to make
+the army their choice, and without the least desire to become either a
+hero or a dandy, I really do not know what determined my thoughts that
+way, unless it were the happy state of half-pay indolence enjoyed by
+Captain Doolittle, who had set up his staff of rest in my native
+village. Every other person had, or seemed to have, something to do,
+less or more. They did not, indeed, precisely go to school and learn
+tasks, that last of evils in my estimation; but it did not escape my
+boyish observation, that they were all bothered with something or
+other like duty or labour--all but the happy Captain Doolittle. The
+minister had his parish to visit, and his preaching to prepare, though
+perhaps he made more fuss than he needed about both.  The laird had
+his farming and improving operations to superintend; and, besides, he
+had to attend trustee meetings, and lieutenancy meetings, and
+head-courts, and meetings of justices, and what not--was as early up,
+(that I detested,) and as much in the open air, wet and dry, as his
+own grieve.  The shopkeeper (the village boasted but one of eminence)
+stood indeed pretty much at his ease behind his counter, for his
+custom was by no means overburdensome; but still he enjoyed his
+_status_, as the Bailie calls it, upon condition of tumbling all
+the wares in his booth over and over, when any one chose to want a
+yard of muslin, a mousetrap, an ounce of caraways, a paper of pins,
+the Sermons of Mr. Peden, or the Life of Jack the Giant-Queller, (not
+Killer, as usually erroneously written and pronounced.--See my essay
+on the true history of this worthy, where real facts have in a
+peculiar degree been obscured by fable.) In short, all in the village
+were under the necessity of doing something which they would rather
+have left undone, excepting Captain Doolittle, who walked every
+morning in the open street, which formed the high mall of our village,
+in a blue coat with a red neck, and played at whist the whole evening,
+when he could make up a party.  This happy vacuity of all employment
+appeared to me so delicious, that it became the primary hint, which,
+according to the system of Helvetius, as the minister says, determined
+my infant talents towards the profession I was destined to illustrate.
+
+But who, alas! can form a just estimate of their future prospects in
+this deceitful world? I was not long engaged in my new profession,
+before I discovered, that if the independent indolence of half-pay was
+a paradise, the officer must pass through the purgatory of duty and
+service in order to gain admission to it. Captain Doolittle might
+brush his blue coat with the red neck, or leave it unbrushed, at his
+pleasure; but Ensign Clutterbuck had no such option. Captain Doolittle
+might go to bed at ten o'clock, if he had a mind; but the Ensign must
+make the rounds in his turn. What was worse, the Captain might repose
+under the tester of his tent-bed until noon, if he was so pleased; but
+the Ensign, God help him, had to appear upon parade at peep of day. As
+for duty, I made that as easy as I could, had the sergeant to whisper
+to me the words of command, and bustled through as other folks did. Of
+service, I saw enough for an indolent man--was buffeted up and down
+the world, and visited both the East and West Indies, Egypt, and other
+distant places, which my youth had scarce dreamed of.  The French I
+saw, and felt too; witness two fingers on my right hand, which one of
+their cursed hussars took off with his sabre as neatly as an hospital
+surgeon. At length, the death of an old aunt, who left me some fifteen
+hundred pounds, snugly vested in the three per cents, gave me the
+long-wished-for opportunity of retiring, with the prospect of enjoying
+a clean shirt and a guinea four times a-week at least.
+
+For the purpose of commencing my new way of life, I selected for my
+residence the village of Kennaquhair, in the south of Scotland,
+celebrated for the ruins of its magnificent Monastery, intending there
+to lead my future life in the _otium cum dignitate_ of half-pay
+and annuity. I was not long, however, in making the grand discovery,
+that in order to enjoy leisure, it is absolutely necessary it should
+be preceded by occupation. For some time, it was delightful to wake at
+daybreak, dreaming of the reveill?--then to recollect my happy
+emancipation from the slavery that doomed me to start at a piece of
+clattering parchment, turn on my other side, damn the parade, and go
+to sleep again. But even this enjoyment had its termination; and time,
+when it became a stock entirely at my own disposal, began to hang
+heavy on my hand.
+
+I angled for two days, during which time I lost twenty hooks, and
+several scores of yards of gut and line, and caught not even a minnow.
+Hunting was out of the question, for the stomach of a horse by no
+means agrees with the half-pay establishment. When I shot, the
+shepherds, and ploughmen, and my very dog, quizzed me every time that
+I missed, which was, generally speaking, every time I fired. Besides,
+the country gentlemen in this quarter like their game, and began to
+talk of prosecutions and interdicts.  I did not give up fighting the
+French to commence a domestic war with the "pleasant men of
+Teviotdale," as the song calls them; so I e'en spent three days (very
+agreeably) in cleaning my gun, and disposing it upon two hooks over my
+chimney-piece.
+
+The success of this accidental experiment set me on trying my skill in
+the mechanical arts. Accordingly I took down and cleaned my landlady's
+cuckoo-clock, and in so doing, silenced that companion of the spring
+for ever and a day. I mounted a turning-lathe, and in attempting to
+use it, I very nearly cribbed off, with an inch-and-half former, one
+of the fingers which the hussar had left me.
+
+Books I tried, both those of the little circulating library, and of
+the more rational subscription collection maintained by this
+intellectual people. But neither the light reading of the one, nor the
+heavy artillery of the other, suited my purpose. I always fell asleep
+at the fourth or fifth page of history or disquisition; and it took me
+a month's hard reading to wade through a half-bound trashy novel,
+during which I was pestered with applications to return the volumes,
+by every half-bred milliner's miss about the place.  In short, during
+the time when all the town besides had something to do, I had nothing
+for it, but to walk in the church-yard, and whistle till it was
+dinner-time.
+
+During these promenades, the ruins necessarily forced themselves on my
+attention, and, by degrees, I found myself engaged in studying the
+more minute ornaments, and at length the general plan, of this noble
+structure.  The old sexton aided my labours, and gave me his portion
+of traditional lore. Every day added something to my stock of
+knowledge respecting the ancient state of the building; and at length
+I made discoveries concerning the purpose of several detached and very
+ruinous portions of it, the use of which had hitherto been either
+unknown altogether or erroneously explained.
+
+The knowledge which I thus acquired I had frequent opportunities of
+retailing to those visiters whom the progress of a Scottish tour
+brought to visit this celebrated spot. Without encroaching on the
+privilege of my friend the sexton, I became gradually an assistant
+Cicerone in the task of description and explanation, and often (seeing
+a fresh party of visiters arrive) has he turned over to me those to
+whom he had told half his story, with the flattering observation,
+"What needs I say ony mair about it?  There's the Captain kens mair
+anent it than I do, or any man in the town." Then would I salute the
+strangers courteously, and expatiate to their astonished minds upon
+crypts and chancels, and naves, arches, Gothic and Saxon architraves,
+mullions and flying buttresses. It not unfrequently happened, that an
+acquaintance which commenced in the Abbey concluded in the inn, which
+served to relieve the solitude as well as the monotony of my
+landlady's shoulder of mutton, whether roast, cold, or hashed.
+
+By degrees my mind became enlarged; I found a book or two which
+enlightened me on the subject of Gothic architecture, and I read now
+with pleasure, because I was interested in what I read about. Even my
+character began to dilate and expand. I spoke with more authority at
+the club, and was listened to with deference, because on one subject,
+at least, I possessed more information than any of its members.
+Indeed, I found that even my stories about Egypt, which, to say truth,
+were somewhat threadbare, were now listened to with more respect than
+formerly. "The Captain," they said, "had something in him after
+a',--there were few folk kend sae muckle about the Abbey."
+
+With this general approbation waxed my own sense of self-importance,
+and my feeling of general comfort. I ate with more appetite, I
+digested with more ease, I lay down at night with joy, and slept sound
+till morning, when I arose with a sense of busy importance, and hied
+me to measure, to examine, and to compare the various parts of this
+interesting structure. I lost all sense and consciousness of certain
+unpleasant sensations of a nondescript nature, about my head and
+stomach, to which I had been in the habit of attending, more for the
+benefit of the village apothecary than my own, for the pure want of
+something else to think about. I had found out an occupation
+unwittingly, and was happy because I had something to do.  In a word,
+I had commenced local antiquary, and was not unworthy of the name.
+
+Whilst I was in this pleasing career of busy idleness, for so it might
+at best be called, it happened that I was one night sitting in my
+little parlour, adjacent to the closet which my landlady calls my
+bedroom, in the act of preparing for an early retreat to the realms of
+Morpheus. Dugdale's Monasticon, borrowed from the library at A------,
+was lying on the table before me, flanked by some excellent Cheshire
+cheese, (a present, by the way, from an honest London citizen, to whom
+I had explained the difference between a Gothic and a Saxon arch,) and
+a glass of Vanderhagen's best ale. Thus armed at all points against my
+old enemy Time, I was leisurely and deliciously preparing for bed--now
+reading a line of old Dugdale--now sipping my ale, or munching my
+bread and cheese--now undoing the strings at my breeches' knees, or a
+button or two of my waistcoat, until the village clock should strike
+ten, before which time I make it a rule never to go to bed.  A loud
+knocking, however, interrupted my ordinary process on this occasion,
+and the voice of my honest landlord of the George was heard
+vociferating, [Footnote: The George was, and is, the principal inn in
+the village of Kennaquhair, or Melrose. But the landlord of the period
+was not the same civil and quiet person by whom the inn is now kept.
+David Kyle, a Melrose proprietor of no little importance, a first-rate
+person of consequence in whatever belonged to the business of the
+town, was the original owner and landlord of the inn. Poor David, like
+many other busy men, took so much care of public affairs, as in some
+degree to neglect his own. There are persons still alive at
+Kennaquhair who can recognise him and his peculiarities in the
+following sketch of mine Host of the George.] "What the deevil, Mrs.
+Grimslees, the Captain is no in his bed?  and a gentleman at our house
+has ordered a fowl and minced collops, and a bottle of sherry, and has
+sent to ask him to supper, to tell him all about the Abbey."
+
+"Na," answered Luckie Grimslees, in the true sleepy tone of a Scottish
+matron when ten o'clock is going to strike, "he's no in his bed, but
+I'se warrant him no gae out at this time o' night to keep folks
+sitting up waiting for him--the Captain's a decent man."
+
+I plainly perceived this last compliment was made for my hearing, by
+way both of indicating and of recommending the course of conduct which
+Mrs. Grimslees desired I should pursue. But I had not been knocked
+about the world for thirty years and odd, and lived a bluff bachelor
+all the while, to come home and be put under petticoat government by
+my landlady.  Accordingly I opened my chamber-door, and desired my old
+friend David to walk up stairs.
+
+"Captain," said he, as he entered, "I am as glad to find you up as if
+I had hooked a twenty pound saumon. There's a gentleman up yonder that
+will not sleep sound in his bed this blessed night unless he has the
+pleasure to drink a glass of wine with you."
+
+"You know, David," I replied, with becoming dignity, "that I cannot
+with propriety go out to visit strangers at this time of night, or
+accept of invitations from people of whom I know nothing."
+
+David swore a round oath, and added, "Was ever the like heard of? He
+has ordered a fowl and egg sauce, a pancake and minced collops and a
+bottle of sherry--D'ye think I wad come and ask you to go to keep
+company with ony bit English rider that sups on toasted cheese, and a
+cheerer of rum-toddy? This is a gentleman every inch of him, and a
+virtuoso, a clean virtuoso-a sad-coloured stand of claithes, and a wig
+like the curled back of a mug-ewe. The very first question he speered
+was about the auld drawbrig that has been at the bottom of the water
+these twal score years--I have seen the fundations when we were
+sticking saumon--And how the deevil suld he ken ony thing about the
+old drawbrig, unless he were a virtuoso?" [Footnote: There is more to
+be said about this old bridge hereafter. See Note, p. 57.]
+
+David being a virtuoso in his own way, and moreover a landholder and
+heritor, was a qualified judge of all who frequented his house, and
+therefore I could not avoid again tying the strings of my knees.
+
+"That's right, Captain," vociferated David; "you twa will be as thick
+as three in a bed an ance ye forgather. I haena seen the like o' him
+my very sell since I saw the great Doctor Samuel Johnson on his tower
+through Scotland, whilk tower is lying in my back parlour for the
+amusement of my guests, wi' the twa boards torn aff."
+
+"Then the gentleman is a scholar, David?"
+
+"I'se uphaud him a scholar," answered David: "he has a black coat on,
+or a brown ane, at ony-rate."
+
+"Is he a clergyman?"
+
+"I am thinking no, for he looked after his horse's supper before he
+spoke o' his ain," replied mine host.
+
+"Has he a servant?" demanded I.
+
+"Nae servant," answered David; "but a grand face o' his ain, that wad
+gar ony body be willing to serve him that looks upon him."
+
+"And what makes him think of disturbing me? Ah, David, this has
+been some of your chattering; you are perpetually bringing your guests
+on my shoulders, as if it were my business to entertain every man who
+comes to the George."
+
+"What the deil wad ye hae me do, Captain?" answered mine host; "a
+gentleman lights down, and asks me in a most earnest manner, what man
+of sense and learning there is about our town, that can tell him about
+the antiquities of the place, and specially about the auld Abbey--ye
+wadna hae me tell the gentleman a lee? and ye ken weel eneugh there is
+naebody in the town can say a reasonable word about it, be it no
+yoursell, except the bedral, and he is as fou as a piper by this time.
+So, says I, there's Captain Clutterbuck, that's a very civil gentleman
+and has little to do forby telling a' the auld cracks about the Abbey,
+and dwells just hard by. Then says the gentleman to me, 'Sir,' says
+he, very civilly, 'have the goodness to step to Captain Clutterbuck
+with my compliments, and say I am a stranger, who have been led to
+these parts chiefly by the fame of these Ruins, and that I would call
+upon him, but the hour is late.' And mair he said that I have
+forgotten, but I weel remember it ended,--'And, landlord, get a bottle
+of your best sherry, and supper for two.'--Ye wadna have had me refuse
+to do the gentleman's bidding, and me a publican?"
+
+"Well, David," said I, "I wish your virtuoso had taken a fitter hour--
+but as you say he is a gentleman--"
+
+"I'se uphaud him that--the order speaks for itsell--a bottle of sherry
+--minched collops and a fowl--that's speaking like a gentleman, I
+trow?--That's right, Captain, button weel up, the night's raw--but
+the water's clearing for a' that; we'll be on't neist night wi' my
+Lord's boats, and we'll hae ill luck if I dinna send you a kipper to
+relish your ale at e'en." [Footnote:  The nobleman whose boats are
+mentioned in the text, is the late kind and amiable Lord Sommerville,
+an intimate friend of the author.  David Kyle was a constant and
+privileged attendant when Lord Sommerville had a party for spearing
+salmon; on such occasions, eighty or a hundred fish were often killed
+between Gleamer and Leaderfoot.]
+
+In five minutes after this dialogue, I found myself in the parlour of
+the George, and in the presence of the stranger.
+
+He was a grave personage, about my own age, (which we shall call about
+fifty,) and really had, as my friend David expressed it, something in
+his face that inclined men to oblige and to serve him. Yet this
+expression of authority was not at all of the cast which I have seen
+in the countenance of a general of brigade, neither was the stranger's
+dress at all martial. It consisted of a uniform suit of iron-gray
+clothes, cut in rather an old-fashioned form. His legs were defended
+with strong leathern gambadoes, which, according to an antiquarian
+contrivance, opened at the sides, and were secured by steel clasps.
+His countenance was worn as much by toil and sorrow as by age, for it
+intimated that he had seen and endured much. His address was
+singularly pleasing and gentlemanlike, and the apology which he made
+for disturbing me at such an hour, and in such a manner, was so well
+and handsomely expressed, that I could not reply otherwise than by
+declaring my willingness to be of service to him.
+
+"I have been a traveller to-day, sir," said he, "and I would willingly
+defer the little I have to say till after supper, for which I feel
+rather more appetized than usual."
+
+We sate down to table, and notwithstanding the stranger's alleged
+appetite, as well as the gentle preparation of cheese and ale which I
+had already laid aboard, I really believe that I of the two did the
+greater honour to my friend David's fowl and minced collops.
+
+When the cloth was removed, and we had each made a tumbler of negus,
+of that liquor which hosts call Sherry, and guests call Lisbon, I
+perceived that the stranger seemed pensive, silent, and somewhat
+embarrassed, as if he had something to communicate which he knew not
+well how to introduce.  To pave the way for him, I spoke of the
+ancient ruins of the Monastery, and of their history. But, to my great
+surprise, I found I had met my match with a witness. The stranger not
+only knew all that I could tell him, but a great deal more; and,  what
+was still more mortifying, he was able, by reference to dates,
+charters, and other evidence of facts, that, as Burns says, "downa be
+disputed," to correct many of the vague tales which I had adopted on
+loose and vulgar tradition, as well as to confute more than one of my
+favourite theories on the subject of the old monks and their
+dwellings, which I had sported freely in all the presumption of
+superior information. And here I cannot but remark, that much of the
+stranger's arguments and inductions rested upon the authority of Mr.
+Deputy Register of Scotland, [Footnote:  Thomas Thomson, Esq., whose
+well-deserved panegyric ought to be found on another page than one
+written by an intimate friend of thirty years' standing.] and his
+lucubrations; a gentleman whose indefatigable research into the
+national records is like to destroy my trade, and that of all local
+antiquaries, by substituting truth instead of legend and romance.
+Alas! I would the learned gentleman did but know how difficult it is
+for us dealers in petty wares of antiquity to--
+
+  Pluck from our memories a rooted "legend,"
+  Raze out the written records of our brain.
+  Or cleanse our bosoms of that perilous stuff--
+
+and so forth. It would, I am sure, move his pity to think how many old
+dogs he hath set to learn new tricks, how many venerable parrots he
+hath taught to sing a new song, how many gray heads he hath addled by
+vain attempts to exchange their old _Mumpsimus_ for his new
+_Sumpsimus_. But let it pass. _Humana perpessi sumus_--All
+changes round us, past, present, and to come; that which was history
+yesterday becomes fable to-day, and the truth of to-day is hatched
+into a lie by to-morrow.
+
+Finding myself like to be overpowered in the Monastery, which I had
+hitherto regarded as my citadel, I began, like a skilful general, to
+evacuate that place of defence, and fight my way through the adjacent
+country. I had recourse to my acquaintance with the families and
+antiquities of the neighbourhood, ground on which I thought I might
+skirmish at large without its being possible for the stranger to meet
+me with advantage. But I was mistaken.
+
+The man in the iron-gray suit showed a much more minute knowledge of
+these particulars than I had the least pretension to. He could tell
+the very year in which the family of De Haga first settled on their
+ancient barony.
+
+[Footnote: The family of De Haga, modernized into Haig, of Bemerside,
+is of the highest antiquity, and is the subject of one of the
+prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer:--
+
+  Betide, betide, whate'er betide.
+  Haig shall be Haig of Bemerside. ]
+
+Not a Thane within reach but he knew his family and connexions, how
+many of his ancestors had fallen by the sword of the English, how many
+in domestic brawl, and how many by the hand of the executioner for
+march-treason. Their castles he was acquainted with from turret to
+foundation-stone; and as for the miscellaneous antiquities scattered
+about the country, he knew every one of them, from a _cromlech_
+to a _cairn_, and could give as good an account of each as if he
+had lived in the time of the Danes or Druids.
+
+I was now in the mortifying predicament of one who suddenly finds
+himself a scholar when he came to teach, and nothing was left for me
+but to pick up as much of his conversation as I could, for the benefit
+of the next company. I told, indeed, Allan Ramsay's story of the Monk
+and Miller's Wife, in order to retreat with some honour under cover of
+a parting volley.  Here, however, my flank was again turned by the
+eternal stranger.
+
+"You are pleased to be facetious, sir," said he; "but you cannot be
+ignorant that the ludicrous incident you mentioned is the subject of a
+tale much older than that of Allan Ramsay."
+
+I nodded, unwilling to acknowledge my ignorance, though, in fact, I
+knew no more what he meant than did one of my friend David's
+post-horses.
+
+"I do not allude," continued my omniscient companion, "to the curious
+poem published by Pinkerton from the Maitland Manuscript, called the
+Fryars of Berwick, although it presents a very minute and amusing
+picture of Scottish manners during the reign of James V.; but rather
+to the Italian novelist, by whom, so far as I know, the story was
+first printed, although unquestionably he first took his original from
+some ancient _fabliau_." [Footnote: It is curious to remark at how
+little expense of invention successive ages are content to receive
+amusement. The same story which Ramsay and Dunbar have successively
+handled, forms also the subject of the modern farce, No Song, no
+Supper.]
+
+"It is not to be doubted," answered I, not very well understanding,
+however, the proposition to which I gave such unqualified assent.
+
+"Yet," continued my companion, "I question much, had you known my
+situation and profession, whether you would have pitched upon this
+precise anecdote for my amusement."
+
+This observation he made in a tone of perfect good-humour. I pricked
+up my ears at the hint, and answered as politely as I could, that my
+ignorance of his condition and rank could be the only cause of my
+having stumbled on anything disagreeable; and that I was most willing
+to apologize for my unintentional offence, so soon as I should know
+wherein it consisted.
+
+"Nay, no offence, sir," he replied; "offence can only exist where it
+is taken. I have been too long accustomed to more severe and cruel
+misconstructions, to be offended at a popular jest, though directed at
+my profession."
+
+"Am I to understand, then," I answered, "that I am speaking with a
+Catholic clergyman?"
+
+"An unworthy monk of the order of Saint Benedict," said the stranger,
+"belonging to a community of your own countrymen, long established in
+France, and scattered unhappily by the events of the Revolution."
+"Then," said I, "you are a native Scotchman, and from this
+neighbourhood?"
+
+"Not so," answered the monk; "I am a Scotchman by extraction only,
+and never was in this neighbourhood during my whole life."
+
+"Never in this neighbourhood, and yet so minutely acquainted with its
+history, its traditions, and even its external scenery! You surprise
+me, sir," I replied.
+
+"It is not surprising," he said, "that I should have that sort of
+local information, when it is considered, that my uncle, an excellent
+man, as well as a good Scotchman, the head also of our religious
+community, employed much of his leisure in making me acquainted with
+these particulars; and that I myself, disgusted with what has been
+passing around me, have for many years amused myself, by digesting and
+arranging the various scraps of information which I derived from my
+worthy relative, and other aged brethren of our order."
+
+"I presume, sir," said I, "though I would by no means intrude the
+question, that you are now returned to Scotland with a view to settle
+amongst your countrymen, since the great political catastrophe of our
+time has reduced your corps?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the Benedictine, "such is not my intention. A
+European potentate, who still cherishes the Catholic faith, has
+offered us a retreat within his dominions, where a few of my scattered
+brethren are already assembled, to pray to God for blessings on their
+protector, and pardon to their enemies. No one, I believe, will be
+able to object to us under our new establishment, that the extent of
+our revenues will be inconsistent with our vows of poverty and
+abstinence; but, let us strive to be thankful to God, that the snare
+of temporal abundance is removed from us."
+
+"Many of your convents abroad, sir," said I, "enjoyed very handsome
+incomes--and yet, allowing for times, I question if any were better
+provided for than the Monastery of this village. It is said to have
+possessed nearly two thousand pounds in yearly money-rent, fourteen
+chalders and nine bolls of wheat, fifty-six chalders five bolls
+barley, forty-four chalders and ten bolls oats, capons and poultry,
+butter, salt, carriage and arriage, peats and kain, wool and ale."
+
+"Even too much of all these temporal goods, sir," said my companion,
+"which, though well intended by the pious donors, served only to make
+the establishment the envy and the prey of those by whom it was finally
+devoured."
+
+"In the meanwhile, however," I observed, "the monks had an easy life
+of it, and, as the old song goes,
+
+  --made gude kale
+  On Fridays when they fasted."
+
+"I understand you, sir," said the Benedictine; "it is difficult, saith
+the proverb, to carry a full cup without spilling. Unquestionably the
+wealth of the community, as it endangered the safety of the
+establishment by exciting the cupidity of others, was also in frequent
+instances a snare to the brethren themselves. And yet we have seen the
+revenues of convents expended, not only in acts of beneficence and
+hospitality to individuals, but in works of general and permanent
+advantage to the world at large.  The noble folio collection of French
+historians, commenced in 1737, under the inspection and at the expense
+of the community of Saint Maur, will long show that the revenues of
+the Benedictines were not always spent in self-indulgence, and that
+the members of that order did not uniformly slumber in sloth and
+indolence, when they had discharged the formal duties of their rule."
+
+As I knew nothing earthly at the time about the community of St. Maur,
+and their learned labours, I could only return a mumbling assent to
+this proposition. I have since seen this noble work in the library of
+a distinguished family, and I must own I am ashamed to reflect, that,
+in so wealthy a country as ours, a similar digest of our historians
+should not be undertaken, under the patronage of the noble and the
+learned, in rivalry of that which the Benedictines of Paris executed
+at the expense of their own conventual funds.
+
+"I perceive," said the ex-Benedictine, smiling, "that your heretical
+prejudices are too strong to allow us poor brethren any merit, whether
+literary or spiritual."
+
+"Far from it, sir," said I; "I assure you I have been much obliged to
+monks in my time. When I was quartered in a Monastery in Flanders, in
+the campaign of 1793, I never lived more comfortably in my life. They
+were jolly fellows, the Flemish Canons, and right sorry was I to leave
+my good quarters, and to know that my honest hosts were to be at the
+mercy of the Sans-Culottes. But _fortune de la guerre!_"
+
+The poor Benedictine looked down and was silent. I had unwittingly
+awakened a train of bitter reflections, or rather I had touched
+somewhat rudely upon a chord which seldom ceased to vibrate of itself.
+But he was too much accustomed to this sorrowful train of ideas to
+suffer it to overcome him. On my part, I hastened to atone for my
+blunder. "If there was any object of his journey to this country in
+which I could, with propriety, assist him, I begged to offer him my
+best services." I own I laid some little emphasis on the words "with
+propriety," as I felt it would ill become me, a sound Protestant, and
+a servant of government so far as my half-pay was concerned, to
+implicate myself in any recruiting which my companion might have
+undertaken in behalf of foreign seminaries, or in any similar design
+for the advancement of Popery, which, whether the Pope be actually the
+old lady of Babylon or no, it did not become me in any manner to
+advance or countenance.
+
+My new friend hastened to relieve my indecision. "I was about to
+request your assistance, sir," he said, "in a matter which cannot but
+interest you as an antiquary, and a person of research. But I assure
+you it relates entirely to events and persons removed to the distance
+of two centuries and a half. I have experienced too much evil from the
+violent unsettlement of the country in which I was born, to be a rash
+labourer in the work of innovation in that of my ancestors."
+
+I again assured him of my willingness to assist him in anything that
+was not contrary to my allegiance or religion.
+
+"My proposal," he replied, "affects neither.--May God bless the
+reigning family in Britain! They are not, indeed, of that dynasty to
+restore which my ancestors struggled and suffered in vain; but the
+Providence who has conducted his present Majesty to the throne, has
+given him the virtues necessary to his time--firmness and
+intrepidity--a true love of his country, and an enlightened view of
+the dangers by which she is surrounded.--For the religion of these
+realms, I am contented to hope that the great Power, whose mysterious
+dispensation has rent them from the bosom of the church, will, in his
+own good time and manner, restore them to its holy pale. The efforts
+of an individual, obscure and humble as myself, might well retard, but
+could never advance, a work so mighty."
+
+"May I then inquire, sir," said I, "with what purpose you seek this
+country?"
+
+Ere my companion replied, he took from his pocket a clasped paper
+book, about the size of a regimental orderly-book, full, as it seemed,
+of memoranda; and, drawing one of the candles close to him, (for
+David, as a strong proof of his respect for the stranger, had indulged
+us with two,) he seemed to peruse the contents very earnestly.
+
+"There is among the ruins of the western end of the Abbey church,"
+said he, looking up to me, yet keeping the memorandum-book half open,
+and occasionally glancing at it, as if to refresh his memory, "a sort
+of recess or chapel beneath a broken arch, and in the immediate
+vicinity of one of those shattered Gothic columns which once supported
+the magnificent roof, whose fall has now encumbered that part of the
+building with its ruins."
+
+"I think," said I, "that I know whereabouts you are. Is there not in
+the side wall of the chapel, or recess, which you mention, a large
+carved stone, bearing a coat of arms, which no one hitherto has been
+able to decipher?"
+
+"You are right," answered the Benedictine; and again consulting his
+memoranda, he added, "the arms on the dexter side are those of
+Glendinning, being a cross parted by a cross indented and
+countercharged of the same; and on the sinister three spur-rowels for
+those of Avenel; they are two ancient families, now almost extinct in
+this country--the arms _part y per pale_."
+
+"I think," said I, "there is no part of this ancient structure with
+which you are not as well acquainted as was the mason who built it.
+But if your information be correct, he who made out these bearings
+must have had better eyes than mine."
+
+"His eyes," said the Benedictine, "have long been closed in death;
+probably when he inspected the monument it was in a more perfect
+state, or he may have derived his information from the tradition of
+the place."
+
+"I assure you," said I, "that no such tradition now exists. I have
+made several reconnoissances among the old people, in hopes to learn
+something of the armorial bearings, but I never heard of such a
+circumstance. It seems odd that you should have acquired it in a
+foreign land."
+
+"These trifling particulars," he replied, "were formerly looked upon
+as more important, and they were sanctified to the exiles who retained
+recollection of them, because they related to a place dear indeed to
+memory, but which their eyes could never again behold. It is possible,
+in like manner, that on the Potomac or Susquehannah, you may find
+traditions current concerning places in England, which are utterly
+forgotten in the neighbourhood where they originated. But to my
+purpose. In this recess, marked by the armorial bearings, lies buried
+a treasure, and it is in order to remove it that I have undertaken my
+present journey."
+
+"A treasure!" echoed I, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes," replied the monk, "an inestimable treasure, for those who know
+how to use it rightly."
+
+I own my ears did tingle a little at the word treasure, and that a
+handsome tilbury, with a neat groom in blue and scarlet livery, having
+a smart cockade on his glazed hat, seemed as it were to glide across
+the room before gay eyes, while a voice, as of a crier, pronounced my
+ear, "Captain Clutterbuck's tilbury--drive up." But I resisted the
+devil, and he fled from me.
+
+"I believe," said I, "all hidden treasure belongs either to the king
+or the lord of the soil; and as I have served his majesty, I cannot
+concern myself in any adventure which may have an end in the Court of
+Exchequer."
+
+"The treasure I seek," said the stranger, smiling, "will not be envied
+by princes or nobles,---it is simply the heart of an upright man."
+
+"Ah! I understand you," I answered; "some relic, forgotten in the
+confusion of the Reformation. I know the value which men of your
+persuasion put upon the bodies and limbs of saints. I have seen the
+Three Kings of Cologne."
+
+"The relics which I seek, however," said the Benedictine, "are not
+precisely of that nature. The excellent relative whom I have already
+mentioned, amused his leisure hours with putting into form the
+traditions of his family, particularly some remarkable circumstances
+which took place about the first breaking out of the schism of the
+church in Scotland. He became so much interested in his own labours,
+that at length he resolved that the heart of one individual, the hero
+of his tale, should rest no longer in a land of heresy, now deserted
+by all his kindred. As he knew where it was deposited, he formed the
+resolution to visit his native country for the purpose of recovering
+this valued relic. But age, and at length disease, interfered with his
+resolution, and it was on his deathbed that he charged me to undertake
+the task in his stead. The various important events which have crowded
+upon each other, our ruin and our exile, have for many years obliged
+me to postpone this delegated duty. Why, indeed, transfer the relics
+of a holy and worthy man to a country, where religion and virtue are
+become the mockery of the scorner? I have now a home, which I trust
+may be permanent, if any thing in this earth can be, termed so.
+Thither will I transport the heart of the good father, and beside the
+shrine which it shall occupy, I will construct my own grave."
+
+"He must, indeed, have been an excellent man," replied I, "whose
+memory, at so distant a period, calls forth such strong marks of
+regard."
+
+"He was, as you justly term him," said the ecclesiastic, "indeed
+excellent--excellent in his life and doctrine--excellent, above all,
+in his self-denied and disinterested sacrifice of all that life holds
+dear to principle and to friendship. But you shall read his history. I
+shall be happy at once to gratify your curiosity, and to show my sense
+of your kindness, if you will have the goodness to procure me the
+means of accomplishing my object." I replied to the Benedictine, that,
+as the rubbish amongst which he proposed to search was no part of the
+ordinary burial-ground, and as I was on the best terms with the
+sexton, I had little doubt that I could procure him the means of
+executing his pious purpose.
+
+With this promise we parted for the night; and on the ensuing morning
+I made it my business to see the sexton, who, for a small gratuity,
+readily granted permission of search, on condition, however, that he
+should be present himself, to see that the stranger removed nothing of
+intrinsic value.
+
+"To banes, and skulls, and hearts, if he can find ony, he shall be
+welcome," said this guardian of the ruined Monastery, "there's plenty
+a' about, an he's curious of them; but if there be ony picts" (meaning
+perhaps _pyx_) "or chalishes, or the like of such Popish veshells
+of gold and silver, deil hae me an I conneve at their being removed."
+
+The sexton also stipulated, that our researches should take place at
+night, being unwilling to excite observation, or give rise to scandal.
+My new acquaintance and I spent the day as became lovers of hoar
+antiquity. We visited every corner of these magnificent ruins again
+and again during the forenoon; and, having made a comfortable dinner
+at David's, we walked in the afternoon to such places in the
+neighbourhood as ancient tradition or modern conjecture had rendered
+mark worthy. Night found us in the interior of the ruins, attended by
+the sexton, who carried a dark lantern, and stumbling alternately over
+the graves of the dead, and the fragments of that architecture, which
+they doubtless trusted would have canopied their bones till doomsday.
+
+I am by no means particularly superstitious, and yet there was that in
+the present service which I did not very much like. There was
+something awful in the resolution of disturbing, at such an hour, and
+in such a place, the still and mute sanctity of the grave. My
+companions were free from this impression--the stranger from his
+energetic desire to execute the purpose for which he came--and the
+sexton from habitual indifference. We soon stood in the aisle, which,
+by the account of the Benedictine, contained the bones of the family
+of Glendinning, and were busily employed in removing the rubbish from
+a corner which the stranger pointed out. If a half-pay Captain could
+have represented an ancient Border-knight, or an ex-Benedictine of the
+nineteenth century a wizard monk of the sixteenth, we might have aptly
+enough personified the search after Michael Scott's lamp and book of
+magic power. But the sexton would have been _de trop_ in the
+group.  [Footnote: This is one of those passages which must now read
+awkwardly, since every one knows that the Novelist and the author of
+the Lay of the Minstrel, is the same person. But before the avowal was
+made, the author was forced into this and similar offences against
+good taste, to meet an argument, often repeated, that there was
+something very mysterious in the Author of Waverley's reserve
+concerning Sir Walter Scott, an author sufficiently voluminous at
+least. I had a great mind to remove the passages from this edition,
+but the more candid way is to explain how they came there.]
+
+Ere the stranger, assisted by the sexton in his task, had been long at
+work, they came to some hewn stones, which seemed to have made part of
+a small shrine, though now displaced and destroyed.
+
+"Let us remove these with caution, my friend," said the stranger,
+"lest we injure that which I come to seek."
+
+"They are prime stanes," said the sexton, "picked free every ane of
+them;--warse than the best wad never serve the monks, I'se warrant."
+
+A minute after he had made this observation, he exclaimed, "I hae fund
+something now that stands again' the spade, as if it were neither
+earth nor stane."
+
+The stranger stooped eagerly to assist him.
+
+"Na, na, haill o' my ain," said the sexton; "nae halves or
+quarters;"--and he lifted from amongst the ruins a small leaden box.
+
+"You will be disappointed, my friend," said the Benedictine, "if you
+expect any thing there but the mouldering dust of a human heart, closed
+in an inner case of porphyry."
+
+I interposed as a neutral party, and taking the box from the sexton,
+reminded him, that if there were treasure concealed in it, still it
+could not become the property of the finder. I then proposed, that as
+the place was too dark to examine the contents of the leaden casket,
+we should adjourn to David's, where we might have the advantage of
+light and fire while carrying on our investigation. The stranger
+requested us to go before, assuring us that he would follow in a few
+minutes.
+
+I fancy that old Mattocks suspected these few minutes might be
+employed in effecting farther discoveries amongst the tombs, for he
+glided back through a side-aisle to watch the Benedictine's motions,
+but presently returned, and told me in a whisper that "the gentleman
+was on his knees amang the cauld stanes, praying like ony saunt."
+
+I stole back, and beheld the old man actually employed as Mattocks had
+informed me. The language seemed to be Latin; and as, the whispered,
+yet solemn accent, glided away through the ruined aisles, I could not
+help reflecting how long it was since they had heard the forms of that
+religion, for the exercise of which they had been reared at such cost
+of time, taste, labour, and expense. "Come away, come away," said I;
+"let us leave him to himself, Mattocks; this is no business of ours."
+
+"My certes, no, Captain," said Mattocks; "ne'ertheless, it winna be
+amiss to keep an eye on him. My father, rest his saul, was a
+horse-couper, and used to say he never was cheated in a naig in his
+life, saving by a west-country whig frae Kilmarnock, that said a grace
+ower a dram o' whisky. But this gentleman will be a Roman, I'se
+warrant?"
+
+"You are perfectly right in that, Saunders," said I.
+
+"Ay, I have seen twa or three of their priests that were chased ower
+here some score o' years syne. They just danced like mad when they
+looked on the friars' heads, and the nuns' heads, in the cloister
+yonder; they took to them like auld acquaintance like.--Od, he is not
+stirring yet, mair than he were a through-stane! [Footnote: A
+tombstone.] I never kend a Roman, to say kend him, but ane--mair by
+token, he was the only ane in the town to ken--and that was auld Jock
+of the Pend. It wad hae been lang ere ye fand Jock praying in the
+Abbey in a thick night, wi' his knees on a cauld stane.  Jock likit a
+kirk wi' a chimley in't. Mony a merry ploy I hae had wi' him down at
+the inn yonder; and when he died, decently I wad hae earded him; but,
+or I gat his grave weel howkit, some of the quality, that were o' his
+ain unhappy persuasion, had the corpse whirried away up the water, and
+buried him after their ain pleasure, doubtless--they kend best. I wad
+hae made nae great charge. I wadna hae excised Johnnie, dead or
+alive.--Stay, see--the strange gentleman is coming."
+
+"Hold the lantern to assist him, Mattocks," said I.--"This is rough
+walking, sir."
+
+"Yes," replied the Benedictine; "I may say with a poet, who is
+doubtless familiar to you----"
+
+I should be surprised if he were, thought I internally.
+
+The stranger continued:
+
+  "Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
+  Have my old feet stumbled at graves!"
+
+"We are now clear of the churchyard," said I, "and have but a short
+walk to David's, where I hope we shall find a cheerful fire to enliven
+us after our night's work."
+
+We entered, accordingly, the little parlour, into which Mattocks was
+also about to push himself with sufficient effrontery, when David,
+with a most astounding oath, expelled him by head and shoulders,
+d--ning his curiosity, that would not let gentlemen be private in
+their own inn. Apparently mine host considered his own presence as no
+intrusion, for he crowded up to the table on which I had laid down the
+leaden box. It was frail and wasted, as might be guessed, from having
+lain so many years in the ground.  On opening it, we found deposited
+within, a case made of porphyry, as the stranger had announced to us.
+
+"I fancy," he said, "gentlemen, your curiosity will not be
+satisfied,--perhaps I should say that your suspicions will not be
+removed,--unless I undo this casket; yet it only contains the
+mouldering remains of a heart, once the seat of the noblest thoughts."
+
+He undid the box with great caution; but the shrivelled substance
+which it contained bore now no resemblance to what it might once have
+been, the means used having been apparently unequal to preserve its
+shape and colour, although they were adequate to prevent its total
+decay. We were quite satisfied, notwithstanding, that it was, what the
+stranger asserted, the remains of a human heart; and David readily
+promised his influence in the village, which was almost co-ordinate
+with that of the bailie himself, to silence all idle rumours. He was,
+moreover, pleased to favour us with his company to supper; and having
+taken the lion's share of two bottles of sherry, he not only
+sanctioned with his plenary authority the stranger's removal of the
+heart, but, I believe, would have authorized the removal of the Abbey
+itself, were it not that it happens considerably to advantage the
+worthy publican's own custom.
+
+The object of the Benedictine's visit to the land of his forefathers
+being now accomplished, he announced his intention of leaving us early
+in the ensuing day, but requested my company to breakfast with him
+before his departure. I came accordingly, and when we had finished our
+morning's meal, the priest took me apart, and pulling from his pocket
+a large bundle of papers, he put them into my hands. "These," said he,
+"Captain Clutterbuck, are genuine Memoirs of the sixteenth century,
+and exhibit in a singular, and, as I think, an interesting point of
+view, the manners of that period. I am induced to believe that their
+publication will not be an unacceptable present to the British public;
+and willingly make over to you any profit that may accrue from such a
+transaction."
+
+I stared a little at this annunciation, and observed, that the hand
+seemed too modern for the date he assigned to the manuscript.
+
+"Do not mistake me, sir," said the Benedictine; "I did not mean to say
+the Memoirs were written in the sixteenth century, but only, that they
+were compiled from authentic materials of that period, but written in
+the taste and language of the present day. My uncle commenced this
+book; and I, partly to improve my habit of English composition, partly
+to divert melancholy thoughts, amused my leisure hours with continuing
+and concluding it. You will see the period of the story where my uncle
+leaves off his narrative, and I commence mine. In fact, they relate in
+a great measure to different persons, as well as to a different
+period."
+
+Retaining the papers in my hand, I proceeded to state to him my
+doubts, whether, as a good Protestant, I could undertake or
+superintend a publication written probably in the spirit of Popery.
+
+"You will find," he said, "no matter of controversy in these sheets,
+nor any sentiments stated, with which, I trust, the good in all
+persuasions will not be willing to join. I remembered I was writing
+for a land unhappily divided from the Catholic faith; and I have taken
+care to say nothing which, justly interpreted, could give ground for
+accusing me of partiality. But if, upon collating my narrative with
+the proofs to which I refer you--for you will find copies of many of
+the original papers in that parcel--you are of opinion that I have
+been partial to my own faith, I freely give you leave to correct my
+errors in that respect. I own, however, I am not conscious of this
+defect, and have rather to fear that the Catholics may be of opinion,
+that I have mentioned circumstances respecting the decay of discipline
+which preceded, and partly occasioned, the great schism, called by you
+the Reformation, over which I ought to have drawn a veil. And indeed,
+this is one reason why I choose the papers should appear in a foreign
+land, and pass to the press through the hands of a stranger."
+
+To this I had nothing to reply, unless to object my own incompetency
+to the task the good father was desirous to impose upon me. On this
+subject he was pleased to say more, I fear, than his knowledge of me
+fully warranted--more, at any rate, than my modesty will permit me to
+record. At length he ended, with advising me, if I continued to feel
+the diffidence which I stated, to apply to some veteran of literature,
+whose experience might supply my deficiencies. Upon these terms we
+parted, with mutual expressions of regard, and I have never since
+heard of him.
+
+After several attempts to peruse the quires of paper thus singularly
+conferred on me, in which I was interrupted by the most inexplicable
+fits of yawning, I at length, in a sort of despair, communicated them
+to our village club, from whom they found a more favourable reception
+than the unlucky conformation of my nerves had been able to afford
+them. They unanimously pronounced the work to be exceedingly good, and
+assured me I would be guilty of the greatest possible injury to our
+flourishing village, if I should suppress what threw such an
+interesting and radiant light upon the history of the ancient
+Monastery of Saint Mary.
+
+At length, by dint of listening to their opinion, I became dubious of
+my own; and, indeed, when I heard passages read forth by the sonorous
+voice of our worthy pastor, I was scarce more tired than I have felt
+myself at some of his own sermons. Such, and so great is the
+difference betwixt reading a thing one's self, making toilsome way
+through all the difficulties of manuscript, and, as the man says in
+the play, "having the same read to you;"--it is positively like being
+wafted over a creek in a boat, or wading through it on your feet, with
+the mud up to your knees. Still, however, there remained the great
+difficulty of finding some one who could act as editor, corrector at
+once of the press and of the language, which, according to the
+schoolmaster, was absolutely necessary.
+
+Since the trees walked forth to choose themselves a king, never was an
+honour so bandied about. The parson would not leave the quiet of his
+chimney-corner--the bailie pleaded the dignity of his situation, and
+the approach of the great annual fair, as reasons against going to
+Edinburgh to make arrangements for printing the Benedictine's
+manuscript. The schoolmaster alone seemed of malleable stuff; and,
+desirous perhaps of emulating the fame of Jedediah Cleishbotham,
+evinced a wish to undertake this momentous commission. But a
+remonstrance from three opulent farmers, whose sons he had at bed,
+board, and schooling, for twenty pounds per annum a-head, came like a
+frost over the blossoms of his literary ambition, and he was compelled
+to decline the service.
+
+In these circumstances, sir, I apply to you, by the advice of our
+little council of war, nothing doubting you will not be disinclined to
+take the duty upon you, as it is much connected with that in which you
+have distinguished yourself. What I request is, that you will review,
+or rather revise and correct, the enclosed packet, and prepare it for
+the press, by such alterations, additions, and curtailments, as you
+think necessary. Forgive my hinting to you, that the deepest well may
+be exhausted,--the best corps of grenadiers, as our old general of
+brigade expressed himself, may be _used up_. A few hints can do
+you no harm; and, for the prize-money, let the battle be first won,
+and it shall be parted at the drum-head. I hope you will take nothing
+amiss that I have said. I am a plain soldier, and little accustomed to
+compliments. I may add, that I should be well contented to march in
+the front with you--that is, to put my name with yours on the
+title-page.  I have the honour to be, Sir, Your unknown humble
+Servant, Cuthbert Clutterbuck.  Village of Kennaquhair, -- of April,
+18--
+
+_For the Author of "Waverley," &c.
+care of Mr. John Ballantyne,
+Hanover Street, Edinburgh._
+
+
+       *       *        *       *        *
+
+
+ANSWER BY "THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY,"
+
+TO THE FOREGOING LETTER FROM CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK.
+
+
+DEAR CAPTAIN,
+
+Do not admire, that, notwithstanding the distance and ceremony of your
+address, I return an answer in the terms of familiarity. The truth is,
+your origin and native country are better known to me than even to
+yourself.  You derive your respectable parentage, if I am not greatly
+mistaken, from a land which has afforded much pleasure, as well as
+profit, to those who have traded to it successfully,--I mean that part
+of the _terra incognita_ which is called the province of Utopia.
+Its productions, though censured by many (and some who use tea and
+tobacco without scruple) as idle and unsubstantial luxuries, have
+nevertheless, like many other luxuries, a general acceptation, and are
+secretly enjoyed even by those who express the greatest scorn and
+dislike of them in public. The dram-drinker is often the first to be
+shocked at the smell of spirits--it is not unusual to hear old maiden
+ladies declaim against scandal--the private book-cases of some
+grave-seeming men would not brook decent eyes--and many, I say not of
+the wise and learned, but of those most anxious to seem such, when the
+spring-lock of their library is drawn, their velvet cap pulled over
+their ears, their feet insinuated into their turkey slippers, are to
+be found, were their retreats suddenly intruded upon, busily engaged
+with the last new novel.
+
+I have said, the truly wise and learned disdain these shifts, and will
+open the said novel as avowedly as they would the lid of their
+snuff-box. I will only quote one instance, though I know a hundred.
+Did you know the celebrated Watt of Birmingham, Captain Clutterbuck? I
+believe not, though, from what I am about to state, he would not have
+failed to have sought an acquaintance with you. It was only once my
+fortune to meet him, whether in body or in spirit it matters not.
+There were assembled about half a score of our Northern Lights, who
+had amongst them, Heaven knows how, a well-known character of your
+country, Jedediah Cleishbotham.  This worthy person, having come to
+Edinburgh during the Christmas vacation, had become a sort of lion in
+the place, and was lead in leash from house to house along with the
+guisards, the stone-eater, and other amusements of the season, which
+"exhibited their unparalleled feats to private family-parties, if
+required." Amidst this company stood Mr. Watt, the man whose genius
+discovered the means of multiplying our national resources to a degree
+perhaps even beyond his own stupendous powers of calculation and
+combination; bringing the treasures of the abyss to the summit of the
+earth--giving the feeble arm of man the momentum of an
+Afrite--commanding manufactures to arise, as the rod of the prophet
+produced water in the desert--affording the means of dispensing with
+that time and tide which wait for no man, and of sailing without that
+wind which defied the commands and threats of Xerxes himself.
+
+[Footnote: Probably the ingenious author alludes to the national
+adage:
+
+  The king said sail,
+  But the wind said no.
+
+Our schoolmaster (who is also a land surveyor) thinks this whole
+passage refers to Mr. Watt's improvements on the steam
+engine.--_Note by Captain Clutterbuck_.]
+
+This potent commander of the elements--this abridger of time and
+space--this magician, whose cloudy machinery has produced a change on
+the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as they are, are
+perhaps only now beginning to be felt--was not only the most profound
+man of science, the most successful combiner of powers and calculator
+of numbers as adapted to practical purposes,--was not only one of the
+most generally well-informed,--but one of the best and kindest of
+human beings.
+
+There he stood, surrounded by the little band I have mentioned of
+Northern literati, men not less tenacious, generally speaking, of
+their own fame and their own opinions, than the national regiments are
+supposed to be jealous of the high character which they have won upon
+service. Methinks I yet see and hear what I shall never see or hear
+again. In his eighty-fifth year, the alert, kind, benevolent old man,
+had his attention alive to every one's question, his information at
+every one's command.
+
+His talents and fancy overflowed on every subject. One gentleman was a
+deep philologist--he talked with him on the origin of the alphabet as
+if he had been coeval with Cadmus; another a celebrated critic,--you
+would have said the old man had studied political economy and
+belles-lettres all his life,--of science it is unnecessary to speak,
+it was his own distinguished walk. And yet, Captain Clutterbuck, when
+he spoke with your countryman Jedediah Cleishbotham, you would have
+sworn he had been coeval with Claver'se and Burley, with the
+persecutors and persecuted, and could number every shot the dragoons
+had fired at the fugitive Covenanters. In fact, we discovered that no
+novel of the least celebrity escaped his perusal, and that the gifted
+man of science was as much addicted to the productions of your native
+country, (the land of Utopia aforesaid,) in other words, as shameless
+and obstinate a peruser of novels, as if he had been a very milliner's
+apprentice of eighteen. I know little apology for troubling you with
+these things, excepting the desire to commemorate a delightful
+evening, and a wish to encourage you to shake off that modest
+diffidence which makes you afraid of being supposed connected with the
+fairy-land of delusive fiction. I will requite your tag of verse, from
+Horace himself, with a paraphrase for your own use, my dear Captain,
+and for that of your country club, excepting in reverence the
+clergyman and schoolmaster:--
+
+  _Ne sit ancillae tibi amor pudori, &c._
+
+  Take thou no scorn.
+  Of fiction born,
+  Fair fiction's muse to woe;
+  Old Homer's theme
+  Was but a dream,
+  Himself a fiction too.
+
+Having told you your country, I must next, my dear Captain
+Clutterbuck, make free to mention your own immediate descent. You are
+not to suppose your land of prodigies so little known to us as the
+careful concealment of your origin would seem to imply. But you have
+it in common with many of your country, studiously and anxiously to
+hide any connexion with it. There is this difference, indeed, betwixt
+your countrymen and those of our more material world, that many of the
+most estimable of them, such as an old Highland gentleman called
+Ossian, a monk of Bristol called Rowley, and others, are inclined to
+pass themselves off as denizens of the land of reality, whereas most
+of our fellow-citizens who deny their country are such as that country
+would be very willing to disclaim. The especial circumstances you
+mention relating to your life and services, impose not upon us. We
+know the versatility of the unsubstantial species to which you belong
+permits them to assume all manner of disguises; we have seen them
+apparelled in the caftan of a Persian, and the silken robe of a
+Chinese, [Footnote: See the Persian Letters, and the Citizen of the
+World.] and are prepared to suspect their real character under every
+disguise. But how can we be ignorant of your country and manners, or
+deceived by the evasion of its inhabitants, when the voyages of
+discovery which have been made to it rival in number those recorded by
+Purchas or by Hackluyt? [Footnote: See Les Voyages Imaginaires.] And
+to show the skill and perseverance of your navigators and travellers,
+we have only to name Sindbad, Aboulfouaris, and Robinson Crusoe. These
+were the men for discoveries. Could we have sent Captain Greenland to
+look out for the north-west passage, or Peter Wilkins to examine
+Baffin's Bay, what discoveries might we not have expected? But there
+are feats, and these both numerous and extraordinary, performed by the
+inhabitants of your country, which we read without once attempting to
+emulate.
+
+I wander from my purpose, which was to assure you, that I know you as
+well as the mother who _did_ not bear you, for MacDuff's
+peculiarity sticks to your whole race. You are not born of woman,
+unless, indeed, in that figurative sense, in which the celebrated
+Maria Edgeworth may, in her state of single blessedness, be termed
+mother of the finest family in England.  You belong, sir, to the
+Editors of the land of Utopia, a sort of persons for whom I have the
+highest esteem. How is it possible it should be otherwise, when you
+reckon among your corporation the sage Cid Hamet Benengeli, the
+short-faced president of the Spectator's Club, poor Ben Silton, and
+many others, who have acted as gentlemen-ushers to works which have
+cheered our heaviest, and added wings to our lightest hours?
+
+What I have remarked as peculiar to Editors of the class in which I
+venture to enrol you, is the happy combination of fortuitous
+circumstances which usually put you in possession of the works which
+you have the goodness to bring into public notice. One walks on the
+sea-shore, and a wave casts on land a small cylindrical trunk or
+casket, containing a manuscript much damaged with sea-water, which is
+with difficulty deciphered, and so forth. [Footnote: See the History
+of Automathes.] Another steps into a chandler's shop, to purchase a
+pound of butter, and, behold! the waste-paper on which it is laid is
+the manuscript of a cabalist. [Footnote: Adventures of a Guinea.] A
+third is so fortunate as to obtain from a woman who lets lodgings, the
+curious contents of an antique bureau, the property of a deceased
+lodger. [Footnote: Adventures of an Atom.] All these are certainly
+possible occurrences; but, I know not how, they seldom occur to any
+Editors save those of your country.  At least I can answer for myself,
+that in my solitary walks by the sea, I never saw it cast ashore any
+thing but dulse and tangle, and now and then a deceased star-fish; my
+landlady never presented me with any manuscript save her cursed bill;
+and the most interesting of my discoveries in the way of waste-paper,
+was finding a favourite passage of one of my own novels wrapt round an
+ounce of snuff. No, Captain, the funds from which I have drawn my
+power of amusing the public, have been bought otherwise than by
+fortuitous adventure. I have buried myself in libraries to extract
+from the nonsense of ancient days new nonsense of my own. I have
+turned over volumes, which, from the pot-hooks I was obliged to
+decipher, might have been the cabalistic manuscripts of Cornelius
+Agrippa, although I never saw "the door open and the devil come in."
+[Footnote: See Southey's Ballad on the Young Man who read in a
+Conjuror's Books.] But all the domestic inhabitants of the libraries
+were disturbed by the vehemence of my studies:--
+
+  From my research the boldest spider fled,
+  And moths, retreating, trembled as I read;
+
+From this learned sepulchre I emerged like the Magician in the Persian
+Tales, from his twelve-month's residence in the mountain, not like him
+to soar over the heads of the multitude, but to mingle in the crowd,
+and to elbow amongst the throng, making my way from the highest
+society to the lowest, undergoing the scorn, or, what is harder to
+brook, the patronizing condescension of the one, and enduring the
+vulgar familiarity of the other,--and all, you will say, for
+what?--to collect materials for one of those manuscripts with which
+mere chance so often accommodates your country-men; in other words, to
+write a successful novel.--"O Athenians, how hard we labour to deserve
+your praise!"
+
+I might stop here, my dear Clutterbuck; it would have a touching
+effect, and the air of proper deference to our dear Public. But I will
+not be false with you,--(though falsehood is--excuse the
+observation--the current coin of your country,) the truth is, I have
+studied and lived for the purpose of gratifying my own curiosity, and
+passing my own time; and though the result has been, that, in one
+shape or other, I have been frequently before the Public, perhaps more
+frequently than prudence warranted, yet I cannot claim from them the
+favour due to those who have dedicated their ease and leisure to the
+improvement and entertainment of others.
+
+Having communicated thus freely with you, my dear Captain, it follows,
+of course, that I will gratefully accept of your communication, which,
+as your Benedictine observed, divides itself both by subject, manner,
+and age, into two parts. But I am sorry I cannot gratify your literary
+ambition, by suffering your name to appear upon the title-page; and I
+will candidly tell you the reason.
+
+The Editors of your country are of such a soft and passive
+disposition, that they have frequently done themselves great disgrace
+by giving up the coadjutors who first brought them into public notice
+and public favour, and suffering their names to be used by those
+quacks and impostors who live upon the ideas of others. Thus I shame
+to tell how the sage Cid Hamet Benengeli was induced by one Juan
+Avellaneda to play the Turk with the ingenious Miguel Cervantes, and
+to publish a Second Part of the adventures of his hero the renowned
+Don Quixote, without the knowledge or co-operation of his principal
+aforesaid. It is true, the Arabian sage returned to his allegiance,
+and thereafter composed a genuine continuation of the Knight of La
+Mancha, in which the said Avellaneda of Tordesillas is severely
+chastised. For in this you pseudo-editors resemble the juggler's
+disciplined ape, to which a sly old Scotsman likened James I., "if you
+have Jackoo in your hand, you can make him bite me; if I have Jackoo
+in my hand, I can make him bite you." Yet, notwithstanding the
+_amende honorable_ thus made by Cid Hamet Benengeli, his
+temporary defection did not the less occasion the decease of the
+ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote, if he can be said to die, whose memory
+is immortal. Cervantes put him to death, lest he should again fall
+into bad hands. Awful, yet just consequence of Cid Hamet's defection!
+
+To quote a more modern and much less important instance. I am sorry to
+observe my old acquaintance Jedediah Cleishbotham has misbehaved
+himself so far as to desert his original patron, and set up for
+himself. I am afraid the poor pedagogue will make little by his new
+allies, unless the pleasure of entertaining the public, and, for aught
+I know, the gentlemen of the long robe, with disputes about his
+identity.
+
+[Footnote: I am since more correctly informed, that Mr. Cleishbotham
+died some months since at Gandercleuch, and that the person assuming
+his name is an impostor. The real Jedediah made a most Christian and
+edifying end; and, as I am credibly informed, having sent for a
+Cameronian clergyman when he was _in extremis_, was so fortunate
+as to convince the good man, that, after all, he had no wish to bring
+down on the scattered remnant of Mountain folks, "the bonnets of Bonny
+Dundee." Hard that the speculators in print and paper will not allow a
+good man to rest quiet in his grave.
+
+This note, and the passages in the text, were occasioned by a London
+bookseller having printed, as a Speculation, an additional collection
+of Tales of My Landlord, which was not so fortunate as to succeed in
+passing on the world as genuine.]
+
+Observe, therefore, Captain Clutterbuck, that, wise by these great
+examples, I receive you as a partner, but a sleeping partner only. As
+I give you no title to employ or use the firm of the copartnery we are
+about to form, I will announce my property in my title-page, and put
+my own mark on my own chattels, which the attorney tells me it will be
+a crime to counterfeit, as much as it would to imitate the autograph
+of any other empiric--a crime amounting, as advertisements upon little
+vials assure to us, to nothing short of felony.  If, therefore, my
+dear friend, your name should hereafter appear in any title-page
+without mine, readers will know what to think of you. I scorn to use
+either arguments or threats; but you cannot but be sensible, that, as
+you owe your literary existence to me on the one hand, so, on the
+other, your very all is at my disposal. I can at pleasure cut off your
+annuity, strike your name from the half-pay establishment, nay,
+actually put you to death, without being answerable to any one. These
+are plain words to a gentleman who has served during the whole war;
+but, I am aware, you will take nothing amiss at my hands.
+
+And now, my good sir, let us address ourselves to our task, and
+arrange, as we best can, the manuscript of your Benedictine, so as to
+suit the taste of this critical age. You will find I have made very
+liberal use of his permission, to alter whatever seemed too favourable
+to the Church of Rome, which I abominate, were it but for her fasts
+and penances.
+
+Our reader is doubtless impatient, and we must own, with John Bunyan,
+
+  We have too long detain'd him in the porch,
+  And kept him from the sunshine with a torch.
+
+Adieu, therefore, my dear Captain--remember me respectfully to the
+parson, the schoolmaster, and the bailie, and all friends of the happy
+club in the village of Kennaquhair. I have never seen, and never shall
+see, one of their faces; and notwithstanding, I believe that as yet I
+am better acquainted with them than any other man who lives.--I shall
+soon introduce you to my jocund friend, Mr. John Ballantyne of Trinity
+Grove, whom you will find warm from his match at single-stick with a
+brother Publisher. [Footnote: In consequence of the pseudo Tales of My
+Landlord printed in London, as already mentioned, the late Mr. John
+Ballantyne, the author's publisher, had a controversy with the
+interloping bibliopolist, each insisting that his Jedediah
+Cleishbotham was the real Simon Pure.] Peace to their differences! It
+is a wrathful trade, and the _irritabile genus_ comprehends the
+bookselling as well as the book-writing species.--Once more adieu!
+
+THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MONASTERY.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the First.
+
+
+  O ay! the Monks, the Monks they did the mischief!
+  Theirs all the grossness, all the superstition
+  Of a most gross and superstitious age--
+  May He be praised that sent the healthful tempest
+  And scatter'd all these pestilential vapours!
+  But that we owed them _all_ to yonder Harlot
+  Throned on the seven hills with her cup of gold,
+  I will as soon believe, with kind Sir Roger,
+  That old Moll White took wing with cat arid broomstick,
+  And raised the last night's thunder.
+                                       OLD PLAY.
+
+The village described in the Benedictine's manuscript by the name of
+Kennaquhair, bears the same Celtic termination which occurs in
+Traquhair, Caquhair, and other compounds. The learned Chalmers derives
+this word Quhair, from the winding course of a stream; a definition
+which coincides, in a remarkable degree, with the serpentine turns of
+the river Tweed near the village of which we speak. It has been long
+famous for the splendid Monastery of Saint Mary, founded by David the
+First of Scotland, in whose reign were formed, in the same county, the
+no less splendid establishments of Melrose, Jedburgh, and Kelso. The
+donations of land with which the King endowed these wealthy
+fraternities procured him from the Monkish historians the epithet of
+Saint, and from one of his impoverished descendants the splenetic
+censure, "that he had been a sore saint for the Crown."
+
+It seems probable, notwithstanding, that David, who was a wise as well
+as a pious monarch, was not moved solely by religious motives to those
+great acts of munificence to the church, but annexed political views
+to his pious generosity. His possessions in Northumberland and
+Cumberland became precarious after the loss of the Battle of the
+Standard; and since the comparatively fertile valley of Teviot-dale
+was likely to become the frontier of his kingdom, it is probable he
+wished to secure at least a part of these valuable possessions by
+placing them in the hands of the monks, whose property was for a long
+time respected, even amidst the rage of a frontier war. In this manner
+alone had the King some chance of ensuring protection and security to
+the cultivators of the soil; and, in fact, for several ages the
+possessions of these Abbeys were each a sort of Goshen, enjoying the
+calm light of peace and immunity, while the rest of the country,
+occupied by wild clans and marauding barons, was one dark scene of
+confusion, blood, and unremitted outrage.
+
+But these immunities did not continue down to the union of the crowns.
+Long before that period the wars betwixt England and Scotland had lost
+their original character of international hostilities, and had become
+on the part of the English, a struggle for subjugation, on that of the
+Scots a desperate and infuriated defence of their liberties. This
+introduced on both sides a degree of fury and animosity unknown to the
+earlier period of their history; and as religious scruples soon gave
+way to national hatred spurred by a love of plunder, the patrimony of
+the Church was no longer sacred from incursions on either side. Still,
+however, the tenants and vassals of the great Abbeys had many
+advantages over those of the lay barons, who were harassed by constant
+military duty, until they became desperate, and lost all relish for
+the arts of peace. The vassals of the church, on the other hand, were
+only liable to be called to arms on general occasions, and at other
+times were permitted in comparative quiet to possess their farms and
+feus. [Footnote: Small possessions conferred upon vassals and their
+heirs, held for a small quit-rent, or a moderate proportion of the
+produce. This was a favourite manner, by which the churchmen peopled
+the patrimony of their convents; and many descendants of such
+_feuars_, as they are culled, are still to be found in possession
+of their family inheritances in the neighbourhood of the great
+Monasteries of Scotland.] They of course exhibited superior skill in
+every thing that related to the cultivation of the soil, and were
+therefore both wealthier and better informed than the military
+retainers of the restless chiefs and nobles in their neighbourhood.
+
+The residence of these church vassals was usually in a small village
+or hamlet, where, for the sake of mutual aid and protection, some
+thirty or forty families dwelt together. This was called the Town, and
+the land belonging to the various families by whom the Town was
+inhabited, was called the Township. They usually possessed the land in
+common, though in various proportions, according to their several
+grants. The part of the Township properly arable, and kept as such
+continually under the plough, was called _in-field_. Here the use
+of quantities of manure supplied in some degree the exhaustion of the
+soil, and the feuars raised tolerable oats and bear, [Footnote: Or
+bigg, a kind of coarse barley.] usually sowed on alternate ridges, on
+which the labour of the whole community was bestowed without
+distinction, the produce being divided after harvest, agreeably to
+their respective interests.
+
+There was, besides, _out-field_ land, from which it was thought
+possible to extract a crop now and then, after which it was abandoned
+to the "skiey influences," until the exhausted powers of vegetation
+were restored. These out-field spots were selected by any feuar at his
+own choice, amongst the sheep-walks and hills which were always
+annexed to the Township, to serve as pasturage to the community. The
+trouble of cultivating these patches of out-field, and the precarious
+chance that the crop would pay the  labour, were considered as giving
+a right to any feuar, who chose to undertake the adventure, to the
+produce which might result from it.
+
+There remained the pasturage of extensive moors, where the valleys
+often afforded good grass, and upon which the whole cattle belonging
+to the community fed indiscriminately during the summer, under the
+charge of the Town-herd, who regularly drove them out to pasture in
+the morning, and brought them back at night, without which precaution
+they would have fallen a speedy prey to some of the Snatchers in the
+neighbourhood. These are things to make modern agriculturists hold up
+their hands and stare; but the same mode of cultivation is not yet
+entirely in desuetude in some distant parts of North Britain, and may
+be witnessed in full force and exercise in the Zetland Archipelago.
+
+The habitations of the church-feuars were not less primitive than
+their agriculture. In each village or town were several small towers,
+having battlements projecting over the side walls, and usually an
+advanced angle or two with shot-holes for flanking the door-way, which
+was always defended by a strong door of oak, studded with nails, and
+often by an exterior grated door of iron. These small peel-houses were
+ordinarily inhabited by the principal feuars and their families; but,
+upon the alarm of approaching danger, the whole inhabitants thronged
+from their own miserable cottages, which were situated around, to
+garrison these points of defence. It was then no easy matter for a
+hostile party to penetrate into the village, for the men were
+habituated to the use of bows and fire-arms, and the towers being
+generally so placed, that the discharge from one crossed that of
+another, it was impossible to assault any of them individually.
+
+The interior of these houses was usually sufficiently wretched, for it
+would have been folly to have furnished them in a manner which could
+excite the avarice of their lawless neighbours. Yet the families
+themselves exhibited in their appearance a degree of comfort,
+information, and independence, which could hardly have been expected.
+Their in-field supplied them with bread and home-brewed ale, their
+herds and flocks with beef and mutton (the extravagance of killing
+lambs or calves was never thought of). Each family killed a mart, or
+fat bullock, in November, which was salted up for winter use, to which
+the good wife could, upon great occasions, add a dish of pigeons or a
+fat capon,--the ill-cultivated garden afforded "lang-cale,"--and the
+river gave salmon to serve as a relish during the season of Lent.
+
+Of fuel they had plenty, for the bogs afforded turf; and the remains
+of the abused woods continued to give them logs for burning, as well
+as timber for the usual domestic purposes. In addition to these
+comforts, the good-man would now and then sally forth to the
+greenwood, and mark down a buck of season with his gun or his
+cross-bow; and the Father Confessor seldom refused him absolution for
+the trespass, if duly invited to take his share of the smoking haunch.
+Some, still bolder, made, either with their own domestics, or by
+associating themselves with the moss-troopers, in the language of
+shepherds, "a start and overloup;" and the golden ornaments and silken
+head-gear--worn by the females of one or two families of note, were
+invidiously traced by their neighbours to such successful excursions.
+This, however, was a more inexplicable crime in the eyes of the Abbot
+and Community of Saint Mary's, than the borrowing one of the "gude
+king's deer;" and they failed not to discountenance and punish, by
+every means in their power, offences which were sure to lead to severe
+retaliation upon the property of the church, and which tended to alter
+the character of their peaceful vassalage.
+
+As for the information possessed by those dependents of the Abbacies,
+they might have been truly said to be better fed than taught, even
+though their fare had been worse than it was. Still, however, they
+enjoyed opportunities of knowledge from which others were excluded.
+The monks were in general well acquainted with their vassals and
+tenants, and familiar in the families of the better class among them,
+where they were sure to be received with the respect due to their
+twofold character of spiritual father and secular landlord. Thus it
+often happened, when a boy displayed talents and inclination for
+study, one of the brethren, with a view to his being bred to the
+church, or out of good-nature, in order to pass away his own idle
+time, if he had no better motive, initiated him into the mysteries of
+reading and writing, and imparted to him such other knowledge as he
+himself possessed. And the heads of these allied families, having more
+time for reflection, and more skill, as well as stronger motives for
+improving their small properties, bore amongst their neighbours the
+character of shrewd, intelligent men, who claimed respect on account
+of their comparative wealth, even while they were despised for a less
+warlike and enterprising turn than the other Borderers. They lived as
+much as they well could amongst themselves, avoiding the company of
+others, and dreading nothing more than to be involved in the deadly
+feuds and ceaseless contentions of the secular landholders.
+
+Such is a general picture of these communities. During the fatal wars
+in the commencement of Queen Mary's reign, they had suffered
+dreadfully by the hostile invasions. For the English, now a Protestant
+people, were so far from sparing the church-lands, that they forayed
+them with more unrelenting severity than even the possessions of the
+laity. But the peace of 1550 had restored some degree of tranquillity
+to those distracted and harassed regions, and matters began again
+gradually to settle upon the former footing. The monks repaired their
+ravaged shrines--the feuar again roofed his small fortalice which the
+enemy had ruined--the poor labourer rebuilt his cottage--an easy task,
+where a few sods, stones, and some pieces of wood from the next copse,
+furnished all the materials necessary. The cattle, lastly, were driven
+out of the wastes and thickets in which the remnant of them had been
+secreted; and the mighty bull moved at the head of his seraglio and
+their followers, to take possession of their wonted pastures. There
+ensued peace and quiet, the state of the age and nation considered, to
+the Monastery of Saint Mary, and its dependencies, for several
+tranquil years.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Second.
+
+
+  In yon lone vale his early youth was bred,
+  Not solitary then--the bugle-horn
+  Of fell Alecto often waked its windings,
+  From where the brook joins the majestic river,
+  To the wild northern bog, the curlew's haunt,
+  Where oozes forth its first and feeble streamlet.
+                                           OLD PLAY.
+
+We have said, that most of the feuars dwelt in the village belonging
+to their townships. This was not, however, universally the case. A
+lonely tower, to which the reader must now be introduced, was at least
+one exception to the general rule.
+
+It was of small dimensions, yet larger than those which occurred in
+the village, as intimating that, in case of assault, the proprietor
+would have to rely upon his own unassisted strength. Two or three
+miserable huts, at the foot of the fortalice, held the bondsmen and
+tenants of the feuar. The site was a beautiful green knoll, which
+started up suddenly in the very throat of a wild and narrow glen, and
+which, being surrounded, except on one side, by the winding of a small
+stream, afforded a position of considerable strength.
+
+But the great security of Glendearg, for so the place was called, lay
+in its secluded, and almost hidden situation. To reach the tower, it
+was necessary to travel three miles up the glen, crossing about twenty
+times the little stream, which, winding through the narrow valley,
+encountered at every hundred yards the opposition of a rock or
+precipitous bank on the one side, which altered its course, and caused
+it to shoot off in an oblique direction to the other. The hills which
+ascend on each side of this glen are very steep, and rise boldly over
+the stream, which is thus imprisoned within their barriers. The sides
+of the glen are impracticable for horse, and are only to be traversed
+by means of the sheep-paths which lie along their sides. It would not
+be readily supposed that a road so hopeless and so difficult could
+lead to any habitation more important than the summer shealing of a
+shepherd.
+
+Yet the glen, though lonely, nearly inaccessible, and sterile, was not
+then absolutely void of beauty. The turf which covered the small
+portion of level ground on the sides of the stream, was as close and
+verdant as if it had occupied the scythes of a hundred gardeners once
+a-fortnight; and it was garnished with an embroidery of daisies and
+wild flowers, which the scythes would certainly have destroyed. The
+little brook, now confined betwixt closer limits, now left at large to
+choose its course through the narrow valley, danced carelessly on from
+stream to pool, light and unturbid, as that better class of spirits
+who pass their way through life, yielding to insurmountable obstacles,
+but as far from being subdued by them as the sailor who meets by
+chance with an unfavourable wind, and shapes his course so as to be
+driven back as little as possible.
+
+The mountains, as they would have been called in England,
+_Scottice_ the steep _braes_, rose abruptly over the little
+glen, here presenting the gray face of a rock, from which the turf had
+been peeled by the torrents, and there displaying patches of wood and
+copse, which had escaped the waste of the cattle and the sheep of the
+feuars, and which, feathering naturally up the beds of empty torrents,
+or occupying the concave recesses of the bank, gave at once beauty and
+variety to the landscape. Above these scattered woods rose the hill,
+in barren, but purple majesty; the dark rich hue, particularly in
+autumn, contrasting beautifully with the thickets of oak and birch,
+the mountain ashes and thorns, the alders and quivering aspens, which
+checquered and varied the descent, and not less with the dark-green
+and velvet turf, which composed the level part of the narrow glen.
+
+Yet, though thus embellished, the scene could neither be strictly
+termed sublime nor beautiful, and scarcely even picturesque or
+striking. But its extreme solitude pressed on the heart; the traveller
+felt that uncertainty whither he was going, or in what so wild a path
+was to terminate, which, at times, strikes more on the imagination
+than the grand features of a show-scene, when you know the exact
+distance of the inn where your dinner is bespoke, and at the moment
+preparing. These are ideas, however, of a far later age; for at the
+time we treat of, the picturesque, the beautiful, the sublime, and all
+their intermediate shades, were ideas absolutely unknown to the
+inhabitants and occasional visitors of Glendearg.
+
+These had, however, attached to the scene feelings fitting the time.
+Its name, signifying the Red Valley, seems to have been derived, not
+only from the purple colour of the heath, with which the upper part of
+the rising banks was profusely clothed, but also from the dark red
+colour of the rocks, and of the precipitous earthen banks, which in
+that country are called _scaurs_. Another glen, about the head of
+Ettrick, has acquired the same name from similar circumstances; and
+there are probably more in Scotland to which it has been given.
+
+As our Glendearg did not abound in mortal visitants, superstition,
+that it might not be absolutely destitute of inhabitants, had peopled
+its recesses with beings belonging to another world. The savage and
+capricious Brown Man of the Moors, a being which seems the genuine
+descendant of the northern dwarfs, was supposed to be seen there
+frequently, especially after the autumnal equinox, when the fogs were
+thick, and objects not easily distinguished. The Scottish fairies,
+too, a whimsical, irritable, and mischievous tribe, who, though at
+times capriciously benevolent, were more frequently adverse to
+mortals, were also supposed to have formed a residence in a
+particularly wild recess of the glen, of which the real name was, in
+allusion to that circumstance, _Corrie nan Shian_, which, in
+corrupted Celtic, signifies the Hollow of the Fairies. But the
+neighbours were more cautious in speaking about this place, and
+avoided giving it a name, from an idea common then throughout all the
+British and Celtic provinces of Scotland, and still retained in many
+places, that to speak either good or ill of this capricious race of
+imaginary beings, is to provoke their resentment, and that secrecy and
+silence is what they chiefly desire from those who may intrude upon
+their revels, or discover their haunts.
+
+A mysterious terror was thus attached to the dale, which afforded
+access from the broad valley of the Tweed, up the little glen we have
+described, to the fortalice called the Tower of Glendearg. Beyond the
+knoll, where, as we have said, the tower was situated, the hills grew
+more steep, and narrowed on the slender brook, so as scarce to leave a
+footpath; and there the glen terminated in a wild waterfall, where a
+slender thread of water dashed in a precipitous line of foam over two
+or three precipices. Yet farther in the same direction, and above
+these successive cataracts, lay a wild and extensive morass,
+frequented only by waterfowl, wide, waste, apparently almost
+interminable, and serving in a great measure to separate the
+inhabitants of the glen from those who lived to the northward.
+
+To restless and indefatigable moss-troopers, indeed, these morasses
+were well known, and sometimes afforded a retreat. They often rode
+down the glen--called at this tower--asked and received
+hospitality--but still with a sort of reserve on the part of its more
+peaceful inhabitants, who entertained them as a party of
+North-American Indians might be received by a new European settler, as
+much out of fear as hospitality, while the uppermost wish of the
+landlord is the speedy departure of the savage guests.
+
+This had not always been the current of feeling in the little valley
+and its tower. Simon Glendinning, its former inhabitant, boasted his
+connexion by blood to that ancient family of Glendonwyne, on the
+western border. He used to narrate, at his fireside, in the autumn
+evenings, the feats of the family to which he belonged, one of whom
+fell by the side of the brave Earl of Douglas at Otterbourne. On these
+occasions Simon usually held upon his knee an ancient broadsword,
+which had belonged to his ancestors before any of the family had
+consented to accept a fief under the peaceful dominion of the monks of
+St. Mary's. In modern days, Simon might have lived at ease on his own
+estate, and quietly murmured against the fate that had doomed him to
+dwell there, and cut off his access to martial renown. But so many
+opportunities, nay so many calls there were for him, who in those days
+spoke big, to make good his words by his actions, that Simon
+Glendinning was soon under the necessity of marching with the men of
+the Halidome, as it was called, of St. Mary's, in that disastrous
+campaign which was concluded by the battle of Pinkie.
+
+The Catholic clergy were deeply interested in that national quarrel,
+the principal object of which was, to prevent the union of the infant
+Queen Mary, with the son of the heretical Henry VIII. The Monks had
+called out their vassals, under an experienced leader. Many of
+themselves had taken arms, and marched to the field, under a banner
+representing a female, supposed to personify the Scottish Church,
+kneeling in the attitude of prayer, with the legend, _Afflictae
+Sponsae ne obliviscaris_. [Footnote: Forget not the afflicted
+spouse.]
+
+The Scots, however, in all their wars, had more occasion for good and
+cautious generals, than for excitation, whether political or
+enthusiastic. Their headlong and impatient courage uniformly induced
+them to rush into action without duly weighing either their own
+situation, or that of their enemies, and the inevitable consequence
+was frequent defeat. With the dolorous slaughter of Pinkie we have
+nothing to do, excepting that, among ten thousand men of low and high
+degree, Simon Glendinning, of the Tower of Glendearg, bit the dust, no
+way disparaging in his death that ancient race from which he claimed
+his descent.
+
+When the doleful news, which spread terror and mourning through the
+whole of Scotland, reached the Tower of Glendearg, the widow of Simon,
+Elspeth Brydone by her family name, was alone in that desolate
+habitation, excepting a hind or two, alike past martial and
+agricultural labour, and the helpless widows and families of those who
+had fallen with their master. The feeling of desolation was
+universal;--but what availed it? The monks, their patrons and
+protectors, were driven from their Abbey by the English forces, who
+now overran the country, and enforced at least an appearance of
+submission on the part of the inhabitants. The Protector, Somerset,
+formed a strong camp among the ruins of the ancient Castle of
+Roxburgh, and compelled the neighbouring country to come in, pay
+tribute, and take assurance from him, as the phrase then went. Indeed,
+there was no power of resistance remaining; and the few barons, whose
+high spirit disdained even the appearance of surrender, could only
+retreat into the wildest fastnesses of the country, leaving their
+houses and property to the wrath of the English, who detached parties
+everywhere to distress, by military exaction, those whose chiefs had
+not made their submission. The Abbot and his community having
+retreated beyond the Forth, their lands were severely forayed, as
+their sentiments were held peculiarly inimical to the alliance with
+England.
+
+Amongst the troops detached on this service was a small party,
+commanded by Stawarth Bolton, a captain in the English army, and full
+of the blunt and unpretending gallantry and generosity which has so
+often distinguished that nation. Resistance was in vain. Elspeth
+Brydone, when she descried a dozen of horsemen threading their way up
+the glen, with a man at their head, whose scarlet cloak, bright
+armour, and dancing plume, proclaimed him a leader, saw no better
+protection for herself than to issue from the iron grate, covered with
+a long mourning veil, and holding one of her two sons in each hand, to
+meet the Englishman--state her deserted condition--place the little
+tower at his command--and beg for his mercy. She stated, in a few
+brief words, her intention, and added, "I submit, because I have nae
+means of resistance."
+
+"And I do not ask your submission, mistress, for the same reason,"
+replied the Englishman. "To be satisfied of your peaceful intentions
+is all I ask; and, from what you tell me, there is no reason to doubt
+them."
+
+"At least, sir," said Elspeth Brydone, "take share of what our spence
+and our garners afford. Your horses are tired--your folk want
+refreshment."
+
+"Not a whit--not a whit," answered the honest Englishman; "it shall
+never be said we disturbed by carousal the widow of a brave soldier,
+while she was mourning for her husband.--Comrades, face about.--Yet
+stay," he added, checking his war-horse, "my parties are out in every
+direction; they must have some token that your family are under my
+assurance of safety.--Here, my little fellow," said he, speaking to
+the eldest boy, who might be about nine or ten years old, "lend me thy
+bonnet."
+
+The child reddened, looked sulky, and hesitated, while the mother,
+with many a _fye_ and _nay pshaw_, and such sarsenet
+chidings as tender mothers give to spoiled children, at length
+succeeded in snatching the bonnet from him, and handing it to the
+English leader.
+
+Stawarth Bolton took his embroidered red cross from his barret-cap,
+and putting it into the loop of the boy's bonnet, said to the
+mistress, (for the title of lady was not given to dames of her
+degree,) "By this token, which all my people will respect, you will be
+freed from any importunity on the part of our forayers." [Footnote: As
+gallantry of all times and nations has the same mode of thinking and
+acting, so it often expresses itself by the same symbols. In the civil
+war 1745-6, a party of Highlanders, under a Chieftain of rank, came to
+Rose Castle, the seat of the Bishop of Carlisle, but then occupied by
+the family of Squire Dacre of Cumberland.  They demanded quarters,
+which of course were not to be refused to armed men of a strange
+attire and unknown language. But the domestic represented to the
+captain of the mountaineers, that the lady of the mansion had been
+just delivered of a daughter, and expressed her hope, that, under
+these circumstances, his party would give as little trouble as
+possible. "God forbid," said the gallant chief, "that I or mine should
+be the means of adding to a lady's inconvenience at such a time. May I
+request to see the infant?" The child was brought, and the Highlander,
+taking his cockade out of his bonnet, and pinning it on the child's
+breast, "That will be a token," he said, "to any of our people who may
+come hither, that Donald McDonald of Kinloch-Moidart, has taken the
+family of Rose Castle under his protection." The lady who received in
+infancy this gage of Highland protection, is now Mary, Lady Clerk of
+Pennycuik; and on the 10th of June still wears the cockade which was
+pinned on her breast, with a white rose as a kindred decoration.] He
+placed it on the boy's head; but it was no sooner there, than the
+little fellow, his veins swelling, and his eyes shooting fire through
+tears, snatched the bonnet from his head, and, ere his mother could
+interfere, skimmed it into the brook. The other boy ran instantly to
+fish it out again, threw it back to his brother, first taking out the
+cross, which, with great veneration, he kissed and put into his bosom.
+The Englishman was half diverted, half surprised, with the scene.
+
+"What mean ye by throwing away Saint George's red cross?" said he to
+the elder boy, in a tone betwixt jest and earnest.
+
+"Because Saint George is a southern saint," said the child, sulkily.
+"Good"--said Stawarth Bolton.--"And what did you mean by taking it out
+of the brook again, my little fellow?" he demanded of the younger.
+"Because the priest says it is the common sign of salvation to all
+good Christians."
+
+"Why, good again!" said the honest soldier. "I protest unto you,
+mistress, I envy you these boys. Are they both yours?"
+
+Stawarth Bolton had reason to put the question, for Halbert
+Glendinning, the elder of the two, had hair as dark as the raven's
+plumage, black eyes, large, bold, and sparkling, that glittered under
+eyebrows of the same complexion; a skin deep embrowned, though it
+could not be termed swarthy, and an air of activity, frankness, and
+determination, far beyond his age.  On the other hand, Edward, the
+younger brother, was light-haired, blue-eyed, and of fairer
+complexion, in countenance rather pale, and not exhibiting that rosy
+hue which colours the sanguine cheek of robust health. Yet the boy had
+nothing sickly or ill-conditioned in his look, but was, on the
+contrary, a fair and handsome child, with a smiling face, and mild,
+yet cheerful eye.
+
+The mother glanced a proud motherly glance, first at the one, and then
+at the other, ere she answered the Englishman, "Surely, sir, they are
+both my children."
+
+"And by the same father, mistress?" said Stawarth; but, seeing a blush
+of displeasure arise on her brow, he instantly added, "Nay, I mean no
+offence; I would have asked the same question at any of my gossips in
+merry Lincoln.--Well, dame, you have two fair boys; I would I could
+borrow one, for Dame Bolton and I live childless in our old
+hall.--Come, little fellows, which of you will go with me?"
+
+The trembling mother, half-fearing as he spoke, drew the children
+towards her, one with either hand, while they both answered the
+stranger. "I will not go with you," said Halbert, boldly, "for you are
+a false-hearted Southern; and the Southerns killed my father; and I
+will war on you to the death, when I can draw my father's sword."
+
+"God-a-mercy, my little levin-bolt," said Stawarth, "the goodly custom
+of deadly feud will never go down in thy day, I presume.--And you, my
+fine white-head, will you not go with me, to ride a cock-horse?"
+"No," said Edward, demurely, "for you are a heretic."
+
+"Why, God-a-mercy still!" said Stawarth Bolton. "Well, dame, I see I
+shall find no recruits for my troop from you; and yet I do envy you
+these two little chubby knaves." He sighed a moment, as was visible,
+in spite of gorget and corslet, and then added, "And yet, my dame and
+I would but quarrel which of the knaves we should like best; for I
+should wish for the black-eyed rogue--and she, I warrant me, for that
+blue-eyed, fair-haired darling. Natheless, we must brook our solitary
+wedlock, and wish joy to those that are more fortunate. Sergeant
+Brittson, do thou remain here till recalled--protect this family, as
+under assurance--do them no wrong, and suffer no wrong to be done to
+them, as thou wilt answer it.--Dame, Brittson is a married man, old
+and steady; feed him on what you will, but give him not over much
+liquor."
+
+Dame Glendinning again offered refreshments, but with a faltering
+voice, and an obvious desire her invitation should not be accepted.
+The fact was, that, supposing her boys as precious in the eyes of the
+Englishman as in her own, (the most ordinary of parental errors,) she
+was half afraid, that the admiration he expressed of them in his blunt
+manner might end in his actually carrying off one or other of the
+little darlings whom he appeared to covet so much. She kept hold of
+their hands, therefore, as if her feeble strength could have been of
+service, had any violence been intended, and saw with joy she could
+not disguise, the little party of horse countermarch, in order to
+descend the glen. Her feelings did not escape Bolton: "I forgive you,
+dame," he said, "for being suspicious that an English falcon was
+hovering over your Scottish moor-brood. But fear not--those who have
+fewest children have fewest cares; nor does a wise man covet those of
+another household. Adieu, dame; when the black-eyed rogue is able to
+drive a foray from England, teach him to spare women and children, for
+the sake of Stawarth Bolton."
+
+"God be with you, gallant Southern!" said Elspeth Glendinning, but not
+till he was out of hearing, spurring on his good horse to regain the
+head of his party, whose plumage and armour were now glancing and
+gradually disappearing in the distance, as they winded down the glen.
+
+"Mother," said the elder boy, "I will not say amen to a prayer for a
+Southern."
+
+"Mother," said the younger, more reverentially, "is it right to pray
+for a heretic?"
+
+"The God to whom I pray only knows," answered poor Elspeth; "but these
+two words, Southern and heretic, have already cost Scotland ten
+thousand of her best and bravest, and me a husband, and you a father;
+and, whether blessing or banning, I never wish to hear them
+more.--Follow me to the Place, sir," she said to Brittson, "and such
+as we have to offer you shall be at your disposal."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Third.
+
+
+  They lighted down on Tweed water
+    And blew their coals sae het,
+  And fired the March and Teviotdale,
+     All in an evening late.
+                       AULD MAITLAND.
+
+The report soon spread through the patrimony of Saint Mary's and its
+vicinity, that the Mistress of Glendearg had received assurance from
+the English Captain, and that her cattle were not to be driven off, or
+her corn burned. Among others who heard this report, it reached the
+ears of a lady, who, once much higher in rank than Elspeth
+Glendinning, was now by the same calamity reduced to even greater
+misfortune.
+
+She was the widow of a brave soldier, Walter Avenel, descended of a
+very ancient Border family, who once possessed immense estates in
+Eskdale.  These had long since passed from them into other hands, but
+they still enjoyed an ancient Barony of considerable extent, not very
+far from the patrimony of Saint Mary's, and lying upon the same side
+of the river with the narrow vale of Glendearg, at the head of which
+was the little tower of the Glendinnings. Here they had lived, bearing
+a respectable rank amongst the gentry of their province, though
+neither wealthy nor powerful. This general regard had been much
+augmented by the skill, courage, and enterprise which had been
+displayed by Walter Avenel, the last Baron.
+
+When Scotland began to recover from the dreadful shock she had
+sustained after the battle of Pinkie-Cleuch, Avenel was one of the
+first who, assembling a small force, set an example in those bloody
+and unsparing skirmishes, which showed that a nation, though conquered
+and overrun by invaders, may yet wage against them such a war of
+detail as shall in the end become fatal to the foreigners. In one of
+these, however, Walter Avenel fell, and the news which came to the
+house of his fathers was followed by the distracting intelligence,
+that a party of Englishmen were coming to plunder the mansion and
+lands of his widow, in order, by this act of terror, to prevent others
+from following the example of the deceased.
+
+The unfortunate lady had no better refuge than the miserable cottage
+of a shepherd among the hills, to which she was hastily removed,
+scarce conscious where or for what purpose her terrified attendants
+were removing her and her infant daughter from her own house. Here she
+was tended with all the duteous service of ancient times by the
+shepherd's wife, Tibb Tacket, who in better days had been her own
+bowerwoman. For a time the lady was unconscious of her misery; but
+when the first stunning effect of grief was so far passed away that
+she could form an estimate of her own situation, the widow of Avenel
+had cause to envy the lot of her husband in his dark and silent abode.
+The domestics who had guided her to her place of refuge, were
+presently obliged to disperse for their own safety, or to seek for
+necessary subsistence; and the shepherd and his wife, whose poor
+cottage she shared, were soon after deprived of the means of affording
+their late mistress even that coarse sustenance which they had gladly
+shared with her.  Some of the English forayers had discovered and
+driven off the few sheep which had escaped the first researches of
+their avarice. Two cows shared the fate of the remnant of their stock;
+they had afforded the family almost their sole support, and now famine
+appeared to stare them in the face.
+
+"We are broken and beggared now, out and out," said old Martin the
+shepherd--and he wrung his hands in the bitterness of agony, "the
+thieves, the harrying thieves I not a cloot left of the haill hirsel!"
+
+"And to see poor Grizzle and Crumbie," said his wife, "turning back
+their necks to the byre, and routing while the stony-hearted villains
+were brogging them on wi' their lances!"
+
+"There were but four of them," said Martin, "and I have seen the day
+forty wad not have ventured this length. But our strength and manhood
+is gane with our puir maister."
+
+"For the sake of the holy rood, whisht, man," said the goodwife, "our
+leddy is half gane already, as ye may see by that fleightering of the
+ee-lid--a word mair and she's dead outright."
+
+"I could almost wish," said Martin, "we were a' gane, for what to do
+passes my puir wit. I care little for mysell, or you, Tibb,--we can
+make a fend--work or want--we can do baith, but she can do neither."
+
+They canvassed their situation thus openly before the lady, convinced
+by the paleness of her look, her quivering lip, and dead-set eye, that
+she neither heard nor understood what they were saying.
+
+"There is a way," said the shepherd, "but I kenna if she could bring
+her heart to it,--there's Simon Glendinning's widow of the glen
+yonder, has had assurance from the Southern loons, and nae soldier to
+steer them for one cause or other. Now, if the leddy could bow her
+mind to take quarters with Elspeth Glendinning till better days cast
+up, nae doubt it wad be doing an honour to the like of her, but----"
+
+"An honour," answered Tibb, "ay, by my word, sic an honour as wad be
+pride to her kin mony a lang year after her banes were in the mould.
+Oh! gudeman, to hear ye even the Lady of Avenel to seeking quarters
+wi' a Kirk-vassal's widow!"
+
+"Loath should I be to wish her to it," said Martin; "but what may we
+do?--to stay here is mere starvation; and where to go, I'm sure I ken
+nae mair than ony tup I ever herded."
+
+"Speak no more of it," said the widow of Avenel, suddenly joining in the
+conversation, "I will go to the tower.--Dame Elspeth is of good folk, a
+widow, and the mother of orphans,--she will give us house-room until
+something be thought upon. These evil showers make the low bush better
+than no bield."
+
+"See there, see there," said Martin, "you see the leddy has twice our
+sense."
+
+"And natural it is," said Tibb, "seeing that she is convent-bred, and
+can lay silk broidery, forby white-seam and shell-work."
+
+"Do you not think," said the lady to Martin, still clasping her child to
+her bosom and making it clear from what motives she desired the refuge,
+"that Dame Glendinning will make us welcome?"
+
+"Blithely welcome, blithely welcome, my leddy," answered Martin,
+cheerily, "and we shall deserve a welcome at her hand. Men are scarce
+now, my leddy, with these wars; and gie me a thought of time to it, I
+can do as good a day's darg as ever I did in my life, and Tibb can
+sort cows with ony living woman."
+
+"And muckle mair could I do," said Tibb, "were it ony feasible house;
+but there will be neither pearlins to mend, nor pinners to busk up, in
+Elspeth Glendinning's."
+
+"Whisht wi' your pride, woman," said the shepherd; "eneugh you can do,
+baith outside and inside, an ye set your mind to it; and hard it is if
+we twa canna work for three folk's meat, forby my dainty wee leddy
+there.  Come awa, come awa, nae use in staying here langer; we have
+five Scots miles over moss and muir, and that is nae easy walk for a
+leddy born and bred."
+
+Household stuff there was little or none to remove or care for; an old
+pony which had escaped the plunderers, owing partly to its pitiful
+appearance, partly from the reluctance which it showed to be caught by
+strangers, was employed to carry the few blankets and other trifles
+which they possessed. When Shagram came to his master's well-known
+whistle, he was surprised to find the poor thing had been wounded,
+though slightly, by an arrow, which one of the forayers had shot off
+in anger after he had long chased it in vain.
+
+"Ay, Shagram," said the old man, as he applied something to the wound,
+"must you rue the lang-bow as weel as all of us?"
+
+"What corner in Scotland rues it not!" said the Lady of Avenel.
+
+"Ay, ay, madam," said Martin, "God keep the kindly Scot from the
+cloth-yard shaft, and he will keep himself from the handy stroke. But
+let us go our way; the trash that is left I can come back for. There
+is nae ane to stir it but the good neighbours, and they----"
+
+"For the love of God, goodman," said his wife, in a remonstrating tone,
+"haud your peace! Think what ye're saying, and we hae sae muckle wild
+land to go over before we win to the girth gate."
+
+The husband nodded acquiescence; for it was deemed highly imprudent to
+speak of the fairies, either by their title of _good neighbours_
+or by any other, especially when about to pass the places which they
+were supposed to haunt.
+
+[Footnote: This superstition continues to prevail, though one would
+suppose it must now be antiquated. It is only a year or two since an
+itinerant puppet show-man, who, disdaining to acknowledge the
+profession of Gines de Passamonte, called himself an artist from
+Vauxhall, brought a complaint of a singular nature before the author,
+as Sheriff of Selkirkshire. The singular dexterity with which the
+show-man had exhibited the machinery of his little stage, had, upon a
+Selkirk fair-day, excited the eager curiosity of some mechanics of
+Galashiels. These men, from no worse motive that could be discovered
+than a thirst after knowledge beyond their sphere, committed a
+burglary upon the barn in which the puppets had been consigned to
+repose, and carried them off in the nook of their plaids, when
+returning from Selkirk to their own village.
+
+  "But with the morning cool reflection came."
+
+The party found, however, they could not make Punch dance, and that
+the whole troop were equally intractable; they had also, perhaps, some
+apprehensions of the Rhadamanth of the district; and, willing to be
+quit of their booty, they left the puppets seated in a grove by the
+side of the Ettrick, where they were sure to be touched by the first
+beams of the rising sun. Here a shepherd, who was on foot with sunrise
+to pen his master's sheep on a field of turnips, to his utter
+astonishment, saw this train, profusely gay, sitting in the little
+grotto. His examination proceeded thus:--
+
+_Sheriff_. You saw these gay-looking things? what did you think
+they were?
+
+_Shepherd_. Ou, I am no that free to say what I might think they
+were.
+
+_Sheriff_. Come, lad, I must have a direct answer--who did you
+think they were?
+
+_Shepherd_. Ou, sir, troth I am no that free to say that I mind
+wha I might think they were.
+
+_Sheriff_. Come, come sir! I ask you distinctly, did you think
+they were the fairies you saw?
+
+_Shepherd_. Indeed, sir, and I winna say but I might think it was
+the Good Neighbours.
+
+Thus unwillingly was he brought to allude to the irritable and
+captious inhabitants of fairy land.]
+
+They set forward on their pilgrimage on the last day of October. "This
+is thy birthday, my sweet Mary," said the mother, as a sting of bitter
+recollection crossed her mind. "Oh, who could have believed that the
+head, which, a few years since, was cradled amongst so many rejoicing
+friends, may perhaps this night seek a cover in vain!"
+
+The exiled family then set forward,--Mary Avenel, a lovely girl between
+five and six years old, riding gipsy fashion upon Shagram, betwixt two
+bundles of bedding; the Lady of Avenel walking by the animal's side;
+Tibb leading the bridle, and old Martin walking a little before, looking
+anxiously around him to explore the way.
+
+Martin's task as guide, after two or three miles' walking, became more
+difficult than he himself had expected, or than he was willing to
+avow. It happened that the extensive range of pasturage, with which he
+was conversant, lay to the west, and to get into the little valley of
+Glendearg he had to proceed easterly. In the wilder districts of
+Scotland, the passage from one vale to another, otherwise than by
+descending that which you leave, and reascending the other, is often
+very difficult.--Heights and hollows, mosses and rocks intervene, and
+all those local impediments which throw a traveller out of his course.
+So that Martin, however sure of his general direction, became
+conscious, and at length was forced reluctantly to admit, that he had
+missed the direct road to Glendearg, though he insisted they must be
+very near it. "If we can but win across this wide bog," he said, "I
+shall warrant ye are on the top of the tower." But to get across the
+bog was a point of no small difficulty. The farther they ventured into
+it, though proceeding with all the caution which Martin's experience
+recommended, the more unsound the ground became, until, after they had
+passed some places of great peril, their best argument for going
+forward came to be, that they had to encounter equal danger in
+returning.  The Lady of Avenel had been tenderly nurtured, but what
+will not a woman endure when her child is in danger? Complaining less
+of the dangers of the road than her attendants, who had been inured to
+such from their infancy, she kept herself close by the side of the
+pony, watching its every footstep, and ready, if it should flounder in
+the morass, to snatch her little Mary from its back. At length they
+came to a place where the guide greatly hesitated, for all around him
+was broken lumps of heath, divided from each other by deep sloughs of
+black tenacious mire. After great consideration, Martin, selecting
+what he thought the safest path, began himself to lead forward
+Shagram, in order to afford greater security to the child. But Shagram
+snorted, laid his ears back, stretched his two feet forward, and drew
+his hind feet under him, so as to adopt the best possible posture for
+obstinate resistance, and refused to move one yard in the direction
+indicated. Old Martin, much puzzled, now hesitated whether to exert
+his absolute authority, or to defer to the contumacious obstinacy of
+Shagram, and was not greatly comforted by his wife's observation, who,
+seeing Shagram stare with his eyes, distend his nostrils, and tremble
+with terror, hinted that "he surely saw more than they could see."
+
+In this dilemma, the child suddenly exclaimed--"Bonny leddy signs to
+us to come yon gate." They all looked in the direction where the child
+pointed, but saw nothing, save a wreath, of rising mist, which fancy
+might form into a human figure; but which afforded to Martin only the
+sorrowful conviction, that the danger of their situation was about to
+be increased by a heavy fog. He once more essayed to lead forward
+Shagram; but the animal was inflexible in its determination not to
+move in the direction Martin recommended. "Take your awn way for it,
+then," said Martin, "and let us see what you can do for us."
+
+Shagram, abandoned to the discretion of his own free-will, set off
+boldly in the direction the child had pointed. There was nothing
+wonderful in this, nor in its bringing them safe to the other side of
+the dangerous morass; for the instinct of these animals in traversing
+bogs is one of the most curious parts of their nature, and is a fact
+generally established.  But it was remarkable, that the child more
+than once mentioned the beautiful lady and her signals, and that
+Shagram seemed to be in the secret, always moving in the same
+direction which she indicated. The Lady of Avenel took little notice
+at the time, her mind being probably occupied by the instant danger;
+but her attendants changed expressive looks with each other more than
+once.
+
+"All-Hallow Eve!" said Tibb, in a whisper to Martin.
+
+"For the mercy of Our Lady, not a word of that now!" said Martin in
+reply. "Tell your beads, woman, if you cannot be silent."
+
+When they got once more on firm ground, Martin recognized certain
+land-marks, or cairns, on the tops of the neighbouring hills, by which
+he was enabled to guide his course, and ere long they arrived at the
+Tower of Glendearg.
+
+It was at the sight of this little fortalice that the misery of her
+lot pressed hard on the poor Lady of Avenel. When by any accident they
+had met at church, market, or other place of public resort, she
+remembered the distant and respectful air with which the wife of the
+warlike baron was addressed by the spouse of the humble feuar. And
+now, so much was her pride humbled, that she was to ask to share the
+precarious safety of the same feuar's widow, and her pittance of food,
+which might perhaps be yet more precarious. Martin probably guessed
+what was passing in her mind, for he looked at her with a wistful
+glance, as if to deprecate any change of resolution; and answering to
+his looks, rather than his words, she said, while the sparkle of
+subdued pride once more glanced from her eye, "If it were for myself
+alone, I could but die-but for this infant--the last pledge of
+Avenel--"
+
+"True, my lady," said Martin, hastily; and, as if to prevent the
+possibility of her retracting, he added, "I will step on and see Dame
+Elspeth--I kend her husband weel, and have bought and sold with him,
+for as great a man as he was."
+
+Martin's tale was soon told, and met all acceptance from her companion
+in misfortune. The Lady of Avenel had been meek and courteous in her
+prosperity; in adversity, therefore, she met with the greatest
+sympathy.  Besides, there was a point of pride in sheltering and
+supporting a woman of such superior birth and rank; and, not to do
+Elspeth Glendinning injustice, she felt sympathy for one whose fate
+resembled her own in so many points, yet was so much more severe.
+Every species of hospitality was gladly and respectfully extended to
+the distressed travellers, and they were kindly requested to stay as
+long at Glendearg as their circumstances rendered necessary, or their
+inclination prompted.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fourth.
+
+
+   Ne'er be I found by thee unawed,
+   On that thrice hallow'd eve abroad.
+   When goblins haunt from flood and fen,
+                         The steps of men.
+                            COLLINS'S _Ode to Fear_.
+
+As the country became more settled, the Lady of Avenel would have
+willingly returned to her husband's mansion. But that was no longer in
+her power. It was a reign of minority, when the strongest had the best
+right, and when acts of usurpation were frequent amongst those who had
+much power and little conscience.
+
+Julian Avenel, the younger brother of the deceased Walter, was a
+person of this description. He hesitated not to seize upon his
+brother's house and lands, so soon as the retreat of the English
+permitted him. At first, he occupied the property in the name of his
+niece; but when the lady proposed to return with her child to the
+mansion of its fathers, he gave her to understand, that Avenel, being
+a male fief, descended to the brother, instead of the daughter, of the
+last possessor.  The ancient philosopher declined a dispute with the
+emperor who commanded twenty legions, and the widow of Walter Avenel
+was in no condition to maintain a contest with the leader of twenty
+moss-troopers. Julian was also a man of service, who could back a
+friend in case of need, and was sure, therefore, to find protectors
+among the ruling powers. In short, however clear the little Mary's
+right to the possessions of her father, her mother saw the necessity
+of giving way, at least for the time, to the usurpation of her uncle.
