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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abbot, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Abbot
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+
+Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6407]
+This file was first posted on December 8, 2002
+Last Updated: June 16, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABBOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Alan Millar, David Moynihan, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+           THE ABBOT.
+
+BEING THE SEQUEL TO THE MONASTERY.
+
+     By Sir Walter Scott
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ROLAND GRAEME AND CATHERINE SETON BEFORE QUEEN MARY.]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION--(1831.)
+
+From what is said in the Introduction to the Monastery, it must
+necessarily be inferred, that the Author considered that romance as
+something very like a failure. It is true, the booksellers did not
+complain of the sale, because, unless on very felicitous occasions,
+or on those which are equally the reverse, literary popularity is not
+gained or lost by a single publication. Leisure must be allowed for the
+tide both to flow and ebb. But I was conscious that, in my situation,
+not to advance was in some Degree to recede, and being naturally
+unwilling to think that the principle of decay lay in myself, I was
+at least desirous to know of a certainty, whether the degree of
+discountenance which I had incurred, was now owing to an ill-managed
+story, or an ill-chosen subject.
+
+I was never, I confess, one of those who are willing to suppose the
+brains of an author to be a kind of milk, which will not stand above
+a single creaming, and who are eternally harping to young authors to
+husband their efforts, and to be chary of their reputation, lest it grow
+hackneyed in the eyes of men. Perhaps I was, and have always been, the
+more indifferent to the degree of estimation in which I might be held
+as an author, because I did not put so high a value as many others upon
+what is termed literary reputation in the abstract, or at least upon the
+species of popularity which had fallen to my share; for though it
+were worse than affectation to deny that my vanity was satisfied at my
+success in the department in which chance had in some measure enlisted
+me, I was, nevertheless, far from thinking that the novelist or
+romance-writer stands high in the ranks of literature. But I spare the
+reader farther egotism on this subject, as I have expressed my opinion
+very fully in the Introductory Epistle to the Fortunes of Nigel, first
+edition; and, although it be composed in an imaginary character, it is
+as sincere and candid as if it had been written "without my gown and
+band."
+
+In a word, when I considered myself as having been unsuccessful in the
+Monastery, I was tempted to try whether I could not restore, even at
+the risk of totally losing, my so-called reputation, by a new hazard--I
+looked round my library, and could not but observe, that, from the time
+of Chaucer to that of Byron, the most popular authors had been the
+most prolific. Even the aristarch Johnson allowed that the quality
+of readiness and profusion had a merit in itself, independent of the
+intrinsic value of the composition. Talking of Churchill, I believe,
+who had little merit in his prejudiced eyes, he allowed him that of
+fertility, with some such qualification as this, "A Crab-apple can bear
+but crabs after all; but there is a great difference in favour of that
+which bears a large quantity of fruit, however indifferent, and that
+which produces only a few."
+
+Looking more attentively at the patriarchs of literature, whose earner
+was as long as it was brilliant, I thought I perceived that in the
+busy and prolonged course of exertion, there were no doubt occasional
+failures, but that still those who were favourites of their age
+triumphed over these miscarriages. By the new efforts which they
+made, their errors were obliterated, they became identified with the
+literature of their country, and after having long received law from the
+critics, came in some degree to impose it. And when such a writer was at
+length called from the scene, his death first made the public sensible
+what a large share he had occupied in their attention. I recollected a
+passage in Grimm's Correspondence, that while the unexhausted Voltaire
+sent forth tract after tract to the very close of a long life, the first
+impression made by each as it appeared, was, that it was inferior to
+its predecessors; an opinion adopted from the general idea that the
+Patriarch of Ferney must at last find the point from which he was to
+decline. But the opinion of the public finally ranked in succession
+the last of Voltaire's Essays on the same footing with those which had
+formerly charmed the French nation. The inference from this and similar
+facts seemed to me to be, that new works were often judged of by the
+public, not so much from their own intrinsic merit, as from extrinsic
+ideas which readers had previously formed with regard to them, and over
+which a writer might hope to triumph by patience and by exertion. There
+is risk in the attempt;
+
+   "If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim."
+
+But this is a chance incident to every literary attempt, and by which
+men of a sanguine temper are little moved.
+
+I may illustrate what I mean, by the feelings of most men in travelling.
+If we have found any stage particularly tedious, or in an especial
+degree interesting, particularly short, or much longer than we expected,
+our imaginations are so apt to exaggerate the original impression, that,
+on repeating the journey, we usually find that we have considerably
+over-rated the predominating quality, and the road appears to be duller
+or more pleasant, shorter or more tedious, than what we expected, and,
+consequently, than what is actually the case. It requires a third or
+fourth journey to enable us to form an accurate judgment of its beauty,
+its length, or its other attributes.
+
+In the same manner, the public, judging of a new work, which it receives
+perhaps with little expectation, if surprised into applause, becomes
+very often ecstatic, gives a great deal more approbation than is due,
+and elevates the child of its immediate favour to a rank which, as it
+affects the author, it is equally difficult to keep, and painful to
+lose. If, on this occasion, the author trembles at the height to which
+he is raised, and becomes afraid of the shadow of his own renown, he may
+indeed retire from the lottery with the prize which he has drawn, but,
+in future ages, his honour will be only in proportion to his labours.
+If, on the contrary, he rushes again into the lists, he is sure to be
+judged with severity proportioned to the former favour of the public. If
+he be daunted by a bad reception on this second occasion, he may again
+become a stranger to the arena. If, on the contrary, he can keep his
+ground, and stand the shuttlecock's fate, of being struck up and down,
+he will probably, at length, hold with some certainty the level in
+public opinion which he may be found to deserve; and he may perhaps
+boast of arresting the general attention, in the same manner as the
+Bachelor Samson Carrasco, of fixing the weathercock La Giralda of
+Seville for weeks, months, or years, that is, for as long as the wind
+shall uniformly blow from one quarter. To this degree of popularity the
+author had the hardihood to aspire, while, in order to attain it, he
+assumed the daring resolution to keep himself in the view of the public
+by frequent appearances before them.
+
+It must be added, that the author's incognito gave him greater courage
+to renew his attempts to please the public, and an advantage similar to
+that which Jack the Giant-killer received from his coat of darkness.
+In sending the Abbot forth so soon after the Monastery, he had used the
+well-known practice recommended by Bassanio:--
+
+  "In my school days, when I had lost one shaft,
+  I shot another of the self-same flight,
+  The self-same way, with more advised watch,
+  To find the other forth."
+
+And, to continue the simile, his shafts, like those of the lesser Ajax,
+were discharged more readily that the archer was as inaccessible
+to criticism, personally speaking, as the Grecian archer under his
+brother's sevenfold shield.
+
+Should the reader desire to know upon what principles the Abbot was
+expected to amend the fortune of the Monastery, I have first to request
+his attention to the Introductory Epistle addressed to the imaginary
+Captain Clutterbuck; a mode by which, like his predecessors in this walk
+of fiction, the real author makes one of his _dramatis personae_ the
+means of communicating his own sentiments to the public, somewhat more
+artificially than by a direct address to the readers. A pleasing French
+writer of fairy tales, Monsieur Pajon, author of the History of Prince
+Soly, has set a diverting example of the same machinery, where he
+introduces the presiding Genius of the land of Romance conversing with
+one of the personages of the tale.
+
+In this Introductory Epistle, the author communicates, in confidence, to
+Captain Clutterbuck, his sense that the White Lady had not met the taste
+of the times, and his reason for withdrawing her from the scene. The
+author did not deem it equally necessary to be candid respecting another
+alteration. The Monastery was designed, at first, to have contained some
+supernatural agency, arising out of the fact, that Melrose had been the
+place of deposit of the great Robert Bruce's heart. The writer shrunk,
+however, from filling up, in this particular, the sketch as it was
+originally traced; nor did he venture to resume, in continuation, the
+subject which he had left unattempted in the original work. Thus, the
+incident of the discovery of the heart, which occupies the greater
+part of the Introduction to the Monastery, is a mystery unnecessarily
+introduced, and which remains at last very imperfectly explained. In
+this particular, I was happy to shroud myself by the example of the
+author of "Caleb Williams," who never condescends to inform us of the
+actual contents of that Iron Chest which makes such a figure in his
+interesting work, and gives the name to Mr. Colman's drama.
+
+The public had some claim to inquire into this matter, but it seemed
+indifferent policy in the author to give the explanation. For, whatever
+praise may be due to the ingenuity which brings to a general combination
+all the loose threads of a narrative, like the knitter at the finishing
+of her stocking, I am greatly deceived if in many cases a superior
+advantage is not attained, by the air of reality which the deficiency
+of explanation attaches to a work written on a different system. In life
+itself, many things befall every mortal, of which the individual never
+knows the real cause or origin; and were we to point out the most marked
+distinction between a real and a fictitious narrative, we would say,
+that the former in reference to the remote causes of the events it
+relates, is obscure, doubtful, and mysterious; whereas, in the latter
+case, it is a part of the author's duty to afford satisfactory details
+upon the causes of the separate events he has recorded, and, in a word,
+to account for every thing. The reader, like Mungo in the Padlock, will
+not be satisfied with hearing what he is not made fully to comprehend.
+
+I omitted, therefore, in the Introduction to the Abbot, any attempt to
+explain the previous story, or to apologize for unintelligibility.
+
+Neither would it have been prudent to have endeavoured to proclaim,
+in the Introduction to the Abbot, the real spring, by which I hoped
+it might attract a greater degree of interest than its immediate
+predecessor. A taking title, or the announcement of a popular subject,
+is a recipe for success much in favour with booksellers, but which
+authors will not always find efficacious. The cause is worth a moment's
+examination.
+
+There occur in every country some peculiar historical characters, which
+are, like a spell or charm, sovereign to excite curiosity and attract
+attention, since every one in the slightest degree interested in the
+land which they belong to, has heard much of them, and longs to hear
+more. A tale turning on the fortunes of Alfred or Elizabeth in England,
+or of Wallace or Bruce in Scotland, is sure by the very announcement
+to excite public curiosity to a considerable degree, and ensure the
+publisher's being relieved of the greater part of an impression,
+even before the contents of the work are known. This is of the last
+importance to the bookseller, who is at once, to use a technical phrase,
+"brought home," all his outlay being repaid. But it is a different case
+with the author, since it cannot be denied that we are apt to feel least
+satisfied with the works of which we have been induced, by titles and
+laudatory advertisements, to entertain exaggerated expectations.
+The intention of the work has been anticipated, and misconceived or
+misrepresented, and although the difficulty of executing the work again
+reminds us of Hotspur's task of "o'er-walking a current roaring loud,"
+yet the adventurer must look for more ridicule if he fails, than
+applause if he executes, his undertaking.
+
+Notwithstanding a risk, which should make authors pause ere they adopt
+a theme which, exciting general interest and curiosity, is often
+the preparative for disappointment, yet it would be an injudicious
+regulation which should deter the poet or painter from attempting to
+introduce historical portraits, merely from the difficulty of executing
+the task in a satisfactory manner. Something must be trusted to the
+generous impulse, which often thrusts an artist upon feats of which he
+knows the difficulty, while he trusts courage and exertion may afford
+the means of surmounting it.
+
+It is especially when he is sensible of losing ground with the public,
+that an author may be justified in using with address, such selection of
+subject or title as is most likely to procure a rehearing. It was with
+these feelings of hope and apprehension, that I venture to awaken, in
+a work of fiction, the memory of Queen Mary, so interesting by her
+wit, her beauty, her misfortunes, and the mystery which still does, and
+probably always will, overhang her history. In doing so, I was aware
+that failure would be a conclusive disaster, so that my task was
+something like that of an enchanter who raises a spirit over whom he
+is uncertain of possessing an effectual control; and I naturally paid
+attention to such principles of composition, as I conceived were best
+suited to the historical novel.
+
+Enough has been already said to explain the purpose of composing the
+Abbot. The historical references are, as usual, explained in the notes.
+That which relates to Queen Mary's escape from Lochleven Castle, is a
+more minute account of that romantic adventure, than is to be found in
+the histories of the period.
+
+ABBOTSFORD,
+
+1_st January_, 1831.
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE.
+
+FROM THE AUTHOR OF "WAVERLEY," TO CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK, LATE OF HIS
+MAJESTY'S ---- REGIMENT OF INFANTRY.
+
+DEAR CAPTAIN:
+
+I am sorry to observe, by your last favour, that you disapprove of
+the numerous retrenchments and alterations which I have been under the
+necessity of making on the Manuscript of your friend, the Benedictine,
+and I willingly make you the medium of apology to many, who have
+honoured me more than I deserve.
+
+I admit that my retrenchments have been numerous, and leave gaps in the
+story, which, in your original manuscript, would have run well-nigh to
+a fourth volume, as my printer assures me. I am sensible, besides, that,
+in consequence of the liberty of curtailment you have allowed me, some
+parts of the story have been huddled up without the necessary details.
+But, after all, it is better that the travellers should have to step
+over a ditch, than to wade through a morass--that the reader should have
+to suppose what may easily be inferred, than be obliged to creep through
+pages of dull explanation. I have struck out, for example, the whole
+machinery of the White Lady, and the poetry by which it is so ably
+supported, in the original manuscript. But you must allow that
+the public taste gives little encouragement to those legendary
+superstitions, which formed alternately the delight and the terror of
+our predecessors. In like manner, much is omitted illustrative of
+the impulse of enthusiasm in favour of the ancient religion in Mother
+Magdalen and the Abbot. But we do not feel deep sympathy at this period
+with what was once the most powerful and animating principle in
+Europe, with the exception of that of the Reformation, by which it was
+successfully opposed.
+
+You rightly observe, that these retrenchments have rendered the title
+no longer applicable to the subject, and that some other would have been
+more suitable to the Work, in its present state, than that of THE ABBOT,
+who made so much greater figure in the original, and for whom your
+friend, the Benedictine, seems to have inspired you with a sympathetic
+respect. I must plead guilty to this accusation, observing, at the same
+time, in manner of extenuation, that though the objection might have
+been easily removed, by giving a new title to the Work, yet, in doing
+so, I should have destroyed the necessary cohesion between the present
+history, and its predecessor THE MONASTERY, which I was unwilling to do,
+as the period, and several of the personages, were the same.
+
+After all, my good friend, it is of little consequence what the work
+is called, or on what interest it turns, provided it catches the public
+attention; for the quality of the wine (could we but insure it) may,
+according to the old proverb, render the bush unnecessary, or of little
+consequence.
+
+I congratulate you upon your having found it consistent with prudence
+to establish your Tilbury, and approve of the colour, and of your
+boy's livery, (subdued green and pink.)--As you talk of completing
+your descriptive poem on the "Ruins of Kennaquhair, with notes by an
+Antiquary," I hope you have procured a steady horse.--I remain, with
+compliments to all friends, dear Captain, very much
+
+Yours, &c. &c. &c.
+
+THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY.
+
+
+
+
+THE ABBOT.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the First.
+
+
+  _Domum mansit--lanam fecit._
+              Ancient Roman Epitaph.
+
+  She keepit close the hous, and birlit at the quhele.
+                                      GAWAIN DOUGLAS.
+
+The time which passes over our heads so imperceptibly, makes the
+same gradual change in habits, manners, and character, as in personal
+appearance. At the revolution of every five years we find ourselves
+another, and yet the same--there is a change of views, and no less of
+the light in which we regard them; a change of motives as well as
+of actions. Nearly twice that space had glided away over the head of
+Halbert Glendinning and his lady, betwixt the period of our former
+narrative, in which they played a distinguished part, and the date at
+which our present tale commences.
+
+Two circumstances only had imbittered their union, which was otherwise
+as happy as mutual affection could render it. The first of these was
+indeed the common calamity of Scotland, being the distracted state of
+that unhappy country, where every man's sword was directed against his
+neighbour's bosom. Glendinning had proved what Murray expected of him,
+a steady friend, strong in battle, and wise in counsel, adhering to him,
+from motives of gratitude, in situations where by his own unbiassed will
+he would either have stood neuter, or have joined the opposite party.
+Hence, when danger was near--and it was seldom far distant--Sir Halbert
+Glendinning, for he now bore the rank of knighthood, was perpetually
+summoned to attend his patron on distant expeditions, or on perilous
+enterprises, or to assist him with his counsel in the doubtful intrigues
+of a half-barbarous court. He was thus frequently, and for a long space,
+absent from his castle and from his lady; and to this ground of regret
+we must add, that their union had not been blessed with children, to
+occupy the attention of the Lady of Avenel, while she was thus deprived
+of her husband's domestic society.
+
+On such occasions she lived almost entirely secluded from the world,
+within the walls of her paternal mansion. Visiting amongst neighbors
+was a matter entirely out of the question, unless on occasions of solemn
+festival, and then it was chiefly confined to near kindred. Of these the
+Lady of Avenel had none who survived, and the dames of the neighbouring
+barons affected to regard her less as the heiress of the house of Avenel
+than as the wife of a peasant, the son of a church-vassal, raised up to
+mushroom eminence by the capricious favour of Murray.
+
+The pride of ancestry, which rankled in the bosom of the ancient gentry,
+was more openly expressed by their ladies, and was, moreover, imbittered
+not a little by the political feuds of the time, for most of the
+Southern chiefs were friends to the authority of the Queen, and very
+jealous of the power of Murray. The Castle of Avenel was, therefore, on
+all these accounts, as melancholy and solitary a residence for its lady
+as could well be imagined. Still it had the essential recommendation of
+great security. The reader is already aware that the fortress was built
+upon an islet on a small lake, and was only accessible by a causeway,
+intersected by a double ditch, defended by two draw-bridges, so that
+without artillery, it might in those days be considered as impregnable.
+It was only necessary, therefore, to secure against surprise, and
+the service of six able men within the castle was sufficient for that
+purpose. If more serious danger threatened, an ample garrison was
+supplied by the male inhabitants of a little hamlet, which, under the
+auspices of Halbert Glendinning, had arisen on a small piece of level
+ground, betwixt the lake and the hill, nearly adjoining to the spot
+where the causeway joined the mainland. The Lord of Avenel had found
+it an easy matter to procure inhabitants, as he was not only a kind and
+beneficent overlord, but well qualified, both by his experience in arms,
+his high character for wisdom and integrity, and his favour with the
+powerful Earl of Murray, to protect and defend those who dwelt under his
+banner. In leaving his castle for any length of time, he had, therefore,
+the consolation to reflect, that this village afforded, on the slightest
+notice, a band of thirty stout men, which was more than sufficient for
+its defence; while the families of the villagers, as was usual on such
+occasions, fled to the recesses of the mountains, drove their cattle
+to the same places of shelter, and left the enemy to work their will on
+their miserable cottages.
+
+One guest only resided generally, if not constantly, at the Castle of
+Avenel. This was Henry Warden, who now felt himself less able for the
+stormy task imposed on the reforming clergy; and having by his zeal
+given personal offence to many of the leading nobles and chiefs, did not
+consider himself as perfectly safe, unless when within the walls of the
+strong mansion of some assured friend. He ceased not, however, to serve
+his cause as eagerly with his pen, as he had formerly done with his
+tongue, and had engaged in a furious and acrimonious contest, concerning
+the sacrifice of the mass, as it was termed, with the Abbot Eustatius,
+formerly the Sub-Prior of Kennaquhair. Answers, replies, duplies,
+triplies, quadruplies, followed thick upon each other, and displayed, as
+is not unusual in controversy, fully as much zeal as Christian charity.
+The disputation very soon became as celebrated as that of John Knox
+and the Abbot of Crosraguel, raged nearly as fiercely, and, for aught I
+know, the publications to which it gave rise may be as precious in the
+eyes of bibliographers. [Footnote: The tracts which appeared in the
+Disputation between the Scottish Reformer and Quentin Kennedy, Abbot
+of Crosraguel, are among the scarcest in Scottish Bibliography. See
+M'Crie's _Life of Knox_, p. 258.] But the engrossing nature of his
+occupation rendered the theologian not the most interesting companion
+for a solitary female; and his grave, stern, and absorbed deportment,
+which seldom showed any interest, except in that which concerned his
+religious profession, made his presence rather add to than diminish the
+gloom which hung over the Castle of Avenel. To superintend the tasks of
+numerous female domestics, was the principal part of the Lady's daily
+employment; her spindle and distaff, her Bible, and a solitary walk upon
+the battlements of the castle, or upon the causeway, or occasionally,
+but more seldom, upon the banks of the little lake, consumed the rest
+of the day. But so great was the insecurity of the period, that when
+she ventured to extend her walk beyond the hamlet, the warder on the
+watch-tower was directed to keep a sharp look-out in every direction,
+and four or five men held themselves in readiness to mount and sally
+forth from the castle on the slightest appearance of alarm.
+
+Thus stood affairs at the castle, when, after an absence of several
+weeks, the Knight of Avenel, which was now the title most frequently
+given to Sir Halbert Glendinning, was daily expected to return home. Day
+after day, however, passed away, and he returned not. Letters in
+those days were rarely written, and the Knight must have resorted to a
+secretary to express his intentions in that manner; besides, intercourse
+of all kinds was precarious and unsafe, and no man cared to give any
+public intimation of the time and direction of a journey, since, if his
+route were publicly known, it was always likely he might in that case
+meet with more enemies than friends upon the road. The precise day,
+therefore, of Sir Halbert's return, was not fixed, but that which his
+lady's fond expectation had calculated upon in her own mind had long
+since passed, and hope delayed began to make the heart sick.
+
+It was upon the evening of a sultry summer's day, when the sun was
+half-sunk behind the distant western mountains of Liddesdale, that the
+Lady took her solitary walk on the battlements of a range of buildings,
+which formed the front of the castle, where a flat roof of flag-stones
+presented a broad and convenient promenade. The level surface of the
+lake, undisturbed except by the occasional dipping of a teal-duck, or
+coot, was gilded with the beams of the setting luminary, and reflected,
+as if in a golden mirror, the hills amongst which it lay embossed. The
+scene, otherwise so lonely, was occasionally enlivened by the voices of
+the children in the village, which, softened by distance, reached the
+ear of the Lady, in her solitary walk, or by the distant call of the
+herdsman, as he guided his cattle from the glen in which they had
+pastured all day, to place them in greater security for the night,
+in the immediate vicinity of the village. The deep lowing of the cows
+seemed to demand the attendance of the milk-maidens, who, singing
+shrilly and merrily, strolled forth, each with her pail on her head,
+to attend to the duty of the evening. The Lady of Avenel looked and
+listened; the sounds which she heard reminded her of former days, when
+her most important employment, as well as her greatest delight, was
+to assist Dame Glendinning and Tibb Tackett in milking the cows at
+Glendearg. The thought was fraught with melancholy.
+
+"Why was I not," she said, "the peasant girl which in all men's eyes I
+seemed to be? Halbert and I had then spent our life peacefully in his
+native glen, undisturbed by the phantoms either of fear or of ambition.
+His greatest pride had then been to show the fairest herd in the
+Halidome; his greatest danger to repel some pilfering snatcher from the
+Border; and the utmost distance which would have divided us, would have
+been the chase of some outlying deer. But, alas! what avails the blood
+which Halbert has shed, and the dangers which he encounters, to support
+a name and rank, dear to him because he has it from me, but which we
+shall never transmit to our posterity! with me the name of Avenel must
+expire."
+
+She sighed as the reflections arose, and, looking towards the shore of
+the lake, her eye was attracted by a group of children of various ages,
+assembled to see a little ship, constructed by some village artist,
+perform its first voyage on the water. It was launched amid the shouts
+of tiny voices and the clapping of little hands, and shot bravely forth
+on its voyage with a favouring wind, which promised to carry it to the
+other side of the lake. Some of the bigger boys ran round to receive and
+secure it on the farther shore, trying their speed against each other
+as they sprang like young fawns along the shingly verge of the lake. The
+rest, for whom such a journey seemed too arduous, remained watching the
+motions of the fairy vessel from the spot where it had been launched.
+The sight of their sports pressed on the mind of the childless Lady of
+Avenel.
+
+"Why are none of these prattlers mine?" she continued, pursuing the
+tenor of her melancholy reflections. "Their parents can scarce find them
+the coarsest food--and I, who could nurse them in plenty, I am doomed
+never to hear a child call me mother!"
+
+The thought sunk on her heart with a bitterness which resembled envy,
+so deeply is the desire of offspring implanted in the female breast. She
+pressed her hands together as if she were wringing them in the extremity
+of her desolate feeling, as one whom Heaven had written childless. A
+large stag-hound of the greyhound species approached at this moment, and
+attracted perhaps by the gesture, licked her hands and pressed his large
+head against them. He obtained the desired caresses in return, but still
+the sad impression remained.
+
+"Wolf," she said, as if the animal could have understood her complaints,
+"thou art a noble and beautiful animal; but, alas! the love and
+affection that I long to bestow, is of a quality higher than can fall to
+thy share, though I love thee much."
+
+And, as if she were apologizing to Wolf for withholding from him any
+part of her regard, she caressed his proud head and crest, while,
+looking in her eyes, he seemed to ask her what she wanted, or what he
+could do to show his attachment. At this moment a shriek of distress
+was heard on the shore, from the playful group which had been lately so
+jovial. The Lady looked, and saw the cause with great agony.
+
+The little ship, the object of the children's delighted attention, had
+stuck among some tufts of the plant which bears the water-lily, that
+marked a shoal in the lake about an arrow-flight from the shore. A hardy
+little boy, who had taken the lead in the race round the margin of the
+lake, did not hesitate a moment to strip off his _wylie-coat_, plunge
+into the water, and swim towards the object of their common solicitude.
+The first movement of the Lady was to call for help; but she observed
+that the boy swam strongly and fearlessly, and as she saw that one or
+two villagers, who were distant spectators of the incident, seemed to
+give themselves no uneasiness on his account, she supposed that he was
+accustomed to the exercise, and that there was no danger. But whether,
+in swimming, the boy had struck his breast against a sunken rock,
+or whether he was suddenly taken with cramp, or whether he had
+over-calculated his own strength, it so happened, that when he had
+disembarrassed the little plaything from the flags in which it was
+entangled, and sent it forward on its course, he had scarce swam a few
+yards in his way to the shore, than he raised himself suddenly from the
+water, and screamed aloud, clapping his hands at the same time with an
+expression of fear and pain.
+
+The Lady of Avenel, instantly taking the alarm, called hastily to the
+attendants to get the boat ready. But this was an affair of some time.
+The only boat permitted to be used on the lake, was moored within the
+second cut which intersected the canal, and it was several minutes ere
+it could be unmoored and got under way. Meantime, the Lady of Avenel,
+with agonizing anxiety, saw that the efforts that the poor boy made to
+keep himself afloat, were now exchanged for a faint struggling, which
+would soon have been over, but for aid equally prompt and unhoped-for.
+Wolf, who, like some of that large species of greyhound, was a practised
+water-dog, had marked the object of her anxiety, and, quitting his
+mistress's side, had sought the nearest point from which he could with
+safety plunge into the lake. With the wonderful instinct which these
+noble animals have so often displayed in the like circumstances, he
+swam straight to the spot where his assistance was so much wanted,
+and seizing the child's under-dress in his mouth, he not only kept him
+afloat, but towed him towards the causeway. The boat having put off with
+a couple of men, met the dog half-way, and relieved him of his burden.
+They landed on the causeway, close by the gates of the castle, with
+their yet lifeless charge, and were there met by the Lady of Avenel,
+attended by one or two of her maidens, eagerly waiting to administer
+assistance to the sufferer.
+
+He was borne into the castle, deposited upon a bed, and every mode of
+recovery resorted to, which the knowledge of the times, and the skill
+of Henry Warden, who professed some medical science, could dictate. For
+some time it was all in vain, and the Lady watched, with unspeakable
+earnestness, the pallid countenance of the beautiful child. He seemed
+about ten years old. His dress was of the meanest sort, but his long
+curled hair, and the noble cast of his features, partook not of that
+poverty of appearance. The proudest noble in Scotland might have been
+yet prouder could he have called that child his heir. While, with
+breathless anxiety, the Lady of Avenel gazed on his well-formed and
+expressive features, a slight shade of colour returned gradually to the
+cheek; suspended animation became restored by degrees, the child sighed
+deeply, opened his eyes, which to the human countenance produces the
+effect of light upon the natural landscape, stretched his arms towards
+the Lady, and muttered the word "Mother," that epithet, of all others,
+which is dearest to the female ear.
+
+"God, madam," said the preacher, "has restored the child to your wishes;
+it must be yours so to bring him up, that he may not one day wish that
+he had perished in his innocence."
+
+"It shall be my charge," said the Lady; and again throwing her arms
+around the boy, she overwhelmed him with kisses and caresses, so much
+was she agitated by the terror arising from the danger in which he had
+been just placed, and by joy at his unexpected deliverance.
+
+"But you are not my mother," said the boy, recovering his recollection,
+and endeavouring, though faintly, to escape from the caresses of the
+Lady of Avenel; "you are not my mother,--alas! I have no mother--only I
+have dreamt that I had one."
+
+"I will read the dream for you, my love," answered the Lady of Avenel;
+"and I will be myself your mother. Surely God has heard my wishes,
+and, in his own marvellous manner, hath sent me an object on which my
+affections may expand themselves." She looked towards Warden as she
+spoke. The preacher hesitated what he should reply to a burst of
+passionate feeling, which, perhaps, seemed to him more enthusiastic than
+the occasion demanded. In the meanwhile, the large stag-hound, Wolf,
+which, dripping wet as he was, had followed his mistress into the
+apartment, and had sat by the bedside, a patient and quiet spectator of
+all the means used for resuscitation of the being whom he had preserved,
+now became impatient of remaining any longer unnoticed, and began to
+whine and fawn upon the Lady with his great rough paws.
+
+"Yes," she said, "good Wolf, and you shall be remembered also for your
+day's work; and I will think the more of you for having preserved the
+life of a creature so beautiful."
+
+But Wolf was not quite satisfied with the share of attention which he
+thus attracted; he persisted in whining and pawing upon his mistress,
+his caresses rendered still more troublesome by his long shaggy hair
+being so much and thoroughly wetted, till she desired one of the
+domestics, with whom he was familiar, to call the animal out of the
+apartment. Wolf resisted every invitation to this purpose, until his
+mistress positively commanded him to be gone, in an angry tone; when,
+turning towards the bed on which the body still lay, half awake to
+sensation, half drowned in the meanders of fluctuating delirium, he
+uttered a deep and savage growl, curled up his nose and lips, showing
+his full range of white and sharpened teeth, which might have matched
+those of an actual wolf, and then, turning round, sullenly followed the
+domestic out of the apartment.
+
+"It is singular," said the Lady, addressing Warden; "the animal is not
+only so good-natured to all, but so particularly fond of children. What
+can ail him at the little fellow whose life he has saved?"
+
+"Dogs," replied the preacher, "are but too like the human race in their
+foibles, though their instinct be less erring than the reason of poor
+mortal man when relying upon his own unassisted powers. Jealousy, my
+good lady, is a passion not unknown to them, and they often evince it,
+not only with respect to the preferences which they see given by their
+masters to individuals of their own species, but even when their rivals
+are children. You have caressed that child much and eagerly, and the dog
+considers himself as a discarded favourite."
+
+"It is a strange instinct," said the Lady; "and from the gravity with
+which you mention it, my reverend friend, I would almost say that you
+supposed this singular jealousy of my favourite Wolf, was not only well
+founded, but justifiable. But perhaps you speak in jest?"
+
+"I seldom jest," answered the preacher; "life was not lent to us to
+be expended in that idle mirth which resembles the crackling of thorns
+under the pot. I would only have you derive, if it so please you,
+this lesson from what I have said, that the best of our feelings, when
+indulged to excess, may give pain to others. There is but one in which
+we may indulge to the utmost limit of vehemence of which our bosom is
+capable, secure that excess cannot exist in the greatest intensity to
+which it can be excited--I mean the love of our Maker."
+
+"Surely," said the Lady of Avenel, "we are commanded by the same
+authority to love our neighbour?"
+
+"Ay, madam," said Warden, "but our love to God is to be unbounded--we
+are to love him with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole
+strength. The love which the precept commands us to bear to our
+neighbour, has affixed to it a direct limit and qualification--we are to
+love our neighbour as ourself; as it is elsewhere explained by the great
+commandment, that we must do unto him as we would that he should do unto
+us. Here there is a limit, and a bound, even to the most praiseworthy of
+our affections, so far as they are turned upon sublunary and terrestrial
+objects. We are to render to our neighbour, whatever be his rank or
+degree, that corresponding portion of affection with which we could
+rationally expect we should ourselves be regarded by those standing in
+the same relation to us. Hence, neither husband nor wife, neither son
+nor daughter, neither friend nor relation, are lawfully to be made the
+objects of our idolatry. The Lord our God is a jealous God, and will not
+endure that we bestow on the creature that extremity of devotion which
+He who made us demands as his own share. I say to you, Lady, that even
+in the fairest, and purest, and most honourable feelings of our nature,
+there is that original taint of sin which ought to make us pause and
+hesitate, ere we indulge them to excess."
+
+"I understand not this, reverend sir," said the Lady; "nor do I guess
+what I can have now said or done, to draw down on me an admonition which
+has something a taste of reproof."
+
+"Lady," said Warden, "I crave your pardon, if I have urged aught beyond
+the limits of my duty. But consider, whether in the sacred promise to be
+not only a protectress, but a mother, to this poor child, your purpose
+may meet the wishes of the noble knight your husband. The fondness which
+you have lavished on the unfortunate, and, I own, most lovely child,
+has met something like a reproof in the bearing of your household
+dog.--Displease not your noble husband. Men, as well as animals, are
+jealous of the affections of those they love."
+
+"This is too much, reverend sir," said the Lady of Avenel, greatly
+offended. "You have been long our guest, and have received from the
+Knight of Avenel and myself that honour and regard which your character
+and profession so justly demand. But I am yet to learn that we have at
+any time authorized your interference in our family arrangements, or
+placed you as a judge of our conduct towards each other. I pray this may
+be forborne in future."
+
+"Lady," replied the preacher, with the boldness peculiar to the clergy
+of his persuasion at that time, "when you weary of my admonitions--when
+I see that my services are no longer acceptable to you, and the noble
+knight your husband, I shall know that my Master wills me no longer to
+abide here; and, praying for a continuance of his best blessings on your
+family I will then, were the season the depth of winter, and the hour
+midnight, walk out on yonder waste, and travel forth through these wild
+mountains, as lonely and unaided, though far more helpless, than when
+I first met your husband in the valley of Glendearg. But while I
+remain here, I will not see you err from the true path, no, not a
+hair's-breadth, without making the old man's voice and remonstrance
+heard."
+
+"Nay, but," said the Lady, who both loved and respected the good man,
+though sometimes a little offended at what she conceived to be an
+exuberant degree of zeal, "we will not part this way, my good friend.
+Women are quick and hasty in their feelings; but, believe me, my wishes
+and my purposes towards this child are such as both my husband and
+you will approve of." The clergyman bowed, and retreated to his own
+apartment.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Second.
+
+
+  How steadfastly he fix'd his eyes on me--
+  His dark eyes shining through forgotten tears--
+  Then stretch'd his little arms, and call'd me mother!
+  What could I do? I took the bantling home--
+  I could not tell the imp he had no mother.
+                         COUNT BASIL.
+
+When Warden had left the apartment, the Lady of Avenel gave way to the
+feelings of tenderness which the sight of the boy, his sudden danger,
+and his recent escape, had inspired; and no longer awed by the
+sternness, as she deemed it, of the preacher, heaped with caresses the
+lovely and interesting child. He was now, in some measure, recovered
+from the consequences of his accident, and received passively, though
+not without wonder, the tokens of kindness with which he was thus
+loaded. The face of the lady was strange to him, and her dress different
+and far more sumptuous than any he remembered. But the boy was naturally
+of an undaunted temper; and indeed children are generally acute
+physiognomists, and not only pleased by that which is beautiful in
+itself, but peculiarly quick in distinguishing and replying to the
+attentions of those who really love them. If they see a person in
+company, though a perfect stranger, who is by nature fond of children,
+the little imps seem to discover it by a sort of free-masonry, while the
+awkward attempts of those who make advances to them for the purpose of
+recommending themselves to the parents, usually fail in attracting their
+reciprocal attention. The little boy, therefore, appeared in some degree
+sensible of the lady's caresses, and it was with difficulty she withdrew
+herself from his pillow, to afford him leisure for necessary repose.
+
+"To whom belongs our little rescued varlet?" was the first question
+which the Lady of Avenel put to her handmaiden Lilias, when they had
+retired to the hall.
+
+"To an old woman in the hamlet," said Lilias, "who is even now come so
+far as the porter's lodge to inquire concerning his safety. Is it your
+pleasure that she be admitted?"
+
+"Is it my pleasure?" said the Lady of Avenel, echoing the question with
+a strong accent of displeasure and surprise; "can you make any doubt
+of it? What woman but must pity the agony of the mother, whose heart is
+throbbing for the safety of a child so lovely!"
+
+"Nay, but, madam," said Lilias, "this woman is too old to be the mother
+of the child; I rather think she must be his grandmother, or some more
+distant relation."
+
+"Be she who she will, Lilias," replied the Lady, "she must have an
+aching heart while the safety of a creature so lovely is uncertain.
+Go instantly and bring her hither. Besides, I would willingly learn
+something concerning his birth."
+
+Lilias left the hall, and presently afterwards returned, ushering in a
+tall female very poorly dressed, yet with more pretension to decency
+and cleanliness than was usually combined with such coarse garments. The
+Lady of Avenel knew her figure the instant she presented herself. It was
+the fashion of the family, that upon every Sabbath, and on two evenings
+in the week besides, Henry Warden preached or lectured in the chapel at
+the castle. The extension of the Protestant faith was, upon principle,
+as well as in good policy, a primary object with the Knight of Avenel.
+The inhabitants of the village were therefore invited to attend upon the
+instructions of Henry Warden, and many of them were speedily won to
+the doctrine which their master and protector approved. These sermons,
+homilies, and lectures, had made a great impression on the mind of the
+Abbot Eustace, or Eustatius, and were a sufficient spur to the severity
+and sharpness of his controversy with his old fellow-collegiate;
+and, ere Queen Mary was dethroned, and while the Catholics still had
+considerable authority in the Border provinces, he more than once
+threatened to levy his vassals, and assail and level with the earth
+that stronghold of heresy the Castle of Avenel. But notwithstanding the
+Abbot's impotent resentment, and notwithstanding also the disinclination
+of the country to favour the new religion, Henry Warden proceeded
+without remission in his labours, and made weekly converts from the
+faith of Rome to that of the reformed church. Amongst those who gave
+most earnest and constant attendance on his ministry, was the aged
+woman, whose form, tall, and otherwise too remarkable to be forgotten,
+the Lady had of late observed frequently as being conspicuous among the
+little audience. She had indeed more than once desired to know who
+that stately-looking woman was, whose appearance was so much above the
+poverty of her vestments. But the reply had always been, that she was an
+Englishwoman, who was tarrying for a season at the hamlet, and that
+no one knew more concerning her. She now asked her after her name and
+birth.
+
+"Magdalen Graeme is my name," said the woman; "I come of the Graemes of
+Heathergill, in Nicol Forest, [Footnote: A district of Cumberland, lying
+close to the Scottish border.] a people of ancient blood."
+
+"And what make you," continued the Lady, "so far distant from your
+home?"
+
+"I have no home," said Magdalen Graeme, "it was burnt by your
+Border-riders--my husband and my son were slain--there is not a drop's
+blood left in the veins of any one which is of kin to mine."
+
+"That is no uncommon fate in these wild times, and in this unsettled
+land," said the Lady; "the English hands have been as deeply dyed in our
+blood as ever those of Scotsmen have been in yours."
+
+"You have right to say it, Lady," answered Magdalen Graeme; "for men
+tell of a time when this castle was not strong enough to save your
+father's life, or to afford your mother and her infant a place of
+refuge. And why ask ye me, then, wherefore I dwell not in mine own home,
+and with mine own people?"
+
+"It was indeed an idle question," answered the Lady, "where misery so
+often makes wanderers; but wherefore take refuge in a hostile country?"
+
+"My neighbours were Popish and mass-mongers," said the old woman; "it
+has pleased Heaven to give me a clearer sight of the gospel, and I have
+tarried here to enjoy the ministry of that worthy man Henry Warden, who,
+to the praise and comfort of many, teacheth the Evangel in truth and in
+sincerity."
+
+"Are you poor?" again demanded the Lady of Avenel.
+
+"You hear me ask alms of no one," answered the Englishwoman.
+
+Here there was a pause. The manner of the woman was, if not
+disrespectful, at least much less than gracious; and she appeared to
+give no encouragement to farther communication. The Lady of Avenel
+renewed the conversation on a different topic.
+
+"You have heard of the danger in which your boy has been placed?"
+
+"I have, Lady, and how by an especial providence he was rescued from
+death. May Heaven make him thankful, and me!"
+
+"What relation do you bear to him?"
+
+"I am his grandmother, lady, if it so please you; the only relation he
+hath left upon earth to take charge of him."
+
+"The burden of his maintenance must necessarily be grievous to you in
+your deserted situation?" pursued the Lady.
+
+"I have complained of it to no one," said Magdalen Graeme, with the same
+unmoved, dry, and unconcerned tone of voice, in which she had answered
+all the former questions.
+
+"If," said the Lady of Avenel, "your grandchild could be received into a
+noble family, would it not advantage both him and you?"
+
+"Received into a noble family!" said the old woman, drawing herself up,
+and bending her brows until her forehead was wrinkled into a frown of
+unusual severity; "and for what purpose, I pray you?--to be my lady's
+page, or my lord's jackman, to eat broken victuals, and contend with
+other menials for the remnants of the master's meal? Would you have
+him to fan the flies from my lady's face while she sleeps, to carry
+her train while she walks, to hand her trencher when she feeds, to ride
+before her on horseback, to walk after her on foot, to sing when she
+lists, and to be silent when she bids?--a very weathercock, which,
+though furnished in appearance with wings and plumage, cannot soar into
+the air--cannot fly from the spot where it is perched, but receives all
+its impulse, and performs all its revolutions, obedient to the changeful
+breath of a vain woman? When the eagle of Helvellyn perches on the tower
+of Lanercost, and turns and changes his place to show how the wind sits,
+Roland Graeme shall be what you would make him."
+
+The woman spoke with a rapidity and vehemence which seemed to have in it
+a touch of insanity; and a sudden sense of the danger to which the child
+must necessarily be exposed in the charge of such a keeper, increased
+the Lady's desire to keep him in the castle if possible.
+
+"You mistake me, dame," she said, addressing the old woman in a soothing
+manner; "I do not wish your boy to be in attendance on myself, but upon
+the good knight my husband. Were he himself the son of a belted earl,
+he could not better be trained to arms, and all that befits a gentleman,
+than by the instructions and discipline of Sir Halbert Glendinning."
+
+"Ay," answered the old woman, in the same style of bitter irony, "I know
+the wages of that service;--a curse when the corslet is not sufficiently
+brightened,--a blow when the girth is not tightly drawn,--to be beaten
+because the hounds are at fault,--to be reviled because the foray is
+unsuccessful,--to stain his hands for the master's bidding in the blood
+alike of beast and of man,--to be a butcher of harmless deer, a murderer
+and defacer of God's own image, not at his own pleasure, but at that of
+his lord,--to live a brawling ruffian, and a common stabber--exposed to
+heat, to cold, to want of food, to all the privations of an anchoret,
+not for the love of God, but for the service of Satan,--to die by the
+gibbet, or in some obscure skirmish,--to sleep out his brief life
+in carnal security, and to awake in the eternal fire, which is never
+quenched."
+
+"Nay," said the Lady of Avenel, "but to such unhallowed course of life
+your grandson will not be here exposed. My husband is just and kind to
+those who live under his banner; and you yourself well know, that youth
+have here a strict as well as a good preceptor in the person of our
+chaplain."
+
+The old woman appeared to pause.
+
+"You have named," she said, "the only circumstance which can move me. I
+must soon onward, the vision has said it--I must not tarry in the same
+spot--I must on,--I must on, it is my weird.--Swear, then, that you will
+protect the boy as if he were your own, until I return hither and claim
+him, and I will consent for a space to part with him. But especially
+swear, he shall not lack the instruction of the godly man who hath
+placed the gospel-truth high above those idolatrous shavelings, the
+monks and friars."
+
+"Be satisfied, dame," said the Lady of Avenel; "the boy shall have as
+much care as if he were born of my own blood. Will you see him now?"
+
+"No," answered the old woman sternly; "to part is enough. I go forth
+on my own mission. I will not soften my heart by useless tears and
+wailings, as one that is not called to a duty."
+
+"Will you not accept of something to aid you in your pilgrimage?" said
+the Lady of Avenel, putting into her hands two crowns of the sun. The
+old woman flung them down on the table.
+
+"Am I of the race of Cain," she said, "proud Lady, that you offer me
+gold in exchange for my own flesh and blood?"
+
+"I had no such meaning," said the Lady, gently; "nor am I the proud
+woman you term me. Alas! my own fortunes might have taught me humility,
+even had it not been born with me."
+
+The old woman seemed somewhat to relax her tone of severity.
+
+"You are of gentle blood," she said, "else we had not parleyed thus long
+together.--You are of gentle blood, and to such," she added, drawing up
+her tall form as she spoke, "pride is as graceful as is the plume upon
+the bonnet. But for these pieces of gold, lady, you must needs resume
+them. I need not money. I am well provided; and I may not care for
+myself, nor think how, or by whom, I shall be sustained. Farewell, and
+keep your word. Cause your gates to be opened, and your bridges to be
+lowered. I will set forward this very night. When I come again, I will
+demand from you a strict account, for I have left with you the jewel of
+my life! Sleep will visit me but in snatches, food will not refresh me,
+rest will not restore my strength, until I see Roland Graeme. Once more,
+farewell."
+
+"Make your obeisance, dame," said Lilias to Magdalen Graeme, as she
+retired, "make your obeisance to her ladyship, and thank her for her
+goodness, as is but fitting and right."
+
+The old woman turned short around on the officious waiting-maid. "Let
+her make her obeisance to me then, and I will return it. Why should
+I bend to her?--is it because her kirtle is of silk, and mine of blue
+lockeram?--Go to, my lady's waiting-woman. Know that the rank of the man
+rates that of the wife, and that she who marries a churl's son, were she
+a king's daughter, is but a peasant's bride."
+
+Lilias was about to reply in great indignation, but her mistress imposed
+silence on her, and commanded that the old woman should be safely
+conducted to the mainland.
+
+"Conduct her safe!" exclaimed the incensed waiting-woman, while Magdalen
+Graeme left the apartment; "I say, duck her in the loch, and then we
+will see whether she is witch or not, as every body in the village of
+Lochside will say and swear. I marvel your ladyship could bear so long
+with her insolence." But the commands of the Lady were obeyed, and the
+old dame, dismissed from the castle, was committed to her fortune. She
+kept her word, and did not long abide in that place, leaving the hamlet
+on the very night succeeding the interview, and wandering no one asked
+whither. The Lady of Avenel inquired under what circumstances she had
+appeared among them, but could only learn that she was believed to
+be the widow of some man of consequence among the Graemes who then
+inhabited the Debateable Land, a name given to a certain portion of
+territory which was the frequent subject of dispute betwixt Scotland
+and England--that she had suffered great wrong in some of the frequent
+forays by which that unfortunate district was wasted, and had been
+driven from her dwelling-place. She had arrived in the hamlet no one
+knew for what purpose, and was held by some to be a witch, by others a
+zealous Protestant, and by others again a Catholic devotee. Her language
+was mysterious, and her manners repulsive; and all that could be
+collected from her conversation seemed to imply that she was under the
+influence either of a spell or of a vow,--there was no saying which,
+since she talked as one who acted under a powerful and external agency.
+
+Such were the particulars which the Lady's inquiries were able
+to collect concerning Magdalen Graeme, being far too meagre and
+contradictory to authorize any satisfactory deduction. In truth, the
+miseries of the time, and the various turns of fate incidental to a
+frontier country, were perpetually chasing from their habitations those
+who had not the means of defence or protection. These wanderers in the
+land were too often seen, to excite much attention or sympathy. They
+received the cold relief which was extorted by general feelings of
+humanity; a little excited in some breasts, and perhaps rather chilled
+in others, by the recollection that they who gave the charity to-day
+might themselves want it to-morrow. Magdalen Graeme, therefore, came and
+departed like a shadow from the neighbourhood of Avenel Castle.
+
+The boy whom Providence, as she thought, had thus strangely placed
+under her care, was at once established a favourite with the Lady of
+the castle. How could it be otherwise? He became the object of those
+affectionate feelings, which, finding formerly no object on which to
+expand themselves, had increased the gloom of the castle, and imbittered
+the solitude of its mistress. To teach him reading and writing as far as
+her skill went, to attend to his childish comforts, to watch his boyish
+sports, became the Lady's favourite amusement. In her circumstances,
+where the ear only heard the lowing of the cattle from the distant
+hills, or the heavy step of the warder as he walked upon his post,
+or the half-envied laugh of her maiden as she turned her wheel, the
+appearance of the blooming and beautiful boy gave an interest which
+can hardly be conceived by those who live amid gayer and busier scenes.
+Young Roland was to the Lady of Avenel what the flower, which occupies
+the window of some solitary captive, is to the poor wight by whom it is
+nursed and cultivated,--something which at once excited and repaid
+her care; and in giving the boy her affection, she felt, as it were,
+grateful to him for releasing her from the state of dull apathy in
+which she had usually found herself during the absence of Sir Halbert
+Glendinning.
+
+But even the charms of this blooming favourite were unable to chase the
+recurring apprehensions which arose from her husband's procrastinated
+return. Soon after Roland Graeme became a resident at the castle, a
+groom, despatched by Sir Halbert, brought tidings that business still
+delayed the Knight at the Court of Holyrood. The more distant period
+which the messenger had assigned for his master's arrival at length
+glided away, summer melted into autumn, and autumn was about to give
+place to winter, and yet he came not.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Third.
+
+
+ The waning harvest-moon shone broad and bright,
+ The warder's horn was heard at dead of night,
+ And while the portals-wide were flung,
+ With trampling hoofs the rocky pavement rung.
+                                         LEYDEN.
+
+"And you, too, would be a soldier, Roland?" said the Lady of Avenel
+to her young charge, while, seated on a stone chair at one end of the
+battlements, she saw the boy attempt, with a long stick, to mimic the
+motions of the warder, as he alternately shouldered, or ported, or
+sloped pike.
+
+"Yes, Lady," said the boy,--for he was now familiar, and replied to her
+questions with readiness and alacrity,-"a soldier will I be; for there
+ne'er was gentleman but who belted him with the brand."
+
+"Thou a gentleman!" said Lilias, who, as usual, was in attendance; "such
+a gentleman as I would make of a bean-cod with a rusty knife."
+
+"Nay, chide him not, Lilias," said the Lady of Avenel, "for, beshrew me,
+but I think he comes of gentle blood--see how it musters in his face at
+your injurious reproof."
+
+"Had I my will, madam," answered Lilias, "a good birchen wand should
+make his colour muster to better purpose still."
+
+"On my word, Lilias," said the Lady, "one would think you had received
+harm from the poor boy--or is he so far on the frosty side of your
+favour because he enjoys the sunny side of mine?"
+
+"Over heavens forbode, my Lady!" answered Lilias; "I have lived too long
+with gentles, I praise my stars for it, to fight with either follies or
+fantasies, whether they relate to beast, bird, or boy."
+
+Lilias was a favourite in her own class, a spoiled domestic, and often
+accustomed to take more licence than her mistress was at all times
+willing to encourage. But what did not please the Lady of Avenel, she
+did not choose to hear, and thus it was on the present occasion. She
+resolved to look more close and sharply after the boy, who had hitherto
+been committed chiefly to the management of Lilias. He must, she
+thought, be born of gentle blood; it were shame to think otherwise of
+a form so noble, and features so fair;--the very wildness in which
+he occasionally indulged, his contempt of danger, and impatience of
+restraint, had in them something noble;--assuredly the child was born of
+high rank. Such was her conclusion, and she acted upon it accordingly.
+The domestics around her, less jealous, or less scrupulous than Lilias,
+acted as servants usually do, following the bias, and flattering, for
+their own purposes, the humour of the Lady; and the boy soon took on him
+those airs of superiority, which the sight of habitual deference seldom
+fails to inspire. It seemed, in truth, as if to command were his natural
+sphere, so easily did he use himself to exact and receive compliance
+with his humours. The chaplain, indeed, might have interposed to check
+the air of assumption which Roland Graeme so readily indulged, and
+most probably would have willingly rendered him that favour; but the
+necessity of adjusting with his brethren some disputed points of church
+discipline had withdrawn him for some time from the castle, and detained
+him in a distant part of the kingdom.
+
+Matters stood thus in the castle of Avenel, when a winded bugle sent its
+shrill and prolonged notes from the shore of the lake, and was replied
+to cheerily by the signal of the warder. The Lady of Avenel knew the
+sounds of her husband, and rushed to the window of the apartment in
+which she was sitting. A band of about thirty spearmen, with a pennon
+displayed before them, winded along the indented shores of the lake,
+and approached the causeway. A single horseman rode at the head of the
+party, his bright arms catching a glance of the October sun as he moved
+steadily along. Even at that distance, the Lady recognized the lofty
+plume, bearing the mingled colours of her own liveries and those of
+Glendonwyne, blended with the holly-branch; and the firm seat and
+dignified demeanour of the rider, joined to the stately motion of the
+dark-brown steed, sufficiently announced Halbert Glendinning.
+
+The Lady's first thought was that of rapturous joy at her husband's
+return--her second was connected with a fear which had sometimes
+intruded itself, that he might not altogether approve the peculiar
+distinction with which she had treated her orphan ward. In this fear
+there was implied a consciousness, that the favour she had shown him was
+excessive; for Halbert Glendinning was at least as gentle and indulgent,
+as he was firm and rational in the intercourse of his household; and to
+her in particular, his conduct had ever been most affectionately tender.
+
+Yet she did fear, that, on the present occasion, her conduct might incur
+Sir Halbert's censure; and hastily resolving that she would not mention,
+the anecdote of the boy until the next day, she ordered him to be
+withdrawn from the apartment by Lilias.
+
+"I will not go with Lilias, madam," answered the spoiled child, who
+had more than once carried his point by perseverance, and who, like his
+betters, delighted in the exercise of such authority,--"I will not go to
+Lilias's gousty room--I will stay and see that brave warrior who comes
+riding so gallantly along the drawbridge."
+
+"You must not stay, Roland," said the Lady, more positively than she
+usually spoke to her little favourite.
+
+"I will," reiterated the boy, who had already felt his consequence, and
+the probable chance of success.
+
+"You _will_, Roland!" answered the Lady, "what manner of word is that? I
+tell you, you must go."
+
+"_Will_," answered the forward boy, "is a word for a man, and _must_ is
+no word for a lady."
+
+"You are saucy, sirrah," said the Lady--"Lilias, take him with you
+instantly."
+
+"I always thought," said Lilias, smiling, as she seized the reluctant
+boy by the arm, "that my young master must give place to my old one."
+
+"And you, too, are malapert, mistress!" said the Lady; "hath the moon
+changed, that ye all of you thus forget yourselves?"
+
+Lilias made no reply, but led off the boy, who, too proud to offer
+unavailing resistance, darted at his benefactress a glance, which
+intimated plainly, how willingly he would have defied her authority, had
+he possessed the power to make good his point.
+
+The Lady of Avenel was vexed to find how much this trifling circumstance
+had discomposed her, at the moment when she ought naturally to have
+been entirely engrossed by her husband's return. But we do not recover
+composure by the mere feeling that agitation is mistimed. The glow of
+displeasure had not left the Lady's cheek, her ruffled deportment was
+not yet entirely composed, when her husband, unhelmeted, but still
+wearing the rest of his arms, entered the apartment. His appearance
+banished the thoughts of every thing else; she rushed to him, clasped
+his iron-sheathed frame in her arms, and kissed his martial and manly
+face with an affection which was at once evident and sincere. The
+warrior returned her embrace and her caress with the same fondness; for
+the time which had passed since their union had diminished its romantic
+ardour, perhaps, but it had rather increased its rational tenderness,
+and Sir Halbert Glendinning's long and frequent absences from his castle
+had prevented affection from degenerating by habit into indifference.
+
+When the first eager greetings were paid and received, the Lady
+gazed fondly on her husband's face as she remarked, "You are altered,
+Halbert--you have ridden hard and far to-day, or you have been ill?"
+
+"I have been well, Mary," answered the Knight, "passing well have
+I been; and a long ride is to me, thou well knowest, but a thing of
+constant custom. Those who are born noble may slumber out their lives
+within the walls of their castles and manor-houses; but he who hath
+achieved nobility by his own deeds must ever be in the saddle, to show
+that he merits his advancement."
+
+While he spoke thus, the Lady gazed fondly on him, as if endeavouring
+to read his inmost soul; for the tone in which he spoke was that of
+melancholy depression.
+
+Sir Halbert Glendinning was the same, yet a different person from what
+he had appeared in his early years. The fiery freedom of the aspiring
+youth had given place to the steady and stern composure of the approved
+soldier and skilful politician. There were deep traces of care on those
+noble features, over which each emotion used formerly to pass, like
+light clouds across a summer sky. That sky was now, not perhaps clouded,
+but still and grave, like that of the sober autumn evening. The forehead
+was higher and more bare than in early youth, and the locks which still
+clustered thick and dark on the warrior's head, were worn away at the
+temples, not by age, but by the constant pressure of the steel cap, or
+helmet. His beard, according to the fashion of the time, grew short and
+thick, and was turned into mustaches on the upper lip, and peaked at the
+extremity. The cheek, weather-beaten and embrowned, had lost the glow
+of youth, but showed the vigorous complexion of active and confirmed
+manhood. Halbert Glendinning was, in a word, a knight to ride at a
+king's right hand, to bear his banner in war, and to be his counsellor
+in time of peace; for his looks expressed the considerate firmness which
+can resolve wisely and dare boldly. Still, over these noble features,
+there now spread an air of dejection, of which, perhaps, the owner was
+not conscious, but which did not escape the observation of his anxious
+and affectionate partner.
+
+"Something has happened, or is about to happen," said the Lady of
+Avenel; "this sadness sits not on your brow without cause--misfortune,
+national or particular, must needs be at hand."
+
+"There is nothing new that I wot of," said Halbert Glendinning; "but
+there is little of evil which can befall a kingdom, that may not be
+apprehended in this unhappy and divided realm."
+
+"Nay, then," said the Lady, "I see there hath really been some fatal
+work on foot. My Lord of Murray has not so long detained you at
+Holyrood, save that he wanted your help in some weighty purpose."
+
+"I have not been at Holyrood, Mary," answered the Knight; "I have been
+several weeks abroad."
+
+"Abroad! and sent me no word?" replied the Lady.
+
+"What would the knowledge have availed, but to have rendered you
+unhappy, my love?" replied the Knight; "your thoughts would have
+converted the slightest breeze that curled your own lake, into a tempest
+raging in the German ocean."
+
+"And have you then really crossed the sea?" said the Lady, to whom the
+very idea of an element which she had never seen conveyed notions of
+terror and of wonder,--"really left your own native land, and trodden
+distant shores, where the Scottish tongue is unheard and unknown?"
+
+"Really, and really," said the Knight, taking her hand in affectionate
+playfulness, "I have done this marvellous deed--have rolled on the ocean
+for three days and three nights, with the deep green waves dashing by
+the side of my pillow, and but a thin plank to divide me from it."
+
+"Indeed, my Halbert," said the Lady, "that was a tempting of Divine
+Providence. I never bade you unbuckle the sword from your side, or lay
+the lance from your hand--I never bade you sit still when your honour
+called you to rise and ride; but are not blade and spear dangers enough
+for one man's life, and why would you trust rough waves and raging
+seas?"
+
+"We have in Germany, and in the Low Countries, as they are called,"
+answered Glendinning, "men who are united with us in faith, and with
+whom it is fitting we should unite in alliance. To some of these I was
+despatched on business as important as it was secret. I went in safety,
+and I returned in security; there is more danger to a man's life betwixt
+this and Holyrood, than are in all the seas that wash the lowlands of
+Holland."
+
+"And the country, my Halbert, and the people," said the Lady, "are they
+like our kindly Scots? or what bearing have they to strangers?"
+
+"They are a people, Mary, strong in their wealth, which renders all
+other nations weak, and weak in those arts of war by which other nations
+are strong."
+
+"I do not understand you," said the Lady.
+
+"The Hollander and the Fleming, Mary, pour forth their spirit in
+trade, and not in war; their wealth purchases them the arms of foreign
+soldiers, by whose aid they defend it. They erect dikes on the sea-shore
+to protect the land which they have won, and they levy regiments of the
+stubborn Switzers and hardy Germans to protect the treasures which they
+have amassed. And thus they are strong in their weakness; for the very
+wealth which tempts their masters to despoil them, arms strangers in
+their behalf."
+
+"The slothful hinds!" exclaimed Mary, thinking and feeling like a
+Scotswoman of the period; "have they hands, and fight not for the land
+which bore them? They should be notched off at the elbow!"
+
+"Nay, that were but hard justice," answered her husband; "for their
+hands serve their country, though not in battle, like ours. Look at
+these barren hills, Mary, and at that deep winding vale by which the
+cattle are even now returning from their scanty browse. The hand of the
+industrious Fleming would cover these mountains with wood, and raise
+corn where we now see a starved and scanty sward of heath and ling. It
+grieves me, Mary, when I look on that land, and think what benefit it
+might receive from such men as I have lately seen--men who seek not
+the idle fame derived from dead ancestors, or the bloody renown won in
+modern broils, but tread along the land, as preservers and improvers,
+not as tyrants and destroyers."
+
+"These amendments would here be but a vain fancy, my Halbert," answered
+the Lady of Avenel; "the trees would be burned by the English foemen,
+ere they ceased to be shrubs, and the grain that you raised would be
+gathered in by the first neighbour that possessed more riders than
+follow your train. Why should you repine at this? The fate that made
+you Scotsman by birth, gave you head, and heart, and hand, to uphold the
+name as it must needs be upheld."
+
+"It gave _me_ no name to uphold," said Halbert, pacing the floor slowly;
+"my arm has been foremost in every strife--my voice has been heard in
+every council, nor have the wisest rebuked me. The crafty Lethington,
+the deep and dark Morton, have held secret council with me, and Grange
+and Lindsay have owned, that in the field I did the devoir of a gallant
+knight--but let the emergence be passed when they need my head and hand,
+and they only know me as son of the obscure portioner of Glendearg."
+
+This was a theme which the Lady always dreaded; for the rank conferred
+on her husband, the favour in which he was held by the powerful Earl of
+Murray, and the high talents by which he vindicated his right to
+that rank and that favour, were qualities which rather increased than
+diminished the envy which was harboured against Sir Halbert Glendinning
+among a proud aristocracy, as a person originally of inferior and
+obscure birth, who had risen to his present eminence solely by his
+personal merit. The natural firmness of his mind did not enable him to
+despise the ideal advantages of a higher pedigree, which were held in
+such universal esteem by all with whom he conversed; and so open are
+the noblest minds to jealous inconsistencies, that there were moments in
+which he felt mortified that his lady should possess those advantages
+of birth and high descent which he himself did not enjoy, and regretted
+that his importance as the proprietor of Avenel was qualified by his
+possessing it only as the husband of the heiress. He was not so unjust
+as to permit any unworthy feelings to retain permanent possession of his
+mind, but yet they recurred from time to time, and did not escape his
+lady's anxious observation.
+
+"Had we been blessed with children," she was wont on such occasions
+to say to herself, "had our blood been united in a son who might have
+joined my advantages of descent with my husband's personal worth, these
+painful and irksome reflections had not disturbed our union even for a
+moment. But the existence of such an heir, in whom our affections, as
+well as our pretensions, might have centred, has been denied to us."
+
+With such mutual feelings, it cannot be wondered that it gave the
+Lady pain to hear her husband verging towards this topic of mutual
+discontent. On the present, as on other similar occasions, she
+endeavoured to divert the knight's thoughts from this painful channel.
+
+"How can you," she said, "suffer yourself to dwell upon things which
+profit nothing? Have you indeed no name to uphold? You, the good and the
+brave, the wise in council, and the strong in battle, have you not
+to support the reputation your own deeds have won, a reputation more
+honourable than mere ancestry can supply? Good men love and honour you,
+the wicked fear, and the turbulent obey you; and is it not necessary you
+should exert yourself to ensure the endurance of that love, that honour,
+and wholesome fear, and that necessary obedience?"
+
+As she thus spoke, the eye of her husband caught from hers courage and
+comfort, and it lightened as he took her hand and replied, "It is
+most true, my Mary, and I deserve thy rebuke, who forget what I am, in
+repining because I am not what I cannot be. I am now what the most famed
+ancestors of those I envy were, the mean man raised into eminence by
+his own exertions; and sure it is a boast as honourable to have those
+capacities which are necessary to the foundation of a family, as to be
+descended from one who possessed them some centuries before. The Hay of
+Loncarty, who bequeathed his bloody yoke to his lineage,--the 'dark gray
+man,' who first founded the house of Douglas, had yet less of ancestry
+to boast than I have. For thou knowest, Mary, that my name derives
+itself from a line of ancient warriors, although my immediate
+forefathers preferred the humble station in which thou didst first
+find them; and war and counsel are not less proper to the house of
+Glendonwyne, even, in its most remote descendants, than to the proudest
+of their baronage." [Footnote: This was a house of ancient descent and
+superior consequence, including persons who fought at Bannockburn and
+Otterburn, and closely connected by alliance and friendship with the
+great Earls of Douglas. The Knight in this story argues as most Scotsmen
+would do in his situation, for all of the same clan are popularly
+considered as descended from the same stock, and as having a right to
+the ancestral honor of the chief branch. This opinion, though sometimes
+ideal, is so strong even at this day of innovation, that it may be
+observed as a national difference between my countrymen and the English.
+If you ask an Englishman of good birth, whether a person of the same
+name be connected with him, he answers (if _in dubio._) "No--he is a
+mere namesake." Ask a similar question of a Scot, (I mean a Scotsman,)
+he replies--"He is one of our clan; I daresay there is a relationship,
+though I do not know how distant." The Englishman thinks of
+discountenancing a species of rivalry in society; the Scotsman's answer
+is grounded on the ancient idea of strengthening the clan.]
+
+He strode across the hall as he spoke; and the Lady smiled internally
+to observe how much his mind dwelt upon the prerogatives of birth, and
+endeavoured to establish his claims, however remote, to a share in them,
+at the very moment when he affected to hold them in contempt. It will
+easily be guessed, however, that she permitted no symptom to escape
+her that could show she was sensible of the weakness of her husband, a
+perspicacity which perhaps his proud spirit could not very easily have
+brooked.
+
+As he returned from the extremity of the hall, to which he had stalked
+while in the act of vindicating the title of the house of Glendonwyne in
+its most remote branches to the full privileges of aristocracy, "Where,"
+he said, "is Wolf? I have not seen him since my return, and he was
+usually the first to welcome my home-coming."
+
+"Wolf," said the Lady, with a slight degree of embarrassment, for which
+perhaps, she would have found it difficult to assign any reason even to
+herself, "Wolf is chained up for the present. He hath been surly to my
+page."
+
+"Wolf chained up--and Wolf surly to your page!" answered Sir Halbert
+Glendinning; "Wolf never was surly to any one; and the chain will either
+break his spirit or render him savage--So ho, there--set Wolf free
+directly."
+
+He was obeyed; and the huge dog rushed into the hall, disturbing, by his
+unwieldy and boisterous gambols, the whole economy of reels, rocks, and
+distaffs, with which the maidens of the household were employed when the
+arrival of their lord was a signal to them to withdraw, and extracting
+from Lilias, who was summoned to put them again in order, the natural
+observation, "That the Laird's pet was as troublesome as the lady's
+page."
+
+"And who is this page, Mary?" said the Knight, his attention again
+called to the subject by the observation of the waiting-woman,--"Who
+is this page, whom every one seems to weigh in the balance with my
+old friend and favourite, Wolf?--When did you aspire to the dignity of
+keeping a page, or who is the boy?"
+
+"I trust, my Halbert," said the Lady, not without a blush, "you will
+not think your wife entitled to less attendance than other ladies of her
+quality?"
+
+"Nay, Dame Mary," answered the Knight, "it is enough you desire such
+an attendant.--Yet I have never loved to nurse such useless menials--a
+lady's page--it may well suit the proud English dames to have a slender
+youth to bear their trains from bower to hall, fan them when they
+slumber, and touch the lute for them when they please to listen; but our
+Scottish matrons were wont to be above such vanities, and our Scottish
+youth ought to be bred to the spear and the stirrup."
+
+"Nay, but, my husband," said the Lady, "I did but jest when I called
+this boy my page; he is in sooth a little orphan whom we saved from
+perishing in the lake, and whom I have since kept in the castle out of
+charity.--Lilias, bring little Roland hither."
+
+Roland entered accordingly, and, flying to the Lady's side, took hold
+of the plaits of her gown, and then turned round, and gazed with
+an attention not unmingled with fear, upon the stately form of the
+Knight.--"Roland," said the Lady, "go kiss the hand of the noble Knight,
+and ask him to be thy protector."--But Roland obeyed not, and, keeping
+his station, continued to gaze fixedly and timidly on Sir Halbert
+Glendinning.--"Go to the Knight, boy," said the Lady; "what dost thou
+fear, child? Go, kiss Sir Halbert's hand."
+
+"I will kiss no hand save yours, Lady," answered the boy.
+
+"Nay, but do as you are commanded, child," replied the Lady.--"He is
+dashed by your presence," she said, apologizing to her husband; "but is
+he not a handsome boy?"
+
+"And so is Wolf," said Sir Halbert, as he patted his huge four-footed
+favourite, "a handsome dog; but he has this double advantage over your
+new favourite, that he does what he is commanded, and hears not when he
+is praised."
+
+"Nay, now you are displeased with me," replied the Lady; "and yet why
+should you be so? There is nothing wrong in relieving the distressed
+orphan, or in loving that which is in itself lovely and deserving of
+affection. But you have seen Mr. Warden at Edinburgh, and he has set you
+against the poor boy."
+
+"My dear Mary," answered her husband, "Mr. Warden better knows his place
+than to presume to interfere either in your affairs or mine. I neither
+blame your relieving this boy, nor your kindness for him. But, I think,
+considering his birth and prospects, you ought not to treat him with
+injudicious fondness, which can only end in rendering him unfit for the
+humble situation to which Heaven has designed him."
+
+"Nay, but, my Halbert, do but look at the boy," said the Lady, "and see
+whether he has not the air of being intended by Heaven for something
+nobler than a mere peasant. May he not be designed, as others have been,
+to rise out of a humble situation into honour and eminence?"
+
+Thus far had she proceeded, when the consciousness that she was treading
+upon delicate ground at once occurred to her, and induced her to take
+the most natural, but the worst of all courses in such occasions,
+whether in conversation or in an actual bog, namely, that of stopping
+suddenly short in the illustration which she had commenced. Her brow
+crimsoned, and that of Sir Halbert Glendinning was slightly overcast.
+But it was only for an instant; for he was incapable of mistaking his
+lady's meaning, or supposing that she meant intentional disrespect to
+him.
+
+"Be it as you please, my love," he replied; "I owe you too much to
+contradict you in aught which may render your solitary mode of life
+more endurable. Make of this youth what you will, and you have my
+full authority for doing so. But remember he is your charge, not
+mine--remember he hath limbs to do man's service, a soul and a tongue
+to worship God; breed him, therefore, to be true to his country and to
+Heaven; and for the rest, dispose of him as you list--it is, and shall
+rest, your own matter."
+
+This conversation decided the fate of Roland Graeme, who from
+thence-forward was little noticed by the master of the mansion of
+Avenel, but indulged and favoured by its mistress.
+
+This situation led to many important consequences, and, in truth, tended
+to bring forth the character of the youth in all its broad lights and
+deep shadows. As the Knight himself seemed tacitly to disclaim alike
+interest and control over the immediate favourite of his lady, young
+Roland was, by circumstances, exempted from the strict discipline to
+which, as the retainer of a Scottish man of rank, he would otherwise
+have been subjected, according to all the rigour of the age. But the
+steward, or master of the household--such was the proud title assumed
+by the head domestic of each petty baron--deemed it not advisable to
+interfere with the favourite of the Lady, and especially since she had
+brought the estate into the present family. Master Jasper Wingate was a
+man experienced, as he often boasted, in the ways of great families, and
+knew how to keep the steerage even when the wind and tide chanced to be
+in contradiction.
+
+This prudent personage winked at much, and avoided giving opportunity
+for farther offence, by requesting little of Roland Graeme beyond
+the degree of attention which he was himself disposed to pay; rightly
+conjecturing, that however lowly the place which the youth might hold in
+the favour of the Knight of Avenel, still to make an evil report of
+him would make an enemy of the Lady, without securing the favour of her
+husband. With these prudential considerations, and doubtless not without
+an eye to his own ease and convenience, he taught the boy as much, and
+only as much, as he chose to learn, readily admitting whatever apology
+it pleased his pupil to allege in excuse for idleness or negligence.
+As the other persons in the castle, to whom such tasks were delegated,
+readily imitated the prudential conduct of the major-domo, there was
+little control used towards Roland Graeme, who, of course, learned no
+more than what a very active mind, and a total impatience of absolute
+idleness led him to acquire upon his own account, and by dint of his
+own exertions. The latter were especially earnest, when the Lady herself
+condescended to be his tutress, or to examine his progress.
+
+It followed also from his quality as my Lady's favourite, that Roland
+was viewed with no peculiar good-will by the followers of the Knight,
+many of whom, of the same age, and apparently similar origin, with the
+fortunate page, were subjected to severe observance of the ancient and
+rigorous discipline of a feudal retainer. To these, Roland Graeme was
+of course an object of envy, and, in consequence, of dislike and
+detraction; but the youth possessed qualities which it was impossible
+to depreciate. Pride, and a sense of early ambition, did for him what
+severity and constant instruction did for others. In truth, the youthful
+Roland displayed that early flexibility both of body and mind, which
+renders exercise, either mental or bodily, rather matter of sport than
+of study; and it seemed as if he acquired accidentally, and by starts,
+those accomplishments, which earnest and constant instruction, enforced
+by frequent reproof and occasional chastisement, had taught to others.
+Such military exercises, such lessons of the period, as he found it
+agreeable or convenient to apply to, he learned so perfectly, as
+to confound those who were ignorant how often the want of constant
+application is compensated by vivacity of talent and ardent enthusiasm.
+The lads, therefore, who were more regularly trained to arms, to
+horsemanship, and to other necessary exercises of the period, while they
+envied Roland Graeme the indulgence or negligence with which he
+seemed to be treated, had little reason to boast of their own superior
+acquirements; a few hours, with the powerful exertion of a most
+energetic will, seemed to do for him more than the regular instruction
+of weeks could accomplish for others.
+
+Under these advantages, if, indeed, they were to be termed such,
+the character of young Roland began to develope itself. It was bold,
+peremptory, decisive, and overbearing; generous, if neither withstood
+nor contradicted; vehement and passionate, if censured or opposed. He
+seemed to consider himself as attached to no one, and responsible to
+no one, except his mistress, and even over her mind he had gradually
+acquired that species of ascendancy which indulgence is so apt to
+occasion. And although the immediate followers and dependents of Sir
+Halbert Glendinning saw his ascendancy with jealousy, and often took
+occasion to mortify his vanity, there wanted not those who were willing
+to acquire the favour of the Lady of Avenel by humouring and taking part
+with the youth whom she protected; for although a favourite, as the poet
+assures us, has no friend, he seldom fails to have both followers and
+flatterers.
+
+The partisans of Roland Graeme were chiefly to be found amongst the
+inhabitants of the little hamlet on the shore of the lake. These
+villagers, who were sometimes tempted to compare their own situation
+with that of the immediate and constant followers of the Knight, who
+attended him on his frequent journeys to Edinburgh and elsewhere,
+delighted in considering and representing themselves as more properly
+the subjects of the Lady of Avenel than of her husband. It is true, her
+wisdom and affection on all occasions discountenanced the distinction
+which was here implied; but the villagers persisted in thinking it must
+be agreeable to her to enjoy their peculiar and undivided homage, or at
+least in acting as if they thought so; and one chief mode by which they
+evinced their sentiments, was by the respect they paid to young Roland
+Graeme, the favourite attendant of the descendant of their ancient
+lords. This was a mode of flattery too pleasing to encounter rebuke or
+censure; and the opportunity which it afforded the youth to form, as
+it were, a party of his own within the limits of the ancient barony
+of Avenel, added not a little to the audacity and decisive tone of a
+character, which was by nature bold, impetuous, and incontrollable.
+
+Of the two members of the household who had manifested an early jealousy
+of Roland Graeme, the prejudices of Wolf were easily overcome; and in
+process of time the noble dog slept with Bran, Luath, and the celebrated
+hounds of ancient days. But Mr. Warden, the chaplain, lived, and
+retained his dislike to the youth. That good man, single-minded and
+benevolent as he really was, entertained rather more than a reasonable
+idea of the respect due to him as a minister, and exacted from the
+inhabitants of the castle more deference than the haughty young page,
+proud of his mistress's favour, and petulant from youth and situation,
+was at all times willing to pay. His bold and free demeanour, his
+attachment to rich dress and decoration, his inaptitude to receive
+instruction, and his hardening himself against rebuke, were
+circumstances which induced the good old man, with more haste than
+charity, to set the forward page down as a vessel of wrath, and to
+presage that the youth nursed that pride and haughtiness of spirit which
+goes before ruin and destruction. On the other hand, Roland evinced
+at times a marked dislike, and even something like contempt, of
+the chaplain. Most of the attendants and followers of Sir Halbert
+Glendinning entertained the same charitable thoughts as the reverend
+Mr. Warden; but while Roland was favoured by their lady, and endured by
+their lord, they saw no policy in making their opinions public.
+
+Roland Graeme was sufficiently sensible of the unpleasant situation in
+which he stood; but in the haughtiness of his heart he retorted upon the
+other domestics the distant, cold, and sarcastic manner in which they
+treated him, assumed an air of superiority which compelled the most
+obstinate to obedience, and had the satisfaction at least to be dreaded,
+if he was heartily hated.
+
+The chaplain's marked dislike had the effect of recommending him to
+the attention of Sir Halbert's brother, Edward, who now, under the
+conventual appellation of Father Ambrose, continued to be one of the
+few monks who, with the Abbot Eustatius, had, notwithstanding the nearly
+total downfall of their faith under the regency of Murray, been still
+permitted to linger in the cloisters at Kennaquhair. Respect to Sir
+Halbert had prevented their being altogether driven out of the Abbey,
+though their order was now in a great measure suppressed, and they were
+interdicted the public exercise of their ritual, and only allowed for
+their support a small pension out of their once splendid revenues.
+Father Ambrose, thus situated, was an occasional, though very rare
+visitant, at the Castle of Avenel, and was at such times observed to pay
+particular attention to Roland Graeme, who seemed to return it with more
+depth of feeling than consisted with his usual habits.
+
+Thus situated, years glided on, during which the Knight of Avenel
+continued to act a frequent and important part in the convulsions of his
+distracted country; while young Graeme anticipated, both in wishes and
+personal accomplishments, the age which should enable him to emerge from
+the obscurity of his present situation.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fourth.
+
+
+  Amid their cups that freely flow'd,
+    Their revelry and mirth,
+  A youthful lord tax'd Valentine
+    With base and doubtful birth.
+                 VALENTINE AND ORSON.
+
+When Roland Graeme was a youth about seventeen years of age, he
+chanced one summer morning to descend to the mew in which Sir Halbert
+Glendinning kept his hawks, in order to superintend the training of an
+eyas, or young hawk, which he himself, at the imminent risk of neck and
+limbs, had taken from the celebrated eyry in the neighborhood, called
+Gledscraig. As he was by no means satisfied with the attention which had
+been bestowed on his favourite bird, he was not slack in testifying his
+displeasure to the falconer's lad, whose duty it was to have attended
+upon it.
+
+"What, ho! sir knave," exclaimed Roland, "is it thus you feed the
+eyas with unwashed meat, as if you were gorging the foul brancher of a
+worthless hoodie-crow? by the mass, and thou hast neglected its castings
+also for these two days! Think'st thou I ventured my neck to bring the
+bird down from the crag, that thou shouldst spoil him by thy neglect?"
+And to add force to his remonstrances, he conferred a cuff or two on the
+negligent attendant of the hawks, who, shouting rather louder than was
+necessary under all the circumstances, brought the master falconer to
+his assistance.
+
+Adam Woodcock, the falconer of Avenel, was an Englishman by birth, but
+so long in the service of Glendinning, that he had lost much of his
+notional attachment in that which he had formed to his master. He was
+a favourite in his department, jealous and conceited of his skill, as
+masters of the game usually are; for the rest of his character he was
+a jester and a parcel poet, (qualities which by no means abated his
+natural conceit,) a jolly fellow, who, though a sound Protestant, loved
+a flagon of ale better than a long sermon, a stout man of his hands
+when need required, true to his master, and a little presuming on his
+interest with him.
+
+Adam Woodcock, such as we have described him, by no means relished the
+freedom used by young Graeme, in chastising his assistant. "Hey, hey,
+my Lady's page," said he, stepping between his own boy and Roland, "fair
+and softly, an it like your gilt jacket--hands off is fair play--if my
+boy has done amiss, I can beat him myself, and then you may keep your
+hands soft."
+
+"I will beat him and thee too," answered Roland, without hesitation, "an
+you look not better after your business. See how the bird is cast away
+between you. I found the careless lurdane feeding him with unwashed
+flesh, and she an eyas." [Footnote: There is a difference amongst
+authorities how long the nestling hawk should be fed with flesh which
+has previously been washed.]
+
+"Go to," said the falconer, "thou art but an eyas thyself, child
+Roland.--What knowest thou of feeding? I say that the eyas should have
+her meat unwashed, until she becomes a brancher--'twere the ready way
+to give her the frounce, to wash her meat sooner, and so knows every one
+who knows a gled from a falcon."
+
+"It is thine own laziness, thou false English blood, that dost nothing
+but drink and sleep," retorted the page, "and leaves that lither lad to
+do the work, which he minds as little as thou."
+
+"And am I so idle then," said the falconer, "that have three cast of
+hawks to look after, at perch and mew, and to fly them in the field
+to boot?--and is my Lady's page so busy a man that he must take me
+up short?--and am I of false English blood?--I marvel what blood thou
+art--neither Englander nor Scot--fish nor flesh--a bastard from the
+Debateable Land, without either kith, kin, or ally!--Marry, out upon
+thee, foul kite, that would fain be a tercel gentle!"
+
+The reply to this sarcasm was a box on the ear, so well applied, that it
+overthrew the falconer into the cistern in which water was kept for
+the benefit of the hawks. Up started Adam Woodcock, his wrath no way
+appeased by the cold immersion, and seizing on a truncheon which stood
+by, would have soon requited the injury he had received, had not Roland
+laid his hand on his poniard, and sworn by all that was sacred, that
+if he offered a stroke towards him, he would sheath the blade in his
+bowels. The noise was now so great, that more than one of the household
+came in, and amongst others the major-domo, a grave personage, already
+mentioned, whose gold chain and white wand intimated his authority.
+At the appearance of this dignitary, the strife was for the present
+appeased. He embraced, however, so favourable an opportunity, to read
+Roland Graeme a shrewd lecture on the impropriety of his deportment to
+his fellow-menials, and to assure him, that, should he communicate this
+fray to his master, (who, though now on one of his frequent expeditions,
+was speedily expected to return,) which but for respect to his Lady he
+would most certainly do, the residence of the culprit in the Castle of
+Avenel would be but of brief duration. "But, however," added the prudent
+master of the household, "I will report the matter first to my Lady."
+
+"Very just, very right, Master Wingate," exclaimed several voices
+together; "my Lady will consider if daggers, are to be drawn on us for
+every idle word, and whether we are to live in a well-ordered household,
+where there is the fear of God, or amidst drawn dirks and sharp knives."
+
+The object of this general resentment darted an angry glance around him,
+and suppressing with difficulty the desire which urged him to reply
+in furious or in contemptuous language, returned his dagger into his
+scabbard, looked disdainfully around upon the assembled menials, turned
+short upon his heel, and pushing aside those who stood betwixt him and
+the door, left the apartment.
+
+"This will be no tree for my nest," said the falconer, "if this
+cock-sparrow is to crow over us as he seems to do."
+
+"He struck me with his switch yesterday," said one of the grooms,
+"because the tail of his worship's gelding was not trimmed altogether so
+as suited his humour."
+
+"And I promise you," said the laundress, "my young master will stick
+nothing to call an honest woman slut and quean, if there be but a speck
+of soot upon his band-collar."
+
+"If Master Wingate do not his errand to my Lady," was the general
+result, "there will be no tarrying in the same house with Roland
+Graeme."
+
+The master of the household heard them all for some time, and then,
+motioning for universal silence, he addressed them with all the
+dignity of Malvolio himself.--"My masters,--not forgetting you, my
+mistresses,--do not think the worse of me that I proceed with as much
+care as haste in this matter. Our master is a gallant knight, and will
+have his sway at home and abroad, in wood and field, in hall and bower,
+as the saying is. Our Lady, my benison upon her, is also a noble person
+of long descent, and rightful heir of this place and barony, and she
+also loves her will; as for that matter, show me the woman who doth
+not. Now, she hath favoured, doth favour, and will favour, this
+jack-an-ape,--for what good part about him I know not, save that as one
+noble lady will love a messan dog, and another a screaming popinjay,
+and a third a Barbary ape, so doth it please our noble dame to set her
+affections upon this stray elf of a page, for nought that I can think
+of, save that she--was the cause of his being saved (the more's the
+pity) from drowning." And here Master Wingate made a pause.
+
+"I would have been his caution for a gray groat against salt water or
+fresh," said Roland's adversary, the falconer; "marry, if he crack not a
+rope for stabbing or for snatching, I will be content never to hood hawk
+again."
+
+"Peace, Adam Woodcock," said Wingate, waving his hand; "I prithee, peace
+man--Now, my Lady liking this springald, as aforesaid, differs therein
+from my Lord, who loves never a bone in his skin. Now, is it for me to
+stir up strife betwixt them, and put as'twere my finger betwixt the bark
+and the tree, on account of a pragmatical youngster, whom, nevertheless,
+I would willingly see whipped forth of the barony? Have patience, and
+this boil will break without our meddling. I have been in service since
+I wore a beard on my chin, till now that that beard is turned gray, and
+I have seldom known any one better themselves, even by taking the lady's
+part against the lord's; but never one who did not dirk himself, if he
+took the lord's against the lady's."
+
+"And so," said Lilias, "we are to be crowed over, every one of us, men
+and women, cock and hen, by this little upstart?--I will try titles with
+him first, I promise you.--I fancy, Master Wingate, for as wise as you
+look, you will be pleased to tell what you have seen to-day, if my lady
+commands you?"
+
+"To speak the truth when my lady commands me," answered the prudential
+major-domo, "is in some measure my duty, Mistress Lilias; always
+providing for and excepting those cases in which it cannot be
+spoken without breeding mischief and inconvenience to myself or my
+fellow-servants; for the tongue of a tale-bearer breaketh bones as well
+as Jeddart-staff." [Footnote: A species of battle-axe, so called as
+being in especial use in that ancient burgh, whose armorial bearing
+still represent an armed horseman brandishing such a weapon.]
+
+"But this imp of Satan is none of your friends or fellow-servants," said
+Lilias; "and I trust you mean not to stand up for him against the whole
+family besides?"
+
+"Credit me, Mrs. Lilias," replied the senior, "should I see the time
+fitting, I would, with right good-will give him a lick with the rough
+side of my tongue."
+
+"Enough said, Master Wingate," answered Lilias; "then trust me his song
+shall soon be laid. If my mistress does not ask me what is the matter
+below stairs before she be ten minutes of time older, she is no born
+woman, and my name is not Lilias Bradbourne."
+
+In pursuance of her plan, Mistress Lilias failed not to present herself
+before her mistress with all the exterior of one who is possessed of
+an important secret,--that is, she had the corners of her mouth turned
+down, her eyes raised up, her lips pressed as fast together as if they
+had been sewed up, to prevent her babbling, and an air of prim mystical
+importance diffused over her whole person and demeanour, which seemed to
+intimate, "I know something which I am resolved not to tell you!"
+
+Lilias had rightly read her mistress's temper, who, wise and good as
+she was, was yet a daughter of grandame Eve, and could not witness this
+mysterious bearing on the part of her waiting-woman without longing to
+ascertain the secret cause. For a space, Mrs. Lilias was obdurate to all
+inquiries, sighed, turned her eyes up higher yet to heaven, hoped for
+the best, but had nothing particular to communicate. All this, as was
+most natural and proper, only stimulated the Lady's curiosity;
+neither was her importunity to be parried with,--"Thank God, I am no
+makebate--no tale-bearer,--thank God, I never envied any one's favour,
+or was anxious to propale their misdemeanour-only, thank God, there has
+been no bloodshed and murder in the house--that is all."
+
+"Bloodshed and murder!" exclaimed the Lady, "what does the quean
+mean?--if you speak not plain out, you shall have something you will
+scarce be thankful for."
+
+"Nay, my Lady," answered Lilias, eager to disburden her mind, or, in,
+Chaucer's phrase, to "unbuckle her mail," "if you bid me speak out
+the truth, you must not be moved with what might displease you--Roland
+Graeme has dirked Adam Woodstock--that is all."
+
+"Good Heaven!" said the Lady, turning pale as ashes, "is the man slain?"
+
+"No, madam," replied Lilias, "but slain he would have been, if there
+had not been ready help; but may be, it is your Ladyship's pleasure that
+this young esquire shall poniard the servants, as well as switch and
+baton them."
+
+"Go to, minion," said the Lady, "you are saucy-tell the master of the
+household to attend me instantly."
+
+Lilias hastened to seek out Mr. Wingate, and hurry him to his lady's
+presence, speaking as a word in season to him on the way, "I have set
+the stone a-trowling, look that you do not let it stand still."
+
+The steward, too prudential a person to commit himself otherwise,
+answered by a sly look and a nod of intelligence, and presently after
+stood in the presence of the Lady of Avenel, with a look of great
+respect for his lady, partly real, partly affected, and an air of great
+sagacity, which inferred no ordinary conceit of himself.
+
+"How is this, Wingate," said the Lady, "and what rule do you keep in the
+castle, that the domestics of Sir Halbert Glendinning draw the dagger on
+each other, as in a cavern of thieves and murderers?--is the wounded man
+much hurt? and what--what hath become of the unhappy boy?"
+
+"There is no one wounded as yet, madam," replied he of the golden chain;
+"it passes my poor skill to say how many may be wounded before Pasche,
+[Footnote: Easter.] if some rule be not taken with this youth--not but
+the youth is a fair youth," he added, correcting himself, "and able at
+his exercise; but somewhat too ready with the ends of his fingers, the
+butt of his riding-switch, and the point of his dagger."
+
+"And whose fault is that," said the Lady, "but yours, who should have
+taught him better discipline, than to brawl or to draw his dagger."
+
+"If it please your Ladyship so to impose the blame on me," answered the
+steward, "it is my part, doubtless, to bear it--only I submit to your
+consideration, that unless I nailed his weapon to the scabbard, I could
+no more keep it still, than I could fix quicksilver, which defied even
+the skill of Raymond Lullius."
+
+"Tell me not of Raymond Lullius," said the Lady, losing patience, "but
+send me the chaplain hither. You grow all of you too wise for me, during
+your lord's long and repeated absences. I would to God his affairs would
+permit him to remain at home and rule his own household, for it passes
+my wit and skill!"
+
+"God forbid, my Lady!" said the old domestic, "that you should sincerely
+think what you are now pleased to say: your old servants might well
+hope, that after so many years' duty, you would do their service more
+justice than to distrust their gray hairs, because they cannot rule the
+peevish humour of a green head, which the owner carries, it may be, a
+brace of inches higher than becomes him."
+
+"Leave me," said the Lady; "Sir Halbert's return must now be expected
+daily, and he will look into these matters himself--leave me, I say,
+Wingate, without saying more of it. I know you are honest, and I believe
+the boy is petulant; and yet I think it is my favour which hath set all
+of you against him."
+
+The steward bowed and retired, after having been silenced in a second
+attempt to explain the motives on which he acted.
+
+The chaplain arrived; but neither from him did the Lady receive much
+comfort. On the contrary, she found him disposed, in plain terms, to
+lay to the door of her indulgence all the disturbances which the fiery
+temper of Roland Graeme had already occasioned, or might hereafter
+occasion, in the family. "I would," he said, "honoured Lady, that you
+had deigned to be ruled by me in the outset of this matter, sith it is
+easy to stem evil in the fountain, but hard to struggle against it in
+the stream. You, honoured madam, (a word which I do not use according to
+the vain forms of this world, but because I have ever loved and honoured
+you as an honourable and elect lady,)--you, I say, madam, have been
+pleased, contrary to my poor but earnest counsel, to raise this boy from
+his station, into one approaching to your own."
+
+"What mean you, reverend sir?" said the Lady; "I have made this youth
+a page--is there aught in my doing so that does not become my character
+and quality?"
+
+"I dispute not, madam," said the pertinacious preacher, "your benevolent
+purpose in taking charge of this youth, or your title to give him this
+idle character of page, if such was your pleasure; though what the
+education of a boy in the train of a female can tend to, save to ingraft
+foppery and effeminacy on conceit and arrogance, it passes my knowledge
+to discover. But I blame you more directly for having taken little care
+to guard him against the perils of his condition, or to tame and humble
+a spirit naturally haughty, overbearing, and impatient. You have brought
+into your bower a lion's cub; delighted with the beauty of his fur, and
+the grace of his gambols, you have bound him with no fetters befitting
+the fierceness of his disposition. You have let him grow up as unawed as
+if he had been still a tenant of the forest, and now you are surprised,
+and call out for assistance, when he begins to ramp, rend, and tear,
+according to his proper nature."
+
+"Mr. Warden," said the Lady, considerably offended, "you are my
+husband's ancient friend, and I believe your love sincere to him and
+to his household. Yet let me say, that when I asked you for counsel,
+I expected not this asperity of rebuke. If I have done wrong in loving
+this poor orphan lad more than others of his class, I scarce think
+the error merited such severe censure; and if stricter discipline were
+required to keep his fiery temper in order, it ought, I think, to be
+considered, that I am a woman, and that if I have erred in this matter,
+it becomes a friend's part rather to aid than to rebuke me. I would
+these evils were taken order with before my lord's return. He loves not
+domestic discord or domestic brawls; and I would not willingly that he
+thought such could arise from one whom I favoured--What do you counsel
+me to do?"
+
+"Dismiss this youth from your service, madam," replied the preacher.
+
+"You cannot bid me do so," said the Lady; "you cannot, as a Christian
+and a man of humanity, bid me turn away an unprotected creature against
+whom my favour, my injudicious favour if you will, has reared up so many
+enemies."
+
+"It is not necessary you should altogether abandon him, though you
+dismiss him to another service, or to a calling better suiting his
+station and character," said the preacher; "elsewhere he maybe an useful
+and profitable member of the commonweal--here he is but a makebate, and
+a stumbling-block of offence. The youth has snatches of sense and of
+intelligence, though he lacks industry. I will myself give him letters
+commendatory to Olearius Schinderhausen, a learned professor at the
+famous university of Leyden, where they lack an under-janitor--where,
+besides gratis instruction, if God give him the grace to seek it, he
+will enjoy five merks by the year, and the professor's cast-off suit,
+which he disparts with biennially."
+
+"This will never do, good Mr. Warden," said the Lady, scarce able to
+suppress a smile; "we will think more at large upon this matter. In the
+meanwhile, I trust to your remonstrances with this wild boy and with the
+family, for restraining these violent and unseemly jealousies and bursts
+of passion; and I entreat you to press on him and them their duty in
+this respect towards God, and towards their master."
+
+"You shall be obeyed, madam," said Warden. "On the next Thursday I
+exhort the family, and will, with God's blessing, so wrestle with the
+demon of wrath and violence, which hath entered into my little flock,
+that I trust to hound the wolf out of the fold, as if he were chased
+away with bandogs."
+
+This was the part of the conference from which Mr. Warden derived the
+greatest pleasure. The pulpit was at that time the same powerful engine
+for affecting popular feeling which the press has since become, and he
+had been no unsuccessful preacher, as we have already seen. It followed
+as a natural consequence, that he rather over-estimated the powers of
+his own oratory, and, like some of his brethren about the period, was
+glad of an opportunity to handle any matters of importance, whether
+public or private, the discussion of which could be dragged into his
+discourse. In that rude age the delicacy was unknown which prescribed
+time and place to personal exhortations; and as the court-preacher often
+addressed the King individually, and dictated to him the conduct he
+ought to observe in matters of state, so the nobleman himself, or any of
+his retainers, were, in the chapel of the feudal castle, often incensed
+or appalled, as the case might be, by the discussion of their private
+faults in the evening exercise, and by spiritual censures directed
+against them, specifically, personally, and by name. The sermon, by
+means of which Henry Warden purposed to restore concord and good order
+to the Castle of Avenel, bore for text the well-known words, "_He who
+striketh with the sword shall perish by the sword,_" and was a singular
+mixture of good sense and powerful oratory with pedantry and bad taste.
+He enlarged a good deal on the word striketh, which he assured his
+hearers comprehended blows given with the point as well as with
+the edge, and more generally, shooting with hand-gun, cross-bow, or
+long-bow, thrusting with a lance, or doing any thing whatever by which
+death might be occasioned to the adversary. In the same manner,
+he proved satisfactorily, that the word sword comprehended all
+descriptions, whether backsword or basket-hilt, cut-and-thrust or
+rapier, falchion, or scimitar. "But if," he continued, with still
+greater animation, "the text includeth in its anathema those who strike
+with any of those weapons which man hath devised for the exercise of his
+open hostility, still more doth it comprehend such as from their form
+and size are devised rather for the gratification of privy malice by
+treachery, than for the destruction of an enemy prepared and standing
+upon his defence. Such," he proceeded, looking sternly at the place
+where the page was seated on a cushion at the feet of his mistress, and
+wearing in his crimson belt a gay dagger with a gilded hilt,--"such,
+more especially, I hold to be those implements of death, which, in
+our modern and fantastic times, are worn not only by thieves and
+cut-throats, to whom they most properly belong, but even by those who
+attend upon women, and wait in the chambers of honourable ladies. Yes,
+my friends,--every species of this unhappy weapon, framed for all evil
+and for no good, is comprehended under this deadly denunciation, whether
+it be a stillet, which we have borrowed from the treacherous Italian, or
+a dirk, which is borne by the savage Highlandman, or a whinger, which is
+carried by our own Border thieves and cut-throats, or a dudgeon-dagger,
+all are alike engines invented by the devil himself, for ready
+implements of deadly wrath, sudden to execute, and difficult to be
+parried. Even the common sword-and-buckler brawler despises the use of
+such a treacherous and malignant instrument, which is therefore fit to
+be used, not by men or soldiers, but by those who, trained under female
+discipline, become themselves effeminate hermaphrodites, having female
+spite and female cowardice added to the infirmities and evil passions of
+their masculine nature."
+
+The effect which this oration produced upon the assembled congregation
+of Avenel cannot very easily be described. The lady seemed at once
+embarrassed and offended; the menials could hardly contain, under
+an affectation of deep attention, the joy with which they heard the
+chaplain launch his thunders at the head of the unpopular favourite, and
+the weapon which they considered as a badge of affectation and finery.
+Mrs. Lilias crested and drew up her head with all the deep-felt pride of
+gratified resentment; while the steward, observing a strict neutrality
+of aspect, fixed his eyes upon an old scutcheon on the opposite side
+of the wall, which he seemed to examine with the utmost accuracy, more
+willing, perhaps, to incur the censure of being inattentive to the
+sermon, than that of seeming to listen with marked approbation to what
+appeared so distasteful to his mistress.
+
+The unfortunate subject of the harangue, whom nature had endowed with
+passions which had hitherto found no effectual restraint, could not
+disguise the resentment which he felt at being thus directly held up to
+the scorn, as well as the censure, of the assembled inhabitants of the
+little world in which he lived. His brow grew red, his lip grew pale, he
+set his teeth, he clenched his hand, and then with mechanical readiness
+grasped the weapon of which the clergyman had given so hideous a
+character; and at length, as the preacher heightened the colouring of
+his invective, he felt his rage become so ungovernable, that, fearful
+of being hurried into some deed of desperate violence, he rose up,
+traversed the chapel with hasty steps, and left the congregation.
+
+The preacher was surprised into a sudden pause, while the fiery youth
+shot across him like a flash of lightning, regarding him as he passed,
+as if he had wished to dart from his eyes the same power of blighting
+and of consuming. But no sooner had he crossed the chapel, and shut
+with violence behind him the door of the vaulted entrance by which
+it communicated with the castle, than the impropriety of his conduct
+supplied Warden with one of those happier subjects for eloquence, of
+which he knew how to take advantage for making a suitable impression on
+his hearers. He paused for an instant, and then pronounced, in a slow
+and solemn voice, the deep anathema: "He hath gone out from us because
+he was not of us--the sick man hath been offended at the wholesome
+bitter of the medicine--the wounded patient hath flinched from the
+friendly knife of the surgeon--the sheep hath fled from the sheepfold
+and delivered himself to the wolf, because he could not assume the
+quiet and humble conduct demanded of us by the great Shepherd. Ah! my
+brethren, beware of wrath--beware of pride--beware of the deadly and
+destroying sin which so often shows itself to our frail eyes in
+the garments of light! What is our earthly honour? Pride, and pride
+only--What our earthly gifts and graces? Pride and vanity. Voyagers
+speak of Indian men who deck themselves with shells, and anoint
+themselves with pigments, and boast of their attire as we do of our
+miserable carnal advantages--Pride could draw down the morning-star from
+Heaven even to the verge of the pit--Pride and self-opinion kindled the
+flaming sword which waves us off from Paradise--Pride made Adam mortal,
+and a weary wanderer on the face of the earth, which he had else been at
+this day the immortal lord of--Pride brought amongst us sin, and doubles
+every sin it has brought. It is the outpost which the devil and the
+flesh most stubbornly maintain against the assaults of grace; and until
+it be subdued, and its barriers levelled with the very earth, there is
+more hope of a fool than of the sinner. Rend, then, from your bosoms
+this accursed shoot of the fatal apple; tear it up by the roots, though
+it be twisted with the chords of your life. Profit by the example of the
+miserable sinner that has passed from us, and embrace the means of
+grace while it is called to-day 'ere your conscience is seared as with
+a fire-brand, and your ears deafened like those of the adder, and
+your heart hardened like the nether mill-stone. Up, then, and be
+doing--wrestle and overcome; resist, and the enemy shall flee from
+you--Watch and pray, lest ye fall into temptation, and let the stumbling
+of others be your warning and your example. Above all, rely not on
+yourselves, for such self-confidence is even the worst symptom of the
+disorder itself. The Pharisee, perhaps, deemed himself humble while he
+stooped in the Temple, and thanked God that he was not as other men, and
+even as the publican. But while his knees touched the marble pavement,
+his head was as high as the topmost pinnacle of the Temple. Do not,
+therefore, deceive yourselves, and offer false coin, where the purest
+you can present is but as dross--think not that such--will pass the
+assay of Omnipotent Wisdom. Yet shrink not from the task, because, as
+is my bounden duty, I do not disguise from you its difficulties.