+
+Her patience and forbearance were so far attended with advantage, that
+Julian, for very shame's sake, could no longer suffer her to be
+absolutely dependant on the charity of Elspeth Glendinning. A drove of
+cattle and a bull (which were probably missed by some English farmer)
+were driven to the pastures of Glendearg; presents of raiment and
+household stuff were sent liberally, and some little money, though
+with a more sparing hand: for those in the situation of Julian Avenel
+could come more easily by the goods, than the representing medium of
+value, and made their payments chiefly in kind.
+
+In the meantime, the widows of Walter Avenel and Simon Glendinning had
+become habituated to each other's society, and were unwilling to part.
+The lady could hope no more secret and secure residence than in the
+Tower of Glendearg, and she was now in a condition to support her
+share of the mutual housekeeping. Elspeth, on the other hand, felt
+pride, as well as pleasure, in the society of a guest of such
+distinction, and was at all times willing to pay much greater
+deference than the Lady of Walter Avenel could be prevailed on to
+accept.
+
+Martin and his wife diligently served the united family in their
+several vocations, and yielded obedience to both mistresses, though
+always considering themselves as the especial servants of the Lady of
+Avenel. This distinction sometimes occasioned a slight degree of
+difference between Dame Elspeth and Tibb; the former being jealous of
+her own consequence, and the latter apt to lay too much stress upon
+the rank and family of her mistress.  But both were alike desirous to
+conceal such petty squabbles from the lady, her hostess scarce
+yielding to her old domestic in respect for her person. Neither did
+the difference exist in such a degree as to interrupt the general
+harmony of the family, for the one wisely gave way as she saw the
+other become warm; and Tibb, though she often gave the first
+provocation, had generally the sense to be the first in relinquishing
+the argument.
+
+The world which lay beyond was gradually forgotten by the inhabitants
+of this sequestered glen, and unless when she attended mass at the
+Monastery Church upon some high holiday, Alice of Avenel almost forgot
+that she once held an equal rank with the proud wives of the
+neighbouring barons and nobles who on such occasions crowded to the
+solemnity. The recollection gave her little pain. She loved her
+husband for himself, and in his inestimable loss all lesser subjects
+of regret had ceased to interest her. At times, indeed, she thought of
+claiming the protection of the Queen Regent (Mary of Guise) for her
+little orphan, but the fear of Julian Avenel always came between. She
+was sensible that he would have neither scruple nor difficulty in
+spiriting away the child, (if he did not proceed farther,) should he
+once consider its existence as formidable to his interest. Besides, he
+led a wild and unsettled life, mingling in all feuds and forays,
+wherever there was a spear to be broken; he evinced no purpose of
+marrying, and the fate which he continually was braving might at
+length remove him from his usurped inheritance. Alice of Avenel,
+therefore, judged it wise to check all ambitious thoughts for the
+present, and remain quiet in the rude, but peaceable retreat, to which
+Providence had conducted her.
+
+It was upon an All-Hallow's eve, when the family had resided together
+for the space of three years, that the domestic circle was assembled
+round the blazing turf-fire, in the old narrow hall of the Tower of
+Glendearg. The idea of the master or mistress of the mansion feeding
+or living apart from their domestics, was at this period never
+entertained. The highest end of the board, the most commodious settle
+by the fire,--these were the only marks of distinction; and the
+servants mingled, with deference indeed, but unreproved and with
+freedom, in whatever conversation was going forward.  But the two or
+three domestics, kept merely for agricultural purposes, had retired to
+their own cottages without, and with them a couple of wenches, usually
+employed within doors, the daughters of one of the hinds.
+
+After their departure, Martin locked, first, the iron grate; and,
+secondly, the inner door of the tower, when the domestic circle was
+thus arranged.  Dame Elspeth sate pulling the thread from her distaff;
+Tibb watched the progress of scalding the whey, which hung in a large
+pot upon the _crook_, a chain terminated by a hook, which was
+suspended in the chimney to serve the purpose of the modern crane.
+Martin, while busied in repairing some of the household articles, (for
+every man in those days was his own carpenter and smith, as well as
+his own tailor and shoemaker,) kept from time to time a watchful eye
+upon the three children.
+
+They were allowed, however, to exercise their juvenile restlessness by
+running up and down the hall, behind the seats of the elder members of
+the family, with the privilege of occasionally making excursions into
+one or two small apartments which opened from it, and gave excellent
+opportunity to play at hide-and-seek. This night, however, the
+children seemed not disposed to avail themselves of their privilege of
+visiting these dark regions, but preferred carrying on their gambols
+in the vicinity of the light.
+
+In the meanwhile, Alice of Avenel, sitting close to an iron
+candlestick, which supported a misshapen torch of domestic
+manufacture, read small detached passages from a thick clasped volume,
+which she preserved with the greatest care. The art of reading the
+lady had acquired by her residence in a nunnery during her youth, but
+she seldom, of late years, put it to any other use than perusing this
+little volume, which formed her whole library.  The family listened to
+the portions which she selected, as to some good thing which there was
+a merit in hearing with respect, whether it was fully understood or
+no. To her daughter, Alice of Avenel had determined to impart their
+mystery more fully, but the knowledge was at that period attended with
+personal danger, and was not rashly to be trusted to a child.
+
+The noise of the romping children interrupted, from time to time, the
+voice of the lady, and drew on the noisy culprits the rebuke of Elspeth.
+
+"Could they not go farther a-field, if they behoved to make such a
+din, and disturb the lady's good words?" And this command was backed
+with the threat of sending the whole party to bed if it was not
+attended to punctually.  Acting under the injunction, the children
+first played at a greater distance from the party, and more quietly,
+and then began to stray into the adjacent apartments, as they became
+impatient of the restraint to which they were subjected. But, all at
+once, the two boys came open-mouthed into the hall, to tell that there
+was an armed man in the spence.
+
+"It must be Christie of Clint-hill," said Martin, rising; "what can have
+brought him here at this time?"
+
+"Or how came he in?" said Elspeth.
+
+"Alas! what can he seek?" said the Lady of Avenel, to whom this man, a
+retainer of her husband's brother, and who sometimes executed his
+commissions at Glendearg, was an object of secret apprehension and
+suspicion.  "Gracious heavens!" she added, rising up, "where is my
+child?" All rushed to the spence, Halbert Glendinning first arming
+himself with a rusty sword, and the younger seizing upon the lady's
+book. They hastened to the spence, and were relieved of a part of
+their anxiety by meeting Mary at the door of the apartment. She did
+not seem in the slightest degree alarmed, or disturbed. They rushed
+into the spence, (a sort of interior apartment in which the family ate
+their victuals in the summer season,) but there was no one there.
+
+"Where is Christie of Clint-hill?" said Martin.
+
+"I do not know," said little Mary; "I never saw him."
+
+"And what made you, ye misleard loons," said Dame Elspeth to her two
+boys, "come yon gate into the ha', roaring like bullsegs, to frighten
+the leddy, and her far frae strong?" The boys looked at each other in
+silence and confusion, and their mother proceeded with her lecture.
+"Could ye find nae night for daffin but Hallowe'en, and nae time but
+when the leddy was reading to us about the holy Saints? May ne'er be
+in my fingers, if I dinna sort ye baith for it!" The eldest boy bent
+his eyes on the ground, the younger began to weep, but neither spoke;
+and the mother would have proceeded to extremities, but for the
+interposition of the little maiden.
+
+"Dame Elspeth, it was _my_ fault--I did say to them, that I saw a
+man in the spence."
+
+"And what made you do so, child," said her mother, "to startle us all
+thus?"
+
+"Because," said Mary, lowering her voice, "I could not help it."
+
+"Not help it, Mary!--you occasioned all this idle noise, and you could
+not help it? How mean you by that, minion?"
+
+"There really was an armed man in this spence," said Mary; "and
+because I was surprised to see him, I cried out to Halbert and Edward--"
+
+"She has told it herself," said Halbert Glendinning, "or it had never
+been told by me."
+
+"Nor by me neither," said Edward, emulously.
+
+"Mistress Mary," said Elspeth, "you never told us anything before that
+was not true; tell us if this was a Hallowe'en cantrip, and make an
+end of it." The Lady of Avenel looked as if she would have interfered,
+but knew not how; and Elspeth, who was too eagerly curious to regard
+any distant hint, persevered in her inquiries. "Was it Christie of the
+Clint-hill?--I would not for a mark that he were about the house, and
+a body no ken whare."
+
+"It was not Christie," said Mary; "it was--it was a gentleman--a
+gentleman with a bright breastplate, like what I hae seen langsyne,
+when we dwelt at Avenel--"
+
+"What like was he?" continued Tibb, who now took share in the
+investigation.
+
+"Black-haired, black-eyed, with a peaked black beard," said the child;
+"and many a fold of pearling round his neck, and hanging down his
+breast ower his breastplate; and he had a beautiful hawk, with silver
+bells, standing on his left hand, with a crimson silk hood upon its
+head--"
+
+"Ask her no more questions, for the love of God," said the anxious
+menial to Elspeth, "but look to my leddy!" But the Lady of Avenel,
+taking Mary in her hand, turned hastily away, and, walking into the
+hall, gave them no opportunity of remarking in what manner she
+received the child's communication, which she thus cut short. What
+Tibb thought of it appeared from her crossing herself repeatedly, and
+whispering into Elspeth's ear, "Saint Mary preserve us!--the lassie
+has seen her father!"
+
+When they reached the hall, they found the lady holding her daughter
+on her knee, and kissing her repeatedly. When they entered, she again
+arose, as if to shun observation, and retired to the little apartment
+where her child and she occupied the same bed.
+
+The boys were also sent to their cabin, and no one remained by the
+hall fire save the faithful Tibb and dame Elspeth, excellent persons
+both, and as thorough gossips as ever wagged a tongue.
+
+It was but natural that they should instantly resume the subject of the
+supernatural appearance, for such they deemed it, which had this night
+alarmed the family.
+
+"I could hae wished it had been the deil himself--be good to and
+preserve us!--rather than Christie o' the Clint-hill," said the matron
+of the mansion, "for the word runs rife in the country, that he is ane
+of the maist masterfu' thieves ever lap on horse."
+
+"Hout-tout, Dame Elspeth," said Tibb, "fear ye naething frae Christie;
+tods keep their ain holes clean. You kirk-folk make sic a fasherie
+about men shifting a wee bit for their living! Our Border-lairds would
+ride with few men at their back, if a' the light-handed lads were out
+o' gate."
+
+"Better they rade wi' nane than distress the country-side the gate they
+do," said Dame Elspeth.
+
+"But wha is to haud back the Southron, then," said Tibb, "if ye take
+away the lances and broadswords? I trow we auld wives couldna do that
+wi' rock and wheel, and as little the monks wi' bell and book."
+
+"And sae weel as the lances and broadswords hae kept them back, I
+trow!--I was mair beholden to ae Southron, and that was Stawarth
+Bolton, than to a' the border-riders ever wore Saint Andrew's cross--I
+reckon their skelping back and forward, and lifting honest men's gear,
+has been a main cause of a' the breach between us and England, and I
+am sure that cost me a kind goodman. They spoke about the wedding of
+the Prince and our Queen, but it's as like to be the driving of the
+Cumberland folk's stocking that brought them down on us like dragons."
+Tibb would not have failed in other circumstances to answer what she
+thought reflections disparaging to her country folk; but she
+recollected that Dame Elspeth was mistress of the family, curbed her
+own zealous patriotism, and hastened to change the subject.
+
+"And is it not strange," she said, "that the heiress of Avenel should
+have seen her father this blessed night?"
+
+"And ye think it was her father, then?" said Elspeth Glendinning.
+
+"What else can I think?" said Tibb.
+
+"It may hae been something waur, in his likeness," said Dame
+Glendinning.
+
+"I ken naething about that," said Tibb,--"but his likeness it was,
+that I will be sworn to, just as he used to ride out a-hawking; for
+having enemies in the country, he seldom laid off the breast-plate;
+and for my part," added Tibb, "I dinna think a man looks like a man
+unless he has steel on his breast, and by his side too."
+
+"I have no skill of your harness on breast or side either," said Dame
+Glendinning; "but I ken there is little luck in Hallowe'en sights, for I
+have had ane myself."
+
+"Indeed, Dame Elspeth?" said old Tibb, edging her stool closer to the
+huge elbow-chair occupied by her friend, "I should like to hear about
+that."
+
+"Ye maun ken, then, Tibb," said Dame Glendinning, "that when I was
+a hempie of nineteen or twenty, it wasna my fault if I wasna at a' the
+merry-makings time about."
+
+"That was very natural," said Tibb; "but ye hae sobered since that, or
+ye wadna haud our braw gallants sae lightly."
+
+"I have had that wad sober me or ony ane," said the matron, "Aweel,
+Tibb, a lass like me wasna to lack wooers, for I wasna sae
+ill-favoured that the tikes wad bark after me."
+
+"How should that be," said Tibb, "and you sic a weel-favoured woman
+to this day?"
+
+"Fie, fie, cummer," said the matron of Glendearg, hitching her seat of
+honour, in her turn, a little nearer to the cuttle-stool on which Tibb
+was seated; "weel-favoured is past my time of day; but I might pass
+then, for I wasna sae tocherless but what I had a bit land at my
+breast-lace. My father was portioner of Little-dearg."
+
+"Ye hae tell'd me that before," said Tibb; "but anent the Hallowe'en?"
+
+"Aweel, aweel, I had mair joes than ane, but I favoured nane o' them;
+and sae, at Hallowe'en, Father Nicolas the cellarer--he was cellarer
+before this father, Father Clement, that now is--was cracking his nuts
+and drinking his brown beer with us, and as blithe as might be, and
+they would have me try a cantrip to ken wha suld wed me: and the monk
+said there was nae ill in it, and if there was, he would assoil me for
+it. And wha but I into the barn to winnow my three weights o'
+naething--sair, sair my mind misgave me for fear of wrang-doing and
+wrang-suffering baith; but I had aye a bauld spirit. I had not
+winnowed the last weight clean out, and the moon was shining bright
+upon the floor, when in stalked the presence of my dear Simon
+Glendinning, that is now happy. I never saw him plainer in my life
+than I did that moment; he held up an arrow as he passed me, and I
+swarf'd awa wi' fright. Muckle wark there was to bring me to mysell
+again, and sair they tried to make me believe it was a trick of Father
+Nicolas and Simon between them, and that the arrow was to signify
+Cupid's shaft, as the Father called it; and mony a time Simon wad
+threep it to me after I was married--gude man, he liked not it should
+be said that he was seen out o' the body!--But mark the end o' it,
+Tibb; we were married, and the gray-goose wing was the death o' him
+after a'!"
+
+"As it has been of ower mony brave men," said Tibb; "I wish there
+wasna sic a bird as a goose in the wide warld, forby the clecking that
+we hae at the burn-side."
+
+"But tell me, Tibb," said Dame Glendinning, "what does your leddy aye
+do reading out o' that thick black book wi' the silver clasps?--there
+are ower mony gude words in it to come frae ony body but a priest--An
+it were about Robin Hood, or some o' David Lindsay's ballants, ane wad
+ken better what to say to it. I am no misdoubting your mistress nae
+way, but I wad like ill to hae a decent house haunted wi' ghaists and
+gyrecarlines."
+
+"Ye hae nae reason to doubt my leddy, or ony thing she says or does,
+Dame Glendinning," said the faithful Tibb, something offended; "and
+touching the bairn, it's weel kend she was born on Hallowe'en, was nine
+years gane, and they that are born on Hallowe'en whiles see mair than
+ither folk."
+
+"And that wad be the cause, then, that the bairn didna mak muckle din
+about what it saw?--if it had been my Halbert himself, forby Edward,
+who is of softer nature, he wad hae yammered the haill night of a
+constancy.  But it's like Mistress Mary hae sic sights mair natural to
+her."
+
+"That may weel be," said Tibb; "for on Hallowe'en she was born, as I
+tell ye, and our auld parish priest wad fain hae had the night ower,
+and All-Hallow day begun. But for a' that, the sweet bairn is just
+like ither bairns, as ye may see yourself; and except this blessed
+night, and ance before when we were in that weary bog on the road
+here, I kenna that it saw mair than ither folk."
+
+"But what saw she in the bog, then," said Dame Glendinning, "forby
+moor-cocks and heather-blutters?"
+
+"The wean saw something like a white leddy that weised us the gate,"
+said Tibb; "when we were like to hae perished in the moss-hags--
+certain it was that Shagram reisted, and I ken Martin thinks he saw
+something."
+
+"And what might the white leddy be?" said Elspeth; "have ye ony
+guess o' that?"
+
+"It's weel kend that, Dame Elspeth," said Tibb; "if ye had lived under
+grit folk, as I hae dune, ye wadna be to seek in that matter."
+
+"I hae aye keepit my ain ha' house abune my head," said Elspeth, not
+without emphasis, "and if I havena lived wi' grit folk, grit folk have
+lived wi' me."
+
+"Weel, weel, dame," said Tibb, "your pardon's prayed, there was nae
+offence meant. But ye maun ken the great ancient families canna be
+just served wi' the ordinary saunts, (praise to them!) like Saunt
+Anthony, Saunt Cuthbert, and the like, that come and gang at every
+sinner's bidding, but they hae a sort of saunts or angels, or what
+not, to themsells; and as for the White Maiden of Avenel, she is kend
+ower the haill country. And she is aye seen to yammer and wail before
+ony o' that family dies, as was weel kend by twenty folk before the
+death of Walter Avenel, haly be his cast!"
+
+"If she can do nae mair than that," said Elspeth, somewhat scornfully,
+"they needna make mony vows to her, I trow. Can she make nae better
+fend for them than that, and has naething better to do than wait on
+them?"
+
+"Mony braw services can the White Maiden do for them to the boot of
+that, and has dune in the auld histories," said Tibb, "but I mind o'
+naething in my day, except it was her that the bairn saw in the bog."
+
+"Aweel, aweel, Tibb," said Dame Glendinning, rising and lighting the
+iron lamp, "these are great privileges of your grand folk. But our
+Lady and Saunt Paul are good eneugh saunts for me, and I'se warrant
+them never leave me in a bog that they can help me out o', seeing I
+send four waxen candles to their chapels every Candlemas; and if they
+are not seen to weep at my death, I'se warrant them smile at my joyful
+rising again, whilk Heaven send to all of us, Amen."
+
+"Amen," answered Tibb, devoutly; "and now it's time I should hap up
+the wee bit gathering turf, as the fire is ower low."
+
+Busily she set herself to perform this duty. The relict of Simon
+Glendinning did but pause a moment to cast a heedful and cautious
+glance all around the hall, to see that nothing was out of its proper
+place; then, wishing Tibb good-night, she retired to repose.
+
+"The deil's in the carline," said Tibb to herself, "because she was
+the wife of a cock-laird, she thinks herself grander, I trow, than the
+bower-woman of a lady of that ilk!" Having given vent to her
+suppressed spleen in this little ejaculation, Tibb also betook herself
+to slumber.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fifth.
+
+
+  A priest, ye cry, a priest!--lame shepherds they,
+  How shall they gather in the straggling flock?
+  Dumb dogs which bark not--how shall they compel
+  The loitering vagrants to the Master's fold?
+  Fitter to bask before the blazing fire,
+  And snuff the mess neat-handed Phillis dresses,
+  Than on the snow-wreath battle with the wolf.
+                           REFORMATION.
+
+
+The health of the Lady of Avenel had been gradually decaying ever
+since her disaster. It seemed as if the few years which followed her
+husband's death had done on her the work of half a century. She lost
+the fresh elasticity of form, the colour and the mien of health, and
+became wasted, wan, and feeble. She appeared to have no formed
+complaint; yet it was evident to those who looked on her, that her
+strength waned daily. Her lips at length became blenched and her eye
+dim; yet she spoke not of any desire to see a priest, until Elspeth
+Glendinning in her zeal could not refrain from touching upon a point
+which she deemed essential to salvation. Alice of Avenel received her
+hint kindly, and thanked her for it.
+
+"If any good priest would take the trouble of such a journey," she
+said, "he should be welcome; for the prayers and lessons of the good
+must be at all times advantageous."
+
+This quiet acquiescence was not quite what Elspeth Glendinning wished
+or expected. She made up, however, by her own enthusiasm, for the
+lady's want of eagerness to avail herself of ghostly counsel, and
+Martin was despatched with such haste as Shagram would make, to pray
+one of the religious men of Saint Mary's to come up to administer the
+last consolations to the widow of Walter Avenel.
+
+When the Sacristan had announced to the Lord Abbot, that the Lady of
+the umquhile Walter de Avenel was in very weak health in the Tower of
+Glendearg, and desired the assistance of a father confessor, the
+lordly monk paused on the request.
+
+"We do remember Walter de Avenel," he said; "a good knight and a
+valiant: he was dispossessed of his lands, and slain by the
+Southron--May not the lady come hither to the sacrament of confession?
+the road is distant and painful to travel."
+
+"The lady is unwell, holy father," answered the Sacristan, "and unable
+to bear the journey."
+
+"True--ay,--yes--then must one of our brethren go to her--Knowest
+thou if she hath aught of a jointure from this Walter de Avenel?"
+
+"Very little, holy father," said the Sacristan; "she hath resided at
+Glendearg since her husband's death, well-nigh on the charity of a
+poor widow, called Elspeth Glendinning."
+
+"Why, thou knowest all the widows in the country-side!" said the
+Abbot. "Ho! ho! ho!" and he shook his portly sides at his own jest.
+
+"Ho! ho! ho!" echoed the Sacristan, in the tone and tune in which an
+inferior applauds the jest of his superior.--Then added, with a
+hypocritical shuffle, and a sly twinkle of his eye, "It is our duty,
+most holy father, to comfort the widow--He! he! he!"
+
+This last laugh was more moderate, until the Abbot should put his
+sanction on the jest.
+
+"Ho! ho!" said the Abbot; "then, to leave jesting, Father Philip, take
+thou thy riding gear, and go to confess this Dame Avenel."
+
+"But," said the Sacristan----
+
+"Give me no _Buts;_ neither But nor If pass between monk and
+Abbot, Father Philip; the bands of discipline must not be
+relaxed--heresy gathers force like a snow-ball--the multitude expect
+confessions and preachings from the Benedictine, as they would from so
+many beggarly friars--and we may not desert the vineyard, though the
+toil be grievous unto us."
+
+"And with so little advantage to the holy monastery," said the
+Sacristan.
+
+"True, Father Philip; but wot you not that what preventeth harm doth
+good? This Julian de Avenel lives a light and evil life, and should we
+neglect the widow of his brother, he might foray our lands, and we
+never able to show who hurt us--moreover it is our duty to an ancient
+family, who, in their day, have been benefactors to the Abbey. Away
+with thee instantly, brother; ride night and day, an it be necessary,
+and let men see how diligent Abbot Boniface and his faithful children
+are in the execution of their spiritual duty--toil not deterring them,
+for the glen is five miles in length--fear not withholding them, for
+it is said to be haunted of spectres--nothing moving them from pursuit
+of their spiritual calling; to the confusion of calumnious heretics,
+and the comfort and edification of all true and faithful sons of the
+Catholic Church. I wonder what our brother Eustace will say to this?"
+
+Breathless with his own picture of the dangers and toil which he was
+to encounter, and the fame which he was to acquire, (both by proxy,)
+the Abbot moved slowly to finish his luncheon in the refectory, and
+the Sacristan, with no very good will, accompanied old Martin in his
+return to Glendearg; the greatest impediment in the journey being the
+trouble of restraining his pampered mule, that she might tread in
+something like an equal pace with poor jaded Shagram.
+
+After remaining an hour in private with his penitent, the monk
+returned moody and full of thought. Dame Elspeth, who had placed for
+the honoured guest some refreshment in the hall, was struck with the
+embarrassment which appeared in his countenance. Elspeth watched him
+with great anxiety. She observed there was that on his brow which
+rather resembled a person come from hearing the confession of some
+enormous crime, than the look of a confessor who resigns a reconciled
+penitent, not to earth, but to heaven. After long hesitating, she
+could not at length refrain from hazarding a question. She was sure
+she said, the leddy had made an easy shrift.  Five years had they
+resided together, and she could safely say, no woman lived better.
+
+"Woman," said the Sacristan, sternly, "thou speakest thou knowest not
+what--What avails clearing the outside of the platter, if the inside
+be foul with heresy?"
+
+"Our dishes and trenchers are not so clean as they could be wished,
+holy father," said Elspeth, but half understanding what he said, and
+beginning with her apron to wipe the dust from the plates, of which
+she supposed him to complain.
+
+"Forbear, Dame Elspeth" said the monk; "your plates are as clean as
+wooden trenchers and pewter flagons can well be; the foulness of which
+I speak is of that pestilential heresy which is daily becoming
+ingrained in this our Holy Church of Scotland, and as a canker-worm in
+the rose-garland of the Spouse."
+
+"Holy Mother of Heaven!" said Dame Elspeth, crossing herself, "have
+I kept house with a heretic?"
+
+"No, Elspeth, no," replied the monk; "it were too strong a speech for
+me to make of this unhappy lady, but I would I could say she is free
+from heretical opinions. Alas! they fly about like the pestilence by
+noon-day, and infect even the first and fairest of the flock! For it
+is easy to see of this dame, that she hath been high in judgment as in
+rank."
+
+"And she can write and read, I had almost said, as weel as your
+reverence" said Elspeth.
+
+"Whom doth she write to, and what doth she read?" said the monk,
+eagerly.
+
+"Nay," replied Elspeth, "I cannot say I ever saw her write at all, but
+her maiden that was--she now serves the family--says she can write--And
+for reading, she has often read to us good things out of a thick black
+volume with silver clasps."
+
+"Let me see it," said the monk, hastily, "on your allegiance as a true
+vassal--on your faith as a Catholic Christian--instantly--instantly
+let me see it."
+
+The good woman hesitated, alarmed at the tone in which the confessor
+took up her information; and being moreover of opinion, that what so
+good a woman as the Lady of Avenel studied so devoutly, could not be
+of a tendency actually evil. But borne down by the clamour,
+exclamations, and something like threats used by Father Philip, she at
+length brought him the fatal volume. It was easy to do this without
+suspicion on the part of the owner, as she lay on her bed exhausted
+with the fatigue of a long conference with her confessor, and as the
+small _round_, or turret closet, in which was the book and her
+other trifling property, was accessible by another door. Of all her
+effects the book was the last she would have thought of securing, for
+of what use or interest could it be in a family who neither read
+themselves, nor were in the habit of seeing any who did? so that Dame
+Elspeth had no difficulty in possessing herself of the volume,
+although her heart all the while accused her of an ungenerous and an
+inhospitable part towards her friend and inmate. The double power of a
+landlord and a feudal superior was before her eyes; and to say truth,
+the boldness, with which she might otherwise have resisted this double
+authority, was, I grieve to say it, much qualified by the curiosity
+she entertained, as a daughter of Eve, to have some explanation
+respecting the mysterious volume which the lady cherished with so much
+care, yet whose contents she imparted with such caution. For never had
+Alice of Avenel read them any passage from the book in question until
+the iron door of the tower was locked, and all possibility of
+intrusion prevented. Even then she had shown, by the selection of
+particular passages, that she was more anxious to impress on their
+minds the principles which the volume contained, than to introduce
+them to it as a new rule of faith.
+
+When Elspeth, half curious, half remorseful, had placed the book in the
+monk's hands, he exclaimed, after turning over the leaves, "Now, by mine
+order, it is as I suspected!--My mule, my mule!--I will abide no longer
+here--well hast thou done, dame, in placing in my hands this perilous
+volume."
+
+"Is it then witchcraft or devil's work?" said Dame Elspeth, in great
+agitation.
+
+"Nay, God forbid!" said the monk, signing himself with the cross, "it
+is the Holy Scripture. But it is rendered into the vulgar tongue, and
+therefore, by the order of the Holy Catholic Church, unfit to be in
+the hands of any lay person."
+
+"And yet is the Holy Scripture communicated for our common salvation,"
+said Elspeth. "Good Father, you must instruct mine ignorance better;
+but lack of wit cannot be a deadly sin, and truly, to my poor
+thinking, I should be glad to read the Holy Scripture."
+
+"I dare say thou wouldst," said the monk; "and even thus did our
+mother Eve seek to have knowledge of good and evil, and thus Sin came
+into the world, and Death by Sin."
+
+"I am sure, and it is true," said Elspeth. "Oh, if she had dealt by the
+counsel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul!"
+
+"If she had reverenced the command of Heaven," said the monk, "which,
+as it gave her birth, life, and happiness, fixed upon the grant such
+conditions as best corresponded with its holy pleasure. I tell thee,
+Elspeth, _the Word slayeth_--that is, the text alone, read with
+unskilled eye and unhallowed lips, is like those strong medicines
+which sick men take by the advice of the learned. Such patients
+recover and thrive; while those dealing in them at their own hand,
+shall perish by their own deed."
+
+"Nae doubt, nae doubt," said the poor woman, "your reverence knows
+best."
+
+"Not I," said Father Philip, in a tone as deferential as he thought
+could possibly become the Sacristan of Saint Mary's,--"Not I, but the
+Holy Father of Christendom, and our own holy father, the Lord Abbot,
+know best. I, the poor Sacristan of Saint Mary's, can but repeat what
+I hear from others my superiors. Yet of this, good woman, be
+assured,--the Word, the mere Word, slayetlh. But the church hath her
+ministers to gloze and to expound the same unto her faithful
+congregation; and this I say, not so much, my beloved brethren--I mean
+my beloved sister," (for the Sacristan had got into the end of one of
+his old sermons,)--"This I speak not so much of the rectors, curates,
+and secular clergy, so called because they live after the fashion of
+the _seculum_ or age, unbound by those ties which sequestrate us
+from the world; neither do I speak this of the mendicant friars,
+whether black or gray, whether crossed or uncrossed; but of the monks,
+and especially of the monks Benedictine, reformed on the rule of Saint
+Bernard of Clairvaux, thence called Cistercian, of which monks,
+Christian brethren--sister, I would say--great is the happiness and
+glory of the country in possessing the holy ministers of Saint Mary's,
+whereof I, though an unworthy brother, may say it hath produced more
+saints, more bishops, more popes--may our patrons make us
+thankful!--than any holy foundation in Scotland. Wherefore--But I see
+Martin hath my mule in readiness, and I will but salute you with the
+kiss of sisterhood, which maketh not ashamed, and so betake me to my
+toilsome return, for the glen is of bad reputation for the evil
+spirits which haunt it.  Moreover, I may arrive too late at the
+bridge, whereby I may be obliged to take to the river, which I
+observed to be somewhat waxen."
+
+Accordingly, he took his leave of Dame Elspeth, who was confounded by
+the rapidity of his utterance, and the doctrine he gave forth, and by
+no means easy on the subject of the book, which her conscience told
+her she should not have communicated to any one, without the knowledge
+of its owner.
+
+Notwithstanding the haste which the monk as well as the mule made to
+return to better quarters than they had left at the head of Glendearg;
+notwithstanding the eager desire Father Philip had to be the very
+first who should acquaint the Abbot that a copy of the book they most
+dreaded had been found within the Halidome, or patrimony of the Abbey;
+notwithstanding, moreover, certain feelings which induced him to hurry
+as fast as possible through the gloomy and evil-reputed glen, still
+the difficulties of the road, and the rider's want of habitude of
+quick motion, were such, that twilight came upon him ere he had nearly
+cleared the narrow valley.  It was indeed a gloomy ride. The two sides
+of the vale were so near, that at every double of the river the
+shadows from the western sky fell upon, and totally obscured, the
+eastern bank; the thickets of copsewood seemed to wave with a
+portentous agitation of boughs and leaves, and the very crags and
+scaurs seemed higher and grimmer than they had appeared to the monk
+while he was travelling in daylight, and in company. Father Philip was
+heartily rejoiced, when, emerging from the narrow glen, he gained the
+open valley of the Tweed, which held on its majestic course from
+current to pool, and from pool stretched away to other currents, with
+a dignity peculiar to itself amongst the Scottish rivers; for whatever
+may have been the drought of the season, the Tweed usually fills up
+the space between its banks, seldom leaving those extensive sheets of
+shingle which deform the margins of many of the celebrated Scottish
+streams.
+
+The monk, insensible to beauties which the age had not regarded as
+deserving of notice, was, nevertheless, like a prudent general,
+pleased to find himself out of the narrow glen in which the enemy
+might have stolen upon him unperceived. He drew up his bridle, reduced
+his mule to her natural and luxurious amble, instead of the agitating
+and broken trot at which, to his no small inconvenience, she had
+hitherto proceeded, and, wiping his brow, gazed forth at leisure on
+the broad moon, which, now mingling with the lights of evening, was
+rising over field and forest, village and fortalice, and, above all,
+over the stately Monastery, seen far and dim amid the vellow light.
+
+The worst part of the magnificent view, in the monk's apprehension,
+was, that the Monastery stood on the opposite side of the river, and
+that of the many fine bridges which have since been built across that
+classical stream, not one then existed. There was, however, in
+recompense, a bridge then standing which has since disappeared,
+although its ruins may still be traced by the curious.
+
+It was of a very peculiar form. Two strong abutments were built on
+either side of the river, at a part where the stream was peculiarly
+contracted.  Upon a rock in the centre of the current was built a
+solid piece of masonry, constructed like the pier of a bridge, and
+presenting, like a pier, an angle to the current of the stream. The
+masonry continued solid until the pier rose to a level with the two
+abutments upon either side, and from thence the building rose in the
+form of a tower. The lower story of this tower consisted only of an
+archway or passage through the building, over either entrance to which
+hung a drawbridge with counterpoises, either of which, when dropped,
+connected the archway with the opposite abutment, where the farther
+end of the drawbridge rested. When both bridges were thus lowered, the
+passage over the river was complete.
+
+The bridge-keeper, who was the dependant of a neighbouring baron,
+resided with his family in the second and third stories of the tower,
+which, when both drawbridges were raised, formed an insulated
+fortalice in the midst of the river. He was entitled to a small toll
+or custom for the passage, concerning the amount of which disputes
+sometimes arose between him and the passengers. It is needless to say,
+that the bridge-ward had usually the better in these questions, since
+he could at pleasure detain the traveller on the opposite side; or,
+suffering him to pass half way, might keep him prisoner in his tower
+till they were agreed on the rate of pontage.
+
+[Footnote: A bridge of the very peculiar construction described in the
+text, actually existed at a small hamlet about a mile and a half above
+Melrose, called from the circumstance Bridge-end. It is thus noticed
+in Gordon's _Iter Septentrionale_:--
+
+"In another journey through the south parts of Scotland, about a mile
+and a half from Melrose, in the shire of Teviotdale, I saw the remains
+of a curious bridge over the river Tweed, consisting of three
+octangular pillars, or rather towers, standing within the water,
+without any arches to join them. The middle one, which is the most
+entire, has a door towards the north, and I suppose another opposite
+one toward the south, which I could not see without crossing the
+water. In the middle of this tower is a projection or cornice
+surrounding it: the whole is hollow from the door upwards, and now
+open at the top, near which is a small window. I was informed that not
+long agro a countryman and his family lived in this tower--and got his
+livelihood by laying out planks from pillar to pillar, and conveying
+passengers over the river. Whether this be ancient or modern, I know
+not; but as it is singular in its kind I have thought fit to exhibit
+it."
+
+The vestiges of this uncommon species of bridge still exist, and the
+author has often seen the foundations of the columns when drifting
+down the Tweed at night for the purpose of killing salmon by
+torch-light. Mr. John Mercer of Bridge-end recollects, that about
+fifty years ago the pillars were visible above water; and the late Mr.
+David Kyle, of the George Inn, Melrose, told the author that he saw a
+stone taken from the river bearing this inscription:--
+
+"I, Sir John Pringle of Palmer stede,
+Give an hundred markis of gowd sae reid,
+To help to bigg my brigg ower Tweed."
+
+Pringle of Galashiels, afterwards of Whytbank, was the Baron to whom
+the bridge belonged.]
+
+But it was most frequently with the Monks of Saint Mary's that the
+warder had to dispute his perquisites. These holy men insisted for,
+and at length obtained, a right of gratuitous passage to themselves,
+greatly to the discontent of the bridge-keeper. But when they demanded
+the same immunity for the numerous pilgrims who visited the shrine,
+the bridge-keeper waxed restive, and was supported by his lord in his
+resistance. The controversy grew animated on both sides; the Abbot
+menaced excommunication, and the keeper of the bridge, though unable
+to retaliate in kind, yet made each individual monk who had to cross
+and recross the river, endure a sort of purgatory, ere he would
+accommodate them with a passage. This was a great inconvenience, and
+would have proved a more serious one, but that the river was fordable
+for man and horse in ordinary weather.
+
+It was a fine moonlight night, as we have already said, when Father
+Philip approached this bridge, the singular construction of which
+gives a curious idea of the insecurity of the times. The river was not
+in flood, but it was above its ordinary level--_a heavy water_,
+as it is called in that country, through which the monk had no
+particular inclination to ride, if he could manage the matter better.
+
+"Peter, my good friend," cried the Sacristan, raising his voice; "my
+very excellent friend, Peter, be so kind as to lower the drawbridge.
+Peter, I say, dost thou not hear?--it is thy gossip, Father Philip,
+who calls thee."
+
+Peter heard him perfectly well, and saw him into the bargain; but as
+he had considered the Sacristan as peculiarly his enemy in his dispute
+with the convent, he went quietly to bed, after reconnoitring the monk
+through his loop-hole, observing to his wife, that "riding the water
+in a moonlight night would do the Sacristan no harm, and would teach
+him the value of a brig the neist time, on whilk a man might pass high
+and dry, winter and summer, flood and ebb."
+
+After exhausting his voice in entreaties and threats, which were
+equally unattended to by Peter of the Brig, as he was called, Father
+Philip at length moved down the river to take the ordinary ford at the
+head of the next stream. Cursing the rustic obstinacy of Peter, he
+began, nevertheless, to persuade himself that the passage of the river
+by the ford was not only safe, but pleasant.  The banks and scattered
+trees were so beautifully reflected from the bosom of the dark stream,
+the whole cool and delicious picture formed so pleasing a contrast to
+his late agitation, to the warmth occasioned by his vain endeavours to
+move the relentless porter of the bridge, that the result was rather
+agreeable than otherwise.
+
+As Father Philip came close to the water's edge, at the spot where he
+was to enter it, there sat a female under a large broken scathed
+oak-tree, or rather under the remains of such a tree, weeping,
+wringing her hands, and looking earnestly on the current of the river.
+The monk was struck with astonishment to see a female there at that
+time of night. But he was, in all honest service,--and if a step
+farther, I put it upon his own conscience,--a devoted squire of dames.
+After observing the maiden for a moment, although she seemed to take
+no notice of his presence, he was moved by her distress, and willing
+to offer his assistance. "Damsel," said he, "thou seemest in no
+ordinary distress; peradventure, like myself, thou hast been refused
+passage at the bridge by the churlish keeper, and thy crossing may
+concern thee either for performance of a vow, or some other weighty
+charge."
+
+The maiden uttered some inarticulate sounds, looked at the river, and
+then in the face of the Sacristan. It struck Father Philip at that
+instant, that a Highland chief of distinction had been for some time
+expected to pay his vows at the shrine of Saint Mary's; and that
+possibly this fair maiden might be one of his family, travelling alone
+for accomplishment of a vow, or left behind by some accident, to whom,
+therefore, it would be but right and prudent to use every civility in
+his power, especially as she seemed unacquainted with the Lowland
+tongue. Such at least was the only motive the Sacristan was ever known
+to assign for his courtesy; if there was any other, I once more refer
+it to his own conscience.
+
+To express himself by signs, the common language of all nations, the
+cautious Sacristan first pointed to the river, then to his mule's
+crupper, and then made, as gracefully as he could, a sign to induce
+the fair solitary to mount behind him. She seemed to understand his
+meaning, for she rose up as if to accept his offer; and while the good
+monk, who, as we have hinted, was no great cavalier, laboured, with
+the pressure of the right leg and the use of the left rein, to place
+his mule with her side to the bank in such a position that the lady
+might mount with ease, she rose from the ground with rather portentous
+activity, and at one bound sate behind the monk upon the animal, much
+the firmer rider of the two. The mule by no means seemed to approve of
+this double burden; she bounded, bolted, and would soon have thrown
+Father Philip over her head, had not the maiden with a firm hand
+detained him in the saddle.
+
+At last the restive brute changed her humour; and, from refusing to
+budge off the spot, suddenly stretched her nose homeward, and dashed
+into the ford as fast as she could scamper. A new terror now invaded
+the monk's mind--the ford seemed unusually deep, the water eddied off
+in strong ripple from the counter of the mule, and began to rise upon
+her side. Philip lost his presence of mind,--which was at no time his
+most ready attribute, the mule yielded to the weight of the current,
+and as the rider was not attentive to keep her head turned up the
+river, she drifted downward, lost the ford and her footing at once,
+and began to swim with her head down the stream.  And what was
+sufficiently strange, at the same moment, notwithstanding the extreme
+peril, the damsel began to sing, thereby increasing, if anything could
+increase, the bodily fear of the worthy Sacristan.
+
+               I.
+
+  Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright,
+  Both current and ripple are dancing in light.
+  We have roused the night raven, I heard him croak,
+  As we plashed along beneath the oak
+  That flings its broad branches so far and so wide,
+  Their shadows are dancing in midst of the tide.
+  "Who wakens my nestlings," the raven he said,
+  "My beak shall ere morn in his blood be red.
+  For a blue swoln corpse is a dainty meal.
+  And I'll have my share with the pike and the eel."
+
+               II.
+
+  Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright,
+  There's a golden gleam on the distant height;
+  There's a silver shower on the alders dank.
+  And the drooping willows that wave on the bank.
+  I see the abbey, both turret and tower,
+  It is all astir for the vesper hour;
+  The monks for the chapel are leaving each cell.
+  But Where's Father Philip, should toll the bell?
+
+               III.
+
+  Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright,
+  Downward we drift through shadow and light,
+  Under yon rock the eddies sleep,
+  Calm and silent, dark and deep.
+  The Kelpy has risen from the fathomless pool.
+  He has lighted his candle of death and of dool.
+  Look, Father, look, and you'll laugh to see
+  How he gapes and glares with his eyes on thee.
+
+               IV.
+
+  Good luck to your fishing, whom watch ye to-night?
+  A man of mean, or a man of might?
+  Is it layman or priest that must float in your cove,
+  Or lover who crosses to visit his love?
+  Hark! heard ye the Kelpy reply, as we pass'd,--
+  "God's blessing on the warder, he lock'd the bridge fast!
+  All that come to my cove are sunk,
+  Priest or layman, lover or monk."
+
+
+How long the damsel might have continued to sing, or where the
+terrified monk's journey might have ended, is uncertain. As she sung
+the last stanza, they arrived at, or rather in, a broad tranquil sheet
+of water, caused by a strong wear or damhead, running across the
+river, which dashed in a broad cataract over the barrier. The mule,
+whether from choice, or influenced by the suction of the current, made
+towards the cut intended to supply the convent mills, and entered it
+half swimming half wading, and pitching the unlucky monk to and fro in
+the saddle at a fearful rate.
+
+As his person flew hither and thither, his garment became loose, and
+in an effort to retain it, his hand lighted on the volume of the Lady
+of Avenel which was in his bosom. No sooner had he grasped it, than
+his companion pitched him out of the saddle into the stream, where,
+still keeping her hand on his collar, she gave him two or three good
+souses in the watery fluid, so as to ensure that every other part of
+him had its share of wetting, and then quitted her hold when he was so
+near the side that by a slight effort (of a great one he was
+incapable) he might scramble on shore. This accordingly he
+accomplished, and turning his eyes to see what had become of his
+extraordinary companion, she was nowhere to be seen; but still he
+heard, as if from the surface of the river, and mixing with the noise
+of the water breaking over the damhead, a fragment of her wild song,
+which seemed to run thus:--
+
+  Landed--landed! the black book hath won.
+  Else had you seen Berwick with morning sun!
+  Sain ye, and save ye, and blithe mot ye be,
+  For seldom they land that go swimming with me.
+
+The ecstasy of the monk's terror could be endured no longer; his head
+grew dizzy, and, after staggering a few steps onward and running himself
+against a wall, he sunk down in a state of insensibility.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Sixth.
+
+
+  Now let us sit in conclave. That these weeds
+  Be rooted from the vineyard of the church.
+  That these foul tares be severed from the wheat,
+  We are, I trust, agreed.--Yet how to do this,
+  Nor hurt the wholesome crop and tender vine-plants,
+  Craves good advisement.
+
+THE REFORMATION.
+
+The vesper service in the Monastery Church of Saint Mary's was now
+over. The Abbot had disrobed himself of his magnificent vestures of
+ceremony, and resumed his ordinary habit, which was a black gown, worn
+over a white cassock, with a narrow scapulary; a decent and venerable
+dress, which was calculated to set off to advantage the portly mien of
+Abbot Boniface.
+
+In quiet times no one could have filled the state of a mitred Abbot,
+for such was his dignity, more respectably than this worthy prelate.
+He had, no doubt, many of those habits of self-indulgence which men
+are apt to acquire who live for themselves alone. He was vain,
+moreover; and when boldly confronted, had sometimes shown symptoms of
+timidity, not very consistent with the high claims which he preferred
+as an eminent member of the church, or with the punctual deference
+which he exacted from his religious brethren, and all who were placed
+under his command. But he was hospitable, charitable, and by no means
+of himself disposed to proceed with severity against any one. In
+short, he would in other times have slumbered out his term of
+preferment with as much credit as any other "purple Abbot," who lived
+easily, but at the same time decorously--slept soundly, and did not
+disquiet himself with dreams.
+
+But the wide alarm spread through the whole Church of Rome by the
+progress of the reformed doctrines, sorely disturbed the repose of
+Abbot Boniface, and opened to him a wide field of duties and cares
+which he had never so much as dreamed of. There were opinions to be
+combated and refuted--practices to be inquired into--heretics to be
+detected and punished--the fallen off to be reclaimed--the wavering to
+be confirmed--scandal to be removed from the clergy, and the vigour of
+discipline to be re-established.  Post upon post arrived at the
+Monastery of Saint Mary's--horses reeking, and riders exhausted--this
+from the Privy Council, that from the Primate of Scotland, and this
+other again from the Queen Mother, exhorting, approving, condemning,
+requesting advice upon this subject, and requiring information upon
+that.
+
+These missives Abbot Boniface received with an important air of
+helplessness, or a helpless air of importance,--whichever the reader
+may please to term it, evincing at once gratified vanity, and profound
+trouble of mind.  The sharp-witted Primate of Saint Andrews had
+foreseen the deficiencies of the Abbot of St. Mary's, and endeavoured
+to provide for them by getting admitted into his Monastery as
+Sub-Prior a brother Cistercian, a man of parts and knowledge, devoted
+to the service of the Catholic Church, and very capable not only to
+advise the Abbot on occasions of difficulty, but to make him sensible
+of his duty in case he should, from good-nature or timidity, be
+disposed to shrink from it.
+
+Father Eustace played the same part in the Monastery as the old
+general who, in foreign armies, is placed at the elbow of the Prince
+of the Blood, who nominally commands in chief, on condition of
+attempting nothing without the advice of his dry-nurse; and he shared
+the fate of all such dry-nurses, being heartily disliked as well as
+feared by his principal. Still, however, the Primate's intention was
+fully answered. Father Eustace became the constant theme and often the
+bugbear of the worthy Abbot, who hardly dared to turn himself in his
+bed without, considering what Father Eustace would think of it. In
+every case of difficulty, Father Eustace was summoned, and his opinion
+asked; and no sooner was the embarrassment removed, than the Abbot's
+next thought was how to get rid of his adviser. In every letter which
+he wrote to those in power, he recommended Father Eustace to some high
+church preferment, a bishopric or an abbey; and as they dropped one
+after another, and were otherwise conferred, he began to think, as he
+confessed to the Sacristan in the bitterness of his spirit, that the
+Monastery of St.  Mary's had got a life-rent lease of their Sub-Prior.
+
+Yet more indignant he would have been, had he suspected that Father
+Eustace's ambition was fixed upon his own mitre, which, from some
+attacks of an apoplectic nature, deemed by the Abbot's friends to be
+more serious than by himself, it was supposed might be shortly vacant.
+But the confidence which, like other dignitaries, he reposed in his
+own health, prevented Abbot Boniface from imagining that it held any
+concatenation, with the motions of Father Eustace.
+
+The necessity under which he found himself of consulting with his
+grand adviser, in cases of real difficulty, rendered the worthy Abbot
+particularly desirous of doing without him in all ordinary cases of
+administration, though not without considering what Father Eustace
+would have said of the matter. He scorned, therefore, to give a hint
+to the Sub-Prior of the bold stroke by which he had dispatched Brother
+Philip to Glendearg; but when the vespers came without his
+reappearance he became a little uneasy, the more as other matters
+weighed upon his mind. The feud with the warder or keeper of the
+bridge threatened to be attended with bad consequences, as the man's
+quarrel was taken up by the martial baron under whom he served; and
+pressing letters of an unpleasant tendency had just arrived from the
+Primate. Like a gouty man, who catches hold of his crutch while he
+curses the infirmity that induces him to use if, the Abbot, however
+reluctant, found himself obliged to require Eustace's presence, after
+the service was over, in his house, or rather palace, which was
+attached to, and made part of, the Monastery.
+
+Abbot Boniface was seated in his high-backed chair, the grotesque
+carved back of which terminated in a mitre, before a fire where two or
+three large logs were reduced to one red glowing mass of charcoal. At
+his elbow, on an oaken stand, stood the remains of a roasted capon, on
+which his reverence had made his evening meal, flanked by a goodly
+stoup of Bordeaux of excellent flavour. He was gazing indolently on
+the fire, partly engaged in meditation on his past and present
+fortunes, partly occupied by endeavouring to trace towers and steeples
+in the red embers.
+
+"Yes," thought the Abbot to himself, "in that red perspective I could
+fancy to myself the peaceful towers of Dundrennan, where I passed my
+life ere I was called to pomp and to trouble. A quiet brotherhood we
+were, regular in our domestic duties; and when the frailties of
+humanity prevailed over us, we confessed, and were absolved by each
+other, and the most formidable part of the penance was the jest of the
+convent on the culprit. I can almost fancy that I see the cloister
+garden, and the pear-trees which I grafted with my own hands. And for
+what have I changed all this, but to be overwhelmed with business
+which concerns me not, to be called My Lord Abbot, and to be tutored
+by Father Eustace? I would these towers were the Abbey of
+Aberbrothwick, and Father Eustace the Abbot,--or I would he were in
+the fire on any terms, so I were rid of him! The Primate says our Holy
+Father, the Pope hath an adviser--I am sure he could not live a week
+with such a one as mine. Then there is no learning what Father Eustace
+thinks till you confess your own difficulties--No hint will bring
+forth his opinion--he is like a miser, who will not unbuckle his purse
+to bestow a farthing, until the wretch who needs it has owned his
+excess of poverty, and wrung out the boon by importunity. And thus I
+am dishonoured in the eyes of my religious brethren, who behold me
+treated like a child which hath no sense of its own--I will bear it no
+longer!--Brother Bennet,"--(a lay brother answered to his call)--"
+tell Father Eustace that I need not his presence."
+
+"I came to say to your reverence, that the holy father is entering
+even now from the cloisters."
+
+"Be it so," said the Abbot, "he is welcome,--remove these things--or
+rather, place a trencher, the holy father may be a little hungry--yet,
+no--remove them, for there is no good fellowship in him--Let the stoup
+of wine remain, however, and place another cup."
+
+The lay brother obeyed these contradictory commands in the way he
+judged most seemly--he removed the carcass of the half-sacked capon,
+and placed two goblets beside the stoup of Bourdeaux. At the same
+instant entered Father Eustace.
+
+He was a thin, sharp-faced, slight-made little man, whose keen grey
+eyes seemed almost to look through the person to whom he addressed
+himself. His body was emaciated not only with the fasts which he
+observed with rigid punctuality, but also by the active and unwearied
+exercise of his sharp and piercing intellect;--
+
+  A fiery soul, which working out its way,
+  Fretted the puny body to decay,
+  And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.
+
+He turned with conventual reverence to the Lord Abbot; and as they
+stood together, it was scarce possible to see a more complete
+difference of form and expression. The good-natured rosy face and
+laughing eye of the Abbot, which even his present anxiety could not
+greatly ruffle, was a wonderful contrast to the thin pallid cheek and
+quick penetrating glance of the monk, in which an eager and keen
+spirit glanced through eyes to which it seemed to give supernatural
+lustre.
+
+The Abbot opened the conversation by motioning to his monk to take a
+stool, and inviting to a cup of wine. The courtesy was declined with
+respect, yet not without a remark, that the vesper service was past.
+
+"For the stomach's sake, brother," said the Abbot, colouring a
+little--"You know the text."
+
+"It is a dangerous one," answered the monk, "to handle alone, or at
+late hours. Out off from human society, the juice of the grape becomes
+a perilous companion of solitude, and therefore I ever shun it."
+
+Abbot Boniface had poured himself out a goblet which might hold about
+half an English pint; but, either struck with the truth of the
+observation, or ashamed to act in direct opposition to it, he suffered
+it to remain untasted before him, and immediately changed the subject.
+
+"The Primate hath written to us," said he, "to make strict search
+within our bounds after the heretical persons denounced in this list,
+who have withdrawn themselves from the justice which their opinions
+deserve. It is deemed probable that they will attempt to retire to
+England by our Borders, and the Primate requireth me to watch with
+vigilance, and what not."
+
+"Assuredly," said the monk, "the magistrate should not bear the sword
+in vain--those be they that turn the world upside down--and doubtless
+your reverend wisdom will with due diligence second the exertions of
+the Right Reverend Father in God, being in the peremptory defence of
+the Holy Church."
+
+"Ay, but how is this to be done?" answered the Abbot; "Saint Mary aid
+us! The Primate writes to me as if I were a temporal baron--a man
+under command, having soldiers under him! He says, send forth--scour
+the country--guard the passes--Truly these men do not travel as those
+who would give their lives for nothing--the last who went south passed
+the dry-march at the Riding-burn with an escort of thirty spears, as
+our reverend brother the Abbot of Kelso did write unto us. How are
+cowls and scapularies to stop the way?"
+
+"Your bailiff is accounted a good man at arms, holy father," said
+Eustace; "your vassals are obliged to rise for the defence of the Holy
+Kirk--it is the tenure on which they hold their lands--if they will
+not come forth for the Church which gives them bread, let their
+possessions be given to others."
+
+"We shall not be wanting," said the Abbot, collecting himself with
+importance, "to do whatever may advantage Holy Kirk--thyself shall
+hear the charge to our Bailiff and our officials--but here again is
+our controversy with the warden of the bridge and the Baron of
+Meigallot--Saint Mary!  vexations do so multiply upon the House, and
+upon the generation, that a man wots not where to turn to! Thou didst
+say, Father Eustace, thou wouldst look into our evidents touching this
+free passage for the pilgrims?"
+
+"I have looked into the Chartulary of the House, holy father," said
+Eustace, "and therein I find a written and formal grant of all duties
+and customs payable at the drawbridge of Brigton, not only by
+ecclesiastics of this foundation, but by every pilgrim truly designed
+to accomplish his vows at this House, to the Abbot Allford, and the
+monks of the House of Saint Mary in Kennaquhair, from that time and
+for ever. The deed is dated on Saint Bridget's Even, in the year of
+Redemption, 1137, and bears the sign and seal of the granter, Charles
+of Meigallot, great-great-grandfather of this baron, and purports to
+be granted for the safety of his own soul, and for the weal of the
+souls of his father and mother, and of all his predecessors and
+successors, being Barons of Meigallot."
+
+"But he alleges," said the Abbot, "that the bridge-wards have been in
+possession of these dues, and have rendered them available for more
+than fifty years--and the baron threatens violence--meanwhile, the
+journey of the pilgrims is interrupted, to the prejudice of their own
+souls and the diminution of the revenues of Saint Mary. The Sacristan
+advised us to put on a boat; but the warden, whom thou knowest to be a
+godless man, has sworn the devil tear him, but that if they put on a
+boat on the laird's stream, he will rive her board from board--and
+then some say we should compound the claim for a small sum in silver."
+Here the Abbot paused a moment for a reply, but receiving none, he
+added, "But what thinkest thou, Father Eustace? why art thou silent?"
+
+"Because I am surprised at the question which the Lord Abbot of Saint
+Mary's asks at the youngest of his brethren."
+
+"Youngest in time of your abode with us, Brother Eustace," said the
+Abbot, "not youngest in years, or I think in experience. Sub-Prior
+also of this convent."
+
+"I am astonished," continued Eustace, "that the Abbot of this
+venerable house should ask of any one whether he can alienate the
+patrimony of our holy and divine patroness, or give up to an
+unconscientious, and perhaps, a heretic baron, the rights conferred on
+this church by his devout progenitor. Popes and councils alike
+prohibit it--the honour of the living, and the weal of departed souls,
+alike forbid it--it may not be. To force, if he dare use it, we must
+surrender; but never by our consent should we see the goods of the
+church plundered, with as little scruple as he would drive off a herd
+of English beeves. Rouse yourself, Reverend father, and doubt nothing
+but that the good cause shall prevail. Whet the spiritual sword, and
+direct it against the wicked who would usurp our holy rights. Whet the
+temporal sword, if it be necessary, and stir up the courage and zeal
+of your loyal vassals."
+
+The Abbot sighed deeply. "All this," he said, "is soon spoken by him
+who hath to act it not; but--" He was interrupted by the entrance of
+Bennet rather hastily. "The mule on which the Sacristan had set out in
+the morning had returned," he said, "to the convent stable all over
+wet, and with the saddle turned round beneath her belly."
+
+"Sancta Maria!" said the Abbot, "our dear brother hath perished by the
+way!"
+
+"It may not be," said Eustace, hastily--"let the bell be tolled--cause
+the brethren to get torches--alarm the village--hurry down to the
+river--I myself will be the foremost."
+
+The real Abbot stood astonished and agape, when at once he beheld his
+office filled, and saw all which he ought to have ordered, going
+forward at the dictates of the youngest monk in the convent. But ere
+the orders of Eustace, which nobody dreamed of disputing, were carried
+into execution, the necessity was prevented by the sudden apparition
+of the Sacristan, whose supposed danger excited all the alarm.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Seventh.
+
+
+     Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
+     Cleanse the foul bosom of the perilous stuff
+     That weighs upon the heart.
+                                         MACBETH.
+
+What betwixt cold and fright the afflicted Sacristan stood before his
+Superior, propped on the friendly arm of the convent miller, drenched
+with water, and scarce able to utter a syllable.
+
+After various attempts to speak, the first words he uttered were,
+
+  "Swim we merrily--the moon shines bright."
+
+"Swim we merrily!" retorted the Abbot, indignantly; "a merry night
+have ye chosen for swimming, and a becoming salutation to your
+Superior!"
+
+"Our brother is bewildered," said Eustace;--"speak, Father Philip, how
+is it with you?"
+
+  "Good luck to your fishing,"
+
+continued the Sacristan, making a most dolorous attempt at the tune of
+his strange companion.
+
+"Good luck to your fishing!" repeated the Abbot, still more surprised
+than displeased; "by my halidome he is drunken with wine, and comes to
+our presence with his jolly catches in his throat! If bread and water
+can cure this folly--"
+
+"With your pardon, venerable father," said the Sub-Prior, "of water
+our brother has had enough; and methinks, the confusion of his eye, is
+rather that of terror, than of aught unbecoming his profession. Where
+did you find him, Hob Miller?"
+
+"An it please your reverence, I did but go to shut the sluice of the
+mill--and as I was going to shut the sluice, I heard something groan
+near to me; but judging it was one of Giles Fletcher's hogs--for so
+please you he never shuts his gate--I caught up my lever, and was
+about--Saint Mary forgive me!--to strike where I heard the sound,
+when, as the saints would have it, I heard the second groan just like
+that of a living man. So I called up my knaves, and found the Father
+Sacristan lying wet and senseless under the wall of our kiln. So soon
+as we brought him to himself a bit, he prayed to be brought to your
+reverence, but I doubt me his wits have gone a bell-wavering by the
+road. It was but now that he spoke in somewhat better form."
+
+"Well!" said Brother Eustace, "thou hast done well, Hob Miller; only
+begone now, and remember a second time to pause, ere you strike in the
+dark."
+
+"Please your reverence, it shall be a lesson to me," said the miller,
+"not to mistake a holy man for a hog again, so long as I live." And,
+making a bow, with profound humility, the miller withdrew.
+
+"And now that this churl is gone, Father Philip," said Eustace, "wilt
+thou tell our venerable Superior what ails thee? art thou _vino
+gravatus,_ man? if so we will have thee to thy cell."
+
+"Water! water! not wine," muttered the exhausted Sacristan.
+
+"Nay," said the monk, "if that be thy complaint, wine may perhaps
+cure thee;" and he reached him a cup, which the patient drank off to his
+great benefit.
+
+"And now," said the Abbot, "let his garments be changed, or rather let
+him be carried to the infirmary; for it will prejudice our health,
+should we hear his narrative while he stands there, steaming like a
+rising hoar-frost."
+
+"I will hear his adventure," said Eustace, "and report it to your
+reverence." And, accordingly, he attended the Sacristan to his cell. In
+about half an hour he returned to the Abbot.
+
+"How is it with Father Philip?" said the Abbot; "and through what
+came he into such a state?"
+
+"He comes from Glendearg, reverend sir," said Eustace; "and for the
+rest, he telleth such a legend, as has not been heard in this
+Monastery for many a long day." He then gave the Abbot the outlines of
+the Sacristan's adventures in the homeward journey, and added, that
+for some time he was inclined to think his brain was infirm, seeing he
+had sung, laughed, and wept all in the same breath.
+
+"A wonderful thing it is to us," said the Abbot, "that Satan has been
+permitted to put forth his hand thus far on one of our sacred brethren!"
+
+"True," said Father Eustace; "but for every text there is a
+paraphrase; and I have my suspicions, that if the drenching of Father
+Philip cometh of the Evil one, yet it may not have been altogether
+without his own personal fault."
+
+"How!" said the Father Abbot; "I will not believe that thou makest
+doubt that Satan, in former days, hath been permitted to afflict
+saints and holy men, even as he afflicted the pious Job?"
+
+"God forbid I should make question of it," said the monk, crossing
+himself; "yet, where there is an exposition of the Sacristan's tale,
+which is less than miraculous, I hold it safe to consider it at least,
+if not to abide by it. Now, this Hob the Miller hath a buxom daughter.
+Suppose--I say only suppose--that our Sacristan met her at the ford on
+her return from her uncle's on the other side, for there she hath this
+evening been--suppose, that, in courtesy, and to save her stripping
+hose and shoon, the Sacristan brought her across behind him-suppose he
+carried his familiarities farther than the maiden was willing to
+admit; and we may easily suppose, farther, that this wetting was the
+result of it."
+
+"And this legend invented to deceive us!" said the Superior, reddening
+with wrath; "but most strictly shall it be sifted and inquired into;
+it is not upon us that Father Philip must hope to pass the result of
+his own evil practices for doings of Satan. To-morrow cite the wench
+to appear before us--we will examine, and we will punish."
+
+"Under your reverence's favour," said Eustace, "that were but poor
+policy. As things now stand with us, the heretics catch hold of each
+flying report which tends to the scandal of our clergy. We must abate
+the evil, not only by strengthening discipline, but also by
+suppressing and stifling the voice of scandal. If my conjectures are
+true, the miller's daughter will be silent for her own sake; and your
+reverence's authority may also impose silence on her father, and on
+the Sacristan. If he is again found to afford room for throwing
+dishonour on his order, he can be punished with severity, but at the
+same time with secrecy. For what say the Decretals! Facinora ostendi
+dum punientur, flagitia autem abscondi debent."
+
+A sentence of Latin, as Eustace had before observed, had often much
+influence on the Abbot, because he understood it not fluently, and was
+ashamed to acknowledge his ignorance. On these terms they parted for
+the night.
+
+The next day, Abbot Boniface strictly interrogated Philip on the real
+cause of his disaster of the previous night. But the Sacristan stood
+firm to his story; nor was he found to vary from any point of it,
+although the answers he returned were in some degree incoherent, owing
+to his intermingling with them ever and anon snatches of the strange
+damsel's song, which had made such deep impression on his imagination,
+that he could not prevent himself from imitating it repeatedly in the
+course of his examination. The Abbot had compassion with the
+Sacristan's involuntary frailty, to which something supernatural
+seemed annexed, and finally became of opinion, that Father Eustace's
+more natural explanation was rather plausible than just. And, indeed,
+although we have recorded the adventure as we find it written down, we
+cannot forbear to add that there was a schism on the subject in the
+convent, and that several of the brethren pretended to have good
+reason for thinking that the miller's black-eyed daughter was at the
+bottom of the affair after all. Whichever way it might be interpreted,
+all agreed that it had too ludicrous a sound to be permitted to get
+abroad, and therefore the Sacristan was charged, on his vow of
+obedience, to say no more of his ducking; an injunction which, having
+once eased his mind by telling his story, it may be well conjectured
+that he joyfully obeyed.
+
+The attention of Father Eustace was much less forcibly arrested by the
+marvellous tale of the Sacristan's danger, and his escape, than by the
+mention of the volume which he had brought with him from the Tower of
+Glendearg. A copy of the Scriptures, translated into the vulgar
+tongue, had found its way even into the proper territory of the
+church, and had been discovered in one of the most hidden and
+sequestered recesses of the Halidome of Saint Mary's.
+
+He anxiously requested to see the volume. In this the Sacristan was
+unable to gratify him, for he had lost it, as far as he recollected,
+when the supernatural being, as he conceived her to be, took her
+departure from him. Father Eustace went down to the spot in person,
+and searched all around it, in hopes of recovering the volume in
+question; but his labour was in vain. He returned to the Abbot, and
+reported that it must have fallen into the river or the mill-stream;
+"for I will hardly believe," he said, "that Father Philip's musical
+friend would fly off with a copy of the Holy Scriptures."
+
+"Being," said the Abbot, "as it is, an heretical translation, it may
+be thought that Satan may have power over it."
+
+"Ay!" said Father Eustace, "it is indeed his chiefest magazine of
+artillery, when he inspireth presumptuous and daring men to set forth
+their own opinions and expositions of Holy Writ. But though thus
+abused, the Scriptures are the source of our salvation, and are no
+more to be reckoned unholy, because of these rash men's proceedings,
+than a powerful medicine is to be contemned, or held poisonous,
+because bold and evil leeches have employed it to the prejudice of
+their patients. With the permission of your reverence, I would that
+this matter were looked into more closely. I will myself visit the
+Tower of Glendearg ere I am many hours older, and we shall see if any
+spectre or white woman of the wild will venture to interrupt my
+journey or return. Have I your reverend permission and your blessing?"
+he added, but in a tone that appeared to set no great store by either.
+
+"Thou hast both, my brother," said the Abbot; but no sooner had
+Eustace left the apartment, than Boniface could not help breaking on
+the willing ear of the Sacristan his sincere wish, that any spirit,
+black, white, or gray, would read the adviser such a lesson, as to
+cure him of his presumption in esteeming himself wiser than the whole
+community.
+
+"I wish him no worse lesson," said the Sacristan, "than to go swimming
+merrily down the river with a ghost behind, and Kelpies, night-crows,
+and mud-eels, all waiting to have a snatch at him.
+
+  Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright!
+  Good luck to your fishing, whom watch you to-night?"
+
+"Brother Philip," said the Abbot, "we exhort thee to say thy prayers,
+compose thyself, and banish that foolish chant from thy mind;--it is
+but a deception of the devil's."
+
+"I will essay, reverend Father," said the Sacristan, "but the tune
+hangs by my memory like a bur in a beggar's rags; it mingles with the
+psalter--the very bells of the convent seem to repeat the words, and
+jingle to the tune; and were you to put me to death at this very
+moment, it is my belief I should die singing it--'Now swim we
+merrily'--it is as it were a spell upon me."
+
+He then again began to warble
+
+  "Good luck to your fishing."
+
+And checking himself in the strain with difficulty, he exclaimed, "It
+is too certain--I am but a lost priest! Swim we merrily--I shall sing
+it at the very mass--Wo is me! I shall sing all the remainder of my
+life, and yet never be able to change the tune!"
+
+The honest Abbot replied, "he knew many a good fellow in the same
+condition;" and concluded the remark with "ho! ho! ho!" for his
+reverence, as the reader may partly have observed, was one of those
+dull folks who love a quiet joke.
+
+The Sacristan, well acquainted with his Superior's humour, endeavoured
+to join in the laugh, but his unfortunate canticle came again across
+his imagination, and interrupted the hilarity of his customary echo.
+
+"By the rood, Brother Philip," said the Abbot, much moved, "you become
+altogether intolerable! and I am convinced that such a spell could not
+subsist over a person of religion, and in a religious house, unless he
+were under mortal sin. Wherefore, say the seven penitentiary
+psalms--make diligent use of thy scourge and hair-cloth--refrain for
+three days from all food, save bread and water--I myself will shrive
+thee, and we will see if this singing devil may be driven out of thee;
+at least I think Father Eustace himself could devise no better
+exorcism."
+
+The Sacristan sighed deeply, but knew remonstrance was vain. He
+retired therefore to his cell, to try how far psalmody might be able
+to drive off the sounds of the syren tune which haunted his memory.
+
+Meanwhile, Father Eustace proceeded to the drawbridge, in his way to
+the lonely valley of Glendearg. In a brief conversation with the
+churlish warder, he had the address to render him more tractable in
+the controversy betwixt him and the convent. He reminded him that his
+father had been a vassal under the community; that his brother was
+childless; and that their possession would revert to the church on his
+death, and might be either granted to himself the warder, or to some
+greater favourite of the Abbot, as matters chanced to stand betwixt
+them at the time. The Sub-Prior suggested to him also, the necessary
+connexion of interests betwixt the Monastery  and the office which
+this man enjoyed. He listened with temper to his rude and churlish
+answers; and by keeping his own interest firm pitched in his view, he
+had the satisfaction to find that Peter gradually softened his tone,
+and consented to let every pilgrim who travelled upon foot pass free
+of exaction until Pentocost next; they who travelled on horseback or
+otherwise, contenting to pay the ordinary custom. Having thus
+accommodated a matter in which the weal of the convent was so deeply
+interested, Father Eustace proceeded on his journey.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Eighth.
+
+
+  Nay, dally not with time, the wise man's treasure,
+  Though fools are lavish on't--the fatal Fisher
+  Hooks souls, while we waste moments.
+                                      OLD PLAY.
+
+A November mist overspread the little valley, up which slowly but
+steadily rode the Monk Eustace. He was not insensible to the feeling
+of melancholy inspired by the scene and by the season. The stream
+seemed to murmur with a deep and oppressed note, as if bewailing the
+departure of autumn. Among the scattered copses which here and there
+fringed its banks, the oak-trees only retained that pallid green that
+precedes their russet hue. The leaves of the willows were most of them
+stripped from the branches, lay rustling at each breath, and disturbed
+by every step of the mule; while the foliage of other trees, totally
+withered, kept still precarious possession of the boughs, waiting the
+first wind to scatter them.
+
+The monk dropped into the natural train of pensive thought which these
+autumnal emblems of mortal hopes are peculiarly calculated to inspire.
+"There," he said, looking at the leaves which lay strewed around, "lie
+the hopes of early youth, first formed that they may soonest wither,
+and loveliest in spring to become most contemptible in winter; but
+you, ye lingerers," he added, looking to a knot of beeches which still
+bore their withered leaves, "you are the proud plans of adventurous
+manhood, formed later, and still clinging to the mind of age, although
+it acknowledges their inanity!  None lasts--none endures, save the
+foliage of the hardy oak, which only begins to show itself when that
+of the rest of the forest has enjoyed half its existence. A pale and
+decayed hue is all it possesses, but still it retains that symptom of
+vitality to the last.--So be it with Father Eustace! The fairy hopes
+of my youth I have trodden under foot like those neglected
+rustlers--to the prouder dreams of my manhood I look back as to lofty
+chimeras, of which the pith and essence have long since faded; but my
+religious vows, the faithful profession which I have made in my
+maturer age, shall retain life while aught of Eustace lives. Dangerous
+it may be--feeble it must be--yet live it shall, the proud
+determination to serve the Church of which I am a member, and to
+combat the heresies by which she is assailed." Thus spoke, at least
+thus thought, a man zealous according to his imperfect knowledge,
+confounding the vital interests of Christianity with the extravagant
+and usurped claims of the Church of Rome, and defending his cause with
+an ardour worthy of a better.
+
+While moving onward in this contemplative mood, he could not help
+thinking more than once, that he saw in his path the form of a female
+dressed in white, who appeared in the attitude of lamentation. But the
+impression was only momentary, and whenever he looked steadily to the
+point where he conceived the figure appeared, it always proved that he
+had mistaken some natural object, a white crag, or the trunk of a
+decayed birch-tree with its silver bark, for the appearance in
+question.
+
+Father Eustace had dwelt too long in Rome to partake the superstitious
+feelings of the more ignorant Scottish clergy; yet he certainly
+thought it extraordinary, that so strong an impression should have
+been made on his mind by the legend of the Sacristan. "It is strange,"
+he said to himself, "that this story, which doubtless was the
+invention of Brother Philip to cover his own impropriety of conduct,
+should run so much in my head, and disturb my more serious thoughts--I
+am wont, I think, to have more command over my senses. I will repeat
+my prayers, and banish such folly from my recollection."
+
+The monk accordingly began with devotion to tell his beads, in pursuance
+of the prescribed rule of his order, and was not again disturbed by any
+wanderings of the imagination, until he found himself beneath the little
+fortalice of Glendearg.
+
+Dame Glendinning, who stood at the gate, set up a shout of surprise and
+joy at seeing the good father. "Martin," she said, "Jasper, where be a'
+the folk?--help the right reverend Sub-Prior to dismount, and take his
+mule from him.--O father! God has sent you in our need--I was just going
+to send man and horse to the convent, though I ought to be ashamed to
+give so much trouble to your reverences."
+
+"Our trouble matters not, good dame," said Father Eustace; "in what
+can I pleasure you? I came hither to visit the Lady of Avenel."
+
+"Well-a-day!" said Dame Alice, "and it was on her part that I had the
+boldness to think of summoning you, for the good lady will never be able
+to wear over the day!--Would it please you to go to her chamber?"
+
+"Hath she not been shriven by Father Philip?" said the monk.
+
+"Shriven she was," said the Dame of Glendearg, "and by Father Philip,
+as your reverence truly says--but--I wish it may have been a clean
+shrift--Methought Father Philip looked but moody upon it--and there
+was a book which he took away with him, that--" She paused as if
+unwilling to proceed.
+
+"Speak out, Dame Glendinning," said the Father; "with us it is your
+duty to have no secrets."
+
+"Nay, if it please your reverence, it is not that I would keep
+anything from your reverence's knowledge, but I fear I should
+prejudice the lady in your opinion; for she is an excellent
+lady--months and years has she dwelt in this tower, and none more
+exemplary than she; but this matter, doubtless, she will explain it
+herself to your reverence."
+
+"I desire first to know it from you, Dame Glendinning," said the monk;
+"and I again repeat, it is your duty to tell it to me."
+
+"This book, if it please your reverence, which Father Philip removed
+from Glendearg, was this morning returned to us in a strange manner,"
+said the good widow.
+
+"Returned!" said the monk; "how mean you?"
+
+"I mean," answered Dame Glendinning, "that it was brought back to the
+tower of Glendearg, the saints best know how--that same book which
+Father Philip carried with him but yesterday. Old Martin, that is my
+tasker and the lady's servant, was driving out the cows to the
+pasture--for we have three good milk-cows, reverend father, blessed be
+Saint Waldave, and thanks to the holy Monastery--"
+
+The monk groaned with impatience; but he remembered that a woman of
+the good dame's condition was like a top, which, if you let it spin on
+untouched, must at last come to a pause; but, if you interrupt it by
+flogging, there is no end to its gyrations. "But, to speak no more of
+the cows, your reverence, though they are likely cattle as ever were
+tied to a stake, the tasker was driving them out, and the lads, that
+is my Halbert and my Edward, that your reverence has seen at church on
+holidays, and especially Halbert,--for you patted him on the head and
+gave him a brooch of Saint Cuthbert, which he wears in his
+bonnet,--and little Mary Avenel, that is the lady's daughter, they ran
+all after the cattle, and began to play up and down the pasture as
+young folk will, your reverence. And at length they lost sight of
+Martin and the cows; and they began to run up a little cleugh which we
+call _Corri-nan-Shian_, where there is a wee bit stripe of a
+burn, and they saw there--Good guide us!--a White Woman sitting on the
+burnside wringing her hands--so the bairns were frighted to see a
+strange woman sitting there, all but Halbert, who will be sixteen come
+Whitsuntide; and, besides, he never feared ony thing--and when they
+went up to her--behold she was passed away!"
+
+"For shame, good woman!" said Father Eustace; "a woman of your sense
+to listen to a tale so idle!--the young folk told you a lie, and that
+was all."
+
+"Nay, sir, it was more than that," said the old dame; "for, besides
+that they never told me a lie in their lives, I must warn you that on
+the very ground where the White Woman was sitting, they found the Lady
+of Avenel's book, and brought it with them to the tower."
+
+"That is worthy of mark at least," said the monk. "Know you no other
+copy of this volume within these bounds?"
+
+"None, your reverence," returned Elspeth; "why should there?--no one
+could read it were there twenty."
+
+"Then you are sure it is the very same volume which you gave to Father
+Philip?" said the monk.
+
+"As sure as that I now speak with your reverence."
+
+"It is most singular!" said the monk; and he walked across the room in
+a musing posture.
+
+"I have been upon nettles to hear what your reverence would say,"
+continued Dame Glendinning, "respecting this matter--There is nothing
+I would not do for the Lady of Avenel and her family, and that has
+been proved, and for her servants to boot, both Martin and Tibb,
+although Tibb is not so civil sometimes as altogether I have a right
+to expect; but I cannot think it beseeming to have angels, or ghosts,
+or fairies, or the like, waiting upon a leddy when she is in another
+woman's house, in respect it is no ways creditable. Ony thing she had
+to do was always done to her hand, without costing her either pains or
+pence, as a country body says; and besides the discredit, I cannot but
+think that there is no safety in having such unchancy creatures about
+ane. But I have tied red thread round the bairns's throats," (so her
+fondness still called them,) "and given ilka ane of them a riding-wand
+of rowan-tree, forby sewing up a slip of witch-elm into their
+doublets; and I wish to know of your reverence if there be ony thing
+mair that a lone woman can do in the matter of ghosts and fairies?--Be
+here! that I should have named their unlucky names twice ower!"
+
+"Dame Glendinning," answered the monk, somewhat abruptly, when the
+good woman had finished her narrative, "I pray you, do you know the
+miller's daughter?"
+
+"Did I know Kate Happer?" replied the widow; "as well as the beggar
+knows his dish--a canty quean was Kate, and a special cummer of my ain
+maybe twenty years syne."
+
+"She cannot be the wench I mean," said Father Eustace; "she after whom
+I inquire is scarce fifteen, a black-eyed girl--you may have seen her
+at the kirk."
+
+"Your reverence must be in the right; and she is my cummer's nie'ce,
+doubtless, that you are pleased to speak of: but I thank God I have
+always been too duteous in attention to the mass, to know whether
+young wenches have black eyes or green ones."
+
+The good father had so much of the world about him, that he was unable
+to avoid smiling, when the dame boasted her absolute resistance to a
+temptation, which was not quite so liable to beset her as those of the
+other sex.
+
+"Perhaps, then," he said, "you know her usual dress, Dame Glendinning?"
+
+"Ay, ay, father," answered the dame readily enough, "a white kirtle
+the wench wears, to hide the dust of the mill, no doubt--and a blue
+hood, that might weel be spared, for pridefulness."
+
+"Then, may it not be she," said the father, "who has brought back this
+book, and stepped out of the way when the children came near her?"
+
+The dame paused--was unwilling to combat the solution suggested by the
+monk--but was at a loss to conceive why the lass of the mill should
+come so far from home into so wild a corner merely to leave an old
+book with three children, from whose observation she wished to conceal
+herself.
+
+Above all, she could not understand why, since she had acquaintances
+in the family, and since the Dame Glendinning had always paid her
+multure and knaveship duly, the said lass of the mill had not come in
+to rest herself and eat a morsel, and tell her the current news of the
+water.
+
+These very objections satisfied the monk that his conjectures were
+right.  "Dame," he said, "you must be cautious in what you say. This
+is an instance--I would it were the sole one--of the power of the
+Enemy in these days. The matter must be sifted--with a curious and a
+careful hand."
+
+"Indeed," said Elspeth, trying to catch and chime in with the ideas of
+the Sub-Prior, "I have often thought the miller's folk at the
+Monastery-mill were far over careless in sifting our melder, and in
+bolting it too--some folk say they will not stick at whiles to put in
+a handful of ashes amongst Christian folk's corn-meal."
+
+"That shall be looked after also, dame," said the Sub-Prior, not
+displeased to see that the good old woman went off on a false scent;
+"and now, by your leave, I will see this lady--do you go before, and
+prepare her to see me."
+
+Dame Glendinning left the lower apartment accordingly, which the monk
+paced in anxious reflection, considering how he might best discharge,
+with humanity as well as with effect, the important duty imposed on
+him. He resolved to approach the bedside of the sick person with
+reprimands, mitigated only by a feeling for her weak condition--he
+determined, in case of her reply, to which late examples of hardened
+heretics might encourage her, to be prepared with answers to the
+customary scruples. High fraught, also, with zeal against her
+unauthorized intrusion into the priestly function, by study of the
+Sacred Scriptures, he imagined to himself the answers which one of the
+modern school of heresy might return to him--the victorious refutation
+which should lay the disputant prostrate at the Confessor's mercy--and
+the healing, yet awful exhortation, which, under pain of refusing the
+last consolations of religion, he designed to make to the penitent,
+conjuring her, as she loved her own soul's welfare, to disclose to him
+what she knew of the dark mystery of iniquity, by which heresies were
+introduced into the most secluded spots of the very patrimony of the
+Church herself--what agents they had who could thus glide, as it were
+unseen, from place to place, bring back the volume which the Church
+had interdicted to the spots from which it had been removed under her
+express auspices; and, who, by encouraging the daring and profane
+thirst after knowledge forbidden and useless to the laity, had
+encouraged the fisher of souls to use with effect his old bait of
+ambition and vain-glory.
+
+Much of this premeditated disputation escaped the good father, when
+Elspeth returned, her tears flowing faster than her apron could dry
+them, and made him a signal to follow her. "How," said the monk, "is
+she then so near her end?--nay, the Church must not break or bruise,
+when comfort is yet possible;" and forgetting his polemics, the good
+Sub-Prior hastened to the little apartment, where, on the wretched bed
+which she had occupied since her misfortunes had driven her to the
+Tower of Glendearg, the widow of Walter Avenel had rendered up her
+spirit to her Creator. "My God!" said the Sub-Prior, "and has my
+unfortunate dallying suffered her to depart without the Church's
+consolation! Look to her, dame," he exclaimed, with eager impatience;
+"is there not yet a sparkle of the life left?--may she not be
+recalled--recalled but for a moment?--Oh! would that she could
+express, but by the most imperfect word--but by the most feeble
+motion, her acquiescence in the needful task of penitential
+prayer!--Does she not breathe?--Art thou sure she doth not?"
+
+"She will never breathe more," said the matron. "Oh! the poor
+fatherless girl--now motherless also--Oh, the kind companion I have
+had these many years, whom I shall never see again! But she is in
+heaven for certain, if ever woman went there; for a woman of better
+life----"
+
+"Wo to me," said the good monk, "if indeed she went not hence in good
+assurance--wo to the reckless shepherd, who suffered the wolf to carry
+a choice one from the flock, while he busied himself with trimming his
+sling and his staff to give the monster battle! Oh! if in the long
+Hereafter, aught but weal should that poor spirit share, what has my
+delay cost?--the value of an immortal soul!"
+
+He then approached the body, full of the deep remorse natural to a
+good man of his persuasion, who devoutly believed the doctrines of the
+Catholic Church. "Ay," said he, gazing on the pallid corpse, from
+which the spirit had parted so placidly as to leave a smile upon the
+thin blue lips, which had been so long wasted by decay that they had
+parted with the last breath of animation without the slightest
+convulsive tremor--"Ay," said Father Eustace, "there lies the faded
+tree, and, as it fell, so it lies--awful thought for me, should my
+neglect have left it to descend in an evil direction!" He then again
+and again conjured Dame Glendinning to tell him what she knew of the
+demeanour and ordinary walk of the deceased.
+
+All tended to the high honour of the deceased lady; for her companion,
+who admired her sufficiently while alive, notwithstanding some
+trifling points of jealousy, now idolized her after her death, and
+could think of no attribute of praise with which she did not adorn her
+memory.
+
+Indeed, the Lady of Avenel, however she might privately doubt some of
+the doctrines announced by the Church of Rome, and although she had
+probably tacitly appealed from that corrupted system of Christianity
+to the volume on which Christianity itself is founded, had
+nevertheless been regular in her attendance on the worship of the
+Church, not, perhaps, extending her scruples so far as to break off
+communion. Such indeed was the first sentiment of the earlier
+reformers, who seemed to have studied, for a time at least, to avoid a
+schism, until the violence of the Pope rendered it inevitable.
+
+Father Eustace, on the present occasion, listened with eagerness to
+everything which could lead to assure him of the lady's orthodoxy in
+the main points of belief; for his conscience reproached him sorely,
+that, instead of protracting conversation with the Dame of Glendearg,
+he had not instantly hastened where his presence was so necessary.
+"If," he said, addressing the dead body, "thou art yet free from the
+utmost penalty due to the followers of false doctrine--if thou dost
+but suffer for a time, to expiate faults done in the body, but
+partaking of mortal frailty more than of deadly sin, fear not that thy
+abode shall be long in the penal regions to which thou mayest be
+doomed--if vigils--if masses--if penance--if maceration of my body,
+till it resembles that extenuated form which the soul hath abandoned,
+may assure thy deliverance. The Holy Church--the godly foundation--our
+blessed Patroness herself, shall intercede for one whose errors were
+counter-balanced by so many virtues.--Leave me, dame--here, and by her
+bed-side, will I perform those duties--which this piteous case
+demands!"
+
+Elspeth left the monk, who employed himself in fervent and sincere,
+though erroneous prayers, for the weal of the departed spirit. For an
+hour he remained in the apartment of death, and then returned to the
+hall, where he found the still weeping friend of the deceased.
+
+But it would be injustice to Mrs. Glendinning's hospitality, if we
+suppose her to have been weeping during this long interval, or rather
+if we suppose her so entirely absorbed by the tribute of sorrow which
+she paid frankly and plentifully to her deceased friend, as to be
+incapable of attending to the rights of hospitality due to the holy
+visitor--who was confessor at once, and Sub-Prior--mighty in all
+religious and secular considerations, so far as the vassals of the
+Monastery were interested.
+
+Her barley-bread had been toasted--her choicest cask of home-brewed
+ale had been broached--her best butter had been placed on the
+hall-table, along with her most savoury ham, and her choicest cheese,
+ere she abandoned herself to the extremity of sorrow; and it was not
+till she had arranged her little repast neatly on the board, that she
+sat down in the chimney corner, threw her checked apron over her head,
+and gave way to the current of tears and sobs. In this there was no
+grimace or affectation.  The good dame held the honours of her house
+to be as essential a duty, especially when a monk was her visitant, as
+any other pressing call upon her conscience; nor until these were
+suitably attended to did she find herself at liberty to indulge her
+sorrow for her departed friend.
+
+When she was conscious of the Sub-Prior's presence, she rose with the
+same attention to his reception; but he declined all the offers of
+hospitality with which she endeavoured to tempt him. Not her butter,
+as yellow as gold, and the best, she assured him, that was made in the
+patrimony of St.  Mary--not the barley scones, which "the departed
+saint, God sain her!  used to say were so good"--not the ale, nor any
+other cates which poor Elspeth's stores afforded, could prevail on the
+Sub-Prior to break his fast.  "This day," he said, "I must not taste
+food until the sun go down, happy if, in so doing, I can expiate my
+own negligence--happier still, if my sufferings of this trifling
+nature, undertaken in pure faith and singleness of heart, may benefit
+the soul of the deceased. Yet, dame," he added, I may not so far
+forget the living in my cares for the dead, as to leave behind me that
+book, which is to the ignorant what, to our first parents, the tree of
+Knowledge of Good and Evil unhappily proved-excellent indeed in
+itself, but fatal because used by those to whom it is prohibited."
+
+"Oh, blithely, reverend father," said the widow of Simon Glendinning,
+"will I give you the book, if so be I can while it from the bairns;
+and indeed, poor things, as the case stands with them even now, you
+might take the heart out of their bodies, and they never find it out,
+they are sae begrutten." [Footnote: _Begrutten_--over-weeped]
+
+"Give them this missal instead, good dame," said the father, drawing
+from his pocket one which was curiously illuminated with paintings,
+"and I will come myself, or send one at a fitting time, and teach them
+the meaning of these pictures."
+
+"The bonny images!" said Dame Glendinning, forgetting for an instant
+her grief in her admiration, "and weel I wot," added she, "it is
+another sort of a book than the poor Lady of Avenel's; and blessed
+might we have been this day, if your reverence had found the way up
+the glen, instead of Father Philip, though the Sacristan is a powerful
+man too, and speaks as if he would ger the house fly abroad, save that
+the walls are gey thick.  Simon's forebears (may he and they be
+blessed!) took care of that."
+
+The monk ordered his mule, and was about to take his leave; and the
+good dame was still delaying him with questions about the funeral,
+when a horseman, armed and accoutred, rode into the little court-yard
+which surrounded the Keep.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Ninth.
+
+
+  For since they rode among our doors
+  With splent on spauld and rusty spurs,
+  There grows no fruit into our furs;
+    Thus said John Up-on-land.
+                       DANNATYNE MS.
+
+The Scottish laws, which were as wisely and judiciously made as they
+were carelessly and ineffectually executed, had in vain endeavoured to
+restrain the damage done to agriculture, by the chiefs and landed
+proprietors retaining in their service what were called jack-men, from
+the _jack_, or doublet, quilted with iron which they wore as
+defensive armour.  These military retainers conducted themselves with
+great insolence towards the industrious part of the community--lived
+in a great measure by plunder, and were ready to execute any commands
+of their master, however unlawful.  In adopting this mode of life, men
+resigned the quiet hopes and regular labours of industry, for an
+unsettled, precarious, and dangerous trade, which yet had such charms
+for those once accustomed to it, that they became incapable of
+following any other. Hence the complaint of John Upland, a fictitious
+character, representing a countryman, into whose mouth the poets of
+the day put their general satires upon men and manners.
+
+  They ride about in such a rage,
+  By forest, frith, and field,
+    With buckler, bow, and brand.
+  Lo! where they ride out through the rye!
+  The Devil mot save the company,
+    Quoth John Up-on-land.
+
+Christie of the Clinthill, the horseman who now arrived at the little
+Tower of Glendearg, was one of the hopeful company of whom the poet
+complains, as was indicated by his "splent on spauld," (iron-plates on
+his shoulder,) his rusted spurs, and his long lance. An iron
+skull-cap, none of the brightest, bore for distinction a sprig of the
+holly, which was Avenel's badge. A long two-edged straight sword,
+having a handle made of polished oak, hung down by his side. The
+meagre condition of his horse, and the wild and emaciated look of the
+rider, showed their occupation could not be accounted an easy or a
+thriving one. He saluted Dame Glendinning with little courtesy, and
+the monk with less; for the growing, disrespect to the religious
+orders had not failed to extend itself among a class of men of such
+disorderly habits, although it may be supposed they were tolerably
+indifferent alike to the new or the ancient doctrines.
+
+"So, our lady is dead, Dame Glendinning?" said the jack-man; "my
+master has sent you even now a fat bullock for her mart--it may serve
+for her funeral. I have left him in the upper cleugh, as he is
+somewhat kenspeckle, [Footnote: _Kenspeckle>/I>--that which is
+easily recognized by the eye.] and is marked both with cut and
+birn--the sooner the skin is off, and he is in saultfat, the less like
+you are to have trouble--you understand me? Let me have a peck of corn
+for my horse, and beef and beer for myself, for I must go on to the
+Monastery--though I think this monk hero might do mine errand."
+
+"Thine errand, rude man!" said the Sub-Prior, knitting his brows--
+
+"For God's sake" cried poor Dame Glendinning, terrified at the idea of
+a quarrel between them,--"O Christie!---it is the Sub-Prior--O
+reverend sir, it is Christie of the Clinthill, the laird's chief
+jack-man; ye know that little havings can be expected from the like o'
+them."
+
+"Are you a retainer of the Laird of Avenel?" said the monk, addressing
+himself to the horseman, "and do you speak thus rudely to a Brother of
+Saint Mary's, to whom thy master is so much beholden?"
+
+"He means to be yet more beholden to your house, Sir Monk," answered
+the fellow; "for hearing his sister-in-law, the widow of Walter of
+Avenel, was on her death-bed, he sent me to say to the Father Abbot
+and the brethren, that he will hold the funeral-feast at their
+convent, and invites himself thereto, with a score of horse and some
+friends, and to abide there for three days and three nights,--having
+horse-meat and men's-meat at the charge of the community; of which his
+intention he sends due notice, that fitting preparation may be
+timeously made."
+
+"Friend," said the Sub-Prior, "believe not that I will do to the
+Father Abbot the indignity of delivering such an errand.--Think'st
+thou the goods of the church were bestowed upon her by holy princes
+and pious nobles, now dead and gone, to be consumed in revelry by
+every profligate layman who numbers in his train more followers than
+he can support by honest means, or by his own incomings? Tell thy
+master, from the Sub-Prior of Saint Mary's, that the Primate hath
+issued his commands to us that we submit no longer to this compulsory
+exaction of hospitality on slight or false pretences. Our lands and
+goods were given to relieve pilgrims and pious persons, not to feast
+bands of rude soldiers."
+
+"This to me!" said the angry spearman, "this to me and to my master
+--Look to yourself then, Sir Priest, and try if _Ave_ and
+_Credo_ will keep bullocks from wandering, and hay-stacks from
+burning."
+
+"Dost thou menace the Holy Church's patrimony with waste and
+fire-raising," said the Sub-Prior, "and that in the face of the sun? I
+call on all who hear me to bear witness to the words this ruffian has
+spoken. Remember how the Lord James drowned such as you by scores in
+the black pool at Jeddart.-To him and to the Primate will I complain."
+The soldier shifted the position of his lance, and brought it down to
+a level with the monk's body.
+
+Dame Glendinning began to shriek for assistance. "Tibb Tacket! Martin!
+where be ye all?--Christie, for the love of God, consider he is a man
+of Holy Kirk!"
+
+"I care not for his spear," said the Sub-Prior; "if I am slain in
+defending the rights and privileges of my community, the Primate will
+know how to take vengeance."
+
+"Let him look to himself," said Christie, but at the same time
+depositing his lance against the wall of the tower; "if the Fife men
+spoke true who came hither with the Governor in the last raid, Norman
+Leslie has him at feud, and is like to set him hard. We know Norman a
+true bloodhound, who will never quit the slot. But I had no design to
+offend the holy father," he added, thinking perhaps he had gone a
+little too far; "I am a rude man, bred to lance and stirrup, and not
+used to deal with book-learned men and priests; and I am willing to
+ask his forgiveness--and his blessing, if I have said aught amiss."
+
+"For God's sake! your reverence," said the widow of Glendearg apart to
+the Sub-Prior, "bestow on him your forgiveness--how shall we poor folk
+sleep in security in the dark nights, if the convent is at feud with
+such men as he is?"
+
+"You are right, dame," said the Sub-Prior, "your safety should, and
+must be, in the first instance consulted.--Soldier, I forgive thee,
+and may God bless thee and send thee honesty."
+
+Christie of the Clinthill made an unwilling inclination with his head,
+and muttered apart, "that is as much as to say, God send thee
+starvation, But now to my master's demand, Sir Priest? What answer am
+I to return?"
+
+"That the body of the widow of Walter of Avenel," answered the Father,
+"shall be interred as becomes her rank, and in the tomb of her valiant
+husband. For your master's proffered visit of three days, with such a
+company and retinue, I have no authority to reply to it; you must
+intimate your Chief's purpose to the Reverend Lord Abbot."
+
+"That will cost me a farther ride," said the man, "but it is all in
+the day's work.--How now, my lad," said he to Halbert, who was
+handling the long lance which he had laid aside; "how do you like such
+a plaything?--will you go with me and be a moss-trooper?"
+
+"The Saints in their mercy forbid!" said the poor mother; and then,
+afraid of having displeased Christie by the vivacity of her
+exclamation, she followed it up by explaining, that since Simon's
+death she could not look on a spear or a bow, or any implement of
+destruction without trembling.
+
+"Pshaw!" answered Christie, "thou shouldst take another husband, dame,
+and drive such follies out of thy thoughts--what sayst thou to such a
+strapping lad as I? Why, this old tower of thine is fensible enough,
+and there is no want of clenchs, and crags, and bogs, and thickets, if
+one was set hard; a man might bide here and keep his half-score of
+lads, and as many geldings, and live on what he could lay his hand on,
+and be kind to thee, old wench."
+
+"Alas! Master Christie," said the matron, "that you should talk to a
+lone woman in such a fashion, and death in the house besides!"
+
+"Lone woman!--why, that is the very reason thou shouldst take a mate.
+Thy old friend is dead, why, good--choose thou another of somewhat
+tougher frame, and that will not die of the pip like a young chicken.--
+Better still--Come, dame, let me have something to eat, and we will talk
+more of this."
+
+Dame Elspeth, though she well knew the character of the man, whom in
+fact she both disliked and feared, could not help simpering at the
+personal address which he thought proper to make to her. She whispered
+to the Sub-Prior, "ony thing just to keep him quiet," and went into
+the tower to set before the soldier the food he desired, trusting
+betwixt good cheer and the power of her own charms, to keep Christie
+of the Clinthill so well amused, that the altercation betwixt him and
+the holy father should not be renewed.
+
+The Sub-Prior was equally unwilling to hazard any unnecessary rupture
+between the community and such a person as Julian of Avenel. He was
+sensible that moderation, as well as firmness, was necessary to
+support the tottering cause of the Church of Rome; and that, contrary
+to former times, the quarrels betwixt the clergy and laity had, in the
+present, usually terminated to the advantage of the latter. He
+resolved, therefore, to avoid farther strife by withdrawing, but
+failed not, in the first place, to possess himself of the volume which
+the Sacristan carried off the evening before, and which had been
+returned to the glen in such a marvellous manner.
+
+Edward, the younger of Dame Elspeth's boys, made great objections to
+the book's being removed, in which Mary would probably have joined,
+but that she was now in her little sleeping-chamber with Tibb, who was
+exerting her simple skill to console the young lady for her mother's
+death. But the younger Glendinning stood up in defence of her
+property, and, with a positiveness which had hitherto made no part of
+his character, declared, that now the kind lady was dead, the book was
+Mary's, and no one but Mary should have it.
+
+"But if it is not a fit book for Mary to read, my dear boy," said the
+father, gently, "you would not wish it to remain with her?"
+
+"The lady read it," answered the young champion of property; "and so
+it could not be wrong--it shall not be taken away.--I wonder where
+Halbert is?--listening to the bravading tales of gay Christie, I
+reckon,--he is always wishing for fighting, and now he is out of the
+way."
+
+"Why, Edward, you would not fight with me, who am both a priest and
+old man?"
+
+"If you were as good a priest as the Pope," said the boy, "and as old
+as the hills to boot, you shall not carry away Mary's book without her
+leave.  I will do battle for it."
+
+"But see you, my love," said the monk, amused with the resolute
+friendship manifested by the boy, "I do not take it; I only borrow it;
+and I leave in its place my own gay missal, as a pledge I will bring
+it again."
+
+Edward opened the missal with eager curiosity, and glanced at the
+pictures with which it was illustrated. "Saint George and the dragon--
+Halbert will like that; and Saint Michael brandishing his sword over
+the head of the Wicked One--and that will do for Halbert too. And see
+the Saint John leading his lamb in the wilderness, with his little
+cross made of reeds, and his scrip and staff--that shall be my
+favourite; and where shall we find one for poor Mary?--here is a
+beautiful woman weeping and lamenting herself."
+
+"This is Saint Mary Magdalen repenting of her sins, my dear boy," said
+the father.
+
+"That will not suit _our_ Mary; for she commits no faults, and is
+never angry with us, but when we do something wrong."
+
+"Then," said the father, "I will show you a Mary, who will protect her
+and you, and all good children. See how fairly she is represented,
+with her gown covered with golden stars."
+
+The boy was lost in wonder at the portrait of the Virgin, which the
+Sub-Prior turned up to him.
+
+"This," he said, "is really like our sweet Mary; and I think I will
+let you take away the black book, that has no such goodly shows in it,
+and leave this for Mary instead. But you must promise to bring back
+the book, good father--for now I think upon it, Mary may like that
+best which was her mother's."
+
+"I will certainly return," said the monk, evading his answer, "and
+perhaps I may teach you to write and read such beautiful letters as
+you see there written, and to paint them blue, green, and yellow, and
+to blazon them with gold."
+
+"Ay, and to make such figures as these blessed Saints, and especially
+these two Marys?" said the boy.
+
+"With their blessing," said the Sub-Prior, "I can teach you that art
+too, so far as I am myself capable of showing, and you of learning
+it." "Then," said Edward, "will I paint Mary's picture--and remember
+you are to bring back the black book; that you must promise me."
+
+The Sub-Prior, anxious to get rid of the boy's pertinacity, and to set
+forward on his return to the convent, without having any further
+interview with Christie the galloper, answered by giving the promise
+Edward required, mounted his mule, and set forth on his return
+homeward.
+
+The November day was well spent ere the Sub-Prior resumed his journey;
+for the difficulty of the road, and the various delays which he had
+met with at the tower, had detained him longer than he proposed. A
+chill easterly wind was sighing among the withered leaves, and
+stripping them from the hold they had yet retained on the parent
+trees.
+
+"Even so," said the monk, "our prospects in this vale of time grow
+more disconsolate as the stream of years passes on. Little have I gained
+by my journey, saving the certainty that heresy is busy among us with
+more than his usual activity, and that the spirit of insulting religious
+orders, and plundering the Church's property, so general in the eastern
+districts of Scotland, has now come nearer home."
+
+The tread of a horse which came up behind him, interrupted his reverie,
+and he soon saw he was mounted by the same wild rider whom he had left
+at the tower.
+
+"Good even, my son, and benedicite," said the Sub-Prior as he passed;
+but the rude soldier scarce acknowledged the greeting, by bending his
+head; and dashing the spurs into his horse, went on at a pace which
+soon left the monk and his mule far behind. And there, thought the
+Sub-Prior, goes another plague of the times--a fellow whose birth
+designed him to cultivate the earth, but who is perverted by the
+unhallowed and unchristian divisions of the country, into a daring and
+dissolute robber. The barons of Scotland are now turned masterful
+thieves and ruffians, oppressing the poor by violence, and wasting the
+Church, by extorting free-quarters from abbeys and priories, without
+either shame or reason. I fear me I shall be too late to counsel the
+Abbot to make a stand against these daring _sorners_ [Footnote:
+To _sorne_, in Scotland, is to exact free quarters against the
+will of the landlord. It is declared equivalent to theft, by a statute
+passed in the year 1445. The great chieftains oppressed the
+monasteries very much by exactions of this nature. The community of
+Aberbrothwick complained of an Earl of Angus, I think, who was in the
+regular habit of visiting them once a year, with a train of a thousand
+horse, and abiding till the whole winter provisions of the convent
+were exhausted.]--I must make haste." He struck his mule with his
+riding wand accordingly; but, instead of mending her pace, the animal
+suddenly started from the path, and the rider's utmost efforts could
+not force her forward.
+
+"Art thou, too, infected with the spirit of the times?" said the
+Sub-Prior; "thou wert wont to be ready and serviceable, and art now as
+restive as any wild jack-man or stubborn heretic of them all."
+
+While he was contending with the startled animal, a voice, like that
+of a female, chanted in his ear, or at least very close to it,
+
+ "Good evening-. Sir Priest, and so late as you ride,
+  With your mule so fair, and your mantle so wide;
+  But ride you through valley, or ride you o'er hill.
+  There is one that has warrant to wait on you still.
+               Back, back,
+               The volume black!
+  I have a warrant to carry it back."
+
+The Sub-Prior looked around, but neither bush nor brake was near which
+could conceal an ambushed songstress. "May Our Lady have mercy on me!"
+he said; "I trust my senses have not forsaken me--yet how my thoughts
+should arrange themselves into rhymes which I despise, and music which
+I care not for, or why there should be the sound of a female voice in
+ears, in which its melody has been so long indifferent, baffles my
+comprehension, and almost realizes the vision of Philip the Sacristan.
+Come, good mule, betake thee to the path, and let us hence while our
+judgment serves us."
+
+But the mule stood as if it had been rooted to the spot, backed from
+the point to which it was pressed by its rider, and by her ears laid
+close into her neck, and her eyes almost starting from their sockets,
+testified that she was under great terror.
+
+While the Sub-Prior, by alternate threats and soothing, endeavoured to
+reclaim the wayward animal to her duty, the wild musical voice was again
+heard close beside him.
+
+  "What, ho! Sub-Prior, and came you but here
+  To conjure a book from a dead woman's bier?
+  Sain you, and save you, be wary and wise,
+  Ride back with the book, or you'll pay for your prize.
+               Back, back.
+               There's death in the track!
+  In the name of my master I bid thee bear back."
+
+"In the name of MY Master," said the astonished monk, "that name
+before which all things created tremble, I conjure thee to say what
+thou art that hauntest me thus?"
+
+The same voice replied,
+
+  "That which is neither ill nor well.
+  That which belongs not to Heaven nor to hell,
+  A wreath of the mist, a bubble of the stream,
+  'Twixt a waking thought and a sleeping dream;
+               A form that men spy
+               With the half-shut eye.
+  In the beams of the setting sun, am I."
+
+"This is more than simple fantasy," said the Sub-Prior, rousing
+himself; though, notwithstanding the natural hardihood of his temper,
+the sensible presence of a supernatural being so near him, failed not
+to make his blood run cold, and his hair bristle. "I charge thee," he
+said aloud, "be thine errand what it will, to depart and trouble me no
+more! False spirit, thou canst not appal any save those who do the
+work negligently." The voice immediately answered:
+
+  "Vainly, Sir Prior. wouldst thou bar me my right!
+  Like the star when it shoots, I can dart through the night;
+  I can dance on the torrent and ride on the air,
+  And travel the world with the bonny night-mare.
+                 Again, again,
+                At the crook of the glen,
+  Where bickers the burnie, I'll meet thee again."
+
+The road was now apparently left open; for the mule collected herself,
+and changed from her posture of terror to one which promised advance,
+although a profuse perspiration, and general trembling of the joints,
+indicated the bodily terror she had undergone.
+
+"I used to doubt the existence of Cabalists and Rosicrucians," thought
+the Sub-Prior, "but, by my Holy Order, I know no longer what to say!--
+My pulse beats temperately--my hand is cool--I am fasting from
+everything but sin, and possessed of my ordinary faculties--Either
+some fiend is permitted to bewilder me, or the tales of Cornelius
+Agrippa, Paracelsus, and others who treat of occult philosophy, are
+not without foundation.--At the crook of the glen? I could have
+desired to avoid a second meeting, but I am on the service of the
+Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against me."
+
+He moved around accordingly, but with precaution, and not without
+fear; for he neither knew the manner in which, or the place where his
+journey might be next interrupted by his invisible attendant. He
+descended the glen without interruption for about a mile farther,
+when, just at the spot where the brook approached the steep hill, with
+a winding so abrupt as to leave scarcely room for a horse to pass, the
+mule was again visited with the same symptoms of terror which had
+before interrupted her course. Better acquainted than before with the
+cause of her restiveness, the Priest employed no effort to make her
+proceed, but addressed himself to the object, which he doubted not was
+the same that had formerly interrupted him, in the words of solemn
+exorcism prescribed by the Church of Rome on such occasions.
+
+In reply to his demand, the voice again sung;--
+
+  "Men of good are bold as sackless,[Footnote: Sackless--Innocent.]
+  Men of rude are wild and reckless,
+      Lie thou still
+      In the nook of the hill.
+  For those be before thee that wish thee ill."
+
+While the Sub-Prior listened, with his head turned in the direction
+from which the sounds seemed to come, he felt as if something rushed
+against him; and ere he could discover the cause, he was pushed from
+his saddle with gentle but irresistible force. Before he reached the
+ground his senses were gone, and he lay long in a state of
+insensibility; for the sunset had not ceased to gild the top of the
+distant hill when he fell,--and when he again became conscious of
+existence, the pale moon was gleaming on the landscape. He awakened in
+a state of terror, from which, for a few minutes, he found it
+difficult to shake himself free. At length he sate upon the grass, and
+became sensible, by repeated exertion, that the only personal injury
+which he had sustained was the numbness arising from extreme cold. The
+motion of something near him made the blood again run to his heart,
+and by a sudden effort he started up, and, looking around, saw to his
+relief that the noise was occasioned by the footsteps of his own mule.
+The peaceable animal had remained quietly beside her master during his
+trance, browsing on the grass which grew plentifully in that
+sequestered nook.
+
+With some exertion he collected himself, remounted the animal, and
+meditating upon his wild adventure, descended the glen till its
+junction with the broader valley through which the Tweed winds. The
+drawbridge was readily dropped at his first summons; and so much had
+he won upon the heart of the churlish warden, that Peter appeared
+himself with a lantern to show the Sub-Prior his way over the perilous
+pass.
+
+"By my sooth, sir," he said, holding the light up to Father Eustace's
+face, "you look sorely travelled and deadly pale--but a little matter
+serves to weary out you men of the cell. I now who speak to you--I
+have ridden--before I was perched up here on this pillar betwixt wind
+and water--it may be thirty Scots miles before I broke my fast, and
+have had the red of a bramble rose in my cheek all the while--But will
+you taste some food, or a cup of distilled waters?"
+
+"I may not," said Father Eustace, "being under a vow; but I thank you
+for your kindness, and pray you to give what I may not accept to the
+next poor pilgrim who comes hither pale and fainting, for so it shall
+be the better both with him here, and with you hereafter."
+
+"By my faith, and I will do so," said Peter Bridge-Ward, "even for thy
+sake--It is strange now, how this Sub-Prior gets round one's heart
+more than the rest of these cowled gentry, that think of nothing but
+quaffing and stuffing!--Wife, I say--wife, we will give a cup of
+distilled waters and a crust of bread unto the next pilgrim that comes
+over; and ye may keep for [Footnote: An old-fashioned name for an
+earthen jar for holding spirits.] the purpose the grunds of the last
+greybeard, and the ill-baked bannock which the bairns couldna eat."
+
+While Peter issued these charitable, and, at the same time, prudent
+injunctions, the Sub-Prior, whose mild interference had awakened the
+Bridge-Ward to such an act of unwonted generosity, was pacing onward
+to the Monastery. In the way, he had to commune with and subdue his
+own rebellious heart, an enemy, he was sensible, more formidable than
+any which the external powers of Satan could place in his way.
+
+Father Eustace had indeed strong temptation to suppress the
+extraordinary incident which had befallen him, which he was the more
+reluctant to confess, because he had passed so severe a judgment upon
+Father Philip, who, as he was not unwilling to allow, had, on his
+return from Glendearg, encountered obstacles somewhat similar to his
+own. Of this the Sub-Prior was the more convinced, when, feeling in
+his bosom for the Book which he had brought off from the Tower of
+Glendearg, he found it was amissing, which he could only account for
+by supposing it had been stolen from him during his trance.
+
+"If I confess this strange visitation," thought the Sub-Prior, "I
+become the ridicule of all my brethren--I whom the Primate sent hither
+to be a watch, as it were, and a check upon their follies. I give the
+Abbot an advantage over me which I shall never again recover, and
+Heaven only knows how he may abuse it, in his foolish simplicity, to
+the dishonour and loss of Holy Kirk.--But then, if I make not true
+confession of my shame, with what face can I again presume to admonish
+or restrain others?--Avow, proud heart," continued he, addressing
+himself, "that the weal of Holy Church interests thee less in this
+matter than thine own humiliation--Yes, Heaven has punished thee even
+in that point in which thou didst deem thyself most strong, in thy
+spiritual pride and thy carnal wisdom. Thou hast laughed at and
+derided the inexperience of thy brethren--stoop thyself in turn to
+their derision--tell what they may not believe--affirm that which they
+will ascribe to idle fear, or perhaps to idle falsehood--sustain the
+disgrace of a silly visionary, or a wilful deceiver.--Be it so, I will
+do my duty, and make ample confession to my Superior. If the discharge
+of this duty destroys my usefulness in this house, God and Our Lady
+will send me where I can better serve them."
+
+There was no little merit in the resolution thus piously and
+generously formed by Father Eustace. To men of any rank the esteem of
+their order is naturally most dear; but in the monastic establishment,
+cut off, as the brethren are, from other objects of ambition, as well
+as from all exterior friendship and relationship, the place which they
+hold in the opinion of each other is all in all.
+
+But the consciousness how much he should rejoice the Abbot and most of
+the other monks of Saint Mary's, who were impatient of the
+unauthorized, yet irresistible control, which he was wont to exercise
+in the affairs of the convent, by a confession which would put him in
+a ludicrous, or perhaps even in a criminal point of view, could not
+weigh with Father Eustace in comparison with the task which his belief
+enjoined.
+
+As, strong in his feelings of duty, he approached the exterior gate of
+the Monastery, he was surprised to see torches gleaming, and men
+assembled around it, some on horseback, some on foot, while several of
+the monks, distinguished through the night by their white scapularies,
+were making themselves busy among the crowd. The Sub-Prior was
+received with a unanimous shout of joy, which at once made him
+sensible that he had himself been the object of their anxiety.
+
+"There he is! there he is! God be thanked--there he is, hale and
+fear!" exclaimed the vassals; while the monks exclaimed, "_Te Deum
+laudamus_--the blood of thy servants is precious in thy sight!"
+
+"What is the matter, children? what is the matter, my brethren?" said
+Father Eustace, dismounting at the gate.
+
+"Nay, brother, if thou know'st not, we will not tell thee till thou
+art in the refectory," answered the monks; "suffice it that the Lord
+Abbot had ordered these, our zealous and faithful vassals, instantly
+to set forth to guard thee from imminent peril--Ye may ungirth your
+horses, children, and dismiss; and to-morrow, each who was at this
+rendezvous may send to the convent kitchen for a quarter of a yard of
+roast beef, and a black-jack full of double ale." [Footnote: It was
+one of the few reminiscences of Old Parr, or Henry Jenkins, I forget
+which, that, at some convent in the veteran's neighbourhood, the
+community, before the dissolution, used to dole out roast-beef in the
+measure of feet and yards.]
+
+The vassals dispersed with joyful acclamation, and the monks, with equal
+jubilee, conducted the Sub-Prior into the refectory.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Tenth.
+
+
+  Here we stand--
+  Woundless and well, may Heaven's high name be bless'd for't!
+  As erst, ere treason couch'd a lance against us.
+                                                  Decker.
+
+No sooner was the Sub-Prior hurried into the refectory by his
+rejoicing companions, than the first person on whom he fixed his eye
+proved to be Christie of the Clinthill. He was seated in the
+chimney-corner, fettered and guarded, his features drawn into that air
+of sulky and turbid resolution with which those hardened in guilt are
+accustomed to view the approach of punishment. But as the Sub-Prior
+drew near to him, his face assumed a more wild and startled
+expression, while he exclaimed--"The devil! the devil himself, brings
+the dead back upon the living."
+
+"Nay," said a monk to him, "say rather that Our Lady foils the
+attempts of the wicked on her faithful servants--our dear brother
+lives and moves."
+
+"Lives and moves!" said the ruffian, rising and shuffling towards the
+Sub-Prior as well as his chains would permit; "nay, then, I will never
+trust ashen shaft and steel point more--It is even so," he added, as he
+gazed on the Sub-Prior with astonishment; "neither wem nor wound--not
+as much as a rent in his frock!"
+
+"And whence should my wound have come?" said Father Eustace.
+
+"From the good lance that never failed me before," replied Christie of
+the Clinthill.
+
+"Heaven absolve thee for thy purpose!" said the Sub-Prior; "wouldst
+thou have slain a servant of the altar?"
+
+"To choose!" answered Christie; "the Fifemen say, an the whole pack
+of ye were slain, there were more lost at Flodden."
+
+"Villain! art thou heretic as well as murderer?"
+
+"Not I, by Saint Giles," replied the rider; "I listened blithely
+enough to the Laird of Monance, when he told me ye were all cheats and
+knaves; but when he would have had me go hear one Wiseheart, a
+gospeller as they call him, he might as well have persuaded the wild
+colt that had flung one rider to kneel down and help another into the
+saddle."
+
+"There is some goodness about him yet," said the Sacristan to the Abbot,
+who at that moment entered--"He refused to hear a heretic preacher."
+
+"The better for him in the next world," answered the Abbot. "Prepare
+for death, my son,--we deliver thee over to the secular arm of our
+bailie, for execution on the Gallow-hill by peep of light."
+
+"Amen!" said the ruffian; "'tis the end I must have come by sooner or
+later--and what care I whether I feed the crows at Saint Mary's or at
+Carlisle?"
+
+"Let me implore your reverend patience for an instant," said the
+Sub-Prior; "until I shall inquire--"
+
+"What!" exclaimed the Abbot, observing him for the first time--"Our
+dear brother restored to us when his life was unhoped for!--nay, kneel
+not to a sinner like me--stand up--thou hast my blessing. When this
+villain came to the gate, accused by his own evil conscience, and
+crying out he had murdered thee, I thought that the pillar of our main
+aisle had fallen--no more shall a life so precious be exposed to such
+risks as occur in this border country; no longer shall one beloved and
+rescued of Heaven hold so low a station in the church as that of a
+poor Sub-Prior--I will write by express to the Primate for thy speedy
+removal and advancement."
+
+"Nay, but let me understand," said the Sub-Prior; "did this soldier say
+he had slain me?"
+
+"That he had transfixed you," answered the Abbot, "in full career with
+his lance--but it seems he had taken an indifferent aim. But no sooner
+didst thou fall to the ground mortally gored, as he deemed, with his
+weapon, than our blessed Patroness appeared to him, as he averred--"
+
+"I averred no such thing," said the prisoner; "I said a woman in white
+interrupted me, as I was about to examine the priest's cassock, for
+they are usually well lined--she had a bulrush in her hand, with one
+touch of which she struck me from my horse, as I might strike down a
+child of four years old with an iron mace--and then, like a singing
+fiend as she was, she sung to me.
+
+  'Thank the holly-bush
+    That nods on thy brow;
+  Or with this slender rush
+    I had strangled thee now.'
+
+I gathered myself up with fear and difficulty, threw myself on my horse,
+and came hither like a fool to get myself hanged for a rogue."
+
+"Thou seest, honoured brother," said the Abbot to the Sub-Prior, "in
+what favour thou art with our blessed Patroness, that she herself
+becomes the guardian of thy paths--Not since the days of our blessed
+founder hath she shown such grace to any one. All unworthy were we to
+hold spiritual superiority over thee, and we pray thee to prepare for
+thy speedy removal to Aberbrothwick."
+
+"Alas! my lord and father," said the Sub-Prior, "your words pierce my
+very soul. Under the seal of confession will I presently tell thee why
+I conceive myself rather the baffled sport of a spirit of another
+sort, than the protected favourite of the heavenly powers. But first
+let me ask this unhappy man a question or two."
+
+"Do as ye list," replied the Abbot--"but you shall not convince me
+that it is fitting you remain in this inferior office in the convent
+of Saint Mary."
+
+"I would ask of this poor man," said Father Eustace, "for what purpose
+he nourished the thought of putting to death one who never did him
+evil?"
+
+"Ay! but thou didst menace me with evil," said the ruffian, "and no
+one but a fool is menaced twice. Dost thou not remember what you said
+touching the Primate and Lord James, and the black pool of Jedwood?
+Didst thou think me fool enough to wait till thou hadst betrayed me to
+the sack and the fork! There were small wisdom in that, methinks--as
+little as in coming hither to tell my own misdeeds--I think the devil
+was in me when I took this road--I might have remembered the proverb,
+'Never Friar forgot feud.'"
+
+"And it was solely for that--for that only hasty word of mine, uttered
+in a moment of impatience, and forgotten ere it was well spoken?" said
+Father Eustace.
+
+"Ay! for that, and--for the love of thy gold crucifix," said Christie of
+the Clinthill.
+
+"Gracious Heaven! and could the yellow metal--the glittering earth--
+so far overcome every sense of what is thereby represented?--Father
+Abbot, I pray, as a dear boon, you will deliver this guilty person to
+my mercy."
+
+"Nay, brother," interposed the Sacristan, "to your doom, if you will,
+not to your mercy--Remember, we are not all equally favoured by our
+blessed Lady, nor is it likely that every frock in the Convent will
+serve as a coat of proof when a lance is couched against it."
+
+"For that very reason," said the Sub-Prior, "I would not that for my
+worthless self the community were to fall at feud with Julian of Avenel,
+this man's master."
+
+"Our Lady forbid!" said the Sacristan, "he is a second Julian the
+Apostate."
+
+"With our reverend father the Abbot's permission, then," said Father
+Eustace, "I desire this man be freed from his chains, and suffered to
+depart uninjured;--and here, friend," he added, giving him the golden
+crucifix, "is the image for which thou wert willing to stain thy hands
+with murder.  View it well, and may it inspire thee with other and
+better thoughts than those which referred to it as a piece of bullion!
+Part with it, nevertheless, if thy necessities require, and get thee
+one of such coarse substance that Mammon shall have no share in any of
+the reflections to which it gives rise. It was the bequest of a dear
+friend to me; but dearer service can it never do than that of winning
+a soul to Heaven."
+
+The Borderer, now freed from his chains, stood gazing alternately on
+the Sub-Prior, and on the golden crucifix. "By Saint Giles," said he,
+"I understand ye not!--An ye give me gold for couching my lance at
+thee, what would you give me to level it at a heretic?"
+
+"The Church," said the Sub-Prior, "will try the effect of her
+spiritual censures to bring these stray sheep into the fold, ere she
+employ the edge of the sword of Saint Peter."
+
+"Ay, but," said the ruffian, "they say the Primate recommends a little
+strangling and burning in aid of both censure and of sword. But fare ye
+weel, I owe you a life, and it may be I will not forget my debt."
+
+The bailie now came bustling in, dressed in his blue coat and
+bandaliers, and attended by two or three halberdiers. "I have been a
+thought too late in waiting upon your reverend lordship. I am grown
+somewhat fatter since the field of Pinkie, and my leathern coat slips
+not on so soon as it was wont; but the dungeon is ready, and though,
+as I said, I have been somewhat late--"
+
+Here his intended prisoner walked gravely up to the officer's nose, to
+his great amazement.
+
+"You have been indeed somewhat late, bailie," said he, "and I am
+greatly obligated to your buff-coat, and to the time you took to put
+it on.  If the secular arm had arrived some quarter of an hour sooner,
+I had been out of the reach of spiritual grace; but as it is, I wish
+you good even, and a safe riddance out of your garment of durance, in
+which you have much the air of a hog in armour."
+
+Wroth was the bailie at this comparison, and exclaimed in ire--"An it
+were not for the presence of the venerable Lord Abbot, thou knave--"
+
+"Nay, an thou wouldst try conclusions," said Christie of the Clinthill,
+"I will meet thee at day-break by Saint Mary's Well."
+
+"Hardened wretch!" said Father Eustace, "art thou but this instant
+delivered from death, and dost thou so soon morse thoughts of
+slaughter?"
+
+"I will meet with thee ere it be long, thou knave," said the bailie,
+"and teach thee thine Oremus."
+
+"I will meet thy cattle in a moonlight night before that day," said he
+of the Clinthill.
+
+"I will have thee by the neck one misty morning, thou strong thief,"
+answered the secular officer of the Church.
+
+"Thou art thyself as strong a thief as ever rode," retorted Christie;
+"and if the worms were once feasting on that fat carcass of thine I
+might well hope to have thine office, by favour of these reverend
+men."
+
+"A cast of their office, and a cast of mine," answered the bailie; "a
+cord and a confessor, that is all thou wilt have from us."
+
+"Sirs," said the Sub-Prior, observing that his brethren began to take
+more interest than was exactly decorous in this wrangling betwixt
+justice and iniquity, "I pray you both to depart--Master Bailie,
+retire with your halberdiers, and trouble not the man whom we have
+dismissed.--And thou, Christie, or whatever be thy name, take thy
+departure, and remember thou owest thy life to the Lord Abbot's
+clemency."
+
+"Nay, as to that," answered Christie, "I judge that I owe it to your
+own; but impute it to whom ye list, I owe a life among ye, and there is
+an end." And whistling as he went, he left the apartment, seeming as if
+he held the life which he had forfeited not worthy further thanks.
+
+"Obstinate even to brutality!" said Father Eustace; "and yet who
+knows but some better ore may lie under so rude an exterior?"
+
+"Save a thief from the gallows," said the Sacristan--"you know the rest
+of the proverb; and admitting, as may Heaven grant, that our lives and
+limbs are safe from this outrageous knave, who shall insure our meal and
+our malt, our herds and our flocks?"
+
+"Marry, that will I, my brethren," said an aged monk. "Ah, brethren,
+you little know what may be made of a repentant robber. In Abbot
+Ingilram's days--ay, and I remember them as it were yesterday--the
+freebooters were the best welcome men that came to Saint Mary's. Ay,
+they paid tithe of every drove that they brought over from the South,
+and because they were something lightly come by, I have known them
+make the tithe a seventh--that is, if their confessor knew his
+business--ay, when we saw from the tower a score of fat bullocks, or a
+drove of sheep, coming down the valley, with two or three stout
+men-at-arms behind them with their glittering steel caps, and their
+black-jacks, and their long lances, the good Lord Abbot Ingilram was
+wont to say--he was a merry man--there come the tithes of the spoilers
+of the Egyptians! Ay, and I have seen the famous John the Armstrang--a
+fair man he was and a goodly, the more pity that hemp was ever heckled
+for him--I have seen him come into the Abbey-church with nine tassels
+of gold in his bonnet, and every tassel made of nine English nobles,
+and he would go from chapel to chapel, and from image to image, and
+from altar to altar, on his knees--and leave here a tassel, and there
+a noble, till there was as little gold on his bonnet as on my
+hood--you will find no such Border thieves now!"
+
+"No, truly, Brother Nicolas," answered the Abbot; "they are more apt
+to take any gold the Church has left, than to bequeath or bestow
+any--and for cattle, beshrew me if I think they care whether beeves
+have fed on the meadows of Lanercost Abbey or of Saint Mary's!"
+
+"There is no good thing left in them," said Father Nicolas; "they are
+clean naught--Ah, the thieves that I have seen!--such proper men! and
+as pitiful as proper, and as pious as pitiful!"
+
+"It skills not talking of it, Brother Nicolas," said the Abbot; "and I
+will now dismiss you, my brethren, holding your meeting upon this our
+inquisition concerning the danger of our reverend Sub-Prior, instead
+of the attendance on the lauds this evening--Yet let the bells be duly
+rung for the edification of the laymen without, and also that the
+novices may give due reverence.--And now, benedicite, brethren! The
+cellarer will bestow on each a grace-cup and a morsel as ye pass the
+buttery, for ye have been turmoiled and anxious, and dangerous it is
+to fall asleep in such case with empty stomach."
+
+"_Gratias agimus quam maximas, Domine reverendissime_," replied the
+brethren, departing in their due order.
+
+But the Sub-Prior remained behind, and falling on his knees before the
+Abbot, as he was about to withdraw, craved him to hear under the seal
+of confession the adventures of the day. The reverend Lord Abbot
+yawned, and would have alleged fatigue; but to Father Eustace, of all
+men, he was ashamed to show indifference in his religious duties. The
+confession, therefore, proceeded, in which Father Eustace told all the
+extraordinary circumstances which had befallen him during the journey.
+And being questioned by the Abbot, whether he was not conscious of any
+secret sin, through which he might have been subjected for a time to
+the delusions of evil spirits, the Sub-Prior admitted, with frank
+avowal, that he thought he might have deserved such penance for having
+judged with unfraternal rigour of the report of Father Philip the
+Sacristan.
+
+"Heaven," said the penitent, "may have been willing to convince me,
+not only that he can at pleasure open a communication betwixt us and
+beings of a different, and, as we word it, supernatural class, but
+also to punish our pride of superior wisdom, or superior courage, or
+superior learning."
+
+It is well said that virtue is its own reward; and I question if duty
+was ever more completely recompensed, than by the audience which the
+reverend Abbot so unwillingly yielded to the confession of the
+Sub-Prior. To find the object of his fear shall we say, or of his
+envy, or of both, accusing himself of the very error with which he had
+so tacitly charged him, was a corroboration of the Abbot's judgment, a
+soothing of his pride, and an allaying of his fears. The sense of
+triumph, however, rather increased than diminished his natural
+good-humour; and so far was Abbot Boniface from being disposed to
+tyrannize over his Sub-Prior in consequence of this discovery, that in
+his exhortation he hovered somewhat ludicrously betwixt the natural
+expression of his own gratified vanity, and his timid reluctance to
+hurt the feelings of Father Eustace.
+
+"My brother," said he, _ex cathedra_, "it cannot have escaped
+your judicious observation, that we have often declined our own
+judgment in favour of your opinion, even about those matters which
+most nearly concerned the community. Nevertheless, grieved would we
+be, could you think that we did this, either because we deemed our own
+opinion less pregnant, or our wit more shallow, than that of our
+brethren. For it was done exclusively to give our younger brethren,
+such as your much esteemed self, my dearest brother, that courage
+which is necessary to a free deliverance of your opinion,--we ofttimes
+setting apart our proper judgment, that our inferiors, and especially
+our dear brother the Sub-Prior, may be comforted and encouraged in
+proposing valiantly his own thoughts.  Which our deference and
+humility may, in some sort, have produced in your mind, most reverend
+brother, that self-opinion of parts and knowledge, which hath led
+unfortunately to your over-estimating your own faculties, and thereby
+subjecting yourself, as is but too visible, to the japes and mockeries
+of evil spirits.  For it is assured that Heaven always holdeth us in
+the least esteem when we deem of ourselves most highly, and also, on
+the other hand, it may be that we have somewhat departed from what
+became our high seat in this Abbey, in suffering ourselves to be too
+much guided, and even, as it were, controlled, by the voice of our
+inferior. Wherefore," continued the Lord Abbot, "in both of us such
+faults shall and must be amended--you hereafter presuming less upon
+your gifts and carnal wisdom, and I taking heed not so easily to
+relinquish mine own opinion for that of one lower in place and in
+office. Nevertheless, we would not that we should thereby lose the
+high advantage which we have derived, and may yet derive, from your
+wise counsels, which hath been so often recommended to us by our most
+reverend Primate. Wherefore, on affairs of high moment, we will call
+you to our presence in private, and listen to your opinion, which, if
+it shall agree with our own, we will deliver to the Chapter as
+emanating directly from ourselves; thus sparing you, dearest brother,
+that seeming victory which is so apt to engender spiritual pride, and
+avoiding ourselves the temptation of falling into that modest facility
+of opinion, whereby our office is lessened and our person (were that
+of consequence) rendered less important in the eyes of the community
+over which we preside."
+
+Notwithstanding the high notions which, as a rigid Catholic, Father
+Eustace entertained of the sacrament of confession, as his Church
+calls it, there was some danger that a sense of the ridiculous might
+have stolen on him, when he heard his Superior, with such simple
+cunning, lay out a little plan for availing himself of the Sub-Prior's
+wisdom and experience, while he should take the whole credit to
+himself. Yet his conscience immediately told him he was right.
+
+"I should have thought more," he reflected, "of the spiritual
+Superior, and less of the individual. I should have spread my mantle
+over the frailties of my spiritual father, and done what I might to
+support his character, and, of course, to extend his utility among the
+brethren, as well as with others. The Abbot cannot be humbled, but
+what the community must be humbled in his person. Her boast is, that
+over all her children, especially over those called to places of
+distinction, she can diffuse those gifts which are necessary to render
+them illustrious."
+
+Actuated by these sentiments, Father Eustace frankly assented to the
+charge which his Superior, even in that moment of authority, had
+rather intimated than made, and signified his humble acquiescence in
+any mode of communicating his counsel which might be most agreeable to
+the Lord Abbot, and might best remove from himself all temptation to
+glory in his own wisdom. He then prayed the reverend Father to assign
+him such penance as might best suit his offence, intimating, at the
+same time, that he had already fasted the whole day.
+
+"And it is that I complain of," answered the Abbot, instead of giving
+him credit for his abstinence; "it is these very penances, fasts, and
+vigils, of which we complain; as tending only to generate airs and
+fumes of vanity, which, ascending from the stomach into the head, do
+but puff us up with vain-glory and self-opinion. It is meet and
+beseeming that novices should undergo fasts and vigils; for some part
+of every community must fast, and young stomachs may best endure it.
+Besides, in them it abates wicked thoughts, and the desire of worldly
+delights. But, reverend brother, for those to fast who are dead and
+mortified to the world, as I and thou, is work of supererogation, and
+is but the matter of spiritual pride. Wherefore, I enjoin thee, most
+reverend brother, go to the buttery and drink two cups at least of
+good wine, eating withal a comfortable morsel, such as may best suit
+thy taste and stomach. And in respect that thine opinion of thy own
+wisdom hath at times made thee less conformable to, and companionable
+with, the weaker and less learned brethren, I enjoin thee, during the
+said repast, to choose for thy companion, our reverend brother
+Nicolas, and without interruption or impatience, to listen for a
+stricken hour to his narration, concerning those things which befel in
+the times of our venerable predecessor, Abbot Ingilram, on whose soul
+may Heaven have mercy! And for such holy exercises as may farther
+advantage your soul, and expiate the faults whereof you have
+contritely and humbly avowed yourself guilty, we will ponder upon that
+matter, and announce our will unto you the next morning."
+
+It was remarkable, that after this memorable evening, the feelings of
+the worthy Abbot towards his adviser were much more kindly and
+friendly than when he deemed the Sub-Prior the impeccable and
+infallible person, in whose garment of virtue and wisdom no flaw was
+to be discerned. It seemed as if this avowal of his own imperfections
+had recommended Father Eustace to the friendship of the Superior,
+although at the same time this increase of benevolence was attended
+with some circumstances, which, to a man of the Sub-Prior's natural
+elevation of mind and temper, were more grievous than even undergoing
+the legends of the dull and verbose Father Nicolas. For instance, the
+Abbot seldom mentioned him to the other monks, without designing him
+our beloved Brother Eustace, poor man!--and now and then he used to
+warn the younger brethren against the snares of vainglory and
+spiritual pride, which Satan sets for the more rigidly righteous, with
+such looks and demonstrations as did all but expressly designate the
+Sub-Prior as one who had fallen at one time under such delusions. Upon
+these occasions, it required all the votive obedience of a monk, all
+the philosophical discipline of the schools, and all the patience of a
+Christian, to enable Father Eustace to endure the pompous and
+patronizing parade of his honest, but somewhat thick-headed Superior.
+He began himself to be desirous of leaving the Monastery, or at least
+he manifestly declined to interfere with its affairs, in that marked
+and authoritative manner, which he had at first practised.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chapter the Eleventh.
+
+
+    You call this education, do you not?
+    Why 'tis the forced march of a herd of bullocks
+    Before a shouting drover. The glad van
+    Move on at ease, and pause a while to snatch
+    A passing morsel from the dewy greensward,
+    While all the blows, the oaths, the indignation,
+    Fall on the croupe of the ill-fated laggard
+    That cripples in the rear.
+                                          OLD PLAY.
+
+Two or three years glided on, during which the storm of the
+approaching alteration in church government became each day louder and
+more perilous. Owing to the circumstances which we have intimated in
+the end of the last chapter, the Sub-Prior Eustace appeared to have
+altered considerably his habits of life. He afforded, on all
+extraordinary occasions, to the Abbot, whether privately, or in the
+assembled Chapter, the support of his wisdom and experience; but in
+his ordinary habits he seemed now to live more for himself, and less
+for the community, than had been his former practice.
+
+He often absented himself for whole days from the convent; and as the
+adventure of Glendearg dwelt deeply on his memory, he was repeatedly
+induced to visit that lonely tower, and to take an interest in the
+orphans who had their shelter under its roof. Besides, he felt a deep
+anxiety to know whether the volume which he had lost, when so
+strangely preserved from the lance of the murderer, had again found
+its way back to the Tower of Glendearg. "It was strange," he thought,
+"that a spirit," for such he could not help judging the being whose
+voice he had heard, "should, on the one side, seek the advancement of
+heresy, and, on the other, interpose to save the life of a zealous
+Catholic priest."
+
+But from no inquiry which he made of the various inhabitants of the
+Tower of Glendearg could he learn that the copy of the translated
+Scriptures, for which he made such diligent inquiry, had again been
+seen by any of them.
+
+In the meanwhile, the good father's occasional visits were of no small
+consequence to Edward Glendinning and to Mary Avenel. The former
+displayed a power of apprehending and retaining whatever was taught
+him, which tilled Father Eustace with admiration. He was at once acute
+and industrious, alert and accurate; one of those rare combinations of
+talent and industry, which are seldom united.
+
+It was the earnest desire of Father Eustace that the excellent
+qualities thus early displayed by Edward should be dedicated to the
+service of the Church, to which he thought the youth's own consent
+might be easily obtained, as he was of a calm, contemplative, retired
+habit, and seemed to consider knowledge as the principal object, and
+its enlargement as the greatest pleasure, in life. As to the mother,
+the Sub-Prior had little doubt that, trained as she was to view the
+monks of Saint Mary's with such profound reverence, she would be but
+too happy in an opportunity of enrolling one of her sons in its
+honoured community. But the good Father proved to be mistaken in both
+these particulars.
+
+When he spoke to Elspeth Glendinning of that which a mother best loves
+to hear--the proficiency and abilities of her son--she listened with a
+delighted ear. But when Father Eustace hinted at the duty of
+dedicating to the service of the Church, talents which seemed fitted
+to defend and adorn it, the dame endeavoured always to shift the
+subject; and when pressed farther, enlarged on her own incapacity, as
+a lone woman, to manage the feu; on the advantage which her neighbours
+of the township were often taking of her unprotected state, and on the
+wish she had that Edward might fill his father's place, remain in the
+tower, and close her eyes.
+
+On such occasions the Sub-Prior would answer, that even in a worldly
+point of view the welfare of the family would be best consulted by one
+of the sons entering into the community of Saint Mary's, as it was not
+to be supposed that he would fail to afford his family the important
+protection which he could then easily extend towards them. What could
+be a more pleasing prospect than to see him high in honour? or what
+more sweet than to have the last duties rendered to her by a son,
+reverend for his holiness of life and exemplary manners? Besides, he
+endeavoured to impress upon the dame, that her eldest son, Halbert,
+whose bold temper and headstrong indulgence of a wandering humour,
+rendered him incapable of learning, was, for that reason, as well as
+that he was her eldest born, fittest to bustle through the affairs of
+the world, and manage the little fief.
+
+Elspeth durst not directly dissent from what was proposed, for fear of
+giving displeasure, and yet she always had something to say against it.
+Halbert, she said, was not like any of the neighbour boys--he was
+taller by the head, and stronger by the half, than any boy of his
+years within the Halidome. But he was fit for no peaceful work that
+could be devised.  If he liked a book ill, he liked a plough or a
+pattle worse. He had scoured his father's old broadsword--suspended it
+by a belt round his waist, and seldom stirred without it. He was a
+sweet boy and a gentle if spoken fair, but cross him and he was a born
+devil. "In a word," she said, bursting into tears, "deprive me of
+Edward, good father, and ye bereave my house of prop and pillar; for
+my heart tells me that Halbert will take to his father's gates, and
+die his father's death."
+
+When the conversation came to this crisis, the good-humoured monk was
+always content to drop the discussion for the time, trusting some
+opportunity would occur of removing her prejudices, for such he
+thought them, against Edward's proposed destination.
+
+When, leaving the mother, the Sub-Prior addressed himself to the son,
+animating his zeal for knowledge, and pointing out how amply it might
+be gratified should he agree to take holy orders, he found the same
+repugnance which Dame Elspeth had exhibited. Edward pleaded a want of
+sufficient vocation to so serious a profession--his reluctance to
+leave his mother, and other objections, which the Sub-Prior treated as
+evasive.
+
+"I plainly perceive," he said one day, in answer to them, "that the
+devil has his factors as well as Heaven, and that they are equally,
+or, alas! the former are perhaps more active, in bespeaking for their
+master the first of the market. I trust, young man, that neither
+idleness, nor licentious pleasure, nor the love of worldly gain and
+worldly grandeur, the chief baits with which the great Fisher of souls
+conceals his hook, are the causes of your declining the career to
+which I would incite you. But above all I trust--above all I
+hope--that the vanity of superior knowledge--a sin with which those
+who have made proficiency in learning are most frequently beset--has
+not led you into the awful hazard of listening to the dangerous
+doctrines which are now afloat concerning religion. Better for you
+that you were as grossly ignorant as the beasts which perish, that
+that the pride of knowledge should induce you to lend an ear to the
+voice of heretics." Edward Glendinning listened to the rebuke with a
+downcast look, and failed not, when it was concluded, earnestly to
+vindicate himself from the charge of having pushed his studies into
+any subjects which the Church inhibited; and so the monk was left to
+form vain conjectures respecting the cause of his reluctance to
+embrace the monastic state.
+
+It is an old proverb, used by Chaucer, and quoted by Elizabeth, that
+"the greatest clerks are not the wisest men;" and it is as true as if
+the poet had not rhymed, or the queen reasoned on it. If Father
+Eustace had not had his thoughts turned so much to the progress of
+heresy, and so little to what was passing in the tower, he might have
+read, in the speaking eyes of Mary Avenel, now a girl of fourteen or
+fifteen, reasons which might disincline her youthful companion towards
+the monastic vows. I have said, that she also was a promising pupil of
+the good father, upon whom her innocent and infantine beauty had an
+effect of which he was himself, perhaps, unconscious. Her rank and
+expectations entitled her to be taught the arts of reading and
+writing;--and each lesson which the monk assigned her was conned over
+in company with Edward, and by him explained and re-explained, and
+again illustrated, until she became perfectly mistress of it.
+
+In the beginning of their studies, Halbert had been their school
+companion.  But the boldness and impatience of his disposition soon
+quarrelled with an occupation in which, without assiduity and
+unremitted attention, no progress was to be expected. The Sub-Prior's
+visits were at regular intervals, and often weeks would intervene
+between them, in which case Halbert was sure to forget all that had
+been prescribed for him to learn, and much which he had partly
+acquired before. His deficiencies on these occasions gave him pain,
+but it was not of that sort which produces amendment.
+
+For a time, like all who are fond of idleness, he endeavoured to
+detach the attention of his brother and Mary Avenel from their task,
+rather than to learn his own, and such dialogues as the following
+would ensue:
+
+"Take your bonnet, Edward, and make haste--the Laird of Colmslie is
+at the head of the glen with his hounds."
+
+"I care not, Halbert," answered the younger brother; "two brace of dogs
+may kill a deer without my being there to see them, and I must help Mary
+Avenel with her lesson."
+
+"Ay! you will labour at the monk's lessons till you turn monk yourself,"
+answered Halbert.--"Mary, will you go with me, and I will show you the
+cushat's nest I told you of?"
+
+"I cannot go with you, Halbert," answered Mary, "because I must study
+this lesson--it will take me long to learn it--I am sorry I am so
+dull, for if I could get my task as fast as Edward, I should like to
+go with you."
+
+"Should you indeed?" said Halbert; "then I will wait for you--and,
+what is more, I will try to get my lesson also."
+
+With a smile and a sigh he took up the primer, and began heavily to
+con over the task which had been assigned him. As if banished from the
+society of the two others, he sat sad and solitary in one of the deep
+window-recesses, and after in vain struggling with the difficulties of
+his task, and his disinclination to learn it, he found himself
+involuntarily engaged in watching the movements of the other two
+students, instead of toiling any longer.
+
+The picture which Halbert looked upon was delightful in itself, but
+somehow or other it afforded very little pleasure to him. The
+beautiful girl, with looks of simple, yet earnest anxiety, was bent on
+disentangling those intricacies which obstructed her progress to
+knowledge, and looking ever and anon to Edward for assistance, while,
+seated close by her side, and watchful to remove every obstacle from
+her way, he seemed at once to be proud of the progress which his pupil
+made, and of the assistance which he was able to render her. There was
+a bond betwixt them, a strong and interesting tie, the desire of
+obtaining knowledge, the pride of surmounting difficulties.
+
+Feeling most acutely, yet ignorant of the nature and source of his own
+emotions, Halbert could no longer endure to look upon this quiet
+scene, but, starting up, dashed his book from him, and exclaimed
+aloud, "To the fiend I bequeath all books, and the dreamers that make
+them!--I would a score of Southrons would come up the glen, and we
+should learn how little all this muttering and scribbling is worth."
+
+Mary Avenol and his brother started, and looked at Halbert with
+surprise, while he went on with great animation, his features
+swelling, and the tears starting into his eyes as he spoke.--"Yes,
+Mary--I wish a score of Southrons came up the glen this very day; and
+you should see one good hand, and one good sword, do more to protect
+you, than all the books that were ever opened, and all the pens that
+ever grew on a goose's wing."
+
+Mary looked a little surprised and a little frightened at his
+vehemence, but instantly replied affectionately, "You are vexed,
+Halbert, because you do not get your lesson so fast as Edward can; and
+so am I, for I am as stupid as you--But come, and Edward shall sit
+betwixt us and teach us."
+
+"He shall not teach _me_," said Halbert, in the same angry mood;
+"I never can teach _him_ to do any thing that is honourable and
+manly, and he shall not teach _me_ any of his monkish tricks.--I
+hate the monks, with their drawling nasal tone like so many frogs, and
+their long black petticoats like so many women, and their reverences,
+and their lordships, and their lazy vassals that do nothing but peddle
+in the mire with plough and harrow from Yule to Michaelmas. I will
+call none lord, but him who wears a sword to make his title good; and
+I will call none man, but he that can bear himself manlike and
+masterful."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, peace, brother!" said Edward; "if such words were
+taken up and reported out of the house, they would be our mother's
+ruin."
+
+"Report them yourself, then, and they will be _your_ making, and
+nobody's marring save mine own. Say that Halbert Glendinning will
+never be vassal to an old man with a cowl and shaven crown, while
+there are twenty barons who wear casque and plume that lack bold
+followers. Let them grant you these wretched acres, and much meal may
+they bear you to make your _brachan_." He left the room hastily,
+but instantly returned, and continued to speak with the same tone of
+quick and irritated feeling. "And you need not think so much, neither
+of you, and especially you, Edward, need not think so much of your
+parchment book there, and your cunning in reading it. By my faith, I
+will soon learn to read as well as you; and--for I know a better
+teacher than your grim old monk, and a better book than his printed
+breviary; and since you like scholarcraft so well, Mary Avenel, you
+shall see whether Edward or I have most of it." He left the apartment,
+and came not again.
+
+"What can be the matter with him?" said Mary, following Halbert with
+her eyes from the window, as with hasty and unequal steps he ran up the
+wild glen--"Where can your brother be going, Edward?--what book?--
+what teacher does he talk of?"
+
+"It avails not guessing," said Edward. "Halbert is angry, he knows not
+why, and speaks of he knows not what; let us go again to our lessons,
+and he will come home when he has tired himself with scrambling among
+the crags as usual."
+
+But Mary's anxiety on account of Halbert seemed more deeply rooted.
+She declined prosecuting the task in which they had been so pleasingly
+engaged, under the excuse of a headache; nor could Edward prevail upon
+her to resume it again that morning.
+
+Meanwhile Halbert, his head unbonneted, his features swelled with
+jealous anger, and the tear still in his eye, sped up the wild and
+upper extremity of the little valley of Glendearg with the speed of a
+roebuck, choosing, as if in desperate defiance of the difficulties of
+the way, the wildest and most dangerous paths, and voluntarily
+exposing himself a hundred times to dangers which he might have
+escaped by turning a little aside from them.  It seemed as if he
+wished his course to be as straight as that of the arrow to its mark.
+
+He arrived at length in a narrow and secluded _cleuch_, or deep
+ravine, which ran down into the valley, and contributed a scanty
+rivulet to the supply of the brook with which Glendearg is watered. Up
+this he sped with the same precipitate haste which had marked his
+departure from the tower, nor did he pause and look around until he
+had reached the fountain from which the rivulet had its rise.
+
+Here Halbert stopt short, and cast a gloomy, and almost a frightened
+glance around him. A huge rock rose in front, from a cleft of which
+grew a wild holly-tree, whose dark green branches rustled over the
+spring which arose beneath. The banks on either hand rose so high, and
+approached each other so closely, that it was only when the sun was at
+its meridian height, and during the summer solstice, that its rays
+could reach the bottom of the chasm in which he stood. But it was now
+summer, and the hour was noon, so that the unwonted reflection of the
+sun was dancing in the pellucid fountain.
+
+"It is the season and the hour," said Halbert to himself; "and now
+I--I might soon become wiser than Edward with all his pains! Mary
+should see whether he alone is fit to be consulted, and to sit by her
+side, and hang over her as she reads, and point out every word and
+every letter.  And she loves me better than him--I am sure she
+does--for she comes of noble blood, and scorns sloth and
+cowardice.--And do I myself not stand here slothful and cowardly as
+any priest of them all?--Why should I fear to call upon this
+form--this shape?--Already have I endured the vision, and why not
+again? What can it do to me, who am a man of lith and limb, and have
+by my side my father's sword? Does my heart beat--do my hairs bristle,
+at the thought of calling up a painted shadow, and how should I face a
+band of Southrons in flesh and blood? By the soul of the first
+Glendinning, I will make proof of the charm!"
+
+He cast the leathern brogue or buskin from his right foot, planted
+himself in a firm posture, unsheathed his sword, and first looking
+around to collect his resolution, he bowed three times deliberately
+towards the holly-tree, and as often to the little fountain, repeating
+at the same time, with a determined voice, the following rhyme:
+
+  "Thrice to the holly brake--
+  Thrice to the well:--
+  I bid thee awake,
+  White Maid of Avenel!
+
+  "Noon gleams on the Lake--
+  Noon glows on the Fell--
+  Wake thee, O wake,
+  White Maid of Avenel!"
+
+These lines were hardly uttered, when there stood the figure of a female
+clothed in white, within three steps of Halbert Glendinning.
+
+  "I guess'twas frightful there to see
+  A lady richly clad as she--
+  Beautiful exceedingly." [Footnote: Coleridge's Christabelle.]
+
+       *       *       *       *      *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twelfth.
+
+
+  There's something in that ancient superstition,
+  Which, erring as it is, our fancy loves.
+  The spring that, with its thousand crystal bubbles,
+  Bursts from the bosom of some desert rock
+  In secret solitude, may well be deem'd
+  The haunt of something purer, more refined,
+  And mightier than ourselves.
+              OLD PLAY.
+
+Young Halbert Glendinning had scarcely pronounced the mystical rhymes,
+than, as we have mentioned in the conclusion of the last chapter, an
+appearance, as of a beautiful female, dressed in white, stood within
+two yards of him. His terror for the moment overcame his natural
+courage, as well as the strong resolution which he had formed, that
+the figure which he had now twice seen should not a third time daunt
+him. But it would seem there is something thrilling and abhorrent to
+flesh and blood, in the consciousness that we stand in presence of a
+being in form like to ourselves, but so different in faculties and
+nature, that we can neither understand its purposes, nor calculate its
+means of pursuing them.
+
+Halbert stood silent and gasped for breath, his hairs erecting
+themselves on his head---his mouth open--his eyes fixed, and, as the
+sole remaining sign of his late determined purpose, his sword pointed
+towards the apparition.  At length with a voice of ineffable
+sweetness, the White Lady, for by that name we shall distinguish this
+being, sung, or rather chanted, the following lines:--
+
+  "Youth of the dark eye, wherefore didst thou call me?
+  Wherefore art thou here, if terrors can appal thee?
+  He that seeks to deal with us must know no fear nor failing!
+  To coward and churl our speech is dark, our gifts are unavailing.
+  The breeze that brought me hither now, must sweep Egyptian ground,
+  The fleecy cloud on which I ride for Araby is bound;
+  The fleecy cloud is drifting by, the breeze sighs for my stay,
+  For I must sail a thousand miles before the close of day."
+
+The astonishment of Halbert began once more to give way to his
+resolution, and he gained voice enough to say, though with a faltering
+accent, "In the name of God, what art thou?" The answer was in melody
+of a different tone and measure:--
+
+  "What I am I must not show--
+  What I am thou couldst not know--
+  Something betwixt heaven and hell--
+  Something that neither stood nor fell--
+  Something that through thy wit or will
+  May work thee good--may work thee ill.
+  Neither substance quite nor shadow,
+  Haunting lonely moor and meadow,
+  Dancing; by the haunted spring,
+  Riding on the whirlwind's wing;
+  Aping in fantastic fashion
+  Every change of human passion,
+
+  While o'er our frozen minds they pass,
+  Like shadows from the mirror'd glass.
+  Wayward, fickle is our mood,
+  Hovering betwixt bad and good,
+  Happier than brief-dated man,
+  Living twenty times his span;
+  Far less happy, for we have
+  Help nor hope beyond the grave!
+  Man awakes to joy or sorrow;
+  Ours the sleep that knows no morrow.
+  This is all that I can show--
+  This is all that thou mayest know."
+
+The White Lady paused, and appeared to await an answer; but, as Halbert
+hesitated how to frame his speech, the vision seemed gradually to fade,
+and became more and more incorporeal. Justly guessing this to be a
+symptom of her disappearance, Halbert compelled himself to say,--"Lady,
+when I saw you in the glen, and when you brought back the black book of
+Mary Avenel, thou didst say I should one day learn to read it."
+
+The White Lady replied,
+
+  "Ay! and I taught thee the word and the spell,
+  To waken me here by the Fairies' Well,
+  But thou hast loved the heron and hawk,
+  More than to seek my haunted walk;
+  And thou hast loved the lance and the sword,
+  More than good text and holy word;
+  And thou hast loved the deer to track,
+  More than the lines and the letters black;
+  And thou art a ranger of moss and of wood,
+  And scornest the nurture of gentle blood."
+
+"I will do so no longer, fair maiden," said Halbert; "I desire to
+learn; and thou didst promise me, that when I did so desire, thou
+wouldst be my helper; I am no longer afraid of thy presence, and I am
+no longer regardless of instruction." As he uttered these words, the
+figure of the White Maiden grew gradually as distinct as it had been
+at first; and what had well-nigh faded into an ill-defined and
+colourless shadow, again assumed an appearance at least of corporeal
+consistency, although the hues were less vivid, and the outline of the
+figure less distinct and defined--so at least it seemed to
+Halbert--than those of an ordinary inhabitant of earth. "Wilt thou
+grant my request," he said, "fair Lady, and give to my keeping the
+holy book which Mary of Avenel has so often wept for?"
+
+The White Lady replied:
+
+  "Thy craven fear my truth accused,
+  Thine idlehood my trust abused;
+  He that draws to harbour late,
+  Must sleep without, or burst the gate.
+
+  There is a star for thee which burn'd.
+  Its influence wanes, its course is turn'd;
+  Valour and constancy alone
+  Can bring thee back the chance that's flown."
+
+"If I have been a loiterer, Lady," answered young Glendinning, "thou
+shalt now find me willing to press forward with double speed. Other
+thoughts have filled my mind, other thoughts have engaged my heart,
+within a brief period--and by Heaven, other occupations shall
+henceforward fill up my time. I have lived in this day the space of
+years--I came hither a boy--I will return a man--a man, such as may
+converse not only with his own kind, but with whatever God permits to
+be visible to him. I will learn the contents of that mysterious
+volume--I will learn why the Lady of Avenel loved it--why the priests
+feared, and would have stolen it--why thou didst twice recover it
+from their hands.--What mystery is wrapt in it?--Speak, I conjure
+thee!" The lady assumed an air peculiarly sad and solemn, as drooping
+her head, and folding her arms on her bosom, she replied:
+
+  "Within that awful volume lies
+  The mystery of mysteries!
+  Happiest they of human race,
+  To whom God has granted grace
+
+  To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
+  To lift the latch, and force the way;
+  And better had they ne'er been born,
+  Who read, to doubt, or read to scorn."
+
+"Give me the volume, Lady," said young Glendinning. "They call me
+idle--they call me dull--in this pursuit my industry shall not fail,
+nor, with God's blessing, shall my understanding. Give me the volume."
+The apparition again replied:
+
+  "Many a fathom dark and deep
+  I have laid the book to sleep;
+  Ethereal fires around it glowing--
+  Ethereal music ever flowing--
+    The sacred pledge of Heav'n
+      All things revere.
+      Each in his sphere,
+    Save man for whom 'twas giv'n:
+  Lend thy hand, and thou shalt spy
+  Things ne'er seen by mortal eye."
+
+Halbert Glendinning boldly reached his hand to the White Lady.
+
+"Fearest thou to go with me?" she said, as his hand trembled at the soft
+and cold touch of her own--
+
+  "Fearest thou to go with me?
+  Still it is free to thee
+    A peasant to dwell:
+  Thou mayst drive the dull steer,
+  And chase the king's deer,
+  But never more come near
+  This haunted well."
+
+"If what thou sayest be true," said the undaunted boy, "my destinies
+are higher than thine own. There shall be neither well nor wood which I
+dare not visit. No fear of aught, natural or supernatural, shall bar my
+path through my native valley."
+
+He had scarce uttered the words, when they both descended through the
+earth with a rapidity which took away Halbert's breath and every other
+sensation, saving that of being hurried on with the utmost velocity. At
+length they stopped with a shock so sudden, that the mortal journeyer
+through this unknown space must have been thrown down with violence,
+had he not been upheld by his supernatural companion.
+
+It was more than a minute, ere, looking around him, he beheld a
+grotto, or natural cavern, composed of the most splendid spars and
+crystals, which returned in a thousand prismatic hues the light of a
+brilliant flame that glowed on an altar of alabaster. This altar, with
+its fire, formed the central point of the grotto, which was of a round
+form, and very high in the roof, resembling in some respects the dome
+of a cathedral. Corresponding to the four points of the compass, there
+went off four long galleries, or arcades, constructed of the same
+brilliant materials with the dome itself, and the termination of which
+was lost in darkness.
+
+No human imagination can conceive, or words suffice to describe, the
+glorious radiance which, shot fiercely forth by the flame, was
+returned from so many hundred thousand points of reflection, afforded
+by the sparry pillars and their numerous angular crystals. The fire
+itself did not remain steady and unmoved, but rose and fell, sometimes
+ascending in a brilliant pyramid of condensed flame half way up the
+lofty expanse, and again fading into a softer and more rosy hue, and
+hovering, as it were, on the surface of the altar to collect its
+strength for another powerful exertion.  There was no visible fuel by
+which it was fed, nor did it emit either smoke or vapour of any kind.
+
+What was of all the most remarkable, the black volume so often
+mentioned lay not only unconsumed, but untouched in the slightest
+degree, amid this intensity of fire, which, while it seemed to be of
+force sufficient to melt adamant, had no effect whatever on the sacred
+book thus subjected to its utmost influence.
+
+The White Lady, having paused long enough to let young Glendinning
+take a complete survey of what was around him, now said in her usual
+chant,
+
+  "Here lies the volume thou boldly hast sought;
+  Touch it, and take it,--'twill dearly be bought!"
+
+Familiarized in some degree with marvels, and desperately desirous of
+showing the courage he had boasted, Halbert plunged his hand, without
+hesitation, into the flame, trusting to the rapidity of the motion, to
+snatch out the volume before the fire could greatly affect him. But he
+was much disappointed. The flame instantly caught upon his sleeve, and
+though he withdrew his hand immediately, yet his arm was so dreadfully
+scorched, that he had well-nigh screamed with pain. He suppressed the
+natural expression of anguish, however, and only intimated the agony
+which he felt by a contortion and a muttered groan. The White Lady
+passed her cold hand over his arm, and, ere she had finished the
+following metrical chant, his pain had entirely gone, and no mark of
+the scorching was visible:
+
+          "Rash thy deed,
+          Mortal weed
+    To immortal flames applying;
+          Rasher trust
+          Has thing of dust,
+    On his own weak worth relying:
+  Strip thee of such fences vain,
+  Strip, and prove thy luck, again."
+
+Obedient to what he understood to be the meaning of his conductress,
+Halbert bared his arm to the shoulder, throwing down the remains of
+his sleeve, which no sooner touched the floor on which he stood than
+it collected itself together, shrivelled itself up, and was without
+any visible fire reduced to light tinder, which a sudden breath of
+wind dispersed into empty space. The White Lady, observing the
+surprise of the youth, immediately repeated--
+
+  "Mortal warp and mortal woof.
+  Cannot brook this charmed roof;
+  All that mortal art hath wrought,
+  In our cell returns to nought.
+  The molten gold returns to clay,
+  The polish'd diamond melts away.
+  All is alter'd, all is flown,
+  Nought stands fast but truth alone.
+  Not for that thy quest give o'er:
+  Courage! prove thy chance once more."
+
+Imboldened by her words, Halbert Glendinning made a second effort,
+and, plunging his bare arm into the flame, took out the sacred volume
+without feeling either heat or inconvenience of any kind. Astonished,
+and almost terrified at his own success, he beheld the flame collect
+itself, and shoot up into one long and final stream, which seemed as
+if it would ascend to the very roof of the cavern, and then, sinking
+as suddenly, became totally extinguished. The deepest darkness ensued;
+but Halbert had no time to consider his situation, for the White Lady
+had already caught his hand, and they ascended to upper air with the
+same velocity with which they had sunk into the earth.
+
+They stood by the fountain in the Corri-nan-shian when they emerged
+from the bowels of the earth; but on casting a bewildered glance
+around him, the youth was surprised to observe, that the shadows had
+fallen far to the east, and that the day was well-nigh spent. He gazed
+on his conductress for explanation, but her figure began to fade
+before his eyes--her cheeks grew paler, her features less distinct,
+her form became shadowy, and blended itself with the mist which was
+ascending the hollow ravine.  What had late the symmetry of form, and
+the delicate, yet clear hues of feminine beauty, now resembled the
+flitting and pale ghost of some maiden who has died for love, as it is
+seen indistinctly and by moonlight, by her perjured lover.
+
+"Stay, spirit!" said the youth, imboldened by his success in the
+subterranean dome, "thy kindness must not leave me, as one encumbered
+with a weapon he knows not how to wield. Thou must teach me the art to
+read, and to understand this volume; else what avails it me that I
+possess it?"
+
+But the figure of the White Lady still waned before his eye, until it
+became an outline as pale and indistinct as that of the moon, when the
+winter morning is far advanced, and ere she had ended the following
+chant, she was entirely invisible:--
+
+  "Alas! alas!
+  Not ours the grace
+  These holy characters to trace:
+      Idle forms of painted air,
+      Not to us is given to share
+  The boon bestow'd on Adam's race!
+      With patience bide.
+      Heaven will provide
+  The fitting time, the fitting guide."
+
+The form was already gone, and now the voice itself had melted away in
+melancholy cadence, softening, as if the Being who spoke had been slowly
+wafted from the spot where she had commenced her melody.
+
+It was at this moment that Halbert felt the extremity of the terror
+which he had hitherto so manfully suppressed. The very necessity of
+exertion had given him spirit to make it, and the presence of the
+mysterious Being, while it was a subject of fear in itself, had
+nevertheless given him the sense of protection being near to him. It
+was when he could reflect with composure on what had passed, that a
+cold tremor shot across his limbs, his hair bristled, and he was
+afraid to look around lest he should find at his elbow something more
+frightful than the first vision. A breeze arising suddenly, realized
+the beautiful and wild idea of the most imaginative of our modern
+bards [Footnote: Coleridge.]--
+
+  It fann'd his cheek, it raised his hair,
+    Like a meadow pale in spring;
+  It mingled strangely with his fears,
+    Yet it fell like a welcoming.
+
+The youth stood silent and astonished for a few minutes. It seemed to
+him that the extraordinary Being he had seen, half his terror, half
+his protectress, was still hovering on the gale which swept past him,
+and that she might again make herself sensible to his organs of sight.
+"Speak!" he said, wildly tossing his arms, "speak yet again--be once
+more present, lovely vision!--thrice have I now seen thee, yet the
+idea of thy invisible presence around or beside me, makes my heart
+beat faster than if the earth yawned and gave up a demon."
+
+But neither sound nor appearance indicated the presence of the White
+Lady, and nothing preternatural beyond what he had already witnessed,
+was again audible or visible. Halbert, in the meanwhile, by the very
+exertion of again inviting the presence of this mysterious Being, had
+recovered his natural audacity. He looked around once more, and
+resumed his solitary path down the valley into whose recesses he had
+penetrated.
+
+Nothing could be more strongly contrasted than the storm of passion
+with which he had bounded over stock and crag, in order to plunge
+himself into the Corri-nan-shian, and the sobered mood in which he now
+returned homeward, industriously seeking out the most practicable
+path, not from a wish to avoid danger, but that he might not by
+personal toil distract his attention, deeply fixed on the
+extraordinary scene which he had witnessed. In the former case, he had
+sought by hazard and bodily exertion to indulge at once the fiery
+excitation of passion, and to banish the cause of the excitement from
+his recollection; while now he studiously avoided all interruption to
+his contemplative walk, lest the difficulty of the way should
+interfere with, or disturb, his own deep reflections. Thus slowly
+pacing forth his course, with the air of a pilgrim rather than of a
+deer-hunter, Halbert about the close of the evening regained his
+paternal tower.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirteenth.
+
+
+  The Miller was of manly make,
+    To meet him was na mows;
+  There durst na ten come him to take,
+    Sae noited he their pows.
+            CHRIST'S KIRK ON THE GREEN.
+
+It was after sunset, as we have already stated, when Halbert
+Glendinning returned to the abode of his father. The hour of dinner
+was at noon, and that of supper about an hour after sunset at this
+period of the year.  The former had passed without Halbert's
+appearing; but this was no uncommon circumstance, for the chase, or
+any other pastime which occurred, made Halbert a frequent neglecter of
+hours; and his mother, though angry and disappointed when she saw him
+not at table, was so much accustomed to his occasional absence, and
+knew so little how to teach him more regularity, that a testy
+observation was almost all the censure with which such omissions were
+visited.
+
+On the present occasion, however, the wrath of good Dame Elspeth
+soared higher than usual. It was not merely on account of the special
+tup's head and trotters, the haggis and the side of mutton, with which
+her table was set forth, but also because of the arrival of no less a
+person than Hob Miller, as he was universally termed, though the man's
+name was Happer.
+
+The object of the Miller's visit to the Tower of Glendearg was like
+the purpose of those embassies which potentates send to each other's
+courts, partly ostensible, partly politic. In outward show, Hob came
+to visit his friends of the Halidome, and share the festivity common
+among country folk, after the barn-yard has been filled, and to renew
+old intimacies by new conviviality. But in very truth he also came to
+have an eye upon the contents of each stack, and to obtain such
+information respecting the extent of the crop reaped and gathered in
+by each feuar, as might prevent the possibility of _abstracted
+multures_.
+
+All the world knows that the cultivators of each barony or regality,
+temporal or spiritual, in Scotland, are obliged to bring their corn to
+be grinded at the mill of the territory, for which they pay a heavy
+charge, called the _intown multures_. I could speak to the
+thirlage of _invecta et illata_ too, but let that pass. I have
+said enough to intimate that I talk not without book.  Those of the
+_Sucken_, or enthralled ground, were liable in penalties, if,
+deviating from this thirlage, (or thraldom,) they carried their grain
+to another mill. Now such another mill, erected on the lands of a
+lay-baron, lay within a tempting and convenient distance of Glendearg;
+and the Miller was so obliging, and his charges so moderate, that it
+required Hob Miller's utmost vigilance to prevent evasions of his
+right of monopoly.
+
+The most effectual means he could devise was this show of good
+fellowship and neighbourly friendship,--under colour of which he made
+his annual cruise through the barony--numbered every corn-stack, and
+computed its contents by the boll, so that he could give a shrewd hint
+afterwards whether or not the grist came to the right mill.
+
+Dame Elspeth, like her compeers, was obliged to take these domiciliary
+visits in the sense of politeness; but in her case they had not
+occurred since her husband's death, probably because the Tower of
+Glendearg was distant, and there was but a trifling quantity of arable
+or _infield_ land attached to it. This year there had been, upon
+some speculation of old Martin's, several bolls sown in the
+exit-field, which, the season being fine, had ripened remarkably well.
+Perhaps this circumstance occasioned the honest Miller's including
+Glendearg, on this occasion, in his annual round Dame Glendinning
+received with pleasure a visit which she used formerly only to endure
+with patience; and she had changed her view of the matter chiefly, if
+not entirely, because Hob had brought with him his daughter Mysie, of
+whose features she could give so slight an account, but whose dress
+she had described so accurately to the Sub-Prior.
+
+Hitherto this girl had been an object of very trifling consideration
+in the eyes of the good widow; but the Sub-Prior's particular and
+somewhat mysterious inquiries had set her brains to work on the
+subject of Mysie of the Mill; and she had here asked a broad question,
+and there she had thrown out an innuendo, and there again she had
+gradually led on to a conversation on the subject of poor Mysie. And
+from all inquiries and investigations she had collected, that Mysie
+was a dark-eyed, laughter-loving wench, with cherry-cheeks, and a skin
+as white as her father's finest bolted flour, out of which was made
+the Abbot's own wastel-bread. For her temper, she sung and laughed
+from morning to night; and for her fortune, a material article,
+besides that which the Miller might have amassed by means of his
+proverbial golden thumb, Mysie was to inherit a good handsome lump of
+land, with a prospect of the mill and mill-acres descending to her
+husband on an easy lease, if a fair word were spoken in season to the
+Abbot, and to the Prior, and to the Sub-Prior, and to the Sacristan,
+and so forth.
+
+By turning and again turning these advantages over in her own mind,
+Elspeth at length came to be of opinion, that the only way to save her
+son Halbert from a life of "spur, spear, and snaffle," as they called
+that of the border-riders, from the dint of a cloth-yard shaft, or the
+loop of an inch-cord, was, that he should marry and settle, and that
+Mysie Happer should be his destined bride.
+
+As if to her wish, Hob Miller arrived on his strong-built mare,
+bearing on a pillion behind him the lovely Mysie, with cheeks like a
+peony-rose, (if Dame Glendinning had ever seen one,) spirits all
+afloat with rustic coquetry, and a profusion of hair as black as
+ebony. The _beau-ideal_ which Dame Glendinning had been bodying
+forth in her imagination, became unexpectedly realized in the buxom
+form of Mysie Happer, whom, in the course of half an hour, she settled
+upon as the maiden who was to fix the restless and untutored Halbert.
+True, Mysie, as the dame soon saw, was like to love dancing round a
+May-pole as well as managing a domestic establishment, and Halbert was
+like to break more heads than he would grind stacks of corn. But then
+a miller should always be of manly make, and has been described so
+since the days of Chaucer and James I. [Footnote: The verse we have
+chosen for a motto, is from a poem imputed to James I. of Scotland. As
+for the Miller who figures among the Canterbury pilgrims, besides his
+sword and buckler, he boasted other attributes, all of which, but
+especially the last, show that he relied more on the strength of the
+outside than that of the inside of his skull.
+
+  The miller was a stout carl for the nones,
+  Full big he was of brawn, and eke of bones;
+  That proved well, for wheresoe'r he cam,
+  At wrestling he wold bear away the ram;
+  He was short shoulder'd, broad, a thick gnar;
+  There n'as no door that he n'old heave of bar,
+  Or break it at a running with his head, &c. ]
+
+Indeed, to be able to outdo and bully the whole _Sucken_, (once
+more we use this barbarous phrase,) in all athletic exercises, was one
+way to render easy the collection of dues which men would have
+disputed with a less formidable champion.  Then, as to the
+deficiencies of the miller's wife, the dame was of opinion that they
+might be supplied by the activity of the miller's mother. "I will keep
+house for the young folk myself, for the tower is grown very lonely,"
+thought Dame Glendinning, "and to live near the kirk will be mair
+comfortable in my auld age--and then Edward may agree with his brother
+about the feu, more especially as he is a favourite with the
+Sub-Prior, and then he may live in the auld tower like his worthy
+father before him--and wha kens but Mary Avenel, high-blood as she is,
+may e'en draw in her stool to the chimney-nook, and sit down here for
+good and a'?--It's true she has no tocher, but the like of her for
+beauty and sense ne'er crossed my een; and I have kend every wench in
+the Halidome of St.  Mary's--ay, and their mothers that bore them--ay,
+she is a sweet and a lovely creature as ever tied snood over brown
+hair--ay, and then, though her uncle keeps her out of her ain for the
+present time, yet it is to be thought the gray-goose shaft will find a
+hole in his coat of proof, as, God help us! it has done in many a
+better man's--And, moreover, if they should stand on their pedigree
+and gentle race, Edward might say to them, that is, to her gentle kith
+and kin, 'whilk o' ye was her best friend, when she came down the glen
+to Glendearg in a misty evening, on a beast mair like a cuddie than
+aught else?'--And if they tax him with churl's blood, Edward might
+say, that, forby the old proverb, how
+
+  Gentle deed
+  Makes gentle bleid;
+
+yet, moreover, there comes no churl's blood from Glendinning or Brydone;
+for, says Edward--"
+
+The hoarse voice of the Miller at this moment recalled the dame from
+her reverie, and compelled her to remember that if she meant to
+realize her airy castle, she must begin by laying the foundation in
+civility to her guest and his daughter, whom she was at that moment
+most strangely neglecting, though her whole plan turned on
+conciliating their favour and good opinion, and that, in fact, while
+arranging matters for so intimate a union with her company, she was
+suffering them to sit unnoticed, and in their riding gear, as if about
+to resume their journey. "And so I say, dame," concluded the Miller,
+(for she had not marked the beginning of his speech,) "an ye be so
+busied with your housekep, or ought else, why, Mysie and I will trot
+our way down the glen again to Johnnie Broxmouth's, who pressed us
+right kindly to bide with him."
+
+Starting at once from her dream of marriages and intermarriages,
+mills, mill-lands, and baronies, Dame Elspeth felt for a moment like
+the milk-maid in the fable, when she overset the pitcher, on the
+contents of which so many golden dreams were founded. But the
+foundation of Dame Glendinning's hopes was only tottering, not
+overthrown, and she hastened to restore its equilibrium. Instead of
+attempting to account for her absence of mind and want of attention to
+her guests, which she might have found something difficult, she
+assumed the offensive, like an able general when he finds it
+necessary, by a bold attack, to disguise his weakness.
+
+A loud exclamation she made, and a passionate complaint she set up
+against the unkindness of her old friend, who could for an instant
+doubt the heartiness of her welcome to him and to his hopeful
+daughter; and then to think of his going back to Johnny Broxmouth's,
+when the auld tower stood where it did, and had room in it for a
+friend or two in the worst of times--and he too a neighbour that his
+umquhile gossip Simon, blessed be his cast, used to think the best
+friend he had in the Halidome! And on she went, urging her complaint
+with so much seriousness, that she had well-nigh imposed on herself as
+well as upon Hob Miller, who had no mind to take any thing in dudgeon;
+and as it suited his plans to pass the night at Glendearg, would have
+been equally contented to do so even had his reception been less
+vehemently hospitable.
+
+To all Elspeth's expostulations on the unkindness of his proposal to
+leave her dwelling, he answered composedly, "Nay, dame, what could I
+tell? ye might have had other grist to grind, for ye looked as if ye
+scarce saw us--or what know I? ye might bear in mind the words Martin
+and I had about the last barley ye sawed--for I ken dry multures
+[Footnote: Dry multures were a fine, or compensation in money, for not
+grinding at the mill of the thirl. It was, and is, accounted a
+vexatious exaction.] will sometimes stick in the throat. A man seeks
+but his awn, and yet folk shall hold him for both miller and miller's
+man, that is millar and knave, [Footnote: The under miller is, in the
+language of thirlage, called the knave, which, indeed, signified
+originally his lad. (_Knabe_--German,) but by degrees came to be
+taken in a worse sense. In the old translation of the Bible, Paul is
+made to term himself the knave of our Saviour. The allowance of meal
+taken by the miller's servant was called knave-ship.] all the country
+over."
+
+"Alas, that you will say so, neighbour Hob," said Dame Elspeth, "or
+that Martin should have had any words with you about the mill-dues! I
+will chide him roundly for it, I promise you, on the faith of a true
+widow.  You know full well that a lone woman is sore put upon by her
+servants."
+
+"Nay, dame," said the miller, unbuckling the broad belt which made
+fast his cloak, and served, at the same time, to suspend by his side a
+swinging Andrea Ferrara, "bear no grudge at Martin, for I bear none--I
+take it on me as a thing of mine office, to maintain my right of
+multure, lock, and gowpen.  [Note: The multure was the regular
+exaction for grinding the meal. The _lock_, signifying a small
+quantity, and the _gowpen_, a handful, were additional
+perquisites demanded by the miller, and submitted to or resisted by
+the _Suckener_ as circumstances permitted. These and other petty
+dues were called in general the _Sequels_.] And reason good, for
+as the old song says,
+
+  I live by my mill. God bless her,
+   She's parent, child, and wife.
+
+The poor old slut, I am beholden to her for my living, and bound to
+stand by her, as I say to my mill knaves, in right and in wrong. And
+so should every honest fellow stand by his bread-winner.--And so,
+Mysie, ye may doff your cloak since our neighbour is so kindly glad to
+see us--why, I think, we are as blithe to see her--not one in the
+Halidome pays their multures more duly, sequels, arriage, and
+carriage, and mill-services, used and wont."
+
+With that the Miller hung his ample cloak without farther ceremony
+upon a huge pair of stag's antlers, which adorned at once the naked
+walls of the tower, and served for what we vulgarly call cloak-pins.
+
+In the meantime Dame Elspeth assisted to disembarrass the damsel whom
+she destined for her future daughter-in-law, of her hood, mantle, and
+the rest of her riding gear, giving her to appear as beseemed the
+buxom daughter of the wealthy Miller, gay and goodly, in a white
+kirtle, the seams of which were embroidered with green silken lace or
+fringe, entwined with some silver thread. An anxious glance did
+Elspoth cast upon the good-humoured face, which was now more fully
+shown to her, and was only obscured by a quantity of raven black hair,
+which the maid of the mill had restrained by a snood of green silk,
+embroidered with silver, corresponding to the trimmings of her kirtle.
+The countenance itself was exceedingly comely--the eyes black, large,
+and roguishly good-humoured--the mouth was small--the lips well
+formed, though somewhat full--the teeth were pearly white--and the
+chin had a very seducing dimple in it. The form belonging to this
+joyous face was full and round, and firm and fair. It might become
+coarse and masculine some years hence, which is the common fault of
+Scottish beauty; but in Mysie's sixteenth year she had the shape of a
+Hebe. The anxious Elspeth, with all her maternal partiality, could not
+help admitting within herself, that a better man than Halbert might go
+farther and fare worse.  She looked a little giddy, and Halbert was
+not nineteen; still it was time he should be settled, for to that
+point the dame always returned; and here was an excellent opportunity.
+
+The simple cunning of Dame Elspeth now exhausted itself in
+commendations of her fair guest, from the snood, as they say, to the
+single-soled shoe.  Mysie listened and blushed with pleasure for the
+first five minutes; but ere ten had elapsed, she began to view the old
+lady's compliments rather as subjects of mirth than of vanity, and was
+much more disposed to laugh at than to be flattered with them, for
+Nature had mingled the good-humour with which she had endowed the
+damsel with no small portion of shrewdness.  Even Hob himself began to
+tire of hearing his daughter's praises, and broke in with, "Ay, ay,
+she is a clever quean enough; and, were she five years older, she
+shall lay a loaded sack on an _aver_ [Note: _Aver_--properly
+a horse of labour.] with e'er a lass in the Halidome. But I have been
+looking for your two sons, dame. Men say downby that Halbert's turned
+a wild springald, and that we may have word of him from Westmoreland
+one moonlight night or another."
+
+"God forbid, my good neighbour; God, in his mercy, forbid!" said Dame
+Glendinning, earnestly; for it was touching the very key-note of her
+apprehensions, to hint any probability that Halbert might become one
+of the marauders so common in the age and country. But, fearful of
+having betrayed too much alarm on this subject, she immediately added,
+"That though, since the last rout at Pinkiecleuch, she had been all of
+a tremble when a gun or a spear was named, or when men spoke of
+fighting; yet, thanks to God and our Lady, her sons were like to live
+and die honest and peaceful tenants to the Abbey, as their father
+might have done, but for that awful hosting which he went forth to
+with mony a brave man that never returned."
+
+"Ye need not tell me of it, dame," said the Miller, "since I was there
+myself, and made two pair of legs (and these were not mine, but my
+mare's,) worth one pair of hands. I judged how it would be, when I saw
+our host break ranks, with rushing on through that broken ploughed
+field, and so as they had made a pricker of me, I e'en pricked off
+with myself while the play was good."
+
+"Ay, ay, neighbour," said the dame, "ye were aye a wise and a wary
+man; if my Simon had had your wit, he might have been here to speak
+about it this day; but he was aye cracking of his good blood and his
+high kindred, and less would not serve him than to bide the bang to
+the last, with the earls, and knights, and squires, that had no wives
+to greet for them, or else had wives that cared not how soon they were
+widows; but that is not for the like of us. But touching my son
+Halbert, there is no fear of him; for if it should be his misfortune
+to be in the like case, he has the best pair of heels in Halidome, and
+could run almost as fast as your mare herself."
+
+"Is this he, neighbour?" quoth the Miller.
+
+"No," replied the mother; "that is my youngest son, Edward, who can
+read and write like the Lord Abbot himself, if it were not a sin to
+say so."
+
+"Ay," said the Miller; "and is that the young clerk the Sub-Prior
+thinks so much of? they say he will come far ben that lad; wha kens
+but he may come to be Sub-Prior himself?--as broken a ship has come to
+land."
+
+"To be a Prior, neighbour Miller," said Edward, "a man must first be
+a priest, and for that I judge I have little vocation."
+
+"He will take to the pleugh-pettle, neighbour," said the good dame;
+"and so will Halbert too, I trust. I wish you saw Halbert.--Edward,
+where is your brother?"
+
+"Hunting, I think," replied Edward; "at least he left us this morning
+to join the Laird of Colmslie and his hounds. I have heard them
+baying in the glen all day."
+
+"And if I had heard that music," said the Miller, "it would have done
+my heart good, ay, and may be taken me two or three miles out of my
+road.  When I was the Miller of Morebattle's knave, I have followed
+the hounds from Eckford to the foot of Hounam-law--followed them on
+foot, Dame Glendinning, ay, and led the chase when the Laird of
+Cessford and his gay riders were all thrown out by the mosses and
+gills. I brought the stag on my back to Hounam Cross, when the dogs
+had pulled him down. I think I see the old gray knight, as he sate so
+upright on his strong war-horse, all white with foam; and 'Miller,'
+said he to me, 'an thou wilt turn thy back on the mill, and wend with
+me, I will make a man of thee.' But I chose rather to abide by clap
+and happer, and the better luck was mine; for the proud Percy caused
+hang five of the Laird's henchmen at Alnwick for burning a rickle of
+houses some gate beyond Fowberry, and it might have been my luck as
+well as another man's."
+
+"Ah, neighbour, neighbour," said Dame Glendinning, "you were aye wise
+and wary; but if you like hunting, I must say Halbert's the lad to
+please you. He hath all those fair holiday terms of hawk and hound as
+ready in his mouth as Tom with the tod's tail, that is the Lord
+Abbot's ranger."
+
+"Ranges he not homeward at dinner-time, dame," demanded the Miller;
+"for we call noon the dinner-hour at Kennaquhair?"
+
+The widow was forced to admit that, even at this important period of
+the day, Halbert was frequently absent; at which the Miller shook his
+head, intimating, at the same time, some allusion to the proverb of
+MacFarlane's geese, which "liked their play better than their
+meat." [Footnote: A brood of wild-geese, which long frequented one of
+the uppermost islands in Loch-Lomond, called Inch-Tavoe, were supposed
+to have some mysterious connexion with the ancient family of
+MacFarlane of that ilk, and it is said were never seen after the ruin
+and extinction of that house. The MacFarlanes had a house and garden
+upon that same island of Inch-Tavoe. Here James VI. was, on one
+occasion, regaled by the chieftain. His Majesty had been previously
+much amused by the geese pursuing each other on the Loch. But, when
+one which was brought to table, was found to be tough and ill fed,
+James observed--"that MacFarlane's geese liked their play better than
+their meat," a proverb which has been current ever since.]
+
+That the delay of dinner might not increase the Miller's disposition
+to prejudge Halbert, Dame Glendinning called hastily on Mary Avenel to
+take her task of entertaining Mysie Happer, while she herself rushed
+to the kitchen, and, entering at once into the province of Tibb
+Tacket, rummaged among trenchers and dishes, snatched pots from the
+fire, and placed pans and gridirons on it, accompanying her own feats
+of personal activity with such a continued list of injunctions to
+Tibb, that Tibb at length lost patience, and said, "Here was as muckle
+wark about meating an auld miller, as if they had been to banquet the
+blood of Bruce." But this, as it was supposed to be spoken aside, Dame
+Glendinning did not think it convenient to hear.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fourteenth.
+
+
+  Nay, let me have the friends who eat my victuals,
+  As various as my dishes.--The feast's naught,
+  Where one huge plate predominates. John Plaintext,
+  He shall be mighty beef, our English staple;
+  The worthy Alderman, a butter'd dumpling;
+  Yon pair of whisker'd Cornets, ruffs and rees:
+  Their friend the Dandy, a green goose in sippets.
+  And so the hoard is spread at once and fill'd
+  On the same principle--Variety.
+                           NEW PLAY.
+
+"And what brave lass is this?" said Hob Miller, as Mary Avenel entered
+the apartment to supply the absence of Dame Elspeth Glendinning.
+
+"The young Lady of Avenel, father," said the Maid of the Mill,
+dropping as low a curtsy as her rustic manners enabled her to make.
+The Miller, her father, doffed his bonnet, and made his reverence, not
+altogether so low perhaps as if the young lady had appeared in the
+pride of rank and riches, yet so as to give high birth the due homage
+which the Scotch for a length of time scrupulously rendered to it.
+
+Indeed, from having had her mother's example before her for so many
+years, and from a native sense of propriety and even of dignity, Mary
+Avenel had acquired a demeanour, which marked her title to
+consideration, and effectually checked any attempt at familiarity on
+the part of those who might be her associates in her present
+situation, but could not be well termed her equals. She was by nature
+mild, pensive, and contemplative, gentle in disposition, and most
+placable when accidentally offended; but still she was of a retired
+and reserved habit, and shunned to mix in ordinary sports, even--when
+the rare occurrence of a fair or wake gave her an opportunity of
+mingling with companions of her own age. If at such scenes she was
+seen for an instant, she appeared to behold them with the composed
+indifference of one to whom their gaiety was a matter of no interest,
+and who seemed only desirous to glide away from the scene as soon as
+she possibly could.
+
+Something also had transpired concerning her being born on All-hallow
+Eve, and the powers with which that circumstance was supposed to
+invest her over the invisible world. And from all-these particulars
+combined, the young men and women of the Halidome used to distinguish
+Mary among themselves by the name of the Spirit of Avenel, as if the
+fair but fragile form, the beautiful but rather colourless cheek, the
+dark blue eye, and the shady hair, had belonged rather to the
+immaterial than the substantial world. The general tradition of the
+White Lady, who was supposed to wait on the fortunes of the family of
+Avenel, gave a sort of zest to this piece of rural wit. It gave great
+offence, however, to the two sons of Simon Glendinning; and when the
+expression was in their presence applied to the young lady, Edward was
+wont to check the petulance of those who used it by strength of
+argument, and Halbert by strength of arm. In such cases Halbert had
+this advantage, that although ho could render no aid to his brother's
+argument, yet when circumstances required it, he was sure to have that
+of Edward, who never indeed himself commenced a fray, but, on the
+other hand, did not testify any reluctance to enter into combat in
+Halbert's behalf or in his rescue.
+
+But the zealous attachment of the two youths, being themselves, from
+the retired situation in which they dwelt, comparative strangers in
+the Halidome, did not serve in any degree to alter the feelings of the
+inhabitants towards the young lady, who seemed to have dropped amongst
+them from another sphere of life. Still, however, she was regarded
+with respect, if not with fondness; and the attention of the Sub-Prior
+to the family, not to mention the formidable name of Julian Avenel,
+which every new incident of those tumultuous times tended to render
+more famous, attached to his niece a certain importance. Thus some
+aspired to her acquaintance out of pride while the more timid of the
+feuars were anxious to inculcate upon their children the necessity of
+being respectful to the noble orphan. So that Mary Avenel, little
+loved because little known, was regarded with a mysterious awe, partly
+derived from fear of her uncle's moss-troopers, and partly from her
+own retired and distant habits, enhanced by the superstitious opinions
+of the time and country.
+
+It was not without some portion of this awe, that Mysie felt herself
+left alone in company with a young person so distant in rank, and so
+different in bearing, from herself; for her worthy father had taken
+the first opportunity to step out unobserved, in order to mark how the
+barnyard was filled, and what prospect it afforded of grist to the
+mill. In youth, however, there is a sort of free-masonry, which,
+without much conversation, teaches young persons to estimate each
+other's character, and places them at ease on the shortest
+acquaintance. It is only when taught deceit by the commerce of the
+world, that we learn to shroud our character from observation, and to
+disguise our real sentiments from those with whom we are placed in
+communion.
+
+Accordingly, the two young women were soon engaged in such objects of
+interest as best became their age. They visited Mary Avenel's pigeons,
+which she nursed with the tenderness of a mother; they turned over her
+slender stores of finery, which yet contained some articles that
+excited the respect of her companion, though Mysie was too
+good-humoured to nourish envy. A golden rosary, and some female
+ornaments marking superior rank, had been rescued in the moment of
+their utmost adversity, more by Tibb Tacket's presence of mind, than
+by the care of their owner,--who was at that sad period too much sunk
+in grief to pay any attention to such circumstances.  They struck
+Mysie with a deep impression of veneration; for, excepting what the
+Lord Abbot and the convent might possess, she did not believe there
+was so much real gold in the world as was exhibited in these few
+trinkets, and Mary, however sage and serious, was not above being
+pleased with the admiration of her rustic companion.
+
+Nothing, indeed, could exhibit a stronger contrast than the appearance
+of the two girls;--the good-humoured laughter-loving countenance of
+the Maid of the Mill, who stood gazing with unrepressed astonishment
+on whatever was in her inexperienced eye rare and costly, and with an
+humble, and at the same time cheerful acquiescence in her inferiority,
+asking all the little queries about the use and value of the
+ornaments, while Mary Avenel, with her quiet composed dignity and
+placidity of manner, produced them one after another for the amusement
+of her companion.
+
+As they became gradually more familiar, Mysie of the Mill was just
+venturing to ask, why Mary Avenel never appeared at the May-pole, and to
+express her wonder when the young lady said she disliked dancing, when
+a trampling of horses at the gate of the tower interrupted their
+conversation.
+
+Mysie flew to the shot-window in the full ardour of unrestrained female
+curiosity. "Saint Mary! sweet lady! here come two well-mounted gallants;
+will you step this way to look at them ?"
+
+"No," said Mary Avenel, "you shall tell me who they are."
+
+"Well, if you like it better," said Mysie--"but how shall I know
+them?---Stay, I do know one of them, and so do you, lady; he is a
+blithe man, somewhat light of hand, they say, but the gallants of
+these days think no great harm of that. He is your uncle's henchman,
+that they call Christie of the Clinthill; and he has not his old green
+jerkin and the rusty blackjack over it, but a scarlet cloak, laid down
+with silver lace three inches broad, and a breast-plate you might see
+to dress your hair in, as well as in that keeking-glass in the ivory
+frame that you showed me even now. Come, dear lady, come to the
+shot-window and see him."
+
+"If it be the man you mean, Mysie," replied the orphan of Avenel, "I
+shall see him soon enough, considering either the pleasure or comfort
+the sight will give me."
+
+"Nay, but if you will not come to see gay Christie," replied the Maid
+of the Mill, her face flushed with eager curiosity, "come and tell me
+who the gallant is that is with him, the handsomest, the very
+lovesomest young man I ever saw with sight."
+
+"It is my foster-brother, Halbert Glendinning," said Mary, with,
+apparent indifference; for she had been accustomed to call the sons of
+Elspeth her foster-brethren, and to live with them as if they had been
+brothers in earnest.
+
+"Nay, by Our Lady, that it is not," said Mysie; "I know the favour of
+both the Glendinnings well, and I think this rider be not of our
+country.  He has a crimson velvet bonnet, and long brown hair falling
+down under it, and a beard on his upper lip, and his chin clean and
+close shaved, save a small patch on the point of the chin, and a
+sky-blue jerkin slashed and lined with white satin, and trunk-hose to
+suit, and no weapon but a rapier and dagger--Well, if I was a man, I
+would never wear weapon but the rapier!  it is so slender and
+becoming, instead of having a cartload of iron at my back, like my
+father's broad-sword with its great rusty basket-hilt. Do you not
+delight in the rapier and poniard, lady?"
+
+"The best sword," answered Mary, "if I must needs answer a question of
+the sort, is that which is drawn in the best cause, and which is best
+used when it is out of the scabbard."
+
+"But can you not guess who this stranger should be?" said Mysie.
+
+"Indeed, I cannot even attempt it; but to judge by his companion, it is
+no matter how little he is known," replied Mary.
+
+"My benison on his bonny face," said Mysie, "if he is not going to
+alight here! Now, I am as much pleased as if my father had given me
+the silver earrings he has promised me so often;--nay, you had as well
+come to the window, for you must see him by and by whether you will or
+not." I do not know how much sooner Mary Avenel might have sought the
+point of observation, if she had not been scared from it by the
+unrestrained curiosity expressed by her buxom friend; but at length
+the same feeling prevailed over her sense of dignity, and satisfied
+with having displayed all the indifference that was necessary in point
+of decorum, she no longer thought herself bound to restrain her
+curiosity.
+
+From the outshot or projecting window, she could perceive that
+Christie of the Clinthill was attended on the present occasion by a
+very gay and gallant cavalier, who, from the nobleness of his
+countenance and manner, his rich and handsome dress, and the showy
+appearance of his horse and furniture, must, she agreed with her new
+friend, be a person of some consequence.
+
+Christie also seemed conscious of something, which made him call out
+with more than his usual insolence of manner, "What, ho! so ho! the
+house! Churl peasants, will no one answer when I call?--Ho!
+Martin,--Tibb,--Dame Glendinning--a murrain on you, must we stand
+keeping our horses in the cold here, and they steaming with heat, when
+we have ridden so sharply?"
+
+At length he was obeyed, and old Martin made his appearance. "Ha!"
+said Christie, "art thou there, old Truepenny? here, stable me these
+steeds, and see them well bedded, and stretch thine old limbs by
+rubbing them down; and see thou quit not the stable till there is not
+a turned hair on either of them."
+
+Martin took the horses to the stable as commanded, but suppressed not
+his indignation a moment after he could vent it with safety. "Would
+not any one think," he said to Jasper, an old ploughman, who, in
+coming to his assistance, had heard Christie's imperious injunctions,
+"that this loon, this Christie of the Clinthill, was laird or lord at
+least of him? No such thing, man! I remember him a little dirty
+turnspit boy in the house of Avenel, that every body in a frosty
+morning like this warmed his fingers by kicking or cuffing! and now he
+is a gentleman, and swears, d--n him and renounce him, as if the
+gentlemen could not so much as keep their own wickedness to
+themselves, without the like of him going to hell in their very
+company, and by the same road. I have as much a mind as ever I had to
+my dinner, to go back and tell him to sort his horse himself, since he
+is as able as I am."
+
+"Hout tout, man!" answered Jasper, "keep a calm sough; better to
+fleech a fool than fight with him."
+
+Martin acknowledged the truth of the proverb, and, much comforted
+therewith, betook himself to cleaning the stranger's horse with great
+assiduity, remarking, it was a pleasure to handle a handsome nag, and
+turned over the other to the charge of Jasper. Nor was it until
+Christie's commands were literally complied with that he deemed it
+proper, after fitting ablutions, to join the party in the spence; not
+for the purpose of waiting upon them, as a mere modern reader might
+possibly expect, but that he might have his share of dinner in their
+company.
+
+In the meanwhile, Christie had presented his companion to Dame
+Glendinning as Sir Piercie Shafton, a friend of his and of his master,
+come to spend three or four days with little din in the tower. The
+good dame could not conceive how she was entitled to such an honour,
+and would fain have pleaded her want of every sort of convenience to
+entertain a guest of that quality. But, indeed, the visiter, when he
+cast his eyes round the bare walls, eyed the huge black chimney,
+scrutinized the meagre and broken furniture of the apartment, and
+beheld the embarrassment of the mistress of the family, intimated
+great reluctance to intrude upon Dame Glendinning a visit, which could
+scarce, from all appearances, prove otherwise than an inconvenience to
+her, and a penance to himself.
+
+But the reluctant hostess and her guest had to do with an inexorable
+man, who silenced all expostulations with, "such was his master's
+pleasure. And, moreover," he continued, "though the Baron of Avenel's
+will must, and ought to prove law to all within ten miles around him,
+yet here, dame," he said, "is a letter from your petticoated baron,
+the lord-priest yonder, who enjoins you, as you regard his pleasure,
+that you afford to this good knight such decent accommodation as is in
+your power, suffering him to live as privately as he shall
+desire.--And for you, Sir Piercie Shafton," continued Christie, "you
+will judge for yourself, whether secrecy and safety is not more your
+object even now, than soft beds and high cheer. And do not judge of
+the dame's goods by the semblance of her cottage; for you will see by
+the dinner she is about to spread for us, that the vassal of the kirk
+is seldom found with her basket bare." To Mary Avenel, Christie
+presented the stranger, after the best fashion he could, as to the
+niece of his master the baron.
+
+While he thus laboured to reconcile Sir Piercie Shafton to his fate,
+the widow, having consulted her son Edward on the real import of the
+Lord Abbot's injunction, and having found that Christie had given a
+true exposition, saw nothing else left for her but to make that fate
+as easy as she could to the stranger. He himself also seemed
+reconciled to his lot by some feeling probably of strong necessity,
+and accepted with a good grace the hospitality which the dame offered
+with a very indifferent one.
+
+In fact, the dinner, which soon smoked before the assembled guests,
+was of that substantial kind which warrants plenty and comfort. Dame
+Glendinning had cooked it after her best manner; and, delighted with
+the handsome appearance which her good cheer made when placed on the
+table, forgot both her plans and the vexations which interrupted them,
+in the hospitable duty of pressing her assembled visiters to eat and
+drink, watching every trencher as it waxed empty, and loading it with
+fresh supplies ere the guest could utter a negative.
+
+In the meanwhile, the company attentively regarded each other's
+motions, and seemed endeavouring to form a judgment of each other's
+character.  Sir Piercie Shafton condescended to speak to no one but to
+Mary Avenel, and on her he conferred exactly the same familiar and
+compassionate, though somewhat scornful sort of attention, which a
+pretty fellow of these days will sometimes condescend to bestow on a
+country miss, when there is no prettier or more fashionable woman
+present. The manner indeed was different, for the etiquette of those
+times did not permit Sir Piercie Shafton to pick his teeth, or to
+yawn, or to gabble like the beggar whose tongue (as he says) was cut
+out by the Turks, or to affect deafness or blindness, or any other
+infirmity of the organs. But though the embroidery of his conversation
+was different, the groundwork was the same, and the high-flown and
+ornate compliments with which the gallant knight of the sixteenth
+century inter-larded his conversation, were as much the offspring of
+egotism and self-conceit, as the jargon of the coxcombs of our own
+days.
+
+The English knight was, however, something daunted at finding that
+Mary Avenel listened with an air of indifference, and answered with
+wonderful brevity, to all the fine things which ought, as he
+conceived, to have dazzled her with their brilliancy, and puzzled her
+by their obscurity. But if he was disappointed in making the desired,
+or rather the expected impression, upon her whom he addressed, Sir
+Piercie Shafton's discourse was marvellous in the ears of Mysie the
+Miller's daughter, and not the less so that she did not comprehend the
+meaning of a single word which he uttered. Indeed, the gallant
+knight's language was far too courtly to be understood by persons of
+much greater acuteness than Mysie's.
+
+It was about this period, that the "only rare poet of his time, the
+witty, comical, facetiously-quick, and quickly-facetious, John
+Lylly--he that sate at Apollo's table, and to whom Phoebus gave a
+wreath of his own bays without snatching" [Footnote: Such, and yet
+more extravagant, are the compliments paid to this author by his
+editor, Blount. Notwithstanding all exaggeration, Lylly was really a
+man of wit and imagination, though both were deformed by the most
+unnatural affectation that ever disgraced a printed page.]--he, in
+short, who wrote that singularly coxcomical work, called _Euphues
+and his England_, was in the very zenith of his absurdity and his
+reputation. The quaint, forced, and unnatural style which he
+introduced by his "Anatomy of Wit," had a fashion as rapid as it was
+momentary--all the court ladies were his scholars, and to _parler
+Euphuisme_, was as necessary a qualification to a courtly gallant,
+as those of understanding how to use his rapier, or to dance a
+measure.
+
+It was no wonder that the Maid of the Mill was soon as effectually
+blinded by the intricacies of this erudite and courtly style of
+conversation, as she had ever been by the dust of her father's own
+meal-sacks. But there she sate with her mouth and eyes as open as the
+mill-door and the two windows, showing teeth as white as her father's
+bolted flour, and endeavouring to secure a word or two for her own
+future use out of the pearls of rhetoric which Sir Piercie Shafton
+scattered around him with such bounteous profusion.
+
+For the male part of the company, Edward felt ashamed of his own
+manner and slowness of speech, when he observed the handsome young
+courtier, with an ease and volubility of which he had no conception,
+run over all the commonplace topics of high-flown gallantry. It is
+true the good sense and natural taste of young Glendinning soon
+informed him that the gallant cavalier was speaking nonsense. But,
+alas! where is the man of modest merit, and real talent, who has not
+suffered from being outshone in conversation and outstripped in the
+race of life, by men of less reserve, and of qualities more showy,
+though less substantial? and well constituted must the mind be, that
+can yield up the prize without envy to competitors more worthy than
+himself.
+
+Edward Glendinning had no such philosophy. While he despised the
+jargon of the gay cavalier, he envied the facility with which he could
+run on, as well as the courtly tone and expression, and the perfect
+ease and elegance with which he offered all the little acts of
+politeness to which the duties of the table gave opportunity. And if I
+am to speak truth, I must own that he envied those qualities the more
+as they were all exercised in Mary Avenel's service, and, although
+only so far accepted as they could not be refused, intimated a wish on
+the stranger's part to place himself in her good graces, as the only
+person in the room to whom he thought it worth while to recommend
+himself. His title, rank, and very handsome figure, together with some
+sparks of wit and spirit which flashed across the cloud of nonsense
+which he uttered, rendered him, as the words of the old song say, "a
+lad for a lady's viewing;" so that poor Edward, with all his real
+worth and acquired knowledge, in his home-spun doublet, blue cap, and
+deerskin trowsers, looked like a clown beside the courtier, and,
+feeling the full inferiority, nourished no good-will to him by whom he
+was eclipsed.
+
+Christie, on the other hand, as soon as he had satisfied to the full a
+commodious appetite, by means of which persons of his profession
+could, like the wolf and eagle, gorge themselves with as much food at
+one meal as might serve them for several days, began also to feel
+himself more in the back-ground than he liked to be. This worthy had,
+amongst his other good qualities, an excellent opinion of himself;
+and, being of a bold and forward disposition, had no mind to be thrown
+into the shade by any one. With an impudent familiarity which such
+persons mistake for graceful ease, he broke in upon the knight's
+finest speeches with as little remorse as he would have driven the
+point of his lance through a laced doublet.  Sir Piercie Shafton, a
+man of rank and high birth, by no means encouraged or endured this
+familiarity, and requited the intruder either with total neglect, or
+such laconic replies as intimated a sovereign contempt for the rude
+spearman, who affected to converse with him upon terms of equality.
+
+The Miller held his peace; for, as his usual conversation turned
+chiefly on his clapper and toll-dish, he had no mind to brag of his
+wealth in presence of Christie of the Clinthill, or to intrude his
+discourse on the English cavalier.
+
+A little specimen of the conversation may not be out of place, were it
+but to show young ladies what fine things they have lost by living when
+Euphuism is out of fashion.
+
+"Credit me, fairest lady," said the knight, "that such is the cunning
+of our English courtiers, of the hodiernal strain, that, as they have
+infinitely refined upon the plain and rusticial discourse of our
+fathers, which, as I may say, more beseemed the mouths of country
+roisterers in a May-game than that of courtly gallants in a galliard,
+so I hold it ineffably and unutterably impossible, that those who may
+succeed us in that garden of wit and courtesy shall alter or amend it.
+Venus delighted but in the language of Mercury, Bucephalus will stoop
+to no one but Alexander, none can sound Apollo's pipe but Orpheus."
+
+"Valiant sir," said Mary, who could scarcely help laughing, "we have
+but to rejoice in the chance which hath honoured this solitude with a
+glimpse of the sun of courtesy, though it rather blinds than
+enlightens us."
+
+"Pretty and quaint, fairest lady," answered the Euphuist. "Ah, that I
+had with me my Anatomy of Wit--that all-to-be-unparalleled
+volume--that quintessence of human wit--that treasury of quaint
+invention--that exquisitively-pleasant-to-read, and
+inevitably-necessary-to-be-remembered manual, of all that is worthy to
+be known--which indoctrines the rude in civility, the dull in
+intellectuality, the heavy in jocosity, the blunt in gentility, the
+vulgar in nobility, and all of them in that unutterable perfection, of
+human utterance, that eloquence which no other eloquence is sufficient
+to praise, that art which, when we call it by its own name of
+Euphuism, we bestow on it its richest panegyric."
+
+"By Saint Mary," said Christie of the Clinthill, "if your worship had
+told me that you had left such stores of wealth as you talk of at
+Prudhoe Castle, Long Dickie and I would have had them off with us if
+man and horse could have carried them; but you told us of no treasure
+I wot of, save the silver tongs for turning up your mustachoes."
+
+The knight treated this intruder's mistake--for certainly Christie had
+no idea that all these epithets which sounded so rich and splendid,
+were lavished upon a small quarto volume--with a stare, and then
+turning again to Mary Avenel, the only person whom he thought worthy
+to address, he proceeded in his strain of high-flown oratory, "Even
+thus," said he, "do hogs contemn the splendour of Oriental pearls;
+even thus are the delicacies of a choice repast in vain offered to the
+long-eared grazer of the common, who turneth from them to devour a
+thistle. Surely as idle is it to pour forth the treasures of oratory
+before the eyes of the ignorant, and to spread the dainties of the
+intellectual banquet before those who are, morally and metaphysically
+speaking, no better than asses."
+
+"Sir Knight, since that is your quality," said Edward, "we cannot
+strive with you in loftiness of language; but I pray you in fair
+courtesy, while you honour my father's house with your presence, to
+spare us such vile comparisons."
+
+"Peace, good villagio," said the knight, gracefully waving his hand,
+"I prithee peace, kind rustic; and you, my guide, whom I may scarce
+call honest, let me prevail upon you to imitate the laudable
+taciturnity of that honest yeoman, who sits as mute as a mill-post,
+and of that comely damsel, who seems as with her ears she drank in
+what she did not altogether comprehend, even as a palfrey listening to
+a lute, whereof, howsoever, he knoweth not the gamut."
+
+"Marvellous fine words," at length said Dame Glendinning, who began
+to be tired of sitting so long silent, "marvellous fine words, neighbour
+Happer, are they not?"
+
+"Brave words--very brave words--very exceeding pyet words," answered
+the Miller; "nevertheless, to speak my mind, a lippy of bran were worth
+a bushel of them."
+
+"I think so too, under his worship's favour," answered Christie of the
+Clinthill. "I well remember that at the race of Morham, as we call it,
+near Berwick, I took a young Southern fellow out of saddle with my
+lance, and cast him, it might be, a gad's length from his nag; and so,
+as he had some gold on his laced doublet, I deemed he might ha' the
+like on it in his pocket too, though that is a rule that does not aye
+hold good--So I was speaking to him of ransom, and out he comes with a
+handful of such terms as his honour there hath gleaned up, and craved
+me for mercy, as I was a true son of Mars, and such like."
+
+"And obtained no mercy at thy hand, I dare be sworn," said the knight,
+who deigned not to speak Euphuism excepting to the fair sex.
+
+"By my troggs," replied Christie, "I would have thrust my lance down
+his throat, but just then they flung open that accursed postern-gate,
+and forth pricked old Hunsdon, and Henry Carey, and as many fellows at
+their heels as turned the chase northward again. So I e'en pricked
+Bayard with the spur, and went off with the rest; for a man should
+ride when he may not wrestle, as they say in Tynedale."
+
+"Trust me," said the knight, again turning to Mary Avenel, "if I do
+not pity you, lady, who, being of noble blood, are thus in a manner
+compelled to abide in the cottage of the ignorant, like the precious
+stone in the head of the toad, or like a precious garland on the brow
+of an ass.--But soft, what gallant have we here, whose garb savoureth
+more of the rustic than doth his demeanour, and whose looks seem more
+lofty than his habit; even as--"
+
+"I pray you, Sir Knight," said Mary, "to spare your courtly similitudes
+for refined ears, and give me leave to name unto you my foster-brother,
+Halbert Glendinning."
+
+"The son of the good dame of the cottage, as I opine," answered the
+English knight; "for by some such name did my guide discriminate the
+mistress of this mansion, which you, madam, enrich with your
+presence.--And yet, touching this juvenal, he hath that about him
+which belongeth to higher birth, for all are not black who dig
+coals--"
+
+"Nor all white who are millers," said honest Happer, glad to get in a
+word, as they say, edgeways.
+
+Halbert, who had sustained the glance of the Englishman with some
+impatience, and knew not what to make of his manner and language,
+replied with some asperity, "Sir Knight, we have in this land of
+Scotland an ancient saying, 'Scorn not the bush that bields you'--you
+are a guest of my father's house to shelter you from danger, if I am
+rightly informed by the domestics. Scoff not its homeliness, nor that
+of its inmates--ye might long have abidden at the court of England,
+ere we had sought your favour, or cumbered you with our society. Since
+your fate has sent you hither amongst us, be contented with such fare
+and such converse as we can afford you, and scorn us not for our
+kindness; for the Scots wear short patience and long daggers."
+
+All eyes were turned on Halbert while he was thus speaking, and there
+was a general feeling that his countenance had an expression of
+intelligence, and his person an air of dignity, which they had never
+before observed.  Whether it were that the wonderful Being with whom
+he had so lately held communication, had bestowed on him a grace and
+dignity of look and bearing which he had not before, or whether the
+being conversant in high matters, and called to a destiny beyond that
+of other men, had a natural effect in giving becoming confidence to
+his language and manner, we pretend not to determine. But it was
+evident to all, that, from this day, young Halbert was an altered man;
+that he acted with the steadiness, promptitude, and determination,
+which belonged to riper years, and bore himself with a manner which
+appertained to higher rank.