+Self-searching can do much--Meditation can do much--Grace can do all."
+
+And he concluded with a touching and animating exhortation to his
+hearers to seek divine grace, which is perfected in human wakness.
+
+The audience did not listen to this address without being considerably
+affected; though it might be doubted whether the feelings of triumph,
+excited by the disgraceful retreat of the favourite page, did not
+greatly qualify in the minds of many the exhortations of the preacher
+to charity and to humility. And, in fact, the expression of their
+countenances much resembled the satisfied triumphant air of a set of
+children, who, having just seen a companion punished for a fault in
+which they had no share, con their task with double glee, both because
+they themselves are out of the scrape, and because the culprit is in it.
+
+With very different feelings did the Lady of Avenel seek her own
+apartment. She felt angry at Warden having made a domestic matter,
+in which she took a personal interest, the subject of such public
+discussion. But this she knew the good man claimed as a branch of his
+Christian liberty as a preacher, and also that it was vindicated by the
+universal custom of his brethren. But the self-willed conduct of her
+protege afforded her yet deeper concern. That he had broken through in
+so remarkable a degree, not only the respect due to her presence, but
+that which was paid to religious admonition in those days with such
+peculiar reverence, argued a spirit as untameable as his enemies had
+represented him to possess. And yet so far as he had been under her own
+eye, she had seen no more of that fiery spirit than appeared to her to
+become his years and his vivacity. This opinion might be founded in
+some degree on partiality; in some degree, too, it might be owing to the
+kindness and indulgence which she had always extended to him; but still
+she thought it impossible that she could be totally mistaken in the
+estimate she had formed of his character. The extreme of violence is
+scarce consistent with a course of continued hypocrisy, (although Lilias
+charitably hinted, that in some instances they were happily united,) and
+there fore she could not exactly trust the report of others against her
+own experience and observation. The thoughts of this orphan boy clung
+to her heartstrings with a fondness for which she herself was unable to
+account. He seemed to have been sent to her by Heaven, to fill up those
+intervals of languor and vacuity which deprived her of much enjoyment.
+Perhaps he was not less dear to her, because she well saw that he was
+a favourite with no one else, and because she felt, that to give him up
+was to afford the judgment of her husband and others a triumph over
+her own; a circumstance not quite indifferent to the best of spouses of
+either sex.
+
+In short, the Lady of Avenel formed the internal resolution, that she
+would not desert her page while her page could be rationally protected;
+and, with a view of ascertaining how far this might be done, she caused
+him to be summoned to her presence.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fifth.
+
+
+  --In the wild storm,
+  The seaman hews his mast down, and the merchant
+  Heaves to the billows wares he once deem'd precious;
+  So prince and peer, 'mid popular contentions,
+  Cast off their favourites.
+                                  OLD PLAY.
+
+It was some time ere Roland Graeme appeared. The messenger (his old
+friend Lilias) had at first attempted to open the door of his little
+apartment with the charitable purpose, doubtless, of enjoying the
+confusion, and marking the demeanour of the culprit. But an oblong bit
+of iron, ycleped a bolt, was passed across the door on the inside, and
+prevented her benign intentions. Lilias knocked and called at intervals.
+"Roland--Roland Graeme--_Master_ Roland Graeme" (an emphasis on the word
+Master,) "will you be pleased to undo the door?--What ails you?--are
+you at your prayers in private, to complete the devotion which you left
+unfinished in public?--Surely we must have a screened seat for you in
+the chapel, that your gentility may be free from the eyes of common
+folks!" Still no whisper was heard in reply. "Well, master Roland," said
+the waiting-maid, "I must tell my mistress, that if she would have an
+answer, she must either come herself, or send those on errand to you who
+can beat the door down."
+
+"What says your Lady?" answered the page from within.
+
+"Marry, open the door, and you shall hear," answered the waiting-maid.
+"I trow it becomes my Lady's message to be listened to face to face; and
+I will not for your idle pleasure, whistle it through a key-hole."
+
+"Your mistress's name," said the page, opening the door, "is too fair a
+cover for your impertinence--What says my Lady?"
+
+"That you will be pleased to come to her directly, in the
+withdrawing-room," answered Lilias. "I presume she has some directions
+for you concerning the forms to be observed in leaving chapel in
+future."
+
+"Say to my Lady, that I will directly wait on her," answered the page;
+and returning into his apartment, he once more locked the door in the
+face of the waiting-maid.
+
+"Rare courtesy!" muttered Lilias; and, returning to her mistress,
+acquainted her that Roland Graeme would wait on her when it suited his
+convenience.
+
+"What, is that his addition, or your own phrase, Lilias?" said the Lady,
+coolly.
+
+"Nay, madam," replied the attendant, not directly answering the
+question, "he looked as if he could have said much more impertinent
+things than that, if I had been willing to hear them.--But here he comes
+to answer for himself."
+
+Roland Graeme entered the apartment with a loftier mien, and somewhat a
+higher colour than his wont; there was embarrassment in his manner, but
+it was neither that of fear nor of penitence.
+
+"Young man," said the Lady, "what trow you I am to think of your conduct
+this day?"
+
+"If it has offended you, madam, I am deeply grieved," replied the youth.
+
+"To have offended me alone," replied the Lady, "were but little--You
+have been guilty of conduct which will highly offend your master--of
+violence to your fellow-servants, and of disrespect to God himself, in
+the person of his ambassador."
+
+"Permit me again to reply," said the page, "that if I have offended
+my only mistress, friend, and benefactress, it includes the sum of my
+guilt, and deserves the sum of my penitence--Sir Halbert Glendinning
+calls me not servant, nor do I call him master--he is not entitled to
+blame me for chastising an insolent groom--nor do I fear the wrath
+of Heaven for treating with scorn the unauthorized interference of a
+meddling preacher."
+
+The Lady of Avenel had before this seen symptoms in her favourite of
+boyish petulance, and of impatience of censure or reproof. But his
+present demeanour was of a graver and more determined character, and she
+was for a moment at a loss how she should treat the youth, who seemed to
+have at once assumed the character not only of a man, but of a bold and
+determined one. She paused an instant, and then assuming the dignity
+which was natural to her, she said, "Is it to me, Roland, that you hold
+this language? Is it for the purpose of making me repent the favour I
+have shown you, that you declare yourself independent both of an earthly
+and a Heavenly master? Have you forgotten what you were, and to what the
+loss of my protection would speedily again reduce you?"
+
+"Lady," said the page, "I have forgot nothing, I remember but too much.
+I know, that but for you, I should have perished in yon blue waves,"
+pointing, as he spoke, to the lake, which was seen through the
+window, agitated by the western wind. "Your goodness has gone farther,
+madam--you have protected me against the malice of others, and against
+my own folly. You are free, if you are willing, to abandon the orphan
+you have reared. You have left nothing undone by him, and he complains
+of nothing. And yet, Lady, do not think I have been ungrateful--I have
+endured something on my part, which I would have borne for the sake of
+no one but my benefactress."
+
+"For my sake!" said the Lady; "and what is it that I can have subjected
+you to endure, which can be remembered with other feelings than those of
+thanks and gratitude?"
+
+"You are too just, madam, to require me to be thankful for the cold
+neglect with which your husband has uniformly treated me--neglect not
+unmingled with fixed aversion. You are too just, madam, to require me
+to be grateful for the constant and unceasing marks of scorn and
+malevolence with which I have been treated by others, or for such a
+homily as that with which your reverend chaplain has, at my expense,
+this very day regaled the assembled household."
+
+"Heard mortal ears the like of this!" said the waiting-maid, with her
+hands expanded and her eyes turned up to heaven; "he speaks as if he
+were son of an earl, or of a belted knight the least penny!"
+
+The page glanced on her a look of supreme contempt, but vouchsafed
+no other answer. His mistress, who began to feel herself seriously
+offended, and yet sorry for the youth's folly, took up the same tone.
+
+"Indeed, Roland, you forget yourself so strangely," said she, "that you
+will tempt me to take serious measures to lower you in your own opinion
+by reducing you to your proper station in society."
+
+"And that," added Lilias, "would be best done by turning him out the
+same beggar's brat that your ladyship took him in."
+
+"Lilias speaks too rudely," continued the Lady, "but she has spoken the
+truth, young man; nor do I think I ought to spare that pride which
+hath so completely turned your head. You have been tricked up with fine
+garments, and treated like the son of a gentleman, until you have forgot
+the fountain of your churlish blood."
+
+"Craving your pardon, most honourable madam, Lilias hath _not_ spoken
+truth, nor does your ladyship know aught of my descent, which should
+entitle you to treat it with such decided scorn. I am no beggar's
+brat--my grandmother begged from no one, here nor elsewhere--she would
+have perished sooner on the bare moor. We were harried out and driven
+from our home--a chance which has happed elsewhere, and to others.
+Avenel Castle, with its lake and its towers, was not at all times able
+to protect its inhabitants from want and desolation."
+
+"Hear but his assurance!" said Lilias, "he upbraids my Lady with the
+distresses of her family!"
+
+"It had indeed been a theme more gratefully spared," said the Lady,
+affected nevertheless with the allusion.
+
+"It was necessary, madam, for my vindication," said the page, "or I
+had not even hinted at a word that might give you pain. But believe,
+honoured Lady, I am of no churl's blood. My proper descent I know not;
+but my only relation has said, and my heart has echoed it back and
+attested the truth, that I am sprung of gentle blood, and deserve gentle
+usage."
+
+"And upon an assurance so vague as this," said the Lady, "do you propose
+to expect all the regard, all the privileges, befitting high rank and
+distinguished birth, and become a contender for concessions which are
+only due to the noble? Go to, sir, know yourself, or the master of
+the household shall make you know you are liable to the scourge as a
+malapert boy. You have tasted too little the discipline fit for your age
+and station."
+
+"The master of the household shall taste of my dagger, ere I taste of
+his discipline," said the page, giving way to his restrained passion.
+"Lady, I have been too long the vassal of a pantoufle, and the slave
+of a silver whistle. You must henceforth find some other to answer your
+call; and let him be of birth and spirit mean enough to brook the scorn
+of your menials, and to call a church vassal his master."
+
+"I have deserved this insult," said the Lady, colouring deeply, "for
+so long enduring and fostering your petulance. Begone, sir. Leave this
+castle to-night--I will send you the means of subsistence till you find
+some honest mode of support, though I fear your imaginary grandeur will
+be above all others, save those of rapine and violence. Begone, sir, and
+see my face no more."
+
+The page threw himself at her feet in an agony of sorrow. "My dear
+and honoured mistress," he said, but was unable to bring out another
+syllable.
+
+"Arise, sir," said the Lady, "and let go my mantle--hypocrisy is a poor
+cloak for ingratitude."
+
+"I am incapable of either, madam," said the page, springing up with the
+hasty start of passion which belonged to his rapid and impetuous temper.
+"Think not I meant to implore permission to reside here; it has been
+long my determination to leave Avenel, and I will never forgive myself
+for having permitted you to say the word begone, ere I said, 'I leave
+you.' I did but kneel to ask your forgiveness for an ill-considered word
+used in the height of displeasure, but which ill became my mouth,
+as addressed to you. Other grace I asked not--you have done much for
+me--but I repeat, that you better know what you yourself have done, than
+what I have suffered."
+
+"Roland," said the Lady, somewhat appeased, and relenting towards her
+favourite, "you had me to appeal to when you were aggrieved. You were
+neither called upon to suffer wrong, nor entitled to resent it, when you
+were under my protection."
+
+"And what," said the youth, "if I sustained wrong from those you loved
+and favoured, was I to disturb your peace with idle tale-bearings and
+eternal complaints? No, madam; I have borne my own burden in silence,
+and without disturbing you with murmurs; and the respect with which
+you accuse me of wanting, furnishes the only reason why I have neither
+appealed to you, nor taken vengeance at my own hand in a manner far more
+effectual. It is well, however, that we part. I was not born to be a
+stipendiary, favoured by his mistress, until ruined by the calumnies
+of others. May Heaven multiply its choicest blessings on your honoured
+head; and, for your sake, upon all that are dear to you!"
+
+He was about to leave the apartment, when the Lady called upon him to
+return. He stood still, while she thus addressed him: "It was not my
+intention, nor would it be just, even in the height of my displeasure,
+to dismiss you without the means of support; take this purse of gold."
+
+"Forgive me, Lady," said the boy, "and let me go hence with the
+consciousness that I have not been degraded to the point of accepting
+alms. If my poor services can be placed against the expense of my
+apparel and my maintenance, I only remain debtor to you for my life, and
+that alone is a debt which I can never repay; put up then that purse,
+and only say, instead, that you do not part from me in anger."
+
+"No, not in anger," said the Lady, "in sorrow rather for your
+wilfulness; but take the gold, you cannot but need it."
+
+"May God evermore bless you for the kind tone and the kind word! but the
+gold I cannot take. I am able of body, and do not lack friends so wholly
+as you may think; for the time may come that I may yet show myself more
+thankful than by mere words." He threw himself on his knees, kissed the
+hand which she did not withdraw, and then, hastily left the apartment.
+
+Lilias, for a moment or two, kept her eye fixed on her mistress, who
+looked so unusually pale, that she seemed about to faint; but the Lady
+instantly recovered herself, and declining the assistance which her
+attendant offered her, walked to her own apartment.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Sixth.
+
+
+  Thou hast each secret of the household, Francis.
+  I dare be sworn thou hast been in the buttery,
+  Steeping thy curious humour in fat ale,
+  And in thy butler's tattle--ay, or chatting
+  With the glib waiting-woman o'er her comfits--
+  These bear the key to each domestic mystery.
+                                  OLD PLAY.
+
+Upon the morrow succeeding the scene we have described, the disgraced
+favourite left the castle; and at breakfast-time the cautious old
+steward and Mrs. Lilias sat in the apartment of the latter personage,
+holding grave converse on the important event of the day, sweetened by a
+small treat of comfits, to which the providence of Mr. Wingate had added
+a little flask of racy canary.
+
+"He is gone at last," said the abigail, sipping her glass; "and here is
+to his good journey."
+
+"Amen," answered the steward, gravely; "I wish the poor deserted lad no
+ill."
+
+"And he is gone like a wild-duck, as he came," continued Mrs. Lilias;
+"no lowering of drawbridges, or pacing along causeways, for him. My
+master has pushed off in the boat which they call the little Herod,
+(more shame to them for giving the name of a Christian to wood and
+iron,) and has rowed himself by himself to the farther side of the loch,
+and off and away with himself, and left all his finery strewed about his
+room. I wonder who is to clean his trumpery out after him--though the
+things are worth lifting, too."
+
+"Doubtless, Mistress Lilias," answered the master of the household,
+"in the which case, I am free to think, they will not long cumber the
+floor."
+
+"And now tell me, Master Wingate," continued the damsel, "do not the
+very cockles of your heart rejoice at the house being rid of this
+upstart whelp, that flung us all into shadow?"
+
+"Why, Mistress Lilias," replied Wingate, "as to rejoicing--those who
+have lived as long in great families as has been my lot, will be in no
+hurry to rejoice at any thing. And for Roland Graeme, though he may be a
+good riddance in the main, yet what says the very sooth proverb, 'Seldom
+comes a better.'"
+
+"Seldom comes a better, indeed!" echoed Mrs. Lilias. "I say, never can
+come a worse, or one half so bad. He might have been the ruin of our
+poor dear mistress," (here she used her kerchief,) "body and soul, and
+estate too; for she spent more coin on his apparel than on any four
+servants about the house."
+
+"Mistress Lilias," said the sage steward, "I do opine that our mistress
+requireth not this pity at your hands, being in all respects competent
+to take care of her own body, soul, and estate into the bargain."
+
+"You would not mayhap have said so," answered the waiting-woman, "had
+you seen how like Lot's wife she looked when young master took his
+leave. My mistress is a good lady, and a virtuous, and a well-doing
+lady, and a well-spoken of--but I would not Sir Halbert had seen her
+last evening for two and a plack."
+
+"Oh, foy! foy! foy!" reiterated the steward; "servants should hear and
+see, and say nothing. Besides that, my lady is utterly devoted to Sir
+Halbert, as well she may, being, as he is, the most renowned knight in
+these parts."
+
+"Well, well," said the abigail, "I mean no more harm; but they that seek
+least renown abroad, are most apt to find quiet at home, that's all; and
+my Lady's lonesome situation is to be considered, that made her fain to
+take up with the first beggar's brat that a dog brought her out of the
+loch."
+
+"And, therefore," said the steward, "I say, rejoice not too much, or too
+hastily, Mistress Lilias; for if your Lady wished a favourite to pass
+away the time, depend upon it, the time will not pass lighter now that
+he is gone. So she will have another favourite to choose for herself;
+and be assured, if she wishes such a toy, she will not lack one."
+
+"And where should she choose one, but among her own tried and faithful
+servants," said Mrs. Lilias, "who have broken her bread, and drunk her
+drink, for so many years? I have known many a lady as high as she is,
+that never thought either of a friend or favourite beyond their own
+waiting-woman--always having a proper respect, at the same time, for
+their old and faithful master of the household, Master Wingate."
+
+"Truly, Mistress Lilias," replied the steward, "I do partly see the mark
+at which you shoot, but I doubt your bolt will fall short. Matters
+being with our Lady as it likes you to suppose, it will neither be your
+crimped pinners, Mrs. Lilias, (speaking of them with due respect,) nor
+my silver hair, or golden chain, that will fill up the void which Roland
+Graeme must needs leave in our Lady's leisure. There will be a learned
+young divine with some new doctrine--a learned leech with some new
+drug--a bold cavalier, who will not be refused the favour of wearing her
+colours at a running at the ring--a cunning harper that could harp the
+heart out of woman's breast, as they say Signer David Rizzio did to
+our poor Queen;--these are the sort of folk who supply the loss of
+a well-favoured favourite, and not an old steward, or a middle-aged
+waiting-woman."
+
+"Well," replied Lilias, "you have experience, Master Wingate, and truly
+I would my master would leave off his picking hither and thither,
+and look better after the affairs of his household. There will be a
+papestrie among us next, for what should I see among master's clothes
+but a string of gold beads! I promise you, _aves_ and _credos_ both!--I
+seized on them like a falcon."
+
+"I doubt it not, I doubt it not," said the steward, sagaciously nodding
+his head; "I have often noticed that the boy had strange observances
+which savoured of popery, and that he was very jealous to conceal them.
+But you will find the Catholic under the Presbyterian cloak as often as
+the knave under the Friar's hood--what then? we are all mortal--Right
+proper beads they are," he added, looking attentively at them, "and may
+weigh four ounces of fine gold."
+
+"And I will have them melted down presently," she said, "before they be
+the misguiding of some poor blinded soul."
+
+"Very cautious, indeed, Mistress Lilias," said the steward, nodding his
+head in assent.
+
+"I will have them made," said Mrs. Lilias, "into a pair of shoe-buckles;
+I would not wear the Pope's trinkets, or whatever has once borne the
+shape of them, one inch above my instep, were they diamonds instead
+of gold.--But this is what has come of Father Ambrose coming about the
+castle, as demure as a cat that is about to steal cream."
+
+"Father Ambrose is our master's brother," said the steward gravely.
+
+"Very true, Master Wingate," answered the Dame; "but is that a good
+reason why he should pervert the king's liege subjects to papistrie?"
+
+"Heaven forbid, Mistress Lilias," answered the sententious major-domo;
+"but yet there are worse folk than the Papists."
+
+"I wonder where they are to be found," said the waiting-woman, with some
+asperity; "but I believe, Master Wingate, if one were to speak to you
+about the devil himself, you would say there were worse people than
+Satan."
+
+"Assuredly I might say so," replied the steward, "supposing that I saw
+Satan standing at my elbow."
+
+The waiting-woman started, and having exclaimed, "God bless us!" added,
+"I wonder, Master Wingate, you can take pleasure in frightening one
+thus."
+
+"Nay, Mistress Lilias, I had no such purpose," was the reply; "but look
+you here--the Papists are but put down for the present, but who knows
+how long this word _present_ will last? There are two great Popish earls
+in the north of England, that abominate the very word reformation; I
+mean the Northumberland and Westmoreland Earls, men of power enough to
+shake any throne in Christendom. Then, though our Scottish king be,
+God bless him, a true Protestant, yet he is but a boy; and here is his
+mother that was our queen--I trust there is no harm to say, God bless
+her too--and she is a Catholic; and many begin to think she has had but
+hard measure, such as the Hamiltons in the west, and some of our Border
+clans here, and the Gordons in the north, who are all wishing to see a
+new world; and if such a new world should chance to come up, it is like
+that the Queen will take back her own crown, and that the mass and the
+cross will come up, and then down go pulpits, Geneva-gowns, and black
+silk skull-caps."
+
+"And have you, Master Jasper Wingate, who have heard the word, and
+listened unto pure and precious Mr. Henry Warden, have you, I say, the
+patience to speak, or but to think, of popery coming down on us like a
+storm, or of the woman Mary again making the royal seat of Scotland a
+throne of abomination? No marvel that you are so civil to the cowled
+monk, Father Ambrose, when he comes hither with his downcast eyes that
+he never raises to my Lady's face, and with his low sweet-toned voice,
+and his benedicites, and his benisons; and who so ready to take them
+kindly as Master Wingate?"
+
+"Mistress Lilias," replied the butler, with an air which was intended
+to close the debate, "there are reasons for all things. If I received
+Father Ambrose debonairly, and suffered him to steal a word now and
+then with this same Roland Graeme, it was not that I cared a brass
+bodle for his benison or malison either, but only because I respected
+my master's blood. And who can answer, if Mary come in again, whether he
+may not be as stout a tree to lean to as ever his brother hath proved
+to us? For down goes the Earl of Murray when the Queen comes by her
+own again; and good is his luck if he can keep the head on his own
+shoulders. And down goes our Knight, with the Earl, his patron; and who
+so like to mount into his empty saddle as this same Father Ambrose? The
+Pope of Rome can so soon dispense with his vows, and then we should have
+Sir Edward the soldier, instead of Ambrose the priest."
+
+Anger and astonishment kept Mrs. Lilias silent,--while her old friend,
+in his self-complacent manner, was making known to her his political
+speculations. At length her resentment found utterance in words of
+great ire and scorn. "What, Master Wingate! have you eaten my mistress's
+bread, to say nothing of my master's, so many years, that you could live
+to think of her being dispossessed of her own Castle of Avenel, by a
+wretched monk, who is not a drop's blood to her in the way of relation?
+I, that am but a woman, would try first whether my rock or his cowl was
+the better metal. Shame on you, Master Wingate! I If I had not held
+you as so old an acquaintance, this should have gone to my Lady's ears
+though I had been called pickthank and tale-pyet for my pains, as when I
+told of Roland Graeme shooting the wild swan."
+
+Master Wingate was somewhat dismayed at perceiving, that the details
+which he had given of his far-sighted political views had produced on
+his hearer rather suspicion of his fidelity, than admiration of his
+wisdom, and endeavoured, as hastily as possible, to apologize and to
+explain, although internally extremely offended at the unreasonable
+view, as he deemed it, which it had pleased Mistress Lilias
+Bradbourne to take of his expressions; and mentally convinced that her
+disapprobation of his sentiments arose solely out of the consideration,
+that though Father Ambrose, supposing him to become the master of the
+castle, would certainly require the services of a steward, yet those
+of a waiting-woman would, in the supposed circumstances, be altogether
+superfluous.
+
+After his explanation had been received as explanations usually are, the
+two friends separated; Lilias to attend the silver whistle which called
+her to her mistress's chamber, and the sapient major-domo to the duties
+of his own department. They parted with less than their usual degree of
+reverence and regard; for the steward felt that his worldly wisdom was
+rebuked by the more disinterested attachment of the waiting-woman, and
+Mistress Lilias Bradbourne was compelled to consider her old friend as
+something little better than a time-server.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Seventh.
+
+
+  When I hae a saxpence under my thumb,
+  Then I get credit in ilka town;
+  But when I am puir they bid me gae by--
+  Oh, poverty parts good company!
+                         OLD SONG.
+
+While the departure of the page afforded subject for the conversation
+which we have detailed in our last chapter, the late favourite was far
+advanced on his solitary journey, without well knowing what was its
+object, or what was likely to be its end. He had rowed the skiff in
+which he left the castle, to the side of the lake most distant from the
+village, with the desire of escaping from the notice of the inhabitants.
+His pride whispered, that he would be in his discarded state, only the
+subject of their wonder and compassion; and his generosity told him,
+that any mark of sympathy which his situation should excite, might be
+unfavourably reported at the castle. A trifling incident convinced him
+he had little to fear for his friends on the latter score. He was met by
+a young man some years older than himself, who had on former occasions
+been but too happy to be permitted to share in his sports in the
+subordinate character of his assistant. Ralph Fisher approached to greet
+him, with all the alacrity of an humble friend.
+
+"What, Master Roland, abroad on this side, and without either hawk or
+hound?"
+
+"Hawk or hound," said Roland, "I will never perhaps hollo to again. I
+have been dismissed--that is, I have left the castle."
+
+Ralph was surprised. "What! you are to pass into the Knight's service,
+and take the black jack and the lance?"
+
+"Indeed," replied Roland Graeme, "I am not--I am now leaving the service
+of Avenel for ever."
+
+"And whither are you going, then?" said the young peasant.
+
+"Nay, that is a question which it craves time to answer--I have that
+matter to determine yet," replied the disgraced favourite.
+
+"Nay, nay," said Ralph, "I warrant you it is the same to you which way
+you go--my Lady would not dismiss you till she had put some lining into
+the pouches of your doublet."
+
+"Sordid slave!" said Roland Graeme, "dost thou think I would have
+accepted a boon from one who was giving me over a prey to detraction
+and to ruin, at the instigation of a canting priest and a meddling
+serving-woman? The bread that I had bought with such an alms would have
+choked me at the first mouthful."
+
+Ralph looked at his quondam friend with an air of wonder not
+unmixed with contempt. "Well," he said, at length, "no occasion for
+passion--each man knows his own stomach best--but, were I on a black
+moor at this time of day, not knowing whither I was going, I should
+be glad to have a broad piece or two in my pouch, come by them as I
+could.--But perhaps you will go with me to my father's--that is, for a
+night, for to-morrow we expect my uncle Menelaus and all his folk; but,
+as I said, for one night----"
+
+The cold-blooded limitation of the offered shelter to one night only,
+and that tendered most unwillingly, offended the pride of the discarded
+favourite.
+
+"I would rather sleep on the fresh heather, as I have done many a night
+on less occasion," said Roland Graeme, "than in the smoky garret of your
+father, that smells of peat smoke and usquebaugh like a Highlander's
+plaid."
+
+"You may choose, my master, if you are so nice," replied Ralph Fisher;
+"you may be glad to smell a peat-fire, and usquebaugh too, if you
+journey long in the fashion you propose. You might have said God-a-mercy
+for your proffer, though--it is not every one that will put themselves
+in the way of ill-will by harbouring a discarded serving-man."
+
+"Ralph," said Roland Graeme, "I would pray you to remember that I have
+switched you before now, and this is the same riding-wand which you have
+tasted."
+
+Ralph, who was a thickset clownish figure, arrived at his full strength,
+and conscious of the most complete personal superiority, laughed
+contemptuously at the threats of the slight-made stripling.
+
+"It may be the same wand," he said, "but not the same hand; and that is
+as good rhyme as if it were in a ballad. Look you, my Lady's page
+that was, when your switch was up, it was no fear of you, but of
+your betters, that kept mine down--and I wot not what hinders me from
+clearing old scores with this hazel rung, and showing you it was your
+Lady's livery-coat which I spared, and not your flesh and blood, Master
+Roland."
+
+In the midst of his rage, Roland Graeme was just wise enough to see,
+that by continuing this altercation, he would subject himself to very
+rude treatment from the boor, who was so much older and stronger than
+himself; and while his antagonist, with a sort of jeering laugh of
+defiance, seemed to provoke the contest, he felt the full bitterness of
+his own degraded condition, and burst into a passion of tears, which he
+in vain endeavoured to conceal with both his hands.
+
+Even the rough churl was moved with the distress of his quondam
+companion.
+
+"Nay, Master Roland," he said, "I did but as 'twere jest with thee--I
+would not harm thee, man, were it but for old acquaintance sake. But
+ever look to a man's inches ere you talk of switching--why, thine arm,
+man, is but like a spindle compared to mine.--But hark, I hear old Adam
+Woodcock hollowing to his hawk--Come along, man, we will have a merry
+afternoon, and go jollily to my father's in spite of the peat-smoke and
+usquebaugh to boot. Maybe we may put you into some honest way of winning
+your bread, though it's hard to come by in these broken times."
+
+The unfortunate page made no answer, nor did he withdraw his hands from
+his face, and Fisher continued in what he imagined a suitable tone of
+comfort.
+
+"Why, man, when you were my Lady's minion, men held you proud, and some
+thought you a Papist, and I wot not what; and so, now that you have no
+one to bear you out, you must be companionable and hearty, and wait on
+the minister's examinations, and put these things out of folk's head;
+and if he says you are in fault, you must jouk your head to the stream;
+and if a gentleman, or a gentleman's gentleman, give you a rough word,
+or a light blow, you must only say, thank you for dusting my doublet, or
+the like, as I have done by you.--But hark to Woodcock's whistle again.
+Come, and I will teach you all the trick on't as we go on."
+
+"I thank you," said Roland Graeme, endeavouring to assume an air of
+indifference and of superiority; "but I have another path before me, and
+were it otherwise, I could not tread in yours."
+
+"Very true, Master Roland," replied the clown; "and every man knows his
+own matters best, and so I will not keep you from the path, as you say.
+Give us a grip of your hand, man, for auld lang syne.--What! not clap
+palms ere we part?--well, so be it--a wilful man will have his way, and
+so farewell, and the blessing of the morning to you."
+
+"Good-morrow--good-morrow," said Roland, hastily; and the clown walked
+lightly off, whistling as he went, and glad, apparently, to be rid of an
+acquaintance, whose claims might be troublesome, and who had no longer
+the means to be serviceable to him.
+
+Roland Graeme compelled himself to walk on while they were within sight
+of each other that his former intimate might not augur any vacillation
+of purpose, or uncertainty of object, from his remaining on the same
+spot; but the effort was a painful one. He seemed stunned, as it were,
+and giddy; the earth on which he stood felt as if unsound, and quaking
+under his feet like the surface of a bog; and he had once or twice
+nearly fallen, though the path he trode was of firm greensward. He kept
+resolutely moving forward, in spite of the internal agitation to which
+these symptoms belonged, until the distant form of his acquaintance
+disappeared behind the slope of a hill, when his heart failed at once;
+and, sitting down on the turf, remote from human ken, he gave way to
+the natural expressions of wounded pride, grief, and fear, and wept with
+unrestrained profusion and unqualified bitterness.
+
+When the first violent paroxysm of his feelings had subsided, the
+deserted and friendless youth felt that mental relief which usually
+follows such discharges of sorrow. The tears continued to chase each
+other down his cheeks, but they were no longer accompanied by the same
+sense of desolation; an afflicting yet milder sentiment was awakened
+in his mind, by the recollection of his benefactress, of the unwearied
+kindness which had attached her to him, in spite of many acts of
+provoking petulance, now recollected as offences of a deep dye, which
+had protected him against the machinations of others, as well as against
+the consequences of his own folly, and would have continued to do so,
+had not the excess of his presumption compelled her to withdraw her
+protection.
+
+"Whatever indignity I have borne," he said, "has been the just reward of
+my own ingratitude. And have I done well to accept the hospitality, the
+more than maternal kindness, of my protectress, yet to detain from her
+the knowledge of my religion?--but she shall know that a Catholic has
+as much gratitude as a Puritan--that I have been thoughtless, but not
+wicked--that in my wildest moments I have loved, respected, and honoured
+her--and that the orphan boy might indeed be heedless, but was never
+ungrateful!"
+
+He turned, as these thoughts passed through his mind, and began hastily
+to retread his footsteps towards the castle. But he checked the first
+eagerness of his repentant haste, when he reflected on the scorn and
+contempt with which the family were likely to see the return of
+the fugitive, humbled, as they must necessarily suppose him, into a
+supplicant, who requested pardon for his fault, and permission to return
+to his service. He slackened his pace, but he stood not still.
+
+"I care not," he resolutely determined; "let them wink, point, nod,
+sneer, speak of the conceit which is humbled, of the pride which has had
+a fall--I care not; it is a penance due to my folly, and I will endure
+it with patience. But if she also, my benefactress, if she also should
+think me sordid and weak-spirited enough to beg, not for her pardon
+alone, but for a renewal of the advantages which I derived from her
+favour--_her_ suspicion of my meanness I cannot--I will not brook."
+
+He stood still, and his pride rallying with constitutional obstinacy
+against his more just feeling, urged that he would incur the scorn of
+the Lady of Avenel, rather than obtain her favour, by following the
+course which the first ardour of his repentant feelings had dictated to
+him.
+
+"If I had but some plausible pretext," he thought, "some ostensible
+reason for my return, some excuse to allege which might show I came not
+as a degraded supplicant, or a discarded menial, I might go thither--but
+as I am, I cannot--my heart would leap from its place and burst."
+
+As these thoughts swept through his mind, something passed in the air
+so near him as to dazzle his eyes, and almost to brush the plume in his
+cap. He looked up--it was the favourite falcon of Sir Halbert, which,
+flying around his head, seemed to claim his attention, as that of a
+well-known friend. Roland extended his arm, and gave the accustomed
+whoop, and the falcon instantly settled on his wrist, and began to prune
+itself, glancing at the youth from time to time an acute and brilliant
+beam of its hazel eye, which seemed to ask why he caressed it not with
+his usual fondness.
+
+"Ah, Diamond!" he said, as if the bird understood him, "thou and I must
+be strangers henceforward. Many a gallant stoop have I seen thee make,
+and many a brave heron strike down; but that is all gone and over, and
+there is no hawking more for me!"
+
+"And why not, Master Roland," said Adam Woodcock the falconer, who came
+at that instant from behind a few alder bushes which had concealed him
+from view, "why should there be no more hawking for you? Why, man, what
+were our life without our sports?--thou know'st the jolly old song--
+
+  "And rather would Allan in dungeon lie,
+  Than live at large where the falcon cannot fly;
+  And Allan would rather lie in Sexton's pound,
+  Than live where he followed not the merry hawk and hound."
+
+The voice of the falconer was hearty and friendly, and the tone in which
+he half-sung half-recited his rude ballad, implied honest frankness
+and cordiality. But remembrance of their quarrel, and its consequences,
+embarrassed Roland, and prevented his reply. The falconer saw his
+hesitation, and guessed the cause.
+
+"What now," said he, "Master Roland? do you, who are half an Englishman,
+think that I, who am a whole one, would keep up anger against you,
+and you in distress? That were like some of the Scots, (my master's
+reverence always excepted,) who can be fair and false, and wait their
+time, and keep their mind, as they say, to themselves, and touch pot and
+flagon with you, and hunt and hawk with you, and, after all, when
+time serves, pay off some old feud with the point of the dagger. Canny
+Yorkshire has no memory for such old sores. Why, man, an you had hit me
+a rough blow, maybe I would rather have taken it from you, than a rough
+word from another; for you have a good notion of falconry, though you
+stand up for washing the meat for the eyases. So give us your hand, man,
+and bear no malice."
+
+Roland, though he felt his proud blood rebel at the familiarity of
+honest Adam's address, could not resist its downright frankness.
+Covering his face with the one hand, he held out the other to the
+falconer, and returned with readiness his friendly grasp.
+
+"Why, this is hearty now," said Woodcock; "I always said you had a kind
+heart, though you have a spice of the devil in your disposition, that is
+certain. I came this way with the falcon on purpose to find you, and yon
+half-bred lubbard told me which way you took flight. You ever thought
+too much of that kestril-kite, Master Roland, and he knows nought of
+sport after all, but what he caught from you. I saw how it had been
+betwixt you, and I sent him out of my company with a wanion--I would
+rather have a rifler on my perch than a false knave at my elbow--and
+now, Master Roland, tell me what way wing ye?"
+
+"That is as God pleases," replied the page, with a sigh which he could
+not suppress.
+
+"Nay, man, never droop a feather for being cast off," said the falconer;
+"who knows but you may soar the better and fairer flight for all this
+yet?--Look at Diamond there, 'tis a noble bird, and shows gallantly
+with his hood, and bells, and jesses; but there is many a wild falcon
+in Norway that would not change properties with him--And that is what
+I would say of you. You are no longer my Lady's page, and you will
+not clothe so fair, or feed so well, or sleep so soft, or show so
+gallant--What of all that? if you are not her page, you are your own
+man, and may go where you will, without minding whoop or whistle. The
+worst is the loss of the sport, but who knows what you may come to? They
+say that Sir Halbert himself, I speak with reverence, was once glad to
+be the Abbot's forester, and now he has hounds and hawks of his own, and
+Adam Woodcock for a falconer to the boot."
+
+"You are right, and say well, Adam," answered the youth, the blood
+mantling in his cheeks, "the falcon will soar higher without his bells
+than with them, though the bells be made of silver."
+
+"That is cheerily spoken," replied the falconer; "and whither now?"
+
+"I thought of going to the Abbey of Kennaquhair," answered Roland
+Graeme, "to ask the counsel of Father Ambrose."
+
+"And joy go with you," said the falconer, "though it is likely you may
+find the old monks in some sorrow; they say the commons are threatening
+to turn them out of their cells, and make a devil's mass of it in the
+old church, thinking they have forborne that sport too long; and troth I
+am clear of the same opinion."
+
+"Then will Father Ambrose be the better of having a friend beside him!"
+said the page, manfully.
+
+"Ay, but, my young fearnought," replied the falconer, "the friend will
+scarce be the better of being beside Father Ambrose--he may come by the
+redder's lick, and that is ever the worst of the battle."
+
+"I care not for that," said the page, "the dread of a lick should not
+hold me back; but I fear I may bring trouble between the brothers by
+visiting Father Ambrose. I will tarry to-night at Saint Cuthbert's cell,
+where the old priest will give me a night's shelter; and I will send to
+Father Ambrose to ask his advice before I go down to the convent."
+
+"By Our Lady," said the falconer, "and that is a likely plan--and now,"
+he continued, exchanging his frankness of manner for a sort of awkward
+embarrassment, as if he had somewhat to say that he had no ready means
+to bring out--"and now, you wot well that I wear a pouch for my hawk's
+meat, [Footnote: This same hag, like every thing belonging to falconry,
+was esteemed an honourable distinction, and worn often by the nobility
+and gentry. One of the Sommervilles of Camnethan was called _Sir John
+with the red bag_, because it was his wont to wear his hawking pouch
+covered with satin of that colour.] and so forth; but wot you what it is
+lined with, Master Roland?"
+
+"With leather, to be sure," replied Roland, somewhat surprised at the
+hesitation with which Adam Woodcock asked a question apparently so
+simple.
+
+"With leather, lad?" said Woodcock; "ay, and with silver to the boot of
+that. See here," he said, showing a secret slit in the lining of his bag
+of office--"here they are, thirty good Harry groats as ever were struck
+in bluff old Hal's time, and ten of them are right heartily at your
+service; and now the murder is out."
+
+Roland's first idea was to refuse his assistance; but he recollected the
+vows of humility which he had just taken upon him, and it occurred that
+this was the opportunity to put his new-formed resolution to the test.
+Assuming a strong command of himself, he answered Adam Woodcock with as
+much frankness as his nature permitted him to wear, in doing what was
+so contrary to his inclinations, that he accepted thankfully of his
+kind offer, while, to soothe his own reviving pride, he could not help
+adding, "he hoped soon to requite the obligation."
+
+"That as you list--that as you list, young man," said the falconer, with
+glee, counting out and delivering to his young friend the supply he had
+so generously offered, and then adding, with great cheerfulness,--"Now
+you may go through the world; for he that can back a horse, wind a horn,
+hollow a greyhound, fly a hawk, and play at sword and buckler, with a
+whole pair of shoes, a green jacket, and ten lily-white groats in his
+pouch, may bid Father Care hang himself in his own jesses. Farewell, and
+God be with you!"
+
+So saying, and as if desirous to avoid the thanks of his companion,
+he turned hastily round, and left Roland Graeme to pursue his journey
+alone.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Eight.
+
+
+  The sacred tapers lights are gone.
+  Gray moss has clad the altar stone,
+  The holy image is o'erthrown,
+    The bell has ceased to toll,
+  The long ribb'd aisles are burst and shrunk,
+  The holy shrines to ruin sunk,
+  Departed is the pious monk,
+    God's blessing on his soul!
+                             REDIVIVA.
+
+The cell of Saint Cuthbert, as it was called, marked, or was supposed
+to mark, one of those resting-places, which that venerable saint was
+pleased to assign to his monks, when his convent, being driven from
+Lindisfern by the Danes, became a peripatetic society of religionists,
+and bearing their patron's body on their shoulders, transported him from
+place to place through Scotland and the borders of England, until he was
+pleased at length to spare them the pain of carrying him farther, and
+to choose his ultimate place of rest in the lordly towers of Durham.
+The odour of his sanctity remained behind him at each place where he had
+granted the monks a transient respite from their labours; and proud were
+those who could assign, as his temporary resting-place, any spot within
+their vicinity. There were few cells more celebrated and honoured
+than that of Saint Cuthbert, to which Roland Graeme now bent his
+way, situated considerably to the north-west of the great Abbey of
+Kennaquhair, on which it was dependent. In the neighbourhood were some
+of those recommendations which weighed with the experienced priesthood
+of Rome, in choosing their sites for places of religion.
+
+There was a well, possessed of some medicinal qualities, which, of
+course, claimed the saint for its guardian and patron, and occasionally
+produced some advantage to the recluse who inhabited his cell, since
+none could reasonably expect to benefit by the fountain who did not
+extend their bounty to the saint's chaplain. A few rods of fertile land
+afforded the monk his plot of garden ground; an eminence well clothed
+with trees rose behind the cell, and sheltered it from, the north and
+the east, while the front, opening to the south-west, looked up a wild
+but pleasant valley, down which wandered a lively brook, which battled
+with every stone that interrupted its passage.
+
+The cell itself was rather plainly than rudely constructed--a low Gothic
+building with two small apartments, one of which served the priest for
+his dwelling-place, the other for his chapel. As there were few of
+the secular clergy who durst venture to reside so near the Border, the
+assistance of this monk in spiritual affairs had not been useless to the
+community, while the Catholic religion retained the ascendancy; as he
+could marry, christen, and administer the other sacraments of the Roman
+church. Of late, however, as the Protestant doctrines gained ground, he
+had found it convenient to live in close retirement, and to avoid, as
+much as possible, drawing upon himself observation or animadversion. The
+appearance of his habitation, however, when Roland Graeme came before
+it in the close of the evening, plainly showed that his caution had been
+finally ineffectual.
+
+The page's first movement was to knock at the door, when he observed,
+to his surprise, that it was open, not from being left unlatched, but
+because, beat off its upper hinge, it was only fastened to the door-post
+by the lower, and could therefore no longer perform its functions.
+Somewhat alarmed at this, and receiving no answer when he knocked and
+called, Roland began to look more at leisure upon the exterior of the
+little dwelling before he ventured to enter it. The flowers, which had
+been trained with care against the walls, seemed to have been recently
+torn down, and trailed their dishonoured garlands on the earth; the
+latticed window was broken and dashed in. The garden, which the monk had
+maintained by his constant labour in the highest order and beauty, bore
+marks of having been lately trod down and destroyed by the hoofs of
+animals, and the feet of men.
+
+The sainted spring had not escaped. It was wont to rise beneath a canopy
+of ribbed arches, with which the devotion of elder times had secured
+and protected its healing waters. These arches were now almost entirely
+demolished, and the stones of which they were built were tumbled
+into the well, as if for the purpose of choking up and destroying the
+fountain, which, as it had shared in other days the honour of the saint,
+was, in the present, doomed to partake his unpopularity. Part of the
+roof had been pulled down from the house itself, and an attempt had
+been made with crows and levers upon one of the angles, by which several
+large corner-stones had been forced out of their place; but the solidity
+of ancient mason-work had proved too great for the time or patience of
+the assailants, and they had relinquished their task of destruction.
+Such dilapidated buildings, after the lapse of years, during which
+nature has gradually covered the effects of violence with creeping
+plants, and with weather-stains, exhibit, amid their decay, a melancholy
+beauty. But when the visible effects of violence appear raw and recent,
+there is no feeling to mitigate the sense of devastation with which they
+impress the spectators; and such was now the scene on which the youthful
+page gazed, with the painful feelings it was qualified to excite.
+
+When his first momentary surprise was over, Roland Graeme was at no loss
+to conjecture the cause of these ravages. The destruction of the
+Popish edifices did not take place at once throughout Scotland, but at
+different times, and according to the spirit which actuated the
+reformed clergy; some of whom instigated their hearers to these acts of
+demolition, and others, with better taste and feeling, endeavoured to
+protect the ancient shrines, while they desired to see them purified
+from the objects which had attracted idolatrous devotion. From time to
+time, therefore, the populace of the Scottish towns and villages,
+when instigated either by their own feelings of abhorrence for Popish
+superstition, or by the doctrines of the more zealous preachers, resumed
+the work of destruction, and exercised it upon some sequestered church,
+chapel, or cell, which had escaped the first burst of their indignation
+against the religion of Rome. In many places, the vices of the Catholic
+clergy, arising out of the wealth and the corruption of that tremendous
+hierarchy, furnished too good an apology for wreaking vengeance upon
+the splendid edifices which they inhabited; and of this an old Scottish
+historian gives a remarkable instance.
+
+"Why mourn ye," said an aged matron, seeing the discontent of some of
+the citizens, while a stately convent was burnt by the multitude,--"why
+mourn ye for its destruction? If you knew half the flagitious wickedness
+which has been perpetrated within that house, you would rather bless
+the divine judgment, which permits not even the senseless walls that
+screened such profligacy, any longer to cumber Christian ground."
+
+But although, in many instances, the destruction of the Roman Catholic
+buildings might be, in the matron's way of judging, an act of justice,
+and in others an act of policy, there is no doubt that the humour of
+demolishing monuments of ancient piety and munificence, and that in a
+poor country like Scotland, where there was no chance of their being
+replaced, was both useless, mischievous, and barbarous.
+
+In the present instance, the unpretending and quiet seclusion of the
+monk of Saint Cuthbert's had hitherto saved him from the general
+wreck; but it would seem ruin had now at length reached him. Anxious to
+discover if he had at least escaped personal harm, Roland Graeme entered
+the half ruined cell.
+
+The interior of the building was in a state which fully justified the
+opinion he had formed from its external injuries. The few rude utensils
+of the solitary's hut were broken down, and lay scattered on the floor,
+where it seemed as if a fire had been made with some of the fragments
+to destroy the rest of his property, and to consume, in particular, the
+rude old image of Saint Cuthbert, in its episcopal habit, which lay on
+the hearth like Dagon of yore, shattered with the axe and scorched with
+the flames, but only partially destroyed. In the little apartment which
+served as a chapel, the altar was overthrown, and the four huge stones
+of which it had been once composed lay scattered around the floor. The
+large stone crucifix which occupied the niche behind the altar, and
+fronted the supplicant while he paid his devotion there, had been pulled
+down and dashed by its own weight into three fragments. There were marks
+of sledge-hammers on each of these; yet the image had been saved from
+utter demolition by the size and strength of the remaining fragments,
+which, though much injured, retained enough of the original sculpture to
+show what it had been intended to represent.
+
+[Footnote: I may here observe, that this is entirely an ideal scene.
+Saint Cuthbert, a person of established sanctity, had, no doubt, several
+places of worship on the Borders, where he flourished whilst living;
+but Tillmouth Chapel is the only one which bears some resemblance to
+the hermitage described in the text. It has, indeed, a well, famous
+for gratifying three wishes for every worshipper who shall quaff the
+fountain with sufficient belief in its efficacy. At this spot the Saint
+is said to have landed in his stone coffin, in which he sailed down the
+Tweed from Melrose and here the stone coffin long lay, in evidence of
+the fact. The late Sir Francis Blake Delaval is said to have taken the
+exact measure of the coffin, and to have ascertained, by hydrostatic
+principles, that it might have actually swum. A profane farmer in the
+neighborhood announced his intention of converting this last bed of
+the Saint into a trough for his swine; but the profanation was rendered
+impossible, either by the Saint, or by some pious votary in his behalf,
+for on the following morning the stone sarcophargus was found broken in
+two fragments.
+
+Tillmouth Chapel, with these points of resemblance, lies, however, in
+exactly the opposite direction as regards Melrose, which the supposed
+cell of St. Cuthbert is said to have borne towards Kennaquhair.]
+
+Roland Graeme, secretly nursed in the tenets of Rome, saw with horror
+the profanation of the most sacred emblem, according to his creed, of
+our holy religion.
+
+"It is the badge of our redemption," he said, "which the felons have
+dared to violate--would to God my weak strength were able to replace
+it--my humble strength, to atone for the sacrilege!"
+
+He stooped to the task he first meditated, and with a sudden, and to
+himself almost an incredible exertion of power, he lifted up the one
+extremity of the lower shaft of the cross, and rested it upon the edge
+of the large stone which served for its pedestal. Encouraged by this
+success, he applied his force to the other extremity, and, to his own
+astonishment, succeeded so far as to erect the lower end of the limb
+into the socket, out of which it had been forced, and to place this
+fragment of the image upright.
+
+While he was employed in this labour, or rather at the very moment when
+he had accomplished the elevation of the fragment, a voice, in thrilling
+and well-known accents, spoke behind him these words:--"Well done,
+thou good and faithful servant! Thus would I again meet the child of my
+love--the hope of my aged eyes."
+
+Roland turned round in astonishment, and the tall commanding form of
+Magdalen Graeme stood beside him. She was arrayed in a sort of loose
+habit, in form like that worn by penitents in Catholic countries, but
+black in colour, and approaching as near to a pilgrim's cloak as it was
+safe to wear in a country where the suspicion of Catholic devotion
+in many places endangered the safety of those who were suspected of
+attachment to the ancient faith. Roland Graeme threw himself at her
+feet. She raised and embraced him, with affection indeed, but not
+unmixed with gravity which amounted almost to sternness.
+
+"Thou hast kept well," she said, "the bird in thy bosom. [Footnote: An
+expression used by Sir Ralph Percy, slain in the battle of Hedgly-moor
+in 1464, when dying, to express his having preserved unstained his
+fidelity to the house of Lancaster.] As a boy, as a youth, thou hast
+held fast thy faith amongst heretics--thou hast kept thy secret and mine
+own amongst thine enemies. I wept when I parted from you--I who seldom
+weep, then shed tears, less for thy death than for thy spiritual
+danger--I dared not even see thee to bid thee a last farewell--my grief,
+my swelling grief, had betrayed me to these heretics. But thou hast been
+faithful--down, down on thy knees before the holy sign, which evil men
+injure and blaspheme; down, and praise saints and angels for the grace
+they have done thee, in preserving thee from the leprous plague which
+cleaves to the house in which thou wert nurtured."
+
+"If, my mother--so I must ever call you" replied Graeme,--"if I am
+returned such as thou wouldst wish me, thou must thank the care of the
+pious father Ambrose, whose instructions confirmed your early precepts,
+and taught me at once to be faithful and to be silent."
+
+"Be he blessed for it," said she; "blessed in the cell and in the field,
+in the pulpit and at the altar--the saints rain blessings on him!--they
+are just, and employ his pious care to counteract the evils which his
+detested brother works against the realm and the church,--but he knew
+not of thy lineage?"
+
+"I could not myself tell him that," answered Roland. "I knew but darkly
+from your words, that Sir Halbert Glendinning holds mine inheritance,
+and that I am of blood as noble as runs in the veins of any Scottish
+Baron--these are things not to be forgotten, but for the explanation I
+must now look to you."
+
+"And when time suits, thou shalt not look for it in vain. But men say,
+my son, that thou art bold and sudden; and those who bear such tempers
+are not lightly to be trusted with what will strongly move them."
+
+"Say rather, my mother," returned Roland Graeme, "that I am laggard and
+cold-blooded--what patience or endurance can you require of which _he_
+is not capable, who for years has heard his religion ridiculed and
+insulted, yet failed to plunge his dagger into the blasphemer's bosom!"
+
+"Be contented, my child," replied Magdalen Graeme; "the time, which then
+and even now demands patience, will soon ripen to that of effort and
+action--great events are on the wing, and thou,--thou shalt have thy
+share in advancing them. Thou hast relinquished the service of the Lady
+of Avenel?"
+
+"I have been dismissed from it, my mother--I have lived to be dismissed,
+as if I were the meanest of the train."
+
+"It is the better, my child," replied she; "thy mind will be the more
+hardened to undertake that which must be performed."
+
+"Let it be nothing, then, against the Lady of Avenel," said the page,
+"as thy look and words seem to imply. I have eaten her bread--I have
+experienced her favour--I will neither injure nor betray her."
+
+"Of that hereafter, my son," said she; "but learn this, that it is not
+for thee to capitulate in thy duty, and to say this will I do, and that
+will I leave undone--No, Roland! God and man will no longer abide the
+wickedness of this generation. Seest thou these fragments--knowest
+thou what they represent?--and canst thou think it is for thee to make
+distinctions amongst a race so accursed by Heaven, that they renounce,
+violate, blaspheme, and destroy, whatsoever we are commanded to believe
+in, whatsoever we are commanded to reverence?"
+
+As she spoke, she bent her head towards the broken image, with a
+countenance in which strong resentment and zeal were mingled with an
+expression of ecstatic devotion; she raised her left hand aloft as
+in the act of making a vow, and thus proceeded; "Bear witness for me,
+blessed symbol of our salvation, bear witness, holy saint, within whose
+violated temple we stand, that as it is not for vengeance of my own
+that my hate pursues these people, so neither, for any favour or earthly
+affection towards any amongst them, will I withdraw my hand from the
+plough, when it shall pass through the devoted furrow! Bear witness,
+holy saint, once thyself a wanderer and fugitive as we are now--bear
+witness, Mother of Mercy, Queen of Heaven--bear witness, saints and
+angels!"
+
+In this high train of enthusiasm, she stood, raising her eyes through
+the fractured roof of the vault, to the stars which now began to twinkle
+through the pale twilight, while the long gray tresses which hung
+down over her shoulders waved in the night-breeze, which the chasm and
+fractured windows admitted freely.
+
+Roland Graeme was too much awed by early habits, as well as by the
+mysterious import of her words, to ask for farther explanation of the
+purpose she obscurely hinted at. Nor did she farther press him on the
+subject; for, having concluded her prayer or obtestation, by clasping
+her hands together with solemnity, and then signing herself with the
+cross, she again addressed her grandson, in a tone more adapted to the
+ordinary business of life.
+
+"Thou must hence," she said, "Roland, thou must hence, but not till
+morning--And now, how wilt thou shift for thy night's quarters?--thou
+hast been more softly bred than when we were companions in the misty
+hills of Cumberland and Liddesdale."
+
+"I have at least preserved, my good mother, the habits which I then
+learned--can lie hard, feed sparingly, and think it no hardship. Since I
+was a wanderer with thee on the hills, I have been a hunter, and fisher,
+and fowler, and each of these is accustomed to sleep freely in a worse
+shelter than sacrilege has left us here."
+
+"Than sacrilege has left us here!" said the matron, repeating his words,
+and pausing on them. "Most true, my son; and God's faithful children are
+now worst sheltered, when they lodge in God's own house and the demesne
+of his blessed saints. We shall sleep cold here, under the nightwind,
+which whistles through the breaches which heresy has made. They shall
+lie warmer who made them--ay, and through a long hereafter."
+
+Notwithstanding the wild and singular expression of this female, she
+appeared to retain towards Roland Graeme, in a strong degree, that
+affectionate and sedulous love which women bear to their nurslings,
+and the children dependent on their care. It seemed as if she would not
+permit him to do aught for himself which in former days her attention
+had been used to do for him, and that she considered the tall stripling
+before her as being equally dependent on her careful attention as
+when he was the orphan child, who had owed all to her affectionate
+solicitude.
+
+"What hast thou to eat now?" she said, as, leaving the chapel, they went
+into the deserted habitation of the priest; "or what means of kindling
+a fire, to defend thee from this raw and inclement air? Poor child! thou
+hast made slight provision for a long journey; nor hast thou skill to
+help thyself by wit, when means are scanty. But Our Lady has placed by
+thy side one to whom want, in all its forms, is as familiar as plenty
+and splendour have formerly been. And with want, Roland, come the arts
+of which she is the inventor."
+
+With an active and officious diligence, which strangely contrasted with
+her late abstracted and high tone of Catholic devotion, she set about
+her domestic arrangements for the evening. A pouch, which was hidden
+under her garment, produced a flint and steel, and from the scattered
+fragments around (those pertaining to the image of Saint Cuthbert
+scrupulously excepted) she obtained splinters sufficient to raise a
+sparkling and cheerful fire on the hearth of the deserted cell.
+
+"And now," she said, "for needful food."
+
+"Think not of it, mother," said Roland, "unless you yourself feel
+hunger. It is a little thing for me to endure a night's abstinence, and
+a small atonement for the necessary transgression of the rules of the
+Church upon which I was compelled during my stay in the castle."
+
+"Hunger for myself!" answered the matron--"Know, youth, that a mother
+knows not hunger till that of her child is satisfied." And with
+affectionate inconsistency, totally different from her usual manner, she
+added, "Roland, you must not fast; you have dispensation; you are young,
+and to youth food and sleep are necessaries not to be dispensed with.
+Husband your strength, my child,--your sovereign, your religion, your
+country, require it. Let age macerate by fast and vigil a body which can
+only suffer; let youth, in these active times, nourish the limbs and the
+strength which action requires."
+
+While she thus spoke, the scrip, which had produced the means of
+striking fire, furnished provision for a meal; of which she herself
+scarce partook, but anxiously watched her charge, taking a pleasure,
+resembling that of an epicure, in each morsel which he swallowed with a
+youthful appetite which abstinence had rendered unusually sharp. Roland
+readily obeyed her recommendations, and ate the food which she so
+affectionately and earnestly placed before him. But she shook her head
+when invited by him in return to partake of the refreshment her own
+cares had furnished; and when his solicitude became more pressing, she
+refused him in a loftier tone of rejection.
+
+"Young man," she said, "you know not to whom or of what you speak. They
+to whom Heaven declares its purpose must merit its communication by
+mortifying the senses; they have that within which requires not the
+superfluity of earthly nutriment, which is necessary to those who are
+without the sphere of the Vision. To them the watch spent in prayer is
+a refreshing slumber, and the sense of doing the will of Heaven is a
+richer banquet than the tables of monarchs can spread before them!--But
+do thou sleep soft, my son," she said, relapsing from the tone of
+fanaticism into that of maternal affection and tenderness; "do thou
+sleep sound while life is but young with thee, and the cares of the day
+can be drowned in the slumbers of the evening. Different is thy duty and
+mine, and as different the means by which we must qualify and strengthen
+ourselves to perform it. From thee is demanded strength of body--from
+me, strength of soul."
+
+When she thus spoke, she prepared with ready address a pallet-couch,
+composed partly of the dried leaves which had once furnished a bed to
+the solitary, and the guests who occasionally received his hospitality,
+and which, neglected by the destroyers of his humble cell, had remained
+little disturbed in the corner allotted for them. To these her care
+added some of the vestures which lay torn and scattered on the floor.
+With a zealous hand she selected all such as appeared to have made
+any part of the sacerdotal vestments, laying them aside as sacred
+from ordinary purposes, and with the rest she made, with dexterous
+promptness, such a bed as a weary man might willingly stretch himself
+on; and during the time she was preparing it, rejected, even with
+acrimony, any attempt which the youth made to assist her, or any
+entreaty which he urged, that she would accept of the place of rest for
+her own use. "Sleep thou," said she, "Roland Graeme, sleep thou--the
+persecuted, the disinherited orphan--the son of an ill-fated
+mother--sleep thou! I go to pray in the chapel beside thee."
+
+The manner was too enthusiastically earnest, too obstinately firm, to
+permit Roland Graeme to dispute her will any farther. Yet he felt some
+shame in giving way to it. It seemed as if she had forgotten the years
+that had passed away since their parting; and expected to meet, in the
+tall, indulged, and wilful youth, whom she had recovered, the passive
+obedience of the child whom she had left in the Castle of Avenel. This
+did not fail to hurt her grandson's characteristic and constitutional
+pride. He obeyed, indeed, awed into submission by the sudden recurrence
+of former subordination, and by feelings of affection and gratitude.
+Still, however, he felt the yoke.
+
+"Have I relinquished the hawk and the hound," he said, "to become the
+pupil of her pleasure, as if I were still a child?--I, whom even my
+envious mates allowed to be superior in those exercises which they took
+most pains to acquire, and which came to me naturally, as if a knowledge
+of them had been my birthright? This may not, and must not be. I will be
+no reclaimed sparrow-hawk, who is carried hooded on a woman's wrist,
+and has his quarry only shown to him when his eyes are uncovered for his
+flight. I will know her purpose ere it is proposed to me to aid it."
+
+These, and other thoughts, streamed through the mind of Roland Graeme;
+and although wearied with the fatigues of the day, it was long ere he
+could compose himself to rest.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Ninth.
+
+
+  Kneel with me--swear it--'tis not in words I trust,
+  Save when they're fenced with an appeal to Heaven.
+                                   OLD PLAY
+
+After passing the night in that sound sleep for which agitation and
+fatigue had prepared him, Roland was awakened by the fresh morning
+air, and by the beams of the rising sun. His first feeling was that of
+surprise; for, instead of looking forth from a turret window on the
+Lake of Avenel, which was the prospect his former apartment afforded,
+an unlatticed aperture gave him the view of the demolished garden of the
+banished anchorite. He sat up on his couch of leaves, and arranged in
+his memory, not without wonder, the singular events of the preceding
+day, which appeared the more surprising the more he considered them.
+He had lost the protectress of his youth, and, in the same day, he
+had recovered the guide and guardian of his childhood. The former
+deprivation he felt ought to be matter of unceasing regret, and
+it seemed as if the latter could hardly be the subject of unmixed
+self-congratulation. He remembered this person, who had stood to him in
+the relation of a mother, as equally affectionate in her attention, and
+absolute in her authority. A singular mixture of love and fear attended
+upon his early remembrances as they were connected with her; and the
+fear that she might desire to resume the same absolute control over
+his motions--a fear which her conduct of yesterday did not tend much to
+dissipate--weighed heavily against the joy of this second meeting.
+
+"She cannot mean," said his rising pride, "to lead and direct me as
+a pupil, when I am at the age of judging of my own actions?--this she
+cannot mean, or meaning it, will feel herself strangely deceived."
+
+A sense of gratitude towards the person against whom his heart thus
+rebelled, checked his course of feeling. He resisted the thoughts which
+involuntarily arose in his mind, as he would have resisted an actual
+instigation of the foul fiend; and, to aid him in his struggle, he felt
+for his beads. But, in his hasty departure from the Castle of Avenel, he
+had forgotten and left them behind him.
+
+"This is yet worse," he said; "but two things I learned of her under the
+most deadly charge of secrecy--to tell my beads, and to conceal that I
+did so; and I have kept my word till now; and when she shall ask me
+for the rosary, I must say I have forgotten it! Do I deserve she should
+believe me when. I say I have kept the secret of my faith, when I set so
+light by its symbol?"
+
+He paced the floor in anxious agitation. In fact, his attachment to
+his faith was of a nature very different from that which animated the
+enthusiastic matron, but which, notwithstanding, it would have been his
+last thought to relinquish.
+
+The early charges impressed on him by his grandmother, had been
+instilled into a mind and memory of a character peculiarly tenacious.
+Child as he was, he was proud of the confidence reposed in his
+discretion, and resolved to show that it had not been rashly intrusted
+to him. At the same time, his resolution was no more than that of
+a child, and must, necessarily, have gradually faded away under the
+operation both of precept and example, during his residence at the
+Castle of Avenel, but for the exhortations of Father Ambrose, who, in
+his lay estate, had been called Edward Glendinning. This zealous
+monk had been apprized, by an unsigned letter placed in his hand by
+a pilgrim, that a child educated in the Catholic faith was now in the
+Castle of Avenel, perilously situated, (so was the scroll expressed,)
+as ever the three children who were cast into the fiery furnace of
+persecution. The letter threw upon Father Ambrose the fault, should
+this solitary lamb, unwillingly left within the demesnes of the prowling
+wolf, become his final prey. There needed no farther exhortation to the
+monk than the idea that a soul might be endangered, and that a Catholic
+might become an apostate; and he made his visits more frequent than
+usual to the castle of Avenel, lest, through want of the private
+encouragement and instruction which he always found some opportunity of
+dispensing, the church should lose a proselyte, and, according to the
+Romish creed, the devil acquire a soul.
+
+Still these interviews were rare; and though they encouraged the
+solitary boy to keep his secret and hold fast his religion, they were
+neither frequent nor long enough to inspire him with any thing beyond
+a blind attachment to the observances which the priest recommended. He
+adhered to the forms of his religion rather because he felt it would
+be dishonourable to change that of his fathers, than from any rational
+conviction or sincere belief of its mysterious doctrines. It was a
+principal part of the distinction which, in his own opinion, singled him
+out from those with whom he lived, and gave him an additional, though an
+internal and concealed reason, for contemning those of the household who
+showed an undisguised dislike of him, and for hardening himself against
+the instructions of the chaplain, Henry Warden.
+
+"The fanatic preacher," he thought within himself, during some one
+of the chaplain's frequent discourses against the Church of Rome, "he
+little knows whose ears are receiving his profane doctrine, and with
+what contempt and abhorrence they hear his blasphemies against the holy
+religion by which kings have been crowned, and for which martyrs have
+died!"
+
+But in such proud feelings of defiance of heresy, as it was termed, and
+of its professors, which associated the Catholic religion with a
+sense of generous independence, and that of the Protestants with the
+subjugation of his mind and temper to the direction of Mr. Warden, began
+and ended the faith of Roland Graeme, who, independently of the pride of
+singularity, sought not to understand, and had no one to expound to
+him, the peculiarities of the tenets which he professed. His regret,
+therefore, at missing the rosary which had been conveyed to him through
+the hands of Father Ambrose, was rather the shame of a soldier who has
+dropped his cockade, or badge of service, than that of a zealous votary
+who had forgotten a visible symbol of his religion.
+
+His thoughts on the subject, however, were mortifying, and the more
+so from apprehension that his negligence must reach the ears of
+his relative. He felt it could be no one but her who had secretly
+transmitted these beads to Father Ambrose for his use, and that his
+carelessness was but an indifferent requital of her kindness.
+
+"Nor will she omit to ask me about them," said he to himself; "for hers
+is a zeal which age cannot quell; and if she has not quitted her wont,
+my answer will not fail to incense her."
+
+While he thus communed with himself, Magdalen Graeme entered the
+apartment. "The blessing of the morning on your youthful head, my son,"
+she said, with a solemnity of expression which thrilled the youth to the
+heart, so sad and earnest did the benediction flow from her lips, in a
+tone where devotion was blended with affection. "And thou hast started
+thus early from thy couch to catch the first breath of the dawn? But it
+is not well, my Roland. Enjoy slumber while thou canst; the time is not
+far behind when the waking eye must be thy portion, as well as mine."
+
+She uttered these words with an affectionate and anxious tone, which
+showed, that devotional as were the habitual exercises of her mind, the
+thoughts of her nursling yet bound her to earth with the cords of human
+affection and passion.
+
+But she abode not long in a mood which she probably regarded as a
+momentary dereliction of her imaginary high calling--"Come," she said,
+"youth, up and be doing--It is time that we leave this place."
+
+"And whither do we go?" said the young man; "or what is the object of
+our journey?"
+
+The matron stepped back, and gazed on him with surprise, not unmingled
+with displeasure.
+
+"To what purpose such a question?" she said; "is it not enough that I
+lead the way? Hast thou lived with heretics till thou hast learned to
+instal the vanity of thine own private judgment in place of due honour
+and obedience?"
+
+"The time," thought Roland Graeme within himself, "is already come, when
+I must establish my freedom, or be a willing thrall for ever--I feel
+that I must speedily look to it."
+
+She instantly fulfilled his foreboding, by recurring to the theme by
+which her thoughts seemed most constantly engrossed, although, when she
+pleased, no one could so perfectly disguise her religion.
+
+"Thy beads, my son--hast thou told thy beads?"
+
+Roland Graeme coloured high; he felt the storm was approaching, but
+scorned to avert it by a falsehood.
+
+"I have forgotten my rosary," he said, "at the Castle of Avenel."
+
+"Forgotten thy rosary!" she exclaimed; "false both to religion and to
+natural duty, hast thou lost what was sent so far, and at such risk, a
+token of the truest affection, that should have been, every bead of it,
+as dear to thee as thine eyeballs?"
+
+"I am grieved it should have so chanced, mother," replied the youth,
+"and much did I value the token, as coming from you. For what remains,
+I trust to win gold enough, when I push my way in the world; and till
+then, beads of black oak, or a rosary of nuts, must serve the turn."
+
+"Hear him!" said his grandmother; "young as he is, he hath learned
+already the lessons of the devil's school! The rosary, consecrated by
+the Holy Father himself, and sanctified by his blessing, is but a few
+knobs of gold, whose value may be replaced by the wages of his
+profane labour, and whose virtue may be supplied by a string of
+hazel-nuts!--This is heresy--So Henry Warden, the wolf who ravages the
+flock of the Shepherd, hath taught thee to speak and to think."
+
+"Mother," said Roland Graeme, "I am no heretic; I believe and I pray
+according to the rules of our church--This misfortune I regret, but I
+cannot amend it."
+
+"Thou canst repent it, though," replied his spiritual directress,
+"repent it in dust and ashes, atone for it by fasting, prayer, and
+penance, instead of looking on me with a countenance as light as if thou
+hadst lost but a button from thy cap."
+
+"Mother," said Roland, "be appeased; I will remember my fault in the
+next confession which I have space and opportunity to make, and will
+do whatever the priest may require of me in atonement. For the heaviest
+fault I can do no more.--But, mother," he added, after a moment's pause,
+"let me not incur your farther displeasure, if I ask whither our journey
+is bound, and what is its object. I am no longer a child, but a man, and
+at my own disposal, with down upon my chin, and a sword by my side--I
+will go to the end of the world with you to do your pleasure; but I owe
+it to myself to inquire the purpose and direction of our travels."
+
+"You owe it to yourself, ungrateful boy?" replied his relative,
+passion rapidly supplying the colour which age had long chased from her
+features,--"to yourself you owe nothing--you can owe nothing--to me
+you owe every thing--your life when an infant--your support while a
+child--the means of instruction, and the hopes of honour--and, sooner
+than thou shouldst abandon the noble cause to which I have devoted thee,
+would I see thee lie a corpse at my feet!"
+
+Roland was alarmed at the vehement agitation with which she spoke,
+and which threatened to overpower her aged frame; and he hastened to
+reply,--"I forget nothing of what I owe to you, my dearest mother--show
+me how my blood can testify my gratitude, and you shall judge if I spare
+it. But blindfold obedience has in it as little merit as reason."
+
+"Saints and angels!" replied Magdalen, "and do I hear these words from
+the child of my hopes, the nursling by whose bed I have kneeled, and for
+whose weal I have wearied every saint in heaven with prayers? Roland,
+by obedience only canst thou show thy affection and thy gratitude. What
+avails it that you might perchance adopt the course I propose to thee,
+were it to be fully explained? Thou wouldst not then follow my command,
+but thine own judgment; thou wouldst not do the will of Heaven,
+communicated through thy best friend, to whom thou owest thine all; but
+thou wouldst observe the blinded dictates of thine own imperfect reason.
+Hear me, Roland! a lot calls thee--solicits thee--demands thee--the
+proudest to which man can be destined, and it uses the voice of thine
+earliest, thy best, thine only friend--Wilt thou resist it? Then go
+thy way--leave me here--my hopes on earth are gone and withered--I will
+kneel me down before yonder profaned altar, and when the raging heretics
+return, they shall dye it with the blood of a martyr."
+
+"But, my dearest mother," said Roland Graeme, whose early recollections
+of her violence were formidably renewed by these wild expressions of
+reckless passion, "I will not forsake you--I will abide with you--worlds
+shall not force me from your side--I will protect--I will defend you--I
+will live with you, and die for you!"
+
+"One word, my son, were worth all these--say only, 'I will obey you.'"
+
+"Doubt it not, mother," replied the youth, "I will, and that with all my
+heart; only----"
+
+"Nay, I receive no qualifications of thy promise," said Magdalen Graeme,
+catching at the word, "the obedience which I require is absolute; and
+a blessing on thee, thou darling memory of my beloved child, that thou
+hast power to make a promise so hard to human pride! Trust me well, that
+in the design in which thou dost embark, thou hast for thy partners the
+mighty and the valiant, the power of the church, and the pride of the
+noble. Succeed or fail, live or die, thy name shall be among those
+with whom success or failure is alike glorious, death or life alike
+desirable. Forward, then, forward! life is short, and our plan is
+laborious--Angels, saints, and the whole blessed host of heaven, have
+their eyes even now on this barren and blighted land of Scotland--What
+say I? on Scotland? their eye is on _us_, Roland--on the frail woman, on
+the inexperienced youth, who, amidst the ruins which sacrilege hath made
+in the holy place, devote themselves to God's cause, and that of
+their lawful Sovereign. Amen, so be it! The blessed eyes of saints and
+martyrs, which see our resolve, shall witness the execution; or their
+ears, which hear our vow, shall hear our death-groan, drawn in the
+sacred cause!"
+
+While thus speaking, she held Roland Graeme firmly with one hand, while
+she pointed upward with the other, to leave him, as it were, no means of
+protest against the obtestation to which he was thus made a party.
+When she had finished her appeal to Heaven, she left him no leisure for
+farther hesitation, or for asking any explanation of her purpose; but
+passing with the same ready transition as formerly, to the solicitous
+attentions of an anxious parent, overwhelmed him with questions
+concerning his residence in the Castle of Avenel, and the qualities and
+accomplishments he had acquired.
+
+"It is well," she said, when she had exhausted her inquiries, "my gay
+goss-hawk
+
+[Footnote: The comparison is taken from some beautiful verses in an old
+ballad, entitled Fause Foodrage, published in the "Minstrelsy of the
+Scottish Border." A deposed queen, to preserve her infant son from
+the traitors who have slain his father, exchanges him with the female
+offspring of a faithful friend, and goes on to direct the education of
+the children, and the private signals by which the parents are to hear
+news each of her own offspring.
+
+ "And you shall learn my gay goss-hawk
+  Right well to breast a steed;
+  And so will I your turtle dow,
+  As well to write and read.
+
+  And ye shall learn my gay goss-hawk
+  To wield both bow and brand;
+  And so will I your turtle dow,
+  To lay gowd with her hand.
+
+  At kirk or market when we meet,
+  We'll dare make no avow,
+  But, 'Dame, how does my gay goss-hawk?'
+  'Madame, how does my dow?'" ]
+
+hath been well trained, and will soar high; but those who bred him will
+have cause to fear as well as to wonder at his flight.--Let us now," she
+said, "to our morning meal, and care not though it be a scanty one. A
+few hours' walk will bring us to more friendly quarters."
+
+They broke their fast accordingly, on such fragments as remained of
+their yesterday's provision, and immediately set out on their farther
+journey. Magdalen Graeme led the way, with a firm and active step much
+beyond her years, and Roland Graeme followed, pensive and anxious, and
+far from satisfied with the state of dependence to which he seemed again
+to be reduced.
+
+"Am I for ever," he said to himself, "to be devoured with the desire
+of independence and free agency, and yet to be for ever led on, by
+circumstances, to follow the will of others?"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Tenth.
+
+
+  She dwelt unnoticed and alone,
+    Beside the springs of Dove:
+  A maid whom there was none to praise,
+    And very few to love.
+                        WORDSWORTH.
+
+In the course of their journey the travellers spoke little to each
+other. Magdalen Graeme chanted, from time to time, in a low voice, a
+part of some one of those beautiful old Latin hymns which belong to the
+Catholic service, muttered an Ave or a Credo, and so passed on, lost in
+devotional contemplation. The meditations of her grandson were more
+bent on mundane matters; and many a time, as a moor-fowl arose from the
+heath, and shot along the moor, uttering his bold crow of defiance, he
+thought of the jolly Adam Woodcock, and his trusty goss-hawk; or, as
+they passed a thicket where the low trees and bushes were intermingled
+with tall fern, furze, and broom, so as to form a thick and intricate
+cover, his dreams were of a roebuck and a brace of gaze-hounds. But
+frequently his mind returned to the benevolent and kind mistress whom he
+had left behind him, offended justly, and unreconciled by any effort of
+his.
+
+"My step would be lighter," he thought, "and so would my heart, could
+I but have returned to see her for one instant, and to say, Lady, the
+orphan boy was wild, but not ungrateful!"
+
+Travelling in these divers moods, about the hour of noon they reached
+a small straggling village, in which, as usual, were seen one or two
+of those predominating towers, or peel houses, which, for reasons of
+defence elsewhere detailed, were at that time to be found in every
+Border hamlet. A brook flowed beside the village, and watered the valley
+in which it stood. There was also a mansion at the end of the village,
+and a little way separated from it, much dilapidated, and in very
+bad order, but appearing to have been the abode of persons of some
+consideration. The situation was agreeable, being an angle formed by the
+stream, bearing three or four large sycamore trees, which were in full
+leaf, and served to relieve the dark appearance of the mansion, which
+was built of a deep red stone. The house itself was a large one, but was
+now obviously too big for the inmates; several windows were built
+up, especially those which opened from the lower story; others were
+blockaded in a less substantial manner. The court before the door, which
+had once been defended with a species of low outer-wall, now ruinous,
+was paved, but the stones were completely covered with long gray
+nettles, thistles, and other weeds, which, shooting up betwixt the
+flags, had displaced many of them from their level. Even matters
+demanding more peremptory attention had been left neglected, in a manner
+which argued sloth or poverty in the extreme. The stream, undermining a
+part of the bank near an angle of the ruinous wall, had brought it down,
+with a corner turret, the ruins of which lay in the bed of the river.
+The current, interrupted by the ruins which it had overthrown, and
+turned yet nearer to the site of the tower, had greatly enlarged the
+breach it had made, and was in the process of undermining the ground
+on which the house itself stood, unless it were speedily protected by
+sufficient bulwarks.
+
+All this attracted Roland Graeme's observation, as they approached the
+dwelling by a winding path, which gave them, at intervals, a view of it
+from different points.
+
+"If we go to yonder house," he said to his mother, "I trust it is but
+for a short visit. It looks as if two rainy days from the north-west
+would send the whole into the brook."
+
+"You see but with the eyes of the body," said the old woman; "God will
+defend his own, though it be forsaken and despised of men. Better to
+dwell on the sand, under his law, than fly to the rock of human trust."
+
+As she thus spoke, they entered the court before the old mansion, and
+Roland could observe that the front of it had formerly been considerably
+ornamented with carved work, in the same dark-coloured freestone of
+which it was built. But all these ornaments had been broken down and
+destroyed, and only the shattered vestiges of niches and entablatures
+now strewed the place which they had once occupied. The larger
+entrance in front was walled up, but a little footpath, which, from its
+appearance, seemed to be rarely trodden, led to a small wicket, defended
+by a door well clenched with iron-headed nails, at which Magdalen Graeme
+knocked three times, pausing betwixt each knock, until she heard an
+answering tap from within. At the last knock, the wicket was opened by a
+pale thin female, who said, "_Benedicti qui venient in nomine Domini_."
+They entered, and the portress hastily shut behind them the wicket, and
+made fast the massive fastenings by which it was secured.
+
+The female led the way through a narrow entrance, into a vestibule of
+some extent, paved with stone, and having benches of the same solid
+material ranged around. At the upper end was an oriel window, but some
+of the intervals formed by the stone shafts and mullions were blocked
+up, so that the apartment was very gloomy.
+
+Here they stopped, and the mistress of the mansion, for such she was,
+embraced Magdalen Graeme, and greeting her by the title of sister,
+kissed her with much solemnity, on either side of the face.
+
+"The blessing of Our Lady be upon you, my sister," were her next words;
+and they left no doubt upon Roland's mind respecting the religion of
+their hostess, even if he could have suspected his venerable and
+zealous guide of resting elsewhere than in the habitation of an orthodox
+Catholic. They spoke together a few words in private, during which
+he had leisure to remark more particularly the appearance of his
+grandmother's friend.
+
+Her age might be betwixt fifty and sixty; her looks had a mixture of
+melancholy and unhappiness that bordered on discontent, and obscured the
+remains of beauty which age had still left on her features. Her dress
+was of the plainest and most ordinary description, of a dark colour,
+and, like Magdalen Graeme's, something approaching to a religious habit.
+Strict neatness and cleanliness of person, seemed to intimate, that if
+poor, she was not reduced to squalid or heart-broken distress, and that
+she was still sufficiently attached to life to retain a taste for its
+decencies, if not its elegancies. Her manner, as well as her features
+and appearance, argued an original condition and education far above the
+meanness of her present appearance. In short, the whole figure was
+such as to excite the idea, "That female must have had a history worth
+knowing." While Roland Graeme was making this very reflection, the
+whispers of the two females ceased, and the mistress of the mansion,
+approaching him, looked on his face and person with much attention, and,
+as it seemed, some interest.
+
+"This, then," she said, addressing his relative, "is the child of thine
+unhappy daughter, sister Magdalen; and him, the only shoot from your
+ancient tree, you are willing to devote to the Good Cause?"
+
+"Yes, by the rood," answered Magdalen Graeme, in her usual tone of
+resolved determination, "to the good cause I devote him, flesh and fell,
+sinew and limb, body and soul."
+
+"Thou art a happy woman, sister Magdalen," answered her companion,
+"that, lifted so high above human affection and human feeling, thou
+canst bind such a victim to the horns of the altar. Had I been called
+to make such a sacrifice--to plunge a youth so young and fair into the
+plots and bloodthirsty dealings of the time, not the patriarch Abraham,
+when he led Isaac up the mountain, would have rendered more melancholy
+obedience."
+
+She then continued to look at Roland with a mournful aspect of
+compassion, until the intentness of her gaze occasioned his colour to
+rise, and he was about to move out of its influence, when he was stopped
+by his grand-mother with one hand, while with the other she divided the
+hair upon his forehead, which was now crimson with bashfulness, while
+she added, with a mixture of proud affection and firm resolution,--"Ay,
+look at him well, my sister, for on a fairer face thine eye never
+rested. I too, when I first saw him, after a long separation, felt as
+the worldly feel, and was half shaken in my purpose. But no wind can
+tear a leaf from the withered tree which has long been stripped of its
+foliage, and no mere human casualty can awaken the mortal feelings which
+have long slept in the calm of devotion."
+
+While the old woman thus spoke, her manner gave the lie to her
+assertions, for the tears rose to her eyes while she added, "But the
+fairer and the more spotless the victim, is it not, my sister, the more
+worthy of acceptance?"
+
+She seemed glad to escape from the sensations which agitated her, and
+instantly added, "He will escape, my sister--there will be a ram caught
+in the thicket, and the hand of our revolted brethren shall not be on
+the youthfull Joseph. Heaven can defend its own rights, even by means of
+babes and sucklings, of women and beardless boys."
+
+"Heaven hath left us," said the other female; "for our sins and our
+fathers' the succours of the blessed Saints have abandoned this accursed
+land. We may win the crown of Martyrdom, but not that of earthly
+triumph. One, too, whose prudence was at this deep crisis so
+indispensable, has been called to a better world. The Abbot Eustatius is
+no more."
+
+"May his soul have mercy!" said Magdalen Graeme, "and may Heaven, too,
+have mercy upon us, who linger behind in this bloody land! His loss
+is indeed a perilous blow to our enterprise; for who remains behind
+possessing his far-fetched experience, his self-devoted zeal, his
+consummate wisdom, and his undaunted courage! He hath fallen with the
+church's standard in his hand, but God will raise up another to lift the
+blessed banner. Whom have the Chapter elected in his room?"
+
+"It is rumoured no one of the few remaining brethren dare accept
+the office. The heretics have sworn that they will permit no future
+election, and will heavily punish any attempt to create a new Abbot of
+Saint Mary's. _Conjuraverunt inter se principes, dicentes, Projiciamus
+laqueos ejus_."
+
+"_Quousque, Domine!_"--ejaculated Magdalen; "this, my sister, were
+indeed a perilous and fatal breach in our band; but I am firm in my
+belief, that another will arise in the place of him so untimely removed.
+Where is thy daughter Catharine?"
+
+"In the parlour," answered the matron, "but"--She looked at Roland
+Graeme, and muttered something in the ear of her friend.
+
+"Fear it not," answered Magdalen Graeme, "it is both lawful and
+necessary--fear nothing from him--I would he were as well grounded in
+the faith by which alone comes safety, as he is free from thought,
+deed, or speech of villany. Therein is the heretics' discipline to be
+commended, my sister, that they train up their youth in strong morality,
+and choke up every inlet to youthful folly."
+
+"It is but a cleansing the outside of the cup," answered her friend,
+"a whitening of the sepulchre; but he shall see Catharine, since you,
+sister, judge it safe and meet.--Follow us, youth," she added, and led
+the way from the apartment--with her friend. These were the only words
+which the matron had addressed to Roland Graeme, who obeyed them in
+silence. As they paced through several winding passages and waste
+apartments with a very slow step, the young page had leisure to make
+some reflections on his situation,--reflections of a nature which his
+ardent temper considered as specially disagreeable. It seemed he had now
+got two mistresses, or tutoresses, instead of one, both elderly women,
+and both, it would seem, in league to direct his motions according to
+their own pleasure, and for the accomplishment of plans to which he was
+no party. This, he thought, was too much; arguing reasonably enough,
+that whatever right his grandmother and benefactress had to guide his
+motions, she was neither entitled to transfer her authority or divide it
+with another, who seemed to assume, without ceremony, the same tone of
+absolute command over him.
+
+"But it shall not long continue thus," thought Roland; "I will not be
+all my life the slave of a woman's whistle, to go when she bids, and
+come when she calls. No, by Saint Andrew! the hand that can hold the
+lance is above the control of the distaff. I will leave them the slipp'd
+collar in their hands on the first opportunity, and let them execute
+their own devices by their own proper force. It may save them both from
+peril, for I guess what they meditate is not likely to prove either safe
+or easy--the Earl of Murray and his heresy are too well rooted to be
+grubbed up by two old women."
+
+As he thus resolved, they entered a low room, in which a third female
+was seated. This apartment was the first he had observed in the mansion
+which was furnished with moveable seats, and with a wooden table, over
+which was laid a piece of tapestry. A carpet was spread on the floor,
+there was a grate in the chimney, and, in brief, the apartment had the
+air of being habitable and inhabited.
+
+But Roland's eyes found better employment than to make observations on
+the accommodations of the chamber; for this second female inhabitant of
+the mansion seemed something very different from any thing he had yet
+seen there. At his first entry, she had greeted with a silent and low
+obeisance the two aged matrons, then glancing her eyes towards Roland,
+she adjusted a veil which hung back over her shoulders, so as to bring
+it over her face; an operation which she performed with much modesty,
+but without either affected haste or embarrassed timidity.
+
+During this manoeuvre Roland had time to observe, that the face was that
+of a girl apparently not much past sixteen, and that the eyes were at
+once soft and brilliant. To these very favourable observations was added
+the certainty that the fair object to whom they referred possessed an
+excellent shape, bordering perhaps on _enbonpoint_, and therefore rather
+that of a Hebe than of a Sylph, but beautifully formed, and shown to
+great advantage by the close jacket and petticoat which she wore after a
+foreign fashion, the last not quite long enough to conceal a very pretty
+foot, which rested on a bar of the table at which she sate; her round
+arms and taper fingers very busily employed in repairing--the piece
+of tapestry which was spread on it, which exhibited several deplorable
+fissures, enough to demand the utmost skill of the most expert
+seamstress.
+
+It is to be remarked, that it was by stolen glances that Roland Graeme
+contrived to ascertain these interesting particulars; and he thought he
+could once or twice, notwithstanding the texture of the veil, detect the
+damsel in the act of taking similar cognizance of his own person. The
+matrons in the meanwhile continued their separate conversation, eyeing
+from time to time the young people, in a manner which left Roland in
+no doubt that they were the subject of their conversation. At length he
+distinctly heard Magdalen Graeme say these words--"Nay, my sister, we
+must give them opportunity to speak together, and to become acquainted;
+they must be personally known to each other, or how shall they be able
+to execute what they are intrusted with?"
+
+It seemed as if the matron, not fully satisfied with her friend's
+reasoning, continued to offer some objections; but they were borne down
+by her more dictatorial friend.
+
+"It must be so," she said, "my dear sister; let us therefore go forth
+on the balcony, to finish our conversation.--And do you," she said,
+addressing Roland and the girl, "become acquainted with each other."
+
+With this she stepped up to the young woman, and raising her veil,
+discovered features which, whatever might be their ordinary complexion,
+were now covered with a universal blush.
+
+"_Licitum sit,_" said Magdalen, looking at the other matron.
+
+"_Vix licitum,_" replied the other, with reluctant and hesitating
+acquiescence; and again adjusting the veil of the blushing girl, she
+dropped it so as to shade, though not to conceal her countenance, and
+whispered to her, in a tone loud enough for the page to hear, "Remember,
+Catharine, who thou art, and for what destined."
+
+The matron then retreated with Magdalen Graeme through one of the
+casements of the apartment, that opened on a large broad balcony, which,
+with its ponderous balustrade, had once run along the whole south
+front of the building which faced the brook, and formed a pleasant and
+commodious walk in the open air. It was now in some places deprived of
+the balustrade, in others broken and narrowed; but, ruinous as it was,
+could still be used as a pleasant promenade. Here then walked the two
+ancient dames, busied in their private conversation; yet not so much so,
+but that Roland could observe the matrons, as their thin forms darkened
+the casement in passing or repassing before it, dart a glance into the
+apartment, to see how matters were going on there.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Eleventh.
+
+
+  Life hath its May, and is mirthful then:
+  The woods are vocal, and the flowers all odour;
+  Its very blast has mirth in't,--and the maidens,
+  The while they don their cloaks to screen their kirtles,
+  Laugh at the rain that wets them.
+                             OLD PLAY.
+
+Catherine was at the happy age of innocence and buoyancy of spirit,
+when, after the first moment of embarrassment was over, a situation
+of awkwardness, like that in which she was suddenly left to make
+acquaintance with a handsome youth, not even known to her by name,
+struck her, in spite of herself, in a ludicrous point of view. She bent
+her beautiful eyes upon the work with which she was busied, and with
+infinite gravity sate out the two first turns of the matrons upon the
+balcony; but then, glancing her deep blue eye a little towards Roland,
+and observing the embarrassment under which he laboured, now shifting on
+his chair, and now dangling his cap, the whole man evincing that he was
+perfectly at a loss how to open the conversation, she could keep her
+composure no longer, but after a vain struggle broke out into a sincere,
+though a very involuntary fit of laughing, so richly accompanied by the
+laughter of her merry eyes, which actually glanced through the tears
+which the effort filled them with, and by the waving of her rich
+tresses, that the goddess of smiles herself never looked more lovely
+than Catherine at that moment. A court page would not have left her long
+alone in her mirth; but Roland was country-bred, and, besides, having
+some jealousy as well as bashfulness, he took it into his head that he
+was himself the object of her inextinguishable laughter. His endeavours
+to sympathize with Catherine, therefore, could carry him no farther than
+a forced giggle, which had more of displeasure than of mirth in it, and
+which so much enhanced that of the girl, that it seemed to render it
+impossible for her ever to bring her laughter to an end, with whatever
+anxious pains she laboured to do so. For every one has felt, that when a
+paroxysm of laughter has seized him at a misbecoming time and place,
+the efforts which he made to suppress it, nay, the very sense of the
+impropriety of giving way to it, tend only to augment and prolong the
+irresistible impulse.
+
+It was undoubtedly lucky for Catherine, as well as for Roland, that the
+latter did not share in the excessive mirth of the former. For, seated
+as she was, with her back to the casement, Catherine could easily escape
+the observation of the two matrons during the course of their promenade;
+whereas Graeme was so placed, with his side to the window, that his
+mirth, had he shared that of his companion, would have been instantly
+visible, and could not have failed to give offence to the personages in
+question. He sate, however, with some impatience, until Catherine had
+exhausted either her power or her desire of laughing, and was returning
+with good grace to the exercise of her needle, and then he observed with
+some dryness, that "there seemed no great occasion to recommend to them
+to improve their acquaintance, as it seemed, that they were already
+tolerably familiar."
+
+Catherine had an extreme desire to set off upon a fresh score, but
+she repressed it strongly, and fixing her eyes on her work, replied by
+asking his pardon, and promising to avoid future offence.
+
+Roland had sense enough to feel, that an air of offended dignity was
+very much misplaced, and that it was with a very different bearing he
+ought to meet the deep blue eyes which had borne such a hearty burden in
+the laughing scene. He tried, therefore, to extricate himself as well as
+he could from his blunder, by assuming a tone of correspondent gaiety,
+and requesting to know of the nymph, "how it was her pleasure that they
+should proceed in improving the acquaintance which had commenced so
+merrily."
+
+"That," she said, "you must yourself discover; perhaps I have gone a
+step too far in opening our interview."
+
+"Suppose," said Roland Graeme, "we should begin as in a tale-book, by
+asking each other's names and histories?"
+
+"It is right well imagined," said Catherine, "and shows an argute
+judgment. Do you begin, and I will listen, and only put in a question
+or two at the dark parts of the story. Come, unfold then your name and
+history, my new acquaintance."
+
+"I am called Roland Graeme, and that tall woman is my grandmother."
+
+"And your tutoress?--good. Who are your parents?"
+
+"They are both dead," replied Roland.
+
+"Ay, but who were they? you _had_ parents, I presume?"
+
+"I suppose so," said Roland, "but I have never been able to learn much
+of their history. My father was a Scottish knight, who died gallantly
+in his stirrups--my mother was a Graeme of Hathergill, in the Debateable
+Land--most of her family were killed when the Debateable country was
+burned by Lord Maxwell and Herries of Caerlaverock."
+
+"Is it long ago?" said the damsel.
+
+"Before I was born," answered the page.
+
+"That must be a great while since," said she, shaking her head gravely;
+"look you, I cannot weep for them."
+
+"It needs not," said the youth, "they fell with honour."
+
+"So much for your lineage, fair sir," replied his companion, "of whom I
+like the living specimen (a glance at the casement) far less than those
+that are dead. Your much honoured grandmother looks as if she could make
+one weep in sad earnest. And now, fair sir, for your own person--if you
+tell not the tale faster, it will be cut short in the middle; Mother
+Bridget pauses longer and longer every time she passes the window, and
+with her there is as little mirth as in the grave of your ancestors."
+
+"My tale is soon told--I was introduced into the castle of Avenel to be
+page to the lady of the mansion."
+
+"She is a strict Huguenot, is she not?" said the maiden.
+
+"As strict as Calvin himself. But my grandmother can play the puritan
+when it suits her purpose, and she had some plan of her own, for
+quartering me in the Castle--it would have failed, however, after we had
+remained several weeks at the hamlet, but for an unexpected master of
+ceremonies--"
+
+"And who was that?" said the girl.
+
+"A large black dog, Wolf by name, who brought me into the castle one day
+in his mouth, like a hurt wild-duck, and presented me to the lady."
+
+"A most respectable introduction, truly," said Catherine; "and what
+might you learn at this same castle? I love dearly to know what my
+acquaintances can do at need."
+
+"To fly a hawk, hollow to a hound, back a horse, and wield lance, bow,
+and brand."
+
+"And to boast of all this when you have learned it," said Catherine,
+"which, in France at least, is the surest accomplishment of a page. But
+proceed, fair sir; how came your Huguenot lord and your no less Huguenot
+lady to receive and keep in the family so perilous a person as a
+Catholic page?"
+
+"Because they knew not that part of my history, which from infancy I
+have been taught to keep secret--and because my grand-dame's former
+zealous attendance on their heretic chaplain, had laid all this
+suspicion to sleep, most fair Callipolis," said the page; and in so
+saying, he edged his chair towards the seat of the fair querist.
+
+"Nay, but keep your distance, most gallant sir," answered the blue-eyed
+maiden, "for, unless I greatly mistake, these reverend ladies will soon
+interrupt our amicable conference, if the acquaintance they recommend
+shall seem to proceed beyond a certain point--so, fair sir, be
+pleased to abide by your station, and reply to my questions.--By what
+achievements did you prove the qualities of a page, which you had thus
+happily acquired?"
+
+Roland, who began to enter into the tone and spirit of the damsel's
+conversation, replied to her with becoming spirit.
+
+"In no feat, fair gentlewoman, was I found inexpert, wherein there was
+mischief implied. I shot swans, hunted cats, frightened serving-women,
+chased the deer, and robbed the orchard. I say nothing of tormenting the
+chaplain in various ways, for that was my duty as a good Catholic."
+
+"Now, as I am a gentlewoman," said Catherine, "I think these heretics
+have done Catholic penance in entertaining so all-accomplished a
+serving-man! And what, fair sir, might have been the unhappy event which
+deprived them of an inmate altogether so estimable?"
+
+"Truly, fair gentlewoman," answered the youth, "your real proverb says
+that the longest lane will have a turning, and mine was more--it was, in
+fine, a turning off."
+
+"Good!" said the merry young maiden, "it is an apt play on the word--and
+what occasion was taken for so important a catastrophe?--Nay, start not
+for my learning, I do know the schools--in plain phrase, why were you
+sent from service?"
+
+The page shrugged his shoulders while he replied,--"A short tale is soon
+told--and a short horse soon curried. I made the falconer's boy taste of
+my switch--the falconer threatened to make me brook his cudgel--he is a
+kindly clown as well as a stout, and I would rather have been cudgelled
+by him than any man in Christendom to choose--but I knew not his
+qualities at that time--so I threatened to make him brook the stab, and
+my Lady made me brook the 'Begone;' so adieu to the page's office and
+the fair Castle of Avenel--I had not travelled far before I met my
+venerable parent--And so tell your tale, fair gentlewoman, for mine is
+done."
+
+"A happy grandmother," said the maiden, "who had the luck to find the
+stray page just when his mistress had slipped his leash, and a most
+lucky page that has jumped at once from a page to an old lady's
+gentleman-usher!"
+
+"All this is nothing of your history," answered Roland Graeme, began
+to be much interested in the congenial vivacity of this facetious young
+gentlewoman,--"tale for tale is fellow-traveller's justice."
+
+"Wait till we are fellow-travellers, then," replied Catherine.
+
+"Nay, you escape me not so," said the page; "if you deal not justly by
+me, I will call out to Dame Bridget, or whatever your dame be called,
+and proclaim you for a cheat."
+
+"You shall not need," answered the maiden--"my history is the
+counterpart of your own; the same words might almost serve, change but
+dress and name. I am called Catherine Seyton, and I also am an orphan."
+
+"Have your parents been long dead?"
+
+"This is the only question," said she, throwing down her fine eyes with
+a sudden expression of sorrow, "that is the only question I cannot laugh
+at."
+
+"And Dame Bridget is your grandmother?"
+
+The sudden cloud passed away like that which crosses for an instant the
+summer sun, and she answered with her usual lively expression, "Worse by
+twenty degrees--Dame Bridget is my maiden aunt."
+
+"Over gods forbode!" said Roland--"Alas! that you have such a tale to
+tell! and what horror comes next?"
+
+"Your own history, exactly. I was taken upon trial for service--"
+
+"And turned off for pinching the duenna, or affronting my lady's
+waiting-woman?"
+
+"Nay, our history varies there," said the damsel--"Our mistress broke
+up house, or had her house broke up, which is the same thing, and I am a
+free woman of the forest."
+
+"And I am as glad of it as if any one had lined my doublet with cloth of
+gold," said the youth.
+
+"I thank you for your mirth," said she, "but the matter is not likely to
+concern you."
+
+"Nay, but go on," said the page, "for you will be presently interrupted;
+the two good dames have been soaring yonder on the balcony, like two old
+hooded crows, and their croak grows hoarser as night comes on; they will
+wing to roost presently.--This mistress of yours, fair gentlewoman, who
+was she, in God's name?"
+
+"Oh, she has a fair name in the world," replied Catherine Seyton. "Few
+ladies kept a fairer house, or held more gentlewomen in her household;
+my aunt Bridget was one of her housekeepers. We never saw our mistress's
+blessed face, to be sure, but we heard enough of her; were up early and
+down late, and were kept to long prayers and light food."
+
+"Out upon the penurious old beldam!" said the page.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, blaspheme not!" said the girl, with an expression
+of fear.--"God pardon us both! I meant no harm. I speak of our blessed
+Saint Catherine of Sienna!--may God forgive me that I spoke so lightly,
+and made you do a great sin and a great blasphemy. This was her nunnery,
+in which there were twelve nuns and an abbess. My aunt was the abbess,
+till the heretics turned all adrift."
+
+"And where are your companions?" asked the youth.
+
+"With the last year's snow," answered the maiden; "east, north, south,
+and west--some to France, some to Flanders, some, I fear, into the
+world and its pleasures. We have got permission to remain, or rather our
+remaining has been connived at, for my aunt has great relations among
+the Kerrs, and they have threatened a death-feud if any one touches us;
+and bow and spear are the best warrant in these times."
+
+"Nay, then, you sit under a sure shadow," said the youth; "and I suppose
+you wept yourself blind when Saint Catherine broke up housekeeping
+before you had taken arles [Footnote: _Anglice_--Earnest-money] in her
+service?"
+
+"Hush! for Heaven's sake," said the damsel, crossing herself; "no more
+of that! but I have not quite cried my eyes out," said she, turning them
+upon him, and instantly again bending them upon her work. It was one of
+those glances which would require the threefold plate of brass around
+the heart, more than it is needed by the mariners, to whom Horace
+recommends it. Our youthful page had no defence whatever to offer.
+
+"What say you, Catherine," he said, "if we two, thus strangely turned
+out of service at the same time, should give our two most venerable
+duennas the torch to hold, while we walk a merry measure with each other
+over the floor of this weary world?"
+
+"A goodly proposal, truly," said Catherine, "and worthy the mad-cap
+brain of a discarded page!--And what shifts does your worship propose
+we should live by?--by singing ballads, cutting purses, or swaggering
+on the highway? for there, I think, you would find your most productive
+exchequer."
+
+"Choose, you proud peat!" said the page, drawing off in huge disdain
+at the calm and unembarrassed ridicule with which his wild proposal was
+received. And as he spoke the words, the casement was again darkened by
+the forms of the matrons--it opened, and admitted Magdalen Graeme and
+the Mother Abbess, so we must now style her, into the apartment.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twelfth.
+
+
+  Nay, hear me, brother--I am elder, wiser,
+  And holier than thou--And age, and wisdom,
+  And holiness, have peremptory claims,
+  And will be listen'd to.
+                              OLD PLAY.
+
+When the matrons re-entered, and put an end to the conversation--which
+we have detailed in the last chapter, Dame Magdalen Graeme thus
+addressed her grandson and his pretty companion: "Have you spoke
+together, my children?--Have you become known to each other as
+fellow-travellers on the same dark and dubious road, whom chance hath
+brought together, and who study to learn the tempers and dispositions of
+those by whom their perils are to be shared?"
+
+It was seldom the light-hearted Catharine could suppress a jest, so that
+she often spoke when she would have acted more wisely in holding her
+peace.
+
+"Your grandson admires the journey which you propose so very greatly,
+that he was even now preparing for setting out upon it instantly."
+
+"This is to be too forward, Roland," said the dame, addressing him, "as
+yesterday you were over slack--the just mean lies in obedience, which
+both waits for the signal to start, and obeys it when given.--But once
+again, my children, have you so perused each other's countenances, that
+when you meet, in whatever disguise the times may impose upon you, you
+may recognize each in the other the secret agent of the mighty work in
+which you are to be leagued?--Look at each other, know each line and
+lineament of each other's countenance. Learn to distinguish by the step,
+by the sound of the voice, by the motion of the hand, by the glance
+of the eye, the partner whom Heaven hath sent to aid in working its
+will.--Wilt thou know that maiden, whensoever, or wheresoever you shall
+again meet her, my Roland Graeme?"
+
+As readily as truly did Roland answer in the affirmative. "And thou, my
+daughter, wilt thou again remember the features of this youth?"
+
+"Truly, mother," replied Catherine Seyton, "I have not seen so many men
+of late, that I should immediately forget your grandson, though I mark
+not much about him that is deserving of especial remembrance."
+
+"Join hands, then, my children," said Magdalen Graeme; but, in saying
+so, was interrupted by her companion, whose conventual prejudices had
+been gradually giving her more and more uneasiness, and who could remain
+acquiescent no longer.
+
+"Nay, my good sister, you forget," said she to Magdalen, "Catharine is
+the betrothed bride of Heaven--these intimacies cannot be."
+
+"It is in the cause of Heaven that I command them to embrace," said
+Magdalen, with the full force of her powerful voice; "the end, sister,
+sanctifies the means we must use."
+
+"They call me Lady Abbess, or Mother at the least, who address me,"
+said Dame Bridget, drawing herself up, as if offended at her friend's
+authoritative manner--"the Lady of Heathergill forgets that she speaks
+to the Abbess of Saint Catherine."
+
+"When I was what you call me," said Magdalen, "you indeed were the
+Abbess of Saint Catherine, but both names are now gone, with all the
+rank that the world and that the church gave to them; and we are now, to
+the eye of human judgment, two poor, despised, oppressed women, dragging
+our dishonoured old age to a humble grave. But what are we in the eye of
+Heaven?--Ministers, sent forth to work his will,--in whose weakness the
+strength of the church shall be manifested-before whom shall be humbled
+the wisdom of Murray, and the dark strength of Morton,--And to such
+wouldst thou apply the narrow rules of thy cloistered seclusion?--or,
+hast thou forgotten the order which I showed thee from thy Superior,
+subjecting thee to me in these matters?"
+
+"On thy head, then, be the scandal and the sin," said the Abbess,
+sullenly.
+
+"On mine be they both," said Magdalen. "I say, embrace each other, my
+children."
+
+But Catherine, aware, perhaps, how the dispute was likely to terminate,
+had escaped from the apartment, and so disappointed the grandson, at
+least as much as the old matron.
+
+"She is gone," said the Abbess, "to provide some little refreshment. But
+it will have little savour to those who dwell in the world; for I, at
+least, cannot dispense with the rules to which I am vowed, because it is
+the will of wicked men to break down the sanctuary in which they wont to
+be observed."
+
+"It is well, my sister," replied Magdalen, "to pay each even the
+smallest tithes of mint and cummin which the church demands, and I blame
+not thy scrupulous observance of the rules of thine order. But they were
+established by the church, and for the church's benefit; and reason it
+is that they should give way when the salvation of the church herself is
+at stake."
+
+The Abbess made no reply.
+
+One more acquainted with human nature than the inexperienced page, might
+have found amusement in comparing the different kinds of fanaticisms
+which these two females exhibited. The Abbess, timid, narrowminded, and
+discontented, clung to ancient usages and pretensions which were ended
+by the Reformation; and was in adversity, as she had been in prosperity,
+scrupulous, weak-spirited, and bigoted. While the fiery and more lofty
+spirit of her companion suggested a wider field of effort, and would
+not be limited by ordinary rules in the extraordinary schemes which
+were suggested by her bold and irregular imagination. But Roland Graeme,
+instead of tracing these peculiarities of character in the two old
+damps, only waited with great anxiety for the return of Catherine,
+expecting probably that the proposal of the fraternal embrace would be
+renewed, as his grandmother seemed disposed to carry matters with a high
+hand.
+
+His expectations, or hopes, if we may call them so, were, however,
+disappointed; for, when Catherine re-entered on the summons of the
+Abbess, and placed on the table an earthen pitcher of water, and
+four wooden platters, with cups of the same materials, the Dame of
+Heathergill, satisfied with the arbitrary mode in which she had borne
+down the opposition of the Abbess, pursued her victory no farther--a
+moderation for which her grandson, in his heart, returned her but
+slender thanks.
+
+In the meanwhile, Catherine continued to place upon the table the
+slender preparations for the meal of a recluse, which consisted almost
+entirely of colewort, boiled and served up in a wooden platter, having
+no better seasoning than a little salt, and no better accompaniment than
+some coarse barley-bread, in very moderate quantity. The water-pitcher,
+already mentioned, furnished the only beverage. After a Latin
+grace, delivered by the Abbess, the guests sat down to their spare
+entertainment. The simplicity of the fare appeared to produce no
+distaste in the females, who ate of it moderately, but with the usual
+appearance of appetite. But Roland Graeme had been used to better
+cheer. Sir Halbert Glendinning, who affected even an unusual degree
+of nobleness in his housekeeping, maintained it in a style of genial
+hospitality, which rivalled that of the Northern Barons of England. He
+might think, perhaps, that by doing so, he acted yet more completely
+the part for which he was born--that of a great Baron and a leader. Two
+bullocks, and six sheep, weekly, were the allowance when the Baron was
+at home, and the number was not greatly diminished during his absence. A
+boll of malt was weekly brewed into ale, which was used by the household
+at discretion. Bread was baked in proportion for the consumption of his
+domestics and retainers; and in this scene of plenty had Roland Graeme
+now lived for several years. It formed a bad introduction to lukewarm
+greens and spring-water; and probably his countenance indicated some
+sense of the difference, for the Abbess observed, "It would seem,
+my son, that the tables of the heretic Baron, whom you have so long
+followed, are more daintily furnished than those of the suffering
+daughters of the church; and yet, not upon the most solemn nights of
+festival, when the nuns were permitted to eat their portion at mine own
+table, did I consider the cates, which were then served up, as half so
+delicious as these vegetables and this water, on which I prefer to feed,
+rather than do aught which may derogate from the strictness of my vow.
+It shall never be said that the mistress of this house made it a house
+of feasting, when days of darkness and of affliction were hanging over
+the Holy Church, of which I am an unworthy member."
+
+"Well hast thou said, my sister," replied Magdalen Graeme; "but now
+it is not only time to suffer in the good cause, but to act in it. And
+since our pilgrim's meal is finished, let us go apart to prepare for our
+journey tomorrow, and to advise on the manner in which these children
+shall be employed, and what measures we can adopt to supply their
+thoughtlessness and lack of discretion."
+
+Notwithstanding his indifferent cheer, the heart of Roland Graeme
+bounded high at this proposal, which he doubted not would lead to
+another _tete-a-tete_ betwixt him and the pretty novice. But he was
+mistaken. Catherine, it would seem, had no mind so far to indulge him;
+for, moved either by delicacy or caprice, or some of those indescribable
+shades betwixt the one and the other, with which women love to tease,
+and at the same time to captivate, the ruder sex, she reminded the
+Abbess that it was necessary she should retire an hour before vespers;
+and, receiving the ready and approving nod of her Superior, she arose
+to withdraw. But before leaving the apartment, she made obeisance to the
+matrons, bending herself till her hands touched her knees, and then made
+a lesser reverence to Roland, which consisted in a slight bend of
+the body and gentle depression of the head. This she performed very
+demurely; but the party on whom the salutation was conferred, thought he
+could discern in her manner an arch and mischievous exultation over his
+secret disappointment.--"The devil take the saucy girl," he thought in
+his heart, though the presence of the Abbess should have repressed all
+such profane imaginations,--"she is as hard-hearted as the laughing
+hyaena that the story-books tell of--she has a mind that I shall not
+forget her this night at least."
+
+The matrons now retired also, giving the page to understand that he
+was on no account to stir from the convent, or to show himself at the
+windows, the Abbess assigning as a reason, the readiness with which the
+rude heretics caught at every occasion of scandalizing the religious
+orders.
+
+"This is worse than the rigour of Mr. Henry Warden, himself," said the
+page, when he was left alone; "for, to do him justice, however strict in
+requiring the most rigid attention during the time of his homilies, he
+left us to the freedom of our own wills afterwards--ay, and would take
+a share in our pastimes, too, if he thought them entirely innocent.
+But these old women are utterly wrapt up in gloom, mystery and
+self-denial.--Well, then, if I must neither stir out of the gate nor
+look out at window, I will at least see what the inside of the house
+contains that may help to pass away one's time--peradventure I may light
+on that blue-eyed laugher in some corner or other."
+
+Going, therefore, out of the chamber by the entrance opposite to that
+through which the two matrons had departed, (for it may be readily
+supposed that he had no desire to intrude on their privacy.) he wandered
+from one chamber to another, through the deserted edifice, seeking, with
+boyish eagerness, some source of interest and amusement. Here he passed
+through a long gallery, opening on either hand into the little cells
+of the nuns, all deserted, and deprived of the few trifling articles of
+furniture which the rules of the order admitted.
+
+"The birds are flown," thought the page; "but whether they will find
+themselves worse off in the open air than in these damp narrow cages, I
+leave my Lady Abbess and my venerable relative to settle betwixt them.
+I think the wild young lark whom they have left behind them, would like
+best to sing under God's free sky."
+
+A winding stair, strait and narrow, as if to remind the nuns of their
+duties of fast and maceration, led down to a lower suite of apartments,
+which occupied the ground story of the house. These rooms were even more
+ruinous than those which he had left; for, having encountered the first
+fury of the assailants by whom the nunnery had been wasted, the windows
+had been dashed in, the doors broken down, and even the partitions
+betwixt the apartments, in some places, destroyed. As he thus stalked
+from desolation to desolation, and began to think of returning from
+so uninteresting a research to the chamber which he had left, he was
+surprised to hear the low of a cow very close to him. The sound was so
+unexpected at the time and place, that Roland Graeme started as if it
+had been the voice of a lion, and laid his hand on his dagger, while at
+the same moment the light and lovely form of Catherine Seyton presented
+itself at the door of the apartment from which the sound had issued.
+
+"Good even to you, valiant champion!" said she: "since the days of Guy
+of Warwick, never was one more worthy to encounter a dun cow."
+
+"Cow?" said Roland Graeme, "by my faith, I thought it had been the
+devil that roared so near me. Who ever heard of a convent containing a
+cow-house?"
+
+"Cow and calf may come hither now," answered Catherine, "for we have no
+means to keep out either. But I advise you, kind sir, to return to the
+place from whence you came."
+
+"Not till I see your charge, fair sister," answered Roland, and made
+his way into the apartment, in spite of the half serious half laughing
+remonstrances of the girl.
+
+The poor solitary cow, now the only severe recluse within the nunnery,
+was quartered in a spacious chamber, which had once been the refectory
+of the convent. The roof was graced with groined arches, and the wall
+with niches, from which the images had been pulled down. These remnants
+of architectural ornaments were strangely contrasted with the rude crib
+constructed for the cow in one corner of the apartment, and the stack of
+fodder which was piled beside it for her food. [Footnote: This, like
+the cell of Saint Cuthbert, is an imaginary scene, but I took one or
+two ideas of the desolation of the interior from a story told me by my
+father. In his youth--it may be near eighty years since, as he was born
+in 1729--he had occasion to visit an old lady who resided in a Border
+castle of considerable renown. Only one very limited portion of the
+extensive ruins sufficed for the accommodation of the inmates, and my
+father amused himself by wandering through the part that was untenanted.
+In a dining-apartment, having a roof richly adorned with arches and
+drops, there was deposited a large stack of hay, to which calves were
+helping themselves from opposite sides. As my father was scaling a
+dark ruinous turnpike staircase, his greyhound ran up before him, and
+probably was the means of saving his life, for the animal fell through
+a trap-door, or aperture in the stair, thus warning the owner of the
+danger of the ascent. As the dog continued howling from a great depth,
+my father got the old butler, who alone knew most of the localities
+about the castle, to unlock a sort of stable, in which Kill-buck was
+found safe and sound, the place being filled with the same commodity
+which littered the stalls of Augeas, and which had rendered the dog's
+fall an easy one.]
+
+"By my faith," said the page, "Crombie is more lordly lodged than any
+one here!"
+
+"You had best remain with her," said Catherine, "and supply by your
+filial attentions the offspring she has had the ill luck to lose."
+
+"I will remain, at least, to help you to prepare her night's lair,
+pretty Catherine," said Roland, seizing upon a pitch-fork.
+
+"By no means," said Catherine; "for, besides that you know not in the
+least how to do her that service, you will bring a chiding my way, and I
+get enough of that in the regular course of things."
+
+"What! for accepting my assistance?" said the page,--"for accepting _my_
+assistance, who am to be your confederate in some deep matter of import?
+That were altogether unreasonable--and, now I think on it, tell me if
+you can, what is this mighty emprise to which I am destined?"
+
+"Robbing a bird's nest, I should suppose," said Catherine, "considering
+the champion whom they have selected."
+
+"By my faith," said the youth, "and he that has taken a falcon's nest
+in the Scaurs of Polmoodie, has done something to brag of, my fair
+sister.--But that is all over now--a murrain on the nest, and the eyases
+and their food, washed or unwashed, for it was all anon of cramming
+these worthless kites that I was sent upon my present travels. Save
+that I have met with you, pretty sister, I could eat my dagger-hilt for
+vexation at my own folly. But, as we are to be fellow-travellers--"
+
+"Fellow-labourers! not fellow-travellers!" answered the girl; "for to
+your comfort be it known, that the Lady Abbess and I set out earlier
+than you and your respected relative to-morrow, and that I partly endure
+your company at present, because it may be long ere we meet again."
+
+"By Saint Andrew, but it shall not though," answered Roland; "I will not
+hunt at all unless we are to hunt in couples."
+
+"I suspect, in that and in other points, we must do as we are bid,"
+replied the young lady.--"But, hark! I hear my aunt's voice."
+
+The old lady entered in good earnest, and darted a severe glance at her
+niece, while Roland had the ready wit to busy himself about the halter
+of the cow.
+
+"The young gentleman," said Catherine, gravely, "is helping me to tie
+the cow up faster to her stake, for I find that last night when she put
+her head out of window and lowed, she alarmed the whole village;
+and--we shall be suspected of sorcery among the heretics, if they do not
+discover the cause of the apparition, or lose our cow if they do."
+
+"Relieve yourself of that fear," said the Abbess, somewhat ironically;
+"the person to whom she is now sold, comes for the animal presently."
+
+"Good night, then, my poor companion," said Catherine, patting the
+animal's shoulders; "I hope thou hast fallen into kind hands, for my
+happiest hours of late have been spent in tending thee--I would I had
+been born to no better task!"
+
+"Now, out upon thee, mean-spirited wench!" said the Abbess; "is that a
+speech worthy of the name of Seyton, or of the mouth of a sister of this
+house, treading the path of election--and to be spoken before a stranger
+youth, too?--Go to my oratory, minion--there read your Hours till I come
+thither, when I will read you such a lecture as shall make you prize the
+blessings which you possess."
+
+Catherine was about to withdraw in silence, casting a half sorrowful
+half comic glance at Roland Graeme, which seemed to say--"You see to
+what your untimely visit has exposed me," when, suddenly changing her
+mind, she came forward to the page, and extended her hand as she bid
+him good evening. Their palms had pressed each other ere the astonished
+matron could interfere, and Catherine had time to say--"Forgive me,
+mother; it is long since we have seen a face that looked with kindness
+on us. Since these disorders have broken up our peaceful retreat, all
+has been gloom and malignity. I bid this youth kindly farewell, because
+he has come hither in kindness, and because the odds are great, that
+we may never again meet in this world. I guess better than he, that the
+schemes on which you are rushing are too mighty for your management, and
+that you are now setting the stone a-rolling, which must surely crush
+you in its descent. I bid fare-well," she added, "to my fellow-victim!"
+
+This was spoken with a tone of deep and serious feeling, altogether
+different from the usual levity of Catherine's manner, and plainly
+showed, that beneath the giddiness of extreme youth and total
+inexperience, there lurked in her bosom a deeper power of sense and
+feeling, than her conduct had hitherto expressed.
+
+The Abbess remained a moment silent after she had left the room. The
+proposed rebuke died on her tongue, and she appeared struck with the
+deep and foreboding, tone in which her niece had spoken her good-even.
+She led the way in silence to the apartment which they had formerly
+occupied, and where there was prepared a small refection, as the
+Abbess termed it, consisting of milk and barley-bread. Magdalen Graeme,
+summoned to take share in this collation, appeared from an adjoining
+apartment, but Catherine was seen no more. There was little said during
+the hasty meal, and after it was finished, Roland Graeme was dismissed
+to the nearest cell, where some preparations had been made for his
+repose.
+
+The strange circumstances in which he found himself, had their usual
+effect in preventing slumber from hastily descending on him, and he
+could distinctly hear, by a low but earnest murmuring in the apartment
+which he had left, that the matrons continued in deep consultation to
+a late hour. As they separated he heard the Abbess distinctly express
+herself thus: "In a word, my sister, I venerate your character and the
+authority with which my Superiors have invested you; yet it seems to me,
+that, ere entering on this perilous course, we should consult some of
+the Fathers of the Church."
+
+"And how and where are we to find a faithful Bishop or Abbot at whom to
+ask counsel? The faithful Eustatius is no more--he is withdrawn from a
+world of evil, and from the tyranny of heretics. May Heaven and our
+Lady assoilzie him of his sins, and abridge the penance of his mortal
+infirmities!--Where shall we find another, with whom to take counsel?"
+
+"Heaven will provide for the Church," said the Abbess; "and the faithful
+fathers who yet are suffered to remain in the house of Kennaquhair, will
+proceed to elect an Abbot. They will not suffer the staff to fall down,
+or the mitre to be unfilled, for the threats of heresy."
+
+"That will I learn to-morrow," said Magdalen Graeme; "yet who now takes
+the office of an hour, save to partake with the spoilers in their work
+of plunder?--to-morrow will tell us if one of the thousand saints who
+are sprung from the House of Saint Mary's continues to look down on it
+in its misery.--Farewell, my sister--we meet at Edinburgh."
+
+"Benedicito!" answered the Abbess, and they parted.
+
+"To Kennaquhair and to Edinburgh we bend our way." thought Roland
+Graeme. "That information have I purchased by a sleepless hour--it suits
+well with my purpose. At Kennaquhair I shall see Father Ambrose;--at
+Edinburgh I shall find the means of shaping my own course through
+this bustling world, without burdening my affectionate relation--at
+Edinburgh, too, I shall see again the witching novice, with her blue
+eyes and her provoking smile."--He fell asleep, and it was to dream of
+Catherine Seyton.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirteenth.
+
+
+  What, Dagon up again!--I thought we had hurl'd him
+  Down on the threshold, never more to rise.
+  Bring wedge and axe; and, neighbours, lend your hands
+  And rive the idol into winter fagots!
+                   ATHELSTANE, OR THE CONVERTED DANE.
+
+Roland Graeme slept long and sound, and the sun was high over the
+horizon, when the voice of his companion summoned him to resume their
+pilgrimage; and when, hastily arranging his dress, he went to attend her
+call, the enthusiastic matron stood already at the threshold, prepared
+for her journey. There was in all the deportment of this remarkable
+woman, a promptitude of execution, and a sternness of perseverance,
+founded on the fanaticism which she nursed so deeply, and which seemed
+to absorb all the ordinary purposes and feelings of mortality. One only
+human affection gleamed through her enthusiastic energies, like the
+broken glimpses of the sun through the rising clouds of a storm. It was
+her maternal fondness for her grandson--a fondness carried almost to the
+verge of dotage, in circumstances where the Catholic religion was not
+concerned, but which gave way instantly when it chanced either to thwart
+or come in contact with the more settled purpose of her soul, and the
+more devoted duty of her life. Her life she would willingly have laid
+down to save the earthly object of her affection; but that object itself
+she was ready to hazard, and would have been willing to sacrifice,
+could the restoration of the Church of Rome have been purchased with his
+blood. Her discourse by the way, excepting on the few occasions in which
+her extreme love of her grandson found opportunity to display itself in
+anxiety for his health and accommodation, turned entirely on the duty
+of raising up the fallen honours of the Church, and replacing a Catholic
+sovereign on the throne. There were times at which she hinted, though
+very obscurely and distantly, that she herself was foredoomed by Heaven
+to perform a part in this important task; and that she had more than
+mere human warranty for the zeal with which she engaged in it. But on
+this subject she expressed herself in such general language, that it was
+not easy to decide whether she made any actual pretensions to a direct
+and supernatural call, like the celebrated Elizabeth Barton, commonly
+called the Nun of Kent; [Footnote: A fanatic nun, called the Holy Maid
+of Kent, who pretended to the gift of prophecy and power of miracles.
+Having denounced the doom of speedy death against Henry VIII. for his
+marriage with Anne Boleyn, the prophetess was attainted in Parliament,
+and executed with her accomplices. Her imposture was for a time so
+successful, that even Sir Thomas More was disposed to be a believer.]
+or whether she dwelt upon the general duty which was incumbent on
+all Catholics of the time, and the pressure of which she felt in an
+extraordinary degree.
+
+Yet though Magdalen Graeme gave no direct intimation of her pretensions
+to be considered as something beyond the ordinary class of mortals,
+the demeanour of one or two persons amongst the travellers whom they
+occasionally met, as they entered the more fertile and populous part of
+the valley, seemed to indicate their belief in her superior attributes.
+It is true, that two clowns, who drove before them a herd of cattle--one
+or two village wenches, who seemed bound for some merry-making--a
+strolling soldier, in a rusted morion, and a wandering student, as his
+threadbare black cloak and his satchel of books proclaimed him--passed
+our travellers without observation, or with a look of contempt; and,
+moreover, that two or three children, attracted by the appearance of
+a dress so nearly resembling that of a pilgrim, joined in hooting and
+calling "Out upon the mass-monger!" But one or two, who nourished in
+their bosoms respect for the downfallen hierarchy--casting first a
+timorous glance around, to see that no one observed them--hastily
+crossed themselves--bent their knee to Sister Magdalen, by which
+name they saluted her--kissed her hand, or even the hem of her
+dalmatique--received with humility the Benedicite with which she repaid
+their obeisance; and then starting up, and again looking timidly round
+to see that they had been unobserved, hastily resumed their journey.
+Even while within sight of persons of the prevailing faith, there were
+individuals bold enough, by folding their arms and bending their head,
+to give distant and silent intimation that they recognized Sister
+Magdalen, and honoured alike her person and her purpose.
+
+She failed not to notice to her grandson these marks of honour and
+respect which from time to time she received. "You see," she said, "my
+son, that the enemies have been unable altogether to suppress the good
+spirit, or to root out the true seed. Amid heretics and schismatics,
+spoilers of the church's lands, and scoffers at saints and sacraments,
+there is left a remnant."
+
+"It is true, my mother," said Roland Graeme; "but methinks they are of
+a quality which can help us but little. See you not all those who wear
+steel at their side, and bear marks of better quality, ruffle past us as
+they would past the meanest beggars? for those who give us any marks of
+sympathy, are the poorest of the poor, and most outcast of the needy,
+who have neither bread to share with us, nor swords to defend us, nor
+skill to use them if they had. That poor wretch that last kneeled to you
+with such deep devotion, and who seemed emaciated by the touch of some
+wasting disease within, and the grasp of poverty without--that pale,
+shivering, miserable caitiff, how can he aid the great schemes you
+meditate?"
+
+"Much, my son," said the Matron, with more mildness than the page
+perhaps expected. "When that pious son of the church returns from the
+shrine of Saint Ringan, whither he now travels by my counsel, and by the
+aid of good Catholics,--when he returns, healed, of his wasting
+malady, high in health, and strong in limb, will not the glory of his
+faithfulness, and its miraculous reward, speak louder in the ears of
+this besotted people of Scotland, than the din which is weekly made in a
+thousand heretical pulpits?"
+
+"Ay, but, mother, I fear the Saint's hand is out. It is long since we
+have heard of a miracle performed at St. Ringan's."
+
+The matron made a dead pause, and, with a voice tremulous with emotion,
+asked, "Art thou so unhappy as to doubt the power of the blessed Saint?"
+
+"Nay, mother," the youth hastened to reply, "I believe as the Holy
+Church commands, and doubt not Saint Ringan's power of healing; but, be
+it said with reverence, he hath not of late showed the inclination."
+
+"And has this land deserved it?" said the Catholic matron, advancing
+hastily while she spoke, until she attained the summit of a rising
+ground, over which the path led, and then standing again still.
+"Here," she said, "stood the Cross, the limits of the Halidome of Saint
+Mary's--here--on this eminence--from which the eye of the holy pilgrim
+might first catch a view of that ancient monastery, the light of the
+land, the abode of Saints, and the grave of monarchs--Where is now that
+emblem of our faith? It lies on the earth--a shapeless block, from which
+the broken fragments have been carried off, for the meanest uses, till
+now no semblance of its original form remains. Look towards the east,
+my son, where the sun was wont to glitter on stately spires--from which
+crosses and bells have now been hurled, as if the land had been invaded
+once more by barbarous heathens.--Look at yonder battlements, of which
+we can, even at this distance, descry the partial demolition; and ask
+if this land can expect from the blessed saints, whose shrines and whose
+images have been profaned, any other miracles but those of vengeance?
+How long," she exclaimed, looking upward, "How long shall it be
+delayed?" She paused, and then resumed with enthusiastic rapidity, "Yes,
+my son, all on earth is but for a period--joy and grief, triumph and
+desolation, succeed each other like cloud and sunshine;--the vineyard
+shall not be forever trodden down, the gaps shall be amended, and the
+fruitful branches once more dressed and trimmed. Even this day--ay,
+even this hour, I trust to hear news of importance. Dally not--let us
+on--time is brief, and judgment is certain."
+
+She resumed the path which led to the Abbey--a path which, in ancient
+times, was carefully marked out by posts and rails, to assist the
+pilgrim in his journey--these were now torn up and destroyed. A
+half-hour's walk placed them in front of the once splendid Monastery,
+which, although the church was as yet entire, had not escaped the fury
+of the times. The long range of cells and of apartments for the use of
+the brethren, which occupied two sides of the great square, were almost
+entirely ruinous, the interior having been consumed by fire, which
+only the massive architecture of the outward walls had enabled them to
+resist. The Abbot's house, which formed the third side of the square,
+was, though injured, still inhabited, and afforded refuge to the few
+brethren, who yet, rather by connivance than by actual authority,--were
+permitted to remain at Kennaquhair. Their stately offices--their
+pleasant gardens--the magnificent cloisters constructed for their
+recreation, were all dilapidated and ruinous; and some of the building
+materials had apparently been put into requisition by persons in the
+village and in the vicinity, who, formerly vassals of the Monastery, had
+not hesitated to appropriate to themselves a part of the spoils. Roland
+saw fragments of Gothic pillars richly carved, occupying the place of
+door-posts to the meanest huts; and here and there a mutilated statue,
+inverted or laid on its side, made the door-post, or threshold, of a
+wretched cow-house. The church itself was less injured than the other
+buildings of the Monastery. But the images which had been placed in the
+numerous niches of its columns and buttresses, having all fallen under
+the charge of idolatry, to which the superstitious devotion of the
+Papists had justly exposed them, had been broken and thrown down,
+without much regard to the preservation of the rich and airy canopies
+and pedestals on which they were placed; nor, if the devastation had
+stopped short at this point, could we have considered the preservation
+of these monuments of antiquity as an object to be put in the balance
+with the introduction of the reformed worship.
+
+Our pilgrims saw the demolition of these sacred and venerable
+representations of saints and angels--for as sacred and venerable they
+had been taught to consider them--with very different feelings. The
+antiquary may be permitted to regret the necessity of the action, but
+to Magdalen Graeme it seemed a deed of impiety, deserving the instant
+vengeance of heaven,--a sentiment in which her relative joined for the
+moment as cordially as herself. Neither, however, gave vent to their
+feelings in words, and uplifted hands and eyes formed their only mode of
+expressing them. The page was about to approach the great eastern gate
+of the church, but was prevented by his guide. "That gate," she said,
+"has long been blockaded, that the heretical rabble may not know there
+still exist among the brethren of Saint Mary's men who dare worship
+where their predecessors prayed while alive, and were interred when
+dead--follow me this way, my son."
+
+Roland Graeme followed accordingly; and Magdalen, casting a hasty glance
+to see whether they were observed, (for she had learned caution from the
+danger of the times,) commanded her grandson to knock at a little wicket
+which she pointed out to him. "But knock gently," she added, with a
+motion expressive of caution. After a little space, during which no
+answer was returned, she signed to Roland to repeat his summons for
+admission; and the door at length partially opening, discovered a
+glimpse of the thin and timid porter, by whom the duty was performed,
+skulking from the observation of those who stood without; but
+endeavouring at the same time to gain a sight of them without being
+himself seen. How different from the proud consciousness of dignity with
+which the porter of ancient days offered his important brow, and his
+goodly person, to the pilgrims who repaired to Kennaquhair! His solemn
+"_Intrate, mei filii,_" was exchanged for a tremulous "You cannot enter
+now--the brethren are in their chambers." But, when Magdalen Graeme
+asked, in an under tone of voice, "Hast thou forgotten me, my brother?"
+he changed his apologetic refusal to "Enter, my honoured sister, enter
+speedily, for evil eyes are upon us."
+
+They entered accordingly, and having waited until the porter had, with
+jealous haste, barred and bolted the wicket, were conducted by him
+through several dark and winding passages. As they walked slowly on,
+he spoke to the matron in a subdued voice, as if he feared to trust the
+very walls with the avowal which he communicated.
+
+"Our Fathers are assembled in the Chapter-house, worthy sister--yes, in
+the Chapter-house--for the election of an Abbott.--Ah, Benedicite! there
+must be no ringing of bells--no high mass--no opening of the great gates
+now, that the people might see and venerate their spiritual Father! Our
+Fathers must hide themselves rather like robbers who choose a leader,
+than godly priests who elect a mitred Abbot."
+
+"Regard not that, my brother," answered Magdalen Graeme; "the first
+successors of Saint Peter himself were elected, not in sunshine, but
+in tempests--not in the halls of the Vatican, but in the subterranean
+vaults and dungeons of heathen Rome--they were not gratulated with
+shouts and salvos of cannon-shot and of musketry, and the display of
+artificial fire--no, my brother--but by the hoarse summons of Lictors
+and Praetors, who came to drag the Fathers of the Church to martyrdom.
+From such adversity was the Church once raised, and by such will it
+now be purified.--And mark me, brother! not in the proudest days of the
+mitred Abbey, was a Superior ever chosen, whom his office shall so much
+honour, as _he_ shall be honoured, who now takes it upon him in these
+days of tribulation. On whom, my brother, will the choice fall?"
+
+"On whom can it fall--or, alas! who would dare to reply to the call,
+save the worthy pupil of the Sainted Eustatius--the good and valiant
+Father Ambrose?"
+
+"I know it," said Magdalen; "my heart told me long ere your lips had
+uttered his name. Stand forth, courageous champion, and man the fatal
+breach!--Rise, bold and experienced pilot, and seize the helm while
+the tempest rages!--Turn back the battle, brave raiser of the fallen
+standard!--Wield crook and slang, noble shepherd of a scattered flock!"
+
+"I pray you, hush, my sister!" said the porter, opening a door which led
+into the great church, "the brethren will be presently here to celebrate
+their election with a solemn mass--I must marshal them the way to the
+high altar--all the offices of this venerable house have now devolved on
+one poor decrepit old man."
+
+He left the church, and Magdalen and Roland remained alone in that great
+vaulted space, whose style of rich, yet chaste architecture, referred
+its origin to the early part of the fourteenth century, the best period
+of Gothic building. But the niches were stripped of their images in the
+inside as well as the outside of the church; and in the pell-mell havoc,
+the tombs of warriors and of princes had been included in the demolition
+of the idolatrous shrines. Lances and swords of antique size, which had
+hung over the tombs of mighty warriors of former days, lay now strewed
+among relics, with which the devotion of pilgrims had graced those of
+their peculiar saints; and the fragments of the knights and dames, which
+had once lain recumbent, or kneeled in an attitude of devotion, where
+their mortal relics were reposed, were mingled with those of the saints
+and angels of the Gothic chisel, which the hand of violence had sent
+headlong from their stations.
+
+The most fatal symptom of the whole appeared to be, that, though this
+violence had now been committed for many months, the Fathers had lost so
+totally all heart and resolution, that they had not adventured even upon
+clearing away the rubbish, or restoring the church to some decent degree
+of order. This might have been done without much labour. But terror had
+overpowered the scanty remains of a body once so powerful, and, sensible
+they were only suffered to remain in this ancient seat by connivance and
+from compassion, they did not venture upon taking any step which might
+be construed into an assertion of their ancient rights, contenting
+themselves with the secret and obscure exercise of their religious
+ceremonial, in as unostentatious a manner as was possible.
+
+Two or three of the more aged brethren had sunk under the pressure of
+the times, and the ruins had been partly cleared away to permit their
+interment. One stone had been laid over Father Nicholas, which recorded
+of him in special, that he had taken the vows during the incumbency of
+Abbot Ingelram, the period to which his memory so frequently recurred.
+Another flag-stone, yet more recently deposited, covered the body of
+Philip the Sacristan, eminent for his aquatic excursion with the phantom
+of Avenel, and a third, the most recent of all, bore the outline of a
+mitre, and the words _Hic jacet Eustatius Abbas_; for no one dared to
+add a word of commendation in favour of his learning, and strenuous zeal
+for the Roman Catholic faith.
+
+Magdalen Graeme looked at and perused the brief records of these
+monuments successively, and paused over that of Father Eustace. "In
+a good hour for thyself," she said, "but oh! in an evil hour for the
+Church, wert thou called from us. Let thy spirit be with us, holy
+man--encourage thy successor to tread in thy footsteps--give him thy
+bold and inventive capacity, thy zeal and thy discretion--even _thy_
+piety exceeds not his." As she spoke, a side door, which closed a
+passage from the Abbot's house into the church, was thrown open, that
+the Fathers might enter the choir, and conduct to the high altar the
+Superior whom they had elected.
+
+In former times, this was one of the most splendid of the many pageants
+which the hierarchy of Rome had devised to attract the veneration of
+the faithful. The period during which the Abbacy remained vacant, was
+a state of mourning, or, as their emblematical phrase expressed it,
+of widowhood; a melancholy term, which was changed into rejoicing and
+triumph when a new Superior was chosen. When the folding doors were on
+such solemn occasions thrown open, and the new Abbot appeared on the
+threshold in full-blown dignity, with ring and mitre, and dalmatique
+and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and his juvenile dispensers of
+incense preceding him, and the venerable train of monks behind him, with
+all besides which could announce the supreme authority to which he was
+now raised, his appearance was a signal for the magnificent _jubilate_
+to rise from the organ and music-loft, and to be joined by the
+corresponding bursts of Alleluiah from the whole assembled congregation.
+Now all was changed. In the midst of rubbish and desolation, seven or
+eight old men, bent and shaken as much by grief and fear as by age,
+shrouded hastily in the proscribed dress of their order, wandered like
+a procession of spectres, from the door which had been thrown open, up
+through the encumbered passage, to the high altar, there to instal their
+elected Superior a chief of ruins. It was like a band of bewildered
+travellers choosing a chief in the wilderness of Arabia; or a
+shipwrecked crew electing a captain upon the barren island on which fate
+has thrown them.
+
+They who, in peaceful times, are most ambitious of authority among
+others, shrink from the competition at such eventful periods, when
+neither ease nor parade attend the possession of it, and when it gives
+only a painful pre-eminence both in danger and in labour, and exposes
+the ill-fated chieftain to the murmurs of his discontented associates,
+as well as to the first assault of the common enemy. But he on whom the
+office of the Abbot of Saint Mary's was now conferred, had a mind fitted
+for the situation to which he was called. Bold and enthusiastic, yet
+generous and forgiving--wise and skilful, yet zealous and prompt--he
+wanted but a better cause than the support of a decaying superstition,
+to have raised him to the rank of a truly great man. But as the end
+crowns the work, it also forms the rule by which it must be ultimately
+judged; and those who, with sincerity and generosity, fight and fall in
+an evil cause, posterity can only compassionate as victims of a generous
+but fatal error. Amongst these, we must rank Ambrosius, the last Abbot
+of Kennaqubair, whose designs must be condemned, as their success would
+have riveted on Scotland the chains of antiquated superstition and
+spiritual tyranny; but whose talents commanded respect, and whose
+virtues, even from the enemies of his faith, extorted esteem.
+
+The bearing of the new Abbot served of itself to dignify a ceremonial
+which was deprived of all other attributes of grandeur. Conscious of
+the peril in which they stood, and recalling, doubtless, the better days
+they had seen, there hung over his brethren an appearance of mingled
+terror, and grief, and shame, which induced them to hurry over the
+office in which they were engaged, as something at once degrading and
+dangerous.
+
+But not so Father Ambrose. His features, indeed, expressed a deep
+melancholy, as he walked up the centre aisle, amid the ruin of things
+which he considered as holy, but his brow was undejected, and his step
+firm and solemn. He seemed to think that the dominion which he was about
+to receive, depended in no sort upon the external circumstances under
+which it was conferred; and if a mind so firm was accessible to sorrow
+or fear, it was not on his own account, but on that of the Church to
+which he had devoted himself.
+
+At length he stood on the broken steps of the high altar, barefooted, as
+was the rule, and holding in his hand his pastoral staff, for the gemmed
+ring and jewelled mitre had become secular spoils. No obedient vassals
+came, man after man, to make their homage, and to offer the tribute
+which should provide their spiritual Superior with palfrey and
+trappings. No Bishop assisted at the solemnity, to receive into the
+higher ranks of the Church nobility a dignitary, whose voice in the
+legislature was as potential as his own. With hasty and maimed rites,
+the few remaining brethren stepped forward alternately to give their new
+Abbot the kiss of peace, in token of fraternal affection and spiritual
+homage. Mass was then hastily performed, but in such precipitation as if
+it had been hurried over rather to satisfy the scruples of a few youths,
+who were impatient to set out on a hunting party, than as if it made the
+most solemn part of a solemn ordination. The officiating priest faltered
+as he spoke the service, and often looked around, as if he expected to
+be interrupted in the midst of his office; and the brethren listened to
+that which, short as it was, they wished yet more abridged.[Footnote:
+In Catholic countries, in order to reconcile the pleasures of the great
+with the observances of religion, it was common, when a party was bent
+for the chase, to celebrate mass, abridged and maimed of its rites,
+called a hunting-mass, the brevity of which was designed to correspond
+with the impatience of the audience.]
+
+These symptoms of alarm increased as the ceremony proceeded, and, as it
+seemed, were not caused by mere apprehension alone; for, amid the pauses
+of the hymn, there were heard without sounds of a very different sort,
+beginning faintly and at a distance, but at length approaching close to
+the exterior of the church, and stunning with dissonant clamour those
+engaged in the service. The winding of horns, blown with no regard to
+harmony or concert; the jangling of bells, the thumping of drums,
+the squeaking of bagpipes, and the clash of cymbals--the shouts of a
+multitude, now as in laughter, now as in anger--the shrill tones of
+female voices, and of those of children, mingling with the deeper
+clamour of men, formed a Babel of sounds, which first drowned, and then
+awed into utter silence, the official hymns of the Convent. The cause
+and result of this extraordinary interruption will be explained in the
+next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fourteenth.
+
+
+  Not the wild billow, when it breaks its barrier--
+  Not the wild wind, escaping from its cavern--
+  Not the wild fiend, that mingles both together,
+  And pours their rage upon the ripening harvest,
+  Can match the wild freaks of this mirthful meeting--
+  Comic, yet fearful--droll, and yet destructive.
+                              THE CONSPIRACY.
+
+The monks ceased their song, which, like that of the choristers in the
+legend of the Witch of Berkley, died away in a quaver of consternation;
+and, like a flock of chickens disturbed by the presence of the
+kite, they at first made a movement to disperse and fly in different
+directions, and then, with despair, rather than hope, huddled themselves
+around their new Abbot; who, retaining the lofty and undismayed look
+which had dignified him through the whole ceremony, stood on the higher
+step of the altar, as if desirous to be the most conspicuous mark on
+which danger might discharge itself, and to save his companions by his
+self-devotion, since he could afford them no other protection.
+
+Involuntarily, as it were, Magdalen Graeme and the page stepped from the
+station which hitherto they had occupied unnoticed, and approached to
+the altar, as desirous of sharing the fate which approached the monks,
+whatever that might be. Both bowed reverently low to the Abbot; and
+while Magdalen seemed about to speak, the youth, looking towards the
+main entrance, at which the noise now roared most loudly, and which was
+at the same time assailed with much knocking, laid his hand upon his
+dagger.
+
+The Abbot motioned to both to forbear: "Peace, my sister," he said, in a
+low tone, but which, being in a different key from the tumultuary sounds
+without, could be distinctly heard, even amidst the tumult;--"Peace," he
+said, "my sister; let the new Superior of Saint Mary's himself receive
+and reply to the grateful acclamations of the vassals, who come to
+celebrate his installation.--And thou, my son, forbear, I charge thee,
+to touch thy earthly weapon;--if it is the pleasure of our protectress,
+that her shrine be this day desecrated by deeds of violence, and
+polluted by blood-shedding, let it not, I charge thee, happen through
+the deed of a Catholic son of the church."
+
+The noise and knocking at the outer gate became now every moment louder;
+and voices were heard impatiently demanding admittance. The Abbot, with
+dignity, and with a step which even the emergency of danger rendered
+neither faltering nor precipitate, moved towards the portal, and
+demanded to know, in a tone of authority, who it was that disturbed
+their worship, and what they desired?
+
+There was a moment's silence, and then a loud laugh from without. At
+length a voice replied, "We desire entrance into the church; and when
+the door is opened you will soon see who we are."
+
+"By whose authority do you require entrance?" said the Father.
+
+"By authority of the right reverend Lord Abbot of Unreason."
+
+[Footnote: We learn from no less authority than that of Napoleon
+Bonaparte, that there is but a single step between the sublime and
+ridiculous; and it is a transition from one extreme to another; so very
+easy, that the vulgar of every degree are peculiarly captivated with it.
+Thus the inclination to laugh becomes uncontrollable, when the solemnity
+and gravity of time, place, and circumstances, render it peculiarly
+improper. Some species of general license, like that which inspired the
+ancient Saturnalia, or the modern Carnival, has been commonly indulged
+to the people at all times and in almost all countries. But it was, I
+think, peculiar to the Roman Catholic Church, that while they studied
+how to render their church rites imposing and magnificent, by all that
+pomp, music, architecture, and external display could add to them, they
+nevertheless connived, upon special occasions, at the frolics of the
+rude vulgar, who, in almost all Catholic countries, enjoyed, or at least
+assumed, the privilege of making: some Lord of the revels, who, under
+the name of the Abbot of Unreason, the Boy Bishop, or the President
+of Fools, occupied the churches, profaned the holy places by a mock
+imitation of the sacred rites, and sung indecent parodies on hymns of
+the church. The indifference of the clergy, even when their power was
+greatest, to the indecent exhibitions which they always tolerated, and
+sometimes encouraged, forms a strong contrast to the sensitiveness with
+which they regarded any serious attempt, by preaching or writing, to
+impeach any of the doctrines of the church. It could only be compared to
+the singular apathy with which they endured, and often admired the gross
+novels which Chaucer, Dunbar, Boccacio, Bandello, and others, composed
+upon the bad morals of the clergy. It seems as if the churchmen in both
+instances had endeavoured to compromise with the laity, and allowed them
+occasionally to gratify their coarse humour by indecent satire, provided
+they would abstain from any grave question concerning the foundation
+of the doctrines on which was erected such an immense fabric of
+ecclesiastical power.
+
+But the sports thus licensed assumed a very different appearance, so
+soon as the Protestant doctrines began to prevail; and the license which
+their forefathers had exercised in mere gaiety of heart, and without
+the least intention of dishonouring religion by their frolics, were now
+persevered in by the common people as a mode of testifying their utter
+disregard for the Roman priesthood and its ceremonies.
+
+I may observe, for example, the case of an apparitor sent to Borthwick
+from the Primate of Saint Andrews, to cite the lord of that castle, who
+was opposed by an Abbot of Unreason, at whose command the officer of the
+spiritual court was appointed to be ducked in a mill-dam, and obliged to
+eat up his parchment citation.
+
+The reader may be amused with the following whimsical details of this
+incident, which took place in the castle of Borthwick, in the year 1517.
+It appears, that in consequence of a process betwixt Master George
+Hay de Minzeane and the Lord Borthwick, letters of excommunication
+had passed against the latter, on account of the contumacy of certain
+witnesses. William Langlands, an apparitor or macer (_bacularius_) of
+the See of St Andrews, presented these letters to the curate of the
+church of Borthwick, requiring him to publish the same at the service of
+high mass. It seems that the inhabitants of the castle were at this
+time engaged in the favourite sport of enacting the Abbot of Unreason,
+a species of high jinks, in which a mimic prelate was elected, who, like
+the Lord of Misrule in England, turned all sort of lawful authority, and
+particularly the church ritual, into ridicule. This frolicsome person
+with his retinue, notwithstanding of the apparitor's character, entered
+the church, seized upon the primate's officer without hesitation, and,
+dragging him to the mill-dam on the south side of the castle, compelled
+him to leap into the water. Not contented with this partial immersion,
+the Abbot of Unreason pronounced, that Mr. William Langlands was not yet
+sufficiently bathed, and therefore caused his assistants to lay him
+on his back in the stream, and duck him in the most satisfactory and
+perfect manner. The unfortunate apparitor was then conducted back to
+the church, where, for his refreshment after his bath, the letters of
+excommunication were torn to pieces, and steeped in a bowl of wine; the
+mock abbot being probably of opinion that a tough parchment was but
+dry eating, Langlands was compelled to eat the letters, and swallow
+the wine, and dismissed by the Abbot of Unreason, with the comfortable
+assurance, that if any more such letters should arrive during the
+continuance of his office, "they should a' gang the same gate," _i. e._
+go the same road.
+
+A similar scene occurs betwixt a sumner of the Bishop of Rochester,
+and Harpool, the servant of Lord Cobham, in the old play of Sir John
+Oldcastle, when the former compels the church-officer to eat his
+citation. The dialogue, which may be found in the note, contains most
+of the jests which may be supposed, appropriate to such an extraordinary
+occasion:
+
+_Harpool_ Marry, sir, is, this process parchment?
+
+_Sumner._ Yes, marry is it.
+
+_Harpool._ And this seal wax?
+
+_Sumner._ It is so.
+
+_Harpool._ If this be parchment, and this be wax, eat you this parchment
+and wax, or I will make parchment of your skin, and beat your brains
+into wax. Sirrah Sumner, despatch--devour, sirrah, devour.
+
+_Sumner._ I am my Lord of Rochester's sumner; I came to do my office,
+and thou shall answer it.
+
+_Harpool._ Sirrah, no railing, but, betake thyself to thy teeth. Thou
+shalt, eat no worse than thou bringest with thee. Thou bringest it for
+my lord; and wilt thou bring my lord worse than thou wilt eat thyself?
+
+_Sumner._ Sir. I brought it not my lord to eat.
+
+_Harpool._ O, do you Sir me now? All's one for that; I'll make you eat
+it for bringing it.
+
+_Sumner._ I cannot eat it.
+
+_Harpool._ Can you not? 'Sblood, I'll beat you till you have a stomach!
+(_Beats him._)
+
+_Sumner._ Oh, hold, hold, good Mr. Servingman; I will eat it.
+
+_Harpool._ Be champing, be chewing, sir, or I will chew you, you rogue.
+Tough wax is the purest of the honey.
+
+_Sumner._ The purest of the honey?--O Lord, sir, oh! oh!
+
+_Harpool._ Feed, feed; 'tis wholesome, rogue, wholesome. Cannot you,
+like an honest sumner, walk with the devil your brother, to fetch in
+your bailiff's rents, but you must come to a nobleman's house with
+process! If the seal were broad as the lead which covers Rochester
+Church, thou shouldst eat it.
+
+_Sumner._ Oh, I am almost choked--I am almost choked!
+
+_Harpool._ Who's within there? Will you shame my lord? Is there no beer
+in the house? Butler, I say.
+
+    _Enter_ BUTLER.
+
+_Butler._ Here, here.
+
+_Harpool._ Give him beer. Tough old sheep skin's but dry meat.
+
+    _First Part of Sir John Oldcastle_, Act II. Scene I.]
+
+
+replied the voice from without; and, from the laugh--which followed,
+it seemed as if there was something highly ludicrous couched under this
+reply.
+
+"I know not, and seek not to know, your meaning," replied the Abbot,
+"since it is probably a rude one. But begone, in the name of God, and
+leave his servants in peace. I speak this, as having lawful authority to
+command here."
+
+"Open the door," said another rude voice, "and we will try titles with
+you, Sir Monk, and show you a superior we must all obey."
+
+"Break open the doors if he dallies any longer," said a third, "and down
+with the carrion monks who would bar us of our privilege!" A general
+shout followed. "Ay, ay, our privilege! our privilege! down with the
+doors, and with the lurdane monks, if they make opposition!"
+
+The knocking was now exchanged for blows with great, hammers, to which
+the doors, strong as they were, must soon have given way. But the Abbot,
+who saw resistance would be in vain, and who did not wish to incense the
+assailants by an attempt at offering it, besought silence earnestly, and
+with difficulty obtained a hearing. "My children," said he, "I will
+save you from committing a great sin. The porter will presently undo the
+gate--he is gone to fetch the keys--meantime I pray you to consider with
+yourselves, if you are in a state of mind to cross the holy threshold."
+
+"Tillyvally for your papistry!" was answered from without; "we are in
+the mood of the monks when they are merriest, and that is when they sup
+beef-brewis for lanten-kail. So, if your porter hath not the gout, let
+him come speedily, or we heave away readily.--Said I well, comrades?"
+
+"Bravely said, and it shall be as bravely done," said the multitude; and
+had not the keys arrived at that moment, and the porter in hasty terror
+performed his office, throwing open the great door, the populace would
+have saved him the trouble. The instant he had done so, the affrighted
+janitor fled, like one who has drawn the bolts of a flood-gate, and
+expects to be overwhelmed by the rushing inundation. The monks, with one
+consent, had withdrawn themselves behind the Abbot, who alone kept his
+station, about three yards from the entrance, showing no signs of fear
+or perturbation. His brethren--partly encouraged by his devotion, partly
+ashamed to desert him, and partly animated by a sense of duty.--remained
+huddled close together, at the back of their Superior. There was a loud
+laugh and huzza when the doors were opened; but, contrary to what might
+have been expected, no crowd of enraged assailants rushed into the
+church. On the contrary, there was a cry of "A halt!-a halt--to order,
+my masters! and let the two reverend fathers greet each other, as
+beseems them."
+
+The appearance of the crowd who were thus called to order, was grotesque
+in the extreme. It was composed of men, women, and children, ludicrously
+disguised in various habits, and presenting groups equally diversified
+and grotesque. Here one fellow with a horse's head painted before him,
+and a tail behind, and the whole covered with a long foot-cloth, which
+was supposed to hide the body of the animal, ambled, caracoled, pranced,
+and plunged, as he performed the celebrated part of the hobby-horse,
+
+[Footnote: This exhibition, the play-mare of Scotland, stood high among
+holyday gambols. It must be carefully separated from the wooden
+chargers which furnish out our nurseries. It gives rise to Hamlet's
+ejaculation,--
+
+    But oh, but oh, the hobby-horse is forgot!
+
+There is a very comic scene in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of "Woman
+Pleased," where Hope-on-high Bombye, a puritan cobbler, refuses to dance
+with the hobby-horse. There was much difficulty and great variety in the
+motions which the hobby-horse was expected to exhibit.
+
+The learned Mr. Douce, who has contributed so much to the illustration
+of our theatrical antiquities, has given us a full account of this
+pageant, and the burlesque horsemanship which it practised.
+
+"The hobby-horse," says Mr. Douce, "was represented by a man equipped
+with as much pasteboard as was sufficient to form the head and hinder
+parts of a horse, the quadrupedal defects being concealed by a long
+mantle or footcloth that nearly touched the ground. The former, on this
+occasion, exerted all his skill in burlesque horsemanship. In Sympson's
+play of the Law-breakers, 1636, a miller personates the hobby-horse, and
+being angry that the Mayor of the city is put in competition with him,
+exclaims, 'Let the mayor play the hobby-horse among his brethren, an he
+will; I hope our town-lads cannot want a hobby-horse. Have I practised
+my reins, my careers, my prankers, my ambles, my false trots, my smooth
+ambles, and Canterbury paces, and shall master mayor put me beside
+the hobby-horse? Have I borrowed the fore-horse bells, his plumes, his
+braveries; nay, had his mane new shorn and frizzled, and shall the mayor
+put me beside the hobby-horse?" --_Douce's Illustrations_, vol. II. p.
+468]
+
+so often alluded to in our ancient drama; and which still flourishes
+on the stage in the battle that concludes Bayes's tragedy. To rival
+the address and agility displayed by this character, another personage
+advanced in the more formidable character of a huge dragon, with gilded
+wings, open jaws, and a scarlet tongue, cloven at the end, which made
+various efforts to overtake and devour a lad, dressed as the lovely
+Sabaea, daughter of the King of Egypt, who fled before him; while a
+martial Saint George, grotesquely armed with a goblet for a helmet, and
+a spit for a lance, ever and anon interfered, and compelled the monster
+to relinquish his prey. A bear, a wolf, and one or two other wild
+animals, played their parts with the discretion of Snug the joiner; for
+the decided preference which they gave to the use of their hind legs,
+was sufficient, without any formal annunciation, to assure the most
+timorous spectators that they had to do with habitual bipeds. There was
+a group of outlaws with Robin Hood and Little John at their head
+
+[Footnote: The representation of Robin Hood was the darling Maygame both
+in England and Scotland, and doubtless the favourite personification was
+often revived, when the Abbot of Unreason, or other pretences of frolic,
+gave an unusual decree of license.
+
+The Protestant clergy, who had formerly reaped advantage from the
+opportunities which these sports afforded them of directing their own
+satire and the ridicule of the lower orders against the Catholic church,
+began to find that, when these purposes were served, their favourite
+pastimes deprived them of the wish to attend divine worship, and
+disturbed the frame of mind in which it can be attended to advantage.
+The celebrated Bishop Latimer gives a very _naive_ account of the manner
+in which, bishop as he was, he found himself compelled to give place to
+Robin Hood and his followers.
+
+"I came once myselfe riding on a journey homeward from London, and I
+sent word over night into the towne that I would preach there in the
+morning, because it was holiday, and me thought it was a holidayes
+worke. The church stood in my way, and I took my horse and my company,
+and went thither, (I thought I should have found a great company in
+the church,) and when I came there the church doore was fast locked. I
+tarryed there halfe an houre and more. At last the key was found, and
+one of the parish comes to me and said,--'Sir, this is a busie day with
+us, we cannot hear you; it is Robin Hood's day. The parish are gone
+abroad to gather for Robin Hood. I pray you let them not.' I was faine
+there to give place to Robin Hood. I thought my rochet should have been
+regarded, though I were not: but it would not serve, it was faine to
+give place to Robin Hood's men. It is no laughing matter, my friends,
+it is a weeping matter, a heavie matter, a heavie matter. Under the
+pretence for gathering for Robin Hood, a traytour, and a theif, to put
+out a preacher; to have his office lesse esteemed; to preferre Robin
+Hood before the ministration of God's word; and all this hath come of
+unpreaching prelates. This realme hath been ill provided for, that it
+hath had such corrupt judgments in it, to prefer Robin Hood to God's
+word."--_Bishop Latimer's sixth Sermon before King Edward_.
+
+While the English Protestants thus preferred the outlaw's pageant to the
+preaching of their excellent Bishop, the Scottish calvinistic clergy,
+with the celebrated John Knox at their head, and backed by the authority
+of the magistrates of Edinburgh, who had of late been chosen exclusively
+from this party, found it impossible to control the rage of the
+populace, when they attempted to deprive them of the privilege of
+presenting their pageant of Robin Hood.
+
+[Note on old Scottish spelling: leading y = modern 'th'; leading v =
+modern 'u']
+
+(561) "Vpon the xxi day of Junij. Archibalde Dowglas of Kilspindie,
+Provest of Edr., David Symmer and Adame Fullartoun, baillies of the
+samyne, causit ane cordinare servant, callit James Gillion takin of
+befoir, for playing in Edr. with Robene Hude, to wnderly the law, and
+put him to the knawlege of ane assyize qlk yaij haid electit of yair
+favoraris, quha with schort deliberatioun condemnit him to be hangit for
+ye said cryme. And the deaconis of ye craftismen fearing vproare, maid
+great solistatuis at ye handis of ye said provost and baillies, and als
+requirit John Knox, minister, for eschewing of tumult, to superceid ye
+execution of him, vnto ye tyme yai suld adverteis my Lord Duke yairof.
+And yan, if it wes his mynd and will yat he should be disponit vpoun, ye
+said deaconis and craftismen sould convey him yaire; quha answerit, yat
+yai culd na way stope ye executioun of justice. Quhan ye time of ye said
+pouer mans hanging approchit, and yat ye hangman wes cum to ye jibbat
+with ye ledder, vpoune ye qlk ye said cordinare should have bene hangit,
+ane certaine and remanent craftischilder, quha wes put to ye horne with
+ye said Gillione, ffor ye said Robene Huide's _playes_, and vyris yair
+assistaris and favoraris, past to wappinis, and yai brak down ye said
+jibbat, and yan chacit ye said provest, baillies, and Alexr. Guthrie, in
+ye said Alexander's writing buith, and held yame yairin; and yairefter
+past to ye tolbuyt, and becaus the samyne was steiket, and onnawayes
+culd get the keyes thairof, thai brak the said tolbuith dore with foure
+harberis, per force, (the said provest and baillies luckand thairon.)
+and not onlie put thar the said Gillione to fredome and libertie, and
+brocht him furth of the said tolbuit, bot alsua the remanent presonaris
+being thairintill; and this done, the said craftismen's servands, with
+the said condempnit cordonar, past doun to the Netherbow, to have past
+furth thairat; bot becaus the samyne on thair coming thairto wes
+closet, thai past vp agane the Hie streit of the said bourghe to the
+Castellhill, and in this menetymne the saidis provest and baillies, and
+thair assistaris being in the writing buith of the said Alexr. Guthrie,
+past and enterit in the said tolbuyt, and in the said servandes passage
+vp the Hie streit, then schote furth thairof at thame ane dog, and hurt
+ane servand of the said childer. This being done, thair wes nathing
+vthir but the one partie schuteand out and castand stanes furth of the
+said tolbuyt, and the vther pairtie schuteand hagbuttis in the same
+agane. Aund sua the craftismen's servandis, aboue written, held and
+inclosit the said provest and baillies continewallie in the said
+tolbuyth, frae three houris efternone, quhill aught houris at even,
+and na man of the said town prensit to relieve their said provest and
+baillies. And than thai send to the maisters of the Castell, to caus
+tham if thai mycht stay the said servandis, quha maid ane maner to do
+the same, bot thai could not bring the same to ane finall end, ffor
+the said servands wold on noways stay fra, quhill thai had revengit the
+hurting of ane of them; and thairefter the constable of the castell come
+down thairfra, and he with the said maisters treatet betwix the said
+pties in this maner:--That the said provost and baillies sall remit to
+the said craftischilder, all actioun, cryme, and offens that thai had
+committit aganes thame in any tyme bygane; and band and oblast thame
+never to pursew them thairfor; and als commandit thair maisters to
+resaue them agane in thair services, as thai did befoir. And this being
+proclainit at the mercat cross, thai scalit, and the said provest and
+bailies come furth of the same tolbouyth." &c. &c. &c.
+
+John Knox, who writes at large upon this tumult, informs us it was
+inflamed by the deacons of craftes, who, resenting; the superiority
+assumed over them by the magistrates, would yield no assistance to put
+down the tumult. "They will be magistrates alone," said the recusant
+deacons, "e'en let them rule the populace alone;" and accordingly
+they passed quietly to take _their four-hours penny_, and left the
+magistrates to help themselves as they could. Many persons were
+excommunicated for this outrage, and not admitted to church ordinances
+till they had made satisfaction.] --the best representation exhibited
+at the time; and no great wonder, since most of the actors were, by
+profession, the banished men and thieves whom they presented. Other
+masqueraders there were, of a less marked description. Men were
+disguised as women, and women as men--children wore the dress of aged
+people, and tottered with crutch-sticks in their hands, furred gowns
+on their little backs, and caps on their round heads--while grandsires
+assumed the infantine tone as well as the dress of children. Besides
+these, many had their faces painted, and wore their shirts over the
+rest of their dress; while coloured pasteboard and ribbons furnished out
+decorations for others. Those who wanted all these properties,
+blacked their faces, and turned their jackets inside out; and thus the
+transmutation of the whole assembly into a set of mad grotesque mummers,
+was at once completed.
+
+The pause which the masqueraders made, waiting apparently for some
+person of the highest authority amongst them, gave those within the
+Abbey Church full time to observe all these absurdities. They were at no
+loss to comprehend their purpose and meaning.
+
+Few readers can be ignorant, that at an early period, and during the
+plenitude of her power, the Church of Rome not only connived at,
+but even encouraged, such Saturnalian licenses as the inhabitants of
+Kennaquhair and the neighbourhood had now in hand, and that the vulgar,
+on such occasions, were not only permitted but encouraged by a number of
+gambols, sometimes puerile and ludicrous, sometimes immoral and profane,
+to indemnify themselves for the privations and penances imposed on them
+at other seasons. But, of all other topics for burlesque and ridicule,
+the rites and ceremonial of the church itself were most frequently
+resorted to; and, strange to say, with the approbation of the clergy
+themselves.
+
+While the hierarchy flourished in full glory, they do not appear to
+have dreaded the consequences of suffering the people to become so
+irreverently familiar with things sacred; they then imagined the laity
+to be much in the condition of the labourer's horse, which does not
+submit to the bridle and the whip with greater reluctance, because, at
+rare intervals, he is allowed to frolic at large in his pasture, and
+fling out his heels in clumsy gambols at the master who usually drives
+him. But, when times changed--when doubt of the Roman Catholic doctrine,
+and hatred of their priesthood, had possessed the reformed party, the
+clergy discovered, too late, that no small inconvenience arose from
+the established practice of games and merry-makings, in which they
+themselves, and all they held most sacred, were made the subject of
+ridicule. It then became obvious to duller politicians than the Romish
+churchmen, that the same actions have a very different tendency when
+done in the spirit of sarcastic insolence and hatred, than when
+acted merely in exuberance of rude and uncontrollable spirits. They,
+therefore, though of the latest, endeavoured, where they had any
+remaining influence, to discourage the renewal of these indecorous
+festivities. In this particular, the Catholic clergy were joined by most
+of the reformed preachers, who were more shocked at the profanity and
+immorality of many of these exhibitions, than disposed to profit by
+the ridiculous light in which they placed the Church of Rome and her
+observances. But it was long ere these scandalous and immoral sports
+could be abrogated;--the rude multitude continued attached to their
+favourite pastimes, and, both in England and Scotland, the mitre of the
+Catholic--the rochet of the reformed bishop--and the cloak and band of
+the Calvinistic divine--were, in turn, compelled to give place to those
+jocular personages, the Pope of Fools, the Boy-Bishop, and the Abbot of
+Unreason. [Footnote: From the interesting novel entitled Anastasius, it
+seems the same burlesque ceremonies were practised in the Greek Church.
+]
+
+It was the latter personage who now, in full costume, made his approach
+to the great door of the church of St. Mary's, accoutred in such a
+manner as to form a caricature, or practical parody, on the costume and
+attendants of the real Superior, whom he came to beard on the very day
+of his installation, in the presence of his clergy, and in the chancel
+of his church. The mock dignitary was a stout-made under-sized fellow,
+whose thick squab form had been rendered grotesque by a supplemental
+paunch, well stuffed. He wore a mitre of leather, with the front like a
+grenadier's cap, adorned with mock embroidery, and trinkets of tin. This
+surmounted a visage, the nose of which was the most prominent feature,
+being of unusual size, and at least as richly gemmed as his head-gear.
+His robe was of buckram, and his cope of canvass, curiously painted, and
+cut into open work. On one shoulder was fixed the painted figure of an
+owl; and he bore in the right hand his pastoral staff, and in the left a
+small mirror having a handle to it, thus resembling a celebrated
+jester, whose adventures, translated into English, were whilom extremely
+popular, and which may still be procured in black letter, for about one
+sterling pound per leaf.
+
+The attendants of this mock dignitary had their proper dresses and
+equipage, bearing the same burlesque resemblance to the officers of
+the Convent which their leader did to the Superior. They followed their
+leader in regular procession, and the motley characters, which had
+waited his arrival, now crowded into the church in his train, shouting
+as they came,--"A hall, a hall! for the venerable Father Howleglas, the
+learned Monk of Misrule, and the Right Reverend Abbot of Unreason!"
+
+The discordant minstrelsy of every kind renewed its din; the boys
+shrieked and howled, and the men laughed and hallooed, and the women
+giggled and screamed, and the beasts roared, and the dragon wallopped
+and hissed, and the hobby-horse neighed, pranced, and capered, and the
+rest frisked and frolicked, clashing their hobnailed shoes against the
+pavement, till it sparkled with the marks of their energetic caprioles.
+
+It was, in fine, a scene of ridiculous confusion, that deafened the ear,
+made the eyes giddy, and must have altogether stunned any indifferent
+spectator; the monks, whom personal apprehension and a consciousness
+that much of the popular enjoyment arose from the ridicule being
+directed against them, were, moreover, little comforted by the
+reflection, that, bold in their disguise, the mummers who whooped and
+capered around them, might, on slight provocation, turn their jest into
+earnest, or at least proceed to those practical pleasantries, which
+at all times arise so naturally out of the frolicsome and mischievous
+disposition of the populace. They looked to their Abbot amid the tumult,
+with such looks as landsmen cast upon the pilot when the storm is at the
+highest--looks which express that they are devoid of all hope arising
+from their own exertions, and not very confident in any success likely
+to attend those of their Palinurus.
+
+The Abbot himself seemed at a stand; he felt no fear, but he was
+sensible of the danger of expressing his rising indignation, which he
+was scarcely able to suppress. He made a gesture with his hand as if
+commanding silence, which was at first only replied to by redoubled
+shouts, and peals of wild laughter. When, however, the same motion,
+and as nearly in the same manner, had been made by Howleglas, it was
+immediately obeyed by his riotous companions, who expected fresh food
+for mirth in the conversation betwixt the real and mock Abbot, having
+no small confidence in the vulgar wit and impudence of their leader.
+Accordingly, they began to shout, "To it, fathers--to it I"--"Fight
+monk, fight madcap--Abbot against Abbot is fair play, and so is reason
+against unreason, and malice against monkery!"
+
+"Silence, my mates!" said Howleglas; "cannot two learned Fathers of
+the Church hold communion together, but you must come here with your
+bear-garden whoop and hollo, as if you were hounding forth a mastiff
+upon a mad bull? I say silence! and let this learned Father and me
+confer, touching matters affecting our mutual state and authority."
+
+"My children"-said Father Ambrose.
+
+"_My_ children too,--and happy children they are!" said his burlesque
+counterpart; "many a wise child knows not its own father, and it is well
+they have two to choose betwixt."
+
+"If thou hast aught in thee, save scoffing and ribaldry," said the real
+Abbot, "permit me, for thine own soul's sake, to speak a few words to
+these misguided men."
+
+"Aught in me but scoffing, sayest thou?" retorted the Abbot of Unreason;
+"why, reverend brother, I have all that becomes mine office at this
+time a-day--I have beef, ale, and brandy-wine, with other condiments not
+worth mentioning; and for speaking, man--why, speak away, and we will
+have turn about, like honest fellows."
+
+During this discussion the wrath of Magdalen Graeme had risen to the
+uttermost; she approached the Abbot, and placing herself by his side,
+said in a low and yet distinct tone-"Wake and arouse thee, Father--the
+sword of Saint Peter is in thy hand--strike and avenge Saint Peter's
+patrimony!--Bind them in the chains which, being riveted by the church
+on earth, are riveted in Heaven--"
+
+"Peace, sister!" said the Abbot; "let not their madness destroy our
+discretion--I pray thee, peace, and let me do mine office. It is the
+first, peradventure it may be the last time, I shall be called on to
+discharge it."
+
+"Nay, my holy brother!" said Howleglas, "I rede you, take the holy
+sister's advice--never throve convent without woman's counsel."
+
+"Peace, vain man!" said the Abbot; "and you, my brethren--"
+
+"Nay, nay!" said the Abbot of Unreason, "no speaking to the lay people,
+until you have conferred with your brother of the cowl. I swear by bell,
+book, and candle, that no one of my congregation shall listen to one
+word you have to say; so you had as well address yourself to me who
+will."
+
+To escape a conference so ludicrous, the Abbot again attempted an appeal
+to what respectful feelings might yet remain amongst the inhabitants of
+the Halidome, once so devoted to their spiritual Superiors. Alas!
+the Abbot of Unreason had only to nourish his mock crosier, and the
+whooping, the hallooing, and the dancing, were renewed with a vehemence
+which would have defied the lungs of Stentor.
+
+"And now, my mates," said the Abbot of Unreason, "once again dight your
+gabs and be hushed-let us see if the Cock of Kennaquhair will fight or
+flee the pit."
+
+There was again a dead silence of expectation, of which Father Ambrose
+availed himself to address his antagonist, seeing plainly that he could
+gain an audience on no other terms. "Wretched man!" said he, "hast thou
+no better employment for thy carnal wit, than to employ it in leading
+these blind and helpless creatures into the pit of utter darkness?"
+
+"Truly, my brother," replied Howleglas, "I can see little difference
+betwixt your employment and mine, save that you make a sermon of a jest,
+and I make a jest of a sermon."
+
+"Unhappy being," said the Abbot, "who hast no better subject of
+pleasantry than that which should make thee tremble--no sounder jest
+than thine own sins, and no better objects for laughter than those who
+can absolve thee from the guilt of them!"
+
+"Verily, my reverend brother," said the mock Abbot, "what you say
+might be true, if, in laughing at hypocrites, I meant to laugh at
+religion.--Oh, it is a precious thing to wear a long dress, with a
+girdle and a cowl--we become a holy pillar of Mother Church, and a boy
+must not play at ball against the walls for fear of breaking a painted
+window!"
+
+"And will you, my friends," said the Abbot, looking round and speaking
+with a vehemence which secured him a tranquil audience for some
+time,--"will you suffer a profane buffoon, within the very church of
+God, to insult his ministers? Many of you--all of you, perhaps--have
+lived under my holy predecessors, who were called upon to rule in this
+church where I am called upon to suffer. If you have worldly goods, they
+are their gift; and, when you scorned not to accept better gifts--the
+mercy and forgiveness of the church--were they not ever at your
+command?--did we not pray while you were jovial--wake while you slept?"
+
+"Some of the good wives of the Halidome were wont to say so," said
+the Abbot of Unreason; but his jest met in this instance but slight
+applause, and Father Ambrose, having gained a moment's attention,
+hastened to improve it.
+
+"What!" said he; "and is this grateful--is it seemly--is it honest--to
+assail with scorn a few old men, from whose predecessors you hold all,
+and whose only wish is to die in peace among these fragments of what was
+once the light of the land, and whose daily prayer is, that they may be
+removed ere that hour comes when the last spark shall be extinguished,
+and the land left in the darkness which it has chosen rather than light?
+We have not turned against you the edge of the spiritual sword, to
+revenge our temporal persecution; the tempest of your wrath hath
+despoiled us of land, and deprived us almost of our daily food, but we
+have not repaid it with the thunders of excommunication--we only pray
+your leave to live and die within the church which is our own, invoking
+God, our Lady, and the Holy Saints to pardon your sins, and our own,
+undisturbed by scurril buffoonery and blasphemy."
+
+This speech, so different in tone and termination from that which the
+crowd had expected, produced an effect upon their feelings unfavourable
+to the prosecution of their frolic. The morris-dancers stood still--the
+hobby-horse surceased his capering--pipe and tabor were mute, and
+"silence, like a heavy cloud," seemed to descend on the once noisy
+rabble. Several of the beasts were obviously moved to compunction; the
+bear could not restrain his sobs, and a huge fox was observed to wipe
+his eyes with his tail. But in especial the dragon, lately so formidably
+rampant, now relaxed the terror of his claws, uncoiled his tremendous
+rings, and grumbled out of his fiery throat in a repentant tone, "By
+the mass, I thought no harm in exercising our old pastime, but an I had
+thought the good Father would have taken it so to heart, I would as soon
+have played your devil, as your dragon."
+
+In this momentary pause, the Abbot stood amongst the miscellaneous and
+grotesque forms by which he was surrounded, triumphant as Saint Anthony,
+in Callot's Temptations; but Howleglas would not so resign his purpose.
+
+"And how now, my masters!" said he, "is this fair play or no? Have you
+not chosen me Abbot of Unreason, and is it lawful for any of you to
+listen to common sense to-day? Was I not formally elected by you in
+solemn chapter, held in Luckie Martin's change-house, and will you now
+desert me, and give up your old pastime and privilege? Play out the
+play--and he that speaks the next word of sense or reason, or bids us
+think or consider, or the like of that, which befits not the day, I will
+have him solemnly ducked in the mill-dam!"
+
+The rabble, mutable as usual, huzzaed, the pipe and tabor struck up, the
+hobby-horse pranced, the beasts roared, and even the repentant dragon
+began again to coil up his spires, and prepare himself for fresh
+gambols. But the Abbot might still have overcome, by his eloquence and
+his entreaties, the malicious designs of the revellers, had not Dame
+Magdalen Graeme given loose to the indignation which she had long
+suppressed.
+
+"Scoffers," she said, "and men of Belial--Blasphemous heretics, and
+truculent tyrants----"
+
+"Your patience, my sister, I entreat and I command you!" said the Abbot;
+"let me do my duty--disturb me not in mine office!"
+
+But Dame Magdalen continued to thunder forth her threats in the name
+of Popes and Councils, and in the name of every Saint, from St. Michael
+downward.
+
+"My comrades!" said the Abbot of Unreason, "this good dame hath not
+spoken a single word of reason, and therein may esteem herself free from
+the law. But what she spoke was meant for reason, and, therefore, unless
+she confesses and avouches all which she has said to be nonsense, it
+shall pass for such, so far as to incur our statutes. Wherefore, holy
+dame, pilgrim, or abbess, or whatever thou art, be mute with thy mummery
+or beware the mill-dam. We will have neither spiritual nor temporal
+scolds in our Diocese of Unreason!"
+
+As he spoke thus, he extended his hand towards the old woman, while his
+followers shouted, "A doom--a doom!" and prepared to second his purpose,
+when lo! it was suddenly frustrated. Roland Graeme had witnessed with
+indignation the insults offered to his old spiritual preceptor, but yet
+had wit enough to reflect he could render him no assistance, but might
+well, by ineffective interference, make matters worse. But when he saw
+his aged relative in danger of personal violence, he gave way to the
+natural impetuosity of his temper, and, stepping forward, struck his
+poniard into the body of the Abbot of Unreason, whom the blow instantly
+prostrated on the pavement.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Fifteenth.
+
+
+  As when in tumults rise the ignoble crowd,
+  Mad are their motions, and their tongues are loud,
+  And stones and brands in rattling furies fly,
+  And all the rustic arms which fury can supply--
+  Then if some grave and pious man appear,
+  They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear.
+                                  DRYDEN'S VIRGIL
+
+A dreadful shout of vengeance was raised by the revellers, whose sport
+was thus so fearfully interrupted; but for an instant, the want of
+weapons amongst the multitude, as well as the inflamed features and
+brandished poniard of Roland Graeme, kept them at bay, while the Abbot,
+horror-struck at the violence, implored, with uplifted hands, pardon
+for blood-shed committed within the sanctuary. Magdalen Graeme alone
+expressed triumph in the blow her descendant had dealt to the scoffer,
+mixed, however, with a wild and anxious expression of terror for her
+grandson's safety. "Let him perish," she said, "in his blasphemy--let
+him die on the holy pavement which he has insulted!"
+
+But the rage of the multitude, the grief of the Abbot, the exultation of
+the enthusiastic Magdalen, were all mistimed and unnecessary. Howleglas,
+mortally wounded as he was supposed to be, sprung alertly up from the
+floor, calling aloud, "A miracle, a miracle, my masters! as brave a
+miracle as ever was wrought in the kirk of Kennaquhair. And I charge
+you, my masters, as your lawfully chosen Abbot, that you touch no one
+without my command--You, wolf and bear, will guard this pragmatic youth,
+but without hurting him--And you, reverend brother, will, with your
+comrades, withdraw to your cells; for our conference has ended like all
+conferences, leaving each of his own mind, as before; and if we
+fight, both you, and your brethren, and the Kirk, will have the worst
+on't--Wherefore, pack up you pipes and begone."
+
+The hubbub was beginning again to awaken, but still Father Ambrose
+hesitated, as uncertain to what path his duty called him, whether to
+face out the present storm, or to reserve himself for a better moment.
+His brother of Unreason observed his difficulty, and said, in a tone
+more natural and less affected than that with which he had hitherto
+sustained his character, "We came hither, my good sir, more in mirth
+than in mischief--our bark is worse than our bite--and, especially, we
+mean you no personal harm--wherefore, draw off while the play is good;
+for it is ill whistling for a hawk when she is once on the soar, and
+worse to snatch the quarry from the ban-dog--Let these fellows once
+begin their brawl, and it will be too much for madness itself, let alone
+the Abbot of Unreason, to bring them back to the lure."
+
+The brethren crowded around Father Ambrosius, and joined in urging
+him to give place to the torrent. The present revel was, they said,
+an ancient custom which his predecessors had permitted, and old
+Father Nicholas himself had played the dragon in the days of the Abbot
+Ingelram.
+
+"And we now reap the fruit of the seed which they have so unadvisedly
+sown," said Ambrosius; "they taught men to make a mock of what is
+holy, what wonder that the descendants of scoffers become robbers
+and plunderers? But be it as you list, my brethren--move towards the
+dortour--And you, dame, I command you, by the authority which I have
+over you, and by your respect for that youth's safety, that you go with
+us without farther speech--Yet, stay--what are your intentions towards
+that youth whom you detain prisoner?--Wot ye," he continued, addressing
+Howleglas in a stern tone of voice, "that he bears the livery of the
+House of Avenel? They who fear not the anger of Heaven, may at least
+dread the wrath of man."
+
+"Cumber not yourself concerning him," answered Howleglas, "we know right
+well who and what he is."
+
+"Let me pray," said the Abbot, in a tone of entreaty, "that you do him
+no wrong for the rash deed--which he attempted in his imprudent zeal."
+
+"I say, cumber not yourself about it, father," answered Howleglas, "but
+move off with your train, male and female, or I will not undertake to
+save yonder she-saint from the ducking-stool--And as for bearing of
+malice, my stomach has no room for it; it is," he added, clapping
+his hand on his portly belly, "too well bumbasted out with straw and
+buckram--gramercy to them both--they kept out that madcap's dagger as
+well as a Milan corslet could have done."
+
+In fact, the home-driven poniard of Roland Graeme had lighted upon the
+stuffing of the fictitious paunch, which the Abbot of Unreason wore as a
+part of his characteristic dress, and it was only the force of the blow
+which had prostrated that reverend person on the ground for a moment.
+
+Satisfied in some degree by this man's assurances, and compelled--to
+give way to superior force, the Abbot Ambrosius retired from the Church
+at the head of the monks, and left the court free for the revellers
+to work their will. But, wild and wilful as these rioters were, they
+accompanied the retreat of the religionists with none of those shouts
+of contempt and derision with which they had at first hailed them. The
+Abbot's discourse had affected some of them with remorse, others with
+shame, and all with a transient degree of respect. They remained
+silent until the last monk had disappeared through the side-door which
+communicated with their dwelling-place, and even then it cost
+some exhortations on the part of Howleglas, some caprioles of the
+hobby-horse, and some wallops of the dragon, to rouse once more the
+rebuked spirit of revelry.
+
+"And how now, my masters?" said the Abbot of Unreason; "and wherefore
+look on me with such blank Jack-a-Lent visages? Will you lose your old
+pastime for an old wife's tale of saints and purgatory? Why, I thought
+you would have made all split long since--Come, strike up, tabor and
+harp, strike up, fiddle and rebeck--dance and be merry to-day, and
+let care come to-morrow. Bear and wolf, look to your prisoner--prance,
+hobby--hiss, dragon, and halloo, boys--we grow older every moment we
+stand idle, and life is too short to be spent in playing mumchance."
+
+This pithy exhortation was attended with the effect desired. They
+fumigated the Church with burnt wool and feathers instead of incense,
+put foul water into the holy-water basins, and celebrated a parody on
+the Church-service, the mock Abbot officiating at the altar; they sung
+ludicrous and indecent parodies, to the tunes of church hymns; they
+violated whatever vestments or vessels belonging to the Abbey they could
+lay their hands upon; and, playing every freak which the whim of the
+moment could suggest to their wild caprice, at length they fell to
+more lasting deeds of demolition, pulled down and destroyed some carved
+wood-work, dashed out the painted windows which had escaped former
+violence, and in their rigorous search after sculpture dedicated to
+idolatry, began to destroy what ornaments yet remained entire upon the
+tombs, and around the cornices of the pillars.
+
+The spirit of demolition, like other tastes, increases by indulgence;
+from these lighter attempts at mischief, the more tumultuous part of the
+meeting began to meditate destruction on a more extended scale--"Let
+us heave it down altogether, the old crow's nest," became a general cry
+among them; "it has served the Pope and his rooks too long;" and up
+they struck a ballad which was then popular among the lower classes.
+[Footnote: These rude rhymes are taken, with some trifling alterations,
+from a ballad called Trim-go-trix. It occurs in a singular collection,
+entitled; "A Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs, collected
+out of sundrie parts of the Scripture, with sundry of other ballatis
+changed out of prophane sanges for avoyding of sin and harlotrie, with
+Augmentation of sundrie Gude and Godly Ballates. Edinburgh, printed by
+Andro Hart." This curious collection has been reprinted in Mr. John.
+Grahame Dalyell's Scottish Poems of the 16th century Edin. 1801, 2
+vols.]
+
+  "The Paip, that pagan full of pride,
+  Hath blinded us ower lang.
+  For where the blind the blind doth lead,
+  No marvel baith gae wrang.
+  Like prince and king,
+  He led the ring
+  Of all iniquity.
+  Sing hay trix, trim-go-trix,
+  Under the greenwood tree.
+
+  "The Bishop rich, he could not preach
+  For sporting with the lasses;
+  The silly friar behoved to fleech
+  For awmous as he passes:
+  The curate his creed
+  He could not read,--
+  Shame fa' company!
+  Sing hay trix, trim-go-trix,
+  Under the greenwood tree."
+
+Thundering out this chorus of a notable hunting song, which had been
+pressed into the service of some polemical poet, the followers of the
+Abbot of Unreason were turning every moment more tumultuous, and getting
+beyond the management even of that reverend prelate himself, when a
+knight in full armour, followed by two or three men-at-arms, entered
+the church, and in a stern voice commanded them to forbear their riotous
+mummery.
+
+His visor was up, but if it had been lowered, the cognizance of the
+holly-branch sufficiently distinguished Sir Halbert Glendinning, who, on
+his homeward road, was passing through the village of Kennaquhair; and
+moved, perhaps, by anxiety for his brother's safety, had come directly
+to the church on hearing of the uproar.
+
+"What is the meaning of this," he said, "my masters? are ye Christian
+men, and the king's subjects, and yet waste and destroy church and
+chancel like so many heathens?"
+
+All stood silent, though doubtless there were several disappointed
+and surprised at receiving chiding instead of thanks from so zealous a
+protestant.
+
+The dragon, indeed, did at length take upon him to be spokesman, and
+growled from the depth of his painted maw, that they did but sweep
+Popery out of the church with the besom of destruction.
+
+"What! my friends," replied Sir Halbert Glendinning, "think you this
+mumming and masking has not more of Popery in it than have these stone
+walls? Take the leprosy out of your flesh, before you speak of purifying
+stone walls--abate your insolent license, which leads but to idle vanity
+and sinful excess; and know, that what you now practise, is one of
+the profane and unseemly sports introduced by the priests of Rome
+themselves, to mislead and to brutify the souls which fell into their
+net."
+
+"Marry come up--are you there with your bears?" muttered the dragon,
+with a draconic sullenness, which was in good keeping with his
+character, "we had as good have been Romans still, if we are to have no
+freedom in our pastimes!"
+
+"Dost thou reply to me so?" said Halbert Glendinning; "or is there
+any pastime in grovelling on the ground there like a gigantic
+kail-worm?--Get out of thy painted case, or, by my knighthood, I will
+treat you like the beast and reptile you have made yourself."
+
+"Beast and reptile?" retorted the offended dragon, "setting aside your
+knighthood, I hold myself as well a born man as thyself."
+
+The Knight made no answer in words, but bestowed two such blows with the
+butt of his lance on the petulant dragon, that had not the hoops which
+constituted the ribs of the machine been pretty strong, they would
+hardly have saved those of the actor from being broken. In all haste the
+masker crept out of his disguise, unwilling to abide a third buffet from
+the lance of the enraged Knight. And when the ex-dragon stood on the
+floor of the church, he presented to Halbert Glendinning the well-known
+countenance of Dan of the Howlet-hirst, an ancient comrade of his own,
+ere fate had raised him so high above the rank to which he was born.
+The clown looked sulkily upon the Knight, as if to upbraid him for his
+violence towards an old acquaintance, and Glendinning's own good-nature
+reproached him for the violence he had acted upon him.
+
+"I did wrong to strike thee," he said, "Dan; but in truth, I knew thee
+not--thou wert ever a mad fellow--come to Avenel Castle, and we shall
+see how my hawks fly."
+
+"And if we show him not falcons that will mount as merrily as rockets,"
+said the Abbot of Unreason, "I would your honour laid as hard on my
+bones as you did on his even now."
+
+"How now, Sir Knave," said the Knight, "and what has brought you
+hither?"
+
+The Abbot, hastily ridding himself of the false nose which mystified
+his physiognomy, and the supplementary belly which made up his disguise,
+stood before his master in his real character, of Adam Woodcock, the
+falconer of Avenel.
+
+"How, varlet!" said the Knight; "hast thou dared to come here and
+disturb the very house my brother was dwelling in?"
+
+"And it was even for that reason, craving your honour's pardon, that I
+came hither--for I heard the country was to be up to choose an Abbot of
+Unreason, and sure, thought I, I that can sing, dance, leap backwards
+over a broadsword, and am as good a fool as ever sought promotion, have
+all chance of carrying the office; and if I gain my election, I may
+stand his honour's brother in some stead, supposing things fall roughly
+out at the Kirk of Saint Mary's."
+
+"Thou art but a cogging knave," said Sir Halbert, "and well I wot, that
+love of ale and brandy, besides the humour of riot and frolic, would
+draw thee a mile, when love of my house would not bring thee a yard.
+But, go to--carry thy roisterers elsewhere--to the alehouse if they
+list, and there are crowns to pay your charges--make out the day's
+madness without doing more mischief, and be wise men to-morrow--and
+hereafter learn to serve a good cause better than by acting like
+buffoons or ruffians."
+
+Obedient to his master's mandate, the falconer was collecting
+his discouraged followers, and whispering into their ears--"Away,
+away--_tace_ is Latin for a candle--never mind the good Knight's
+puritanism--we will play the frolic out over a stand of double ale in
+Dame Martin the Brewster's barn-yard--draw off, harp and tabor--bagpipe
+and drum--mum till you are out of the church-yard, then let the welkin
+ring again--move on, wolf and bear--keep the hind legs till you cross
+the kirk-stile, and then show yourselves beasts of mettle--what devil
+sent him here to spoil our holiday!--but anger him not, my hearts; his
+lance is no goose-feather, as Dan's ribs can tell."
+
+"By my soul," said Dan, "had it been another than my ancient comrade, I
+would have made my father's old fox [Footnote: _Fox_, An old-fashioned
+broadsword was often so called.] fly about his ears!"
+
+"Hush! hush! man," replied Adam Woodcock, "not a word that way, as you
+value the safety of your bones--what man? we must take a clink as it
+passes, so it is not bestowed in downright ill-will."
+
+"But I will take no such thing," said Dan of the Howlet-hirst, suddenly
+resisting the efforts of Woodcock, who was dragging him out of the
+church; when the quick military eye of Sir Halbert Glendinning detecting
+Roland Graeme betwixt his two guards, the Knight exclaimed, "So ho!
+falconer,--Woodcock,--knave, hast thou brought my Lady's page in mine
+own livery, to assist at this hopeful revel of thine, with your wolves
+and bears? Since you were at such mummings, you might, if you would,
+have at least saved the credit of my household, by dressing him up as a
+jackanapes--bring him hither, fellows!"
+
+Adam Woodcock was too honest and downright, to permit blame to light
+upon the youth, when it was undeserved. "I swear," he said, "by Saint
+Martin of Bullions--" [Footnote: The Saint Swithin, or weeping Saint of
+Scotland. If his festival (fourth July) prove wet, forty days of rain
+are expected.]
+
+"And what hast thou to do with Saint Martin?"
+
+"Nay, little enough, sir, unless when he sends such rainy days that we
+cannot fly a hawk--but I say to your worshipful knighthood, that as I
+am, a true man----"
+
+"As you are a false varlet, had been the better obtestation."
+
+"Nay, if your knighthood allows me not to speak," said Adam, "I can hold
+my tongue--but the boy came not hither by my bidding, for all that."
+
+"But to gratify his own malapert pleasure, I warrant me," said Sir
+Halbert Glendinning--"Come hither, young springald, and tell me whether
+you have your mistress's license to be so far absent from the castle, or
+to dishonour my livery by mingling in such a May-game?"
+
+"Sir Halbert Glendinning," answered Roland Graeme with steadiness, "I
+have obtained the permission, or rather the commands, of your lady, to
+dispose of my time hereafter according to my own pleasure. I have been a
+most unwilling spectator of this May-game, since it is your pleasure so
+to call it; and I only wear your livery until I can obtain clothes which
+bear no such badge of servitude."
+
+"How am I to understand this, young man?" said Sir Halbert Glendinning;
+"speak plainly, for I am no reader of riddles.--That my lady favoured
+thee, I know. What hast thou done to disoblige her, and occasion thy
+dismissal?"
+
+"Nothing to speak of," said Adam Woodcock, answering for the boy--"a
+foolish quarrel with me, which was more foolishly told over again to
+my honoured lady, cost the poor boy his place. For my part, I will say
+freely, that I was wrong from beginning to end, except about the washing
+of the eyas's meat. There I stand to it that I was right."
+
+With that, the good-natured falconer repeated to his master the whole
+history of the squabble which had brought Roland Graeme into disgrace
+with his mistress, but in a manner so favourable for the page, that Sir
+Halbert could not but suspect his generous motive.
+
+"Thou art a good-natured fellow," he said, "Adam Woodcock."
+
+"As ever had falcon upon fist," said Adam; "and, for that matter, so is
+Master Roland; but, being half a gentleman by his office, his blood is
+soon up, and so is mine."
+
+"Well," said Sir Halbert, "be it as it will, my lady has acted hastily,
+for this was no great matter of offence to discard the lad whom she
+had trained up for years; but he, I doubt not, made it worse by his
+prating--it jumps well with a purpose, however, which I had in my mind.
+Draw off these people, Woodcock,--and you, Roland Graeme, attend me."
+
+The page followed him in silence into the Abbot's house, where, stepping
+into the first apartment which he found open, he commanded one of his
+attendants to let his brother, Master Edward Glendinning, know that he
+desired to speak with him. The men-at-arms went gladly off to join their
+comrade, Adam Woodcock, and the jolly crew whom he had assembled at Dame
+Martin's, the hostler's wife, and the Page and Knight were left alone in
+the apartment. Sir Halbert Glendinning paced the floor for a moment in
+silence and then thus addressed his attendant--
+
+"Thou mayest have remarked, stripling, that I have but seldom
+distinguished thee by much notice;--I see thy colour rises, but do not
+speak till thou nearest me out. I say I have never much distinguished
+thee, not because I did not see that in thee which I might well have
+praised, but because I saw something blameable, which such praises might
+have made worse. Thy mistress, dealing according to her pleasure in her
+own household, as no one had better reason or title, had picked thee
+from the rest, and treated thee more like a relation than a domestic;
+and if thou didst show some vanity and petulance under such distinction,
+it were injustice not to say that thou hast profited both in thy
+exercises and in thy breeding, and hast shown many sparkles of a gentle
+and manly spirit. Moreover, it were ungenerous, having bred thee up
+freakish and fiery, to dismiss thee to want or wandering, for showing
+that very peevishness and impatience of discipline which arose from thy
+too delicate nurture. Therefore, and for the credit of my own household,
+I am determined to retain thee in my train, until I can honourably
+dispose of thee elsewhere, with a fair prospect of thy going through the
+world with credit to the house that brought thee up."
+
+If there was something in Sir Halbert Glendinning's speech which
+flattered Roland's pride, there was also much that, according to his
+mode of thinking, was an alloy to the compliment. And yet his conscience
+instantly told him that he ought to accept, with grateful deference, the
+offer which was made him by the husband of his kind protectress; and his
+prudence, however slender, could not but admit he should enter the world
+under very different auspices as a retainer of Sir Halbert Glendinning,
+so famed for wisdom, courage, and influence, from those under which
+he might partake the wanderings, and become an agent in the visionary
+schemes, for such they appeared to him, of Magdalen, his relative.
+Still, a strong reluctance to re-enter a service from which he had been
+dismissed with contempt, almost counterbalanced these considerations.
+
+Sir Halbert looked on the youth with surprise, and resumed--"You seem to
+hesitate, young man. Are your own prospects so inviting, that you should
+pause ere you accept those which I should offer to you? or, must I
+remind you that, although you have offended your benefactress, even to
+the point of her dismissing you, yet I am convinced, the knowledge that
+you have gone unguided on your own wild way, into a world so disturbed
+as ours of Scotland, cannot, in the upshot, but give her sorrow and
+pain; from which it is, in gratitude, your duty to preserve her, no less
+than it is in common wisdom your duty to accept my offered protection,
+for your own sake, where body and soul are alike endangered, should you
+refuse it."
+
+Roland Graeme replied in a respectful tone, but at the same time with
+some spirit, "I am not ungrateful for such countenance as has been
+afforded me by the Lord of Avenel, and I am glad to learn, for the
+first time, that I have not had the misfortune to be utterly beneath his
+observation, as I had thought--And it is only needful to show me how
+I can testify my duty and my gratitude towards my early and constant
+benefactress with my life's hazard, and I will gladly peril it." He
+stopped.
+
+"These are but words, young man," answered Glendinning, "large
+protestations are often used to supply the place of effectual service.
+I know nothing in which the peril of your life can serve the Lady of
+Avenel; I can only say, she will be pleased to learn you have adopted
+some course which may ensure the safety of your person, and the weal
+of your soul--What ails you, that you accept not that safety when it is
+offered you?"
+
+"My only relative who is alive," answered Roland, "at least the only
+relative whom I have ever seen, has rejoined me since I was dismissed
+from the Castle of Avenel, and I must consult with her whether I can
+adopt the line to which you now call me, or whether her increasing
+infirmities, or the authority which she is entitled to exercise over me,
+may not require me to abide with her."
+
+"Where is this relation?" said Sir Halbert Glendinning.
+
+"In this house," answered the page.
+
+"Go then, and seek her out," said the Knight of Avenel; "more than meet
+it is that thou shouldst have her approbation, yet worse than foolish
+would she show herself in denying it."
+
+Roland left the apartment to seek for his grandmother; and, as he
+retreated, the Abbot entered.
+
+The two brothers met as brothers who loved each other fondly, yet
+meet rarely together. Such indeed was the case. Their mutual affection
+attached them to each other; but in every pursuit, habit or sentiment,
+connected with the discords of the times, the friend and counsellor of
+Murray stood opposed to the Roman Catholic priest; nor, indeed, could
+they have held very much society together, without giving cause of
+offence and suspicion to their confederates on each side. After a close
+embrace on the part of both, and a welcome on that of the Abbot, Sir
+Halbert Glendinning expressed his satisfaction that he had come in time
+to appease the riot raised by Howleglas and his tumultuous followers.
+
+"And yet," he said, "when I look on your garments, brother Edward, I
+cannot help thinking there still remains an Abbot of Unreason within the
+bounds of the Monastery."
+
+"And wherefore carp at my garments, brother Halbert?" said the Abbot;
+"it is the spiritual armour of my calling, and, as such, beseems me as
+well as breastplate and baldric becomes your own bosom."
+
+"Ay, but there were small wisdom, methinks, in putting on armour where
+we have no power to fight; it is but a dangerous temerity to defy the
+foe whom we cannot resist."
+
+"For that, my brother, no one can answer," said the Abbot, "until the
+battle be fought; and, were it even as you say, methinks a brave man,
+though desperate of victory, would rather desire to fight and fall, than
+to resign sword and shield on some mean and dishonourable composition
+with his insulting antagonist. But, let not you and I make discord of
+a theme on which we cannot agree, but rather stay and partake, though a
+heretic, of my admission feast. You need not fear, my brother, that your
+zeal for restoring the primitive discipline of the church will, on this
+occasion, be offended with the rich profusion of a conventual banquet.
+The days of our old friend Abbot Boniface are over; and the Superior of
+Saint Mary's has neither forests nor fishings, woods nor pastures, nor
+corn-fields;--neither flocks nor herds, bucks nor wild-fowl--granaries
+of wheat, nor storehouses of oil and wine, of ale and of mead. The
+refectioner's office is ended; and such a meal as a hermit in romance
+can offer to a wandering knight, is all we have to set before you. But,
+if you will share it with us, we shall eat it with a cheerful heart,
+and thank you, my brother, for your timely protection against these rude
+scoffers."
+
+"My dearest brother," said the Knight, "it grieves me deeply I cannot
+abide with you; but it would sound ill for us both were one of the
+reformed congregation to sit down at your admission feast; and, if I
+can ever have the satisfaction of affording you effectual protection,
+it will be much owing to my remaining unsuspected of countenancing or
+approving your religious rites and ceremonies. It will demand whatever
+consideration I can acquire among my own friends, to shelter the bold
+man, who, contrary to law and the edicts of parliament, has dared to
+take up the office of Abbot of Saint Mary's."
+
+"Trouble not yourself with the task, my brother," replied Father
+Ambrosius. "I would lay down my dearest blood to know that you defended
+the church for the church's sake; but, while you remain unhappily her
+enemy, I would not that you endangered your own safety, or diminished
+your own comforts, for the sake of my individual protection.--But who
+comes hither to disturb the few minutes of fraternal communication which
+our evil fate allows us?"
+
+The door of the apartment opened as the Abbot spoke, and Dame Magdalen
+entered.
+
+"Who is this woman?" said Sir Halbert Glendinning, somewhat sternly,
+"and what does she want?"
+
+"That you know me not," said the matron, "signifies little; I come
+by your own order, to give my free consent that the stripling, Roland
+Graeme, return to your service; and, having said so, I cumber you no
+longer with my presence. Peace be with you!" She turned to go away, but
+was stopped by inquiries of Sir Halbert Glendinning.
+
+"Who are you?--what are you?--and why do you not await to make me
+answer?"
+
+"I was," she replied, "while yet I belonged to the world, a matron of no
+vulgar name; now I am Magdalen, a poor pilgrimer, for the sake of Holy
+Kirk."
+
+"Yea," said Sir Halbert, "art thou a Catholic? I thought my dame said
+that Roland Graeme came of reformed kin.'
+
+"His father," said the matron, "was a heretic, or rather one who
+regarded neither orthodoxy or heresy--neither the temple of the church
+or of antichrist. I, too, for the sins of the times make sinners, have
+seemed to conform to your unhallowed rites--but I had my dispensation
+and my absolution."
+
+"You see, brother," said Sir Halbert, with a smile of meaning towards
+his brother, "that we accuse you not altogether without grounds of
+mental equivocation."
+
+"My brother, you do us injustice," replied the Abbot; "this woman,
+as her bearing may of itself warrant you, is not in her perfect mind.
+Thanks, I must needs say, to the persecution of your marauding barons,
+and of your latitudinarian clergy."
+
+"I will not dispute the point," said Sir Halbert; "the evils of the time
+are unhappily so numerous, that both churches may divide them, and have
+enow to spare." So saying, he leaned from the window of the apartment,
+and winded his bugle.
+
+"Why do you sound your horn, my brother?" said the Abbot; "we have spent
+but few minutes together."
+
+"Alas!" said the elder brother, "and even these few have been sullied
+by disagreement. I sound to horse, my brother--the rather that, to avert
+the consequences of this day's rashness on your part, requires hasty
+efforts on mine.--Dame, you will oblige me by letting your young
+relative know that we mount instantly. I intend not that he shall return
+to Avenel with me--it would lead to new quarrels betwixt him and my
+household; at least to taunts which his proud heart could ill brook,
+and my wish is to do him kindness. He shall, therefore, go forward to
+Edinburgh with one of my retinue, whom I shall send back to say what
+has chanced here.--You seem rejoiced at this?" he added, fixing his eyes
+keenly on Magdalen Graeme, who returned his gaze with calm indifference.
+
+"I would rather," she said, "that Roland, a poor and friendless orphan,
+were the jest of the world at large, than of the menials at Avenel."
+
+"Fear not, dame--he shall be scorned by neither," answered the Knight.
+
+"It may be," she replied--"it may well be--but I will trust more to his
+own bearing than to your countenance." She left the room as she spoke.
+
+The Knight looked after her as she departed, but turned instantly to his
+brother, and expressing, in the most affectionate terms, his wishes for
+his welfare and happiness, craved his leave to depart. "My knaves," he
+said, "are too busy at the ale-stand, to leave their revelry for the
+empty breath of a bugle-horn."
+
+"You have freed them from higher restraint, Halbert," answered the
+Abbot, "and therein taught them to rebel against your own."
+
+"Fear not that, Edward," exclaimed Halbert, who never gave his brother
+his monastic name of Ambrosius; "none obey the command of real duty so
+well as those who are free from the observance of slavish bondage."
+
+He was turning to depart, when the Abbot said,--"Let us not yet part, my
+brother--here comes some light refreshment. Leave not the house which I
+must now call mine, till force expel me from it, until you have at least
+broken bread with me."