+
+The knight took the rebuke with good humour. "By my mine honour," he
+said, "thou hast reason on thy side, good juvenal--nevertheless, I
+spoke not as in ridicule of the roof which relieves me, but rather in
+your own praise, to whom, if this roof be native, thou mayst
+nevertheless rise from its lowliness; even as the lark, which maketh
+its humble nest in the furrow, ascendeth towards the sun, as well as
+the eagle which buildeth her eyry in the cliff."
+
+This high-flown discourse was interrupted by Dame Glendinning, who,
+with all the busy anxiety of a mother, was loading her son's trencher
+with food, and dinning in his ear her reproaches on account of his
+prolonged absence. "And see," she said, "that you do not one day get
+such a sight while you are walking about among the haunts of them that
+are not of our flesh and bone, as befell Mungo Murray when he slept on
+the greensward ring of the Auld Kirkhill at sunset, and wakened at
+daybreak in the wild hills of Breadalbane. And see that, when you are
+looking for deer, the red stag does not gall you as he did Diccon
+Thorburn, who never overcast the wound that he took from a buck's
+horn. And see, when you go swaggering about with a long broadsword by
+your side, whilk it becomes no peaceful man to do, that you dinna meet
+with them that have broadsword and lance both--there are enow of rank
+riders in this land, that neither fear God nor regard man."
+
+Here her eye "in a fine frenzy rolling," fell full upon that of
+Christie of the Clinthill, and at once her fears for having given
+offence interrupted the current of maternal rebuke, which, like rebuke
+matrimonial, may be often better meant than timed. There was something
+of sly and watchful significance in Christie's eye, an eye gray, keen,
+fierce, yet wily, formed to express at once cunning, and malice, which
+made the dame instantly conjecture she had said too much, while she
+saw in imagination her twelve goodly cows go lowing down the glen in a
+moonlight night, with half a score of Border spearsmen at their heels.
+
+Her voice, therefore, sunk from the elevated tone of maternal
+authority into a whimpering apologetic sort of strain, and she
+proceeded to say, "It is no that I have ony ill thoughts of the Border
+riders, for Tibb Tacket there has often heard me say that I thought
+spear and bridle as natural to a Borderman as a pen to a priest, or a
+feather-fan to a lady; and--have you not heard me say it, Tibb?"
+
+Tibb showed something less than her expected alacrity in attesting her
+mistress's deep respect for the freebooters of the southland hills;
+but, thus conjured, did at length reply, "Hout ay, mistress, I'se
+warrant I have heard you say something like that."
+
+"Mother!" said Halbert, in a firm and commanding tone of voice, "what
+or whom is it that you fear under my father's roof?--I well hope that
+it harbours not a guest in whose presence you are afraid to say your
+pleasure to me or my brother? I am sorry I have been detained so late,
+being ignorant of the fair company which I should encounter on my
+return.--I pray you let this excuse suffice: and what satisfies you,
+will, I trust, be nothing less than acceptable to your guests."
+
+An answer calculated so jistly betwixt the submission due to his
+parent, and the natural feeling of dignity in one who was by birth
+master of the mansion, excited universal satisfaction. And as Elspeth
+herself confessed to Tibb on the same evening, "She did not think it
+had been in the callant.  Till that night, he took pets and passions
+if he was spoke to, and lap through the house like a four-year-auld at
+the least word of advice that was minted at him, but now he spoke as
+grave and as douce as the Lord Abbot himself.  She kendna," she said,
+"what might be the upshot of it, but it was like he was a wonderfu'
+callant even now."
+
+The party then separated, the young men retiring to their apartments,
+the elder to their household cares. While Christie went to see his horse
+properly accommodated, Edward betook himself to his book, and Halbert,
+who was as ingenious in employing his hands as he had hitherto appeared
+imperfect in mental exertion, applied himself to constructing a place of
+concealment in the floor of his apartment by raising a plank, beneath
+which he resolved to deposit that copy of the Holy Scriptures which had
+been so strangely regained from the possession of men and spirits.
+
+In the meanwhile Sir Piercie Shafton sate still as a stone, in the
+chair in which he had deposited himself, his hands folded on his
+breast, his legs stretched straight out before him and resting upon
+the heels, his eyes cast up to the ceiling as if he had meant to count
+every mesh of every cobweb with which the arched roof was canopied,
+wearing at the same time a face of as solemn and imperturbable
+gravity, as if his existence had depended on the accuracy of his
+calculation.
+
+He could scarce be roused from his listless state of contemplative
+absorption so as to take some supper, a meal at which the younger
+females appeared not. Sir Piercie stared around twice or thrice as if
+he missed something; but he asked not for them, and only evinced his
+sense of a proper audience being wanting, by his abstraction and
+absence of mind, seldom speaking until he was twice addressed, and
+then replying, without trope or figure, in that plain English which
+nobody could speak better when he had a mind.
+
+Christie, finding himself in undisturbed possession of the
+conversation, indulged all who chose to listen with details of his own
+wild and inglorious warfare, while Dame Elspeth's curch bristled with
+horror, and Tibb Tacket, rejoiced to find herself once more in the
+company of a jackman, listened to his tales, like Desdemona to
+Othello's, with undisguised delight. Meantime the two young
+Glendinnings were each wrapped up in his own reflections, and only
+interrupted in them by the signal to move bedward.
+
+        *        *         *        *         *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fifteenth.
+
+
+  He strikes no coin,'tis true, but coins new phrases,
+  And vends them forth as knaves vend gilded counters,
+  Which wise men scorn, and fools accept in payment.
+                             OLD PLAY.
+
+In the morning Christie of the Clinthill was nowhere to be seen. As this
+worthy personage did seldom pique himself on sounding a trumpet before
+his movements, no one was surprised at his moonlight departure, though
+some alarm was excited lest he had not made it empty-handed. So, in the
+language of the national ballad,
+
+  Some ran to cupboard, and some to kist,
+  But nought was away that could be mist.
+
+All was in order, the key of the stable left above the door, and that
+of the iron-grate in the inside of the lock. In short, the retreat had
+been made with scrupulous attention to the security of the garrison,
+and so far Christie left them nothing to complain of.
+
+The safety of the premises was ascertained by Halbert, who instead of
+catching up a gun or cross-bow, and sallying out for the day as had
+been his frequent custom, now, with a gravity beyond his years, took a
+survey of all around the tower, and then returned to the spence, or
+public apartment, in which, at the early hour of seven, the morning
+meal was prepared.
+
+There he found the Euphuist in the same elegant posture of abstruse
+calculation which he had exhibited on the preceding evening, his arms
+folded in the same angle, his eyes turned up to the same cobwebs, and
+his heels resting on the ground as before. Tired of this affectation
+of indolent importance, and not much flattered with his guest's
+persevering in it to the last, Halbert resolved at once to break the
+ice, being determined to know what circumstance had brought to the
+tower of Glendinning a guest at once so supercilious and so silent.
+
+"Sir Knight," he said with some firmness, "I have twice given you good
+morning, to which the absence of your mind hath, I presume, prevented
+you from yielding attention, or from making return. This exchange of
+courtesy is at your pleasure to give or withhold--But, as what I have
+further to say concerns your comfort and your motions in an especial
+manner, I will entreat you to give me some signs of attention, that I
+may be sure I am not wasting my words on a monumental image."
+
+At this unexpected address, Sir Piercie Shafton opened his eyes, and
+afforded the speaker a broad stare; but as Halbert returned the glance
+without either confusion or dismay, the knight thought proper to
+change his posture, draw in his legs, raise his eyes, fix them on
+young Glendinning, and assume the appearance of one who listens to
+what is said to him. Nay, to make his purpose more evident, he gave
+voice to his resolution in these words, "Speak! we do hear."
+
+"Sir Knight," said the youth, "it is the custom of this Halidome, or
+patrimony of St. Mary's, to trouble with inquiries no guests who
+receive our hospitality, providing they tarry in our house only for a
+single revolution of the sun. We know that both criminals and debtors
+come hither for sanctuary, and we scorn to extort from the pilgrim,
+whom chance may make our guest, an avowal of the cause of his
+pilgrimage and penance. But when one so high above our rank as
+yourself, Sir Knight, and especially one to whom the possession of
+such pre-eminence is not indifferent, shows his determination to be
+our guest for a longer time, it is our usage to inquire of him whence
+he comes, and what is the cause of his journey?"
+
+The English knight gaped twice or thrice before he answered, and then
+replied in a bantering tone, "Truly, good villagio, your question hath
+in it somewhat of embarrassment, for you ask me of things concerning
+which I am not as yet altogether determined what answer I may find it
+convenient to make. Let it suffice thee, kind juvenal, that thou hast
+the Lord Abbot's authority for treating me to the best of that power
+of thine, which, indeed, may not always so well suffice for my
+accommodation as either of us would desire."
+
+"I must have a more precise answer than this, Sir Knight," said the
+young Glendinning.
+
+"Friend," said the knight, "be not outrageous. It may suit your
+northern manners thus to press harshly upon the secrets of thy
+betters; but believe me, that even as the lute, struck by an unskilful
+hand, doth produce discords, so----" At this moment the door of the
+apartment opened, and Mary Avenel presented herself--"But who can talk
+of discords," said the knight, assuming his complimentary vein and
+humour, "when the soul of harmony descends upon us in the presence of
+surpassing beauty! For even as foxes, wolves, and other animals void
+of sense and reason, do fly from the presence of the resplendent sun
+of heaven when he arises in his glory, so do strife, wrath, and all
+ireful passions retreat, and, as it were, scud away, from the face
+which now beams upon us, with power to compose our angry passions,
+illuminate our errors and difficulties, soothe our wounded minds, and
+lull to rest our disorderly apprehensions; for as the heat and warmth
+of the eye of day is to the material and physical world, so is the eye
+which I now bow down before to that of the intellectual microcosm."
+
+He concluded with a profound bow; and Mary Avenel, gazing from one to
+the other, and plainly seeing that something was amiss, could only
+say, "For heaven's sake, what is the meaning of this?"
+
+The newly-acquired tact and intelligence of her foster-brother was as
+yet insufficient to enable him to give an answer. He was quite
+uncertain how he ought to deal with a guest, who preserving a
+singularly high tone of assumed superiority and importance, seemed
+nevertheless so little serious in what he said, that it was quite
+impossible to discern with accuracy whether he was in jest or earnest.
+
+Forming, however, the internal resolution to bring Sir Piercie Shafton
+to a reckoning at a more fit place and season, he resolved to
+prosecute the matter no farther at present; and the entrance of his
+mother with the damsel of the Mill, and the return of the honest
+Miller from the stack-yard, where he had been numbering and
+calculating the probable amount of the season's grist, rendered
+farther discussion impossible for the moment.
+
+In the course of the calculation it could not but strike the man of
+meal and grindstones, that after the church's dues were paid, and
+after all which he himself could by any means deduct from the crop,
+still the residue which must revert to Dame Glendinning could not be
+less than considerable. I wot not if this led the honest Miller to
+nourish any plans similar to those adopted by Elspeth; but it is
+certain that he accepted with grateful alacrity an invitation which
+the dame gave to his daughter, to remain a week or two as her guest at
+Glendearg.
+
+The principal persons being thus in high good humour with each other,
+all business gave place to the hilarity of the morning repast; and so
+much did Sir Piercie appear gratified by the attention which was paid
+to every word that he uttered by the nut-brown Mysie, that,
+notwithstanding his high birth and distinguished quality, he bestowed
+on her some of the more ordinary and second-rate tropes of his
+elocution.
+
+Mary Avenel, when relieved from the awkwardness of feeling the full
+weight of his conversation addressed to herself, enjoyed it much more;
+and the good knight, encouraged by those conciliating marks of
+approbation from the sex, for whose sake he cultivated his oratorical
+talents, made speedy intimation of his purpose to be more
+communicative than he had shown himself in his conversation with
+Halbert Glendinning, and gave them to understand, that it was in
+consequence of some pressing danger that he was at present their
+involuntary guest.
+
+The conclusion of the breakfast was a signal for the separation of the
+company. The Miller went to prepare for his departure; his daughter to
+arrange matters for her unexpected stay; Edward was summoned to
+consultation by Martin concerning some agricultural matter, in which
+Halbert could not be brought to interest himself; the dame left the
+room upon her household concerns, and Mary was in the act of following
+her, when she suddenly recollected, that if she did so, the strange
+knight and Halbert must be left alone together, at the risk of another
+quarrel.
+
+The maiden no sooner observed this circumstance, than she instantly
+returned from the door of the apartment, and, seating herself in a
+small stone window-seat, resolved to maintain that curb which she was
+sensible her presence imposed on Halbert Glendinning, of whose quick
+temper she had some apprehensions.
+
+The stranger marked her motions, and, either interpreting them as
+inviting his society, or obedient to those laws of gallantry which
+permitted him not to leave a lady in silence and solitude, he
+instantly placed himself near to her side and opened the conversation
+as follows:--
+
+"Credit me, fair lady" he said, addressing Mary Avenel, "it much
+rejoiceth me, being, as I am, a banished man from the delights of mine
+own country, that I shall find here in this obscure and silvan cottage
+of the north, a fair form and a candid soul, with whom I may explain
+my mutual sentiments. And let me pray you in particular, lovely lady,
+that, according to the universal custom now predominant in our court,
+the garden of superior wits, you will exchange with me some epithet
+whereby you may mark my devotion to your service. Be henceforward
+named, for example, my Protection, and let me be your Affability."
+
+"Our northern and country manners, Sir Knight, do not permit us to
+exchange epithets with those to whom we are strangers," replied Mary
+Avenel.
+
+"Nay, but see now," said the knight, "how you are startled! even as
+the unbroken steed, which swerves aside from the shaking of a
+handkerchief, though he must in time encounter the waving of a pennon.
+This courtly exchange of epithets of honour, is no more than the
+compliments which pass between valour and beauty, wherever they meet,
+and under whatever circumstances. Elizabeth of England herself calls
+Philip Sydney her Courage, and he in return calls that princess his
+Inspiration. Wherefore, my fair Protection, for by such epithet it
+shall be mine to denominate you--"
+
+"Not without the young lady's consent, sir!" interrupted Halbert;
+"most truly do I hope your courtly and quaint breeding will not so far
+prevail over the more ordinary rules of civil behaviour."
+
+"Fair tenant of an indifferent copyhold," replied the knight, with the
+same coolness and civility of mien, but in a tone somewhat more lofty
+than he used to the young lady, "we do not in the southern parts, much
+intermingle discourse, save with those with whom we may stand on some
+footing of equality; and I must, in all discretion, remind you, that
+the necessity which makes us inhabitants of the same cabin, doth not
+place us otherwise on a level with each other."
+
+"By Saint Mary," replied young Glendinning, "it is my thought that it
+does; for plain men hold, that he who asks the shelter is indebted to
+him who gives it; and so far, therefore, is our rank equalized while
+this roof covers us both."
+
+"Thou art altogether deceived," answered Sir Piercie; "and that thou
+mayst fully adapt thyself to our relative condition, know that I
+account not myself thy guest, but that of thy master, the Lord Abbot
+of Saint Mary's, who, for reasons best known to himself and me,
+chooseth to administer his hospitality to me through the means of
+thee, his servant and vassal, who art, therefore, in good truth, as
+passive an instrument of my accommodation as this ill-made and rugged
+joint-stool on which I sit, or as the wooden trencher from which I eat
+my coarse commons. Wherefore," he added, turning to Mary, "fairest
+mistress, or rather, as I said before, most lovely Protection--"
+[Footnote: There are many instances to be met with in the ancient
+dramas of this whimsical and conceited custom of persons who formed an
+intimacy, distinguishing: each, other by some quaint epithet. In
+_Every Man out of his Humour_, there is a humorous debate upon
+names most fit to bind the relation betwixt Sogliardo and Cavaliero
+Shift, which ends by adopting those of Countenance and Resolution.
+What is more to the point is in the speech of Hedon, a voluptuary and
+a courtier in _Cynthia's Revels_. "you know that I call Madam
+Plilantia my _Honour,_ and she calls me her _Ambition._ Now,
+when I meet her in the presence, anon, I will come to her and say,
+'Sweet Honour, I have hitherto contented my sense with the lilies of
+your hand, and now I will taste the roses of your lip.' To which she
+cannot but blushing answer, 'Nay, now you are too ambitious;' and then
+do I reply, 'I cannot be too ambitious of Honour, sweet lady. Wilt not
+be good?'"--I think there is some remnant of this foppery preserved in
+masonic lodges, where each brother is distinguished by a name in the
+Lodge, signifying some abstract quality as Discretion, or the like.
+See the poems of Gavin Wilson.]
+
+Mary Avenel was about to reply to him, when the stern, fierce, and
+resentful expression of voice and countenance with which Halbert
+exclaimed, "not from the King of Scotland, did he live, would I brook
+such terms!" induced her to throw herself between him and the
+stranger, exclaiming, "for God's sake, Halbert, beware what you do!"
+
+"Fear not, fairest Protection," replied Sir Piercie, with the utmost
+serenity, "that I can be provoked by this rustical and mistaught
+juvenal to do aught misbecoming your presence or mine own dignity; for
+as soon shall the gunner's linstock give fire unto the icicle, as the
+spark of passion inflame my blood, tempered as it is to serenity by
+the respect due to the presence of my gracious Protection."
+
+"You may well call her your protection, Sir Knight" said Halbert; "by
+Saint Andrew, it is the only sensible word I have heard you speak! But
+we may meet where her protection shall no longer afford you shelter."
+
+"Fairest Protection," continued the courtier, not even honouring with
+a look, far less with a direct reply, the threat of the incensed
+Halbert, "doubt not that thy faithful Affability will be more commoved
+by the speech of this rudesby, than the bright and serene moon is
+perturbed by the baying of the cottage-cur, proud of the height of his
+own dunghill, which, in his conceit, lifteth him nearer unto the
+majestic luminary."
+
+To what lengths so unsavoury a simile might have driven Halbert's
+indignation, is left uncertain; for at that moment Edward rushed into
+the apartment with the intelligence that two most important officers
+of the Convent, the Kitchener and Refectioner, were just arrived with
+a sumpter-mule, loaded with provisions, announcing that the Lord
+Abbot, the Sub-Prior, and the Sacristan, were on their way thither. A
+circumstance so very extraordinary had never been recorded in the
+annals of Saint Mary's, or in the traditions of Glendearg, though
+there was a faint legendary report that a certain Abbot had dined
+there in old days, after having been bewildered in a hunting
+expedition amongst the wilds which lie to the northward. But that the
+present Lord Abbot should have taken a voluntary journey to so wild
+and dreary a spot, the very Kamtschatka of the Halidome, was a thing
+never dreamt of; and the news excited the greatest surprise in all the
+members of the family saving Halbert alone.
+
+This fiery youth was too full of the insult he had received to think
+of anything as unconnected with it. "I am glad of it," he exclaimed;
+"I am glad the Abbot comes hither. I will know of him by what right
+this stranger is sent hither to domineer over us under our father's
+roof, as if we were slaves and not freemen. I will tell the proud
+priest to his beard--"
+
+"Alas! alas! my brother," said Edward, "think what these words may
+cost thee!"
+
+"And what will, or what can they cost me," said Halbert, "that I should
+sacrifice my human feelings and my justifiable resentment to the fear of
+what the Abbot can do?"
+
+"Our mother--our mother!" exclaimed Edward; "think, if she is deprived
+of her home, expelled from her property, how can you amend what
+your rashness may ruin?"
+
+"It is too true, by Heaven!" said Halbert, striking his forehead.
+Then, stamping his foot against the floor to express the full energy
+of the passion to which he dared no longer give vent, he turned round
+and left the apartment.
+
+Mary Avenel looked at the stranger knight, while she was endeavouring
+to frame a request that he would not report the intemperate violence
+of her foster-brother to the prejudice of his family, in the mind of
+the Abbot. But Sir Piercie, the very pink of courtesy, conjectured her
+meaning from her embarrassment, and waited not to be entreated.
+
+"Credit me, fairest Protection," said he, "your Affability is less
+than capable of seeing or hearing, far less of reciting or
+reiterating, aught of an unseemly nature which may have chanced while
+I enjoyed the Elysium of your presence. The winds of idle passion may
+indeed rudely agitate the bosom of the rude; but the heart of the
+courtier is polished to resist them.  As the frozen lake receives not
+the influence of the breeze, even so--"
+
+The voice of Dame Glendinning, in shrill summons, here demanded Mary
+Avenel's attendance, who instantly obeyed, not a little glad to escape
+from the compliments and similes of this courtlike gallant. Nor was it
+apparently less a relief on his part; for no sooner was she past the
+threshold of the room, than he exchanged the look of formal and
+elaborate politeness which had accompanied each word he had uttered
+hitherto, for an expression of the utmost lassitude and ennui; and
+after indulging in one or two portentous yawns, broke forth into a
+soliloquy.
+
+"What the foul fiend sent this wench hither? As if it were not
+sufficient plague to be harboured in a hovel that would hardly serve
+for a dog's kennel in England, baited by a rude peasant-boy, and
+dependent on the faith of a mercenary ruffian, but I cannot even have
+time to muse over my own mishap, but must come aloft, frisk, fidget,
+and make speeches, to please this pale hectic phantom, because she has
+gentle blood in her veins? By mine honour, setting prejudice aside,
+the mill-wench is the more attractive of the two--But patienza,
+Piercie Shafton; thou must not lose thy well-earned claim to be
+accounted a devout servant of the fair sex, a witty-brained, prompt,
+and accomplished courtier. Rather thank heaven, Piercie Shafton, which
+hath sent thee a subject, wherein, without derogating from thy rank,
+(since the honours of the Avenel family are beyond dispute,) thou
+mayest find a whetstone for thy witty compliments, a strop whereon to
+sharpen thine acute engine, a butt whereat to shoot the arrows of thy
+gallantry.  For even as a Bilboa blade, the more it is rubbed, the
+brighter and the sharper will it prove, so--But what need I waste my
+stock of similitudes in holding converse with myself?--Yonder comes
+the monkish retinue, like some half score of crows winging their way
+slowly up the valley--I hope, a'gad, they have not forgotten my
+trunk-mails of apparel amid the ample provision they have made for
+their own belly-timber--Mercy, a'gad, I were finely helped up if the
+vesture has miscarried among the thievish Borderers!"
+
+Stung by this reflection, he ran hastily down stairs, and caused his
+horse to be saddled, that he might, as soon as possible, ascertain
+this important point, by meeting the Lord Abbot and his retinue as
+they came up the glen.  He had not ridden a mile before he met them
+advancing with the slowness and decorum which became persons of their
+dignity and profession. The knight failed not to greet the Lord Abbot
+with all the formal compliments with which men of rank at that period
+exchanged courtesies. He had the good fortune to find that his mails
+were numbered among the train of baggage which attended upon the
+party; and, satisfied in that particular, he turned his horse's head,
+and accompanied the Abbot to the Tower of Glendearg.
+
+Great, in the meanwhile, had been the turmoil of the good Dame Elspeth
+and her coadjutors, to prepare for the fitting reception of the Father
+Lord Abbot and his retinue. The monks had indeed taken care not to
+trust too much to the state of her pantry; but she was not the less
+anxious to make such additions as might enable her to claim the thanks
+of her feudal lord and spiritual father. Meeting Halbert, as, with his
+blood on fire, he returned from his altercation with her guest, she
+commanded him instantly to go forth to the hill, and not to return
+without venison; reminding him that he was apt enough to go thither
+for his own pleasure, and must now do so for the credit of the house.
+
+The Miller, who was now hastening his journey homewards, promised to
+send up some salmon by his own servant. Dame Elspeth, who by this time
+thought she had guests enough, had begun to repent of her invitation
+to poor Mysie, and was just considering by what means, short of giving
+offence, she could send off the Maid of the Mill behind her father,
+and adjourn all her own aerial architecture till some future
+opportunity, when this unexpected generosity on the part of the sire
+rendered any present attempt to return his daughter on his hands too
+highly ungracious to be farther thought on. So the Miller departed
+alone on his homeward journey.
+
+Dame Elspeth's sense of hospitality proved in this instance its own
+reward; for Mysie had dwelt too near the Convent to be altogether
+ignorant of the noble art of cookery, which her father patronized to
+the extent of consuming on festival days such dainties as his daughter
+could prepare in emulation of the luxuries of the Abbot's kitchen.
+Laying aside, therefore, her holiday kirtle, and adopting a dress more
+suitable to the occasion, the good-humored maiden bared her snowy arms
+above the elbows; and, as Elspeth acknowledged, in the language of the
+time and country, took "entire and aefauld part with her" in the
+labours of the day; showing unparalleled talent, and indefatigable
+industry, in the preparation of _mortreux_, _blanc-manger_,
+and heaven knows what delicacies besides, which Dame Glendinning,
+unassisted by her skill, dared not even have dreamt of presenting.
+Leaving this able substitute in the kitchen, and regretting that Mary
+Avenel was so brought up, that she could intrust nothing to her care,
+unless it might be seeing the great chamber strewed with rushes, and
+ornamented with such flowers and branches as the season afforded, Dame
+Elspeth hastily donned her best attire, and with a beating heart
+presented herself at the door of her little tower, to make her
+obeisance to the Lord Abbot as he crossed her humble threshold. Edward
+stood by his mother, and felt the same palpitation, which his
+philosophy was at a loss to account for. He was yet to learn how long
+it is ere our reason is enabled to triumph over the force of external
+circumstances, and how much our feelings are affected by novelty, and
+blunted by use and habit.
+
+On the present occasion, he witnessed with wonder and awe the approach
+of some half-score of riders, sober men upon sober palfreys, muffled
+in their long black garments, and only relieved by their white
+scapularies, showing more like a funeral procession than aught else,
+and not quickening their pace beyond that which permitted easy
+conversation and easy digestion.  The sobriety of the scene was indeed
+somewhat enlivened by the presence of Sir Piercie Shafton, who, to
+show that his skill in the manege was not inferior to his other
+accomplishments, kept alternately pressing and checking his gay
+courser, forcing him to piaffe, to caracole, to passage, and to do all
+the other feats of the school, to the great annoyance of the Lord
+Abbot, the wonted sobriety of whose palfrey became at length
+discomposed by the vivacity of its companion, while the dignitary kept
+crying out in bodily alarm, "I do pray you--Sir Knight--good now, Sir
+Piercie--Be quiet, Benedict, there is a good steed--soh, poor fellow"
+and uttering all the other precatory and soothing exclamations by
+which a timid horseman usually bespeaks the favour of a frisky
+companion, or of his own unquiet nag, and concluding the bead-roll
+with a sincere _Deo gratias_ so soon as he alighted in the
+court-yard of the Tower of Glendearg.
+
+The inhabitants unanimously knelt down to kiss the hand of the Lord
+Abbot, a ceremony which even the monks were often condemned to. Good
+Abbot Boniface was too much fluttered by the incidents of the latter
+part of his journey, to go through this ceremony with much solemnity,
+or indeed with much patience. He kept wiping his brow with a
+snow-white handkerchief with one hand, while another was abandoned to
+the homage of his vassals; and then signing the cross with his
+outstretched arm, and exclaiming, "Bless ye--bless ye, my children" he
+hastened into the house, and murmured not a little at the darkness and
+steepness of the rugged winding stair, whereby he at length scaled the
+spence destined for his entertainment, and, overcome with fatigue,
+threw himself, I do not say into an easy chair, but into the easiest
+the apartment afforded.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Sixteenth.
+
+
+     A courtier extraordinary, who by diet
+     Of meats and drinks, his temperate exercise,
+     Choice music, frequent bath, his horary shifts
+     Of shirts and waistcoats, means to immortalize
+     Mortality itself, and makes the essence
+     Of his whole happiness the trim of court.
+                                         MAGNETIC LADY.
+
+
+When the Lord Abbot had suddenly and superciliously vanished from the
+eyes of his expectant vassals, the Sub-Prior made amends for the
+negligence of his principal, by the kind and affectionate greeting
+which he gave to all the members of the family, but especially to Dame
+Elspeth, her foster-daughter, and her son Edward. "Where," he even
+condescended to inquire, "is that naughty Nimrod, Halbert?--He hath
+not yet, I trust, turned, like his great prototype, his hunting-spear
+against man!"
+
+"O no, an it please your reverence," said Dame Glendinning, "Halbert
+is up at the glen to get some venison, or surely he would not have been
+absent when such a day of honour dawned upon me and mine."
+
+"Oh, to get savoury meat, such as our soul loveth," muttered the
+Sub-Prior; "it has been at times an acceptable gift.--I bid you good
+morrow, my good dame, as I must attend upon his lordship the Father
+Abbot."
+
+"And O, reverend sir," said the good widow, detaining him, "if it
+might be your pleasure to take part with us if there is any thing
+wrong; and if there is any thing wanted, to say that it is just
+coming, or to make some excuses your learning best knows how. Every
+bit of vassail and silver work have we been spoiled of since Pinkie
+Cleuch, when I lost poor Simon Glendinning, that was the warst of a'."
+
+"Never mind--never fear," said the Sub-Prior, gently extricating his
+garment from the anxious grasp of Dame Elspeth, "the Refectioner has
+with him the Abbot's plate and drinking cups; and I pray you to believe
+that whatever is short in your entertainment will be deemed amply made
+up in your good-will."
+
+So saying, he escaped from her and went into the spence, where such
+preparations as haste permitted were making for the noon collation of
+the Abbot and the English knight. Here he found the Lord Abbot, for
+whom a cushion, composed of all the plaids in the house, had been
+unable to render Simon's huge elbow-chair a soft or comfortable place
+of rest.
+
+"Benedicite!" said Abbot Boniface, "now marry fie upon these hard
+benches with all my heart--they are as uneasy as the _scabella_
+of our novices. Saint Jude be with us, Sir Knight, how have you
+contrived to pass over the night in this dungeon? An your bed was no
+softer than your seat, you might as well have slept on the stone couch
+of Saint Pacomius.  After trotting a full ten miles, a man needs a
+softer seat than has fallen to my hard lot."
+
+With sympathizing faces, the Sacristan and the Refectioner ran to
+raise the Lord Abbot, and to adjust his seat to his mind, which was at
+length accomplished in some sort, although he continued alternately to
+bewail his fatigue, and to exult in the conscious sense of having
+discharged an arduous duty. "You errant cavaliers," said he,
+addressing the knight, "may now perceive that others have their
+travail and their toils to undergo as well as your honoured faculty.
+And this I will say for myself and the soldiers of Saint Mary, among
+whom I may be termed captain, that it is not our wont to flinch from
+the heat of the service, or to withdraw from the good fight.  No, by
+Saint Mary!--no sooner did I learn that you were here, and dared
+not for certain reasons come to the Monastery, where, with as good
+will, and with more convenience, we might have given you a better
+reception, than, striking the table with my hammer, I called a
+brother--Timothy, said I, let them saddle Benedict--let them saddle my
+black palfrey, and bid the Sub-Prior and some half-score of attendants
+be in readiness tomorrow after matins--we would ride to
+Glendearg.--Brother Timothy stared, thinking, I imagine, that his ears
+had scarce done him justice--but I repeated my commands, and said, Let
+the Kitchener and Refectioner go before to aid the poor vassals to
+whom the place belongs in making a suitable collation. So that you
+will consider, good Sir Piercie, our mutual in commodities, and
+forgive whatever you may find amiss"
+
+"By my faith," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "there is nothing to
+forgive--If you spiritual warriors have to submit to the grievous
+incommodities which your lordship narrates, it would ill become me, a
+sinful and secular man, to complain of a bed as hard as a board, of
+broth which relished as if made of burnt wool, of flesh, which, in its
+sable and singed shape, seemed to put me on a level with Richard
+Coeur-de-Lion,--when he ate up the head of a Moor carbonadoed, and of
+other viands savouring rather of the rusticity of this northern
+region."
+
+"By the good Saints, sir," said the Abbot, somewhat touched in point
+of his character for hospitality, of which he was in truth a most
+faithful and zealous professor, "it grieves me to the heart that you
+have found our vassals no better provided for your reception--Yet I
+crave leave to observe, that if Sir Piercie Shafton's affairs had
+permitted him to honour with his company our poor house of Saint
+Mary's, he might have had less to complain of in respect of
+easements."
+
+"To give your lordship the reasons," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "why I
+could not at this present time approach your dwelling, or avail myself
+of its well-known and undoubted hospitality, craves either some delay,
+or," looking around him, "a limited audience."
+
+The Lord Abbot immediately issued his mandate to the Refectioner: "Hie
+thee to the kitchen, Brother Hilarius, and there make inquiry of our
+brother the Kitchener, within what time he opines that our collation
+may be prepared, since sin and sorrow it were, considering the
+hardships of this noble and gallant knight, no whit mentioning
+or--weighing those we ourselves have endured, if we were now either to
+advance or retard the hour of refection beyond the time when the
+viands are fit to be set before us."
+
+Brother Hilarius parted with an eager alertness to execute the will of
+his Superior, and returned with the assurance, that punctually at one
+afternoon would the collation be ready.
+
+"Before that time," said the accurate Refectioner, "the wafers,
+flamms, and pastry-meat, will scarce have had the just degree of fire
+which learned pottingers prescribe as fittest for the body; and if it
+should be past one o'clock, were it but ten minutes, our brother the
+Kitchener opines, that the haunch of venison would suffer in spite of
+the skill of the little turn-broche whom he has recommended to your
+holiness by his praises."
+
+"How!" said the Abbot, "a haunch of venison!--from whence comes that
+dainty? I remember not thou didst intimate its presence in thy hamper
+of vivers."
+
+"So please your holiness and lordship," said the Refectioner, "he is a
+son of the woman of the house who has shot it and sent it in--killed
+but now; yet, as the animal heat hath not left the body, the Kitchener
+undertakes it shall eat as tender as a young chicken--and this youth
+hath a special gift in shooting deer, and never misses the heart or
+the brain; so that the blood is not driven through the flesh, as
+happens too often with us.  It is a hart of grease--your holiness has
+seldom seen such a haunch."
+
+"Silence, Brother Hilarius," said the Abbot, wiping his mouth; "it is
+not beseeming our order to talk of food so earnestly, especially as we
+must oft have our animal powers exhausted by fasting, and be
+accessible (as being ever mere mortals) to those signs of longing" (he
+again wiped his mouth) "which arise on the mention of victuals to an
+hungry man.--Minute down, however, the name of that youth--it is
+fitting merit should be rewarded, and he shall hereafter be a
+_frater ad succurrendum_ in the kitchen and buttery."
+
+"Alas! reverend Father and my good lord," replied the Refectioner, "I
+did inquire after the youth, and I learn he is one who prefers the
+casque to the cowl, and the sword of the flesh to the weapons of the
+spirit."
+
+"And if it be so," said the Abbot, "see that thou retain him as a
+deputy-keeper and man-at-arms, and not as a lay brother of the
+Monastery--for old Tallboy, our forester, waxes dim-eyed, and hath
+twice spoiled a noble buck, by hitting him unwarily on the haunch. Ah!
+'tis a foul fault, the abusing by evil-killing, evil-dressing,
+evil-appetite, or otherwise, the good creatures indulged to us for our
+use. Wherefore, secure us the service of this youth, Brother Hilarius,
+in the way that may best suit him.--And now, Sir Piercie Shafton,
+since the fates have assigned us a space of well-nigh an hour, ere we
+dare hope to enjoy more than the vapour or savour of our repast, may I
+pray you, of your courtesy, to tell me the cause of this visit; and,
+above all, to inform us, why you will not approach our more pleasant
+and better furnished _hospitium_?"
+
+"Reverend Father, and my very good lord," said Sir Piercie Shafton,
+"it is well known to your wisdom, that there are stone walls which
+have ears, and that secrecy is to be looked to in matters which
+concern a man's head." The Abbot signed to his attendants, excepting
+the Sub-Prior, to leave the room, and then said, "Your valour, Sir
+Piercie, may freely unburden yourself before our faithful friend and
+counsellor Father Eustace, the benefits of whose advice we may too
+soon lose, inasmuch as his merits will speedily recommend him to an
+higher station, in which we trust he may find the blessing of a friend
+and adviser as valuable as himself, since I may say of him, as our
+claustral rhyme goeth,[Footnote: The rest of this doggerel rhyme may
+be found in Fosbrooke's Learned work on British Monachism.]
+
+  'Dixit Abbas ad Prioris,
+  Tu es homo boni moris,
+  Quia semper sanioris
+  Mihi das concilia.'
+
+Indeed," he added, "the office of Sub-Prior is altogether beneath our
+dear brother; nor can we elevate him unto that of Prior, which, for
+certain reasons, is at present kept vacant amongst us. Howbeit, Father
+Eustace is fully possessed of my confidence, and worthy of yours, and
+well may it be said of him, _Intravit in secretis nostris_."
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton bowed to the reverend brethren, and, heaving a
+sigh, as if he would burst his steel cuirass, he thus commenced his
+speech:--
+
+"Certes, reverend sirs, I may well heave such a suspiration, who have,
+as it were, exchanged heaven for purgatory, leaving the lightsome
+sphere of the royal court of England for a remote nook in this
+inaccessible desert--quitting the tilt-yard, where I was ever ready
+among my compeers to splinter a lance, either for the love of honour,
+or for the honour of love, in order to couch my knightly spear against
+base and pilfering besognios and marauders--exchanging the lighted
+halls, wherein I used nimbly to pace the swift coranto, or to move
+with a loftier grace in the stately galliard, for this rugged and
+decayed dungeon of rusty-coloured stone--quitting the gay theatre, for
+the solitary chimney-nook of a Scottish dog-house--bartering the
+sounds of the soul-ravishing lute, and the love-awaking viol-de-gamba,
+for the discordant squeak of a northern bagpipe--above all, exchanging
+the smiles of those beauties, who form a gay galaxy around the throne
+of England, for the cold courtesy of an untaught damsel, and the
+bewildered stare of a miller's maiden. More might I say of the
+exchange of the conversation of gallant knights and gay courtiers of
+mine own order and capacity, whose conceits are bright and vivid as
+the lightning, for that of monks and churchmen--but it were
+discourteous to urge that topic."
+
+The Abbot listened to this list of complaints with great round eyes,
+which evinced no exact intelligence of the orator's meaning; and when
+the knight paused to take breath, he looked with a doubtful and
+inquiring eye at the Sub-Prior, not well knowing in what tone he
+should reply to an exordium so extraordinary. The Sub-Prior
+accordingly stepped in to the relief of his principal.
+
+"We deeply sympathize with you, Sir Knight, in the several
+mortifications and hardships to which fate has subjected you,
+particularly in that which has thrown you into the society of those,
+who, as they were conscious they deserved not such an honour, so
+neither did they at all desire it. But all this goes little way to
+expound the cause of this train of disasters, or, in plainer words,
+the reason which has compelled you into a situation having so few
+charms for you."
+
+"Gentle and reverend sir," replied the knight, "forgive an unhappy
+person, who, in giving a history of his miseries, dilateth upon them
+extremely, even as he who, having fallen from a precipice, looketh
+upward to measure the height from which he hath been precipitated."
+
+"Yea, but," said Father Eustace, "methinks it were wiser in him to tell
+those who come to lift him up, which of his bones have been broken."
+
+"You, reverend sir," said the knight, "have, in the encounter of our
+wits, made a fair attaint; whereas I may be in some sort said to have
+broken my staff across. [Footnote: _Attaint_ was a term of
+tilting used to express the champion's having _attained_ his
+mark, or, in other words, struck his lance straight and fair against
+the helmet or breast of his adversary. Whereas to break the lance
+across, intimated a total failure in directing the point of the weapon
+on the object of his aim.] Pardon me, grave sir, that I speak in the
+language of the tilt-yard, which is doubtless strange to your reverend
+years.--Ah! brave resort of the noble, the fair and the gay!--Ah!
+throne of love, and citadel of honour!--Ah! celestial beauties, by
+whose bright eyes it is graced!  Never more shall Piercie Shafton
+advance, as the centre of your radiant glances, couch his lance, and
+spur his horse at the sound of the spirit-stirring trumpets, nobly
+called the voice of war--never more shall he baffle his adversary's
+encounter boldly, break his spear dexterously, and ambling around the
+lovely circle, receive the rewards with which beauty honours
+chivalry!"
+
+Here he paused, wrung his hands, looked upwards, and seemed lost in
+contemplation of his own fallen fortunes.
+
+"Mad, very mad," whispered the Abbot to the Sub-Prior; "I would we
+were fairly rid of him; for, of a truth, I expect he will proceed from
+raving to mischief--Were it not better to call up the rest of the
+brethren?"
+
+But the Sub-Prior knew better than his Superior how to distinguish the
+jargon of affectation from the ravings of insanity, and although the
+extremity of the knight's passion seemed altogether fantastic, yet he
+was not ignorant to what extravagancies the fashion of the day can
+conduct its votaries.
+
+Allowing, therefore, two minutes' space to permit the knight's
+enthusiastic feelings to exhaust themselves, he again gravely reminded
+him that the Lord Abbot had taken a journey, unwonted to his age and
+habits, solely to learn in what he could serve Sir Piercie
+Shafton--that it was altogether impossible he could do so without his
+receiving distinct information of the situation in which he had now
+sought refuge in Scotland.--"The day wore on," he observed, looking at
+the window; "and if the Abbot should be obliged to return to the
+Monastery without obtaining the necessary intelligence, the regret
+might be mutual, but the inconvenience was like to be all on Sir
+Piercie's own side."
+
+The hint was not thrown away.
+
+"O, goddess of courtesy!" said the knight, "can I so far have
+forgotten thy behests as to make this good prelate's ease and time a
+sacrifice to my vain complaints! Know, then, most worthy, and not less
+worshipful, that I, your poor visitor and guest, am by birth nearly
+bound to the Piercie of Northumberland, whose fame is so widely blown
+through all parts of the world where English worth hath been known.
+Now, this present Earl of Northumberland, of whom I propose to give
+you the brief history----"
+
+"It is altogether unnecessary," said the Abbot; "we know him to be a
+good and true nobleman, and a sworn upholder of our Catholic faith, in
+the spite of the heretical woman who now sits upon the throne of
+England.  And it is specially as his kinsman, and as knowing that ye
+partake with him in such devout and faithful belief and adherence to
+our holy Mother Church, that we say to you, Sir Piercie Shafton, that
+ye be heartily welcome to us, and that, and we wist how, we would
+labour to do you good service in your extremity."
+
+"For such kind offer I rest your most humble debtor," said Sir
+Piercie, "nor need I at this moment say more than that my Right
+Honourable Cousin of Northumberland, having devised with me and some
+others, the choice and picked spirits of the age, how and by what
+means the worship of God, according to the Catholic Church, might be
+again introduced into this distracted kingdom of England, (even as one
+deviseth, by the assistance of his friend, to catch and bridle a
+runaway steed,) it pleased him so deeply to intrust me in those
+communications, that my personal safety becomes, as it were, entwined
+or complicated therewith. Natheless, as we have had sudden reason to
+believe, this Princess Elizabeth, who maintaineth around her a sort of
+counsellors skilful in tracking whatever schemes may be pursued for
+bringing her title into challenge, or for erecting again the
+discipline of the Catholic Church, has obtained certain knowledge of
+the trains which we had laid before we could give fire unto them.
+Wherefore, my Right Honourable Cousin of Northumberland, thinking it
+best belike that one man should take both blame and shame for the
+whole, did lay the burden of all this trafficking upon my back; which
+load I am the rather content to bear, in that he hath always shown
+himself my kind and honourable kinsman, as well as that my estate, I
+wot not how, hath of late been somewhat insufficient to maintain the
+expense of those braveries, wherewith it is incumbent on us, who are
+chosen and selected spirits, to distinguish ourselves from the
+vulgar."
+
+"So that possibly," said the Sub-Prior, "your private affairs rendered a
+foreign journey less incommodious to you than it might have been to the
+noble earl, your right worthy cousin?"
+
+"You are right, reverend sir," answered the courtier; "_rem
+acu_--you have touched the point with a needle--My cost and
+expenses had been indeed somewhat lavish at the late triumphs and
+tourneys, and the flat-capp'd citizens had shown themselves unwilling
+to furnish my pocket for new gallantries for the honour of the nation,
+as well as for mine own peculiar glory--and, to speak truth, it was in
+some part the hope of seeing these matters amended that led me to
+desire a new world in England."
+
+"So that the miscarriage of your public enterprise, with the
+derangement of your own private affairs," said the Sub-Prior, "have
+induced you to seek Scotland as a place of refuge?"
+
+"_Rem acu_, once again," said Sir Piercie; and not without good
+cause, since my neck, if I remained, might have been brought within
+the circumstances of a halter--and so speedy was my journey northward,
+that I had but time to exchange my peach-coloured doublet of Genoa
+velvet, thickly laid over with goldsmith's work, for this cuirass,
+which was made by Bonamico of Milan, and travelled northward with all
+speed, judging that I might do well to visit my Right Honourable
+Cousin of Northumberland, at one of his numerous castles. But as I
+posted towards Alnwick, even with the speed of a star, which, darting
+from its native sphere, shoots wildly downwards, I was met at
+Northallerton by one Henry Vaughan, a servant of my right honourable
+kinsman, who showed me, that as then I might not with safety come to
+his presence, seeing that, in obedience to orders from his court, he
+was obliged to issue out letters for my incarceration."
+
+"This," said the Abbot, "seems but hard measure on the part of your
+honourable kinsman."
+
+"It might be so judged, my lord," replied Sir Piercie; "nevertheless,
+I will stand to the death for the honour of my Right Honourable Cousin
+of Northumberland. Also, Henry Vaughan gave me, from my said cousin, a
+good horse, and a purse of gold, with two Border-prickers, as they are
+called, for my guides, who conducted me, by such roads and by-paths as
+have never been seen since the days of Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristrem,
+into this kingdom of Scotland, and to the house of a certain baron, or
+one who holds the style of such, called Julian Avenel, with whom I
+found such reception as the place and party could afford."
+
+"And that," said the Abbot, "must have been right wretched; for to
+judge from the appetite which Julian showeth when abroad, he hath not, I
+judge, over-abundant provision at home."
+
+"You are right, sir--your reverence is in the right," continued Sir
+Piercie; "we had but lenten fare, and, what was worse, a score to
+clear at the departure; for though this Julian Avenel called us to no
+reckoning, yet he did so extravagantly admire the fashion of my
+poniard--the _poignet_ being of silver exquisitely hatched, and
+indeed the weapon being altogether a piece of exceeding rare device
+and beauty--that in faith I could not for very shame's sake but pray
+his acceptance of it; words which he gave me not the trouble of
+repeating twice, before he had stuck it into his greasy buff-belt,
+where, credit me, reverend sir, it showed more like a butcher's knife
+than a gentleman's dagger."
+
+"So goodly a gift might at least have purchased you a few days'
+hospitality," said Father Eustace.
+
+"Reverend sir," said Sir Piercie, "had I abidden with him, I should
+have been complimented out of every remnant of my wardrobe--actually
+flayed, by the hospitable gods I swear it! Sir, he secured my spare
+doublet, and had a pluck at my galligaskins--I was enforced to beat a
+retreat before I was altogether unrigged. That Border knave, his
+serving man, had a pluck at me too, and usurped a scarlet cassock and
+steel cuirass belonging to the page of my body, whom I was fain to
+leave behind me. In good time I received a letter from my Right
+Honourable Cousin, showing me that he had written to you in my behalf,
+and sent to your charge two mails filled with wearing apparel--namely,
+my rich crimson silk doublet, slashed out and lined with cloth of
+gold, which I wore at the last revels, with baldric and trimmings to
+correspond--also two pair black silk slops, with hanging garters of
+carnation silk--also the flesh-coloured silken doublet, with the
+trimmings of fur, in which I danced the salvage man at the Gray's-Inn
+mummery--also----"
+
+"Sir Knight," said the Sub-Prior, "I pray you to spare the farther
+inventory of your wardrobe. The monks of Saint Mary's are no
+free-booting barons, and whatever part of your vestments arrived at
+our house, have been this day faithfully brought hither, with the
+mails which contained them. I may presume from what has been said, as
+we have indeed been, given to understand by the Earl of
+Northumberland, that your desire is to remain for the present as
+unknown and as unnoticed, as may be consistent with your high worth
+and distinction?"
+
+"Alas, reverend father!" replied the courtier, "a blade when it is in
+the scabbard cannot give lustre, a diamond when it is in the casket
+cannot give light, and worth, when it is compelled by circumstances to
+obscure itself, cannot draw observation--my retreat can only attract
+the admiration of those few to whom circumstances permit its
+displaying itself."
+
+"I conceive now, my venerable father and lord," said the Sub-Prior,
+"that your wisdom will assign such a course of conduct to this noble
+knight, as may be alike consistent with his safety, and with the weal
+of the community.  For you wot well, that perilous strides have been
+made in these audacious days, to the destruction of all ecclesiastical
+foundations, and that our holy community has been repeatedly menaced.
+Hitherto they have found no flaw in our raiment; but a party, friendly
+as well to the Queen of England, as to the heretical doctrines of the
+schismatical church, or even to worse and wilder forms of heresy,
+prevails now at the court of our sovereign, who dare not yield to her
+suffering clergy the protection she would gladly extend to them."
+
+"My lord, and reverend sir," said the knight, "I will gladly relieve
+you of my presence, while ye canvass this matter at your freedom; and
+to speak truly, I am desirous to see in what case the chamberlain of
+my noble kinsman hath found my wardrobe, and how he hath packed the
+same, and whether it has suffered from the journey--there are four
+suits of as pure and elegant device as ever the fancy of a fair lady
+doated upon, every one having a treble, and appropriate change of
+ribbons, trimmings, and fringes, which, in case of need, may as it
+were renew each of them, and multiply the four into twelve.--There is
+also my sad-coloured riding-suit, and three cut-work shirts with
+falling bands--I pray you, pardon me--I must needs see how matters
+stand with them without farther dallying."
+
+Thus speaking, he left the room; and the Sub-Prior, looking after him
+significantly, added, "Where the treasure is will the heart be also."
+
+"Saint Mary preserve our wits!" said the Abbot, stunned with the
+knight's abundance of words; "were man's brains ever so stuffed with
+silk and broadcloth, cut-work, and I wot not what besides! And what
+could move the Earl of Northumberland to assume for his bosom
+counsellor, in.  matters of death and danger, such a feather-brained
+coxcomb as this?"
+
+"Had he been other than what he is, venerable father," said the
+Sub-Prior, "he had been less fitted for the part of scape-goat, to which
+his Right Honourable Cousin had probably destined him from the
+commencement, in case of their plot failing. I know something of this
+Piercie Shafton. The legitimacy of his mother's descent from the
+Piercie family, the point on which he is most jealous, hath been
+called in question. If hairbrained courage, and an outrageous spirit
+of gallantry, can make good his pretensions to the high lineage he
+claims, these qualities have never been denied him. For the rest, he
+is one of the ruffling gallants of the time, like Howland Yorke,
+Stukely,
+
+[Footnote: "Yorke," says Camden, "was a Londoner, a man of
+loose and dissolute behaviour, and desperately audacious--famous in
+his time amongst the common bullies and swaggerers, as being the first
+that, to the great admiration of many at his boldness, brought into
+England the bold and dangerous way of fencing with the rapier in
+duelling. Whereas, till that time, the English used to fight with long
+swords and bucklers, striking with the edge, and thought it no part of
+man either to push or strike beneath the girdle.
+
+Having a command in the Low Countries, Yorke revolted to the
+Spaniards, and died miserably, poisoned, as was supposed, by his new
+allies. Three years afterwards, his bones were dug up and gibbeted by
+the command of the States of Holland.
+
+Thomas Stukely, another distinguished gallant of the time, was bred a
+merchant, being the son of a rich clothier in the west. He wedded the
+daughter and heiress of a wealthy alderman of London, named Curtis,
+after whose death he squandered the riches he thus acquired in all
+manner of extravagance. His wife, whose fortune supplied his waste,
+represented to him that he ought to make more of her. Stukely replied,
+"I will make as much of thee, believe me, as it is possible for any to
+do;" and he kept his word in one sense, having stripped her even of
+her wearing apparel, before he finally ran away from her.
+
+Having fled to Italy, he contrived to impose upon the Pope, with a
+plan of invading Ireland, for which he levied soldiers, and made some
+preparations, but ended by engaging himself and his troops in the
+service of King Sebastian of Portugal. He sailed with that prince on
+his fatal voyage to Barbary, and fell with him at the battle of
+Alcazar.
+
+Stukely, as one of the first gallants of the time, has had the honour
+to be chronicled in song, in Evans' Old Ballads, vol. iii, edition
+1810. His fate is also introduced in a tragedy, by George Peel, as has
+been supposed, called the Battle of Alcazar, from which play Dryden is
+alleged to have taken the idea of Don Sebastian; if so, it is
+surprising he omitted a character so congenial to King Charles the
+Second's time as the witty, brave, and profligate Thomas Stukely.]
+
+and others, who wear out their fortunes, and endanger their lives, in
+idle braveries, in order that they may be esteemed the only choice
+gallants of the time; and afterwards endeavour to repair their
+estate, by engaging in the desperate plots and conspiracies which
+wiser heads have devised. To use one of his own conceited similitudes,
+such courageous fools resemble hawks, which the wiser conspirator
+keeps hooded and blinded on his wrist until the quarry is on the wing,
+and who are then flown at them."
+
+"Saint Mary," said the Abbot, "he were an evil guest to introduce into
+our quiet household. Our young monks make bustle enough, and more than
+is beseeming God's servants, about their outward attire already--this
+knight were enough to turn their brains, from the _Vestiarius_
+down to the very scullion boy."
+
+"A worse evil might follow," said the Sub-Prior: "in these bad days,
+the patrimony of the church is bought and sold, forfeited and
+distrained, as if it were the unhallowed soil appertaining to a
+secular baron. Think what penalty awaits us, were we convicted of
+harbouring a rebel to her whom they call the Queen of England! There
+would neither be wanting Scottish parasites to beg the lands of the
+foundation, nor an army from England to burn and harry the Halidome.
+The men of Scotland were once Scotsmen, firm and united in the love of
+their country, and throwing every other consideration aside when the
+frontier was menaced--now they are--what shall I call them--the one
+part French, the other part English, considering their dear native
+country merely as a prize-fighting stage, upon which foreigners are
+welcome to decide their quarrels."
+
+"Benedictine!" replied the Abbot, "they are indeed slippery and evil
+times."
+
+"And therefore," said Father Eustace, "we must walk warily--we must
+not, for example, bring this man--this Sir Piercie Shafton, to our
+house of Saint Mary's."
+
+"But how then shall we dispose of him?" replied the Abbot; "bethink
+thee that he is a sufferer for holy Church's sake--that his patron,
+the Earl of Northumberland, hath been our friend, and that, lying so
+near us, he may work us weal or wo according as we deal with his
+kinsman."
+
+"And, accordingly," said the Sub-Prior, "for these reasons, as well as
+for discharge of the great duty of Christian charity, I would protect
+and relieve this man. Let him not go back to Julian Avenel--that
+unconscientious baron would not stick to plunder the exiled
+stranger--Let him remain here--the spot is secluded, and if the
+accommodation be beneath his quality, discovery will become the less
+likely. We will make such means for his convenience as we can devise."
+
+"Will he be persuaded, thinkest thou?" said the Abbot; "I will leave
+my own travelling bed for his repose, and send up a suitable
+easy-chair."
+
+"With such easements," said the Sub-Prior, "he must not complain; and
+then, if threatened by any sudden danger, he can soon come down to the
+sanctuary, where we will harbour him in secret until means can be
+devised of dismissing him in safety."
+
+"Were we not better," said the Abbot, "send him on to the court, and
+get rid of him at once?"
+
+"Ay, but at the expense of our friends--this butterfly may fold his
+wings, and lie under cover in the cold air of Glendearg; but were he
+at Holyrood, he would, did his life depend on it, expand his spangled
+drapery in the eyes of the queen and court--Rather than fail of
+distinction, he would sue for love to our gracious sovereign--the eyes
+of all men would be upon him in the course of three short days, and
+the international peace of the two ends of the island endangered for a
+creature, who, like a silly moth, cannot abstain from fluttering round
+a light."
+
+"Thou hast prevailed with me, Father Eustace," said the Abbot, "and it
+will go hard but I improve on thy plan--I will send up in secret, not
+only household stuff, but wine and wassell-bread. There is a young
+swankie here who shoots venison well. I will give him directions to
+see that the knight lacks none."
+
+"Whatever accommodation he can have, which infers not a risk of
+discovery," said the Sub-Prior, "it is our duty to afford him."
+
+"Nay," said the Abbot, "we will do more, and will instantly despatch a
+servant express to the keeper of our revestiary to send us such things
+as he may want, even this night. See it done, good father."
+
+"I will," answered Father Eustace; "but I hear the gull clamorous for
+some one to truss his points.[Footnote: The points were the strings of
+cord or ribbon, (so called, because _pointed_ with metal like the
+laces of women's stays,) which attached the doublet to the hose. They
+were very numerous, and required assistance to tie them properly,
+which was called _trussing_.] He will be fortunate if he lights
+on any one here who can do him the office of groom of the chamber."
+
+"I would he would appear," said the Abbot, "for here comes the
+Refectioner with the collation--By my faith, the ride hath given me a
+sharp appetite!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Seventeenth.
+
+
+  I'll seek for other aid--Spirits, they say,
+  Flit round invisible, as thick as motes
+  Dance in the sunbeam. If that spell
+  Or necromancer's sigil can compel them,
+  They shall hold council with me.
+                JAMES DUFF.
+
+The reader's attention must be recalled to Halbert Glendinning, who had
+left the Tower of Glendearg immediately after his quarrel with its new
+guest, Sir Piercie Shafton. As he walked with a rapid pace up the glen,
+Old Martin followed him, beseeching him to be less hasty.
+
+"Halbert," said the old man, "you will never live to have white hair, if
+you take fire thus at every spark of provocation."
+
+"And why should I wish it, old man," said Halbert, "if I am to be the
+butt that every fool may aim a shaft of scorn against?--What avails
+it, old man, that you yourself move, sleep, and wake, eat thy niggard
+meal, and repose on thy hard pallet?--Why art thou so well pleased
+that the morning should call thee up to daily toil, and the evening
+again lay thee down a wearied-out wretch? Were it not better sleep and
+wake no more, than to undergo this dull exchange of labour for
+insensibility and of insensibility for labour?"
+
+"God help me," answered Martin, "there may be truth in what thou
+sayest--but walk slower, for my old limbs cannot keep pace with your
+young legs--walk slower, and I will tell you why age, though unlovely,
+is yet endurable."
+
+"Speak on then," said Halbert, slackening his pace, "but remember we
+must seek venison to refresh the fatigues of these holy men, who will
+this morning have achieved a journey of ten miles; and if we reach not
+the Brocksburn head we are scarce like to see an antler."
+
+"Then know, my good Halbert," said Martin, "whom I love as my own son,
+that I am satisfied to live till death calls me, because my Maker
+wills it. Ay, and although I spend what men call a hard life, pinched
+with cold in winter, and burnt with heat in summer, though I feed hard
+and sleep hard, and am held mean and despised, yet I bethink me, that
+were I of no use on the face of this fair creation, God would withdraw
+me from it."
+
+"Thou poor old man," said Halbert, "and can such a vain conceit as
+this of thy fancied use, reconcile thee to a world where thou playest
+so poor a part?"
+
+"My part was nearly as poor," said Martin, "my person nearly as much
+despised, the day that I saved my mistress and her child from
+perishing in the wilderness."
+
+"Right, Martin," answered Halbert; "there, indeed, thou didst what
+might be a sufficient apology for a whole life of insignificance."
+
+"And do you account it for nothing, Halbert, that I should have the
+power of giving you a lesson of patience, and submission to the
+destinies of Providence? Methinks there is use for the grey hairs on
+the old scalp, were it but to instruct the green head by precept and
+by example."
+
+Halbert held down his face, and remained silent for a minute or two, and
+then resumed his discourse: "Martin, seest thou aught changed in me of
+late?"
+
+"Surely," said Martin. "I have always known you hasty, wild, and
+inconsiderate, rude, and prompt to speak at the volley and without
+reflection; but now, methinks, your bearing, without losing its
+natural fire, has something in it of force and dignity which it had
+not before. It seems as if you had fallen asleep a carle, and awakened
+a gentleman."
+
+"Thou canst judge, then, of noble bearing?" said Halbert.
+
+"Surely," answered Martin, "in some sort I can; for I have travelled
+through court, and camp, and city, with my master, Walter Avenel,
+although he could do nothing for me in the long run, but give me room
+for two score of sheep on the hill--and surely even now, while I speak
+with you, I feel sensible that my language is more refined than it is
+my wont to use, and that--though I know not the reason--the rude
+northern dialect, so familiar to my tongue, has given place to a more
+town-bred speech."
+
+"And this change in thyself and me, thou canst by no means account
+for?" said young Glendinning.
+
+"Change!" replied Martin, "by our Lady it is not so much a change
+which I feel, as a recalling and renewing sentiments and expressions
+which I had some thirty years since, ere Tibb and I set up our humble
+household.  It is singular, that your society should have this sort of
+influence over me, Halbert, and that I should never have experienced
+it ere now."
+
+"Thinkest thou," said Halbert, "thou seest in me aught that can raise
+me from this base, low, despised state, into one where I may rank with
+those proud men, who now despise my clownish poverty?"
+
+Martin paused an instant, and then answered, "Doubtless you may,
+Halbert; as broken a ship has come to land. Heard ye never of Hughie
+Dun, who left this Halidome some thirty-five years gone by? A
+deliverly fellow was Hughie--could read and write like a priest, and
+could wield brand and buckler with the best of the riders. I mind
+him--the like of him was never seen in the Halidome of Saint Mary's,
+and so was seen of the preferment that God sent him."
+
+"And what was that?" said Halbert, his eyes sparkling with eagerness.
+
+"Nothing less," answered Martin, "than body-servant to the Archbishop
+of Saint Andrews!"
+
+Halbert's countenance fell.--"A servant--and to a priest? Was this all
+that knowledge and activity could raise him to?"
+
+Martin, in his turn, looked with wistful surprise in the face of his
+young friend. "And to what could fortune lead him farther?" answered
+he.  "The son of a kirk-feuar is not the stuff that lords and knights
+are made of. Courage and school craft cannot change churl's blood into
+gentle blood, I trow. I have heard, forby, that Hughie Dun left a good
+five hundred punds of Scots money to his only daughter, and that she
+married the Bailie of Pittenweem."
+
+At this moment, and while Halbert was embarrassed with devising a
+suitable answer, a deer bounded across their path. In an instant the
+crossbow was at the youth's shoulder, the bolt whistled, and the deer,
+after giving one bound upright, dropt dead on the green sward.
+
+"There lies the venison our dame wanted," said Martin; "who would have
+thought of an out-lying stag being so low down the glen at this
+season?--And it is a hart of grease too, in full season, and three
+inches of fat on the brisket. Now this is all your luck, Halbert, that
+follows you, go where you like. Were you to put in for it, I would
+warrant you were made one of the Abbot's yeoman-prickers, and ride
+about in a purple doublet as bold as the best."
+
+"Tush, man," answered Halbert, "I will serve the Queen or no one.
+Take thou care to have down the venison to the Tower, since they
+expect it.  I will on to the moss. I have two or three bird-bolts at
+my girdle, and it may be I shall find wild-fowl."
+
+He hastened his pace, and was soon out of sight. Martin paused for a
+moment, and looked after him. "There goes the making of a right
+gallant stripling, an ambition have not the spoiling of him--Serve the
+Queen! said he. By my faith, and she hath worse servants, from all
+that I e'er heard of him. And wherefore should he not keep a high
+head? They that ettle to the top of the ladder will at least get up
+some rounds. They that mint [Footnote: _Mint_--aim at.] at a gown
+of gold, will always get a sleeve of it. But come, sir, (addressing
+the stag,) you shall go to Glendearg on my two legs somewhat more
+slowly than you were frisking it even now on your own four nimble
+shanks. Nay, by my faith, if you be so heavy, I will content me with
+the best of you, and that's the haunch and the nombles, and e'en heave
+up the rest on the old oak-tree yonder, and come back for it with one
+of the yauds." [Footnote: _Yauds_--horses; more particularly
+horses of labour.]
+
+While Martin returned to Glendearg with the venison, Halbert
+prosecuted his walk, breathing more easily since he was free of his
+companion. "The domestic of a proud and lazy priest--body-squire to
+the Archbishop of Saint Andrews," he repeated to himself; "and this,
+with the privilege of allying his blood with the Bailie of Pittenween,
+is thought a preferment worth a brave man's struggling for;--nay more,
+a preferment which, if allowed, should crown the hopes, past, present,
+and to come, of the son of a Kirk-vassal! By Heaven, but that I find
+in me a reluctance to practise their acts of nocturnal rapine, I would
+rather take the jack and lance, and join with the Border-riders.
+--Something I will do. Here, degraded and dishonoured, I will not live
+the scorn of each whiffling stranger from the South, because,
+forsooth, he wears tinkling spurs on a tawney boot. This thing--this
+phantom, be it what it will, I will see it once more.  Since I spoke
+with her, and touched her hand, thoughts and feelings have dawned on
+me, of which my former life had not even dreamed; but shall I, who
+feel my father's glen too narrow for my expanding spirit, brook to be
+bearded in it by this vain gewgaw of a courtier, and in the sight too
+of Mary Avenel? I will not stoop to it, by Heaven!"
+
+As he spoke thus, he arrived in the sequestered glen of
+Corri-nan-shian, as it verged upon the hour of noon. A few moments he
+remained looking upon the fountain, and doubting in his own mind with
+what countenance the White Lady might receive him. She had not indeed
+expressly forbidden his again evoking her; but yet there was something
+like such a prohibition implied in the farewell, which recommended him
+to wait for another guide.
+
+Halbert Glendinning did not long, however, allow himself to pause.
+Hardihood was the natural characteristic of his mind; and under the
+expansion and modification which his feelings had lately undergone, it
+had been augmented rather than diminished. He drew his sword, undid
+the buskin from his foot, bowed three times with deliberation towards
+the fountain, and as often towards the tree, and repeated the same
+rhyme as formerly,--
+
+  "Thrice to the holy brake--
+    Thrice to the well:--
+  I bid thee awake,
+    White Maid of Avenel!
+
+  Noon gleams on the lake--
+    Noon glows on the fell--
+  Wake thee, O wake,
+    White Maid of Avenel!"
+
+His eye was on the holly bush as he spoke the last line; and it was
+not without an involuntary shuddering that he saw the air betwixt his
+eye and that object become more dim, and condense, as it were, into
+the faint appearance of a form, through which, however, so thin and
+transparent was the first appearance of the phantom, he could discern
+the outline of the bush, as through a veil of fine crape. But,
+gradually, it darkened into a more substantial appearance, and the
+White Lady stood before him with displeasure on her brow. She spoke,
+and her speech was still song, or rather measured chant; but, as if
+now more familiar, it flowed occasionally in modulated blank-verse,
+and at other times in the lyrical measure which she had used at their
+former meeting.
+
+  "This is the day when the fairy kind
+    Sits weeping alone for their hopeless lot,
+  And the wood-maiden sighs to the sighing wind,
+    And the mer-maiden weeps in her crystal grot:
+  For this is the day that a deed was wrought,
+    In which we have neither part nor share.
+  For the children of clay was salvation bought,
+    But not for the forms of sea or air!
+  And ever the mortal is most forlorn.
+    Who meeteth our race on the Friday morn."
+
+"Spirit," said Halbert Glendinning, boldly, "it is bootless to
+threaten.  one who holds his life at no rate. Thine anger can but
+slay; nor do I think thy power extendeth, or thy will stretcheth, so
+far. The terrors which your race produce upon others, are vain against
+me. My heart is hardened against fear, as by a sense of despair. If I
+am, as thy words infer, of a race more peculiarly the care of Heaven
+than thine, it is mine to call, it must be thine to answer. I am the
+nobler being."
+
+As he spoke, the figure looked upon him with a fierce and ireful
+countenance, which, without losing the similitude of that which it
+usually exhibited, had a wilder and more exaggerated cast of features.
+The eyes seemed to contract and become more fiery, and slight
+convulsions passed over the face, as if it was about to be transformed
+into something hideous.  The whole appearance resembled those faces
+which the imagination summons up when it is disturbed by laudanum, but
+which do not remain under the visionary's command, and, beautiful in
+their first appearance, become wild and grotesque ere we can arrest
+them.
+
+But when Halbert had concluded his bold speech, the White Lady stood
+before him with the same pale, fixed, and melancholy aspect, which she
+usually bore. He had expected the agitation which she exhibited would
+conclude in some frightful metamorphosis. Folding her arms on her
+bosom, the phantom replied,--
+
+  "Daring youth! for thee it is well,
+  Here calling me in haunted dell,
+  That thy heart has not quail'd,
+       Nor thy courage fail'd,
+       And that thou couldst brook
+  The angry look
+       Of Her of Avenel.
+
+  Did one limb shiver,
+       Or an eyelid quiver,
+  Thou wert lost for ever.
+  Though I am form'd from the ether blue,
+  And my blood is of the unfallen dew.
+       And thou art framed of mud and dust,
+  'Tis thine to speak, reply I must."
+
+"I demand of thee, then," said the youth, "by what charm it is that I
+am thus altered in mind and in wishes--that I think no longer of deer
+or dog, of bow or bolt--that my soul spurns the bounds of this obscure
+glen--that my blood boils at an insult from one by whose stirrup I
+would some days since have run for a whole summer's morn, contented
+and honoured by the notice of a single word? Why do I now seek to mate
+me with princes, and knights, and nobles?--Am I the same, who but
+yesterday, as it were, slumbered in contented obscurity, but who am
+to-day awakened to glory and ambition?--Speak--tell me, if thou canst,
+the meaning of this change?--Am I spell-bound?--or have I till now
+been under the influence of a spell, that I feel as another being, yet
+am conscious of remaining the same? Speak and tell me, is it to thy
+influence that the change is owing?"
+
+The White Lady replied,--
+
+  "A mightier wizard far than I
+    Wields o'er the universe his power;
+  Him owns the eagle in the sky,
+    The turtle in the bower.
+  Chanceful in shape, yet mightiest still,
+  He wields the heart of man at will,
+  From ill to good, from good, to ill,
+  In cot and castle-tower."
+
+"Speak not thus darkly," said the youth, colouring so deeply, that face,
+neck, and hands were in a sanguine glow; "make me sensible of thy
+purpose."
+
+The spirit answered,--
+
+  "Ask thy heart,--whose secret cell
+  Is fill'd with Marv Avenel!
+  Ask thy pride,--why scornful look
+  In Mary's view it will not brook?
+  Ask it, why thou seek'st to rise
+  Among the mighty and the wise?--
+  Why thou spurn'st thy lowly lot?--
+  Why thy pastimes are forgot?
+  Why thou wouldst in bloody strife
+  Mend thy luck or lose thy life?
+  Ask thy heart, and it shall tell,
+  Sighing from its secret cell,
+  'Tis for Mary Avenel."
+
+"Tell me, then," said Halbert, his cheek still deeply crimsoned, "thou
+who hast said to me that which I dared not say to myself, by what means
+shall I urge my passion--by what means make it known?"
+
+The White Lady replied,--
+
+  "Do not ask me;
+  On doubts like these thou canst not task me.
+  We only see the passing show
+  Of human passions' ebb and flow;
+  And view the pageant's idle glance
+  As mortals eye the northern dance,
+  When thousand streamers, flashing bright,
+  Career it o'er the brow of night.
+  And gazers mark their changeful gleams,
+  But feel no influence from their beams."
+
+"Yet thine own fate," replied Halbert, "unless men greatly err, is
+linked with that of mortals?"
+
+The phantom answered,
+
+  "By ties mysterious link'd, our fated race
+  Holds strange connexion with the sons of men.
+  The star that rose upon the House of Avenel,
+  When Norman Ulric first assumed the name,
+  That star, when culminating in its orbit,
+  Shot from its sphere a drop of diamond dew,
+  And this bright font received it--and a Spirit
+  Rose from the fountain, and her date of life
+  Hath co-existence with the House of Avenel,
+  And with the star that rules it."
+
+"Speak yet more plainly," answered young Glendinning; "of this I can
+understand nothing. Say, what hath forged thy wierded [Footnote:
+_Wierded_--fated.] link of destiny with the House of Avenel?
+Say, especially, what fate now overhangs that house?"
+
+The White Lady replied,--
+
+  "Look on my girdle--on this thread of gold--
+  'Tis fine as web of lightest gossamer.
+  And, but there is a spell on't, would not bind,
+  Light as they are, the folds of my thin robe.
+  But when 'twas donn'd, it was a massive chain,
+  Such as might bind the champion of the Jews,
+
+  Even when his looks were longest--it hath dwindled,
+  Hath minish'd in its substance and its strength,
+  As sunk the greatness of the House of Avenel.
+  When this frail thread gives way. I to the elements
+  Resign the principles of life they lent me.
+  Ask me no more of this!--the stars forbid it."
+
+"Then canst thou read the stars," answered the youth; "and mayest
+tell me the fate of my passion, if thou canst not aid it?"
+
+The White Lady again replied,--
+
+  "Dim burns the once bright star of Avenel,
+  Dim as the beacon when the morn is nigh,
+  And the o'er-wearied warder leaves the light-house;
+  There is an influence sorrowful and fearful.
+  That dogs its downward course. Disastrous passion,
+  Fierce hate and rivalry, are in the aspect
+  That lowers upon its fortunes."
+
+"And rivalry?" repeated Glendinning; "it is, then, as I feared!--But
+shall that English silkworm presume to beard me in my father's house,
+and in the presence of Mary Avenel?--Give me to meet him, spirit--give
+me to do away the vain distinction of rank on which he refuses me the
+combat.  Place us on equal terms, and gleam the stars with what aspect
+they will, the sword of my father shall control their influences."
+
+She answered as promptly as before,--
+
+  "Complain not of me, child of clay,
+  If to thy harm I yield the way.
+  We, who soar thy sphere above,
+  Know not aught of hate or love;
+  As will or wisdom rules thy mood,
+  My gifts to evil turn, or good."
+
+"Give me to redeem my honour," said Halbert Glendinning--"give me to
+retort on my proud rival the insults he has thrown on me, and let the
+rest fare as it will. If I cannot revenge my wrong, I shall sleep
+quiet, and know nought of my disgrace."
+
+The phantom failed not to reply,--
+
+  "When Piercie Shafton boasteth high,
+  Let this token meet his eye.
+  The sun is westering from the dell,
+  Thy wish is granted--fare thee well!"
+
+As the White Lady spoke or chanted these last words, she undid from
+her locks a silver bodkin around which they were twisted, and gave it
+to Halbert Glendinning; then shaking her dishevelled hair till it fell
+like a veil around her, the outlines of her form gradually became as
+diffuse as her flowing tresses, her countenance grew pale as the moon
+in her first quarter, her features became indistinguishable, and she
+melted into the air.
+
+Habit inures us to wonders; but the youth did not find himself alone
+by the fountain without experiencing, though in a much less degree,
+the revulsion of spirits which he had felt upon the phantom's former
+disappearance.  A doubt strongly pressed upon his mind, whether it
+were safe to avail himself of the gifts of a spirit which did not even
+pretend to belong to the class of angels, and might, for aught he
+knew, have a much worse lineage than that which she was pleased to
+avow. "I will speak of it," he said, "to Edward, who is clerkly
+learned, and will tell me what I should do. And yet, no--Edward is
+scrupulous and wary.--I will prove the effect of her gift on Sir
+Piercie Shafton, if he again braves me, and by the issue, I will be
+myself a sufficient judge whether there is danger in resorting to her
+counsel. Home, then, home--and we shall soon learn whether that home
+shall longer hold me; for not again will I brook insult, with my
+father's sword by my side, and Mary for the spectator of my disgrace."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Eighteenth.
+
+
+  I give thee eighteenpence a-day,
+    And my bow shall thou bear,
+  And over all the north country,
+    I make thee the chief rydere.
+  And I thirteenpence a-day, quoth the queen,
+    By God and by my faye,
+  Come fetch thy payment when thou wilt,
+    No man shall say thee nay.
+              WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLEY.
+
+The manners of the age did not permit the inhabitants of Glendearg to
+partake of the collation which was placed in the spence of that
+ancient tower, before the Lord Abbot and his attendants, and Sir
+Piercie Shafton.  Dame Glendinning was excluded, both by inferiority
+of rank and by sex, for (though it was a rule often neglected) the
+Superior of Saint Mary's was debarred from taking his meals in female
+society. To Mary Avenel the latter, and to Edward Glendinning the
+former, incapacity attached; but it pleased his lordship to require
+their presence in the apartment, and to say sundry kind words to them
+upon the ready and hospitable reception which they had afforded him.
+
+The smoking haunch now stood upon the table; a napkin, white as snow,
+was, with due reverence, tucked under the chin of the Abbot by the
+Refectioner; and nought was wanting to commence the repast, save the
+presence of Sir Piercie Shafton, who at length appeared, glittering
+like the sun, in a carnation-velvet doublet, slashed and puffed out
+with cloth of silver, his hat of the newest block, surrounded by a
+hatband of goldsmith's work, while around his neck he wore a collar of
+gold, set with rubies and topazes so rich, that it vindicated his
+anxiety for the safety of his baggage from being founded upon his love
+of mere finery. This gorgeous collar or chain, resembling those worn
+by the knights of the highest orders of chivalry, fell down on his
+breast, and terminated in a medallion.
+
+"We waited for Sir Piercie Shafton," said the Abbot, hastily assuming
+his place in the great chair which the Kitchener advanced to the table
+with ready hand.
+
+"I pray your pardon, reverend father, and my good lord," replied that
+pink of courtesy; "I did but wait to cast my riding slough, and to
+transmew myself into some civil form meeter for this worshipful
+company."
+
+"I cannot but praise your gallantry, Sir Knight," said the Abbot, "and
+your prudence, also, for choosing the fitting time to appear thus
+adorned.  Certes, had that goodly chain been visible in some part of
+your late progress, there was risk that the lawful owner might have
+parted company therewith."
+
+"This chain, said your reverence?" answered Sir Piercie; "surely it is
+but a toy, a trifle, a slight thing which shows but poorly with this
+doublet--marry, when I wear that of the murrey-coloured double-piled
+Genoa velvet, puffed out with ciprus, the gems, being relieved and set
+off by the darker and more grave ground of the stuff, show like stars
+giving a lustre through dark clouds."
+
+"I nothing doubt it," said the Abbot, "but I pray you to sit down at the
+board."
+
+But Sir Piercie had now got into his element, and was not easily
+interrupted--"I own," he continued, "that slight as the toy is, it
+might perchance have had some captivation for Julian--Santa Maria!"
+said he, interrupting himself; "what was I about to say, and my fair
+and beauteous Protection, or shall I rather term her my Discretion,
+here in presence!--Indiscreet hath it been in your Affability, O most
+lovely Discretion, to suffer a stray word to have broke out of the
+penfold of his mouth, that might overleap the fence of civility, and
+trespass on the manor of decorum."
+
+"Marry!" said the Abbot, somewhat impatiently, "the greatest
+discretion that I can see in the matter is, to eat our victuals being
+hot--Father Eustace, say the Benedicite, and cut up the haunch."
+
+The Sub-Prior readily obeyed the first part of the Abbot's injunction,
+but paused upon the second--"It is Friday, most reverend," he said in
+Latin, desirous that the hint should escape, if possible, the ears of
+the stranger.
+
+"We are travellers," said the Abbot, in reply, "and _viatoribus
+licitum est_--You know the canon--a traveller must eat what food
+his hard fate sets before him. I grant you all a dispensation to eat
+flesh this day, conditionally that you, brethren, say the Confiteor at
+curfew time, that the knight give alms to his ability, and that all
+and each of you fast from flesh on such day within the next month that
+shall seem most convenient;--wherefore fall to and eat your food with
+cheerful countenances, and you, Father Refectioner, _da mixtus_."
+
+While the Abbot was thus stating the conditions on which his
+indulgence was granted, he had already half finished a slice of the
+noble haunch, and now washed it down with a flagon of Rhenish,
+modestly tempered with water.
+
+"Well is it said," he observed, as he required from the Refectioner
+another slice, "that virtue is its own reward; for though this is but
+humble fare, and hastily prepared, and eaten in a poor chamber, I do
+not remember me of having had such an appetite since I was a simple
+brother in the Abbey of Dundrennan, and was wont to labour in the
+garden from morning until nones, when our Abbot struck the
+_Cymbalum_. Then would I enter keen with hunger, parched with
+thirst, (_da mihi vinum quaeso, et merum sit_,) and partake with
+appetite of whatever was set before us, according to our rule; feast
+or fast day, _caritas_ or _penitentia_, was the same to me.
+I had no stomach complaints then, which now crave both the aid of wine
+and choice cookery, to render my food acceptable to my palate, and
+easy of digestion."
+
+"It may be, holy father," said the Sub-Prior, "an occasional ride to
+the extremity of Saint Mary's patrimony, may have the same happy
+effect on your health as the air of the garden at Dundrennan."
+
+"Perchance, with our patroness's blessing, such progresses may
+advantage us," said the Abbot; "having an especial eye that our
+venison is carefully killed by some woodsman that is master of his
+craft."
+
+"If the Lord Abbot will permit me," said the Kitchener, "I think the
+best way to assure his lordship on that important point, would be to
+retain as a yeoman-pricker, or deputy-ranger, the eldest son of this
+good woman, Dame Glendinning, who is here to wait upon us. I should
+know by mine office what belongs to killing of game, and I can safely
+pronounce, that never saw I, or any other _coquinarius_, a bolt
+so justly shot. It has cloven the very heart of the buck."
+
+"What speak you to us of one good shot, father?" said Sir Piercie; "I
+would advise you that such no more maketh a shooter, than doth one
+swallow make a summer--I have seen this springald of whom you speak,
+and if his hand can send forth his shafts as boldly as his tongue doth
+utter presumptuous speeches, I will own him as good an archer as Robin
+Hood."
+
+"Marry," said the Abbot, "and it is fitting we know the truth of this
+matter from the dame herself; for ill advised were we to give way to
+any rashness in this matter, whereby the bounties which Heaven and our
+patroness provide might be unskilfully mangled, and rendered unfit for
+worthy men's use.--Stand forth, therefore, dame Glendinning, and tell
+to us, as thy liege lord and spiritual Superior, using plainness and
+truth, without either fear or favour, as being a matter wherein we are
+deeply interested, Doth this son of thine use his bow as well as the
+Father Kitchener avers to us?"
+
+"So please your noble fatherhood," answered Dame Glendinning with a
+deep curtsy, "I should know somewhat of archery to my cost, seeing my
+husband--God assoilzie him!--was slain in the field of Pinkie with an
+arrow-shot, while he was fighting under the Kirk's banner, as became a
+liege vassal of the Halidome. He was a valiant man, please your
+reverence, and an honest; and saving that he loved a bit of venison,
+and shifted for his living at a time as Border-men will sometimes do,
+I wot not of sin that he did. And yet, though I have paid for mass
+after mass to the matter of a forty shilling, besides a quarter of
+wheat and four firlocks of rye, I can have no assurance yet that he
+has been delivered from purgatory."
+
+"Dame," said the Lord Abbot, "this shall be looked into heedfully; and
+since thy husband fell, as thou sayest, in the Kirk's quarrel, and
+under her banner, rely upon it that we will have him out of purgatory
+forthwith--that is, always provided he be there.--But it is not of
+thy husband whom we now devise to speak, but of thy son; not of a shot
+Scotsman, but of a shot deer--Wherefore, I say, answer me to the
+point, is thy son a practised archer, ay or no?"
+
+"Alack! my reverend lord," replied the widow, "and my croft would be
+better tilled, if I could answer your reverence that he is
+not.--Practised archer!--marry, holy sir, I would he would practise
+something else--cross-bow and long-bow, hand-gun and hack-but,
+falconet and saker, he can shoot with them all. And if it would please
+this right honourable gentleman, our guest, to hold out his hat at the
+distance of a hundred yards, our Halbert shall send shaft, bolt, or
+bullet through it, (so that right honourable gentleman swerve not, but
+hold out steady,) and I will forfeit a quarter of barley if he touch
+but a knot of his ribands. I have seen our old Martin do as much, and
+so has our right reverend the Sub-Prior, if he be pleased to remember
+it."
+
+"I am not like to forget it, dame," said Father Eustace; "for I knew
+not which most to admire, the composure of the young marksman, or the
+steadiness of the old mark. Yet I presume not to advise Sir Piercie
+Shafton to subject his valuable beaver, and yet more valuable person,
+to such a risk, unless it should be his own special pleasure."
+
+"Be assured it is not," said Sir Piercie Shafton, something hastily;
+"be well assured, holy father, that it is not. I dispute not the lad's
+qualities, for which your reverence vouches. But bows are but wood,
+strings are but flax, or the silk-worm excrement at best; archers are
+but men, fingers may slip, eyes may dazzle, the blindest may hit the
+butt, the best marker may shoot a bow's length beside. Therefore will
+we try no perilous experiments."
+
+"Be that as you will, Sir Piercie," said the Abbot; "meantime we will
+name this youth bow-bearer in the forest granted to us by good King
+David, that the chase might recreate our wearied spirits, the flesh of
+the dear improve our poor commons, and the hides cover the books of
+our library; thus tending at once to the sustenance of body and soul."
+
+"Kneel down, woman, kneel down," said the Refectioner and the
+Kitchener, with one voice, to Dame Glendinning, "and kiss his lordship's
+hand, for the grace which he has granted to thy son."
+
+They then, as if they had been chanting the service and the responses,
+set off in a sort of duetto, enumerating the advantages of the
+situation.
+
+"A green gown and a pair of leathern galligaskins every Pentecost," said
+the Kitchener.
+
+"Four marks by the year at Candlemas," answered the Refectioner.
+
+"A hogshead of ale at Martlemas, of the double strike, and single ale at
+pleasure, as he shall agree with the Cellarer--"
+
+"Who is a reasonable man," said the Abbot, "and will encourage an
+active servant of the convent."
+
+"A mess of broth and a dole of mutton or beef, at the Kitchener's, on
+each high holiday," resumed the Kitchener.
+
+"The gang of two cows and a palfrey on our Lady's meadow." answered
+his brother officer.
+
+"An ox-hide to make buskins of yearly, because of the brambles," echoed
+the Kitchener.
+
+"And various other perquisites, _quae nunc praescribere longum_,"
+said the Abbot, summing, with his own lordly voice, the advantages
+attached to the office of conventional bow-bearer.
+
+Dame Glendinning was all this while on her knees, her head
+mechanically turning from the one church officer to the other, which,
+as they stood one on each side of her, had much the appearance of a
+figure moved by clock-work, and so soon as they were silent, most
+devotedly did she kiss the munificent hand of the Abbot. Conscious,
+however, of Halbert's intractability in some points, she could not
+help qualifying her grateful and reiterated thanks for the Abbot's
+bountiful proffer, with a hope that Halbert would see his wisdom, and
+accept of it.
+
+"How," said the Abbot, bending his brows, "accept of it?--Woman, is
+thy son in his right wits?"
+
+Elspeth, stunned by the tone in which this question was asked, was
+altogether unable to reply to it. Indeed, any answer she might have
+made could hardly have been heard, as it pleased the two
+office-bearers of the Abbot's table again to recommence their
+alternate dialogue.
+
+"Refuse!" said the Kitchener.
+
+"Refuse!" answered the Refectioner, echoing the other's word in a tone
+of still louder astonishment.
+
+"Refuse four marks by the year!" said the one.
+
+"Ale and beer--broth and mutton--cow's grass and palfrey's!" shouted
+the Kitchener.
+
+"Gown and galligaskins!" responded the Refectioner.
+
+"A moment's patience, my brethren," answered the Sub-Prior, "and let
+us not be thus astonished before cause is afforded of our amazement.
+This good dame best knoweth the temper and spirit of her son--this
+much I can say, that it lieth not towards letters or learning, of
+which I have in vain endeavoured to instil into him some tincture.
+Nevertheless, he is a youth of no common spirit, but much like those
+(in my weak judgment) whom God raises up among a people when he
+meaneth that their deliverance shall be wrought out with strength of
+hand and valour of heart. Such men we have seen marked with a
+waywardness, and even an obstinacy of character, which hath appeared
+intractability and stupidity to those among whom they walked and were
+conversant, until the very opportunity hath arrived in, which it was
+the will of Providence that they should be the fitting instrument of
+great things."
+
+"Now, in good time hast thou spoken, Father Eustace," said the Abbot;
+"and we will see this swankie before we decide upon the means of
+employing him.--How say you, Sir Piercie Shafton, is it not the court
+fashion to suit the man to the office, and not the office to the man?"
+
+"So please your reverence and lordship," answered the Northumbrian
+knight, "I do partly, that is, in some sort, subscribe to what your
+wisdom hath delivered--Nevertheless, under reverence of the Sub-Prior,
+we do not look for gallant leaders and national deliverers in the
+hovels of the mean common people. Credit me, that if there be some
+flashes of martial spirit about this young person, which I am not
+called upon to dispute, (though I have seldom seen that presumption
+and arrogance were made good upon the upshot by deed and action,) yet
+still these will prove insufficient to distinguish him, save in his
+own limited and lowly sphere--even as the glowworm, which makes a
+goodly show among the grass of the field, would be of little avail if
+deposited in a beacon-grate."
+
+"Now, in good time," said the Sub-Prior, "and here comes the young
+huntsman to speak for himself;" for, being placed opposite to the
+window, he could observe Halbert as he ascended the little mound on
+which the tower was situated.
+
+"Summon him to our presence," said the Lord Abbot; and with an
+obedient start the two attendant monks went off with emulous
+alertness. Dame Glendinning sprung away at the same moment, partly to
+gain an instant to recommend obedience to her son, partly to prevail
+with him to change his apparel before coming in presence of the Abbot.
+But the Kitchener and Refectioner, both speaking at once, had already
+seized each an arm, and were leading Halbert in triumph into the
+apartment, so that she could only ejaculate, "His will be done; but an
+he had but had on him his Sunday's hose!"
+
+Limited and humble as this desire was, the fates did not grant it, for
+Halbert Glendinning was hurried into the presence of the Lord Abbot
+and his party, without a word of explanation, and without a moment's
+time being allowed to assume his holiday hose, which, in the language
+of the time, implied both breeches and stockings.
+
+Yet, though thus suddenly presented amid the centre of all eyes, there
+was something in Halbert's appearance which commanded a certain degree
+of respect from the company into which he was so unceremoniously
+intruded, and the greater part of whom were disposed to consider him
+with hauteur if not with absolute contempt. But his appearance and
+reception we must devote to another chapter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Nineteenth.
+
+
+  Now choose thee, gallant, betwixt wealth and honour;
+  There lies the pelf, in sum to bear thee through
+  The dance of youth, and the turmoil of manhood,
+  Yet leave enough for age's chimney-corner;
+  But an thou grasp to it, farewell ambition,
+  Farewell each hope of bettering thy condition,
+  And raising thy low rank above the churls
+  That till the earth for bread.
+                                 OLD PLAY.
+
+It is necessary to dwell for some brief space on the appearance and
+demeanour of young Glendinning, ere we proceed to describe his interview
+with the Abbot of St. Mary's, at this momentous crisis of his life.
+
+Halbert was now about nineteen years old, tall and active rather than
+strong, yet of that hardy conformation of limb and sinew, which
+promises great strength when the growth shall be complete, and the
+system confirmed.  He was perfectly well made, and, like most men who
+have that advantage, possessed a grace and natural ease of manner and
+carriage, which prevented his height from being the distinguished part
+of his external appearance. It was not until you had compared his
+stature with that of those amongst or near to whom he stood, that you
+became sensible that the young Glendinning was upwards of six feet
+high. In the combination of unusual height with perfect symmetry,
+ease, and grace of carriage, the young heir of Glendearg,
+notwithstanding his rustic birth and education, had greatly the
+advantage even of Sir Piercie Shafton himself, whose stature was
+lower, and his limbs, though there was no particular point to object
+to, were on the whole less exactly proportioned. On the other hand,
+Sir Piercie's very handsome countenance afforded him as decided an
+advantage over the Scotsman, as regularity of features and brilliance
+of complexion could give over traits which were rather strongly marked
+than beautiful, and upon whose complexion the "skyey influences," to
+which he was constantly exposed, had blended the red and white into
+the purely nut-brown hue, which coloured alike cheeks, neck, and
+forehead, and blushed only in a darker glow upon the former.--
+Halbert's eyes supplied a marked and distinguished part of his
+physiognomy. They were large and of a hazel colour, and sparkled in
+moments of animation with such uncommon brilliancy, that it seemed as
+if they actually emitted light. Nature had closely curled the locks of
+dark-brown hair, which relieved and set off the features, such as we
+have described them, displaying a bold and animated disposition, much
+more than might have been expected from his situation, or from his
+previous manners, which hitherto had seemed bashful, homely, and
+awkward.
+
+Halbert's dress was certainly not of that description which sets off
+to the best advantage a presence of itself prepossessing. His jerkin
+and hose were of coarse rustic cloth, and his cap of the same. A belt
+round his waist served at once to sustain the broad-sword which we
+have already mentioned, and to hold five or six arrows and bird-bolts,
+which were stuck into it on the right side, along with a large knife
+hilted with buck-horn, or, as it was then called, a dudgeon-dagger. To
+complete his dress, we must notice his loose buskins of deer's hide,
+formed so as to draw up on the leg as high as the knee, or at pleasure
+to be thrust down lower than the calves. These were generally used at
+the period by such as either had their principal occupation, or their
+chief pleasure, in silvan sports, as they served to protect the legs
+against the rough and tangled thickets into which the pursuit of game
+frequently led them.--And these trifling particulars complete his
+external appearance.
+
+It is not easy to do justice to the manner in which young
+Glendinning's soul spoke through his eyes when ushered so suddenly
+into the company of those whom his earliest education had taught him
+to treat with awe and reverence. The degree of embarrassment, which
+his demeanor evinced, had nothing in it either meanly servile, or
+utterly disconcerted. It was no more than became a generous and
+ingenuous youth of a bold spirit, but totally inexperienced, who
+should for the first time be called upon to think and act for himself
+in such society and under such disadvantageous circumstances.  There
+was not in his carriage a grain either of forwardness or of timidity,
+which a friend could have wished away.
+
+He kneeled and kissed the Abbot's hand, then rose, and retiring two
+paces, bowed respectfully to the circle around, smiling gently as he
+received an encouraging nod from the Sub-Prior, to whom alone he was
+personally known, and blushing as he encountered the anxious look of
+Mary Avenel, who beheld with painful interest the sort of ordeal to
+which her foster-brother was about to be subjected. Recovering from
+the transient flurry of spirits into which the encounter of her glance
+had thrown him, he stood composedly awaiting till the Abbot should
+express his pleasure.
+
+The ingenuous expression of countenance, noble form, and graceful
+attitude of the young man, failed not to prepossess in his favor the
+churchmen in whose presence he stood. The Abbot looked round, and
+exchanged a gracious and approving glance with his counsellor Father
+Eustace, although probably the appointment of a ranger, or bow-bearer,
+was one in which he might have been disposed to proceed without the
+Sub-Prior's advice, were it but to show his own free agency. But the
+good mien of the young man now in nomination was such, that he rather
+hastened to exchange congratulation on meeting with so proper a
+subject of promotion, than to indulge any other feeling. Father
+Eustace enjoyed the pleasure which a well-constituted mind derives
+from seeing a benefit light on a deserving object; for as he had not
+seen Halbert since circumstances had made so material a change in his
+manner and feelings, he scarce doubted that the proffered
+appointment would, notwithstanding his mother's uncertainty, suit the
+disposition of a youth who had appeared devoted to woodland sports,
+and a foe alike to sedentary or settled occupation of any kind. The
+Refectioner and Kitchener were so well pleased with Halbert's
+prepossessing appearance, that they seemed to think that the salary,
+emoluments, and perquisites, the dole, the grazing, the gown, and the
+galligaskins, could scarce be better bestowed than on the active and
+graceful figure before them.
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton, whether from being more deeply engaged in his own
+cogitations, or that the subject was unworthy of his notice, did not
+seem to partake of the general feeling of approbation excited by the
+young man's presence. He sate with his eyes half shut, and his arms
+folded, appearing to be wrapped in contemplations of a nature deeper
+than those arising out of the scene before him. But, notwithstanding
+his seeming abstraction and absence of mind, there was a flutter of
+vanity in Sir Piercie's very handsome countenance, an occasional
+change of posture from one striking attitude (or what he conceived to
+be such) to another, and an occasional stolen glance at the female
+part of the company, to spy how far he succeeded in riveting their
+attention, which gave a marked advantage, in comparison, to the less
+regular and more harsh features of Halbert Glendinning, with their
+composed, manly, and deliberate expression of mental fortitude.
+
+Of the females belonging to the family of Glendearg, the Miller's
+daughter alone had her mind sufficiently at leisure to admire, from
+time to time, the graceful attitudes of Sir Piercie Shafton; for both
+Mary Avenel and Dame Glendinning were waiting in anxiety and
+apprehension the answer which Halbert was to return to the Abbot's
+proposal, and fearfully anticipating the consequences of his probable
+refusal. The conduct of his brother Edward, for a lad constitutionally
+shy, respectful, and even timid, was at once affectionate and noble.
+This younger son of Dame Elspeth had stood unnoticed in a corner,
+after the Abbot, at the request of the Sub-Prior, had honoured him
+with some passing notice, and asked him a few common-place questions
+about his progress in Donatus, and in the _Promptuarium
+Parvulorum_, without waiting for the answers. From his corner he
+now glided round to his brother's side, and keeping a little behind
+him, slid his right hand into the huntsman's left, and by a gentle
+pressure, which Halbert instantly and ardently returned, expressed at
+once his interest in his situation, and his resolution to share his
+fate.
+
+The group was thus arranged, when, after the pause of two or three
+minutes, which he employed in slowly sipping his cup of wine, in order
+that he might enter on his proposal with due and deliberate dignity,
+the Abbot at length expressed himself thus:--
+
+"My son--we your lawful Superior, and the Abbot, under God's favour,
+of the community of Saint Mary's, have heard of your manifold good
+gifts--a-hem--especially touching wood-craft--and the huntsman-like
+fashion in which you strike your game, truly and as a yeoman should,
+not abusing Heaven's good benefits by spoiling the flesh, as is too
+often seen in careless rangers--a-hem." He made here a pause, but
+observing that Glendinning only replied to his compliment by a bow, he
+proceeded,--"My son, we commend your modesty; nevertheless, we will
+that thou shouldst speak freely to us touching that which we have
+premeditated for thine advancement, meaning to confer on thee the
+office of bow-bearer and ranger, as well over the chases and forests
+wherein our house hath privilege by the gifts of pious kings and
+nobles, whose souls now enjoy the fruits of their bounties to the
+Church as to those which belong to us in exclusive right of property
+and perpetuity. Thy knee, my son--that we may, with our own hand, and
+without loss of time, induct thee into office."
+
+"Kneel down," said the Kitchener on the one side; and "Kneel down,"
+said the Refectioner on the other.
+
+But Halbert Glendinning remained standing.
+
+"Were it to show gratitude and good-will for your reverend lordship's
+noble offer, I could not," he said, "kneel low enough, or remain long
+enough kneeling. But I may not kneel to take investure of your noble
+gift, my Lord Abbot, being a man determined to seek my fortune
+otherwise."
+
+"How is that, sir?" said the Abbot, knitting his brows; "do I hear you
+speak aright? and do you, a born vassal of the Halidome, at the moment
+when I am destining to you such a noble expression of my good-will,
+propose exchanging my service for that of any other?"
+
+"My lord," said Halbert Glendinning, "it grieves me to think you hold
+me capable of undervaluing your gracious offer, or of exchanging your
+service for another. But your noble proffer doth but hasten the
+execution of a determination which I have long since formed."
+
+"Ay, my son," said the Abbot, "is it indeed so?--right early have you
+learned to form resolutions without consulting those on whom you
+naturally depend. But what may it be, this sagacious resolution, if I
+may so far pray you?"
+
+"To yield up to my brother and mother," answered Halbert, "mine
+interest in the fief of Glendearg, lately possessed by my father,
+Simon Glendinning: and having prayed your lordship to be the same kind
+and generous master to them, that your predecessors, the venerable
+Abbots of Saint Mary's, have been to my fathers in times past; for
+myself, I am determined to seek my fortune where I may best find it."
+
+Dame Glendinning here ventured, emboldened by maternal anxiety, to
+break silence with an exclamation of "O my son!" Edward clinging to
+his brother's side, half spoke, half whispered, a similar ejaculation,
+of "Brother! brother!"
+
+The Sub-Prior took up the matter in a tone of grave reprehension,
+which, as he conceived, the interest he had always taken in the family
+at Glendearg required at his hand.
+
+"Wilful young man," he said, "what folly can urge thee to push back
+the hand that is stretched out to aid thee? What visionary aim hast
+thou before thee, that can compensate for the decent and sufficient
+independence which thou art now rejecting with scorn?"
+
+"Four marks by the year, duly and truly," said the Kitchener.
+
+"Cow's-grass, doublet, and galligaskins," responded the Refectioner.
+
+"Peace, my brethren," said the Sub-Prior; "and may it please your
+lordship, venerable father, upon my petition, to allow this headstrong
+youth a day for consideration, and it shall be my part so to
+indoctrinate him, as to convince him what is due on this occasion to
+your lordship, and to his family, and to himself."
+
+"Your kindness, reverend father," said the youth, "craves my dearest
+thanks--it is the continuance of a long train of benevolence towards
+me, for which I give you my gratitude, for I have nothing else to
+offer. It is my mishap, not your fault, that your intentions have been
+frustrated. But my present resolution is fixed and unalterable. I
+cannot accept the generous offer of the Lord Abbot; my fate calls me
+elsewhere, to scenes where I shall end it or mend it."
+
+"By our Lady," said the Abbot, "I think the youth be mad indeed--or
+that you, Sir Piercie, judged of him most truly, when you prophesied
+that he would prove unfit for the promotion we designed him--it may be
+you knew something of this wayward humour before?"
+
+"By the mass, not I," answered Sir Piercie Shafton, with his usual
+indifference. "I but judged of him by his birth and breeding; for seldom
+doth a good hawk come out of a kite's egg."
+
+"Thou art thyself a kite, and kestrel to boot," replied Halbert
+Glendinning, without a moment's hesitation.
+
+"This in our presence, and to a man of worship?" said the Abbot, the
+blood rushing to his face.
+
+"Yes, my lord," answered the youth; "even in your presence I return to
+this gay man's face, the causeless dishonour--which he has flung on my
+name. My brave father, who fell in the cause of his country, demands
+that justice at the hands of his son!"
+
+"Unmannered boy!" said the Abbot.
+
+"Nay, my good lord," said the knight, "praying pardon for the coarse
+interruption, let me entreat you not to be wroth with this
+rustical--Credit me, the north wind shall as soon puff one of your
+rocks from its basis, as aught which I hold so slight and
+inconsiderate as the churlish speech of an untaught churl, shall move
+the spleen of Piercie Shafton."
+
+"Proud as you are, Sir Knight," said Halbert, "in your imagined
+superiority, be not too confident that you cannot be moved."
+
+"Faith, by nothing that thou canst urge," said Sir Piercie.
+
+"Knowest thou, then, this token?" said young Glendinning, offering to
+him the silver bodkin he had received from the White Lady.
+
+Never was such an instant change, from the most contemptuous serenity,
+to the most furious state of passion, as that which Sir Piercie
+Shafton exhibited. It was the difference between a cannon lying quiet
+in its embrasure, and the same gun when touched by the linstock. He
+started up, every limb quivering with rage, and his features so
+inflamed and agitated by passion, that he more resembled a demoniac,
+than a man under the regulation of reason. He clenched both his fists,
+and thrusting them forward, offered them furiously at the face of
+Glendinning, who was even himself startled at the frantic state of
+excitation which his action had occasioned.  The next moment he
+withdrew them, struck his open palm against his own forehead, and
+rushed out of the room in a state of indescribable agitation.  The
+whole matter had been so sudden, that no person present had time to
+interfere.
+
+When Sir Piercie Shafton had left the apartment, there was a moment's
+pause of astonishment; and then a general demand that Halbert
+Glendinning should instantly explain by what means he had produced
+such a violent change in the deportment of the English cavalier.
+
+"I did nought to him," answered Halbert Glendinning, "but what you
+all saw--am I to answer for his fantastic freaks of humour?"
+
+"Boy," said the Abbot, in his most authoritative manner, "these
+subterfuges shall not avail thee. This is not a man to be driven from
+his temperament without some sufficient cause. That cause was given by
+thee, and must have been known to thee. I command thee, as thou wilt
+save thyself from worse measure, to explain to me by what means thou
+hast moved our friend thus--We choose not that our vassals shall drive
+our guests mad in our very presence, and we remain ignorant of the
+means whereby that purpose is effected."
+
+"So may it please your reverence, I did but show him this token," said
+Halbert Glendinning, delivering it at the same time to the Abbot, who
+looked at it with much attention, and then, shaking his head, gravely
+delivered it to the Sub-Prior, without speaking a word.
+
+Father Eustace looked at the mysterious token with some attention; and
+then addressing Halbert in a stern and severe voice, said, "Young man,
+if thou wouldst not have us suspect thee of some strange
+double-dealing in this matter, let us instantly know whence thou hadst
+this token, and how it possesses an influence on Sir Piercie
+Shafton?"--It would have been extremely difficult for Halbert, thus
+hard pressed, to have either evaded or answered so puzzling a
+question. To have avowed the truth might, in those times, have
+occasioned his being burnt at a stake, although, in ours, his
+confession would have only gained for him the credit of a liar beyond
+all rational credibility. He was fortunately relieved by the return of
+Sir Piercie Shafton himself, whose ear caught, as he entered, the
+sound of the Sub-Prior's question.