+
+The poor lay brother, the same who acted as porter, now entered the
+apartment, bearing some simple refreshment, and a flask of wine. "He had
+found it," he said with officious humility, "by rummaging through every
+nook of the cellar."
+
+The Knight filled a small silver cup, and, quaffing it off, asked his
+brother to pledge him, observing, the wine was Bacharac, of the first
+vintage, and great age.
+
+"Ay," said the poor lay brother, "it came out of the nook which old
+brother Nicholas, (may his soul be happy!) was wont to call Abbot
+Ingelram's corner; and Abbot Ingelram was bred at the Convent of
+Wurtzburg, which I understand to be near where that choice wine grows."
+
+"True, my reverend sir," said Sir Halbert; "and therefore I entreat my
+brother and you to pledge me in a cup of this orthodox vintage."
+
+The thin old porter looked with a wishful glance towards the Abbot. "_Do
+veniam_," said his Superior; and the old man seized, with a trembling
+hand, a beverage to which he had been long unaccustomed; drained the cup
+with protracted delight, as if dwelling on the flavour and perfume, and
+set it down with a melancholy smile and shake of the head, as if bidding
+adieu in future to such delicious potations. The brothers smiled. But
+when Sir Halbert motioned to the Abbot to take up his cup and do him
+reason, the Abbot, in turn, shook his head, and replied--"This is no
+day for the Abbot of Saint Mary's to eat the fat and drink the sweat.
+In water from our Lady's well," he added, filling a cup with the limpid
+element, "I wish you, brother, all happiness, and above all, a true
+sight of your spiritual errors."
+
+"And to you, my beloved Edward," replied Glendinning, "I wish the free
+exercise of your own free reason, and the discharge of more important
+duties than are connected with the idle name which you have so rashly
+assumed."
+
+The brothers parted with deep regret; and yet, each confident in his
+opinion, felt somewhat relieved by the absence of one whom he respected
+so much, and with whom he could agree so little.
+
+Soon afterwards the sound of the Knight of Avenel's trumpets was heard,
+and the Abbot went to the top of the tower, from whose dismantled
+battlements he could soon see the horsemen ascending the rising ground
+in the direction of the drawbridge. As he gazed, Magdalen Graeme came to
+his side.
+
+"Thou art come," he said, "to catch the last glimpse of thy grandson,
+my sister. Yonder he wends, under the charge of the best knight in
+Scotland, his faith ever excepted."
+
+"Thou canst bear witness, my father, that it was no wish either of
+mine or of Roland's," replied the matron, "which induced the Knight
+of Avenel, as he is called, again to entertain my grandson in his
+household--Heaven, which confounds the wise with their own wisdom,
+and the wicked with their own policy, hath placed him where, for the
+services of the Church, I would most wish him to be."
+
+"I know not what you mean, my sister," said the Abbot.
+
+"Reverend father," replied Magdalen, "hast thou never heard that there
+are spirits powerful to rend the walls of a castle asunder when once
+admitted, which yet cannot enter the house unless they are invited, nay,
+dragged over the threshold?
+
+[Footnote: There is a popular belief respecting evil spirits, that they
+cannot enter an inhabited house unless invited, nay, dragged over the
+threshold. There is an instance of the same superstition in the Tales of
+the Genii, where an enchanter is supposed to have intruded himself into
+the Divan of the Sultan.
+
+"'Thus,' said the illustrious Misnar, 'let the enemies of Mahomet be
+dismayed! but inform me, O ye sages! under the semblance of which of
+your brethren did that foul enchanter gain admittance here?'--'May the
+lord of my heart,' answered Balihu, the hermit of the faithful from
+Queda, 'triumph over all his foes! As I travelled on the mountains from
+Queda, and saw neither the footsteps of beasts, nor the flight of birds,
+behold, I chanced to pass through a cavern, in whose hollow sides I
+found this accursed sage, to whom I unfolded the invitation of the
+Sultan of India, and we, joining, journeyed towards the Divan; but ere
+we entered, he said unto me. 'Put thy hand forth, and pull me towards
+thee into the Divan, calling on the name of Mahomet, for the evil
+spirits are on me and vex me.'"
+
+I have understood that many parts of these fine tales, and in particular
+that of the Sultan Misnar, were taken from genuine Oriental sources by
+the editor, Mr. James Ridley.
+
+But the most picturesque use of this popular belief occurs in
+Coleridge's beautiful and tantalizing fragment of Christabel. Has not
+our own imaginative poet cause to fear that future ages will desire to
+summon him from his place of rest, as Milton longed
+
+  "To call him up, who left half told
+   The story of Cambuscan bold?"
+
+The verses I refer to are when Christabel conducts into her father's
+castle a mysterious and malevolent being, under the guise of a
+distressed female stranger.
+
+
+  'They cross'd the moat, and Christabel
+  Took the key that fitted well;
+  A little door she open'd straight,
+  All in the middle of the gate;
+  The gate that was iron'd within and without,
+  Where an army in battle array had march'd out.
+
+  "The lady sank, belike through pain,
+  And Christabel with might and main
+  Lifted her up, a weary weight,
+  Over the threshold of the gate:
+  Then the lady rose again,
+  And moved as she were not in pain.
+
+  "So free from danger, free from fear,
+  They cross'd the court;--right glad they were,
+  And Christabel devoutly cried
+  To the lady by her side:
+  'Praise we the Virgin, all divine,
+    Who hath rescued thee from this distress.'
+  'Alas, alas!' said Geraldine,
+  'I cannot speak from weariness.'
+  So free from danger, free from fear,
+  They cross'd the court: right glad they were
+]
+
+Twice hath Roland Graeme been thus drawn into the household of Avenel by
+those who now hold the title. Let them look to the issue."
+
+So saying she left the turret; and the Abbot, after pausing a moment on
+her words, which he imputed to the unsettled state of her mind, followed
+down the winding stair to celebrate his admission to his high office by
+fast and prayer instead of revelling and thanksgiving.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Sixteenth.
+
+
+  Youth! thou wear'st to manhood now,
+  Darker lip and darker brow,
+  Statelier step, more pensive mien,
+  In thy face and gate are seen:
+  Thou must now brook midnight watches,
+  Take thy food and sport by snatches;
+  For the gambol and the jest,
+  Thou wert wont to love the best,
+  Graver follies must thou follow,
+  But as senseless, false, and hollow.
+                        LIFE, A POEM.
+
+Young Roland Graeme now trotted gaily forward in the train of
+Sir Halbert Glendinning. He was relieved from his most galling
+apprehension,--the encounter of the scorn and taunt which might possibly
+hail his immediate return to the Castle of Avenel. "There will be a
+change ere they see me again," he thought to himself; "I shall wear the
+coat of plate, instead of the green jerkin, and the steel morion for the
+bonnet and feather. They will be bold that may venture to break a gibe
+on the man-at-arms for the follies of the page; and I trust, that ere we
+return I shall have done something more worthy of note than hallooing
+a hound after a deer, or scrambling a crag for a kite's nest." He
+could not, indeed, help marvelling that his grandmother, with all her
+religious prejudices, leaning, it would seem, to the other side, had
+consented so readily to his re-entering the service of the House of
+Avenel; and yet more, at the mysterious joy with which she took leave of
+him at the Abbey.
+
+"Heaven," said the dame, as she kissed her young relation, and bade him
+farewell, "works its own work, even by the hands of those of our enemies
+who think themselves the strongest and the wisest. Thou, my child, be
+ready to act upon the call of thy religion and country; and remember,
+each earthly bond which thou canst form is, compared to the ties which
+bind thee to them, like the loose flax to the twisted cable. Thou hast
+not forgot the face or form of the damsel Catherine Seyton?"
+
+Roland would have replied in the negative, but the word seemed to stick
+in his throat and Magdalen continued her exhortations.
+
+"Thou must not forget her, my son; and here I intrust thee with a token,
+which I trust thou wilt speedily find an opportunity of delivering with
+care and secrecy into her own hand."
+
+She put here into Roland's hand a very small packet, of which she again
+enjoined him to take the strictest care, and to suffer it to be seen
+by no one save Catherine Seyton, who, she again (very unnecessarily)
+reminded him, was the young lady he had met on the preceding day. She
+then bestowed on him her solemn benediction, and bade God speed him.
+
+There was something in her manner and her conduct which implied mystery;
+but Roland Graeme was not of an age or temper to waste much time
+in endeavoring to decipher her meaning. All that was obvious to his
+perception in the present journey, promised pleasure and novelty. He
+rejoiced that he was travelling towards Edinburgh, in order to assume
+the character of a man, and lay aside that of a boy. He was delighted to
+think that he would have an opportunity of rejoining Catherine
+Seyton, whose bright eyes and lively manners had made so favourable an
+impression on his imagination; and, as an experienced, yet high-spirited
+youth, entering for the first time upon active life, his heart bounded
+at the thought, that he was about to see all those scenes of courtly
+splendour and warlike adventures, of which the followers of Sir Halbert
+used to boast on their occasional visits to Avenel, to the wonderment
+and envy of those who, like Roland, knew courts and camps only by
+hearsay, and were condemned to the solitary sports and almost monastic
+seclusion of Avenel, surrounded by its lonely lake, and embossed
+among its pathless mountains. "They shall mention my name," he said
+to himself, "if the risk of my life can purchase me opportunities of
+distinction, and Catherine Seyton's saucy eye shall rest with more
+respect on the distinguished soldier, than that with which she laughed
+to scorn the raw and inexperienced page."--There was wanting but
+one accessary to complete the sense of rapturous excitation, and he
+possessed it by being once more mounted on the back of a fiery and
+active horse, instead of plodding along on foot, as had been the case
+during the preceding days.
+
+Impelled by the liveliness of his own spirits, which so many
+circumstances tended naturally to exalt, Roland Graeme's voice and his
+laughter were soon distinguished amid the trampling of the horses of the
+retinue, and more than once attracted the attention of the leader, who
+remarked with satisfaction, that the youth replied with good-humoured
+raillery to such of the train as jested with him on his dismissal and
+return to the service of the House of Avenel.
+
+"I thought the holly-branch in your bonnet had been blighted, Master
+Roland?" said one of the men-at-arms.
+
+"Only pinched with half an hour's frost; you see it flourishes as green
+as ever."
+
+"It is too grave a plant to flourish on so hot a soil as that headpiece
+of thine, Master Roland Graeme," retorted the other, who was an old
+equerry of Sir Halbert Glendinning.
+
+"If it will not flourish alone," said Roland, "I will mix it with the
+laurel and the myrtle--and I will carry them so near the sky, that it
+shall make amends for their stinted growth."
+
+Thus speaking, he dashed his spurs into his horse's sides, and, checking
+him at the same time, compelled him to execute a lofty caracole. Sir
+Halbert Glendinning looked at the demeanour of his new attendant with
+that sort of melancholy pleasure with which those who have long followed
+the pursuits of life, and are sensible of their vanity, regard the gay,
+young, and buoyant spirits to whom existence, as yet, is only hope and
+promise.
+
+In the meanwhile, Adam Woodcock, the falconer, stripped of his masquing
+habit, and attired, according to his rank and calling, in a green
+jerkin, with a hawking-bag on the one side, and a short hanger on the
+other, a glove on his left hand which reached half way up his arm, and
+a bonnet and feather upon his head, came after the party as fast as
+his active little galloway-nag could trot, and immediately entered into
+parley with Roland Graeme.
+
+"So, my youngster, you are once more under shadow of the holly-branch?"
+
+"And in case to repay you, my good friend," answered Roland, "your ten
+groats of silver."
+
+"Which, but an hour since," said the falconer, "you had nearly paid me
+with ten inches of steel. On my faith, it is written in the book of our
+destiny, that I must brook your dagger after all."
+
+"Nay, speak not of that, my good friend," said the youth, "I would
+rather have broached my own bosom than yours; but who could have known
+you in the mumming dress you wore?"
+
+"Yes," the falconer resumed,--for both as a poet and actor he had
+his own professional share of self-conceit,--"I think I was as good a
+Howleglas as ever played part at a Shrovetide revelry, and not a much
+worse Abbot of Unreason. I defy the Old Enemy to unmask me when I choose
+to keep my vizard on. What the devil brought the Knight on us before we
+had the game out? You would have heard me hollo my own new ballad with a
+voice should have reached to Berwick. But I pray you, Master Roland, be
+less free of cold steel on slight occasions; since, but for the stuffing
+of my reverend doublet, I had only left the kirk to take my place in the
+kirkyard."
+
+"Nay, spare me that feud," said Roland Graeme, "we shall have no time to
+fight it out; for, by our lord's command, I am bound for Edinburgh."
+
+"I know it," said Adam Woodcock, "and even therefore we shall have time
+to solder up this rent by the way, for Sir Halbert has appointed me your
+companion and guide."
+
+"Ay? and with what purpose?" said the page.
+
+"That," said the falconer, "is a question I cannot answer; but I know,
+that be the food of the eyases washed or unwashed, and, indeed, whatever
+becomes of perch and mew, I am to go with you to Edinburgh, and see you
+safely delivered to the Regent at Holyrood."
+
+"How, to the Regent?" said Roland, in surprise.
+
+"Ay, by my faith, to the Regent," replied Woodcock; "I promise you, that
+if you are not to enter his service, at least you are to wait upon him
+in the character of a retainer of our Knight of Avenel."
+
+"I know no right," said the youth, "which the Knight of Avenel hath to
+transfer my service, supposing that I owe it to himself."
+
+"Hush, hush!" said the falconer; "that is a question I advise no one to
+stir in until he has the mountain or the lake, or the march of another
+kingdom, which is better than either, betwixt him and his feudal
+superior."
+
+"But Sir Halbert Glendinning," said the youth, "is not my feudal
+superior; nor has he aught of authority--"
+
+"I pray you, my son, to rein your tongue," answered Adam Woodcock; "my
+lord's displeasure, if you provoke it, will be worse to appease than
+my lady's. The touch of his least finger were heavier than her hardest
+blow. And, by my faith, he is a man of steel, as true and as pure, but
+as hard and as pitiless. You remember the Cock of Capperlaw, whom he
+hanged over his gate for a mere mistake--a poor yoke of oxen taken in
+Scotland, when he thought he was taking them in English land? I loved
+the Cock of Capperlaw; the Kerrs had not an honester man in their clan,
+and they have had men that might have been a pattern to the Border--men
+that would not have lifted under twenty cows at once, and would have
+held themselves dishonoured if they had taken a drift of sheep, or the
+like, but always managed their raids in full credit and honour.--But
+see, his worship halts, and we are close by the bridge. Ride up--ride
+up--we must have his last instructions."
+
+It was as Adam Woodcock said. In the hollow way descending towards the
+bridge, which was still in the guardianship of Peter Bridgeward, as he
+was called, though he was now very old, Sir Halbert Glendinning halted
+his retinue, and beckoned to Woodcock and Graeme to advance to the head
+of the train.
+
+"Woodcock," said he, "thou knowest to whom thou art to conduct this
+youth. And thou, young man, obey discreetly and with diligence the
+orders that shall be given thee. Curb thy vain and peevish temper. Be
+just, true, and faithful; and there is in thee that which may raise
+thee many a degree above thy present station. Neither shalt thou--always
+supposing thine efforts to be fair and honest--want the protection and
+countenance of Avenel."
+
+Leaving them in front of the bridge, the centre tower of which now began
+to cast a prolonged shade upon the river, the Knight of Avenel turned
+to the left, without crossing the river, and pursued his way towards the
+chain of hills within whose recesses are situated the Lake and Castle
+of Avenel. There remained behind, the falconer, Roland Graeme, and a
+domestic of the Knight, of inferior rank, who was left with them to look
+after their horses while on the road, to carry their baggage, and to
+attend to their convenience.
+
+So soon as the more numerous body of riders had turned off to pursue
+their journey westward, those whose route lay across the river, and was
+directed towards the north, summoned the Bridgeward, and demanded a free
+passage.
+
+"I will not lower the bridge," answered Peter, in a voice querulous with
+age and ill-humour.--"Come Papist, come Protestant, ye are all the
+same. The Papist threatened us with Purgatory, and fleeched us with
+pardons--the Protestant mints at us with his sword, and cuttles us with
+the liberty of conscience; but never a one of either says, 'Peter, there
+is your penny.' I am well tired of all this, and for no man shall the
+bridge fall that pays me not ready money; and I would have you know I
+care as little for Geneva as for Rome--as little for homilies as for
+pardons; and the silver pennies are the only passports I will hear of."
+
+"Here is a proper old chuff!" said Woodcock to his companion; then
+raising his voice, he exclaimed, "Hark thee, dog--Bridgeward, villain,
+dost thou think we have refused thy namesake Peter's pence to Rome, to
+pay thine at the bridge of Kennaquhair? Let thy bridge down instantly to
+the followers of the house of Avenel, or by the hand of my father, and
+that handled many a bridle rein, for he was a bluff Yorkshireman--I say,
+by my father's hand, our Knight will blow thee out of thy solan-goose's
+nest there in the middle of the water, with the light falconet which we
+are bringing southward from Edinburgh to-morrow."
+
+The Bridgeward heard, and muttered, "A plague on falcon and falconet,
+on cannon and demicannon, and all the barking bull-dogs whom they halloo
+against stone and lime in these our days! It was a merry time when there
+was little besides handy blows, and it may be a flight of arrows that
+harmed an ashler wall as little as so many hailstones. But we must jouk
+and let the jaw gang by." Comforting himself in his state of diminished
+consequence with this pithy old proverb, Peter Bridgeward lowered the
+drawbridge, and permitted them to pass over. At the sight of his white
+hair, albeit it discovered a visage equally peevish through age and
+misfortune, Roland was inclined to give him an alms, but Adam Woodcock
+prevented him. "E'en let him pay the penalty of his former churlishness
+and greed," he said; "the wolf, when he has lost his teeth, should be
+treated no better than a cur."
+
+Leaving the Bridgeward to lament the alteration of times, which sent
+domineering soldiers and feudal retainers to his place of passage,
+instead of peaceful pilgrims, and reduced him to become the oppressed,
+instead of playing the extortioner, the travellers turned them
+northward; and Adam Woodcock, well acquainted with that part of the
+country, proposed to cut short a considerable portion of the road, by
+traversing the little vale of Glendearg, so famous for the adventures
+which befell therein during the earlier part of the Benedictine's
+manuscript. With these, and with the thousand commentaries,
+representations, and misrepresentations, to which they had given rise,
+Roland Graeme was, of course, well acquainted; for in the Castle of
+Avenel, as well as in other great establishments, the inmates talked of
+nothing so often, or with such pleasure, as of the private affairs of
+their lord and lady. But while Roland was viewing with interest these
+haunted scenes, in which things were said to have passed beyond the
+ordinary laws of nature, Adam Woodcock was still regretting in his
+secret soul the unfinished revel and the unsung ballad, and kept every
+now and then, breaking out with some such verses as these:--
+
+    "The Friars of Fail drank berry-brown ale,
+       The best that e'er was tasted;
+     The Monks of Melrose made gude kale
+       On Fridays, when they fasted.
+          Saint Monance' sister.
+          The gray priest kist her--
+           Fiend save the company!
+          Sing hay trix, trim-go-trix.
+            Under the greenwood tree."
+
+"By my hand, friend Woodcock," said the page, "though I know you for a
+hardy gospeller, that fear neither saint nor devil, yet, if I were
+you, I would not sing your profane songs in this valley of Glendearg,
+considering what has happened here before our time."
+
+"A straw for your wandering spirits!" said Adam Woodcock; "I mind them
+no more than an earn cares for a string of wild-geese--they have all
+fled since the pulpits were filled with honest men, and the people's
+ears with sound doctrine. Nay, I have a touch at them in my ballad, an I
+had but had the good luck to have it sung to end;" and again he set off
+in the same key:
+
+  From haunted spring and grassy ring,
+    Troop goblin, elf, and fairy;
+  And the kelpie must flit from the black bog-pit,
+    And the brownie must not tarry;
+       To Limbo-lake,
+       Their way they take,
+         With scarce the pith to flee.
+       Sing hay trix, trim-go-trix,
+         Under the greenwood tree.
+
+"I think," he added, "that could Sir Halbert's patience have stretched
+till we came that length, he would have had a hearty laugh, and that is
+what he seldom enjoys."
+
+"If it be all true that men tell of his early life," said Roland, "he
+has less right to laugh at goblins than most men."
+
+"Ay, _if_ it be all true," answered Adam Woodcock; "but who can ensure
+us of that? Moreover, these were but tales the monks used to gull us
+simple laymen withal; they knew that fairies and hobgoblins brought
+aves and paternosters into repute; but, now we have given up worship
+of images in wood and stone, methinks it were no time to be afraid of
+bubbles in the water, or shadows in the air."
+
+"However," said Roland Graeme, "as the Catholics say they do not worship
+wood or stone, but only as emblems of the holy saints, and not as things
+holy in themselves----"
+
+"Pshaw! pshaw!" answered the falconer; "a rush for their prating.
+They told us another story when these baptized idols of theirs brought
+pike-staves and sandalled shoon from all the four winds, and whillied
+the old women out of their corn and their candle ends, and their butter,
+bacon, wool, and cheese, and when not so much as a gray groat escaped
+tithing."
+
+Roland Graeme had been long taught, by necessity, to consider his form
+of religion as a profound secret, and to say nothing whatever in its
+defence when assailed, lest he should draw on himself the suspicion of
+belonging to the unpopular and exploded church. He therefore suffered
+Adam Woodcock to triumph without farther opposition, marvelling in his
+own mind whether any of the goblins, formerly such active agents, would
+avenge his rude raillery before they left the valley of Glendearg.
+But no such consequences followed. They passed the night quietly in a
+cottage in the glen, and the next day resumed their route to Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Seventeenth.
+
+
+Edina! Scotia's darling seat,  All hail thy palaces and towers,
+Where once, beneath a monarch's feet,  Sate legislation's sovereign powers.
+                          BURNS.
+
+"This, then, is Edinburgh?" said the youth, as the fellow-travellers
+arrived at one of the heights to the southward, which commanded a view
+of the great northern capital--"This is that Edinburgh of which we have
+heard so much!"
+
+"Even so," said the falconer; "yonder stands Auld Reekie--you may see
+the smoke hover over her at twenty miles' distance, as the gosshawk
+hangs over a plump of young wild-ducks--ay, yonder is the heart of
+Scotland, and each throb that she gives is felt from the edge of Solway
+to Duncan's-bay-head. See, yonder is the old Castle; and see to the
+right, on yon rising ground, that is the Castle of Craigmillar, which I
+have known a merry place in my time."
+
+"Was it not there," said the page in a low voice, "that the Queen held
+her court?"
+
+"Ay, ay," replied the falconer, "Queen she was then, though you must not
+call her so now. Well, they may say what they will--many a true heart
+will be sad for Mary Stewart, e'en if all be true men say of her; for
+look you, Master Roland--she was the loveliest creature to look upon
+that I ever saw with eye, and no lady in the land liked better the fair
+flight of a falcon. I was at the great match on Roslin Moor betwixt
+Bothwell--he was a black sight to her that Bothwell--and the Baron
+of Roslin, who could judge a hawk's flight as well as any man in
+Scotland--a butt of Rhenish and a ring of gold was the wager, and it was
+flown as fairly for as ever was red gold and bright wine. And to see
+her there on her white palfrey, that flew as if it scorned to touch more
+than the heather blossom; and to hear her voice, as clear and sweet as
+the mavis's whistle, mix among our jolly whooping and whistling; and to
+mark all the nobles dashing round her; happiest he who got a word or a
+look--tearing through moss and hagg, and venturing neck and limb to
+gain the praise of a bold rider, and the blink of a bonny Queen's bright
+eye!--she will see little hawking where she lies now--ay, ay, pomp and
+pleasure pass away as speedily as the wap of a falcon's wing."
+
+"And where is this poor Queen now confined?" said Roland Graeme,
+interested in the fate of a woman whose beauty and grace had made so
+strong an impression even on the blunt and careless character of Adam
+Woodcock.
+
+"Where is she now imprisoned?" said honest Adam; "why, in some castle
+in the north, they say--I know not where, for my part, nor is it worth
+while to vex one's sell anent what cannot be mended--An she had guided
+her power well whilst she had it, she had not come to so evil a pass.
+Men say she must resign her crown to this little baby of a prince, for
+that they will trust her with it no longer. Our master has been as busy
+as his neighbours in all this work. If the Queen should come to her
+own again, Avenel Castle is like to smoke for it, unless he makes
+his bargain all the better." "In a castle in the north Queen Mary is
+confined?" said the page. "Why, ay--they say so, at least--In a castle
+beyond that great river which comes down yonder, and looks like a river,
+but it is a branch of the sea, and as bitter as brine."
+
+"And amongst all her subjects," said the page, with some emotion, "is
+there none that will adventure anything for her relief?"
+
+"That is a kittle question," said the falconer; "and if you ask it
+often, Master Roland, I am fain to tell you that you will be mewed up
+yourself in some of those castles, if they do not prefer twisting your
+head off, to save farther trouble with you--Adventure any thing? Lord,
+why, Murray has the wind in his poop now, man, and flies so high and
+strong, that the devil a wing of them can match him--No, no; there she
+is, and there she must lie, till Heaven send her deliverance, or till
+her son has the management of all--But Murray will never let her loose
+again, he knows her too well.--And hark thee, we are now bound for
+Holyrood, where thou wilt find plenty of news, and of courtiers to tell
+it--But, take my counsel, and keep a calm sough, as the Scots say--hear
+every man's counsel, and keep your own. And if you hap to learn any
+news you like, leap not up as if you were to put on armour direct in the
+cause--Our old Mr. Wingate says--and he knows court-cattle well--that if
+you are told old King Coul is come alive again, you should turn it off
+with, 'And is he in truth?--I heard not of it,' and should seem no more
+moved, than if one told you, by way of novelty, that old King Coul was
+dead and buried. Wherefore, look well to your bearing, Master Roland,
+for, I promise you, you come among a generation that are keen as a
+hungry hawk--And never be dagger out of sheath at every wry word you
+hear spoken; for you will find as hot blades as yourself, and then will
+be letting of blood without advice either of leech or almanack."
+
+"You shall see how staid I will be, and how cautious, my good friend,"
+said Graeme; "but, blessed Lady, what goodly house is that which is
+lying all in ruins so close to the city? Have they been playing at the
+Abbot of Unreason here, and ended the gambol by burning the church?"
+
+"There again now," replied his companion, "you go down the wind like a
+wild haggard, that minds neither lure nor beck--that is a question you
+should have asked in as low a tone as I shall answer it."
+
+"If I stay here long," said Roland Graeme, "it is like I shall lose the
+natural use of my voice--but what are the ruins then?"
+
+"The Kirk of Field," said the falconer, in a low and impressive whisper,
+laying at the same time his finger on his lip; "ask no more about
+it--somebody got foul play, and somebody got the blame of it; and the
+game began there which perhaps may not be played out in our time.--Poor
+Henry Darnley! to be an ass, he understood somewhat of a hawk; but
+they sent him on the wing through the air himself one bright moonlight
+night."
+
+The memory of this catastrophe was so recent, that the page averted his
+eyes with horror from the scathed ruins in which it had taken place; and
+the accusations against the Queen, to which it had given rise, came over
+his mind with such strength as to balance the compassion he had begun to
+entertain for her present forlorn situation.
+
+It was, indeed, with that agitating state of mind which arises partly
+from horror, but more from anxious interest and curiosity, that young
+Graeme found himself actually traversing the scene of those tremendous
+events, the report of which had disturbed the most distant solitudes
+in Scotland, like the echoes of distant thunder rolling among the
+mountains.
+
+"Now," he thought, "now or never shall I become a man, and bear my part
+in those deeds which the simple inhabitants of our hamlets repeat to
+each other, as if they were wrought by beings of a superior order to
+their own. I will know now, wherefore the Knight of Avenel carries his
+crest so much above those of the neighbouring baronage, and how it is
+that men, by valour and wisdom, work their way from the hoddin-gray
+coat to the cloak of scarlet and gold. Men say I have not much wisdom to
+recommend me; and if that be true, courage must do it; for I will be a
+man amongst living men, or a dead corpse amongst the dead."
+
+From these dreams of ambition he turned his thoughts to those of
+pleasure, and began to form many conjectures, when and where he should
+see Catherine Seyton, and in what manner their acquaintance was to be
+renewed. With such conjectures he was amusing himself, when he found
+that they had entered the city, and all other feelings were suspended
+in the sensation of giddy astonishment with which an inhabitant of the
+country is affected, when, for the first time, he finds himself in the
+streets of a large and populous city, a unit in the midst of thousands.
+
+The principal street of Edinburgh was then, as now, one of the most
+spacious in Europe. The extreme height of the houses, and the variety of
+Gothic gables and battlements, and balconies, by which the sky-line on
+each side was crowned and terminated, together with the width of the
+street itself, might have struck with surprise a more practised eye than
+that of young Graeme. The population, close packed within the walls of
+the city, and at this time increased by the number of the lords of
+the King's party who had thronged to Edinburgh to wait upon the Regent
+Murray, absolutely swarmed like bees on the wide and stately street.
+Instead of the shop-windows, which are now calculated for the display
+of goods, the traders had their open booths projecting on the street,
+in which, as in the fashion of the modern bazaars, all was exposed which
+they had upon sale. And though the commodities were not of the richest
+kinds, yet Graeme thought he beheld the wealth of the whole world in the
+various bales of Flanders cloths, and the specimens of tapestry; and,
+at other places, the display of domestic utensils and pieces of plate
+struck him with wonder. The sight of cutlers' booths, furnished with
+swords and poniards, which were manufactured in Scotland, and with
+pieces of defensive armour, imported from Flanders, added to his
+surprise; and, at every step, he found so much to admire and gaze upon,
+that Adam Woodcock had no little difficulty in prevailing on him to
+advance through such a scene of enchantment.
+
+The sight of the crowds which filled the streets was equally a subject
+of wonder. Here a gay lady, in her muffler, or silken veil, traced her
+way delicately, a gentleman-usher making way for her, a page bearing up
+her train, and a waiting gentlewoman carrying her Bible, thus intimating
+that her purpose was towards the church--There he might see a group of
+citizens bending the same way, with their short Flemish cloaks, wide
+trowsers, and high-caped doublets, a fashion to which, as well as to
+their bonnet and feather, the Scots were long faithful. Then, again,
+came the clergyman himself, in his black Geneva cloak and band, lending
+a grave and attentive ear to the discourse of several persons who
+accompanied him, and who were doubtless holding serious converse on
+the religious subject he was about to treat of. Nor did there lack
+passengers of a different class and appearance.
+
+At every turn, Roland Graeme might see a gallant ruffle along in the
+newer or French mode, his doublet slashed, and his points of the same
+colours with the lining, his long sword on one side, and his poniard on
+the other, behind him a body of stout serving men, proportioned to
+his estate and quality, all of whom walked with the air of military
+retainers, and were armed with sword and buckler, the latter being a
+small round shield, not unlike the Highland target, having a steel
+spike in the centre. Two of these parties, each headed by a person of
+importance, chanced to meet in the very centre of the street, or, as
+it was called, "the crown of the cause-way," a post of honour as
+tenaciously asserted in Scotland, as that of giving or taking the wall
+used to be in the more southern part of the island. The two leaders
+being of equal rank, and, most probably, either animated by political
+dislike, or by recollection of some feudal enmity, marched close up
+to each other, without yielding an inch to the right or the left; and
+neither showing the least purpose of giving way, they stopped for an
+instant, and then drew their swords. Their followers imitated their
+example; about a score of weapons at once flashed in the sun, and there
+was an immediate clatter of swords and bucklers, while the followers on
+either side cried their master's name; the one shouting "Help, a Leslie!
+a Leslie!" while the others answered with shouts of "Seyton! Seyton!"
+with the additional punning slogan, "Set on, set on--bear the knaves to
+the ground!"
+
+If the falconer found difficulty in getting the page to go forward
+before, it was now perfectly impossible. He reined up his horse, clapped
+his hands, and, delighted with the fray, cried and shouted as fast as
+any of those who were actually engaged in it.
+
+The noise and cries thus arising on the Highgate, as it was called,
+drew into the quarrel two or three other parties of gentlemen and their
+servants, besides some single passengers, who, hearing a fray betwixt
+these two distinguished names, took part in it, either for love or
+hatred.
+
+The combat became now very sharp, and although the sword-and-buckler men
+made more clatter and noise than they did real damage, yet several
+good cuts were dealt among them; and those who wore rapiers, a more
+formidable weapon than the ordinary Scottish swords, gave and received
+dangerous wounds. Two men were already stretched on the causeway, and
+the party of Seyton began to give ground, being much inferior in number
+to the other, with which several of the citizens had united themselves,
+when young Roland Graeme, beholding their leader, a noble gentleman,
+fighting bravely, and hard pressed with numbers, could withhold no
+longer. "Adam Woodcock," he said, "an you be a man, draw, and let us
+take part with the Seyton." And, without waiting a reply, or listening
+to the falconer's earnest entreaty, that he would leave alone a strife
+in which he had no concern, the fiery youth sprung from his horse, drew
+his short sword, and shouting like the rest, "A Seyton! a Seyton! Set
+on! set on!" thrust forward into the throng, and struck down one
+of those who was pressing hardest upon the gentleman whose cause he
+espoused. This sudden reinforcement gave spirit to the weaker party,
+who began to renew the combat with much alacrity, when four of the
+magistrates of the city, distinguished by their velvet cloaks and gold
+chains, came up with a guard of halberdiers and citizens, armed with
+long weapons, and well accustomed to such service, thrust boldly
+forward, and compelled the swordsmen to separate, who immediately
+retreated in different directions, leaving such of the wounded on both
+sides, as had been disabled in the fray, lying on the street.
+
+The falconer, who had been tearing his beard for anger at his comrade's
+rashness, now rode up to him with the horse which he had caught by
+the bridle, and accosted him with "Master Roland--master goose--master
+mad-cap--will it please you to get on horse, and budge? or will you
+remain here to be carried to prison, and made to answer for this pretty
+day's work?"
+
+The page, who had begun his retreat along with the Seytons, just as
+if he had been one of their natural allies, was by this unceremonious
+application made sensible that he was acting a foolish part; and,
+obeying Adam Woodcock with some sense of shame, he sprung actively on
+horseback, and upsetting with the shoulder of the animal a city-officer,
+who was making towards him, he began to ride smartly down the street,
+along with his companion, and was quickly out of the reach of the hue
+and cry. In fact, rencounters of the kind were so common in Edinburgh
+at that period, that the disturbance seldom excited much attention after
+the affray was over, unless some person of consequence chanced to have
+fallen, an incident which imposed on his friends the duty of avenging
+his death on the first convenient opportunity. So feeble, indeed, was
+the arm of the police, that it was not unusual for such skirmishes to
+last for hours, where the parties were numerous and well matched. But at
+this time the Regent, a man of great strength of character, aware of the
+mischief which usually arose from such acts of violence, had prevailed
+with the magistrates to keep a constant guard on foot for preventing or
+separating such affrays as had happened in the present case.
+
+The falconer and his young companion were now riding down the Canongate,
+and had slackened their pace to avoid attracting attention, the rather
+that there seemed to be no appearance of pursuit. Roland hung his head
+as one who was conscious his conduct had been none of the wisest, whilst
+his companion thus addressed him:
+
+"Will you be pleased to tell me one thing, Master Roland Graeme, and
+that is, whether there be a devil incarnate in you or no?"
+
+"Truly, Master Adam Woodcock," answered the page, "I would fain hope
+there is not."
+
+"Then," said Adam, "I would fain know by what other influence or
+instigation you are perpetually at one end or the other of some bloody
+brawl? What, I pray, had you to do with these Seytons and Leslies, that
+you never heard the names of in your life before?"
+
+"You are out there, my friend," said Roland Graeme, "I have my own
+reasons for being a friend to the Seytons."
+
+"They must have been very secret reasons then," answered Adam Woodcock,
+"for I think I could have wagered, you had never known one of the name;
+and I am apt to believe still, that it was your unhallowed passion
+for that clashing of cold iron, which has as much charm for you as the
+clatter of a brass pan hath for a hive of bees, rather than any care
+either for Seyton or for Leslie, that persuaded you to thrust your
+fool's head into a quarrel that no ways concerned you. But take this for
+a warning, my young master, that if you are to draw sword with every man
+who draws sword on the Highgate here, it will be scarce worth your while
+to sheathe bilbo again for the rest of your life, since, if I guess
+rightly, it will scarce endure on such terms for many hours--all which I
+leave to your serious consideration."
+
+"By my word, Adam, I honour your advice; and I promise you, that I will
+practise by it as faithfully as if I were sworn apprentice to you,
+to the trade and mystery of bearing myself with all wisdom and safety
+through the new paths of life that I am about to be engaged in."
+
+"And therein you will do well," said the falconer; "and I do not quarrel
+with you, Master Roland, for having a grain over much spirit, because
+I know one may bring to the hand a wild hawk which one never can a
+dung-hill hen--and so betwixt two faults you have the best on't. But
+besides your peculiar genius for quarrelling and lugging out your side
+companion, my dear Master Roland, you have also the gift of peering
+under every woman's muffler and screen, as if you expected to find
+an old acquaintance. Though were you to spy one, I should be as much
+surprised at it, well wotting how few you have seen of these same
+wild-fowl, as I was at your taking so deep an interest even now in the
+Seyton."
+
+"Tush, man! nonsense and folly," answered Roland Graeme, "I but sought
+to see what eyes these gentle hawks have got under their hood."
+
+"Ay, but it's a dangerous subject of inquiry," said the falconer; "you
+had better hold out your bare wrist for an eagle to perch upon.--Look
+you, Master Roland, these pretty wild-geese cannot be hawked at without
+risk--they have as many divings, boltings, and volleyings, as the most
+gamesome quarry that falcon ever flew at--And besides, every woman of
+them is manned with her husband, or her kind friend, or her brother,
+or her cousin, or her sworn servant at the least--But you heed me not,
+Master Roland, though I know the game so well--your eye is all on that
+pretty damsel who trips down the gate before us--by my certes, I will
+warrant her a blithe dancer either in reel or revel--a pair of silver
+morisco bells would become these pretty ankles as well as the jesses
+would suit the fairest Norway hawk."
+
+"Thou art a fool, Adam," said the page, "and I care not a button about
+the girl or her ankles--But, what the foul fiend, one must look at
+something!"
+
+"Very true, Master Roland Graeme," said his guide, "but let me pray you
+to choose your objects better. Look you, there is scarce a woman walks
+this High-gate with a silk screen or a pearlin muffler, but, as I said
+before, she has either gentleman-usher before her, or kinsman, or lover,
+or husband, at her elbow, or it may be a brace of stout fellows with
+sword and buckler, not so far behind but what they can follow close--But
+you heed me no more than a goss-hawk minds a yellow yoldring."
+
+"O yes, I do--I do mind you indeed," said Roland Graeme; "but hold my
+nag a bit--I will be with you in the exchange of a whistle." So saying,
+and ere Adam Woodcock could finish the sermon which was dying on his
+tongue, Roland Graeme, to the falconer's utter astonishment, threw him
+the bridle of his jennet, jumped off horseback, and pursued down one of
+the closes or narrow lanes, which, opening under a vault, terminate upon
+the main-street, the very maiden to whom his friend had accused him of
+showing so much attention, and who had turned down the pass in question.
+
+"Saint Mary, Saint Magdalen, Saint Benedict, Saint Barnabas!" said the
+poor falconer, when he found himself thus suddenly brought to a pause
+in the midst of the Canongate, and saw his young charge start off like a
+madman in quest of a damsel whom he had never, as Adam supposed, seen in
+his life before,--"Saint Satan and Saint Beelzebub--for this would
+make one swear saint and devil--what can have come over the lad, with
+a wanion! And what shall I do the whilst!--he will have his throat cut,
+the poor lad, as sure as I was born at the foot of Roseberry-Topping.
+Could I find some one to hold the horses! but they are as sharp here
+north-away as in canny Yorkshire herself, and quit bridle, quit titt,
+as we say. An I could but see one of our folks now, a holly-sprig were
+worth a gold tassel; or could I but see one of the Regent's men--but to
+leave the horses to a stranger, that I cannot--and to leave the place
+while the lad is in jeopardy, that I wonot."
+
+We must leave the falconer, however, in the midst of his distress, and
+follow the hot-headed youth who was the cause of his perplexity.
+
+The latter part of Adam Woodcock's sage remonstrance had been in a great
+measure lost upon Roland, for whose benefit it was intended; because,
+in one of the female forms which tripped along the street, muffled in
+a veil of striped silk, like the women of Brussels at this day, his eye
+had discerned something which closely resembled the exquisite shape and
+spirited bearing of Catherine Seyton.--During all the grave advice which
+the falconer was dinning in his ears, his eye continued intent upon so
+interesting an object of observation; and at length, as the damsel, just
+about to dive under one of the arched passages which afforded an outlet
+to the Canongate from the houses beneath, (a passage, graced by a
+projecting shield of arms, supported by two huge foxes of stone,) had
+lifted her veil for the purpose perhaps of descrying who the horseman
+was who for some time had eyed her so closely, young Roland saw, under
+the shade of the silken plaid, enough of the bright azure eyes, fair
+locks, and blithe features, to induce him, like an inexperienced
+and rash madcap, whose wilful ways never had been traversed by
+contradiction, nor much subjected to consideration, to throw the bridle
+of his horse into Adam Woodcock's hand, and leave him to play the
+waiting gentleman, while he dashed down the paved court after Catherine
+Seyton--all as aforesaid.
+
+Women's wits are proverbially quick, but apparently those of Catherine
+suggested no better expedient than fairly to betake herself to speed of
+foot, in hopes of baffling the page's vivacity, by getting safely lodged
+before he could discover where. But a youth of eighteen, in pursuit of
+a mistress, is not so easily outstripped. Catherine fled across a
+paved court, decorated with large formal vases of stone, in which yews,
+cypresses, and other evergreens, vegetated in sombre sullenness, and
+gave a correspondent degree of solemnity to the high and heavy building
+in front of which they were placed as ornaments, aspiring towards a
+square portion of the blue hemisphere, corresponding exactly in extent
+to the quadrangle in which they were stationed, and all around which
+rose huge black walls, exhibiting windows in rows of five stories, with
+heavy architraves over each, bearing armorial and religious devices.
+
+Through this court Catherine Seyton flashed like a hunted doe, making
+the best use of those pretty legs which had attracted the commendation
+even of the reflective and cautious Adam Woodcock. She hastened towards
+a large door in the centre of the lower front of the court, pulled the
+bobbin till the latch flew up, and ensconced herself in the ancient
+mansion. But, if she fled like a doe, Roland Graeme followed with the
+speed and ardour of a youthful stag-hound, loosed for the first time
+on his prey. He kept her in view in spite of her efforts; for it is
+remarkable what an advantage, in such a race, the gallant who desires to
+see, possesses over the maiden who wishes not to be seen--an advantage
+which I have known counterbalance a great start in point of distance.
+In short, he saw the waving of her screen, or veil, at one corner, heard
+the tap of her foot, light as that was, as it crossed the court, and
+caught a glimpse of her figure just as she entered the door of the
+mansion.
+
+Roland Graeme, inconsiderate and headlong as we have described him,
+having no knowledge of real life but from the romances which he had
+read, and not an idea of checking himself in the midst of any eager
+impulse; possessed, besides, of much courage and readiness, never
+hesitated for a moment to approach the door through which the object of
+his search had disappeared. He, too, pulled the bobbin, and the latch,
+though heavy and massive, answered to the summons, and arose. The
+page entered with the same precipitation which had marked his whole
+proceeding, and found himself in a large hall, or vestibule, dimly
+enlightened by latticed casements of painted glass, and rendered yet
+dimmer through the exclusion of the sunbeams, owing to the height of the
+walls of those buildings by which the court-yard was enclosed. The walls
+of the hall were surrounded with suits of ancient and rusted armour,
+interchanged with huge and massive stone scutcheons, bearing double
+tressures, fleured and counter-fleured, wheat-sheaves, coronets, and so
+forth, things to which Roland Graeme gave not a moment's attention.
+
+In fact, he only deigned to observe the figure of Catherine Seyton, who,
+deeming herself safe in the hall, had stopped to take breath after her
+course, and was reposing herself for a moment on a large oaken settle
+which stood at the upper end of the hall. The noise of Roland's entrance
+at once disturbed her; she started up with a faint scream of surprise,
+and escaped through one of the several folding-doors which opened
+into this apartment as a common centre. This door, which Roland Graeme
+instantly approached, opened on a large and well-lighted gallery, at the
+upper end of which he could hear several voices, and the noise of hasty
+steps approaching towards the hall or vestibule. A little recalled to
+sober thought by an appearance of serious danger, he was deliberating
+whether he should stand fast or retire, when Catherine Seyton re-entered
+from a side door, running towards him with as much speed as a few
+minutes since she had fled from him.
+
+"Oh, what mischief brought you hither?" she said; "fly--fly, or you are
+a dead man,--or stay--they come--flight is impossible--say you came to
+ask for Lord Seyton."
+
+She sprung from him and disappeared through the door by which she had
+made her second appearance; and, at the same instant, a pair of large
+folding-doors at the upper end of the gallery flew open with vehemence,
+and six or seven young gentlemen, richly dressed, pressed forward into
+the apartment, having, for the greater part, their swords drawn.
+
+"Who is it," said one, "dare intrude on us in our own mansion?"
+
+"Cut him to pieces," said another; "let him pay for this day's insolence
+and violence--he is some follower of the Rothes."
+
+"No, by Saint Mary," said another; "he is a follower of the arch-fiend
+and ennobled clown Halbert Glendinning, who takes the style of
+Avenel--once a church-vassal, now a pillager of the church."
+
+"It is so," said a fourth; "I know him by the holly-sprig, which is
+their cognizance. Secure the door, he must answer for this insolence."
+
+Two of the gallants, hastily drawing their weapons, passed on to the
+door by which Roland had entered the hall, and stationed themselves
+there as if to prevent his escape. The others advanced on Graeme, who
+had just sense enough to perceive that any attempt at resistance would
+be alike fruitless and imprudent. At once, and by various voices, none
+of which sounded amicably, the page was required to say who he was,
+whence he came, his name, his errand, and who sent him hither. The
+number of the questions demanded of him at once, afforded a momentary
+apology for his remaining silent, and ere that brief truce had elapsed,
+a personage entered the hall, at whose appearance those who had gathered
+fiercely around Roland, fell back with respect.
+
+This was a tall man, whose dark hair was already grizzled, though his
+high and haughty features retained all the animation of youth. The upper
+part of his person was undressed to his Holland shirt, whose ample folds
+were stained with blood. But he wore a mantle of crimson, lined with
+rich fur, cast around him, which supplied the deficiency of his dress.
+On his head he had a crimson velvet bonnet, looped up on one side with
+a small golden chain of many links, which, going thrice around the hat,
+was fastened by a medal, agreeable to the fashion amongst the grandees
+of the time.
+
+"Whom have you here, sons and kinsmen," said he, "around whom you crowd
+thus roughly?--Know you not that the shelter of this roof should secure
+every one fair treatment, who shall come hither either in fair peace, or
+in open and manly hostility?"
+
+"But here, my lord," answered one of the youths, "is a knave who comes
+on treacherous espial!"
+
+"I deny the charge!" said Roland Graeme, boldly, "I came to inquire
+after my Lord Seyton."
+
+"A likely tale," answered his accusers, "in the mouth of a follower of
+Glendinning."
+
+"Stay, young men," said the Lord Seyton, for it was that nobleman
+himself, "let me look at this youth--By heaven, it is the very same who
+came so boldly to my side not very many minutes since, when some of my
+own knaves bore themselves with more respect to their own worshipful
+safety than to mine! Stand back from him, for he well deserves honour
+and a friendly welcome at your hands, instead of this rough treatment."
+
+They fell back on all sides, obedient to Lord Seyton's commands, who,
+taking Roland Graeme by the hand, thanked him for his prompt and gallant
+assistance, adding, that he nothing doubted, "the same interest which
+he had taken in his cause in the affray, brought him hither to inquire
+after his hurt."
+
+Roland bowed low in acquiescence.
+
+"Or is there any thing in which I can serve you, to show my sense of
+your ready gallantry?"
+
+But the page, thinking it best to abide by the apology for his visit
+which the Lord Seyton had so aptly himself suggested, replied, "that
+to be assured of his lordship's safety, had been the only cause of his
+intrusion. He judged," he added, "he had seen him receive some hurt in
+the affray."
+
+"A trifle," said Lord Seyton; "I had but stripped my doublet, that the
+chirurgeon might put some dressing on the paltry scratch, when these
+rash boys interrupted us with their clamour."
+
+Roland Graeme, making a low obeisance, was now about to depart, for,
+relieved from the danger of being treated as a spy, he began next to
+fear, that his companion, Adam Woodcock, whom he had so unceremoniously
+quitted, would either bring him into some farther dilemma, by venturing
+into the hotel in quest of him, or ride off and leave him behind
+altogether. But Lord Seyton did not permit him to escape so easily.
+"Tarry," he said, "young man, and let me know thy rank and name. The
+Seyton has of late been more wont to see friends and followers shrink
+from his side, than to receive aid from strangers-but a new world
+may come around, in which he may have the chance of rewarding his
+well-wishers."
+
+"My name is Roland Graeme, my lord," answered the youth, "a page, who,
+for the present, is in the service of Sir Halbert Glendinning."
+
+"I said so from the first," said one of the young men; "my life I will
+wager, that this is a shaft out of the heretic's quiver-a stratagem from
+first to last, to injeer into your confidence some espial of his own.
+They know how to teach both boys and women to play the intelligencers."
+
+"That is false, if it be spoken of me," said Roland; "no man in Scotland
+should teach me such a foul part!"
+
+"I believe thee, boy," said Lord Seyton, "for thy strokes were too fair
+to be dealt upon an understanding with those that were to receive them.
+Credit me, however, I little expected to have help at need from one of
+your master's household; and I would know what moved thee in my quarrel,
+to thine own endangering?"
+
+"So please you, my lord," said Roland, "I think my master himself would
+not have stood by, and seen an honourable man borne to earth by odds,
+if his single arm could help him. Such, at least, is the lesson we were
+taught in chivalry, at the Castle of Avenel."
+
+"The good seed hath fallen into good ground, young man," said Seyton;
+"but, alas! if thou practise such honourable war in these dishonourable
+days, when right is every where borne down by mastery, thy life, my poor
+boy, will be but a short one."
+
+"Let it be short, so it be honourable," said Roland Graeme; "and permit
+me now, my lord, to commend me to your grace, and to take my leave. A
+comrade waits with my horse in the street."
+
+"Take this, however, young man," said Lord Seyton,
+
+[Footnote: George, fifth Lord Seton, was immovably faithful to Queen
+Mary during all the mutabilities of her fortune. He was grand master of
+the household, in which capacity he had a picture painted of himself,
+with his official baton, and the following motto:
+
+  In adversitate, patiens;
+  In prosperitate, benevolus.
+  Hazard, yet forward.
+
+On various parts of his castle he inscribed, as expressing his religious
+and political creed, the legend:
+
+  Un Dieu, un Foy, un Roy, un Loy.
+
+He declined to be promoted to an earldom, which Queen Mary offered him
+at the same time when she advanced her natural brother to be Earl of
+Mar, and afterwards of Murray.
+
+On his refusing this honour, Mary wrote, or caused to be written, the
+following lines in Latin and French:
+
+  Sunt comites, ducesque alii; sunt denique reges;
+  Sethom dominum sit satis esse mihi.
+
+  Il y a des comptes, des roys, des ducs; ainsi
+  C'est assez pour moy d'estre Seigneur de Seton.
+
+Which may be thus rendered:--
+
+  Earl, duke, or king, be thou that list to be:
+  Seton, thy lordship is enough for me.
+
+This distich reminds us of the "pride which aped humility," in the motto
+of the house of Couci:
+
+  Je suis ni roy, ni prince aussi;
+  Je suis le Seigneur de Coucy.
+
+After the battle of Langside, Lord Seton was obliged to retire abroad
+for safety, and was an exile for two years, during which he was reduced
+to the necessity of driving a waggon in Flanders for his subsistence. He
+rose to favour in James VI's reign, and assuming his paternal property,
+had himself painted in his waggoner's dress, and in the act of driving
+a wain with four horses, on the north end of a stately gallery at Seton
+Castle]
+
+undoing from his bonnet the golden chain and medal, "and wear it for my
+sake."
+
+With no little pride Roland Graeme accepted the gift, which he hastily
+fastened around his bonnet, as he had seen gallants wear such an
+ornament, and renewing his obeisance to the Baron, left the hall,
+traversed the court, and appeared in the street, just as Adam Woodcock,
+vexed and anxious at his delay, had determined to leave the horses to
+their fate, and go in quest of his youthful comrade. "Whose barn hast
+thou broken next?" he exclaimed, greatly relieved by his appearance,
+although his countenance indicated that he had passed through an
+agitating scene.
+
+"Ask me no questions," said Roland, leaping gaily on his horse; "but see
+how short time it takes to win a chain of gold," pointing to that which
+he now wore.
+
+"Now, God forbid that thou hast either stolen it, or reft it by
+violence," said the falconer; "for, otherwise, I wot not how the devil
+thou couldst compass it. I have been often here, ay, for months at an
+end, and no one gave me either chain or medal."
+
+"Thou seest I have got one on shorter acquaintance with the city,"
+answered the page, "but set thine honest heart at rest; that which is
+fairly won and freely given, is neither reft nor stolen."
+
+"Marry, hang thee, with thy fanfarona [Footnote: A name given to the
+gold chains worn by the military men of the period. It is of Spanish
+origin: for the fashion of wearing these costly ornaments was much
+followed amongst the conquerors of the New World.] about thy neck!" said
+the falconer; "I think water will not drown, nor hemp strangle thee.
+Thou hast been discarded as my lady's page, to come in again as my
+lord's squire; and for following a noble young damsel into some great
+household, thou gettest a chain and medal, where another would have
+had the baton across his shoulders, if he missed having the dirk in his
+body. But here we come in front of the old Abbey. Bear thy good luck
+with you when you cross these paved stones, and, by our Lady, you may
+brag Scotland."
+
+As he spoke, they checked their horses, where the huge old vaulted
+entrance to the Abbey or Palace of Holyrood crossed the termination of
+the street down which they had proceeded. The courtyard of the palace
+opened within this gloomy porch, showing the front of an irregular pile
+of monastic buildings, one wing of which is still extant, forming a part
+of the modern palace, erected in the days of Charles I.
+
+At the gate of the porch the falconer and page resigned their horses to
+the serving-man in attendance; the falconer commanding him with an air
+of authority, to carry them safely to the stables. "We follow," he said,
+"the Knight of Avenel--We must bear ourselves for what we are here,"
+said he in a whisper to Roland, "for every one here is looked on as they
+demean themselves; and he that is too modest must to the wall, as the
+proverb says; therefore cock thy bonnet, man, and let us brook the
+causeway bravely."
+
+Assuming, therefore, an air of consequence, corresponding to what he
+supposed to be his master's importance and quality, Adam Woodcock led
+the way into the courtyard of the Palace of Holyrood.
+
+He appears to have been fond of the arts; for there exists a beautiful
+family-piece of him in the centre of his family. Mr. Pinkerton, in his
+Scottish Iconographia, published an engraving of this curious portrait.
+The original is the property of Lord Somerville, nearly connected with
+the Seton family, and is at present at his lordship's fishing villa of
+the Pavilion, near Melrose.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Eighteenth.
+
+
+  --The sky is clouded, Gaspard,
+  And the vexed ocean sleeps a troubled sleep,
+  Beneath a lurid gleam of parting sunshine.
+  Such slumber hangs o'er discontented lands,
+  While factions doubt, as yet, if they have strength
+  To front the open battle.
+                             ALBION--A POEM.
+
+The youthful page paused on the entrance of the court-yard, and implored
+his guide to give him a moment's breathing space. "Let me but look
+around me, man," said he; "you consider not I have never seen such a
+scene as this before.--And this is Holyrood--the resort of the gallant
+and gay, and the fair, and the wise, and the powerful!"
+
+"Ay, marry, is it!" said Woodcock; "but I wish I could hood thee as they
+do the hawks, for thou starest as wildly as if you sought another fray
+or another fanfarona. I would I had thee safely housed, for thou lookest
+wild as a goss-hawk."
+
+It was indeed no common sight to Roland, the vestibule of a palace
+traversed by its various groups,--some radiant with gaiety--some
+pensive, and apparently weighed down by affairs concerning the state, or
+concerning themselves. Here the hoary statesman, with his cautious
+yet commanding look, his furred cloak and sable pantoufles; there the
+soldier in buff and steel, his long sword jarring against the pavement,
+and his whiskered upper lip and frowning brow, looking an habitual
+defiance of danger, which perhaps was not always made good; there again
+passed my lord's serving-man, high of heart, and bloody of hand, humble
+to his master and his master's equals, insolent to all others. To these
+might be added, the poor suitor, with his anxious look and depressed
+mien--the officer, full of his brief authority, elbowing his betters,
+and possibly his benefactors, out of the road--the proud priest, who
+sought a better benefice--the proud baron, who sought a grant of church
+lands--the robber chief, who came to solicit a pardon for the injuries
+he had inflicted on his neighbors--the plundered franklin, who came to
+seek vengeance for that which he had himself received. Besides there was
+the mustering and disposition of guards and soldiers--the despatching of
+messengers, and the receiving them--the trampling and neighing of horses
+without the gate--the flashing of arms, and rustling of plumes, and
+jingling of spurs, within it. In short, it was that gay and splendid
+confusion, in which the eye of youth sees all that is brave and
+brilliant, and that of experience much that is doubtful, deceitful,
+false, and hollow--hopes that will never be gratified--promises
+which will never be fulfilled--pride in the disguise of humility--and
+insolence in that of frank and generous bounty.
+
+As, tired of the eager and enraptured attention which the page gave to
+a scene so new to him, Adam Woodcock endeavoured to get him to move
+forward, before his exuberance of astonishment should attract the
+observation of the sharp-witted denizens of the court, the falconer
+himself became an object of attention to a gay menial in a dark-green
+bonnet and feather, with a cloak of a corresponding colour, laid down,
+as the phrase then went, by six broad bars of silver lace, and welted
+with violet and silver. The words of recognition burst from both
+at once. "What! Adam Woodcock at court!" and "What! Michael
+Wing-the-wind--and how runs the hackit greyhound bitch now?"
+
+"The waur for the wear, like ourselves, Adam--eight years this grass--no
+four legs will carry a dog forever; but we keep her for the breed, and
+so she 'scapes Border doom--But why stand you gazing there? I promise
+you my lord has wished for you, and asked for you."
+
+"My Lord of Murray asked for me, and he Regent of the kingdom too!" said
+Adam. "I hunger and thirst to pay my duty to my good lord;--but I fancy
+his good lordship remembers the day's sport on Carnwath-moor; and my
+Drummelzier falcon, that beat the hawks from the Isle of Man, and won
+his lordship a hundred crowns from the Southern baron whom they called
+Stanley."
+
+"Nay, not to flatter thee, Adam," said his court-friend, "he remembers
+nought of thee, or of thy falcon either. He hath flown many a higher
+flight since that, and struck his quarry too. But come, come hither
+away; I trust we are to be good comrades on the old score."
+
+"What!" said Adam, "you would have me crush a pot with you; but I must
+first dispose of my eyas, where he will neither have girl to chase, nor
+lad to draw sword upon."
+
+"Is the youngster such a one?" said Michael.
+
+"Ay, by my hood, he flies at all game," replied Woodcock.
+
+"Then had he better come with us," said Michael Wing-the-wind; "for we
+cannot have a proper carouse just now, only I would wet my lips, and so
+must you. I want to hear the news from Saint Mary's before you see my
+lord, and I will let you know how the wind sits up yonder."
+
+While he thus spoke, he led the way to a side door which opened into the
+court; and threading several dark passages with the air of one who knew
+the most secret recesses of the palace, conducted them to a small matted
+chamber, where he placed bread and cheese and a foaming flagon of ale
+before the falconer and his young companion, who immediately did justice
+to the latter in a hearty draught, which nearly emptied the measure.
+Having drawn his breath, and dashed the froth from his whiskers, he
+observed, that his anxiety for the boy had made him deadly dry.
+
+"Mend your draught," said his hospitable friend, again supplying
+the flagon from a pitcher which stood beside. "I know the way to the
+butterybar. And now, mind what I say--this morning the Earl of Morton
+came to my lord in a mighty chafe."
+
+"What! they keep the old friendship, then?" said Woodcock.
+
+"Ay, ay, man, what else?" said Michael; "one hand must scratch the
+other. But in a mighty chafe was my Lord of Morton, who, to say truth,
+looketh on such occasions altogether uncanny, and, as it were, fiendish;
+and he says to my lord,--for I was in the chamber taking orders about
+a cast of hawks that are to be fetched from Darnoway--they match your
+long-winged falcons, friend Adam."
+
+"I will believe that when I see them fly as high a pitch," replied
+Woodcock, this professional observation forming a sort of parenthesis.
+
+"However," said Michael, pursuing his tale, "my Lord of Morton, in a
+mighty chafe, asked my Lord Regent whether he was well dealt with--'for
+my brother,' said he, 'should have had a gift to be Commendator of
+Kennaqubair, and to have all the temporalities erected into a lordship
+of regality for his benefit; and here,' said he, 'the false monks have
+had the insolence to choose a new Abbot to put his claim in my brother's
+way; and moreover, the rascality of the neighbourhood have burnt and
+plundered all that was left in the Abbey, so that my brother will
+not have a house to dwell in, when he hath ousted the lazy hounds of
+priests.' And my lord, seeing him chafed, said mildly to him, 'These
+are shrewd tidings, Douglas, but I trust they be not true; for Halbert
+Glendinning went southward yesterday, with a band of spears, and
+assuredly, had either of these chances happened, that the monks had
+presumed to choose an Abbot, or that the Abbey had been burnt, as
+you say, he had taken order on the spot for the punishment of such
+insolence, and had despatched us a messenger.' And the Earl of Morton
+replied--now I pray you, Adam, to notice, that I say this out of love
+to you and your lord, and also for old comradeship, and also because Sir
+Halbert hath done me good, and may again--and also because I love not
+the Earl of Morton, as indeed more fear than like him--so then it were
+a foul deed in you to betray me.--'But,' said the Earl to the Regent,
+'take heed, my lord, you trust not this Glendinning too far--he comes
+of churl's blood, which was never true to the nobles'--by Saint Andrew,
+these were his very words.--'And besides,' he said, 'he hath a brother,
+a monk in Saint Mary's, and walks all by his guidance, and is making
+friends on the Border with Buccleuch and with Ferniehirst, [Footnote:
+Both these Border Chieftains were great friends of Queen Mary.] and will
+join hand with them, were there likelihood of a new world.' And my lord
+answered, like a free noble lord as he is; 'Tush! my Lord of Morton, I
+will be warrant for Glendinning's faith; and for his brother, he is a
+dreamer, that thinks of nought but book and breviary--and if such hap
+have chanced as you tell of, I look to receive from Glendinning the cowl
+of a hanged monk, and the head of a riotous churl, by way of sharp
+and sudden justice.'--And my Lord of Morton left the place, and, as it
+seemed to me, somewhat malecontent. But since that time, my lord has
+asked me more than once whether there has arrived no messenger from the
+Knight of Avenel. And all this I have told you, that you may frame your
+discourse to the best purpose, for it seems to me that my lord will not
+be well-pleased, if aught has happened like what my Lord of Morton said,
+and if your lord hath not ta'en strict orders with it."
+
+There was something in this communication which fairly blanked the bold
+visage of Adam Woodcock, in spite of the reinforcement which his natural
+hardihood had received from the berry-brown ale of Holyrood.
+
+"What was it he said about a churl's head, that grim Lord of Morton?"
+said the discontented falconer to his friend.
+
+"Nay, it was my Lord Regent, who said that he expected, if the Abbey was
+injured, your Knight would send him the head of the ringleader among the
+rioters."
+
+"Nay, but is this done like a good Protestant," said Adam Woodcock,
+"or a true Lord of the Congregation? We used to be their white-boys and
+darlings when we pulled down the convents in Fife and Perthshire." "Ay,
+but that," said Michael, "was when old mother Rome held her own, and our
+great folks were determined she should have no shelter for her head in
+Scotland. But, now that the priests are fled in all quarters, and their
+houses and lands are given to our grandees, they cannot see that we are
+working the work of reformation in destroying the palaces of zealous
+Protestants."
+
+"But I tell you Saint Mary's is not destroyed!" said Woodcock, in
+increasing agitation; "some trash of painted windows there were
+broken--things that no nobleman could have brooked in his house--some
+stone saints were brought on their marrow-bones, like old Widdrington at
+Chevy-Chase; but as for fire-raising, there was not so much as a lighted
+lunt amongst us, save the match which the dragon had to light the
+burning tow withal, which he was to spit against Saint George; nay, I
+had caution of that."
+
+"How! Adam Woodcock," said his comrade, "I trust thou hadst no hand in
+such a fair work? Look you, Adam, I were loth to terrify you, and you
+just come from a journey; but I promise you, Earl Morton hath brought
+you down a Maiden from Halifax, you never saw the like of her--and
+she'll clasp you round the neck, and your head will remain in her arms."
+
+"Pshaw!" answered Adam, "I am too old to have my head turned by any
+maiden of them all. I know my Lord of Morton will go as far for a buxom
+lass as anyone; but what the devil took him to Halifax all the way? and
+if he has got a gamester there, what hath she to do with my head?"
+
+"Much, much!" answered Michael. "Herod's daughter, who did such
+execution with her foot and ankle, danced not men's heads off more
+cleanly than this maiden of Morton. [Footnote: Maiden of Morton--a
+species of Guillotine which the Regent Morton brought down from Halifax,
+certainly at a period considerably later than intimated in the tale. He
+was himself the first who suffered by the engine.] 'Tis an axe, man,--an
+axe which falls of itself like a sash window, and never gives the
+headsmen the trouble to wield it."
+
+"By my faith, a shrewd device," said Woodcock; "heaven keep us free
+on't!"
+
+The page, seeing no end to the conversation betwixt these two old
+comrades, and anxious from what he had heard, concerning the fate of the
+Abbot, now interrupted their conference.
+
+"Methinks," he said, "Adam Woodcock, thou hadst better deliver thy
+master's letter to the Regent; questionless he hath therein stated
+what has chanced at Kennaquhair, in the way most advantageous for all
+concerned."
+
+"The boy is right," said Michael Wing-the-wind, "my lord will be very
+impatient."
+
+"The child hath wit enough to keep himself warm," said Adam Woodcock,
+producing from his hawking-bag his lord's letter, addressed to the Earl
+of Murray, "and for that matter so have I. So, Master Roland, you will
+e'en please to present this yourself to the Lord Regent; his presence
+will be better graced by a young page than by an old falconer."
+
+"Well said, canny Yorkshire!" replied his friend; "and but now you were
+so earnest to see our good lord!--Why, wouldst thou put the lad into
+the noose that thou mayst slip tether thyself?--or dost thou think
+the maiden will clasp his fair young neck more willingly than thy old
+sunburnt weasand?"
+
+"Go to," answered the falconer; "thy wit towers high an it could strike
+the quarry. I tell thee, the youth has nought to fear--he had nothing
+to do with the gambol--a rare gambol it was, Michael, as mad-caps ever
+played; and I had made as rare a ballad, if we had had the luck to get
+it sung to an end. But mum for that--_tace_, as I said before, is Latin
+for a candle. Carry the youth to the presence, and I will remain here,
+with bridle in hand, ready to strike the spurs up to the rowel-heads, in
+case the hawk flies my way.--I will soon put Soltraedge, I trow, betwixt
+the Regent and me, if he means me less than fair play."
+
+"Come on then, my lad," said Michael, "since thou must needs take
+the spring before canny Yorkshire." So saying, he led the way through
+winding passages, closely followed by Roland Graeme, until they arrived
+at a large winding stone stair, the steps of which were so long and
+broad, and at the same time so low, as to render the ascent uncommonly
+easy. When they had ascended about the height of one story, the
+guide stepped aside, and pushed open the door of a dark and gloomy
+antechamber; so dark, indeed, that his youthful companion stumbled, and
+nearly fell down upon a low step, which was awkwardly placed on the very
+threshold.
+
+"Take heed," said Michael Wing-the-wind, in a very low tone of voice,
+and first glancing cautiously round to see if any one listened--"Take
+heed, my young friend, for those who fall on these boards seldom rise
+again--Seest thou that," he added, in a still lower voice, pointing to
+some dark crimson stains on the floor, on which a ray of light, shot
+through a small aperture, and traversing the general gloom of the
+apartment, fell with mottled radiance--"Seest thou that, youth?--walk
+warily, for men have fallen here before you."
+
+"What mean you?" said the page, his flesh creeping, though he scarce
+knew why; "Is it blood?"
+
+"Ay, ay," said the domestic, in the same whispering tone, and dragging
+the youth on by the arm--"Blood it is,--but this is no time to question,
+or even to look at it. Blood it is, foully and fearfully shed, as foully
+and fearfully avenged. The blood," he added, in a still more cautious
+tone, "of Seignior David."
+
+Roland Graeme's heart throbbed when he found himself so unexpectedly in
+the scene of Rizzio's slaughter, a catastrophe which had chilled with
+horror all even in that rude age, which had been the theme of wonder and
+pity through every cottage and castle in Scotland, and had not escaped
+that of Avenel. But his guide hurried him forward, permitting no farther
+question, and with the manner of one who has already tampered too much
+with a dangerous subject. A tap which he made at a low door at one end
+of the vestibule, was answered by a huissier or usher, who, opening
+it cautiously, received Michael's intimation that a page waited the
+Regent's leisure, who brought letters from the Knight of Avenel.
+
+"The Council is breaking up," said the usher; "but give me the packet;
+his Grace the Regent will presently see the messenger."
+
+"The packet," replied the page, "must be delivered into the Regent's own
+hands; such were the orders of my master."
+
+The usher looked at him from head to foot, as if surprised at his
+boldness, and then replied, with some asperity, "Say you so, my young
+master? Thou crowest loudly to be but a chicken, and from a country
+barn-yard too."
+
+"Were it a time or place," said Roland, "thou shouldst see I can do
+more than crow; but do your duty, and let the Regent know I wait his
+pleasure."
+
+"Thou art but a pert knave to tell me of my duty," said the courtier
+in office; "but I will find a time to show you you are out of yours;
+meanwhile, wait there till you are wanted." So saying, he shut the door
+in Roland's face.
+
+Michael Wing-the-wind, who had shrunk from his youthful companion during
+this altercation, according to the established maxim of courtiers of
+all ranks, and in all ages, now transgressed their prudential line of
+conduct so far as to come up to him once more. "Thou art a hopeful young
+springald," said he, "and I see right well old Yorkshire had reason in
+his caution. Thou hast been five minutes in the court, and hast employed
+thy time so well, as to make a powerful and a mortal enemy out of the
+usher of the council-chamber. Why, man, you might almost as well have
+offended the deputy butler!"
+
+"I care not what he is," said Roland Graeme; "I will teach whomever I
+speak with to speak civilly to me in return. I did not come from Avenel
+to be browbeaten in Holyrood."
+
+"Bravo, my lad!" said Michael; "it is a fine spirit if you can but hold
+it--but see, the door opens."
+
+The usher appeared, and, in a more civil tone of voice and manner, said,
+that his Grace the Regent would receive the Knight of Avenel's message;
+and accordingly marshalled Roland Graeme the way into the apartment,
+from which the Council had been just dismissed, after finishing their
+consultations. There was in the room a long oaken table, surrounded by
+stools of the same wood, with a large elbow chair, covered with crimson
+velvet, at the head. Writing materials and papers were lying there
+in apparent disorder; and one or two of the privy counsellors who had
+lingered behind, assuming their cloaks, bonnets, and swords, and bidding
+farewell to the Regent, were departing slowly by a large door, on the
+opposite side to that through which the page entered. Apparently the
+Earl of Murray had made some jest, for the smiling countenances of the
+statesmen expressed that sort of cordial reception which is paid by
+courtiers to the condescending pleasantries of a prince.
+
+The Regent himself was laughing heartily as he said, "Farewell, my
+lords, and hold me remembered to the Cock of the North."
+
+He then turned slowly round towards Roland Graeme, and the marks of
+gaiety, real or assumed, disappeared from his countenance, as completely
+as the passing bubbles leave the dark mirror of a still profound lake
+into which a traveller has cast a stone; in the course of a minute his
+noble features had assumed their natural expression of deep and even
+melancholy gravity.
+
+This distinguished statesman, for as such his worst enemies acknowledged
+him, possessed all the external dignity, as well as almost all the
+noble qualities, which could grace the power that he enjoyed; and had he
+succeeded to the throne as his legitimate inheritance, it is probable he
+would have been recorded as one of Scotland's wisest and greatest kings.
+But that he held his authority by the deposition and imprisonment of
+his sister and benefactress, was a crime which those only can excuse
+who think ambition an apology for ingratitude. He was dressed plainly
+in black velvet, after the Flemish fashion, and wore in his high-crowned
+hat a jewelled clasp, which looped it up on one side, and formed the
+only ornament of his apparel. He had his poniard by his side, and his
+sword lay on the council table.
+
+Such was the personage before whom Roland Graeme now presented himself,
+with a feeling of breathless awe, very different from the usual boldness
+and vivacity of his temper. In fact, he was, from education and nature,
+forward, but not impudent, and was much more easily controlled by the
+moral superiority, arising from the elevated talents and renown of those
+with whom he conversed, than by pretensions founded only on rank or
+external show. He might have braved with indifference the presence of an
+earl, merely distinguished by his belt and coronet; but he felt overawed
+in that of the eminent soldier and statesman, the wielder of a nation's
+power, and the leader of her armies.--The greatest and wisest are
+flattered by the deference of youth--so graceful and becoming in itself;
+and Murray took, with much courtesy, the letter from the hands of
+the abashed and blushing page, and answered with complaisance to the
+imperfect and half-muttered greeting, which he endeavoured to deliver to
+him on the part of Sir Halbert of Avenel. He even paused a moment ere
+he broke the silk with which the letter was secured, to ask the page his
+name--so much he was struck with his very handsome features and form.
+
+"Roland Graeme," he said, repeating the words after the hesitating page.
+"What! of the Grahams of the Lennox?"
+
+"No, my lord," replied Roland; "my parents dwelt in the Debateable
+Land."
+
+Murray made no further inquiry, but proceeded to read his dispatches;
+during the perusal of which his brow began to assume a stern expression
+of displeasure, as that of one who found something which at once
+surprised and disturbed him. He sat down on the nearest seat, frowned
+till his eyebrows almost met together, read the letter twice over, and
+was then silent for several minutes. At length, raising his head, his
+eye encountered that of the usher, who in vain endeavoured to exchange
+the look of eager and curious observation with which he had been
+perusing the Regent's features, for that open and unnoticing expression
+of countenance, which, in looking at all, seems as if it saw and marked
+nothing--a cast of look which may be practised with advantage by all
+those, of whatever degree, who are admitted to witness the familiar and
+unguarded hours of their superiors. Great men are as jealous of their
+thoughts as the wife of King Candaules was of her charms, and will as
+readily punish those who have, however involuntarily, beheld them in
+mental deshabille and exposure.
+
+"Leave the apartment, Hyndman," said the Regent, sternly, "and carry
+your observation elsewhere. You are too knowing, sir, for your post,
+which, by special order, is destined for men of blunter capacity. So!
+now you look more like a fool than you did,"--(for Hyndman, as may
+easily be supposed, was not a little disconcerted by this rebuke)--"keep
+that confused stare, and it may keep your office. Begone, sir!"
+
+The usher departed in dismay, not forgetting to register, amongst his
+other causes of dislike to Roland Graeme, that he had been the witness
+of this disgraceful chiding. When he had left the apartment, the Regent
+again addressed the page.
+
+"Your name, you say, is Armstrong?"
+
+"No," replied Roland, "my name is Graeme, so please you--Roland Graeme,
+whose forbears were designated of Heathergill, in the Debateable Land."
+
+"Ay, I knew it was a name from the Debateable Land. Hast thou any
+acquaintance in Edinburgh?"
+
+"My lord," replied Roland, willing rather to evade this question than
+to answer it directly, for the prudence of being silent with respect
+to Lord Seyton's adventure immediately struck him, "I have been in
+Edinburgh scarce an hour, and that for the first time in my life."
+
+"What! and thou Sir Halbert Glendinning's page?" said the Regent.
+
+"I was brought up as my Lady's page," said the youth, "and left Avenel
+Castle for the first time in my life--at least since my childhood--only
+three days since."
+
+"My Lady's page!" repeated the Earl of Murray, as if speaking to
+himself; "it was strange to send his Lady's page on a matter of such
+deep concernment--Morton will say it is of a piece with the nomination
+of his brother to be Abbot; and yet in some sort an inexperienced youth
+will best serve the turn.--What hast thou been taught, young man, in thy
+doughty apprenticeship?"
+
+"To hunt, my lord, and to hawk," said Roland Graeme.
+
+"To hunt coneys, and to hawk at ouzels!" said the Regent, smiling; "for
+such are the sports of ladies and their followers."
+
+Graeme's cheek reddened deeply as he replied, not without some emphasis,
+"To hunt red-deer of the first head, and to strike down herons of the
+highest soar, my lord, which, in Lothian speech, may be termed, for
+aught I know, coneys and ouzels;-also I can wield a brand and couch a
+lance, according to our Border meaning; in inland speech these may be
+termed water-flags and bulrushes."
+
+"Thy speech rings like metal," said the Regent, "and I pardon the
+sharpness of it for the truth.--Thou knowest, then, what belongs to the
+duty of a man-at-arms?"
+
+"So far as exercise can teach--it without real service in the field,"
+answered Roland Graeme; "but our Knight permitted none of his household
+to make raids, and I never had the good fortune to see a stricken
+field."
+
+"The good fortune!" repeated the Regent, smiling somewhat sorrowfully,
+"take my word, young man, war is the only game from which both parties
+rise losers."
+
+"Not always, my lord!" answered the page, with his characteristic
+audacity, "if fame speaks truth."
+
+"How, sir?" said the Regent, colouring in his turn, and perhaps
+suspecting an indiscreet allusion to the height which he himself had
+attained by the hap of civil war.
+
+"Because, my lord," said Roland Graeme, without change of tone, "he who
+fights well, must have fame in life, or honour in death; and so war is a
+game from which no one can rise a loser."
+
+The Regent smiled and shook his head, when at that moment the door
+opened, and the Earl of Morton presented himself.
+
+"I come somewhat hastily," he said, "and I enter unannounced because my
+news are of weight--It is as I said; Edward Glendinning is named Abbot,
+and--"
+
+"Hush, my lord!" said the Regent, "I know it, but--"
+
+"And perhaps you knew it before I did, my Lord of Murray," answered
+Morton, his dark red brow growing darker and redder as he spoke.
+
+"Morton," said Murray, "suspect me not--touch not mine honour--I have
+to suffer enough from the calumnies of foes, let me not have to contend
+with the unjust suspicions of my friends.--We are not alone," said he,
+recollecting himself, "or I could tell you more."
+
+He led Morton into one of the deep embrasures which the windows formed
+in the massive wall, and which afforded a retiring place for their
+conversing apart. In this recess, Roland observed them speak together
+with much earnestness, Murray appearing to be grave and earnest, and
+Morton having a jealous and offended air, which seemed gradually to give
+way to the assurances of the Regent.
+
+As their conversation grew more earnest, they became gradually louder
+in speech, having perhaps forgotten the presence of the page, the more
+readily as his position in the apartment placed him put of sight, so
+that he found himself unwillingly privy to more of their discourse than
+he cared to hear. For, page though he was, a mean curiosity after the
+secrets of others had never been numbered amongst Roland's failings;
+and moreover, with all his natural rashness, he could not but doubt the
+safety of becoming privy to the secret discourse of these powerful and
+dreaded men. Still he could neither stop his ears, nor with propriety
+leave the apartment; and while he thought of some means of signifying
+his presence, he had already heard so much, that, to have produced
+himself suddenly would have been as awkward, and perhaps as dangerous,
+as in quiet to abide the end of their conference. What he overheard,
+however, was but an imperfect part of their communication; and although
+an expert politician, acquainted with the circumstances of the times,
+would have had little difficulty in tracing the meaning, yet Roland
+Graeme could only form very general and vague conjectures as to the
+import of their discourse.
+
+"All is prepared," said Murray, "and Lindsay is setting forward--She
+must hesitate no longer--thou seest I act by thy counsel, and harden
+myself against softer considerations."
+
+"True, my lord," replied Morton, "in what is necessary to gain power,
+you do not hesitate, but go boldly to the mark. But are you as careful
+to defend and preserve what you have won?--Why this establishment of
+domestics around her?--has not your sister men and maidens enough
+to tend her, but you must consent to this superfluous and dangerous
+retinue?"
+
+"For shame, Morton!--a Princess, and my sister, could I do less than
+allow her due attendance?"
+
+"Ay," replied Morton, "even thus fly all your shafts--smartly enough
+loosened from the bow, and not unskilfully aimed--but a breath of
+foolish affection ever crosses in the mid volley, and sways the arrow
+from the mark."
+
+"Say not so, Morton," replied Murray, "I have both dared and done--"
+
+"Yes, enough to gain, but not enough to keep--reckon not that she will
+think and act thus--you have wounded her deeply, both in pride and
+in power--it signifies nought, that you would tent now the wound with
+unavailing salves--as matters stand with you, you must forfeit the
+title of an affectionate brother, to hold that of a bold and determined
+statesman."
+
+"Morton!" said Murray, with some impatience, "I brook not these
+taunts--what I have done I have done--what I must farther do, I must
+and will--but I am not made of iron like thee, and I cannot but
+remember--Enough of this-my purpose holds."
+
+"And I warrant me," said Morton, "the choice of these domestic
+consolations will rest with--"
+
+Here he whispered names which escaped Roland Graeme's ear. Murray
+replied in a similar tone, but so much raised towards the conclusion, of
+the sentence, that the page heard these words--"And of him I hold myself
+secure, by Glendinning's recommendation."
+
+"Ay, which may be as much trustworthy as his late conduct at the Abbey
+of Saint Mary's--you have heard that his brother's election has taken
+place. Your favourite Sir Halbert, my Lord of Murray, has as much
+fraternal affection as yourself."
+
+"By heaven, Morton, that taunt demanded an unfriendly answer, but I
+pardon it, for your brother also is concerned; but this election shall
+be annulled. I tell you, Earl of Morton, while I hold the sword of state
+in my royal nephew's name, neither Lord nor Knight in Scotland shall
+dispute my authority; and if I bear--with insults from my friends, it is
+only while I know them to be such, and forgive their follies for their
+faithfulness."
+
+Morton muttered what seemed to be some excuse, and the Regent answered
+him in a milder tone, and then subjoined, "Besides, I have another
+pledge than Glendinning's recommendation, for this youth's fidelity--his
+nearest relative has placed herself in my hands as his security, to be
+dealt withal as his doings shall deserve."
+
+"That is something," replied Morton; "but yet in fair love and goodwill,
+I must still pray you to keep on your guard. The foes are stirring
+again, as horse-flies and hornets become busy so soon as the storm-blast
+is over. George of Seyton was crossing the causeway this morning with a
+score of men at his back, and had a ruffle with my friends of the
+house of Leslie--they met at the Tron, and were fighting hard, when the
+provost, with his guard of partisans, came in thirdsman, and staved them
+asunder with their halberds, as men part dog and bear."
+
+"He hath my order for such interference," said the Regent--"Has any one
+been hurt?"
+
+"George of Seyton himself, by black Ralph Leslie--the devil take the
+rapier that ran not through from side to side! Ralph has a bloody
+coxcomb, by a blow from a messan-page whom nobody knew--Dick Seyton of
+Windygowl is run through the arm, and two gallants of the Leslies have
+suffered phlebotomy. This is all the gentle blood which has been spilled
+in the revel; but a yeoman or two on both sides have had bones broken
+and ears chopped. The ostlere-wives, who are like to be the only losers
+by their miscarriage, have dragged the knaves off the street, and are
+crying a drunken coronach over them."
+
+"You take it lightly, Douglas," said the Regent; "these broils and feuds
+would shame the capital of the great Turk, let alone that of a Christian
+and reformed state. But, if I live, this gear shall be amended; and men
+shall say, when they read my story, that if it were my cruel hap to rise
+to power by the dethronement of a sister, I employed it, when gained,
+for the benefit of the commonweal."
+
+"And of your friends," replied Morton; "wherefore I trust for your
+instant order annulling the election of this lurdane Abbot, Edward
+Glendinning."
+
+"You shall be presently satisfied." said the Regent; and stepping
+forward, he began to call, "So ho, Hyndman!" when suddenly his eye
+lighted on Roland Graeme--"By my faith, Douglas," said he, turning to
+his friend, "here have been three at counsel!"
+
+"Ay, but only two can keep counsel," said Morton; "the galliard must be
+disposed of."
+
+"For shame, Morton--an orphan boy!--Hearken thee, my child--Thou hast
+told me some of thy accomplishments--canst thou speak truth?" "Ay, my
+lord, when it serves my turn," replied Graeme.
+
+"It shall serve thy turn now," said the Regent; "and falsehood shall be
+thy destruction. How much hast thou heard or understood of what we two
+have spoken together?"
+
+"But little, my lord," replied Roland Graeme boldly, "which met my
+apprehension, saving that it seemed to me as if in something you doubted
+the faith of the Knight of Avenel, under whose roof I was nurtured."
+
+"And what hast thou to say on that point, young man?" continued the
+Regent, bending his eyes upon him with a keen and strong expression of
+observation.
+
+"That," said the page, "depends on the quality of those who speak
+against his honour whose bread I have long eaten. If they be my
+inferiors, I say they lie, and will maintain what I say with my baton;
+if my equals, still I say they lie, and will do battle in the quarrel,
+if they list, with my sword; if my superiors"--he paused.
+
+"Proceed boldly," said the Regent--"What if thy superiors said aught
+that nearly touched your master's honour?"
+
+"I would say," replied Graeme, "that he did ill to slander the absent,
+and that my master was a man who could render an account of his actions
+to any one who should manfully demand it of him to his face."
+
+"And it were manfully said," replied the Regent--"what thinkest thou, my
+Lord of Morton?"
+
+"I think," replied Morton, "that if the young galliard resemble a
+certain ancient friend of ours, as much in the craft of his disposition
+as he does in eye and in brow, there may be a wide difference betwixt
+what he means and what he speaks."
+
+"And whom meanest thou that he resembles so closely?" said Murray.
+
+"Even the true and trusty Julian Avenel," replied Morton.
+
+"But this youth belongs to the Debateable Land," said Murray.
+
+"It may be so; but Julian was an outlaying striker of venison, and made
+many a far cast when he had a fair doe in chase."
+
+"Pshaw!" said the Regent, "this is but idle talk--Here,
+thou Hyndman--thou curiosity," calling to the usher, who now
+entered,--"conduct this youth to his companion--You will both," he
+said to Graeme, "keep yourselves in readiness to travel on short
+notice."--And then motioning to him courteously to withdraw, he broke up
+the interview.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Nineteenth.
+
+
+  It is and is not--'tis the thing I sought for,
+  Have kneel'd for, pray'd for, risk'd my fame and life for,
+  And yet it is not--no more than the shadow
+  Upon the hard, cold, flat, and polished mirror,
+  Is the warm, graceful, rounded, living substance
+  Which it presents in form and lineament.
+                                     OLD PLAY.
+
+The usher, with gravity which ill concealed a jealous scowl, conducted
+Roland Graeme to a lower apartment, where he found his comrade the
+falconer. The man of office then briefly acquainted them that this would
+be their residence till his Grace's farther orders; that they were to go
+to the pantry, to the buttery, to the cellar, and to the kitchen, at
+the usual hours, to receive the allowances becoming their
+station,--instructions which Adam Woodcock's old familiarity with the
+court made him perfectly understand--"For your beds," he said, "you must
+go to the hostelry of Saint Michael's, in respect the palace is now full
+of the domestics of the greater nobles."
+
+No sooner was the usher's back turned than Adam exclaimed with all
+the glee of eager curiosity, "And now, Master Roland, the news--the
+news--come unbutton thy pouch, and give us thy tidings--What says the
+Regent? asks he for Adam Woodcock?--and is all soldered up, or must the
+Abbot of Unreason strap for it?"
+
+"All is well in that quarter," said the page; "and for the rest--But,
+hey-day, what! have you taken the chain and medal off from my bonnet?"
+
+"And meet time it was, when yon usher, vinegar-faced rogue that he is,
+began to inquire what Popish trangam you were wearing.--By the mass, the
+metal would have been confiscated for conscience-sake, like your other
+rattle-trap yonder at Avenel, which Mistress Lilias bears about on her
+shoes in the guise of a pair of shoe-buckles--This comes of carrying
+Popish nicknackets about you."
+
+"The jade!" exclaimed Roland Graeme, "has she melted down my rosary into
+buckles for her clumsy hoofs, which will set off such a garnish nearly
+as well as a cow's might?--But, hang her, let her keep them--many a
+dog's trick have I played old Lilias, for want of having something
+better to do, and the buckles will serve for a remembrance. Do you
+remember the verjuice I put into the comfits, when old Wingate and she
+were to breakfast together on Easter morning?"
+
+"In troth do I, Master Roland--the major-domo's mouth was as crooked as
+a hawk's beak for the whole morning afterwards, and any other page in
+your room would have tasted the discipline of the porter's lodge for it.
+But my Lady's favour stood between your skin and many a jerking--Lord
+send you may be the better for her protection in such matters!"
+
+"I am least grateful for it, Adam! and I am glad you put me in mind of
+it."
+
+"Well, but the news, my young master," said Woodcock, "spell me the
+tidings--what are we to fly at next?--what did the Regent say to you?"
+
+"Nothing that I am to repeat again," said Roland Graeme, shaking his
+head.
+
+"Why, hey-day," said Adam, "how prudent we are become all of a sudden!
+You have advanced rarely in brief space, Master Roland. You have well
+nigh had your head broken, and you have gained your gold chain, and you
+have made an enemy, Master Usher to wit, with his two legs like hawks'
+perches, and you have had audience of the first man in the realm, and
+bear as much mystery in your brow, as if you had flown in the court-sky
+ever since you were hatched. I believe, in my soul, you would run with a
+piece of the egg-shell on your head like the curlews, which (I would we
+were after them again) we used to call whaups in the Halidome and its
+neighbourhood. But sit thee down, boy; Adam Woodcock was never the lad
+to seek to enter into forbidden secrets--sit thee down, and I will go
+and fetch the vivers--I know the butler and the pantler of old."
+
+The good-natured falconer set forth upon his errand, busying himself
+about procuring their refreshment; and, during his absence, Roland
+Graeme abandoned himself to the strange, complicated, and yet
+heart-stirring reflections, to which the events of the morning had given
+rise. Yesterday he was of neither mark nor likelihood; a vagrant boy,
+the attendant on a relative, of whose sane judgment he himself had
+not the highest opinion; but now he had become, he knew not why, or
+wherefore, or to what extent, the custodier, as the Scottish phrase
+went, of some important state secret, in the safe keeping of which the
+Regent himself was concerned. It did not diminish from, but rather added
+to the interest of a situation so unexpected, that Roland himself
+did not perfectly understand wherein he stood committed by the state
+secrets, in which he had unwittingly become participator. On the
+contrary, he felt like one who looks on a romantic landscape, of which
+he sees the features for the first time, and then obscured with mist and
+driving tempest. The imperfect glimpse which the eye catches of rocks,
+trees, and other objects around him, adds double dignity to these
+shrouded mountains and darkened abysses, of which the height, depth, and
+extent, are left to imagination.
+
+But mortals, especially at the well-appetized age which precedes twenty
+years, are seldom so much engaged either by real or conjectural subjects
+of speculation, but that their earthly wants claim their hour of
+attention. And with many a smile did our hero, so the reader may term
+him if he will, hail the re-appearance of his friend Adam Woodcock,
+bearing on one platter a tremendous portion of boiled beef, and on
+another a plentiful allowance of greens, or rather what the Scotch call
+lang-kale. A groom followed with bread, salt, and the other means of
+setting forth a meal; and when they had both placed on the oaken table
+what they bore in their hands, the falconer observed, that since he knew
+the court, it had got harder and harder every day to the poor gentlemen
+and yeoman retainers, but that now it was an absolute flaying of a flea
+for the hide and tallow. Such thronging to the wicket, and such
+churlish answers, and such bare beef-bones, such a shouldering at
+the buttery-hatch and cellarage, and nought to be gained beyond small
+insufficient single ale, or at best with a single straike of malt to
+counterbalance a double allowance of water--"By the mass, though, my
+young friend," said he, while he saw the food disappearing fast under
+Roland's active exertions, "it is not so to well to lament for former
+times as to take the advantage of the present, else we are like to lose
+on both sides."
+
+So saying, Adam Woodcock drew his chair towards the table, unsheathed
+his knife, (for every one carried that minister of festive distribution
+for himself,) and imitated his young companion's example, who for the
+moment had lost his anxiety for the future in the eager satisfaction of
+an appetite sharpened by youth and abstinence.
+
+In truth, they made, though the materials were sufficiently simple, a
+very respectable meal, at the expense of the royal allowance; and Adam
+Woodcock, notwithstanding the deliberate censure which he had passed on
+the household beer of the palace, had taken the fourth deep draught
+of the black jack ere he remembered him that he had spoken in its
+dispraise. Flinging himself jollily and luxuriously back in an old
+danske elbow-chair, and looking with careless glee towards the page,
+extending at the same time his right leg, and stretching the other
+easily over it, he reminded his companion that he had not yet heard
+the ballad which he had made for the Abbot of Unreason's revel. And
+accordingly he struck merrily up with
+
+  "The Pope, that pagan full of pride,
+   Has blinded us full lang."------
+
+Roland Graeme, who felt no great delight, as may be supposed, in the
+falconer's satire, considering its subject, began to snatch up his
+mantle, and fling it around his shoulders, an action which instantly
+interrupted the ditty of Adam Woodcock.
+
+"Where the vengeance are you going now," he said, "thou restless
+boy?--Thou hast quicksilver in the veins of thee to a certainty, and
+canst no more abide any douce and sensible communing, than a hoodless
+hawk would keep perched on my wrist!"
+
+"Why, Adam," replied the page, "if you must needs know, I am about to
+take a walk and look at this fair city. One may as well be still mewed
+up in the old castle of the lake, if one is to sit the live-long night
+between four walls, and hearken to old ballads."
+
+"It is a new ballad--the Lord help thee!" replied Adam, "and that one of
+the best that ever was matched with a rousing chorus."
+
+"Be it so," said the page, "I will hear it another day, when the rain
+is dashing against the windows, and there is neither steed stamping, nor
+spur jingling, nor feather waving in the neighbourhood to mar my marking
+it well. But, even now, I want to be in the world, and to look about
+me."
+
+"But the never a stride shall you go without me," said the falconer,
+"until the Regent shall take you whole and sound off my hand; and so, if
+you will, we may go to the hostelrie of Saint Michael's, and there you
+will see company enough, but through the casement, mark you me; for as
+to rambling through the street to seek Seytons and Leslies, and having
+a dozen holes drilled in your new jacket with rapier and poniard, I will
+yield no way to it."
+
+"To the hostelrie of Saint Michael's, then, with all my heart," said the
+page; and they left the palace accordingly, rendered to the sentinels
+at the gate, who had now taken their posts for the evening, a strict
+account of their names and business, were dismissed through a small
+wicket of the close-barred portal, and soon reached the inn or hostelrie
+of Saint Michael, which stood in a large court-yard, off the main
+street, close under the descent of the Calton-hill. The place, wide,
+waste, and uncomfortable, resembled rather an Eastern caravansary, where
+men found shelter indeed, but were obliged to supply themselves with
+every thing else, than one of our modern inns;
+
+  Where not one comfort shall to those be lost,
+  Who never ask, or never feel, the cost.
+
+But still, to the inexperienced eye of Roland Graeme, the bustle and
+confusion of this place of public resort, furnished excitement and
+amusement. In the large room, into which they had rather found their own
+way than been ushered by mine host, travellers and natives of the city
+entered and departed, met and greeted, gamed or drank together, forming
+the strongest contrast to the stern and monotonous order and silence
+with which matters were conducted in the well-ordered household of the
+Knight of Avenel. Altercation of every kind, from brawling to jesting,
+was going on amongst the groups around them, and yet the noise and
+mingled voices seemed to disturb no one and indeed to be noticed by
+no others than by those who composed the group to which the speaker
+belonged.
+
+The falconer passed through the apartment to a projecting latticed
+window, which formed a sort of recess from the room itself; and
+having here ensconced himself and his companion, he called for some
+refreshments; and a tapster, after he had shouted for the twentieth
+time, accommodated him with the remains of a cold capon and a neat's
+tongue, together with a pewter stoup of weak French vin-de-pays. "Fetch
+a stoup of brandy-wine, thou knave--We will be jolly to-night, Master
+Roland," said he, when he saw himself thus accommodated, "and let care
+come to-morrow."
+
+But Roland had eaten too lately to enjoy the good cheer; and feeling his
+curiosity much sharper than his appetite, he made it his choice to
+look out of the lattice, which overhung a large yard, surrounded by the
+stables of the hostelrie, and fed his eyes on the busy sight beneath,
+while Adam Woodcock, after he had compared his companion to the "Laird
+of Macfarlane's geese, who liked their play better than their meat,"
+disposed of his time with the aid of cup and trencher, occasionally
+humming the burden of his birth-strangled ballad, and beating time to
+it with his fingers on the little round table. In this exercise he was
+frequently interrupted by the exclamations of his companion, as he saw
+something new in the yard beneath, to attract and interest him.
+
+It was a busy scene, for the number of gentlemen and nobles who were now
+crowded into the city, had filled all spare stables and places of public
+reception with their horses and military attendants. There were some
+score of yeomen, dressing their own or their masters' horses in the
+yard, whistling, singing, laughing, and upbraiding each other, in a
+style of wit which the good order of Avenel Castle rendered strange
+to Roland Graeme's ears. Others were busy repairing their own arms, or
+cleaning those of their masters. One fellow, having just bought a bundle
+of twenty spears, was sitting in a corner, employed in painting the
+white staves of the weapons with yellow and vermillion. Other lacqueys
+led large stag-hounds, or wolf-dogs, of noble race, carefully muzzled to
+prevent accidents to passengers. All came and went, mixed together and
+separated, under the delighted eye of the page, whose imagination had
+not even conceived a scene so gaily diversified with the objects he
+had most pleasure in beholding; so that he was perpetually breaking the
+quiet reverie of honest Woodcock, and the mental progress which he was
+making in his ditty, by exclaiming, "Look here, Adam--look at the bonny
+bay horse--Saint Anthony, what, a gallant forehand he hath got!--and see
+the goodly gray, which yonder fellow in the frieze-jacket is dressing
+as awkwardly as if he had never touched aught but a cow--I would I were
+nigh him to teach him his trade!--And lo you, Adam, the gay Milan armour
+that the yeoman is scouring, all steel and silver, like our Knight's
+prime suit, of which old Wingate makes such account--And see to yonder
+pretty wench, Adam, who comes tripping through them all with her
+milk-pail--I warrant me she has had a long walk from the loaning; she
+has a stammel waistcoat, like your favourite Cicely Sunderland, Master
+Adam!"
+
+"By my hood, lad," answered the falconer, "it is well for thee thou wert
+brought up where grace grew. Even in the Castle of Avenel thou wert
+a wild-blood enough, but hadst thou been nurtured here, within a
+flight-shot of the Court, thou hadst been the veriest crack-hemp of a
+page that ever wore feather in thy bonnet or steel by thy side: truly, I
+wish it may end well with thee."
+
+"Nay, but leave thy senseless humming and drumming, old Adam, and come
+to the window ere thou hast drenched thy senses in the pint-pot there.
+See here comes a merry minstrel with his crowd, and a wench with him,
+that dances with bells at her ankles; and see, the yeomen and pages
+leave their horses and the armour they were cleaning, and gather round,
+as is very natural, to hear the music. Come, old Adam, we will thither
+too."
+
+"You shall call me cutt if I do go down," said Adam; "you are near as
+good minstrelsy as the stroller can make, if you had but the grace to
+listen to it."
+
+"But the wench in the stammel waistcoat is stopping too, Adam--by
+heaven, they are going to dance! Frieze-jacket wants to dance with
+stammel waistcoat, but she is coy and recusant."
+
+Then suddenly changing his tone of levity into one of deep interest and
+surprise, he exclaimed, "Queen of Heaven! what is it that I see!" and
+then remained silent.
+
+The sage Adam Woodcock, who was in a sort of languid degree amused with
+the page's exclamations, even while he professed to despise them, became
+at length rather desirous to set his tongue once more a-going, that he
+might enjoy the superiority afforded by his own intimate familiarity
+with all the circumstances which excited in his young companion's mind
+so much wonderment.
+
+"Well, then," he said at last, "what is it you do see, Master Roland,
+that you have become mute all of a sudden?"
+
+Roland returned no answer.
+
+"I say, Master Roland Graeme," said the falconer, "it is manners in my
+country for a man to speak when he is spoken to."
+
+Roland Graeme remained silent.
+
+"The murrain is in the boy," said Adam Woodcock, "he has stared out his
+eyes, and talked his tongue to pieces, I think."
+
+The falconer hastily drank off his can of wine, and came to Roland,
+who stood like a statue, with his eyes eagerly bent on the court-yard,
+though Adam Woodcock was unable to detect amongst the joyous scenes
+which it exhibited aught that could deserve such devoted attention.
+
+"The lad is mazed!" said the falconer to himself.
+
+But Roland Graeme had good reasons for his surprise, though they were
+not such as he could communicate to his companion.
+
+The touch of the old minstrel's instrument, for he had already begun to
+play, had drawn in several auditors from the street when one entered the
+gate of the yard, whose appearance exclusively arrested the attention of
+Roland Graeme. He was of his own age, or a good deal younger, and from
+his dress and bearing might be of the same rank and calling, having all
+the air of coxcombry and pretension, which accorded with a handsome,
+though slight and low figure, and an elegant dress, in part hid by
+a large purple cloak. As he entered, he cast a glance up towards the
+windows, and, to his extreme astonishment, under the purple velvet
+bonnet and white feather, Roland recognized the features so deeply
+impressed on his memory, the bright and clustered tresses, the laughing
+full blue eyes, the well-formed eyebrows, the nose, with the slightest
+possible inclination to be aquiline, the ruby lip, of which an arch and
+half-suppressed smile seemed the habitual expression--in short, the form
+and face of Catherine Seyton; in man's attire, however, and mimicking,
+as it seemed, not unsuccessfully, the bearing of a youthful but forward
+page.
+
+"Saint George and Saint Andrew!" exclaimed the amazed Roland Graeme to
+himself, "was there ever such an audacious quean!--she seems a little
+ashamed of her mummery too, for she holds the lap of her cloak to her
+face, and her colour is heightened--but Santa Maria, how she threads the
+throng, with as firm and bold a step as if she had never tied petticoat
+round her waist!--Holy Saints! she holds up her riding-rod as if she
+would lay it about some of their ears, that stand most in her way--by
+the hand of my father! she bears herself like the very model of
+pagehood.--Hey! what! sure she will not strike frieze-jacket in
+earnest?" But he was not long left in doubt; for the lout whom he had
+before repeatedly noticed, standing in the way of the bustling page, and
+maintaining his place with clownish obstinacy or stupidity, the advanced
+riding-rod was, without a moment's hesitation, sharply applied to his
+shoulders, in a manner which made him spring aside, rubbing the part of
+the body which had received so unceremonious a hint that it was in the
+way of his betters. The party injured growled forth an oath or two of
+indignation, and Roland Graeme began to think of flying down stairs to
+the assistance of the translated Catherine; but the laugh of the yard
+was against frieze-jacket, which indeed had, in those days, small
+chance of fair play in a quarrel with velvet and embroidery; so that
+the fellow, who was menial in the inn, slunk back to finish his task of
+dressing the bonny gray, laughed at by all, but most by the wench in the
+stammel waistcoat, his fellow-servant, who, to crown his disgrace, had
+the cruelty to cast an applauding smile upon the author of the injury,
+while, with a freedom more like the milk-maid of the town than she of
+the plains, she accosted him with--"Is there any one you want here, my
+pretty gentleman, that you seem in such haste?"
+
+"I seek a sprig of a lad," said the seeming gallant, "with a sprig of
+holly in his cap, black hair, and black eyes, green jacket, and the air
+of a country coxcomb--I have sought him through every close and alley in
+the Canongate, the fiend gore him!"
+
+"Why, God-a-mercy, Nun!" muttered Roland Graeme, much bewildered.
+
+"I will inquire him presently out for your fair young worship," said the
+wench of the inn.
+
+"Do," said the gallant squire, "and if you bring me to him, you shall
+have a groat to-night, and a kiss on Sunday when you have on a cleaner
+kirtle."
+
+"Why, God-a-mercy, Nun!" again muttered Roland, "this is a note above E
+La."
+
+In a moment after, the servant entered the room, and ushered in the
+object of his surprise.
+
+While the disguised vestal looked with unabashed brow, and bold and
+rapid glance of her eye, through the various parties in the large old
+room, Roland Graeme, who felt an internal awkward sense of bashful
+confusion, which he deemed altogether unworthy of the bold and dashing
+character to which he aspired, determined not to be browbeaten and
+put down by this singular female, but to meet her with a glance of
+recognition so sly, so penetrating, so expressively humorous, as should
+show her at once he was in possession of her secret and master of her
+fate, and should compel her to humble herself towards him, at least into
+the look and manner of respectful and deprecating observance.
+
+This was extremely well planned; but just as Roland had called up the
+knowing glance, the suppressed smile, the shrewd intelligent look, which
+was to ensure his triumph, he encountered the bold, firm, and steady
+gaze of his brother or sister-page, who, casting on him a falcon glance,
+and recognizing him at once as the object of his search, walked up with
+the most unconcerned look, the most free and undaunted composure, and
+hailed him with "You, Sir Holly-top, I would speak with you."
+
+The steady coolness and assurance with which these words were uttered,
+although the voice was the very voice he had heard at the old convent,
+and although the features more nearly resembled those of Catharine when
+seen close than when viewed from a distance, produced, nevertheless,
+such a confusion in Roland's mind, that he became uncertain whether he
+was not still under a mistake from the beginning; the knowing shrewdness
+which should have animated his visage faded into a sheepish bashfulness,
+and the half-suppressed but most intelligible smile, became the
+senseless giggle of one who laughs to cover his own disorder of ideas.
+
+"Do they understand a Scotch tongue in thy country, Holly-top?" said
+this marvellous specimen of metamorphosis. "I said I would speak with
+thee."
+
+"What is your business with my comrade, my young chick of the game?"
+said Adam Woodcock, willing to step in to his companion's assistance,
+though totally at a loss to account for the sudden disappearance of all
+Roland's usual smartness and presence of mind.
+
+"Nothing to you, my old cock of the perch," replied the gallant; "go
+mind your hawk's castings. I guess by your bag and your gauntlet that
+you are squire of the body to a sort of kites."
+
+He laughed as he spoke, and the laugh reminded Roland so irresistibly
+of the hearty fit of risibility, in which Catherine had indulged at his
+expense when they first met in the old nunnery, that he could scarce
+help exclaiming, "Catherine Seyton, by Heavens!"--He checked the
+exclamation, however, and only said, "I think, sir, we two are not
+totally strangers to each other."
+
+"We must have met in our dreams then" said the youth; "and my days are
+too busy to remember what I think on at nights."
+
+"Or apparently to remember upon one day those whom you may have seen on
+the preceding eve" said Roland Graeme.
+
+The youth in his turn cast on him a look of some surprise, as he
+replied, "I know no more of what you mean than does the horse I ride
+on--if there be offence in your words, you shall find me ready to take
+it as any lad in Lothian."
+
+"You know well," said Roland, "though it pleases you to use the language
+of a stranger, that with you I have no purpose to quarrel."
+
+"Let me do mine errand, then, and be rid of you," said the page. "Step
+hither this way, out of that old leathern fist's hearing."
+
+They walked into the recess of the window, which Roland had left upon
+the youth's entrance into the apartment. The messenger then turned his
+back on the company, after casting a hasty and sharp glance around to
+see if they were observed. Roland did the same, and the page in the
+purple mantle thus addressed him, taking at the same time from under his
+cloak a short but beautifully wrought sword, with the hilt and ornaments
+upon the sheath of silver, massively chased and over-gilded--"I bring
+you this weapon from a friend, who gives it you under the solemn
+condition, that you will not unsheath it until you are commanded by
+your rightful Sovereign. For your warmth of temper is known, and the
+presumption with which you intrude yourself into the quarrels of others;
+and, therefore, this is laid upon you as a penance by those who wish you
+well, and whose hand will influence your destiny for good or for evil.
+This is what I was charged to tell you. So if you will give a fair word
+for a fair sword, and pledge your promise, with hand and glove, good and
+well; and if not, I will carry back Caliburn to those who sent it."
+
+"And may I not ask who these are?" said Roland Graeme, admiring at the
+same time the beauty of the weapon thus offered him.
+
+"My commission in no way leads me to answer such a question," said he of
+the purple mantle.
+
+"But if I am offended" said Roland, "may I not draw to defend myself?"
+
+"Not _this_ weapon," answered the sword-bearer; "but you have your own
+at command, and, besides, for what do you wear your poniard?"
+
+"For no good," said Adam Woodcock, who had now approached close to them,
+"and that I can witness as well as any one."
+
+"Stand back, fellow," said the messenger, "thou hast an intrusive
+curious face, that will come by a buffet if it is found where it has no
+concern."
+
+"A buffet, my young Master Malapert?" said Adam, drawing back, however;
+"best keep down fist, or, by Our Lady, buffet will beget buffet!"
+
+"Be patient, Adam Woodcock," said Roland Graeme; "and let me pray
+you, fair sir, since by such addition you choose for the present to
+be addressed, may I not barely unsheathe this fair weapon, in pure
+simplicity of desire to know whether so fair a hilt and scabbard are
+matched with a befitting blade?"
+
+"By no manner of means," said the messenger; "at a word, you must
+take it under the promise that you never draw it until you receive the
+commands of your lawful Sovereign, or you must leave it alone."
+
+"Under that condition, and coming from your friendly hand, I accept of
+the sword," said Roland, taking it from his hand; "but credit me, if we
+are to work together in any weighty emprise, as I am induced to believe,
+some confidence and openness on your part will be necessary to give the
+right impulse to my zeal--I press for no more at present, it is enough
+that you understand me."
+
+"I understand you!" said the page, exhibiting the appearance of
+unfeigned surprise in his turn,--"Renounce me if I do!--here you stand
+jiggeting, and sniggling, and looking cunning, as if there were some
+mighty matter of intrigue and common understanding betwixt you and me,
+whom you never set your eyes on before!"
+
+"What!" said Roland Graeme, "will you deny that we have met before?"
+
+"Marry that I will, in any Christian court," said the other page.
+
+"And will you also deny," said Roland, "that it was recommended to us
+to study each other's features well, that in whatever disguise the time
+might impose upon us, each should recognize in the other the secret
+agent of a mighty work? Do not you remember, that Sister Magdalen and
+Dame Bridget----"
+
+The messenger here interrupted him, shrugging up his shoulders, with
+a look of compassion, "Bridget and Magdalen! why, this is madness
+and dreaming! Hark ye, Master Holly-top, your wits are gone on
+wool-gathering; comfort yourself with a caudle, and thatch your
+brain-sick noddle with a woollen night-cap, and so God be with you!"
+
+As he concluded this polite parting address, Adam Woodcock, who was
+again seated by the table on which stood the now empty can, said to him,
+"Will you drink a cup, young man, in the way of courtesy, now you have
+done your errand, and listen to a good song?" and without waiting for an
+answer, he commenced his ditty,--
+
+  "The Pope, that pagan full of pride,
+  Hath blinded us full lang--"
+
+It is probable that the good wine had made some innovation in the
+falconer's brain, otherwise he would have recollected the danger of
+introducing any thing like political or polemical pleasantry into a
+public assemblage at a time when men's minds were in a state of great
+irritability. To do him justice, he perceived his error, and stopped
+short so soon as he saw that the word Pope had at once interrupted the
+separate conversations of the various parties which were assembled in
+the apartment; and that many began to draw themselves up, bridle, look
+big, and prepare to take part in the impending brawl; while others,
+more decent and cautious persons, hastily paid down their lawing, and
+prepared to leave the place ere bad should come to worse.
+
+And to worse it was soon likely to come; for no sooner did Woodcock's
+ditty reach the ear of the stranger page, than, uplifting his
+riding-rod, he exclaimed, "He who speaks irreverently of the Holy Father
+of the church in my presence, is the cub of a heretic wolf-bitch, and I
+will switch him as I would a mongrel-cur."
+
+"And I will break thy young pate," said Adam, "if thou darest to lift a
+finger to me." And then, in defiance of the young Drawcansir's threats,
+with a stout heart and dauntless accent, he again uplifted the stave.
+
+  "The Pope, that pagan full of pride.
+  Hath blinded--"
+
+But Adam was able to proceed no farther, being himself unfortunately
+blinded by a stroke of the impatient youth's switch across his eyes.
+Enraged at once by the smart and the indignity, the falconer started
+up, and darkling as he was, for his eyes watered too fast to permit
+his seeing any thing, he would soon have been at close grips with his
+insolent adversary, had not Roland Graeme, contrary to his nature,
+played for once the prudent man and the peacemaker, and thrown himself
+betwixt them, imploring Woodcock's patience. "You know not," he said,
+"with whom you have to do.--And thou," addressing the messenger, who
+stood scornfully laughing at Adam's rage, "get thee gone, whoever
+thou art; if thou be'st what I guess thee, thou well knowest there are
+earnest reasons why thou shouldst."
+
+"Thou hast hit it right for once, Holly-top," said the gallant, "though
+I guess you drew your bow at a venture.--Here, host, let this yeoman
+have a bottle of wine to wash the smart out of his eyes--and there is
+a French crown for him." So saying, he threw the piece of money on the
+table, and left the apartment, with a quick yet steady pace, looking
+firmly at right and left, as if to defy interruption: and snapping his
+fingers at two or three respectable burghers, who, declaring it was a
+shame that any one should be suffered to rant and ruffle in defence of
+the Pope, were labouring to find the hilts of their swords, which had
+got for the present unhappily entangled in the folds of their cloaks.
+But, as the adversary was gone ere any of them had reached his weapon,
+they did not think it necessary to unsheath cold iron, but merely
+observed to each other, "This is more than masterful violence, to see
+a poor man stricken in the face just for singing a ballad against the
+whore of Babylon! If the Pope's champions are to be bangsters in our
+very change-houses, we shall soon have the old shavelings back again."
+
+"The provost should look to it," said another, "and have some five or
+six armed with partisans, to come in upon the first whistle, to teach
+these gallants their lesson. For, look you, neighbour Lugleather, it
+is not for decent householders like ourselves to be brawling with the
+godless grooms and pert pages of the nobles, that are bred up to little
+else save bloodshed and blasphemy."
+
+"For all that, neighbour," said Lugleather, "I would have curried that
+youngster as properly as ever I curried a lamb's hide, had not the hilt
+of my bilbo been for the instant beyond my grasp; and before I could
+turn my girdle, gone was my master!"
+
+"Ay," said the others, "the devil go with him, and peace abide with
+us--I give my rede, neighbours, that we pay the lawing, and be stepping
+homeward, like brother and brother; for old Saint Giles's is tolling
+curfew, and the street grows dangerous at night."
+
+With that the good burghers adjusted their cloaks, and prepared for
+their departure, while he that seemed the briskest of the three, laying
+his hand on his Andrea Ferrara, observed, "that they that spoke in the
+praise of the Pope on the High-gate of Edinburgh, had best bring the
+sword of Saint Peter to defend them."
+
+While the ill-humour excited by the insolence of the young aristocrat
+was thus evaporating in empty menace, Roland Graeme had to control the
+far more serious indignation of Adam Woodcock. "Why, man, it was but a
+switch across the mazzard--blow your nose, dry your eyes, and you will
+see all the better for it."
+
+"By this light, which I cannot see," said Adam Woodcock, "thou hast been
+a false friend to me, young man--neither taking up my rightful quarrel,
+nor letting me fight it out myself."
+
+"Fy for shame, Adam Woodcock," replied the youth, determined to turn
+the tables on him, and become in turn the counsellor of good order and
+peaceable demeanour--"I say, fy for shame!--Alas, that you will speak
+thus! Here are you sent with me, to prevent my innocent youth getting
+into snares----"
+
+"I wish your innocent youth were cut short with a halter, with all my
+heart," said Adam, who began to see which way the admonition tended.
+--"And instead of setting before me," continued Roland, "an example of
+patience and sobriety becoming the falconer of Sir Halbert Glendinning,
+you quaff me off I know not how many flagons of ale, besides a gallon of
+wine, and a full measure of strong waters."
+
+"It was but one small pottle," said poor Adam, whom consciousness of his
+own indiscretion now reduced to a merely defensive warfare.
+
+"It was enough to pottle you handsomely, however," said the page--"And
+then, instead of going to bed to sleep off your liquor, must you sit
+singing your roistering songs about popes and pagans, till you have got
+your eyes almost switched out of your head; and but for my interference,
+whom your drunken ingratitude accuses of deserting you, yon galliard
+would have cut your throat, for he was whipping out a whinger as broad
+as my hand, and as sharp as a razor--And these are lessons for an
+inexperienced youth!--Oh, Adam! out upon you! out upon you!"
+
+"Marry, amen, and with all my heart," said Adam; "out upon my folly for
+expecting any thing but impertinent raillery from a page like thee, that
+if he saw his father in a scrape, would laugh at him, instead of lending
+him aid.
+
+"Nay, but I will lend you aid," said the page, still laughing, "that is,
+I will lend thee aid to thy chamber, good Adam, where thou shalt sleep
+off wine and ale, ire and indignation, and awake the next morning with
+as much fair wit as nature has blessed thee withal. Only one thing
+I will warn thee, good Adam, that henceforth and for ever, when thou
+railest at me for being somewhat hot at hand, and rather too prompt to
+out with poniard or so, thy admonition shall serve as a prologue to the
+memorable adventure of the switching of Saint Michael's."
+
+With such condoling expressions he got the crest-fallen falconer to his
+bed, and then retired to his own pallet, where it was some time ere
+he could fall asleep. If the messenger whom he had seen were really
+Catherine Seyton, what a masculine virago and termagant must she be! and
+stored with what an inimitable command of insolence and assurance!--The
+brass on her brow would furbish the front of twenty pages; "and I should
+know," thought Roland, "what that amounts to--And yet, her features, her
+look, her light gait, her laughing eye, the art with which she disposed
+the mantle to show no more of her limbs than needs must be seen--I am
+glad she had at least that grace left--the voice, the smile--it must
+have been Catherine Seyton, or the devil in her likeness! One thing
+is good, I have silenced the eternal predications of that ass, Adam
+Woodcock, who has set up for being a preacher and a governor, over me,
+so soon as he has left the hawks' mew behind him."
+
+And with this comfortable reflection, joined to the happy indifference
+which youth hath for the events of the morrow, Roland Graeme fell fast
+asleep.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twentieth.
+
+
+  Now have you reft me from my staff, my guide,
+  Who taught my youth, as men teach untamed falcons,
+  To use my strength discreetly--I am reft
+  Of comrade and of counsel.
+                                        OLD PLAY.
+
+In the gray of the next morning's dawn, there was a loud knocking at the
+gate of the hostelrie; and those without, proclaiming that they came
+in the name of the Regent, were instantly admitted. A moment or
+two afterwards, Michael Wing-the-wind stood by the bedside of our
+travellers.
+
+"Up! up!" he said, "there is no slumber where Murray hath work ado."
+
+Both sleepers sprung up, and began to dress themselves.
+
+"You, old friend," said Wing-the-wind to Adam Woodcock, "must to horse
+instantly, with this packet to the Monks of Kennaquhair; and with this,"
+delivering them as he spoke, "to the Knight of Avenel."
+
+"As much as commanding the monks to annul their election, I'll warrant
+me, of an Abbot," quoth Adam Woodcock, as he put the packets into his
+bag, "and charging my master to see it done--To hawk at one brother with
+another, is less than fair play, methinks."
+
+"Fash not thy beard about it, old boy," said Michael, "but betake thee
+to the saddle presently; for if these orders are not obeyed, there will
+be bare walls at the Kirk of Saint Mary's, and it may be at the Castle
+of Avenel to boot; for I heard my Lord of Morton loud with the Regent,
+and we are at a pass that we cannot stand with him anent trifles."
+
+"But," said Adam, "touching the Abbot of Unreason--what say they to
+that outbreak--An they be shrewishly disposed, I were better pitch the
+packets to Satan, and take the other side of the Border for my bield."
+
+"Oh, that was passed over as a jest, since there was little harm
+done.--But, hark thee, Adam," continued his comrade, "if there was a
+dozen vacant abbacies in your road, whether of jest or earnest, reason
+or unreason, draw thou never one of their mitres over thy brows.--The
+time is not fitting, man!--besides, our Maiden longs to clip the neck of
+a fat churchman."
+
+"She shall never sheer mine in that capacity," said the falconer, while
+he knotted the kerchief in two or three double folds around his sunburnt
+bull-neck, calling out at the same time, "Master Roland, Master Roland,
+make haste! we must back to perch and mew, and, thank Heaven, more than
+our own wit, with our bones whole, and without a stab in the stomach."
+
+"Nay, but," said Wing-the-wind, "the page goes not back with you; the
+Regent has other employment for him."
+
+"Saints and sorrows!" exclaimed the falconer--"Master Roland Graeme to
+remain here, and I to return to Avenel!--Why, it cannot be--the child
+cannot manage himself in this wide world without me, and I question
+if he will stoop to any other whistle than mine own; there are times I
+myself can hardly bring him to my lure."
+
+It was at Roland's tongue's end to say something concerning the occasion
+they had for using mutually each other's prudence, but the real anxiety
+which Adam evinced at parting with him, took away his disposition
+to such ungracious raillery. The falconer did not altogether escape,
+however, for, in turning his face towards the lattice, his friend
+Michael caught a glimpse of it, and exclaimed, "I prithee, Adam
+Woodcock, what hast thou been doing with these eyes of thine? They are
+swelled to the starting from the socket!"
+
+"Nought in the world," said he, after casting a deprecating glance
+at Roland Graeme, "but the effect of sleeping in this d--ned truckle
+without a pillow."
+
+"Why, Adam Woodcock, thou must be grown strangely dainty," said his old
+companion; "I have known thee sleep all night with no better pillow than
+a bush of ling, and start up with the sun, as glegg as a falcon; and now
+thine eyes resemble----"
+
+"Tush, man, what signifies how mine eyes look now?" said Adam--"let
+us but roast a crab-apple, pour a pottle of ale on it, and bathe our
+throats withal, thou shalt see a change in me."
+
+"And thou wilt be in heart to sing thy jolly ballad about the Pope,"
+said his comrade.
+
+"Ay, that I will," replied the falconer, "that is, when we have left
+this quiet town five miles behind us, if you will take your hobby and
+ride so far on my way."
+
+"Nay, that I may not," said Michael--"I can but stop to partake your
+morning draught, and see you fairly to horse--I will see that they
+saddle them, and toast the crab for thee, without loss of time."
+
+During his absence the falconer took the page by the hand--"May I never
+hood hawk again," said the good-natured fellow, "if I am not as sorry to
+part with you as if you were a child of mine own, craving pardon for the
+freedom--I cannot tell what makes me love you so much, unless it be for
+the reason that I loved the vicious devil of a brown galloway nag whom
+my master the Knight called Satan, till Master Warden changed his name
+to Seyton; for he said it was over boldness to call a beast after the
+King of Darkness----"
+
+"And," said the page, "it was over boldness in him, I trow, to call a
+vicious brute after a noble family."
+
+"Well," proceeded Adam, "Seyton or Satan, I loved that nag over every
+other horse in the stable---There was no sleeping on his back--he was
+for ever fidgeting, bolting, rearing, biting, kicking, and giving you
+work to do, and maybe the measure of your back on the heather to the
+boot of it all. And I think I love you better than any lad in the
+castle, for the self-same qualities."
+
+"Thanks, thanks, kind Adam. I regard myself bound to you for the good
+estimation in which you hold me."
+
+"Nay, interrupt me not," said the falconer--"Satan was a good nag--But
+I say I think I shall call the two eyases after you, the one Roland,
+and the other Graeme; and while Adam Woodcock lives, be sure you have a
+friend--Here is to thee, my dear son."
+
+Roland most heartily returned the grasp of the hand, and Woodcock,
+having taken a deep draught, continued his farewell speech.
+
+"There are three things I warn you against, Roland, now that you art to
+tread this weary world without my experience to assist you. In the first
+place, never draw dagger on slight occasion--every man's doublet is not
+so well stuffed as a certain abbot's that you wot of. Secondly, fly not
+at every pretty girl, like a merlin at a thrush--you will not always win
+a gold chain for your labour--and, by the way, here I return to you your
+fanfarona--keep it close, it is weighty, and may benefit you at a pinch
+more ways than one. Thirdly, and to conclude, as our worthy preacher
+says, beware of the pottle-pot--it has drenched the judgment of wiser
+men than you. I could bring some instances of it, but I dare say it
+needeth not; for if you should forget your own mishaps, you will scarce
+fail to remember mine--And so farewell, my dear son."
+
+Roland returned his good wishes, and failed not to send his humble duty
+to his kind Lady, charging the falconer, at the same time, to express
+his regret that he should have offended her, and his determination so
+to bear him in the world that she would not be ashamed of the generous
+protection she had afforded him.
+
+The falconer embraced his young friend, mounted his stout, round-made,
+trotting-nag, which the serving-man, who had attended him, held ready at
+the door, and took the road to the southward. A sullen and heavy
+sound echoed from the horse's feet, as if indicating the sorrow of the
+good-natured rider. Every hoof-tread seemed to tap upon Roland's heart
+as he heard his comrade withdraw with so little of his usual alert
+activity, and felt that he was once more alone in the world.
+
+He was roused from his reverie by Michael Wing-the-wind, who reminded
+him that it was necessary they should instantly return to the palace,
+as my Lord Regent went to the Sessions early in the morning. They went
+thither accordingly, and Wing-the-wind, a favourite old domestic, who
+was admitted nearer to the Regent's person and privacy, than many whose
+posts were more ostensible, soon introduced Graeme into a small matted
+chamber, where he had an audience of the present head of the troubled
+State of Scotland. The Earl of Murray was clad in a sad-coloured
+morning-gown, with a cap and slippers of the same cloth, but, even in
+this easy deshabille, held his sheathed rapier in his hand, a precaution
+which he adopted when receiving strangers, rather in compliance with
+the earnest remonstrances of his friends and partisans, than from any
+personal apprehensions of his own. He answered with a silent nod the
+respectful obeisance of the page, and took one or two turns through
+the small apartment in silence, fixing his keen eye on Roland, as if he
+wished to penetrate into his very soul. At length he broke silence.
+
+"Your name is, I think, Julian Graeme?"
+
+"Roland Graeme, my lord, not Julian," replied the page.
+
+"Right--I was misled by some trick of my memory--Roland Graeme, from
+the Debateable Land.--Roland, thou knowest the duties which belong to a
+lady's service?"
+
+"I should know them, my lord," replied Roland, "having been bred so
+near the person of my Lady of Avenel; but I trust never more to practise
+them, as the Knight hath promised----"
+
+"Be silent, young man," said the Regent, "I am to speak, and you to hear
+and obey. It is necessary that, for some space at least, you shall
+again enter into the service of a lady, who, in rank, hath no equal in
+Scotland; and this service accomplished, I give thee my word as Knight
+and Prince, that it shall open to you a course of ambition, such as may
+well gratify the aspiring wishes of one whom circumstances entitle
+to entertain much higher views than thou. I will take thee into my
+household and near to my person, or, at your own choice, I will give you
+the command of a foot-company--either is a preferment which the proudest
+laird in the land might be glad to ensure for a second son."
+
+"May I presume to ask, my lord," said Roland, observing the Earl paused
+for a reply, "to whom my poor services are in the first place destined?"
+
+"You will be told hereafter," said the Regent; and then, as if
+overcoming some internal reluctance to speak farther himself, he added,
+"or why should I not myself tell you, that you are about to enter into
+the service of a most illustrious--most unhappy lady--into the service
+of Mary of Scotland."
+
+"Of the Queen, my lord!" said the page, unable to suppress his surprise.
+
+"Of her who was the Queen!" said Murray, with a singular mixture of
+displeasure and embarrassment in his tone of voice. "You must be aware,
+young man, that her son reigns in her stead."
+
+He sighed from an emotion, partly natural, perhaps, and partly assumed.
+
+"And am I to attend upon her Grace in her place of imprisonment,
+my lord?" again demanded the page, with a straightforward and hardy
+simplicity, which somewhat disconcerted the sage and powerful statesman.
+
+"She is not imprisoned," answered Murray, angrily; "God forbid she
+should--she is only sequestered from state affairs, and from the
+business of the public, until the world be so effectually settled, that
+she may enjoy her natural and uncontrolled freedom, without her royal
+disposition being exposed to the practices of wicked and designing men.
+It is for this purpose," he added, "that while she is to be furnished,
+as right is, with such attendance as may befit her present secluded
+state, it becomes necessary that those placed around her, are persons on
+whose prudence I can have reliance. You see, therefore, you are at once
+called on to discharge an office most honourable in itself, and so to
+discharge it that you may make a friend of the Regent of Scotland. Thou
+art, I have been told, a singularly apprehensive youth; and I perceive
+by thy look, that thou dost already understand what I would say on this
+matter. In this schedule your particular points of duty are set down
+at length--but the sum required of you is fidelity--I mean fidelity
+to myself and to the state. You are, therefore, to watch every attempt
+which is made, or inclination displayed, to open any communication with
+any of the lords who have become banders in the west--with Hamilton,
+Seyton, with Fleming, or the like. It is true that my gracious sister,
+reflecting upon the ill chances that have happened to the state of this
+poor kingdom, from evil counsellors who have abused her royal nature in
+time past, hath determined to sequestrate herself from state affairs in
+future. But it is our duty, as acting for and in the name of our infant
+nephew, to guard against the evils which may arise from any mutation or
+vacillation in her royal resolutions. Wherefore, it will be thy duty to
+watch, and report to our lady mother, whose guest our sister is for the
+present, whatever may infer a disposition to withdraw her person from
+the place of security in which she is lodged, or to open communication
+with those without. If, however, your observation should detect any
+thing of weight, and which may exceed mere suspicion, fail not to send
+notice by an especial messenger to me directly, and this ring shall be
+thy warrant to order horse and men on such service.--And now begone.
+If there be half the wit in thy head that there is apprehension in
+thy look, thou fully comprehendest all that I would say--Serve me
+faithfully, and sure as I am belted earl, thy reward shall be great."
+
+Roland Graeme made an obeisance, and was about to depart.
+
+The Earl signed to him to remain. "I have trusted thee deeply," he said,
+"young man, for thou art the only one of her suite who has been sent
+to her by my own recommendation. Her gentlewomen are of her own
+nomination--it were too hard to have barred her that privilege, though
+some there were who reckoned it inconsistent with sure policy. Thou
+art young and handsome. Mingle in their follies, and see they cover not
+deeper designs under the appearance of female levity--if they do mine,
+do thou countermine. For the rest, bear all decorum and respect to the
+person of thy mistress--she is a princess, though a most unhappy one,
+and hath been a queen! though now, alas! no longer such! Pay, therefore,
+to her all honour and respect, consistent with thy fidelity to the King
+and me--and now, farewell.--Yet stay--you travel with Lord Lindesay, a
+man of the old world, rough and honest, though untaught; see that thou
+offend him not, for he is not patient of raillery, and thou, I have
+heard, art a crack-halter." This he said with a smile, then added, "I
+could have wished the Lord Lindesay's mission had been intrusted to some
+other and more gentle noble."
+
+"And wherefore should you wish that, my lord?" said Morton, who even
+then entered the apartment; "the council have decided for the best--we
+have had but too many proofs of this lady's stubbornness of mind, and
+the oak that resists the sharp steel axe, must be riven with the rugged
+iron wedge.--And this is to be her page?--My Lord Regent hath doubtless
+instructed you, young man, how you shall guide yourself in these
+matters; I will add but a little hint on my part. You are going to the
+castle of a Douglas, where treachery never thrives--the first moment of
+suspicion will be the last of your life. My kinsman, William Douglas,
+understands no raillery, and if he once have cause to think you false,
+you will waver in the wind from the castle battlements ere the sun set
+upon his anger.--And is the lady to have an almoner withal?"
+
+"Occasionally, Douglas," said the Regent; "it were hard to deny the
+spiritual consolation which she thinks essential to her salvation."
+
+"You are ever too soft hearted, my lord--What! a false priest to
+communicate her lamentations, not only to our unfriends in Scotland, but
+to the Guises, to Rome, to Spain, and I know not where!"
+
+"Fear not," said the Regent, "we will take such order that no treachery
+shall happen."
+
+"Look to it then." said Morton; "you know my mind respecting the wench
+you have consented she shall receive as a waiting-woman--one of a
+family, which, of all others, has ever been devoted to her, and inimical
+to us. Had we not been wary, she would have been purveyed of a page as
+much to her purpose as her waiting-damsel. I hear a rumour that an old
+mad Romish pilgrimer, who passes for at least half a saint among them,
+was employed to find a fit subject."
+
+"We have escaped that danger at least," said Murray, "and converted it
+into a point of advantage, by sending this boy of Glendinning's--and for
+her waiting-damsel, you cannot grudge her one poor maiden instead of her
+four noble Marys and all their silken train?"
+
+"I care not so much for the waiting-maiden," said Morton, "but I cannot
+brook the almoner--I think priests of all persuasions are much like
+each other--Here is John Knox, who made such a noble puller-down, is
+ambitious of becoming a setter-up, and a founder of schools and colleges
+out of the Abbey lands, and bishops' rents, and other spoils of Rome,
+which the nobility of Scotland have won with their sword and bow, and
+with which he would endow new hives to sing the old drone."
+
+"John is a man of God," said the Regent, "and his scheme is a devout
+imagination."
+
+The sedate smile with which this was spoken, left it impossible to
+conjecture whether the words were meant in approbation, or in derision,
+of the plan of the Scottish Reformer. Turning then to Roland Graeme, as
+if he thought he had been long enough a witness of this conversation,
+he bade him get him presently to horse, since my Lord of Lindesay was
+already mounted. The page made his reverence, and left the apartment.
+
+Guided by Michael Wing-the-wind, he found his horse ready saddled and
+prepared for the journey, in front of the palace porch, where hovered
+about a score of men-at-arms, whose leader showed no small symptoms of
+surly impatience.
+
+"Is this the jackanape page for whom we have waited thus long?" said
+he to Wing-the-wind.--"And my Lord Ruthven will reach the castle long
+before us."
+
+Michael assented, and added, that the boy had been detained by the
+Regent to receive some parting instructions. The leader made an
+inarticulate sound in his throat, expressive of sullen acquiescence, and
+calling to one of his domestic attendants, "Edward," said he, "take the
+gallant into your charge, and let him speak with no one else."
+
+He then addressed, by the title of Sir Robert, an elderly and
+respectable-looking gentleman, the only one of the party who seemed
+above the rank of a retainer or domestic, and observed, that they must
+get to horse with all speed.
+
+During this discourse, and while they were riding slowly along the
+street of the suburb, Roland had time to examine more accurately the
+looks and figure of the Baron, who was at their head.
+
+Lord Lindesay of the Byres was rather touched than stricken with years.
+His upright stature and strong limbs, still showed him fully equal to
+all the exertions and fatigues of war. His thick eyebrows, now partially
+grizzled, lowered over large eyes full of dark fire, which seemed yet
+darker from the uncommon depth at which they were set in his head. His
+features, naturally strong and harsh, had their sternness exaggerated
+by one or two scars received in battle. These features, naturally
+calculated to express the harsher passions, were shaded by an open steel
+cap, with a projecting front, but having no visor, over the gorget
+of which fell the black and grizzled beard of the grim old Baron, and
+totally hid the lower part of his face. The rest of his dress was a
+loose buff-coat, which had once been lined with silk and adorned with
+embroidery, but which seemed much stained with travel, and damaged with
+cuts, received probably in battle. It covered a corslet, which had once
+been of polished steel, fairly gilded, but was now somewhat injured with
+rust. A sword of antique make and uncommon size, framed to be wielded
+with both hands, a kind of weapon which was then beginning to go out
+of use, hung from his neck in a baldrick, and was so disposed as
+to traverse his whole person, the huge hilt appearing over his left
+shoulder, and the point reaching well-nigh to the right heel, and
+jarring against his spur as he walked. This unwieldy weapon could only
+be unsheathed by pulling the handle over the left shoulder--for no human
+arm was long enough to draw it in the usual manner. The whole
+equipment was that of a rude warrior, negligent of his exterior even to
+misanthropical sullenness; and the short, harsh, haughty tone, which he
+used towards his attendants, belonged to the same unpolished character.
+
+The personage who rode with Lord Lindesay, at the head of the party, was
+an absolute contrast to him, in manner, form, and features. His thin and
+silky hair was already white, though he seemed not above forty-five or
+fifty years old. His tone of voice was soft and insinuating--his
+form thin, spare, and bent by an habitual stoop--his pale cheek was
+expressive of shrewdness and intelligence--his eye was quick though
+placid, and his whole demeanour mild and conciliatory. He rode an
+ambling nag, such as were used by ladies, clergymen, or others of
+peaceful professions--wore a riding habit of black velvet, with a cap
+and feather of the same hue, fastened up by a golden medal--and
+for show, and as a mark of rank rather than for use, carried a
+walking-sword, (as the short light rapiers were called,) without any
+other arms, offensive or defensive.
+
+The party had now quitted the town, and proceeded, at a steady trot,
+towards the west.--As they prosecuted their journey, Roland Graeme
+would gladly have learned something of its purpose and tendency, but
+the countenance of the personage next to whom he had been placed in the
+train, discouraged all approach to familiarity. The Baron himself did
+not look more grim and inaccessible than his feudal retainer, whose
+grisly beard fell over his mouth like the portcullis before the gate of
+a castle, as if for the purpose of preventing the escape of any word, of
+which absolute necessity did not demand the utterance. The rest of the
+train seemed under the same taciturn influence, and journeyed on without
+a word being exchanged amongst them--more like a troop of Carthusian
+friars than a party of military retainers. Roland Graeme was surprised
+at this extremity of discipline; for even in the household of the Knight
+of Avenel, though somewhat distinguished for the accuracy with which
+decorum was enforced, a journey was a period of license, during which
+jest and song, and every thing within the limits of becoming mirth and
+pastime were freely permitted. This unusual silence was, however, so far
+acceptable, that it gave him time to bring any shadow of judgment which
+he possessed to council on his own situation and prospects, which would
+have appeared to any reasonable person in the highest degree dangerous
+and perplexing.
+
+It was quite evident that he had, through various circumstances not
+under his own control, formed contradictory connexions with both the
+contending factions, by whose strife the kingdom was distracted, without
+being properly an adherent of either. It seemed also clear, that the
+same situation in the household of the deposed Queen, to which he was
+now promoted by the influence of the Regent, had been destined to him by
+his enthusiastic grandmother, Magdalen Graeme; for on this subject, the
+words which Morton had dropped had been a ray of light; yet it was no
+less clear that these two persons, the one the declared enemy, the other
+the enthusiastic votary, of the Catholic religion,--the one at the head
+of the King's new government, the other, who regarded that government
+as a criminal usurpation--must have required and expected very different
+services from the individual whom they had thus united in recommending.
+It required very little reflection to foresee that these contradictory
+claims on his services might speedily place him in a situation where his
+honour as well as his life might be endangered. But it was not in Roland
+Graeme's nature to anticipate evil before it came, or to prepare to
+combat difficulties before they arrived. "I will see this beautiful and
+unfortunate Mary Stewart," said he, "of whom we have heard so much, and
+then there will be time enough to determine whether I will be kingsman
+or queensman. None of them can say I have given word or promise to
+either of their factions; for they have led me up and down like a blind
+Billy, without giving me any light into what I was to do. But it was
+lucky that grim Douglas came into the Regent's closet this morning,
+otherwise I had never got free of him without plighting my troth to do
+all the Earl would have me, which seemed, after all, but foul play to
+the poor imprisoned lady, to place her page as an espial on her."
+
+Skipping thus lightly over a matter of such consequence, the thoughts of
+the hare-brained boy went a wool-gathering after more agreeable
+topics. Now he admired the Gothic towers of Barnbougle, rising from the
+seabeaten rock, and overlooking one of the most glorious landscapes in
+Scotland--and now he began to consider what notable sport for the hounds
+and the hawks must be afforded by the variegated ground over which they
+travelled--and now he compared the steady and dull trot at which they
+were then prosecuting their journey, with the delight of sweeping
+over hill and dale in pursuit of his favourite sports. As, under the
+influence of these joyous recollections, he gave his horse the spur,
+and made him execute a gambade, he instantly incurred the censure of his
+grave neighbour, who hinted to him to keep the pace, and move quietly
+and in order, unless he wished such notice to be taken of his eccentric
+movements as was likely to be very displeasing to him.
+
+The rebuke and the restraint under which the youth now found
+himself, brought back to his recollection his late good-humoured and
+accommodating associate and guide, Adam Woodcock; and from that topic
+his imagination made a short flight to Avenel Castle, to the quiet
+and unconfined life of its inhabitants, the goodness of his early
+protectress, not forgetting the denizens of its stables, kennels, and
+hawk-mews. In a brief space, all these subjects of meditation gave way
+to the resemblance of that riddle of womankind, Catherine Seyton, who
+appeared before the eye of his mind--now in her female form, now in
+her male attire--now in both at once--like some strange dream, which
+presents to us the same individual under two different characters at
+the same instant. Her mysterious present also recurred to his
+recollection--the sword which he now wore at his side, and which he was
+not to draw save by command of his legitimate Sovereign! But the key of
+this mystery he judged he was likely to find in the issue of his present
+journey.
+
+With such thoughts passing through his mind, Roland Graeme accompanied
+the party of Lord Lindesay to the Queen's-Ferry, which they passed in
+vessels that lay in readiness for them. They encountered no adventure
+whatever in their passage, excepting one horse being lamed in getting
+into the boat, an accident very common on such occasions, until a
+few years ago, when the ferry was completely regulated. What was more
+peculiarly characteristic of the olden age, was the discharge of a
+culverin at the party from the battlements of the old castle of Rosythe,
+on the north side of the Ferry, the lord of which happened to have some
+public or private quarrel with the Lord Lindesay, and took this mode
+of expressing his resentment. The insult, however, as it was harmless,
+remained unnoticed and unavenged, nor did any thing else occur worth
+notice until the band had come where Lochleven spread its magnificent
+sheet of waters to the beams of a bright summer's sun.
+
+The ancient castle, which occupies an island nearly in the centre of
+the lake, recalled to the page that of Avenel, in which he had been
+nurtured. But the lake was much larger, and adorned with several islets
+besides that on which the fortress was situated; and instead of being
+embosomed in hills like that of Avenel, had upon the southern side only
+a splendid mountainous screen, being the descent of one of the Lomond
+hills, and on the other was surrounded by the extensive and fertile
+plain of Kinross. Roland Graeme looked with some degree of dismay on the
+water-girdled fortress, which then, as now, consisted only of one
+large donjon-keep, surrounded with a court-yard, with two round
+flanking-towers at the angles, which contained within its circuit some
+other buildings of inferior importance. A few old trees, clustered
+together near the castle, gave some relief to the air of desolate
+seclusion; but yet the page, while he gazed upon a building so
+sequestrated, could not but feel for the situation of a captive Princess
+doomed to dwell there, as well as for his own. "I must have been born,"
+he thought, "under the star that presides over ladies and lakes of
+water, for I cannot by any means escape from the service of the one, or
+from dwelling in the other. But if they allow me not the fair freedom
+of my sport and exercise, they shall find it as hard to confine a
+wild-drake, as a youth who can swim like one."
+
+The band had now reached the edge of the water, and one of the party
+advancing displayed Lord Lindesay's pennon, waving it repeatedly to and
+fro, while that Baron himself blew a clamorous blast on his bugle. A
+banner was presently displayed from the roof of the castle in reply to
+these signals, and one or two figures were seen busied as if unmooring a
+boat which lay close to the islet.
+
+"It will be some time ere they can reach us with the boat," said the
+companion of Lord Lindesay; "should we not do well to proceed to
+the town, and array ourselves in some better order, ere we appear
+before----"
+
+"You may do as you list, Sir Robert," replied Lindesay, "I have neither
+time nor temper to waste on such vanities. She has cost me many a hard
+ride, and must not now take offence at the threadbare cloak and soiled
+doublet that I am arrayed in. It is the livery to which she has brought
+all Scotland."
+
+"Do not speak so harshly," said Sir Robert; "if she hath done wrong,
+she hath dearly abied it; and in losing all real power, one would not
+deprive her of the little external homage due at once to a lady and a
+princess."
+
+"I say to you once more, Sir Robert Melville," replied Lindesay, "do as
+you will--for me, I am now too old to dink myself as a gallant to grace
+the bower of dames."
+
+"The bower of dames, my lord!" said Melville, looking at the rude old
+tower--"is it yon dark and grated castle, the prison of a captive Queen,
+to which you give so gay a name?"
+
+"Name it as you list," replied Lindesay; "had the Regent desired to send
+an envoy capable to speak to a captive Queen, there are many gallants
+in his court who would have courted the occasion to make speeches out of
+Amadis of Gaul, or the Mirror of Knighthood. But when he sent blunt old
+Lindesay, he knew he would speak to a misguided woman, as her former
+misdoings and her present state render necessary. I sought not this
+employment--it has been thrust upon me; and I will not cumber myself
+with more form in the discharge of it, than needs must be tacked to such
+an occupation."
+
+So saying, Lord Lindesay threw himself from horseback, and wrapping
+his riding-cloak around him, lay down at lazy length upon the sward, to
+await the arrival of the boat, which was now seen rowing from the castle
+towards the shore. Sir Robert Melville, who had also dismounted, walked
+at short turns to and fro upon the bank, his arms crossed on his breast,
+often looking to the castle, and displaying in his countenance a mixture
+of sorrow and of anxiety. The rest of the party sate like statues on
+horseback, without moving so much as the points of their lances, which
+they held upright in the air.
+
+As soon as the boat approached a rude quay or landing-place, near to
+which they had stationed themselves, Lord Lindesay started up from his
+recumbent posture, and asked the person who steered, why he had not
+brought a larger boat with him to transport his retinue.
+
+"So please you," replied the boatman, "because it is the order of our
+lady, that we bring not to the castle more than four persons."
+
+"Thy lady is a wise woman," said Lindesay, "to suspect me of
+treachery!--Or, had I intended it, what was to hinder us from throwing
+you and your comrades into the lake, and filling the boat with my own
+fellows?"
+
+The steersman, on hearing this, made a hasty signal to his men to back
+their oars, and hold off from the shore which they were approaching.
+
+"Why, thou ass," said Lindesay, "thou didst not think that I meant
+thy fool's head serious harm? Hark thee, friend--with fewer than three
+servants I will go no whither--Sir Robert Melville will require at least
+the attendance of one domestic; and it will be at your peril and your
+lady's to refuse us admission, come hither as we are, on matters of
+great national concern."
+
+The steersman answered with firmness, but with great civility of
+expression, that his orders were positive to bring no more than four
+into the island, but he offered to row back to obtain a revisal of his
+orders.
+
+"Do so, my friend," said Sir Robert Melville, after he had in vain
+endeavoured to persuade his stubborn companion to consent to a temporary
+abatement of his train, "row back to the castle, sith it will be no
+better, and obtain thy lady's orders to transport the Lord Lindesay,
+myself, and our retinue hither."
+
+"And hearken," said Lord Lindesay, "take with you this page, who comes
+as an attendant on your lady's guest.--Dismount, sirrah," said he,
+addressing Roland, "and embark with them in that boat."
+
+"And what is to become of my horse?" said Graeme; "I am answerable for
+him to my master."
+
+"I will relieve you of the charge," said Lindesay; "thou wilt have
+little enough to do with horse, saddle, or bridle, for ten years to
+come--Thou mayst take the halter an thou wilt--it may stand thee in a
+turn."
+
+"If I thought so," said Roland--but he was interrupted by Sir Robert
+Melville, who said to him good-humouredly, "Dispute it not, young
+friend--resistance can do no good, but may well run thee into danger."
+
+Roland Graeme felt the justice of what he said, and, though neither
+delighted with the matter or manner of Lindesay's address, deemed it
+best to submit to necessity, and to embark without farther remonstrance.
+The men plied their oars. The quay, with the party of horse stationed
+near it, receded from the page's eyes--the castle and the islet seemed
+to draw near in the same proportion, and in a brief space he landed
+under the shadow of a huge old tree which overhung the landing place.
+The steersman and Graeme leaped ashore; the boatmen remained lying on
+their oars ready for farther service.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-First.
+
+
+  Could valour aught avail or people's love,
+    France had not wept Navarre's brave Henry slain;
+  If wit or beauty could compassion move,
+    The rose of Scotland had not wept in vain.
+           _Elegy in a Royal Mausoleum._ LEWIS.
+
+At the gate of the court-yard of Lochleven appeared the stately form of
+the Lady Lochleven, a female whose early charms had captivated James V.,
+by whom she became mother of the celebrated Regent Murray. As she was of
+noble birth (being a daughter of the house of Mar) and of great beauty,
+her intimacy with James did not prevent her being afterwards sought in
+honourable marriage by many gallants of the time, among whom she had
+preferred Sir William Douglas of Lochleven. But well has it been said
+
+  ----"Our pleasant vices
+  Are made the whips to scourge us"---
+
+The station which the Lady of Lochleven now held as the wife of a man
+of high rank and interest, and the mother of a lawful family, did not
+prevent her nourishing a painful sense of degradation, even while she
+was proud of the talents, the power, and the station of her son, now
+prime ruler of the state, but still a pledge of her illicit intercourse.
+"Had James done to her," she said, in her secret heart, "the justice he
+owed her, she had seen in her son, as a source of unmixed delight and of
+unchastened pride, the lawful monarch of Scotland, and one of the
+ablest who ever swayed the sceptre." The House of Mar, not inferior in
+antiquity or grandeur to that of Drummond, would then have also boasted
+a Queen among its daughters, and escaped the stain attached to female
+frailty, even when it has a royal lover for its apology. While such
+feelings preyed on a bosom naturally proud and severe, they had a
+corresponding effect on her countenance, where, with the remains of
+great beauty, were mingled traits of inward discontent and peevish
+melancholy. It perhaps contributed to increase this habitual
+temperament, that the Lady Lochleven had adopted uncommonly rigid and
+severe views of religion, imitating in her ideas of reformed faith
+the very worst errors of the Catholics, in limiting the benefit of the
+gospel to those who profess their own speculative tenets.
+
+In every respect, the unfortunate Queen Mary, now the compulsory guest,
+or rather prisoner, of this sullen lady, was obnoxious to her hostess.
+Lady Lochleven disliked her as the daughter of Mary of Guise, the legal
+possessor of those rights over James's heart and hand, of which she
+conceived herself to have been injuriously deprived; and yet more so as
+the professor of a religion which she detested worse than Paganism.
+
+Such was the dame, who, with stately mien, and sharp yet handsome
+features, shrouded by her black velvet coif, interrogated the domestic
+who steered her barge to the shore, what had become of Lindesay and
+Sir Robert Melville. The man related what had passed, and she smiled
+scornfully as she replied, "Fools must be flattered, not foughten
+with.--Row back--make thy excuse as thou canst--say Lord Ruthven
+hath already reached this castle, and that he is impatient for Lord
+Lindesay's presence. Away with thee, Randal--yet stay--what galopin is
+that thou hast brought hither?"
+
+"So please you, my lady, he is the page who is to wait upon----"
+
+"Ay, the new male minion," said the Lady Lochleven; "the female
+attendant arrived yesterday. I shall have a well-ordered house with this
+lady and her retinue; but I trust they will soon find some others to
+undertake such a charge. Begone, Randal--and you" (to Roland Graeme)
+"follow me to the garden."
+
+She led the way with a slow and stately step to the small garden, which,
+enclosed by a stone wall ornamented with statues, and an artificial
+fountain in the centre, extended its dull parterres on the side of
+the court-yard, with which it communicated by a low and arched portal.
+Within the narrow circuit of its formal and limited walks, Mary Stewart
+was now learning to perform the weary part of a prisoner, which, with
+little interval, she was doomed to sustain during the remainder of her
+life. She was followed in her slow and melancholy exercise by two female
+attendants; but in the first glance which Roland Graeme bestowed
+upon one so illustrious by birth, so distinguished by her beauty,
+accomplishments, and misfortunes, he was sensible of the presence of no
+other than the unhappy Queen of Scotland.
+
+Her face, her form, have been so deeply impressed upon the imagination,
+that even at the distance of nearly three centuries, it is unnecessary
+to remind the most ignorant and uninformed reader of the striking traits
+which characterize that remarkable countenance, which seems at once
+to combine our ideas of the majestic, the pleasing, and the brilliant,
+leaving us to doubt whether they express most happily the queen, the
+beauty, or the accomplished woman. Who is there, that, at the very
+mention of Mary Stewart's name, has not her countenance before him,
+familiar as that of the mistress of his youth, or the favourite daughter
+of his advanced age? Even those who feel themselves compelled to believe
+all, or much, of what her enemies laid to her charge, cannot think
+without a sigh upon a countenance expressive of anything rather than
+the foul crimes with which she was charged when living, and which still
+continue to shade, if not to blacken, her memory. That brow, so truly
+open and regal--those eyebrows, so regularly graceful, which yet were
+saved from the charge of regular insipidity by the beautiful effect of
+the hazel eyes which they overarched, and which seem to utter a thousand
+histories--the nose, with all its Grecian precision of outline--the
+mouth, so well proportioned, so sweetly formed, as if designed to speak
+nothing but what was delightful to hear--the dimpled chin--the stately
+swan-like neck, form a countenance, the like of which we know not to
+have existed in any other character moving in that class of life,
+where the actresses as well as the actors command general and undivided
+attention. It is in vain to say that the portraits which exist of this
+remarkable woman are not like each other; for, amidst their discrepancy,
+each possesses general features which the eye at once acknowledges as
+peculiar to the vision which our imagination has raised while we read
+her history for the first time, and which has been impressed upon it by
+the numerous prints and pictures which we have seen. Indeed we cannot
+look on the worst of them, however deficient in point of execution,
+without saying that it is meant for Queen Mary; and no small instance
+it is of the power of beauty, that her charms should have remained the
+subject not merely of admiration, but of warm and chivalrous interest,
+after the lapse of such a length of time. We know that by far the most
+acute of those who, in latter days, have adopted the unfavourable view
+of Mary's character, longed, like the executioner before his dreadful
+task was performed, to kiss the fair hand of her on whom he was about to
+perform so horrible a duty.
+
+Dressed, then, in a deep mourning robe, and with all those charms of
+face, shape, and manner, with which faithful tradition has made each
+reader familiar, Mary Stewart advanced to meet the Lady of Lochleven,
+who, on her part, endeavoured to conceal dislike and apprehension under
+the appearance of respectful indifference. The truth was, that she
+had experienced repeatedly the Queen's superiority in that species of
+disguised yet cutting sarcasm, with which women can successfully avenge
+themselves, for real and substantial injuries. It may be well doubted,
+whether this talent was not as fatal to its possessor as the many others
+enjoyed by that highly gifted, but most unhappy female; for, while it
+often afforded her a momentary triumph over her keepers, it failed not
+to exasperate their resentment; and the satire and sarcasm in which she
+had indulged were frequently retaliated by the deep and bitter hardships
+which they had the power of inflicting. It is well known that her death
+was at length hastened by a letter which she wrote to Queen Elizabeth,
+in which she treated her jealous rival, and the Countess of Shrewsbury,
+with the keenest irony and ridicule.
+
+As the ladies met together, the Queen said, bending her head at the same
+time, in return to the obeisance of the Lady Lochleven, "We are this
+day fortunate--we enjoy the company of our amiable hostess at an unusual
+hour, and during a period which we have hitherto been permitted to give
+to our private exercise. But our good hostess knows well she has at all
+times access to our presence, and need not observe the useless ceremony
+of requiring our permission."
+
+"I am sorry my presence is deemed an intrusion by your Grace," said the
+Lady of Lochleven. "I came but to announce the arrival of an addition
+to your train," motioning with her hand towards Roland Graeme; "a
+circumstance to which ladies are seldom indifferent."
+
+"Oh! I crave your ladyship's pardon; and am bent to the earth with
+obligations for the kindness of my nobles--or my sovereigns, shall I
+call them?--who have permitted me such a respectable addition to my
+personal retinue."
+
+"They have indeed studied, Madam," said the Lady of Lochleven, "to show
+their kindness towards your Grace--something at the risk perhaps of
+sound policy, and I trust their doings will not be misconstrued."
+
+"Impossible!" said the Queen; "the bounty which permits the daughter of
+so many kings, and who yet is Queen of the realm, the attendance of
+two waiting-women and a boy, is a grace which Mary Stewart can never
+sufficiently acknowledge. Why! my train will be equal to that of any
+country dame in this your kingdom of Fife, saving but the lack of a
+gentleman-usher, and a pair or two of blue-coated serving-men. But I
+must not forget, in my selfish joy, the additional trouble and charges
+to which this magnificent augmentation of our train will put our kind
+hostess, and the whole house of Lochleven. It is this prudent anxiety, I
+am aware, which clouds your brows, my worthy lady. But be of good cheer;
+the crown of Scotland has many a fair manor, and your affectionate son,
+and my no less affectionate brother, will endow the good knight your
+husband with the best of them, ere Mary should be dismissed from this
+hospitable castle from your ladyship's lack of means to support the
+charges."
+
+"The Douglasses of Lochleven, madam," answered the lady, "have known
+for ages how to discharge their duty to the State, without looking for
+reward, even when the task was both irksome and dangerous."
+
+"Nay! but, my dear Lochleven," said the Queen, "you are over
+scrupulous--I pray you accept of a goodly manor; what should support
+the Queen of Scotland in this her princely court, saving her own
+crown-lands--and who should minister to the wants of a mother, save an
+affectionate son like the Earl of Murray, who possesses so wonderfully
+both the power and inclination?--Or said you it was the danger of the
+task which clouded your smooth and hospitable brow?--No doubt, a page is
+a formidable addition to my body-guard of females; and I bethink me it
+must have been for that reason that my Lord of Lindesay refused even
+now to venture within the reach of a force so formidable, without being
+attended by a competent retinue."
+
+The Lady Lochleven started, and looked something surprised; and Mary
+suddenly changing her manner from the smooth ironical affectation of
+mildness to an accent of austere command, and drawing up at the same
+time her fine person, said, with the full majesty of her rank, "Yes!
+Lady of Lochleven; I know that Ruthven is already in the castle, and
+that Lindesay waits on the bank the return of your barge to bring him
+hither along with Sir Robert Melville. For what purpose do these nobles
+come--and why am I not in ordinary decency apprised of their arrival?"'
+
+"Their purpose, madam," replied the Lady of Lochleven, "they must
+themselves explain--but a formal annunciation were needless, where your
+Grace hath attendants who can play the espial so well."
+
+"Alas! poor Fleming," said the Queen, turning to the elder of the female
+attendants, "thou wilt be tried, condemned, and gibbeted, for a spy in
+the garrison, because thou didst chance to cross the great hall while my
+good Lady of Lochleven was parleying at the full pitch of her voice with
+her pilot Randal. Put black wool in thy ears, girl, as you value the
+wearing of them longer. Remember, in the Castle of Lochleven, ears and
+tongues are matters not of use, but for show merely. Our good hostess
+can hear, as well as speak, for us all. We excuse your farther
+attendance, my lady hostess," she said, once more addressing the object
+of her resentment, "and retire to prepare for an interview with our
+rebel lords. We will use the ante-chamber of our sleeping apartment as
+our hall of audience. You, young man," she proceeded, addressing Roland
+Graeme, and at once softening the ironical sharpness of her manner into
+good-humoured raillery, "you, who are all our male attendance, from our
+Lord High Chamberlain down to our least galopin, follow us to prepare
+our court."
+
+She turned, and walked slowly towards the castle. The Lady of Lochleven
+folded her arms, and smiled in bitter resentment, as she watched her
+retiring steps.
+
+"The whole male attendance!" she muttered, repeating the Queen's last
+words, "and well for thee had it been had thy train never been larger;"
+then turning to Roland, in whose way she had stood while making this
+pause, she made room for him to pass, saying at the same time, "Art thou
+already eaves-dropping? follow thy mistress, minion, and, if thou wilt,
+tell her what I have now said."
+
+Roland Graeme hastened after his royal mistress and her attendants, who
+had just entered a postern-gate communicating betwixt the castle and the
+small garden. They ascended a winding-stair as high as the second story,
+which was in a great measure occupied by a suite of three rooms, opening
+into each other, and assigned as the dwelling of the captive Princess.
+The outermost was a small hall or ante-room, within which opened a
+large parlour, and from that again the Queen's bedroom. Another small
+apartment, which opened into the same parlour, contained the beds of the
+gentlewomen in waiting.
+
+Roland Graeme stopped, as became his station, in the outermost of these
+apartments, there to await such orders as might be communicated to him.
+From the grated window of the room he saw Lindesay, Melville, and their
+followers disembark; and observed that they were met at the castle gate
+by a third noble, to whom Lindesay exclaimed, in his loud harsh voice,
+"My Lord of Ruthven, you have the start of us!"
+
+At this instant, the page's attention was called to a burst of
+hysterical sobs from the inner apartment, and to the hurried
+ejaculations of the terrified females, which led him almost instantly to
+hasten to their assistance. When he entered, he saw that the Queen had
+thrown herself into the large chair which stood nearest the door, and
+was sobbing for breath in a strong fit of hysterical affection. The
+elder female supported her in her arms, while the younger bathed her
+face with water and with tears alternately.
+
+"Hasten, young man!" said the elder lady, in alarm, "fly--call in
+assistance--she is swooning!"
+
+But the Queen ejaculated in a faint and broken voice, "Stir not, I
+charge you!--call no one to witness--I am better--I shall recover
+instantly." And, indeed, with an effort which seemed like that of one
+struggling for life, she sate up in her chair, and endeavoured to resume
+her composure, while her features yet trembled with the violent emotion
+of body and mind which she had undergone. "I am ashamed of my weakness,
+girls," she said, taking the hands of her attendants; "but it is
+over--and I am Mary Stewart once more. The savage tone of that man's
+voice--my knowledge of his insolence--the name which he named--the
+purpose for which they come--may excuse a moment's weakness, and it
+shall be a moment's only." She snatched from her head the curch or cap,
+which had been disordered during her hysterical agony, shook down the
+thick clustered tresses of dark brown which had been before veiled under
+it--and, drawing her slender fingers across the labyrinth which they
+formed, she arose from the chair, and stood like the inspired image of a
+Grecian prophetess in a mood which partook at once of sorrow and pride,
+of smiles and of tears. "We are ill appointed," she said, "to meet
+our rebel subjects; but, as far as we may, we will strive to present
+ourselves as becomes their Queen. Follow me, my maidens," she said;
+"what says thy favourite song, my Fleming?
+
+  'My maids, come to my dressing-bower,
+  And deck my nut-brown hair;
+  Where'er ye laid a plait before,
+  Look ye lay ten times 'mair.'
+
+"Alas!" she added, when she had repeated with a smile these lines of an
+old ballad, "violence has already robbed me of the ordinary decorations
+of my rank; and the few that nature gave me have been destroyed by
+sorrow and by fear." Yet while she spoke thus, she again let her slender
+fingers stray through the wilderness of the beautiful tresses which
+veiled her kingly neck and swelling bosom, as if, in her agony of mind,
+she had not altogether lost the consciousness of her unrivalled charms.
+Roland Graeme, on whose youth, inexperience, and ardent sense of what
+was dignified and lovely, the demeanour of so fair and high-born a lady
+wrought like the charm of a magician, stood rooted to the spot with
+surprise and interest, longing to hazard his life in a quarrel so
+fair as that which Mary Stewart's must needs be. She had been bred in
+France--she was possessed of the most distinguished beauty--she had
+reigned a Queen and a Scottish Queen, to whom knowledge of character was
+as essential as the use of vital air. In all these capacities, Mary
+was, of all women on the earth, most alert at perceiving and using the
+advantages which her charms gave her over almost all who came within the
+sphere of their influence. She cast on Roland a glance which might have
+melted a heart of stone. "My poor boy," she said, with a feeling partly
+real, partly politic, "thou art a stranger to us--sent to this doleful
+captivity from the society of some tender mother, or sister, or maiden,
+with whom you had freedom to tread a gay measure round the Maypole. I
+grieve for you; but you are the only male in my limited household--wilt
+thou obey my orders?"
+
+"To the death, madam," said Graeme, in a determined tone.
+
+"Then keep the door of mine apartment," said the Queen; "keep it till
+they offer actual violence, or till we shall be fitly arrayed to receive
+these intrusive visiters."
+
+"I will defend it till they pass over my body," said Roland Graeme; any
+hesitation which he had felt concerning the line of conduct he ought to
+pursue being completely swept away by the impulse of the moment.
+
+"Not so, my good youth," answered Mary; "not so, I command. If I have
+one faithful subject beside me, much need, God wot, I have to care for
+his safety. Resist them but till they are put to the shame of using
+actual violence, and then give way, I charge you. Remember my commands."
+And, with a smile expressive at once of favour and of authority, she
+turned from him, and, followed by her attendants, entered the bedroom.
+
+The youngest paused for half a second ere she followed her companion,
+and made a signal to Roland Graeme with her hand. He had been already
+long aware that this was Catherine Seyton--a circumstance which could
+not much surprise a youth of quick intellects, who recollected the sort
+of mysterious discourse which had passed betwixt the two matrons at the
+deserted nunnery, and on which his meeting with Catherine in this place
+seemed to cast so much light. Yet such was the engrossing effect of
+Mary's presence, that it surmounted for the moment even the feelings of
+a youthful lover; and it was not until Catherine Seyton had disappeared,
+that Roland began to consider in what relation they were to stand to
+each other. "She held up her hand to me in a commanding manner," he
+thought; "perhaps she wanted to confirm my purpose for the execution of
+the Queen's commands; for I think she could scarce purpose to scare me
+with the sort of discipline which she administered to the groom in the
+frieze-jacket, and to poor Adam Woodcock. But we will see to that anon;
+meantime, let us do justice to the trust reposed in us by this unhappy
+Queen. I think my Lord of Murray will himself own that it is the duty of
+a faithful page to defend his lady against intrusion on her privacy."
+
+Accordingly, he stepped to the little vestibule, made fast, with lock
+and bar, the door which opened from thence to the large staircase, and
+then sat himself down to attend the result. He had not long to wait--a
+rude and strong hand first essayed to lift the latch, then pushed and
+shook the door with violence, and, when it resisted his attempt to open
+it, exclaimed, "Undo the door there, you within!"
+
+"Why, and at whose command," said the page, "am I to undo the door of
+the apartments of the Queen of Scotland?"
+
+Another vain attempt, which made hinge and bolt jingle, showed that
+the impatient applicant without would willingly have entered altogether
+regardless of his challenge; but at length an answer was returned.
+
+"Undo the door, on your peril--the Lord Lindesay comes to speak with the
+Lady Mary of Scotland."
+
+"The Lord Lindesay, as a Scottish noble," answered the page, "must await
+his Sovereign's leisure."
+
+An earnest altercation ensued amongst those without, in which Roland
+distinguished the remarkable harsh voice of Lindesay in reply to
+Sir Robert Melville, who appeared to have been using some soothing
+language--"No! no! no! I tell thee, no! I will place a petard against
+the door rather than be baulked by a profligate woman, and bearded by an
+insolent footboy."
+
+"Yet, at least," said Melville, "let me try fair means in the first
+instance. Violence to a lady would stain your scutcheon for ever. Or
+await till my Lord Ruthven comes."
+
+"I will await no longer," said Lindesay; "it is high time the business
+were done, and we on our return to the council. But thou mayest try thy
+fair play, as thou callest it, while I cause my train to prepare the
+petard. I came hither provided with as good gunpowder as blew up the
+Kirk of Field."
+
+"For God's sake, be patient," said Melville; and, approaching the door,
+he said, as speaking to those within, "Let the Queen know, that I, her
+faithful servant, Robert Melville, do entreat her, for her own sake, and
+to prevent worse consequences, that she will undo the door, and admit
+Lord Lindesay, who brings a mission from the Council of State."
+
+"I will do your errand to the Queen," said the page, "and report to you
+her answer."
+
+He went to the door of the bedchamber, and tapping against it gently, it
+was opened by the elderly lady, to whom he communicated his errand, and
+returned with directions from the Queen to admit Sir Robert Melville and
+Lord Lindesay. Roland Graeme returned to the vestibule, and opened the
+door accordingly, into which the Lord Lindesay strode, with the air of
+a soldier who has fought his way into a conquered fortress; while
+Melville, deeply dejected, followed him more slowly.
+
+"I draw you to witness, and to record," said the page to this last,
+"that, save for the especial commands of the Queen, I would have made
+good the entrance, with my best strength, and my best blood, against all
+Scotland."
+
+"Be silent, young man," said Melville, in a tone of grave rebuke; "add
+not brands to fire--this is no time to make a flourish of thy boyish
+chivalry."
+
+"She has not appeared even yet," said Lindesay, who had now reached the
+midst of the parlour or audience-room; "how call you this trifling?"
+
+"Patience, my lord," replied Sir Robert, "time presses not--and Lord
+Ruthven hath not as yet descended."
+
+At this moment the door of the inner apartment opened, and Queen Mary
+presented herself, advancing with an air of peculiar grace and majesty,
+and seeming totally unruffled, either by the visit, or by the rude
+manner in which it had been enforced. Her dress was a robe of black
+velvet; a small ruff, open in front, gave a full view of her beautifully
+formed chin and neck, but veiled the bosom. On her head she wore a small
+cap of lace, and a transparent white veil hung from her shoulders over
+the long black robe, in large loose folds, so that it could be drawn at
+pleasure over the face and person. She wore a cross of gold around her
+neck, and had her rosary of gold and ebony hanging from her girdle. She
+was closely followed by her two ladies, who remained standing behind her
+during the conference. Even Lord Lindesay, though the rudest noble
+of that rude age, was surprised into something like respect by the
+unconcerned and majestic mien of her, whom he had expected to find
+frantic with impotent passion, or dissolved in useless and vain sorrow,
+or overwhelmed with the fears likely in such a situation to assail
+fallen royalty.
+
+"We fear we have detained you, my Lord of Lindesay," said the Queen,
+while she curtsied with dignity in answer to his reluctant obeisance;
+"but a female does not willingly receive her visiters without some
+minutes spent at the toilette. Men, my lord, are less dependant on such
+ceremonies."
+
+Lord Lindesay, casting his eye down on his own travel-stained and
+disordered dress, muttered something of a hasty journey, and the Queen
+paid her greeting to Sir Robert Melville with courtesy, and even, as
+it seemed, with kindness. There was then a dead pause, during which
+Lindesay looked towards the door, as if expecting with impatience the
+colleague of their embassy. The Queen alone was entirely unembarrassed,
+and, as if to break the silence, she addressed Lord Lindesay, with
+a glance at the large and cumbrous sword which he wore, as already
+mentioned, hanging from his neck.
+
+"You have there a trusty and a weighty travelling companion, my lord.
+I trust you expected to meet with no enemy here, against whom such
+a formidable weapon could be necessary? it is, methinks, somewhat a
+singular ornament for a court, though I am, as I well need to be, too
+much of a Stuart to fear a sword."
+
+"It is not the first time, madam," replied Lindesay, bringing round the
+weapon so as to rest its point on the ground, and leaning one hand on
+the huge cross-handle, "it is not the first time that this weapon has
+intruded itself into the presence of the House of Stewart."
+
+"Possibly, my lord," replied the Queen, "it may have done service to my
+ancestors--Your ancestors were men of loyalty"
+
+"Ay, madam," replied he, "service it hath done; but such as kings love
+neither to acknowledge nor to reward. It was the service which the knife
+renders to the tree when trimming it to the quick, and depriving it of
+the superfluous growth of rank and unfruitful suckers, which rob it of
+nourishment."
+
+"You talk riddles, my lord," said Mary; "I will hope the explanation
+carries nothing insulting with it."
+
+"You shall judge, madam," answered Lindesay. "With this good sword was
+Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, girded on the memorable day when he
+acquired the name of Bell-the-Cat, for dragging from the presence of
+your great grandfather, the third James of the race, a crew of minions,
+flatterers, and favourites whom he hanged over the bridge of Lauder,
+as a warning to such reptiles how they approach a Scottish throne. With
+this same weapon, the same inflexible champion of Scottish honour
+and nobility slew at one blow Spens of Kilspindie, a courtier of your
+grandfather, James the fourth, who had dared to speak lightly of him
+in the royal presence. They fought near the brook of Fala; and
+Bell-the-Cat, with this blade, sheared through the thigh of his
+opponent, and lopped the limb as easily as a shepherd's boy slices a
+twig from a sapling."
+
+"My lord," replied the Queen, reddening, "my nerves are too good to
+be alarmed even by this terrible history--May I ask how a blade
+so illustrious passed from the House of Douglas to that of
+Lindesay?--Methinks it should have been preserved as a consecrated
+relic, by a family who have held all that they could do against their
+king, to be done in favour of their country."
+
+"Nay, madam," said Melville, anxiously interfering, "ask not
+that question of Lord Lindesay--And you, my lord, for shame--for
+decency--forbear to reply to it."
+
+"It is time that this lady should hear the truth," replied Lindesay.
+
+"And be assured," said the Queen, "that she will be moved to anger by
+none that you can tell her, my lord. There are cases in which just scorn
+has always the mastery over just anger."
+
+"Then know," said Lindesay, "that upon the field of Carberry-hill, when
+that false and infamous traitor and murderer, James, sometime Earl of
+Bothwell, and nicknamed Duke of Orkney, offered to do personal battle
+with any of the associated nobles who came to drag him to justice, I
+accepted his challenge, and was by the noble Earl of Morton gifted
+with his good sword that I might therewith fight it out--Ah! so help me
+Heaven, had his presumption been one grain more, or his cowardice one
+grain less, I should have done such work with this good steel on his
+traitorous corpse, that the hounds and carrion-crows should have found
+their morsels daintily carved to their use !"
+
+The Queen's courage well-nigh gave way at the mention of Bothwell's
+name--a name connected with such a train of guilt, shame, and disaster.
+But the prolonged boast of Lindesay gave her time to rally herself, and
+to answer with an appearance of cold contempt--"It is easy to slay
+an enemy who enters not the lists. But had Mary Stewart inherited her
+father's sword as well as his sceptre, the boldest of her rebels should
+not upon that day have complained that they had no one to cope withal.
+Your lordship will forgive me if I abridge this conference. A brief
+description of a bloody fight is long enough to satisfy a lady's
+curiosity; and unless my Lord of Lindesay has something more important
+to tell us than of the deeds which old Bell-the-Cat achieved, and how he
+would himself have emulated them, had time and tide permitted, we will
+retire to our private apartment, and you, Fleming, shall finish reading
+to us yonder little treatise _Des Rodomontades Espagnolles_."
+
+"Tarry, madam," said Lindesay, his complexion reddening in his turn, "I
+know your quick wit too well of old to have sought an interview that
+you might sharpen its edge at the expense of my honour. Lord Ruthven and
+myself, with Sir Robert Melville as a concurrent, come to your Grace on
+the part of the Secret Council, to tender to you what much concerns the
+safety of your own life and the welfare of the State."
+
+"The Secret Council?" said the Queen; "by what powers can it subsist or
+act, while I, from whom it holds its character, am here detained under
+unjust restraint? But it matters not--what concerns the welfare of
+Scotland shall be acceptable to Mary Stewart, come from whatever quarter
+it will--and for what concerns her own life, she has lived long enough
+to be weary of it, even at the age of twenty-five.--Where is your
+colleague, my lord?--why tarries he?"
+
+"He comes, madam," said Melville, and Lord Ruthven entered at the
+instant, holding in his hand a packet. As the Queen returned his
+salutation she became deadly pale, but instantly recovered herself
+by dint of strong and sudden resolution, just as the noble, whose
+appearance seemed to excite such emotions in her bosom, entered the
+apartment in company with George Douglas, the youngest son of the Knight
+of Lochleven, who, during the absence of his father and brethren,
+acted as Seneschal of the Castle, under the direction of the elder Lady
+Lochleven, his father's mother.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Second.
+
+
+  I give this heavy weight from off my head,
+  And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand;
+  With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
+  With mine own hand I give away my crown,
+  With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
+  With mine own breath release all duteous oaths.
+                                   RICHARD II.
+
+Lord Ruthven had the look and bearing which became a soldier and a
+statesman, and the martial cast of his form and features procured him
+the popular epithet of Greysteil, by which he was distinguished by his
+intimates, after the hero of a metrical romance then generally known.
+His dress, which was a buff-coat embroidered, had a half-military
+character, but exhibited nothing of the sordid negligence which
+distinguished that of Lindesay. But the son of an ill-fated sire, and
+the father of a yet more unfortunate family, bore in his look that cast
+of inauspicious melancholy, by which the physiognomists of that time
+pretended to distinguish those who were predestined to a violent and
+unhappy death.
+
+The terror which the presence of this nobleman impressed on the Queen's
+mind, arose from the active share he had borne in the slaughter of
+David Rizzio; his father having presided at the perpetration of that
+abominable crime, although so weak from long and wasting illness, that
+he could not endure the weight of his armour, having arisen from a
+sick-bed to commit a murder in the presence of his Sovereign. On that
+occasion his son also had attended and taken an active part. It was
+little to be wondered at, that the Queen, considering her condition
+when such a deed of horror was acted in her presence, should retain an
+instinctive terror for the principal actors in the murder. She returned,
+however, with grace the salutation of Lord Ruthven, and extended her
+hand to George Douglas, who kneeled, and kissed it with respect; the
+first mark of a subject's homage which Roland Graeme had seen any of
+them render to the captive Sovereign. She returned his greeting in
+silence, and there was a brief pause, during which the steward of the
+castle, a man of a sad brow and a severe eye, placed, under George
+Douglas's directions, a table and writing materials; and the page,
+obedient to his mistress's dumb signal, advanced a large chair to the
+side on which the Queen stood, the table thus forming a sort of bar
+which divided the Queen and her personal followers from her unwelcome
+visitors. The steward then withdrew after a low reverence. When he had
+closed the door behind him, the Queen broke silence--"With your favour,
+my lords, I will sit--my walks are not indeed extensive enough at
+present to fatigue me greatly, yet I find repose something more
+necessary than usual."
+
+She sat down accordingly, and, shading her cheek with her beautiful
+hand, looked keenly and impressively at each of the nobles in turn.
+Mary Fleming applied her kerchief to her eyes, and Catherine Seyton and
+Roland Graeme exchanged a glance, which showed that both were too deeply
+engrossed with sentiments of interest and commiseration for their royal
+mistress, to think of any thing which regarded themselves.
+
+"I wait the purpose of your mission, my lords," said the Queen, after
+she had been seated for about a minute without a word-being spoken,--"I
+wait your message from those you call the Secret Council.-I trust it
+is a petition of pardon, and a desire that I will resume my rightful
+throne, without using with due severity my right of punishing those who
+have dispossessed me of it."
+
+"Madam," replied Ruthven, "it is painful for us to speak harsh truths to
+a Princess who has long ruled us. But we come to offer, not to implore,
+pardon. In a word, madam, we have to propose to you on the part of the
+Secret Council, that you sign these deeds, which will contribute greatly
+to the pacification of the State, the advancement of God's word, and the
+welfare of your own future life."
+
+"Am I expected to take these fair words on trust, my lord? or may I hear
+the contents of these reconciling papers, ere I am asked to sign them?"
+
+"Unquestionably, madam; it is our purpose and wish, you should read what
+you are required to sign," replied Ruthven.
+
+"Required?" replied the Queen, with some emphasis; "but the phrase suits
+well the matter-read, my lord."
+
+The Lord Ruthven proceeded to read a formal instrument, running in the
+Queen's name, and setting forth that she had been called, at an early
+age, to the administration of the crown and realm of Scotland, and had
+toiled diligently therein, until she was in body and spirit so wearied
+out and disgusted, that she was unable any longer to endure the travail
+and pain of State affairs; and that since God had blessed her with a
+fair and hopeful son, she was desirous to ensure to him, even while
+she yet lived, his succession to the crown, which was his by right of
+hereditary descent. "Wherefore," the instrument proceeded, "we, of the
+motherly affection we bear to our said son, have renounced and demitted,
+and by these our letters of free good-will, renounce and demit, the
+Crown, government, and guiding of the realm of Scotland, in favour of
+our said son, that he may succeed to us as native Prince thereof, as
+much as if we had been removed by disease, and not by our own proper
+act. And that this demission of our royal authority may have the more
+full and solemn effect, and none pretend ignorance, we give, grant,
+and commit, fall and free and plain power to our trusty cousins, Lord
+Lindesay of the Byres, and William Lord Ruthven, to appear in our
+name before as many of the nobility, clergy, and burgesses, as may be
+assembled at Stirling, and there, in our name and behalf, publicly, and
+in their presence, to renounce the Crown, guidance, and government of
+this our kingdom of Scotland."
+
+The Queen here broke in with an air of extreme surprise. "How is this,
+my lords?" she said: "Are my ears turned rebels, that they deceive me
+with sounds so extraordinary?--And yet it is no wonder that, having
+conversed so long with rebellion, they should now force its language
+upon my understanding. Say I am mistaken, my lords--say, for the honour
+of yourselves and the Scottish nobility, that my right trusty cousins of
+Lindesay and Ruthven, two barons of warlike fame and ancient line, have
+not sought the prison-house of their kind mistress for such a purpose as
+these words seem to imply. Say, for the sake of honour and loyalty, that
+my ears have deceived me."
+
+"No, madam," said Ruthven gravely, "your ears do _not_ deceive you--they
+deceived you when they were closed against the preachers of the
+evangele, and the honest advice of your faithful subjects; and when
+they were ever open to flattery of pickthanks and traitors, foreign
+cubiculars and domestic minions. The land may no longer brook the rule
+of one who cannot rule herself; wherefore, I pray you to comply with the
+last remaining wish of your subjects and counsellors, and spare yourself
+and us the farther agitation of matter so painful."
+
+"And is this _all_ my loving subjects require of me, my lord?" said
+Mary, in a tone of bitter irony. "Do they really stint themselves to the
+easy boon that I should yield up the crown, which is mine by birthright,
+to an infant which is scarcely more than a year old--fling down my
+sceptre, and take up a distaff--Oh no! it is too little for them to
+ask--That other roll of parchment contains something harder to be
+complied with, and which may more highly task my readiness to comply
+with the petitions of my lieges."
+
+"This parchment," answered Ruthven, in the same tone of inflexible
+gravity, and unfolding the instrument as he spoke, "is one by which your
+grace constitutes your nearest in blood, and the most honourable and
+trustworthy of your subjects, James, Earl of Murray, Regent of the
+kingdom during the minority of the young King. He already holds the
+appointment from the Secret Council."
+
+The Queen gave a sort of shriek, and, clapping her hands together,
+exclaimed, "Comes the arrow out of his quiver?--out of my brother's
+bow?--Alas! I looked for his return from France as my sole, at least my
+readiest, chance of deliverance.--And yet, when I heard he had assumed
+the government, I guessed he would shame to wield it in my name."
+
+"I must pray your answer, madam," said Lord Ruthven, "to the demand of
+the Council."
+
+"The demand of the Council!" said the Queen; "say rather the demand of a
+set of robbers, impatient to divide the spoil they have seized. To such
+a demand, and sent by the mouth of a traitor, whose scalp, but for my
+womanish mercy, should long since have stood on the city gates, Mary of
+Scotland has no answer."
+
+"I trust, madam," said Lord Ruthven, "my being unacceptable to your
+presence will not add to your obduracy of resolution. It may become
+you to remember that the death of the minion, Rizzio, cost the house
+of Ruthven its head and leader. My father, more worthy than a whole
+province of such vile sycophants, died in exile, and broken-hearted."
+
+The Queen clasped her hands on her face, and, resting her arms on the
+table, stooped down her head and wept so bitterly, that the tears were
+seen to find their way in streams between the white and slender fingers
+with which she endeavoured to conceal them.
+
+"My lords," said Sir Robert Melville, "this is too much rigour. Under
+your lordship's favour, we came hither, not to revive old griefs, but to
+find the mode of avoiding new ones."
+
+"Sir Robert Melville," said Ruthven, "we best know for what purpose we
+were delegated hither, and wherefore you were somewhat unnecessarily
+sent to attend us."
+
+"Nay, by my hand," said Lord Lindesay, "I know not why we were cumbered
+with the good knight, unless he comes in place of the lump of sugar
+which pothicars put into their wholesome but bitter medicaments, to
+please a froward child--a needless labour, methinks, where men have the
+means to make them swallow the physic otherwise."
+
+"Nay, my lords," said Melville, "ye best know your own secret
+instructions. I conceive I shall best obey mine in striving to mediate
+between her Grace and you."
+
+"Be silent, Sir Robert Melville," said the Queen, arising, and her face
+still glowing with agitation as she spoke. "My kerchief, Fleming--I
+shame that traitors should have power to move me thus.--Tell me, proud
+lords," she added, wiping away the tears as she spoke, "by what earthly
+warrant can liege subjects pretend to challenge the rights of an
+anointed Sovereign--to throw off the allegiance they have vowed, and to
+take away the crown from the head on which Divine warrant hath placed
+it?"
+
+"Madam," said Ruthven, "I will deal plainly with you. Your reign, from
+the dismal field of Pinkie-cleugh, when you were a babe in the cradle,
+till now that ye stand a grown dame before us, hath been such a tragedy
+of losses, disasters, civil dissensions, and foreign wars, that the like
+is not to be found in our chronicles. The French and English have, with
+one consent, made Scotland the battle-field on which to fight out their
+own ancient quarrel.--For ourselves every man's hand hath been
+against his brother, nor hath a year passed over without rebellion and
+slaughter, exile of nobles, and oppressing of the commons. We may endure
+it no longer, and therefore, as a prince, to whom God hath refused the
+gift of hearkening to wise counsel, and on whose dealings and projects
+no blessing hath ever descended, we pray you to give way to other rule
+and governance of the land, that a remnant may yet be saved to this
+distracted realm."
+
+"My lord," said Mary, "it seems to me that you fling on my unhappy and
+devoted head those evils, which, with far more justice, I may impute
+to your own turbulent, wild, and untameable dispositions--the frantic
+violence with which you, the Magnates of Scotland, enter into feuds
+against each other, sticking at no cruelty to gratify your wrath, taking
+deep revenge for the slightest offences, and setting at defiance those
+wise laws which your ancestors made for stanching of such cruelty,
+rebelling against the lawful authority, and bearing yourselves as if
+there were no king in the land; or rather as if each were king in his
+own premises. And now you throw the blame on me--on me, whose life has
+been embittered--whose sleep has been broken--whose happiness has been
+wrecked by your dissensions. Have I not myself been obliged to traverse
+wilds and mountains, at the head of a few faithful followers, to
+maintain peace and put down oppression? Have I not worn harness on my
+person, and carried pistols at my saddle; fain to lay aside the softness
+of a woman, and the dignity of a Queen, that I might show an example to
+my followers?"
+
+"We grant, madam," said Lindesay, "that the affrays occasioned by your
+misgovernment, may sometimes have startled you in the midst of a masque
+or galliard; or it may be that such may have interrupted the idolatry of
+the mass, or the jesuitical counsels of some French ambassador. But the
+longest and severest journey which your Grace has taken in my memory,
+was from Hawick to Hermitage Castle; and whether it was for the weal of
+the state, or for your own honour, rests with your Grace's conscience."
+
+The Queen turned to him with inexpressible sweetness of tone and manner,
+and that engaging look which Heaven had assigned her, as if to show
+that the choicest arts to win men's affections may be given in vain.
+"Lindesay," she said, "you spoke not to me in this stern tone, and with
+such scurril taunt, yon fair summer evening, when you and I shot at the
+butts against the Earl of Mar and Mary Livingstone, and won of them the
+evening's collation, in the privy garden of Saint Andrews. The Master
+of Lindesay was then my friend, and vowed to be my soldier. How I have
+offended the Lord of Lindesay I know not, unless honours have changed
+manners."
+
+Hardhearted as he was, Lindesay seemed struck with this unexpected
+appeal, but almost instantly replied, "Madam, it is well known that
+your Grace could in those days make fools of whomever approached you.
+I pretend not to have been wiser than others. But gayer men and better
+courtiers soon jostled aside my rude homage, and I think your Grace
+cannot but remember times, when my awkward attempts to take the manners
+that pleased you, were the sport of the court-popinjays, the Marys and
+the Frenchwomen."
+
+"My lord, I grieve if I have offended you through idle gaiety," said
+the Queen; "and can but say it was most unwittingly done. You are fully
+revenged; for through gaiety," she said with a sigh, "will I never
+offend any one more."
+
+"Our time is wasting, madam," said Lord Ruthven; "I must pray your
+decision on this weighty matter which I have submitted to you."
+
+"What, my lord!" said the Queen, "upon the instant, and without a
+moment's time to deliberate?--Can the Council, as they term themselves,
+expect this of me?"
+
+"Madam," replied Ruthven, "the Council hold the opinion, that since the
+fatal term which passed betwixt the night of King Henry's murder and the
+day of Carberry-hill, your Grace should have held you prepared for the
+measure now proposed, as the easiest escape from your numerous dangers
+and difficulties."
+
+"Great God!" exclaimed the Queen; "and is it as a boon that you propose
+to me, what every Christian king ought to regard as a loss of honour
+equal to the loss of life!--You take from me my crown, my power, my
+subjects, my wealth, my state. What, in the name of every saint, can you
+offer, or do you offer, in requital of my compliance?"
+
+"We give you pardon," answered Ruthven, sternly--"we give you space and
+means to spend your remaining life in penitence and seclusion--we give
+you time to make your peace with Heaven, and to receive the pure Gospel,
+which you have ever rejected and persecuted."
+
+The Queen turned pale at the menace which this speech, as well as
+the rough and inflexible tones of the speaker, seemed distinctly to
+infer--"And if I do not comply with your request so fiercely urged, my
+lord, what then follows?"
+
+She said this in a voice in which female and natural fear was contending
+with the feelings of insulted dignity.--There was a pause, as if no one
+cared to return to the question a distinct answer. At length Ruthven
+spoke: "There is little need to tell to your Grace, who are well read
+both in the laws and in the chronicles of the realm, that murder and
+adultery are crimes for which ere now queens themselves have suffered
+death."
+
+"And where, my lord, or how, found you an accusation so horrible,
+against her who stands before you?" said Queen Mary. "The foul and
+odious calumnies which have poisoned the general mind of Scotland, and
+have placed me a helpless prisoner in your hands, are surely no proof of
+guilt?"
+
+"We need look for no farther proof," replied the stern Lord Ruthven,
+"than the shameless marriage betwixt the widow of the murdered and the
+leader of the band of murderers!--They that joined hands in the fated
+month of May, had already united hearts and counsel in the deed which
+preceded that marriage but a few brief weeks."
+
+"My lord, my lord!" said the Queen, eagerly, "remember well there were
+more consents than mine to that fatal union, that most unhappy act of
+a most unhappy life. The evil steps adopted by sovereigns are often
+the suggestion of bad counsellors; but these counsellors are worse than
+fiends who tempt and betray, if they themselves are the first to call
+their unfortunate princes to answer for the consequences of their own
+advice.--Heard ye never of a bond by the nobles, my lords, recommending
+that ill-fated union to the ill-fated Mary? Methinks, were it carefully
+examined, we should see that the names of Morton and of Lindesay, and
+of Ruthven, may be found in that bond, which pressed me to marry that
+unhappy man.--Ah! stout and loyal Lord Herries, who never knew guile
+or dishonour, you bent your noble knee to me in vain, to warn me of my
+danger, and wert yet the first to draw thy good sword in my cause when
+I suffered for neglecting thy counsel! Faithful knight and true noble,
+what a difference betwixt thee and those counsellors of evil, who now
+threaten my life for having fallen into the snares they spread for me!"
+
+"Madam," said Ruthven, "we know that you are an orator; and perhaps for
+that reason the Council has sent hither men, whose converse hath been
+more with the wars, than with the language of the schools or the cabals
+of state. We but desire to know if, on assurance of life and honour, ye
+will demit the rule of this kingdom of Scotland?"
+
+"And what warrant have I," said the Queen, "that ye will keep treaty
+with me, if I should barter my kingly estate for seclusion, and leave to
+weep in secret?"
+
+"Our honour and our word, madam," answered Ruthven.
+
+"They are too slight and unsolid pledges, my lord," said the Queen; "add
+at least a handful of thistle-down to give them weight in the balance."
+
+"Away, Ruthven," said Lindesay; "she was ever deaf to counsel, save of
+slaves and sycophants; let her remain by her refusal, and abide by it!"
+
+"Stay, my lord," said Sir Robert Melville, "or rather permit me to have
+but a few minutes' private audience with her Grace. If my presence with
+you could avail aught, it must be as a mediator--do not, I conjure you,
+leave the castle, or break off the conference, until I bring you word
+how her Grace shall finally stand disposed."
+
+"We will remain in the hall," said Lindesay, "for half an hour's space;
+but in despising our words and our pledge of honour, she has touched the
+honour of my name--let her look herself to the course she has to pursue.
+If the half hour should pass away without her determining to comply with
+the demands of the nation, her career will be brief enough."
+
+With little ceremony the two nobles left the apartment, traversed the
+vestibule, and descended the winding-stairs, the clash of Lindesay's
+huge sword being heard as it rang against each step in his descent.
+George Douglas followed them, after exchanging with Melville a gesture
+of surprise and sympathy.
+
+As soon as they were gone, the Queen, giving way to grief, fear, and
+agitation, threw herself into the seat, wrung her hands, and seemed to
+abandon herself to despair. Her female attendants, weeping themselves,
+endeavoured yet to pray her to be composed, and Sir Robert Melville,
+kneeling at her feet, made the same entreaty. After giving way to a
+passionate burst of sorrow, she at length said to Melville, "Kneel not
+to me, Melville--mock me not with the homage of the person, when the
+heart is far away--Why stay you behind with the deposed, the condemned?
+her who has but few hours perchance to live? You have been favoured as
+well as the rest; why do you continue the empty show of gratitude and
+thankfulness any longer than they?"
+
+"Madam," said Sir Robert Melville, "so help me Heaven at my need, my
+heart is as true to you as when you were in your highest place."
+
+"True to me! true to me!" repeated the Queen, with some scorn; "tush,
+Melville, what signifies the truth which walks hand in hand with my
+enemies' falsehood?--thy hand and thy sword have never been so well
+acquainted that I can trust thee in aught where manhood is required--Oh,
+Seyton, for thy bold father, who is both wise, true, and valiant!"
+
+Roland Graeme could withstand no longer his earnest desire to offer his
+services to a princess so distressed and so beautiful. "If one sword,"
+he said, "madam, can do any thing to back the wisdom of this grave
+counsellor, or to defend your rightful cause, here is my weapon, and
+here is my hand ready to draw and use it." And raising his sword with
+one hand, he laid the other upon the hilt.
+
+As he thus held up the weapon, Catherine Seyton exclaimed, "Methinks
+I see a token from my father, madam;" and immediately crossing the
+apartment, she took Roland Graeme by the skirt of the cloak, and asked
+him earnestly whence he had that sword.
+
+The page answered with surprise, "Methinks this is no presence in
+which to jest--Surely, damsel, you yourself best know whence and how I
+obtained the weapon."
+
+"Is this a time for folly?" said Catherine Seyton; "unsheathe the sword
+instantly!"
+
+"If the Queen commands me," said the youth, looking towards his royal
+mistress.
+
+"For shame, maiden!" said the Queen; "wouldst thou instigate the poor
+boy to enter into useless strife with the two most approved soldiers in
+Scotland?"
+
+"In your Grace's cause," replied the page, "I will venture my life upon
+them!" And as he spoke, he drew his weapon partly from the sheath, and a
+piece of parchment, rolled around the blade, fell out and dropped on the
+floor. Catherine Seyton caught it up with eager haste.
+
+"It is my father's hand-writing," she said, "and doubtless conveys his
+best duteous advice to your Majesty; I know that it was prepared to be
+sent in this weapon, but I expected another messenger."
+
+"By my faith, fair one," thought Roland, "and if you knew not that I had
+such a secret missive about me, I was yet more ignorant."
+
+The Queen cast her eye upon the scroll, and remained a few minutes
+wrapped in deep thought. "Sir Robert Melville," she at length said,
+"this scroll advises me to submit myself to necessity, and to subscribe
+the deeds these hard men have brought with them, as one who gives way to
+the natural fear inspired by the threats of rebels and murderers. You,
+Sir Robert, are a wise man, and Seyton is both sagacious and brave.
+Neither, I think, would mislead me in this matter."
+
+"Madam," said Melville, "if I have not the strength of body of the Lord
+Herries or Seyton, I will yield to neither in zeal for your Majesty's
+service. I cannot fight for you like these lords, but neither of them is
+more willing to die for your service."
+
+"I believe it, my old and faithful counsellor," said the Queen, "and
+believe me, Melville, I did thee but a moment's injustice. Read what my
+Lord Seyton hath written to us, and give us thy best counsel."
+
+He glanced over the parchment, and instantly replied,--"Oh! my dear and
+royal mistress, only treason itself could give you other advice than
+Lord Seyton has here expressed. He, Herries, Huntly, the English
+ambassador Throgmorton, and others, your friends, are all alike of
+opinion, that whatever deeds or instruments you execute within these
+walls, must lose all force and effect, as extorted from your Grace by
+duresse, by sufferance of present evil, and fear of men, and harm to
+ensue on your refusal. Yield, therefore, to the tide, and be assured,
+that in subscribing what parchments they present to you, you bind
+yourself to nothing, since your act of signature wants that which alone
+can make it valid, the free will of the granter."
+
+"Ay, so says my Lord Seyton," replied Mary; "yet methinks, for the
+daughter of so long a line of sovereigns to resign her birthright,
+because rebels press upon her with threats, argues little of royalty,
+and will read ill for the fame of Mary in future chronicles. Tush! Sir
+Robert Melville, the traitors may use black threats and bold words, but
+they will not dare to put their hands forth on our person."
+
+"Alas! madam, they have already dared so far and incurred such peril by
+the lengths which they have gone, that they are but one step from the
+worst and uttermost."
+
+"Surely," said the Queen, her fears again predominating, "Scottish
+nobles would not lend themselves to assassinate a helpless woman?"
+
+"Bethink you, madam," he replied, "what horrid spectacles have been seen
+in our day; and what act is so dark, that some Scottish hand has not
+been found to dare it? Lord Lindesay, besides his natural sullenness and
+hardness of temper, is the near kinsman of Henry Darnley, and Ruthven
+has his own deep and dangerous plans. The Council, besides, speak of
+proofs by writ and word, of a casket with letters--of I know not what."
+
+"Ah! good Melville," answered the Queen, "were I as sure of the
+even-handed integrity of my judges, as of my own innocence--and yet----"
+
+"Oh! pause, madam," said Melville; "even innocence must sometimes for a
+season stoop to injurious blame. Besides, you are here--"
+
+He looked round, and paused.
+
+"Speak out, Melville," said the Queen, "never one approached my person
+who wished to work me evil; and even this poor page, whom I have
+to-day seen for the first time in my life, I can trust safely with your
+communication."
+
+"Nay, madam," answered Melville, "in such emergence, and he being the
+bearer of Lord Seyton's message, I will venture to say, before him and
+these fair ladies, whose truth and fidelity I dispute not--I say I will
+venture to say, that there are other modes besides that of open trial,
+by which deposed sovereigns often die; and that, as Machiavel saith,
+there is but one step betwixt a king's prison and his grave."
+
+"Oh I were it but swift and easy for the body," said the unfortunate
+Princess, "were it but a safe and happy change for the soul, the woman
+lives not that would take the step so soon as I--But, alas! Melville,
+when we think of death, a thousand sins, which we have trod as
+worms beneath our feet, rise up against us as flaming serpents. Most
+injuriously do they accuse me of aiding Darnley's death; yet, blessed
+Lady! I afforded too open occasion for the suspicion--I espoused
+Bothwell."
+
+"Think not of that now, madam," said Melville, "think rather of the
+immediate mode of saving yourself and son. Comply with the present
+unreasonable demands, and trust that better times will shortly arrive."
+
+"Madam," said Roland Graeme, "if it pleases you that I should do so, I
+will presently swim through the lake, if they refuse me other conveyance
+to the shore; I will go to the courts successively of England, France,
+and Spain, and will show you have subscribed these vile instruments from
+no stronger impulse than the fear of death, and I will do battle against
+them that say otherwise."
+
+The Queen turned her round, and with one of those sweet smiles which,
+during the era of life's romance, overpay every risk, held her hand
+towards Roland, but without "speaking a word. He kneeled reverently, and
+kissed it, and Melville again resumed his plea.
+
+"Madam," he said, "time presses, and you must not let those boats,
+which I see they are even now preparing, put forth on the lake. Here are
+enough of witnesses--your ladies--this bold youth--myself, when it can
+serve your cause effectually, for I would not hastily stand committed in
+this matter--but even without me here is evidence enough to show, that
+you have yielded to the demands of the Council through force and fear,
+but from no sincere and unconstrained assent. Their boats are already
+manned for their return--oh! permit your old servant to recall them."
+
+"Melville," said the Queen, "thou art an ancient courtier--when didst
+thou ever know a Sovereign Prince recall to his presence subjects who
+had parted from him on such terms as those on which these envoys of
+the Council left us, and who yet were recalled without submission or
+apology?--Let it cost me both life and crown, I will not again command
+them to my presence."
+
+"Alas! madam, that empty form should make a barrier! If I rightly
+understand, you are not unwilling to listen to real and advantageous
+counsel--but your scruple is saved--I hear them returning to ask your
+final resolution. Oh! take the advice of the noble Seyton, and you may
+once more command those who now usurp a triumph over you. But hush! I
+hear them in the vestibule."
+
+As he concluded speaking, George Douglas opened the door of the
+apartment, and marshalled in the two noble envoys.
+
+"We come, madam," said the Lord Ruthven, "to request your answer to the
+proposal of the Council."
+
+"Your final answer," said Lord Lindesay; "for with a refusal you must
+couple the certainty that you have precipitated your fate, and renounced
+the last opportunity of making peace with God, and ensuring your longer
+abode in the world."
+
+"My lords," said Mary, with inexpressible grace and dignity, "the evils
+we cannot resist we must submit to--I will subscribe these parchments
+with such liberty of choice as my condition permits me. Were I on yonder
+shore, with a fleet jennet and ten good and loyal knights around me,
+I would subscribe my sentence of eternal condemnation as soon as the
+resignation of my throne. But here, in the Castle of Lochleven, with
+deep water around me--and you, my lords, beside me,--I have no freedom
+of choice.--Give me the pen, Melville, and bear witness to what I do,
+and why I do it."
+
+"It is our hope your Grace will not suppose yourself compelled by any
+apprehensions from us," said the Lord Ruthven, "to execute what must be
+your own voluntary deed."
+
+The Queen had already stooped towards the table, and placed the
+parchment before her, with the pen between her fingers, ready for the
+important act of signature. But when Lord Ruthven had done speaking, she
+looked up, stopped short, and threw down the pen. "If," she said, "I am
+expected to declare I give away my crown of free will, or otherwise than
+because I am compelled to renounce it by the threat of worse evils to
+myself and my subjects, I will not put my name to such an untruth--not
+to gain full possession of England, France, and Scotland!--all once my
+own, in possession, or by right."
+
+"Beware, madam," said Lindesay, and, snatching hold of the Queen's arm
+with his own gauntleted hand, he pressed it, in the rudeness of his
+passion, more closely, perhaps, than he was himself aware of,--"beware
+how you contend with those who are the stronger, and have the mastery of
+your fate!"
+
+He held his grasp on her arm, bending his eyes on her with a stern
+and intimidating look, till both Ruthven and Melville cried shame; and
+Douglas, who had hitherto remained in a state of apparent apathy, had
+made a stride from the door, as if to interfere. The rude Baron then
+quitted his hold, disguising the confusion which he really felt
+at having indulged his passion to such extent, under a sullen and
+contemptuous smile.
+
+The Queen immediately began, with an expression of pain, to bare the
+arm which he had grasped, by drawing up the sleeve of her gown, and it
+appeared that his gripe had left the purple marks of his iron fingers
+upon her flesh--"My lord," she said, "as a knight and gentleman, you
+might have spared my frail arm so severe a proof that you have the
+greater strength on your side, and are resolved to use it--But I thank
+you for it--it is the most decisive token of the terms on which this
+day's business is to rest.--I draw you to witness, both lords and
+ladies," she said, showing the marks of the grasp on her arm, "that I
+subscribe these instruments in obedience to the sign manual of my Lord
+of Lindesay, which you may see imprinted on mine arm."
+
+[Footnote: The details of this remarkable event are, as given in
+the preceding chapter, imaginary; but the outline of the events is
+historical. Sir Robert Lindesay, brother to the author of the Memoirs,
+was at first intrusted with the delicate commission of persuading the
+imprisoned queen to resign her crown. As he flatly refused to interfere,
+they determined to send the Lord Lindesay, one of the rudest and most
+violent of their own faction, with instructions, first to use fair
+persuasions, and if these did not succeed, to enter into harder terms.
+Knox associates Lord Ruthven with Lindesay in this alarming commission.
+He was the son of that Lord Ruthven who was prime agent in the murder
+of Rizzio; and little mercy was to be expected from his conjunction with
+Lindesay.