+
+Without waiting until Halbert Glendinning replied, he came forward,
+whispering to him as he passed, "Be secret--thou shalt have the
+satisfaction thou hast dared to seek for."
+
+When he returned to his place, there were still marks of discomposure
+on his brow; but, becoming apparently collected and calm, he looked
+around him, and apologized for the indecorum of which he had been
+guilty, which he ascribed to sudden and severe indisposition. All were
+silent, and looked on each other with some surprise.
+
+The Lord Abbot gave orders for all to retire from the apartment, save
+himself, Sir Piercie Shafton, and the Sub-Prior. "And have an eye," he
+added, "on that bold youth, that he escape not; for if he hath
+practised by charm, or otherwise, on the health of our worshipful
+guest, I swear by the alb and mitre which I wear, that his punishment
+shall be most exemplary."
+
+"My lord and venerable father," said Halbert, bowing respectfully,
+"fear not but that I will abide my doom. I think you will best learn
+from the worshipful knight himself, what is the cause of his
+distemperature, and how slight my share in it has been."
+
+"Be assured," said the knight, without looking up, however, while he
+spoke, "I will satisfy the Lord Abbot."
+
+With these words the company retired, and with them young Glendinning.
+When the Abbot, the Sub-Prior, and the English knight were left alone,
+Father Eustace, contrary to his custom, could not help speaking the
+first. "Expound unto us, noble sir," he said, "by what mysterious
+means the production of this simple toy could so far move your spirit,
+and overcome your patience, after you had shown yourself proof to all
+the provocation offered by this self-sufficient and singular youth?"
+
+The knight took the silver bodkin from the good father's hand, looked
+at it with great composure, and, having examined it all over, returned
+it to the Sub-Prior, saying at the same time, "In truth, venerable
+father, I cannot but marvel, that the wisdom implied alike in your
+silver hairs, and in your eminent rank, should, like a babbling hound,
+(excuse the similitude,) open thus loudly on a false scent. I were,
+indeed, more slight to be moved than the leaves of the aspen-tree,
+which wag at the least breath of heaven, could I be touched by such a
+trifle as this, which in no way concerns me more than if the same
+quantity of silver were stricken into so many groats. Truth is, that
+from my youth upward, I have been subjected to such a malady as you
+saw me visited with even now--a cruel and searching pain, which goeth
+through nerve and bone, even as a good brand in the hands of a brave
+soldier sheers through limb and sinew--but it passes away speedily, as
+you yourselves may judge."
+
+"Still," said the Sub-Prior, "this will not account for the youth
+offering to you this piece of silver, as a token by which you were to
+understand something, and, as we must needs conjecture, something
+disagreeable."
+
+"Your reverence is to conjecture what you will," said Sir Piercie;
+"but I cannot pretend to lay your judgment on the right scent when I
+see it at fault. I hope I am not liable to be called upon to account
+for the foolish actions of a malapert boy?"
+
+"Assuredly," said the Sub-Prior, "we shall prosecute no inquiry which
+is disagreeable to our guest. Nevertheless," said he, looking to his
+Superior, "this chance may, in some sort, alter the plan your lordship
+had formed for your worshipful guest's residence for a brief term in
+this tower, as a place alike of secrecy and of security; both of
+which, in the terms which we now stand on with England, are
+circumstances to be desired."
+
+"In truth," said the Abbot, "and the doubt is well thought on, were it
+as well removed; for I scarce know in the Halidome so fitting a place
+of refuge, yet see I not how to recommend it to our worshipful guest,
+considering the unrestrained petulance of this headstrong youth."
+
+"Tush! reverend sirs--what would you make of me?" said Sir Piercie
+Shafton. "I protest, by mine honour, I would abide in this house were
+I to choose. What! I take no exceptions at the youth for showing a
+flash of spirit, though the spark may light on mine own head. I honour
+the lad for it. I protest I will abide here, and he shall aid me in
+striking down a deer. I must needs be friends with him, and he be such
+a shot: and we will speedily send down to my lord Abbot a buck of the
+first head, killed so artificially as shall satisfy even the reverend
+Kitchener."
+
+This was said with such apparent ease and good-humour, that the Abbot
+made no farther observation on what had passed, but proceeded to
+acquaint his guest with the details of furniture, hangings,
+provisions, and so forth, which he proposed to send up to the Tower of
+Glendearg for his accommodation. This discourse, seasoned with a cup
+or two of wine, served to prolong the time until the reverend Abbot
+ordered his cavalcade to prepare for their return to the Monastery.
+
+"As we have," he said, "in the course of this our toilsome journey,
+lost our meridian, [Footnote: The hour of repose at noon, which, in
+the middle ages, was employed in slumber, and which the monastic rules
+of nocturnal vigils rendered necessary.] indulgence shall be given to
+those of our attendants who shall, from very weariness, be unable to
+attend the duty at prime, [Footnote: _Prime_ was the midnight
+service of the monks.] and this by way of misericord or
+_indulgentia._" [Footnote: _Misericord,_ according to the
+learned work of Fosbrooke on British Monachism, meant not only an
+indulgence, or exoneration from particular duties, but also a
+particular apartment in a convent, where the monks assembled to enjoy
+such indulgences or allowances as were granted beyond the rule.]
+
+Having benevolently intimated a boon to his faithful followers, which
+he probably judged would be far from unacceptable, the good Abbot,
+seeing all ready for his journey, bestowed his blessing on the
+assembled household--gave his hand to be kissed by Dame
+Glendinning--himself kissed the cheek of Mary Avenel, and even of the
+Miller's maiden, when they approached to render him the same
+homage--commanded Halbert to rule his temper, and to be aiding and
+obedient in all things to the English Knight--admonished Edward to be
+_discipulus impiger atque strenuus_--then took a courteous
+farewell of Sir Piercie Shafton, advising him to lie close, for fear
+of the English borderers, who might be employed to kidnap him; and
+having discharged these various offices of courtesy, moved forth to
+the courtyard, followed by the whole establishment. Here, with a heavy
+sigh, approaching to a groan, the venerable father heaved himself upon
+his palfrey, whose dark purple housings swept the ground; and, greatly
+comforted that the discretion of the animal's pace would be no longer
+disturbed by the gambadoes of Sir Piercie and his prancing war-horse,
+he set forth at a sober and steady trot upon his return to the
+Monastery.
+
+When the Sub-Prior had mounted to accompany his principal, his eye
+sought out Halbert, who, partly hidden by a projection of the outward
+wall of the court, stood apart from, and gazing upon the departing
+cavalcade, and the group which assembled around them. Unsatisfied with
+the explanation he had received concerning the mysterious transaction
+of the silver bodkin, yet interesting himself in the youth, of whose
+character he had formed a favourable idea, the worthy monk resolved to
+take an early opportunity of investigating that matter. In the
+meanwhile, he looked upon Halbert with a serious and warning aspect,
+and held up his finger to him as he signed farewell. He then joined
+the rest of the churchmen, and followed his Superior down the valley.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twentieth.
+
+
+  I hope you'll give me cause to think you noble.
+  And do me right with your sword, sir, as becomes
+  One gentleman of honour to another;
+
+  All this is fair, sir--let us make no days on't,
+  I'll lead your way.
+
+LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE.
+
+The look and sign of warning which the Sub-Prior gave to Halbert
+Glendinning as they parted, went to his heart; for although he had
+profited much less than Edward by the good man's instructions, he had
+a sincere reverence for his person; and even the short time he had for
+deliberation tended to show him he was embarked in a perilous
+adventure. The nature of the provocation which he had given to Sir
+Piercie Shafton he could not even conjecture; but he saw that it was
+of a mortal quality, and he was now to abide the consequences.
+
+That he might not force these consequences forward by any premature
+renewal of their quarrel, he resolved to walk apart for an hour, and
+consider on what terms he was to meet this haughty foreigner. The time
+seemed propitious for his doing so without having the appearance of
+wilfully shunning the stranger, as all the members of the little
+household were dispersing either to perform such tasks as had been
+interrupted by the arrival of the dignitaries, or to put in order what
+had been deranged by their visit.
+
+Leaving the tower, therefore, and descending, unobserved as he
+thought, the knoll on which it stood, Halbert gained the little piece
+of level ground which extended betwixt the descent of the hill, and
+the first sweep made by the brook after washing the foot of the
+eminence on which the tower was situated, where a few straggling birch
+and oak-trees served to secure him from observation. But scarcely had
+he reached the spot, when he was surprised to feel a smart tap upon
+the shoulder, and, turning around, he perceived he had been closely
+followed by Sir Piercie Shafton.  When, whether from our state of
+animal spirits, want of confidence in the justice of our cause, or any
+other motive, our own courage happens to be in a wavering condition,
+nothing tends so much altogether to disconcert us, as a great
+appearance of promptitude on the part of our antagonist.  Halbert
+Glendinning, both morally and constitutionally intrepid, was
+nevertheless somewhat troubled at seeing the stranger, whose
+resentment he had provoked, appear at once before him, and with an
+aspect which boded hostility. But though his heart might beat somewhat
+thicker, he was too high-spirited to exhibit any external signs of
+emotion.--"What is your pleasure, Sir Piercie?" he said to the English
+knight, enduring without apparent discomposure all the terrors which
+his antagonist had summoned into his aspect.
+
+"What is my pleasure!" answered Sir Piercie; "a goodly question after
+the part you have acted towards me!--Young man, I know not what
+infatuation has led thee to place thyself in direct and insolent
+opposition to one who is a guest of thy liege-lord the Abbot, and who,
+even from the courtesy due to thy mother's roof, had a right to remain
+there without meeting insult. Neither do I ask, or care, by what means
+thou hast become possessed of the fatal secret by which thou hast
+dared to offer me open shame. But I must now tell thee, that the
+possession of it has cost thee thy life."
+
+"Not, I trust, if my hand and sword can defend it," replied Halbert,
+boldly.
+
+"True," said the Englishman, "I mean not to deprive thee of thy fair
+chance of self-defence. I am only sorry to think, that, young and
+country-bred as thou art, it can but little avail thee. But thou must
+be well aware, that in this quarrel I shall use no terms of quarter."
+
+"Rely on it, proud man," answered the youth, "that I shall ask none;
+and although thou speakest as if I lay already at thy feet, trust me,
+that as I am determined never to ask thy mercy, so I am not fearful of
+needing it."
+
+"Thou wilt, then," said the knight, "do nothing to avert the certain
+fate which thou hast provoked with such wantonness?"
+
+"And how were that to be purchased?" replied Halbert Glendinning, more
+with the wish of obtaining some farther insight into the terms on
+which he stood with this stranger, than to make him the submission
+which he might require.
+
+"Explain to me instantly," said Sir Piercie, "without equivocation or
+delay, by what means thou wert enabled to wound my honour so
+deeply--and shouldst thou point out to me by so doing an enemy more
+worthy of my resentment, I will permit thine own obscure
+insignificance to draw a veil over thine insolence."
+
+"This is too high a flight," said Glendinning, fiercely, "for thine
+own presumption to soar without being checked. Thou hast come to my
+father's house, as well as I can guess, a fugitive and an exile, and
+thy first greeting to its inhabitants has been that of contempt and
+injury. By what means I have been able to retort that contempt, let
+thine own conscience tell thee. Enough for me that I stand on the
+privilege of a free Scotchman, and will brook no insult unreturned,
+and no injury unrequited."
+
+"It is well, then," said Sir Piercie Shafton; "we will dispute this
+matter to-morrow morning with our swords. Let the time be daybreak,
+and do thou assign the place. We will go forth as if to strike a
+deer."
+
+"Content," replied Halbert Glendinning: "I will guide thee to a spot
+where an hundred men might fight and fall without any chance of
+interruption."
+
+"It is well," answered Sir Piercie Shafton. "Here then we part.--Many
+will say, that in thus indulging the right of a gentleman to the son
+of a clod-breaking peasant, I derogate from my sphere, even as the
+blessed sun would derogate should he condescend to compare and match
+his golden beams with the twinkle of a pale, blinking, expiring,
+gross-fed taper. But no consideration of rank shall prevent my
+avenging the insult thou hast offered me. We bear a smooth face,
+observe me, Sir Villagio, before the worshipful inmates of yonder
+cabin, and to-morrow we try conclusions with our swords." So saying,
+he turned away towards the tower.
+
+It may not be unworthy of notice, that in the last speech only, had
+Sir Piercie used some of those flowers of rhetoric which characterized
+the usual style of his conversation. Apparently, a sense of wounded
+honour, and the deep desire of vindicating his injured feelings, had
+proved too strong for the fantastic affectation of his acquired
+habits. Indeed, such is usually the influence of energy of mind, when
+called forth and exerted, that Sir Piercie Shafton had never appeared
+in the eyes of his youthful antagonist half so much deserving of
+esteem and respect as in this brief dialogue, by which they exchanged
+mutual defiance. As he followed him slowly to the tower, he could not
+help thinking to himself, that, had the English knight always
+displayed this superior tone of bearing and feeling, he would not
+probably have felt so earnestly disposed to take offence at his hand.
+Mortal offence, however, had been exchanged, and the matter was to be
+put to mortal arbitrement.
+
+The family met at the evening meal, when Sir Piercie Shafton extended
+the benignity of his countenance and the graces of his conversation
+far more generally over the party than he had hitherto condescended to
+do. The greater part of his attention was, of course, still engrossed
+by his divine inimitable Discretion, as he chose to term Mary Avenel;
+but, nevertheless there were interjectional flourishes to the Maid of
+the Mill, under the title of Comely Damsel, and to the Dame, under
+that of Worthy Matron.  Nay, lest he should fail to excite their
+admiration by the graces of his rhetoric, he generously, and without
+solicitation, added those of his voice; and after regretting bitterly
+the absence of his viol-de-gamba, he regaled them with a song,
+"which," said he, "the inimitable Astrophel, whom mortals call Philip
+Sidney, composed in the nonage of his muse, to show the world what
+they are to expect from his riper years, and which will one day see
+the light in that not-to-be-paralleled perfection of human wit, which
+he has addressed to his sister, the matchless Parthenope, whom men
+call Countess of Pembroke; a work," he continued, "whereof his
+friendship hath permitted me, though unworthy, to be an occasional
+partaker, and whereof I may well say, that the deep afflictive tale
+which awakeneth our sorrows, is so relieved with brilliant
+similitudes, dulcet descriptions, pleasant poems, and engaging
+interludes, that they seem as the stars of the firmament, beautifying
+the dusky robe of night.  And though I wot well how much the lovely
+and quaint language will suffer by my widowed voice, widowed in that
+it is no longer matched by my beloved viol-de-gamba, I will essay to
+give you a taste of the ravishing sweetness of the poesy of the
+un-to-be-imitated Astrophel."
+
+So saying, he sung without mercy or remorse about five hundred verses,
+of which the two first and the four last may suffice for a specimen--
+
+  "What tongue can her perfections tell,
+  On whose each part all pens may dwell.
+
+  Of whose high praise arid praiseful bliss,
+  Goodness the pen. Heaven paper is;
+  The ink immortal fame doth send,
+  As I began so I must end."
+
+As Sir Piercie Shafton always sung with his eyes half shut, it was not
+until, agreeably to the promise of poetry, he had fairly made an end,
+that looking round, he discovered that the greater part of his
+audience had, in the meanwhile, yielded to the charms of repose. Mary
+Avenel, indeed, from a natural sense of politeness, had contrived to
+keep awake through all the perplexities of the divine Astrophel; but
+Mysie was transported in dreams back to the dusty atmosphere of her
+father's mill. Edward himself, who had given his attention for some
+time, had at length fallen fast asleep; and the good dame's nose,
+could its tones have been put in regulation, might have supplied the
+bass of the lamented viol-de-gamba. Halbert, however, who had no
+temptation to give way to the charms of slumber, remained awake with
+his eyes fixed on the songster; not that he was better entertained
+with the words, or more ravished with the execution, than the rest of
+the company, but rather because he admired, or perhaps envied, the
+composure, which could thus spend the evening in interminable
+madrigals, when the next morning was to be devoted to deadly combat.
+Yet it struck his natural acuteness of observation, that the eye of
+the gallant cavalier did now and then, furtively as it were, seek a
+glance of his countenance, as if to discover how he was taking the
+exhibition of his antagonist's composure and serenity of mind.
+
+He shall read nothing in my countenance, thought Halbert, proudly, that
+can make him think my indifference less than his own.
+
+And taking from the shelf a bag full of miscellaneous matters
+collected for the purpose, he began with great industry to dress
+hooks, and had finished half-a-dozen of flies (we are enabled, for the
+benefit of those who admire the antiquities of the gentle art of
+angling, to state that they were brown hackles) by the time that Sir
+Piercie had arrived at the conclusion of his long-winded strophes of
+the divine Astrophel. So that he also testified a magnanimous contempt
+of that which to-morrow should bring forth.
+
+As it now waxed late, the family of Glendearg separated for the evening;
+Sir Piercie first saying to the dame, that "her son Albert--"
+
+"Halbert," said Elspeth, with emphasis, "Halbert, after his goodsire,
+Halbert Brydone."
+
+"Well, then, I have prayed your son, Halbert, that we may strive
+tomorrow, with the sun's earliness, to wake a stag from his lair, that
+I may see whether he be as prompt at that sport as fame bespeaks him."
+
+"Alas! sir," answered Dame Elspeth, "he is but too prompt, an you talk
+of promptitude, at any thing that has steel at one end of it, and
+mischief at the other. But he is at your honourable disposal, and I
+trust you will teach him how obedience is due to our venerable father
+and lord, the Abbot, and prevail with him to take the bow-bearer's
+place in fee; for, as the two worthy monks said, it will be a great
+help to a widow-woman."
+
+"Trust me, good dame," replied Sir Piercie, "it is my purpose so to
+indoctrinate him. touching his conduct and bearing towards his
+betters, that he shall not lightly depart from the reverence due to
+them.--We meet, then, beneath the birch-trees in the plain," he said,
+looking to Halbert, "so soon as the eye of day hath opened its
+lids."--Halbert answered with a sign of acquiescence, and the knight
+proceeded, "And now, having wished to my fairest Discretion those
+pleasant dreams which wave their pinions around the couch of sleeping
+beauty, and to this comely damsel the bounties of Morpheus, and to all
+others the common good-night, I will crave you leave to depart to my
+place of rest, though I may say with the poet,
+
+  'Ah rest!--no rest but change of place and posture:
+  Ah sleep!--no sleep but worn-out Nature's swooning;
+  Ah bed!--no bed but cushion fill'd with stones:
+  Rest, sleep, nor bed, await not on an exile.'"
+
+With a delicate obeisance he left the room, evading Dame Glendinning,
+who hastened to assure him he would find his accommodations for repose
+much more agreeable than they had been the night before, there having
+been store of warm coverlets, and a soft feather-bed, sent up from the
+Abbey.  But the good knight probably thought that the grace and effect
+of his exit would be diminished, if he were recalled from his heroics
+to discuss such sublunary and domestic topics, and therefore hastened
+away without waiting to hear her out.
+
+"A pleasant gentleman," said Dame Glendinning; "but I will warrant him
+an humorous [Footnote: _Humorous_--full of whims--thus
+Shakspeare, "Humorous as winter."--The vulgar word humorsome comes
+nearest to the meaning.]--And sings a sweet song, though it is
+somewhat of the longest.--Well, I make mine avow he is goodly
+company--I wonder when he will go away."
+
+Having thus expressed her respect for her guest, not without
+intimation that she was heartily tired of his company, the good dame
+gave the signal for the family to disperse, and laid her injunctions
+on Halbert to attend Sir Piercie Shafton at daybreak, as he required.
+
+When stretched on his pallet by his brother's side, Halbert had no
+small cause to envy the sound sleep which instantly settled on the
+eyes of Edward, but refused him any share of its influence. He saw now
+too well what the spirit had darkly indicated, that, in granting the
+boon which he had asked so unadvisedly, she had contributed more to
+his harm than his good. He was now sensible, too late, of the various
+dangers and inconveniences with which his dearest friends were
+threatened, alike by his discomfiture or his success in the
+approaching duel. If he fell, he might say personally, "good-night
+all." But it was not the less certain that he should leave a dreadful
+legacy of distress and embarrassment to his mother and family,--an
+anticipation which by no means tended to render the front of death, in
+itself a grisly object, more agreeable to his imagination. The
+vengeance of the Abbot, his conscience told him, was sure to descend
+on his mother and brother, or could only be averted by the generosity
+of the victor--And Mary Avenel--he should have shown himself, if he
+succumbed in the present combat, as inefficient in protecting her, as
+he had been unnecessarily active in bringing disaster on her, and on
+the house in which she had been protected from infancy. And to this
+view of the case were to be added all those imbittered and anxious
+feelings with which the bravest men, even in a better or less doubtful
+quarrel, regard the issue of a dubious conflict, the first time when
+it has been their fate to engage in an affair of that nature.
+
+But however disconsolate the prospect seemed in the event of his being
+conquered, Halbert could expect from victory little more than the
+safety of his own life, and the gratification of his wounded pride. To
+his friends--to his mother and brother--especially to Mary Avenel--the
+consequences of his triumph would be more certain destruction than the
+contingency of his defeat and death. If the English knight survived,
+he might in courtesy extend his protection to them; but if he fell,
+nothing was likely to screen them from the vindictive measures which
+the Abbot and convent would surely adopt against the violation of the
+peace of the Halidome, and the slaughter of a protected guest by one
+of their own vassals, within whose house they had lodged him for
+shelter. These thoughts, in which neither view of the case augured
+aught short of ruin to his family, and that ruin entirely brought on
+by his own rashness, were thorns in Halbert Glendinning's pillow, and
+deprived his soul of peace and his eyes of slumber.
+
+There appeared no middle course, saving one which was marked by
+degradation, and which, even if he stooped to it, was by no means free
+of danger.  He might indeed confess to the English knight the strange
+circumstances which led to his presenting him with that token which
+the White Lady (in her displeasure as it now seemed) had given him,
+that he might offer it to Sir Piercie Shafton. But to this avowal his
+pride could not stoop, and reason, who is wonderfully ready to be of
+counsel with pride on such occasions, offered many arguments to show
+it would be useless as well as mean so far to degrade himself. "If I
+tell a tale so wonderful," thought he, "shall I not either be
+stigmatized as a liar, or punished as a wizard?--Were Sir Piercie
+Shafton generous, noble, and benevolent, as the champions of whom we
+hear in romance, I might indeed gain his ear, and, without demeaning
+myself, escape from the situation in which I am placed. But as he is,
+or at least seems to be, self-conceited, arrogant, vain, and
+presumptuous--I should but humble myself in vain--and I will not
+humble myself!" he said, starting out of bed, grasping his broadsword,
+and brandishing it in the light of the moon, which streamed through
+the deep niche that served them as a window; when, to his extreme
+surprise and terror, an airy form stood in the moonlight, but
+intercepted not the reflection on the floor. Dimly as it was
+expressed, the sound of the voice soon made him sensible he saw the
+White Lady.
+
+At no time had her presence seemed so terrific to him; for when he had
+invoked her, it was with the expectation of the apparition, and the
+determination to abide the issue. But now she had come uncalled, and
+her presence impressed him with a sense of approaching misfortune, and
+with the hideous apprehension that he had associated himself with a
+demon, over whose motions he had no control, and of whose powers and
+quality he had no certain knowledge. He remained, therefore, in mere
+terror, gazing on the apparition, which chanted or recited in cadence
+the following lines--
+
+  "He whose heart for vengeance sued,
+  Must not shrink from shedding blood
+  The knot that thou hast tied with word,
+  Thou must loose by edge of sword."
+
+"Avaunt thee, false Spirit!" said Halbert Glendinning; "I have bought
+thy advice too dearly already--Begone in the name of God!"
+
+The Spirit laughed; and the cold unnatural sound of her laughter had
+something in it more fearful than the usually melancholy tones of her
+voice. She then replied,--
+
+  "You have summon'd me once--you have summoned me twice,
+  And without e'er a summons I come to you thrice;
+  Unask'd for, unsued for, you came to my glen;
+  Unsued and unask'd I am with you again."
+
+Halbert Glendinning gave way for a moment to terror, and called on his
+brother, "Edward! waken, waken, for Our Lady's sake!"
+
+Edward awaked accordingly, and asked what he wanted.
+
+"Look out," said Halbert, "look up! seest thou no one in the room?"
+
+"No, upon my good word," said Edward, looking out.
+
+"What! seest thou nothing in the moonshine upon the floor there?"
+
+"No, nothing," answered Edward, "save thyself resting on thy naked
+sword. I tell thee, Halbert, thou shouldst trust more to thy spiritual
+arms, and less to those of steel and iron. For this many a night hast
+thou started and moaned, and cried out of fighting, and of spectres,
+and of goblins--thy sleep hath not refreshed thee--thy waking hath
+been a dream.--Credit me, dear Halbert, say the _Pater_ and
+_Credo_, resign thyself to the protection of God, and thou wilt
+sleep sound and wake in comfort."
+
+"It may be," said Halbert slowly, and having his eye still bent on the
+female form which to him seemed distinctly visible,--"it may be. But
+tell me, dear Edward, seest thou no one on the chamber floor but me?"
+
+"No one," answered Edward, raising himself on his elbow; "dear
+brother, lay aside thy weapon, say thy prayers, and lay thee down to
+rest."
+
+While he thus spoke, the Spirit smiled at Halbert as if in scorn; her
+wan cheek faded in the wan moonlight even before the smile had passed
+away, and Halbert himself no longer beheld the vision to which he had
+so anxiously solicited his brother's attention. "May God preserve my
+wits!" he said, as, laying aside his weapon, he again threw himself on
+his bed.
+
+"Amen! my dearest brother," answered Edward; "but we must not provoke
+that Heaven in our wantonness which we invoke in our misery.--Be not
+angry with me, my dear brother--I know not why you have totally of
+late estranged yourself from me--It is true, I am neither so athletic
+in body, nor so alert in courage, as you have been from your infancy;
+yet, till lately, you have not absolutely cast off my society--Believe
+me, I have wept in secret, though I forbore to intrude myself on your
+privacy. The time has been--when you held me not so cheap; and--when,
+if I could not follow the game so closely, or mark it so truly as you,
+I could fill up our intervals of pastime with pleasant tales of the
+olden times, which I had read or heard, and which excited even your
+attention as we sate and ate our provision by some pleasant
+spring--but now I have, though I know not why, lost thy regard and
+affection.--Nay, toss not thy arms about thee thus wildly," said the
+younger brother; "from thy strange dreams, I fear some touch of fever
+hath affected thy blood--let me draw closer around thee thy mantle."
+
+"Forbear," said Halbert--"your care is needless--your complaints are
+without reason--your fears on my account are in vain."
+
+"Nay, but hear me, brother," said Edward. "Your speech in sleep, and
+now even your waking dreams, are of beings which belong not to this
+world, or to our race--Our good Father Eustace says, that howbeit we
+may not do well to receive all idle tales of goblins and spectres, yet
+there is warrant from holy Scripture to believe, that the fiends haunt
+waste and solitary places; and that those who frequent such
+wildernesses alone, are the prey, or the sport, of these wandering
+demons. And therefore, I pray thee, brother, let me go with you when
+you go next up the glen, where, as you well know, there be places of
+evil reputation--Thou carest not for my escort; but, Halbert, such
+dangers are more safely encountered by the wise in judgment, than by
+the bold in bosom; and though I have small cause to boast of my own
+wisdom, yet I have that which ariseth from the written knowledge of
+elder times."
+
+There was a moment during this discourse, when Halbert had well-nigh
+come to the resolution of disburdening his own breast, by intrusting
+Edward with all that weighed upon it. But when his brother reminded
+him that this was the morning of a high holiday, and that, setting
+aside all other business or pleasure, he ought to go to the Monastery
+and shrive himself before Father Eustace, who would that day occupy
+the confessional, pride stepped in and confirmed his wavering
+resolution. "I will not avow," he thought, "a tale so extraordinary,
+that I may be considered as an impostor or something worse--I will not
+fly from this Englishman, whose arm and sword may be no better than my
+own. My fathers have faced his betters, were he as much distinguished
+in battle as he is by his quaint discourse."
+
+Pride, which has been said to save man, and woman too, from falling,
+has yet a stronger influence on the mind when it embraces the cause of
+passion, and seldom fails to render it victorious over conscience and
+reason. Halbert, once determined, though not to the better course, at
+length slept soundly, and was only awakened by the dawn of day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-First.
+
+
+  Indifferent, but indifferent--pshaw, he doth it not
+  Like one who is his craft's master--ne'er the less
+  I have seen a clown confer a bloody coxcomb
+  On one who was a master of defence.
+                                      OLD PLAY.
+
+With the first gray peep of dawn, Halbert Glendinning arose and
+hastened to dress himself, girded on his weapon, and took a cross-bow
+in his hand, as if his usual sport had been his sole object. He groped
+his way down the dark and winding staircase, and undid, with as little
+noise as possible, the fastenings of the inner door, and of the
+exterior iron grate.  At length he stood free in the court-yard, and
+looking up to the tower, saw a signal made with a handkerchief from
+the window. Nothing doubting that it was his antagonist, he paused,
+expecting him. But it was Mary Avenel, who glided like a spirit from
+under the low and rugged portal.
+
+Halbert was much surprised, and felt, he knew not why, like one caught
+in the act of a meditated trespass. The presence of Mary Avenel had till
+that moment never given him pain. She spoke, too, in a tone where sorrow
+seemed to mingle with reproach, while she asked him with emphasis,
+"What he was about to do?"
+
+He showed his cross-bow, and was about to express the pretext he had
+meditated, when Mary interrupted him.
+
+"Not so, Halbert--that evasion were unworthy of one whose word has
+hitherto been truth. You meditate not the destruction of the deer--your
+hand and your heart are aimed at other game--you seek to do battle with
+this stranger."
+
+"And wherefore should I quarrel with our guest?" answered Halbert,
+blushing deeply.
+
+"There are, indeed, many reasons why you should not," replied the
+maiden, "nor is there one of avail wherefore you should--yet
+nevertheless, such a quarrel you are now searching after."
+
+"Why should you suppose so, Mary?" said Halbert, endeavouring to hide
+his conscious purpose--"he is my mother's guest--he is protected by
+the Abbot and the community, who are our masters--he is of high degree
+also,--and wherefore should you think that I can, or dare, resent a
+hasty word, which he has perchance thrown out against me more from the
+wantonness of his wit, than the purpose of his heart?"
+
+"Alas!" answered the maiden, "the very asking that question puts your
+resolution beyond a doubt. Since your childhood you were ever daring,
+seeking danger rather than avoiding it--delighting in whatever had the
+air of adventure and of courage: and it is not from fear that you will
+now blench from your purpose--Oh, let it then be from pity!--from
+pity, Halbert, to your aged mother, whom your death or victory will
+alike deprive of the comfort and stay of her age."
+
+"She has my brother Edward," said Halbert, turning suddenly from her.
+
+"She has indeed," said Mary Avenel, "the calm, the noble-minded, the
+considerate Edward, who has thy courage, Halbert, without thy fiery
+rashness,--thy generous spirit, with more of reason to guide it. He
+would not have heard his mother, would not have heard his adopted
+sister, beseech him in vain not to ruin himself, and tear up their
+future hopes of happiness and protection."
+
+Halbert's heart swelled as he replied to this reproach. "Well--what
+avails it speaking?--you have him that is better than me--wiser, more
+considerate--braver, for aught I know--you are provided with a
+protector, and need care no more for me."
+
+Again he turned to depart, but Mary Avenel laid her hand on his arm so
+gently that he scarce felt her hold, yet felt that it was impossible
+for him to strike it off. There he stood, one foot advanced to leave
+the court-yard, but so little determined on departure, that he
+resembled a traveller arrested by the spell of a magician, and unable
+either to quit the attitude of motion, or to proceed on his course.
+
+Mary Avenel availed herself of his state of suspense. "Hear me," she
+said, "hear me, Halbert!--I am an orphan, and even Heaven hears the
+orphan--I have been the companion of your infancy, and if _you_
+will not hear me for an instant, from whom may Mary Avenel claim so
+poor a boon?"
+
+"I hear you," said Halbert Glendinning, "but be brief, dear Mary--you
+mistake the nature of my business--it is but a morning of summer sport
+which we propose."
+
+"Say not thus," said the maiden, interrupting him, "say not thus to me
+--others thou mayst deceive, but me thou canst not--There has been
+that in me from the earliest youth, which fraud flies from, and which
+imposture cannot deceive. For what fate has given me such a power I
+know not; but bred an ignorant maiden, in this sequestered valley,
+mine eyes can too often see what man would most willingly hide--I can
+judge of the dark purpose, though it is hid under the smiling brow,
+and a glance of the eye says more to me than oaths and protestations
+do to others."
+
+"Then," said Halbert, "if thou canst so read the human heart,--say,
+dear Mary--what dost thou see in mine?--tell me that--say that what
+thou seest--what thou readest in this bosom, does not offend thee--say
+but _that_, and thou shalt be the guide of my actions, and mould
+me now and henceforward to honour or to dishonour at thy own free
+will!"
+
+Mary Avenel became first red, and then deadly pale, as Halbert
+Glendinning spoke. But when, turning round at the close of his
+address, he took her hand, she gently withdrew it, and replied, "I
+cannot read the heart, Halbert, and I would not of my will know aught
+of yours, save what beseems us both--I only can judge of signs, words,
+and actions of little outward import, more truly than those around me,
+as my eyes, thou knowest, have seen objects not presented to those of
+others."
+
+"Let them gaze then on one whom they shall never see more," said
+Halbert, once more turning from her, and rushing out of the court-yard
+without again looking back.
+
+Mary Avenel gave a faint scream, and clasped both her hands firmly on
+her forehead and eyes. She had been a minute in this attitude, when
+she was thus greeted by a voice from behind: "Generously done, my most
+clement Discretion, to hide those brilliant eyes from the far inferior
+beams which even now begin to gild the eastern horizon--Certes, peril
+there were that Phoebus, outshone in splendour, might in very
+shamefacedness turn back his ear, and rather leave the world in
+darkness, than incur the disgrace of such an encounter--Credit me,
+lovely Discretion--"
+
+But as Sir Piercie Shafton (the reader will readily set down these
+flowers of eloquence to the proper owner) attempted to take Mary
+Avenel's hand, in order to proceed in his speech, she shook him
+abruptly off, and regarding him with an eye which evinced terror and
+agitation, rushed past him into the tower.
+
+The knight stood looking after her with a countenance in which
+contempt was strongly mingled with mortification. "By my knighthood!"
+he ejaculated, "I have thrown away upon this rude rustic Phidel? a
+speech, which the proudest beauty at the court of Felicia (so let me
+call the Elysium from which I am banished!) might have termed the very
+matins of Cupid. Hard and inexorable was the fate that sent thee
+thither, Piercie Shafton, to waste thy wit upon country wenches, and
+thy valour upon hob-nailed clowns!  But that insult--that affront--had
+it been offered to me by the lowest plebeian, he must have died for it
+by my hand, in respect the enormity of the offence doth countervail
+the inequality of him by whom it is given. I trust I shall find this
+clownish roisterer not less willing to deal in blows than in taunts."
+
+While he held this conversation with himself, Sir Piercie Shafton was
+hastening to the little tuft of birch-trees which had been assigned as
+the place of meeting. He greeted his antagonist with a courtly
+salutation, followed by this commentary: "I pray you to observe, that
+I doff my hat to you, though so much my inferior in rank, without
+derogation on my part, inasmuch as my having so far honoured you in
+receiving and admitting your defiance, doth, in the judgment of the
+best martialists, in some sort and for the time, raise you to a level
+with me--an honour which you may and ought to account cheaply
+purchased, even with the loss of your life, if such should chance to
+be the issue of this duello."
+
+"For which condescension," said Halbert, "I have to thank the token
+which I presented to you."
+
+The knight changed colour, and grinded his teeth with rage--"Draw your
+weapon!" said he to Glendinning.
+
+"Not in this spot," answered the youth; "we should be liable to
+interruption--Follow me, and I will bring you to a place where we
+shall encounter no such risk."
+
+He proceeded to walk up the glen, resolving that their place of combat
+should be in the entrance of the Corri-nan-shian; both because the
+spot, lying under the reputation of being haunted, was very little
+frequented, and also because he regarded it as a place which to him
+might be termed fated, and which he therefore resolved should witness
+his death or victory.  They walked up the glen for some time in
+silence, like honourable enemies who did not wish to contend with
+words, and who had nothing friendly to exchange with each other.
+Silence, however, was always an irksome state with Sir Piercie and,
+moreover, his anger was usually a hasty and short-lived passion. As,
+therefore, he went forth, in his own idea, in all love and honour
+towards his antagonist, he saw not any cause for submitting longer to
+the painful restraint of positive silence. He began by complimenting
+Halbert on the alert activity with which he surmounted the obstacles
+and impediments of the way.
+
+"Trust me," said he, "worthy rustic, we have not a lighter or a firmer
+step in our courtlike revels, and if duly set forth by a silk hose,
+and trained unto that stately exercise, your leg would make an
+indifferent good show in a pavin or a galliard. And I doubt nothing,"
+he added, "that you have availed yourself of some opportunity to
+improve yourself in the art of fence, which is more akin than dancing
+to our present purpose?"
+
+"I know nothing more of fencing," said Halbert, "than hath been taught
+me by an old shepherd of ours, called Martin, and at whiles a lesson
+from Christie of the Clinthill--for the rest, I must trust to good
+sword, strong arm, and sound heart."
+
+"Marry and I am glad of it, young Audacity, (I will call you my
+Audacity, and you will call me your Condescension, while we are on
+these terms of unnatural equality,) I am glad of your ignorance with
+all my heart. For we martialists proportion the punishments which we
+inflict upon our opposites, to the length and hazard of the efforts
+wherewith they oppose themselves to us. And I see not why you, being
+but a tyro, may not be held sufficiently punished for your
+outrecuidance, and orgillous presumption, by the loss of an ear, an
+eye, or even a finger, accompanied by some flesh-wound of depth and
+severity, suited to your error--whereas, had you been able to stand
+more effectually on your defence, I see not how less than your life
+could have atoned sufficiently for your presumption."
+
+"Now, by God and Our Lady," said Halbert, unable any longer to
+restrain himself, "thou art thyself over-presumptuous, who speakest
+thus daringly of the issue of a combat which is not yet even
+begun--Are you a god, that you already dispose of my life and limbs?
+or are you a judge in the justice-air, telling at your ease and
+without risk, how the head and quarters of a condemned criminal are to
+be disposed of?"
+
+"Not so, O thou,--whom I have well permitted to call thyself my
+Audacity.  I, thy Condescension, am neither a god to judge the issue
+of the combat before it is fought, nor a judge to dispose at my ease
+and in safety of the limbs and head of a condemned criminal; but I am
+an indifferent good master of fence, being the first pupil of the
+first master of the first school of fence that our royal England
+affords, the said master being no other than the truly noble, and
+all-unutterably skilful Vincentio Saviola, from whom I learned the
+firm step, quick eye, and nimble hand--of which qualities thou, O my
+most rustical Audacity, art full like to reap the fruits so soon as we
+shall find a piece of ground fitting for such experiments."
+
+They had now reached the gorge of the ravine, where Halbert had at
+first intended to stop; but when he observed the narrowness of the
+level ground, he began to consider that it was only by superior
+agility that he could expect to make up his deficiency in the science,
+as it was called, of defence. He found no spot which afforded
+sufficient room to traverse for this purpose, until he gained the
+well-known fountain, by whose margin, and in front of the huge rock
+from which it sprung, was an amphitheatre of level turf, of small
+space indeed, compared with the great height of the cliffs with which
+it was surrounded on every point save that from which the rivulet
+issued forth, yet large enough for their present purpose.
+
+When they had reached this spot of ground, fitted well by its gloom
+and sequestered situation to be a scene of mortal strife, both were
+surprised to observe that a grave was dug close by the foot of the
+rock with great neatness and regularity, the green turf being laid
+down upon the one side, and the earth thrown out in a heap upon the
+other. A mattock and shovel lay by the verge of the grave.
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton bent his eye with unusual seriousness upon Halbert
+Glendinning, as he asked him sternly, "Does this bode treason, young
+man? And have you purpose to set upon me here as in an emboscata or
+place of vantage?"
+
+"Not on my part, by Heaven!" answered the youth: "I told no one of our
+purpose, nor would I for the throne of Scotland take odds against a
+single arm."
+
+"I believe thou wouldst not, mine Audacity," said the knight, resuming
+the affected manner which was become a second nature to him;
+"nevertheless this fosse is curiously well shaped, and might be the
+masterpiece of Nature's last bed-maker, I would say the
+sexton--Wherefore, let us be thankful to chance or some unknown
+friend, who hath thus provided for one of us the decencies of
+sepulture, and let us proceed to determine which shall have the
+advantage of enjoying this place of undisturbed slumber."
+
+So saying, he stripped off his doublet and cloak, which he folded up
+with great care, and deposited upon a large stone, while Halbert
+Glendinning, not without some emotion, followed his example. Their
+vicinity to the favourite haunt of the White Lady led him to form
+conjectures concerning the incident of the grave--"It must have been
+her work!" he thought: "the Spirit foresaw and has provided for the
+fatal event of the combat--I must return from this place a homicide,
+or I must remain here for ever!"
+
+The bridge seemed now broken down behind him, and the chance of coming
+off honourably without killing or being killed, (the hope of which
+issue has cheered the sinking heart of many a duellist,) seemed now
+altogether to be removed. Yet the very desperation of his situation
+gave him, on an instant's reflection, both firmness and courage, and
+presented to him one sole alternative, conquest, namely, or death.
+
+"As we are here," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "unaccompanied by any
+patrons or seconds, it were well you should pass your hands over my
+sides, as I shall over yours; not that I suspect you to use any quaint
+device of privy armour, but in order to comply with the ancient and
+laudable custom practised on all such occasions."
+
+While complying with his antagonist's humour, Halbert Glendinning went
+through this ceremony, Sir Piercie Shafton did not fail to solicit his
+attention to the quality and fineness of his wrought and embroidered
+shirt--"In this very shirt," said he, "O mine Audacity!--I say in this
+very garment, in which I am now to combat a Scottish rustic like
+thyself, it was my envied lot to lead the winning party at that
+wonderous match at ballon, made betwixt the divine Astrophel, (our
+matchless Sidney,) and the right honourable my very good lord of
+Oxford. All the beauties of Felicia (by which name I distinguish our
+beloved England) stood in the gallery, waving their kerchiefs at each
+turn of the game, and cheering the winners by their plaudits. After
+which noble sport we were refreshed by a suitable banquet, whereat it
+pleased the noble Urania (being the unmatched Countess of Pembroke) to
+accommodate me with her fan for the cooling my somewhat too much
+inflamed visage, to requite which courtesy, I said, casting my
+features into a smiling, yet melancholy fashion, O divinest Urania!
+receive again that too fatal gift, which not like the Zephyr cooleth,
+but like the hot breath of the Sirocco, heateth yet more that which is
+already inflamed. Whereupon, looking upon me somewhat scornfully, yet
+not so but what the experienced courtier might perceive a certain cast
+of approbative affection----"
+
+Here the knight was interrupted by Halbert, who had waited with
+courteous patience for some little time, till he found, that far from
+drawing to a close, Sir Piercie seemed rather inclined to wax prolix
+in his reminiscences.
+
+"Sir Knight," said the youth, "if this matter be not very much to the
+purpose, we will, if you object not, proceed to that which we have in
+hand.  You should have abidden in England had you desired to waste
+time in words, for here we spend it in blows."
+
+"I crave your pardon, most rusticated Audacity," answered Sir Piercie;
+"truly I become oblivious of every thing beside, when the
+recollections of the divine court of Felicia press upon my wakened
+memory, even as a saint is dazzled when he bethinks him of the
+beatific vision. Ah, felicitous Feliciana!  delicate nurse of the
+fair, chosen abode of the wise, the birth-place and cradle of
+nobility, the temple of courtesy, the fane of sprightly chivalry--Ah,
+heavenly court, or rather courtly heaven! cheered with dances, lulled
+asleep with harmony, wakened with sprightly sports and tourneys,
+decored with silks and tissues, glittering with diamonds and jewels,
+standing on end with double-piled velvets, satins, and satinettas!"
+
+"The token, Sir Knight, the token!" exclaimed Halbert Glendinning,
+who, impatient of Sir Piercie's interminable oratory, reminded him of
+the ground of their quarrel, as the best way to compel him to the
+purpose of their meeting.
+
+And he judged right; for Sir Piercie Shafton no sooner heard him
+speak, than he exclaimed, "Thy death-hour has struck--betake thee to
+thy sword--Via!"
+
+Both swords were unsheathed, and the combatants commenced their
+engagement. Halbert became immediately aware, that, as he had
+expected, he was far inferior to his adversary in the use of his
+weapon. Sir Piercie Shafton had taken no more than his own share of
+real merit, when he termed himself an absolutely good fencer; and
+Glendinning soon found that he should have great difficulty in
+escaping with life and honour from such a master of the sword. The
+English knight was master of all the mystery of the _stoccata,
+imbrocata, punto-reverso, incartata_, and so forth, which the
+Italian masters of defence had lately introduced into general
+practice. But Glendinning, on his part, was no novice in the
+principles of the art, according to the old Scottish fashion, and
+possessed the first of all qualities, a steady and collected mind. At
+first, being desirous to try the skill, and become acquainted with the
+play of his enemy, he stood on his defence, keeping his foot, hand,
+eye, and body, in perfect unison, and holding his sword short, and
+with the point towards his antagonist's face, so that Sir Piercie, in
+order to assail him, was obliged to make actual passes, and could not
+avail himself of his skill in making feints; while, on the other hand,
+Halbert was prompt to parry these attacks, either by shifting his
+ground or with the sword. The consequence was, that after two or three
+sharp attempts on the part of Sir Piercie, which were evaded or
+disconcerted by the address of his opponent, he began to assume the
+defensive in his turn, fearful of giving some advantage by being
+repeatedly the assailant. But Halbert was too cautious to press on a
+swordsman whose dexterity had already more than once placed him within
+a hair's breadth of death, which he had only escaped by uncommon
+watchfulness and agility.
+
+When each had made a feint or two, there was a pause in the conflict,
+both as if by one assent dropping their swords' point, and looking on
+each other for a moment without speaking. At length Halbert
+Glendinning, who felt perhaps more uneasy on account of his family
+than he had done before he had displayed his own courage, and proved
+the strength of his antagonist, could not help saying, "Is the subject
+of our quarrel, Sir Knight, so mortal, that one of our two bodies must
+needs fill up that grave? or may we with honour, having proved
+ourselves against each other, sheathe our swords and depart friends?"
+
+"Valiant and most rustical Audacity," said the Southron knight, "to no
+man on earth could you have put a question on the code of honour, who
+was more capable of rendering you a reason. Let us pause for the space
+of one venue, until I give you my opinion on this dependence,
+[Footnote: _Dependence_--A phrase among the brethren of the sword
+for an existing quarrel.] for certain it is, that brave men should not
+run upon their fate like brute and furious wild beasts, but should
+slay each other deliberately, decently, and with reason.  Therefore,
+if we coolly examine the state of our dependence, we may the better
+apprehend whether the sisters three have doomed one of us to expiate
+the same with his blood--Dost thou understand me?"
+
+"I have heard Father Eustace," said Halbert, after a moment's
+recollection, "speak of the three furies, with their thread and their
+shears."
+
+"Enough--enough,"--interrupted Sir Piercie Shafton, crimsoning with
+a new fit of rage, "the thread of thy life is spun!"
+
+And with these words he attacked with the utmost ferocity the Scottish
+youth, who had but just time to throw himself into a posture of
+defence.  But the rash fury of the assailant, as frequently happens,
+disappointed its own purpose; for, as he made a desperate thrust,
+Halbert Glendinning avoided it, and ere the knight could recover his
+weapon, requited him (to use his own language) with a resolute
+stoccata, which passed through his body, and Sir Piercie Shafton fell
+to the ground.
+
+        *       *       *      *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Second.
+
+
+  Yes, life hath left him--every busy thought,
+  Each fiery passion, every strong affection,
+  All sense of outward ill and inward sorrow,
+  Are fled at once from the pale trunk before me;
+  And I have given that which spoke and moved,
+  Thought, acted, suffer'd as a living man,
+  To be a ghastly form of bloody clay,
+  Soon the foul food for reptiles.
+                                        OLD PLAY.
+
+I believe few successful duellists (if the word successful can be
+applied to a superiority so fatal) have beheld their dead antagonist
+stretched on the earth at their feet, without wishing they could
+redeem with their own blood that which it has been their fate to
+spill. Least of all could such indifference be the lot of so young a
+man as Halbert Glendinning, who, unused to the sight of human blood,
+was not only struck with sorrow, but with terror, when he beheld Sir
+Piercie Shafton lie stretched on the green-sward before him, vomiting
+gore as if impelled by the strokes of a pump. He threw his bloody
+sword on the ground, and hastened to kneel and support him, vainly
+striving, at the same time, to stanch his wound, which seemed rather
+to bleed inwardly than externally.
+
+The unfortunate knight spoke at intervals, when the syncope would
+permit him, and his words, so far as intelligible, partook of his
+affected and conceited, yet not ungenerous character.
+
+"Most rustical youth," he said, "thy fortune hath prevailed over
+knightly skill--and Audacity hath overcome Condescension, even as the
+kite hath sometimes hawked at and struck down the falcon-gentle.--Fly
+and save thyself!--Take my purse--it is in the nether pocket of my
+carnation-coloured hose--and is worth a clown's acceptance. See that
+my mails, with my vestments, be sent to the Monastery of Saint
+Mary's"--(here his voice grew weak, and his mind and recollection
+seemed to waver)--"I bestow the cut velvet jerkin, with close breeches
+conforming--for--oh!--the good of my soul."
+
+"Be of good comfort, sir," said Halbert, half distracted with his agony
+of pity and remorse. "I trust you shall yet do well--Oh for a leech!"
+
+"Were there twenty physicians, O most generous Audacity, and that were
+a grave spectacle--I might not survive, my life is ebbing
+fast.--Commend me to the rustical nymph whom I called my Discretion--O
+Claridiana!--true empress of this bleeding heart--which now bleedeth
+in sad earnest!--Place me on the ground at my length, most rustical
+victor, born to quench the pride of the burning light of the most
+felicitous court of Feliciana--O saints and angels---knights and
+ladies--masques and theatres--quaint devices--chain-work and
+broidery--love, honour, and beauty!----"
+
+While muttering these last words, which slid from him, as it were
+unawares, while doubtless he was calling to mind the glories of the
+English court, the gallant Sir Piercie Shafton stretched out his
+limbs--groaned deeply, shut his eyes, and became motionless.
+
+The victor tore his hair for very sorrow, as he looked on the pale
+countenance of his victim. Life, he thought, had not utterly fled, but
+without better aid than his own, he saw not how it could be preserved.
+
+"Why," he exclaimed in vain penitence, "why did I provoke him to an
+issue so fatal! Would to God I had submitted to the worst insult man
+could receive from man, rather than be the bloody instrument of this
+bloody deed--and doubly cursed be this evil-boding spot, which,
+haunted as I knew it to be by a witch or a devil, I yet chose for the
+place of combat! In any other place, save this, there had been help to
+be gotten by speed of foot, or by uplifting of voice--but here there
+is no one to be found by search, no one to hear my shouts, save the
+evil spirit who has counselled this mischief.  It is not her hour--I
+will essay the spell howsoever; and if she can give me aid, she
+_shall_ do it, or know of what a madman is capable even against
+those of another world!"
+
+He spurned his bloody shoe from his foot, and repeated the spell with
+which the reader is well acquainted; but there was neither voice,
+apparition, nor signal of answer. The youth, in the impatience of his
+despair, and with the rash hardihood which formed the basis of his
+character, shouted aloud, "Witch--Sorceress--Fiend!--art thou deaf to
+my cries of help, and so ready to appear and answer those of
+vengeance? Arise and speak to me, or I will choke up thy fountain,
+tear down thy hollybush, and leave thy haunt as waste and bare as thy
+fatal assistance has made me waste of comfort and bare of
+counsel!"--This furious and raving invocation was suddenly interrupted
+by a distant sound, resembling a hollo, from the gorge of the ravine.
+"Now may Saint Mary be praised," said the youth, hastily fastening his
+sandal, "I hear the voice of some living man, who may give me counsel
+and help in this fearful extremity."
+
+Having donned his sandal, Halbert Glendinning, hallooing at intervals,
+in answer to the sound which he had heard, ran with the speed of a
+hunted buck down the rugged defile, as if paradise had been before
+him, hell and all her furies behind, and his eternal happiness or
+misery had depended upon the speed which he exerted. In a space
+incredibly short for any one but a Scottish mountaineer having his
+nerves strung by the deepest and most passionate interest, the youth
+reached the entrance of the ravine, through which the rill that flows
+down Corri-nan-shian discharges itself, and unites with the brook that
+waters the little valley of Glendearg.
+
+Here he paused, and looked around him upwards and downwards through
+the glen, without perceiving a human form. His heart sank within him.
+But the windings of the glen intercepted his prospect, and the person,
+whose voice he had heard, might therefore, be at no great distance,
+though not obvious to his sight. The branches of an oak-tree, which
+shot straight out from the face of a tall cliff, proffered to his bold
+spirit, steady head, and active limbs, the means of ascending it as a
+place of out-look, although the enterprise was what most men would
+have shrunk from. But by one bound from the earth, the active youth
+caught hold of the lower branch, and swung himself up into the tree,
+and in a minute more gained the top of the cliff, from which he could
+easily descry a human figure descending the valley.  It was not that
+of a shepherd, or of a hunter, and scarcely any others used to
+traverse this deserted solitude, especially coming from the north,
+since the reader may remember that the brook took its rise from an
+extensive and dangerous morass which lay in that direction.
+
+But Halbert Glendinning did not pause to consider who the traveller
+might be, or what might be the purpose of his journey. To know that he
+saw a human being, and might receive, in the extremity of his
+distress, the countenance and advice of a fellow-creature, was enough
+for him at the moment. He threw himself from the pinnacle of the cliff
+once more into the arms of the projecting oak-tree, whose boughs waved
+in middle air, anchored by the roots in a huge rift or chasm of the
+rock. Catching at the branch which was nearest to him, he dropped
+himself from that height upon the ground; and such was the athletic
+springiness of his youthful sinews, that he pitched there as lightly,
+and with as little injury, as the falcon stooping from her wheel.
+
+To resume his race at full speed up the glen, was the work of an
+instant; and as he turned angle after angle of the indented banks of
+the valley, without meeting that which he sought, he became half
+afraid that the form which he had seen at such a distance had already
+melted into thin air, and was either a deception of his own
+imagination, or of the elementary spirits by which the valley was
+supposed to be haunted.
+
+But to his inexpressible joy, as he turned round the base of a huge
+and distinguished crag, he saw, straight before and very near to him,
+a person, whose dress, as he viewed it hastily, resembled that of a
+pilgrim.
+
+He was a man of advanced life, and wearing a long beard, having on his
+head a large slouched hat, without either band or brooch. His dress
+was a tunic of black serge, which, like those commonly called
+hussar-cloaks, had an upper part, which covered the arms and fell down
+on the lower; a small scrip and bottle, which hung at his back, with a
+stout staff in his hand, completed his equipage. His step was feeble,
+like that of one exhausted by a toilsome journey.
+
+"Save ye, good father!" said the youth. "God and Our Lady have sent
+you to my assistance."
+
+"And in what, my son, can so frail a creature as I am, be of service
+to you?" said the old man, not a little surprised at being thus
+accosted by so handsome a youth, his features discomposed by anxiety,
+his face flushed with exertion, his hands and much of his dress
+stained with blood.  "A man bleeds to death in the valley here, hard
+by. Come with me--come with me! You are aged--you have
+experience--you have at least your senses--and mine have well nigh
+left me."
+
+"A man--and bleeding to death--and here in this desolate spot!" said
+the stranger.
+
+"Stay not to question it, father," said the youth, "but come instantly
+to his rescue. Follow me,--follow me, without an instant's delay."
+
+"Nay, but, my son," said the old man, "we do not lightly follow the
+guides who present themselves thus suddenly in the bosom of a howling
+wilderness. Ere I follow thee, thou must expound to me thy name, thy
+purpose, and thy cause."
+
+"There is no time to expound any thing," said Halbert; "I tell thee a
+man's life is at stake, and thou must come to aid him, or I will carry
+thee thither by force!"
+
+"Nay, thou shalt not need," said the traveller; "if it indeed be as
+thou sayest, I will follow thee of free-will--the rather that I am not
+wholly unskilled in leech-craft, and have in my scrip that which may
+do thy friend a service--Yet walk more slowly, I pray thee, for I am
+already well-nigh forespent with travel."
+
+With the indignant impatience of the fiery steed when compelled by his
+rider to keep pace with some slow drudge upon the highway, Halbert
+accompanied the wayfarer, burning with anxiety which he endeavoured to
+subdue, that he might not alarm his companion, who was obviously
+afraid to trust him. When they reached the place where they were to
+turn off the wider glen into the Corri, the traveller made a doubtful
+pause, as if unwilling to leave the broader path--"Young man," he
+said, "if thou meanest aught but good to these gray hairs, thou wilt
+gain little by thy cruelty--I have no earthly treasure to tempt either
+robber or murderer."
+
+"And I," said the youth, "am neither--and yet--God of Heaven!--I
+_may_ be a murderer, unless your aid comes in time to this
+wounded wretch!"
+
+"Is it even so," said the traveller; "and do human passions disturb the
+breast of nature, even in her deepest solitude?--Yet why should I marvel
+that where darkness abides the works of darkness should abound?--By its
+fruits is the tree known--Lead on, unhappy youth--I follow thee!"
+
+And with better will to the journey than he had evinced hitherto, the
+stranger exerted himself to the uttermost, and seemed to forget his own
+fatigue in his efforts to keep pace with his impatient guide.
+
+What was the surprise of Halbert Glendinning, when, upon arriving at
+the fatal spot, he saw no appearance of the body of Sir Piercie
+Shafton!  The traces of the fray were otherwise sufficiently visible.
+The knight's cloak had indeed vanished as well as his body, but his
+doublet remained where he had laid it down, and the turf on which he
+had been stretched was stained with blood in many a dark crimson spot.
+
+As he gazed round him in terror and astonishment, Halbert's eyes fell
+upon the place of sepulture which had so lately appeared to gape for a
+victim. It was no longer open, and it seemed that earth had received
+the expected tenant; for the usual narrow hillock was piled over what
+had lately been an open grave, and the green sod was adjusted over all
+with the accuracy of an experienced sexton. Halbert stood aghast. The
+idea rushed on his mind irresistibly, that the earth-heap before him
+enclosed what had lately been a living, moving, and sentient
+fellow-creature, whom, on little provocation, his fell act had reduced
+to a clod of the valley, as senseless and as cold as the turf under
+which he rested. The hand that scooped the grave had completed its
+word; and whose hand could it be save that of the mysterious being of
+doubtful quality, whom his rashness had invoked, and whom he had
+suffered to intermingle in his destinies?
+
+As he stood with clasped hands and uplifted eyes, bitterly ruing his
+rashness, he was roused by the voice of the stranger, whose suspicions
+of his guide had again been awakened by finding the scene so different
+from what Halbert had led him to expect.--"Young man," he said, "hast
+thou baited thy tongue with falsehood to cut perhaps only a few days
+from the life of one whom Nature will soon call home, without guilt on
+thy part to hasten his journey?"
+
+"By the blessed Heaven!--by our dear Lady!" ejaculated Halbert--
+
+"Swear not at all!" said the stranger, interrupting him, "neither by
+Heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his
+footstool--nor by the creatures whom he hath made, for they are but
+earth and clay as we are. Let thy yea be yea, and thy nay, nay. Tell
+me in a word, why and for what purpose thou hast feigned a tale, to
+lead a bewildered traveller yet farther astray?"
+
+"As I am a Christian man," said Glendinning, "I left him here bleeding
+to death--and now I nowhere spy him, and much I doubt that the tomb
+that thou seest has closed on his mortal remains."
+
+"And who is he for whose fate thou art so anxious?" said the stranger;
+"or how is it possible that this wounded man could have been either
+removed from, or interred in, a place so solitary?"
+
+"His name," said Halbert, after a moment's pause, "is Piercie
+Shafton--there, on that very spot I left him bleeding; and what power
+has conveyed him hence, I know no more than thou dost."
+
+"Piercie Shafton?" said the stranger; "Sir Piercie Shafton of
+Wilverton, a kinsman, as it is said, of the great Piercie of
+Northumberland? If thou hast slain him, to return to the territories
+of the proud Abbot is to give thy neck to the gallows. He is well
+known, that Piercie Shafton; the meddling tool of wiser plotters--a
+harebrained trafficker in treason--a champion of the Pope, employed as
+a forlorn hope by those more politic heads, who have more will to work
+mischief, than valour to encounter danger.--Come with me, youth, and
+save thyself from the evil consequences of this deed--Guide me to the
+Castle of Avenel, and thy reward shall be protection and safety."
+
+Again Halbert paused, and summoned his mind to a hasty council. The
+vengeance with which the Abbot was likely to visit the slaughter of
+Shafton, his friend, and in some measure his guest, was likely to be
+severe; yet, in the various contingencies which he had considered
+previous to their duel, he had unaccountably omitted to reflect what
+was to be his line of conduct in case of Sir Piercie falling by his
+hand. If he returned to Glendearg, he was sure to draw on his whole
+family, including Mary Avenel, the resentment of the Abbot and
+community, whereas it was possible that flight might make him be
+regarded as the sole author of the deed, and might avert the
+indignation of the monks from the rest of the inhabitants of his
+paternal tower. Halbert recollected also the favour expressed for the
+household, and especially for Edward, by the Sub-Prior; and he
+conceived that he could, by communicating his own guilt to that worthy
+ecclesiastic, when at a distance from Glendearg, secure his powerful
+interposition in favour of his family. These thoughts rapidly passed
+through his mind, and he determined on flight. The stranger's company
+and his promised protection came in aid of that resolution; but he was
+unable to reconcile the invitation which the old man gave him to
+accompany him for safety to the Castle of Avenel, with the connexions
+of Julian, the present usurper of that inheritance.
+
+"Good father," he said, "I fear that you mistake the man with whom you
+wish me to harbour. Avenel guided Piercie Shafton into Scotland, and
+his henchman, Christie of the Clinthill, brought the Southron hither."
+
+"Of that," said the old man, "I am well aware. Yet if thou wilt trust
+to me, as I have shown no reluctance to confide in thee, thou shalt
+find with Julian Avenel welcome, or at least safety."
+
+"Father," replied Halbert, "though I can ill reconcile what thou
+sayest with what Julian Avenel hath done, yet caring little about the
+safety of a creature so lost as myself, and as thy words seem those of
+truth and honesty, and finally, as thou didst render thyself frankly
+up to my conduct, I will return the confidence thou hast shown, and
+accompany thee to the Castle of Avenel by a road which thou thyself
+couldst never have discovered." He led the way, and the old man
+followed for some time in silence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Third.
+
+
+  'Tis when the wound is stiffening with the cold.
+  The warrior first feels pain--'tis when the heat
+  And fiery fever of his soul is pass'd,
+  The sinner feels remorse.
+                               OLD PLAY.
+
+The feelings of compunction with which Halbert Glendinning was visited
+upon this painful occasion, were deeper than belonged to an age and
+country in which human life was held so cheap. They fell far short
+certainly of those which might have afflicted a mind regulated by
+better religious precepts, and more strictly trained under social
+laws; but still they were deep and severely felt, and divided in
+Halbert's heart even the regret with which he parted from Mary Avenel
+and the tower of his fathers.
+
+The old traveller walked silently by his side for some time, and then
+addressed him.--"My son, it has been said that sorrow must speak or
+die--Why art thou so much cast down?--Tell me thy unhappy tale, and it
+may be that my gray head may devise counsel and aid for your young
+life."
+
+"Alas !" said Halbert Glendinning, "can you wonder why I am cast
+down?--I am at this instant a fugitive from my father's house, from my
+mother, and from my friends, and I bear on my head the blood of a man
+who injured me but in idle words, which I have thus bloodily requited.
+My heart now tells me I have done evil--it were harder than these
+rocks if it could bear unmoved the thought, that I have sent this man
+to a long account, unhousled and unshrieved."
+
+"Pause there, my son," said the traveller. "That thou hast defaced
+God's image in thy neighbour's person--that thou hast sent dust to
+dust in idle wrath or idler pride, is indeed a sin of the deepest
+dye--that thou hast cut short the space which Heaven might have
+allowed him for repentance, makes it yet more deadly--but for all this
+there is balm in Gilead."
+
+"I understand you not, father," said Halbert, struck by the solemn tone
+which was assumed by his companion.
+
+The old man proceeded. "Thou hast slain thine enemy--it was a cruel
+deed: thou hast cut him off perchance in his sins--it is a fearful
+aggravation.  Do yet by my counsel, and in lieu of him whom thou hast
+perchance consigned to the kingdom of Satan, let thine efforts wrest
+another subject from the reign of the Evil One."
+
+"I understand you, father," said Halbert; "thou wouldst have me atone
+for my rashness by doing service to the soul of my adversary--But how
+may this be? I have no money to purchase masses, and gladly would I
+go barefoot to the Holy Land to free his spirit from purgatory, only
+that--"
+
+"My son," said the old man, interrupting him, "the sinner for whose
+redemption I entreat you to labour, is not the dead but the living. It
+is not for the soul of thine enemy I would exhort thee to pray--that
+has already had its final doom from a Judge as merciful as he is just;
+nor, wert thou to coin that rock into ducats, and obtain a mass for
+each one, would it avail the departed spirit. Where the tree hath
+fallen, it must lie.  But the sapling, which hath in it yet the vigour
+and juice of life, may be bended to the point to which it ought to
+incline."
+
+"Art thou a priest, father?" said the young man, "or by what commission
+dost thou talk of such high matters?"
+
+"By that of my Almighty Master," said the traveller, "under whose
+banner I am an enlisted soldier."
+
+Halbert's acquaintance with religious matters was no deeper than could
+be derived from the Archbishop of Saint Andrew's Catechism, and the
+pamphlet called the Twapennie Faith, both which were industriously
+circulated and recommended by the monks of Saint Mary's. Yet, however
+indifferent and superficial a theologian, he began to suspect that he
+was now in company with one of the gospellers, or heretics, before
+whose influence the ancient system of religion now tottered to the
+very foundation. Bred up, as may well be presumed, in a holy horror
+against these formidable sectaries, the youth's first feelings were
+those of a loyal and devoted church vassal. "Old man," he said, "wert
+thou able to make good with thy hand the words that thy tongue hath
+spoken against our Holy Mother Church, we should have tried upon this
+moor which of our creeds hath the better champion."
+
+"Nay," said the stranger, "if thou art a true soldier of Rome, thou
+wilt not pause from thy purpose because thou hast the odds of years
+and of strength on thy side. Hearken to me, my son. I have showed thee
+how to make thy peace with Heaven, and thou hast rejected my proffer.
+I will now show thee how thou shalt make thy reconciliation with the
+powers of this world. Take this gray head from the frail body which
+supports it, and carry it to the chair of proud Abbot Boniface; and
+when thou tellest him thou hast slain Piercie Shafton, and his ire
+rises at the deed, lay the head of Henry Warden at his foot, and thou
+shalt have praise instead of censure."
+
+Halbert Glendinning stepped back in surprise. "What! are you that
+Henry Warden so famous among the heretics, that even Knox's name is
+scarce more frequently in their mouths? Art thou he, and darest thou to
+approach the Halidome of Saint Mary's?"
+
+"I am Henry Warden, of a surety," said the old man, "far unworthy to
+be named in the same breath with Knox, but yet willing to venture on
+whatever dangers my master's service may call me to."
+
+"Hearken to me, then," said Halbert; "to slay thee, I have no
+heart--to make thee prisoner, were equally to bring thy blood on my
+head--to leave thee in this wild without a guide, were little better.
+I will conduct thee, as I promised, in safety to the Castle of Avenel;
+but breathe not, while we are on the journey, a word against the
+doctrines of the holy church of which I am an unworthy--but though an
+ignorant, a zealous member.--When thou art there arrived, beware of
+thyself--there is a high price upon thy head, and Julian Avenel loves
+the glance of gold bonnet-pieces." [Footnote: A gold coin of James V.,
+the most beautiful of the Scottish series; so called because the
+effigy of the sovereignty is represented wearing a bonnet.]
+
+"Yet thou sayest not," answered the Protestant preacher, for such he
+was, "that for lucre he would sell the blood of his guest?"
+
+"Not if thou comest an invited stranger, relying on his faith," said
+the youth; "evil as Julian may be, he dare not break the rites of
+hospitality; for, loose as we on these marches may be in all other
+ties, these are respected amongst us even to idolatry, and his nearest
+relations would think it incumbent on them to spill his blood
+themselves, to efface the disgrace such treason would bring upon their
+name and lineage. But if thou goest self-invited, and without
+assurance of safety, I promise thee thy risk is great."
+
+"I am in God's hand," answered the preacher; "it is on His errand that
+I traverse these wilds amidst dangers of every kind; while I am useful
+for my master's service, they shall not prevail against me, and when,
+like the barren fig-tree, I can no longer produce fruit, what imports
+it when or by whom the axe is laid to the root?"
+
+"Your courage and devotion," said Glendinning, "are worthy of a better
+cause."
+
+"That," said Warden, "cannot be--mine is the very best."
+
+They continued their journey in silence, Halbert Glendinning tracing
+with the utmost accuracy the mazes of the dangerous and intricate
+morasses and hills which divided the Halidome from the barony of
+Avenel. From time to time he was obliged to stop, in order to assist
+his companion to cross the black intervals of quaking bog, called in
+the Scottish dialect _hags_, by which the firmer parts of the
+morass were intersected.
+
+"Courage, old man," said Halbert, as he saw his companion almost
+exhausted with fatigue, "we shall soon be upon hard ground. And yet
+soft as this moss is, I have seen the merry falconers go through it as
+light as deer when the quarry was upon the flight."
+
+"True, my son," answered Warden, "for so I will still call you, though
+you term me no longer father; and even so doth headlong youth pursue its
+pleasures, without regard to the mire and the peril of the paths through
+which they are hurried."
+
+"I have already told thee," answered Halbert Glendinning, sternly, "that
+I will hear nothing from thee that savours of doctrine."
+
+"Nay, but, my son," answered Warden, "thy spiritual father himself
+would surely not dispute the truth of what I have now spoken for your
+edification!"
+
+Glendinning stoutly replied, "I know not how that may be--but I wot
+well it is the fashion of your brotherhood to bait your hook with fair
+discourse, and to hold yourselves up as angels of light, that you may
+the better extend the kingdom of darkness."
+
+"May God," replied the preacher, "pardon those who have thus reported
+of his servants! I will not offend thee, my son, by being instant out of
+season--thou speakest but as thou art taught--yet sure I trust that so
+goodly a youth will be still rescued, like a brand from the burning."
+
+While he thus spoke, the verge of the morass was attained, and their
+path lay on the declivity. Green-sward it was, and, viewed from a
+distance, chequered with its narrow and verdant line the dark-brown
+heath which it traversed, though the distinction was not so easily
+traced when they were walking on it.  [Footnote: This sort of path,
+visible when looked at from a distance, but not to be seen when you
+are upon it, is called on the Border by the significant name of a
+Blind-road.] The old man pursued his journey with comparative ease;
+and, unwilling again to awaken the jealous zeal of his young companion
+for the Roman faith, he discoursed on other matters. The tone of his
+conversation was still grave, moral, and instructive. He had travelled
+much, and knew both the language and manners of other countries,
+concerning which Halbert Glendinning, already anticipating the
+possibility of being obliged to leave Scotland for the deed he had
+done, was naturally and anxiously desirous of information. By degrees
+he was more attracted by the charms of the stranger's conversation
+than repelled by the dread of his dangerous character as a heretic,
+and Halbert had called him father more than once, ere the turrets of
+Avenel Castle came in view.
+
+The situation of this ancient fortress was remarkable. It occupied a
+small rocky islet in a mountain lake, or _tarn,_ as such a piece
+of water is called in Westmoreland. The lake might be about a mile in
+circumference, surrounded by hills of considerable height, which,
+except where old trees and brushwood occupied the ravines that divided
+them from each other, were bare and heathy. The surprise of the
+spectator was chiefly excited by finding a piece of water situated in
+that high and mountainous region, and the landscape around had
+features which might rather be termed wild, than either romantic or
+sublime; yet the scene was not without its charms.  Under the burning
+sun of summer, the clear azure of the deep unruffled lake refreshed
+the eye, and impressed the mind with a pleasing feeling of deep
+solitude. In winter, when the snow lay on the mountains around, these
+dazzling masses appeared to ascend far beyond their wonted and natural
+height, while the lake, which stretched beneath, and filled their
+bosom with all its frozen waves, lay like the surface of a darkened
+and broken mirror around the black and rocky islet, and the walls of
+the gray castle with which it was crowned.
+
+As the castle occupied, either with its principal buildings, or with
+its flanking and outward walls, every projecting point of rock, which
+served as its site, it seemed as completely surrounded by water as the
+nest of a wild swan, save where a narrow causeway extended betwixt the
+islet and the shore. But the fortress was larger in appearance than in
+reality; and of the buildings which it actually contained, many had
+become ruinous and uninhabitable. In the times of the grandeur of the
+Avenel family, these had been occupied by a considerable garrison of
+followers and retainers, but they were now in a great measure
+deserted; and Julian Avenel would probably have fixed his habitation
+in a residence better suited to his diminished fortunes, had it not
+been for the great security which the situation of the old castle
+afforded to a man of his precarious and perilous mode of life. Indeed,
+in this respect, the spot could scarce have been more happily chosen,
+for it could be rendered almost completely inaccessible at the
+pleasure of the inhabitant. The distance betwixt the nearest shore and
+the islet was not indeed above an hundred yards; but then the causeway
+which connected them was extremely narrow, and completely divided by
+two cuts, one in the mid-way between the islet and shore, and another
+close under the outward gate of the castle. These formed a formidable,
+and almost insurmountable interruption to any hostile approach. Each
+was defended by a drawbridge, one of which, being that nearest to the
+castle, was regularly raised at all times during the day, and both
+were lifted at night. [Footnote: It is in vain to search near Melrose
+for any such castle as is here described. The lakes at the head of the
+Yarrow, and those at the rise of the water of Ale, present no object
+of the kind. But in Vetholm Loch, (a romantic sheet of water, in the
+dry march, as it is called,) there are the remains of a fortress
+called Lochside Tower, which, like the supposed Castle of Avenel, is
+built upon an island, and connected with the land by a causeway. It is
+much smaller than the Castle of Avenel is described, consisting only
+of a single *inous tower.]
+
+The situation of Julian Avenel, engaged in a variety of feuds, and a
+party to almost every dark and mysterious transaction which was on
+foot in that wild and military frontier, required all these
+precautions for his security. His own ambiguous and doubtful course of
+policy had increased these dangers; for as he made professions to both
+parties in the state, and occasionally united more actively with
+either the one or the other, as chanced best to serve his immediate
+purpose, he could not be said to have either firm allies and
+protectors, or determined enemies. His life was a life of expedients
+and of peril; and while, in pursuit of his interest, he made all the
+doubles which he thought necessary to attain his object, he often
+overran his prey, and missed that which he might have gained by
+observing a straighter course.
+
+       *      *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Fourth.
+
+
+  I'll walk on tiptoe; arm my eye with caution,
+  My heart with courage, and my hand with weapon,
+  Like him who ventures on a lion's den.
+                             OLD PLAY.
+
+When, issuing from the gorge of a pass which terminated upon the lake,
+the travellers came in sight of the ancient castle of Avenel, the old
+man looked with earnest attention upon the scene before him. The
+castle was, as we have said, in many places ruinous, as was evident,
+even at this distance, by the broken, rugged, and irregular outline of
+the walls and of the towers. In others it seemed more entire, and a
+pillar of dark smoke, which ascended from the chimneys of the donjon,
+and spread its long dusky pennon through the clear ether, indicated
+that it was inhabited. But no corn-fields or enclosed pasture-grounds
+on the side of the lake showed that provident attention to comfort and
+subsistence which usually appeared near the houses of the greater, and
+even of the lesser barons. There were no cottages with their patches
+of infield, and their crofts and gardens, surrounded by rows of
+massive sycamores; no church with its simple tower in the valley; no
+herds of sheep among the hills; no cattle on the lower ground; nothing
+which intimated the occasional prosecution of the arts of peace and of
+industry. It was plain that the inhabitants, whether few or numerous,
+must be considered as the garrison of the castle, living within its
+defended precincts, and subsisting by means which were other than
+peaceful.
+
+Probably it was with this conviction that the old man, gazing on the
+castle, muttered to himself, "_Lapis offensionis et petra
+scandali!_" and then, turning to Halbert Glendinning, he added, "We
+may say of yonder fort as King James did of another fastness in this
+province, that he who built it was a thief in his heart." [Footnote:
+It was of Lochwood, the hereditary fortress of the Johnstones of
+Aunandale, a strong castle situated in the centre of a quaking bog,
+that James VI. made this remark.]
+
+"But it was not so," answered Glendinning; "yonder castle was built by
+the old lords of Avenel, men as much beloved in peace as they were
+respected in war. They were the bulwark of the frontiers against
+foreigners, and the protectors of the natives from domestic
+oppression. The present usurper of their inheritance no more resembles
+them, than the night-prowling owl resembles a falcon, because she
+builds on the same rock."
+
+"This Julian Avenel, then, holds no high place in the love and regard of
+his neighbours?" said Warden.
+
+"So little," answered Halbert, "that besides the jack-men and riders
+with whom he has associated himself, and of whom he has many at his
+disposal, I know of few who voluntarily associate with him. He has
+been more than once outlawed both by England and Scotland, his lands
+declared forfeited, and his head set at a price. But in these unquiet
+times, a man so daring as Julian Avenel has ever found some friends
+willing to protect him against the penalties of the law, on condition
+of his secret services."
+
+"You describe a dangerous man," replied Warden.
+
+"You may have experience of that," replied the youth, "if you deal not
+the more warily;--though it may be that he also has forsaken the
+community of the church, and gone astray in the path of heresy."
+
+"What your blindness terms the path of heresy," answered the reformer,
+"is indeed the straight and narrow way, wherein he who walks turns not
+aside, whether for worldly wealth or for worldly passions. Would to
+God this man were moved by no other and no worse spirit than that
+which prompts my poor endeavours to extend the kingdom of Heaven! This
+Baron of Avenel is personally unknown to me, is not of our
+congregation or of our counsel; yet I bear to him charges touching my
+safety, from those whom he must fear if he does not respect them, and
+upon that assurance I will venture upon his hold--I am now
+sufficiently refreshed by these few minutes of repose."
+
+"Take then this advice for your safety," said Halbert, "and believe
+that it is founded upon the usage of this country and its inhabitants.
+If you can better shift for yourself, go not to the Castle of
+Avenel--if you do risk going thither, obtain from him, if possible,
+his safe conduct, and beware that he swears it by the Black Rood--And
+lastly, observe whether he eats with you at the board, or pledges you
+in the cup; for if he gives you not these signs of welcome, his
+thoughts are evil towards you."
+
+"Alas!" said the preacher, "I have no better earthly refuge for the
+present than these frowning towers, but I go thither trusting to aid
+which is not of this earth--But thou, good youth, needest thou trust
+thyself in this dangerous den?"
+
+"I," answered Halbert, "am in no danger. I am well known to Christie
+of the Clinthill, the henchman of this Julian Avenel; and, what is a
+yet better protection, I have nothing either to provoke malice or to
+tempt plunder."
+
+The tramp of a steed, which clattered along the shingly banks of the
+loch, was now heard behind them; and, when they looked back, a rider
+was visible, his steel cap and the point of his long lance glancing in
+the setting sun, as he rode rapidly towards them.
+
+Halbert Glendinning soon recognized Christie of the Clinthill, and made
+his companion aware that the henchman of Julian Avenel was approaching.
+
+"Ha, youngling!" said Christie to Halbert, as he came up to them,
+"thou hast made good my word at last, and come to take service with my
+noble master, hast thou not? Thou shalt find a good friend and a true;
+and ere Saint Barnaby come round again, thou shalt know every pass
+betwixt Millburn Plain and Netherby, as if thou hadst been born with a
+jack on thy back, and a lance in thy hand.--What old carle hast thou
+with thee?--He is not of the brotherhood of Saint Mary's--at least he
+has not the buist [Footnote: _Buist_--The brand, or mark, set
+upon sheep or cattle, by their owners.] of these black cattle."
+
+"He is a wayfaring man," said Halbert, "who has concerns with Julian
+of Avenel. For myself, I intend to go to Edinburgh to see the court
+and the Queen, and when I return hither we will talk of your proffer.
+Meantime, as thou hast often invited me to the castle, I crave
+hospitality there to-night for myself and my companion."
+
+"For thyself and welcome, young comrade," replied Christie; "but we
+harbour no pilgrims, nor aught that looks like a pilgrim."
+
+"So please you," said Warden, "I have letters of commendation to thy
+master from a sure friend, whom he will right willingly oblige in higher
+matters than in affording me a brief protection.--And I am no pilgrim,
+but renounce the same, with all its superstitious observances."
+He offered his letters to the horseman, who shook his head.
+
+"These," he said, "are matters for my master, and it will be well if he
+can read them himself; for me, sword and lance are my book and psalter,
+and have been since I was twelve years old. But I will guide you to the
+castle, and the Baron of Avenel will himself judge of your errand."
+
+By this time the party had reached the causeway, along which Christie
+advanced at a trot, intimating his presence to the warders within the
+castle by a shrill and peculiar whistle. At this signal the farther
+drawbridge was lowered. The horseman passed it, and disappeared under
+the gloomy portal which was beyond it.
+
+Glendinning and his companion advancing more leisurely along the
+rugged causeway, stood at length under the same gateway, over which
+frowned, in dark red freestone, the ancient armorial bearings of the
+house of Avenel, which represented a female figure shrouded and
+muffled, which occupied the whole field. The cause of their assuming
+so singular a device was uncertain, but the figure was generally
+supposed to represent the mysterious being called the White Lady of
+Avenel. [Footnote: There is an ancient English family, I believe,
+which bears, or did bear, a ghost or spirit passant sable in a field
+argent. This seems to have been a device of a punning or
+_canting_ herald.] The sight of this mouldering shield awakened
+in the mind of Halbert the strange circumstances which had connected
+his fate with that of Mary Avenel, and with the doings of the
+spiritual being who was attached to her house, and whom he saw here,
+represented in stone, as he had before seen her effigy upon the
+seal-ring of Walter Avenel, which, with other trinkets formerly
+mentioned, had been saved from pillage, and brought to Glendearg, when
+Mary's mother was driven from her habitation.
+
+"You sigh, my son," said the old man, observing the impression made on
+his youthful companion's countenance, but mistaking the cause; "if you
+fear to enter, we may yet return."
+
+"That can ye not," said Christie of the Clinthill, who emerged at that
+instant from the side-door under the archway. "Look yonder, and choose
+whether you will return skimming the water like a wild-duck, or winging
+the air like a plover."
+
+They looked, and saw that the drawbridge which they had just crossed
+was again raised, and now interposed its planks betwixt the setting
+sun and the portal of the castle, deepening the gloom of the arch
+under which they stood. Christie laughed and bid them follow him,
+saying, by way of encouragement, in Halbert's ear, "Answer boldly and
+readily to whatever the Baron asks you. Never stop to pick your words,
+and above all show no fear of him--the devil is not so black as he is
+painted."
+
+As he spoke thus, he introduced them into the large stone hall, at the
+upper end of which blazed a huge fire of wood. The long oaken table,
+which, as usual, occupied the midst of the apartment, was covered with
+rude preparations for the evening meal of the Baron and his chief
+domestics, five or six of whom, strong, athletic, savage-looking men,
+paced up and down the lower end of the hall, which rang to the jarring
+clang of their long swords that clashed as they moved, and to the
+heavy tramp of their high-heeled jack-boots. Iron jacks, or coats of
+buff, formed the principal part of their dress, and steel-bonnets, or
+large slouched hats with Spanish plumes drooping backwards, were their
+head attire.
+
+The Baron of Avenel was one of those tall, muscular, martial figures,
+which are the favourite subjects of Salvator Rosa. He wore a cloak
+which had been once gaily trimmed, but which, by long wear and
+frequent exposure to the weather, was now faded in its colours. Thrown
+negligently about his tall person, it partly hid, and partly showed, a
+short doublet of buff, under which was in some places visible that
+light shirt of mail which was called a _secret_, because worn
+instead of more ostensible armour to protect against private
+assassination. A leathern belt sustained a large and heavy sword on
+one side, and on the other that gay poniard which had once called Sir
+Piercie Shafton master, of which the hatchments and gildings were
+already much defaced, either by rough usage or neglect.
+
+Notwithstanding the rudeness of his apparel, Julian Avenel's manner
+and countenance had far more elevation than those of the attendants
+who surrounded him. He might be fifty or upwards, for his dark hair
+was mingled with gray, but age had neither tamed the fire of his eye
+nor the enterprise of his disposition. His countenance had been
+handsome, for beauty was an attribute of the family; but the lines
+were roughened by fatigue and exposure to the weather, and rendered
+coarse by the habitual indulgence of violent passions.
+
+He seemed in deep and moody reflection, and was pacing at a distance
+from his dependents along the upper end of the hall, sometimes
+stopping from time to time to caress and feed a gos-hawk, which sat
+upon his wrist, with its jesses (_i. e._ the leathern straps
+fixed to its legs) wrapt around his hand. The bird, which seemed not
+insensible to its master's attention, answered his caresses by
+ruffling forward its feathers, and pecking playfully at his finger. At
+such intervals the Baron smiled, but instantly resumed the darksome
+air of sullen meditation. He did not even deign to look upon an
+object, which few could have passed and repassed so often without
+bestowing on it a transient glance.
+
+This was a woman of exceeding beauty, rather gaily than richly
+attired, who sat on a low seat close by the huge hall chimney. The
+gold chains round her neck and arms,--the gay gown of green which
+swept the floor,--the silver embroidered girdle, with its bunch of
+keys, depending in house-wifely pride by a silver chain,--the yellow
+silken _couvrechef_ (Scottice, _curch_) which was disposed
+around her head, and partly concealed her dark profusion of
+hair,--above all, the circumstance so delicately touched in the old
+ballad, that "the girdle was too short," the "gown of green all too
+strait," for the wearer's present shape, would have intimated the
+Baron's lady.  But then the lowly seat,--the expression of deep
+melancholy, which was changed into a timid smile whenever she saw the
+least chance of catching the eye of Julian Avenel,--the subdued look
+of grief, and the starting tear for which that constrained smile was
+again exchanged when she saw herself entirely disregarded,--these were
+not the attributes of a wife, or they were those of a dejected and
+afflicted female, who had yielded her love on less than legitimate
+terms.
+
+Julian Avenel, as we have said, continued to pace the hall without
+paying any of that mute attention which is rendered to almost every
+female either by affection or courtesy. He seemed totally unconscious
+of her presence, or of that of his attendants, and was only roused
+from his own dark reflections by the notice he paid to the falcon, to
+which, however, the lady seemed to attend, as if studying to find
+either an opportunity of speaking to the Baron, or of finding
+something enigmatical in the expressions which he used to the bird.
+All this the strangers had time enough to remark; for no sooner had
+they entered the apartment than their usher, Christie of the
+Clinthill, after exchanging a significant glance with the menials or
+troopers at the lower end of the apartment, signed to Halbert
+Glendinning and to his companion to stand still near the door, while
+he himself, advancing nearer the table, placed himself in such a
+situation as to catch the Baron's observation when he should be
+disposed to look around, but without presuming to intrude himself on
+his master's notice. Indeed, the look of this man, naturally bold,
+hardy, and audacious, seemed totally changed when he was in presence
+of his master, and resembled the dejected and cowering manner of a
+quarrelsome dog when rebuked by his owner, or when he finds himself
+obliged to deprecate the violence of a superior adversary of his own
+species.
+
+In spite of the novelty of his own situation, and every painful
+feeling connected with it, Halbert felt his curiosity interested in
+the female, who sate by the chimney unnoticed and unregarded. He
+marked with what keen and trembling solicitude she watched the broken
+words of Julian, and how her glance stole towards him, ready to be
+averted upon the slightest chance of his perceiving himself to be
+watched.
+
+Meantime he went on with his dalliance with his feathered favourite,
+now giving, now withholding, the morsel with which he was about to
+feed the bird, and so exciting its appetite and gratifying it by
+turns. "What! more yet?--thou foul kite, thou wouldst never have
+done--give thee part thou wilt have all--Ay, prune thy feathers, and
+prink thyself gay--much thou wilt make of it now--dost think I know
+thee not?--dost think I see not that all that ruffling and pluming of
+wing and feathers is not for thy master, but to try what thou canst
+make of him, thou greedy gled?--well--there--take it then, and rejoice
+thyself--little boon goes far with thee, and with all thy sex--and so
+it should."
+
+He ceased to look on the bird, and again traversed the apartment. Then
+taking another small piece of raw meat from the trencher, on which it
+was placed ready cut for his use, he began once again to tempt and
+tease the bird, by offering and withdrawing it, until he awakened its
+wild and bold disposition. "What! struggling, fluttering, aiming at me
+with beak and single? [Footnote: In the _kindly_ language of
+hawking, as Lady Juliana Berners terms it, hawks' talons are called
+their _singles_] So la! So la! wouldst mount? wouldst fly? the
+jesses are round thy clutches, fool--thou canst neither stir nor soar
+but by my will--Beware thou come to reclaim, wench, else I will wring
+thy head off one of these days--Well, have it then, and well fare thou
+with it.--So ho, Jenkin!" One of the attendants stepped forward--"
+Take the foul gled hence to the mew--or, stay; leave her, but look
+well to her casting and to her bathing--we will see her fly
+to-morrow.--How now, Christie, so soon returned ?"
+
+Christie advanced to his master, and gave an account of himself and
+his journey, in the way in which a police-officer holds communication
+with his magistrate, that is, as much by signs as by words.
+
+"Noble sir," said that worthy satellite, "the Laird of--," he named no
+place, but pointed with his finger in a south-western direction,--"
+may not ride with you the day he purposed, because the Lord Warden has
+threatened that he will--"
+
+Here another blank, intelligibly enough made up by the speaker
+touching his own neck with his left fore-finger, and leaning his head
+a little to one side.
+
+"Cowardly caitiff!" said Julian; "by Heaven! the whole world turns
+sheer naught--it is not worth a brave man's living in--ye may ride a
+day and night, and never see a feather wave or hear a horse
+prance--the spirit of our fathers is dead amongst us--the very brutes
+are degenerated--the cattle we bring at our life's risk are mere
+carrion--our hawks are riflers [Footnote: So called when they only
+caught their prey by the feathers.]--our hounds are turnspits and
+trindle-tails--our men are women--and our women are--"
+
+He looked at the female for the first time, and stopped short in the
+midst of what he was about to say, though there was something so
+contemptuous in the glance, that the blank might have been thus filled
+up--"Our women are such as she is."
+
+He said it not, however, and as if desirous of attracting his
+attention at all risks, and in whatever manner, she rose and came
+forward to him, but with a timorousness ill-disguised by affected
+gaiety.--"Our women, Julian--what would you say of the women?"
+
+"Nothing," answered Julian Avenel, "at least nothing but that they are
+kind-hearted wenches like thyself, Kate." The female coloured deeply,
+and returned to her seat.--"And what strangers hast thou brought with
+thee, Christie, that stand yonder like two stone statues?" said the
+Baron.
+
+"The taller," answered Christie, "is, so please you, a young fellow
+called Halbert Glendinning, the eldest son of the old widow at
+Glendearg."
+
+"What brings him here?" said the Baron; "hath he any message from
+Mary Avenel?"
+
+"Not as I think," said Christie; "the youth is roving the country--he
+was always a wild slip, for I have known him since he was the height of
+my sword."
+
+"What qualities hath he?" said the Baron.
+
+"All manner of qualities," answered his follower--"he can strike a
+buck, track a deer, fly a hawk, halloo to a hound--he shoots in the
+long and crossbow to a hair's breadth--wields a lance or sword like
+myself nearly--backs a horse manfully and fairly--I wot not what more
+a man need to do to make him a gallant companion."
+
+"And who," said the Baron, "is the old miser [Footnote: Miser, used in
+the sense in which it often occurs in Spenser, and which is indeed its
+literal import--"wretched old man."] who stands beside him?"
+
+"Some cast of a priest as I fancy--he says he is charged with letters to
+you."
+
+"Bid them come forward," said the Baron; and no sooner had they
+approached him more nearly, than, struck by the fine form and strength
+displayed by Halbert Glendinning, he addressed him thus: "I am told,
+young Swankie, that you are roaming the world to seek your fortune,--if
+you will serve Julian Avenel, you may find it without going farther."
+
+"So please you," answered Glendinning, "something has chanced to me
+that makes it better I should leave this land, and I am bound for
+Edinburgh."
+
+"What!--thou hast stricken some of the king's deer, I warrant,--or
+lightened the meadows of Saint Mary's of some of their beeves--or thou
+hast taken a moonlight leap over the border?"
+
+"No, sir," said Halbert, "my case is entirely different."
+
+"Then I warrant thee," said the Baron, "thou hast stabbed some brother
+churl in a fray about a wench--thou art a likely lad to wrangle in
+such a cause."
+
+Ineffably disgusted at his tone and manner, Halbert Glendinning
+remained silent, while the thought darted across his mind, what would
+Julian Avenel have said, had he known the quarrel of which he spoke so
+lightly, had arisen on account of his own brother's daughter! "But be
+thy cause of flight what it will," said Julian, in continuation, "dost
+thou think the law or its emissaries can follow thee into this island,
+or arrest thee under the standard of Avenel?--Look at the depth of the
+lake, the strength of the walls, the length of the causeway--look at
+my men, and think if they are likely to see a comrade injured, or if
+I, their master, am a man to desert a faithful follower, in good or
+evil. I tell thee it shall be an eternal day of truce betwixt thee and
+justice, as they call it, from the instant thou hast put my colours
+into thy cap--thou shalt ride by the Warden's nose as thou wouldst
+pass an old market-woman, and ne'er a cur which follows him shall dare
+to bay at thee!"
+
+"I thank you for your offers, noble sir," replied Halbert, "but I must
+answer in brief, that I cannot profit by them--my fortunes lead me
+elsewhere."
+
+"Thou art a self-willed fool for thy pains," said Julian, turning from
+him; and signing Christie to approach, he whispered in his ear, "there
+is promise in that young fellow's looks, Christie, and we want men of
+limbs and sinews so compacted--those thou hast brought to me of late
+are the mere refuse of mankind, wretches scarce worth the arrow that
+ends them: this youngster is limbed like Saint George. Ply him with
+wine and wassail--let the wenches weave their meshes about him like
+spiders--thou understandest?" Christie gave a sagacious nod of
+intelligence, and fell back to a respectful distance from his
+master.--"And thou, old man," said the Baron, turning to the elder
+traveller, "hast thou been roaming the world after fortune too?--it
+seems not she has fallen into thy way."
+
+"So please you," replied Warden, "I were perhaps more to be pitied than
+I am now, had I indeed met with that fortune, which, like others, I have
+sought in my greener days."
+
+"Nay, understand me, friend," said the Baron; "if thou art satisfied
+with thy buckram gown and long staff, I also am well content thou
+shouldst be as poor and contemptible as is good for the health of thy
+body and soul--All I care to know of thee is, the cause which hath
+brought thee to my castle, where few crows of thy kind care to settle.
+Thou art, I warrant thee, some ejected monk of a suppressed convent,
+paying in his old days the price of the luxurious idleness in which he
+spent his youth.--Ay, or it may be some pilgrim with a budget of lies
+from Saint James of Compostella, or Our Lady of Loretto; or thou
+mayest be some pardoner with his budget of relics from Rome, forgiving
+sins at a penny a-dozen, and one to the tale.--Ay, I guess why I find
+thee in this boy's company, and doubtless thou wouldst have such a
+strapping lad as he to carry thy wallet, and relieve thy lazy
+shoulders; but by the mass I will cross thy cunning. I make my vow to
+sun and moon, I will not see a proper lad so misleard as to run the
+country with an old knave like Simmie and his brother. [Footnote: Two
+_quaestionarii_, or begging friars, whose accoutrements and
+roguery make the subject of an old Scottish satirical poem] Away with
+thee!" he added, rising in wrath, and speaking so fast as to give no
+opportunity of answer, being probably determined to terrify the elder
+guest into an abrupt flight--"Away with thee, with thy clouted coat,
+scrip, and scallop-shell, or, by the name of Avenel, I will have them
+loose the hounds on thee."
+
+Warden waited with the greatest patience until Julian Avenel, astonished
+that the threats and violence of his language made no impression on him,
+paused in a sort of wonder, and said in a less imperious tone, "Why the
+fiend dost thou not answer me?"
+
+"When you have done speaking," said Warden, in the same composed
+manner, "it will be full time to reply."
+
+"Say on man, in the devil's name--but take heed--beg not here--were it
+but for the rinds of cheese, the refuse of the rats, or a morsel that
+my dogs would turn from--neither a grain of meal, nor the nineteenth
+part of a gray groat, will I give to any feigned limmer of thy coat,"
+
+"It may be," answered Warden, "that you would have less quarrel with
+my coat if you knew what it covers, I am neither a friar nor
+mendicant, and would be right glad to hear thy testimony against these
+foul deceivers of God's church, and usurpers of his rights over the
+Christian flock, were it given in Christian charity."
+
+"And who or what art thou, then," said Avenel, "that thou comest to this
+Border land, and art neither monk, nor soldier, nor broken man?"
+
+"I am an humble teacher of the holy word," answered Warden. "This
+letter from a most noble person will speak why I am here at this present
+time."
+
+He delivered the letter to the Baron, who regarded the seal with some
+surprise, and then looked on the letter itself, which seemed to excite
+still more. He then fixed his eyes on the stranger, and said, in a
+menacing tone, "I think thou darest not betray me or deceive me?"
+
+"I am not the man to attempt either," was the concise reply.
+
+Julian Avenel carried the letter to the window, where he perused, or
+at least attempted to peruse it more than once, often looking from the
+paper and gazing on the stranger who had delivered it, as if he meant
+to read the purport of the missive in the face of the messenger.
+Julian at length called to the female,--"Catherine, bestir thee, and
+fetch me presently that letter which I bade thee keep ready at hand in
+thy casket, having no sure lockfast place of my own."
+
+Catherine went with the readiness of one willing to be employed; and
+as she walked, the situation which requires a wider gown and a longer
+girdle, and in which woman claims from man a double portion of the
+most anxious care, was still more visible than before. She soon
+returned with the paper, and was rewarded with a cold--"I thank thee,
+wench; thou art a careful secretary."
+
+This second paper he also perused and reperused more than once, and
+still, as he read it, bent from time to time a wary and observant eye
+upon Henry Warden. This examination and re-examination, though both
+the man and the place were dangerous, the preacher endured with the
+most composed and steady countenance, seeming, under the eagle, or
+rather the vulture eye of the baron, as unmoved as under the gaze of
+an ordinary and peaceful peasant. At length Julian Avenel folded both
+papers, and having put them into the pocket of his cloak, cleared his
+brow, and, coming forward, addressed his female companion.
+"Catherine," said he, "I have done this good man injustice, when I
+mistook him for one of the drones of Rome.  He is a preacher,
+Catherine--a preacher of the--the new doctrine of the Lords of the
+Congregation."
+
+"The doctrine of the blessed Scriptures," said the preacher, "purified
+from the devices of men."
+
+"Sayest thou?" said Julian Avenel--"Well, thou mayest call it what
+thou lists; but to me it is recommended, because it flings off all
+those sottish dreams about saints and angels and devils, and unhorses
+lazy monks that have ridden us so long, and spur-galled us so hard. No
+more masses and corpse-gifts--no more tithes and offerings to make men
+poor--no more prayers or psalms to make men cowards-no more
+christenings and penances, and confessions and marriages."
+
+"So please you," said Henry Warden, "it is against the corruptions,
+not against the fundamental doctrines, of the church, which we desire
+to renovate, and not to abolish."
+
+"Prithee, peace, man," said the Baron; "we of the laity care not what
+you set up, so you pull merrily down what stands in our way. Specially
+it suits well with us of the Southland fells; for it is our profession
+to turn the world upside down, and we live ever the blithest life when
+the downer side is uppermost."
+
+Warden would have replied; but the Baron allowed him not time,
+striking the table with the hilt of his dagger, and crying out,--"Ha!
+you loitering knaves, bring our supper-meal quickly. See you not this
+holy man is exhausted for lack of food? heard ye ever of priest or
+preacher that devoured not his five meals a-day?"
+
+The attendants bustled to and fro, and speedily brought in several
+large smoking platters filled with huge pieces of beef, boiled and
+roasted, but without any variety whatsoever; without vegetables, and
+almost without bread, though there was at the upper end a few
+oat-cakes in a basket. Julian Avenel made a sort of apology to Warden.
+
+"You have been commended to our care, Sir Preacher, since that is your
+style, by a person whom we highly honour."
+
+"I am assured," said Warden, "that the most noble Lord--"
+
+"Prithee, peace, man," said Avenel; "what need of naming names, so we
+understand each other? I meant but to speak in reference to your
+safety and comfort, of which he desires us to be chary. Now, for your
+safety, look at my walls and water. But touching your comfort, we have
+no corn of our own, and the meal-girnels of the south are less easily
+transported than their beeves, seeing they have no legs to walk upon.
+But what though? a stoup of wine thou shalt have, and of the
+best--thou shalt sit betwixt Catherine and me at the board-end.--And,
+Christie, do thou look to the young springald, and call to the
+cellarer for a flagon of the best."
+
+The Baron took his wonted place at the upper end of the board; his
+Catherine sate down, and courteously pointed to a seat betwixt them for
+their reverend guest. But notwithstanding the influence both of hunger
+and fatigue, Henry Warden retained his standing posture.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Fifth.
+
+
+  When lovely woman stoops to folly,
+  And finds too late that men betray--
+
+Julian Avenel saw with surprise the demeanour of the reverend
+stranger. "Beshrew me," he said, "these new-fashioned religioners have
+fast-days, I warrant me--the old ones used to confer these blessings
+chiefly on the laity."
+
+"We acknowledge no such rule," said the preacher--"We hold that our
+faith consists not in using or abstaining from special meats on special
+days; and in fasting we rend our hearts, and not our garments."
+
+"The better--the better for yourselves, and the worse for Tom Tailor,"
+said the Baron; "but come, sit down, or, if thou needs must e'en give
+us a cast of thy office, mutter thy charm."
+
+"Sir Baron," said the preacher, "I am in a strange land, where neither
+mine office nor my doctrine are known, and where, it would seem, both
+are greatly misunderstood. It is my duty so to bear me, that in my
+person, however unworthy, my Master's dignity may be respected, and
+that sin may take not confidence from relaxation of the bonds of
+discipline."
+
+"Ho la! halt there," said the Baron; "thou wert sent hither for thy
+safety, but not, I think, to preach to me, or control me. What is it
+thou wouldst have, Sir Preacher? Remember thou speakest to one
+somewhat short of patience, who loves a short health and a long
+draught."
+
+"In a word, then," said Henry Warden, "that lady--"
+
+"How?" said the Baron, starting--"what of her?--what hast thou to
+say of that dame?"
+
+"Is she thy house-dame?" said the preacher, after a moment's pause, in
+which, he seemed to seek for the best mode of expressing what he had
+to say--"Is she, in brief, thy wife?"
+
+The unfortunate young woman pressed both her hands on her face, as if
+to hide it, but the deep blush which crimsoned her brow and neck,
+showed that her cheeks were also glowing; and the bursting tears,
+which found their way betwixt her slender fingers, bore witness to her
+sorrow, as well as to her shame.
+
+"Now, by my father's ashes!" said the Baron, rising and spurning from
+him his footstool with such violence, that it hit the wall on the
+opposite side of the apartment--then instantly constraining himself,
+he muttered, "What need to run myself into trouble for a fool's
+word?"--then resuming his seat, he answered coldly and
+scornfully--"No, Sir Priest or Sir Preacher, Catherine is not my
+wife--Cease thy whimpering, thou foolish wench--she is not my wife,
+but she is handfasted with me, and that makes her as honest a woman."
+
+"Handfasted?"--repeated Warden.
+
+"Knowest thou not that rite, holy man?" said Avenel, in the same tone
+of derision; "then I will tell thee. We Border-men are more wary than
+your inland clowns of Fife and Lothian--no jump in the dark for us--no
+clenching the fetters around our wrists till we know how they will
+wear with us--we take our wives, like our horses, upon trial. When we
+are handfasted, as we term it, we are man and wife for a year and
+day--that space gone by, each may choose another mate, or, at their
+pleasure, may call the priest to marry them for life--and this we call
+handfasting." [Footnote: This custom of handfasting actually prevailed
+in the upland days. It arose partly from the want of priests. While
+the convents subsisted, monks were detached on regular circuits
+through the wilder districts, to marry those who had lived in this
+species of connexion. A practice of the same kind existed in the Isle
+of Portland.]
+
+"Then," said the preacher, "I tell thee, noble Baron, in brotherly
+love to thy soul, it is a custom licentious, gross, and corrupted,
+and, if persisted in, dangerous, yea, damnable. It binds thee to the
+frailer being while she is the object of desire--it relieves thee when
+she is most the subject of pity--it gives all to brutal sense, and
+nothing to generous and gentle affection.  I say to thee, that he who
+can meditate the breach of such an engagement, abandoning the deluded
+woman and the helpless offspring, is worse than the birds of prey; for
+of them the males remain with their mates until the nestlings can take
+wing. Above all, I say it is contrary to the pure Christian doctrine,
+which assigns woman to man as the partner of his labour, the soother
+of his evil, his helpmate in peril, his friend in affliction; not as
+the toy of his looser hours, or as a flower, which, once cropped, he
+may throw aside at pleasure."