+
+The employment of such rude tools argued a resolution on the part of
+those who had the Queen's person in their power, to proceed to the
+utmost extremities, should they find Mary obstinate. To avoid this
+pressing danger, Sir Robert Melville was despatched by them to
+Lochleven, carrying with him, concealed in the scabbard of his sword,
+letters to the Queen from the Earl of Athole, Maitland of Lethington,
+and even from Throgmorton, the English Ambassador, who was then
+favourable to the unfortunate Mary, conjuring her to yield to the
+necessity of the times, and to subscribe such deeds as Lindesay should
+lay before her, without being startled by their tenor; and assuring her
+that her doing so, in the state of captivity under which she was placed,
+would neither, in law, honour, nor conscience, be binding upon her when
+she should obtain her liberty. Submitting by the advice of one part of
+her subjects to the menace of the others, and learning that Lindesay
+was arrived in a boasting, that is, threatening humour, the Queen,
+"with some reluctancy, and with tears," saith Knox, subscribed one deed
+resigning her crown to her infant son, and another establishing the Earl
+of Murray regent. It seems agreed by historians that Lindesay behaved
+with great brutality on the occasion. The deeds were signed 24th July,
+1567.]
+
+Lindesay would have spoken, but was restrained by his colleague Ruthven,
+who said to him, "Peace, my lord. Let the Lady Mary of Scotland ascribe
+her signature to what she will, it is our business to procure it, and
+carry it to the Council. Should there be debate hereafter on the manner
+in which it was adhibited, there will be time enough for it."
+
+Lindesay was silent accordingly, only muttering within his beard,
+"I meant not to hurt her; but I think women's flesh be as tender as
+new-fallen snow."
+
+The Queen meanwhile subscribed the rolls of parchment with a hasty
+indifference, as if they had been matters of slight consequence, or of
+mere formality. When she had performed this painful task, she arose,
+and, having curtsied to the lords, was about to withdraw to her chamber.
+Ruthven and Sir Robert Melville made, the first a formal reverence, the
+second an obeisance, in which his desire to acknowledge his sympathy was
+obviously checked by the fear of appearing in the eyes of his colleagues
+too partial to his former mistress. But Lindesay stood motionless, even
+when they were preparing to withdraw. At length, as if moved by a sudden
+impulse, he walked round the table which had hitherto been betwixt them
+and the Queen, kneeled on one knee, took her hand, kissed it, let it
+fall, and arose--"Lady," he said, "thou art a noble creature, even
+though thou hast abused God's choicest gifts. I pay that devotion to thy
+manliness of spirit, which I would not have paid to the power thou hast
+long undeservedly wielded--I kneel to Mary Stewart, not to the Queen."
+
+"The Queen and Mary Stewart pity thee alike, Lindesay," said
+Mary--"alike thee pity, and they forgive thee. An honoured soldier hadst
+thou been by a king's side--leagued with rebels, what art thou but a
+good blade in the hands of a ruffian?--Farewell, my Lord Ruthven, the
+smoother but the deeper traitor.--Farewell, Melville--Mayest thou find
+masters that can understand state policy better, and have the means
+to reward it more richly, than Mary Stewart.--Farewell, George of
+Douglas--make your respected grand-dame comprehend that we would be
+alone for the remainder of the day--God wot, we have need to collect our
+thoughts."
+
+All bowed and withdrew; but scarce had they entered the vestibule, ere
+Ruthven and Lindesay were at variance. "Chide not with me, Ruthven,"
+Lindesay was heard to say, in answer to something more indistinctly
+urged by his colleague--"Chide not with me, for I will not brook it! You
+put the hangman's office on me in this matter, and even the very hangman
+hath leave to ask some pardon of those on whom he does his office. I
+would I had as deep cause to be this lady's friend as I have to be her
+enemy--thou shouldst see if I spared limb and life in her quarrel."
+
+"Thou art a sweet minion," said Ruthven, "to fight a lady's quarrel, and
+all for a brent brow and a tear in the eye! Such toys have been out of
+thy thoughts this many a year."
+
+"Do me right, Ruthven," said Lindesay. "You are like a polished corslet
+of steel; it shines more gaudily, but it is not a whit softer--nay,
+it is five times harder than a Glasgow breastplate of hammered iron.
+Enough. We know each other."
+
+They descended the stairs, were heard to summon their boats, and the
+Queen signed to Roland Graeme to retire to the vestibule, and leave her
+with her female attendants.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Third.
+
+
+  Give me a morsel on the greensward rather,
+  Coarse as you will the cooking--Let the fresh spring
+  Bubble beside my napkin--and the free birds
+  Twittering and chirping, hop from bough to bough,
+  To claim the crumbs I leave for perquisites--
+  Your prison feasts I like not.
+                           THE WOODSMAN, A DRAMA.
+
+A recess in the vestibule was enlightened by a small window, at which
+Roland Graeme stationed himself to mark the departure of the lords. He
+could see their followers mustering on horseback under their respective
+banners--the western sun glancing on their corslets and steel-caps
+as they moved to and fro, mounted or dismounted, at intervals. On the
+narrow space betwixt the castle and the water, the Lords Ruthven and
+Lindesay were already moving slowly to their boats, accompanied by the
+Lady of Lochleven, her grandson, and their principal attendants. They
+took a ceremonious leave of each other, as Roland could discern by their
+gestures, and the boats put oft from their landing-place; the boatmen
+stretched to their oars, and they speedily diminished upon the eye
+of the idle gazer, who had no better employment than to watch their
+motions. Such seemed also the occupation of the Lady Lochleven and
+George Douglas, who, returning from the landing-place, looked frequently
+back to the boats, and at length stopped as if to observe their progress
+under the window at which Roland Graeme was stationed.--As they gazed on
+the lake, he could hear the lady distinctly say, "And she has bent her
+mind to save her life at the expense of her kingdom?"
+
+"Her life, madam!" replied her son; "I know not who would dare to
+attempt it in the castle of my father. Had I dreamt that it was with
+such purpose that Lindesay insisted on bringing his followers hither,
+neither he nor they should have passed the iron gate of Lochleven
+castle."
+
+"I speak not of private slaughter, my son, but of open trial,
+condemnation, and execution; for with such she has been threatened, and
+to such threats she has given way. Had she not more of the false Gusian
+blood than of the royal race of Scotland in her veins, she had bidden
+them defiance to their teeth--But it is all of the same complexion,
+and meanness is the natural companion of profligacy.--I am discharged,
+forsooth, from intruding on her gracious presence this evening. Go
+thou, my son, and render the usual service of the meal to this unqueened
+Queen."
+
+"So please you, lady mother," said Douglas, "I care not greatly to
+approach her presence."
+
+"Thou art right, my son; and therefore I trust thy prudence, even
+because I have noted thy caution. She is like an isle on the ocean,
+surrounded with shelves and quicksands; its verdure fair and inviting to
+the eye, but the wreck of many a goodly vessel which hath approached it
+too rashly. But for thee, my son, I fear nought; and we may not, with
+our honour, suffer her to eat without the attendance of one of us. She
+may die by the judgment of Heaven, or the fiend may have power over her
+in her despair; and then we would be touched in honour to show that
+in our house, and at our table, she had had all fair play and fitting
+usage."
+
+Here Roland was interrupted by a smart tap on the shoulders, reminding
+him sharply of Adam Woodcock's adventure of the preceding evening.
+He turned round, almost expecting to see the page of Saint Michael's
+hostelry. He saw, indeed, Catherine Seyton; but she was in female
+attire, differing, no doubt, a great deal in shape and materials from
+that which she had worn when they first met, and becoming her birth
+as the daughter of a great baron, and her rank as the attendant on a
+princess. "So, fair page," said she, "eaves-dropping is one of your
+page-like qualities, I presume."
+
+"Fair sister," answered Roland, in the same tone, "if some friends of
+mine be as well acquainted with the rest of our mystery as they are with
+the arts of swearing, swaggering, and switching, they need ask no page
+in Christendom for farther insight into his vocation."
+
+"Unless that pretty speech infer that you have yourself had the
+discipline of the switch since we last met, the probability whereof I
+nothing doubt, I profess, fair page, I am at a loss to conjecture your
+meaning. But there is no time to debate it now--they come with the
+evening meal. Be pleased, Sir Page, to do your duty."
+
+Four servants entered bearing dishes, preceded by the same stern old
+steward whom Roland had already seen, and followed by George Douglas,
+already mentioned as the grandson of the Lady of Lochleven, and who,
+acting as seneschal, represented, upon this occasion, his father, the
+Lord of the Castle. He entered with his arms folded on his bosom, and
+his looks bent on the ground. With the assistance of Roland Graeme, a
+table was suitably covered in the next or middle apartment, on which
+the domestics placed their burdens with great reverence, the steward and
+Douglas bending low when they had seen the table properly adorned, as if
+their royal prisoner had sat at the board in question. The door opened,
+and Douglas, raising his eyes hastily, cast them again on the earth,
+when he perceived it was only the Lady Mary Fleming who entered.
+
+"Her Grace," she said, "will not eat to-night."
+
+"Let us hope she may be otherwise persuaded," said Douglas; "meanwhile,
+madam, please to see our duty performed."
+
+A servant presented bread and salt on a silver plate, and the old
+steward carved for Douglas a small morsel in succession from each of the
+dishes presented, which he tasted, as was then the custom at the tables
+of princes, to which death was often suspected to find its way in the
+disguise of food.
+
+"The Queen will not then come forth to-night?" said Douglas.
+
+"She has so determined," replied the lady.
+
+"Our farther attendance then is unnecessary--we leave you to your
+supper, fair ladies, and wish you good even."
+
+He retired slowly as he came, and with the same air of deep dejection,
+and was followed by the attendants belonging to the castle. The two
+ladies sate down to their meal, and Roland Graeme, with ready alacrity,
+prepared to wait upon them. Catherine Seyton whispered to her companion,
+who replied with the question spoken in a low tone, but looking at the
+page--"Is he of gentle blood and well nurtured?"
+
+The answer which she received seemed satisfactory, for she said to
+Roland, "Sit down, young gentleman, and eat with your sisters in
+captivity."
+
+"Permit me rather to perform my duty in attending them," said Roland,
+anxious to show he was possessed of the high tone of deference
+prescribed by the rules of chivalry towards the fair sex, and especially
+to dames and maidens of quality.
+
+"You will find, Sir Page," said Catherine, "you will have little time
+allowed you for your meal; waste it not in ceremony, or you may rue your
+politeness ere to-morrow morning."
+
+"Your speech is too free, maiden," said the elder lady; "the modesty of
+the youth may teach you more fitting fashions towards one whom to-day
+you have seen for the first time."
+
+Catherine Seyton cast down her eyes, but not till she had given a single
+glance of inexpressible archness towards Roland, whom her more grave
+companion now addressed in a tone of protection.
+
+"Regard her not, young gentleman--she knows little of the world, save
+the forms of a country nunnery--take thy place at the board-end, and
+refresh thyself after thy journey."
+
+Roland Graeme obeyed willingly, as it was the first food he had that day
+tasted; for Lindesay and his followers seemed regardless of human wants.
+Yet, notwithstanding the sharpness of his appetite, a natural gallantry
+of disposition, the desire of showing himself a well-nurtured gentleman,
+in all courtesies towards the fair sex, and, for aught I know, the
+pleasure of assisting Catherine Seyton, kept his attention awake, during
+the meal, to all those nameless acts of duty and service which gallants
+of that age were accustomed to render. He carved with neatness and
+decorum, and selected duly whatever was most delicate to place before
+the ladies. Ere they could form a wish, he sprung from the table, ready
+to comply with it--poured wine--tempered it with water--removed the
+exchanged trenchers, and performed the whole honours of the table, with
+an air at once of cheerful diligence, profound respect, and graceful
+promptitude.
+
+When he observed that they had finished eating, he hastened to offer to
+the elder lady the silver ewer, basin, and napkin, with the ceremony and
+gravity which he would have used towards Mary herself. He next, with the
+same decorum, having supplied the basin with fair water, presented it
+to Catherine Seyton. Apparently, she was determined to disturb his
+self-possession, if possible; for, while in the act of bathing her
+hands, she contrived, as it were by accident, to flirt some drops of
+water upon the face of the assiduous assistant. But if such was her
+mischievous purpose she was completely disappointed; for Roland Graeme,
+internally piquing himself on his self-command, neither laughed nor was
+discomposed; and all that the maiden gained by her frolic was a severe
+rebuke from her companion, taxing her with mal-address and indecorum.
+Catherine replied not, but sat pouting, something in the humour of a
+spoilt child, who watches the opportunity of wreaking upon some one or
+other its resentment for a deserved reprimand.
+
+The Lady Mary Fleming, in the mean-while, was naturally well pleased
+with the exact and reverent observance of the page, and said to
+Catherine, after a favourable glance at Roland Graeme,--"You might well
+say, Catherine, our companion in captivity was well born and gentle
+nurtured. I would not make him vain by my praise, but his services
+enable us to dispense with those which George Douglas condescends not to
+afford us, save when the Queen is herself in presence."
+
+"Umph! I think hardly," answered Catherine. "George Douglas is one of
+the most handsome gallants in Scotland, and 'tis pleasure to see
+him even still, when the gloom of Lochleven Castle has shed the same
+melancholy over him, that it has done over every thing else. When he was
+at Holyrood who would have said the young sprightly George Douglas would
+have been contented to play the locksman here in Lochleven, with no
+gayer amusement than that of turning the key on two or three helpless
+women?--a strange office for a Knight of the Bleeding Heart--why does he
+not leave it to his father or his brothers?"
+
+"Perhaps, like us, he has no choice," answered the Lady Fleming. "But,
+Catherine, thou hast used thy brief space at court well, to remember
+what George Douglas was then."
+
+"I used mine eyes, which I suppose was what I was designed to do, and
+they were worth using there. When I was at the nunnery, they were very
+useless appurtenances; and now I am at Lochleven, they are good for
+nothing, save to look over that eternal work of embroidery."
+
+"You speak thus, when you have been but a few brief hours amongst
+us--was this the maiden who would live and die in a dungeon, might she
+but have permission to wait on her gracious Queen?"
+
+"Nay, if you chide in earnest, my jest is ended," said Catherine Seyton.
+"I would not yield in attachment to my poor god-mother, to the gravest
+dame that ever had wise saws upon her tongue, and a double-starched ruff
+around her throat--you know I would not, Dame Mary Fleming, and it is
+putting shame on me to say otherwise."
+
+"She will challenge the other court lady," thought Roland Graeme; "she
+will to a certainty fling down her glove, and if Dame Mary Fleming hath
+but the soul to lift it, we may have a combat in the lists!"--but the
+answer of Lady Mary Fleming was such as turns away wrath.
+
+"Thou art a good child," she said, "my Catherine, and a faithful;
+but Heaven pity him who shall have one day a creature so beautiful to
+delight him, and a thing so mischievous to torment him--thou art fit to
+drive twenty husbands stark mad."
+
+"Nay," said Catherine, resuming the full career of her careless
+good-humour, "he must be half-witted beforehand, that gives me such
+an opportunity. But I am glad you are not angry with me in sincerity,"
+casting herself as she spoke into the arms of her friend, and
+continuing, with a tone of apologetic fondness, while she kissed her
+on either side of the face; "you know, my dear Fleming, that I have to
+contend with both my father's lofty pride, and with my mother's high
+spirit--God bless them! they have left me these good qualities, having
+small portion to give besides, as times go--and so I am wilful and
+saucy; but let me remain only a week in this castle, and oh, my dear
+Fleming, my spirit will be as chastised and humble as thine own."
+
+Dame Mary Fleming's sense of dignity, and love of form, could not
+resist this affectionate appeal. She kissed Catherine Seyton in her turn
+affectionately; while, answering the last part of her speech, she said,
+"Now Our Lady forbid, dear Catherine, that you should lose aught that
+is beseeming of what becomes so well your light heart and lively humour.
+Keep but your sharp wit on this side of madness, and it cannot but be
+a blessing to us. But let me go, mad wench--I hear her Grace touch her
+silver call." And, extricating herself from Catherine's grasp, she went
+towards the door of Queen Mary's apartment, from which was heard the low
+tone of a silver whistle, which, now only used by the boatswains in the
+navy, was then, for want of bells, the ordinary mode by which ladies,
+even of the very highest rank, summoned their domestics. When she had
+made two or three steps towards the door, however, she turned back, and
+advancing to the young couple whom she left together, she said, in a
+very serious though a low tone, "I trust it is impossible that we can,
+any of us, or in any circumstances, forget, that, few as we are, we form
+the household of the Queen of Scotland; and that, in her calamity, all
+boyish mirth and childish jesting can only serve to give a great triumph
+to her enemies, who have already found their account in objecting to her
+the lightness of every idle folly, that the young and the gay practised
+in her court." So saying, she left the apartment.
+
+Catherine Seyton seemed much struck with this remonstrance--She suffered
+herself to drop into the seat which she had quitted when she went to
+embrace Dame Mary Fleming, and for some time rested her brow upon her
+hands; while Roland Graeme looked at her earnestly, with a mixture
+of emotions which perhaps he himself could neither have analysed nor
+explained. As she raised her face slowly from the posture to which a
+momentary feeling of self-rebuke had depressed it, her eyes encountered
+those of Roland, and became gradually animated with their usual
+spirit of malicious drollery, which not unnaturally excited a similar
+expression in those of the equally volatile page. They sat for the space
+of two minutes, each looking at the other with great seriousness on
+their features, and much mirth in their eyes, until at length Catherine
+was the first to break silence.
+
+"May I pray you, fair sir," she began, very demurely, "to tell me what
+you see in my face to arouse looks so extremely sagacious and knowing
+as those with which it is your worship's pleasure to honour me? It would
+seem as if there were some wonderful confidence and intimacy betwixt us,
+fair sir, if one is to judge from your extremely cunning looks; and so
+help me, Our Lady, as I never saw you but twice in my life before."
+
+"And where were those happy occasions," said Roland, "if I may be bold
+enough to ask the question?"
+
+"At the nunnery of St. Catherine's," said the damsel, "in the first
+instance; and, in the second, during five minutes of a certain raid or
+foray which it was your pleasure to make into the lodging of my lord
+and father, Lord Seyton, from which, to my surprise, as probably to
+your own, you returned with a token of friendship and favour, instead
+of broken bones, which were the more probable reward of your intrusion,
+considering the prompt ire of the house of Seyton. I am deeply
+mortified," she added, ironically, "that your recollection should
+require refreshment on a subject so important; and that my memory should
+be stronger than yours on such an occasion, is truly humiliating."
+
+"Your own, memory is not so exactly correct, fair mistress," answered
+the page, "seeing you have forgotten meeting the third, in the hostelrie
+of St. Michael's, when it pleased you to lay your switch across the
+face of my comrade, in order, I warrant, to show that, in the house of
+Seyton, neither the prompt ire of its descendants, nor the use of the
+doublet and hose, are subject to Salique law, or confined to the use of
+the males."
+
+"Fair sir," answered Catherine, looking at him with great steadiness,
+and some surprise, "unless your fair wits have forsaken you, I am at a
+loss what to conjecture of your meaning."
+
+"By my troth, fair mistress," answered Roland, "and were I as wise a
+warlock as Michael Scott, I could scarce riddle the dream you read me.
+Did I not see you last night in the hostelrie of St. Michael's?--Did you
+not bring me this sword, with command not to draw it save at the command
+of my native and rightful Sovereign? And have I not done as you required
+me? Or is the sword a piece of lath--my word a bulrush--my memory a
+dream--and my eyes good for nought--espials which corbies might pick out
+of my head?"
+
+"And if your eyes serve you not more truly on other occasions than
+in your vision of St. Michael," said Catherine, "I know not, the
+pain apart, that the corbies would do you any great injury in
+the deprivation--But hark, the bell--hush, for God's sake, we are
+interrupted.--"
+
+The damsel was right; for no sooner had the dull toll of the castle bell
+begun to resound through the vaulted apartment, than the door of the
+vestibule flew open, and the steward, with his severe countenance, his
+gold chain, and his white rod, entered the apartment, followed by the
+same train of domestics who had placed the dinner on the table, and who
+now, with the same ceremonious formality, began to remove it.
+
+The steward remained motionless as some old picture, while the domestics
+did their office; and when it was accomplished, every thing removed from
+the table, and the board itself taken from its tressels and disposed
+against the wall, he said aloud, without addressing any one in
+particular, and somewhat in the tone of a herald reading a proclamation,
+"My noble lady, Dame Margaret Erskine, by marriage Douglas, lets the
+Lady Mary of Scotland and her attendants to wit, that a servant of the
+true evangele, her reverend chaplain, will to-night, as usual, expound,
+lecture, and catechise, according to the forms of the congregation of
+gospellers."
+
+"Hark you, my friend, Mr. Dryfesdale," said Catherine, "I understand
+this announcement is a nightly form of yours. Now, I pray you to remark,
+that the Lady Fleming and I--for I trust your insolent invitation
+concerns us only--have chosen Saint Peter's pathway to Heaven, so I see
+no one whom your godly exhortation, catechise, or lecture, can benefit,
+excepting this poor page, who, being in Satan's hand as well as
+yourself, had better worship with you than remain to cumber our
+better-advised devotions."
+
+The page was well-nigh giving a round denial to the assertions which
+this speech implied, when, remembering what had passed betwixt him and
+the Regent, and seeing Catherine's finger raised in a monitory fashion,
+he felt himself, as on former occasions at the Castle of Avenel, obliged
+to submit to the task of dissimulation, and followed Dryfesdale down to
+the castle chapel, where he assisted in the devotions of the evening.
+
+The chaplain was named Elias Henderson. He was a man in the prime of
+life, and possessed of good natural parts, carefully improved by the
+best education which those times afforded. To these qualities were added
+a faculty of close and terse reasoning; and, at intervals, a flow of
+happy illustration and natural eloquence. The religious faith of Roland
+Graeme, as we have already had opportunity to observe, rested on
+no secure basis, but was entertained rather in obedience to his
+grandmother's behests, and his secret desire to contradict the chaplain
+of Avenel Castle, than from any fixed or steady reliance which he placed
+on the Romish creed. His ideas had been of late considerably enlarged
+by the scenes he had passed through; and feeling that there was shame
+in not understanding something of those political disputes betwixt the
+professors of the ancient and the reformed faith, he listened with
+more attention than it had hitherto been in his nature to yield on such
+occasions, to an animated discussion of some of the principal points
+of difference betwixt the churches. So passed away the first day in the
+Castle of Lochleven; and those which followed it were, for some time, of
+a very monotonous and uniform tenor.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Fourth.
+
+
+  'Tis a weary life this--
+  Vaults overhead, and grates and bars around me,
+  And my sad hours spent with as sad companions,
+  Whose thoughts are brooding: o'er their own mischances,
+  Far, far too deeply to take part in mine.
+                                      THE WOODSMAN.
+
+The course of life to which Mary and her little retinue were doomed,
+was in the last degree secluded and lonely, varied only as the weather
+permitted or rendered impossible the Queen's usual walk in the garden or
+on the battlements. The greater part of the morning she wrought with her
+ladies at those pieces of needlework, many of which still remain proofs
+of her indefatigable application. At such hours the page was permitted
+the freedom of the castle and islet; nay, he was sometimes invited to
+attend George Douglas when he went a-sporting upon the lake, or on
+its margin; opportunities of diversion which were only clouded by the
+remarkable melancholy which always seemed to brood on that gentleman's
+brow, and to mark his whole demeanour,--a sadness so profound, that
+Roland never observed him to smile, or to speak any word unconnected
+with the immediate object of their exercise.
+
+The most pleasant part of Roland's day, was the occasional space which
+he was permitted to pass in personal attendance on the Queen and her
+ladies, together with the regular dinner-time, which he always spent
+with Dame Mary Fleming and Catharine Seyton. At these periods, he had
+frequent occasion to admire the lively spirit and inventive imagination
+of the latter damsel, who was unwearied in her contrivances to amuse
+her mistress, and to banish, for a time at least, the melancholy which
+preyed on her bosom. She danced, she sung, she recited tales of ancient
+and modern times, with that heartfelt exertion of talent, of which the
+pleasure lies not in the vanity of displaying it to others, but in the
+enthusiastic consciousness that we possess it ourselves. And yet these
+high accomplishments were mixed with an air of rusticity and harebrained
+vivacity, which seemed rather to belong to some village maid, the
+coquette of the ring around the Maypole, than to the high-bred
+descendant of an ancient baron. A touch of audacity, altogether short
+of effrontery, and far less approaching to vulgarity, gave as it were a
+wildness to all that she did; and Mary, while defending her from some
+of the occasional censures of her grave companion, compared her to a
+trained singing-bird escaped from a cage, which practises in all the
+luxuriance of freedom, and in full possession of the greenwood bough,
+the airs which it had learned during its earlier captivity.
+
+The moments which the page was permitted to pass in the presence of this
+fascinating creature, danced so rapidly away, that, brief as they were,
+they compensated the weary dulness of all the rest of the day. The
+space of indulgence, however, was always brief, nor were any private
+interviews betwixt him and Catharine permitted, or even possible.
+Whether it were some special precaution respecting the Queen's
+household, or whether it were her general ideas of propriety, Dame
+Fleming seemed particularly attentive to prevent the young people
+from holding any separate correspondence together, and bestowed, for
+Catharine's sole benefit in this matter, the full stock of prudence and
+experience which she had acquired, when mother of the Queen's maidens
+of honour, and by which she had gained their hearty hatred. Casual
+meetings, however, could not be prevented, unless Catherine had been
+more desirous of shunning, or Roland Graeme less anxious in watching for
+them. A smile, a gibe, a sarcasm, disarmed of its severity by the arch
+look with which it was accompanied, was all that time permitted to pass
+between them on such occasions. But such passing interviews neither
+afforded means nor opportunity to renew the discussion of the
+circumstances attending their earlier acquaintance, nor to permit Roland
+to investigate more accurately the mysterious apparition of the page in
+the purple velvet cloak at the hostelrie of Saint Michael's.
+
+The winter months slipped heavily away, and spring was already advanced,
+when Roland Graeme observed a gradual change in the manners of his
+fellow-prisoners. Having no business of his own to attend to, and being,
+like those of his age, education, and degree, sufficiently curious
+concerning what passed around, he began by degrees to suspect, and
+finally to be convinced, that there was something in agitation among his
+companions in captivity, to which they did not desire that he should be
+privy. Nay, he became almost certain that, by some means unintelligible
+to him, Queen Mary held correspondence beyond the walls and waters which
+surrounded her prison-house, and that she nourished some secret hope
+of deliverance or escape. In the conversations betwixt her and her
+attendants, at which he was necessarily present, the Queen could not
+always avoid showing that she was acquainted with the events which were
+passing abroad in the world, and which he only heard through her report.
+He observed that she wrote more and worked less than had been her former
+custom, and that, as if desirous to lull suspicion asleep, she changed
+her manner towards the Lady Lochleven into one more gracious, and which
+seemed to express a resigned submission to her lot. "They think I am
+blind," he said to himself, "and that I am unfit to be trusted because
+I am so young, or it may be because I was sent hither by the Regent.
+Well!--be it so--they may be glad to confide in me in the long run;
+and Catherine Seyton, for as saucy as she is, may find me as safe a
+confidant as that sullen Douglas, whom she is always running after. It
+may be they are angry with me for listening to Master Elias Henderson;
+but it was their own fault for sending me there, and if the man speaks
+truth and good sense, and preaches only the word of God, he is as likely
+to be right as either Pope or Councils."
+
+It is probable that in this last conjecture, Roland Graeme had hit upon
+the real cause why the ladies had not intrusted him with their councils.
+He had of late had several conferences with Henderson on the subject of
+religion, and had given him to understand that he stood in need of his
+instructions, although he had not thought there was either prudence or
+necessity for confessing that hitherto he had held the tenets of the
+Church of Rome.
+
+Elias Henderson, a keen propagator of the reformed faith, had sought the
+seclusion of Lochleven Castle, with the express purpose and expectation
+of making converts from Rome amongst the domestics of the dethroned
+Queen, and confirming the faith of those who already held the Protestant
+doctrines. Perhaps his hopes soared a little higher, and he might
+nourish some expectation of a proselyte more distinguished in the person
+of the deposed Queen. But the pertinacity with which she and her female
+attendants refused to see or listen to him, rendered such hope, if he
+nourished it, altogether abortive.
+
+The opportunity, therefore, of enlarging the religious information of
+Roland Graeme, and bringing him to a more due sense of his duties to
+Heaven, was hailed by the good man as a door opened by Providence
+for the salvation of a sinner. He dreamed not, indeed, that he was
+converting a Papist, but such was the ignorance which Roland displayed
+upon some material points of the reformed doctrine, that Master
+Henderson, while praising his docility to the Lady Lochleven and her
+grandson, seldom failed to add, that his venerable brother, Henry
+Warden, must be now decayed in strength and in mind, since he found a
+catechumen of his flock so ill-grounded in the principles of his belief.
+For this, indeed, Roland Graeme thought it was unnecessary to assign the
+true reason, which was his having made it a point of honour to forget
+all that Henry Warden taught him, as soon as he was no longer compelled
+to read it over as a lesson acquired by rote. The lessons of his new
+instructor, if not more impressively delivered, were received by a more
+willing ear, and a more awakened understanding, and the solitude of
+Lochleven Castle was favourable to graver thoughts than the page had
+hitherto entertained. He wavered yet, indeed, as one who was almost
+persuaded; but his attention to the chaplain's instructions procured him
+favour even with the stern old dame herself; and he was once or twice,
+but under great precaution, permitted to go to the neighbouring
+village of Kinross, situated on the mainland, to execute some ordinary
+commission of his unfortunate mistress.
+
+For some time Roland Graeme might be considered as standing neuter
+betwixt the two parties who inhabited the water-girdled Tower of
+Lochleven; but, as he rose in the opinion of the Lady of the Castle and
+her chaplain, he perceived, with great grief, that he lost ground in
+that of Mary and her female allies.
+
+He came gradually to be sensible that he was regarded as a spy upon
+their discourse, and that, instead of the ease with which they had
+formerly conversed in his presence, without suppressing any of the
+natural feelings of anger, of sorrow, or mirth, which the chance topic
+of the moment happened to call forth, their talk was now guardedly
+restricted to the most indifferent subjects, and a studied reserve
+observed even in their mode of treating these. This obvious want of
+confidence was accompanied with a correspondent change in their personal
+demeanor towards the unfortunate page. The Queen, who had at first
+treated him with marked courtesy, now scarce spoke to him, save
+to convey some necessary command for her service. The Lady Fleming
+restricted her notice to the most dry and distant expressions of
+civility, and Catherine Seyton became bitter in her pleasantries, and
+shy, cross, and pettish, in any intercourse they had together. What was
+yet more provoking, he saw, or thought he saw, marks of intelligence
+betwixt George Douglas and the beautiful Catherine Seyton; and,
+sharpened by jealousy, he wrought himself almost into a certainty, that
+the looks which they exchanged, conveyed matters of deep and serious
+import. "No wonder," he thought, "if, courted by the son of a proud
+and powerful baron, she can no longer spare a word or look to the poor
+fortuneless page."
+
+In a word, Roland Graeme's situation became truly disagreeable, and his
+heart naturally enough rebelled against the injustice of this treatment,
+which deprived him of the only comfort which he had received for
+submitting to a confinement in other respects irksome. He accused Queen
+Mary and Catherine Seyton (for concerning the opinion of Dame Fleming
+he was indifferent) of inconsistency in being displeased with him on
+account of the natural consequences of an order of their own. Why did
+they send him to hear this overpowering preacher? The Abbot Ambrosius,
+he recollected, understood the weakness of their Popish cause better,
+when he enjoined him to repeat within his own mind, _aves_, and
+_credos_, and _paters_, all the while old Henry Warden preached or
+lectured, that so he might secure himself against lending even a
+momentary ear to his heretical doctrine. "But I will endure this life no
+longer," said he to himself, manfully; "do they suppose I would betray
+my mistress, because I see cause to doubt of her religion?--that would
+be a serving, as they say, the devil for God's sake. I will forth into
+the world--he that serves fair ladies, may at least expect kind looks
+and kind words; and I bear not the mind of a gentleman, to submit to
+cold treatment and suspicion, and a life-long captivity besides. I will
+speak to George Douglas to-morrow when we go out a-fishing."
+
+A sleepless night was spent in agitating this magnanimous resolution,
+and he arose in the morning not perfectly decided in his own mind
+whether he should abide by it or not. It happened that he was summoned
+by the Queen at an unusual hour, and just as he was about to go out with
+George Douglas. He went to attend her commands in, the garden; but as he
+had his angling-rod in his hand, the circumstance announced his previous
+intention, and the Queen, turning to the Lady Fleming, said, "Catherine
+must devise some other amusement for us, _ma bonnie amie_; our discreet
+page has already made his party for the day's pleasure."
+
+"I said from the beginning," answered the Lady Fleming, "that your Grace
+ought not to rely on being favoured with the company of a youth who has
+so many Huguenot acquaintances, and has the means of amusing himself far
+more agreeably than with us."
+
+"I wish," said Catherine, her animated features reddening with
+mortification, "that his friends would sail away with him for good, and
+bring us in return a page (if such a thing can be found) faithful to his
+Queen and to his religion."
+
+"One part of your wishes may be granted, madam," said Roland Graeme,
+unable any longer to restrain his sense of the treatment which he
+received on all sides; and he was about to add, "I heartily wish you a
+companion in my room, if such can be found, who is capable of enduring
+women's caprices without going distracted." Luckily, he recollected the
+remorse which he had felt at having given way to the vivacity of his
+temper upon a similar occasion; and, closing his lips, imprisoned,
+until it died on his tongue, a reproach so misbecoming the presence of
+majesty.
+
+"Why do you remain there," said the Queen, "as if you were rooted to the
+parterre?"
+
+"I but attend your Grace's commands," said the page.
+
+"I have none to give you--Begone, sir."
+
+As he left the garden to go to the boat, he distinctly heard Mary
+upbraid one of her attendants in these words:--"You see to what you have
+exposed us!"
+
+This brief scene at once determined Roland Graeme's resolution to quit
+the castle, if it were possible, and to impart his resolution to George
+Douglas without loss of time. That gentleman, in his usual mood of
+silence, sate in the stern of the little skiff which they used on
+such occasions, trimming his fishing-tackle, and, from time to time,
+indicating by signs to Graeme, who pulled the oars, which way he should
+row. When they were a furlong or two from the castle, Roland rested
+on the oars, and addressed his companion somewhat abruptly,--"I have
+something of importance to say to you, under your pleasure, fair sir."
+
+The pensive melancholy of Douglas's countenance at once gave way to the
+eager, keen, and startled look of one who expects to hear something of
+deep and alarming import.
+
+"I am wearied to the very death of this Castle of Lochleven," continued
+Roland.
+
+"Is that all?" said Douglas; "I know none of its inhabitants who are
+much better pleased with it."
+
+"Ay, but I am neither a native of the house, nor a prisoner in it, and
+so I may reasonably desire to leave it."
+
+"You might desire to quit it with equal reason," answered Douglas, "if
+you were both the one and the other."
+
+"But," said Roland Graeme, "I am not only tired of living in Lochleven
+Castle, but I am determined to quit it."
+
+"That is a resolution more easily taken than executed," replied Douglas.
+
+"Not if yourself, sir, and your Lady Mother, choose to consent,"
+answered the page.
+
+"You mistake the matter, Roland," said Douglas; "you will find that the
+consent of two other persons is equally essential--that of the Lady Mary
+your mistress, and that of my uncle the Regent, who placed you about
+her person, and who will not think it proper that she should change her
+attendants so soon."
+
+"And must I then remain whether I will or no?" demanded the page,
+somewhat appalled at a view of the subject, which would have occurred
+sooner to a person of more experience.
+
+"At least," said George Douglas, "you must will to remain till my uncle
+consents to dismiss you."
+
+"Frankly," said the page, "and speaking to you as a gentleman who is
+incapable of betraying me, I will confess, that if I thought myself a
+prisoner here, neither walls nor water should confine me long."
+
+"Frankly," said Douglas, "I could not much blame you for the attempt;
+yet, for all that, my father, or uncle, or the earl, or any of my
+brothers, or in short any of the king's lords into whose hands you fell,
+would in such a case hang you like a dog, or like a sentinel who deserts
+his post; and I promise you that you will hardly escape them. But row
+towards Saint Serf's island--there is a breeze from the west, and we
+shall have sport, keeping to windward of the isle, where the ripple is
+strongest. We will speak more of what you have mentioned when we have
+had an hour's sport."
+
+Their fishing was successful, though never did two anglers pursue even
+that silent and unsocial pleasure with less of verbal intercourse.
+
+When their time was expired, Douglas took the oars in his turn, and by
+his order Roland Graeme steered the boat, directing her course upon the
+landing-place at the castle. But he also stopped in the midst of his
+course, and, looking around him, said to Graeme, "There is a thing which
+I could mention to thee; but it is so deep a secret, that even here,
+surrounded as we are by sea and sky, without the possibility of a
+listener, I cannot prevail on myself to speak it out."
+
+"Better leave it unspoken, sir," answered Roland Graeme, "if you doubt
+the honour of him who alone can hear it."
+
+"I doubt not your honour," replied George Douglas; "but you are young,
+imprudent, and changeful."
+
+"Young," said Roland, "I am, and it may be imprudent--but who hath
+informed you that I am changeful?"
+
+"One that knows you, perhaps, better than you know yourself," replied
+Douglas.
+
+"I suppose you mean Catherine Seyton," said the page, his heart rising
+as he spoke; "but she is herself fifty times more variable in her humour
+than the very water which we are floating upon."
+
+"My young acquaintance," said Douglas, "I pray you to remember that
+Catherine Seyton is a lady of blood and birth, and must not be lightly
+spoken of."
+
+"Master George of Douglas," said Graeme, "as that speech seemed to
+be made under the warrant of something like a threat, I pray you to
+observe, that I value not the threat at the estimation of a fin of one
+of these dead trouts; and, moreover, I would have you to know that the
+champion who undertakes the defence of every lady of blood and birth,
+whom men accuse of change of faith and of fashion, is like to have
+enough of work on his hands."
+
+"Go to," said the Seneschal, but in a tone of good-humour, "thou art a
+foolish boy, unfit to deal with any matter more serious than the casting
+of a net, or the flying of a hawk."
+
+"If your secret concern Catherine Seyton," said the page, "I care not
+for it, and so you may tell her if you will. I wot she can shape you
+opportunity to speak with her, as she has ere now."
+
+The flush which passed over Douglas's face, made the page aware that he
+had alighted on a truth, when he was, in fact, speaking at random; and
+the feeling that he had done so, was like striking a dagger into his
+own heart. His companion, without farther answer, resumed the oars,
+and pulled lustily till they arrived at the island and the castle.
+The servants received the produce of their spoil, and the two fishers,
+turning from each other in silence, went each to his several apartment.
+
+Roland Graeme had spent about an hour in grumbling against Catherine
+Seyton, the Queen, the Regent, and the whole house of Lochleven, with
+George Douglas at the head of it, when the time approached that his duty
+called him to attend the meal of Queen Mary. As he arranged his dress
+for this purpose, he grudged the trouble, which, on similar occasions,
+he used, with boyish foppery, to consider as one of the most important
+duties of his day; and when he went to take his place behind the chair
+of the Queen, it was with an air of offended dignity, which could not
+escape her observation, and probably appeared to her ridiculous enough,
+for she whispered something in French to her ladies, at which the
+lady Fleming laughed, and Catherine appeared half diverted and half
+disconcerted. This pleasantry, of which the subject was concealed from
+him, the unfortunate page received, of course, as a new offence, and
+called an additional degree of sullen dignity into his mien, which might
+have exposed him to farther raillery, but that Mary appeared disposed to
+make allowance for and compassionate his feelings.
+
+With the peculiar tact and delicacy which no woman possessed in greater
+perfection, she began to soothe by degrees the vexed spirit of her
+magnanimous attendant. The excellence of the fish which he had taken in
+his expedition, the high flavour and beautiful red colour of the trouts,
+which have long given distinction to the lake, led her first to express
+her thanks to her attendant for so agreeable an addition to her table,
+especially upon a _jour de jeune_; and then brought on inquiries
+into the place where the fish had been taken, their size, their
+peculiarities, the times when they were in season, and a comparison
+between the Lochleven trouts and those which are found in the lakes and
+rivers of the south of Scotland. The ill humour of Roland Graeme was
+never of an obstinate character. It rolled away like mist before the
+sun, and he was easily engaged in a keen and animated dissertation about
+Lochleven trout, and sea trout, and river trout, and bull trout, and
+char, which never rise to a fly, and par, which some suppose infant
+salmon, and _herlings_, which frequent the Nith, and _vendisses_, which
+are only found in the Castle-Loch of Lochmaben; and he was hurrying on
+with the eager impetuosity and enthusiasm of a young sportsman, when he
+observed that the smile with which the Queen at first listened to him
+died languidly away, and that, in spite of her efforts to suppress them,
+tears rose to her eyes. He stopped suddenly short, and, distressed
+in his turn, asked, "If he had the misfortune unwittingly to give
+displeasure to her Grace?"
+
+"No, my poor boy," replied the Queen; "but as you numbered up the lakes
+and rivers of my kingdom, imagination cheated me, as it will do, and
+snatched me from these dreary walls away to the romantic streams of
+Nithsdale, and the royal towers of Lochmaben.--O land, which my fathers
+have so long ruled! of the pleasures which you extend so freely, your
+Queen is now deprived, and the poorest beggar, who may wander free from
+one landward town to another, would scorn to change fates with Mary of
+Scotland!"
+
+"Your highness," said the Lady Fleming, "will do well to withdraw."
+
+"Come with me, then, Fleming," said the Queen, "I would not burden
+hearts so young as these are, with the sight of my sorrows."
+
+She accompanied these words with a look of melancholy compassion towards
+Roland and Catherine, who were now left alone together in the apartment.
+
+The page found his situation not a little embarrassing; for, as every
+reader has experienced who may have chanced to be in such a situation,
+it is extremely difficult to maintain the full dignity of an offended
+person in the presence of a beautiful girl, whatever reason we may have
+for being angry with her. Catherine Seyton, on her part, sate still
+like a lingering ghost, which, conscious of the awe which its presence
+imposes, is charitably disposed to give the poor confused mortal whom
+it visits, time to recover his senses, and comply with the grand rule of
+demonology by speaking first. But as Roland seemed in no hurry to avail
+himself of her condescension, she carried it a step farther, and herself
+opened the conversation.
+
+"I pray you, fair sir, if it may be permitted me to disturb your august
+reverie by a question so simple,--what may have become of your rosary?"
+
+"It is lost, madam--lost some time since," said Roland, partly
+embarrassed and partly indignant.
+
+"And may I ask farther, sir," said Catherine, "why you have not replaced
+it with another?--I have half a mind," she said, taking from her pocket
+a string of ebony beads adorned with gold, "to bestow one upon you, to
+keep for my sake, just to remind you of former acquaintance."
+
+There was a little tremulous accent in the tone with which these words
+were delivered, which at once put to flight Roland Graeme's resentment,
+and brought him to Catherine's side; but she instantly resumed the bold
+and firm accent which was more familiar to her. "I did not bid you," she
+said, "come and sit so close by me; for the acquaintance that I spoke
+of, has been stiff and cold, dead and buried, for this many a day."
+
+"Now Heaven forbid!" said the page, "it has only slept, and now that you
+desire it should awake, fair Catherine, believe me that a pledge of your
+returning favour--"
+
+"Nay, nay," said Catherine, withholding the rosary, towards which, as
+he spoke, he extended his hand, "I have changed my mind on better
+reflection. What should a heretic do with these holy beads, that have
+been blessed by the father of the church himself?"
+
+Roland winced grievously, for he saw plainly which way the discourse was
+now likely to tend, and felt that it must at all events be embarrassing.
+"Nay, but," he said, "it was as a token of your own regard that you
+offered them."
+
+"Ay, fair sir, but that regard attended the faithful subject, the loyal
+and pious Catholic, the individual who was so solemnly devoted at
+the same time with myself to the same grand duty; which, you must now
+understand, was to serve the church and Queen. To such a person, if you
+ever heard of him, was my regard due, and not to him who associates with
+heretics, and is about to become a renegado."
+
+"I should scarce believe, fair mistress," said Roland, indignantly,
+"that the vane of your favour turned only to a Catholic wind,
+considering that it points so plainly to George Douglas, who, I think,
+is both kingsman and Protestant."
+
+"Think better of George Douglas," said Catherine, "than to believe--"
+and then checking herself, as if she had spoken too much, she went on,
+"I assure you, fair Master Roland, that all who wish you well are sorry
+for you."
+
+"Their number is very few, I believe," answered Roland, "and their
+sorrow, if they feel any, not deeper than ten minutes' time will cure."
+
+"They are more numerous, and think more deeply concerning you, than
+you seem to be aware," answered Catherine. "But perhaps they think
+wrong--You are the best judge in your own affairs; and if you prefer
+gold and church-lands to honour and loyalty, and the faith of your
+fathers, why should you be hampered in conscience more than others?"
+
+"May Heaven bear witness for me," said Roland, "that if I entertain
+any difference of opinion--that is, if I nourish any doubts in point of
+religion, they have been adopted on the conviction of my own mind, and
+the suggestion of my own conscience!"
+
+"Ay, ay, your conscience--your conscience!" repeated she with satiric
+emphasis; "your conscience is the scape-goat; I warrant it an able
+one--it will bear the burden of one of the best manors of the Abbey of
+Saint Mary of Kennaquhair, lately forfeited to our noble Lord the King,
+by the Abbot and community thereof, for the high crime of fidelity
+to their religious vows, and now to be granted by the High and Mighty
+Traitor, and so forth, James Earl of Murray, to the good squire of dames
+Roland Graeme, for his loyal and faithful service as under-espial, and
+deputy-turnkey, for securing the person of his lawful sovereign, Queen
+Mary."
+
+"You misconstrue me cruelly," said the page; "yes, Catherine, most
+cruelly--God knows I would protect this poor lady at the risk of my
+life, or with my life; but what can I do--what can any one do for her?"
+
+"Much may be done--enough may be done--all may be done--if men will be
+but true and honourable, as Scottish men were in the days of Bruce and
+Wallace. Oh, Roland, from what an enterprise you are now withdrawing
+your heart and hand, through mere fickleness and coldness of spirit!"
+
+"How can I withdraw," said Roland, "from an enterprise which has never
+been communicated to me?--Has the Queen, or have you, or has any
+one, communicated with me upon any thing for her service which I have
+refused? Or have you not, all of you, held me at such distance from
+your counsels, as if I were the most faithless spy since the days
+of Ganelon?" [Footnote: Gan, Gano, or Ganelon of Mayence, is in
+the Romances on the subject of Charlemagne and his Paladins, always
+represented as the traitor by whom the Christian champions are
+betrayed.]
+
+"And who," said Catherine Seyton, "would trust the sworn friend, and
+pupil, and companion, of the heretic preacher Henderson? ay--a proper
+tutor you have chosen, instead of the excellent Ambrosius, who is now
+turned out of house and homestead, if indeed he is not languishing in
+a dungeon, for withstanding the tyranny of Morton, to whose brother the
+temporalities of that noble house of God have been gifted away by the
+Regent."
+
+"Is it possible?" said the page; "and is the excellent Father Ambrose in
+such distress?"
+
+"He would account the news of your falling away from the faith of your
+fathers," answered Catherine, "a worse mishap than aught that tyranny
+can inflict on himself."
+
+"But why," said Roland, very much moved, "why should you suppose
+that--that--that it is with me as you say?"
+
+"Do you yourself deny it?" replied Catherine; "do you not admit that you
+have drunk the poison which you should have dashed from your lips?--Do
+you deny that it now ferments in your veins, if it has not altogether
+corrupted the springs of life?--Do you deny that you have your doubts,
+as you proudly term them, respecting what popes and councils have
+declared it unlawful to doubt of?--Is not your faith wavering, if not
+overthrown?--Does not the heretic preacher boast his conquest?--Does
+not the heretic woman of this prison-house hold up thy example to
+others?--Do not the Queen and the Lady Fleming believe in thy falling
+away?--And is there any except one--yes, I will speak it out, and think
+as lightly as you please of my good-will--is there one except myself
+that holds even a lingering hope that you may yet prove what we once all
+believed of you?"
+
+"I know not," said our poor page, much embarrassed by the view which was
+thus presented to him of the conduct he was expected to pursue, and by
+a person in whom he was not the less interested that, though long a
+resident in Lochleven Castle, with no object so likely to attract his
+undivided attention, no lengthened interview had taken place since they
+had first met,--"I know not what you expect of me, or fear from me. I
+was sent hither to attend Queen Mary, and to her I acknowledge the duty
+of a servant through life and death. If any one had expected service
+of another kind, I was not the party to render it. I neither avow
+nor disclaim the doctrines of the reformed church.--Will you have the
+truth?--It seems to me that the profligacy of the Catholic clergy has
+brought this judgment on their own heads, and, for aught I know, it may
+be for their reformation. But, for betraying this unhappy Queen, God
+knows I am guiltless of the thought. Did I even believe worse of her,
+than as her servant I wish--as her subject I dare to do--I would not
+betray her--far from it--I would aid her in aught which could tend to a
+fair trial of her cause."
+
+"Enough! enough!" answered Catherine, clasping her hands together; "then
+thou wilt not desert us if any means are presented, by which, placing
+our Royal Mistress at freedom, this case may be honestly tried betwixt
+her and her rebellious subjects?"
+
+"Nay--but, fair Catherine," replied the page, "hear but what the Lord of
+Murray said when he sent me hither."--
+
+"Hear but what the devil said," replied the maiden, "rather than what
+a false subject, a false brother, a false counsellor, a false friend,
+said! A man raised from a petty pensioner on the crown's bounty, to be
+the counsellor of majesty, and the prime distributor of the bounties of
+the state;--one with whom rank, fortune, title, consequence, and power,
+all grew up like a mushroom, by the mere warm good-will of the sister,
+whom, in requital, he hath mewed up in this place of melancholy
+seclusion--whom, in farther requital, he has deposed, and whom, if he
+dared, he would murder!"
+
+"I think not so ill of the Earl of Murray," said Roland Graeme; "and
+sooth to speak," he added, with a smile, "it would require some bribe to
+make me embrace, with firm and desperate resolution, either one side or
+the other."
+
+"Nay, if that is all," replied Catherine Seyton, in a tone of
+enthusiasm, "you shall be guerdoned with prayers from oppressed
+subjects--from dispossessed clergy--from insulted nobles--with immortal
+praise by future ages--with eager gratitude by the present--with fame
+on earth, and with felicity in heaven! Your country will thank you--your
+Queen will be debtor to you--you will achieve at once the highest from
+the lowest degree in chivalry--all men will honour, all women will
+love you--and I, sworn with you so early to the accomplishment of Queen
+Mary's freedom, will--yes, I will--love you better than--ever sister
+loved brother!" "Say on--say on!" whispered Roland, kneeling on
+one knee, and taking her hand, which, in the warmth of exhortation,
+Catherine held towards him.
+
+"Nay," said she, pausing, "I have already said too much--far too much,
+if I prevail not with you--far too little if I do. But I prevail,"
+she continued, seeing that the countenance of the youth she addressed
+returned the enthusiasm of her own--"I prevail; or rather the good cause
+prevails through its own strength--thus I devote thee to it." And as
+she spoke she approached her finger to the brow of the astonished youth,
+and, without touching it, signed the cross over his forehead--stooped
+her face towards him, and seemed to kiss the empty space in which she
+had traced the symbol; then starting up, and extricating herself from
+his grasp, darted into the Queen's apartment.
+
+Roland Graeme remained as the enthusiastic maiden had left him, kneeling
+on one knee, with breath withheld, and with eyes fixed upon the space
+which the fairy form of Catherine Seyton had so lately occupied. If
+his thoughts were not of unmixed delight, they at least partook of that
+thrilling and intoxicating, though mingled sense of pain and pleasure,
+the most over-powering which life offers in its blended cup. He rose and
+retired slowly; and although the chaplain Mr. Henderson preached on that
+evening his best sermon against the errors of Popery, I would not engage
+that he was followed accurately through the train of his reasoning
+by the young proselyte, with a view to whose especial benefit he had
+handled the subject.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Fifth.
+
+
+  And when love's torch hath set the heart in flame,
+  Comes Seignor Reason, with his saws and cautions,
+  Giving such aid as the old gray-beard Sexton,
+  Who from the church-vault drags the crazy engine,
+  To ply its dribbling ineffectual streamlet
+  Against a conflagration.
+                                OLD PLAY.
+
+In a musing mood, Roland Graeme upon the ensuing morning betook himself
+to the battlements of the Castle, as a spot where he might indulge the
+course of his thick-coming fancies with least chance of interruption.
+But his place of retirement was in the present case ill chosen, for he
+was presently joined by Mr. Elias Henderson.
+
+"I sought you, young man," said the preacher, "having to speak of
+something which concerns you nearly."
+
+The page had no pretence for avoiding the conference which the chaplain
+thus offered, though he felt that it might prove an embarrassing one.
+
+"In teaching thee, as far as my feeble knowledge hath permitted, thy
+duty towards God," said the chaplain, "there are particulars of your
+duty towards man, upon which I was unwilling long or much to insist.
+You are here in the service of a lady, honourable as touching her birth,
+deserving of all compassion as respects her misfortunes, and garnished
+with even but too many of those outward qualities which win men's regard
+and affection. Have you ever considered your regard to this Lady Mary of
+Scotland, in its true light and bearing?"
+
+"I trust, reverend sir," replied Roland Graeme, "that I am well aware
+of the duties a servant in my condition owes to his royal mistress,
+especially in her lowly and distressed condition."
+
+"True," answered the preacher; "but it is even that honest feeling
+which may, in the Lady Mary's case, carry thee into great crime and
+treachery."
+
+"How so, reverend sir?" replied the page; "I profess I understand you
+not."
+
+"I speak to you not of the crimes of this ill-advised lady," said the
+preacher; "they are not subjects for the ears of her sworn servant. But
+it is enough to say, that this unhappy person hath rejected more offers
+of grace, and more hopes of glory, than ever were held out to
+earthly princes; and that she is now, her day of favour being passed,
+sequestered in this lonely castle, for the common weal of the people of
+Scotland, and it may be for the benefit of her own soul."
+
+"Reverend sir," said Roland, somewhat impatiently, "I am but too well
+aware that my unfortunate mistress is imprisoned, since I have the
+misfortune to share in her restraint myself--of which, to speak sooth, I
+am heartily weary."
+
+"It is even of that which I am about to speak," said the chaplain,
+mildly; "but, first, my good Roland, look forth on the pleasant prospect
+of yonder cultivated plain. You see, where the smoke arises, yonder
+village standing half hidden by the trees, and you know it to be the
+dwelling-place of peace and industry. From space to space, each by the
+side of its own stream, you see the gray towers of barons, with cottages
+interspersed; and you know that they also, with their household, are now
+living in unity; the lance hung upon the wall, and the sword resting
+in its sheath. You see, too, more than one fair church, where the pure
+waters of life are offered to the thirsty, and where the hungry are
+refreshed with spiritual food.--What would he deserve, who should bring
+fire and slaughter into so fair and happy a scene--who should bare the
+swords of the gentry and turn them against each other--who should give
+tower and cottage to the flames, and slake the embers with the blood
+of the indwellers?--What would he deserve who should lift up again that
+ancient Dagon of Superstition, whom the worthies of the time have beaten
+down, and who should once more make the churches of God the high places
+of Baal?"
+
+"You have limned a frightful picture, reverend sir," said Roland Graeme;
+"yet I guess not whom you would charge with the purpose of effecting a
+change so horrible."
+
+"God forbid," replied the preacher, "that I should say to thee, Thou art
+the man.--Yet beware, Roland Graeme, that thou, in serving thy mistress,
+hold fast the still higher service which thou owest to the peace of thy
+country, and the prosperity of her inhabitants; else, Roland Graeme,
+thou mayest be the very man upon whose head will fall the curses and
+assured punishment due to such work. If thou art won by the song of
+these sirens to aid that unhappy lady's escape from this place of
+penitence and security, it is over with the peace of Scotland's
+cottages, and with the prosperity of her palaces--and the babe unborn
+shall curse the name of the man who gave inlet to the disorder which
+will follow the war betwixt the mother and the son."
+
+"I know of no such plan, reverend sir," answered the page, "and
+therefore can aid none such.--My duty towards the Queen has been
+simply that of an attendant; it is a task, of which, at times, I would
+willingly have been freed; nevertheless--"
+
+"It is to prepare thee for the enjoyment of something more of liberty,"
+said the preacher, "that I have endeavoured to impress upon you the
+deep responsibility under which your office must be discharged. George
+Douglas hath told the Lady Lochleven that you are weary of this service,
+and my intercession hath partly determined her good ladyship, that, as
+your discharge cannot be granted, you shall, instead, be employed in
+certain commissions on the mainland, which have hitherto been discharged
+by other persons of confidence. Wherefore, come with me to the lady, for
+even to-day such duty will be imposed on you."
+
+"I trust you will hold me excused, reverend sir," said the page, who
+felt that an increase of confidence on the part of the Lady of the
+Castle and her family would render his situation in a moral view doubly
+embarrassing, "one cannot serve two masters--and I much fear that my
+mistress will not hold me excused for taking employment under another."
+
+"Fear not that," said the preacher; "her consent shall be asked and
+obtained. I fear she will yield it but too easily, as hoping to avail
+herself of your agency to maintain correspondence with her friends, as
+those falsely call themselves, who would make her name the watchword for
+civil war."
+
+"And thus," said the page, "I shall be exposed to suspicion on all
+sides; for my mistress will consider me as a spy placed on her by her
+enemies, seeing me so far trusted by them; and the Lady Lochleven will
+never cease to suspect the possibility of my betraying her, because
+circumstances put it into my power to do so--I would rather remain as I
+am."
+
+There followed a pause of one or two minutes, during which Henderson
+looked steadily in Roland's countenance, as if desirous to ascertain
+whether there was not more in the answer than the precise words seemed
+to imply. He failed in this point, however; for Roland, bred a page from
+childhood, knew how to assume a sullen pettish cast of countenance, well
+enough calculated to hide all internal emotions.
+
+"I understand thee not, Roland," said the preacher, "or rather thou
+thinkest on this matter more deeply than I apprehended to be in thy
+nature. Methought, the delight of going on shore with thy bow, or thy
+gun, or thy angling-rod, would have borne away all other feelings."
+
+"And so it would," replied Roland, who perceived the danger of suffering
+Henderson's half-raised suspicions to become fully awake,--"I would have
+thought of nothing but the gun and the oar, and the wild water-fowl that
+tempt me by sailing among the sedges yonder so far out of flight-shot,
+had you not spoken of my going on shore as what was to occasion burning
+of town and tower, the downfall of the evangele, and the upsetting of
+the mass."
+
+"Follow me, then," said Henderson, "and we will seek the Lady
+Lochleven."
+
+They found her at breakfast with her grandson George Douglas.--"Peace be
+with your ladyship!" said the preacher, bowing to his patroness; "Roland
+Graeme awaits your order."
+
+"Young man," said the lady, "our chaplain hath warranted for thy
+fidelity, and we are determined to give you certain errands to do for us
+in our town of Kinross."
+
+"Not by my advice," said Douglas, coldly.
+
+"I said not that it was," answered the lady, something sharply. "The
+mother of thy father may, I should think, be old enough to judge for
+herself in a matter so simple.--Thou wilt take the skiff, Roland, and
+two of my people, whom Dryfesdale or Randal will order out, and fetch
+off certain stuff of plate and hangings, which should last night be
+lodged at Kinross by the wains from Edinburgh."
+
+"And give this packet," said George Douglas, "to a servant of ours,
+whom you will find in waiting there.--It is the report to my father,"
+he added, looking towards his grandmother, who acquiesced by bending her
+head.
+
+"I have already mentioned to Master Henderson," said Roland Graeme,
+"that as my duty requires my attendance on the Queen, her Grace's
+permission for my journey ought to be obtained before I can undertake
+your commission."
+
+"Look to it, my son," said the old lady, "the scruple of the youth is
+honourable."
+
+"Craving your pardon, madam, I have no wish to force myself on her
+presence thus early," said. Douglas, in an indifferent tone; "it might
+displease her, and were no way agreeable to me."
+
+"And I," said the Lady Lochleven, "although her temper hath been more
+gentle of late, have no will to undergo, without necessity, the rancour
+of her wit."
+
+"Under your permission, madam," said the chaplain, "I will myself render
+your request to the Queen. During my long residence in this house she
+hath not deigned to see me in private, or to hear my doctrine; yet so
+may Heaven prosper my labours, as love for her soul, and desire to bring
+her into the right path, was my chief desire for coming hither."
+
+"Take care, Master Henderson," said Douglas, in a tone which seemed
+almost sarcastic, "lest you rush hastily on an adventure to which you
+have no vocation--you are learned, and know the adage, _Ne accesseris in
+consilium nisi vocatus_.--Who hath required this at your hand?"
+
+"The Master to whose service I am called," answered the preacher,
+looking upward,--"He who hath commanded me to be earnest in season and
+out of season."
+
+"Your acquaintance hath not been much, I think, with courts or princes,"
+continued the young Esquire.
+
+"No, sir," replied Henderson, "but like my Master Knox, I see nothing
+frightful in the fair face of a pretty lady."
+
+"My son," said the Lady of Lochleven, "quench not the good man's
+zeal--let him do the errand to this unhappy Princess."
+
+"With more willingness than I would do it myself," said George Douglas.
+Yet something in his manner appeared to contradict his words.
+
+The minister went accordingly, followed by Roland Graeme, and, demanding
+an audience of the imprisoned Princess, was admitted. He found her with
+her ladies engaged in the daily task of embroidery. The Queen received
+him with that courtesy, which, in ordinary cases, she used towards all
+who approached her, and the clergyman, in opening his commission, was
+obviously somewhat more embarrassed than he had expected to be.--"The
+good Lady of Lochleven--may it please your Grace--"
+
+He made a short pause, during which Mary said, with a smile, "My Grace
+would, in truth, be well pleased, were the Lady Lochleven our _good_
+lady--But go on--what is the will of the good Lady of Lochleven?"
+
+"She desires, madam," said the chaplain, "that your Grace will permit
+this young gentleman, your page, Roland Graeme, to pass to Kinross, to
+look after some household stuff and hangings, sent hither for the better
+furnishing your Grace's apartments."
+
+"The Lady of Lochleven," said the Queen, "uses needless ceremony, in
+requesting our permission for that which stands within her own pleasure.
+We well know that this young gentleman's attendance on us had not been
+so long permitted, were he not thought to be more at the command of that
+good lady than at ours.--But we cheerfully yield consent that he shall
+go on her errand--with our will we would doom no living creature to the
+captivity which we ourselves must suffer."
+
+"Ay, madam," answered the preacher, "and it is doubtless natural for
+humanity to quarrel with its prison-house. Yet there have been those,
+who have found, that time spent in the house of temporal captivity may
+be so employed as to redeem us from spiritual slavery."
+
+"I apprehend your meaning, sir," replied the Queen, "but I have heard
+your apostle--I have heard Master John Knox; and were I to be perverted,
+I would willingly resign to the ablest and most powerful of heresiarchs,
+the poor honour he might acquire by overcoming my faith and my hope."
+
+"Madam," said the preacher, "it is not to the talents or skill of the
+husbandman that God gives the increase--the words which were offered
+in vain by him whom you justly call our apostle, during the bustle and
+gaiety of a court, may yet find better acceptance during the leisure for
+reflection which this place affords. God knows, lady, that I speak in
+singleness of heart, as one who would as soon compare himself to the
+immortal angels, as to the holy man whom you have named. Yet would you
+but condescend to apply to their noblest use, those talents and that
+learning which all allow you to be possessed of--would you afford us
+but the slightest hope that you would hear and regard what can be urged
+against the blinded superstition and idolatry in which you are brought
+up, sure am I, that the most powerfully-gifted of my brethren, that even
+John Knox himself, would hasten hither, and account the rescue of your
+single soul from the nets of Romish error--"
+
+"I am obliged to you and to them for their charity," said Mary; "but as
+I have at present but one presence-chamber, I would reluctantly see it
+converted into a Huguenot synod."
+
+"At least, madam, be not thus obstinately blinded in your errors! Hear
+one who has hungered and thirsted, watched and prayed, to undertake
+the good work of your conversion, and who would be content to die the
+instant that a work so advantageous for yourself and so beneficial to
+Scotland were accomplished--Yes, lady, could I but shake the remaining
+pillar of the heathen temple in this land--and that permit me to
+term your faith in the delusions of Rome--I could be content to die
+overwhelmed in the ruins!"
+
+"I will not insult your zeal, sir," replied Mary, "by saying you
+are more likely to make sport for the Philistines than to overwhelm
+them--your charity claims my thanks, for it is warmly expressed and may
+be truly purposed--But believe as well of me as I am willing to do of
+you, and think that I may be as anxious to recall you to the ancient and
+only road, as you are to teach me your new by-ways to paradise."
+
+"Then, madam, if such be your generous purpose," said Henderson,
+eagerly, "--what hinders that we should dedicate some part of that time,
+unhappily now too much at your Grace's disposal, to discuss a question
+so weighty? You, by report of all men, are both learned and witty; and
+I, though without such advantages, am strong in my cause as in a tower
+of defence. Why should we not spend some space in endeavouring to
+discover which of us hath the wrong side in this important matter?"
+
+"Nay," said Queen Mary, "I never alleged my force was strong enough
+to accept of a combat _en champ clos_, with a scholar and a polemic.
+Besides, the match is not equal. You, sir, might retire when you felt
+the battle go against you, while I am tied to the stake, and have no
+permission to say the debate wearies me.--I would be alone."
+
+She curtsied low to him as she uttered these words; and Henderson, whose
+zeal was indeed ardent, but did not extend to the neglect of delicacy,
+bowed in return, and prepared to withdraw.
+
+"I would," he said, "that my earnest wish, my most zealous prayer, could
+procure to your Grace any blessing or comfort, but especially that
+in which alone blessing or comfort is, as easily as the slightest
+intimation of your wish will remove me from your presence."
+
+He was in the act of departing, when Mary said to him with much
+courtesy, "Do me no injury in your thoughts, good sir; it may be, that
+if my time here be protracted longer--as surely I hope it will not,
+trusting that either my rebel subjects will repent of their disloyalty,
+or that my faithful lieges will obtain the upper hand--but if my time
+be here protracted, it may be I shall have no displeasure in hearing one
+who seems so reasonable and compassionate as yourself, and I may hazard
+your contempt by endeavouring to recollect and repeat the reasons which
+schoolmen and councils give for the faith that is in me,--although
+I fear that, God help me! my Latin has deserted me with my other
+possessions. This must, however, be for another day. Meanwhile, sir,
+let the Lady of Lochleven employ my page as she lists--I will not afford
+suspicion by speaking a word to him before he goes.--Roland Graeme, my
+friend, lose not an opportunity of amusing thyself--dance, sing, run,
+and leap--all may be done merrily on the mainland; but he must have more
+than quicksilver in his veins who would frolic here."
+
+"Alas! madam," said the preacher, "to what is it you exhort the youth,
+while time passes, and eternity summons? Can our salvation be insured by
+idle mirth, or our good work wrought out without fear and trembling?"
+
+"I cannot fear or tremble," replied the Queen; "to Mary Stewart such
+emotions are unknown. But if weeping and sorrow on my part will atone
+for the boy's enjoying an hour of boyish pleasure, be assured the
+penance shall be duly paid."
+
+"Nay, but, gracious lady," said the preacher, "in this you greatly
+err;--our tears and our sorrows are all too little for our own faults
+and follies, nor can we transfer them, as your church falsely teaches,
+to the benefit of others."
+
+"May I pray you, sir," answered the Queen, "with as little offence as
+such a prayer may import, to transfer yourself elsewhere? We are sick at
+heart, and may not now be disposed with farther controversy--and thou,
+Roland, take this little purse;" (then, turning to the divine, she said,
+showing its contents,) "Look, reverend sir,--it contains only these
+two or three gold testoons, a coin which, though bearing my own poor
+features, I have ever found more active against me than on my side, just
+as my subjects take arms against me, with my own name for their
+summons and signal.--Take this purse, that thou mayest want no means of
+amusement. Fail not--fail not to bring met back news from Kinross; only
+let it be such as, without suspicion or offence, may be told in the
+presence of this reverend gentleman, or of the good Lady Lochleven
+herself."
+
+The last hint was too irresistible to be withstood; and Henderson
+withdrew, half mortified, half pleased, with his reception; for Mary,
+from long habit, and the address which was natural to her, had learned,
+in an extraordinary degree, the art of evading discourse which was
+disagreeable to her feelings or prejudices, without affronting those by
+whom it was proffered.
+
+Roland Graeme retired with the chaplain, at a signal from his lady; but
+it did not escape him, that as he left the room, stepping backwards, and
+making the deep obeisance due to royalty, Catherine Seyton held up her
+slender forefinger, with a gesture which he alone could witness, and
+which seemed to say, "Remember what has passed betwixt us."
+
+The young page had now his last charge from the Lady of Lochleven.
+"There are revels," she said, "this day at the village--my son's
+authority is, as yet, unable to prevent these continued workings of the
+ancient leaven of folly which the Romish priests have kneaded into the
+very souls of the Scottish peasantry. I do not command thee to abstain
+from them--that would be only to lay a snare for thy folly, or to teach
+thee falsehood; but enjoy these vanities with moderation, and mark
+them as something thou must soon learn to renounce and contemn. Our
+chamberlain at Kinross, Luke Lundin,--Doctor, as he foolishly calleth
+himself,--will acquaint thee what is to be done in the matter about
+which thou goest. Remember thou art trusted--show thyself, therefore,
+worthy of trust."
+
+When we recollect that Roland Graeme was not yet nineteen, and that he
+had spent his whole life in the solitary Castle of Avenel, excepting
+the few hours he had passed in Edinburgh, and his late residence at
+Lochleven, (the latter period having very little served to enlarge his
+acquaintance with the gay world.) we cannot wonder that his heart beat,
+high with hope and curiosity, at the prospect of partaking the sport
+even of a country wake. He hastened to his little cabin, and turned over
+the wardrobe with which (in every respect becoming his station) he had
+been supplied from Edinburgh, probably by order of the Earl of Murray.
+By the Queen's command he had hitherto waited upon her in mourning, or
+at least in sad-coloured raiment. Her condition, she said, admitted
+of nothing more gay. But now he selected the gayest dress his wardrobe
+afforded; composed of scarlet slashed with black satin, the royal
+colours of Scotland--combed his long curled hair--disposed his chain and
+medal round a beaver hat of the newest block; and with the gay falchion
+which had reached him in so mysterious a manner, hung by his side in
+an embroidered belt, his apparel, added to his natural frank mien and
+handsome figure, formed a most commendable and pleasing specimen of the
+young gallant of the period. He sought to make his parting reverence to
+the Queen and her ladies, but old Dryfesdale hurried him to the boat.
+
+"We will have no private audiences," he said, "my master; since you are
+to be trusted with somewhat, we will try at least to save thee from
+the temptation of opportunity. God help thee, child," he added, with a
+glance of contempt at his gay clothes, "an the bear-ward be yonder from
+Saint Andrews, have a care thou go not near him."
+
+"And wherefore, I pray you?" said Roland.
+
+"Lest he take thee for one of his runaway jackanapes," answered the
+steward, smiling sourly.
+
+"I wear not my clothes at thy cost," said Roland indignantly.
+
+"Nor at thine own either, my son" replied the steward, "else would thy
+garb more nearly resemble thy merit and thy station."
+
+Roland Graeme suppressed with difficulty the repartee which arose to his
+lips, and, wrapping his scarlet mantle around him, threw himself into
+the boat, which two rowers, themselves urged by curiosity to see the
+revels, pulled stoutly towards the west end of the lake. As they put
+off, Roland thought he could discover the face of Catherine Seyton,
+though carefully withdrawn from observation, peeping from a loophole
+to view his departure. He pulled off his hat, and held it up as a token
+that he saw and wished her adieu. A white kerchief waved for a second
+across the window, and for the rest of the little voyage, the thoughts
+of Catherine Seyton disputed ground in his breast with the expectations
+excited by the approaching revel. As they drew nearer and nearer the
+shore, the sounds of mirth and music, the laugh, the halloo, and the
+shout, came thicker upon the ear, and in a trice the boat was moored,
+and Roland Graeme hastened in quest of the chamberlain, that, being
+informed what time he had at his own disposal, he might lay it out to
+the best advantage.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Sixth.
+
+
+  Room for the master of the ring, ye swains,
+  Divide your crowded ranks--before him march
+  The rural minstrelsy, the rattling drum,
+  The clamorous war-pipe, and far-echoing horn.
+               _Rural Sports_.--SOMERVILLE.
+
+No long space intervened ere Roland Graeme was able to discover among
+the crowd of revellers, who gambolled upon the open space which extends
+betwixt the village and the lake, a person of so great importance as Dr.
+Luke Lundin, upon whom devolved officially the charge of representing
+the lord of the land, and who was attended for support of his authority
+by a piper, a drummer, and four sturdy clowns armed with rusty halberds,
+garnished with party-coloured ribbons; myrmidons who, early as the day
+was, had already broken more than one head in the awful names of the
+Laird of Lochleven and his chamberlain.
+
+[Footnote: At Scottish fairs, the bailie, or magistrate, deputed by the
+lord in whose name the meeting is held, attends the fair with his
+guard, decides trifling disputes, and punishes on the spot any petty
+delinquencies. His attendants are usually armed with halberds, and
+sometimes, at least, escorted by music. Thus, in the "Life and Death of
+Habbie Simpson," we are told of that famous minstrel,--
+
+   "At fairs he play'd before the spear-men,
+   And gaily graithed in their gear-men;--
+   Steel bonnets, jacks, and swords shone clear then,
+        Like ony bead;
+   Now wha shall play before sic weir-men,
+        Since Habbie's dead! ]
+
+As soon as this dignitary was informed that the castle skiff had
+arrived, with a gallant, dressed like a lord's son at the least, who
+desired presently to speak to him, he adjusted his ruff and his black
+coat, turned round his girdle till the garnished hilt of his long rapier
+became visible, and walked with due solemnity towards the beach. Solemn
+indeed he was entitled to be, even on less important occasions, for he
+had been bred to the venerable study of medicine, as those acquainted
+with the science very soon discovered from the aphorisms which
+ornamented his discourse. His success had not been equal to his
+pretensions; but as he was a native of the neighbouring kingdom of Fife,
+and bore distant relation to, or dependence upon, the ancient family of
+Lundin of that Ilk, who were bound in close friendship with the house
+of Lochleven, he had, through their interest, got planted comfortably
+enough in his present station upon the banks of that beautiful lake.
+The profits of his chamberlainship being moderate, especially in those
+unsettled times, he had eked it out a little with some practice in his
+original profession; and it was said that the inhabitants of the village
+and barony of Kinross were not more effectually thirled (which may
+be translated enthralled) to the baron's mill, than they were to the
+medical monopoly of the chamberlain. Wo betide the family of the rich
+boor, who presumed to depart this life without a passport from Dr. Luke
+Lundin! for if his representatives had aught to settle with the baron,
+as it seldom happened otherwise, they were sure to find a cold friend
+in the chamberlain. He was considerate enough, however, gratuitously
+to help the poor out of their ailments, and sometimes out of all their
+other distresses at the same time.
+
+Formal, in a double proportion, both as a physician and as a person in
+office, and proud of the scraps of learning which rendered his language
+almost universally unintelligible, Dr. Luke Lundin approached the beach,
+and hailed the page as he advanced towards him.--"The freshness of the
+morning upon you, fair sir--You are sent, I warrant me, to see if we
+observe here the regimen which her good ladyship hath prescribed, for
+eschewing all superstitious observances and idle anilities in these
+our revels. I am aware that her good ladyship would willingly have
+altogether abolished and abrogated them--But as I had the honour to
+quote to her from the works of the learned Hercules of Saxony, _omnis
+curatio est vel canonica vel coacta_,--that is, fair sir, (for silk and
+velvet have seldom their Latin _ad unguem_,) every cure must be wrought
+either by art and induction of rule, or by constraint; and the wise
+physician chooseth the former. Which argument her ladyship being pleased
+to allow well of, I have made it my business so to blend instruction and
+caution with delight--_fiat mixtio_, as we say--that I can answer
+that the vulgar mind will be defecated and purged of anile and Popish
+fooleries by the medicament adhibited, so that the _primae vice_ being
+cleansed, Master Henderson, or any other able pastor, may at will throw
+in tonics, and effectuate a perfect moral cure, _tuto, cito, jucunde_."
+
+"I have no charge, Dr. Lundin," replied the page--
+
+"Call me not doctor," said the chamberlain, "since I have laid aside
+my furred gown and bonnet, and retired me into this temporality of
+chamberlainship."
+
+"Oh, sir," said the page, who was no stranger by report to the character
+of this original, "the cowl makes not the monk, neither the cord the
+friar--we have all heard of the cures wrought by Dr. Lundin."
+
+"Toys, young sir--trifles," answered the leech with grave disclamation
+of superior skill; "the hit-or-miss practice of a poor retired
+gentleman, in a short cloak and doublet--Marry, Heaven sent its
+blessing--and this I must say, better fashioned mediciners have
+brought fewer patients through--_lunga roba corta scienzia_, saith the
+Italian--ha, fair sir, you have the language?"
+
+Roland Graeme did not think it necessary to expound to this learned
+Theban whether he understood him or no; but, leaving that matter
+uncertain, he told him he came in quest of certain packages which should
+have arrived at Kinross, and been placed under the chamberlain's charge
+the evening before.
+
+"Body o' me!" said Doctor Lundin, "I fear our common carrier, John
+Auchtermuchty, hath met with some mischance, that he came not up last
+night with his wains--bad land this to journey in, my master; and the
+fool will travel by night too, although, (besides all maladies from your
+_tussis_ to your _pestis_, which walk abroad in the night-air,) he may
+well fall in with half a dozen swash-bucklers, who will ease him at once
+of his baggage and his earthly complaints. I must send forth to inquire
+after him, since he hath stuff of the honourable household on hand--and,
+by our Lady, he hath stuff of mine too--certain drugs sent me from
+the city for composition of my alexipharmics--this gear must be looked
+to.--Hodge," said he, addressing one of his redoubted body-guard,
+"do thou and Toby Telford take the mickle brown aver and the black
+cut-tailed mare, and make out towards the Kerry-craigs, and see what
+tidings you can have of Auchtermuchty and his wains--I trust it is only
+the medicine of the pottle-pot, (being the only _medicamentum_ which
+the beast useth,) which hath caused him to tarry on the road. Take
+the ribbons from your halberds, ye knaves, and get on your jacks,
+plate-sleeves, and knapskulls, that your presence may work some terror
+if you meet with opposers." He then added, turning to Roland Graeme, "I
+warrant me, we shall have news of the wains in brief season. Meantime
+it will please you to look upon the sports; but first to enter my
+poor lodging and take your morning's cup. For what saith the school of
+Salerno?
+
+  _Poculum, mane haustum,
+  Restaurat naturam exhaustam."_
+
+"Your learning is too profound for me," replied the page; "and so would
+your draught be likewise, I fear."
+
+"Not a whit, fair sir--a cordial cup of sack, impregnated with wormwood,
+is the best anti-pestilential draught; and, to speak truth, the
+pestilential miasmata are now very rife in the atmosphere. We live in
+a happy time, young man," continued he, in a tone of grave irony, "and
+have many blessings unknown to our fathers--Here are two sovereigns
+in the land, a regnant and a claimant--that is enough of one good
+thing--but if any one wants more, he may find a king in every peel-house
+in the country; so if we lack government, it is not for want of
+governors. Then have we a civil war to phlebotomize us every year, and
+to prevent our population from starving for want of food--and for the
+same purpose we have the Plague proposing us a visit, the best of all
+recipes for thinning a land, and converting younger brothers into elder
+ones. Well, each man in his vocation. You young fellows of the sword
+desire to wrestle, fence, or so forth, with some expert adversary; and
+for my part, I love to match myself for life or death against that same
+Plague."
+
+As they proceeded up the street of the little village towards the
+Doctor's lodgings, his attention was successively occupied by the
+various personages whom he met, and pointed out to the notice of his
+companion.
+
+"Do you see that fellow with the red bonnet, the blue jerkin, and the
+great rough baton in his hand?--I believe that clown hath the strength
+of a tower--he has lived fifty years in the world, and never encouraged
+the liberal sciences by buying one penny-worth of medicaments.--But see
+you that man with the _facies hippocratica_?" said he, pointing out
+a thin peasant, with swelled legs, and a most cadaverous countenance;
+"that I call one of the worthiest men in the barony--he breakfasts,
+luncheons, dines, and sups by my advice, and not without my medicine;
+and, for his own single part, will go farther to clear out a moderate
+stock of pharmaceutics, than half the country besides.--How do you,
+my honest friend?" said he to the party in question, with a tone of
+condolence.
+
+"Very weakly, sir, since I took the electuary," answered the patient;
+"it neighboured ill with the two spoonfuls of pease-porridge and the
+kirnmilk."
+
+"Pease-porridge and kirnmilk! Have you been under medicine these ten
+years, and keep your diet so ill?--the next morning take the electuary
+by itself, and touch nothing for six hours."--The poor object bowed, and
+limped off.
+
+The next whom the Doctor deigned to take notice of, was a lame fellow,
+by whom the honour was altogether undeserved, for at sight of the
+mediciner, he began to shuffle away in the crowd as fast as his
+infirmities would permit.
+
+"There is an ungrateful hound for you," said Doctor Lundin; "I cured
+him of the gout in his feet, and now he talks of the chargeableness of
+medicine, and makes the first use of his restored legs to fly from his
+physician. His _podagra_ hath become a _chiragra_, as honest Martial
+hath it--the gout has got into his fingers, and he cannot draw his
+purse. Old saying and true,
+
+  Praemia cum poscit medicus, Sathan est.
+
+We are angels when we come to cure--devils when we ask payment--but I
+will administer a purgation to his purse I warrant him. There is his
+brother too, a sordid chuff.--So ho, there! Saunders Darlet! you have
+been ill, I hear?"
+
+"Just got the turn, as I was thinking to send to your honour, and I am
+brawly now again--it was nae great thing that ailed me."
+
+"Hark you, sirrah," said the Doctor, "I trust you remember you are owing
+to the laird four stones of barleymeal, and a bow of oats; and I would
+have you send no more such kain-fowls as you sent last season, that
+looked as wretchedly as patients just dismissed from a plague-hospital;
+and there is hard money owing besides."
+
+"I was thinking, sir," said the man, _more Scotico_, that is, returning
+no direct answer on the subject on which he was addressed, "my best way
+would be to come down to your honour, and take your advice yet, in case
+my trouble should come back."
+
+"Do so, then, knave," replied Lundin, "and remember what Ecclesiasticus
+saith--'Give place to the physician-let him not go from thee, for thou
+hast need of him.'"
+
+His exhortation was interrupted by an apparition, which seemed to strike
+the doctor with as much horror and surprise, as his own visage inflicted
+upon sundry of those persons whom he had addressed.
+
+The figure which produced this effect on the Esculapius of the village,
+was that of a tall old woman, who wore a high-crowned hat and muffler.
+The first of these habiliments added apparently to her stature, and
+the other served to conceal the lower part of her face, and as the hat
+itself was slouched, little could be seen besides two brown cheek-bones,
+and the eyes of swarthy fire, that gleamed from under two shaggy gray
+eyebrows. She was dressed in a long dark-coloured robe of unusual
+fashion, bordered at the skirts, and on the stomacher, with a sort of
+white trimming resembling the Jewish phylacteries, on which were wrought
+the characters of some unknown language. She held in her hand a walking
+staff of black ebony.
+
+"By the soul of Celsus," said Doctor Luke Lundin, "it is old Mother
+Nicneven herself--she hath come to beard me within mine own bounds, and
+in the very execution of mine office! Have at thy coat, Old Woman, as
+the song says--Hob Anster, let her presently be seized and committed to
+the tolbooth; and if there are any zealous brethren here who would give
+the hag her deserts, and duck her, as a witch, in the loch, I pray let
+them in no way be hindered."
+
+But the myrmidons of Dr. Lundin showed in this case no alacrity to do
+his bidding. Hob Anster even ventured to remonstrate in the name of
+himself and his brethren. "To be sure he was to do his honour's bidding;
+and for a' that folks said about the skill and witcheries of Mother
+Nicneven, he would put his trust in God, and his hand on her collar,
+without dreadour. But she was no common spaewife, this Mother Nicneven,
+like Jean Jopp that lived in the Bricrie-baulk. She had lords and lairds
+that would ruffle for her. There was Moncrieff of Tippermalloch, that
+was Popish, and the laird of Carslogie, a kend Queen's man, were in the
+fair, with wha kend how mony swords and bucklers at their back; and they
+would be sure to make a break-out if the officers meddled with the auld
+Popish witch-wife, who was sae weel friended; mair especially as the
+laird's best men, such as were not in the castle, were in Edinburgh with
+him, and he doubted his honour the Doctor would find ower few to make a
+good backing, if blades were bare."
+
+The doctor listened unwillingly to this prudential counsel, and was only
+comforted by the faithful promise of his satellite, that "the old
+woman should," as he expressed it, "be ta'en canny the next time she
+trespassed on the bounds."
+
+"And in that event," said the Doctor to his companion, "fire and fagot
+shall be the best of her welcome."
+
+This he spoke in hearing of the dame herself, who even then, and in
+passing the Doctor, shot towards him from under her gray eyebrows a look
+of the most insulting and contemptuous superiority.
+
+"This way," continued the physician, "this way," marshalling his guest
+into his lodging,--"take care you stumble not over a retort, for it is
+hazardous for the ignorant to walk in the ways of art."
+
+The page found all reason for the caution; for besides stuffed birds,
+and lizards, and snakes bottled up, and bundles of simples made up, and
+other parcels spread out to dry, and all the confusion, not to mention
+the mingled and sickening smells, incidental to a druggist's stock in
+trade, he had also to avoid heaps of charcoal crucibles, bolt-heads,
+stoves, and the other furniture of a chemical laboratory.
+
+Amongst his other philosophical qualities, Doctor Lundin failed not to
+be a confused sloven, and his old dame housekeeper, whose life, as she
+said, was spent in "redding him up," had trotted off to the mart of
+gaiety with other and younger folks. Much chattering and jangling
+therefore there was among jars, and bottles, and vials, ere the Doctor
+produced the salutiferous potion which he recommended so strongly, and
+a search equally long and noisy followed, among broken cans and cracked
+pipkins, ere he could bring forth a cup out of which to drink it. Both
+matters being at length achieved, the Doctor set the example to his
+guest, by quaffing off a cup of the cordial, and smacking his lips with
+approbation as it descended his gullet.--Roland, in turn, submitted to
+swallow the potion which his host so earnestly recommended, but which
+he found so insufferably bitter, that he became eager to escape from the
+laboratory in search of a draught of fair water to expel the taste. In
+spite of his efforts, he was nevertheless detained by the garrulity of
+his host, till he gave him some account of Mother Nicneven.
+
+"I care not to speak of her," said the Doctor, "in the open air, and
+among the throng of people; not for fright, like yon cowardly dog
+Anster, but because I would give no occasion for a fray, having no
+leisure to look to stabs, slashes, and broken bones. Men call the old
+hag a prophetess--I do scarce believe she could foretell when a brood
+of chickens will chip the shell--Men say she reads the heavens--my black
+bitch knows as much of them when she sits baying the moon--Men pretend
+the ancient wretch is a sorceress, a witch, and, what not--_Inter nos_,
+I will never contradict a rumour which may bring her to the stake which
+she so justly deserves; but neither will I believe that the tales of
+witches which they din into our ears are aught but knavery, cozenage,
+and old women's fables."
+
+"In the name of Heaven, what is she then," said the page, "that you make
+such a stir about her?"
+
+"She is one of those cursed old women," replied the Doctor, "who take
+currently and impudently upon themselves to act as advisers and curers
+of the sick, on the strength of some trash of herbs, some rhyme of
+spells, some julap or diet, drink or cordial."
+
+"Nay, go no farther," said the page; "if they brew cordials, evil be
+their lot and all their partakers!"
+
+"You say well, young man," said Dr. Lundin; "for mine own part, I know
+no such pests to the commonwealth as these old incarnate devils, who
+haunt the chambers of the brain-sick patients, that are mad enough to
+suffer them to interfere with, disturb, and let, the regular process of
+a learned and artificial cure, with their sirups, and their julaps, and
+diascordium, and mithridate, and my Lady What-shall-call'um's powder,
+and worthy Dame Trashem's pill; and thus make widows and orphans, and
+cheat the regular and well-studied physician, in order to get the
+name of wise women and skeely neighbours, and so forth. But no more
+on't--Mother Nicneven [Footnote: This was the name given to the grand
+Mother Witch, the very Hecate of Scottish popular superstition. Her name
+was bestowed, in one or two instances, upon sorceresses, who were held
+to resemble her by their superior skill in "Hell's black grammar."] and
+I will meet one day, and she shall know there is danger in dealing with
+the Doctor."
+
+"It is a true word, and many have found it," said the page; "but under
+your favour, I would fain walk abroad for a little, and see these
+sports."
+
+"It is well moved," said the Doctor, "and I too should be showing myself
+abroad. Moreover the play waits us, young man-to-day, _totus mundus
+agit histrionem_."--And they sallied forth accordingly into the mirthful
+scene.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Seventh.
+
+
+  See on yon verdant lawn, the gathering crowd
+  Thickens amain; the buxom nymphs advance,
+  Usher'd by jolly clowns; distinctions cease,
+  Lost in the common joy, and the bold slave
+  Leans on his wealthy master unreproved.
+              _Rural Games_.--SOMERVILLLE.
+
+The re-appearance of the dignified Chamberlain on the street of the
+village was eagerly hailed by the revellers, as a pledge that the
+play, or dramatic representation, which had been postponed owing to his
+absence, was now full surely to commence. Any thing like an approach
+to this most interesting of all amusements, was of recent origin in
+Scotland, and engaged public attention in proportion. All other sports
+were discontinued. The dance around the Maypole was arrested--the ring
+broken up and dispersed, while the dancers, each leading his partner by
+the hand, tripped, off to the silvan theatre. A truce was in like
+manner achieved betwixt a huge brown bear and certain mastiffs, who
+were tugging and pulling at his shaggy coat, under the mediation of the
+bear-ward and half a dozen butchers and yeomen, who, by dint of _staving
+and tailing_, as it was technically termed, separated the unfortunate
+animals, whose fury had for an hour past been their chief amusement.
+The itinerant minstrel found himself deserted by the audience he had
+collected, even in the most interesting passage of the romance which he
+recited, and just as he was sending about his boy, with bonnet in hand,
+to collect their oblations. He indignantly stopped short in the midst
+of _Rosewal and Lilian_, and, replacing his three-stringed fiddle, or
+rebeck, in its leathern case, followed the crowd, with no good-will, to
+the exhibition which had superseded his own. The juggler had ceased his
+exertions of emitting flame and smoke, and was content to respire in the
+manner of ordinary mortals, rather than to play gratuitously the part
+of a fiery dragon. In short, all other sports were suspended, so eagerly
+did the revellers throng towards the place of representation.
+
+They would err greatly, who should regulate their ideas of this dramatic
+exhibition upon those derived from a modern theatre; for the rude shows
+of Thespis were far less different from those exhibited by Euripides on
+the stage of Athens, with all its magnificent decorations and pomp of
+dresses and of scenery. In the present case, there were no scenes, no
+stage, no machinery, no pit, box, and gallery, no box-lobby; and, what
+might in poor Scotland be some consolation for other negations, there
+was no taking of money at the door. As in the devices of the magnanimous
+Bottom, the actors had a greensward plot for a stage, and a hawthorn
+bush for a greenroom and tiring-house; the spectators being accommodated
+with seats on the artificial bank which had been raised around
+three-fourths of the playground, the remainder being left open for the
+entrance and exit of the performers. Here sate the uncritical audience,
+the Chamberlain in the centre, as the person highest in office, all
+alive to enjoyment and admiration, and all therefore dead to criticism.
+
+The characters which appeared and disappeared before the amused and
+interested audience, were those which fill the earlier stage in all
+nations--old men, cheated by their wives and daughters, pillaged by
+their sons, and imposed on by their domestics, a braggadocia captain,
+a knavish pardoner or quaestionary, a country bumpkin and a wanton city
+dame. Amid all these, and more acceptable than almost the whole put
+together, was the all-licensed fool, the Gracioso of the Spanish drama,
+who, with his cap fashioned into the resemblance of a coxcomb, and his
+bauble, a truncheon terminated by a carved figure wearing a fool's cap,
+in his hand, went, came, and returned, mingling in every scene of the
+piece, and interrupting the business, without having any share himself
+in the action, and ever and anon transferring his gibes from the actors
+on the stage to the audience who sate around, prompt to applaud the
+whole.
+
+The wit of the piece, which was not of the most polished kind, was
+chiefly directed against the superstitious practices of the Catholic
+religion; and the stage artillery had on this occasion been levelled
+by no less a person than Doctor Lundin, who had not only commanded the
+manager of the entertainment to select one of the numerous satires which
+had been written against the Papists, (several of which were cast in a
+dramatic form,) but had even, like the Prince of Denmark, caused them to
+insert, or according to his own phrase, to infuse here and there, a
+few pleasantries of his own penning, on the same inexhaustible subject,
+hoping thereby to mollify the rigour of the Lady of Lochleven towards
+pastimes of this description. He failed not to jog Roland's elbow,
+who was sitting in state behind him, and recommend to his particular
+attention those favourite passages. As for the page, to whom, the very
+idea of such an exhibition, simple as it was, was entirely new, he
+beheld it with the undiminished and ecstatic delight with which men
+of all ranks look for the first time on dramatic representation, and
+laughed, shouted, and clapped his hands as the performance proceeded. An
+incident at length took place, which effectually broke off his interest
+in the business of the scene.
+
+One of the principal personages in the comic part of the drama was,
+as we have already said, a quaestionary or pardoner, one of those
+itinerants who hawked about from place to place relics, real or
+pretended, with which he excited the devotion at once, and the charity
+of the populace, and generally deceived both the one and the other. The
+hypocrisy, impudence, and profligacy of these clerical wanderers, had
+made them the subject of satire from the time of Chaucer down to that of
+Heywood. Their present representative failed not to follow the same line
+of humour, exhibiting pig's bones for relics, and boasting the virtues
+of small tin crosses, which had been shaken in the holy porringer at
+Loretto, and of cockleshells, which had been brought from the shrine
+of Saint James of Compostella, all which he disposed of to the devout
+Catholics at nearly as high a price as antiquaries are now willing
+to pay for baubles of similar intrinsic value. At length the pardoner
+pulled from his scrip a small phial of clear water, of which he vaunted
+the quality in the following verses:--
+
+  Listneth, gode people, everiche one
+  For in the londe of Babylone,
+  Far eastward I wot it lyeth,
+  And is the first londe the sonne espieth,
+  Ther, as he cometh fro out the se;
+  In this ilk londe, as thinketh me,
+  Right as holie legendes tell.
+  Snottreth from a roke a well,
+  And falleth into ane bath of ston,
+  Where chaste Susanne, in times long gon,
+
+  Wax wont to wash her bodie and lim
+  Mickle vertue hath that streme,
+  As ye shall se er that ye pas,
+  Ensample by this little glas--
+  Through nightes cold and dayes hote
+  Hiderward I have it brought;
+  Hath a wife made slip or side,
+  Or a maiden stepp'd aside,
+  Putteth this water under her nese,
+  Wold she nold she, she shall snese.
+
+The jest, as the reader skilful in the antique language of the drama
+must at once perceive, turned on the same pivot as in the old minstrel
+tales of the Drinking Horn of King Arthur, and the Mantle made Amiss.
+But the audience were neither learned nor critical enough to challenge
+its want of originality. The potent relic was, after such grimace and
+buffoonery as befitted the subject, presented successively to each
+of the female personages of the drama, not one of whom sustained
+the supposed test of discretion; but, to the infinite delight of the
+audience, sneezed much louder and longer than perhaps they themselves
+had counted on. The jest seemed at last worn threadbare, and the
+pardoner was passing on to some new pleasantry, when the jester or clown
+of the drama, possessing himself secretly of the phial which contained
+the wondrous liquor, applied it suddenly to the nose of a young woman,
+who, with her black silk muffler, or screen drawn over her face, was
+sitting in the foremost rank of the spectators, intent apparently upon
+the business of the stage. The contents of the phial, well calculated to
+sustain the credit of the pardoner's legend, set the damsel a-sneezing
+violently, an admission of frailty which was received with shouts
+of rapture by the audience. These were soon, however, renewed at the
+expense of the jester himself, when the insulted maiden extricated, ere
+the paroxysm was well over, one hand from the folds of her mantle, and
+bestowed on the wag a buffet, which made him reel fully his own
+length from the pardoner, and then acknowledge the favour by instant
+prostration.
+
+No one pities a jester overcome in his vocation, and the clown met with
+little sympathy, when, rising from the ground, and whimpering forth his
+complaints of harsh treatment, he invoked the assistance and sympathy
+of the audience. But the Chamberlain, feeling his own dignity insulted,
+ordered two of his halberdiers to bring the culprit before him. When
+these official persons first approached the virago, she threw herself
+into an attitude of firm defiance, as if determined to resist their
+authority; and from the sample of strength and spirit which she
+had already displayed, they showed no alacrity at executing their
+commission. But on half a minute's reflection, the damsel changed
+totally her attitude and manner, folded her cloak around her arms in
+modest and maiden-like fashion, and walked of her own accord to the
+presence of the great man, followed and guarded by the two manful
+satellites. As she moved across the vacant space, and more especially
+as she stood at the footstool of the Doctor's judgment-seat, the maiden
+discovered that lightness and elasticity of step, and natural grace of
+manner, which connoisseurs in female beauty know to be seldom divided
+from it. Moreover, her neat russet-coloured jacket, and short petticoat
+of the same colour, displayed a handsome form and a pretty leg. Her
+features were concealed by the screen; but the Doctor, whose gravity did
+not prevent his pretensions to be a connoisseur of the school we have
+hinted at, saw enough to judge favourably of the piece by the sample.
+
+He began, however, with considerable austerity of manner.--"And how now,
+saucy quean!" said the medical man of office; "what have you to say why
+I should not order you to be ducked in the loch, for lifting your hand
+to the man in my presence?"
+
+"Marry," replied the culprit, "because I judge that your honour will not
+think the cold bath necessary for my complaints."
+
+"A pestilent jade," said the Doctor, whispering to Roland Graeme; "and
+I'll warrant her a good one--her voice is as sweet as sirup.--But,
+my pretty maiden," said he, "you show us wonderful little of that
+countenance of yours--be pleased to throw aside your muffler."
+
+"I trust your honour will excuse me till we are more private," answered
+the maiden; "for I have acquaintance, and I should like ill to be known
+in the country as the poor girl whom that scurvy knave put his jest
+upon."
+
+"Fear nothing for thy good name, my sweet little modicum of candied
+manna," replied the Doctor, "for I protest to you, as I am Chamberlain
+of Lochleven, Kinross, and so forth, that the chaste Susanna herself
+could not have snuffed that elixir without sternutation, being in truth
+a curious distillation of rectified _acetum_, or vinegar of the sun,
+prepared by mine own hands--Wherefore, as thou sayest thou wilt come to
+me in private, and express thy contrition for the offence whereof thou
+hast been guilty, I command that all for the present go forward as if no
+such interruption of the prescribed course had taken place."
+
+The damsel curtsied and tripped back to her place. The play proceeded,
+but it no longer attracted the attention of Roland Graeme.
+
+The voice, the figure, and what the veil permitted to be seen of the
+neck and tresses of the village damsel, bore so strong a resemblance to
+those of Catherine Seyton, that he felt like one bewildered in the
+mazes of a changeful and stupifying dream. The memorable scene of
+the hostelrie rushed on his recollection, with all its doubtful and
+marvellous circumstances. Were the tales of enchantment which he
+had read in romances realized in this extraordinary girl? Could she
+transport herself from the walled and guarded Castle of Lochleven,
+moated with its broad lake, (towards which he cast back a look as if to
+ascertain it was still in existence,) and watched with such scrupulous
+care as the safety of a nation demanded?--Could she surmount all these
+obstacles, and make such careless and dangerous use of her liberty, as
+to engage herself publicly in a quarrel in a village fair? Roland was
+unable to determine whether the exertions which it must have cost her
+to gain her freedom or the use to which she had put it, rendered her the
+most unaccountable creature.
+
+Lost in these meditations, he kept his gaze fixed on the subject of
+them; and in every casual motion, discovered, or thought he discovered,
+something which reminded him still more strongly of Catherine Seyton.
+It occurred to him more than once, indeed, that he might be deceiving
+himself by exaggerating some casual likeness into absolute identity.
+But then the meeting at the hostelrie of Saint Michael's returned to his
+mind, and it seemed in the highest degree improbable, that, under
+such various circumstances, mere imagination should twice have found
+opportunity to play him the selfsame trick. This time, however, he
+determined to have his doubts resolved, and for this purpose he sate
+during the rest of the play like a greyhound in the slip, ready to
+spring upon the hare the instant that she was started. The damsel, whom
+he watched attentively lest she should escape in the crowd when the
+spectacle was closed, sate as if perfectly unconscious that she was
+observed. But the worthy Doctor marked the direction of his eyes, and
+magnanimously suppressed his own inclination to become the Theseus
+to this Hippolyta, in deference to the rights of hospitality, which
+enjoined him to forbear interference with the pleasurable pursuits
+of his young friend. He passed one or two formal gibes upon the fixed
+attention which the page paid to the unknown, and upon his own jealousy;
+adding, however, that if both were to be presented to the patient at
+once, he had little doubt she would think the younger man the sounder
+prescription. "I fear me," he added, "we shall have no news of the knave
+Auchtermuchty for some time, since the vermin whom I sent after him seem
+to have proved corbie-messengers. So you have an hour or two on your
+hands, Master Page; and as the minstrels are beginning to strike up, now
+the play is ended, why, an you incline for a dance, yonder is the green,
+and there sits your partner--I trust you will hold me perfect in my
+diagnostics, since I see with half an eye what disease you are sick of,
+and have administered a pleasing remedy.
+
+  "_Discernit sapiens res_ (as Chambers hath it) _quas
+    confundit asellus_."
+
+The page hardly heard the end of the learned adage, or the charge
+which the Chamberlain gave him to be within reach, in case of the wains
+arriving suddenly, and sooner than expected--so eager he was at once
+to shake himself free of his learned associate, and to satisfy his
+curiosity regarding the unknown damsel. Yet in the haste with which he
+made towards her he found time to reflect, that, in order to secure an
+opportunity of conversing with her in private, he must not alarm her
+at first accosting her. He therefore composed his manner and gait,
+and advancing with becoming self-confidence before three or four
+country-fellows who were intent on the same design, but knew not so well
+how to put their request into shape, he acquainted her that he, as the
+deputy of the venerable Chamberlain, requested the honour of her hand as
+a partner.
+
+"The venerable Chamberlain," said the damsel frankly, reaching the page
+her hand, "does very well to exercise this part of his privilege by
+deputy; and I suppose the laws of the revels leave me no choice but to
+accept of his faithful delegate."
+
+"Provided, fair damsel," said the page, "his choice of a delegate is not
+altogether distasteful to you."
+
+"Of that, fair sir," replied the maiden, "I will tell you more when we
+have danced the first measure."