+
+"Now, by the Saints, a most virtuous homily!" said the Baron;
+"quaintly conceived and curiously pronounced, and to a well-chosen
+congregation.  Hark ye, Sir Gospeller! trow ye to have a fool in hand?
+Know I not that your sect rose by bluff Harry Tudor, merely because ye
+aided him to change _his_ Kate; and wherefore should I not use
+the same Christian liberty with _mine?_ Tush, man! bless the good
+food, and meddle not with what concerns thee not--thou hast no gull in
+Julian Avenel."
+
+"He hath gulled and cheated himself," said the preacher, "should he
+even incline to do that poor sharer of his domestic cares the
+imperfect justice that remains to him. Can he now raise her to the
+rank of a pure and uncontaminated matron?--Can he deprive his child of
+the misery of owing birth to a mother who has erred? He can indeed
+give them both the rank, the state of married wife and of lawful son;
+but, in public opinion, their names will be smirched and sullied with
+a stain which his tardy efforts cannot entirely efface. Yet render it
+to them, Baron of Avenel, render to them this late and imperfect
+justice. Bid me bind you together for ever, and celebrate the day of
+your bridal, not with feasting or wassail, but with sorrow for past
+sin, and the resolution to commence a better life.  Happy then will
+have the chance been that has drawn me to this castle, though I come
+driven by calamity, and unknowing where my course is bound, like a
+leaf travelling on the north wind."
+
+The plain, and even coarse features, of the zealous speaker, were
+warmed at once and ennobled by the dignity of his enthusiasm; and the
+wild Baron, lawless as he was, and accustomed to spurn at the control
+whether of religious or moral law, felt, for the first time perhaps in
+his life, that he was under subjection to a mind superior to his own.
+He sat mute and suspended in his deliberations, hesitating betwixt
+anger and shame, yet borne down by the weight of the just rebuke thus
+boldly fulminated against him.
+
+The unfortunate young woman, conceiving hopes from her tyrant's
+silence and apparent indecision, forgot both her fear and shame in her
+timid expectation that Avenel would relent; and fixing upon him her
+anxious and beseeching eyes, gradually drew near and nearer to his
+seat, till at length, laying a trembling hand on his cloak, she
+ventured to utter, "O noble Julian, listen to the good man!"
+
+The speech and the motion were ill-timed, and wrought on that proud and
+wayward spirit the reverse of her wishes.
+
+The fierce Baron started up in a fury, exclaiming, "What! thou foolish
+callet, art thou confederate with this strolling vagabond, whom thou
+hast seen beard me in my own hall! Hence with thee, and think that I
+ana proof both to male and female hypocrisy!"
+
+The poor girl started back, astounded at his voice of thunder and
+looks of fury, and, turning pale as death, endeavoured to obey his
+orders, and tottered towards the door. Her limbs failed in the
+attempt, and she fell on the stone floor in a manner which her
+situation might have rendered fatal--The blood gushed from her
+face.--Halbert Glendinning brooked not a sight so brutal, but,
+uttering a deep imprecation, started from his seat, and laid his hand
+on his sword, under the strong impulse of passing it through the body
+of the cruel and hard-hearted ruffian. But Christie of the Clinthill,
+guessing his intention, threw his arms around him, and prevented him
+from stirring to execute his purpose.
+
+The impulse to such an act of violence was indeed but momentary, as it
+instantly appeared that Avenel himself, shocked at the effects of his
+violence, was lifting up and endeavouring to soothe in his own way the
+terrified Catherine.
+
+"Peace," he said, "prithee, peace, thou silly minion--why, Kate,
+though I listen not to this tramping preacher, I said not what might
+happen an thou dost bear me a stout boy. There--there--dry thy
+tears--Call thy women.--So ho!--where be these queans?--Christie--
+Rowley--Hutcheon--drag them hither by the hair of the head!"
+
+A half dozen of startled wild-looking females rushed into the room,
+and bore out her who might be either termed their mistress or their
+companion.  She showed little sign of life, except by groaning faintly
+and keeping her hand on her side.
+
+No sooner had this luckless female been conveyed from the apartment,
+than the Baron, advancing to the table, filled and drank a deep goblet
+of wine; then, putting an obvious restraint on his passions, turned to
+the preacher, who stood horror-struck at the scene he had witnessed,
+and said, "You have borne too hard on us, Sir Preacher--but coming
+with the commendations which you have brought me, I doubt not but your
+meaning was good. But we are a wilder folk than you inland men of Fife
+and Lothian.  Be advised, therefore, by me--Spur not an unbroken
+horse--put not your ploughshare too deep into new land--Preach to us
+spiritual liberty, and we will hearken to you.--But we will give no
+way to spiritual bondage.--Sit, therefore, down, and pledge me in old
+sack, and we will talk over these matters."
+
+"It is _from_ spiritual bondage," said the preacher, in the same
+tone of admonitory reproof, "that I came to deliver you--it is from a
+bondage more fearful than than that of the heaviest earthly gyves--it
+is from your own evil passions."
+
+"Sit down," said Avenel, fiercely; "sit down while the play is good--
+else by my father's crest and my mother's honour!----"
+
+"Now," whispered Christie of the Clinthill to Halbert, "if he refuse to
+sit down, I would not give a gray groat for his head."
+
+"Lord Baron," said Warden, "thou hast placed me in extremity. But if
+the question be, whether I am to hide the light which I am commanded
+to show forth, or to lose the light of this world, my choice is made.
+I say to thee, like the Holy Baptist to Herod, it is not lawful for
+thee to have this woman; and I say it though bonds and death be the
+consequence, counting my life as nothing in comparison of the ministry
+to which I am called."
+
+Julian Avenel, enraged at the firmness of this reply, flung from his
+right hand the cup in which he was about to drink to his guest, and
+from the other cast off the hawk, which flew wildly through the
+apartment. His first motion was to lay hand upon his dagger. But,
+changing his resolution, he exclaimed, "To the dungeon with this
+insolent stroller!--I will hear no man speak a word for him----Look to
+the falcon, Christie, thou fool--an she escape, I will despatch you
+after her every man--Away with that hypocritical dreamer--drag him
+hence if he resist!"
+
+He was obeyed in both points. Christie of the Clinthill arrested the
+hawk's flight, by putting his foot on her jesses, and so holding her
+fast, while Henry Warden was led off, without having shown the
+slightest symptoms of terror, by two of the Baron's satellites. Julian
+Avenel walked the apartment for a short time in sullen silence, and
+despatching one of his attendants with a whispered message, which
+probably related to the health of the unfortunate Catherine, he said
+aloud, "These rash and meddling priests--By Heaven! they make us worse
+than we would be without them."
+
+[Footnote: If it were necessary to name a prototype for this brutal,
+licentious and cruel Border chief, in an age which showed but too many
+such, the Laird of Black Ormiston might be selected for that purpose.
+He was a friend and confidant of Bothwell, and an agent in Henry
+Darnley's murder. At his last stage, he was, like other great
+offenders, a seeming penitent; and, as his confession bears, divers
+gentlemen and servants being in the chamber, he said, "For God's sake,
+sit down and pray for me, for I have been a great sinner otherwise,"
+(that is, besides his share in Darnley's death,) "for the which God is
+this day punishing me; for of all men on the earth, I have been one of
+the proudest, and most high-minded, and most unclean of my body.  But
+specially I have shed the innocent blood of one Michael Hunter with my
+own hands. Alas, therefore! because the said Michael, having me lying
+on my back, having a fork in his hand, might have slain me if he had
+pleased, and did it not, which of all things grieves me most in
+conscience. Also, in a rage, I hanged a poor man for a horse;--with
+many other wicked deeds, for whilk I ask my God mercy. It is not
+marvel I have been wicked, considering the wicked company that ever I
+have been in, but specially within the seven years by-past, in which I
+never saw two good men or one good deed, but all kind of wickedness,
+and yet God would not suffer me to be lost."--See the whole confession
+in the State Trials.
+
+Another worthy of the Borders, called Geordy Bourne, of somewhat
+subordinate rank, was a similar picture of profligacy. He had fallen
+into the hands of Sir Robert Carey, then Warden of the English East
+Marches, who gives the following account of his prisoner's
+confession:--
+
+"When all things were quiet, and the watch set at night, after supper,
+about ten of the clock, I took one of my men's liveries, and put it
+about me, and took two other of my servants with me in their liveries;
+and we three, as the Warden's men, came to the Provost Marshal's where
+Bourne was, and were let into his chamber. We sate down by him, and
+told him that we were desirous to see him, because we heard he was
+stout and valiant, and true to his friend, and that we were sorry our
+master could not be moved to save his life. He voluntarily of himself
+said, that he had lived long enough to do so many villanies as he had
+done; and withal told us, that he had lain with above forty men's
+wives, what in England what in Scotland; and that he had killed seven
+Englishmen with his own hands, cruelly murdering them; and that he had
+spent his whole time in whoring, drinking, stealing, and taking deep
+revenge for slight offences. He seemed to be very penitent, and much
+desired a minister for the comfort of his soul. We promised him to let
+our master know his desire, who, we knew would promptly grant it. We
+took leave of him; and presently I took order that Mr Selby, a very
+honest preacher, should go to him, and not stir from him till his
+execution the next morning; for after I had heard his own confession,
+I was resolved no conditions should save his life, and so took order,
+that at the gates opening the next morning, he should be carried to
+execution, which accordingly was performed."--_Memoirs of Sir
+Robert Carey, Earl of Monmouth._]
+
+The answer which he presently received seemed somewhat to pacify his
+angry mood, and he took his place at the board, commanding his retinue
+to the like. All sat down in silence, and began the repast.
+
+During the meal Christie in vain attempted to engage his youthful
+companion in carousal, or, at least, in conversation. Halbert
+Glendinning pleaded fatigue, and expressed himself unwilling to take
+any liquor stronger than the heather ale, which was at that time
+frequently used at meals.  Thus every effort at jovialty died away,
+until the Baron, striking his hand against the table, as if impatient
+of the long unbroken silence, cried out aloud, "What, ho! my
+masters--are ye Border-riders, and sit as mute over your meal as a
+mess of monks and friars?--Some one sing, if no one list to speak.
+Much eaten without either mirth or music is ill of digestion.--Louis,"
+he added, speaking to one of the youngest of his followers, "thou art
+ready enough to sing when no one bids thee."
+
+The young man looked first at his master, then up to the arched roof
+of the hall, then drank off the horn of ale, or wine, which stood
+beside him, and with a rough, yet not unmelodious voice, sung the
+following ditty to the ancient air of "Blue bonnets over the Border."
+
+                 I.
+
+  March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale,
+    Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order?
+  March, march, Eskdale and Liddesdale,
+    All the Blue Bonnets are bound for the Border
+        Many a banner spread,
+        Flutters above your head,
+    Many a crest that is famous in story;
+        Mount and make ready then,
+        Sons of the mountain glen,
+    Fight for the Queen and the old Scottish glory!
+
+                 II.
+
+  Come from the hills where the hirsels are grazing,
+    Come from the glen of the buck and the roe;
+  Come to the crag where the beacon is blazing,
+    Come with the buckler, the lance, and the bow.
+        Trumpets are sounding,
+        War-steeds are bounding,
+    Stand to your arms then, and march in good order;
+        England shall many a day
+        Tell of the bloody fray,
+    When the Blue Bonnets came over the Border!
+
+The song, rude as it was, had in it that warlike character which at
+any other time would have roused Halbert's spirit; but at present the
+charm of minstrelsy had no effect upon him. He made it his request to
+Christie to suffer him to retire to rest, a request with which that
+worthy person, seeing no chance of making a favourable impression on
+his intended proselyte in his present humour, was at length pleased to
+comply. But no Sergeant Kite, who ever practised the profession of
+recruiting, was more attentive that his object should not escape him,
+than was Christie of the Clinthill.  He indeed conducted Halbert
+Glendinning to a small apartment overlooking the lake, which was
+accommodated with a truckle bed. But before quitting him, Christie
+took special care to give a look to the bars which crossed the outside
+of the window, and when he left the apartment, he failed not to give
+the key a double turn; circumstances which convinced young Glendinning
+that there was no intention of suffering him to depart from the Castle
+of Avenel at his own time and pleasure. He judged it, however, most
+prudent to let these alarming symptoms pass without observation.
+
+No sooner did he find himself in undisturbed solitude, than he ran
+rapidly over the events of the day in his recollection, and to his
+surprise found that his own precarious fate, and even the death of
+Piercie Shafton, made less impression on him than the singularly bold
+and determined conduct of his companion, Henry Warden. Providence,
+which suits its instruments to the end they are to achieve, had
+awakened in the cause of Reformation in Scotland, a body of preachers
+of more energy than refinement, bold in spirit, and strong in faith,
+contemners of whatever stood betwixt them and their principal object,
+and seeking the advancement of the great cause in which they laboured
+by the roughest road, provided it were the shortest. The soft breeze
+may wave the willow, but it requires the voice of the tempest to
+agitate the boughs of the oak; and, accordingly, to milder hearers,
+and in a less rude age, their manners would have been ill-adapted, but
+they were singularly successful in their mission to the rude people to
+whom it was addressed.
+
+Owing to these reasons, Halbert Glendinning, who had resisted and
+repelled the arguments of the preacher, was forcibly struck by the
+firmness of his demeanour in the dispute with Julian Avenel. It might
+be discourteous, and most certainly it was incautious, to choose such
+a place and such an audience, for upbraiding with his transgressions a
+baron, whom both manners and situation placed in full possession of
+independent power. But the conduct of the preacher was uncompromising,
+firm, manly, and obviously grounded upon the deepest conviction which
+duty and principle could afford; and Glendinning, who had viewed the
+conduct of Avenel with the deepest abhorrence, was proportionally
+interested in the brave old man, who had ventured life rather than
+withhold the censure due to guilt. This pitch of virtue seemed to him
+to be in religion what was demanded by chivalry of her votaries in
+war; an absolute surrender of all selfish feelings, and a combination
+of every energy proper to the human mind, to discharge the task which
+duty demanded.
+
+Halbert was at the period when youth was most open to generous
+emotions, and knows best how to appreciate them in others, and he
+felt, although he hardly knew why, that, whether catholic or heretic,
+the safety of this man deeply interested him. Curiosity mingled with
+the feeling, and led him to wonder what the nature of those doctrines
+could be, which stole their votary so completely from himself, and
+devoted him to chains or to death as their sworn champion. He had
+indeed been told of saints and martyrs of former days, who had braved
+for their religious faith the extremity of death and torture. But
+their spirit of enthusiastic devotion had long slept in the ease and
+indolent habits of their successors, and their adventures, like those
+of knights-errant, were rather read for amusement than for
+edification. A new impulse had been necessary to rekindle the energies
+of religious zeal, and that impulse was now operating in favour of a
+purer religion, with one of whose steadiest votaries the youth had now
+met for the first time.
+
+The sense that he himself was a prisoner, under the power of this
+savage chieftain, by no means diminished Halbert's interest in the
+fate of his fellow sufferer, while he determined at the same time so
+far to emulate his fortitude, that neither threats nor suffering
+should compel him to enter into the service of such a master. The
+possibility of escape next occurred to him, and though with little
+hope of effecting it in that way, Glendinning proceeded to examine
+more particularly the window of the apartment. The apartment was
+situated in the first story of the castle; and was not so far from the
+rock, on which it was founded, but that an active and bold man might
+with little assistance descend to a shelf of rock which was
+immediately below the window, and from thence either leap or drop
+himself down into the lake which lay before his eye, clear and blue in
+the placid light of a full summer's moon.--"Were I once placed on that
+ledge," thought Glendinning, "Julian Avenel and Christie had seen the
+last of me." The size of the window favoured such an attempt, but the
+stanchions or iron bars seemed to form an insurmountable obstacle.
+
+While Halbert Glendinning gazed from the window with that eagerness of
+hope which was prompted by the energy of his character and his
+determination not to yield to circumstances, his ear caught some
+sounds from below, and listening with more attention, he could
+distinguish the voice of the preacher engaged in his solitary
+devotions. To open a correspondence with him became immediately his
+object, and failing to do so by less marked sounds, he at length
+ventured to speak, and was answered from beneath--"Is it thou, my
+son?" The voice of the prisoner now sounded more distinctly than when
+it was first heard, for Warden had approached the small aperture,
+which, serving his prison for a window, opened just betwixt the wall
+and the rock, and admitted a scanty portion of light through a wall of
+immense thickness. This _soupirait_ being placed exactly under
+Halbert's window, the contiguity permitted the prisoners to converse
+in a low tone, when Halbert declared his intention to escape, and the
+possibility he saw of achieving his purpose, but for the iron
+stanchions of the window--"Prove thy strength, my son, in the name of
+God" said the preacher.  Halbert obeyed him more in despair than hope,
+but to his great astonishment, and somewhat to his terror, the bar
+parted asunder near the bottom, and the longer part being easily bent
+outwards, and not secured with lead in the upper socket, dropt out
+into Halbert's hand. He immediately whispered, but as energetically as
+a whisper could be expressed--"By Heaven, the bar has given way in my
+hand!"
+
+"Thank Heaven, my son, instead of swearing by it," answered Warden
+from his dungeon.
+
+With little effort Halbert Glendinning forced himself through the
+opening thus wonderfully effected, and using his leathern sword-belt
+as a rope to assist him, let himself safely drop on the shelf of rock
+upon which the preacher's window opened. But through this no passage
+could be effected, being scarce larger than a loop-hole for musketry,
+and apparently constructed for that purpose.
+
+"Are there no means by which I can assist your escape, my father?"
+said Halbert.
+
+"There are none, my son," answered the preacher; "but if thou wilt
+ensure my safety, that may be in thy power."
+
+"I will labour earnestly for it," said the youth.
+
+"Take then a letter which I will presently write, for I have the means
+of light and writing materials in my scrip--Hasten towards Edinburgh,
+and on the way thou wilt meet a body of horse marching
+southwards--Give this to their leader, and acquaint him of the state
+in which thou hast left me. It may hap that thy doing so will
+advantage thyself."
+
+In a minute or two the light of a taper gleamed through the shot-hole,
+and very shortly after, the preacher, with the assistance of his
+staff, pushed a billet to Glendinning through the window.
+
+"God bless thee, my son," said the old man, "and complete the
+marvellous work which he has begun."
+
+"Amen!" answered Halbert, with solemnity, and proceeded on his
+enterprise.
+
+He hesitated a moment whether he should attempt to descend to the edge
+of the water; but the steepness of the rock, and darkness of the
+night, rendered the enterprise too dangerous. He clasped his hands
+above his head and boldly sprung from the precipice, shooting himself
+forward into the air as far as he could for fear of sunken rocks, and
+alighted on the lake, head foremost, with such force as sunk him for a
+minute below the surface. But strong, long-breathed, and accustomed to
+such exercise, Halbert, even though encumbered with his sword, dived
+and rose like a seafowl, and swam across the lake in the northern
+direction. When he landed and looked back on the castle, he could
+observe that the alarm had been given, for lights glanced from window
+to window, and he heard the drawbridge lowered, and the tread of
+horses' feet upon the causeway. But, little alarmed for the
+consequence of a pursuit during the darkness, he wrung the water from
+his dress, and, plunging into the moors, directed his course to the
+north-east by the assistance of the polar star
+
+       *       *        *       *        *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Sixth.
+
+
+  Why, what an intricate impeach is this!
+  I think you all have drank of Circe's cup.
+  If here you housed him, here he would have been;
+  If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly.
+                                  COMEDY OF ERRORS.
+
+The course of our story, leaving for the present Halbert Glendinning
+to the guidance of his courage and his fortune, returns to the Tower
+of Glendearg, where matters in the meanwhile fell out, with which it
+is most fitting that the reader should be acquainted.
+
+The meal was prepared at noontide with all the care which Elspeth and
+Tibb, assisted by the various accommodations which had been supplied
+from the Monastery, could bestow on it. Their dialogue ran on as usual
+in the intervals of their labour, partly as between mistress and
+servant, partly as maintained by gossips of nearly equal quality.
+
+"Look to the minced meat, Tibb," said Elspeth; "and turn the broach
+even, thou good-for-nothing Simmie,--thy wits are harrying birds'
+nests, child.--Weel, Tibb, this is a fasheous job, this Sir Piercie
+lying leaguer with us up here, and wha kens for how lang?"
+
+"A fasheous job indeed," answered her faithful attendant, "and little
+good did the name ever bring to fair Scotland. Ye may have your hands
+fuller of them than they are yet. Mony a sair heart have the Piercies
+given to Scots wife and bairns with their pricking on the Borders.
+There was Hotspur and many more of that bloody kindred, have sate in
+our skirts since Malcolm's time, as Martin says!"
+
+"Martin should keep a well-scrapit tongue in his head," said Elspeth,
+"and not slander the kin of any body that quarters at Glendearg;
+forby, that Sir Piercie Shafton is much respected with the holy
+fathers of the community, and they will make up to us ony fasherie
+that we may have with him, either by good word or good deed, I'se
+warrant them. He is a considerate lord the Lord Abbot."
+
+"And weel he likes a saft seat to his hinder end," said Tibb; "I have
+seen a belted baron sit on a bare bench, and find nae fault. But an ye
+are pleased, mistress, I am pleased."
+
+"Now, in good time, here comes Mysie of the Mill.--And where hae ye
+been, lass for a's gane wrang without you?" said Elspeth.
+
+"I just gaed a blink up the burn," said Mysie, "for the young lady has
+been down on her bed, and is no just that weel--So I gaed a gliff up
+the burn."
+
+"To see the young lads come hame frae the sport, I will warrant you,"
+said Elspeth. "Ay, ay, Tibb, that's the way the young folk guide us,
+Tibbie--leave us to do the wark, and out to the play themsells."
+
+"Ne'er a bit of that, mistress," said the Maid of the Mill, stripping
+her round pretty arms, and looking actively and good-humouredly round
+for some duty that she could discharge, "but just--I thought ye might
+like to ken if they were coming back, just to get the dinner forward."
+
+"And saw ye ought of them then?" demanded Elspeth.
+
+"Not the least tokening," said Mysie, "though I got to the head of a
+knowe, and though the English knight's beautiful white feather could
+have been seen over all the bushes in the Shaw."
+
+"The knight's white feather!" said Dame Glendinning; "ye are a silly
+hempie--my Halbert's high head will be seen farther than his feather,
+let it be as white as it like, I trow."
+
+Mysie made no answer, but began to knead dough for wastel-cake with
+all despatch, observing that Sir Piercie had partaken of that dainty,
+and commended it upon the preceding day. And presently, in order to
+place on the fire the _girdle_, or iron plate on which these
+cates were to be baked, she displaced a stew-pan in which one of
+Tibb's delicacies were submitted to the action of the kitchen fire.
+Tibb muttered betwixt her teeth--"And it is the broth for my sick
+bairn, that maun make room for the dainty Southron's wastel-bread. It
+was a blithe time in Wight Wallace's day, or good King Robert's, when
+the pock-puddings gat naething here but hard straiks and bloody
+crowns. But we will see how it will a' end."
+
+Elspeth did not think it proper to notice these discontented
+expressions of Tibbie, but they sunk into her mind; for she was apt to
+consider her as a sort of authority in matters of war and policy, with
+which her former experience as bower-woman at Avenel Castle made her
+better acquainted than were the peaceful inhabitants of Halidome. She
+only spoke, however, to express her surprise that the hunters did not
+return.
+
+"An they come not back the sooner," said Tibb, "they will fare the
+waur, for the meat will be roasted to a cinder--and there is poor
+Simmie that can turn the spit nae langer: the bairn is melting like an
+icicle in warm water--Gang awa, bairn, and take a mouthful of the
+caller air, and I will turn the broach till ye come back."
+
+"Rin up to the bartizan at the tower-head, callant," said Dame
+Glendinning, "the air will be callerer there than ony gate else, and
+bring us word if our Halbert and the gentleman are coming down the
+glen."
+
+The boy lingered long enough to allow his substitute, Tibb Tacket,
+heartily to tire of her own generosity, and of his cricket-stool by
+the side of a huge fire. He at length returned with the news that he
+had seen nobody.  The matter was not so remarkable as far as Halbert
+Glendinning was concerned, for, patient alike of want and of fatigue,
+it was no uncommon circumstance for him to remain in the wilds till
+curfew time. But nobody had given Sir Piercie Shafton credit for being
+so keen a sportsman, and the idea of an Englishman preferring the
+chase to his dinner was altogether inconsistent with their
+preconceptions of the national character. Amidst wondering and
+conjecturing, the usual dinner-hour passed long away; and the inmates
+of the tower, taking a hasty meal themselves, adjourned their more
+solemn preparations until the hunters' return at night, since it
+seemed now certain that their sport had either carried them to a
+greater distance, or engaged them for a longer time than had been
+expected.
+
+About four hours after noon, arrived, not the expected sportsmen, but
+an unlooked for visitant, the Sub-Prior from the Monastery. The scene
+of the preceding day had dwelt on the mind of Father Eustace, who was
+of that keen and penetrating cast of mind which loves not to leave
+unascertained whatever of mysterious is subjected to its inquiry. His
+kindness was interested in the family of Glendearg, which he had now
+known for a long time; and besides, the community was interested in
+the preservation of the peace betwixt Sir Piercie Shafton and his
+youthful host, since whatever might draw public attention on the
+former, could not fail to be prejudicial to the Monastery, which was
+already threatened by the hand of power. He found the family
+assembled, all but Mary Avenel, and was informed that Halbert
+Glendinning had accompanied the stranger on a day's sport. So far was
+well. They had not returned; but when did youth and sport conceive
+themselves bound by set hours? and the circumstance excited no alarm
+in his mind.
+
+While he was conversing with Edward Glendinning touching his progress
+in the studies he had pointed out to him, they were startled by a
+shriek from Mary Avenel's apartment, which drew the whole family
+thither in headlong haste. They found her in a swoon in the arms of
+old Martin, who was bitterly accusing himself of having killed her; so
+indeed it seemed, for her pale features and closed eyes argued rather
+a dead corpse than a living person.  The whole family were instantly
+in tumult. Snatching her from Martin's arms with the eagerness of
+affectionate terror, Edward bore her to the casement, that she might
+receive the influence of the open air; the Sub-Prior, who, like many
+of his profession, had some knowledge of medicine, hastened to
+prescribe the readiest remedies which occurred to him, and the
+terrified females contended with, and impeded each other, in their
+rival efforts to be useful.
+
+"It has been ane of her weary ghaists," said Dame Glendinning.
+
+"It's just a trembling on her spirits, as her blessed mother used to
+have," said Tibb.
+
+"It's some ill news has come ower her," said the miller's maiden;
+while burnt feathers, cold water, and all the usual means of restoring
+suspended animation, were employed alternately, and with little
+effect.
+
+At length a new assistant, who had joined the group unobserved, tendered
+his aid in the following terms:--"How is this, my most fair Discretion?
+What cause hath moved the ruby current of life to rush back to the
+citadel of the heart, leaving pale those features in which it should
+have delighted to meander for ever?--Let me approach her," he
+said,"--with this sovereign essence, distilled by the fair hands of
+the divine Urania, and powerful to recall fugitive life, even if it
+were trembling on the verge of departure."
+
+Thus speaking, Sir Piercie Shafton knelt down, and most gracefully
+presented to the nostrils of Mary Avenel a silver pouncet-box,
+exquisitely chased, containing a sponge dipt in the essence which he
+recommmended so highly. Yes, gentle reader, it was Sir Piercie Shafton
+himself who thus unexpectedly proffered his good offices! his cheeks,
+indeed, very pale, and some part of his dress stained with blood, but
+not otherwise appearing different from what he was on the preceding
+evening. But no sooner had Mary Avenel opened her eyes, and fixed them
+on the figure of the officious courtier, than she screamed faintly,
+and exclaimed,--"Secure the murderer!"
+
+Those present stood aghast with astonishment, and none more so than the
+Euphuist, who found himself so suddenly and so strangely accused by the
+patient whom he was endeavouring to succour, and who repelled his
+attempts to yield her assistance with all the energy of abhorrence.
+"Take him away!" she exclaimed--"take away the murderer!"
+
+"Now, by my knighthood," answered Sir Piercie, "your lovely faculties
+either of mind or body are, O my most fair Discretion, obnubilated by
+some strange hallucination. For either your eyes do not discern that
+it is Piercie Shafton, your most devoted Affability, who now stands
+before you, or else, your eyes discerning truly, your mind hath most
+erroneously concluded that he hath been guilty of some delict or
+violence to which his hand is a stranger. No murder, O most scornful
+Discretion, hath been this day done, saving but that which your angry
+glances are now performing on your most devoted captive."
+
+He was here interrupted by the Sub-Prior, who had, in the meantime,
+been speaking with Martin apart, and had received from him an account
+of the circumstances, which, suddenly communicated to Mary Avenel, had
+thrown her into this state. "Sir Knight," said the Sub-Prior, in a
+very solemn tone, yet with some hesitation, "circumstances have been
+communicated to us of a nature so extraordinary, that, reluctant as I
+am to exercise such authority over a guest of our venerable community,
+I am constrained to request from you an explanation of them. You left
+this tower early in the morning, accompanied by a youth, Halbert
+Glendinning, the eldest son of this good dame, and you return hither
+without him. Where, and at what hour, did you part company from him?"
+
+The English knight paused for a moment, and then replied,--"I marvel
+that your reverence employs so grave a tone to enforce so light a
+question.  I parted with the villagio whom you call Halbert
+Glendinning some hour or twain after sunrise."
+
+"And at what place, I pray you?" said the monk.
+
+"In a deep ravine, where a fountain rises at the base of a huge rock; an
+earth-born Titan, which heaveth up its gray head, even as--"
+
+"Spare us farther description," said the Sub-Prior; "we know the spot.
+But that youth hath not since been heard of, and it will fall on you to
+account for him."
+
+"My bairn! my bairn!" exclaimed Dame Glendinning. "Yes, holy
+father, make the villain account for my bairn!"
+
+"I swear, good woman, by bread and by water,--which are the props of
+our life--"
+
+"Swear by wine and wastel-bread, for these are the props of _thy_
+life, thou greedy Southron!" said Dame Glendinning;--"a base
+belly-god, to come here to eat the best, and practise on our lives
+that give it to him!"
+
+"I tell thee, woman," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "I did but go with thy
+son to the hunting."
+
+"A black hunting it has been to him, poor bairn," replied Tibb; "and
+sae I said it wad prove since I first saw the false Southron snout of
+thee.  Little good comes of a Piercie's hunting, from Chevy Chase till
+now."
+
+"Be silent, woman," said the Sub-Prior, "and rail not upon the English
+knight; we do not yet know of any thing beyond suspicion."
+
+"We will have his heart's blood!" said Dame Glendinning; and, seconded
+by the faithful Tibbie, she made such a sudden onslaught on the
+unlucky Euphuist, as must have terminated in something serious, had
+not the monk, aided by Mysie Happer, interposed to protect him from
+their fury. Edward had left the apartment the instant the disturbance
+broke out, and now entered, sword in hand, followed by Martin and
+Jasper, the one having a hunting spear in his hand, the other a
+cross-bow.
+
+"Keep the door," he said to his two attendants; "shoot him or stab him
+without mercy, should he attempt to break forth; if he offers an
+escape, by Heaven he shall die!"
+
+"How now, Edward," said the Sub-Prior; "how is this that you so far
+forget yourself? meditating violence to a guest, and in my presence, who
+represent your liege lord?"
+
+Edward stepped forward with his drawn sword in his hand. "Pardon me,
+reverend father," he said, "but in this matter the voice of nature
+speaks louder and stronger than yours. I turn my sword's point against
+this proud man, and I demand of him the blood of my brother--the blood
+of my father's son--of the heir of our name! If he denies to give me a
+true account of him, he shall not deny me vengeance."
+
+Embarrassed as he was, Sir Piercie Shafton showed no personal fear.
+"Put up thy sword," he said, "young man; not in the same day does
+Piercie Shafton contend with two peasants."
+
+"Hear him! he confesses the deed, holy father," said Edward.
+
+"Be patient, my son," said the Sub-Prior, endeavouring to soothe the
+feelings which he could not otherwise control, "be patient--thou wilt
+attain the ends of justice better through my means than thine own
+violence--And you, women, be silent--Tibb, remove your mistress and Mary
+Avenel."
+
+While Tibb, with the assistance of the other females of the household,
+bore the poor mother and Mary Avenel into separate apartments, and
+while Edward, still keeping his sword in his hand, hastily traversed
+the room, as if to prevent the possibility of Sir Piercie Shafton's
+escape, the Sub-Prior insisted upon knowing from the perplexed knight
+the particulars which he knew respecting Halbert Glendinning. His
+situation became extremely embarrassing, for what he might with safety
+have told of the issue of their combat was so revolting to his pride,
+that he could not bring himself to enter into the detail; and of
+Halbert's actual fate he knew, as the reader is well aware, absolutely
+nothing.
+
+The father in the meanwhile pressed him with remonstrances, and prayed
+him to observe, he would greatly prejudice himself by declining to
+give a full account of the transactions of the day. "You cannot deny,"
+he said, "that yesterday you seemed to take the most violent offence
+at this unfortunate youth; and that you suppressed your resentment so
+suddenly as to impress us all with surprise. Last night you proposed
+to him this day's hunting party, and you set out together by break of
+day. You parted, you said, at the fountain near the rock, about an
+hour or twain after sunrise, and it appears that before you parted you
+had been at strife together."
+
+"I said not so," replied the knight. "Here is a coil indeed about the
+absence of a rustical bondsman, who, I dare say, hath gone off (if he
+be gone) to join the next rascally band of freebooters! Ye ask me, a
+knight of the Piercie's lineage, to account for such an insignificant
+fugitive, and I answer,--let me know the price of his head, and I will
+pay it to your convent treasurer."
+
+"You admit, then, that you have slain my brother?" said Edward,
+interfering once more; "I will presently show you at what price we
+Scots rate the lives of our friends."
+
+"Peace, Edward, peace--I entreat--I command thee," said the Sub-Prior.
+"And you, Sir Knight, think better of us than to suppose you may spend
+Scottish blood, and reckon for it as for wine spilt in a drunken
+revel.  This youth was no bondsman--thou well knowest, that in thine
+own land thou hadst not dared to lift thy sword against the meanest
+subject of England, but her laws would have called thee to answer for
+the deed. Do not hope it will be otherwise here, for you will but
+deceive yourself."
+
+"You drive me beyond my patience," said the Euphuist, "even as the
+over-driven ox is urged into madness!--What can I tell you of a young
+fellow whom I have not seen since the second hour after sunrise?"
+
+"But can you explain in what circumstances you parted with him?" said
+the monk.
+
+"What _are_ the circumstances, in the devil's name, which you
+desire should be explained?--for although I protest against this
+constraint as alike unworthy and inhospitable, yet would I willingly
+end this fray, provided that by words it may be ended," said the
+knight.
+
+"If these end it not," said Edward, "blows shall, and that full
+speedily."
+
+"Peace, impatient boy!" said the Sub-Prior; "and do you, Sir Piercie
+Shafton, acquaint me why the ground is bloody by the verge of the
+fountain in Corri-nan-shian, where, as you say yourself, you parted
+from Halbert Glendinning?"
+
+Resolute not to avow his defeat if possibly he could avoid it, the
+knight answered in a haughty tone, that he supposed it was no unusual
+thing to find the turf bloody where hunters had slain a deer.
+
+"And did you bury your game as well as kill it?" said the monk. "We
+must know from you who is the tenant of that grave, that newly-made
+grave, beside the very fountain whose margin is so deeply crimsoned
+with blood?--thou seest thou canst not evade me; therefore be
+ingenuous, and tell us the fate of this unhappy youth, whose body is
+doubtless lying under that bloody turf."
+
+"If it be," said Sir Piercie, "they must have buried him alive; for I
+swear to thee, reverend father, that this rustic juvenal parted from
+me in perfect health. Let the grave be searched, and if his body be
+found, then deal with me as ye list."
+
+"It is not my sphere to determine thy fate, Sir Knight, but that of the
+Lord Abbot, and the right reverend Chapter. It is but my duty to collect
+such information as may best possess their wisdom with the matters which
+have chanced."
+
+"Might I presume so far, reverend father," said the knight, "I should
+wish to know the author and evidence of all these suspicions, so
+unfoundedly urged against me?"
+
+"It is soon told," said the Sub-Prior; "nor do I wish to disguise it,
+if it can avail you in your defence. This maiden, Mary Avenel,
+apprehending that you nourished malice against her foster-brother
+under a friendly brow, did advisedly send up the old man, Martin
+Tacket, to follow your footsteps and to prevent mischief. But it seems
+that your evil passions had outrun precaution: for when he came to the
+spot, guided by your footsteps upon the dew, he found but the bloody
+turf and the new covered grave; and after long and vain search through
+the wilds after Halbert and yourself, he brought back the sorrowful
+news to her who had sent him."
+
+"Saw he not my doublet, I pray you?" said Sir Piercie; "for when I
+came to myself, I found that I was wrapped in my cloak, but without my
+under garment as your reverence may observe."
+
+So saying, he opened his cloak, forgetting, with his characteristical
+inconsistency, that he showed his shirt stained with blood.
+
+"How! cruel man," said the monk, when he observed this confirmation of
+his suspicions; "wilt thou deny the guilt, even while thou bearest on
+thy person the blood thou hast shed?--Wilt thou longer deny that thy
+rash hand has robbed a mother of a son, our community of a vassal, the
+Queen of Scotland of a liege subject? and what canst thou expect, but
+that, at the least, we deliver thee up to England, as undeserving our
+farther protection?"
+
+"By the Saints!" said the knight, now driven to extremity, "if this
+blood be the witness against me, it is but rebel blood, since this
+morning at sunrise it flowed within my own veins."
+
+"How were that possible, Sir Piercie Shafton," said the monk, "since I
+see no wound from whence it can have flowed?"
+
+"That," said the knight, "is the most mysterious part of the transaction
+--See here!"
+
+So saying, he undid his shirt collar, and, opening his bosom, showed
+the spot through--which Halbert's sword had passed, but already
+cicatrized, and bearing the appearance of a wound lately healed.
+
+"This exhausts my patience, Sir Knight," said the Sub-Prior, "and is
+adding insult to violence and injury. Do you hold me for a child or an
+idiot, that you pretend to make me believe that the fresh blood with
+which your shirt is stained, flowed from a wound which has been healed
+for weeks or months? Unhappy mocker, thinkest thou thus to blind us?
+Too well do we know that it is the blood of your victim, wrestling
+with you in the desperate and mortal struggle, which has thus dyed
+your apparel."
+
+The knight, after a moment's recollection, said in reply, "I will be
+open with you, my father--bid these men stand out of ear-shot, and I
+will tell you all I know of this mysterious business; and muse not,
+good father, though it may pass thy wit to expound it, for I avouch to
+you it is too dark for mine own."
+
+The monk commanded Edward and the two men to withdraw, assuring the
+former that his conference with the prisoner should be brief, and
+giving him permission to keep watch at the door of the apartment;
+without which allowance he might, perhaps, have had some difficulty in
+procuring his absence. Edward had no sooner left the chamber, than he
+despatched messengers to one or two families of the Halidome, with
+whose sons his brother and he sometimes associated, to tell them that
+Halbert Glendinning had been murdered by an Englishman, and to require
+them to repair to the Tower of Glendearg without delay. The duty of
+revenge in such cases was held so sacred, that he had no reason to
+doubt they would instantly come with such assistance as would ensure
+the detention of the prisoner.  He then locked the doors of the tower,
+both inner and outer, and also the gate of the court-yard. Having
+taken these precautions, he made a hasty visit to the females of the
+family, exhausting himself in efforts to console them, and in
+protestations that he would have vengeance for his murdered brother.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Seventh.
+
+
+  Now, by Our Lady, Sheriff,'tis hard reckoning,
+  That I, with every odds of birth and barony
+  Should be detain'd here for the casual death
+  Of a wild forester, whose utmost having
+  Is but the brazen buckle of the belt
+  In which he sticks his hedge-knife.
+                                        OLD PLAY.
+
+While Edward was making preparations for securing and punishing the
+supposed murderer of his brother, with an intense thirst for
+vengeance, which had not hitherto shown itself as part of his
+character, Sir Piercie Shafton made such communications as it pleased
+him to the Sub-Prior, who listened with great attention, though the
+knight's narrative was none of the clearest, especially as his
+self-conceit led him to conceal or abridge the details which were
+necessary to render it intelligible.
+
+"You are to know," he said, "reverend father, that this rustical
+juvenal having chosen to offer me, in the presence of your venerable
+Superior, yourself, and other excellent and worthy persons, besides
+the damsel, Mary Avenel, whom I term my Discretion in all honour and
+kindness, a gross insult, rendered yet more intolerable by the time
+and place, my just resentment did so gain the mastery over my
+discretion, that I resolved to allow him the privileges of an equal,
+and to indulge him with the combat."
+
+"But, Sir Knight," said the Sub-Prior, "you still leave two matters
+very obscure. First, why the token he presented to you gave you so
+much offence, as I with others witnessed; and then again, how the
+youth, whom you then met for the first, or, at least, the second time,
+knew so much of your history as enabled him so greatly to move you."
+
+The knight coloured very deeply.
+
+"For your first query," he said, "most reverend father, we will, if
+you please, pretermit it as nothing essential to the matter in hand;
+and for the second--I protest to you that I know as little of his
+means of knowledge as you do, and that I am well-nigh persuaded he
+deals with Sathanas, of which more anon.--Well, sir--In the evening, I
+failed not to veil my purpose with a pleasant brow, as is the custom
+amongst us martialists, who never display the bloody colours of
+defiance in our countenance until our hand is armed to fight under
+them. I amused the fair Discretion with some canzonettes, and other
+toys, which could not but be ravishing to her inexperienced ears. I
+arose in the morning, and met my antagonist, who, to say truth, for an
+inexperienced villagio, comported himself as stoutly as I could have
+desired.--So, coming to the encounter, reverend sir, I did try his
+mettle with some half-a-dozen of downright passes, with any one of
+which I could have been through his body, only that I was loth to take
+so fatal an advantage, but rather, mixing mercy with my just
+indignation, studied to inflict upon him some flesh-wound of no very
+fatal quality. But, sir, in the midst of my clemency, he, being
+instigated, I think, by the devil, did follow up his first offence
+with some insult of the same nature. Whereupon, being eager to punish
+him, I made an estramazone, and my foot slipping at the same
+time,--not from any fault of fence on my part, or any advantage of
+skill on his, but the devil having, as I said, taken up the matter in
+hand, and the grass being slippery,--ere I recovered my position I
+encountered his sword, which he had advanced, with my undefended
+person, so that, as I think, I was in some sort run through the body.
+My juvenal, being beyond measure appalled at his own unexpected and
+unmerited success in this strange encounter, takes the flight and
+leaves me there, and I fall into a dead swoon for the lack of the
+blood I had lost so foolishly--and when I awake, as from a sound
+sleep, I find myself lying, an it like you, wrapt up in my cloak at
+the foot of one of the birch-trees which stand together in a clump
+near to this place.  I feel my limbs, and experience little pain, but
+much weakness--I put my hand to the wound--it was whole and skinned
+over as you now see it--I rise and come hither; and in these words you
+have my whole day's story."
+
+"I can only reply to so strange a tale," answered the monk, "that it
+is scarce possible that Sir Piercie Shafton can expect me to credit
+it. Here is a quarrel, the cause of which you conceal--a wound
+received in the morning, of which there is no recent appearance at
+sunset,--a grave filled up, in which no body is deposited--the
+vanquished found alive and well--the victor departed no man knows
+whither. These things, Sir Knight, hang not so well together, that I
+should receive them as gospel."
+
+"Reverend father," answered Sir Piercie Shafton, "I pray you in the
+first place to observe, that if I offer peaceful and civil
+justification of that which I have already averred to be true, I do so
+only in devout deference to your dress and to your order, protesting,
+that to any other opposite, saving a man of religion, a lady or my
+liege prince, I would not deign to support that which I had once
+attested, otherwise than with the point of my good sword. And so much
+being premised, I have to add, that I can but gage my honour as a
+gentleman, and my faith as a Catholic Christian, that the things which
+I have described to you have happened to me as I have described them,
+and not otherwise."
+
+"It is a deep assertion, Sir Knight," answered the Sub-Prior; "yet,
+bethink you, it is only an assertion, and that no reason can be
+alleged why things should be believed which are so contrary to reason.
+Let me pray you to say whether the grave, which has been seen at your
+place of combat, was open or closed when your encounter took place?"
+
+"Reverend father," said the knight, "I will veil from you nothing, but
+show you each secret of my bosom; even as the pure fountain revealeth
+the smallest pebble which graces the sand at the bottom of its crystal
+mirror, and as--"
+
+"Speak in plain terms, for the love of heaven!" said the monk; "these
+holiday phrases belong not to solemn affairs--Was the grave open when
+the conflict began?"
+
+"It was," answered the knight, "I acknowledge it; even as he that
+acknowledgeth--"
+
+"Nay, I pray you, fair son, forbear these similitudes, and observe me.
+On yesterday at even no grave was found in that place, for old Martin
+chanced, contrary to his wont, to go thither in quest of a strayed
+sheep. At break of day, by your own confession, a grave was opened in
+that spot, and there a combat was fought--only one of the combatants
+appears, and he is covered with blood, and to all appearance
+woundless."--Here the knight made a gesture of impatience.--"Nay, fair
+son, hear me but one moment--the grave is closed and covered by the
+sod--what can we believe, but that it conceals the bloody corpse of
+the fallen duellist?"
+
+"By Heaven, it cannot!" said the knight, "unless the juvenal hath
+slain himself and buried himself, in order to place me in the
+predicament of his murderer."
+
+"The grave shall doubtless be explored, and that by to-morrow's dawn,"
+said the monk, "I will see it done with mine own eyes"
+
+"But," said the prisoner, "I protest against all evidence which may
+arise from its contents, and do insist beforehand, that whatever may
+be found in that grave shall not prejudice me in my defence. I have
+been so haunted by diabolical deceptions in this matter, that what do
+I know but that the devil may assume the form of this rustical
+juvenal, in order to procure me farther vexation?--I protest to you,
+holy father, it is my very thought that there is witchcraft in all
+that hath befallen me. Since I entered into this northern land, in
+which men say that sorceries do abound, I, who am held in awe and
+regard even by the prime gallants in the court of Feliciana, have been
+here bearded and taunted by a clod-treading clown. I, whom Vincentio
+Saviola termed his nimblest and most agile disciple, was, to speak
+briefly, foiled by a cow-boy, who knew no more of fence than is used
+at every country wake. I am run, as it seemed to me, through the body,
+with a very sufficient stoccata, and faint on the spot; and yet, when
+I recover, I find myself without either wem or wound, and, lacking
+nothing of my apparel, saving my murrey-coloured doublet, slashed with
+satin, which I will pray may be inquired after, lest the devil, who
+transported me, should have dropped it in his passage among some of
+the trees or bushes--it being a choice and most fanciful piece of
+raiment, which I wore for the first time at the Queen's pageant in
+Southwark."
+
+"Sir Knight," said the monk, "you do again go astray from this matter.
+I inquire of you respecting that which concerns the life of another
+man, and it may be, touches your own also, and you answer me with the
+tale of an old doublet!"
+
+"Old!" exclaimed the knight; "now, by the gods and saints, if there be
+a gallant at the British Court more fancifully considerate, and more
+considerately fanciful, but quaintly curious, and more curiously
+quaint, in frequent changes of all rich articles of vesture, becoming
+one who may be accounted point-de-vice a courtier, I will give you
+leave to term me a slave and a liar."
+
+The monk thought, but did not say, that he had already acquired right
+to doubt the veracity of the Euphuist, considering the marvellous tale
+which he had told. Yet his own strange adventure, and that of Father
+Philip, rushed on his mind, and forbade his coming to any conclusion.
+He contented himself, therefore, with observing, that these were
+certainly strange incidents, and requested to know if Sir Piercie
+Shafton had any other reason for suspecting himself to be in a manner
+so particularly selected for the sport of sorcery and witchcraft.
+
+"Sir Sub-Prior," said the Euphuist, "the most extraordinary
+circumstance remains behind, which alone, had I neither been bearded
+in dispute, nor foiled in combat, nor wounded and cured in the space
+of a few hours, would nevertheless of itself, and without any other
+corroborative, have compelled me to believe myself the subject of some
+malevolent fascination.  Reverend sir, it is not to your ears that men
+should tell tales of love and gallantry, nor is Sir Piercie Shafton
+one who, to any ears whatsoever, is wont to boast of his fair
+acceptance with the choice and prime beauties of the court; insomuch
+that a lady, none of the least resplendent constellations which
+revolve in that hemisphere of honour, pleasure, and beauty, but whose
+name I here pretermit, was wont to call me her Taciturnity.
+Nevertheless truth must be spoken; and I cannot but allow, as the
+general report of the court, allowed in camps, and echoed back by city
+and country, that in the alacrity of the accost, the tender delicacy
+of the regard, the facetiousness of the address, the adopting and
+pursuing of the fancy, the solemn close and the graceful fall-off,
+Piercie Shafton was accounted the only gallant of the time, and so
+well accepted among the choicer beauties of the age, that no
+silk-hosed reveller of the presence-chamber, or plumed jouster of the
+tilt-yard, approached him by a bow's length in the ladies' regard,
+being the mark at which every well-born and generous juvenal aimeth
+his shaft.  Nevertheless, reverend sir, having found in this rude
+place something which by blood and birth might be termed a lady, and
+being desirous to keep my gallant humour in exercise, as well as to
+show my sworn devotion to the sex in general, I did shoot off some
+arrows of compliment at this Mary Avenel, terming her my Discretion,
+with other quaint and well-imagined courtesies, rather bestowed out of
+my bounty than warranted by her merit, or perchance like unto the
+boyish fowler, who, rather than not exercise his bird-piece, will
+shoot at crows or magpies for lack of better game----"
+
+"Mary Avenel is much obliged by your notice," answered the monk; "but
+to what does all this detail of past and present gallantry conduct
+us?"
+
+"Marry, to this conclusion," answered the knight; "that either this my
+Discretion, or I myself, am little less than bewitched; for, instead
+of receiving my accost with a gratifying bow, answering my regard with
+a suppressed smile, accompanying my falling off or departure with a
+slight sigh--honours with which I protest to you the noblest dancers
+and proudest beauties in Feliciana have graced my poor services--she
+hath paid me as little and as cold regard as if I had been some
+hob-nailed clown of these bleak mountains! Nay, this very day, while I
+was in the act of kneeling at her feet to render her the succours of
+this pungent quintessence, of purest spirit distilled by the fairest
+hands of the court of Feliciana, she pushed me from her with looks
+which savoured of repugnance, and, as I think, thrust at me with her
+foot as if to spurn me from her presence. These things, reverend
+father, are strange, portentous, unnatural, and befall not in the
+current of mortal affairs, but are symptomatic of sorcery and
+fascination.  So that, having given to your reverence a perfect,
+simple, and plain account of all that I know concerning this matter, I
+leave it to your wisdom to solve what may be found soluble in the
+same, it being my purpose to-morrow, with the peep of dawn, to set
+forward towards Edinburgh."
+
+"I grieve to be an interruption to your designs, Sir Knight," said the
+monk, "but that purpose of thine may hardly be fulfilled."
+
+"How, reverend father!" said the knight, with an air of the utmost
+surprise; "if what you say respects my departure, understand that it
+_must_ be, for I have so resolved it."
+
+"Sir Knight," reiterated the Sub-Prior, "I must once more repeat, this
+_cannot_ be, until the Abbot's pleasure be known in the matter."
+
+"Reverend sir," said the knight, drawing himself up with great
+dignity, "I desire my hearty and thankful commendations to the Abbot;
+but in this matter I have nothing to do with his reverend pleasure,
+designing only to consult my own."
+
+"Pardon me," said the Sub-Prior; "the Lord Abbot hath in this matter
+a voice potential."
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton's colour began to rise--"I marvel," he said, "to
+hear your reverence talk thus--What! will you, for the imagined death
+of a rude, low-born frampler and wrangler, venture to impinge upon the
+liberty of the kinsman of the house of Piercie?"
+
+"Sir Knight," returned the Sub-Prior, civilly, "your high lineage and
+your kindling anger will avail you nothing in this matter--You shall
+not come here to seek a shelter, and then spill our blood as if it
+were water."
+
+"I tell you," said the knight, "once more, as I have told you already,
+that there was no blood spilled but mine own!"
+
+"That remains to be proved," replied the Sub-Prior; "we of the
+community of Saint Mary's of Kennaquhair, use not to take fairy tales in
+exchange for the lives of our liege vassals."
+
+"We of the house of Piercie," answered Shafton, "brook neither threats
+nor restraint--I say I will travel to-morrow, happen what may!"
+
+"And I," answered the Sub-Prior, in the same tone of determination,
+"say that I will break your journey, come what may!"
+
+"Who shall gainsay me," said the knight, "if I make my way by force?"
+
+"You will judge wisely to think ere you make such an attempt," answered
+the monk, with composure; "there are men enough in the Halidome to
+vindicate its rights over those who dare infringe them."
+
+"My cousin of Northumberland will know how to revenge this usage to
+a beloved kinsman so near to his blood," said the Englishman.
+
+"The Lord Abbot will know how to protect the rights of his territory,
+both with, the temporal and spiritual sword," said the monk. "Besides,
+consider, were we to send you to your kinsman at Alnwick or Warkworth
+to-morrow, he dare do nothing but transmit you in fetters to the Queen
+of England. Bethink, Sir Knight, that you stand on slippery ground,
+and will act most wisely in reconciling yourself to be a prisoner in
+this place until the Abbot shall decide the matter. There are armed
+men enow to countervail all your efforts at escape. Let patience and
+resignation, therefore, arm you to a necessary submission."
+
+So saying, he clapped his hands, and called aloud. Edward entered,
+accompanied by two young men who had already joined him, and were well
+armed.
+
+"Edward," said the Sub-Prior, "you will supply the English Knight here
+in this spence with suitable food and accommodation for the night,
+treating him with as much kindness as if nothing had happened between
+you. But you will place a sufficient guard, and look carefully that he
+make not his escape. Should he attempt to break forth, resist him to
+the death; but in no other case harm a hair of his head, as you shall
+be answerable."
+
+Edward Glendinning replied,--"That I may obey your commands, reverend
+sir, I will not again offer myself to this person's presence; for
+shame it were to me to break the peace of the Halidome, but not less
+shame to leave my brother's death unavenged."
+
+As he spoke, his lips grew livid, the blood forsook his cheek, and he
+was about to leave the apartment, when the Sub-Prior recalled him and
+said in a solemn tone,--"Edward, I have known you from infancy--I have
+done what lay within my reach to be of use to you--I say nothing of
+what you owe to me as the representative of your spiritual Superior--I
+say nothing of the duty from the vassal to the Sub-Prior--But Father
+Eustace expects from the pupil whom he has nurtured--he expects from
+Edward Glendinning, that he will not by any deed of sudden violence,
+however justified in his own mind by the provocation, break through
+the respect due to public justice, or that which he has an especial
+right to claim from him."
+
+"Fear nothing, my reverend father, for so in an hundred senses may I
+well term you," said the young man; "fear not, I would say, that I
+will in any thing diminish the respect I owe to the venerable
+community by whom we have so long been protected, far less that I will
+do aught which can be personally less than respectful to you. But the
+blood of my brother must not cry for vengeance in vain--your reverence
+knows our Border creed."
+
+"'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I will requite it,'" answered
+the monk. "The heathenish custom of deadly feud which prevails in this
+land, through which each man seeks vengeance at his own hand when the
+death of a friend or kinsman has chanced, hath already deluged our
+vales with the blood of Scottish men, spilled by the hands of
+countrymen and kindred. It were endless to count up the fatal results.
+On the Eastern Border, the Homes are at feud with the Swintons and
+Cockburns; in our Middle Marches, the Scotts and Kerrs have spilled as
+much brave blood in domestic feud as might have fought a pitched field
+in England, could they have but forgiven and forgotten a casual
+rencounter that placed their names in opposition to each other. On the
+west frontier, the Johnstones are at war with the Maxwells, the
+Jardines with the Bells, drawing with them the flower of the country,
+which should place their breasts as a bulwark against England, into
+private and bloody warfare, of which it is the only end to waste and
+impair the forces of the country, already divided in itself. Do not,
+my dear son Edward, permit this bloody prejudice to master your mind.
+I cannot ask you to think of the crime supposed as if the blood
+spilled had been less dear to you--Alas! I know that is impossible.
+But I do require you, in proportion to your interest in the supposed
+sufferer, (for as yet the whole is matter of supposition,) to bear on
+your mind the evidence on which the guilt of the accused person must
+be tried. He hath spoken with me, and I confess his tale is so
+extraordinary, that I should have, without a moment's hesitation,
+rejected it as incredible, but that an affair which chanced to myself
+in this very glen--More of that another time--Suffice it for the
+present to say, that from what I have myself experienced, I deem it
+possible, that, extraordinary as Sir Piercie Shafton's story may seem,
+I hold it not utterly impossible."
+
+"Father," said Edward Glendinning, when he saw that his preceptor
+paused, unwilling farther to explain upon what grounds he was inclined
+to give a certain degree of credit to Sir Piercie Shafton's story,
+while he admitted it as improbable--"Father to me you have been in
+every sense.  You know that my hand grasped more readily to the book
+than to the sword; and that I lacked utterly the ready and bold spirit
+which distinguished----" Here his voice faltered, and he paused for a
+moment, and then went on with resolution and rapidity--"I would say,
+that I was unequal to Halbert in promptitude of heart and of hand; but
+Halbert is gone, and I stand his representative, and that of my
+father--his successor in all his rights," (while he said this his eyes
+shot fire,) "and bound to assert and maintain them as he would have
+done--therefore I am a changed man, increased in courage as in my
+rights and pretensions. And, reverend father, respectfully, but
+plainly and firmly do I say, his blood, if it has been shed by this
+man, shall be atoned--Halbert shall not sleep neglected in his lonely
+grave, as if with him the spirit of my father had ceased forever. His
+blood flows in my veins, and while his has been poured forth
+unrequited, mine will permit me no rest. My poverty and meanness of
+rank shall not avail the lordly murderer. My calm nature and peaceful
+studies shall not be his protection.  Even the obligations, holy
+father, which I acknowledge to you, shall not be his protection. I
+wait with patience the judgment of the Abbot and Chapter, for the
+slaughter of one of their most anciently descended vassals. If they do
+right to my brother's memory, it is well. But mark me, father, if they
+shall fail in rendering me that justice, I bear a heart and a hand
+which, though I love not such extremities, are capable of remedying
+such an error.  He who takes up my brother's succession must avenge
+his death."
+
+The monk perceived with surprise, that Edward, with his extreme
+diffidence, humility, and obedient assiduity, for such were his
+general characteristics, had still boiling in his veins the wild
+principles of those from whom he was descended, and by whom he was
+surrounded. His eyes sparkled, his frame was agitated, and the
+extremity of his desire for vengeance seemed to give a vehemence to
+his manner resembling the restlessness of joy.
+
+"May God help us," said Father Eustace, "for, frail wretches as we are,
+we cannot help ourselves under sudden and strong temptation.--Edward,
+I will rely on your word that you do nothing rashly."
+
+"That will I not," said Edward,--"that, my better than father, I
+surely will not. But the blood of my brother,--the tears of my
+mother--and--and--and of Mary Avenel, shall not be shed in vain. I
+will not deceive you, father--if this Piercie Shafton hath slain my
+brother, he dies, if the whole blood of the whole house of Piercie
+were in his veins."
+
+There was a deep and solemn determination in the utterance of Edward
+Glendinning expressive of a rooted resolution. The Sub-Prior sighed
+deeply, and for the moment yielded to circumstances, and urged the
+acquiescence of his pupil no farther. He commanded lights to be placed
+in the lower chamber, which for a time he paced in silence.
+
+A thousand ideas, and even differing principles, debated with each
+other in his bosom. He greatly doubted the English knight's account of
+the duel, and of what had followed it. Yet the extraordinary and
+supernatural circumstances which had befallen the Sacristan and
+himself in that very glen, prevented him from being absolutely
+incredulous on the score of the wonderful wound and recovery of Sir
+Piercie Shafton, and prevented him from at once condemning as
+impossible that which was altogether improbable. Then he was at a loss
+how to control the fraternal affections of Edward, with respect to
+whom he felt something like the keeper of a wild animal, a lion's
+whelp or tiger's cub, which he has held under his command from
+infancy, but which, when grown to maturity, on some sudden provocation
+displays his fangs and talons, erects his crest, resumes his savage
+nature, and bids defiance at once to his keeper and to all mankind.
+
+How to restrain and mitigate an ire which the universal example of the
+times rendered deadly and inveterate, was sufficient cause of anxiety
+to Father Eustace. But he had also to consider the situation of his
+community, dishonoured and degraded by submitting to suffer the
+slaughter of a vassal to pass unavenged; a circumstance which of
+itself might in those times have afforded pretext for a revolt among
+their wavering adherents, or, on the other hand, exposed the community
+to imminent danger, should they proceed against a subject of England
+of high degree, connected with the house of Northumberland, and other
+northern families of high rank, who, as they possessed the means,
+could not be supposed to lack inclination, to wreak upon the patrimony
+of Saint Mary of Kennaquhair, any violence which might be offered to
+their kinsman.
+
+In either case, the Sub-Prior well knew that the ostensible cause of
+feud, insurrection, or incursion, being once afforded, the case would
+not be ruled either by reason or by evidence, and he groaned in spirit
+when, upon counting up the chances which arose in this ambiguous
+dilemma, he found he had only a choice of difficulties. He was a monk,
+but he felt also as a man, indignant at the supposed slaughter of
+young Glendinning by one skilful in all the practice of arms, in which
+the vassal of the Monastery was most likely to be deficient; and to
+aid the resentment which he felt for the loss of a youth whom he had
+known from infancy, came in full force the sense of dishonour arising
+to his community from passing over so gross an insult unavenged. Then
+the light in which it might be viewed by those who at present presided
+in the stormy Court of Scotland, attached as they were to the
+Reformation, and allied by common faith and common interest with Queen
+Elizabeth, was a formidable subject of apprehension. The Sub-Prior
+well knew how they lusted after the revenues of the Church, (to
+express it in the ordinary phrase of the religious of the time,) and
+how readily they would grasp at such a pretext for encroaching on
+those of Saint Mary's, as would be afforded by the suffering to pass
+unpunished the death of a native Scottishman by a Catholic Englishman,
+a rebel to Queen Elizabeth.
+
+On the other hand, to deliver up to England, or, which was nearly the
+same thing, the Scottish administration, an English knight leagued
+with the Piercie by kindred and political intrigue, a faithful
+follower of the Catholic Church, who had fled to the Halidome for
+protection, was, in the estimation of the Sub-Prior, an act most
+unworthy in itself, and meriting the malediction of Heaven, besides
+being, moreover, fraught with great temporal risk.  If the government
+of Scotland was now almost entirely in the hands of the Protestant
+party, the Queen was still a Catholic, and there was no knowing when,
+amid the sudden changes which agitated that tumultuous country, she
+might find herself at the head of her own affairs, and able to protect
+those of her own faith. Then, if the Court of England and its Queen
+were zealously Protestant, the northern counties, whose friendship or
+enmity were of most consequence in the first instance to the community
+of Saint Mary's, contained many Catholics, the heads of whom were
+able, and must be supposed willing, to avenge any injury suffered by
+Sir Piercie Shafton.
+
+On either side, the Sub-Prior, thinking, according to his sense of
+duty, most anxiously for the safety and welfare of his Monastery, saw
+the greatest risk of damage, blame, inroad, and confiscation. The only
+course on which he could determine, was to stand by the helm like a
+resolute pilot, watch every contingence, do his best to weather each
+reef and shoal, and commit the rest to heaven and his patroness.
+
+As he left the apartment, the knight called after him, beseeching he
+would order his trunk-mails to be sent into his apartment,
+understanding he was to be guarded there for the night, as he wished
+to make some alteration in his apparel.
+
+[Footnote: Sir Piercie Shafton's extreme love of dress was an
+attribute of the coxcombs of this period. The display made by their
+forefathers was in the numbers of their retinue; but as the actual
+influence of the nobility began to be restrained both in France and
+England by the increasing power of the crown, the indulgence of vanity
+in personal display became more inordinate. There are many allusions
+to this change of custom in Shakspeare and other dramatic writers,
+where the reader may find mention made of
+
+  "Bonds enter'd into
+  For gay apparel against the triumph day."
+
+Jonson informs us, that for the first entrance of a gallant, "'twere
+good you turned four or five hundred acres of your best land into two
+or three trunks of apparel."--_Every Man out of his Humour._
+
+In the Memorie of the Somerville family, a curious instance occurs of
+this fashionable species of extravagance.  In the year 1537, when
+James V. brought over his shortlived bride from France, the Lord
+Somerville of the day was so profuse in the expense of his apparel,
+that the money which he borrowed on the occasion was compensated by a
+perpetual annuity of threescore pounds Scottish, payable out of the
+barony of Carnwarth till doomsday, which was assigned by the creditor
+to Saint Magdalen's Chapel. By this deep expense the Lord Somerville
+had rendered himself so glorious in apparel, that the King, who saw so
+brave a gallant enter the gate of Holyrood, followed, by only two
+pages, called upon several of the courtiers to ascertain who it could
+be who was so richly dressed and so slightly attended, and he was not
+recognised until he entered the presence-chamber. "You are very brave,
+my lord," said the King, as he received his homage; "but where are all
+your men and attendants?" The Lord Somerville readily answered, "If it
+please your Majesty, here they are," pointing to the lace that was on
+his own and his pages' clothes: whereat the King laughed heartily, and
+having surveyed the finery more nearly, bade him have away with it
+all, and let him have his stout band of spears again.
+
+There is a scene in Jonson's "Every Man out of his Humour," (Act IV.
+Scene 6.) in which a Euphuist of the time gives an account of the
+effects of a duel on the clothes of himself and his opponent, and
+never departs a syllable from the catalogue of his wardrobe. We shall
+insert it in evidence that the foppery of our ancestors was not
+inferior to that of our own time.
+
+"_Fastidius_. Good faith, Signior, now you speak of a quarrel,
+I'll acquaint you with a difference that happened between a gallant
+and myself, Sir Puntarvolo. You know him if I should name him--Signor
+Luculento.
+
+"_Punt_. Luculento! What inauspicious chance interposed itself to
+your two lives?
+
+"_Fast_. Faith, sir, the same that sundered Agamemnon, and great
+Thetis' son; but let the cause escape, sir. He sent me a challenge,
+mixt with some few braves, which I restored; and, in fine, we met. Now
+indeed, sir, I must tell you, he did offer at first very desperately,
+but without judgment; for look you, sir, I cast myself into this
+figure; now he came violently on, and withal advancing his rapier to
+strike, I thought to have took his arm, for he had left his body to my
+election, and I was sure he could not recover his guard.  Sir, I mist
+my purpose in his arm, rashed his doublet sleeves, ran him close by
+the left cheek and through his hair. He, again, light me here--I had
+on a gold cable hat-band, then new come up, about a murrey French hat
+I had; cuts my hat-band, and yet it was massy goldsmith's work, cuts
+my brim, which, by good fortune, being thick embroidered with gold
+twist and spangles, disappointed the force of the blow; nevertheless
+it grazed on my shoulder, takes me away six purls of an Italian
+cut-work band I wore, cost me three pounds in the Exchange but three
+days before.
+
+"_Punt_. This was a strange encounter.
+
+"_Fast_. Nay, you shall hear, sir. With this, we both fell out
+and breathed. Now, upon the second sign of his assault, I betook me to
+my former manner of defence; he, on the other side, abandoned his body
+to the same danger as before, and follows me still with blows; but I,
+being loath to take the deadly advantage that lay before me of his
+left side, made a kind of stramazoun, ran him up to the hilt through
+the doublet, through the shirt, and yet missed the skin. He, making a
+reverse blow, falls upon my embossed girdle,--I had thrown off the
+hangers a little before,--strikes off a skirt of a thick-laced satin
+doublet I had, lined with four taffetas, cuts off two panes
+embroidered with pearl, rends through the drawings-out of tissue,
+enters the linings, and spiks the flesh.
+
+"_Car_. I wonder he speaks not of his wrought shirt.
+
+"_Fast_. Here, in the opinion of mutual damage, we paused. But,
+ere I proceed, I must tell you, signior, that in the last encounter,
+not having leisure to put off my silver spurs, one of the rowels
+catched hold of the ruffles of my boot, and, being Spanish leather and
+subject to tear, overthrows me, rends me two pair of silk stockings
+that I put on, being somewhat of a raw morning, a peach colour and
+another, and strikes me some half-inch deep into the side of the calf:
+He, seeing the blood come, presently takes horse and away; I having
+bound up my wound with a piece of my wrought shirt--
+
+"_Car_. O, comes it in there.
+
+"_Fast_. Ride after him, and, lighting at the court gate both
+together, embraced, and marched hand in hand up into the presence. Was
+not this business well carried?
+
+"_Maci_. Well! yes; and by this we can guess what apparel the
+gentleman wore.
+
+"_Punt_. 'Fore valour! it was a designment begun with much
+resolution, maintained with as much prowess, and ended with more
+humanity."]
+
+"Ay, ay," said the monk, muttering as he went up the winding stair,
+"carry him his trumpery with all despatch. Alas! that man, with so
+many noble objects of pursuit, will amuse himself like a jackanape,
+with a laced jerkin and a cap and bells!--I must now to the melancholy
+work of consoling that which is well-nigh inconsolable, a mother
+weeping for her first-born."
+
+Advancing, after a gentle knock, into the apartment of the women, he
+found that Mary Avenel had retired to bed, extremely indisposed, and
+that Dame Glendinning and Tibb were indulging their sorrows by the
+side of a decaying fire, and by the light of a small iron lamp, or
+cruize, as it was termed. Poor Elspeth's apron was thrown over her
+head, and bitterly did she sob and weep for "her beautiful, her
+brave,--the very image of her dear Simon Glendinning, the stay of her
+widowhood and the support of her old age."
+
+The faithful Tibb echoed her complaints, and, more violently
+clamorous, made deep promises of revenge on Sir Piercie Shafton, "if
+there were a man left in the south who could draw a whinger, or a
+woman that could thraw a rape." The presence of the Sub-Prior imposed
+silence on these clamours. He sate down by the unfortunate mother, and
+essayed, by such topics as his religion and reason suggested, to
+interrupt the current of Dame Glendinning's feelings; but the attempt
+was in vain. She listened, indeed, with some little interest, while he
+pledged his word and his influence with the Abbot, that the family
+which had lost their eldest-born by means of a guest received at his
+command, should experience particular protection at the hands of the
+community; and that the fief which belonged to Simon Glendinning
+should, with extended bounds and added privileges, be conferred on
+Edward.
+
+But it was only for a very brief space that the mother's sobs were
+apparently softer, and her grief more mild. She soon blamed herself
+for casting a moment's thought upon world's gear while poor Halbert
+was lying stretched in his bloody shirt. The Sub-Prior was not more
+fortunate, when he promised that Halbert's body "should be removed to
+hallowed ground, and his soul secured by the prayers of the Church in
+his behalf." Grief would have its natural course, and the voice of the
+comforter was wasted in vain.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Eighth.
+
+
+  He is at liberty, I have ventured for him!
+  -----------------------------if the law
+  Find and condemn me for't, some living wenches,
+  Some honest-hearted maids will sing my dirge,
+  And tell to memory my death was noble,
+  Dying almost a martyr.
+                            THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.
+
+The Sub-Prior of Saint Mary's, in taking his departure from the spence
+which Sir Piercie Shafton was confined, and in which some preparations
+were made for his passing the night as the room which might be most
+conveniently guarded, left more than one perplexed person behind him.
+There was connected with this chamber, and opening into it, a small
+_outshot_, or projecting part of the building, occupied by a
+sleeping apartment, which upon ordinary occasions, was that of Mary
+Avenel, and which, in the unusual number of guests who had come to the
+tower on the former evening, had also accommodated Mysie Happer, the
+Miller's daughter; for anciently, as well as in the present day, a
+Scottish house was always rather too narrow and limited for the extent
+of the owner's hospitality, and some shift and contrivance was
+necessary, upon any unusual occasion, to ensure the accommodation of
+all the guests.
+
+The fatal news of Halbert Glendinning's death had thrown all former
+arrangements into confusion. Mary Avenel, whose case required
+immediate attention, had been transported into the apartment hitherto
+occupied by Halbert and his brother, as the latter proposed to watch
+all night, in order to prevent the escape of the prisoner. Poor Mysie
+had been altogether overlooked, and had naturally enough betaken
+herself to the little apartment which she had hitherto occupied,
+ignorant that the spence, through which lay the only access to it, was
+to be the sleeping chamber of Sir Piercie Shafton. The measures taken
+for securing him there had been so sudden, that she was not aware of
+it, until she found that the other females had been removed from the
+spence by the Sub-Prior's direction, and having once missed the
+opportunity of retreating along with them, bashfulness, and the high
+respect which she was taught to bear to the monks, prevented her
+venturing forth alone, and intruding herself on the presence of Father
+Eustace, while in secret conference with the Southron. There appeared
+no remedy but to wait till their interview was over; and, as the door
+was thin, and did not shut very closely, she could hear every word
+that passed betwixt them.
+
+It thus happened, that without any intended intrusion on her part, she
+became privy to the whole conversation of the Sub-Prior and the
+English knight, and could also observe from the window of her little
+retreat, that more than one of the young men summoned by Edward
+arrived successively at the tower. These circumstances led her to
+entertain most serious apprehension that the life of Sir Piercie
+Shafton was in great and instant peril.
+
+Woman is naturally compassionate, and not less willingly so when youth
+and fair features are on the side of him who claims her sympathy. The
+handsome presence, elaborate dress and address, of Sir Piercie
+Shafton, which had failed to make any favorable impression on the
+grave and lofty character of Mary Avenel, had completely dazzled and
+bewildered the poor Maid of the Mill. The knight had perceived this
+result, and, flattered by seeing that his merit was not universally
+underrated, he had bestowed on Mysie a good deal more of his courtesy
+than in his opinion her rank warranted. It was not cast away, but
+received with a devout sense of his condescension, and with gratitude
+for his personal notice, which, joined to her fears for his safety,
+and the natural tenderness of her disposition, began to make wild work
+in her heart.
+
+"To be sure it was very wrong in him to slay Halbert Glendinning," (it
+was thus she argued the case with herself,) "but then he was a
+gentleman born, and a soldier, and so gentle and courteous withal,
+that she was sure the quarrel had been all of young Glendinning's own
+seeking; for it was well known that both these lads were so taken up
+with that Mary Avenel, that they never looked at another lass in the
+Halidome, more than if they were of a different degree. And then
+Halbert's dress was as clownish as his manners were haughty; and this
+poor young gentleman, (who was habited like any prince,) banished from
+his own land, was first drawn into a quarrel by a rude brangler, and
+then persecuted and like to be put to death by his kin and allies."
+
+Mysie wept bitterly at the thought, and then her heart rising against
+such cruelty and oppression to a defenceless stranger, who dressed
+with so much skill, and spoke with so much grace, she began to
+consider whether she could not render him some assistance in this
+extremity.
+
+Her mind was now entirely altered from its original purpose. At first
+her only anxiety had been to find the means of escaping from the
+interior apartment, without being noticed by any one; but now she
+began to think that Heaven had placed her there for the safety and
+protection of the persecuted stranger. She was of a simple and
+affectionate, but at the same time an alert and enterprising
+character, possessing more than female strength of body, and more than
+female courage, though with feelings as capable of being bewildered
+with gallantry of dress and language, as a fine gentleman of any
+generation would have desired to exercise his talents upon. "I will
+save him," she thought, "that is the first thing to be resolved--and
+then I wonder what he will say to the poor Miller's maiden, that has
+done for him what all the dainty dames in London or Holyrood would
+have been afraid to venture upon."
+
+Prudence began to pull her sleeve as she indulged speculations so
+hazardous, and hinted to her that the warmer Sir Piercie Shafton's
+gratitude might prove, it was the more likely to be fraught with
+danger to his benefactress.  Alas! poor Prudence, thou mayest say with
+our moral teacher,
+
+  "I preach for ever, but I preach in vain."
+
+The Miller's maiden, while you pour your warning into her unwilling
+bosom, has glanced her eye on the small mirror by which she has placed
+her little lamp, and it returns to her a countenance and eyes, pretty
+and sparkling at all times, but ennobled at present with the energy of
+expression proper to those who have dared to form, and stand prepared
+to execute, deeds of generous audacity. "Will these features--will
+these eyes, joined to the benefit I am about to confer upon Sir
+Piercie Shafton, do nothing towards removing the distance of rank
+between us?"
+
+Such was the question which female vanity asked of fancy; and though
+even fancy dared not answer in a ready affirmative, a middle
+conclusion was adopted--"Let me first succour the gallant youth, and
+trust to fortune for the rest."
+
+Banishing, therefore, from her mind every thing that was personal to
+herself, the rash but generous girl turned her whole thoughts to the
+means of executing this enterprise.
+
+The difficulties which interposed were of no ordinary nature. The
+vengeance of the men of that country, in cases of deadly feud, that
+is, in cases of a quarrel excited by the slaughter of any of their
+relations, was one of their most marked characteristics; and Edward,
+however gentle in other respects, was so fond of his brother, that
+there could be no doubt that he would be as signal in his revenge as
+the customs of the country authorized.  There were to be passed the
+inner door of the apartment, the two gates of the tower itself, and
+the gate of the court-yard, ere the prisoner was at liberty; and then
+a guide and means of flight were to be provided, otherwise ultimate
+escape was impossible. But where the will of woman is strongly bent on
+the accomplishment of such a purpose, her wit is seldom baffled by
+difficulties, however embarrassing.
+
+The Sub-Prior had not long left the apartment, ere Mysie had devised a
+scheme for Sir Piercie Shafton's freedom, daring, indeed, but likely
+to be successful, if dexterously conducted. It was necessary, however,
+that she should remain where she was till so late an hour, that all in
+the tower should have betaken themselves to repose, excepting those
+whose duty made them watchers. The interval she employed in observing
+the movements of the person in whose service she was thus boldly a
+volunteer.
+
+She could hear Sir Piercie Shafton pace the floor to and fro, in
+reflection doubtless on his own untoward fate and precarious
+situation. By and by she heard him making a rustling among his trunks,
+which, agreeable to the order of the Sub-Prior, had been placed in the
+apartment to which he was confined, and which he was probably amusing
+more melancholy thoughts by examining and arranging. Then she could
+hear him resume his walk through the room, and, as if his spirits had
+been somewhat relieved and elevated by the survey of his wardrobe, she
+could distinguish that at one turn he half recited a sonnet, at
+another half whistled a galliard, and at the third hummed a saraband.
+At length she could understand that he extended himself on the
+temporary couch which had been allotted to him, after muttering his
+prayers hastily, and in a short time she concluded he must be fast
+asleep.
+
+She employed the moment which intervened in considering her enterprise
+under every different aspect; and dangerous as it was, the steady
+review which she took of the various perils accompanying her purpose,
+furnished her with plausible devices for obviating them. Love and
+generous compassion, which give singly such powerful impulse to the
+female heart, were in this case united, and championed her to the last
+extremity of hazard.
+
+It was an hour past midnight. All in the tower slept sound but those
+who had undertaken to guard the English prisoner; or if sorrow and
+suffering drove sleep from the bed of Dame Glendinning and her
+foster-daughter, they were too much wrapt in their own griefs to
+attend to external sounds.  The means of striking light were at hand
+in the small apartment, and thus the Miller's maiden was enabled to
+light and trim a small lamp. With a trembling step and throbbing
+heart, she undid the door which separated her from the apartment in
+which the Southron knight was confined, and almost flinched from her
+fixed purpose, when she found herself in the same room with the
+sleeping prisoner. She scarcely trusted herself to look upon him, as
+he lay wrapped in his cloak, and fast asleep upon the pallet bed, but
+turned her eyes away while she gently pulled his mantle with no more
+force than was just equal to awaken him. He moved not until she had
+twitched his cloak a second and a third time, and then at length
+looking up, was about to make an exclamation in the suddenness of his
+surprise.
+
+Mysie's bashfulness was conquered by her fear. She placed her fingers
+on her lips, in token that he must observe the most strict silence,
+and then pointed to the door to intimate that it was watched.
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton now collected himself and sat upright on his
+couch.  He gazed with surprise on the graceful figure of the young
+woman who stood before him; her well-formed person, her flowing hair,
+and the outline of her features, showed dimly, and yet to advantage,
+by the partial and feeble light which she held in her hand. The
+romantic imagination of the gallant would soon have coined some
+compliment proper for the occasion, but Mysie left him not time.
+
+"I come," she said, "to save your life, which is else in great
+peril--if you answer me, speak as low as you can, for they have
+sentinelled your door with armed men."
+
+"Comeliest of miller's daughters," answered Sir Piercie, who by this
+time was sitting upright on his couch, "dread nothing for my safety.
+Credit me, that, as in very truth, I have not spilled the red puddle
+(which these villagios call the blood) of their most uncivil relation,
+so I am under no apprehension whatever for the issue of this
+restraint, seeing that it cannot but be harmless to me. Natheless, to
+thee, O most Molendinar beauty, I return the thanks which thy courtesy
+may justly claim."
+
+"Nay, but, Sir Knight," answered the maiden, in a whisper as low as it
+was tremulous, "I deserve no thanks unless you will act by my counsel.
+Edward Glendinning hath sent for Dan of the Howlet-hirst, and young
+Adie of Aikenshaw, and they are come with three men more, and with
+bow, and jack, and spear, and I heard them say to each other, and to
+Edward, as they alighted in the court, that they would have amends for
+the death of their kinsman, if the monk's cowl should smoke for
+it--And the vassals are so wilful now, that the Abbot himself dare not
+control them, for fear they turn heretics, and refuse to pay their
+feu-duties."
+
+"In faith," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "it may be a shrewd temptation,
+and perchance the monks may rid themselves of trouble and cumber, by
+handing me over the march to Sir John Foster or Lord Hundson, the
+English wardens, and so make peace with their vassals and with England
+at once.  Fairest Molinara, I will for once walk by thy rede, and if
+thou dost contrive to extricate me from this vile kennel, I will so
+celebrate thy wit and beauty, that the Baker's nymph of Raphael
+d'Urbino shall seem but a gipsey in comparison of my Molinara."
+
+"I pray you, then, be silent," said the Miller's daughter; "for if your
+speech betrays that you are awake, my scheme fails utterly, and it is
+Heaven's mercy and Our Lady's that we are not already overheard and
+discovered."
+
+"I am silent," replied the Southron, "even as the starless night--but
+yet--if this contrivance of thine should endanger thy safety, fair and
+no less kind than fair damsel, it were utterly unworthy of me to
+accept it at thy hand."
+
+"Do not think of me," said Mysie, hastily; "I am safe--I will take
+thought for myself, if I once saw you out of this dangerous
+dwelling--if you would provide yourself with any part of your apparel
+or goods, lose no time."
+
+The knight _did_, however, lose some time, ere he could settle in
+his own mind what to take and what to abandon of his wardrobe, each
+article of which seemed endeared to him by recollection of the feasts
+and revels at which it had been exhibited. For some little while Mysie
+left him to make his selections at leisure, for she herself had also
+some preparations to make for flight. But when, returning from the
+chamber into which she had retired, with a small bundle in her hand,
+she found him still indecisive, she insisted in plain terms, that he
+should either make up his baggage for the enterprise, or give it up
+entirely. Thus urged, the disconsolate knight hastily made up a few
+clothes into a bundle, regarded his trunk-mails with a mute expression
+of parting sorrow, and intimated his readiness to wait upon his kind
+guide.
+
+She led the way to the door of the apartment, having first carefully
+extinguished her lamp, and motioning to the knight to stand close
+behind her, tapped once or twice at the door. She was at length
+answered by Edward Glendinning, who demanded to know who knocked
+within, and what was desired.
+
+"Speak low," said Mysie Happer, "or you will awaken the English
+knight. It is I, Mysie Happer, who knock--I wish to get out--you have
+locked me up--and I was obliged to wait till the Southron slept."
+
+"Locked you up!" replied Edward, in surprise.
+
+"Yes," answered the Miller's daughter, "you have locked me up into this
+room--I was in Mary Avenel's sleeping apartment."
+
+"And can you not remain there till morning," replied Edward, "since it
+has so chanced?"
+
+"What!" said the Miller's daughter, in a tone of offended delicacy, "I
+remain here a moment longer than I can get out without discovery!--I
+would not, for all the Halidome of St. Mary's, remain a minute longer
+in the neighbourhood of a man's apartment than I can help it--For
+whom, or for what do you hold me? I promise you my father's daughter
+has been better brought up than to put in peril her good name."
+
+"Come forth then, and get to thy chamber in silence," said Edward.  So
+saying, he undid the bolt. The staircase without was in utter
+darkness, as Mysie had before ascertained. So soon as she stept out,
+she took hold of Edward as if to support herself, thus interposing her
+person betwixt him and Sir Piercie Shaffcon, by whom she was closely
+followed. Thus screened from observation, the Englishman slipped past
+on tiptoe, unshod and in silence, while the damsel complained to
+Edward that she wanted a light.
+
+"I cannot get you a light," said he, "for I cannot leave this post; but
+there is a fire below."
+
+"I will sit below till morning," said the Maid of the Mill; and,
+tripping down stairs, heard Edward bolt and bar the door of the now
+tenantless apartment with vain caution.
+
+At the foot of the stair which she descended, she found the object of
+her care waiting her farther directions. She recommended to him the
+most absolute silence, which, for once in his life, he seemed not
+unwilling to observe, conducted him, with as much caution as if he
+were walking on cracked ice, to a dark recess, used for depositing
+wood, and instructed him to ensconce himself behind the fagots. She
+herself lighted her lamp once more at the kitchen fire, and took her
+distaff and spindle, that she might not seem to be unemployed, in case
+any one came into the apartment.
+
+From time to time, however, she stole towards the window on tiptoe, to
+catch the first glance of the dawn, for the farther prosecution of her
+adventurous project. At length she saw, to her great joy, the first
+peep of the morning brighten upon the gray clouds of the east, and,
+clasping her hands together, thanked Our Lady for the sight, and
+implored protection during the remainder of her enterprise. Ere she
+had finished her prayer, she started at feeling a man's arm across her
+shoulder, while a rough voice spoke in her ear--"What! menseful Mysie
+of the Mill so soon at her prayers?--now, benison on the bonny eyes
+that open so early!--I'll have a kiss for good morrow's sake."
+
+Dan of the Howlet-hirst, for he was the gallant who paid Mysie this
+compliment, suited the action with the word, and the action, as is
+usual in such cases of rustic gallantry, was rewarded with a cuff,
+which Dan received as a fine gentleman receives a tap with a fan, but
+which, delivered by the energetic arm of the Miller's maiden, would
+have certainly astonished a less robust gallant.
+
+"How now, Sir Coxcomb!" said she, "and must you be away from your
+guard over the English knight, to plague quiet folks with your
+horse-tricks!"
+
+"Truly you are mistaken, pretty Mysie," said the clown, "for I have
+not yet relieved Edward at his post; and were it not a shame to let
+him stay any longer, by my faith, I could find it in my heart not to
+quit you these two hours."
+
+"Oh, you have hours and hours enough to see any one," said Mysie; "but
+you must think of the distress of the household even now, and get Edward
+to sleep for a while, for he has kept watch this whole night."
+
+"I will have another kiss first," answered Dan of the Howlet-hirst.
+
+But Mysie was now on her guard, and, conscious of the vicinity of the
+wood-hole, offered such strenuous resistance, that the swain cursed
+the nymph's bad humour with very unpastoral phrase and emphasis, and
+ran up stairs to relieve the guard of his comrade. Stealing to the
+door, she heard the new sentinel hold a brief conversation with
+Edward, after which the latter withdrew, and the former entered upon
+the duties of his watch.
+
+Mysie suffered him to walk there a little while undisturbed, until the
+dawning became more general, by which time she supposed he might have
+digested her coyness, and then presenting herself before the watchful
+sentinel, demanded of him "the keys of the outer tower, and of the
+courtyard gate."
+
+"And for what purpose?" answered the warder.
+
+"To milk the cows, and drive them out to their pasture," said Mysie;
+"you would not have the poor beasts kept in the byre a' morning, and
+the family in such distress, that there is na ane fit to do a turn but
+the byre-woman and myself?"
+
+"And where is the byre-woman?" said Dan.
+
+"Sitting with me in the kitchen, in case these distressed folks want any
+thing."
+
+"There are the keys, then, Mysie Dorts," said the sentinel.
+
+"Many thanks, Dan Ne'er-do-weel," answered the Maid of the Mill, and
+escaped down stairs in a moment.
+
+To hasten to the wood-hole, and there to robe the English knight in a
+short gown and petticoat, which she had provided for the purpose, was
+the work of another moment. She then undid the gates of the tower, and
+made towards the byre, or cow-house, which stood in one corner of the
+courtyard.  Sir Piercie Shafton remonstrated against the delay which
+this would occasion.
+
+"Fair and generous Molinara," he said, "had we not better undo the
+outward gate, and make the best of our way hence, even like a pair of
+sea-mews who make towards shelter of the rocks as the storm waxes
+high?"
+
+"We must drive out the cows first," said Mysie, "for a sin it were to
+spoil the poor widow's cattle, both for her sake and the poor beasts'
+own; and I have no mind any one shall leave the tower in a hurry to
+follow us.  Besides, you must have your horse, for you will need a
+fleet one ere all be done."
+
+So saying, she locked and double-locked both the inward and outward
+door of the tower, proceeded to the cow-house, turned out the cattle,
+and, giving the knight his own horse to lead, drove them before her
+out at the court-yard gate, intending to return for her own palfrey.
+But the noise attending the first operation caught the wakeful
+attention of Edward, who, starting to the bartizan, called to know
+what the matter was.
+
+Mysie answered with great readiness, that "she was driving out the cows,
+for that they would be spoiled for want of looking to."
+
+"I thank thee, kind maiden," said Edward--"and yet," he added, after
+a moment's pause, "what damsel is that thou hast with thee?"
+
+Mysie was about to answer, when Sir Piercie Shafton, who apparently
+did not desire that the great work of his liberation should be
+executed without the interposition of his own ingenuity, exclaimed
+from beneath, "I am she, O most bucolical juvenal, under whose charge
+are placed the milky mothers of the herd."
+
+"Hell and darkness!" exclaimed Edward, in a transport of fury and
+astonishment, "it is Piercie Shafton--What! treason!
+treason!--ho!--Dan--Jasper--Martin--the villain escapes!"
+
+"To horse! to horse!" cried Mysie, and in an instant mounted behind
+the knight, who was already in the saddle.
+
+Edward caught up a cross-bow, and let fly a bolt, which whistled so
+near Mysie's ear, that she called to her companion,--"Spur--spur, Sir
+Knight!--the next will not miss us.--Had it been Halbert instead of
+Edward who bent that bow, we had been dead."
+
+The knight pressed his horse, which dashed past the cows, and down the
+knoll on which the tower was situated. Then taking the road down the
+valley, the gallant animal, reckless of its double burden, soon
+conveyed them out of hearing of the tumult and alarm with which their
+departure filled the Tower of Glendearg.
+
+Thus it strangely happened, that two men were flying in different
+directions at the same time, each accused of being the other's murderer.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Ninth.
+
+
+  -------------Sure he cannot
+  Be so unmanly as to leave me here;
+  If he do, maids will not so easily
+  Trust men again.
+                  THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.
+
+The knight continued to keep the good horse at a pace as quick as the
+road permitted, until they had cleared the valley of Glendearg, and
+entered upon the broad dale of the Tweed, which now rolled before them
+in crystal beauty, displaying on its opposite bank the huge gray
+Monastery of St.  Mary's, whose towers and pinnacles were scarce yet
+touched by the newly-risen sun, so deeply the edifice lies shrouded
+under the mountains which rise to the southward.
+
+Turning to the left, the knight continued his road down to the northern
+bank of the river, until they arrived nearly opposite to the weir, or
+dam-dike, where Father Philip concluded his extraordinary aquatic
+excursion.
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton, whose brain seldom admitted more than one idea at
+a time, had hitherto pushed forward without very distinctly
+considering where he was going. But the sight of the Monastery so near
+to him, reminded, him that he was still on dangerous ground, and that
+he must necessarily provide for his safety by choosing some settled
+plan of escape. The situation of his guide and deliverer also occurred
+to him, for he was far from being either selfish or ungrateful. He
+listened, and discovered that the Miller's daughter was sobbing and
+weeping bitterly as she rested her head on his shoulder.
+
+"What ails thee," he said, "my generous Molinara?--is there aught that
+Piercie Shafton can do which may show his gratitude to his deliverer?"
+Mysie pointed with her finger across the river, but ventured not to
+turn her eyes in that direction. "Nay, but speak plain, most generous
+damsel," said the knight, who, for once, was puzzled as much as his
+own elegance of speech was wont to puzzle others, "for I swear to you
+that I comprehend nought by the extension of thy fair digit."
+
+"Yonder is my father's house," said Mysie, in a voice interrupted by the
+increased burst of her sorrow.
+
+"And I was carrying thee discourteously to a distance from thy
+habitation?" said Shafton, imagining he had found out the source of
+her grief.  "Wo worth the hour that Piercie Shafton, in attention to
+his own safety, neglected the accommodation of any female, far less of
+his most beneficent liberatrice! Dismount, then, O lovely Molinara,
+unless thou wouldst rather that I should transport thee on horseback
+to the house of thy molendinary father, which, if thou sayest the
+word, I am prompt to do, defying all dangers which may arise to me
+personally, whether by monk or miller."
+
+Mysie suppressed her sobs, and with considerable difficulty muttered
+her desire to alight, and take her fortune by herself. Sir Piercie
+Shafton, too devoted a squire of dames to consider the most lowly as
+exempted from a respectful attention, independent of the claims which
+the Miller's maiden possessed over him, dismounted instantly from his
+horse, and received in his arms the poor girl, who still wept
+bitterly, and, when placed on the ground, seemed scarce able to
+support herself, or at least still clung, though, as it appeared,
+unconsciously, to the support he had afforded. He carried her to a
+weeping birch tree, which grew on the green-sward bank around which
+the road winded, and, placing her on the ground beneath it, exhorted
+her to compose herself. A strong touch of natural feeling struggled
+with, and half overcame, his acquired affectation, while he said,
+"Credit me, most generous damsel, the service you have done to Piercie
+Shafton he would have deemed too dearly bought, had he foreseen it was
+to cost you these tears and singults. Show me the cause of your grief,
+and if I can do aught to remove it, believe that the rights you have
+acquired over me will make your commands sacred as those of an
+empress. Speak, then, fair Molinara, and command him whom fortune hath
+rendered at once your debtor and your champion. What are your orders?"
+
+"Only that you will fly and save yourself," said Mysie, mustering up her
+utmost efforts to utter these few words.
+
+"Yet," said the knight, "let me not leave you without some token of
+remembrance." Mysie would have said there needed none, and most truly
+would she have spoken, could she have spoken for weeping. "Piercie
+Shafton is poor," he continued, "but let this chain testify he is not
+ungrateful to his deliverer."
+
+He took from his neck the rich chain and medallion we have formerly
+mentioned, and put it into the powerless hand of the poor maiden, who
+neither received nor rejected it, but, occupied with more intense
+feelings, seemed scarce aware of what he was doing.
+
+"We shall meet again," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "at least I trust so;
+meanwhile, weep no more, fair Molinara, an thou lovest me."
+
+The phrase of conjuration was but used as an ordinary commonplace
+expression of the time, but bore a deeper sense to poor Mysie's ear.
+She dried her tears; and when the knight, in all kind and chivalrous
+courtesy, stooped to embrace her at their parting, she rose humbly up
+to receive the proffered honour in a posture of more deference, and
+meekly and gratefully accepted the offered salute. Sir Piercie Shafton
+mounted his horse, and began to ride off, but curiosity, or perhaps a
+stronger feeling, soon induced him to look back, when he beheld the
+Miller's daughter standing still motionless on the spot where they had
+parted, her eyes turned after him, and the unheeded chain hanging from
+her hand.
+
+It was at this moment that a glimpse of the real state of Mysie's
+affections, and of the motive from which she had acted in the whole
+matter, glanced on Sir Piercie Shafton's mind. The gallants of that
+age, disinterested, aspiring, and lofty-minded, even in their
+coxcombry, were strangers to those degrading and mischievous pursuits
+which are usually termed low amours. They did not "chase the humble
+maidens of the plain," or degrade their own rank, to deprive rural
+innocence of peace and virtue. It followed, of course, that as
+conquests in this class were no part of their ambition, they were in
+most cases totally overlooked and unsuspected, left unimproved, as a
+modern would call it, where, as on the present occasion, they were
+casually made. The companion of Astrophel, and flower of the tilt-yard
+of Feliciana, had no more idea that his graces and good parts could
+attach the love of Mysie Happer, than a first-rate beauty in the boxes
+dreams of the fatal wound which her charms may inflict on some
+attorney's romantic apprentice in the pit. I suppose, in any ordinary
+case, the pride of rank and distinction would have pronounced on the
+humble admirer the doom which Beau Fielding denounced against the
+whole female world, "Let them look and die;" but the obligations under
+which he lay to the enamoured maiden, miller's daughter as she was,
+precluded the possibility of Sir Piercie's treating the matter _en
+cavalier_, and, much embarrassed, yet a little flattered at the
+same time, he rode back to try what could be done for the damsel's
+relief.
+
+The innate modesty of poor Mysie could not prevent her showing too
+obvious signs of joy at Sir Piercie Shafton's return. She was betrayed
+by the sparkle of the rekindling eye, and a caress which, however
+timidly bestowed, she could not help giving to the neck of the horse
+which brought back the beloved rider.
+
+"What farther can I do for you, kind Molinara?" said Sir Piercie
+Shafton, himself hesitating and blushing; for, to the grace of Queen
+Bess's age be it spoken, her courtiers wore more iron on their breasts
+than brass on their foreheads, and even amid their vanities preserved
+still the decaying spirit of chivalry, which inspired of yore the very
+gentle Knight of Chaucer,
+
+     Who in his port was modest as a maid.
+
+Mysie blushed deeply, with her eyes fixed on the ground, and Sir Piercie
+proceeded in the same tone of embarrassed kindness. "Are you afraid to
+return home alone, my kind Molinara?--would you that I should
+accompany you?"
+
+"Alas!" said Mysie, looking up, and her cheek changing from scarlet to
+pale, "I have no home left."
+
+"How! no home!" said Shafton; "says my generous Molinara she hath no
+home, when yonder stands the house of her father, and but a crystal
+stream between?"
+
+
+"Alas!" answered the Miller's maiden, "I have no longer either home
+or father. He is a devoted servant to the Abbey--I have offended the
+Abbot, and if I return home my father will kill me."
+
+"He dare not injure thee, by Heaven!" said Sir Piercie; "I swear to
+thee, by my honour and knighthood, that the forces of my cousin of
+Northumberland shall lay the Monastery so flat, that a horse shall not
+stumble as he rides over it, if they should dare to injure a hair of
+your head! Therefore be hopeful and content, kind Mysinda, and know
+you have obliged one who can and will avenge the slightest wrong
+offered to you."
+
+He sprung from his horse as he spoke, and, in the animation of his
+argument, grasped the willing hand of Mysie, (or Mysinda as he had now
+christened her.) He gazed too upon full black eyes, fixed upon his own
+with an expression which, however subdued by maidenly shame, it was
+impossible to mistake, on cheeks where something like hope began to
+restore the natural colour, and on two lips which, like double
+rosebuds, were kept a little apart by expectation, and showed within a
+line of teeth as white as pearl. All this was dangerous to look upon,
+and Sir. Piercie Shafton, after repeating with less and less force his
+request that the fair Mysinda would allow him to carry her to her
+father's, ended by asking the fair Mysinda to go along with him--"At
+least," he added, "until I shall be able to conduct you to a place of
+safety."
+
+Mysie Happer made no answer; but blushing scarlet betwixt joy and
+shame, mutely expressed her willingness to accompany the Southron
+Knight, by knitting her bundle closer, and preparing to resume her
+seat _en croupe_. "And what is your pleasure that I should do
+with this?" she said, holding up the chain as if she had been for the
+first time aware that it was in her hand.
+
+"Keep it, fairest Mysinda, for my sake," said the Knight.
+
+"Not so, sir," answered Mysie, gravely; "the maidens of my country
+take no such gifts from their superiors, and I need no token to remind
+me of this morning."
+
+Most earnestly and courteously did the Knight urge her acceptance of
+the proposed guerdon, but on this point Mysie was resolute; feeling,
+perhaps, that to accept of any thing bearing the appearance of reward,
+would be to place the service she had rendered him on a mercenary
+footing. In short, she would only agree to conceal the chain, lest it
+might prove the means of detecting the owner, until Sir Piercie should
+be placed in perfect safety.
+
+They mounted and resumed their journey, of which Mysie, as bold and
+sharp-witted in some points as she was simple and susceptible in
+others, now took in some degree the direction, having only inquired
+its general destination, and learned that Sir Piercie Shafton desired
+to go to Edinburgh, where he hoped to find friends and protection.
+Possessed of this information, Mysie availed herself of her local
+knowledge to get as soon as possible out of the bounds of the
+Halidome, and into those of a temporal baron, supposed to be addicted
+to the reformed doctrines, and upon whose limits, at least, she
+thought their pursuers would not attempt to hazard any violence.  She
+was not indeed very apprehensive of a pursuit, reckoning with some
+confidence that the inhabitants of the Tower of Glendearg would find
+it a matter of difficulty to surmount the obstacles arising from their
+own bolts and bars, with which she had carefully secured them before
+setting forth on the retreat.
+
+They journeyed on, therefore, in tolerable security, and Sir Piercie
+Shafton found leisure to amuse the time in high-flown speeches and
+long anecdotes of the court of Feliciana, to which Mysie bent an ear
+not a whit less attentive, that she did not understand one word out of
+three which was uttered by her fellow-traveller. She listened,
+however, and admired upon trust, as many a wise man has been contented
+to treat the conversation of a handsome but silly mistress. As for Sir
+Piercie, he was in his element; and, well assured of the interest and
+full approbation of his auditor, he went on spouting Euphuism of more
+than usual obscurity, and at more than usual length. Thus passed the
+morning, and noon brought them within sight of a winding stream, on
+the side of which arose an ancient baronial castle, surrounded by some
+large trees. At a small distance from the gate of the mansion,
+extended, as in those days was usual, a straggling hamlet, having a
+church in the centre.
+
+"There are two hostelries in this Kirk-town," said Mysie, "but the
+worst is best for our purpose; for it stands apart from the other
+houses, and I ken the man weel, for he has dealt with my father for
+malt."
+
+This _causa scientiae_, to use a lawyer's phrase, was ill chosen
+for Mysie's purpose; for Sir Piercie Shafton had, by dint of his own
+loquacity, been talking himself all this while into a high esteem for
+his fellow-traveller, and, pleased with the gracious reception which
+she afforded to his powers of conversation, had well-nigh forgotten
+that she was not herself one of those high-born beauties of whom he
+was recounting so many stories, when this unlucky speech at once
+placed the most disadvantageous circumstances attending her lineage
+under his immediate recollection. He said nothing, however. What
+indeed could he say? Nothing was so natural as that a miller's
+daughter should be acquainted with publicans who dealt with her father
+for malt, and all that was to be wondered at was the concurrence of
+events which had rendered such a female the companion and guide of Sir
+Piercie Shafton of Wilverton, kinsman of the great Earl of
+Northumberland, whom princes and sovereigns themselves termed cousin,
+because of the Piercie blood. [Footnote: Froissart tells us somewhere,
+(the readers of romances are indifferent to accurate reference,) that
+the King of France called one of the Piercies cousin, because of the
+blood of Northumberland.] He felt the disgrace of strolling through
+the country with a miller's maiden on the crupper behind him, and was
+even ungrateful enough to feel some emotions of shame, when he halted
+his horse at the door of the little inn.
+
+But the alert intelligence of Mysie Happer spared him farther sense of
+derogation, by instantly springing from his horse, and cramming the
+ears of mine host, who came out with his mouth agape to receive a
+guest of the knight's appearance, with an imagined tale, in which
+circumstance on circumstance were huddled so fast, as to astonish Sir
+Piercie Shafton, whose own invention was none of the most brilliant.
+She explained to the publican that this was a great English knight
+travelling from the Monastery to the court of Scotland, after having
+paid his vows to Saint Mary, and that she had been directed to conduct
+him so far on the road; and that Ball, her palfrey, had fallen by the
+way, because he had been over-wrought with carrying home the last
+melder of meal to the portioner of Langhope; and that she had turned
+in Ball to graze in the Tasker's park, near Cripplecross, for he had
+stood as still as Lot's wife with very weariness; and that the knight
+had courteously insisted she should ride behind him, and that she had
+brought him to her kend friend's hostelry rather than to proud Peter
+Peddie's, who got his malt at the Mellerstane mills; and that he must
+get the best that the house afforded, and that he must get it ready in
+a moment of time, and that she was ready to help in the kitchen.