+
+Catherine Seyton had admirable skill in gestic lore, and was sometimes
+called on to dance for the amusement of her royal mistress. Roland
+Graeme had often been a spectator of her skill, and sometimes, at
+the Queen's command, Catherine's partner on such occasions. He was,
+therefore, perfectly acquainted with Catherine's mode of dancing; and
+observed that his present partner, in grace, in agility, in quickness
+of ear, and precision of execution, exactly resembled her, save that the
+Scottish jig, which he now danced with her, required a more violent
+and rapid motion, and more rustic agility, than the stately pavens,
+lavoltas, and courantoes, which he had seen her execute in the chamber
+of Queen Mary. The active duties of the dance left him little time for
+reflection, and none for conversation; but when their _pas de deux_
+was finished, amidst the acclamations of the villagers, who had seldom
+witnessed such an exhibition, he took an opportunity, when they yielded
+up the green to another couple, to use the privilege of a partner and
+enter into conversation with the mysterious maiden, whom he still held
+by the hand.
+
+"Fair partner, may I not crave the name of her who has graced me thus
+far?"
+
+"You may," said the maiden; "but it is a question whether I shall answer
+you."
+
+"And why?" asked Roland.
+
+"Because nobody gives anything for nothing--and you can tell me nothing
+in return which I care to hear."
+
+"Could I not tell you my name and lineage, in exchange for yours?"
+returned Roland.
+
+"No!" answered the maiden, "for you know little of either."
+
+"How?" said the page, somewhat angrily.
+
+"Wrath you not for the matter," said the damsel; "I will show you in an
+instant that I know more of you than you do of yourself."
+
+"Indeed," answered Graeme; "for whom then do you take me?"
+
+"For the wild falcon," answered she, "whom a dog brought in his mouth to
+a certain castle, when he was but an unfledged eyas--for the hawk
+whom men dare not fly, lest he should check at game, and pounce on
+carrion--whom folk must keep hooded till he has the proper light of his
+eyes, and can discover good from evil."
+
+"Well--be it so," replied Roland Graeme; "I guess at a part of your
+parable, fair mistress mine--and perhaps I know as much of you as you
+do of me, and can well dispense with the information which you are so
+niggard in giving."
+
+"Prove that," said the maiden, "and I will give you credit for more
+penetration than I judged you to be gifted withal."
+
+"It shall be proved instantly," said Roland Graeme. "The first letter of
+your name is S, and the last N."
+
+"Admirable," said his partner, "guess on."
+
+"It pleases you to-day," continued Roland, "to wear the snood and
+kirtle, and perhaps you may be seen to-morrow in hat and feather, hose
+and doublet."
+
+"In the clout! in the clout! you have hit the very white," said the
+damsel, suppressing a great inclination to laugh.
+
+"You can switch men's eyes out of their heads, as well as the heart out
+of their bosoms."
+
+These last words were uttered in a low and tender tone, which, to
+Roland's great mortification, and somewhat to his displeasure, was so
+far from allaying, that it greatly increased, his partner's disposition
+to laughter. She could scarce compose herself while she replied, "If you
+had thought my hand so formidable," extricating it from his hold, "you
+would not have grasped it so hard; but I perceive you know me so fully,
+that there is no occasion to show you my face."
+
+"Fair Catherine," said the page, "he were unworthy ever to have seen
+you, far less to have dwelt so long in the same service, and under the
+same roof with you, who could mistake your air, your gesture, your step
+in walking or in dancing, the turn of your neck, the symmetry of your
+form--none could be so dull as not to recognize you by so many proofs;
+but for me, I could swear even to that tress of hair that escapes from
+under your muffler."
+
+"And to the face, of course, which that muffler covers," said the
+maiden, removing her veil, and in an instant endeavouring to replace it.
+She showed the features of Catherine; but an unusual degree of petulant
+impatience inflamed them, when, from some awkwardness in her management
+of the muffler, she was unable again to adjust it with that dexterity
+which was a principal accomplishment of the coquettes of the time.
+
+"The fiend rive the rag to tatters!" said the damsel, as the veil
+fluttered about her shoulders, with an accent so earnest and decided,
+that it made the page start. He looked again at the damsel's face, but
+the information which his eyes received, was to the same purport as
+before. He assisted her to adjust her muffler, and both were for
+an instant silent. The damsel spoke first, for Roland Graeme was
+overwhelmed with surprise at the contrarieties which Catherine Seyton
+seemed to include in her person and character.
+
+"You are surprised," said the damsel to him, "at what you see and
+hear--But the times which make females men, are least of all fitted for
+men to become women; yet you yourself are in danger of such a change."
+
+"I in danger of becoming effeminate!" said the page.
+
+"Yes, you, for all the boldness of your reply," said the damsel. "When
+you should hold fast your religion, because it is assailed on all sides
+by rebels, traitors, and heretics, you let it glide out of your breast
+like water grasped in the hand. If you are driven from the faith of
+your fathers from fear of a traitor, is not that womanish?--If you
+are cajoled by the cunning arguments of a trumpeter of heresy, or the
+praises of a puritanic old woman, is not that womanish?--If you are
+bribed by the hope of spoil and preferment, is not that womanish?--And
+when you wonder at my venting a threat or an execration, should you not
+wonder at yourself, who, pretending to a gentle name and aspiring
+to knighthood, can be at the same time cowardly, silly, and
+self-interested!"
+
+"I would that a man would bring such a charge," said the page; "he
+should see, ere his life was a minute older, whether he had cause to
+term me coward or no."
+
+"Beware of such big words," answered the maiden; "you said but anon that
+I sometimes wear hose and doublet."
+
+"But remain still Catharine Seyton, wear what you list," said the page,
+endeavouring again to possess himself of her hand.
+
+"You indeed are pleased to call me so," replied the maiden, evading his
+intention, "but I have many other names besides."
+
+"And will you not reply to that," said the page, "by which you are
+distinguished beyond every other maiden in Scotland?"
+
+The damsel, unallured by his praises, still kept aloof, and sung with
+gaiety a verse from an old ballad,
+
+  "Oh, some do call me Jack, sweet love,
+    And some do call me Gill;
+  But when I ride to Holyrood,
+    My name is Wilful Will."
+
+"Wilful Will" exclaimed the page, impatiently; "say rather Will o' the
+Wisp--Jack with the Lantern--for never was such a deceitful or wandering
+meteor!"
+
+"If I be such," replied the maiden, "I ask no fools to follow me--If
+they do so, it is at their own pleasure, and must be on their own proper
+peril."
+
+"Nay, but, dearest Catherine," said Roland Graeme, "be for one instant
+serious."
+
+"If you will call me your dearest Catherine, when I have given you so
+many names to choose upon," replied the damsel, "I would ask you how,
+supposing me for two or three hours of my life escaped from yonder
+tower, you have the cruelty to ask me to be serious during the only
+merry moments I have seen perhaps for months?"
+
+"Ay, but, fair Catherine, there are moments of deep and true feeling,
+which are worth ten thousand years of the liveliest mirth; and such was
+that of yesterday, when you so nearly--"
+
+"So nearly what?" demanded the damsel, hastily.
+
+"When you approached your lips so near to the sign you had traced on my
+forehead."
+
+"Mother of Heaven!" exclaimed she, in a yet fiercer tone, and with a
+more masculine manner than she had yet exhibited,-"Catherine Seyton
+approach her lips to a man's brow, and thou that man!--vassal, thou
+liest!"
+
+The page stood astonished; but, conceiving he had alarmed the damsel's
+delicacy by alluding to the enthusiasm of a moment, and the manner in
+which she had expressed it, he endeavoured to falter forth an apology.
+His excuses, though he was unable to give them any regular shape, were
+accepted by his companion, who had indeed suppressed her indignation
+after its first explosion--"Speak no more on't," she said. "And now let
+us part; our conversation may attract more notice than is convenient for
+either of us."
+
+"Nay, but allow me at least to follow you to some sequestered place."
+
+"You dare not," replied the maiden.
+
+"How," said the youth, "dare not? where is it you dare go, where I dare
+not follow?"
+
+"You fear a Will o' the Wisp," said the damsel; "how would you face a
+fiery dragon, with an enchantress mounted on its back?"
+
+"Like Sir Eger, Sir Grime, or Sir Greysteil," said the page; "but be
+there such toys to be seen here?"
+
+"I go to Mother Nicneven's," answered the maid; "and she is witch enough
+to rein the horned devil, with a red silk thread for a bridle, and a
+rowan-tree switch for a whip."
+
+"I will follow you," said the page.
+
+"Let it be at some distance," said the maiden.
+
+And wrapping her mantle round her with more success than on her former
+attempt, she mingled with the throng, and walked towards the village,
+heedfully followed by Roland Graeme at some distance, and under
+every precaution which he could use to prevent his purpose from being
+observed.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Eighth.
+
+
+  Yes, it is he whose eyes look'd on thy childhood,
+  And watch'd with trembling hope thy dawn of youth,
+  That now, with these same eyeballs dimm'd with age,
+  And dimmer yet with tears, sees thy dishonour.
+                                OLD PLAY.
+
+At the entrance of the principal, or indeed, so to speak, the only
+street in Kinross, the damsel, whose steps were pursued by Roland
+Graeme, cast a glance behind her, as if to be certain he had not lost
+trace of her and then plunged down a very narrow lane which ran betwixt
+two rows of poor and ruinous cottages. She paused for a second at the
+door of one of those miserable tenements, again cast her eye up the lane
+towards Roland, then lifted the latch, opened the door, and disappeared
+from his view.
+
+With whatever haste the page followed her example, the difficulty which
+he found in discovering the trick of the latch, which did not work quite
+in the usual manner, and in pushing open the door, which did not yield
+to his first effort, delayed for a minute or two his entrance into the
+cottage. A dark and smoky passage led, as usual, betwixt the exterior
+wall of the house, and the _hallan_, or clay wall, which served as a
+partition betwixt it and the interior. At the end of this passage,
+and through the partition, was a door leading into the _ben_, or inner
+chamber of the cottage, and when Roland Graeme's hand was upon the latch
+of this door, a female voice pronounced, "_Benedictus qui veniat in
+nomine Domini, damnandus qui in nomine inimici._" On entering the
+apartment, he perceived the figure which the chamberlain had pointed out
+to him as Mother Nicneven, seated beside the lowly hearth. But there was
+no other person in the room. Roland Graeme gazed around in surprise at
+the disappearance of Catherine Seyton, without paying much regard to the
+supposed sorceress, until she attracted and riveted his regard by the
+tone in which she asked him--"What seekest thou here?"
+
+"I seek," said the page, with much embarrassment; "I seek--"
+
+But his answer was cut short, when the old woman, drawing her huge gray
+eyebrows sternly together, with a frown which knitted her brow into a
+thousand wrinkles, arose, and erecting herself up to her full natural
+size, tore the kerchief from her head, and seizing Roland by the arm,
+made two strides across the floor of the apartment to a small window
+through which the light fell full on her face, and showed the astonished
+youth the countenance of Magdalen Graeme.--"Yes, Roland," she said,
+"thine eyes deceive thee not; they show thee truly the features of her
+whom thou hast thyself deceived, whose wine thou hast turned into gall,
+her bread of joyfulness into bitter poison, her hope into the blackest
+despair--it is she who now demands of thee, what seekest thou here?--She
+whose heaviest sin towards Heaven hath been, that she loved thee
+even better than the weal of the whole church, and could not without
+reluctance surrender thee even in the cause of God--she now asks you,
+what seekest thou here?"
+
+While she spoke, she kept her broad black eye riveted on the youth's
+face, with the expression with which the eagle regards his prey ere he
+tears it to pieces. Roland felt himself at the moment incapable either
+of reply or evasion. This extraordinary enthusiast had preserved over
+him in some measure the ascendency which she had acquired during his
+childhood; and, besides, he knew the violence of her passions and her
+impatience of contradiction, and was sensible that almost any reply
+which he could make, was likely to throw her into an ecstasy of rage.
+He was therefore silent; and Magdalen Graeme proceeded with increasing
+enthusiasm in her apostrophe--"Once more, what seek'st thou, false
+boy?--seek'st thou the honour thou hast renounced, the faith thou hast
+abandoned, the hopes thou hast destroyed?--Or didst thou seek me, the
+sole protectress of thy youth, the only parent whom thou hast known,
+that thou mayest trample on my gray hairs, even as thou hast already
+trampled on the best wishes of my heart?"
+
+"Pardon me, mother," said Roland Graeme; "but, in truth and reason,
+I deserve not your blame. I have been treated amongst you--even by
+yourself, my revered parent, as well as by others--as one who lacked the
+common attributes of free-will and human reason, or was at least deemed
+unfit to exercise them. A land of enchantment have I been led into, and
+spells have been cast around me--every one has met me in disguise--every
+one has spoken to me in parables--I have been like one who walks in a
+weary and bewildering dream; and now you blame me that I have not the
+sense, and judgment, and steadiness of a waking, and a disenchanted, and
+a reasonable man, who knows what he is doing, and wherefore he does it.
+If one must walk with masks and spectres, who waft themselves from place
+to place as it were in vision rather than reality, it might shake the
+soundest faith and turn the wisest head. I sought, since I must needs
+avow my folly, the same Catherine Seyton with whom you made me first
+acquainted, and whom I most strangely find in this village of Kinross,
+gayest among the revellers, when I had but just left her in the
+well-guarded castle of Lochleven, the sad attendant of an imprisoned
+Queen-I sought her, and in her place I find you, my mother, more
+strangely disguised than even she is."
+
+"And what hadst thou to do with Catherine Seyton?" said the matron,
+sternly; "is this a time or a world to follow maidens, or to dance
+around a Maypole? When the trumpet summons every true-hearted Scotsman
+around the standard of the true sovereign, shalt thou be found loitering
+in a lady's bower?"
+
+"No, by Heaven, nor imprisoned in the rugged walls of an island castle!"
+answered Roland Graeme: "I would the blast were to sound even now, for I
+fear that nothing less loud will dispel the chimerical visions by which
+I am surrounded."
+
+"Doubt not that it will be winded," said the matron, "and that so
+fearfully loud, that Scotland will never hear the like until the last
+and loudest blast of all shall announce to mountain and to valley that
+time is no more. Meanwhile, be thou but brave and constant--Serve God
+and honour thy sovereign--Abide by thy religion--I cannot--I will
+not--I dare not ask thee the truth of the terrible surmises I have heard
+touching thy falling away--perfect not that accursed sacrifice--and yet,
+even at this late hour, thou mayest be what I have hoped for the son
+of my dearest hope--what say I? the son of _my_ hope--thou shalt be the
+hope of Scotland, her boast and her honour!--Even thy wildest and most
+foolish wishes may perchance be fulfilled--I might blush to mingle
+meaner motives with the noble guerdon I hold out to thee--It shames me,
+being such as I am, to mention the idle passions of youth, save with
+contempt and the purpose of censure. But we must bribe children to
+wholesome medicine by the offer of cates, and youth to honourable
+achievement with the promise of pleasure. Mark me, therefore, Roland.
+The love of Catherine Seyton will follow him only who shall achieve the
+freedom of her mistress; and believe, it may be one day in thine own
+power to be that happy lover. Cast, therefore, away doubt and fear, and
+prepare to do what religion calls for, what thy country demands of thee,
+what thy duty as a subject and as a servant alike require at your hand;
+and be assured, even the idlest or wildest wishes of thy heart will be
+most readily attained by following the call of thy duty."
+
+As she ceased speaking, a double knock was heard against the inner door.
+The matron hastily adjusting her muffler, and resuming her chair by the
+hearth, demanded who was there.
+
+"_Salve in nomine sancto_," was answered from without.
+
+"_Salvete et vos_," answered Magdalen Graeme.
+
+And a man entered in the ordinary dress of a nobleman's retainer,
+wearing at his girdle a sword and buckler--"I sought you," said he, "my
+mother, and him whom I see with you." Then addressing himself to Roland
+Graeme, he said to him, "Hast thou not a packet from George Douglas?"
+
+"I have," said the page, suddenly recollecting that which had been
+committed to his charge in the morning, "but I may not deliver it to any
+one without some token that they have a right to ask it."
+
+"You say well," replied the serving-man, and whispered into his ear,
+"The packet which I ask is the report to his father--will this token
+suffice?"
+
+"It will," replied the page, and taking the packet from his bosom, gave
+it to the man.
+
+"I will return presently," said the serving-man, and left the cottage.
+
+Roland had now sufficiently recovered his surprise to accost his
+relative in turn, and request to know the reason why he found her in
+so precarious a disguise, and a place so dangerous--"You cannot be
+ignorant," he said, "of the hatred that the Lady of Lochleven bears to
+those of your--that is of our religion--your present disguise lays you
+open to suspicion of a different kind, but inferring no less hazard;
+and whether as a Catholic, or as a sorceress, or as a friend to the
+unfortunate Queen, you are in equal danger, if apprehended within the
+bounds of the Douglas; and in the chamberlain who administers their
+authority, you have, for his own reasons, an enemy, and a bitter one."
+
+"I know it," said the matron, her eyes kindling with triumph; "I know
+that, vain of his school-craft, and carnal wisdom, Luke Lundin views
+with jealousy and hatred the blessings which the saints have conferred
+on my prayers, and on the holy relics, before the touch, nay, before the
+bare presence of which, disease and death have so often been known to
+retreat.--I know he would rend and tear me; but there is a chain and
+a muzzle on the ban dog that shall restrain his fury, and the Master's
+servant shall not be offended by him until the Master's work is wrought.
+When that hour comes, let the shadows of the evening descend on me in
+thunder and in tempest; the time shall be welcome that relieves my eyes
+from seeing guilt, and my ears from listening to blasphemy. Do thou but
+be constant--play thy part as I have played and will play mine, and my
+release shall be like that of a blessed martyr whose ascent to heaven
+angels hail with psalm and song, while earth pursues him with hiss and
+with execration."
+
+As she concluded, the serving-man again entered the cottage, and said,
+"All is well! the time holds for to-morrow night."
+
+"What time? what holds?" exclaimed Roland Graeme; "I trust I have given
+the Douglas's packet to no wrong--"
+
+"Content yourself, young man," answered the serving-man; "thou hast my
+word and token."
+
+"I know not if the token be right," said the page; "and I care not much
+for the word of a stranger."
+
+"What," said the matron, "although thou mayest have given a packet
+delivered to thy charge by one of the Queen's rebels into the hand of
+a loyal subject--there were no great mistake in that, thou hot-brained
+boy!"
+
+"By Saint Andrew, there were foul mistake, though," answered the page;
+"it is the very spirit of my duty, in this first stage of chivalry,
+to be faithful to my trust; and had the devil given me a message to
+discharge, I would not (so I had plighted my faith to the contrary)
+betray his counsel to an angel of light."
+
+"Now, by the love I once bore thee," said the matron, "I could slay thee
+with mine own hand, when I hear thee talk of a dearer faith being due to
+rebels and heretics, than thou owest to thy church and thy prince!"
+
+"Be patient, my good sister," said the serving-man; "I will give him
+such reasons as shall counterbalance the scruples which beset
+him---the spirit is honourable, though now it may be mistimed and
+misplaced.--Follow me, young man."
+
+"Ere I go to call this stranger to a reckoning," said the page to the
+matron, "is there nothing I can do for your comfort and safety?"
+
+"Nothing," she replied, "nothing, save what will lead more to thine own
+honour;--the saints who have protected me thus far, will lend me succour
+as I need it. Tread the path of glory that is before thee, and only
+think of me as the creature on earth who will be most delighted to hear
+of thy fame.--Follow the stranger--he hath tidings for you that you
+little expect."
+
+The stranger remained on the threshold as if waiting for Roland, and as
+soon as he saw him put himself in motion, he moved on before at a quick
+pace. Diving still deeper down the lane, Roland perceived that it was
+now bordered by buildings upon the one side only, and that the other
+was fenced by a high old wall, over which some trees extended their
+branches. Descending a good way farther, they came to a small door in
+the wall. Roland's guide paused, looked around an instant to see if any
+one were within sight, then taking a key from his pocket, opened the
+door and entered, making a sign to Roland Graeme to follow him. He did
+so, and the stranger locked the door carefully on the inside. During
+this operation the page had a moment to look around, and perceived that
+he was in a small orchard very trimly kept.
+
+The stranger led him through an alley or two, shaded by trees loaded
+with summer-fruit, into a pleached arbour, where, taking the turf-seat
+which was on the one side, he motioned to Roland to occupy that
+which was opposite to him, and, after a momentary silence, opened the
+conversation as follows: "You have asked a better warrant than the word
+of a mere stranger, to satisfy you that I have the authority of George
+of Douglas for possessing myself of the packet intrusted to your
+charge."
+
+"It is precisely the point on which I demand reckoning of you," said
+Roland. "I fear I have acted hastily; if so, I must redeem my error as I
+best may."
+
+"You hold me then as a perfect stranger?" said the man. "Look at my face
+more attentively, and see if the features do not resemble those of a man
+much known to you formerly."
+
+Roland gazed attentively; but the ideas recalled to his mind were so
+inconsistent with the mean and servile dress of the person before him,
+that he did not venture to express the opinion which he was irresistibly
+induced to form.
+
+"Yes, my son," said the stranger, observing his embarrassment, "you
+do indeed see before you the unfortunate Father Ambrosius, who once
+accounted his ministry crowned in your preservation from the snares of
+heresy, but who is now condemned to lament thee as a castaway!"
+
+Roland Graeme's kindness of heart was at least equal to his vivacity
+of temper--he could not bear to see his ancient and honoured master and
+spiritual guide in a situation which inferred a change of fortune so
+melancholy, but throwing himself at his feet, grasped his knees and wept
+aloud.
+
+"What mean these tears, my son?" said the Abbot; "if they are shed for
+your own sins and follies, surely they are gracious showers, and may
+avail thee much--but weep not, if they fall on my account. You indeed
+see the Superior of the community of Saint Mary's in the dress of a poor
+sworder, who gives his master the use of his blade and buckler, and,
+if needful, of his life, for a coarse livery coat and four marks by the
+year. But such a garb suits the time, and, in the period of the church
+militant, as well becomes her prelates, as staff, mitre, and crosier, in
+the days of the church's triumph."
+
+"By what fate," said the page--"and yet why," added he, checking
+himself, "need I ask? Catherine Seyton in some sort prepared me for
+this. But that the change should be so absolute--the destruction so
+complete!"--
+
+"Yes, my son," said the Abbot Ambrosius, "thine own eyes beheld, in my
+unworthy elevation to the Abbot's stall, the last especial act of holy
+solemnity which shall be seen in the church of Saint Mary's, until it
+shall please Heaven to turn back the captivity of the church. For the
+present, the shepherd is smitten--ay, well-nigh to the earth--the
+flock are scattered, and the shrines of saints and martyrs, and pious
+benefactors to the church, are given to the owls of night, and the
+satyrs of the desert."
+
+"And your brother, the Knight of Avenel--could he do nothing for your
+protection?"
+
+"He himself hath fallen under the suspicion of the ruling powers," said
+the Abbot, "who are as unjust to their friends as they are cruel to
+their enemies. I could not grieve at it, did I hope it might estrange
+him from his cause; but I know the soul of Halbert, and I rather fear
+it will drive him to prove his fidelity to their unhappy cause, by some
+deed which may be yet more destructive to the church, and more offensive
+to Heaven. Enough of this; and now to the business of our meeting.--I
+trust you will hold it sufficient if I pass my word to you that the
+packet of which you were lately the bearer, was designed for my hands by
+George of Douglas?"
+
+"Then," said the page, "is George of Douglas----"
+
+"A true friend to his Queen, Roland; and will soon, I trust, have his
+eyes opened to the errors of his (miscalled) church."
+
+"But what is he to his father, and what to the Lady of Lochleven, who
+has been as a mother to him?" said the page impatiently.
+
+"The best friend to both, in time and through eternity," said the Abbot,
+"if he shall prove the happy instrument for redeeming the evil they have
+wrought, and are still working."
+
+"Still," said the page, "I like not that good service which begins in
+breach of trust."
+
+"I blame not thy scruples, my son," said the Abbot; "but the time which
+has wrenched asunder the allegiance of Christians to the church, and of
+subjects to their king, has dissolved all the lesser bonds of society;
+and, in such days, mere human ties must no more restrain our progress,
+than the brambles and briers which catch hold of his garments, should
+delay the path of a pilgrim who travels to pay his vows."
+
+"But, my father,"--said the youth, and then stopt short in a hesitating
+manner.
+
+"Speak on, my son," said the Abbot; "speak without fear."
+
+"Let me not offend you then," said Roland, "when I say, that it is
+even this which our adversaries charge against us; when they say that,
+shaping the means according to the end, we are willing to commit great
+moral evil in order that we may work out eventual good."
+
+"The heretics have played their usual arts on you, my son," said the
+Abbot; "they would willingly deprive us of the power of acting wisely
+and secretly, though their possession of superior force forbids our
+contending with them on terms of equality. They have reduced us to a
+state of exhausted weakness, and now would fain proscribe the means by
+which weakness, through all the range of nature, supplies the lack of
+strength and defends itself against its potent enemies. As well might
+the hound say to the hare, use not these wily turns to escape me, but
+contend with me in pitched battle, as the armed and powerful heretic
+demand of the down-trodden and oppressed Catholic to lay aside the
+wisdom of the serpent, by which alone they may again hope to raise
+up the Jerusalem over which they weep, and which it is their duty to
+rebuild--But more of this hereafter. And now, my son, I command thee
+on thy faith to tell me truly and particularly what has chanced to thee
+since we parted, and what is the present state of thy conscience. Thy
+relation, our sister Magdalen, is a woman of excellent gifts, blessed
+with a zeal which neither doubt nor danger can quench; but yet it is
+not a zeal altogether according to knowledge; wherefore, my son, I would
+willingly be myself thy interrogator, and thy counsellor, in these days
+of darkness and stratagem."
+
+With the respect which he owed to his first instructor, Roland Graeme
+went rapidly through the events which the reader is acquainted with; and
+while he disguised not from the prelate the impression which had
+been made on his mind by the arguments of the preacher Henderson, he
+accidentally and almost involuntarily gave his Father Confessor to
+understand the influence which Catherine Seyton had acquired over his
+mind.
+
+"It is with joy I discover, my dearest son," replied the Abbot, "that
+I have arrived in time to arrest thee on the verge of the precipice to
+which thou wert approaching. These doubts of which you complain, are the
+weeds which naturally grow up in a strong soil, and require the careful
+hand of the husbandman to eradicate them. Thou must study a little
+volume, which I will impart to thee in fitting time, in which, by Our
+Lady's grace, I have placed in somewhat a clearer light than heretofore,
+the points debated betwixt us and these heretics, who sow among the
+wheat the same tares which were formerly privily mingled with the good
+seed by the Albigenses and the Lollards. But it is not by reason alone
+that you must hope to conquer these insinuations of the enemy: It is
+sometimes by timely resistance, but oftener by timely flight. You
+must shut your ears against the arguments of the heresiarch, when
+circumstances permit you not to withdraw the foot from his company.
+Anchor your thoughts upon the service of Our Lady, while he is expending
+in vain his heretical sophistry. Are you unable to maintain your
+attention on heavenly objects--think rather on thine own earthly
+pleasures, than tempt Providence and the Saints by giving an attentive
+ear to the erring doctrine--think of thy hawk, thy hound, thine angling
+rod, thy sword and buckler--think even of Catherine Seyton, rather than
+give thy soul to the lessons of the tempter. Alas! my son, believe not
+that, worn out with woes, and bent more by affliction than by years, I
+have forgotten the effect of beauty over the heart of youth. Even in
+the watches of the night, broken by thoughts of an imprisoned Queen, a
+distracted kingdom, a church laid waste and ruinous, come other thoughts
+than these suggest, and feelings which belonged to an earlier and
+happier course of life. Be it so--we must bear our load as we may: and
+not in vain are these passions implanted in our breast, since, as now
+in thy case, they may come in aid of resolutions founded upon higher
+grounds. Yet beware, my son--this Catherine Seyton is the daughter of
+one of Scotland's proudest, as well as most worthy barons; and thy state
+may not suffer thee, as yet, to aspire so high. But thus it is--Heaven
+works its purposes through human folly; and Douglas's ambitious
+affection, as well as thine, shall contribute alike to the desired end."
+
+"How, my father," said the page, "my suspicions are then true!--Douglas
+loves----"
+
+"He does; and with a love as much misplaced as thine own; but beware of
+him--cross him not--thwart him not."
+
+"Let him not cross or thwart me," said the page; "for I will not yield
+him an inch of way, had he in his body the soul of every Douglas
+that has lived since the time of the Dark Gray Man." [Footnote: By an
+ancient, though improbable tradition, the Douglasses are said to have
+derived their name from a champion who had greatly distinguished himself
+in an action. When the king demanded by whom the battle had been won,
+the attendants are said to have answered, "Sholto Douglas, sir;" which
+is said to mean, "Yonder dark gray man." But the name is undoubtedly
+territorial, and taken from Douglas river and vale.]
+
+"Nay, have patience, idle boy, and reflect that your suit can never
+interfere with his.--But a truce with these vanities, and let us better
+employ the little space which still remains to us to spend together. To
+thy knees, my son, and resume the long-interrupted duty of confession,
+that, happen what may, the hour may find in thee a faithful Catholic,
+relieved from the guilt of his sins by authority of the Holy Church.
+Could I but tell thee, Roland, the joy with which I see thee once more
+put thy knee to its best and fittest use! _Quid dicis, mi fili?_"
+
+"_Culpas meas_" answered the youth; and according to the ritual of the
+Catholic Church, he confessed and received absolution, to which was
+annexed the condition of performing certain enjoined penances.
+
+When this religious ceremony was ended, an old man, in the dress of
+a peasant of the better order, approached the arbour, and greeted the
+Abbot.--"I have waited the conclusion of your devotions," he said, "to
+tell you the youth is sought after by the chamberlain, and it were well
+he should appear without delay. Holy Saint Francis, if the halberdiers
+were to seek him here, they might sorely wrong my garden-plot--they are
+in office, and reck not where they tread, were each step on jessamine
+and clovegilly-flowers."
+
+"We will speed him forth, my brother," said the Abbot; "but alas! is it
+possible that such trifles should live in your mind at a crisis so awful
+as that which is now impending?"
+
+"Reverend father," answered the proprietor of the garden, for such he
+was, "how oft shall I pray you to keep your high counsel for high minds
+like your own? What have you required of me, that I have not granted
+unresistingly, though with an aching heart?"
+
+"I would require of you to be yourself, my brother," said the Abbot
+Ambrosius; "to remember what you were, and to what your early vows have
+bound you."
+
+"I tell thee, Father Ambrosius," replied the gardener, "the patience of
+the best saint that ever said pater-noster, would be exhausted by the
+trials to which you have put mine--What I have been, it skills not
+to speak at present-no one knows better than yourself, father, what I
+renounced, in hopes to find ease and quiet during the remainder of
+my days--and no one better knows how my retreat has been invaded, my
+fruit-trees broken, my flower-beds trodden down, my quiet frightened
+away, and my very sleep driven from my bed, since ever this poor Queen,
+God bless her, hath been sent to Lochleven.--I blame her not; being a
+prisoner, it is natural she should wish to get out from so vile a hold,
+where there is scarcely any place even for a tolerable garden, and where
+the water-mists, as I am told, blight all the early blossoms--I say, I
+cannot blame her for endeavouring for her freedom; but why I should be
+drawn into the scheme--why my harmless arbours, that I planted with my
+own hands, should become places of privy conspiracy-why my little quay,
+which I built for my own fishing boat, should have become a haven for
+secret embarkations--in short, why I should be dragged into matters
+where both heading and hanging are like to be the issue, I profess to
+you, reverend father, I am totally ignorant."
+
+"My brother," answered the Abbot, "you are wise, and ought to know--"
+
+"I am not--I am not--I am not wise," replied the horticulturist,
+pettishly, and stopping his ears with his fingers--"I was never called
+wise but when men wanted to engage me in some action of notorious
+folly."
+
+"But, my good brother," said the Abbot--
+
+"I am not good neither," said the peevish gardener; "I am neither good
+nor wise--Had I been wise, you would not have been admitted here; and
+were I good, methinks I should send you elsewhere to hatch plots for
+destroying the quiet of the country. What signifies disputing about
+queen or king,--when men may sit at peace--_sub umbra vitis sui?_ and so
+would I do, after the precept of Holy Writ, were I, as you term me, wise
+or good. But such as I am, my neck is in the yoke, and you make me draw
+what weight you list.--Follow me, youngster. This reverend father, who
+makes in his jackman's dress nearly as reverend a figure as I myself,
+will agree with me in one thing at least, and that is, that you have
+been long enough here."
+
+"Follow the good father, Roland," said the Abbot, "and remember my
+words--a day is approaching that will try the temper of all true
+Scotsmen--may thy heart prove faithful as the steel of thy blade!"
+
+The page bowed in silence, and they parted; the gardener,
+notwithstanding his advanced age, walking on before him very briskly,
+and muttering as he went, partly to himself, partly to his companion,
+after the manner of old men of weakened intellects--"When I was great,"
+thus ran his maundering, "and had my mule and my ambling palfrey at
+command, I warrant you I could have as well flown through the air
+as have walked at this pace. I had my gout and my rheumatics, and an
+hundred things besides, that hung fetters on my heels; and, now, thanks
+to Our Lady, and honest labour, I can walk with any good man of my age
+in the kingdom of Fife--Fy upon it, that experience should be so long in
+coming!"
+
+As he was thus muttering, his eye fell upon the branch of a pear-tree
+which drooped down for want of support, and at once forgetting his
+haste, the old man stopped and set seriously about binding it up.
+Roland Graeme had both readiness, neatness of hand, and good nature in
+abundance; he immediately lent his aid, and in a minute or two the bough
+was supported, and tied up in a way perfectly satisfactory to the old
+man, who looked at it with great complaisance. "They are bergamots,"
+he said, "and if you will come ashore in autumn, you shall taste of
+them--the like are not in Lochleven Castle--the garden there is a poor
+pin-fold, and the gardener, Hugh Houkham, hath little skill of his
+craft--so come ashore, Master Page, in autumn, when you would eat pears.
+But what am I thinking of--ere that time come, they may have given thee
+sour pears for plums. Take an old man's advice, youth, one who hath seen
+many days, and sat in higher places than thou canst hope for--bend thy
+sword into a pruning-hook, and make a dibble of thy dagger--thy days
+shall be the longer, and thy health the better for it,--and come to
+aid me in my garden, and I will teach thee the real French fashion of
+_imping_, which the Southron call graffing. Do this, and do it without
+loss of time, for there is a whirlwind coming over the land, and only
+those shall escape who lie too much beneath the storm to have their
+boughs broken by it."
+
+So saying, he dismissed Roland Graeme, through a different door
+from that by which he had entered, signed a cross, and pronounced a
+benedicite as they parted, and then, still muttering to himself, retired
+into the garden, and locked the door on the inside.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Twenty-Ninth.
+
+
+  Pray God she prove not masculine ere long!
+                        KING HENRY VI.
+
+Dismissed from the old man's garden, Roland Graeme found that a grassy
+paddock, in which sauntered two cows, the property of the gardener,
+still separated him from the village. He paced through it, lost in
+meditation upon the words of the Abbot. Father Ambrosius had, with
+success enough, exerted over him that powerful influence which the
+guardians and instructors of our childhood possess over our more mature
+youth. And yet, when Roland looked back upon what the father had said,
+he could not but suspect that he had rather sought to evade entering
+into the controversy betwixt the churches, than to repel the objections
+and satisfy the doubts which the lectures of Henderson had excited.
+"For this he had no time," said the page to himself, "neither have I now
+calmness and learning sufficient to judge upon points of such magnitude.
+Besides, it were base to quit my faith while the wind of fortune sets
+against it, unless I were so placed, that my conversion, should it take
+place, were free as light from the imputation of self-interest. I was
+bred a Catholic--bred in the faith of Bruce and Wallace--I will hold
+that faith till time and reason shall convince me that it errs. I
+will serve this poor Queen as a subject should serve an imprisoned
+and wronged sovereign--they who placed me in her service have to blame
+themselves--who sent me hither, a gentleman trained in the paths of
+loyalty and honour, when they should have sought out some truckling,
+cogging, double-dealing knave, who would have been at once the observant
+page of the Queen, and the obsequious spy of her enemies. Since I must
+choose betwixt aiding and betraying her, I will decide as becomes her
+servant and her subject; but Catherine Seyton--Catherine Seyton, beloved
+by Douglas and holding me on or off as the intervals of her leisure or
+caprice will permit--how shall I deal with the coquette?--By heaven,
+when I next have an opportunity, she shall render me some reason for her
+conduct, or I will break with her for ever!"
+
+As he formed this doughty resolution, he crossed the stile which led out
+of the little enclosure, and was almost immediately greeted by Dr. Luke
+Lundin.
+
+"Ha! my most excellent young friend," said the Doctor, "from whence come
+you?--but I note the place.--Yes, neighbour Blinkhoolie's garden is a
+pleasant rendezvous, and you are of the age when lads look after a bonny
+lass with one eye, and a dainty plum with another. But hey! you look
+subtriste and melancholic--I fear the maiden has proved cruel, or the
+plums unripe; and surely I think neighbour Blinkhoolie's damsons can
+scarcely have been well preserved throughout the winter--he spares the
+saccharine juice on his confects. But courage, man, there are more Kates
+in Kinross; and for the immature fruit, a glass of my double distilled
+_aqua mirabilis--probatum est_."
+
+The page darted an ireful glance at the facetious physician; but
+presently recollecting that the name Kate, which had provoked his
+displeasure, was probably but introduced for the sake of alliteration,
+he suppressed his wrath, and only asked if the wains had been heard of?
+
+"Why, I have been seeking for you this hour, to tell you that the stuff
+is in your boat, and that the boat waits your pleasure. Auchtermuchty
+had only fallen into company with an idle knave like himself, and a
+stoup of aquavitae between them. Your boatmen lie on their oars, and
+there have already been made two wefts from the warder's turret to
+intimate that those in the castle are impatient for your return. Yet
+there is time for you to take a slight repast; and, as your friend and
+physician, I hold it unfit you should face the water-breeze with an
+empty stomach."
+
+Roland Graeme had nothing for it but to return, with such cheer as he
+might, to the place where his boat was moored on the beach, and resisted
+all offer of refreshment, although the Doctor promised that he should
+prelude the collation with a gentle appetizer--a decoction of herbs,
+gathered and distilled by himself. Indeed, as Roland had not forgotten
+the contents of his morning cup, it is possible that the recollection
+induced him to stand firm in his refusal of all food, to which such
+an unpalatable preface was the preliminary. As they passed towards the
+boat, (for the ceremonious politeness of the worthy Chamberlain would
+not permit the page to go thither without attendance,) Roland Graeme,
+amidst a group who seemed to be assembled around a party of wandering
+musicians, distinguished, as he thought, the dress of Catherine Seyton.
+He shook himself clear from his attendant, and at one spring was in
+the midst of the crowd, and at the side of the damsel. "Catherine," he
+whispered, "is it well for you to be still here?--will you not return to
+the castle?"
+
+"To the devil with your Catherines and your castles!" answered the
+maiden, snappishly; "have you not had time enough already to get rid of
+your follies? Begone! I desire not your farther company, and there will
+be danger in thrusting it upon me."
+
+"Nay--but if there be danger, fairest Catherine," replied Roland; "why
+will you not allow me to stay and share it with you?"
+
+"Intruding fool," said the maiden, "the danger is all on thine own
+side--the risk in, in plain terms, that I strike thee on the mouth with
+the hilt of my dagger." So saying, she turned haughtily from him,
+and moved through the crowd, who gave way in some astonishment at the
+masculine activity with which she forced her way among them.
+
+As Roland, though much irritated, prepared to follow, he was grappled
+on the other side by Doctor Luke Lundin, who reminded him of the loaded
+boat, of the two wefts, or signals with the flag, which had been made
+from the tower, of the danger of the cold breeze to an empty stomach,
+and of the vanity of spending more time upon coy wenches and sour plums.
+Roland was thus, in a manner, dragged back to his boat, and obliged to
+launch her forth upon his return to Lochleven Castle.
+
+That little voyage was speedily accomplished, and the page was
+greeted at the landing-place by the severe and caustic welcome of old
+Dryfesdale. "So, young gallant, you are come at last, after a delay of
+six hours, and after two signals from the castle? But, I warrant, some
+idle junketing hath occupied you too deeply to think of your service
+or your duty. Where is the note of the plate and household stuff?--Pray
+Heaven it hath not been diminished under the sleeveless care of so young
+a gad-about!"
+
+"Diminished under my care, Sir Steward!" retorted the page angrily; "say
+so in earnest, and by Heaven your gray hair shall hardly protect your
+saucy tongue!"
+
+"A truce with your swaggering, young esquire," returned the steward; "we
+have bolts and dungeons for brawlers. Go to my lady, and swagger before
+her, if thou darest--she will give thee proper cause of offence, for she
+has waited for thee long and impatiently."
+
+"And where then is the Lady of Lochleven?" said the page; "for I
+conceive it is of her thou speakest."
+
+"Ay--of whom else?" replied Dryfesdale; "or who besides the Lady of
+Lochleven hath a right to command in this castle?"
+
+"The Lady of Lochleven is thy mistress," said Roland Graeme; "but mine
+is the Queen of Scotland."
+
+The steward looked at him fixedly for a moment, with an air in which
+suspicion and dislike were ill concealed by an affectation of contempt.
+"The bragging cock-chicken," he said, "will betray himself by his rash
+crowing. I have marked thy altered manner in the chapel of late--ay, and
+your changing of glances at meal-time with a certain idle damsel, who,
+like thyself, laughs at all gravity and goodness. There is something
+about you, my master, which should be looked to. But, if you would
+know whether the Lady of Lochleven, or that other lady, hath a right
+to command thy service, thou wilt find them together in the Lady Mary's
+ante-room."
+
+Roland hastened thither, not unwilling to escape from the ill-natured
+penetration of the old man, and marvelling at the same time what
+peculiarity could have occasioned the Lady of Lochleven's being in the
+Queen's apartment at this time of the afternoon, so much contrary to
+her usual wont. His acuteness instantly penetrated the meaning. "She
+wishes," he concluded, "to see the meeting betwixt the Queen and me
+on my return, that she may form a guess whether there is any private
+intelligence or understanding betwixt us--I must be guarded."
+
+With this resolution he entered the parlour, where the Queen, seated
+in her chair, with the Lady Fleming leaning upon the back of it, had
+already kept the Lady of Lochleven standing in her presence for the
+space of nearly an hour, to the manifest increase of her very visible
+bad humour. Roland Graeme, on entering the apartment, made a deep
+obeisance to the Queen, and another to the Lady, and then stood still as
+if to await their farther question. Speaking almost together, the Lady
+Lochleven said, "So, young man, you are returned at length?"
+
+And then stopped indignantly short, while the Queen went on without
+regarding her--"Roland, you are welcome home to us--you have proved the
+true dove and not the raven--Yet I am sure I could have forgiven you,
+if, once dismissed, from this water-circled ark of ours, you had never
+again returned to us. I trust you have brought back an olive-branch, for
+our kind and worthy hostess has chafed herself much on account of
+your long absence, and we never needed more some symbol of peace and
+reconciliation."
+
+"I grieve I should have been detained, madam," answered the page; "but
+from the delay of the person intrusted with the matters for which I was
+sent, I did not receive them till late in the day."
+
+"See you there now," said the Queen to the Lady Lochleven; "we could not
+persuade you, our dearest hostess, that your household goods were in all
+safe keeping and surety. True it is, that we can excuse your anxiety,
+considering that these august apartments are so scantily furnished, that
+we have not been able to offer you even the relief of a stool during the
+long time you have afforded us the pleasure of your society."
+
+"The will, madam," said the lady, "the will to offer such accommodation
+was more wanting than the means."
+
+"What!" said the Queen, looking round, and affecting surprise, "there
+are then stools in this apartment--one, two--no less than four,
+including the broken one--a royal garniture!--We observed them not--will
+it please your ladyship to sit?"
+
+"No, madam, I will soon relieve you of my presence," replied the Lady
+Lochleven; "and while with you, my aged limbs can still better brook
+fatigue, than my mind stoop to accept of constrained courtesy."
+
+"Nay, Lady of Lochleven, if you take it so deeply," said the Queen,
+rising and motioning to her own vacant chair, "I would rather you
+assumed my seat--you are not the first of your family who has done so."
+
+The Lady of Lochleven curtsied a negative, but seemed with much
+difficulty to suppress the angry answer which rose to her lips.
+
+During this sharp conversation, the page's attention had been almost
+entirely occupied by the entrance of Catherine Seyton, who came from
+the inner apartment, in the usual dress in which she attended upon the
+Queen, and with nothing in her manner which marked either the hurry or
+confusion incident to a hasty change of disguise, or the conscious fear
+of detection in a perilous enterprise. Roland Graeme ventured to make
+her an obeisance as she entered, but she returned it with an air of the
+utmost indifference, which, in his opinion, was extremely
+inconsistent with the circumstances in which they stood towards each
+other.--"Surely," he thought, "she cannot in reason expect to bully me
+out of the belief due to mine own eyes, as she tried to do concerning
+the apparition in the hostelry of Saint Michael's--I will try if
+I cannot make her feel that this will be but a vain task, and that
+confidence in me is the wiser and safer course to pursue."
+
+These thoughts had passed rapidly through his mind, when the Queen,
+having finished her altercation with the Lady of the castle, again
+addressed him--"What of the revels at Kinross, Roland Graeme? Methought
+they were gay, if I may judge from some faint sounds of mirth and
+distant music, which found their way so far as these grated windows,
+and died when they entered them, as all that is mirthful must--But
+thou lookest as sad as if thou hadst come from a conventicle of the
+Huguenots!"
+
+"And so perchance he hath, madam," replied the Lady of Lochleven, at
+whom this side-shaft was lanched. "I trust, amid yonder idle fooleries,
+there wanted not some pouring forth of doctrine to a better purpose than
+that vain mirth, which, blazing and vanishing like the crackling of dry
+thorns, leaves to the fools who love it nothing but dust and ashes."
+
+"Mary Fleming," said the Queen, turning round and drawing her mantle
+about her, "I would that we had the chimney-grate supplied with a fagot
+or two of these same thorns which the Lady of Lochleven describes so
+well. Methinks the damp air from the lake, which stagnates in these
+vaulted rooms, renders them deadly cold."
+
+"Your Grace's pleasure shall be obeyed," said the Lady of Lochleven;
+"yet may I presume to remind you that we are now in summer?"
+
+"I thank you for the information, my good lady," said the Queen; "for
+prisoners better learn their calender from the mouth of their jailor,
+than from any change they themselves feel in the seasons.--Once more,
+Roland Graeme, what of the revels?"
+
+"They were gay, madam," said the page, "but of the usual sort, and
+little worth your Highness's ear."
+
+"Oh, you know not," said the Queen, "how very indulgent my ear has
+become to all that speaks of freedom and the pleasures of the free.
+Methinks I would rather have seen the gay villagers dance their ring
+round the Maypole, than have witnessed the most stately masques within
+the precincts of a palace. The absence of stone-wall--the sense that the
+green turf is under the foot which may tread it free and unrestrained,
+is worth all that art or splendour can add to more courtly revels."
+
+"I trust," said the Lady Lochleven, addressing the page in her turn,
+"there were amongst these follies none of the riots or disturbances to
+which they so naturally lead?"
+
+Roland gave a slight glance to Catherine Seyton, as if to bespeak her
+attention, as he replied,--"I witnessed no offence, madam, worthy of
+marking--none indeed of any kind, save that a bold damsel made her
+hand somewhat too familiar with the cheek of a player-man, and ran some
+hazard of being ducked in the lake."
+
+As he uttered these words he cast a hasty glance at Catherine; but she
+sustained, with the utmost serenity of manner and countenance, the hint
+which he had deemed could not have been thrown out before her without
+exciting some fear and confusion.
+
+"I will cumber your Grace no longer with my presence," said the Lady
+Lochleven, "unless you have aught to command me."
+
+"Nought, our good hostess," answered the Queen, "unless it be to pray
+you, that on another occasion you deem it not needful to postpone your
+better employment to wait so long upon us."
+
+"May it please you," added the Lady Lochleven, "to command this your
+gentleman to attend us, that I may receive some account of these matters
+which have been sent hither for your Grace's use?"
+
+"We may not refuse what you are pleased to require, madam," answered the
+Queen. "Go with the lady, Roland, if our commands be indeed necessary
+to thy doing so. We will hear to-morrow the history of thy Kinross
+pleasures. For this night we dismiss thy attendance."
+
+Roland Graeme went with the Lady of Lochleven, who failed not to ask
+him many questions concerning what had passed at the sports, to which he
+rendered such answers as were most likely to lull asleep any suspicions
+which she might entertain of his disposition to favour Queen Mary,
+taking especial care to avoid all allusion to the apparition of Magdalen
+Graeme, and of the Abbot Ambrosius. At length, after undergoing a long
+and somewhat close examination, he was dismissed with such expressions,
+as, coming from the reserved and stern Lady of Lochleven, might seem to
+express a degree of favour and countenance.
+
+His first care was to obtain some refreshment, which was more cheerfully
+afforded him by a good-natured pantler than by Dryfesdale, who was, on
+this occasion, much disposed to abide by the fashion of Pudding-burn
+House, where
+
+  They who came not the first call.
+  Gat no more meat till the next meal.
+
+When Roland Graeme had finished his repast, having his dismissal from
+the Queen for the evening, and being little inclined for such society
+as the castle afforded, he stole into the garden, in which he had
+permission to spend his leisure time, when it pleased him. In this
+place, the ingenuity of the contriver and disposer of the walks had
+exerted itself to make the most of little space, and by screens, both
+of stone ornamented with rude sculpture, and hedges of living green, had
+endeavoured to give as much intricacy and variety as the confined limits
+of the garden would admit.
+
+Here the young man walked sadly, considering the events of the day,
+and comparing what had dropped from the Abbot with what he had himself
+noticed of the demeanour of George Douglas. "It must be so," was the
+painful but inevitable conclusion at which he arrived. "It must be by
+his aid that she is thus enabled, like a phantom, to transport herself
+from place to place, and to appear at pleasure on the mainland or on
+the islet.--It must be so," he repeated once more; "with him she holds a
+close, secret, and intimate correspondence, altogether inconsistent with
+the eye of favour which she has sometimes cast upon me, and destructive
+to the hopes which she must have known these glances have necessarily
+inspired." And yet (for love will hope where reason despairs) the
+thought rushed on his mind, that it was possible she only encouraged
+Douglas's passion so far as might serve her mistress's interest, and
+that she was of too frank, noble, and candid a nature, to hold out
+to himself hopes which she meant not to fulfil. Lost in these various
+conjectures, he seated himself upon a bank of turf which commanded a
+view of the lake on the one side, and on the other of that front of the
+castle along which the Queen's apartments were situated.
+
+The sun had now for some time set, and the twilight of May was rapidly
+fading into a serene night. On the lake, the expanded water rose and
+fell, with the slightest and softest influence of a southern breeze,
+which scarcely dimpled the surface over which it passed. In the distance
+was still seen the dim outline of the island of Saint Serf, once visited
+by many a sandalled pilgrim, as the blessed spot trodden by a man of
+God--now neglected or violated, as the refuge of lazy priests, who had
+with justice been compelled to give place to the sheep and the heifers
+of a Protestant baron.
+
+As Roland gazed on the dark speck, amid the lighter blue of the waters
+which surrounded it, the mazes of polemical discussion again stretched
+themselves before the eye of the mind. Had these men justly suffered
+their exile as licentious drones, the robbers, at once, and disgrace, of
+the busy hive? or had the hand of avarice and rapine expelled from
+the temple, not the ribalds who polluted, but the faithful priests who
+served the shrine in honour and fidelity? The arguments of Henderson,
+in this contemplative hour, rose with double force before him; and could
+scarcely be parried by the appeal which the Abbot Ambrosius had made
+from his understanding to his feelings,--an appeal which he had felt
+more forcibly amid the bustle of stirring life, than now when his
+reflections were more undisturbed. It required an effort to divert his
+mind from this embarrassing topic; and he found that he best succeeded
+by turning his eyes to the front of the tower, watching where a
+twinkling light still streamed from the casement of Catherine Seyton's
+apartment, obscured by times for a moment as the shadow of the fair
+inhabitant passed betwixt the taper and the window. At length the light
+was removed or extinguished, and that object of speculation was also
+withdrawn from the eyes of the meditative lover. Dare I confess the
+fact, without injuring his character for ever as a hero of romance?
+These eyes gradually became heavy; speculative doubts on the subject of
+religious controversy, and anxious conjectures concerning the state of
+his mistress's affections, became confusedly blended together in
+his musings; the fatigues of a busy day prevailed over the harassing
+subjects of contemplation which occupied his mind, and he fell fast
+asleep.
+
+Sound were his slumbers, until they were suddenly dispelled by the iron
+tongue of the castle-bell, which sent its deep and sullen sounds wide
+over the bosom of the lake, and awakened the echoes of Bennarty, the
+hill which descends steeply on its southern bank. Roland started up, for
+this bell was always tolled at ten o'clock, as the signal for locking
+the castle gates, and placing the keys under the charge of the
+seneschal. He therefore hastened to the wicket by which the garden
+communicated with the building, and had the mortification, just as he
+reached it, to hear the bolt leave its sheath with a discordant crash,
+and enter the stone groove of the door-lintel. "Hold, hold," cried the
+page, "and let me in ere you lock the wicket." The voice of Dryfesdale
+replied from within, in his usual tone of embittered sullenness,
+"The hour is passed, fair master--you like not the inside of these
+walls--even make it a complete holiday, and spend the night as well as
+the day out of bounds."
+
+"Open the door," exclaimed the indignant page, "or by Saint Giles I will
+make thy gold chain smoke for it!"
+
+"Make no alarm here," retorted the impenetrable Dryfesdale, "but keep
+thy sinful oaths and silly threats for those that regard them--I do mine
+office, and carry the keys to the seneschal.--Adieu, my young master!
+the cool night air will advantage your hot blood."
+
+The steward was right in what he said; for the cooling breeze was very
+necessary to appease the feverish fit of anger which Roland experienced,
+nor did the remedy succeed for some time. At length, after some hasty
+turns made through the garden, exhausting his passion in vain vows of
+vengeance, Roland Graeme began to be sensible that his situation ought
+rather to be held as matter of laughter than of serious resentment. To
+one bred a sportsman, a night spent in the open air had in it little of
+hardship, and the poor malice of the steward seemed more worthy of his
+contempt than his anger. "I would to God," he said, "that the grim old
+man may always have contented himself with such sportive revenge. He
+often looks as he were capable of doing us a darker turn." Returning,
+therefore, to the turf-seat which he had formerly occupied, and which
+was partially sheltered by a trim fence of green holly, he drew his
+mantle around him, stretched himself at length on the verdant settle,
+and endeavoured to resume that sleep which the castle bell had
+interrupted to so little purpose.
+
+Sleep, like other earthly blessings, is niggard of its favours when most
+courted. The more Roland invoked her aid, the farther she fled from his
+eyelids. He had been completely awakened, first, by the sounds of the
+bell, and then by his own aroused vivacity of temper, and he found
+it difficult again to compose himself to slumber. At length, when his
+mind--was wearied out with a maze of unpleasing meditation, he succeeded
+in coaxing himself into a broken slumber. This was again dispelled by
+the voices of two persons who were walking in the garden, the sound of
+whose conversation, after mingling for some time in the page's dreams,
+at length succeeded in awaking him thoroughly. He raised himself from
+his reclining posture in the utmost astonishment, which the circumstance
+of hearing two persons at that late hour conversing on the outside of
+the watchfully guarded Castle of Lochloven, was so well calculated to
+excite. His first thought was of supernatural beings; his next, upon
+some attempt on the part of Queen Mary's friends and followers; his last
+was, that George of Douglas, possessed of the keys, and having the means
+of ingress and egress at pleasure, was availing himself of his office
+to hold a rendezvous with Catherine Seyton in the castle garden. He was
+confirmed in this opinion by the tone of the voice, which asked in a low
+whisper, "whether all was ready?"
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirtieth.
+
+
+  In some breasts passion lies conceal'd and silent,
+  Like war's swart powder in a castle vault,
+  Until occasion, like the linstock, lights it:
+  Then comes at once the lightning--and the thunder,
+  And distant echoes tell that all is rent asunder.
+                                 OLD PLAY.
+
+Roland Graeme, availing himself of a breach in the holly screen, and
+of the assistance of the full moon, which was now arisen, had a perfect
+opportunity, himself unobserved, to reconnoitre the persons and the
+motions of those by whom his rest had been thus unexpectedly disturbed;
+and his observations confirmed his jealous apprehensions. They stood
+together in close and earnest conversation within four yards of the
+place of his retreat, and he could easily recognize the tall form and
+deep voice of Douglas, and the no less remarkable dress and tone of the
+page at the hostelry of Saint Michael's.
+
+"I have been at the door of the page's apartment," said Douglas, "but he
+is not there, or he will not answer. It is fast bolted on the inside, as
+is the custom, and we cannot pass through it--and what his silence may
+bode I know not."
+
+"You have trusted him too far," said the other; "a feather-headed
+cox-comb, upon whose changeable mind and hot brain there is no making an
+abiding impression."
+
+"It was not I who was willing to trust him," said Douglas, "but I was
+assured he would prove friendly when called upon--for----" Here he
+spoke so low that Roland lost the tenor of his words, which was the
+more provoking, as he was fully aware that he was himself the subject of
+their conversation.
+
+"Nay," replied the stranger, more aloud, "I have on my side put him off
+with fair words, which make fools vain--but now, if you distrust him at
+the push, deal with him with your dagger, and so make open passage."
+
+"That were too rash," said Douglas; "and besides, as I told you, the
+door of his apartment is shut and bolted. I will essay again to waken
+him."
+
+Graeme instantly comprehended, that the ladies, having been somehow made
+aware of his being in the garden, had secured the door of the outer room
+in which he usually slept, as a sort of sentinel upon that only access
+to the Queen's apartments. But then, how came Catherine Seyton to
+be abroad, if the Queen and the other lady were still within their
+chambers, and the access to them locked and bolted?--"I will be
+instantly at the bottom of these mysteries," he said, "and then thank
+Mistress Catherine, if this be really she, for the kind use which she
+exhorted Douglas to make of his dagger--they seek me, as I comprehend,
+and they shall not seek me in vain."
+
+Douglas had by this time re-entered the castle by the wicket, which was
+now open. The stranger stood alone in the garden walk, his arms folded
+on his breast, and his eyes cast impatiently up to the moon, as if
+accusing her of betraying him by the magnificence of her lustre. In
+a moment Roland Graeme stood before him--"A goodly night," he said,
+"Mistress Catherine, for a young lady to stray forth in disguise, and to
+meet with men in an orchard!"
+
+"Hush!" said the stranger page, "hush, thou foolish patch, and tell us
+in a word if thou art friend or foe."
+
+"How should I be friend to one who deceives me by fair words, and who
+would have Douglas deal with me with his poniard?" replied Roland.
+
+"The fiend receive George of Douglas and thee too, thou born madcap and
+sworn marplot!" said the other; "we shall be discovered, and then death
+is the word."
+
+"Catherine," said the page, "you have dealt falsely and cruelly with
+me, and the moment of explanation is now come--neither it nor you shall
+escape me."
+
+"Madman!" said the stranger, "I am neither Kate nor Catherine--the moon
+shines bright enough surely to know the hart from the hind."
+
+"That shift shall not serve you, fair mistress," said the page, laying
+hold on the lap of the stranger's cloak; "this time, at least, I will
+know with whom I deal."
+
+"Unhand me," said she, endeavouring to extricate herself from his grasp;
+and in a tone where anger seemed to contend with a desire to laugh, "use
+you so little discretion towards a daughter of Seyton?"
+
+But as Roland, encouraged perhaps by her risibility to suppose his
+violence was not unpardonably offensive, kept hold on her mantle,
+she said, in a sterner tone of unmixed resentment,--"Madman! let me
+go!--there is life and death in this moment--I would not willingly hurt
+thee, and yet beware!"
+
+As she spoke she made a sudden effort to escape, and, in doing so, a
+pistol, which she carried in her hand or about her person, went off.
+
+This warlike sound instantly awakened the well-warded castle. The warder
+blew his horn, and began to toll the castle bell, crying out at the same
+time, "Fie, treason! treason! cry all! cry all!"
+
+The apparition of Catherine Seyton, which the page had let loose in the
+first moment of astonishment, vanished in darkness; but the plash of
+oars was heard, and, in a second or two, five or six harquebuses and a
+falconet were fired from the battlements of the castle successively,
+as if levelled at some object on the water. Confounded with these
+incidents, no way for Catherine's protection (supposing her to be in the
+boat which he had heard put from the shore) occurred to Roland, save to
+have recourse to George of Douglas. He hastened for this purpose
+towards the apartment of the Queen, whence he heard loud voices and much
+trampling of feet. When he entered, he found himself added to a confused
+and astonished group, which, assembled in that apartment, stood gazing
+upon each other. At the upper end of the room stood the Queen, equipped
+as for a journey, and--attended not only by the Lady Fleming, but by the
+omnipresent Catherine Seyton, dressed in the habit of her own sex, and
+bearing in her hand the casket in which Mary kept such jewels as she had
+been permitted to retain. At the other end of the hall was the Lady of
+Lochleven, hastily dressed, as one startled from slumber by the sudden
+alarm, and surrounded by domestics, some bearing torches, others holding
+naked swords, partisans, pistols, or such other weapons as they had
+caught up in the hurry of a night alarm. Betwixt these two parties stood
+George of Douglas, his arms folded on his breast, his eyes bent on
+the ground, like a criminal who knows not how to deny, yet continues
+unwilling to avow, the guilt in which he has been detected.
+
+"Speak, George of Douglas," said the Lady of Lochleven; "speak, and
+clear the horrid suspicion which rests on thy name. Say, 'A Douglas was
+never faithless to his trust, and I am a Douglas.' Say this, my dearest
+son, and it is all I ask thee to say to clear thy name, even under, such
+a foul charge. Say it was but the wile of these unhappy women, and this
+false boy, which plotted an escape so fatal to Scotland--so destructive
+to thy father's house."
+
+"Madam," said old Dryfesdale the steward, "this much do I say for this
+silly page, that he could not be accessary to unlocking the doors, since
+I myself this night bolted him out of the castle. Whoever limned this
+night-piece, the lad's share in it seems to have been small."
+
+"Thou liest, Dryfesdale," said the Lady, "and wouldst throw the blame on
+thy master's house, to save the worthless life of a gipsy boy."
+
+"His death were more desirable to me than his life," answered the
+steward, sullenly; "but the truth is the truth."
+
+At these words Douglas raised his head, drew up his figure to its full
+height, and spoke boldly and sedately, as one whose resolution was
+taken. "Let no life be endangered for me. I alone----"
+
+"Douglas," said the Queen, interrupting him, "art thou mad? Speak not, I
+charge you."
+
+"Madam," he replied, bowing with the deepest respect, "gladly would I
+obey your commands, but they must have a victim, and let it be the true
+one.--Yes, madam," he continued, addressing the Lady of Lochleven, "I
+alone am guilty in this matter. If the word of a Douglas has yet any
+weight with you, believe me that this boy is innocent; and on your
+conscience I charge you, do him no wrong; nor let the Queen suffer
+hardship for embracing the opportunity of freedom which sincere
+loyalty--which a sentiment yet deeper--offered to her acceptance. Yes!
+I had planned the escape of the most beautiful, the most persecuted of
+women; and far from regretting that I, for a while, deceived the malice
+of her enemies, I glory in it, and am most willing to yield up life
+itself in her cause."
+
+"Now may God have compassion on my age," said the Lady of Lochleven,
+"and enable me to bear this load of affliction! O Princess, born in a
+luckless hour, when will you cease to be the instrument of seduction and
+of ruin to all who approach you? O ancient house of Lochleven, famed so
+long for birth and honour, evil was the hour which brought the deceiver
+under thy roof!"
+
+"Say not so, madam," replied her grandson; "the old honours of the
+Douglas line will be outshone, when one of its descendants dies for the
+most injured of queens--for the most lovely of women."
+
+"Douglas," said the Queen, "must I at this moment--ay, even at this
+moment, when I may lose a faithful subject for ever, chide thee for
+forgetting what is due to me as thy Queen?"
+
+"Wretched boy," said the distracted Lady of Lochleven, "hast thou
+fallen even thus far into the snare of this Moabitish woman?--hast thou
+bartered thy name, thy allegiance, thy knightly oath, thy duty to thy
+parents, thy country, and thy God, for a feigned tear, or a sickly
+smile, from lips which flattered the infirm Francis--lured to death the
+idiot Darnley--read luscious poetry with the minion Chastelar--mingled
+in the lays of love which were sung by the beggar Rizzio--and which were
+joined in rapture to those of the foul and licentious Bothwell?"
+
+"Blaspheme not, madam!" said Douglas;--"nor you, fair Queen, and
+virtuous as fair, chide at this moment the presumption of thy
+vassal!--Think not that the mere devotion of a subject could have moved
+me to the part I have been performing. Well you deserve that each of
+your lieges should die for you; but I have done more--have done that to
+which love alone could compel a Douglas--I have dissembled. Farewell,
+then, Queen of all hearts, and Empress of that of Douglas!--When you are
+freed from this vile bondage--as freed you shall be, if justice remains
+in Heaven--and when you load with honours and titles the happy man
+who shall deliver you, cast one thought on him whose heart would have
+despised every reward for a kiss of your hand--cast one thought on his
+fidelity, and drop one tear on his grave." And throwing himself at her
+feet, he seized her hand, and pressed it to his lips.
+
+"This before my face!" exclaimed the Lady of Lochleven--"wilt thou court
+thy adulterous paramour before the eyes of a parent?--Tear them asunder,
+and put him under strict ward! Seize him, upon your lives!" she added,
+seeing that her attendants looked at each other with hesitation.
+
+"They are doubtful," said Mary. "Save thyself, Douglas, I command thee!"
+
+He started up from the floor, and only exclaiming, "My life or death are
+yours, and at your disposal!"--drew his sword, and broke through those
+who stood betwixt him and the door. The enthusiasm of his onset was too
+sudden and too lively to have been opposed by any thing short of the
+most decided opposition; and as he was both loved and feared by his
+father's vassals, none of them would offer him actual injury.
+
+The Lady of Lochleven stood astonished at his sudden escape--"Am I
+surrounded," she said, "by traitors? Upon him, villains!--pursue, stab,
+cut him down."
+
+"He cannot leave the island, madam," said Dryfesdale, interfering; "I
+have the key of the boat-chain."
+
+But two or three voices of those who pursued from curiosity, or command
+of their mistress, exclaimed from below, that he had cast himself into
+the lake.
+
+"Brave Douglas still!" exclaimed the Queen--"Oh, true and noble heart,
+that prefers death to imprisonment!"
+
+"Fire upon him!" said the Lady of Lochleven; "if there be here a true
+servant of his father, let him shoot the runagate dead, and let the lake
+cover our shame!"
+
+The report of a gun or two was heard, but they were probably shot rather
+to obey the Lady, than with any purpose of hitting the mark; and Randal
+immediately entering, said that Master George had been taken up by a
+boat from the castle, which lay at a little distance.
+
+"Man a barge, and pursue them!" said the Lady.
+
+"It were quite vain," said Randal; "by this time they are half way to
+shore, and a cloud has come over the moon."
+
+"And has the traitor then escaped?" said the Lady, pressing her hands
+against her forehead with a gesture of despair; "the honour of our
+house is for ever gone, and all will be deemed accomplices in this base
+treachery."
+
+"Lady of Lochleven," said Mary, advancing towards her, "you have this
+night cut off my fairest hopes--You have turned my expected freedom
+into bondage, and dashed away the cup of joy in the very instant I was
+advancing it to my lips--and yet I feel for your sorrow the pity that
+you deny to mine--Gladly would I comfort you if I might; but as I may
+not, I would at least part from you in charity."
+
+"Away, proud woman!" said the Lady; "who ever knew so well as thou
+to deal the deepest wounds under the pretence of kindness and
+courtesy?--Who, since the great traitor, could ever so betray with a
+kiss?"
+
+"Lady Douglas of Lochleven," said the Queen, "in this moment thou canst
+not offend me--no, not even by thy coarse and unwomanly language, held
+to me in the presence of menials and armed retainers. I have this night
+owed so much to one member of the house of Lochleven, as to cancel
+whatever its mistress can do or say in the wildness of her passion."
+
+"We are bounden to you, Princess," said Lady Lochleven, putting a strong
+constraint on herself, and passing from her tone of violence to that
+of bitter irony; "our poor house hath been but seldom graced with royal
+smiles, and will hardly, with my choice, exchange their rough honesty
+for such court-honour as Mary of Scotland has now to bestow."
+
+"They," replied Mary, "who knew so well how to _take_, may think
+themselves excused from the obligation implied in receiving. And that
+I have now little to offer, is the fault of the Douglasses and their
+allies."
+
+"Fear nothing, madam," replied the Lady of Lochleven, in the same bitter
+tone, "you retain an exchequer which neither your own prodigality can
+drain, nor your offended country deprive you of. While you have fair
+words and delusive smiles at command, you need no other bribes to lure
+youth to folly."
+
+The Queen cast not an ungratified glance on a large mirror, which,
+hanging on one side of the apartment, and illuminated by the
+torch-light, reflected her beautiful face and person. "Our hostess grows
+complaisant," she said, "my Fleming; we had not thought that grief and
+captivity had left us so well stored with that sort of wealth which
+ladies prize most dearly."
+
+"Your Grace will drive this severe woman frantic," said Fleming, in
+a low tone. "On my knees I implore you to remember she is already
+dreadfully offended, and that we are in her power."
+
+"I will not spare her, Fleming," answered the Queen; "it is against my
+nature. She returned my honest sympathy with insult and abuse, and I
+will gall her in return,--if her words are too blunt for answer, let her
+use her poniard if she dare!"
+
+"The Lady Lochleven," said the Lady Fleming aloud, "would surely do well
+now to withdraw, and to leave her Grace to repose."
+
+"Ay," replied the Lady, "or to leave her Grace, and her Grace's minions,
+to think what silly fly they may next wrap their meshes about. My eldest
+son is a widower--were he not more worthy the flattering hopes with
+which you have seduced his brother?--True, the yoke of marriage has been
+already thrice fitted on--but the church of Rome calls it a sacrament,
+and its votaries may deem it one in which they cannot too often
+participate."
+
+"And the votaries of the church of Geneva," replied Mary, colouring with
+indignation, "as they deem marriage _no_ sacrament, are said at times
+to dispense with the holy ceremony."--Then, as if afraid of the
+consequences of this home allusion to the errors of Lady Lochleven's
+early life, the Queen added, "Come, my Fleming, we grace her too much
+by this altercation; we will to our sleeping apartment. If she would
+disturb us again to-night, she must cause the door to be forced." So
+saying, she retired to her bed-room, followed by her two women.
+
+Lady Lochleven, stunned as it were by this last sarcasm, and not the
+less deeply incensed that she had drawn it upon herself, remained like
+a statue on the spot which she had occupied when she received an
+affront so flagrant. Dryfesdale and Randal endeavoured to rouse her to
+recollection by questions.
+
+"What is your honourable Ladyship's pleasure in the premises?"
+
+"Shall we not double the sentinels, and place one upon the boats and
+another in the garden?" said Randal.
+
+"Would you that despatches were sent to Sir William at Edinburgh, to
+acquaint him with what has happened?" demanded Dryfesdale; "and ought
+not the place of Kinross to be alarmed, lest there be force upon the
+shores of the lake?"
+
+"Do all as thou wilt," said the Lady, collecting herself, and about
+to depart. "Thou hast the name of a good soldier, Dryfesdale, take all
+precautions.--Sacred Heaven! that I should be thus openly insulted!"
+
+"Would it be your pleasure," said Dryfesdale, hesitating, "that this
+person--this Lady--be more severely restrained?"
+
+"No, vassal!" answered the Lady, indignantly, "my revenge stoops not to
+so low a gratification. But I will have more worthy vengeance, or the
+tomb of my ancestors shall cover my shame!"
+
+"And you shall have it, madam," replied Dryfesdale--"ere two suns go
+down, you shall term yourself amply revenged."
+
+The Lady made no answer--perhaps did not hear his words, as she
+presently left the apartment. By the command of Dryfesdale, the rest of
+the attendants were dismissed, some to do the duty of guard, others to
+their repose. The steward himself remained after they had all departed;
+and Roland Graeme, who was alone in the apartment, was surprised to see
+the old soldier advance towards him with an air of greater cordiality
+than he had ever before assumed to him, but which sat ill on his
+scowling features.
+
+"Youth," he said, "I have done thee some wrong--it is thine own fault,
+for thy behaviour hath seemed as light to me as the feather thou wearest
+in thy hat; and surely thy fantastic apparel, and idle humour of mirth
+and folly, have made me construe thee something harshly. But I saw this
+night from my casement, (as I looked out to see how thou hadst disposed
+of thyself in the garden,) I saw, I say, the true efforts which thou
+didst make to detain the companion of the perfidy of him who is no
+longer worthy to be called by his father's name, but must be cut off
+from his house like a rotten branch. I was just about to come to thy
+assistance when the pistol went off; and the warder (a false knave, whom
+I suspect to be bribed for the nonce) saw himself forced to give the
+alarm, which, perchance, till then he had wilfully withheld. To atone,
+therefore, for my injustice towards you, I would willingly render you a
+courtesy, if you would accept of it from my hands."
+
+"May I first crave to know what it is?" replied the page.
+
+"Simply to carry the news of this discovery to Holyrood, where thou
+mayest do thyself much grace, as well with the Earl of Morton and the
+Regent himself, as with Sir William Douglas, seeing thou hast seen the
+matter from end to end, and borne faithful part therein. The making
+thine own fortune will be thus lodged in thine own hand, when I trust
+thou wilt estrange thyself from foolish vanities, and learn to walk in
+this world as one who thinks upon the next."
+
+"Sir Steward," said Roland Graeme, "I thank you for your courtesy, but I
+may not do your errand. I pass that I am the Queen's sworn servant, and
+may not be of counsel against her. But, setting this apart, methinks it
+were a bad road to Sir William of Lochleven's favour, to be the first to
+tell him of his son's defection--neither would the Regent be over well
+pleased to hear the infidelity of his vassal, nor Morton to learn the
+falsehood of his kinsman."
+
+"Um!" said the steward, making that inarticulate sound which expresses
+surprise mingled with displeasure. "Nay, then, even fly where ye list;
+for, giddy-pated as ye may be, you know how to bear you in the world."
+
+"I will show you my esteem is less selfish than ye think for," said
+the page; "for I hold truth and mirth to be better than gravity and
+cunning--ay, and in the end to be a match for them.--You never loved me
+less, Sir Steward, than you do at this moment. I know you will give me
+no real confidence, and I am resolved to accept no false protestations
+as current coin. Resume your old course--suspect me as much and watch
+me as closely as you will, I bid you defiance--you have met with your
+match."
+
+"By Heaven, young man," said the steward, with a look of bitter
+malignity, "if thou darest to attempt any treachery towards the House of
+Lochleven, thy head shall blacken in the sun from the warder's turret!"
+
+"He cannot commit treachery who refuses trust," said the page; "and for
+my head, it stands as securely on my shoulders, as on any turret that
+ever mason built."
+
+"Farewell, thou prating and speckled pie," said Dryfesdale, "that art
+so vain of thine idle tongue and variegated coat! Beware trap and
+lime-twig."
+
+"And fare thee well, thou hoarse old raven," answered the page;
+"thy solemn flight, sable hue, and deep croak, are no charms against
+bird-bolt or hail-shot, and that thou mayst find--it is open war betwixt
+us, each for the cause of our mistress, and God show the right!"
+
+"Amen, and defend his own people!" said the steward. "I will let my
+mistress know what addition thou hast made to this mess of traitors.
+Good night, Monsieur Featherpate."
+
+"Good-night, Seignior Sowersby," replied the page; and, when the old man
+departed, he betook himself to rest.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-First.
+
+
+  Poison'd--ill fare!--dead, forsook, cast off!--
+                                  KING JOHN.
+
+However weary Roland Graeme might be of the Castle of Lochleven--however
+much he might wish that the plan for Mary's escape had been perfected,
+I question if he ever awoke with more pleasing feelings than on the
+morning after George Douglas's plan for accomplishing her deliverance
+had been frustrated. In the first place, he had the clearest conviction
+that he had misunderstood the innuendo of the Abbot, and that the
+affections of Douglas were fixed, not on Catherine Seyton, but on the
+Queen; and in the second place, from the sort of explanation which had
+taken place betwixt the steward and him, he felt himself at liberty,
+without any breach of honour towards the family of Lochleven, to
+contribute his best aid to any scheme which should in future be formed
+for the Queen's escape; and, independently of the good-will which he
+himself had to the enterprise, he knew he could find no surer road to
+the favour of Catherine Seyton. He now sought but an opportunity to
+inform her that he had dedicated himself to this task, and fortune was
+propitious in affording him one which was unusually favourable.
+
+At the ordinary hour of breakfast, it was introduced by the steward with
+his usual forms, who, as soon as it was placed on the board in the inner
+apartment, said to Roland Graeme, with a glance of sarcastic import, "I
+leave you, my young sir, to do the office of sewer--it has been too long
+rendered to the Lady Mary by one belonging to the house of Douglas."
+
+"Were it the prime and principal who ever bore the name," said Roland,
+"the office were an honour to him."
+
+The steward departed without replying to this bravade, otherwise than
+by a dark look of scorn. Graeme, thus left alone, busied himself as one
+engaged in a labour of love, to imitate, as well as he could, the
+grace and courtesy with which George of Douglas was wont to render his
+ceremonial service at meals to the Queen of Scotland. There was more
+than youthful vanity--there was a generous devotion in the feeling with
+which he took up the task, as a brave soldier assumes the place of a
+comrade who has fallen in the front of battle. "I am now," he said,
+"their only champion: and, come weal, come wo, I will be, to the best
+of my skill and power, as faithful, as trustworthy, as brave, as any
+Douglas of them all could have been."
+
+At this moment Catherine Seyton entered alone, contrary to her custom;
+and not less contrary to her custom, she entered with her kerchief
+at her eyes. Roland Graeme approached her with beating heart and with
+down-cast eyes, and asked her, in a low and hesitating voice, whether
+the Queen were well?
+
+"Can you suppose it?" said Catherine. "Think you her heart and body are
+framed of steel and iron, to endure the cruel disappointment of yester
+even, and the infamous taunts of yonder puritanic hag?--Would to God
+that I were a man, to aid her more effectually!"
+
+"If those who carry pistols, and batons, and poniards," said the page,
+"are not men, they are at least Amazons; and that is as formidable."
+
+"You are welcome to the flash of your wit, sir," replied the damsel; "I
+am neither in spirits to enjoy, nor to reply to it."
+
+"Well, then," said the page, "list to me in all serious truth. And,
+first, let me say, that the gear last night had been smoother, had you
+taken me into your counsels."
+
+"And so we meant; but who could have guessed that Master Page should
+choose to pass all night in the garden, like some moon-stricken knight
+in a Spanish romance--instead of being in his bed-room, when Douglas
+came to hold communication with him on our project."
+
+"And why," said the page, "defer to so late a moment so important a
+confidence?"
+
+"Because your communications with Henderson, and--with pardon--the
+natural impetuosity and fickleness of your disposition, made us dread to
+entrust you with a secret of such consequence, till the last moment."
+
+"And why at the last moment?" said the page, offended at this frank
+avowal; "why at that, or any other moment, since I had the misfortune to
+incur so much suspicion?"
+
+"Nay--now you are angry again," said Catherine; "and to serve you aright
+I should break off this talk; but I will be magnanimous, and answer your
+question. Know, then, our reason for trusting you was twofold. In the
+first place, we could scarce avoid it, since you slept in the room
+through which we had to pass. In the second place----"
+
+"Nay," said the page, "you may dispense with a second reason, when the
+first makes your confidence in me a case of necessity."
+
+"Good now, hold thy peace," said Catherine. "In the second place, as
+I said before, there is one foolish person among us, who believes that
+Roland Graeme's heart is warm, though his head is giddy--that his blood
+is pure, though it boils too hastily--and that his faith and honour
+are true as the load-star, though his tongue sometimes is far less than
+discreet."
+
+This avowal Catherine repeated in a low tone, with her eye fixed on the
+floor, as if she shunned the glance of Roland while she suffered it
+to escape her lips--"And this single friend," exclaimed the youth in
+rapture; "this only one who would do justice to the poor Roland Graeme,
+and whose own generous heart taught her to distinguish between follies
+of the brain and faults of the heart--Will you not tell me, dearest
+Catherine, to whom I owe my most grateful, my most heartfelt thanks?"
+
+"Nay," said Catherine, with her eyes still fixed on the ground, "if your
+own heart tell you not----"
+
+"Dearest Catherine!" said the page, seizing upon her hand, and kneeling
+on one knee.
+
+"If your own heart, I say, tell you not," said Catherine, gently
+disengaging her hand, "it is very ungrateful; for since the maternal
+kindness of the Lady Fleming----"
+
+The page started on his feet. "By Heaven, Catherine, your tongue wears
+as many disguises as your person! But you only mock me, cruel girl.
+You know the Lady Fleming has no more regard for any one, than hath the
+forlorn princess who is wrought into yonder piece of old figured court
+tapestry."
+
+"It may be so," said Catherine Seyton, "but you should not speak so
+loud."
+
+"Pshaw!" answered the page, but at the same time lowering his voice,
+"she cares for no one but herself and the Queen. And you know, besides,
+there is no one of you whose opinion I value, if I have not your own.
+No--not that of Queen Mary herself."
+
+"The more shame for you, if it be so," said Catherine, with great
+composure.
+
+"Nay, but, fair Catherine," said the page, "why will you thus damp my
+ardour, when I am devoting myself, body and soul, to the cause of your
+mistress?"
+
+"It is because in doing so," said Catherine, "you debase a cause so
+noble, by naming along with it any lower or more selfish motive. Believe
+me," she said, with kindling eyes, and while the blood mantled on her
+cheek, "they think vilely and falsely of women--I mean of those who
+deserve the name--who deem that they love the gratification of their
+vanity, or the mean purpose of engrossing a lover's admiration and
+affection, better than they love the virtue and honour of the man they
+may be brought to prefer. He that serves his religion, his prince, and
+his country, with ardour and devotion, need not plead his cause with the
+commonplace rant of romantic passion--the woman whom he honours with his
+love becomes his debtor, and her corresponding affection is engaged to
+repay his glorious toil."
+
+"You hold a glorious prize for such toil," said the youth, bending his
+eyes on her with enthusiasm.
+
+"Only a heart which knows how to value it," said Catherine. "He that
+should free this injured Princess from these dungeons, and set her at
+liberty among her loyal and warlike nobles, whose hearts are burning
+to welcome her--where is the maiden in Scotland whom the love of such a
+hero would not honour, were she sprung from the blood royal of the land,
+and he the offspring of the poorest cottager that ever held a plough?"
+
+"I am determined," said Roland, "to take the adventure. Tell me first,
+however, fair Catherine, and speak it as if you were confessing to the
+priest--this poor Queen, I know she is unhappy--but, Catherine, do you
+hold her innocent? She is accused of murder."
+
+"Do I hold the lamb guilty, because it is assailed by the wolf?"
+answered Catherine; "do I hold yonder sun polluted, because an
+earth-damp sullies his beams?"
+
+The page sighed and looked down. "Would my conviction were as deep
+as thine! But one thing is clear, that in this captivity she hath
+wrong--She rendered herself up, on a capitulation, and the terms have
+been refused her--I will embrace her quarrel to the death!"
+
+"Will you--will you, indeed?" said Catherine, taking his hand in her
+turn. "Oh, be but firm in mind, as thou art bold in deed and quick in
+resolution; keep but thy plighted faith, and after ages shall honour
+thee as the saviour of Scotland!"
+
+"But when I have toiled successfully to win that Leah, Honour, thou wilt
+not, my Catherine," said the page, "condemn me to a new term of service
+for that Rachel, Love?"
+
+"Of that," said Catherine, again extricating her hand from his grasp,
+"we shall have full time to speak; but Honour is the elder sister, and
+must be won the first."
+
+"I may not win her," answered the page; "but I will venture fairly for
+her, and man can do no more. And know, fair Catherine,--for you shall
+see the very secret thought of my heart,--that not Honour only--not
+only that other and fairer sister, whom you frown on me for so much as
+mentioning--but the stern commands of duty also, compel me to aid the
+Queen's deliverance."
+
+"Indeed!" said Catherine; "you were wont to have doubts on that matter."
+
+"Ay, but her life was not then threatened," replied Roland.
+
+"And is it now more endangered than heretofore?" asked Catherine Seyton,
+in anxious terror.
+
+"Be not alarmed," said the page; "but you heard the terms on which your
+royal mistress parted with the Lady of Lochleven?"
+
+"Too well--but too well," said Catherine; "alas! that she cannot rule
+her princely resentment, and refrain from encounters like these!"
+
+"That hath passed betwixt them," said Roland, "for which woman never
+forgives woman. I saw the Lady's brow turn pale, and then black, when,
+before all the menzie, and in her moment of power, the Queen humbled her
+to the dust by taxing her with her shame. And I heard the oath of deadly
+resentment and revenge which she muttered in the ear of one, who by his
+answer will, I judge, be but too ready an executioner of her will."
+
+"You terrify me," said Catherine.
+
+"Do not so take it--call up the masculine part of your spirit--we will
+counteract and defeat her plans, be they dangerous as they may. Why do
+you look upon me thus, and weep?"
+
+"Alas!" said Catherine, "because you stand there before me a living and
+breathing man, in all the adventurous glow and enterprise of youth, yet
+still possessing the frolic spirits of childhood--there you stand, full
+alike of generous enterprise and childish recklessness; and if to-day,
+or to-morrow, or some such brief space, you lie a mangled and lifeless
+corpse upon the floor of these hateful dungeons, who but Catherine
+Seyton will be the cause of your brave and gay career being broken short
+as you start from the goal? Alas! she whom you have chosen to twine your
+wreath, may too probably have to work your shroud!"
+
+"And be it so, Catherine," said the page, in the full glow of youthful
+enthusiasm; "and _do_ thou work my shroud! and if thou grace it with
+such tears as fall now at the thought, it will honour my remains more
+than an earl's mantle would my living body. But shame on this faintness
+of heart! the time craves a firmer mood--Be a woman, Catherine, or
+rather be a man--thou canst be a man if thou wilt."
+
+Catherine dried her tears, and endeavoured to smile.
+
+"You must not ask me," she said, "about that which so much disturbs
+your mind; you shall know all in time--nay, you should know all now, but
+that--Hush! here comes the Queen."
+
+Mary entered from her apartment, paler than usual, and apparently
+exhausted by a sleepless night, and by the painful thoughts which had
+ill supplied the place of repose; yet the languor of her looks was
+so far from impairing her beauty, that it only substituted the frail
+delicacy of the lovely woman for the majestic grace of the Queen.
+Contrary to her wont, her toilette had been very hastily despatched,
+and her hair, which was usually dressed by Lady Fleming with great care,
+escaping from beneath the headtire, which had been hastily adjusted,
+fell in long and luxuriant tresses of Nature's own curling, over a neck
+and bosom which were somewhat less carefully veiled than usual.
+
+As she stepped over the threshold of her apartment, Catherine, hastily
+drying her tears, ran to meet her royal mistress, and having first
+kneeled at her feet, and kissed her hand, instantly rose, and placing
+herself on the other side of the Queen, seemed anxious to divide with
+the Lady Fleming the honour of supporting and assisting her. The page,
+on his part, advanced and put in order the chair of state, which she
+usually occupied, and having placed the cushion and footstool for her
+accommodation, stepped back, and stood ready for service in the place
+usually occupied by his predecessor, the young Seneschal. Mary's
+eye rested an instant on him, and could not but remark the change of
+persons. Hers was not the female heart which could refuse compassion, at
+least, to a gallant youth who had suffered in her cause, although he
+had been guided in his enterprise by a too presumptuous passion; and the
+words "Poor Douglas!" escaped from her lips, perhaps unconsciously, as
+she leant herself back in her chair, and put the kerchief to her eyes.
+
+"Yes, gracious madam," said Catherine, assuming a cheerful manner,
+in order to cheer her sovereign, "our gallant Knight is indeed
+banished--the adventure was not reserved for him; but he has left behind
+him a youthful Esquire, as much devoted to your Grace's service, and
+who, by me, makes you tender of his hand and sword."
+
+"If they may in aught avail your Grace," said Roland Graeme, bowing
+profoundly.
+
+"Alas!" said the Queen, "what needs this, Catherine?--why prepare new
+victims to be involved in, and overwhelmed by, my cruel fortune?--were
+we not better cease to struggle, and ourselves sink in the tide without
+farther resistance, than thus drag into destruction with us every
+generous heart which makes an effort in our favour?--I have had but too
+much of plot and intrigue around me, since I was stretched an orphan
+child in my very cradle, while contending nobles strove which should
+rule in the name of the unconscious innocent. Surely time it were that
+all this busy and most dangerous coil should end. Let me call my prison
+a convent, and my seclusion a voluntary sequestration of myself from the
+world and its ways."
+
+"Speak not thus, madam, before your faithful servants," said Catherine,
+"to discourage their zeal at once, and to break their hearts. Daughter
+of Kings, be not in this hour so unkingly--Come, Roland, and let us, the
+youngest of her followers, show ourselves worthy of her cause--let us
+kneel before her footstool, and implore her to be her own magnanimous
+self." And leading Roland Graeme to the Queen's seat, they both kneeled
+down before her. Mary raised herself in her chair, and sat erect, while,
+extending one hand to be kissed by the page, she arranged with the
+other the clustering locks which shaded the bold yet lovely brow of the
+high-spirited Catherine.
+
+"Alas! _ma mignone_," she said, for so in fondness she often called her
+young attendant, "that you should thus desperately mix with my unhappy
+fate the fortune of your young lives!--Are they not a lovely couple,
+my Fleming? and is it not heart-rending to think that I must be their
+ruin?"
+
+"Not so," said Roland Graeme, "it is we, gracious Sovereign, who will be
+your deliverers."
+
+"_Ex oribus parvulorum!_" said the Queen, looking upward; "if it is by
+the mouth of these children that Heaven calls me to resume the stately
+thoughts which become my birth and my rights, thou wilt grant them thy
+protection, and to me the power of rewarding their zeal!"--Then turning
+to Fleming, she instantly added,--"Thou knowest, my friend, whether
+to make those who have served me happy, was not ever Mary's favourite
+pastime. When I have been rebuked by the stern preachers of the
+Calvinistic heresy--when I have seen the fierce countenances of my
+nobles averted from me, has it not been because I mixed in the harmless
+pleasures of the young and gay, and rather for the sake of their
+happiness than my own, have mingled in the masque, the song, or the
+dance, with the youth of my household? Well, I repent not of it--though
+Knox termed it sin, and Morton degradation--I was happy, because I
+saw happiness around me; and woe betide the wretched jealousy that can
+extract guilt out of the overflowings of an unguarded gaiety!--Fleming,
+if we are restored to our throne, shall we not have one blithesome day
+at a blithesome bridal, of which we must now name neither the bride
+nor the bridegroom? but that bridegroom shall have the barony of
+Blairgowrie, a fair gift even for a Queen to give, and that bride's
+chaplet shall be twined with the fairest pearls that ever were found
+in the depths of Lochlomond; and thou thyself, Mary Fleming, the best
+dresser of tires that ever busked the tresses of a Queen, and who would
+scorn to touch those of any woman of lower rank,--thou thyself shalt,
+for my love, twine them into the bride's tresses.--Look, my Fleming,
+suppose them such clustered locks as those of our Catherine, they would
+not put shame upon thy skill."
+
+So saying, she passed her hand fondly over the head of her youthful
+favourite, while her more aged attendant replied despondently, "Alas!
+madam, your thoughts stray far from home."
+
+"They do, my Fleming," said the Queen; "but is it well or kind in you to
+call them back?--God knows, they have kept the perch this night but too
+closely--Come, I will recall the gay vision, were it but to punish them.
+Yes, at that blithesome bridal, Mary herself shall forget the weight
+of sorrows, and the toil of state, and herself once more lead a
+measure.--At whose wedding was it that we last danced, my Fleming?
+I think care has troubled my memory--yet something of it I should
+remember--canst thou not aid me?--I know thou canst."
+
+"Alas! madam," replied the lady----
+
+"What!" said Mary, "wilt thou not help us so far? this is a peevish
+adherence to thine own graver opinion, which holds our talk as folly.
+But thou art court-bred, and wilt well understand me when I say,
+the Queen _commands_ Lady Fleming to tell her where she led the last
+_branle_."
+
+With a face deadly pale, and a mien as if she were about to sink into
+the earth, the court-bred dame, no longer daring to refuse obedience,
+faltered out--"Gracious Lady--if my memory err not--it was at a masque
+in Holyrood--at the marriage of Sebastian."
+
+The unhappy Queen, who had hitherto listened with a melancholy smile,
+provoked by the reluctance with which the Lady Fleming brought out her
+story, at this ill-fated word interrupted her with a shriek so wild
+and loud that the vaulted apartment rang, and both Roland and Catherine
+sprang to their feet in the utmost terror and alarm. Meantime, Mary
+seemed, by the train of horrible ideas thus suddenly excited, surprised
+not only beyond self-command, but for the moment beyond the verge of
+reason.
+
+"Traitress!" she said to the Lady Fleming, "thou wouldst slay thy
+sovereign--Call my French guards--_a moi! a moi! mes Francais!_--I
+am beset with traitors in mine own palace--they have murdered my
+husband--Rescue! rescue for the Queen of Scotland!" She started up from
+her chair--her features, late so exquisitely lovely in their paleness,
+now inflamed with the fury of frenzy, and resembling those of a Bellona.
+"We will take the field ourself," she said; "warn the city--warn Lothian
+and Fife--saddle our Spanish barb, and bid French Paris see our petronel
+be charged!--Better to die at the head of our brave Scotsmen, like our
+grandfather at Flodden, than of a broken heart, like our ill-starred
+father!"
+
+"Be patient--be composed, dearest Sovereign," said Catherine: and then
+addressing Lady Fleming angrily, she added, "How could you say aught
+that reminded her of her husband?"
+
+The word reached the ear of the unhappy Princess, who caught it up,
+speaking with great rapidity. "Husband!--what husband?--Not his most
+Christian Majesty--he is ill at ease--he cannot mount on horseback.--Not
+him of the Lennox--but it was the Duke of Orkney thou wouldst say."
+
+"For God's love, madam, be patient!" said the Lady Fleming.
+
+But the Queen's excited imagination could by no entreaty be diverted
+from its course. "Bid him come hither to our aid," she said, "and
+bring with him his lambs, as he calls them--Bowton, Hay of Talla, Black
+Ormiston, and his kinsman Hob--Fie! how swart they are, and how they
+smell of sulphur! What! closeted with Morton? Nay, if the Douglas and
+the Hepburn hatch the complot together, the bird, when it breaks the
+shell, will scare Scotland. Will it not, my Fleming?"
+
+"She grows wilder and wilder," said Fleming; "we have too many hearers
+for these strange words."
+
+"Roland," said Catherine, "in the name of God, begone! You cannot aid us
+here--Leave us to deal with her alone--Away--away!"
+
+She thrust him to the door of the anteroom; yet even when he had entered
+that apartment, and shut the door, he could still hear the Queen talk in
+a loud and determined tone, as if giving forth orders, until at length
+the voice died away in a feeble and continued lamentation.
+
+At this crisis Catherine entered the anteroom. "Be not too anxious," she
+said, "the crisis is now over; but keep the door fast--let no one enter
+until she is more composed."
+
+"In the name of God, what does this mean?" said the page; "or what was
+there in the Lady Fleming's words to excite so wild a transport?"
+
+"Oh, the Lady Fleming, the Lady Fleming," said Catherine, repeating the
+words impatiently; "the Lady Fleming is a fool--she loves her mistress,
+yet knows so little how to express her love, that were the Queen to ask
+her for very poison, she would deem it a point of duty not to resist
+her commands. I could have torn her starched head-tire from her formal
+head--The Queen should have as soon had the heart out of my body, as the
+word Sebastian out of my lips--That that piece of weaved tapestry should
+be a woman, and yet not have wit enough to tell a lie!"
+
+"And what was this story of Sebastian?" said the page. "By Heaven,
+Catherine, you are all riddles alike!"
+
+"You are as great a fool as Fleming," returned the impatient maiden;
+"know ye not, that on the night of Henry Darnley's murder, and at the
+blowing up of the Kirk of Field, the Queen's absence was owing to her
+attending on a masque at Holyrood, given by her to grace the marriage of
+this same Sebastian, who, himself a favoured servant, married one of her
+female attendants, who was near to her person?"
+
+"By Saint Giles," said the page, "I wonder not at her passion, but only
+marvel by what forgetfulness it was that she could urge the Lady Fleming
+with such a question."
+
+"I cannot account for it," said Catherine; "but it seems as if great
+and violent grief and horror sometimes obscure the memory, and spread
+a cloud like that of an exploding cannon, over the circumstances with
+which they are accompanied. But I may not stay here, where I came not to
+moralize with your wisdom, but simply to cool my resentment against that
+unwise Lady Fleming, which I think hath now somewhat abated, so that I
+shall endure her presence without any desire to damage either her curch
+or vasquine. Meanwhile, keep fast that door--I would not for my life
+that any of these heretics saw her in the unhappy state, which, brought
+on her as it has been by the success of their own diabolical plottings,
+they would not stick to call, in their snuffling cant, the judgment of
+Providence."
+
+She left the apartment just as the latch of the outward door was
+raised from without. But the bolt which Roland had drawn on the inside,
+resisted the efforts of the person desirous to enter. "Who is there?"
+said Graeme aloud.
+
+"It is I," replied the harsh and yet slow voice of the steward
+Dryfesdale.
+
+"You cannot enter now," returned the youth.
+
+"And wherefore?" demanded Dryfesdale, "seeing I come but to do my duty,
+and inquire what mean the shrieks from the apartment of the Moabitish
+woman. Wherefore, I say, since such is mine errand, can I not enter?"
+
+"Simply," replied the youth, "because the bolt is drawn, and I have no
+fancy to undo it. I have the right side of the door to-day, as you had
+last night."
+
+"Thou art ill-advised, thou malapert boy," replied the steward, "to
+speak to me in such fashion; but I shall inform my Lady of thine
+insolence."
+
+"The insolence," said the page, "is meant for thee only, in fair guerdon
+of thy discourtesy to me. For thy Lady's information, I have answer more
+courteous--you may say that the Queen is ill at ease, and desires to be
+disturbed neither by visits nor messages."
+
+"I conjure you, in the name of God," said the old man, with more
+solemnity in his tone than he had hitherto used, "to let me know if her
+malady really gains power on her!"
+
+"She will have no aid at your hand, or at your Lady's--wherefore,
+begone, and trouble us no more--we neither want, nor will accept of, aid
+at your hands."
+
+With this positive reply, the steward, grumbling and dissatisfied,
+returned down stairs.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Second.
+
+
+  It is the curse of kings to be attended
+  By slaves, who take their humours for a warrant
+  To break into the bloody house of life,
+  And on the winking of authority
+  To understand a law.
+                          KING JOHN.
+
+The Lady of Lochleven sat alone in her chamber, endeavouring with
+sincere but imperfect zeal, to fix her eyes and her attention on
+the black-lettered Bible which lay before her, bound in velvet and
+embroidery, and adorned with massive silver clasps and knosps. But she
+found her utmost efforts unable to withdraw her mind from the resentful
+recollection of what had last night passed betwixt her and the Queen,
+in which the latter had with such bitter taunt reminded her of her early
+and long-repented transgression.
+
+"Why," she said, "should I resent so deeply that another reproaches
+me with that which I have never ceased to make matter of blushing
+to myself? and yet, why should this woman, who reaps--at least, has
+reaped--the fruits of my folly, and has jostled my son aside from the
+throne, why should she, in the face of all my domestics, and of her own,
+dare to upbraid me with my shame? Is she not in my power? Does she not
+fear me? Ha! wily tempter, I will wrestle with thee strongly, and with
+better suggestions than my own evil heart can supply!"
+
+She again took up the sacred volume, and was endeavouring to fix her
+attention on its contents, when she was disturbed by a tap at the
+door of the room. It opened at her command, and the steward Dryfesdale
+entered, and stood before her with a gloomy and perturbed expression on
+his brow.
+
+"What has chanced, Dryfesdale, that thou lookest thus?" said
+his mistress--"Have there been evil tidings of my son, or of my
+grandchildren?"
+
+"No, Lady," replied Dryfesdale, "but you were deeply insulted last
+night, and I fear me thou art as deeply avenged this morning--Where is
+the chaplain?"
+
+"What mean you by hints so dark, and a question so sudden? The chaplain,
+as you well know, is absent at Perth upon an assembly of the brethren."
+
+"I care not," answered the steward; "he is but a priest of Baal."
+
+"Dryfesdale," said the Lady, sternly, "what meanest thou? I have ever
+heard, that in the Low Countries thou didst herd with the Anabaptist
+preachers, those boars which tear up the vintage--But the ministry which
+suits me and my house must content my retainers."
+
+"I would I had good ghostly counsel, though," replied the steward, not
+attending to his mistress's rebuke, and seeming to speak to himself.
+"This woman of Moab----"
+
+"Speak of her with reverence," said the Lady; "she is a king's
+daughter."
+
+"Be it so," replied Dryfesdale; "she goes where there is little
+difference betwixt her and a beggar's child--Mary of Scotland is dying."
+
+"Dying, and in my castle!" said the Lady, starting up in alarm; "of what
+disease, or by what accident?"
+
+"Bear patience, Lady. The ministry was mine."
+
+"Thine, villain and traitor!--how didst thou dare----"
+
+"I heard you insulted, Lady--I heard you demand vengeance--I promised
+you should have it, and I now bring tidings of it."
+
+"Dryfesdale, I trust thou ravest?" said the Lady.
+
+"I rave not," replied the steward. "That which was written of me a
+million of years ere I saw the light, must be executed by me. She hath
+that in her veins that, I fear me, will soon stop the springs of life."
+"Cruel villain," exclaimed the Lady, "thou hast not poisoned her?" "And
+if I had," said Dryfesdale, "what does it so greatly merit? Men bane
+vermin--why not rid them of their enemies so? in Italy they will do it
+for a cruizuedor."
+
+"Cowardly ruffian, begone from my sight!"
+
+"Think better of my zeal, Lady," said the steward, "and judge not
+without looking around you. Lindesay, Ruthven, and your kinsman Morton,
+poniarded Rizzio, and yet you now see no blood on their embroidery--the
+Lord Semple stabbed the Lord of Sanquhar--does his bonnet sit a jot more
+awry on his brow? What noble lives in Scotland who has not had a share,
+for policy or revenge, in some such dealing?--and who imputes it to
+them? Be not cheated with names--a dagger or a draught work to the
+same end, and are little unlike--a glass phial imprisons the one, and a
+leathern sheath the other--one deals with the brain, the other sluices
+the blood--Yet, I say not I gave aught to this lady."