+
+All this ran glibly off the tongue without pause on the part of Mysie
+Happer, or doubt on that of the landlord. The guest's horse was
+conducted to the stable, and he himself installed in the cleanest
+corner and best seat which the place afforded. Mysie, ever active and
+officious, was at once engaged in preparing food, in spreading the
+table, and in making all the better arrangements which her experience
+could suggest, for the honour and comfort of her companion. He would
+fain have resisted this; for while it was impossible not to be
+gratified with the eager and alert kindness which was so active in his
+service, he felt an undefinable pain in seeing Mysinda engaged in
+these menial services, and discharging them, moreover, as one to whom
+they were but too familiar. Yet this jarring feeling was mixed with,
+and perhaps balanced by, the extreme grace with which the neat-handed
+maiden executed these tasks, however mean in themselves, and gave to
+the wretched corner of a miserable inn of the period, the air of a
+bower, in which an enamoured fairy, or at least a shepherdess of
+Arcadia, was displaying, with unavailing solicitude, her designs on
+the heart of some knight, destined by fortune to higher thoughts, and
+a more splendid union.
+
+The lightness and grace with which Mysie covered the little round
+table with a snow-white cloth, and arranged upon it the
+hastily-roasted capon, with its accompanying stoup of Bourdeaux, were
+but plebeian graces in themselves; but yet there were very flattering
+ideas excited by each glance.  She was so very well made, agile at
+once and graceful, with her hand and arm as white as snow, and her
+face in which a smile contended with a blush, and her eyes which
+looked ever at Shafton when he looked elsewhere, and were dropped at
+once when they encountered his, that she was irresistible!  In fine,
+the affectionate delicacy of her whole demeanour, joined to the
+promptitude and boldness she had so lately evinced, tended to ennoble
+the services she had rendered, as if some
+
+  -----sweet engaging Grace
+  Put on some clothes to come abroad,
+    And took a waiter's place.
+
+But, on the other hand, came the damning reflection, that these duties
+were not taught her by Love, to serve the beloved only, but arose from
+the ordinary and natural habits of a miller's daughter, accustomed,
+doubtless, to render the same service to every wealthier churl who
+frequented her father's mill. This stopped the mouth of vanity, and of
+the love which vanity had been hatching, as effectually as a peck of
+literal flour would have done.
+
+Amidst this variety of emotions, Sir Piercie Shafton forgot not to ask
+the object of them to sit down and partake the good cheer which she
+had been so anxious to provide and to place in order. He expected that
+this invitation would have been bashfully, perhaps, but certainly most
+thankfully, accepted; but he was partly flattered, and partly piqued,
+by the mixture of deference and resolution with which Mysie declined
+his invitation. Immediately after, she vanished from the apartment,
+leaving the Euphuist to consider whether he was most gratified or
+displeased by her disappearance.
+
+In fact, this was a point on which he would have found it difficult to
+make up his mind, had there been any necessity for it. As there was
+none, he drank a few cups of claret, and sang (to himself) a strophe
+or two of the canzonettes of the divine Astrophel. But in spite both
+of wine and of Sir Philip Sidney, the connexion in which he now stood,
+and that which he was in future to hold, with the lovely Molinara, or
+Mysinda, as he had been pleased to denominate Mysie Happer, recurred
+to his mind. The fashion of the times (as we have already noticed)
+fortunately coincided with his own natural generosity of disposition,
+which indeed amounted almost to extravagance, in prohibiting, as a
+deadly sin, alike against gallantry, chivalry, and morality, his
+rewarding the good offices he had received from this poor maiden, by
+abusing any of the advantages which her confidence in his honour had
+afforded. To do Sir Piercie justice, it was an idea which never
+entered into his head; and he would probably have dealt the most
+scientific _imbroccata, stoccata_, or _punto reverso_, which
+the school of Vincent Saviola had taught him, to any man who had dared
+to suggest to him such selfish and ungrateful meanness. On the other
+hand, he was a man, and foresaw various circumstances which might
+render their journey together in this intimate fashion a scandal and a
+snare. Moreover, he was a coxcomb and a courtier, and felt there was
+something ridiculous in travelling the land with a miller's daughter
+behind his saddle, giving rise to suspicions not very creditable to
+either, and to ludicrous constructions, so far as he himself was
+concerned.
+
+"I would," he said half aloud, "that if such might be done without
+harm or discredit to the too-ambitious, yet too-well-distinguishing
+Molinara, she and I were fairly severed, and bound on our different
+courses; even as we see the goodly vessel bound for the distant seas
+hoist sails and bear away into the deep, while the humble fly-boat
+carries to shore those friends, who, with wounded hearts and watery
+eyes, have committed to their higher destinies the more daring
+adventurers by whom the fair frigate is manned."
+
+He had scarce uttered the wish when it was gratified; for the host
+entered to say that his worshipful knighthood's horse was ready to be
+brought forth as he had desired; and on his inquiry for "the--the
+damsel--that is--the young woman--"
+
+"Mysie Happer," said the landlord, "has returned to her father's; but
+she bade me say, you could not miss the road for Edinburgh, in respect
+it was neither far way nor foul gate."
+
+It is seldom we are exactly blessed with the precise fulfilment of our
+wishes at the moment when we utter them; perhaps, because Heaven
+wisely withholds what, if granted, would be often received with
+ingratitude.  So at least it chanced in the present instance; for when
+mine host said that Mysie was returned homeward, the knight was
+tempted to reply, with an ejaculation of surprise and vexation, and a
+hasty demand, whither and when she had departed? The first emotions
+his prudence suppressed, the second found utterance.
+
+"Where is she gane?" said the host, gazing on him, and repeating his
+question--"She is gane hame to her father's, it is like--and she gaed
+just when she gave orders about your worship's horse, and saw it well
+fed, (she might have trusted me, but millers and millers' kin think a'
+body as thief-like as themselves,) an' she's three miles on the gate
+by this time."
+
+"Is she gone then?" muttered Sir Piercie, making two or three hasty
+strides through the narrow apartment--"Is she gone?--Well, then, let
+her go. She could have had but disgrace by abiding by me, and I little
+credit by her society. That I should have thought there was such
+difficulty in shaking her off! I warrant she is by this time laughing
+with some clown she has encountered; and my rich chain will prove a
+good dowry.--And ought it not to prove so? and has she not deserved
+it, were it ten times more valuable?--Piercie Shafton! Piercie
+Shafton! dost thou grudge thy deliverer the guerdon she hath so dearly
+won? The selfish air of this northern land hath infected thee, Piercie
+Shafton! and blighted the blossoms of thy generosity, even as it is
+said to shrivel the flowers of the mulberry.--Yet I thought," he
+added, after a moment's pause, "that she would not so easily and
+voluntarily have parted from me. But it skills not thinking of
+it.--Cast my reckoning, mine host, and let your groom lead forth my
+nag."
+
+The good host seemed also to have some mental point to discuss, for he
+answered not instantly, debating perhaps whether his conscience would
+bear a double charge for the same guests. Apparently his conscience
+replied in the negative, though not without hesitation, for he at
+length replied--"It's daffing to lee; it winna deny that the lawing is
+clean paid. Ne'ertheless, if your worshipful knighthood pleases to
+give aught for increase of trouble--"
+
+"How!" said the knight; "the reckoning paid? and by whom, I pray
+you?"
+
+"E'en by Mysie Happer, if truth maun be spoken, as I said before,"
+answered the honest landlord, with as many compunctious visitings for
+telling the verity as another might have felt for making a lie in the
+circumstances--"And out of the moneys supplied for your honour's
+journey by the Abbot, as she tauld to me. And laith were I to
+surcharge any gentleman that darkens my doors." He added in the
+confidence of honesty which his frank avowal entitled him to
+entertain, "Nevertheless, as I said before, if it pleases your
+knighthood of free good-will to consider extraordinary trouble--"
+
+The knight cut short his argument, by throwing the landlord a
+rose-noble, which probably doubled the value of a Scottish reckoning,
+though it would have defrayed but a half one at the Three Cranes or
+the Vintry. The bounty so much delighted mine host, that he ran to
+fill the stirrup-cup (for which no charge was ever made) from a butt
+yet charier than that which he had pierced for the former stoup. The
+knight paced slowly to horse, partook of his courtesy, and thanked him
+with the stiff condescension of the court of Elizabeth; then mounted
+and followed the northern path, which was pointed out as the nearest
+to Edinburgh, and which, though very unlike a modern highway, bore yet
+so distinct a resemblance to a public and frequented road as not to be
+easily mistaken.
+
+"I shall not need her guidance it seems," said he to himself, as he
+rode slowly onward; "and I suppose that was one reason of her abrupt
+departure, so different from what one might have expected.--Well, I
+am well rid of her. Do we not pray to be liberated from temptation?
+Yet that she should have erred so much in estimation of her own
+situation and mine, as to think of defraying the reckoning! I would I
+saw her once more, but to explain to her the solecism of which her
+inexperience hath rendered her guilty. And I fear," he added, as he
+emerged from some straggling trees, and looked out upon a wild moorish
+country, composed of a succession of swelling lumpish hills, "I fear I
+shall soon want the aid of this Ariadne, who might afford me a clew
+through the recesses of yonder mountainous labyrinth."
+
+As the Knight thus communed with himself, his attention was caught by
+the sound of a horse's footsteps; and a lad, mounted on a little gray
+Scottish nag, about fourteen hands high, coming along a path which led
+from behind the trees, joined him on the high-road, if it could be
+termed such.  The dress of the lad was completely in village fashion,
+yet neat and handsome in appearance. He had a jerkin of gray cloth
+slashed and trimmed, with black hose of the same, with deer-skin
+rullions or sandals, and handsome silver spurs. A cloak of a dark
+mulberry colour was closely drawn round the upper part of his person,
+and the cape in part muffled his face, which was also obscured by his
+bonnet of black velvet cloth, and its little plume of feathers.
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton, fond of society, desirous also to have a guide,
+and, moreover, prepossessed in favour of so handsome a youth, failed
+not to ask him whence he came, and whither he was going. The youth
+looked another way, as he answered, that he was going to Edinburgh,
+"to seek service in some nobleman's family."
+
+"I fear me you have run away from your last master," said Sir Piercie,
+"since you dare not look me in the face while you answer my question."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I have not," answered the lad, bashfully, while, as if
+with reluctance, he turned round his face, and instantly withdrew it.
+It was a glance, but the discovery was complete. There was no
+mistaking the dark full eye, the cheek in which much embarrassment
+could not altogether disguise an expression of comic humour, and the
+whole figure at once betrayed, under her metamorphosis, the Maid of
+the Mill. The recognition was joyful, and Sir Piercie Shafton was too
+much pleased to have regained his companion to remember the very
+good reasons which had consoled him for losing her.
+
+To his questions respecting her dress, she answered that she had
+obtained it in the Kirktown from a friend; it was the holiday suit of
+a son of hers, who had taken the field with his liege-lord, the baron
+of the land.  She had borrowed the suit under pretence she meant to
+play in some mumming or rural masquerade. She had left, she said, her
+own apparel in exchange, which was better worth ten crowns than this
+was worth four.
+
+"And the nag, my ingenious Molinara," said Sir Piercie, "whence comes
+the nag?"
+
+"I borrowed him from our host at the Gled's-Nest," she replied; and
+added, half stifling a laugh, "he has sent to get, instead of it, our
+Ball, which I left in the Tasker's Park at Cripplecross. He will be
+lucky if he find it there."
+
+"But then the poor man will lose his horse, most argute Mysinda," said
+Sir Piercie Shafton, whose English notions of property were a little
+startled at a mode of acquisition more congenial to the ideas of a
+miller's daughter (and he a Border miller to boot) than with those of
+an English person of quality.
+
+"And if he does lose his horse," said Mysie, laughing, "surely he is
+not the first man on the marches who has had such a mischance. But he
+will be no loser, for I warrant he will stop the value out of moneys
+which he has owed my father this many a day."
+
+"But then your father will be the loser," objected yet again the
+pertinacious uprightness of Sir Piercie Shafton.
+
+"What signifies it now to talk of my father?" said the damsel,
+pettishly; then instantly changing to a tone of deep feeling, she
+added, "my father has this day lost that which will make him hold
+light the loss of all the gear he has left."
+
+Struck with the accents of remorseful sorrow in which his companion
+uttered these few words, the English knight felt himself bound both in
+honour and conscience to expostulate with her as strongly as he could,
+on the risk of the step which she had now taken, and on the propriety
+of her returning to her father's house. The matter of his discourse,
+though adorned with many unnecessary flourishes, was honourable both
+to his head and heart.
+
+The Maid of the Mill listened to his flowing periods with her head
+sunk on her bosom as she rode, like one in deep thought or deeper
+sorrow. When he had finished, she raised up her countenance, looked
+full on the knight, and replied with great firmness--"If you are weary
+of my company, Sir Piercie Shafton, you have but to say so, and the
+Miller's daughter will be no farther cumber to you. And do not think I
+will be a burden to you, if we travel together to Edinburgh; I have
+wit enough and pride enough to be a willing burden to no man. But if
+you reject not my company at present, and fear not it will be
+burdensome to you hereafter, speak no more to me of returning back.
+All that you can say to me I have said to myself; and that I am now
+here, is a sign that I have said it to no purpose. Let this subject,
+therefore, be forever ended betwixt us. I have already, in some small
+fashion, been useful to you, and the time may come I may be more so;
+for this is not your land of England, where men say justice is done
+with little fear or favour to great and to small; but it is a land
+where men do by the strong hand, and defend by the ready wit, and I
+know better than you the perils you are exposed to."
+
+Sir Piercie Shafton was somewhat mortified to find that the damsel
+conceived her presence useful to him as a protectress as well as
+guide, and said something of seeking protection of nought save his own
+arm and his good sword. Mysie answered very quietly, that she nothing
+doubted his bravery; but it was that very quality of bravery which was
+most likely to involve him in danger. Sir Piercie Shafton, whose head
+never kept very long in any continued train of thinking, acquiesced
+without much reply, resolving in his own mind that the maiden only
+used this apology to disguise her real motive, of affection to his
+person. The romance of the situation flattered his vanity and elevated
+his imagination, as placing him in the situation of one of those
+romantic heroes of whom he had read the histories, where similar
+transformations made a distinguished figure.
+
+He took many a sidelong glance at his page, whose habits of country
+sport and country exercise had rendered her quite adequate to sustain
+the character she had assumed. She managed the little nag with
+dexterity, and even with grace; nor did any thing appear that could
+have betrayed her disguise, except when a bashful consciousness of her
+companion's eye being fixed on her, gave her an appearance of
+temporary embarrassment, which greatly added to her beauty.
+
+The couple rode forward as in the morning, pleased with themselves and
+with each other, until they arrived at the village where they were to
+repose for the night, and where all the inhabitants of the little inn,
+both male and female, joined in extolling the good grace and handsome
+countenance of the English knight, and the uncommon beauty of his
+youthful attendant.
+
+It was here that Mysie Happer first made Sir Piercie Shafton sensible
+of the reserved manner in which she proposed to live with him. She
+announced him as her master, and, waiting upon him with the reverent
+demeanour of an actual domestic, permitted not the least approach to
+familiarity, not even such as the knight might with the utmost
+innocence have ventured upon.  For example, Sir Piercie, who, as we
+know, was a great connoisseur in dress, was detailing to her the
+advantageous change which he proposed to make in her attire as soon as
+they should reach Edinburgh, by arraying her in his own colours of
+pink and carnation. Mysie Happer listened with great complacency to
+the unction with which he dilated upon welts, laces, slashes, and
+trimmings, until, carried away by the enthusiasm with which he was
+asserting the superiority of the falling band over the Spanish ruff,
+he approached his hand, in the way of illustration, towards the collar
+of his page's doublet. She instantly stepped back and gravely reminded
+him that she was alone and under his protection.
+
+"You cannot but remember the cause which has brought me here," she
+continued; "make the least approach to any familiarity which you would
+not offer to a princess surrounded by her court, and you have seen the
+last of the Miller's daughter--She will vanish as the chaff disappears
+from the shieling-hill [Footnote: The place where corn was winnowed,
+while that operation was performed by the hand, was called in Scotland
+the Shieling-hill.] when the west wind blows."
+
+"I do protest, fair Molinara," said Sir Piercie Shafton--but the fair
+Molinara had disappeared before his protest could be uttered. "A most
+singular wench," said he to himself; "and by this hand, as discreet as
+she is fair-featured--Certes, shame it were to offer her scathe or
+dishonour!  She makes similes too, though somewhat savouring of her
+condition. Had she but read Euphues, and forgotten that accursed mill
+and shieling-hill, it is my thought that her converse would be
+broidered with as many and as choice pearls of compliment, as that of
+the most rhetorical lady in the court of Feliciana. I trust she means
+to return to bear me company."
+
+But that was no part of Mysie's prudential scheme. It was then drawing
+to dusk, and he saw her not again until the next morning, when the
+horses were brought to the door that they might prosecute their
+journey.
+
+But our story here necessarily leaves the English knight and his page,
+to return to the Tower of Glendearg.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirtieth.
+
+
+  You call it an ill angel it may be so,
+  But sure I am, among the ranks which fell,
+  'Tis the first fiend e'er counsell'd man to rise,
+  And win the bliss the sprite himself had forfeited.
+                             OLD PLAY.
+
+We must resume our narrative at the period when Mary Avenel was
+conveyed to the apartment which had been formerly occupied by the two
+Glendinnings, and when her faithful attendant, Tibbie, had exhausted
+herself in useless attempts to compose and to comfort her. Father
+Eustace also dealt forth with well-meant kindness those apophthegms
+and dogmata of consolation, which friendship almost always offers to
+grief, though they are uniformly offered in vain. She was at length
+left to indulge in the desolation of her own sorrowful feelings. She
+felt as those who, loving for the first time, have lost what they
+loved, before time and repeated calamity have taught them that every
+loss is to a certain extent reparable or endurable.
+
+Such grief may be conceived better than it can be described, as is
+well known to those who have experienced it. But Mary Avenel had been
+taught by the peculiarity of her situation, to regard herself as the
+Child of Destiny; and the melancholy and reflecting turn of her
+disposition gave to her sorrows a depth and breadth peculiar to her
+character. The grave--and it was a bloody grave--had closed, as she
+believed, over the youth to whom she was secretly, but most warmly
+attached; the force and ardour of Halbert's character bearing a
+singular correspondence to the energy of which her own was capable.
+Her sorrow did not exhaust itself in sighs and tears, but when the
+first shock had passed away, concentrated itself with deep and steady
+meditation, to collect and calculate, like a bankrupt debtor, the full
+amount of her loss. It seemed as if all that connected her with earth,
+had vanished with this broken tie. She had never dared to anticipate
+the probability of an ultimate union with Halbert, yet now his
+supposed fall seemed that of the only tree which was to shelter her
+from the storm. She respected the more gentle character, and more
+peaceful attainments, of the younger Glendinning; but it had not
+escaped her (what never indeed escaped woman in such circumstances)
+that he was disposed to place himself in competition with what she,
+the daughter of a proud and warlike race, deemed the more manly
+qualities of his elder brother; and there is no time when a woman does
+so little justice to the character of a surviving lover, as when
+comparing him with the preferred rival of whom she has been recently
+deprived.
+
+The motherly, but coarse kindness of Dame Glendinning, and the doating
+fondness of her old domestic, seemed now the only kind feeling of
+which she formed the object; and she could not but reflect how little
+these were to be compared with the devoted attachment of a high-souled
+youth, whom the least glance of her eye could command, as the
+high-mettled steed is governed by the bridle of the rider. It was when
+plunged among these desolating reflections, that Mary Avenel felt the
+void of mind, arising from the narrow and bigoted ignorance in which
+Rome then educated the children of her church. Their whole religion
+was a ritual, and their prayers were the formal iteration of unknown
+words, which, in the hour of affliction, could yield but little
+consolation to those who from habit resorted to them. Unused to the
+practice of mental devotion, and of personal approach to the Divine
+Presence by prayer, she could not help exclaiming in her distress,
+"There is no aid for me on earth, and I know not how to ask it from
+Heaven!"
+
+As she spoke thus in an agony of sorrow, she cast her eyes into the
+apartment, and saw the mysterious Spirit, which waited upon the
+fortunes of her house, standing in the moonlight in the midst of the
+room. The same form, as the reader knows, had more than once offered
+itself to her sight; and either her native boldness of mind, or some
+peculiarity attached to her from her birth, made her now look upon it
+without shrinking. But the White Lady of Avenel was now more
+distinctly visible, and more closely present, than she had ever before
+seemed to be, and Mary was appalled by her presence. She would,
+however, have spoken; but there ran a tradition, that though others
+who had seen the White Lady had asked questions and received answers,
+yet those of the house of Avenel who had ventured to speak to her, had
+never long survived the colloquy. The figure, besides, as sitting up
+in her bed, Mary Avenel gazed on it intently, seemed by its gestures
+to caution her to keep silence, and at the same time to bespeak
+attention.
+
+The White Lady then seemed to press one of the planks of the floor
+with her foot, while, in her usual low, melancholy, and musical chant,
+she repeated the following verses:
+
+  "Maiden, whose sorrows wail the Living Dead,
+    Whose eyes shall commune with the Dead Alive,
+  Maiden, attend! Beneath my foot lies hid
+    The Word, the Law, the Path, which thou dost strive
+  To find and canst not find.--Could spirits shed
+    Tears for their lot, it were my lot to weep,
+  Showing the road which I shall never tread,
+    Though my foot points it.--Sleep, eternal sleep,
+  Dark, long, and cold forgetfulness my lot!--
+    But do not thou at human ills repine,
+  Secure there lies full guerdon in this spot
+    For all the woes that wait frail Adam's line--
+  Stoop, then, and make it yours--I may not make it mine!"
+
+The phantom stooped towards the floor as she concluded, as if with the
+intention of laying her hand on the board on which she stood. But ere
+she had completed that gesture, her form became indistinct, was
+presently only like the shade of a fleecy cloud, which passed betwixt
+earth and the moon, and was soon altogether invisible.
+
+A strong impression of fear, the first which she had experienced in
+her life to any agitating extent, seized upon the mind of Mary Avenel,
+and for a minute she felt a disposition to faint. She repelled it,
+however, mustered her courage, and addressed herself to saints and
+angels, as her church recommended. Broken slumbers at length stole on
+her exhausted mind and frame, and she slept until the dawn was about
+to rise, when she was awakened by the cry of "Treason! treason!
+follow, follow!" which arose in the tower, when it was found that
+Piercie Shafton had made his escape.
+
+Apprehensive of some new misfortune, Mary Avenel hastily arranged the
+dress which she had not laid aside, and, venturing to quit her
+chamber, learned from Tibb, who, with her gray hairs dishevelled like
+those of a sibyl, was flying from room to room, that the bloody
+Southron villain had made his escape, and that Halbert Glendinning,
+poor bairn, would sleep unrevenged and unquiet in his bloody grave. In
+the lower apartments, the young men were roaring like thunder, and
+venting in oaths and exclamations against the fugitives the rage which
+they experienced in finding themselves locked up within the tower, and
+debarred from their vindictive pursuit by the wily precautions of
+Mysie Happer. The authoritative voice of the Sub-Prior commanding
+silence was next heard; upon which Mary Avenel, whose tone of feeling
+did not lead her to enter into counsel or society with the rest of the
+party, again retired to her solitary chamber.
+
+The rest of the family held counsel in the spence, Edward almost
+beside himself with rage, and the Sub-Prior in no small degree
+offended at the effrontery of Mysie Happer in attempting such a
+scheme, as well as at the mingled boldness and dexterity with which it
+had been executed. But neither surprise nor anger availed aught. The
+windows, well secured with iron bars for keeping assailants out,
+proved now as effectual for detaining the inhabitants within. The
+battlements were open, indeed; but without ladder or ropes to act as a
+substitute for wings, there was no possibility of descending from
+them. They easily succeeded in alarming the inhabitants of the
+cottages beyond the precincts of the court; but the men had been
+called in to strengthen the guard for the night, and only women and
+children remained who could contribute nothing in the emergency,
+except their useless exclamations of surprise, and there were no
+neighbours for miles around. Dame Elspeth, however, though drowned in
+tears, was not so unmindful of external affairs, but that she could
+find voice enough to tell the women and children without, to "leave
+their skirling, and look after the cows that she couldna get minded,
+what wi' the awfu' distraction of her mind, what wi' that fause slut
+having locked them up in their ain tower as fast as if they had been
+in the Jeddart tolbooth."
+
+Meanwhile, the men finding other modes of exit impossible, unanimously
+concluded to force the doors with such tools as the house afforded for
+the purpose. These were not very proper for the occasion, and the
+strength of the doors was great. The interior one, formed of oak,
+occupied them for three mortal hours, and there was little prospect of
+the iron door being forced in double the time.
+
+While they were engaged in this ungrateful toil, Mary Avenel had with
+much less labour acquired exact knowledge of what the Spirit had
+intimated in her mystic rhyme. On examining the spot which the phantom
+had indicated by her gestures, it was not difficult to discover that a
+board had been loosened, which might be raised at pleasure. On
+removing this piece of plank, Mary Avenel was astonished to find the
+Black Book, well remembered by her as her mother's favourite study, of
+which she immediately took possession, with as much joy as her present
+situation rendered her capable of feeling.
+
+Ignorant in a great measure of its contents, Mary Avenel had been
+taught from her infancy to hold this volume in sacred veneration. It
+is probable that the deceased Lady of Walter Avenel only postponed
+initiating her daughter into the mysteries of the Divine Word, until
+she should be better able to comprehend both the lessons which it
+taught, and the risk at which, in those times, they were studied.
+Death interposed, and removed her before the times became favourable
+to the reformers, and before her daughter was so far advanced in age
+as to be fit to receive religious instruction of this deep import. But
+the affectionate mother had made preparations for the earthly work
+which she had most at heart. There were slips of paper inserted in the
+volume, in which, by an appeal to, and a comparison of, various
+passages in holy writ, the errors and human inventions with which the
+Church of Rome had defaced the simple edifice of Christianity, as
+erected by its divine architect, were pointed out. These controversial
+topics were treated with a spirit of calmness and Christian charity,
+which might have been an example to the theologians of the period; but
+they were clearly, fairly, and plainly argued, and supported by the
+necessary proofs and references. Other papers there were which had no
+reference whatever to polemics, but were the simple effusions of a
+devout mind communing with itself. Among these was one frequently
+used, as it seemed from the state of the manuscript, on which the
+mother of Mary had transcribed and placed together those affecting
+texts to which the heart has recourse, in affliction, and which
+assures us at once of the sympathy and protection afforded to the
+children of the promise. In Mary Avenel's state of mind, these
+attracted her above all the other lessons, which, coming from a hand
+so dear, had reached her at a time so critical, and in a manner so
+touching.  She read the affecting promise, "I will never leave thee
+nor forsake thee," and the consoling exhortation, "Call upon me in the
+day of trouble, and I will deliver thee." She read them, and her heart
+acquiesced in the conclusion. Surely this is the word of God!
+
+There are those to whom a sense of religion has come in storm and
+tempest; there are those whom it has summoned amid scenes of revelry
+and idle vanity; there are those, too, who have heard its "still small
+voice" amid rural leisure and placid contentment. But perhaps the
+knowledge which causeth not to err, is most frequently impressed upon
+the mind during seasons of affliction; and tears are the softened
+showers which cause the seed of Heaven to spring and take root in the
+human breast. At least it was thus with Mary Avenel. She was
+insensible to the discordant noise which rang below, the clang of bars
+and the jarring symphony of the levers which they used to force them,
+the measured shouts of the labouring inmates as they combined their
+strength for each heave, and gave time with their voices to the
+exertion of their arms, and their deeply muttered vows of revenge on
+the fugitives who had bequeathed them at their departure a task so
+toilsome and difficult. Not all this din, combined in hideous concert,
+and expressive of aught but peace, love, and forgiveness, could divert
+Mary Avenel from the new course of study on which she had so
+singularly entered. "The serenity of Heaven," she said, "is above me;
+the sounds which are around are but those of earth and earthly
+passion."
+
+Meanwhile the noon was passed, and little impression was made on the
+iron grate, when they who laboured at it received a sudden
+reinforcement by the unexpected arrival of Christie of the Clinthill.
+He came at the head of a small party, consisting of four horsemen, who
+bore in their caps the sprig of holly, which was the badge of Avenel.
+
+"What, ho !--my masters," he said, "I bring you a prisoner."
+
+"You had better have brought us liberty," said Dan of the
+Howlet-hirst.
+
+Christie looked at the state of affairs with great surprise. "An I
+were to be hanged for it," he said, "as I may for as little a matter,
+I could not forbear laughing at seeing men peeping through their own
+bars like so many rats in a rat-trap, and he with the beard behind,
+like the oldest rat in the cellar."
+
+"Hush, thou unmannered knave," said Edward, "it is the Sub-Prior;
+and this is neither time, place, nor company, for your ruffian jests."
+
+"What, ho! is my young master malapert?" said Christie; "why, man,
+were he my own carnal father, instead of being father to half the
+world, I would have my laugh out. And now it is over, I must assist
+you, I reckon, for you are setting very greenly about this gear--put
+the pinch nearer the staple, man, and hand me an iron crow through the
+grate, for that's the fowl to fly away with a wicket on its shoulders.
+I have broke into as many grates as you have teeth in your young
+head--ay, and broke out of them too, as the captain of the Castle of
+Lochmaben knows full well."
+
+Christie did not boast more skill than he really possessed; for,
+applying their combined strength, under the direction of that
+experienced engineer, bolt and staple gave way before them, and in
+less than half an hour, the grate, which had so long repelled their
+force, stood open before them.
+
+"And now," said Edward, "to horse, my mates, and pursue the villain
+Shafton!"
+
+"Halt, there," said Christie of the Clinthill; "pursue your guest, my
+master's friend and my own?--there go two words to that bargain. What
+the foul fiend would you pursue him for?"
+
+"Let me pass," said Edward, vehemently, "I will be staid by no
+man--the villain has murdered my brother!"
+
+"What says he?" said Christie, turning to the others; "murdered? who
+is murdered, and by whom?"
+
+"The Englishman, Sir Piercie Shafton," said Dan of the Howlet-hirst,
+"has murdered young Halbert Glendinning yesterday morning, and we
+have all risen to the fray."
+
+"It is a bedlam business, I think," said Christie. "First I find you
+all locked up in your own tower, and next I am come to prevent you
+revenging a murder that was never committed!"
+
+"I tell you," said Edward, "that my brother was slain and buried
+yesterday morning by this false Englishman."
+
+"And I tell you," answered Christie, "that I saw him alive and well
+last night. I would I knew his trick of getting out of the grave; most
+men find it more hard to break through a green sod than a grated
+door."
+
+Every body now paused, and looked on Christie in astonishment, until the
+Sub-Prior, who had hitherto avoided communication with him, came up and
+required earnestly to know, whether he meant really to maintain that
+Halbert Glendinning lived.
+
+"Father," he said, with, more respect than he usually showed to any
+one save his master, "I confess I may sometimes jest with those of
+your coat, but not with you; because, as you may partly recollect, I
+owe you a life.  It is certain as the sun is in heaven, that Halbert
+Glendinning supped at the house of my master the Baron of Avenel last
+night, and that he came thither in company with an old man, of whom
+more anon."
+
+"And where is he now?"
+
+"The devil only can answer that question," replied Christie, "for the
+devil has possessed the whole family, I think. He took fright, the
+foolish lad, at something or other which our Baron did in his moody
+humour, and so he jumped into the lake and swam ashore like a
+wild-duck. Robin of Redcastle spoiled a good gelding in chasing him
+this morning."
+
+"And why did he chase the youth?" said the Sub-Prior; "what harm
+had he done?"
+
+"None that I know of," said Christie; "but such was the Baron's order,
+being in his mood, and all the world having gone mad, as I have said
+before."
+
+"Whither away so fast, Edward?" said the monk.
+
+"To Corri-nan-shian, Father," answered the youth.--"Martin and Dan,
+take pickaxe and mattock, and follow me if you be men!"
+
+"Right," said the monk, "and fail not to give us instant notice what
+you find."
+
+"If you find aught there like Halbert Glendinning," said Christie,
+hallooing after Edward, "I will be bound to eat him unsalted.--'T is a
+sight to see how that fellow takes the bent!--It is in the time of
+action men see what lads are made of. Halbert was aye skipping up and
+down like a roo, and his brother used to sit in the chimney nook with
+his book and sic-like trash--But the lad was like a loaded hackbut,
+which will stand in the corner as quiet as an old crutch until ye draw
+the trigger, and then there is nothing but flash and smoke.--But here
+comes my prisoner; and, setting other matters aside, I must pray a
+word with you, Sir Sub-Prior, respecting him. I came on before to
+treat about him, but I was interrupted with this fasherie."
+
+As he spoke, two more of Avenel's troopers rode into the court-yard,
+leading betwixt them a horse, on which, with his hands bound to his
+side, sate the reformed preacher, Henry Warden.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-First.
+
+
+  At school I knew him--a sharp-witted youth,
+  Grave, thoughtful, and reserved among his mates,
+  Turning the hours of sport and food to labour,
+  Starving his body to inform his mind.
+                                           OLD PLAY.
+
+The Sub-Prior, at the Borderer's request, had not failed to
+return to the tower, into which he was followed by Christie of
+the Clinthill, who, shutting the door of the apartment, drew near,
+and began his discourse with great confidence and familiarity.
+
+"My master," he said, "sends me with his commendations to you, Sir
+Sub-Prior, above all the community of Saint Mary's, and more specially
+than even to the Abbot himself; for though he be termed my lord, and
+so forth, all the world knows that you are the tongue of the trump."
+
+"If you have aught to say to me concerning the community," said the
+Sub-Prior, "it were well you proceeded in it without farther delay.
+Time presses, and the fate of young Glendinnning dwells on my mind."
+
+"I will be caution for him, body for body," said Christie. "I do
+protest to you, as sure as I am a living man, so surely is he one."
+
+"Should I not tell his unhappy mother the joyful tidings?" said Father
+Eustace,--"and yet better wait till they return from searching the
+grave. Well, Sir Jackman, your message to me from your master?"
+
+"My lord and master," said Christie, "hath good reason to believe
+that, from the information of certain back friends, whom he will
+reward at more leisure, your reverend community hath been led to deem
+him ill attached to Holy Church, allied with heretics and those who
+favour heresy, and a hungerer after the spoils of your Abbey."
+
+"Be brief, good henchman," said the Sub-Prior, "for the devil is ever
+most to be feared when he preacheth."
+
+"Briefly, then--my master desires your friendship; and to excuse
+himself from the maligner's calumnies, he sends to your Abbot that
+Henry Warden, whose sermons have turned the world upside down, to be
+dealt with as Holy Church directs, and as the Abbot's pleasure may
+determine."
+
+The Sub-Prior's eyes sparkled at the intelligence; for it had been
+accounted a matter of great importance that this man should be
+arrested, possessed, as he was known to be, of so much zeal and
+popularity, that scarcely the preaching of Knox himself had been more
+awakening to the people, and more formidable to the Church of Rome.
+
+In fact, that ancient system, which so well accommodated its doctrines
+to the wants and wishes of a barbarous age, had, since the art of
+printing, and the gradual diffusion of knowledge, lain floating like
+some huge Leviathan, into which ten thousand reforming fishers were
+darting their harpoons. The Roman Church of Scotland, in particular,
+was at her last gasp, actually blowing blood and water, yet still with
+unremitted, though animal exertions, maintaining the conflict with the
+assailants, who on every side were plunging their weapons into her
+bulky body. In many large towns, the monasteries had been suppressed
+by the fury of the populace; in other places, their possessions had
+been usurped by the power of the reformed nobles; but still the
+hierarchy made a part of the common law of the realm, and might claim
+both its property and its privileges wherever it had the means of
+asserting them. The community of Saint Mary's of Kennaquhair was
+considered as being particularly in this situation. They had retained,
+undiminished, their territorial power and influence; and the great
+barons in the neighbourhood, partly from their attachment to the party
+in the state who still upheld the old system of religion, partly
+because each grudged the share of the prey which the others must
+necessarily claim, had as yet abstained from despoiling the Halidome.
+The Community was also understood to be protected by the powerful
+Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, whose zealous attachment to
+the Catholic faith caused at a later period the great rebellion of the
+tenth of Elizabeth.
+
+Thus happily placed, it was supposed by the friends of the decaying
+cause of the Roman Catholic faith, that some determined example of
+courage and resolution, exercised where the franchises of the church
+were yet entire, and her jurisdiction undisputed, might awe the
+progress of the new opinions into activity; and, protected by the laws
+which still existed, and by the favour of the sovereign, might be the
+means of securing the territory which Rome yet preserved in Scotland,
+and perhaps of recovering that which she had lost.
+
+The matter had been considered more than once by the northern
+Catholics of Scotland, and they had held communication with those of
+the south.  Father Eustace, devoted by his public and private vows,
+had caught the flame, and had eagerly advised that they should execute
+the doom of heresy on the first reformed preacher, or, according to
+his sense, on the first heretic of eminence, who should venture within
+the precincts of the Halidome. A heart, naturally kind and noble, was,
+in this instance, as it has been in many more, deceived by its own
+generosity. Father Eustace would have been a bad administrator of the
+inquisitorial power of Spain, where that power was omnipotent, and
+where judgment was exercised without danger to those who inflicted it.
+In such a situation his rigour might have relented in favour of the
+criminal, whom it was at his pleasure to crush or to place at freedom.
+But in Scotland, during this crisis, the case was entirely different.
+The question was, whether one of the spirituality dared, at the hazard
+of his own life, to step forward to assert and exercise the rights of
+the church. Was there any who would venture to wield the thunder in
+her cause, or must it remain like that in the hand of a painted
+Jupiter, the object of derision instead of terror? The crisis was
+calculated to awake the soul of Eustace; for it comprised the
+question, whether he dared, at all hazards to himself, to execute with
+stoical severity a measure which, according to the general opinion,
+was to be advantageous to the church, and, according to ancient law,
+and to his firm belief, was not only justifiable but meritorious.
+
+While such resolutions were agitated amongst the Catholics, chance
+placed a victim within their grasp. Henry Warden had, with the
+animation proper to the enthusiastic reformers of the age,
+transgressed, in the vehemence of his zeal, the bounds of the
+discretional liberty allowed to his sect so far, that it was thought
+the Queen's personal dignity was concerned in bringing him to justice.
+He fled from Edinburgh, with recommendations, however, from Lord James
+Stewart, afterwards the celebrated Earl of Murray, to some of the
+Border chieftains of inferior rank, who were privately conjured to
+procure him safe passage into England. One of the principal persons to
+whom such recommendation was addressed, was Julian Avenel; for as yet,
+and for a considerable time afterwards, the correspondence and
+interest of Lord James lay rather with the subordinate leaders than
+with the chiefs of great power, and men of distinguished influence
+upon the Border. Julian Avenel had intrigued without scruple with both
+parties--yet bad as he was, he certainly would not have practised
+aught against the guest whom Lord James had recommended to his
+hospitality, had it not been for what he termed the preacher's
+officious inter-meddling in his family affairs. But when he had
+determined to make Warden rue the lecture he had read him, and the
+scene of public scandal which he had caused in his hall, Julian
+resolved, with the constitutional shrewdness of his disposition, to
+combine his vengeance with his interest.  And therefore, instead of
+doing violence on the person of Henry Warden within his own castle, he
+determined to deliver him up to the Community of Saint Mary's, and at
+once make them the instruments of his own revenge, and found a claim
+of personal recompense, either in money, or in a grant of Abbey lands
+at a low quit-rent, which last began now to be the established form in
+which the temporal nobles plundered the spirituality.
+
+The Sub-Prior, therefore, of Saint Mary's, unexpectedly saw the
+steadfast, active, and inflexible enemy of the church delivered into
+his hand, and felt himself called upon to make good his promises to
+the friends of the Catholic faith, by quenching heresy in the blood of
+one of its most zealous professors.
+
+To the honour more of Father Eustace's heart than of his consistency,
+the communication that Henry Warden was placed within his power,
+struck him with more sorrow than triumph; but his next feelings were
+those of exultation. "It is sad," he said to himself, "to cause human
+suffering; it is awful to cause human blood to be spilled; but the
+judge to whom the sword of Saint Paul, as well as the keys of Saint
+Peter, are confided, must not flinch from his task. Our weapon returns
+into our own bosom, if not wielded with a steady and unrelenting hand
+against the irreconcilable enemies of the Holy Church. _Pereat
+iste!_ It is the doom he has incurred, and were all the heretics in
+Scotland armed and at his back, they should not prevent its being
+pronounced, and, if possible, enforced.--Bring the heretic before me,"
+he said, issuing his commands aloud, and in a tone of authority.
+
+Henry Warden was led in, his hands still bound, but his feet at liberty.
+
+"Clear the apartment," said the Sub-Prior, "of all but the necessary
+guard on the prisoner."
+
+All retired except Christie of the Clinthill, who, having dismissed
+the inferior troopers whom he commanded, unsheathed his sword, and
+placed himself beside the door, as if taking upon him the character of
+sentinel.
+
+The judge and the accused met face to face, and in that of both was
+enthroned the noble confidence of rectitude. The monk was about, at
+the utmost risk to himself and his community, to exercise what in his
+ignorance he conceived to be his duty. The preacher, actuated by a
+better-informed, yet not a more ardent zeal, was prompt to submit to
+execution for God's sake, and to seal, were it necessary, his mission
+with his blood. Placed at such a distance of time as better enables us
+to appreciate the tendency of the principles on which they severally
+acted, we cannot doubt to which the palm ought to be awarded. But the
+zeal of Father Eustace was as free from passion and personal views as
+if it had been exerted in a better cause.
+
+They approached each other, armed each and prepared for intellectual
+conflict, and each intently regarding his opponent, as if either hoped
+to spy out some defect, some chasm in the armour of his antagonist.--
+As they gazed on each other, old recollections began to awake in
+either bosom, at the sight of features long unseen and much altered,
+but not forgotten.  The brow of the Sub-Prior dismissed by degrees its
+frown of command, the look of calm yet stern defiance gradually
+vanished from that of Warden, and both lost for an instant that of
+gloomy solemnity. They had been ancient and intimate friends in youth
+at a foreign university, but had been long separated from each other;
+and the change of name, which the preacher had adopted from motives of
+safety, and the monk from the common custom of the convent, had
+prevented the possibility of their hitherto recognizing each other in
+the opposite parts which they had been playing in the great polemical
+and political drama. But now the Sub-Prior exclaimed, "Henry
+Wellwood!" and the preacher replied, "William Allan!"--and, stirred by
+the old familiar names, and never-to-be-forgotten recollections of
+college studies and college intimacy, their hands were for a moment
+locked in each other.
+
+"Remove his bonds," said the Sub-Prior, and assisted Christie in
+performing that office with his own hands, although the prisoner
+scarcely would consent to be unbound, repeating with emphasis, that he
+rejoiced in the cause for which he suffered shame. When his hands were
+at liberty, however, he showed his sense of the kindness by again
+exchanging a grasp and a look of affection with the Sub-Prior.
+
+The salute was frank and generous on either side, yet it was but the
+friendly recognition and greeting which are wont to take place betwixt
+adverse champions, who do nothing in hate but all in honour. As each
+felt the pressure of the situation in which they stood, he quitted the
+grasp of the other's hand, and fell back, confronting each other with
+looks more calm and sorrowful than expressive of any other passion.
+The Sub-Prior was the first to speak.
+
+"And is this, then, the end of that restless activity of mind, that
+bold and indefatigable love of truth that urged investigation to its
+utmost limits, and seemed to take heaven itself by storm--is this the
+termination of Wellwood's career?--And having known and loved him
+during the best years of our youth, do we meet in our old age as judge
+and criminal?"
+
+"Not as judge and criminal," said Henry Warden,--for to avoid
+confusion we describe him by his later and best known name--"Not as
+judge and criminal do we meet, but as a misguided oppressor and his
+ready and devoted victim. I, too, may ask, are these the harvest of
+the rich hopes excited by the classical learning, acute logical
+powers, and varied knowledge of William Allan, that he should sink to
+be the solitary drone of a cell, graced only above the swarm with the
+high commission of executing Roman malice on all who oppose Roman
+imposture?"
+
+"Not to thee," answered the Sub-Prior, "be assured--not unto thee, nor
+unto mortal man, will I render an account of the power with which the
+church may have invested me. It was granted but as a deposit for her
+welfare--for her welfare it shall at every risk be exercised, without
+fear and without favour."
+
+"I expected no less from your misguided zeal," answered the preacher;
+"and in me have you met one on whom you may fearlessly exercise your
+authority, secure that his mind at least will defy your influence, as
+the snows of that Mont Blanc which we saw together, shrink not under
+the heat of the hottest summer sun."
+
+"I do believe thee," said the Sub-Prior, "I do believe that thine is
+indeed metal unmalleable by force. Let it yield then to persuasion.
+Let us debate these matters of faith, as we once were wont to conduct
+our scholastic disputes, when hours, nay, days, glided past in the
+mutual exercise of our intellectual powers. It may be thou mayest yet
+hear the voice of the shepherd, and return to the universal fold."
+
+"No, Allan," replied the prisoner, "this is no vain question, devised
+by dreaming scholiasts, on which they may whet their intellectual
+faculties until the very metal be wasted away. The errors which I
+combat are like those fiends which are only cast out by fasting and
+prayer. Alas! not many wise, not many learned are chosen; the cottage
+and the hamlet shall in our days bear witness against the schools and
+their disciples. Thy very wisdom, which is foolishness, hath made
+thee, as the Greeks of old, hold as foolishness that which is the only
+true wisdom."
+
+"This," said the Sub-Prior, sternly, "is the mere cant of ignorant
+enthusiasm, which appealeth from learning and from authority, from the
+sure guidance of that lamp which God hath afforded us in the Councils
+and in the Fathers of the Church, to a rash, self-willed, and
+arbitrary interpretation of the Scriptures, wrested according to the
+private opinion of each speculating heretic."
+
+"I disdain to reply to the charge," replied Warden. "The question at
+issue between your Church and mine, is, whether we will be judged by
+the Holy Scriptures, or by the devices and decisions of men not less
+subject to error than ourselves, and who have defaced our holy
+religion with vain devices, reared up idols of stone and wood, in form
+of those, who, when they lived, were but sinful creatures, to share
+the worship due only to the Creator--established a toll-house betwixt
+heaven and hell, that profitable purgatory of which the Pope keeps the
+keys, like an iniquitous judge commutes punishment for bribes,
+and----"
+
+"Silence, blasphemer," said the Sub-Prior, sternly, "or I will have thy
+blatant obloquy stopped with a gag!"
+
+"Ay," replied Warden, "such is the freedom of the Christian conference
+to which Rome's priests so kindly invite us!--the gag--the rack--the
+axe--is the _ratio ultima Romae_. But know thou, mine ancient
+friend, that the character of thy former companion is not so changed
+by age, but that he still dares to endure for the cause of truth all
+that thy proud hierarchy shall dare to inflict."
+
+"Of that," said the monk, "I nothing doubt--Thou wert ever a lion to
+turn against the spear of the hunter, not a stag to be dismayed at the
+sound of his bugle."--He walked through the room in silence.
+"Wellwood," he said at length, "we can no longer be friends. Our
+faith, our hope, our anchor on futurity, is no longer the same."
+
+"Deep is my sorrow that thou speakest truth. May God so judge me,"
+said the Reformer, "as I would buy the conversion of a soul like thine
+with my dearest heart's blood."
+
+"To thee, and with better reason, do I return the wish," replied the
+Sub-Prior; "it is such an arm as thine that should defend the bulwarks
+of the Church, and it is now directing the battering-ram against them,
+and rendering practicable the breach through which all that is greedy,
+and all that is base, and all that is mutable and hot-headed in this
+innovating age, already hope to advance to destruction and to spoil.
+But since such is our fate, that we can no longer fight side by side
+as friends, let us at least act as generous enemies. You cannot have
+forgotten,
+
+  'O gran bonta dei caralieri antiqui!
+  Erano nemici, eran' de fede diversa'--
+
+Although, perhaps," he added, stopping short in his quotation, "your new
+faith forbids you to reserve a place in your memory, even for what high
+poets have recorded of loyal faith and generous sentiment."
+
+"The faith of Buchanan," replied the preacher, "the faith of Buchanan
+and of Beza, cannot be unfriendly to literature. But the poet you have
+quoted affords strains fitter for a dissolute court than for a convent."
+
+"I might retort on your Theodore Beza," said the Sub-Prior, smiling;
+"but I hate the judgment that, like the flesh-fly, skims over whatever
+is sound, to detect and settle upon some spot which is tainted. But to
+the purpose. If I conduct thee or send thee a prisoner to St. Mary's,
+thou art to-night a tenant of the dungeon, to-morrow a burden to the
+gibbet-tree. If I were to let thee go hence at large, I were thereby
+wronging the Holy Church, and breaking mine own solemn vow. Other
+resolutions may be adopted in the capital, or better times may
+speedily ensue. Wilt thou remain a true prisoner upon thy parole,
+rescue or no rescue, as is the phrase amongst the warriors of this
+country? Wilt thou solemnly promise that thou wilt do so, and at my
+summons thou wilt present thyself before the Abbot and Chapter at
+Saint Mary's, and that thou wilt not stir from this house above a
+quarter of a mile in any direction? Wilt thou, I say, engage me thy
+word for this? and such is the sure trust which I repose in thy good
+faith, that thou shalt remain here unharmed and unsecured, a prisoner
+at large, subject only to appear before our court when called upon."
+
+The preacher paused--"I am unwilling," he said, "to fetter my native
+liberty by any self-adopted engagement. But I am already in your
+power, and you may bind me to my answer. By such promise, to abide
+within a certain limit, and to appear when called upon, I renounce not
+any liberty which I at present possess, and am free to exercise; but,
+on the contrary, being in bonds, and at your mercy, I acquire thereby
+a liberty which I at present possess not. I will therefore accept of
+thy proffer, as what is courteously offered on thy part, and may be
+honourably accepted on mine."
+
+"Stay yet," said the Sub-Prior; "one important part of thy engagement
+is forgotten--thou art farther to promise, that while thus left at
+liberty, thou wilt not preach or teach, directly or indirectly, any of
+those pestilent heresies by which so many souls have been in this our
+day won over from the kingdom of light to the kingdom of darkness."
+
+"There we break off our treaty," said Warden, firmly--"Wo unto me if
+I preach not the Gospel!"
+
+The Sub-Prior's countenance became clouded, and he again paced the
+apartment, and muttered, "A plague upon the self-willed fool!" then
+stopped short in his walk, and proceeded in his argument.--"Why, by
+thine own reasoning, Henry, thy refusal here is but peevish obstinacy.
+It is in my power to place you where your preaching can reach no human
+ear; in promising therefore to abstain from it, you grant nothing
+which you have it in your power to refuse."
+
+"I know not that," replied Henry Warden; "thou mayest indeed cast me
+into a dungeon, but can I foretell that my Master hath not task-work
+for me to perform even in that dreary mansion? The chains of saints
+have, ere now, been the means of breaking the bonds of Satan. In a
+prison, holy Paul found the jailor whom he brought to believe the word
+of salvation, he and all his house."
+
+"Nay," said the Sub-Prior, in a tone betwixt anger and scorn, "if you
+match yourself with the blessed Apostle, it were time we had done--
+prepare to endure what thy folly, as well as thy heresy,
+deserves.--Bind him, soldier."
+
+With proud submission to his fate, and regarding the Sub-Prior with
+something which almost amounted to a smile of superiority, the preacher
+placed his arms so that the bonds could be again fastened round him.
+
+"Spare me not," he said to Christie; for even that ruffian hesitated
+to draw the cord straitly.
+
+The Sub-Prior, meanwhile, looked at him from under his cowl, which he
+had drawn over his head, and partly over his face, as if he wished to
+shade his own emotions. They were those of a huntsman within
+point-blank shot of a noble stag, who is yet too much struck with his
+majesty of front and of antler to take aim at him. They were those of
+a fowler, who, levelling his gun at a magnificent eagle, is yet
+reluctant to use his advantage when he sees the noble sovereign of the
+birds pruning himself in proud defiance of whatever may be attempted
+against him. The heart of the Sub-Prior (bigoted as he was) relented,
+and he doubted if he ought to purchase, by a rigorous discharge of
+what he deemed his duty, the remorse he might afterwards feel for the
+death of one so nobly independent in thought and character, the
+friend, besides, of his own happiest years, during which they had,
+side by side, striven in the noble race of knowledge, and indulged
+their intervals of repose in the lighter studies of classical and
+general letters.
+
+The Sub-Prior's hand pressed his half-o'ershadowed cheek, and his eye,
+more completely obscured, was bent on the ground, as if to hide the
+workings of his relenting nature.
+
+"Were but Edward safe from the infection," he thought to
+himself--"Edward, whose eager and enthusiastic mind presses forward in
+the chase of all that hath even the shadow of knowledge, I might trust
+this enthusiast with the women, after due caution to them that they
+cannot, without guilt, attend to his reveries."
+
+As the Sub-Prior revolved these thoughts, and delayed the definitive
+order which was to determine the fate of the prisoner, a sudden noise
+at the entrance of the tower diverted his attention for an instant,
+and, his cheek and brow inflamed with all the glow of heat and
+determination, Edward Glendinning rushed into the room.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Second.
+
+
+  Then in my gown of sober gray
+    Along the mountain path I'll wander,
+  And wind my solitary way
+    To the sad shrine that courts me yonder.
+
+  There, in the calm monastic shade,
+    All injuries may be forgiven;
+  And there for thee, obdurate maid,
+    My orisons shall rise to heaven.
+          THE CRUEL LADY OF THE MOUNTAINS.
+
+The first words which Edward uttered were,--"My brother is safe,
+reverend father--he is safe, thank God, and lives!--There is not in
+Corri-nan-shian a grave, nor a vestige of a grave. The turf around
+the fountain has neither been disturbed by pick-axe, spade, nor
+mattock, since the deer's-hair first sprang there. He lives as surely
+as I live!"
+
+The earnestness of the youth--the vivacity with which he looked and
+moved--the springy step, outstretched hand, and ardent eye, reminded
+Henry Warden of Halbert, so lately his guide. The brothers had indeed
+a strong family resemblance, though Halbert was far more athletic and
+active in his person, taller and better knit in the limbs, and though
+Edward had, on ordinary occasions, a look of more habitual acuteness
+and more profound reflection. The preacher was interested as well as
+the Sub-Prior.
+
+"Of whom do you speak, my son?" he said, in a tone as unconcerned as
+if his own fate had not been at the same instant trembling in the
+balance, and as if a dungeon and death did not appear to be his
+instant doom--"Of whom, I say, speak you? If of a youth somewhat older
+than you seem to be--brown-haired, open-featured, taller and stronger
+than you appear, yet having much of the same air and of the same tone
+of voice--if such a one is the brother whom you seek, it may be I can
+tell you news of him."
+
+"Speak, then, for Heaven's sake," said Edward--"life or death lies on
+thy tongue!"
+
+The Sub-Prior joined eagerly in the same request, and, without waiting
+to be urged, the preacher gave so minute an account of the
+circumstances under which he met the elder Glendinning, with so exact
+a description of his person, that there remained no doubt as to his
+identity. When he mentioned that Halbert Glendinning had conducted him
+to a dell in which they found the grass bloody, and a grave newly
+closed, and told how the youth accused himself of the slaughter of Sir
+Piercie Shafton, the Sub-Prior looked on Edward with astonishment.
+
+"Didst thou not say, even now," he said, "that there was no vestige of a
+grave in that spot?"
+
+"No more vestige of the earth having been removed than if the turf had
+grown there since the days of Adam," replied Edward Glendinning. "It is
+true," he added, "that the adjacent grass was trampled and bloody."
+
+"These are delusions of the Enemy," said the Sub-Prior, crossing
+himself.--"Christian men may no longer doubt of it."
+
+"But an it be so," said Warden, "Christian men might better guard
+themselves by the sword of prayer than by the idle form of a
+cabalistical spell."
+
+"The badge of our salvation," said the Sub-Prior, "cannot be so
+termed--the sign of the cross disarmeth all evil spirits."
+
+"Ay," answered Henry Warden, apt and armed for controversy, "but it
+should be borne in the heart, not scored with the fingers in the air.
+That very impassive air, through which your hand passes, shall as soon
+bear the imprint of your action, as the external action shall avail
+the fond bigot who substitutes vain motions of the body, idle
+genuflections, and signs of the cross, for the living and heart-born
+duties of faith and good works."
+
+"I pity thee," said the Sub-Prior, as actively ready for polemics as
+himself,--"I pity thee, Henry, and reply not to thee. Thou mayest as
+well winnow forth and measure the ocean with a sieve, as mete out the
+power of holy words, deeds, and signs, by the erring gauge of thine
+own reason."
+
+"Not by mine own reason would I mete them," said Warden; "but by
+His holy Word, that unfading and unerring lamp of our paths, compared to
+which human reason is but as a glimmering and fading taper, and your
+boasted tradition only a misleading wildfire. Show me your Scripture
+warrant for ascribing virtue to such vain signs and motions!"
+
+"I offered thee a fair field of debate," said the Sub-Prior, "which
+thou didst refuse. I will not at present resume the controversy."
+
+"Were these my last accents," said the reformer, "and were they
+uttered at the stake, half-choked with smoke, and as the fagots
+kindled into a blaze around me, with that last utterance I would
+testify against the superstitious devices of Rome."
+
+The Sub-Prior suppressed with pain the controversial answer which
+arose to his lips, and, turning to Edward Glendinning, he said, "there
+could be now no doubt that his mother ought presently to be informed
+that her son lived."
+
+"I told you that two hours since," said Christie of the Clinthill, "an
+you would have believed me. But it seems you are more willing to take
+the word of an old gray sorner, whose life has been spent in pattering
+heresy, than mine, though I never rode a foray in my life without duly
+saying my paternoster."
+
+"Go then," said Father Eustace to Edward; "let thy sorrowing mother
+know that her son is restored to her from the grave, like the child of
+the widow of Zarephath; at the intercession," he added, looking at
+Henry Warden, "of the blessed Saint whom I invoked in his behalf."
+
+"Deceived thyself," said Warden, instantly, "thou art a deceiver of
+others. It was no dead man, no creature of clay, whom the blessed
+Tishbite invoked, when, stung by the reproach of the Shunamite woman,
+he prayed that her son's soul might come into him again."
+
+"It was by his intercession, however," repeated the Sub-Prior; "for
+what says the Vulgate? Thus it is written: '_Et exaudivit Dominus
+vocem Helie; et reversa est anima pueri intra cum, et
+revixit_;'--and thinkest thou the intercession of a glorified saint
+is more feeble than when he walks on earth, shrouded in a tabernacle
+of clay, and seeing but with the eye of flesh?"
+
+During this controversy Edward Glendinning appeared restless and
+impatient, agitated by some internal feeling, but whether of joy,
+grief, or expectation, his countenance did not expressly declare. He
+took now the unusual freedom to break in upon the discourse of the
+Sub-Prior, who, notwithstanding his resolution to the contrary, was
+obviously kindling in the spirit of controversy, which Edward diverted
+by conjuring his reverence to allow him to speak a few words with him
+in private.
+
+"Remove the prisoner," said the Sub-Prior to Christie; "look to him
+carefully that he escape not; but for thy life do him no injury."
+
+His commands being obeyed, Edward and the monk were left alone, when
+the Sub-Prior thus addressed him:
+
+"What hath come over thee, Edward, that thy eye kindles so wildly, and
+thy cheek is thus changing from scarlet to pale? Why didst thou break
+in so hastily and unadvisedly upon the argument with which I was
+prostrating yonder heretic? And wherefore dost thou not tell thy
+mother that her son is restored to her by the intercession, as Holy
+Church well warrants us to believe, of Blessed Saint Benedict, the
+patron of our Order? For if ever my prayers were put forth to him with
+zeal, it hath been in behalf of this house, and thine eyes have seen
+the result--go tell it to thy mother."
+
+"I must tell her then," said Edward, "that if she has regained one son,
+another is lost to her."
+
+"What meanest thou, Edward? what language is this?" said the Sub-Prior.
+
+"Father," said the youth, kneeling down to him, "my sin and my shame
+shall be told thee, and thou shalt witness my penance with thine own
+eyes."
+
+"I comprehend thee not," said the Sub-Prior. "What canst thou have
+done to deserve such self-accusation?--Hast thou too listened," he
+added, knitting his brows, "to the demon of heresy, ever most
+effectual tempter of those, who, like yonder unhappy man, are
+distinguished by their love of knowledge?"
+
+"I am guiltless in that matter," answered Glendinning, "nor have
+presumed to think otherwise than thou, my kind father, hast taught me,
+and than the Church allows."
+
+"And what is it then, my son," said the Sub-Prior, kindly, "which thus
+afflicts thy conscience? speak it to me, that I may answer thee in the
+words of comfort; for the Church's mercy is great to those obedient
+children who doubt not her power."
+
+"My confession will require her mercy," replied Edward. "My brother
+Halbert--so kind, so brave, so gentle, who spoke not, thought not,
+acted not, but in love to me, whose hand had aided me in every
+difficulty, whose eye watched over me like the eagle's over her
+nestlings, when they prove their first flight from the eyry--this
+brother, so kind, so gently affectionate--I heard of his sudden, his
+bloody, his violent death, and I rejoiced--I heard of his unexpected
+restoration, and I sorrowed!"
+
+"Edward," said the father, "thou art beside thyself--what could urge
+thee to such odious ingratitude?--In your hurry of spirits you have
+mistaken the confused tenor of your feelings--Go, my son, pray and
+compose thy mind--we will speak of this another time."
+
+"No, father, no," said Edward, vehemently, "now or never!--I will find
+the means to tame this rebellious heart of mine, or I will tear it out
+of my bosom--Mistake its passions?--No, father, grief can ill be
+mistaken for joy--All wept, all shrieked around me--my mother--the
+menials--she too, the cause of my crime--all wept--and I--I could
+hardly disguise my brutal and insane joy under the appearance of
+revenge--Brother, I said, I cannot give thee tears, but I will give
+thee blood--Yes, father, as I counted hour after hour, while I kept
+watch upon the English prisoner, and said, I am an hour nearer to hope
+and to happiness----"
+
+"I understand thee not, Edward," said the monk, "nor can I conceive in
+what way thy brother's supposed murder should have affected thee with
+such unnatural joy--Surely the sordid desire to succeed him in his
+small possessions----"
+
+"Perish the paltry trash!" said Edward, with the same emotion. "No,
+father, it was rivalry--it was jealous rage--it was the love of Mary
+Avenel, that rendered me the unnatural wretch I confess myself!"
+
+"Of Mary Avenel!" said the Priest--"of a lady so high above either of
+you in name and in rank? How dared Halbert--how dared you, to presume
+to lift your eye to her but in honour and respect, as a superior of
+another degree from yours?"
+
+"When did love wait for the sanction of heraldry?" replied Edward;
+"and in what but a line of dead ancestors was Mary, our mother's guest
+and foster-child, different from us, with whom she was brought up?--
+Enough, we loved--we both loved her! But the passion of Halbert was
+requited. He knew it not, he saw it not--but I was sharper-eyed. I saw
+that even when I was more approved, Halbert was more beloved. With me
+she would sit for hours at our common task with the cold simplicity
+and indifference of a sister, but with Halbert she trusted not
+herself. She changed colour, she was fluttered when he approached her;
+and when he left her, she was sad, pensive, and solitary. I bore all
+this--I saw my rival's advancing progress in her affections--I bore
+it, father, and yet I hated him not--I could not hate him!"
+
+"And well for thee that thou didst not," said the father; "wild and
+headstrong as thou art, wouldst thou hate thy brother for partaking in
+thine own folly?"
+
+"Father," replied Edward, "the world esteems thee wise, and holds thy
+knowledge of mankind high; but thy question shows that thou hast never
+loved. It was by an effort that I saved myself from hating my kind and
+affectionate brother, who, all unsuspicious of my rivalry, was
+perpetually loading me with kindness. Nay, there were moods of my
+mind, in which I could return that kindness for a time with energetic
+enthusiasm. Never did I feel this so strongly as on the night which
+parted us. But I could not help rejoicing when he was swept from my
+path--could not help sorrowing when he was again restored to be a
+stumbling-block in my paths."
+
+"May God be gracious to thee, my son!" said the monk; "this is an
+awful state of mind. Even in such evil mood did the first murderer
+rise up against his brother, because Abel's was the more acceptable
+sacrifice."
+
+"I will wrestle with the demon which has haunted me, father," replied
+the youth, firmly--"I will wrestle with him, and I will subdue him.
+But first I must remove from the scenes which are to follow here. I
+cannot endure that I should see Mary Avenel's eyes again flash with
+joy at the restoration of her lover. It were a sight to make indeed a
+second Cain of me!  My fierce, turbid, and transitory joy discharged
+itself in a thirst to commit homicide, and how can I estimate the
+frenzy of my despair?"
+
+"Madman!" said the Sub-Prior, "at what dreadful crime does thy fury
+drive?"
+
+"My lot is determined, father," said Edward, in a resolute tone; "I
+will embrace the spiritual state which you have so oft recommended. It
+is my purpose to return with you to Saint Mary's, and, with the
+permission of the Holy Virgin and of Saint Benedict, to offer my
+profession to the Abbot."
+
+"Not now, my son," said the Sub-Prior, "not in this distemperature of
+mind. The wise and good accept not gifts which are made in heat of
+blood, and which may be after repented of; and shall we make our
+offerings to wisdom and to goodness itself with less of solemn
+resolution and deep devotion of mind, than is necessary to make them
+acceptable to our own frail companions in this valley of darkness?
+This I say to thee, my son, not as meaning to deter thee from the good
+path thou art now inclined to prefer, but that thou mayst make thy
+vocation and thine election sure."
+
+"There are actions, father," returned Edward, "which brook no delay,
+and this is one. It must be done this very _now_; or it may never
+be done. Let me go with you; let me not behold the return of Halbert
+into this house.  Shame, and the sense of the injustice I have already
+done him, will join with these dreadful passions which urge me to do
+him yet farther wrong.  Let me then go with you."
+
+"With me, my son," said the Sub-Prior, "thou shalt surely go; but our
+rule, as well as reason and good order, require that you should dwell
+a space with us as a probationer, or novice, before taking upon thee
+those final vows, which, sequestering thee for ever from the world,
+dedicate thee to the service of Heaven."
+
+"And when shall we set forth, father?" said the youth, as eagerly as
+if the journey which he was now undertaking led to the pleasures of a
+summer holiday.
+
+"Even now, if thou wilt," said the Sub-Prior, yielding to his
+impetuosity--"go, then, and command them to prepare for our
+departure.--Yet stay," he said, as Edward, with all the awakened
+enthusiasm of his character, hastened from his presence, "come hither,
+my son, and kneel down."
+
+Edward obeyed, and kneeled down before him. Notwithstanding his slight
+figure and thin features, the Sub-Prior could, from the energy of his
+tone, and the earnestness of his devotional manner, impress his pupils
+and his penitents with no ordinary feelings of personal reverence. His
+heart always was, as well as seemed to be, in the duty which he was
+immediately performing; and the spiritual guide who thus shows a deep
+conviction of the importance of his office, seldom fails to impress a
+similar feeling upon his hearers. Upon such occasions as the present,
+his puny body seemed to assume more majestic stature--his spare and
+emaciated countenance bore a bolder, loftier, and more commanding
+port--his voice, always beautiful, trembled as labouring under the
+immediate impulse of the Divinity--and his whole demeanour seemed to
+bespeak, not the mere ordinary man, but the organ of the Church in
+which she had vested her high power for delivering sinners from their
+load of iniquity.
+
+"Hast thou, my fair son," said he, "faithfully recounted the
+circumstances which have thus suddenly determined thee to a religious
+life?"
+
+"The sins I have confessed, my father," answered Edward, "but I have
+not yet told of a strange appearance, which, acting in my mind, hath, I
+think, aided to determine my resolution."
+
+"Tell it, then, now," returned the Sub-Prior; "it is thy duty to leave
+me uninstructed in nought, so that thereby I may understand the
+temptation that besets thee."
+
+"I tell it with unwillingness," said Edward; "for although, God wot, I
+speak but the mere truth, yet even while my tongue speaks it as truth,
+my own ears receive it as fable."
+
+"Yet say the whole," said Father Eustace; "neither fear rebuke from
+me, seeing I may know reasons for receiving as true that which others
+might regard as fabulous."
+
+"Know, then, father," replied Edward, "that betwixt hope and
+despair--and, heavens! what a hope!--the hope to find the corpse
+mangled and crushed hastily in amongst the bloody clay which the foot
+of the scornful victor had trod down upon my good, my gentle, my
+courageous brother,--I sped to the glen called Corri-nan-shian; but,
+as your reverence has been already informed, neither the grave, which
+my unhallowed wishes had in spite of my better self longed to see, nor
+any appearance of the earth having been opened, was visible in the
+solitary spot where Martin had, at morning yesterday, seen the fatal
+hillock. You know your dalesmen, father. The place hath an evil name,
+and this deception of the sight inclined them to leave it. My
+companions became affrighted, and hastened down the glen as men caught
+in trespass. My hopes were too much blighted, my mind too much
+agitated, to fear either the living or the dead. I descended the glen
+more slowly than they, often looking back, and not ill pleased with
+the poltroonery of my companions, which left me to my own perplexed
+and moody humour, and induced them to hasten into the broader dale.
+They were already out of sight, and lost amongst the windings of the
+glen, when, looking back, I saw a female form standing beside the
+fountain----"
+
+"How, my fair son?" said the Sub-Prior, "beware you jest not with your
+present situation!"
+
+"I jest not, father," answered the youth; "it may be I shall never
+jest again--surely not for many a day. I saw, I say, the form of a
+female clad in white, such as the Spirit which haunts the house of
+Avenel is supposed to be. Believe me, my father, for, by heaven and
+earth, I say nought but what I saw with these eyes!"
+
+"I believe thee, my son," said the monk; "proceed in thy strange
+story."
+
+"The apparition," said Edward Glendinning, "sung, and thus ran her
+lay; for, strange as it may seem to you, her words abide by my
+remembrance as if they had been sung to me from infancy upward:--
+
+  'Thou who seek'st my fountain lone,
+  With thoughts and hopes thou dar'st not own;
+  Whose heart within leap'd wildly glad
+  When most his brow seem'd dark and sad;
+  Hie thee back, thou find'st not here
+  Corpse or coffin, grave or bier;
+  The Dead Alive is gone and fled--
+  Go thou, and join the Living Dead!
+
+  'The Living Dead, whose sober brow
+  Oft shrouds such thoughts as thou hast now,
+  Whose hearts within are seldom cured
+  Of passions by their vows abjured;
+  Where, under sad and solemn show,
+  Vain hopes are nursed, wild wishes glow.
+  Seek the convent's vaulted room,
+  Prayer and vigil be thy doom;
+  Doff the green, and don the gray,
+  To the cloister hence away!'"
+
+"'Tis a wild lay," said the Sub-Prior, "and chanted, I fear me, with
+no good end. But we have power to turn the machinations of Satan to
+his shame. Edward, thou shalt go with me as thou desirest; thou shalt
+prove the life for which I have long thought thee best fitted--thou
+shalt aid, my son, this trembling hand of mine to sustain the Holy
+Ark, which bold unhallowed men press rashly forward to touch and to
+profane.--Wilt thou not first see thy mother?"
+
+"I will see no one," said Edward, hastily; "I will risk nothing that
+may shake the purpose of my heart. From Saint Mary's they shall learn
+my destination--all of them shall learn it. My mother--Mary Avenel--my
+restored and happy brother--they shall all know that Edward lives no
+longer to the world to be a clog on their happiness. Mary shall no
+longer need to constrain her looks and expressions to coldness because
+I am nigh.  She shall no longer----"
+
+"My son," said the Sub-Prior, interrupting him, "it is not by looking
+back on the vanities and vexations of this world, that we fit
+ourselves for the discharge of duties which are not of it. Go, get our
+horses ready, and, as we descend the glen together, I will teach thee
+the truths through which the fathers and wise men of old had that
+precious alchemy, which can convert suffering into happiness."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Third.
+
+
+  Now, on my faith, this gear is all entangled,
+  Like to the yarn-clew of the drowsy knitter,
+  Dragg'd by the frolic kitten through the cabin,
+  While the good dame sits nodding o'er the fire!
+  Masters, attend; 'twill crave some skill to clear it.
+                                       OLD PLAY.
+
+Edward, with the speed of one who doubts the steadiness of his own
+resolution, hastened to prepare the horses for their departure, and at
+the same time thanked and dismissed the neighbours who had come to his
+assistance, and who were not a little surprised both at the suddenness
+of his proposed departure, and at the turn affairs had taken.
+
+"Here's cold hospitality," quoth Dan of the Howlet-hirst to his
+comrades; "I trow the Glendinnings may die and come alive right oft,
+ere I put foot in stirrup again for the matter."
+
+Martin soothed them by placing food and liquor before them. They ate
+sullenly, however, and departed in bad humour.
+
+The joyful news that Halbert Glendinning lived, was quickly
+communicated through the sorrowing family. The mother wept and thanked
+Heaven alternately; until her habits of domestic economy awakening as
+her feelings became calmer, she observed, "It would be an unco task to
+mend the yetts, and what were they to do while they were broken in
+that fashion? At open doors dogs come in."
+
+Tibb remarked, "She aye thought Halbert was ower gleg at his weapon to
+be killed sae easily by ony Sir Piercie of them a'. They might say of
+these Southrons as they liked; but they had not the pith and wind of a
+canny Scot, when it came to close grips."
+
+On Mary Avenel the impression was inconceivably deeper. She had but
+newly learned to pray, and it seemed to her that her prayers had been
+instantly answered--that the compassion of Heaven, which she had
+learned to implore in the words of Scripture, had descended upon her
+after a manner almost miraculous, and recalled the dead from the grave
+at the sound of her lamentations. There was a dangerous degree of
+enthusiasm in this strain of feeling, but it originated in the purest
+devotion.
+
+A silken and embroidered muffler, one of the few articles of more
+costly attire which she possessed, was devoted to the purpose of
+wrapping up and concealing the sacred volume, which henceforth she was
+to regard as her chiefest treasure, lamenting only that, for want of a
+fitting interpreter, much must remain to her a book closed and a
+fountain sealed. She was unaware of the yet greater danger she
+incurred, of putting an imperfect or even false sense upon some of the
+doctrines which appeared most comprehensible. But Heaven had provided
+against both these hazards.
+
+While Edward was preparing the horses, Christie of the Clinthill again
+solicited his orders respecting the reformed preacher, Henry Warden,
+and again the worthy monk laboured to reconcile in his own mind the
+compassion and esteem which, almost in spite of him, he could not help
+feeling for his former companion, with the duty which he owed to the
+Church. The unexpected resolution of Edward had removed, he thought,
+the chief objection to his being left at Glendearg.
+
+"If I carry this Well-wood, or Warden, to the Monastery." he thought,
+"he must die--die in his heresy--perish body and soul. And though such
+a measure was once thought advisable, to strike terror into the
+heretics, yet such is now their daily increasing strength, that it may
+rather rouse them to fury and to revenge. True, he refuses to pledge
+himself to abstain from sowing his tares among the wheat; but the
+ground here is too barren to receive them. I fear not his making
+impression on these poor women, the vassals of the Church, and bred up
+in due obedience to her behests. The keen, searching, inquiring, and
+bold disposition of Edward, might have afforded fuel to the fire; but
+that is removed, and there is nothing left which the flame may catch
+to.--Thus shall he have no power to spread his evil doctrines abroad,
+and yet his life shall be preserved, and it may be his soul rescued as
+a prey from the fowler's net. I will myself contend with him in
+argument; for when we studied in common, I yielded not to him, and
+surely the cause for which I struggle will support me, were I yet more
+weak than I deem myself. Were this man reclaimed from his errors, an
+hundred-fold more advantage would arise to the Church from his
+spiritual regeneration, than from his temporal death."
+
+Having finished these meditations, in which there was at once goodness
+of disposition and narrowness of principle, a considerable portion of
+self-opinion, and no small degree of self-delusion, the Sub-Prior
+commanded the prisoner to be brought into his presence.
+
+"Henry," he said, "whatever a rigid sense of duty may demand of me,
+ancient friendship and Christian compassion forbid me to lead thee to
+assured death. Thou wert wont to be generous, though stern and
+stubborn in thy resolves; let not thy sense of what thine own thoughts
+term duty, draw thee farther than mine have done. Remember, that every
+sheep whom thou shalt here lead astray from the fold, will be demanded
+in time and through eternity of him who hath left thee the liberty of
+doing such evil. I ask no engagement of thee, save that thou remain a
+prisoner on thy word at this tower, and wilt appear when summoned."
+
+"Thou hast found an invention to bind my hands," replied the preacher,
+"more sure than would have been the heaviest shackles in the prison of
+thy convent. I will not rashly do what may endanger thee with thy
+unhappy superiors, and I will be the more cautious, because, if we had
+farther opportunity of conference, I trust thine own soul may yet be
+rescued as a brand from the burning, and that, casting from thee the
+livery of Anti-Christ, that trader in human sins and human souls, I
+may yet assist thee to lay hold on the Rock of Ages."
+
+The Sub-Prior heard the sentiment, so similar to that which had
+occurred to himself, with the same kindly feelings with which the
+game-cock hears and replies to the challenge of his rival.
+
+"I bless God and Our Lady," said he, drawing himself up, "that my
+faith is already anchored on that Rock on which Saint Peter founded
+his Church."
+
+"It is a perversion of the text," said the eager Henry Warden,
+"grounded on a vain play upon words--a most idle paronomasia."
+
+The controversy would have been rekindled, and in all probability--for
+what can insure the good temper and moderation of polemics?--might
+have ended in the preacher's being transported a captive to the
+Monastery, had not Christie of the Clinthill observed that it was
+growing late, and that he, having to descend the glen, which had no
+good reputation, cared not greatly for travelling there after sunset.
+The Sub-Prior, therefore, stifled his desire of argument, and again
+telling the preacher, that he trusted to his gratitude and generosity,
+he bade him farewell.
+
+"Be assured, my old friend," replied Warden, "that no willing act of
+mine shall be to thy prejudice. But if my Master shall place work
+before me, I must obey God rather than man."
+
+These two men, both excellent from natural disposition and acquired
+knowledge, had more points of similarity than they themselves would
+have admitted. In truth, the chief distinction betwixt them was, that
+the Catholic, defending a religion which afforded little interest to
+the feelings, had, in his devotion to the cause he espoused, more of
+the head than of the heart, and was politic, cautious, and artful;
+while the Protestant, acting under the strong impulse of more
+lately-adopted conviction, and feeling, as he justly might, a more
+animated confidence in his cause, was enthusiastic, eager, and
+precipitate in his desire to advance it. The priest would have been
+contented to defend, the preacher aspired to conquer; and, of course,
+the impulse by which the latter was governed, was more active and more
+decisive. They could not part from each other without a second
+pressure of hands, and each looked in the face of his old companion,
+as he bade him adieu, with a countenance strongly expressive of
+sorrow, affection, and pity.
+
+Father Eustace then explained briefly to Dame Glendinning, that this
+person was to be her guest for some days, forbidding her and her whole
+household, under high spiritual censures, to hold any conversation
+with him on religious subjects, but commanding her to attend to his
+wants in all other particulars.
+
+"May Our Lady forgive me, reverend father," said Dame Glendinning,
+somewhat dismayed at this intelligence, "but I must needs say, that
+ower mony guests have been the ruin of mony a house, and I trow they
+will bring down Glendearg. First came the Lady of Avenel--(her soul be
+at rest--she meant nae ill)--but she brought with her as mony bogles
+and fairies, as hae kept the house in care ever since, sae that we
+have been living as it were in a dream. And then came that English
+knight, if it please you, and if he hasna killed my son outright, he
+has chased him aff the gate, and it may be lang eneugh ere I see him
+again--forby the damage done to outer door and inner door. And now
+your reverence has given me the charge of a heretic, who, it is like,
+may bring the great horned devil himself down upon us all; and they
+say that it is neither door nor window will serve him, but he will
+take away the side of the auld tower along with him. Nevertheless,
+reverend father, your pleasure is doubtless to be done to our power."
+
+"Go to, woman," said the Sub-Prior; "send for workmen from the
+clachan, and let them charge the expense of their repairs to the
+Community, and I will give the treasurer warrant to allow them.
+Moreover, in settling the rental mails, and feu-duties, thou shalt
+have allowance for the trouble and charges to which thou art now put,
+and I will cause strict search to be made after thy son."
+
+The dame curtsied deep and low at each favourable expression; and when
+the Sub-Prior had done speaking, she added her farther hope that the
+Sub-Prior would hold some communing with her gossip the Miller,
+concerning the fate of his daughter, and expound to him that the
+chance had by no means happened through any negligence on her part.
+
+"I sair doubt me, father," she said, "whether Mysie finds her way back
+to the Mill in a hurry; but it was all her father's own fault that let
+her run lamping about the country, riding on bare-backed naigs, and
+never settling to do a turn of wark within doors, unless it were to
+dress dainties at dinner-time for his ain kyte."
+
+"You remind me, dame, of another matter of urgency," said Father
+Eustace; "and, God knows, too many of them press on me at this moment.
+This English knight must be sought out, and explanation given to him
+of these most strange chances. The giddy girl must also be recovered.
+If she hath suffered in reputation by this unhappy mistake, I will not
+hold myself innocent of the disgrace. Yet how to find them out I know
+not."
+
+"So please you," said Christie of the Clinthill, "I am willing to take
+the chase, and bring them back by fair means or foul; for though you
+have always looked as black as night at me, whenever we have
+forgathered, yet I have not forgotten that had it not been for you, my
+neck would have kend the weight of my four quarters. If any man can
+track the tread of them, I will say in the face of both Merse and
+Teviotdale, and take the Forest to boot, I am that man. But first I
+have matters to treat of on my master's score, if you will permit me
+to ride down the glen with you."
+
+"Nay, but my friend," said the Sub-Prior, "thou shouldst remember I
+have but slender cause to trust thee for a companion through a place
+so solitary."
+
+"Tush! tush!" said the Jackman, "fear me not; I had the worst too
+surely to begin that sport again. Besides, have I not said a dozen of
+times, I owe you a life? and when I owe a man either a good turn or a
+bad, I never fail to pay it sooner or later. Moreover, beshrew me if I
+care to go alone down the glen, or even with my troopers, who are,
+every loon of them, as much devil's bairns as myself; whereas, if your
+reverence, since that is the word, take beads and psalter, and I come
+along with jack and spear, you will make the devils take the air, and
+I will make all human enemies take the earth."
+
+Edward here entered, and told his reverence that his horse was
+prepared. At this instant his eye caught his mother's, and the
+resolution which he had so strongly formed was staggered when he
+recollected the necessity of bidding her farewell. The Sub-Prior saw
+his embarrassment, and came to his relief.
+
+"Dame," said he, "I forgot to mention that your son Edward goes with
+me to Saint Mary's, and will not return for two or three days."
+
+"You'll be wishing to help him to recover his brother? May the saints
+reward your kindness!"
+
+The Sub-Prior returned the benediction which, in this instance, he had
+not very well deserved, and he and Edward set forth on their route.
+They were presently followed by Christie, who came up with his
+followers at such a speedy pace, as intimated sufficiently that his
+wish to obtain spiritual convoy through the glen, was extremely
+sincere. He had, however, other matters to stimulate his speed, for he
+was desirous to communicate to the Sub-Prior a message from his master
+Julian, connected with the delivery of the prisoner Warden; and having
+requested the Sub-Prior to ride with him a few yards before Edward,
+and the troopers of his own party, he thus addressed him, sometimes
+interrupting his discourse in a manner testifying that his fear of
+supernatural beings was not altogether lulled to rest by his
+confidence in the sanctity of his fellow-traveller.
+
+"My master," said the rider, "deemed he had sent you an acceptable
+gift in that old heretic preacher; but it seems, from the slight care
+you have taken of him, that you make small account of the boon."
+
+"Nay," said the Sub-Prior, "do not thus judge of it. The Community
+must account highly of the service, and will reward it to thy master in
+goodly fashion. But this man and I are old friends, and I trust to bring
+him back from the paths of perdition."
+
+"Nay," said the moss-trooper, "when I saw you shake hands at the
+beginning I counted that you would fight it all out in love and
+honour, and that there would be no extreme dealings betwixt ye--
+however it is all one to my master--Saint Mary! what call you yon, Sir
+Monk?"
+
+"The branch of a willow streaming across the path betwixt us and the
+sky."
+
+"Beshrew me," said Christie, "if it looked not like a man's hand
+holding a sword.--But touching my master, he, like a prudent man, hath
+kept himself aloof in these broken times, until he could see with
+precision what footing he was to stand upon. Right tempting offers he
+hath had from the Lords of Congregation, whom you call heretics; and
+at one time he was minded, to be plain with you, to have taken their
+way--for he was assured that the Lord James [Footnote: Lord James
+Stewart, afterwards the Regent Murray.] was coming this road at the
+head of a round body of cavalry. And accordingly Lord James did so far
+reckon upon him, that he sent this man Warden, or whatsoever be his
+name, to my master's protection, as an assured friend; and, moreover,
+with tidings that he himself was marching hitherward at the head of a
+strong body of horse."
+
+"Now, Our Lady forfend!" said the Sub-Prior.
+
+"Amen!" answered Christie, in some trepidation, "did your reverence
+see aught?"
+
+"Nothing whatever," replied the monk; "it was thy tale which wrested
+from me that exclamation."
+
+"And it was some cause," replied he of the Clinthill, "for if Lord
+James should come hither, your Halidome would smoke for it. But be of
+good cheer--that expedition is ended before it was begun. The Baron of
+Avenel had sure news that Lord James has been fain to march westward
+with his merry-men, to protect Lord Semple against Cassilis and the
+Kennedies.  By my faith, it will cost him a brush; for wot ye what
+they say of that name,--
+
+  "Twixt Wigton and the town of Ayr,
+    Portpatrick and the cruives of Cree,
+  No man need think for to bide there,
+    Unless he court Saint Kennedie.'"
+
+"Then," said the Sub-Prior, "the Lord James's purpose of coming
+southwards being broken, cost this person, Henry Warden, a cold
+reception at Avenel Castle."
+
+"It would not have been altogether so rough a one," said the
+mosstrooper; "for my master was in heavy thought what to do in these
+unsettled times, and would scarce have hazarded misusing a man sent to
+him by so terrible a leader as the Lord James. But, to speak the
+truth, some busy devil tempted the old man to meddle with my master's
+Christian liberty of hand-fasting with Catherine of Newport. So that
+broke the wand of peace between them, and now ye may have my master,
+and all the force he can make, at your devotion, for Lord James never
+forgave wrong done to him; and if he come by the upper hand, he will
+have Julian's head if there were never another of the name, as it is
+like there is not, excepting the bit slip of a lassie yonder. And now
+I have told you more of my master's affairs than he would thank me
+for; but you have done me a frank turn once, and I may need one at
+your hands again."
+
+"Thy frankness," said the Sub-Prior, "shall surely advantage thee; for
+much it concerns the Church in these broken times to know the purposes
+and motives of those around us. But what is it that thy master expects
+from us in reward of good service? for I esteem him one of those who are
+not willing to work without their hire."
+
+"Nay, that I can tell you flatly; for Lord James had promised him, in
+case he would be of his faction in these parts, an easy tack of the
+teindsheaves of his own Barony of Avenel, together with the lands of
+Cranberry-moor, which lie intersected with his own. And he will look
+for no less at your hand."
+
+"But there is old Gilbert of Cranberry-moor," said the Sub-Prior;
+"what are we to make of him? The heretic Lord James may take on him to
+dispone upon the goods and lands of the Halidome at his pleasure,
+because, doubtless, but for the protection of God, and the baronage
+which yet remain faithful to their creed, he may despoil us of them by
+force; but while they are the property of the Community, we may not
+take steadings from ancient and faithful vassals, to gratify the
+covetousness of those who serve God only from the lucre of gain."
+
+"By the mass," said Christie, "it is well talking, Sir Priest; but
+when ye consider that Gilbert has but two half-starved cowardly
+peasants to follow him, and only an auld jaded aver to ride upon,
+fitter for the plough than for manly service; and that the Baron of
+Avenel never rides with fewer than.  ten jackmen at his back, and
+oftener with fifty, bodin in all that effeirs to war as if they were
+to do battle for a kingdom, and mounted on nags that nicker at the
+clash of the sword as if it were the clank of the lid of a
+corn-chest--I say, when ye have computed all this, ye may guess what
+course will best serve your Monastery."
+
+"Friend," said the monk, "I would willingly purchase thy master's
+assistance on his own terms, since times leave us no better means of
+defence against sacrilegious spoliation of heresy; but to take from a
+poor man his patrimony--"
+
+"For that matter," said the rider, "his seat would scarce be a soft
+one, if my master thought that Gilbert's interest stood betwixt him
+and what he wishes. The Halidome has land enough, and Gilbert may be
+quartered elsewhere."
+
+"We will consider the possibility of so disposing the matter," said
+the monk, "and will expect in consequence your master's most active
+assistance, with all the followers he can make, to join in the defence
+of the Halidome, against any force by which it may be threatened."
+
+"A man's hand and a mailed glove on that," said the jackman. "They
+
+[Footnote: As some atonement for their laxity of morals on most
+occasions, the Borderers were severe observers of the faith which they
+had pledged, even to an enemy. If any person broke his word so
+plighted, the individual to whom faith had not been observed, used to
+bring to the next Border-meeting a glove hung on the point of a spear,
+and proclaim to Scots and English the name of the defaulter. This was
+accounted so great a disgrace to all connected with him, that his own
+clansmen sometimes destroyed him, to escape the infamy he had brought
+on them.
+
+Constable, a spy engaged by Sir Ralph Sadler, talks of two Border
+thieves, whom he used as his guides:--"That they would not care to
+steal, and yet that they would not betray any man that trusts in them,
+for all the gold in Scotland or in France. They are my guides and
+outlaws. If they would betray me they might get their pardons, and
+cause me to be hanged; but I have tried them ere this."--_Sadler's
+letters during the Northern Insurrection._]
+
+call us marauders, thieves, and what not; but the side we take we hold
+by.--And I will be blithe when my Baron comes to a point which side he
+will take, for the castle is a kind of hell, (Our Lady forgive me for
+naming such a word in this place!) while he is in his mood, studying
+how he may best advantage himself. And now, Heaven be praised, we are
+in the open valley, and I may swear a round oath, should aught happen
+to provoke it."
+
+"My friend," said the Sub-Prior, "thou hast little merit in abstaining
+from oaths or blasphemy, if it be only out of fear of evil spirits."
+
+"Nay, I am not quite a Church vassal yet," said the jackman, "and if
+you link the curb too tight on a young horse, I promise you he will
+rear--Why, it is much for me to forbear old customs on any account
+whatever."
+
+The night being fine, they forded the river at the spot where the
+Sacristan met with his unhappy encounter with the spirit. As soon as
+they arrived at the gate of the Monastery, the porter in waiting
+eagerly exclaimed, "Reverend father, the Lord Abbot is most anxious
+for your presence."
+
+"Let these strangers be carried to the great hall," said the Sub-Prior,
+"and be treated with the best by the cellarer; reminding them, however,
+of that modesty and decency of conduct which becometh guests in a house
+like this."
+
+"But the Lord Abbot demands you instantly, my venerable brother," said
+Father Philip, arriving in great haste. "I have not seen him more
+discouraged or desolate of counsel since the field of Pinkie-cleugh
+was stricken,"
+
+"I come, my good brother, I come," said Father Eustace. "I pray thee,
+good brother, let this youth, Edward Glendinning, be conveyed to the
+Chamber of the Novices, and placed under their instructor. God hath
+touched his heart, and he proposeth laying aside the vanities of the
+world, to become a brother of our holy order; which, if his good parts
+be matched with fitting docility and humility, he may one day live to
+adorn."
+
+"My very venerable brother," exclaimed old Father Nicholas, who came
+hobbling with a third summons to the Sub-Prior, "I pray thee to hasten
+to our worshipful Lord Abbot. The holy patroness be with us! never saw
+I Abbot of the House of St. Mary's in such consternation; and yet I
+remember me well when Father Ingelram had the news of Flodden-field."
+
+"I come, I come, venerable brother," said Father Eustace--And having
+repeatedly ejaculated "I come!" he at last went to the Abbot in good
+earnest.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Fourth.
+
+
+  It is not texts will do it--Church artillery
+  Are silenced soon by real ordnance,
+  And canons are but vain opposed to cannon.
+  Go, coin your crosier, melt your church plate down
+  Bid the starved soldier banquet in your halls,
+  And quaff your long-saved hogsheads--Turn them out
+  Thus primed with your good cheer, to guard your wall,
+  And they will venture for't.--
+                                 OLD PLAY.
+
+The Abbot received his counsellor with a tremulous eagerness of
+welcome, which announced to the Sub-Prior an extreme agitation of
+spirits, and the utmost need of good counsel. There was neither
+mazer-dish nor standing-cup upon the little table, at the elbow of his
+huge chair of state; his beads alone lay there, and it seemed as if he
+had been telling them in his extremity of distress. Beside the beads
+was placed the mitre of the Abbot, of an antique form, and blazing
+with precious stones, and the rich and highly-embossed crosier rested
+against the same table.
+
+The Sacristan and old Father Nicholas had followed the Sub-Prior into
+the Abbot's apartment, perhaps with the hope of learning something of
+the important matter which seemed to be in hand.--They were not
+mistaken; for, after having ushered in the Sub-Prior, and being
+themselves in the act of retiring, the Abbot made them a signal to
+remain.
+
+"My brethren," he said, "it is well known to you with what painful
+zeal we have overseen the weighty affairs of this house committed to
+our unworthy hand--your bread hath been given to you, and your water
+hath been sure--I have not wasted the revenues of the Convent on vain
+pleasures, as hunting or hawking, or in change of rich cope or alb, or
+in feasting idle bards and jesters, saving those who, according to old
+wont, were received in time of Christmas and Easter. Neither have I
+enriched either mine own relations nor strange women, at the expense
+of the Patrimony."
+
+"There hath not been such a Lord Abbot," said Father Nicholas, "to
+my knowledge, since the days of Abbot Ingelram, who----"
+
+At that portentous word, which always preluded a long story, the Abbot
+broke in.
+
+"May God have mercy on his soul!--we talk not of him now.--What I
+would know of ye, my brethren, is, whether I have, in your mind,
+faithfully discharged the duties of mine office?"
+
+"There has never been subject of complaint," answered the Sub-Prior.
+
+The Sacristan, more diffuse, enumerated the various acts of indulgence
+and kindness which the mild government of Abbot Boniface had conferred
+on the brotherhood of Saint Mary's--the _indulgentiae_--the
+_gratias_--the _biberes_-the weekly mess of boiled
+almonds--the enlarged accommodation of the refectory--the better
+arrangement of the cellarage--the improvement of the revenue of the
+Monastery--the diminution of the privations of the brethren.
+
+"You might have added, my brother," said the Abbot, listening with
+melancholy acquiescence to the detail of his own merits, "that I
+caused to be built that curious screen, which secureth the cloisters
+from the north-east wind.--But all these things avail nothing--As we
+read in holy Maccabee, _Capta est civitas per voluntatem Dei_. It
+hath cost me no little thought, no common toil, to keep these weighty
+matters in such order as you have seen them--there was both barn and
+binn to be kept full--Infirmary, dormitory, guest-hall, and refectory,
+to be looked to--processions to be made, confessions to be heard,
+strangers to be entertained, _veniae_ to be granted or refused;
+and I warrant me, when every one of you was asleep in your cell, the
+Abbot hath lain awake for a full hour by the bell, thinking how these
+matters might be ordered seemly and suitably."
+
+"May we ask, reverend my lord," said the Sub-Prior, "what additional
+care has now been thrown upon you, since your discourse seems to point
+that way?"
+
+"Marry, this it is," said the Abbot. "The talk is not now of _biberes_,
+
+[Footnote: The _biberes, caritas_, and boiled almonds, of which
+Abbot Boniface speaks, were special occasions for enjoying luxuries,
+afforded to the monks by grants from different sovereigns, or from
+other benefactors to the convent. There is one of these charters
+called _De Pitancia Centum Librarum_ By this charter, which is
+very curious, our Robert Bruce, on the 10th January, and in the
+twelfth year of his reign, assigns, out of the customs of Berwick, and
+failing them, out of the customs of Edinburgh or Haddington, the sum
+of one hundred pounds, at the half-yearly terms of Pentecost and Saint
+Martin's in winter, to the abbot and community of the monks of
+Melrose. The precise purpose of this annuity is to furnish to each of
+the monks of the said monastery, while placed at food in the
+refectory, an extra mess of rice boiled with milk, or of almonds, or
+peas, or other pulse of that kind which could be procured in the
+country. This addition to their commons is to be entitled the King's
+Mess. And it is declared, that although any monk should, from some
+honest apology, want appetite or inclination to eat of the king's
+mess, his share should, nevertheless, be placed on the table with
+those of his brethren, and afterwards carried to the gate and given to
+the poor. "Neither is it our pleasure," continues the bountiful
+sovereign, "that the dinner, which is or ought to be served up to the
+said monks according to their ancient rule, should be diminished in
+quantity, or rendered inferior in quality, on account of this our
+mess, so furnished as aforesaid." It is, moreover, provided, that the
+abbot, with the consent of the most sage of his brethren, shall name a
+prudent and decent monk for receiving, directing, and expending, all
+matters concerning this annuity for the benefit of the community,
+agreeably to the royal desire and intention, rendering a faithful
+account thereof to the abbot and superiors of the same convent. And
+the same charter declares the king's farther pleasure, that the said
+men of religion should be bound yearly and for ever, in acknowledgment
+of the above donation, to clothe fifteen poor men at the feast of
+Saint Martin in winter, and to feed them on the same day, delivering
+to each of them four ells of large or broad, or six ells of narrow
+cloth, and to each also a new pair of shoes or sandals, according to
+their order; and if the said monks shall fail in their engagements or
+any of them, it is the king's will that the fault shall be redeemed by
+a double performance of what has been omitted, to be executed at the
+sight of the chief forester of Ettrick for the time being, and before
+the return of Saint Martin's day succeeding that on which the omission
+has taken place.
+
+Of this charter, respecting the pittance of 100_l_ assigned to
+furnish the monks of Melrose with a daily mess of boiled rice,
+almonds, or other pulse, to mend their commons, the antiquarian reader
+will be pleased, doubtless, to see the original.
+
+CARTA REGIS ROBERTI I. ABBATI ET CONVENTUI DE MELROSS.
+
+_Carta de Pitancia Centum Librarum._
+
+Robertus Dei gracia Rex Scottorum omnibus probis hominibus tocius
+terre sue Salutem. Sciatis nos pro salute anime nostre et pro salute
+animarum antecessorum et suocessorum nostrorum Regum Scocie Dedisse
+Concessisse et hac presenti Carta nostra confirmasse Deo et Beate
+Marie virgini et Religiosis viris Abbati et Conventui de Melross et
+eorum successoribus in perpetuum Centum Libras Sterlingorum Annui
+Redditus singulis annis percipiendas de firmis nostris Burgi Berwici
+super. Twedam ad terminos Pentecostis et Sancti Martini in hyeme pro
+equali portione vel de nova Custuma nostra Burgi predicti si firme
+nostre predicte ad dictam summam pecunie sufficere non poterunt vel de
+nova Custuma nostra Burgorum nostrorum de Edenburg et de Hadington Si
+firme nostre et Custuma nostra ville Berwici aliquo casu contingente
+ad hoc forte non sufficiant. Ita quod dicta summa pecunie Centum
+Librarum eis annuatim integre et absque contradictione aliqua plenarie
+persolvatur pre cunctis aliis quibuscunque assignacionibus per nos
+factis seu faciendis ad inveniendum in perpetunm singulis diebus
+cuilibet monacho monasterii predicti comedenti in Refectorio unum
+sufficiens ferculum risarum factarum cum lacte, amigdalarum vel
+pisarum sive aliorum ciborum consimilis condicionis inventornm in
+patria et illud ferculum ferculum Regis vocabitur in eternum. Et si
+aliquis monachus ex aliqua causa honesta de dicto ferculo comedere
+noluerit vel refici non poterit non minus attamen sibi de dicto
+ferculo ministretur et ad portam pro pauperibus deportetur. Nec
+volumus quod occasione ferculi nostri predicti prandium dicti
+Conventus de quo antiquitus communiter eis deserviri sive ministrari
+solebat in aliquo pejoretur seu diminuatur. Volum us insuper et
+ordinamus quod Abbas ejusdem monasterii qui pro tempore fuerit de
+cousensu saniorum de Conventu specialiter constituat unum monachum
+providum et discretum ad recipiendum ordinandum et expendendum totam
+summam pecunie memorate pro utilitate conventus secundum votum et
+intencionem mentis nostre superius annotatum et ad reddendum fidele
+compotum coram Abbate et Maioribus de Conventu singulis annis de
+pecunia sic recepta. Et volumus quod dicti religiosi teneantur
+annuatim in perpetuum pro predicta donacione nostra ad perpetuam
+nostri memoriam vestire quindecim pauperes ad festum Sancti Martini in
+hieme et eosdem cibare eodem die liberando eorum cuilibet quatuor
+ulnas panni grossi et lati vel sex ulnas panni stricti et eorum
+cuilibet unum novum par sotularium de ordine suo. Et si dicti
+religiosi in premissis vel aliquo premissorum aliquo anno defecerint
+volumus quod illud quod minus perimpletum fuerit dupplicetur diebus
+magis necessariis per visum capitalis forestarii nostri de Selkirk,
+qui pro tempore fuerit. Et quod dicta dupplicatio fiat ante natale
+domini proximo sequens festum Sancti Martini predictum. In cujus rei
+testimonium presenti Carte nostre sigillum nostrum precipimus apponi.
+Testibus venerabilibus in Christo patribus Willielmo, Johanne,
+Willielmo et David Sancti Andree, Glasguensis, Dunkeldensis et
+Moraviensis ecclesiarum dei gracia episcopis Bernardo Abbate de
+Abirbrothock Cancellario, Duncano, Malisio, et Hugone de Fyf de
+Strathin et de Ross, Comitibus Waltero Senescallo Scocie, Jacobo
+domini de Duglas et Alexandro Fraser Camerario nostro Socie militibus.
+Apud Abirbrothock, decimo die Januarij. Anno Regni nostri vicesimo.]
+
+or of _caritas_, or of boiled almonds, but of an English band
+coming against us from Hexham, commanded by Sir John Foster; nor is it
+of the screening us from the east wind, but how to escape Lord James
+Stewart, who cometh to lay waste and destroy with his heretic
+soldiers."
+
+"I thought that purpose had been broken by the feud between Semple and
+the Kennedies," said the Sub-Prior, hastily.
+
+"They have accorded that matter at the expense of the church as
+usual," said the Abbot; "the Earl of Cassilis is to have the
+teind-sheaves of his lands, which were given to the house of
+Crossraguel, and he has stricken hands with Stewart, who is now called
+Murray.--_Principes convenerunt unum adversus Dominum._--There
+are the letters."
+
+The Sub-Prior took the letters, which had come by an express messenger
+from the Primate of Scotland, who still laboured to uphold the
+tottering fabric of the system under which he was at length buried,
+and, stepping towards the lamp, read them with an air of deep and
+settled attention--the Sacristan and Father Nicholas looked as
+helplessly at each other, as the denizens of the poultry-yard when the
+hawk soars over it. The Abbot seemed bowed down with the extremity of
+sorrowful apprehension, but kept his eye timorously fixed on the
+Sub-Prior, as if striving to catch some comfort from the expression of
+his countenance. When at length he beheld that, after a second intent
+perusal of the letters, he remained still silent and full of thought,
+he asked him in an anxious tone, "What is to be done?"
+
+"Our duty must be done," answered the Sub-Prior, "and the rest is in
+the hands of God."
+
+"Our duty--our duty?" answered the Abbot, impatiently; "doubtless we
+are to do our duty; but what is that duty? or how will it serve
+us?--Will bell, book, and candle, drive back the English heretics? or
+will Murray care for psalms and antiphonars? or can I fight for the
+Halidome, like Judas Maccabeus, against those profane Nicanors? or
+send the Sacristan against this new Holofernes, to bring back his head
+in a basket?"
+
+"True, my Lord Abbot," said the Sub-Prior, "we cannot fight with
+carnal weapons, it is alike contrary to our habit and vow; but we can
+die for our Convent and for our Order. Besides, we can arm those who
+will and can fight. The English are but few in number, trusting, as it
+would seem, that they will be joined by Murray, whose march has been
+interrupted. If Foster, with his Cumberland and Hexham bandits,
+ventures to march into Scotland, to pillage and despoil our House, we
+will levy our vassals, and, I trust, shall be found strong enough to
+give him battle."
+
+"In the blessed name of Our Lady," said the Abbot, "think you that I
+am Petrus Eremita, to go forth the leader of an host?"
+
+"Nay," said the Sub-Prior, "let some man skilled in war lead our
+people--there is Julian Avenel, an approved soldier."
+
+"But a scoffer, a debauched person, and, in brief, a man of Belial,"
+quoth the Abbot.
+
+"Still," said the monk, "we must use his ministry in that to which he
+has been brought up. We can guerdon him richly, and indeed I already
+know the price of his service. The English, it is expected, will
+presently set forth, hoping here to seize upon Piercie Shafton, whose
+refuge being taken with us, they make the pretext of this unheard-of
+inroad."
+
+"Is it even so?" said the Abbot; "I never judged that his body of satin
+and his brain of feathers boded us much good."
+
+"Yet we must have his assistance, if possible," said the Sub-Prior;
+"he may interest in our behalf the great Piercie, of whose friendship
+he boasts, and that good and faithful Lord may break Foster's purpose.
+I will despatch the jackman after him with all speed.--Chiefly,
+however, I trust to the military spirit of the land, which will not
+suffer peace to be easily broken on the frontier. Credit me, my lord,
+it will bring to our side the hands of many, whose hearts may have
+gone astray after strange doctrines.  The great chiefs and barons will
+be ashamed to let the vassals of peaceful monks fight unaided against
+the old enemies of Scotland."
+
+"It may be," said the Abbot, "that Foster will wait for Murray, whose
+purpose hitherward is but delayed for a short space."
+
+"By the rood, he will not," said the Sub-Prior; "we know this Sir John
+Foster--a pestilent heretic, he will long to destroy the church--born
+a Borderer, he will thirst to plunder her of her wealth--a
+Border-warden, he will be eager to ride in Scotland. There are too
+many causes to urge him on. If he joins with Murray, he will have at
+best but an auxiliary's share of the spoil--if he comes hither before
+him, he will reckon on the whole harvest of depredation as his own.
+Julian Avenel also has, as I have heard, some spite against Sir John
+Foster; they will fight, when they meet, with double determination.--
+Sacristan, send for our bailiff.--Where is the roll of fencible men
+liable to do suit and service to the Halidome?--Send off to the Baron
+of Meigallot; he can raise threescore horse and better--Say to him the
+Monastery will compound with him for the customs of his bridge, which
+have been in controversy, if he will show himself a friend at such a
+point.--And now, my lord, let us compute our possible numbers, and
+those of the enemy, that human blood be not spilled in vain--Let us
+therefore calculate----"
+
+"My brain is dizzied with the emergency," said the poor Abbot--"I am
+not, I think, more a coward than others, so far as my own person is
+concerned; but speak to me of marching and collecting soldiers, and
+calculating forces, and you may as well tell of it to the youngest
+novice of a nunnery. But my resolution is taken.--Brethren," he said,
+rising up, and coming forward with that dignity which his comely
+person enabled him to assume, "hear for the last time the voice of
+your Abbot Boniface. I have done for you the best that I could; in
+quieter times I had perhaps done better, for it was for quiet that I
+sought the cloister, which has been to me a place of turmoil, as much
+as if I had sate in the receipt of custom, or ridden forth as leader
+of an armed host. But now matters turn worse and worse, and I, as I
+grow old, am less able to struggle with them. Also, it becomes me not
+to hold a place, whereof the duties, through my default or misfortune,
+may be but imperfectly filled by me. Wherefore I have resolved to
+demit this mine high office, so that the order of these matters may
+presently devolve upon Father Eustatius here present, our well-beloved
+Sub-Prior; and I now rejoice that he hath not been provided according
+to his merits elsewhere, seeing that I well hope he will succeed to
+the mitre and staff which it is my present purpose to lay down."
+
+"In the name of Our Lady, do nothing hastily, my lord!" said Father
+Nicholas--"I do remember that when the worthy Abbot Ingelram, being in
+his ninetieth year--for I warrant you he could remember when Benedict
+the Thirteenth was deposed--and being ill at ease and bed-rid, the
+brethren rounded in his ear that he were better resign his office. And
+what said he, being a pleasant man? marry, that while he could crook
+his little finger he would keep hold of the crosier with it."
+
+The Sacristan also strongly remonstrated against the resolution of his
+Superior, and set down the insufficiency he pleaded to the native
+modesty of his disposition. The Abbot listened in downcast silence;
+even flattery could not win his ear.
+
+Father Eustace took a nobler tone with his disconcerted and dejected
+Superior. "My Lord Abbot," he said, "if I have been silent concerning
+the virtues with which you have governed this house, do not think that
+I am unaware of them. I know that no man ever brought to your high
+office a more sincere wish to do well to all mankind; and if your rule
+has not been marked with the bold lines which sometimes distinguished
+your spiritual predecessors, their faults have equally been strangers
+to your character."
+
+"I did not believe," said the Abbot, turning his looks to Father
+Eustace with some surprise, "that you, father, of all men, would have
+done me this justice."
+
+"In your absence," said the Sub-Prior, "I have even done it more
+fully.  Do not lose the good opinion which all men entertain of you,
+by renouncing your office when your care is most needed."
+
+"But, my brother," said the Abbot, "I leave a more able in my place."
+
+"That you do not," said Eustace; "because it is not necessary you
+should resign, in order to possess the use of whatever experience or
+talent I may be accounted master of. I have been long enough in this
+profession to know that the individual qualities which any of us may
+have, are not his own, but the property of the Community, and only so
+far useful when they promote the general advantage. If you care not in
+person, my lord, to deal with this troublesome matter, let me implore
+you to go instantly to Edinburgh, and make what friends you can in our
+behalf, while I in your absence will, as Sub-Prior, do my duty in
+defence of the Halidome. If I succeed, may the honour and praise be
+yours, and if I fail, let the disgrace and shame be mine own."
+
+The Abbot mused for a space, and then replied,--"No, Father Eustatius,
+you shall not conquer me by your generosity. In times like these, this
+house must have a stronger pilotage than my weak hands afford; and he
+who steers the vessel must be chief of the crew. Shame were it to
+accept the praise of other men's labours; and, in my poor mind, all
+the praise which can be bestowed on him who undertakes a task so
+perilous and perplexing, is a meed beneath his merits. Misfortune to
+him would deprive him of an iota of it! Assume, therefore, your
+authority to-night, and proceed in the preparations you judge
+necessary. Let the Chapter be summoned to-morrow after we have heard
+mass, and all shall be ordered as I have told you. Benedicite, my
+brethren!--peace be with you! May the new Abbot-expectant sleep as
+sound as he who is about to resign his mitre."
+
+They retired, affected even to tears. The good Abbot had shown a point
+of his character to which they were strangers. Even Father Eustace had
+held his spiritual Superior hitherto as a good-humoured, indolent,
+self-indulgent man, whose chief merit was the absence of gross faults;
+so that this sacrifice of power to a sense of duty, even if a little
+alloyed by the meaner motives of fear and apprehended difficulties,
+raised him considerably in the Sub-Prior's estimation. He even felt an
+aversion to profit by the resignation of the Abbot Boniface, and in a
+manner to rise on his ruins; but this sentiment did not long contend
+with those which led him to recollect higher considerations. It could
+not be denied that Boniface was entirely unfit for his situation in
+the present crisis; and the Sub-Prior felt that he himself, acting
+merely as a delegate, could not well take the decisive measures which
+the time required; the weal of the Community therefore demanded his
+elevation. If, besides, there crept in a feeling of a high dignity
+obtained, and the native exultation of a haughty spirit called to
+contend with the imminent dangers attached to a post of such
+distinction, these sentiments were so cunningly blended and
+amalgamated with others of a more disinterested nature, that, as the
+Sub-Prior himself was unconscious of their agency, we, who have a
+regard for him, are not solicitous to detect it.
+
+The Abbot elect carried himself with more dignity than formerly, when
+giving such directions as the pressing circumstances of the times
+required; and those who approached him could perceive an unusual
+kindling of his falcon eye, and an unusual flush upon his pale and
+faded cheek. With briefness and precision he wrote and dictated
+various letters to different barons, acquainting them with the
+meditated invasion of the Halidome by the English, and conjuring them
+to lend aid and assistance as in a common cause. The temptation of
+advantage was held out to those whom he judged less sensible of the
+cause of honour, and all were urged by the motives of patriotism and
+ancient animosity to the English. The time had been when no such
+exhortations would have been necessary. But so essential was
+Elizabeth's aid to the reformed party in Scotland, and so strong was
+that party almost every where, that there was reason to believe a
+great many would observe neutrality on the present occasion, even if
+they did not go the length of uniting with the English against the
+Catholics.
+
+When Father Eustace considered the number of the immediate vassals
+of the church whose aid he might legally command, his heart sunk at the
+thoughts of ranking them under the banner of the fierce and profligate
+Julian Avenel.
+
+"Were the young enthusiast Halbert Glendinning to be found," thought
+Father Eustace in his anxiety, "I would have risked the battle under
+his leading, young as he is, and with better hope of God's blessing.
+But the bailiff is now too infirm, nor know I a chief of name whom I
+might trust in this important matter better than this Avenel."--He
+touched a bell which stood on the table, and commanded Christie of the
+Clinthill to be brought before him.--"Thou owest me a life," said he
+to that person on his entrance, "and I may do thee another good turn
+if thou be'st sincere with me."
+
+Christie had already drained two standing-cups of wine, which would, on
+another occasion, have added to the insolence of his familiarity. But at
+present there was something in the augmented dignity of manner of Father
+Eustace, which imposed a restraint on him. Yet his answers partook of
+his usual character of undaunted assurance. He professed himself willing
+to return a true answer to all inquiries.
+
+"Has the Baron (so styled) of Avenel any friendship with Sir John
+Foster, Warden of the West Marches of England?"
+
+"Such friendship as is between the wild-cat and the terrier," replied
+the rider.
+
+"Will he do battle with him should they meet?"
+
+"As surely," answered Christie, "as ever cock fought on
+Shrovetide-even."
+
+"And would he fight with Foster in the Church's quarrel?"
+
+"On any quarrel, or upon no quarrel whatever," replied the jackman.
+
+"We will then write to him, letting him know, that if upon occasion of
+an apprehended incursion by Sir John Foster, he will join his force
+with ours, he shall lead our men, and be gratified for doing so to the
+extent of his wish.--Yet one word more--Thou didst say thou couldst
+find out where the English knight Piercie Shafton has this day fled
+to?"
+
+"That I can, and bring him back too, by fair means or force, as best
+likes your reverence."
+
+"No force must be used upon him. Within what time wilt thou find him
+out?"
+
+"Within thirty hours, so he have not crossed the Lothian firth--If it
+is to do you a pleasure, I will set off directly, and wind him as a
+sleuth-dog tracks the moss-trooper," answered Christie.
+
+"Bring him hither then, and thou wilt deserve good at our hands, which
+I may soon have free means of bestowing on thee."
+
+"Thanks to your reverence, I put myself in your reverence's hands. We
+of the spear and snaffle walk something recklessly through life; but
+if a man were worse than he is, your reverence knows he must live, and
+that's not to be done without shifting, I trow."
+
+"Peace, sir, and begone on thine errand--thou shalt have a letter from
+us to Sir Piercie."
+
+Christie made two steps towards the door; then turning back and
+hesitating, like one who would make an impertinent pleasantry if he
+dared, he asked what he was to do with the wench Mysie Happer whom the
+Southron knight had carried off with him.
+
+"Am I to bring her hither, please your reverence?"
+
+"Hither, you malapert knave?" said the churchman; "remember you to
+whom you speak?"
+
+"No offence meant," replied Christie; "but if such is not your will, I
+would carry her to Avenel Castle, where a well-favoured wench was
+never unwelcome.
+
+"Bring the unfortunate girl to her father's and break no scurril jests
+here," said the Sub-Prior--"See that thou guide her in all safety and
+honour."
+
+"In safety, surely," said the rider, "and in such honour as her
+outbreak has left her.--I bid your reverence farewell, I must be on
+horse before cock-crow."
+
+"What, in the dark!--how knowest thou which way to go?"
+
+"I tracked the knight's horse-tread as far as near to the ford, as we
+rode along together," said Christie, "and I observed the track turn to
+the north-ward.  He is for Edinburgh, I will warrant you--so soon as
+daylight comes I will be on the road again. It is a kenspeckle
+hoof-mark, for the shoe was made by old Eckie of Cannobie--I would
+swear to the curve of the caulker." So saying, he departed.
+
+"Hateful necessity," said Father Eustace, looking after him, "that
+obliges us to use such implements as these! But assailed as we are on
+all sides, and by all conditions of men, what alternative is left
+us?--But now let me to my most needful task."
+
+The Abbot elect accordingly sate down to write letters, arrange
+orders, and take upon him the whole charge of an institution which
+tottered to its fall, with the same spirit of proud and devoted
+fortitude wherewith the commander of a fortress, reduced nearly to the
+last extremity, calculates what means remain to him to protract the
+fatal hour of successful storm. In the meanwhile Abbot Boniface,
+having given a few natural sighs to the downfall of the pre-eminence
+he had so long enjoyed amongst his brethren, fell fast asleep, leaving
+the whole cares and toils of office to his assistant and
+[Chapter ending is missing in the original]
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Fifth.
+
+
+  And when he came to broken briggs,
+    He slacked his bow and swam;
+  And when he came to grass growing,
+    Set down his feet and ran.
+                         GIL MORRICE.
+
+We return to Halbert Glendinning, who, as our readers may remember,
+took the high road to Edinburgh. His intercourse with the preacher,
+Henry Warden, from whom he received a letter at the moment of his
+deliverance, had been so brief, that he had not even learned the name
+of the nobleman to whose care he was recommended. Something like a
+name had been spoken indeed, but he had only comprehended that he was
+to meet the chief advancing towards the south, at the head of a party
+of horse. When day dawned on his journey he was in the same
+uncertainty. A better scholar would have been informed by the address
+of the letter, but Halbert had not so far profited by Father Eustace's
+lessons as to be able to decipher it. His mother-wit taught him that
+he must not, in such uncertain times, be too hasty in asking
+information of any one; and when, after a long day's journey, night
+surprised him near a little village, he began to be dubious and
+anxious concerning the issue of his journey.
+
+In a poor country, hospitality is generally exercised freely, and
+Halbert, when he requested a night's quarters, did nothing either
+degrading or extraordinary.  The old woman, to whom he made this
+request, granted it the more readily, that she thought she saw some
+resemblance between Halbert and her son Saunders, who had been killed
+in one of the frays so common in the time. It is true, Saunders was a
+short square-made fellow, with red hair and a freckled face, and
+somewhat bandy-legged, whereas the stranger was of a brown complexion,
+tall, and remarkably well-made. Nevertheless, the widow was clear that
+there existed a general resemblance betwixt her guest and Saunders,
+and kindly pressed him to share of her evening cheer.  A pedlar, a man
+of about forty years old, was also her guest, who talked with great
+feeling of the misery of pursuing such a profession as his in the time
+of war and tumult.
+
+"We think much of knights and soldiers," said he; "but the
+pedder-coffe who travels the land has need of more courage than them
+all. I am sure he maun face mair risk, God help him. Here have I come
+this length, trusting the godly Earl of Murray would be on his march
+to the Borders, for he was to have guestened with the Baron of Avenel;
+and instead of that comes news that he has gone westlandways about
+some tuilzie in Ayrshire.  And what to do I wot not; for if I go to
+the south without a safeguard, the next bonny rider I meet might ease
+me of sack and pack, and maybe of my life to boot; and then, if I try
+to strike across the moors, I may be as ill off before I can join
+myself to that good Lord's company."
+
+No one was quicker at catching a hint than Halbert Glendinning. He
+said he himself had a desire to go westward. The pedlar looked at him
+with a very doubtful air, when the old dame, who perhaps thought her
+young guest resembled the umquhile Saunders, not only in his looks,
+but in a certain pretty turn to sleight-of-hand, which the defunct was
+supposed to have possessed, tipped him the wink, and assured the
+pedlar he need have no doubt that her young cousin was a true man.
+
+"Cousin!" said the pedlar, "I thought you said this youth had been a
+stranger."
+
+"Ill hearing makes ill rehearsing," said the landlady; "he is a
+stranger to me by eye-sight, but that does not make him a stranger to
+me by blood, more especially seeing his likeness to my son Saunders,
+poor bairn."
+
+The pedlar's scruples and jealousies being thus removed, or at least
+silenced, the travellers agreed that they would proceed in company
+together the next morning by daybreak, the pedlar acting as a guide to
+Glendinning, and the youth as a guard to the pedlar, until they should
+fall in with Murray's detachment of horse. It would appear that the
+lady never doubted what was to be the event of this compact, for,
+taking Glendinning aside, she charged him, "to be moderate with the
+puir body, but at all events, not to forget to take a piece of black
+say, to make the auld wife a new rokelay." Halbert laughed and took
+his leave.
+
+It did not a little appal the pedlar, when, in the midst of a black
+heath, the young man told him the nature of the commission with which
+their hostess had charged him. He took heart, however, upon seeing the
+open, frank, and friendly demeanor of the youth, and vented his
+exclamations on the ungrateful old traitress. "I gave her," he said,
+"yesterday-e'en nae farther gane, a yard of that very black say, to
+make her a couvre-chef; but I see it is ill done to teach the cat the
+way to the kirn."
+
+Thus set at ease on the intentions of his companion (for in those
+happy days the worst was always to be expected from a stranger), the
+pedlar acted as Halbert's guide over moss and moor, over hill and many
+a dale, in such a direction as might best lead them towards the route
+of Murray's party. At length they arrived upon the side of an
+eminence, which commanded a distant prospect over a tract of savage
+and desolate moorland, marshy and waste--an alternate change of
+shingly hill and level morass, only varied by blue stagnant pools of
+water. A road scarcely marked winded like a serpent through the
+wilderness, and the pedlar, pointing to it, said--"The road from
+Edinburgh to Glasgow. Here we must wait, and if Murray and his train
+be not already passed by, we shall soon see trace of them, unless some
+new purpose shall have altered their resolution; for in these blessed
+days no man, were he the nearest the throne, as the Earl of Murray may
+be, knows when he lays his head on his pillow at night where it is to
+lie upon the following even."
+
+They paused accordingly and sat down, the pedlar cautiously using for
+a seat the box which contained his treasures, and not concealing from
+his companion that he wore under his cloak a pistolet hanging at his
+belt in case of need. He was courteous, however, and offered Halbert a
+share of the provisions which he carried about him for refreshment.
+They were of the coarsest kind--oat-bread baked in cakes, oatmeal
+slaked with cold water, an onion or two, and a morsel of smoked ham
+completed the feast. But such as it was, no Scotsman of the time, had
+his rank been much higher than that of Glendinning, would have refused
+to share in it, especially as the pedlar produced, with a mysterious
+air, a tup's horn, which he carried slung from his shoulders, and
+which, when its contents were examined, produced to each party a
+clam-shell-full of excellent usquebaugh--a liquor strange to Halbert,
+for the strong waters known in the south of Scotland came from France,
+and in fact such were but rarely used. The pedlar recommended it as
+excellent, said he had procured it in his last visit to the braes of
+Doune, where he had securely traded under the safe-conduct of the
+Laird of Buchanan. He also set an example to Halbert, by devoutly
+emptying the cup "to the speedy downfall of Anti-Christ."
+
+Their conviviality was scarce ended, ere a rising dust was seen on the
+road of which they commanded the prospect, and half a score of
+horsemen were dimly descried advancing at considerable speed, their
+casques glancing, and the points of their spears twinkling as they
+caught a glimpse of the sun.
+
+"These," said the pedlar, "must be the out-scourers of Murray's party;
+let us lie down in the peat-hag, and keep ourselves out of sight."
+
+"And why so?" said Halbert; "let us rather go down and make a signal
+to them."
+
+"God forbid!" replied the pedlar; "do you ken so ill the customs of
+our Scottish nation? That plump of spears that are spurring on so fast
+are doubtless commanded by some wild kinsman of Morton, or some such
+daring fear-nothing as neither regards God nor man. It is their
+business, if they meet with any enemies, to pick quarrels and clear
+the way of them; and the chief knows nothing of what happens, coming
+up with his more discreet and moderate friends, it may be a full mile
+in the rear. Were we to go near these lads of the laird's belt, your
+letter would do you little good, and my pack would do me muckle black
+ill; they would tirl every steek of claithes from our back, fling us
+into a moss-hag with a stone at our heels, naked as the hour that
+brought us into this cumbered and sinful world, and neither Murray nor
+any other man ever the wiser. But if he did come to ken of it, what
+might he help it?--it would be accounted a mere mistake, and there
+were all the moan made. O credit me, youth, that when men draw cold
+steel on each other in their native country, they neither can nor may
+dwell deeply on the offences of those whose swords are useful to
+them."
+
+They suffered, therefore, the vanguard, as it might be termed, of the
+Earl of Murray's host to pass forward; and it was not long until a
+denser cloud of dust began to arise to the northward.
+
+"Now," said the pedlar, "let us hurry down the hill; for to tell the
+truth," said he, dragging Halbert along earnestly, "a Scottish noble's
+march is like a serpent--the head is furnished with fangs, and the
+tail hath its sting; the only harmless point of access is the main
+body."
+
+"I will hasten as fast as you," said the youth; "but tell me why the
+rearward of such an army should be as dangerous as the van?"
+
+"Because, as the vanguard consists of their picked wild desperates,
+resolute for mischief, such as neither fear God nor regard their
+fellow-creatures, but understand themselves bound to hurry from the
+road whatever is displeasing to themselves, so the rear-guard consists
+of misproud serving-men, who, being in charge of the baggage, take
+care to amend by their exactions upon travelling-merchants and others,
+their own thefts on their master's property. You will hear the
+advanced _enfans perdus_, as the French call them, and so they
+are indeed, namely, children of the fall, singing unclean and fulsome
+ballads of sin and harlotrie. And then will come on the middle-ward,
+when you will hear the canticles and psalms sung by the reforming
+nobles, and the gentry, and honest and pious clergy, by whom they are
+accompanied. And last of all, you will find in the rear a legend of
+godless lackies, palfreniers, and horse-boys, talking of nothing but
+dicing, drinking, and drabbing."
+
+As the pedlar spoke, they had reached the side of the high-road, and
+Murray's main body was in sight, consisting of about three hundred
+horse, marching with great regularity, and in a closely compacted
+body. Some of the troopers wore the liveries of their masters, but
+this was not common. Most of them were dressed in such colours as
+chance dictated. But the majority, being clad in blue cloth, and the
+whole armed with cuirass and back-plate, with sleeves of mail,
+gauntlets, and poldroons, and either mailed hose or strong jack-boots,
+they had something of a uniform appearance.
+
+Many of the leaders were clad in complete armour, and all in a certain
+half-military dress, which no man of quality in those disturbed times
+ever felt himself sufficiently safe to abandon.
+
+The foremost of this party immediately rode up to the pedlar and to
+Halbert Glendinning, and demanded of them who they were. The pedlar
+told his story, the young Glendinning exhibited his letter, which a
+gentleman carried to Murray. In an instant after, the word "Halt!" was
+given through the squadron, and at once the onward heavy tramp, which
+seemed the most distinctive attribute of the body, ceased, and was
+heard no more. The command was announced that the troop should halt
+here for an hour to refresh themselves and their horses. The pedlar
+was assured of safe protection, and accommodated with the use of a
+baggage horse. But at the same time he was ordered into the rear; a
+command which he reluctantly obeyed, and not without wringing
+pathetically the hand of Halbert as he separated from him.
+
+The young heir of Glendearg was in the meanwhile conducted to a plot
+of ground more raised, and therefore drier than the rest of the moor.
+Here a carpet was flung on the ground by way of table-cloth, and
+around it sat the leaders of the party, partaking of an entertainment
+as coarse, with relation to their rank, as that which Glendinning had
+so lately shared.  Murray himself rose as he came forward, and
+advanced a step to meet him.
+
+This celebrated person had in his appearance, as well as in his mind,
+much of the admirable qualities of James V. his father. Had not the
+stain of illegitimacy rested upon his birth, he would have filled the
+Scottish throne with as much honour as any of the Stewart race. But
+History, while she acknowledges his high talents, and much that was
+princely, nay, royal, in his conduct, cannot forget that ambition led
+him farther than honour or loyalty warranted. Brave amongst the
+bravest, fair in presence and in favour, skilful to manage the most
+intricate affairs, to attach to himself those who were doubtful, to
+stun and overwhelm, by the suddenness and intrepidity of his
+enterprises, those who were resolute in resistance, he attained, and
+as to personal merit certainly deserved, the highest place in the
+kingdom. But he abused, under the influence of strong temptation, the
+opportunities which his sister Mary's misfortunes and imprudence threw
+in his way; he supplanted his sovereign and benefactress in her power,
+and his history affords us one of those mixed characters, in which
+principle was so often sacrificed to policy, that we must condemn the
+statesman while we pity and regret the individual. Many events in his
+life gave likelihood to the charge that he himself aimed at the crown;
+and it is too true, that he countenanced the fatal expedient of
+establishing an English, that is a foreign and a hostile interest, in
+the councils of Scotland. But his death may be received as an
+atonement for his offences, and may serve to show how much more safe
+is the person of a real patriot, than that of the mere head of a
+faction, who is accounted answerable for the offences of his meanest
+attendants.
+
+When Murray approached, the young rustic was naturally abashed at the
+dignity of his presence. The commanding form and the countenance to
+which high and important thoughts were familiar, the features which
+bore the resemblance of Scotland's long line of kings, were well
+calculated to impress awe and reverence. His dress had little to
+distinguish him from the high-born nobles and barons by whom he was
+attended. A buff-coat, richly embroidered with silken lace, supplied
+the place of armour; and a massive gold chain, with its medal, hung
+round his neck. His black velvet bonnet was decorated with a string of
+large and fair pearls, and with a small tufted feather; a long heavy
+sword was girt to his side, as the familiar companion of his hand. He
+wore gilded spurs on his boots, and these completed his equipment.
+
+"This letter," he said, "is from the godly preacher of the word, Henry
+Warden, young man? is it not so?" Halbert answered in the affirmative.
+"And he writes to us, it would seem, in some strait, and refers us to
+you for the circumstances. Let us know, I pray you, how things stand
+with him."
+
+In some perturbation Halbert Glendinning gave an account of the
+circumstances which had accompanied the preacher's imprisonment. When
+he came to the discussion of the _handfasting_ engagement, he was
+struck with the ominous and displeased expression of Murray's brows,
+and, contrary to all prudential and politic rule, seeing something was
+wrong, yet not well aware what that something was, had almost stopped
+short in his narrative.
+
+"What ails the fool?" said the Earl, drawing his dark-red eyebrows
+together, while the same dusky glow kindled on his brow--"Hast thou not
+learned to tell a true tale without stammering?"
+
+"So please you," answered Halbert, with considerable address, "I have
+never before spoken in such a presence."
+
+"He seems a modest youth," said Murray, turning to his next attendant,
+"and yet one who in a good cause will neither fear friend nor
+foe.--Speak on, friend, and speak freely."
+
+Halbert then gave an account of the quarrel betwixt Julian Avenel and
+the preacher, which the Earl, biting his lip the while, compelled
+himself to listen to as a thing of indifference. At first he appeared
+even to take the part of the Baron.
+
+"Henry Warden," he said, "is too hot in his zeal. The law both of God
+and man maketh allowance for certain alliances, though not strictly
+formal, and the issue of such may succeed."
+
+This general declaration he expressed, accompanying it with a glance
+around upon the few followers who were present at this interview. The
+most of them answered--"There is no contravening that;" but one or two
+looked on the ground, and were silent. Murray then turned again to
+Glendinning, commanding him to say what next chanced, and not to omit
+any particular. When he mentioned the manner in which Julian had cast
+from him his concubine, Murray drew a deep breath, set his teeth hard,
+and laid his hand on the hilt of his dagger. Casting his eyes once
+more around the circle, which was now augmented by one or two of the
+reformed preachers, he seemed to devour his rage in silence, and again
+commanded Halbert to proceed. When he came to describe how Warden had
+been dragged to a dungeon, the Earl seemed to have found the point at
+which he might give vent to his own resentment, secure of the sympathy
+and approbation of all who were present. "Judge you," he said, looking
+to those around him, "judge you, my peers, and noble gentlemen of
+Scotland, betwixt me and this Julian Avenel--he hath broken his own
+word, and hath violated my safe-conduct--and judge you also, my
+reverend brethren, he hath put his hand forth upon a preacher of the
+gospel, and perchance may sell his blood to the worshippers of
+Anti-Christ!"
+
+"Let him die the death of a traitor," said the secular chiefs, "and
+let his tongue be struck through with the hangman's fiery iron to
+avenge his perjury!"
+
+"Let him go down to his place with Baal's priests," said the preachers,
+"and be his ashes cast into Tophet!"
+
+Murray heard them with the smile of expected revenge; yet it is
+probable that the brutal treatment of the female, whose circumstances
+somewhat resembled those of the Earl's own mother, had its share in
+the grim smile which curled his sun-burnt cheek and its haughty lip.
+To Halbert Glendinning, when his narrative was finished, he spoke with
+great kindness.
+
+"He is a bold and gallant youth," said he to those around, "and formed
+of the stuff which becomes a bustling time. There are periods when men's
+spirits shine bravely through them. I will know something more of him."
+
+He questioned him more particularly concerning the Baron of Avenel's
+probable forces--the strength of his castle--the dispositions of his
+next heir, and this brought necessarily forward the sad history of his
+brother's daughter, Mary Avenel, which was told with an embarrassment
+that did not escape Murray.
+
+"Ha! Julian Avenel," he said, "and do you provoke my resentment, when
+you have so much more reason to deprecate my justice! I knew Walter
+Avenel, a true Scotsman and a good soldier. Our sister, the Queen,
+must right his daughter; and were her land restored, she would be a
+fitting bride to some brave man who may better merit our favour than
+the traitor Julian."--Then looking at Halbert, he said, "Art thou of
+gentle blood, young man?"
+
+Halbert, with a faltering and uncertain voice, began to speak of his
+distant pretensions to claim a descent from the ancient Glendonwynes
+of Galloway, when Murray interrupted him with a smile.
+
+"Nay--nay--leave pedigrees to bards and heralds. In our days, each,
+man is the son of his own deeds. The glorious light of reformation
+hath shone alike on prince and peasant; and peasant as well as prince
+may be illustrated by fighting in its defence. It is a stirring world,
+where all may advance themselves who have stout hearts and strong
+arms. Tell me frankly why thou hast left thy father's house."
+
+Halbert Glendinning made a frank confession of his duel with Piercie
+Shafton, and mentioned his supposed death.
+
+"By my hand," said Murray, "thou art a bold sparrow-hawk, to match
+thee so early with such a kite as Piercie Shafton. Queen Elizabeth
+would give her glove filled with gold crowns to know that meddling
+coxcomb to be under the sod.--Would she not, Morton?"
+
+"Ay, by my word, and esteem her glove a better gift than the crowns,"
+replied Morton, "which few Border lads like this fellow will esteem
+just valuation."
+
+"But what shall we do with this young homicide?" said Murray; "what
+will our preachers say?"
+
+"Tell them of Moses and of Benaiah," said Morton; "it is but the smiting
+of an Egyptian when all is said out."
+
+"Let it be so," said Murray, laughing; "but we will bury the tale, as
+the prophet did the body, in the sand. I will take care of this
+swankie.--Be near to us, Glendinning, since that is thy name. We
+retain thee as a squire of our household. The master of our horse will
+see thee fully equipped and armed."
+
+During the expedition which he was now engaged in, Murray found
+several opportunities of putting Glendinning's courage and presence of
+mind to the test, and he began to rise so rapidly in his esteem, that
+those who knew the Earl considered the youth's fortune as certain. One
+step only was wanting to raise him to a still higher degree of
+confidence and favour--it was the abjuration of the Popish religion.
+The ministers who attended upon Murray and formed his chief support
+amongst the people, found an easy convert in Halbert Glendinning, who,
+from his earliest days, had never felt much devotion towards the
+Catholic faith, and who listened eagerly to more reasonable views of
+religion. By thus adopting the faith of his master, he rose higher in
+his favour, and was constantly about his person during his prolonged
+stay in the west of Scotland, which the intractability of those whom
+the Earl had to deal with, protracted from day to day, and week to
+week.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Sixth.
+
+
+  Faint the din of battle bray'd
+    Distant down the hollow wind;
+  War and terror fled before,
+    Wounds and death were left behind.
+                      PENROSE.
+
+The autumn of the year was well advanced, when the Earl of Morton,
+one morning, rather unexpectedly, entered the antechamber of Murray, in
+which Halbert Glendinning was in waiting.
+
+"Call your master, Halbert," said the Earl; "I have news for him from
+Teviotdale; and for you too, Glendinning.--News! news! my Lord of
+Murray!" he exclaimed at the door of the Earl's bedroom; "come forth
+instantly." The Earl appeared, and greeted his ally, demanding eagerly
+his tidings.
+
+"I have had a sure friend with me from the south," said Morton; "he
+has been at Saint Mary's Monastery, and brings important tidings." "Of
+what complexion?" said Murray, "and can you trust the bearer?" "He is
+faithful, on my life," said Morton; "I wish all around your Lordship
+may prove equally so."
+
+"At what, and whom, do you point?" demanded Murray.
+
+"Here is the Egyptian of trusty Halbert Glendinning, our Southland
+Moses, come alive again, and flourishing, gay and bright as ever, in
+that Teviotdale Goshen, the Halidome of Kennaquhair."
+
+"What mean you, my lord?" said Murray.
+
+"Only that your new henchman has put a false tale upon you. Piercie
+Shafton is alive and well; by the same token that the gull is thought
+to be detained there by love to a miller's daughter, who roamed the
+country with him in disguise."
+
+"Glendinning," said Murray, bending his brow into his darkest frown,
+"thou hast not, I trust, dared to bring me a lie in thy mouth, in
+order to win my confidence?"
+
+"My lord," said Halbert, "I am incapable of a lie. I should choke on
+one were my life to require that I pronounced it. I say, that this
+sword of my father was through the body--the point came out behind his
+back--the hilt pressed upon his breast-bone. And I will plunge it as
+deep in the body of any one who shall dare to charge me with
+falsehood."
+
+"How, fellow!" said Morton, "wouldst thou beard a nobleman?"
+
+"Be silent, Halbert," said Murray, "and you, my Lord of Morton, forbear
+him. I see truth written on his brow."
+
+"I wish the inside of the manuscript may correspond with the
+superscription," replied his more suspicious ally. "Look to it, my
+lord, you will one day lose your life by too much confidence."
+
+"And you will lose your friends by being too readily suspicious,"
+answered Murray. "Enough of this--let me hear thy tidings."
+
+"Sir John Foster," said Morton, "is about to send a party into Scotland
+to waste the Halidome."
+
+"How! without waiting my presence and permission?" said Murray--"he is
+mad--will he come as an enemy into the Queen's country?"
+
+"He has Elizabeth's express orders," answered Morton, "and they are
+not to be trifled with. Indeed, his march has been more than once
+projected and laid aside during the time we have been here, and has
+caused much alarm at Kennaquhair. Boniface, the old Abbot, has
+resigned, and whom think you they have chosen in his place?"
+
+"No one surely," said Murray; "they would presume to hold no election
+until the Queen's pleasure and mine were known?"
+
+Morton shrugged his shoulders--"They have chosen the pupil of old
+Cardinal Beatoun, that wily determined champion of Rome, the
+bosom-friend of our busy Primate of Saint Andrews. Eustace, late the
+Sub-Prior of Kennaquhair, is now its Abbot, and, like a second Pope
+Julius, is levying men and making musters to fight with Foster if he
+comes forward."
+
+"We must prevent that meeting," said Murray, hastily; "whichever
+party wins the day, it were a fatal encounter for us--Who commands the
+troop of the Abbot?"
+
+"Our faithful old friend, Julian Avenel, nothing less," answered Morton.
+
+"Glendinning," said Murray, "sound trumpets to horse directly, and let
+all who love us get on horseback without delay--Yes, my lord, this
+were indeed a fatal dilemma. If we take part with our English friends,
+the country will cry shame on us--the very old wives will attack us
+with their rocks and spindles--the very stones of the street will rise
+up against us--we cannot set our face to such a deed of infamy. And my
+sister, whose confidence I already have such difficulty in preserving,
+will altogether withdraw it from me. Then, were we to oppose the
+English Warden, Elizabeth would call it a protecting of her enemies
+and what not, and we should lose her."
+
+"The she-dragon," said Morton, "is the best card in our pack; and yet
+I would not willingly stand still and see English blades carve Scots
+flesh--What say you to loitering by the way, marching far and easy for
+fear of spoiling our horses? They might then fight dog fight bull,
+fight Abbot fight archer, and no one could blame us for what chanced
+when we were not present."
+
+"All would blame us, James Douglas," replied Murray; "we should lose
+both sides--we had better advance with the utmost celerity, and do
+what we can to keep the peace betwixt them.--I would the nag that
+brought Piercie Shafton hither had broken his neck over the highest
+heuch in Northumberland!--He is a proper coxcomb to make all this
+bustle about, and to occasion perhaps a national war!"
+
+"Had we known in time," said Douglas, "we might have had him privily
+waited upon as he entered the Borders; there are strapping lads enough
+would have rid us of him for the lucre of his spur-whang.  [Footnote:
+_Spur-whang_--Spur-leather.] But to the saddle, James Stewart, since
+so the phrase goes. I hear your trumpets. Bound to horse and away--we
+shall soon see which nag is best breathed."
+
+Followed by a train of about three hundred well-mounted men-at-arms,
+these two powerful barons directed their course to Dumfries, and from
+thence eastward to Teviotdale, marching at a rate which, as Morton had
+foretold, soon disabled a good many of their horses, so that when they
+approached the scene of expected action, there were not above two
+hundred of their train remaining in a body, and of these most were
+mounted on steeds which had been sorely jaded.
+
+They had hitherto been amused and agitated by various reports
+concerning the advance of the English soldiers, and the degree of
+resistance which the Abbot was able to oppose to them. But when they
+were six or seven miles from Saint Mary's of Kennaquhair, a gentleman
+of the country, whom Murray had summoned to attend him, and on whose
+intelligence he knew he could rely, arrived at the head of two or
+three servants, "bloody with spurring, fiery red with haste."
+According to his report, Sir John Foster, after several times
+announcing, and as often delaying, his intended incursion, had at last
+been so stung with the news that Piercie Shafton was openly residing
+within the Halidome, that he determined to execute the commands of his
+mistress, which directed him, at every risk, to make himself master of
+the Euphuist's person. The Abbot's unceasing exertions had collected a
+body of men almost equal in number to those of the English Warden, but
+less practised in arms. They were united under the command of Julian
+Avenel, and it was apprehended they would join battle upon the banks
+of a small stream which forms the verge of the Halidome.
+
+"Who knows the place?" said Murray.
+
+"I do, my lord," answered Glendinning.
+
+"'Tis well," said the Earl; "take a score of the best-mounted
+horse--make what haste thou canst, and announce to them that I am
+coming up instantly with a strong power, and will cut to pieces,
+without mercy, whichever party strikes the first blow.--Davidson,"
+said he to the gentleman who brought the intelligence, "thou shalt be
+my guide.--Hie thee on, Glendinning--Say to Foster, I conjure him, as
+he respects his mistress's service, that he will leave the matter in
+my hands. Say to the Abbot, I will burn the Monastery over his head,
+if he strikes a stroke till I come--Tell the dog, Julian Avenel, that
+he hath already one deep score to settle with me--I will set his head
+on the top of the highest pinnacle of Saint Mary's, if he presume to
+open another. Make haste, and spare not the spur for fear of spoiling
+horse-flesh."
+
+"Your bidding shall be obeyed, my lord," said Glendinning; and
+choosing those whose horses were in best plight to be his attendants,
+he went off as fast as the jaded state of their cavalry permitted.
+Hill and hollow vanished from under the feet of the chargers.
+
+They had not ridden half the way, when they met stragglers coming off
+from the field, whose appearance announced that the conflict was
+begun.  Two supported in their arms a third, their elder brother, who
+was pierced with an arrow through the body. Halbert, who knew them to
+belong to the Halidome, called them by their names, and questioned
+them of the state of the affray; but just then, in spite of their
+efforts to retain him in the saddle, their brother dropped from the
+horse, and they dismounted in haste to receive his last breath. From
+men thus engaged, no information was to be obtained. Glendinning,
+therefore, pushed on with his little troop, the more anxiously, as he
+perceived other stragglers, bearing Saint Andrew's cross upon their
+caps and corslets, flying apparently from the field of battle.  Most
+of these, when they were aware of a body of horsemen approaching on
+the road, held to the one hand or the other, at such a distance as
+precluded coming to speech of them. Others, whose fear was more
+intense, kept the onward road, galloping wildly as fast as their
+horses could carry them, and when questioned, only glared without
+reply on those who spoke to them, and rode on without drawing bridle.
+Several of these were also known to Halbert, who had therefore no
+doubt, from the circumstances in which he met them, that the men of
+the Halidome were defeated. He became now unspeakably anxious
+concerning the fate of his brother, who, he could not doubt, must have
+been engaged in the affray. He therefore increased the speed of his
+horse, so that not above five or six of his followers could keep up
+with him. At length he reached a little hill, at the descent of which,
+surrounded by a semi-circular sweep of a small stream, lay the plain
+which had been the scene of the skirmish.
+
+It was a melancholy spectacle. War and terror, to use the expression
+of the poet, had rushed on to the field, and left only wounds and
+death behind them. The battle had been stoutly contested, as was
+almost always the case with these Border skirmishes, where ancient
+hatred, and mutual injuries, made men stubborn in maintaining the
+cause of their conflict.  Towards the middle of the plain, there lay
+the bodies of several men who had fallen in the very act of grappling
+with the enemy; and there were seen countenances which still bore the
+stern expression of unextinguishable hate and defiance, hands which
+clasped the hilt of the broken falchion, or strove in vain to pluck
+the deadly arrow from the wound. Some were wounded, and, cowed of the
+courage they had lately shown, were begging aid, and craving water, in
+a tone of melancholy depression, while others tried to teach the
+faltering tongue to pronounce some half-forgotten prayer, which, even
+when first learned, they had but half understood. Halbert, uncertain
+what course he was next to pursue, rode through the plain to see if,
+among the dead or wounded, he could discover any traces of his brother
+Edward. He experienced no interruption from the English. A distant
+cloud of dust announced that they were still pursuing the scattered
+fugitives, and he guessed, that to approach them with his followers,
+until they were again under some command, would be to throw away his
+own life, and that of his men, whom the victors would instantly
+confound with the Scots, against whom they had been successful. He
+resolved, therefore, to pause until Murray came up with his forces, to
+which he was the more readily moved, as he heard the trumpets of the
+English Warden sounding the retreat, and recalling from the pursuit.
+He drew his men together, and made a stand in an advantageous spot of
+ground, which had been occupied by the Scots in the beginning of the
+action, and most fiercely disputed while the skirmish lasted.
+
+While he stood here, Halbert's ear was assailed by the feeble moan of
+a woman, which he had not expected to hear amid that scene, until the
+retreat of the foes had permitted the relations of the slain to
+approach, for the purpose of paying them the last duties. He looked
+with anxiety, and at length observed, that by the body of a knignt in
+bright armour, whose crest, though soiled and broken, still showed the
+marks of rank and birth, there sat a female wrapped in a horseman's
+cloak, and holding something pressed against her bosom, which he soon
+discovered to be a child. He glanced towards the English. They
+advanced not, and the continued and prolonged sound of their trumpets,
+with the shouts of the leaders, announced that their powers would not
+be instantly re-assembled. He had, therefore, a moment to look after
+this unfortunate woman. He gave his horse to a spearman as he
+dismounted, and, approaching the unhappy female, asked her, in the
+most soothing tone he could assume, whether he could assist her in her
+distress. The mourner made him no direct answer; but endeavouring,
+with a trembling and unskilful hand, to undo the springs of the visor
+and gorget, said, in a tone of impatient grief, "Oh, he would recover
+instantly could I but give him air--land and living, life and honour,
+would I give for the power of undoing these cruel iron platings that
+suffocate him!" He that would soothe sorrow must not argue on the
+vanity of the most deceitful hopes. The body lay as that of one whose
+last draught of vital air had been drawn, and who must never more have
+concern with the nether sky. But Halbert Glendinning failed not to
+raise the visor and cast loose the gorget, when, to his great
+surprise, he recognized the pale face of Julian Avenel. His last fight
+was over, the fierce and turbid spirit had departed in the strife in
+which it had so long delighted.
+
+"Alas! he is gone," said Halbert, speaking to the young woman, in whom
+he had now no difficulty of knowing the unhappy Catherine.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" she reiterated, "do not say so--he is not dead--he
+is but in a swoon. I have lain as long in one myself--and then his
+voice would arouse me, when he spoke kindly, and said, Catherine, look
+up for my sake--And look up, Julian, for mine!" she said, addressing
+the senseless corpse; "I know you do but counterfeit to frighten me,
+but I am not frightened," she added, with an hysterical attempt to
+laugh; and then instantly changing her tone, entreated him to "speak,
+were it but to curse my folly.  Oh, the rudest word you ever said to
+me would now sound like the dearest you wasted on me before I gave you
+all. Lift him up," she said, "lift him up, for God's sake!--have you
+no compassion? He promised to wed me if I bore him a boy, and this
+child is so like to its father!--How shall he keep his word, if you do
+not help me to awaken him?--Christie of the Clinthill, Rowley,
+Hutcheon! ye were constant at his feast, but ye fled from him at the
+fray, false villains as ye are!"
+
+"Not I, by Heaven!" said a dying man, who made some shift to raise
+himself on his elbow, and discovered to Halbert the well-known
+features of Christie; "I fled not a foot, and a man can but fight
+while his breath lasts--mine is going fast.--So, youngster," said he,
+looking at Glendinning, and seeing his military dress, "thou hast
+ta'en the basnet at last? it is a better cap to live in than die in. I
+would chance had sent thy brother here instead--there was good in
+him--but thou art as wild, and wilt soon be as wicked as myself."
+
+"God forbid!" said Halbert, hastily.
+
+"Marry, and amen, with all my heart," said the wounded man, "there
+will be company enow without thee where I am going. But God be praised
+I had no hand in that wickedness," said he, looking to poor Catherine;
+and with some exclamation in his mouth, that sounded betwixt a prayer
+and a curse, the soul of Christie of the Clinthill took wing to the
+last account.
+
+Deeply wrapt in the painful interest which these shocking events had
+excited, Glendinning forgot for a moment his own situation and duties,
+and was first recalled to them by a trampling of horse, and the cry of
+Saint George for England, which the English soldiers still continued
+to use. His handful of men, for most of the stragglers had waited for
+Murray's coming up, remained on horseback, holding their lances
+upright, having no command either to submit or resist.
+
+"There stands our Captain," said one of them, as a strong party of
+English came up, the vanguard of Foster's troop.
+
+"Your Captain! with his sword sheathed, and on foot in the presence of
+his enemy? a raw soldier, I warrant him," said the English leader.
+"So! ho! young man, is your dream out, and will you now answer me if
+you will fight or fly?"
+
+"Neither," answered Halbert Glendinning, with great tranquillity.
+
+"Then throw down thy sword and yield thee," answered the Englishman.
+
+"Not till I can help myself no otherwise," said Halbert, with the same
+moderation of tone and manner.
+
+"Art thou for thine own hand, friend, or to whom dost thou owe
+service?" demanded the English Captain.
+
+"To the noble Earl of Murray."
+
+"Then thou servest," said the Southron, "the most disloyal nobleman
+who breathes--false both to England and Scotland."
+
+"Thou liest," said Glendinning, regardless of all consequences.
+
+"Ha! art thou so hot how, and wert so cold but a minute since? I lie,
+do I? Wilt thou do battle with me on that quarrel?"
+
+"With one to one--one to two--or two to five, as you list," said
+Halbert Glendinning; "grant me but a fair field."
+
+"That thou shalt have.--Stand back, my mates," said the brave
+Englishman. "If I fall, give him fair play, and let him go off free
+with his people."
+
+"Long life to the noble Captain!" cried the soldiers, as impatient to
+see the duel, as if it had been a bull-baiting.
+
+"He will have a short life of it, though," said the sergeant, "if he,
+an old man of sixty, is to fight, for any reason, or for no reason,
+with every man he meets, and especially the young fellows he might be
+father to.--And here comes the Warden besides to see the sword-play."
+
+In fact, Sir John Foster came up with a considerable body of his
+horsemen, just as his Captain, whose age rendered him unequal to the
+combat with so strong and active a youth as Glendinning, was deprived
+of his sword.
+
+"Take it up for shame, old Stawarth Bolton," said the English Warden;
+"and thou, young man, tell me who and what thou art?"
+
+"A follower of the Earl of Murray, who bore his will to your honour,"
+answered Glendinning,--"but here he comes to say it himself; I see the
+van of his horsemen come over the hills."
+
+"Get into order, my masters," said Sir John Foster to his followers;
+"you that have broken your spears, draw your swords. We are something
+unprovided for a second field, but if yonder dark cloud on the hill
+edge bring us foul weather, we must bear as bravely as our broken
+cloaks will bide it.  Meanwhile, Stawarth, we have got the deer we
+have hunted for--here is Piercie Shafton hard and fast betwixt two
+troopers."
+
+"Who, that lad?" said Bolton; "he is no more Piercie Shafton than I
+am. He hath his gay cloak indeed--but Piercie Shafton is a round dozen
+of years older than that slip of roguery. I have known him since he
+was thus high. Did you never see him in the tilt-yard or in the
+presence?"
+
+"To the devil with such vanities!" said Sir John Foster; "when had I
+leisure for them or any thing else? During my whole life has she kept
+me to this hangman's office, chasing thieves one day and traitors
+another, in daily fear of my life; the lance never hung up in the
+hall, the foot never out of the stirrup, the saddles never off my
+nags' backs; and now, because I have been mistaken in the person of a
+man I never saw, I warrant me, the next letters from the Privy Council
+will rate me as I were a dog--a man were better dead than thus slaved
+and harassed."
+
+A trumpet interrupted Foster's complaints, and a Scottish pursuivant
+who attended, declared "that the noble Earl of Murray desired, in all
+honour and safety, a personal conference with Sir John Foster, midway
+between their parties, with six of company in each, and ten free
+minutes to come and go."
+
+"And now," said the Englishman, "comes another plague. I must go speak
+with yonder false Scot, and he knows how to frame his devices, to cast
+dust in the eyes of a plain man, as well as ever a knave in the north.
+I am no match for him in words, and for hard blows we are but too ill
+provided.--Pursuivant, we grant the conference--and you, Sir
+Swordsman," (speaking to young Glendinning,) "draw off with your
+troopers to your own party--march--attend your Earl's
+trumpet.--Stawarth Bolton, put our troop in order, and be ready to
+move forward at the wagging of a finger.--Get you gone to your own
+friends, I tell you, Sir Squire, and loiter not here."
+
+Notwithstanding this peremptory order, Halbert Glendinning could not
+help stopping to cast a look upon the unfortunate Catherine, who lay
+insensible of the danger and of the trampling of so many horses around
+her, insensible, as the second glance assured him, of all and forever.
+Glendinning almost rejoiced when he saw that the last misery of life
+was over, and that the hoofs of the war-horses, amongst which he was
+compelled to leave her, could only injure and deface a senseless
+corpse. He caught the infant from her arms, half ashamed of the shout
+of laughter which rose on all sides, at seeing an armed man in such a
+situation assume such an unwonted and inconvenient burden.
+
+"Shoulder your infant!" cried a harquebusier.
+
+"Port your infant!" said a pikeman.
+
+"Peace, ye brutes," said Stawarth Bolton, "and respect humanity in
+others if you have none yourselves. I pardon the lad having done some
+discredit to my gray hairs, when I see him take care of that helpless
+creature, which ye would have trampled upon as if ye had been littered
+of bitch-wolves, not born of women."
+
+While this passed, the leaders on either side met in the neutral space
+betwixt the forces of either, and the Earl accosted the English
+Warden:
+
+"Is this fair or honest usage, Sir John, or for whom do you hold the
+Earl of Morton and myself, that you ride in Scotland with arrayed
+banner, fight, slay, and make prisoners at your own pleasure? Is it
+well done, think you, to spoil our land and shed our blood, after the
+many proofs we have given to your mistress of our devotion due to her
+will, saving always the allegiance due to our own sovereign?"
+
+"My Lord of Murray," answered Foster, "all the world knows you to be a
+man of quick ingine and deep wisdom, and these several weeks you have
+held me in hand with promising to arrest my sovereign mistress's
+rebel, this Piercie Shafton of Wilverton, and you have never kept your
+word, alleging turmoils in the west, and I wot not what other causes
+of hinderance. Now, since he has had the insolence to return hither,
+and live openly within ten miles of England, I could no longer, in
+plain duty to my mistress and queen, tarry upon your successive
+delays, and therefore I have used her force to take her rebel, by the
+strong hand, wherever I can find him."
+
+"And is Piercie Shafton in your hands, then?" said the Earl of Murray.
+"Be aware that I may not, without my own great shame, suffer you to
+remove him hence without doing battle."
+
+"Will you, Lord Earl, after all the advantages you have received at the
+hands of the Queen of England, do battle in the cause of her rebel?" said
+Sir John Foster.
+
+"Not so, Sir John," answered the Earl, "but I will fight to the death in
+defence of the liberties of our free kingdom of Scotland."
+
+"By my faith," said Sir John Foster, "I am well content--my sword is
+not blunted with all it has done yet this day."
+
+"By my honour, Sir John," said Sir George Heron of Chipchase, "there
+is but little reason we should fight these Scottish Lords e'en now,
+for I hold opinion with old Stawarth Bolton, and believe yonder
+prisoner to be no more Piercie Shafton than he is the Earl of
+Northumberland; and you were but ill advised to break the peace
+betwixt the countries for a prisoner of less consequence than that gay
+mischief-maker."
+
+"Sir George," replied Foster, "I have often heard you herons are
+afraid of hawks--Nay, lay not hand on sword, man--I did but jest; and
+for this prisoner, let him be brought up hither, that we may see who
+or what he is--always under assurance, my Lords," he continued,
+addressing the Scots.
+
+"Upon our word and honour," said Morton, "we will offer no violence."
+
+The laugh turned against Sir John Foster considerably, when the
+prisoner, being brought up, proved not only a different person from
+Sir Piercie Shafton, but a female in man's attire.
+
+"Pluck the mantle from the quean's face, and cast her to the horse-boys,"
+said Foster; "she has kept such company ere now, I warrant."
+
+Even Murray was moved to laughter, no common thing with him, at the
+disappointment of the English Warden; but he would not permit any
+violence to be offered to the fair Molinara, who had thus a second
+time rescued Sir Piercie Shafton at her own personal risk.
+
+"You have already done more mischief than you can well answer," said
+the Earl to the English Warden, "and it were dishonour to me should I
+permit you to harm a hair of this young woman's head."
+
+"My lord," said Morton, "if Sir John will ride apart with me but for
+one moment, I will show him such reasons as shall make him content to
+depart, and to refer this unhappy day's work to the judgment of the
+Commissioners nominated to try offences on the Border."
+
+He then led Sir John Foster aside, and spoke to him in this
+manner:--"Sir John Foster, I much marvel that a man who knows your
+Queen Elizabeth as you do, should not know that, if you hope any thing
+from her, it must be for doing her useful service, not for involving
+her in quarrels with her neighbours without any advantage. Sir Knight,
+I will speak frankly what I know to be true. Had you seized the true
+Piercie Shafton by this ill-advised inroad; and had your deed
+threatened, as most likely it might, a breach betwixt the countries,
+your politic princess and her politic council would rather have
+disgraced Sir John Foster than entered into war in his behalf. But now
+that you have stricken short of your aim, you may rely on it you will
+have little thanks for carrying the matter farther. I will work thus
+far on the Earl of Murray, that he will undertake to dismiss Sir
+Piercie Shafton from the realm of Scotland.--Be well advised, and let
+the matter now pass off--you will gain nothing by farther violence,
+for if we fight, you as the fewer and the weaker through your former
+action, will needs have the worse."
+
+Sir John Foster listened with his head declining on his breast-plate.
+
+"It is a cursed chance," he said, "and I shall have little thanks for
+my day's work."
+
+He then rode up to Murray, and said, that, in deference to his Lordship's
+presence and that of my Lord of Morton, he had come to the resolution of
+withdrawing himself, with his power, without farther proceedings.
+
+"Stop there, Sir John Foster," said Murray; "I cannot permit you to
+retire in safety, unless you leave some one who may be surety to
+Scotland, that the injuries you have at present done us may be fully
+accounted for--you will reflect, that by permitting your retreat, I
+become accountable to my Sovereign, who will demand a reckoning of me
+for the blood of her subjects, if I suffer those who shed it to depart
+so easily."
+
+"It shall never be told in England," said the Warden, "that John
+Foster gave pledges like a subdued man, and that on the very field on
+which he stands victorious.--But," he added, after a moment's pause,
+"if Stawarth Bolton wills to abide with you on his own free choice, I
+will say nothing against it; and, as I bethink me, it were better he
+should stay to see the dismissal of this same Piercie Shafton."
+
+"I receive him as your hostage, nevertheless, and shall treat him as
+such," said the Earl of Murray. But Foster, turning away as if to give
+directions to Bolton and his men, affected not to hear this
+observation.
+
+"There rides a faithful servant of his most beautiful and Sovereign
+Lady," said Murray aside to Morton. "Happy man! he knows not whether
+the execution of her commands may not cost him his head; and yet he is
+most certain that to leave them unexecuted will bring disgrace and
+death without reprieve. Happy are they who are not only subjected to
+the caprices of Dame Fortune, but held bound to account and be
+responsible for them, and that to a sovereign as moody and fickle as
+her humorous ladyship herself!"
+
+"We also have a female Sovereign, my lord," said Morton.
+
+"We have so, Douglas," said the Earl,--with a suppressed sigh; "but it
+remains to be seen how long a female hand can hold the reins of power
+in a realm so wild as ours. We will now go on to Saint Mary's, and see
+ourselves after the state of that House.--Glendinning, look to that
+woman, and protect her.--What the fiend, man, hast thou got in thine
+arms?--an infant as I live!--where couldst thou find such a charge, at
+such a place and moment?"
+
+Halbert Glendinning briefly told the story. The Earl rode forward to
+the place where the body of Julian Avenel lay, with his unhappy
+companion's arms wrapped around him like the trunk of an uprooted oak
+borne down by the tempest with all its ivy garlands. Both were cold
+dead. Murray was touched in an unwonted degree, remembering, perhaps,
+his own birth. "What have they to answer for, Douglas," he said, "who
+thus abuse the sweetest gifts of affection?"
+
+The Earl of Morton, unhappy in his marriage, was a libertine in his
+amours.
+
+"You must ask that question of Henry Warden, my lord, or of John
+Knox--I am but a wild counsellor in women's matters."
+
+"Forward to Saint Mary's," said the Earl; "pass the word
+on--Glendinning, give the infant to this same female cavalier, and let
+it be taken charge of. Let no dishonour be done to the dead bodies,
+and call on the country to bury or remove them.--Forward, I say, my
+masters!"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Seventh.
+
+
+  Gone to be married?--Gone to swear a peace!
+
+KING JOHN
+
+The news of the lost battle, so quickly carried by the fugitives to
+the village and convent, had spread the greatest alarm among the
+inhabitants.  The Sacristan and other monks counselled flight; the
+Treasurer recommended that the church plate should be offered as a
+tribute to bribe the English officer; the Abbot alone was unmoved and
+undaunted.
+
+"My brethren," he said, "since God has not given our people victory in
+the combat, it must be because he requires of us, his spiritual
+soldiers, to fight the good fight of martyrdom, a conflict in which
+nothing but our own faint-hearted cowardice can make us fail of
+victory. Let us assume, then, the armour of faith, and prepare, if it
+be necessary, to die under the ruin of these shrines, to the service
+of which we have devoted ourselves. Highly honoured are we all in this
+distinguished summons, from our dear brother Nicholas, whose gray
+hairs have been preserved until they should be surrounded by the crown
+of martyrdom, down to my beloved son Edward, who, arriving at the
+vineyard at the latest hour of the day, is yet permitted to share its
+toils with those who have laboured from the morning. Be of good
+courage, my children. I dare not, like my sainted predecessors,
+promise to you that you shall be preserved by miracle--I and you are
+alike unworthy of that especial interposition, which, in earlier
+times, turned the sword of sacrilege against the bosom of tyrants by
+whom it was wielded, daunted the hardened hearts of heretics with
+prodigies, and called down hosts of angels to defend the shrine of God
+and of the Virgin. Yet, by heavenly aid, you shall this day see that
+your Father and Abbot will not disgrace the mitre which sits upon his
+brow. Go to your cells, my children, and exercise your private
+devotions. Array yourselves also in alb and cope, as for our most
+solemn festivals, and be ready, when the tolling of the largest bell
+announces the approach of the enemy, to march forth to meet them in
+solemn procession. Let the church be opened to afford such refuge as
+may be to those of our vassals, who, from their exertion in this day's
+unhappy battle, or the cause, are particularly apprehensive of the
+rage of the enemy.  Tell Sir Piercie Shafton, if he has escaped the
+fight--"
+
+"I am here, most venerable Abbot," replied Sir Piercie; "and if it so
+seemeth meet to you, I will presently assemble such of the men as have
+escaped this escaramouche, and will renew the resistance, even unto
+the death. Certes, you will learn from all, that I did my part in this
+unhappy matter. Had it pleased Julian Avenel to have attended to my
+counsel, specially in somewhat withdrawing of his main battle, even as
+you may have marked the heron eschew the stoop of the falcon,
+receiving him rather upon his beak than upon his wing, affairs, as I
+do conceive, might have had a different face, and we might then, in a
+more bellacose manner, have maintained that affray. Nevertheless, I
+would not be understood to speak any thing in disregard of Julian
+Avenel, whom I saw fall fighting manfully with his face to his enemy,
+which hath banished from my memory the unseemly term of 'meddling
+coxcomb,' with which it pleased him something rashly to qualify my
+advice, and for which, had it pleased Heaven and the saints to have
+prolonged the life of that excellent person, I had it bound upon my
+soul to have put him to death with my own hand."
+
+"Sir Piercie," said the Abbot, at length interrupting him, "our time
+allows brief leisure to speak what might have been."
+
+"You are right, most venerable Lord and Father," replied the
+incorrigible Euphuist; "the preterite, as grammarians have it,
+concerns frail mortality less than the future mood, and indeed our
+cogitations respect chiefly the present. In a word, I am willing to
+head all who will follow me, and offer such opposition as manhood and
+mortality may permit, to the advance of the English, though they be my
+own countrymen; and be assured, Piercie Shafton will measure his
+length, being five feet ten inches, on the ground as he stands, rather
+than give two yards in retreat, according to the usual motion in which
+we retrograde."
+
+"I thank you, Sir Knight," said the Abbot, "and I doubt not that you
+would make your words good; but it is not the will of Heaven that carnal
+weapons should rescue us. We are called to endure, not to resist, and may
+not waste the blood of our innocent commons in vain--Fruitless opposition
+becomes not men of our profession; they have my commands to resign the
+sword and the spear,--God and Our Lady have not blessed our banner."
+
+"Bethink you, reverend lord," said Piercie Shafton, very eagerly, "ere
+you resign the defence that is in your power--there are many posts
+near the entry of this village, where brave men might live or die to
+the advantage; and I have this additional motive to make defence,--the
+safety, namely, of a fair friend, who, I hope, hath escaped the hands
+of the heretics."
+
+"I understand you, Sir Piercie," said the Abbot--"you mean the
+daughter of our Convent's miller?"
+
+"Reverend my lord," said Sir Piercie, not without hesitation, "the
+fair Mysinda is, as may be in some sort alleged, the daughter of one
+who mechanically prepareth corn to be manipulated into bread, without
+which we could not exist, and which is therefore an employment in
+itself honourable, nay necessary. Nevertheless, if the purest
+sentiments of a generous mind, streaming forth like the rays of the
+sun reflected by a diamond, may ennoble one, who is in some sort the
+daughter of a molendinary mechanic----"
+
+"I have no time for all this, Sir Knight," said the Abbot; "be it
+enough to answer, that with our will we war no longer with carnal
+weapons. We of the spirituality will teach you of the temporality how
+to die in cold blood, our hands not clenched for resistance, but
+folded for prayer--our minds not filled with jealous hatred, but with
+Christian meekness and forgiveness--our ears not deafened, nor our
+senses confused, by the sound of clamorous instruments of war; but, on
+the contrary, our voices composed to Halleluiah, Kyrie-Eleison, and
+Salve Regina, and our blood temperate and cold, as those who think
+upon reconciling themselves with God, not of avenging themselves of
+their fellow-mortals."
+
+"Lord Abbot," said Sir Piercie, "this is nothing to the fate of my
+Molinara, whom I beseech you to observe, I will not abandon, while
+golden hilt and steel blade bide together on my falchion. I commanded
+her not to follow us to the field, and yet methought I saw her in her
+page's attire amongst the rear of the combatants."
+
+"You must seek elsewhere for the person in whose fate you are so
+deeply interested," said the Abbot; "and at present I will pray of
+your knighthood to inquire concerning her at the church, in which all
+our more defenceless vassals have taken refuge. It is my advice to
+you, that you also abide by the horns of the altar; and, Sir Piercie
+Shafton," he added, "be of one thing secure, that if you come to harm,
+it will involve the whole of this brotherhood; for never, I trust,
+will the meanest of us buy safety at the expense of surrendering a
+friend or a guest. Leave us, my son, and may God be your aid!"
+
+When Sir Piercie Shafton had departed, and the Abbot was about to
+betake himself to his own cell, he was surprised by an unknown person
+anxiously requiring a conference, who, being admitted, proved to be no
+other than Henry Warden. The Abbot started as he entered, and
+exclaimed, angrily,--"Ha! are the few hours that fate allows him who
+may last wear the mitre of this house, not to be excused from the
+intrusion of heresy?  Dost thou come," he said, "to enjoy the hopes
+which fete holds out to thy demented and accursed sect, to see the
+bosom of destruction sweep away the pride of old religion--to deface
+our shrines,--to mutilate and lay waste the bodies of our benefactors,
+as well as their sepulchres--to destroy the pinnacles and carved work
+of God's house, and Our Lady's?"
+
+"Peace, William Allan!" said the Protestant preacher, with dignified
+composure; "for none of these purposes do I come. I would have these
+stately shrines deprived of the idols which, no longer simply regarded
+as the effigies of the good and of the wise, have become the objects
+of foul idolatry.  I would otherwise have its ornaments subsist,
+unless as they are, or may be, a snare to the souls of men; and
+especially do I condemn those ravages which have been made by the
+heady fury of the people, stung into zeal against will-worship by
+bloody persecution. Against such wanton devastations I lift my
+testimony."
+
+"Idle distinguisher that thou art!" said the Abbot Eustace, interrupting
+him; "what signifies the pretext under which thou dost despoil the house
+of God? and why at this present emergence will thou insult the master of
+it by thy ill-omened presence?"
+
+"Thou art unjust, William Allan," said Warden; "but I am not the less
+settled in my resolution. Thou hast protected me some time since at
+the hazard of thy rank, and what I know thou holdest still dearer, at
+the risk of thy reputation with thine own sect. Our party is now
+uppermost, and, believe me, I have come down the valley, in which thou
+didst quarter me for sequestration's sake, simply with the wish to
+keep my engagements to thee."
+
+"Ay," answered the Abbot, "and it may be, that my listening to that
+worldly and infirm compassion which pleaded with me for thy life, is now
+avenged by this impending judgment. Heaven hath smitten, it may be,
+the erring shepherd, and scattered the flock."
+
+"Think better of the Divine judgments," said Warden. "Not for thy
+sins, which are those of thy blended education and circumstances; not for
+thine own sins, William Allan, art thou stricken, but for the accumulated
+guilt which thy mis-named Church hath accumulated on her head, and those
+of her votaries, by the errors and corruption of ages."
+
+"Now, by my sure belief in the Rock of Peter," said the Abbot, "thou
+dost rekindle the last spark of human indignation for which my bosom
+has fuel--I thought I might not again have felt the impulse of earthly
+passion, and it is thy voice which once more calls me to the
+expression of human anger! yes, it is thy voice that comest to insult
+me in my hour of sorrow, with these blasphemous accusations of that
+church which hath kept the light of Christianity alive from the times
+of the Apostles till now."
+
+"From the times of the Apostles?" said the preacher, eagerly.
+"_Negatur, Gulielme Allan_--the primitive church differed as much
+from that of Rome, as did light from darkness, which, did time permit,
+I should speedily prove. And worse dost thou judge, in saying, I come
+to insult thee in thy hour of affliction, being here, God wot, with
+the Christian wish of fulfilling an engagement I had made to my host,
+and of rendering myself to thy will while it had yet power to exercise
+aught upon me, and if it might so be, to mitigate in thy behalf the
+rage of the victors whom God hath sent as a scourge to thy obstinacy."
+
+"I will none of thy intercession," said the Abbot, sternly; "the
+dignity to which the church has exalted me, never should have swelled
+my bosom more proudly in the time of the highest prosperity, than it
+doth at this crisis--I ask nothing of thee, but the assurance that my
+lenity to thee hath been the means of perverting no soul to Satan,
+that I have not given to the wolf any of the stray lambs whom the
+Great Shepherd of souls had intrusted to my charge."
+
+"William Allan," answered the Protestant, "I will be sincere with
+thee.  What I promised I have kept--I have withheld my voice from
+speaking even good things. But it has pleased Heaven to call the
+maiden Mary Avenel to a better sense of faith than thou and all the
+disciples of Rome can teach. Her I have aided with my humble power--I
+have extricated her from the machinations of evil spirits to which she
+and her house were exposed during the blindness of their Romish
+superstition, and, praise be to my Master, I have not reason to fear
+she will again be caught in thy snares."
+
+"Wretched man!" said the Abbot, unable to suppress his rising
+indignation, "is it to the Abbot of St. Mary's that you boast having
+misled the soul of a dweller in Our Lady's Halidome into the paths of
+foul error and damning heresy?--Thou dost urge me, Wellwood, beyond
+what it becomes me to bear, and movest me to employ the few moments of
+power I may yet possess, in removing from the face of the earth one
+whose qualities, given by God, have been so utterly perverted as thine
+to the service of Satan."
+
+"Do thy pleasure," said the preacher; "thy vain wrath shall not
+prevent my doing my duty to advantage thee, where it may be done
+without neglecting my higher call. I go to the Earl of Murray."
+
+Their conference, which was advancing fast into bitter disputation,
+was here interrupted by the deep and sullen toll of the largest and
+heaviest bell of the Convent, a sound famous in the chronicles of the
+Community, for dispelling of tempests, and putting to flight demons,
+but which now only announced danger, without affording any means of
+warding against it.  Hastily repeating his orders, that all the
+brethren should attend in the choir, arrayed for solemn procession,
+the Abbot ascended to the battlements of the lofty Monastery, by his
+own private staircase, and there met the Sacristan, who had been in
+the act of directing the tolling of the huge bell, which fell under
+his charge.
+
+"It is the last time I shall discharge mine office, most venerable
+Father and Lord," said he to the Abbot, "for yonder come the
+Philistines; but I would not that the large bell of Saint Mary's
+should sound for the last time, otherwise than in true and full
+tone--I have been a sinful man for one of our holy profession," added
+he, looking upward, "yet may I presume to say, not a bell hath sounded
+out of tune from the tower of the house, while Father Philip had the
+superintendence of the chime and the belfry."
+
+The Abbot, without reply, cast his eyes towards the path, which,
+winding around the mountain, descends upon Kennaquhair, from the
+south-east. He beheld at a distance a cloud of dust, and heard the
+neighing of many horses, while the occasional sparkle of the long line
+of spears, as they came downwards into the valley, announced that the
+band came thither in arms.
+
+"Shame on my weakness!" said Abbot Eustace, dashing the tears from
+his eyes; "my sight is too much dimmed to observe their motions--look,
+my son Edward," for his favourite novice had again joined him, "and tell
+me what ensigns they bear."
+
+"They are Scottish men, when all is done!" exclaimed Edward--"I see
+the white crosses--it may be the Western Borderers, or Fernieherst and
+his clan."
+
+"Look at the banner," said the Abbot; "tell me, what are the blazonries?"
+
+"The arms of Scotland," said Edward, "the lion and its tressure,
+quartered, as I think, with three cushions--Can it be the royal
+standard?"
+
+"Alas! no," said the Abbot, "it is that of the Earl of Murray. He hath
+assumed with his new conquest the badge of the valiant Randolph, and
+hath dropt from his hereditary coat the bend which indicates his own base
+birth--would to God he may not have blotted it also from his memory, and
+aim as well at possessing the name, as the power, of a king."
+
+"At least, my father," said Edward, "he will secure us from the violence
+of the Southron."
+
+"Ay, my son, as the shepherd secures a silly lamb from the wolf, which
+he destines in due time to his own banquet. Oh my son, evil days are
+on us! A breach has been made in the walls of our sanctuary--thy
+brother hath fallen from the faith. Such news brought my last secret
+intelligence--Murray hath already spoken of rewarding his services
+with the hand of Mary Avenel."
+
+"Of Mary Avenel!" said the novice, tottering towards and grasping hold
+of one of the carved pinnacles which adorned the proud battlement.
+
+"Ay, of Mary Avenel, my son, who has also abjured the faith of her
+fathers. Weep not, my Edward, weep not, my beloved son! or weep for
+their apostasy, and not for their union--Bless God, who hath called
+thee to himself, out of the tents of wickedness; but for the grace of
+Our Lady and Saint Benedict, thou also hadst been a castaway."
+
+"I endeavour, my father," said Edward, "I endeavour to forget; but what
+I would now blot from my memory has been the thought of all my former
+life--Murray dare not forward a match so unequal in birth."
+
+"He dares do what suits his purpose--The Castle of Avenel is strong,
+and needs a good castellan, devoted to his service; as for the
+difference of their birth, he will mind it no more than he would mind
+defacing the natural regularity of the ground, were it necessary he
+should erect upon it military lines and intrenchments. But do not
+droop for that--awaken thy soul within thee, my son. Think you part
+with a vain vision, an idle dream, nursed in solitude and inaction.--I
+weep not, yet what am I now like to lose?--Look at these towers, where
+saints dwelt, and where heroes have been buried--Think that I, so
+briefly called to preside over the pious flock, which has dwelt here
+since the first light of Christianity, may be this day written down
+the last father of this holy community--Come, let us descend, and meet
+our fate. I see them approach near to the village."
+
+The Abbot descended, the novice cast a glance around him; yet the
+sense of the danger impending over the stately structure, with which
+he was now united, was unable to banish the recollection of Mary
+Ayenel.--"His brother's bride!" he pulled the cowl over his face, and
+followed his Superior.
+
+The whole bells of the Abbey now added their peal to the death-toll of
+the largest which had so long sounded. The monks wept and prayed as
+they got themselves into the order of their procession for the last
+time, as seemed but too probable.
+
+"It is well our Father Boniface hath retired to the inland," said Father
+Philip; "he could never have put over this day--it would have broken
+his heart!"
+
+"God be with the soul of Abbot Ingelram!" said old Father Nicholas,
+"there were no such doings in his days.--They say we are to be put
+forth of the cloisters; and how I am to live any where else than where
+I have lived for these seventy years, I wot not--the best is, that I
+have not long to live any where."
+
+A few moments after this the great gate of the Abbey was flung open,
+and the procession moved slowly forward from beneath its huge and
+richly-adorned gateway. Cross and banner, pix and chalice, shrines
+containing relics, and censers steaming with incense, preceded and
+were intermingled with the long and solemn array of the brotherhood,
+in their long black gowns and cowls, with their white scapularies
+hanging over them, the various officers of the convent each displaying
+his proper badge of office. In the centre of the procession came the
+Abbot, surrounded and supported by his chief assistants. He was
+dressed in his habit of high solemnity, and appeared as much
+unconcerned as if he had been taking his usual part in some ordinary
+ceremony. After him came the inferior persons of the convent; the
+novices in their albs or white dresses, and the lay brethren
+distinguished by their beards, which were seldom worn by the Fathers.
+Women and children, mixed with a few men, came in the rear, bewailing
+the apprehended desolation of their ancient sanctuary. They moved,
+however, in order, and restrained the marks of their sorrow to a low
+wailing sound, which rather mingled with than interrupted the measured
+chant of the monks.
+
+In this order the procession entered the market-place of the village
+of Kennaquhair, which was then, as now, distinguished by an ancient
+cross of curious workmanship, the gift of some former monarch of
+Scotland. Close by the cross, of much greater antiquity, and scarcely
+less honoured, was an immensely large oak-tree, which perhaps had
+witnessed the worship of the Druids, ere the stately Monastery to
+which it adjoined had raised its spires in honour of the Christian
+faith. Like the Bentang-tree of the African villages, or the
+Plaistow-oak mentioned in White's Natural History of Selborne, this
+tree was the rendezvous of the villagers, and regarded with peculiar
+veneration; a feeling common to most nations, and which perhaps may be
+traced up to the remote period when the patriarch feasted the angels
+under the oak at Mamre. [Footnote: It is scarcely necessary to say,
+that in Melrose, the prototype of Kennaquhair, no such oak ever
+existed.]
+
+The monks formed themselves each in their due place around the cross,
+while under the ruins of the aged tree crowded the old and the feeble,
+with others who felt the common alarm. When they had thus arranged
+themselves, there was a deep and solemn pause. The monks stilled their
+chant, the lay populace hushed their lamentations, and all awaited in
+terror and silence the arrival of those heretical forces, whom they
+had been so long taught to regard with fear and trembling.
+
+A distant trampling was at length heard, and the glance of spears was
+seen to shine through the trees above the village. The sounds
+increased, and became more thick, one close continuous rushing sound,
+in which the tread of hoofs was mingled with the ringing of armour.
+The horsemen soon appeared at the principal entrance which leads into
+the irregular square or market-place which forms the centre of the
+village. They entered two by two, slowly, and in the greatest order.
+The van continued to move on, riding round the open spaoe, until they
+had attained the utmost point, and then turning their horses' heads to
+the street, stood fast; their companions followed in the same order,
+until the whole market-place was closely surrounded with soldiers; and
+the files who followed, making the same manoeuvre, formed an inner
+line within those who had first arrived, until the place was begirt
+with a quadruple file of horsemen closely drawn up. There was now a
+pause, of which the Abbot availed himself, by commanding the
+brotherhood to raise the solemn chant _De profundis clamavi_. He
+looked around the armed ranks, to see what impression the solemn
+sounds made on them. All were silent, but the brows of some had an
+expression of contempt, and almost all the rest bore a look of
+indifference; their course had been too long decided to permit past
+feelings of enthusiasm to be anew awakened by a procession or by a
+hymn.
+
+
+"Their hearts are hardened," said the Abbot to himself in dejection,
+but not in despair; "it remains to see whether those of their leaders
+are equally obdurate."
+
+The leaders, in the meanwhile, were advancing slowly, and Murray, with
+Morton, rode in deep conversation before a chosen band of their most
+distinguished followers, amongst whom came Halbert Glendinning. But
+the preacher Henry Warden, who, upon leaving the Monastery, had
+instantly joined them, was the only person admitted to their
+conference.
+
+"You are determined, then," said Morton to Murray, "to give the
+heiress of Avenel, with all her pretensions, to this nameless and
+obscure young man?"
+
+"Hath not Warden told you," said Murray, "that they have been bred
+together, and are lovers from their youth upward?"
+
+"And that they are both," said Warden, "by means which may be almost
+termed miraculous, rescued from the delusions of Rome, and brought
+within the pale of the true church. My residence at Glendearg hath
+made me well acquainted with these things. Ill would it beseem my
+habit and my calling, to thrust myself into match-making and giving in
+marriage, but worse were it in me to see your lordships do needless
+wrong to the feelings which are proper to our nature, and which, being
+indulged honestly and under the restraints of religion, become a
+pledge of domestic quiet here, and future happiness in a better world.
+I say, that you will do ill to rend those ties asunder, and to give
+this maiden to the kinsman of Lord Morton, though Lord Morton's
+kinsman he be."
+
+"These are fair reasons, my Lord of Murray," said Morton, "why you
+should refuse me so simple a boon as to bestow this silly damsel upon
+young Bennygask. Speak out plainly, my lord; say you would rather see
+the Castle of Avenel in the hands of one who owes his name and existence
+solely to your favour, than in the power of a Douglas, and of my
+kinsman."
+
+"My Lord of Morton," said Murray, "I have done nothing in this matter
+which should aggrieve you. This young man Glendinning has done me good
+service, and may do me more. My promise was in some degree passed to
+him, and that while Julian Avenel was alive, when aught beside the
+maiden's lily hand would have been hard to come by; whereas, you never
+thought of such an alliance for your kinsman, till you saw Julian lie
+dead yonder on the field, and knew his land to be a waif free to the
+first who could seize it. Come, come, my lord, you do less than
+justice to your gallant kinsman, in wishing him a bride bred up under
+the milk-pail; for this girl is a peasant wench in all but the
+accident of birth. I thought you had more deep respect for the honour
+of the Douglasses."
+
+"The honour of the Douglasses is safe in my keeping," answered Morton,
+haughtily; "that of other ancient families may suffer as well as the name
+of Avenel, if rustics are to be matched with the blood of our ancient
+barons."
+
+"This is but idle talking," answered Lord Murray; "in times like these,
+we must look to men and not to pedigrees. Hay was but a rustic before
+the battle of Loncarty--the bloody yoke actually dragged the plough ere
+it was emblazoned on a crest by the herald. Times of action make princes
+into peasants, and boors into barons. All families have sprung from one
+mean man; and it is well if they have never degenerated from his virtue
+who raised them first from obscurity."
+
+"My Lord of Murray will please to except the house of Douglas," said
+Morton, haughtily; "men have seen it in the tree, but never in the
+sapling--have seen it in the stream, but never in the fountain.
+
+[Footnote: The late excellent and laborious antiquary, Mr. George
+Chalmers, has rebuked the vaunt of the House of Douglas, or rather of
+Hume of Godscroft, their historian, but with less than his wonted
+accuracy. In the first volume of his Caledonia, he quotes the passage
+in Godscroft for the purpose of confuting it.
+
+The historian (of the Douglasses) cries out, "We do not know them in
+the fountain, but in the stream; not in the root, but in the stem; for
+we know not which is the mean man that did rise above the vulgar."
+This assumption Mr. Chalmers conceives ill-timed, and alleges, that if
+the historian had attended more to research than to declamation, he
+might easily have seen the first mean man of this renowned family.
+This he alleges to have been one Theobaldus Flammaticus, or Theobald
+the Fleming, to whom Arnold, Abbot of Kelso, between the year 1147 and
+1160, granted certain lands on Douglas water, by a deed which Mr.
+Chalmers conceives to be the first link of the chain of title-deeds to
+Douglasdale. Hence, he says, the family must renounce their family
+domain, or acknowledge this obscure Fleming as their ancestor.
+Theobald the Fleming, it is acknowledged, did not himself assume the
+name of Douglas; "but," says the antiquary, "his son William, who
+inherited his estate, called himself, and was named by others, De
+Duglas;" and he refers to the deeds in which he is so designed. Mr.
+Chalmers' full argument may be found in the first volume of his
+Caledonia, p. 579.
+
+This proposition is one which a Scotsman will admit unwillingly, and
+only upon undeniable testimony: and as it is liable to strong grounds
+of challenge, the present author, with all the respect to Mr. Chalmers
+which his zealous and effectual researches merit, is not unwilling to
+take this opportunity to state some plausible grounds for doubting
+that Theobaldus Flammaticus was either the father of the first William
+de Douglas, or in the slightest degree connected with the Douglas
+family.
+
+It must first be observed, that there is no reason whatever for
+concluding Theobaldus Flammaticus to be the father of William de
+Douglas, except that they both held lands upon the small river of
+Douglas; and that there are two strong presumptions to the contrary.
+For, first, the father being named Fleming, there seems no good reason
+why the son should have assumed a different designation: secondly,
+there does not occur a single instance of the name of Theobald during
+the long line of the Douglas pedigree, an omission very unlikely to
+take place had the original father of the race been so called. These
+are secondary considerations indeed; but they are important, in so far
+as they exclude any support of Mr. Chalmers' system, except from the
+point which he has rather assumed than proved, namely, that the lands
+granted to Theobald the Fleming were the same which were granted to
+William de Douglas, and which constituted the original domain of which
+we find this powerful family lords.
+
+Now, it happens, singularly enough, that the lands granted by the
+Abbot of Kelso to Theobaldus Flammaticus are not the same of which
+William de Douglas was in possession. Nay, it would appear, from
+comparing the charter granted to Theobaldus Flammaticus, that, though
+situated on the water of Douglas, they never made a part of the barony
+of that name, and therefore cannot be the same with those held by
+William de Douglas in the succeeding generation. But if William de
+Douglas did not succeed Theobaldus Flammaticus, there is no more
+reason for holding these two persons to be father and son than if they
+had lived in different provinces; and we are still as far from having
+discovered the first mean man of the Douglas family as Hume of
+Godscroft was in the 16th century. We leave the question to
+antiquaries and genealogists.]
+
+In the earliest of our Scottish annals, the Black Douglas was powerful
+and distinguished as now."
+
+"I bend to the honours of the house of Douglas," said Murray, somewhat
+ironically; "I am conscious we of the Royal House have little right to
+compete with them in dignity--What though we have worn crowns and
+carried sceptres for a few generations, if our genealogy moves no
+farther back than to the humble _Alanus Dapifer!"_
+
+[Footnote: To atone to the memory of the learned and indefatigable
+Chalmers for having ventured to impeach his genealogical proposition
+concerning the descent of the Douglasses, we are bound to render him
+our grateful thanks for the felicitous light which he has thrown on
+that of the House of Stewart, still more important to Scottish
+history.
+
+The acute pen of Lord Hailes, which, like the spear of Ithuriel,
+conjured so many shadows from Scottish history, had dismissed among
+the rest those of Banquo and Fleance, the rejection of which fables
+left the illustrious family of Stewart without an ancestor beyond
+Walter the son of Allan, who is alluded to in the text. The researches
+of our late learned antiquary detected in this Walter, the descendant
+of Allan, the son of Flaald, who obtained from William the Conqueror
+the Castle of Oswestry in Shropshire, and was the father of an
+illustrious line of English nobles, by his first son, William, and by
+his second son, Walter, the progenitor of the royal family of
+Stewart.]
+
+Morton's cheek reddened as he was about to reply; but Henry Warden
+availed himself of the liberty which the Protestant clergy long
+possessed, and exerted it to interrupt a discussion which was becoming
+too eager and personal to be friendly.
+
+"My lords," he said, "I must be bold in discharging the duty of my
+Master. It is a shame and scandal to hear two nobles, whose hands have
+been so forward in the work of reformation, fall into discord about
+such vain follies as now occupy your thoughts. Bethink you how long
+you have thought with one mind, seen with one eye, heard with one ear,
+confirmed by your union the congregation of the Church, appalled by
+your joint authority the congregation of Anti-Christ; and will you now
+fall into discord, about an old decayed castle and a few barren hills,
+about the loves and likings of an humble spearman, and a damsel bred
+in the same obscurity, or about the still vainer questions of idle
+genealogy?"
+
+"The good man hath spoken right, noble Douglas," said Murray, reaching
+him his hand, "our union is too essential to the good cause to be
+broken off upon such idle terms of dissension. I am fixed to gratify
+Glendinning in this matter--my promise is passed. The wars, in which I
+have had my share, have made many a family miserable; I will at least
+try if I may not make one happy. There are maids and manors enow in
+Scotland.--I promise you, my noble ally, that young Bennygask shall be
+richly wived."
+
+"My lord," said Warden, "you speak nobly, and like a Christian. Alas!
+this is a land of hatred and bloodshed--let us not chase from thence
+the few traces that remain of gentle and domestic love.--And be not
+too eager for wealth to thy noble kinsman, my Lord of Morton, seeing
+contentment in the marriage state no way depends on it."
+
+"If you allude to my family misfortune," said Morton, whose Countess,
+wedded by him for her estate and honours, was insane in her mind, "the
+habit you wear, and the liberty, or rather license, of your profession,
+protect you from my resentment."
+
+"Alas! my lord," replied Warden, "how quick and sensitive is our
+self-love! When pressing forward in our high calling, we point out the
+errors of the Sovereign, who praises our boldness more than the noble
+Morton?  But touch we upon his own sore, which most needs lancing, and
+he shrinks from the faithful chirurgeon in fear and impatient anger!"
+
+"Enough of this, good and reverend sir," said Murray; "you transgress
+the prudence yourself recommended even now.--We are now close upon the
+village, and the proud Abbot is come forth at the head of his hive. Thou
+hast pleaded well for him, Warden, otherwise I had taken this occasion to
+pull down the nest, and chase away the rooks."
+
+"Nay, but do not so," said Warden; "this William Allan, whom they call
+the Abbot Eustatius, is a man whose misfortunes would more prejudice
+our cause than his prosperity. You cannot inflict more than he will
+endure; and the more that he is made to bear, the higher will be the
+influence of his talents and his courage. In his conventual throne he
+will be but coldly looked on--disliked, it may be, and envied. But
+turn his crucifix of gold into a crucifix of wood--let him travel
+through the land, an oppressed and impoverished man, and his patience,
+his eloquence, and learning, will win more hearts from the good cause,
+than all the mitred abbots of Scotland have been able to make prey of
+during the last hundred years."
+
+"Tush! tush! man," said Morton, "the revenues of the Halidome will
+bring more men, spears, and horses, into the field in one day, than his
+preaching in a whole lifetime. These are not the days of Peter the
+Hermit, when monks could march armies from England to Jerusalem; but gold
+and good deeds will still do as much or more than ever. Had Julian Avenel
+had but a score or two more men this morning, Sir John Foster had not
+missed a worse welcome. I say, confiscating the monk's revenues is
+drawing his fang-teeth."
+
+"We will surely lay him under contribution," said Murray; "and,
+moreover, if he desires to remain in his Abbey, he will do well to
+produce Piercie Shafton."
+
+As he thus spoke, they entered the market-place, distinguished by
+their complete armour and their lofty plumes, as well as by the number
+of followers bearing their colours and badges. Both these powerful
+nobles, but more especially Murray, so nearly allied to the crown, had
+at that time a retinue and household not much inferior to that of
+Scottish royalty. As they advanced into the market-place, a
+pursuivant, pressing forward from their train, addressed the monks in
+these words:--"The Abbot of Saint Mary's is commanded to appear before
+the Earl of Murray."
+
+"The Abbot of Saint Mary's," said Eustace, "is, in the patrimony of his
+Convent, superior to every temporal lord. Let the Earl of Murray, if he
+seeks him, come himself to his presence."
+
+On receiving this answer, Murray smiled scornfully, and, dismounting
+from his lofty saddle, he advanced, accompanied by Morton, and
+followed by others, to the body of monks assembled around the cross.
+There was an appearance of shrinking among them at the approach of the
+heretic lord, so dreaded and so powerful. But the Abbot, casting on
+them a glance of rebuke and encouragement, stepped forth from their
+ranks like a courageous leader, when he sees that his personal valour
+must be displayed to revive the drooping courage of his followers.
+"Lord James Stewart," he said, "or Earl of Murray, if that be thy
+title, I, Eustatius, Abbot of Saint Mary's, demand by what right you
+have filled our peaceful village, and surrounded our brethren, with
+these bands of armed men? If hospitality is sought, we have never
+refused it to courteous asking--if violence be meant against peaceful
+churchmen, let us know at once the pretext and the object?"
+
+"Sir Abbot," said Murray, "your language would better have become
+another age, and a presence inferior to ours. We come not here to
+reply to your interrogations, but to demand of you why you have broken
+the peace, collecting your vassals in arms, and convocating the
+Queen's lieges, whereby many men have been slain, and much trouble,
+perchance breach of amity with England, is likely to arise?"
+
+"_Lupus in fabula_," answered the Abbot, scornfully. "The wolf
+accused the sheep of muddying the stream when he drank in it above
+her--but it served as a pretext for devouring her. Convocate the
+Queen's lieges! I did so to defend the Queen's land against
+foreigners. I did but my duty; and I regret I had not the means to do
+it more effectually."
+
+"And was it also a part of your duty to receive and harbour the Queen
+of England's rebel and traitor; and to inflame a war betwixt England and
+Scotland?" said Murray.
+
+"In my younger days, my lord," answered the Abbot, with the same
+intrepidity, "a war with England was no such dreaded matter; and not
+merely a mitred abbot, bound by his rule to show hospitality and
+afford sanctuary to all, but the poorest Scottish peasant, would have
+been ashamed to have pleaded fear of England as the reason for
+shutting his door against a persecuted exile. But in those olden days,
+the English seldom saw the face of a Scottish nobleman, save through
+the bars of his visor."
+
+"Monk!" said the Earl of Morton, sternly, "this insolence will little
+avail thee; the days are gone by when Rome's priests were permitted to
+brave noblemen with impunity. Give us up this Piercie Shafton, or by my
+father's crest I will set thy Abbey in a bright flame!"
+
+"And if thou dost, Lord of Morton, its ruins will tumble above the tombs
+of thine own ancestors. Be the issue as God wills, the Abbot of Saint
+Mary's gives up no one whom he hath promised to protect."
+
+"Abbot!" said Murray, "bethink thee ere we are driven to deal roughly
+--the hands of these men," he said, pointing to the soldiers, "will make
+wild work among shrines and cells, if we are compelled to undertake a
+search for this Englishman."
+
+"Ye shall not need," said a voice from the crowd; and, advancing
+gracefully before the Earls, the Euphuist flung from him the mantle in
+which he was muffled. "Via the cloud that shadowed Shafton!" said he;
+"behold, my lords, the Knight of Wilverton, who spares you the guilt
+of violence and sacrilege."
+
+"I protest before God and man against any infraction of the privileges
+of this house," said the Abbot, "by an attempt to impose violent hands
+upon the person of this noble knight. If there be yet spirit in a
+Scottish Parliament, we will make you hear of this elsewhere, my
+lords!"
+
+"Spare your threats," said Murray; "it may be, my purpose with Sir
+Piercie Shafton is not such as thou dost suppose--Attach him,
+pursuivant, as our prisoner, rescue or no rescue."
+
+"I yield myself," said the Euphuist, "reserving my right to defy my
+Lord of Murray and my Lord of Morton to single duel, even as one
+gentleman may demand satisfaction of another."
+
+"You shall not want those who will answer your challenge, Sir Knight,"
+replied Morton, "without aspiring to men above thine own degree."
+
+"And where am I to find these superlative champions," said the English
+knight, "whose blood runs more pure than that of Piercie Shafton?"
+
+"Here is a flight for you, my lord!" said Murray.
+
+"As ever was flown by a wild-goose," said Stawarth Bolton, who had
+now approached to the front of the party.
+
+"Who dared to say that word?" said the Euphuist, his face crimson with
+rage.
+
+"Tut! man," said Bolton, "make the best of it, thy mother's father was
+but a tailor, old Overstitch of Holderness--Why, what! because thou
+art a misproud bird, and despiseth thine own natural lineage, and
+rufflest in unpaid silks and velvets, and keepest company with
+gallants and cutters, must we lose our memory for that? Thy mother,
+Moll Overstitch, was the prettiest wench in those parts--she was
+wedded by wild Shafton of Wilverton, who men say, was akin to the
+Piercie on the wrong side of the blanket."
+
+"Help the knight to some strong waters," said Morton; "he hath fallen
+from such a height, that he is stunned with the tumble."
+
+In fact, Sir Piercie Shafton looked like a man stricken by a
+thunderbolt, while, notwithstanding the seriousness of the scene
+hitherto, no one of those present, not even the Abbot himself, could
+refrain from laughing at the rueful and mortified expression of his
+face.
+
+"Laugh on," he said at length, "laugh on, my masters," shrugging his
+shoulders; "it is not for me to be offended--yet would I know full
+fain from that squire who is laughing with the loudest, how he had
+discovered this unhappy blot in an otherwise spotless lineage, and for
+what purpose he hath made it known?"
+
+"_I_ make it known?" said Halbert Glendinning, in
+astonishment,--for to him this pathetic appeal was made,--"I never
+heard the thing till this moment."
+
+[Footnote: The contrivance of provoking the irritable vanity of Sir
+Piercie Shafton, by presenting him with a bodkin, indicative of his
+descent from a tailor, is borrowed from a German romance, by the
+celebrated Tieck, called Das Peter Manchem, _i. e._ The Dwarf
+Peter. The being who gives name to the tale, is the Burg-geist, or
+castle spectre, of a German family, whom he aids with his counsel, as
+he defends their castle by his supernatural power. But the Dwarf Peter
+is so unfortunate an adviser, that all his counsels, though producing
+success in the immediate results, are in the issue attended with
+mishap and with guilt. The youthful baron, the owner of the haunted
+castle, falls in love with a maiden, the daughter of a neighbouring
+count, a man of great pride, who refuses him the hand of the young
+lady, on account of his own superiority of descent. The lover,
+repulsed and affronted, returns to take counsel with the Dwarf Peter,
+how he may silence the count, and obtain the victory in the argument,
+the next time they enter on the topic of pedigree.  The dwarf gives
+his patron or pupil a horse-shoe, instructing him to give it to the
+count when he is next giving himself superior airs on the subject of
+his family. It has the effect accordingly. The count, understanding it
+as an allusion to a misalliance of one of his ancestors with the
+daughter of a blacksmith, is thrown into a dreadful passion with the
+young lover, the consequences of which are the seduction of the young
+lady, and the slaughter of her father.
+
+If we suppose the dwarf to represent the corrupt part of human
+nature,--that "law in our members which wars against the law of our
+minds,"--the work forms an ingenious allegory.]
+
+"Why, did not that old rude soldier learn it from thee?" said the
+knight, in increasing amazement.
+
+"Not I, by Heaven!" said Bolton; "I never saw the youth in my life
+before."
+
+"But you _have_ seen him ere now, my worthy master," said Dame
+Glendinning, bursting in her turn from the crowd. "My son, this is
+Stawarth Bolton, he to whom we owe life, and the means of preserving
+it--if he be a prisoner, as seems most likely, use thine interest with
+these noble lords to be kind to the widow's friend."
+
+"What, my Dame of the Glen!" said Bolton, "thy brow is more withered,
+as well as mine, since we met last, but thy tongue holds the touch
+better than my arm. This boy of thine gave me the foil sorely this
+morning.  The Brown Varlet has turned as stout a trooper as I
+prophesied; and where is White Head?"
+
+"Alas!" said the mother, looking down, "Edward has taken orders, and
+become a monk of this Abbey."
+
+"A monk and a soldier!--Evil trades both, my good dame. Better have
+made one a good master fashioner, like old Overstitch, of Holderness.
+I sighed when I envied you the two bonny children, but I sigh not now
+to call either the monk or the soldier mine own. The soldier dies in
+the field, the monk scarce lives in the cloister."
+
+"My dearest mother," said Halbert, "where is Edward--can I not speak
+with him?"
+
+"He has just left us for the present," said Father Philip, "upon a
+message from the Lord Abbot."
+
+"And Mary, my dearest mother?" said Halbert.--Mary Avenel was not far
+distant, and the three were soon withdrawn from the crowd, to hear and
+relate their various chances of fortune.
+
+While the subordinate personages thus disposed of themselves, the
+Abbot held serious discussion with the two Earls, and, partly yielding
+to their demands, partly defending himself with skill and eloquence,
+was enabled to make a composition for his Convent, which left it
+provisionally in no worse situation than before. The Earls were the
+more reluctant to drive matters to extremity, since he protested, that
+if urged beyond what his conscience would comply with, he would throw
+the whole lands of the Monastery into the Queen of Scotland's hands,
+to be disposed of at her pleasure. This would not have answered the
+views of the Earls, who were contented, for the time, with a moderate
+sacrifice of money and lands.  Matters being so far settled, the Abbot
+became anxious for the fate of Sir Piercie Shafton, and implored mercy
+in his behalf.
+
+"He is a coxcomb," he said, "my lords, but he is a generous, though a
+vain fool; and it is my firm belief you have this day done him more pain
+than if you had run a poniard into him."
+
+"Run a needle into him you mean, Abbot," said the Earl of Morton;
+"by mine honour, I thought this grandson of a fashioner of doublets was
+descended from a crowned head at least!"
+
+"I hold with the Abbot," said Murray; "there were little honour in
+surrendering him to Elizabeth, but he shall be sent where he can do
+her no injury. Our pursuivant and Bolton shall escort him to Dunbar,
+and ship him off for Flanders.--But soft, here he comes, and leading a
+female, as I think."
+
+"Lords and others," said the English knight with great solemnity,
+"make way for the Lady of Piercie Shafton--a secret which I listed not
+to make known, till fate, which hath betrayed what I vainly strove to
+conceal, makes me less desirous to hide that which I now announce to
+you."
+
+"It is Mysie Happer, the Miller's daughter, on my life!" said Tibb
+Tacket. "I thought the pride of these Piercies would have a fa'."
+
+"It is indeed the lovely Mysinda," said the knight, "whose merits
+towards her devoted servant deserved higher rank than he had to bestow."
+
+"I suspect, though," said Murray, "that we should not have heard of
+the Miller's daughter being made a lady, had not the knight proved to be
+the grandson of a tailor."
+
+"My lord," said Piercie Shafton, "it is poor valour to strike him that
+cannot smite again; and I hope you will consider what is due to a
+prisoner by the law of arms, and say nothing more on this odious
+subject. When I am once more mine own man, I will find a new road to
+dignity."
+
+"_Shape_ one, I presume," said the Earl of Morton.
+
+"Nay, Douglas, you will drive him mad,"--said Murray; "besides, we
+have other matter in hand--I must see Warden wed Glendinning with Mary
+Avenel, and put him in possession of his wife's castle without delay. It
+will be best done ere our forces leave these parts."
+
+"And I," said the Miller, "have the like grist to grind; for I hope some
+one of the good fathers will wed my wench with her gay bridegroom."
+
+"It needs not," said Shafton; "the ceremonial hath been solemnly
+performed."
+
+"It will not be the worse of another bolting," said the Miller; "it is
+always best to be sure, as I say when I chance to take multure twice
+from the same meal-sack."
+
+"Stave the miller off him," said Murray, "or he will worry him dead.
+The Abbot, my lord, offers us the hospitality of the Convent; I move
+we should repair hither, Sir Piercie and all of us. I must learn to
+know the Maid of Avenel--to-morrow I must act as her father--All
+Scotland shall see how Murray can reward a faithful servant."
+
+Mary Avenel and her lover avoided meeting the Abbot, and took up their
+temporary abode in a house of the village, where next day their hands
+were united by the Protestant preacher in presence of the two Earls.
+On the same day Piercie Shafton and his bride departed, under an
+escort which was to conduct him to the sea-side, and see him embark
+for the Low Countries.  Early on the following morning the bands of
+the Earls were under march to the Castle of Avenel, to invest the
+young bridegroom with the property of his wife, which was surrendered
+to them without opposition.
+
+But not without those omens which seemed to mark every remarkable
+event which befell the fated family, did Mary take possession of the
+ancient castle of her forefathers. The same warlike form which had
+appeared more than once at Glendearg, was seen by Tibb Tacket and
+Martin, who returned with their young mistress to partake her altered
+fortunes. It glided before the cavalcade as they advanced upon the
+long causeway, paused at each drawbridge, and flourished its hand, as
+in triumph, as it disappeared under the gloomy archway, which was
+surmounted by the insignia of the house of Avenel. The two trusty
+servants made their vision only known to Dame Glendinning, who, with
+much pride of heart, had accompanied her son to see him take his rank
+among the barons of the land. "Oh, my dear bairn!" she exclaimed, when
+she heard the tale, "the castle is a grand place to be sure, but I
+wish ye dinna a' desire to be back in the quiet braes of Glendearg
+before the play be played out." But this natural reflection, springing
+from maternal anxiety, was soon forgotten amid the busy and pleasing
+task of examining and admiring the new habitation of her son.
+
+While these affairs were passing, Edward had hidden himself and his
+sorrows in the paternal Tower of Glendearg, where every object was
+full of matter for bitter reflection. The Abbot's kindness had
+despatched him thither upon pretence of placing some papers belonging
+to the Abbey in safety and secrecy; but in reality to prevent his
+witnessing the triumph of his brother. Through the deserted
+apartments, the scene of so many bitter reflections, the unhappy youth
+stalked like a discontented ghost, conjuring up around him at every
+step new subjects for sorrow and for self-torment.  Impatient, at
+length, of the state of irritation and agonized recollection in which
+he found himself, he rushed out and walked hastily up the glen, as if
+to shake off the load which hung upon his mind. The sun was setting
+when he reached the entrance of Corri-nan-shian, and the recollection
+of what he had seen when he last visited that haunted ravine, burst on
+his mind. He was in a humour, however, rather to seek out danger than
+to avoid it.
+
+"I will face this mystic being," he said; "she foretold the fate which
+has wrapt me in this dress,--I will know whether she has aught else to
+tell me of a life which cannot but be miserable."
+
+He failed not to see the White Spirit seated by her accustomed haunt,
+and singing in her usual low and sweet tone. While she sung, she
+seemed to look with sorrow on her golden zone, which was now
+diminished to the fineness of a silken thread.
+
+  "Fare thee well, thou Holly green,
+  Thou shall seldom now be seen,
+  With all thy glittering garlands bending,
+  As to greet my slow descending,
+  Startling the bewilder'd hind.
+  Who sees thee wave without a wind.
+
+  "Farewell, Fountain! now not long
+  Shalt thou murmur to my song,
+  While thy crystal bubbles glancing,
+  Keep the time in mystic dancing,
+  Rise and swell, are burst and lost,
+  Like mortal schemes by fortune crost.
+
+  "The knot of fate at length is tied,
+  The Churl is Lord, the Maid is bride.
+  Vainly did my magic sleight
+  Send the lover from her sight;
+  Wither bush, and perish well,
+  Fall'n is lofty Avenel!"
+
+The vision seemed to weep while she sung; and the words impressed on
+Edward a melancholy belief, that the alliance of Mary with his brother
+might be fatal to them both.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Here terminates the First Part of the Benedictine's Manuscript. I have
+in vain endeavoured to ascertain the precise period of the story, as
+the dates cannot be exactly reconciled with those of the most
+accredited histories.  But it is astonishing how careless the writers
+of Utopia are upon these important subjects. I observe that the
+learned Mr. Laurence Templeton, in his late publication entitled
+IVANHOE, has not only blessed the bed of Edward the Confessor with an
+offspring unknown to history, with sundry other solecisms of the same
+kind, but has inverted the order of nature, and feasted his swine with
+acorns in the midst of summer. All that can be alleged by the warmest
+admirer of this author amounts to this,--that the circumstances
+objected to are just as true as the rest of the story; which appears
+to me (more especially in the matter of the acorns) to be a very
+imperfect defence, and that the author will do well to profit by
+Captain Absolute's advice to his servant, and never tell him more lies
+than are indispensably necessary.
+
+                End of THE MONASTERY.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Monastery, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONASTERY ***
+
+This file should be named mnsry10.txt or mnsry10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, mnsry11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, mnsry10a.txt
+
+Produced by Alan Millar, David Moynihan, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+