+
+"What dost thou mean by thus dallying with me?" said the Lady; "as thou
+wouldst save thy neck from the rope it merits, tell me the whole truth
+of this story-thou hast long been known a dangerous man."
+
+"Ay, in my master's service I can be cold and sharp as my sword. Be it
+known to you, that when last on shore, I consulted with a woman of skill
+and power, called Nicneven, of whom the country has rung for some brief
+time past. Fools asked her for charms to make them beloved, misers for
+means to increase their store; some demanded to know the future--an idle
+wish, since it cannot be altered; others would have an explanation
+of the past--idler still, since it cannot be recalled. I heard their
+queries with scorn, and demanded the means of avenging myself of a
+deadly enemy, for I grow old, and may trust no longer to Bilboa blade.
+She gave me a packet--`Mix that,' said she, `with any liquid, and thy
+vengeance is complete.'"
+
+"Villain! and you mixed it with the food of this imprisoned Lady, to the
+dishonour of thy master's house?"
+
+"To redeem the insulted honour of my master's house, I mixed the
+contents of the packet with the jar of succory-water: They seldom fail
+to drain it, and the woman loves it over all."
+
+"It was a work of hell," said the Lady Lochleven, "both the asking and
+the granting.--Away, wretched man, let us see if aid be yet too late!"
+
+"They will not admit us, madam, save we enter by force--I have been.
+twice at the door, but can obtain no entrance."
+
+"We will beat it level with the ground, if needful--And, hold--summon
+Randal hither instantly.--Randal, here is a foul and evil chance
+befallen--send off a boat instantly to Kinross, the Chamberlain Luke
+Lundin is said to have skill--Fetch off, too, that foul witch Nicneven;
+she shall first counteract her own spell, and then be burned to ashes
+in the island of Saint Serf. Away, away--Tell them to hoist sail and ply
+oar, as ever they would have good of the Douglas's hand!"
+
+"Mother Nicneven will not be lightly found, or fetched hither on these
+conditions," answered Dryfesdale.
+
+"Then grant her full assurance of safety--Look to it, for thine own life
+must answer for this lady's recovery."
+
+"I might have guessed that," said Dryfesdale, sullenly; "but it is
+my comfort I have avenged mine own cause, as well as yours. She hath
+scoffed and scripped at me, and encouraged her saucy minion of a page to
+ridicule my stiff gait and slow speech. I felt it borne in upon me that
+I was to be avenged on them."
+
+"Go to the western turret," said the Lady, "and remain there in
+ward until we see how this gear will terminate. I know thy resolved
+disposition--thou wilt not attempt escape."
+
+"Not were the walls of the turret of egg-shells, and the lake sheeted
+ice," said Dryfesdale. "I am well taught, and strong in belief, that man
+does nought of himself; he is but the foam on the billow, which rises,
+bubbles, and bursts, not by its own effort, but by the mightier impulse
+of fate which urges him. Yet, Lady, if I may advise, amid this zeal for
+the life of the Jezebel of Scotland, forget not what is due to thine own
+honour, and keep the matter secret as you may."
+
+So saying, the gloomy fatalist turned from her, and stalked off with
+sullen composure to the place of confinement allotted to him.
+
+His lady caught at his last hint, and only expressed her fear that the
+prisoner had partaken of some unwholesome food, and was dangerously ill.
+The castle was soon alarmed and in confusion. Randal was dispatched to
+the shore to fetch off Lundin, with such remedies as could counteract
+poison; and with farther instructions to bring mother Nicneven, if she
+could be found, with full power to pledge the Lady of Lochleven's word
+for her safety.
+
+Meanwhile the Lady of Lochleven herself held parley at the door of the
+Queen's apartment, and in vain urged the page to undo it.
+
+"Foolish boy!" she said, "thine own life and thy Lady's are at
+stake--Open, I say, or we will cause the door to be broken down."
+
+"I may not open the door without my royal mistress's orders," answered
+Roland; "she has been very ill, and now she slumbers--if you wake her by
+using violence, let the consequence be on you and your followers."
+
+"Was ever woman in a strait so fearful!" exclaimed the Lady of
+Lochleven--"At least, thou rash boy, beware that no one tastes the food,
+but especially the jar of succory-water."
+
+She then hastened to the turret, where Dryfesdale had composedly
+resigned himself to imprisonment. She found him reading, and demanded of
+him, "Was thy fell potion of speedy operation?"
+
+"Slow," answered the steward. "The hag asked me which I chose--I
+told her I loved a slow and sure revenge. 'Revenge,' said I, 'is the
+highest-flavoured draught which man tastes upon earth, and he should sip
+it by little and little--not drain it up greedily at once."
+
+"Against whom, unhappy man, couldst thou nourish so fell a revenge?"
+
+"I had many objects, but the chief was that insolent page."
+
+"The boy!--thou inhuman man!" exclaimed the lady; "what could he do to
+deserve thy malice?"
+
+"He rose in your favour, and you graced him with your commissions--that
+was one thing. He rose in that of George Douglas's also--that was
+another. He was the favourite of the Calvinistic Henderson, who hated
+me because my spirit disowns a separated priesthood. The Moabitish Queen
+held him dear--winds from each opposing point blew in his favour--the
+old servitor of your house was held lightly among ye--above all, from
+the first time I saw his face, I longed to destroy him."
+
+"What fiend have I nurtured in my house!" replied the Lady. "May God
+forgive me the sin of having given thee food and raiment!"
+
+"You might not choose, Lady," answered the steward. "Long ere this
+castle was builded--ay, long ere the islet which sustains it reared its
+head above the blue water, I was destined to be your faithful slave, and
+you to be my ungrateful mistress. Remember you not when I plunged amid
+the victorious French, in the time of this lady's mother, and brought
+off your husband, when those who had hung at the same breasts with him
+dared not attempt the rescue?--Remember how I plunged into the lake when
+your grandson's skiff was overtaken by the tempest, boarded, and steered
+her safe to the land. Lady--the servant of a Scottish baron is he who
+regards not his own life, or that of any other, save his master. And,
+for the death of the woman, I had tried the potion on her sooner,
+had not Master George been her taster. Her death--would it not be the
+happiest news that Scotland ever heard? Is she not of the bloody Guisian
+stock, whose sword was so often red with the blood of God's saints? Is
+she not the daughter of the wretched tyrant James, whom Heaven cast
+down from his kingdom, and his pride, even as the king of Babylon was
+smitten?"
+
+"Peace, villain!" said the Lady--a thousand varied recollections
+thronging on her mind at the mention of her royal lover's name; "Peace,
+and disturb not the ashes of the dead--of the royal, of the unhappy
+dead. Read thy Bible; and may God grant thee to avail thyself better of
+its contents than thou hast yet done!" She departed hastily, and as she
+reached the next apartment, the tears rose in her eyes so hastily, that
+she was compelled to stop and use her kerchief to dry them. "I expected
+not this," she said, "no more than to have drawn water from the dry
+flint, or sap from a withered tree. I saw with a dry eye the apostacy
+and shame of George Douglas, the hope of my son's house--the child of my
+love; and yet I now weep for him who has so long lain in his grave--for
+him to whom I owe it that his daughter can make a scoffing and a jest of
+my name! But she is _his_ daughter--my heart, hardened against her
+for so many causes, relents when a glance of her eye places her father
+unexpectedly before me--and as often her likeness to that true daughter
+of the house of Guise, her detested mother, has again confirmed my
+resolution. But she must not--must not die in my house, and by so foul
+a practice. Thank God, the operation of the potion is slow, and may be
+counteracted. I will to her apartment once more. But oh! that hardened
+villain, whose fidelity we held in such esteem, and had such high proof
+of! What miracle can unite so much wickedness and so much truth in one
+bosom!"
+
+The Lady of Lochleven was not aware how far minds of a certain gloomy
+and determined cast by nature, may be warped by a keen sense of petty
+injuries and insults, combining with the love of gain, and sense of
+self-interest, and amalgamated with the crude, wild, and indigested
+fanatical opinions which this man had gathered among the crazy sectaries
+of Germany; or how far the doctrines of fatalism, which he had embraced
+so decidedly, sear the human conscience, by representing our actions as
+the result of inevitable necessity.
+
+During her visit to the prisoner, Roland had communicated to Catherine
+the tenor of the conversation he had had with her at the door of the
+apartment. The quick intelligence of that lively maiden instantly
+comprehended the outline of what was believed to have happened, but her
+prejudices hurried her beyond the truth.
+
+"They meant to have poisoned us," she exclaimed in horror, "and there
+stands the fatal liquor which should have done the deed!--Ay, as soon
+as Douglas ceased to be our taster, our food was likely to be fatally
+seasoned. Thou, Roland, who shouldst have made the essay, wert readily
+doomed to die with us. Oh, dearest Lady Fleming, pardon, pardon, for the
+injuries I said to you in my anger--your words were prompted by Heaven
+to save our lives, and especially that of the injured Queen. But what
+have we now to do? that old crocodile of the lake will be presently back
+to shed her hypocritical tears over our dying agonies.--Lady Fleming,
+what shall we do?"
+
+"Our Lady help us in our need!" she replied; "how should I
+tell?--unless we were to make our plaint to the Regent."
+
+"Make our plaint to the devil," said Catherine impatiently, "and accuse
+his dam at the foot of his burning throne!--The Queen still sleeps--we
+must gain time. The poisoning hag must not know her scheme has
+miscarried; the old envenomed spider has but too many ways of mending
+her broken web. The jar of succory-water," said she--"Roland, if
+thou be'st a man, help me--empty the jar on the chimney or from the
+window--make such waste among the viands as if we had made our usual
+meal, and leave the fragments on cup and porringer, but taste nothing
+as thou lovest thy life. I will sit by the Queen, and tell her at her
+waking, in what a fearful pass we stand. Her sharp wit and ready spirit
+will teach us what is best to be done. Meanwhile, till farther notice,
+observe, Roland, that the Queen is in a state of torpor--that Lady
+Fleming is indisposed--that character" (speaking in a lower tone) "will
+suit her best, and save her wits some labour in vain. I am not so much
+indisposed, thou understandest."
+
+"And I?" said the page--
+
+"You?" replied Catherine, "you are quite well--who thinks it worth while
+to poison puppy-dogs or pages?"
+
+"Does this levity become the time?" asked the page.
+
+"It does, it does," answered Catherine Seyton; "if the Queen approves, I
+see plainly how this disconcerted attempt may do us good service."
+
+She went to work while she spoke, eagerly assisted by Roland. The
+breakfast table soon displayed the appearance as if the meal had been
+eaten as usual; and the ladies retired as softly as possible into the
+Queen's sleeping apartment. At a new summons of the Lady Lochleven,
+the page undid the door, and admitted her into the anteroom, asking her
+pardon for having withstood her, alleging in excuse, that the Queen had
+fallen into a heavy slumber since she had broken her fast.
+
+"She has eaten and drunken, then?" said the Lady of Lochleven.
+
+"Surely," replied the page, "according to her Grace's ordinary custom,
+unless upon the fasts of the church."
+
+"The jar," she said, hastily examining it, "it is empty--drank the Lady
+Mary the whole of this water?"
+
+"A large part, madam; and I heard the Lady Catherine Seyton jestingly
+upbraid the Lady Mary Fleming with having taken more than a just share
+of what remained, so that but little fell to her own lot."
+
+"And are they well in health?" said the Lady of Lochleven.
+
+"Lady Fleming," said the page, "complains of lethargy, and looks duller
+than usual; and the Lady Catherine of Seyton feels her head somewhat
+more giddy than is her wont."
+
+He raised his voice a little as he said these words, to apprise the
+ladies of the part assigned to each of them, and not, perhaps, without
+the wish of conveying to the ears of Catherine the page-like jest which
+lurked in the allotment.
+
+"I will enter the Queen's bedchamber," said the Lady of Lochleven; "my
+business is express."
+
+As she advanced to the door, the voice of Catherine Seyton was heard
+from within--"No one can enter here--the Queen sleeps."
+
+"I will not be controlled, young lady," replied the Lady of Lochleven;
+"there is, I wot, no inner bar, and I will enter in your despite."
+
+"There is, indeed, no inner bar," answered Catherine, firmly, "but there
+are the staples where that bar should be; and into those staples have I
+thrust mine arm, like an ancestress of your own, when, better employed
+than the Douglasses of our days, she thus defended the bedchamber of
+her sovereign against murderers. Try your force, then, and see whether a
+Seyton cannot rival in courage a maiden of the house of Douglas."
+
+"I dare not attempt the pass at such risk," said the Lady of Lochleven:
+"Strange, that this Princess, with all that justly attaches to her
+as blameworthy, should preserve such empire over the minds of her
+attendants.--Damsel, I give thee my honour that I come for the Queen's
+safety and advantage. Awaken her, if thou lovest her, and pray her leave
+that I may enter--I will retire from the door the whilst."
+
+"Thou wilt not awaken the Queen?" said the Lady Fleming.
+
+"What choice have we?" said the ready-witted maiden, "unless you deem
+it better to wait till the Lady Lochleven herself plays lady of the
+bedchamber. Her fit of patience will not last long, and the Queen must
+be prepared to meet her."
+
+"But thou wilt bring back her Grace's fit by thus disturbing her."
+
+"Heaven forbid!" replied Catherine; "but if so, it must pass for an
+effect of the poison. I hope better things, and that the Queen will be
+able when she wakes to form her own judgment in this terrible crisis.
+Meanwhile, do thou, dear Lady Fleming, practise to look as dull and
+heavy as the alertness of thy spirit will permit."
+
+Catherine kneeled by the side of the Queen's bed, and, kissing her hand
+repeatedly, succeeded at last in awakening without alarming her. She
+seemed surprised to find that she was ready dressed, but sate up in her
+bed, and appeared so perfectly composed, that Catherine Seyton, without
+farther preamble, judged it safe to inform her of the predicament in
+which they were placed. Mary turned pale, and crossed herself again and
+again, when she heard the imminent danger in which she had stood. But,
+like the Ulysses of Homer,
+
+  --Hardly waking yet,
+  Sprung in her mind the momentary wit,
+
+and she at once understood her situation, with the dangers and
+advantages that attended it.
+
+"We cannot do better," she said, after her hasty conference with
+Catherine, pressing her at the same time to her bosom, and kissing her
+forehead; "we cannot do better than to follow the scheme so happily
+devised by thy quick wit and bold affection. Undo the door to the Lady
+Lochleven--She shall meet her match in art, though not in perfidy.
+Fleming, draw close the curtain, and get thee behind it--thou art a
+better tire-woman than an actress; do but breathe heavily, and, if thou
+wilt, groan slightly, and it will top thy part. Hark! they come. Now,
+Catherine of Medicis, may thy spirit inspire me, for a cold northern
+brain is too blunt for this scene!"
+
+Ushered by Catherine Seyton, and stepping as light as she could, the
+Lady Lochleven was shown into the twilight apartment, and conducted to
+the side of the couch, where Mary, pallid and exhausted from a sleepless
+night, and the subsequent agitation of the morning, lay extended so
+listlessly as might well confirm the worst fears of her hostess.
+
+"Now, God forgive us our sins!" said the Lady of Lochleven, forgetting
+her pride, and throwing herself on her knees by the side of the bed; "It
+is too true--she is murdered!"
+
+"Who is in the chamber?" said Mary, as if awaking from a heavy
+sleep. "Seyton, Fleming, where are you? I heard a strange voice. Who
+waits?--Call Courcelles."
+
+"Alas! her memory is at Holyrood, though her body is at
+Lochleven.--Forgive, madam," continued the Lady, "if I call your
+attention to me--I am Margaret Erskine, of the house of Mar, by marriage
+Lady Douglas of Lochleven."
+
+"Oh, our gentle hostess," answered the Queen, "who hath such care of our
+lodgings and of our diet--We cumber you too much and too long, good Lady
+of Lochleven; but we now trust your task of hospitality is well-nigh
+ended."
+
+"Her words go like a knife through my heart," said the Lady of
+Lochleven--"With a breaking heart, I pray your Grace to tell me what is
+your ailment, that aid may be had, if there be yet time."
+
+"Nay, my ailment," replied the Queen, "is nothing worth telling, or
+worth a leech's notice--my limbs feel heavy--my heart feels cold--a
+prisoner's limbs and heart are rarely otherwise--fresh air, methinks,
+and freedom, would soon revive me; but as the Estates have ordered it,
+death alone can break my prison-doors."
+
+"Were it possible, madam," said the Lady, "that your liberty could
+restore your perfect health, I would myself encounter the resentment of
+the Regent--of my son, Sir William--of my whole friends, rather than you
+should meet your fate in this castle."
+
+"Alas! madam," said the Lady Fleming, who conceived the time propitious
+to show that her own address had been held too lightly of; "it is but
+trying what good freedom may work upon us; for myself, I think a free
+walk on the greensward would do me much good at heart."
+
+The Lady of Lochleven rose from the bedside, and darted a penetrating
+look at the elder valetudinary. "Are you so evil-disposed, Lady
+Fleming?"
+
+"Evil-disposed indeed, madam," replied the court dame, "and more
+especially since breakfast."
+
+"Help! help!" exclaimed Catherine, anxious to break off a conversation
+which boded her schemes no good; "help! I say, help! the Queen is about
+to pass away. Aid her, Lady Lochleven, if you be a woman!"
+
+The Lady hastened to support the Queen's head, who, turning her eyes
+towards her with an air of great languor, exclaimed, "Thanks, my dearest
+Lady of Lochleven--notwithstanding some passages of late, I have never
+misconstrued or misdoubted your affection to our house. It was proved,
+as I have heard, before I was born."
+
+The Lady Lochleven sprung from the floor, on which she had again knelt,
+and, having paced the apartment in great disorder, flung open the
+lattice, as if to get air.
+
+"Now, Our Lady forgive me!" said Catherine to herself. "How deep must
+the love of sarcasm, be implanted in the breasts of us women, since the
+Queen, with all her sense, will risk ruin rather than rein in her wit!"
+She then adventured, stooping over the Queen's person, to press her
+arm with her hand, saying, at the same time, "For God's sake, madam,
+restrain yourself!"
+
+"Thou art too forward, maiden," said the Queen; but immediately added,
+in a low whisper, "Forgive me, Catherine; but when I felt the hag's
+murderous hands busy about my head and neck, I felt such disgust and
+hatred, that I must have said something, or died. But I will be schooled
+to better behaviour--only see that thou let her not touch me."
+
+"Now, God be praised!" said the Lady Lochleven, withdrawing her head
+from the window, "the boat comes as fast as sail and oar can send wood
+through water. It brings the leech and a female--certainly, from the
+appearance, the very person I was in quest of. Were she but well out of
+this castle, with our honour safe, I would that she were on the top of
+the wildest mountain in Norway; or I would I had been there myself, ere
+I had undertaken this trust."
+
+While she thus expressed herself, standing apart at one window, Roland
+Graeme, from the other, watched the boat bursting through the waters
+of the lake, which glided from its side in ripple and in foam. He, too,
+became sensible, that at the stern was seated the medical Chamberlain,
+clad in his black velvet cloak; and that his own relative, Magdalen
+Graeme, in her assumed character of Mother Nieneven, stood in the bow,
+her hands clasped together, and pointed towards the castle, and her
+attitude, even at that distance, expressing enthusiastic eagerness to
+arrive at the landing-place. They arrived there accordingly, and while
+the supposed witch was detained in a room beneath, the physician
+was ushered to the Queen's apartment, which he entered with all due
+professional solemnity. Catherine had, in the meanwhile, fallen back
+from the Queen's bed, and taken an opportunity to whisper to Roland,
+"Methinks, from the information of the threadbare velvet cloak and the
+solemn beard, there would be little trouble in haltering yonder ass. But
+thy grandmother, Roland--thy grandmother's zeal will ruin us, if she get
+not a hint to dissemble."
+
+Roland, without reply, glided towards the door of the apartment, crossed
+the parlour, and safely entered the antechamber; but when he attempted
+to pass farther, the word "Back! Back!" echoed from one to the other, by
+two men armed with carabines, convinced him that the Lady of Lochleven's
+suspicions had not, even in the midst of her alarms, been so far lulled
+to sleep as to omit the precaution of stationing sentinels on her
+prisoners. He was compelled, therefore, to return to the parlour, or
+audience-chamber, in which he found the Lady of the castle in conference
+with her learned leech.
+
+"A truce with your cant phrase and your solemn foppery, Lundin," in such
+terms she accosted the man of art, "and let me know instantly, if thou
+canst tell, whether this lady hath swallowed aught that is less than
+wholesome?"
+
+"Nay, but, good lady--honoured patroness--to whom I am alike bonds-man
+in my medical and official capacity, deal reasonably with me. If this,
+mine illustrious patient, will not answer a question, saving with sighs
+and moans--if that other honourable lady will do nought but yawn in
+my face when I inquire after the diagnostics--and if that other young
+damsel, who I profess is a comely maiden--"
+
+"Talk not to me of comeliness or of damsels," said the Lady of
+Lochleven, "I say, are they evil-disposed?--In one word, man, have they
+taken poison, ay or no?"
+
+"Poisons, madam," said the learned leech, "are of various sorts. There
+is your animal poison, as the lepus marinus, as mentioned by Dioscorides
+and Galen--there are mineral and semi-mineral poisons, as those
+compounded of sublimate regulus of antimony, vitriol, and the arsenical
+salts--there are your poisons from herbs and vegetables, as the aqua
+cymbalariae, opium, aconitum, cantharides, and the like--there are
+also--"
+
+"Now, out upon thee for a learned fool! and I myself am no better for
+expecting an oracle from such a log," said the Lady.
+
+"Nay, but if your ladyship will have patience--if I knew what food they
+have partaken of, or could see but the remnants of what they have last
+eaten--for as to the external and internal symptoms, I can discover
+nought like; for, as Galen saith in his second book _de Antidotis_--"
+
+"Away, fool!" said the Lady; "send me that hag hither; she shall
+avouch what it was that she hath given to the wretch Dryfesdale, or the
+pilniewinks and thumbikins shall wrench it out of her finger joints!"
+
+"Art hath no enemy unless the ignorant," said the mortified Doctor;
+veiling, however, his remark under the Latin version, and stepping apart
+into a corner to watch the result.
+
+In a minute or two Magdalen Graeme entered the apartment, dressed as we
+have described her at the revel, but with her muffler thrown back, and
+all affectation of disguise. She was attended by two guards, of whose
+presence she did not seem even to be conscious, and who followed her
+with an air of embarrassment and timidity, which was probably owing to
+their belief in her supernatural power, coupled with the effect
+produced by her bold and undaunted demeanour. She confronted the Lady of
+Lochleven, who seemed to endure with high disdain the confidence of her
+air and manner.
+
+"Wretched woman!" said the Lady, after essaying for a moment to bear
+her down, before she addressed her, by the stately severity of her look,
+"what was that powder which thou didst give to a servant of this house,
+by name Jasper Dryfesdale, that he might work out with it some slow and
+secret vengeance?--Confess its nature and properties, or, by the honour
+of Douglas, I give thee to fire and stake before the sun is lower!"
+
+"Alas!" said Magdalen Graeme in reply, "and when became a Douglas or a
+Douglas's man so unfurnished in his revenge, that he should seek them
+at the hands of a poor and solitary woman? The towers in which your
+captives pine away into unpitied graves, yet stand fast on their
+foundation--the crimes wrought in them have not yet burst their
+vaults asunder--your men have still their cross-bows, pistolets, and
+daggers--why need you seek to herbs or charms for the execution of your
+revenges?"
+
+"Hear me, foul hag," said the Lady Lochleven,--"but what avails speaking
+to thee?--Bring Dryfesdale hither, and let them be confronted together."
+
+"You may spare your retainers the labour," replied Magdalen Graeme.
+"I came not here to be confronted with a base groom, nor to answer the
+interrogatories of James's heretical leman--I came to speak with the
+Queen of Scotland--Give place there!"
+
+And while the Lady Lochleven stood confounded at her boldness, and at
+the reproach she had cast upon her, Magdalen Graeme strode past her
+into the bedchamber of the Queen, and, kneeling on the floor, made a
+salutation as if, in the Oriental fashion, she meant to touch the earth
+with her forehead.
+
+"Hail, Princess!" she said, "hail, daughter of many a King, but
+graced above them all in that thou art called to suffer for the true
+faith--hail to thee, the pure gold of whose crown has been tried in the
+seven-times heated furnace of affliction--hear the comfort which God
+and Our Lady send thee by the mouth of thy unworthy servant.--But
+first"--and stooping her head she crossed herself repeatedly, and,
+still upon her knees, appeared to be rapidly reciting some formula of
+devotion.
+
+"Seize her, and drag her to the massy-more!--to the deepest dungeon with
+the sorceress, whose master, the Devil, could alone have inspired her
+with boldness enough to insult the mother of Douglas in his own castle!"
+
+Thus spoke the incensed Lady of Lochleven, but the physician presumed to
+interpose.
+
+"I pray of you, honoured madam, she be permitted to take her course
+without interruption. Peradventure we shall learn something concerning
+the nostrum she hath ventured, contrary to law and the rules of art, to
+adhibit to these ladies, through the medium of the steward Dryfesdale."
+
+"For a fool," replied the Lady of Lochleven, "thou hast counselled
+wisely--I will bridle my resentment till their conference be over."
+
+"God forbid, honoured Lady," said Doctor Lundin, "that you should
+suppress it longer--nothing may more endanger the frame of your honoured
+body; and truly, if there be witchcraft in this matter, it is held by
+the vulgar, and even by solid authors on Demonology, that three scruples
+of the ashes of the witch, when she hath been well and carefully burned
+at a stake, is a grand Catholicon in such matter, even as they prescribe
+_crinis canis rabidi_, a hair of the dog that bit the patient, in cases
+of hydrophobia. I warrant neither treatment, being out of the regular
+practice of the schools; but, in the present case, there can be
+little harm in trying the conclusion upon this old necromancer and
+quacksalver-_fiat experimentum_ (as we say) _in corpore vili_."
+
+"Peace, fool!" said the Lady, "she is about to speak."
+
+At that moment Magdalen Graeme arose from her knees, and turned her
+countenance on the Queen, at the same time advancing her foot, extending
+her arm, and assuming the mien and attitude of a Sibyl in frenzy. As her
+gray hair floated back from beneath her coif, and her eye gleamed fire
+from under its shaggy eyebrow, the effect of her expressive though
+emaciated features, was heightened by an enthusiasm approaching to
+insanity, and her appearance struck with awe all who were present. Her
+eyes for a time glanced wildly around as if seeking for something to aid
+her in collecting her powers of expression, and her lips had a nervous
+and quivering motion, as those of one who would fain speak, yet rejects
+as inadequate the words which present themselves. Mary herself caught
+the infection as if by a sort of magnetic influence, and raising herself
+from her bed, without being able to withdraw her eyes from those of
+Magdalen, waited as if for the oracle of a Pythoness. She waited not
+long, for no sooner had the enthusiast collected herself, than her gaze
+became instantly steady, her features assumed a determined energy,
+and when she began to speak, the words flowed from her with a profuse
+fluency, which might have passed for inspiration, and which, perhaps,
+she herself mistook for such.
+
+"Arise," she said, "Queen of France and of England! Arise, Lioness
+of Scotland, and be not dismayed though the nets of the hunters have
+encircled thee! Stoop not to feign with the false ones, whom thou shall
+soon meet in the field. The issue of battle is with the God of armies,
+but by battle thy cause shall be tried. Lay aside, then, the arts of
+lower mortals, and assume those which become a Queen! True defender of
+the only true faith, the armoury of heaven is open to thee! Faithful
+daughter of the Church, take the keys of St. Peter, to bind and to
+loose!--Royal Princess of the land, take the sword of St. Paul, to
+smite and to shear! There is darkness in thy destiny;--but not in these
+towers, not under the rule of their haughty mistress, shall that destiny
+be closed--In other lands the lioness may crouch to the power of the
+tigress, but not in her own--not in Scotland shall the Queen of Scotland
+long remain captive--nor is the fate of the royal Stuart in the hands
+of the traitor Douglas. Let the Lady of Lochleven double her bolts and
+deepen her dungeons, they shall not retain thee--each element shall give
+thee its assistance ere thou shalt continue captive--the land shall lend
+its earthquakes, the water its waves, the air its tempests, the fire its
+devouring flames, to desolate this house, rather than it shall continue
+the place of thy captivity.--Hear this, and tremble, all ye who fight
+against the light, for she says it, to whom it hath been assured!"
+
+She was silent, and the astonished physician said, "If there was ever
+an _Energumene,_ or possessed demoniac, in our days, there is a devil
+speaking with that woman's tongue!"
+
+"Practice," said the Lady of Lochleven, recovering her surprise; "here
+is all practice and imposture--To the dungeon with her!"
+
+"Lady of Lochleven," said Mary, arising from her bed, and coming
+forward with her wonted dignity, "ere you make arrest on any one in our
+presence, hear me but one word. I have done you some wrong--I believed
+you privy to the murderous purpose of your vassal, and I deceived you in
+suffering you to believe it had taken effect. I did you wrong, Lady of
+Lochleven, for I perceive your purpose to aid me was sincere. We tasted
+not of the liquid, nor are we now sick, save that we languish for our
+freedom."
+
+"It is avowed like Mary of Scotland," said Magdalen Graeme; "and know,
+besides, that had the Queen drained the drought to the dregs, it was
+harmless as the water from a sainted spring. Trow ye, proud woman," she
+added, addressing herself to the Lady of Lochleven, "that I--I--would
+have been the wretch to put poison into the hands of a servant or vassal
+of the house of Lochleven, knowing whom that house contained? as soon
+would I have furnished drug to slay my own daughter!"
+
+"Am I thus bearded in mine own castle?" said the Lady; "to the dungeon
+with her!--she shall abye what is due to the vender of poisons and
+practiser of witchcraft."
+
+"Yet hear me for an instant, Lady of Lochleven," said Mary; "and do
+you," to Magdalen, "be silent at my command.--Your steward, lady, has by
+confession attempted my life, and those of my household, and this
+woman hath done her best to save them, by furnishing him with what was
+harmless, in place of the fatal drugs which he expected. Methinks I
+propose to you but a fair exchange when I say I forgive your vassal with
+all my heart, and leave vengeance to God, and to his conscience, so that
+you also forgive the boldness of this woman in your presence; for we
+trust you do not hold it as a crime, that she substituted an innocent
+beverage for the mortal poison which was to have drenched our cup."
+
+"Heaven forfend, madam," said the Lady, "that I should account that a
+crime which saved the house of Douglas from a foul breach of honour and
+hospitality! We have written to our son touching our vassal's delict,
+and he must abide his doom, which will most likely be death. Touching
+this woman, her trade is damnable by Scripture, and is mortally punished
+by the wise laws of our ancestry--she also must abide her doom."
+
+"And have I then," said the Queen, "no claim on the house of Lochleven
+for the wrong I have so nearly suffered within their walls? I ask but in
+requital, the life of a frail and aged woman, whose brain, as yourself
+may judge, seems somewhat affected by years and suffering."
+
+"If the Lady Mary," replied the inflexible Lady of Lochleven, "hath been
+menaced with wrong in the house of Douglas, it may be regarded as some
+compensation, that her complots have cost that house the exile of a
+valued son."
+
+"Plead no more for me, my gracious Sovereign," said Magdalen Graeme,
+"nor abase yourself to ask so much as a gray hair of my head at her
+hands. I knew the risk at which I served my Church and my Queen, and was
+ever prompt to pay my poor life as the ransom. It is a comfort to think,
+that in slaying me, or in restraining my freedom, or even in injuring
+that single gray hair, the house, whose honour she boasts so highly,
+will have filled up the measure of their shame by the breach of their
+solemn written assurance of safety."--And taking from her bosom a paper,
+she handed it to the Queen.
+
+"It is a solemn assurance of safety in life and limb," said Queen Mary,
+"with space to come and go, under the hand and seal of the Chamberlain
+of Kinross, granted to Magdalen Graeme, commonly called Mother Nicneven,
+in consideration of her consenting to put herself, for the space of
+twenty-four hours, if required, within the iron gate of the Castle of
+Lochleven."
+
+"Knave!" said the Lady, turning to the Chamberlain, "how dared you grant
+her such a protection?"
+
+"It was by your Ladyship's orders, transmitted by Randal, as he can
+bear witness," replied Doctor Lundin; "nay, I am only like the
+pharmacopolist, who compounds the drugs after the order of the
+mediciner."
+
+"I remember--I remember," answered the Lady; "but I meant the assurance
+only to be used in case, by residing in another jurisdiction, she could
+not have been apprehended under our warrant."
+
+"Nevertheless," said the Queen, "the Lady of Lochleven is bound by the
+action of her deputy in granting the assurance."
+
+"Madam," replied the Lady, "the house of Douglas have never broken
+their safe-conduct, and never will--too deeply did they suffer by such
+a breach of trust, exercised on themselves, when your Grace's ancestor,
+the second James, in defiance of the rights of hospitality, and of his
+own written assurance of safety, poniarded the brave Earl of Douglas
+with his own hand, and within two yards of the social board, at which he
+had just before sat the King of Scotland's honoured guest."
+
+"Methinks," said the Queen, carelessly, "in consideration of so very
+recent and enormous a tragedy, which I think only chanced some six-score
+years agone, the Douglasses should have shown themselves less tenacious
+of the company of their sovereigns, than you, Lady of Lochleven, seem to
+be of mine."
+
+"Let Randal," said the Lady, "take the hag back to Kinross, and set her
+at full liberty, discharging her from our bounds in future, on peril of
+her head.--And let your wisdom," to the Chamberlain, "keep her company.
+And fear not for your character, though I send you in such company; for,
+granting her to be a witch, it would be a waste of fagots to burn you
+for a wizard."
+
+The crest-fallen Chamberlain was preparing to depart; but Magdalen
+Graeme, collecting herself, was about to reply, when the Queen
+interposed, saying, "Good mother, we heartily thank you for your
+unfeigned zeal towards our person, and pray you, as our liege-woman,
+that you abstain from whatever may lead you into personal danger; and,
+farther, it is our will that you depart without a word of farther parley
+with any one in this castle. For thy present guerdon, take this small
+reliquary--it was given to us by our uncle the Cardinal, and hath had
+the benediction of the Holy Father himself;--and now depart in peace and
+in silence.--For you, learned sir," continued the Queen, advancing to
+the Doctor, who made his reverence in a manner doubly embarrassed by the
+awe of the Queen's presence, which made him fear to do too little, and
+by the apprehension of his lady's displeasure, in case he should chance
+to do too much--"for you, learned sir, as it was not your fault, though
+surely our own good fortune, that we did not need your skill at this
+time, it would not become us, however circumstanced, to suffer our leech
+to leave us without such guerdon as we can offer."
+
+With these words, and with the grace which never forsook her, though,
+in the present case, there might lurk under it a little gentle ridicule,
+she offered a small embroidered purse to the Chamberlain, who, with
+extended hand and arched back, his learned face stooping until a
+physiognomist might have practised the metoposcopical science upon it,
+as seen from behind betwixt his gambadoes, was about to accept of the
+professional recompense offered by so fair as well as illustrious a
+hand. But the Lady interposed, and, regarding the Chamberlain, said
+aloud, "No servant of our house, without instantly relinquishing that
+character, and incurring withal our highest displeasure, shall dare
+receive any gratuity at the hand of the Lady Mary."
+
+Sadly and slowly the Chamberlain raised his depressed stature into the
+perpendicular attitude, and left the apartment dejectedly, followed by
+Magdalen Graeme, after, with mute but expressive gesture, she had kissed
+the reliquary with which the Queen had presented her, and, raising her
+clasped hands and uplifted eyes towards Heaven, had seemed to entreat
+a benediction upon the royal dame. As she left the castle, and
+went towards the quay where the boat lay, Roland Graeme, anxious to
+communicate with her if possible, threw himself in her way, and might
+have succeeded in exchanging a few words with her, as she was guarded
+only by the dejected Chamberlain and his halberdiers, but she seemed to
+have taken, in its most strict and literal acceptation, the command to
+be silent which she had received from the Queen; for, to the repeated
+signs of her grandson, she only replied by laying her finger on her lip.
+Dr. Lundin was not so reserved. Regret for the handsome gratuity, and
+for the compulsory task of self-denial imposed on him, had grieved the
+spirit of that worthy officer and learned mediciner--"Even thus, my
+friend," said he, squeezing the page's hand as he bade him farewell, "is
+merit rewarded. I came to cure this unhappy Lady--and I profess she well
+deserves the trouble, for, say what they will of her, she hath a most
+winning manner, a sweet voice, a gracious smile, and a most majestic
+wave of her hand. If she was not poisoned, say, my dear Master Roland,
+was that fault of mine, I being ready to cure her if she had?--and now I
+am denied the permission to accept my well-earned honorarium--O Galen! O
+Hippocrates! is the graduate's cap and doctor's scarlet brought to this
+pass! _Frustra fatigamus remediis aegros!_"
+
+He wiped his eyes, stepped on the gunwale, and the boat pushed off from
+the shore, and went merrily across the lake, which was dimpled by the
+summer wind. [Footnote: A romancer, to use a Scottish phrase, wants but
+a hair to make a tether of. The whole detail of the steward's supposed
+conspiracy against the life of Mary, is grounded upon an expression in
+one of her letters, which affirms, that Jasper Dryfesdale, one of the
+Laird of Lochleven's servants, had threatened to murder William Douglas,
+(for his share in the Queen's escape,) and averred that he would plant a
+dagger in Mary's own heart.--CHALMER'S _Life of Queen Mary_, vol. i. p.
+278.]
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Third.
+
+
+  Death distant?--No, alas! he's ever with us,
+  And shakes the dart at us in all our actings:
+  He lurks within our cup, while we're in health;
+  Sits by our sick-bed, mocks our medicines;
+  We cannot walk, or sit, or ride, or travel,
+  But Death is by to seize us when he lists.
+                         THE SPANISH FATHER.
+
+From the agitating scene in the Queen's presence-chamber, the Lady of
+Lochleven retreated to her own apartment, and ordered the steward to be
+called before her.
+
+"Have they not disarmed thee, Dryfesdale?" she said, on seeing him
+enter, accoutred, as usual, with sword and dagger.
+
+"No!" replied the old man; "how should they?--Your ladyship, when you
+commanded me to ward, said nought of laying down my arms; and, I think
+none of your menials, without your order, or your son's, dare approach
+Jasper Dryfesdale for such a purpose.--Shall I now give up my sword to
+you?--it is worth little now, for it has fought for your house till it
+is worn down to old iron, like the pantler's old chipping knife."
+
+"You have attempted a deadly crime--poison under trust."
+
+"Under trust?--hem!--I know not what your ladyship thinks of it, but the
+world without thinks the trust was given you even for that very end; and
+you would have been well off had it been so ended as I proposed, and you
+neither the worse nor the wiser."
+
+"Wretch!" exclaimed the lady, "and fool as well as villain, who could
+not even execute the crime he had planned!"
+
+"I bid as fair for it as man could," replied Dryfesdale; "I went to a
+woman--a witch and a Papist--If I found not poison, it was because it
+was otherwise predestined. I tried fair for it; but the half-done job
+may be clouted, if you will."
+
+"Villain! I am even now about to send off an express messenger to my
+son, to take order how thou shouldst be disposed of. Prepare thyself for
+death, if thou canst."
+
+"He that looks on death, Lady," answered Dryfesdale, "as that which
+he may not shun, and which has its own fixed and certain hour, is ever
+prepared for it. He that is hanged in May will eat no flaunes
+[footnote: Pancakes] in midsummer--so there is the moan made for the old
+serving-man. But whom, pray I, send you on so fair an errand?"
+
+"There will be no lack of messengers," answered his mistress.
+
+"By my hand, but there will," replied the old man; "your castle is but
+poorly manned, considering the watches that you must keep, having this
+charge--There is the warder, and two others, whom you discarded for
+tampering with Master George; then for the warder's tower, the bailie,
+the donjon--five men mount each guard, and the rest must sleep for the
+most part in their clothes. To send away another man, were to harass
+the sentinels to death--unthrifty misuse for a household. To take in new
+soldiers were dangerous, the charge requiring tried men. I see but one
+thing for it--I will do your errand to Sir William Douglas myself."
+
+"That were indeed a resource!--And on what day within twenty years would
+it be done?" said the Lady.
+
+"Even with the speed of man and horse," said Dryfesdale; "for though I
+care not much about the latter days of an old serving-man's life, yet I
+would like to know as soon as may be, whether my neck is mine own or the
+hangman's."
+
+"Holdest thou thy own life so lightly?" said the Lady.
+
+"Else I had reckoned more of that of others," said the
+predestinarian--"What is death?--it is but ceasing to live--And what
+is living?--a weary return of light and darkness, sleeping and waking,
+being hungered and eating. Your dead man needs neither candle nor can,
+neither fire nor feather-bed; and the joiner's chest serves him for an
+eternal frieze-jerkin."
+
+"Wretched man! believest thou not that after death comes the judgment?"
+
+"Lady," answered Dryfesdale, "as my mistress, I may not dispute your
+words; but, as spiritually speaking, you are still but a burner of
+bricks in Egypt, ignorant of the freedom of the saints; for, as was well
+shown to me by that gifted man, Nicolaus Schoefferbach, who was martyred
+by the bloody Bishop of Munster, he cannot sin who doth but execute that
+which is predestined, since--"
+
+"Silence!" said the Lady, interrupting him,--"Answer me not with thy
+bold and presumptuous blasphemy, but hear me. Thou hast been long the
+servant of our house--"
+
+"The born servant of the Douglas--they have had the best of me--I served
+them since I left Lockerbie: I was then ten years old, and you may soon
+add the threescore to it."
+
+"Thy foul attempt has miscarried, so thou art guilty only in intention.
+It were a deserved deed to hang thee on the warder's tower; and yet
+in thy present mind, it were but giving a soul to Satan. I take thine
+offer, then--Go hence--here is my packet--I will add to it but a line,
+to desire him to send me a faithful servant or two to complete the
+garrison. Let my son deal with you as he will. If thou art wise, thou
+wilt make for Lockerbie so soon as thy foot touches dry land, and let
+the packet find another bearer; at all rates, look it miscarries not."
+
+"Nay, madam," replied he--"I was born, as I said, the Douglas's servant,
+and I will be no corbie-messenger in mine old age--your message to your
+son shall be done as truly by me as if it concerned another man's neck.
+I take my leave of your honour."
+
+The Lady issued her commands, and the old man was ferried over to the
+shore, to proceed on his extraordinary pilgrimage. It is necessary
+the reader should accompany him on his journey, which Providence had
+determined should not be of long duration.
+
+On arriving at the village, the steward, although his disgrace had
+transpired, was readily accommodated with a horse, by the Chamberlain's
+authority; and the roads being by no means esteemed safe, he associated
+himself with Auchtermuchty, the common carrier, in order to travel in
+his company to Edinburgh.
+
+The worthy waggoner, according to the established customs of all
+carriers, stage-coachmen, and other persons in public authority, from
+the earliest days to the present, never wanted good reasons for stopping
+upon the road, as often as he would; and the place which had most
+captivation for him as a resting-place was a change-house, as it was
+termed, not very distant from a romantic dell, well known by the name
+of Keirie Craigs. Attractions of a kind very different from those
+which arrested the progress of John Auchtermuchty and his wains, still
+continue to hover round this romantic spot, and none has visited its
+vicinity without a desire to remain long and to return soon.
+
+Arrived near his favourite _howss_, not all the authority of Dryfesdale
+(much diminished indeed by the rumours of his disgrace) could prevail on
+the carrier, obstinate as the brutes which he drove, to pass on without
+his accustomed halt, for which the distance he had travelled furnished
+little or no pretence. Old Keltie, the landlord, who had bestowed his
+name on a bridge in the neighbourhood of his quondam dwelling, received
+the carrier with his usual festive cordiality, and adjourned with him
+into the house, under pretence of important business, which, I believe,
+consisted in their emptying together a mutchkin stoup of usquebaugh.
+While the worthy host and his guest were thus employed, the discarded
+steward, with a double portion of moroseness in his gesture and look,
+walked discontentedly into the kitchen of the place, which was occupied
+but by one guest. The stranger was a slight figure, scarce above the age
+of boyhood, and in the dress of a page, but bearing an air of haughty
+aristocratic boldness and even insolence in his look and manner, that
+might have made Dryfesdale conclude he had pretensions to superior
+rank, had not his experience taught him how frequently these airs of
+superiority were assumed by the domestics and military retainers of the
+Scottish nobility.--"The pilgrim's morning to you, old sir," said the
+youth; "you come, as I think, from Lochleven Castle--What news of our
+bonny Queen?--a fairer dove was never pent up in so wretched a dovecot."
+
+"They that speak of Lochleven, and of those whom its walls contain,"
+answered Dryfesdale, "speak of what concerns the Douglas; and they who
+speak of what concerns the Douglas, do it at their peril."
+
+"Do you speak from fear of them, old man, or would you make a quarrel
+for them?--I should have deemed your age might have cooled your blood."
+
+"Never, while there are empty-pated coxcombs at each corner to keep it
+warm."
+
+"The sight of thy gray hairs keeps mine cold," said the boy, who had
+risen up and now sat down again.
+
+"It is well for thee, or I had cooled it with this holly-rod," replied
+the steward. "I think thou be'st one of those swash-bucklers, who brawl
+in alehouses and taverns; and who, if words were pikes, and oaths were
+Andrew Ferraras, would soon place the religion of Babylon in the land
+once more, and the woman of Moab upon the throne."
+
+"Now, by Saint Bennet of Seyton," said the youth, "I will strike thee on
+the face, thou foul-mouthed old railing heretic!"
+
+"Saint Bennet of Seyton," echoed the steward; "a proper warrant is Saint
+Bennet's, and for a proper nest of wolf-birds like the Seytons!--I will
+arrest thee as a traitor to King James and the good Regent.--Ho! John
+Auchtermuchty, raise aid against the King's traitor!"
+
+So saying, he laid his hand on the youth's collar, and drew his sword.
+John Auchtermuchty looked in, but, seeing the naked weapon, ran faster
+out than he entered. Keltie, the landlord, stood by and helped neither
+party, only exclaiming, "Gentlemen! gentlemen! for the love of Heaven!"
+and so forth. A struggle ensued, in which the young man, chafed at
+Dryfesdale's boldness, and unable, with the ease he expected, to
+extricate himself from the old man's determined grasp, drew his dagger,
+and with the speed of light, dealt him three wounds in the breast and
+body, the least of which was mortal. The old man sunk on the ground with
+a deep groan, and the host set up a piteous exclamation of surprise.
+
+"Peace, ye brawling hound!" said the wounded steward; "are dagger-stabs
+and dying men such rarities in Scotland, that you should cry as if the
+house were falling?--Youth, I do not forgive thee, for there is nought
+betwixt us to forgive. Thou hast done what I have done to more than
+one--And I suffer what I have seen them suffer--it was all ordained to
+be thus and not otherwise. But if thou wouldst do me right, thou wilt
+send this packet safely to the hands of Sir William Douglas; and see
+that my memory suffer not, as if I would have loitered on mine errand
+for fear of my life."
+
+The youth, whose passion had subsided the instant he had done the deed,
+listened with sympathy and attention, when another person, muffled in
+his cloak, entered the apartment, and exclaimed--"Good God! Dryfesdale,
+and expiring!"
+
+"Ay, and Dryfesdale would that he had been dead," answered the wounded
+man, "rather than that his ears had heard the words of the only Douglas
+that ever was false--but yet it is better as it is. Good my murderer,
+and the rest of you, stand back a little, and let me speak with this
+unhappy apostate.--Kneel down by me, Master George--You have heard that
+I failed in my attempt to take away that Moabitish stumbling-block and
+her retinue--I gave them that which I thought would have removed the
+temptation out of thy path--and this, though I had other reasons to show
+to thy mother and others, I did chiefly purpose for love of thee."
+
+"For the love of me, base poisoner!" answered Douglas, "wouldst thou
+have committed so horrible, so unprovoked a murder, and mentioned my
+name with it?"
+
+"And wherefore not, George of Douglas?" answered Dryfesdale. "Breath
+is now scarce with me, but I would spend my last gasp on this argument.
+Hast thou not, despite the honour thou owest to thy parents, the faith
+that is due to thy religion, the truth that is due to thy king, been
+so carried away by the charms of this beautiful sorceress, that thou
+wouldst have helped her to escape from her prison-house, and lent her
+thine arm again to ascend the throne, which she had made a place of
+abomination?--Nay, stir not from me--my hand, though fast stiffening,
+has yet force enough to hold thee--What dost thou aim at?--to wed this
+witch of Scotland?--I warrant thee, thou mayest succeed--her heart and
+hand have been oft won at a cheaper rate, than thou, fool that thou art,
+would think thyself happy to pay. But, should a servant of thy father's
+house have seen thee embrace the fate of the idiot Darnley, or of
+the villain Bothwell--the fate of the murdered fool, or of the living
+pirate--while an ounce of ratsbane would have saved thee?"
+
+"Think on God, Dryfesdale," said George Douglas, "and leave the
+utterance of those horrors--Repent, if thou canst--if not, at least
+be silent.--Seyton, aid me to support this dying wretch, that he may
+compose himself to better thoughts, if it be possible."
+
+"Seyton!" answered the dying man; "Seyton! Is it by a Seyton's hand that
+I fall at last?--There is something of retribution in that--since the
+house had nigh lost a sister by my deed." Fixing his fading eyes on the
+youth, he added, "He hath her very features and presence!--Stoop down,
+youth, and let me see thee closer--I would know thee when we meet in
+yonder world, for homicides will herd together there, and I have been
+one." He pulled Seyton's face, in spite of some resistance, closer to
+his own, looked at him fixedly, and added, "Thou hast begun young--thy
+career will be the briefer--ay, thou wilt be met with, and that anon--a
+young plant never throve that was watered with an old man's blood.--Yet
+why blame I thee? Strange turns of fate," he muttered, ceasing to
+address Seyton; "I designed what I could not do, and he has done what
+he did not perchance design.--Wondrous, that our will should ever oppose
+itself to the strong and uncontrollable tide of destiny--that we should
+strive with the stream when we might drift with the current! My brain
+will serve me to question it no farther--I would Schoefferbach were
+here--yet why?--I am on a course which the vessel can hold without a
+pilot.--Farewell, George of Douglas--I die true to thy father's house."
+He fell into convulsions at these words, and shortly after expired.
+
+Seyton and Douglas stood looking on the dying man, and when the scene
+was closed, the former was the first to speak. "As I live, Douglas, I
+meant not this, and am sorry; but he laid hands on me, and compelled me
+to defend my freedom, as I best might, with my dagger. If he were ten
+times thy friend and follower, I can but say that I am sorry."
+
+"I blame thee not, Seyton," said Douglas, "though I lament the chance.
+There is an overruling destiny above us, though not in the sense in
+which it was viewed by that wretched man, who, beguiled by some foreign
+mystagogue, used the awful word as the ready apology for whatever he
+chose to do--we must examine the packet."
+
+They withdrew into an inner room, and remained deep in consultation,
+until they were disturbed by the entrance of Keltie, who, with an
+embarrassed countenance, asked Master George Douglas's pleasure
+respecting the disposal of the body. "Your honour knows," he added,
+"that I make my bread by living men, not by dead corpses; and old Mr.
+Dryfesdale, who was but a sorry customer while he was alive, occupies
+my public room now that he is deceased, and can neither call for ale nor
+brandy."
+
+"Tie a stone round his neck," said Seyton, "and when the sun is down,
+have him to the Loch of Ore, heave him in, and let him alone for finding
+out the bottom."
+
+"Under your favour, sir," said George Douglas, "it shall not be
+so.--Keltie, thou art a true fellow to me, and thy having been so shall
+advantage thee. Send or take the body to the chapel at Scotland's wall,
+or to the church of Ballanry, and tell what tale thou wilt of his having
+fallen in a brawl with some unruly guests of thine. Auchtermuchty knows
+nought else, nor are the times so peaceful as to admit close-looking
+into such accounts."
+
+"Nay, let him tell the truth," said Seyton, "so far as it harms not our
+scheme.--Say that Henry Seyton met with him, my good fellow;--I care not
+a brass bodle for the feud."
+
+"A feud with the Douglas was ever to be feared, however," said George,
+displeasure mingling with his natural deep gravity of manner.
+
+"Not when the best of the name is on my side," replied Seyton.
+
+"Alas! Henry, if thou meanest me, I am but half a Douglas in this
+emprize--half head, half heart, and half hand.--But I will think on
+one who can never be forgotten, and be all, or more, than any of my
+ancestors was ever.--Keltie, say it was Henry Seyton did the deed; but
+beware, not a word of me!--Let Auchtermuchty carry this packet" (which
+he had resealed with his own signet) "to my father at Edinburgh; and
+here is to pay for the funeral expenses, and thy loss of custom."
+
+"And the washing of the floor," said the landlord, "which will be an
+extraordinary job; for blood they say, will scarcely ever cleanse out."
+
+"But as for your plan," said George of Douglas, addressing Seyton, as if
+in continuation of what they had been before treating of, "it has a good
+face; but, under your favour, you are yourself too hot and too young,
+besides other reasons which are much against your playing the part you
+propose."
+
+"We will consult the Father Abbot upon it," said the youth. "Do you ride
+to Kinross to-night?"
+
+"Ay--so I purpose," answered Douglas; "the night will be dark, and suits
+a muffled man. [Footnote: Generally, a disguised man; originally one who
+wears the cloak or mantle muffled round the lower part of the face
+to conceal his countenance. I have on an ancient, piece of iron the
+representation of a robber thus accoutred, endeavouring to make his way
+into a house, and opposed by a mastiff, to whom he in vain offers food.
+The motto is _spernit dona fides_. It is part of a fire-grate said to
+have belonged to Archbishop Sharpe.]--Keltie, I forgot, there should
+be a stone laid on that man's grave, recording his name, and his only
+merit, which was being a faithful servant to the Douglas."
+
+"What religion was the man of?" said Seyton; "he used words, which make
+me fear I have sent Satan a subject before his time."
+
+"I can tell you little of that," said George Douglas; "he was noted for
+disliking both Rome and Geneva, and spoke of lights he had learned among
+the fierce sectaries of Lower Germany--an evil doctrine it was, if we
+judge by the fruits. God keep us from presumptuously judging of Heaven's
+secrets!"
+
+"Amen!" said the young Seyton, "and from meeting any encounter this
+evening."
+
+"It is not thy wont to pray so," said George Douglas.
+
+"No! I leave that to you," replied the youth, "when you are seized with
+scruples of engaging with your father's vassals. But I would fain have
+this old man's blood off these hands of mine ere I shed more--I will
+confess to the Abbot to-night, and I trust to have light penance for
+ridding the earth of such a miscreant. All I sorrow for is, that he was
+not a score of years younger--He drew steel first, however, that is one
+comfort."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Fourth.
+
+
+  Ay, Pedro,--Come you here with mask and lantern.
+  Ladder of ropes and other moonshine tools--
+  Why, youngster, thou mayst cheat the old Duenna,
+  Flatter the waiting-woman, bribe the valet;
+  But know, that I her father play the Gryphon,
+  Tameless and sleepless, proof to fraud or bribe,
+  And guard the hidden, treasure of her beauty.
+                             THE SPANISH FATHER.
+
+The tenor of our tale carries us back to the Castle of Lochleven, where
+we take up the order of events on the same remarkable day on which
+Dryfesdale had been dismissed from the castle. It was past noon, the
+usual hour of dinner, yet no preparations seemed made for the Queen's
+entertainment. Mary herself had retired into her own apartment, where
+she was closely engaged in writing. Her attendants were together in the
+presence-chamber, and much disposed to speculate on the delay of
+the dinner; for it may be recollected that their breakfast had been
+interrupted. "I believe in my conscience," said the page, "that having
+found the poisoning scheme miscarry, by having gone to the wrong
+merchant for their deadly wares, they are now about to try how famine
+will work upon us."
+
+Lady Fleming was somewhat alarmed at this surmise, but comforted herself
+by observing that the chimney of the kitchen had reeked that whole
+day in a manner which contradicted the supposition.--Catherine Seyton
+presently exclaimed, "They were bearing the dishes across the court,
+marshalled by the Lady Lochleven herself, dressed out in her highest
+and stiffest ruff, with her partlet and sleeves of cyprus, and her huge
+old-fashioned farthingale of crimson velvet."
+
+"I believe on my word," said the page, approaching the window also, "it
+was in that very farthingale that she captivated the heart of gentle
+King Jamie, which procured our poor Queen her precious bargain of a
+brother."
+
+"That may hardly be, Master Roland," answered the Lady Fleming, who was
+a great recorder of the changes of fashion, "since the farthingales came
+first in when the Queen Regent went to Saint Andrews, after the battle
+of Pinkie, and were then called _Vertugardins_--"
+
+She would have proceeded farther in this important discussion, but was
+interrupted by the entrance of the Lady of Lochleven, who preceded the
+servants bearing the dishes, and formally discharged the duty of tasting
+each of them. Lady Fleming regretted, in courtly phrase, "that the Lady
+of Lochleven should have undertaken so troublesome an office."
+
+"After the strange incident of this day, madam," said the Lady, "it is
+necessary for my honour and that of my son, that I partake whatever is
+offered to my involuntary guest. Please to inform the Lady Mary that I
+attend her commands."
+
+"Her Majesty," replied Lady Fleming, with due emphasis on the word,
+"shall be informed that the Lady Lochleven waits."
+
+Mary appeared instantly, and addressed her hostess with courtesy, which
+even approached to something more cordial. "This is nobly done, Lady
+Lochleven," she said; "for though we ourselves apprehend no danger under
+your roof, our ladies have been much alarmed by this morning's chance,
+and our meal will be the more cheerful for your presence and assurance.
+Please you to sit down."
+
+The Lady Lochleven obeyed the Queen's commands, and Roland performed the
+office of carver and attendant as usual. But, notwithstanding what the
+Queen had said, the meal was silent and unsocial; and every effort which
+Mary made to excite some conversation, died away under the solemn and
+chill replies of the Lady of Lochleven. At length it became plain that
+the Queen, who had considered these advances as a condescension on her
+part, and who piqued herself justly on her powers of pleasing, became
+offended at the repulsive conduct of her hostess. After looking with a
+significant glance at Lady Fleming and Catherine, she slightly shrugged
+her shoulders, and remained silent. A pause ensued, at the end of which
+the Lady Douglas spoke:--"I perceive, madam, I am a check on the mirth
+of this fair company. I pray you to excuse me--I am a widow--alone here
+in a most perilous charge---deserted by my grandson--betrayed by my
+servant--I am little worthy of the grace you do me in offering me a
+seat at your table, where I am aware that wit and pastime are usually
+expected from the guests."
+
+"If the Lady Lochleven is serious," said the Queen, "we wonder by what
+simplicity she expects our present meals to be seasoned with mirth. If
+she is a widow, she lives honoured and uncontrolled, at the head of her
+late husband's household. But I know at least of one widowed woman in
+the world, before whom the words desertion and betrayal ought never to
+be mentioned, since no one has been made so bitterly acquainted with
+their import."
+
+"I meant not, madam, to remind you of your misfortunes, by the mention
+of mine," answered the Lady Lochleven, and there was again a deep
+silence.
+
+Mary at length addressed Lady Fleming. "We can commit no deadly sins
+here, _ma bonne_, where we are so well warded and looked to; but if we
+could, this Carthusian silence might be useful as a kind of penance.
+If thou hast adjusted my wimple amiss, my Fleming, or if Catherine hath
+made a wry stitch in her broidery, when she was thinking of something
+else than her work, or if Roland Graeme hath missed a wild-duck on the
+wing, and broke a quarrel-pane [Footnote: Diamond-shaped; literally,
+formed like the head of a _quarrel_, or arrow for the crossbow.] of
+glass in the turret window, as chanced to him a week since, now is the
+time to think on your sins and to repent of them."
+
+"Madam, I speak with all reverence," said the Lady Lochleven; "but I am
+old, and claim the privilege of age. Methinks your followers might find
+fitter subjects for repentance than the trifles you mention, and so
+mention--once more, I crave your pardon--as if you jested with sin and
+repentance both."
+
+"You have been our taster, Lady Lochleven," said the Queen, "I perceive
+you would eke out your duty with that of our Father Confessor--and since
+you choose that our conversation should be serious, may I ask you why
+the Regent's promise--since your son so styles himself--has not been
+kept to me in that respect? From time to time this promise has been
+renewed, and as constantly broken. Methinks those who pretend themselves
+to so much gravity and sanctity, should not debar from others the
+religious succours which their consciences require."
+
+"Madam, the Earl of Murray was indeed weak enough," said the Lady
+Lochleven, "to give so far way to your unhappy prejudices, and a
+religioner of the Pope presented himself on his part at our town of
+Kinross. But the Douglass is Lord of his own castle, and will not permit
+his threshold to be darkened, no not for a single moment, by an emissary
+belonging to the Bishop of Rome."
+
+"Methinks it were well, then," said Mary, "that my Lord Regent would
+send me where there is less scruple and more charity."
+
+"In this, madam," answered the Lady Lochleven, "you mistake the nature
+both of charity and of religion. Charity giveth to those who are in
+delirium the medicaments which may avail their health, but refuses those
+enticing cates and liquors which please the palate, but augment the
+disease."
+
+"This your charity, Lady Lochleven, is pure cruelty, under the
+hypocritical disguise of friendly care. I am oppressed amongst you as if
+you meant the destruction both of my body and soul; but Heaven will not
+endure such iniquity for ever, and they who are the most active agents
+in it may speedily expect their reward."
+
+At this moment Randal entered the apartment, with a look so much
+perturbed, that the Lady Fleming uttered a faint scream, the Queen was
+obviously startled, and the Lady of Lochleven, though too bold and proud
+to evince any marked signs of alarm, asked hastily what was the matter?
+
+"Dryfesdale has been slain, madam," was the reply; "murdered as soon as
+he gained the dry land by young Master Henry Seyton."
+
+It was now Catherine's turn to start and grow pale--"Has the murderer of
+the Douglas's vassal escaped?" was the Lady's hasty question.
+
+"There was none to challenge him but old Keltie, and the carrier
+Auchtermuchty," replied Randal; "unlikely men to stay one of the
+frackest [Footnote: Boldest--most forward.] youths in Scotland of
+his years, and who was sure to have friends and partakers at no great
+distance."
+
+"Was the deed completed?" said the Lady.
+
+"Done, and done thoroughly," said Randal; "a Seyton seldom strikes
+twice--But the body was not despoiled, and your honour's packet goes
+forward to Edinburgh by Auchtermuchty, who leaves Keltie-Bridge early
+to-morrow--marry, he has drunk two bottles of aquavitae to put the
+fright out of his head, and now sleeps them off beside his cart-avers."
+[Footnote: Cart-horses.]
+
+There was a pause when this fatal tale was told. The Queen and Lady
+Douglas looked on each other, as if each thought how she could best
+turn the incident to her own advantage in the controversy, which was
+continually kept alive betwixt them--Catherine Seyton kept her kerchief
+at her eyes and wept.
+
+"You see, madam, the bloody maxims and practice of the deluded Papists,"
+said Lady Lochleven.
+
+"Nay, madam," replied the Queen, "say rather you see the deserved
+judgment of Heaven upon a Calvinistical poisoner."
+
+"Dryfesdale was not of the Church of Geneva, or of Scotland," said the
+Lady of Lochleven, hastily.
+
+"He was a heretic, however," replied Mary; "there is but one true and
+unerring guide; the others lead alike into error."
+
+"Well, madam, I trust it will reconcile you to your retreat, that
+this deed shows the temper of those who might wish you at liberty.
+Blood-thirsty tyrants, and cruel men-quellers are they all, from
+the Clan-Ranald and Clan-Tosach in the north, to the Ferniherst and
+Buccleuch in the south--the murdering Seytons in the east, and--"
+
+"Methinks, madam, you forget that I am a Seyton?" said Catherine,
+withdrawing her kerchief from her face, which was now coloured with
+indignation.
+
+"If I had forgot it, fair mistress, your forward bearing would have
+reminded me," said Lady Lochleven.
+
+"If my brother has slain the villain that would have poisoned his
+Sovereign, and his sister," said Catherine, "I am only so far sorry that
+he should have spared the hangman his proper task. For aught farther,
+had it been the best Douglas in the land, he would have been honoured in
+falling by the Seyton's sword."
+
+"Farewell, gay mistress," said the Lady of Lochleven, rising to
+withdraw; "it is such maidens as you, who make giddy-fashioned revellers
+and deadly brawlers. Boys must needs rise, forsooth, in the grace of
+some sprightly damsel, who thinks to dance through life as through a
+French galliard." She then made her reverence to the Queen, and added,
+"Do you also, madam, fare you well, till curfew time, when I will
+make, perchance, more bold than welcome in attending upon your supper
+board.--Come with me, Randal, and tell me more of this cruel fact."
+
+"'Tis an extraordinary chance," said the Queen, when she had departed;
+"and, villain as he was, I would this man had been spared time for
+repentance. We will cause something to be done for his soul, if we
+ever attain our liberty, and the Church will permit such grace to a
+heretic.--But, tell me, Catherine, _ma mignone_--this brother of thine,
+who is so _frack_, as the fellow called him, bears he the same wonderful
+likeness to thee as formerly?"
+
+"If your Grace means in temper, you know whether I am so _frack_ as the
+serving-man spoke him."
+
+"Nay, thou art prompt enough in all reasonable conscience," replied the
+Queen; "but thou art my own darling notwithstanding--But I meant, is
+this thy twin-brother as like thee in form and features as formerly? I
+remember thy dear mother alleged it as a reason for destining thee to
+the veil, that, were ye both to go at large, thou wouldst surely get the
+credit of some of thy brother's mad pranks."
+
+"I believe, madam," said Catherine, "there are some unusually simple
+people even yet, who can hardly distinguish betwixt us, especially when,
+for diversion's sake, my brother hath taken a female dress,"--and as
+she spoke, she gave a quick glance at Roland Graeme, to whom this
+conversation conveyed a ray of light, welcome as ever streamed into the
+dungeon of a captive through the door which opened to give him freedom.
+
+"He must be a handsome cavalier this brother of thine, if he be so like
+you," replied Mary. "He was in France, I think, for these late years, so
+that I saw him not at Holyrood."
+
+"His looks, madam, have never been much found fault with," answered
+Catherine Seyton; "but I would he had less of that angry and heady
+spirit which evil times have encouraged amongst our young nobles. God
+knows, I grudge not his life in your Grace's quarrel; and love him for
+the willingness with which he labours for your rescue. But wherefore
+should he brawl with an old ruffianly serving-man, and stain at once
+his name with such a broil, and his hands with the blood of an old and
+ignoble wretch?"
+
+"Nay, be patient, Catherine; I will not have thee traduce my gallant
+young knight. With Henry for my knight, and Roland Graeme for my trusty
+squire, methinks I am like a princess of romance, who may shortly set at
+defiance the dungeons and the weapons of all wicked sorcerers.--But
+my head aches with the agitation of the day. Take me _La Mer Des
+Histoires_, and resume where we left off on Wednesday.--Our Lady help
+thy head, girl, or rather may she help thy heart!--I asked thee for the
+Sea of Histories, and thou hast brought _La Cronique d'Amour_."
+
+Once embarked upon the Sea of Histories, the Queen continued her
+labours with her needle, while Lady Fleming and Catherine read to her
+alternately for two hours.
+
+As to Roland Graeme, it is probable that he continued in secret intent
+upon the Chronicle of Love, notwithstanding the censure which the Queen
+seemed to pass upon that branch of study. He now remembered a thousand
+circumstances of voice and manner, which, had his own prepossession been
+less, must surely have discriminated the brother from the sister; and
+he felt ashamed, that, having as it were by heart every particular of
+Catherine's gestures, words, and manners, he should have thought her,
+notwithstanding her spirits and levity, capable of assuming the bold
+step, loud tones, and forward assurance, which accorded well enough with
+her brother's hasty and masculine character. He endeavoured repeatedly
+to catch a glance of Catherine's eye, that he might judge how she was
+disposed to look upon him since he had made the discovery, but he was
+unsuccessful; for Catherine, when she was not reading herself, seemed
+to take so much interest in the exploits of the Teutonic knights against
+the Heathens of Esthonia and Livonia, that he could not surprise her eye
+even for a second. But when, closing the book, the Queen commanded their
+attendance in the garden, Mary, perhaps of set purpose, (for Roland's
+anxiety could not escape so practised an observer,) afforded him a
+favourable opportunity of accosting his mistress. The Queen commanded
+them to a little distance, while she engaged Lady Fleming in a
+particular and private conversation; the subject whereof we learn, from
+another authority, to have been the comparative excellence of the high
+standing ruff and the falling band. Roland must have been duller, and
+more sheepish than ever was youthful lover, if he had not endeavoured to
+avail himself of this opportunity.
+
+"I have been longing this whole evening to ask of you, fair Catherine,"
+said the page, "how foolish and unapprehensive you must have thought me,
+in being capable to mistake betwixt your brother and you?"
+
+"The circumstance does indeed little honour to my rustic manners," said
+Catherine, "since those of a wild young man were so readily mistaken for
+mine. But I shall grow wiser in time; and with that view I am determined
+not to think of your follies, but to correct my own."
+
+"It will be the lighter subject of meditation of the two," said Roland.
+
+"I know not that," said Catherine, very gravely; "I fear we have been
+both unpardonably foolish."
+
+"I have been mad," said Roland, "unpardonably mad. But you, lovely
+Catherine--"
+
+"I," said Catherine, in the same tone of unusual gravity, "have too long
+suffered you to use such expressions towards me--I fear I can permit it
+no longer, and I blame myself for the pain it may give you."
+
+"And what can have happened so suddenly to change our relation to each
+other, or alter, with such sudden cruelty, your whole deportment to me?"
+
+"I can hardly tell," replied Catherine, "unless it is that the events
+of the day have impressed on my mind the necessity of our observing more
+distance to each other. A chance similar to that which betrayed to you
+the existence of my brother, may make known to Henry the terms you have
+used to me; and, alas! his whole conduct, as well as his deed, this day,
+makes me too justly apprehensive of the consequences."
+
+"Fear nothing for that, fair Catherine," answered the page; "I am well
+able to protect myself against risks of that nature."
+
+"That is to say," replied she, "that you would fight with my
+twin-brother to show your regard for his sister? I have heard the
+Queen say, in her sad hours, that men are, in love or in hate, the most
+selfish animals of creation; and your carelessness in this matter looks
+very like it. But be not so much abashed--you are no worse than others."
+
+"You do me injustice, Catherine," replied the page, "I thought but of
+being threatened with a sword, and did not remember in whose hand your
+fancy had placed it. If your brother stood before me, with his drawn
+weapon in his hand, so like as he is to you in word, person, and favour,
+he might shed my life's blood ere I could find in my heart to resist him
+to his injury."
+
+"Alas!" said she, "it is not my brother alone. But you remember only the
+singular circumstances in which we have met in equality, and I may say
+in intimacy. You think not, that whenever I re-enter my father's house,
+there is a gulf between us you may not pass, but with peril of your
+life.--Your only known relative is of wild and singular habits, of a
+hostile and broken clan [Footnote: A broken clan was one who had no
+chief able to find security for their good behaviour--a clan of outlaws;
+And the Graemes of the Debateable Land were in that condition.]--the
+rest of your lineage unknown--forgive me that I speak what is the
+undeniable truth."
+
+"Love, my beautiful Catherine, despises genealogies," answered Roland
+Graeme.
+
+"Love may, but so will not the Lord Seyton," rejoined the damsel.
+
+"The Queen, thy mistress and mine, she will intercede. Oh! drive me not
+from you at the moment I thought myself most happy!--and if I shall
+aid her deliverance, said not yourself that you and she would become my
+debtors?"
+
+"All Scotland will become your debtors," said Catherine; "but for the
+active effects you might hope from our gratitude, you must remember I am
+wholly subjected to my father; and the poor Queen is, for a long time,
+more likely to be dependant on the pleasure of the nobles of her party,
+than possessed of power to control them."
+
+"Be it so," replied Roland; "my deeds shall control prejudice itself--it
+is a bustling world, and I will have my share. The Knight of Avenel,
+high as he now stands, rose from as obscure an origin as mine."
+
+"Ay!" said Catherine, "there spoke the doughty knight of romance, that
+will cut his way to the imprisoned princess, through fiends and fiery
+dragons!"
+
+"But if I can set the princess at large, and procure her the freedom
+of her own choice," said the page, "where, dearest Catherine, will that
+choice alight?"
+
+"Release the princess from duresse, and she will tell you," said the
+damsel; and breaking off the conversation abruptly, she joined the Queen
+so suddenly, that Mary exclaimed, half aloud--
+
+"No more tidings of evil import--no dissension, I trust, in my limited
+household?"--Then looking on Catherine's blushing cheek, and Roland's
+expanded brow and glancing eye--"No--no," she said, "I see all is
+well--_Ma petite mignone_, go to my apartment and fetch me down--let me
+see--ay, fetch my pomander box."
+
+And having thus disposed of her attendant in the manner best qualified
+to hide her confusion, the Queen added, speaking apart to Roland, "I
+should at least have two grateful subjects of Catherine and you; for
+what sovereign but Mary would aid true love so willingly?--Ay, you lay
+your hand on your sword--your _petite flamberge a rien_ there--Well,
+short time will show if all the good be true that is protested to us--I
+hear them toll curfew from Kinross. To our chamber--this old dame hath
+promised to be with us again at our evening meal. Were it not for the
+hope of speedy deliverance, her presence would drive me distracted. But
+I will be patient."
+
+"I profess," said Catherine, who just then entered, "I would I could be
+Henry, with all a man's privileges, for one moment--I long to throw my
+plate at that confect of pride and formality, and ill-nature."
+
+The Lady Fleming reprimanded her young companion for this explosion of
+impatience; the Queen laughed, and they went to the presence-chamber,
+where almost immediately entered supper, and the Lady of the castle.
+The Queen, strong in her prudent resolutions, endured her presence with
+great fortitude and equanimity, until her patience was disturbed by
+a new form, which had hitherto made no part of the ceremonial of the
+castle. When the other attendant had retired, Randal entered, bearing
+the keys of the castle fastened upon a chain, and, announcing that
+the watch was set, and the gates locked, delivered the keys with all
+reverence to the Lady of Lochleven.
+
+The Queen and her ladies exchanged with each other a look of
+disappointment, anger, and vexation; and Mary said aloud, "We cannot
+regret the smallness of our court, when we see our hostess discharge in
+person so many of its offices. In addition to her charges of principal
+steward of our household and grand almoner, she has to-night done duty
+as captain of our guard."
+
+"And will continue to do so in future, madam," answered the Lady
+Lochleven, with much gravity; "the history of Scotland may teach me how
+ill the duty is performed, which is done by an accredited deputy--We
+have heard, madam, of favourites of later date, and as little merit,
+as Oliver Sinclair." [Footnote: A favourite, and said to be an unworthy
+one, of James V.]
+
+"Oh, madam," replied the Queen, "my father had his female as well as
+his male favourites--there were the Ladies Sandilands and Olifaunt,
+[Footnote: The names of these ladies, and a third frail favourite of
+James, are preserved in an epigram too _gaillard_ for quotation.] and
+some others, methinks; but their names cannot survive in the memory of
+so grave a person as you."
+
+The Lady Lochleven looked as if she could have slain the Queen on the
+spot, but commanded her temper and retired from the apartment, bearing
+in her hand the ponderous bunch of keys.
+
+"Now God be praised for that woman's youthful frailty!" said the Queen.
+"Had she not that weak point in her character, I might waste my words on
+her in vain--But that stain is the very reverse of what is said of
+the witch's mark--I can make her feel there, though she is otherwise
+insensible all over.--But how say you, girls--here is a new
+difficulty--How are these keys to be come by?--there is no deceiving or
+bribing this dragon, I trow."
+
+"May I crave to know," said Roland, "whether, if your Grace were beyond
+the walls of the castle, you could find means of conveyance to the firm
+land, and protection when you are there?"
+
+"Trust us for that, Roland," said the Queen; "for to that point our
+scheme is indifferent well laid."
+
+"Then if your Grace will permit me to speak my mind, I think I could be
+of some use in this matter."
+
+"As how, my good youth?--speak on," said the Queen, "and fearlessly."
+
+"My patron the Knight of Avenel used to compel the youth educated in his
+household to learn the use of axe and hammer, and working in wood and
+iron--he used to speak of old northern champions, who forged their own
+weapons, and of the Highland Captain, Donald nan Ord, or Donald of the
+Hammer, whom he himself knew, and who used to work at the anvil with a
+sledge-hammer in each hand. Some said he praised this art, because he
+was himself of churl's blood. However, I gained some practice in it,
+as the Lady Catherine Seyton partly knows; for since we were here, I
+wrought her a silver brooch."
+
+"Ay," replied Catharine, "but you should tell her Grace that your
+workmanship was so indifferent that it broke to pieces next day, and I
+flung it away."
+
+"Believe her not, Roland," said the Queen; "she wept when it was broken,
+and put the fragments into her bosom. But for your scheme--could your
+skill avail to forge a second set of keys?"
+
+"No, madam, because I know not the wards. But I am convinced I could
+make a set so like that hateful bunch which the Lady bore off even now,
+that could they be exchanged against them by any means, she would never
+dream she was possessed of the wrong."
+
+"And the good dame, thank Heaven, is somewhat blind," said the Queen;
+"but then for a forge, my boy, and the means of labouring unobserved?"
+
+"The armourer's forge, at which I used sometimes to work with him, is
+the round vault at the bottom of the turret--he was dismissed with
+the warder for being supposed too much attached to George Douglas. The
+people are accustomed to see me work there, and I warrant I shall find
+some excuse that will pass current with them for putting bellows and
+anvil to work."
+
+"The scheme has a promising face," said the Queen; "about it, my lad,
+with all speed, and beware the nature of your work is not discovered."
+
+"Nay, I will take the liberty to draw the bolt against chance visitors,
+so that I will have time to put away what I am working upon, before I
+undo the door."
+
+"Will not that of itself attract suspicion, in a place where it is so
+current already?" said Catherine.
+
+"Not a whit," replied Roland; "Gregory the armourer, and every good
+hammerman, locks himself in when he is about some master piece of craft.
+Besides, something must be risked."
+
+"Part we then to-night," said the Queen, "and God bless you my
+children!--If Mary's head ever rises above water, you shall all rise
+along with her."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Fifth.
+
+
+  It is a time of danger, not of revel,
+  When churchmen turn to masquers.
+                     SPANISH FATHER.
+
+The enterprise of Roland Graeme appeared to prosper. A trinket or two,
+of which the work did not surpass the substance, (for the materials were
+silver, supplied by the Queen,) were judiciously presented to those most
+likely to be inquisitive into the labours of the forge and anvil, which
+they thus were induced to reckon profitable to others and harmless
+in itself. Openly, the page was seen working about such trifles. In
+private, he forged a number of keys resembling so nearly in weight and
+in form those which were presented every evening to the Lady Lochleven,
+that, on a slight inspection, it would have been difficult to perceive
+the difference. He brought them to the dark rusty colour by the use of
+salt and water; and, in the triumph of his art, presented them at length
+to Queen Mary in her presence-chamber, about an hour before the tolling
+of the curfew. She looked at them with pleasure, but at the same time
+with doubt.--"I allow," she said, "that the Lady Lochleven's eyes, which
+are not of the clearest, may be well deceived, could we pass those keys
+on her in place of the real implements of her tyranny. But how is this
+to be done, and which of my little court dare attempt this _tour de
+jongleur_ with any chance of success? Could we but engage her in some
+earnest matter of argument--but those which I hold with her, always have
+been of a kind which make her grasp her keys the faster, as if she
+said to herself--Here I hold what sets me above your taunts and
+reproaches--And even for her liberty, Mary Stuart could not stoop to
+speak the proud heretic fair.--What shall we do? Shall Lady Fleming try
+her eloquence in describing the last new head-tire from Paris?--alas!
+the good dame has not changed the fashion of her head-gear since
+Pinkie-field for aught that I know. Shall my _mignone_ Catherine sing to
+her one of those touching airs, which draw the very souls out of me and
+Roland Graeme?--Alas! Dame Margaret Douglas would rather hear a Huguenot
+psalm of Clement Marrot, sung to the tune of _Reveillez vous, belle
+endormie._--Cousins and liege counsellors, what is to be done, for our
+wits are really astray in this matter?--Must our man-at-arms and the
+champion of our body, Roland Graeme, manfully assault the old lady, and
+take the keys from her _par voie du fait?_"
+
+"Nay! with your Grace's permission." said Roland, "I do not doubt being
+able to manage the matter with more discretion; for though, in your
+Grace's service, I do not fear--"
+
+"A host of old women," interrupted Catherine, "each armed with rock and
+spindle, yet he has no fancy for pikes and partisans, which might rise
+at the cry of _Help! a Douglas, a Douglas!_"
+
+"They that do not fear fair ladies' tongues," continued the page, "need
+dread nothing else.--But, gracious Liege, I am well-nigh satisfied that
+I could pass the exchange of these keys on the Lady Lochleven; but I
+dread the sentinel who is now planted nightly in the garden, which, by
+necessity, we must traverse."
+
+"Our last advices from our friends on the shore have promised us
+assistance in that matter," replied the Queen.
+
+"And is your Grace well assured of the fidelity and watchfulness of
+those without?"
+
+"For their fidelity, I will answer with my life, and for their
+vigilance, I will answer with my life--I will give thee instant proof,
+my faithful Roland, that they are ingenuous and trusty as thyself. Come
+hither--Nay, Catherine, attend us; we carry not so deft a page into our
+private chamber alone. Make fast the door of the parlour, Fleming,
+and warn us if you hear the least step--or stay, go thou to the
+door, Catherine," (in a whisper, "thy ears and thy wits are both
+sharper.)--Good Fleming, attend us thyself"--(and again she whispered,
+"her reverend presence will be as safe a watch on Roland as thine
+can--so be not jealous, _mignone_.")
+
+Thus speaking, they were lighted by the Lady Fleming into the Queen's
+bedroom, a small apartment enlightened by a projecting window.
+
+"Look from that window, Roland," she said; "see you amongst the several
+lights which begin to kindle, and to glimmer palely through the gray of
+the evening from the village of Kinross-seest thou, I say, one solitary
+spark apart from the others, and nearer it seems to the verge of the
+water?--It is no brighter at this distance than the torch of the poor
+glowworm, and yet, my good youth, that light is more dear to Mary
+Stuart, than every star that twinkles in the blue vault of heaven.
+By that signal, I know that more than one true heart is plotting my
+deliverance; and without that consciousness, and the hope of freedom
+it gives me, I had long since stooped to my fate, and died of a broken
+heart. Plan after plan has been formed and abandoned, but still the
+light glimmers; and while it glimmers, my hope lives.--Oh! how many
+evenings have I sat musing in despair over our ruined schemes, and
+scarce hoping that I should again see that blessed signal; when it
+has suddenly kindled, and, like the lights of Saint Elmo in a tempest,
+brought hope and consolation, where there, was only dejection and
+despair!"
+
+"If I mistake not," answered Roland, "the candle shines from the house
+of Blinkhoolie, the mail-gardener."
+
+"Thou hast a good eye," said the Queen; "it is there where my trusty
+lieges--God and the saints pour blessings on them!--hold consultation
+for my deliverance. The voice of a wretched captive would die on these
+blue waters, long ere it could mingle in their councils; and yet I can
+hold communication--I will confide the whole to thee--I am about to
+ask those faithful friends if the moment for the great attempt is
+nigh.--Place the lamp in the window, Fleming."
+
+She obeyed, and immediately withdrew it. No sooner had she done so, than
+the light in the cottage of the gardener disappeared.
+
+"Now count," said Queen Mary, "for my heart beats so thick that I cannot
+count myself."
+
+The Lady Fleming began deliberately to count one, two, three, and when
+she had arrived at ten, the light on the shore showed its pale twinkle.
+
+"Now, our Lady be praised!" said the Queen; "it was but two nights
+since, that the absence of the light remained while I could tell thirty.
+The hour of deliverance approaches. May God bless those who labour in it
+with such truth to me!--alas! with such hazard to themselves--and bless
+you, too, my children!--Come, we must to the audience-chamber again. Our
+absence might excite suspicion, should they serve supper."
+
+They returned to the presence-chamber, and the evening concluded as
+usual.
+
+The next morning, at dinner-time, an unusual incident occurred. While
+Lady Douglas of Lochleven performed her daily duty of assistant and
+taster at the Queen's table, she was told a man-at-arms had arrived,
+recommended by her son, but without any letter or other token than what
+he brought by word of mouth.
+
+"Hath he given you that token?" demanded the Lady.
+
+"He reserved it, as I think, for your Ladyship's ear," replied Randal.
+
+"He doth well," said the Lady; "tell him to wait in the hall--But
+no--with your permission, madam," (to the Queen) "let him attend me
+here."
+
+"Since you are pleased to receive your domestics in my presence," said
+the Queen, "I cannot choose--"
+
+"My infirmities must plead my excuse, madam," replied the Lady; "the
+life I must lead here ill suits with the years which have passed over my
+head, and compels me to waive ceremonial."
+
+"Oh, my good Lady," replied the Queen, "I would there were nought in
+this your castle more strongly compulsive than the cobweb chains of
+ceremony; but bolts and bars are harder matters to contend with."
+
+As she spoke, the person announced by Randal entered the room, and
+Roland Graeme at once recognized in him the Abbot Ambrosius.
+
+"What is your name, good fellow?" said the Lady.
+
+"Edward Glendinning," answered the Abbot, with a suitable reverence.
+
+"Art thou of the blood of the Knight of Avenel?" said the Lady of
+Lochleven.
+
+"Ay, madam, and that nearly," replied the pretended soldier.
+
+"It is likely enough," said the Lady, "for the Knight is the son of his
+own good works, and has risen from obscure lineage to his present high
+rank in the Estate--But he is of sure truth and approved worth, and his
+kinsman is welcome to us. You hold, unquestionably, the true faith?"
+
+"Do not doubt of it, madam," said the disguised churchman.
+
+"Hast thou a token to me from Sir William Douglas?" said the Lady.
+
+"I have, madam," replied he; "but it must be said in private."
+
+"Thou art right," said the Lady, moving towards the recess of a window;
+"say in what does it consist?"
+
+"In the words of an old bard," replied the Abbot.
+
+"Repeat them," answered the Lady; and he uttered, in a low tone, the
+lines from an old poem, called The Howlet,--
+
+  "O Douglas! Douglas!
+  Tender and true."
+
+"Trusty Sir John Holland!" [Footnote: Sir John Holland's poem of the
+Howlet is known to collectors by the beautiful edition presented to
+the Bannatyne Club, by Mr. David Laing.] said the Lady Douglas,
+apostrophizing the poet, "a kinder heart never inspired a rhyme, and the
+Douglas's honour was ever on thy heart-string! We receive you among our
+followers, Glendinning--But, Randal, see that he keep the outer ward
+only, till we shall hear more touching him from our son.--Thou fearest
+not the night air. Glendinning?"
+
+"In the cause of the Lady before whom I stand, I fear nothing, madam,"
+answered the disguised Abbot.
+
+"Our garrison, then, is stronger by one trustworthy soldier," said the
+matron--"Go to the buttery, and let them make much of thee."
+
+When the Lady Lochleven had retired, the Queen said to Roland Graeme,
+who was now almost constantly in her company, "I spy comfort in that
+stranger's countenance; I know not why it should be so, but I am well
+persuaded he is a friend."
+
+"Your Grace's penetration does not deceive you," answered the page; and
+he informed her that the Abbot of St. Mary's himself played the part of
+the newly arrived soldier.
+
+The Queen crossed herself and looked upwards. "Unworthy sinner that I
+am," she said, "that for my sake a man so holy, and so high in spiritual
+office, should wear the garb of a base sworder, and run the risk of
+dying the death of a traitor!"
+
+"Heaven will protect its own servant, madam," said Catherine Seyton;
+"his aid would bring a blessing on our undertaking, were it not already
+blest for its own sake."
+
+"What I admire in my spiritual father," said Roland, "was the steady
+front with which he looked on me, without giving the least sign of
+former acquaintance. I did not think the like was possible, since I have
+ceased to believe that Henry was the same person with Catherine."
+
+"But marked you not how astuciously the good father," said the Queen,
+"eluded the questions of the woman Lochleven, telling her the very
+truth, which yet she received not as such?"
+
+Roland thought in his heart, that when the truth was spoken for the
+purpose of deceiving, it was little better than a lie in disguise. But
+it was no time to agitate such questions of conscience.
+
+"And now for the signal from the shore," exclaimed Catherine; "my bosom
+tells me we shall see this night two lights instead of one gleam from
+that garden of Eden--And then, Roland, do you play your part manfully,
+and we will dance on the greensward like midnight fairies!"
+
+Catherine's conjecture misgave not, nor deceived her. In the evening
+two beams twinkled from the cottage, instead of one; and the page heard,
+with beating heart, that the new retainer was ordered to stand sentinel
+on the outside of the castle. When he intimated this news to the Queen,
+she held her hand out to him--he knelt, and when he raised it to his
+lips in all dutiful homage, he found it was damp and cold as marble.
+"For God's sake, madam, droop not now,--sink not now!"
+
+"Call upon our Lady, my Liege," said the Lady Fleming--"call upon your
+tutelar saint."
+
+"Call the spirits of the hundred kings you are descended from,"
+exclaimed the page; "in this hour of need, the resolution of a monarch
+were worth the aid of a hundred saints."
+
+"Oh! Roland Graeme," said Mary, in a tone of deep despondency, "be true
+to me--many have been false to me. Alas! I have not always been true to
+myself. My mind misgives me that I shall die in bondage, and that this
+bold attempt will cost all our lives. It was foretold me by a soothsayer
+in France, that I should die in prison, and by a violent death, and here
+comes the hour--Oh, would to God it found me prepared!"
+
+"Madam," said Catherine Seyton, "remember you are a Queen. Better we all
+died in bravely attempting to gain our freedom, than remained here to be
+poisoned, as men rid them of the noxious vermin that haunt old houses."
+
+"You are right, Catherine," said the Queen; "and Mary will bear her
+like herself. But alas! your young and buoyant spirit can ill spell the
+causes which have broken mine. Forgive me, my children, and farewell for
+a while--I will prepare both mind and body for this awful venture."
+
+They separated, till again called together by the tolling of the curfew.
+The Queen appeared grave, but firm and resolved; the Lady Fleming, with
+the art of an experienced courtier, knew perfectly how to disguise her
+inward tremors; Catherine's eye was fired, as if with the boldness of
+the project, and the half smile which dwelt upon her beautiful mouth
+seemed to contemn all the risk and all the consequences of discovery;
+Roland, who felt how much success depended on his own address and
+boldness, summoned together his whole presence of mind, and if he found
+his spirits flag for a moment, cast his eye upon Catherine, whom he
+thought he had never seen look so beautiful.--"I may be foiled," he
+thought, "but with this reward in prospect, they must bring the devil to
+aid them ere they cross me." Thus resolved, he stood like a greyhound
+in the slips, with hand, heart, and eye intent upon making and seizing
+opportunity for the execution of their project.
+
+The keys had, with the wonted ceremonial, been presented to the Lady
+Lochleven. She stood with her back to the casement, which, like that
+of the Queen's apartment, commanded a view of Kinross, with the church,
+which stands at some distance from the town, and nearer to the lake,
+then connected with the town by straggling cottages. With her back to
+this casement, then, and her face to the table, on which the keys lay
+for an instant while she tasted the various dishes which were placed
+there, stood the Lady of Lochleven, more provokingly intent than
+usual--so at least it seemed to her prisoners--upon the huge and heavy
+bunch of iron, the implements of their restraint. Just when, having
+finished her ceremony as taster of the Queen's table, she was about to
+take up the keys, the page, who stood beside her, and had handed her the
+dishes in succession, looked sideways to the churchyard, and exclaimed
+he saw corpse-candles in the churchyard. The Lady of Lochleven was not
+without a touch, though a slight one, of the superstitions of the time;
+the fate of her sons made her alive to omens, and a corpse-light, as it
+was called, in the family burial-place boded death. She turned her head
+towards the casement--saw a distant glimmering--forgot her charge for
+one second, and in that second were lost the whole fruits of her former
+vigilance. The page held the forged keys under his cloak, and with great
+dexterity exchanged them for the real ones. His utmost address could not
+prevent a slight clash as he took up the latter bunch. "Who touches the
+keys?" said the Lady; and while the page answered that the sleeve of his
+cloak had stirred them, she looked round, possessed herself of the bunch
+which now occupied the place of the genuine keys, and again turned to
+gaze on the supposed corpse-candles.
+
+"I hold these gleams," she said, after a moment's consideration, "to
+come, not from the churchyard, but from the hut of the old gardener
+Blinkhoolie. I wonder what thrift that churl drives, that of late he
+hath ever had light in his house till the night grew deep. I thought him
+an industrious, peaceful man--If he turns resetter of idle companions
+and night-walkers, the place must be rid of him."
+
+"He may work his baskets perchance," said the page, desirous to stop the
+train of her suspicion.
+
+"Or nets, may he not?" answered the Lady.
+
+"Ay, madam," said Roland, "for trout and salmon."
+
+"Or for fools and knaves," replied the Lady: "but this shall be
+looked after to-morrow.--I wish your Grace and your company a good
+evening.--Randal, attend us." And Randal, who waited in the antechamber
+after having surrendered his bunch of keys, gave his escort to his
+mistress as usual, while, leaving the Queen's apartments, she retired to
+her own [End of paragraph missing in original]
+
+"To-morrow" said the page, rubbing his hands with glee as he repeated
+the Lady's last words, "fools look to-morrow, and wise folk use
+to-night.--May I pray you, my gracious Liege, to retire for one half
+hour, until all the castle is composed to rest? I must go and rub with
+oil these blessed implements of our freedom. Courage and constancy, and
+all will go well, provided our friends on the shore fail not to send the
+boat you spoke of."
+
+"Fear them not," said Catherine, "they are true as steel--if our dear
+mistress do but maintain her noble and royal courage."
+
+[Footnote: In the dangerous expedition to Aberdeenshire, Randolph, the
+English Ambassador, gives Cecil the following account of Queen Mary's
+demeanour:--
+
+"In all those garbulles, I assure your honour, I never saw the Queen
+merrier, never dismayed; nor never thought I that stomache to be in her
+that I find. She repented nothing but, when the Lords and others, at
+Inverness, came in the morning from the watches, that she was not a man,
+to know what life it was to lye all night in the fields, or to walk
+upon the causeway with a jack and a knaps-cap, a Glasgow buckler, and a
+broadsword."--RANDOLPH _to_ CECIL, _September_ 18, 1562.
+
+The writer of the above letter seems to have felt the same impression
+which Catherine Seyton, in the text, considered as proper to the Queen's
+presence among her armed subjects.
+
+"Though we neither thought nor looked for other than on that day to have
+fought or never-what desperate blows would not have been given, when
+every man should have fought in the sight of so noble a Queen, and so
+many fair ladies, our enemies to have taken them from us, and we to
+save our honours, not to be reft of them, your honour can easily
+judge."--_The same to the same, September_ 24, 1562. ]
+
+"Doubt not me, Catherine," replied the Queen; "a while since I was
+overborne, but I have recalled the spirit of my earlier and more
+sprightly days, when I used to accompany my armed nobles, and wish to
+be myself a man, to know what life it was to be in the fields with sword
+and buckler, jack, and knapscap."
+
+"Oh, the lark lives not a gayer life, nor sings a lighter and gayer song
+than the merry soldier," answered Catherine. "Your Grace shall be in
+the midst of them soon, and the look of such a liege Sovereign will make
+each of your host worth three in the hour of need:--but I must to my
+task."
+
+"We have but brief time," said Queen Mary; "one of the two lights in the
+cottage is extinguished--that shows the boat is put off."
+
+"They will row very slow," said the page, "or kent where depth permits,
+to avoid noise.--To our several tasks--I will communicate with the good
+Father."
+
+At the dead hour of midnight, when all was silent in the castle, the
+page put the key into the lock of the wicket which opened into the
+garden, and which was at the bottom of a staircase which descended from
+the Queen's apartment. "Now, turn smooth and softly, thou good bolt,"
+said he, "if ever oil softened rust!" and his precautions had been so
+effectual, that the bolt revolved with little or no sound of resistance.
+He ventured not to cross the threshold, but exchanging a word with the
+disguised Abbot, asked if the boat were ready?
+
+"This half hour," said the sentinel. "She lies beneath the wall, too
+close under the islet to be seen by the warder, but I fear she will
+hardly escape his notice in putting off again."
+
+"The darkness," said the page, "and our profound silence, may take her
+off unobserved, as she came in. Hildebrand has the watch on the tower--a
+heavy-headed knave, who holds a can of ale to be the best headpiece upon
+a night-watch. He sleeps, for a wager."
+
+"Then bring the Queen," said the Abbot, "and I will call Henry Seyton to
+assist them to the boat."
+
+On tiptoe, with noiseless step and suppressed breath, trembling at every
+rustle of their own apparel, one after another the fair prisoners glided
+down the winding stair, under the guidance of Roland Graeme, and were
+received at the wicket-gate by Henry Seyton and the churchman. The
+former seemed instantly to take upon himself the whole direction of the
+enterprise. "My Lord Abbot," he said, "give my sister your arm--I will
+conduct the Queen--and that youth will have the honour to guide Lady
+Fleming."
+
+This was no time to dispute the arrangement, although it was not that
+which Roland Graeme would have chosen. Catherine Seyton, who well knew
+the garden path, tripped on before like a sylph, rather leading the
+Abbot than receiving assistance--the Queen, her native spirit prevailing
+over female fear, and a thousand painful reflections, moved steadily
+forward, by the assistance of Henry Seyton--while the Lady Fleming,
+encumbered with her fears and her helplessness Roland Graeme, who
+followed in the rear, and who bore under the other arm a packet of
+necessaries belonging to the Queen. The door of the garden, which
+communicated with the shore of the islet, yielded to one of the keys
+of which Roland had possessed himself, although not until he had tried
+several,--a moment of anxious terror and expectation. The ladies were
+then partly led, partly carried, to the side of the lake, where a boat
+with six rowers attended them, the men couched along the bottom to
+secure them from observation. Henry Seyton placed the Queen in the
+stern; the Abbot offered to assist Catherine, but she was seated by
+the Queen's side before he could utter his proffer of help; and Roland
+Graeme was just lifting Lady Fleming over the boat-side, when a thought
+suddenly occurred to him, and exclaiming, "Forgotten, forgotten! wait
+for me but one half-minute," he replaced on the shore the helpless Lady
+of the bed-chamber, threw the Queen's packet into the boat, and sped
+back through the garden with the noiseless speed of a bird on the wing.
+
+"By Heaven, he is false at last!" said Seyton; "I ever feared it!"
+
+"He is as true," said Catherine, "as Heaven itself, and that I will
+maintain."
+
+"Be silent, minion," said her brother, "for shame, if not for
+fear--Fellows, put off, and row for your lives!"
+
+"Help me, help me on board!" said the deserted Lady Fleming, and that
+louder than prudence warranted.
+
+"Put off--put off!" cried Henry Seyton; "leave all behind, so the Queen
+is safe."
+
+"Will you permit this, madam?" said Catherine, imploringly; "you leave
+your deliverer to death."
+
+"I will not," said the Queen.--"Seyton I command you to stay at every
+risk."
+
+"Pardon me, madam, if I disobey," said the intractable young man; and
+with one hand lifting in Lady Fleming, he began himself to push off the
+boat.
+
+She was two fathoms' length from the shore, and the rowers were getting
+her head round, when Roland Graeme, arriving, bounded from the beach,
+and attained the boat, overturning Seyton, on whom he lighted. The youth
+swore a deep but suppressed oath, and stopping Graeme as he stepped
+towards the stern, said, "Your place is not with high-born dames--keep
+at the head and trim the vessel--Now give way--give way--Row, for God
+and the Queen!"
+
+The rowers obeyed, and began to pull vigorously.
+
+"Why did ye not muffle the oars?" said Roland Graeme; "the dash must
+awaken the sentinel--Row, lads, and get out of reach of shot; for
+had not old Hildebrand, the warder, supped upon poppy-porridge, this
+whispering must have waked him."
+
+"It was all thine own delay," said Seyton; "thou shalt reckon, with me
+hereafter for that and other matters."
+
+But Roland's apprehension was verified too instantly to permit him to
+reply. The sentinel, whose slumbering had withstood the whispering, was
+alarmed by the dash of the oars. His challenge was instantly heard. "A
+boat---a boat!--bring to, or I shoot!" And, as they continued to ply
+their oars, he called aloud, "Treason! treason!" rung the bell of the
+castle, and discharged his harquebuss at the boat. The ladies crowded
+on each other like startled wild foul, at the flash and report of the
+piece, while the men urged the rowers to the utmost speed. They heard
+more than one ball whiz along the surface of the lake, at no great
+distance from their little bark; and from the lights, which glanced
+like meteors from window to window, it was evident the whole castle was
+alarmed, and their escape discovered.
+
+"Pull!" again exclaimed Seyton; "stretch to your oars, or I will spur
+you to the task with my dagger--they will launch a boat immediately."
+
+"That is cared for," said Roland; "I locked gate and wicket on them when
+I went back, and no boat will stir from the island this night, if doors
+of good oak and bolts of iron can keep men within stone-walls.--And
+now I resign my office of porter of Lochleven, and give the keys to the
+Kelpie's keeping."
+
+As the heavy keys plunged in the lake, the Abbot,--who till then had
+been repeating his prayers, exclaimed, "Now, bless thee, my son! for thy
+ready prudence puts shame on us all."
+
+[Footnote: It is well known that the escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven
+was effected by George Douglas, the youngest brother of Sir William
+Douglas, the lord of the castle; but the minute circumstances of the
+event have been a good deal confused, owing to two agents having been
+concerned in it who bore the same name. It has been always supposed that
+George Douglas was induced to abet Mary's escape by the ambitions hope
+that, by such service, he might merit her hand. But his purpose was
+discovered by his brother Sir William, and he was expelled from the
+castle. He continued, notwithstanding, to hover in the neighbourhood,
+and maintain a correspondence with the royal prisoner and others in the
+fortress.
+
+If we believe the English ambassador Drury, the Queen was grateful to
+George Douglas, and even proposed a marriage with him; a scheme which
+could hardly be serious, since she was still the wife of Bothwell, but
+which, if suggested at all, might be with a purpose of gratifying the
+Regent Murray's ambition, and propitiating his favour; since he was, it
+must be remembered, the brother uterine of George Douglas, for whom such
+high honour was said to be designed.
+
+The proposal, if seriously made, was treated as inadmissible, and Mary
+again resumed her purpose of escape. Her failure in her first attempt
+has some picturesque particulars, which might have been advantageously
+introduced in fictitious narrative. Drury sends Cecil the following
+account of the matter:--
+
+"But after, upon the 25th of the last, (April 1567,) she interprised
+an escape, and was the rather near effect, through her accustomed long
+lying in bed all the morning. The manner of it was thus: there cometh in
+to her the laundress early as other times before she was wanted, and the
+Queen according to such a secret practice putteth on her the hood of the
+laundress, and so with the fardel of clothes and the muffler upon her
+face, passeth, out and entereth the boat to pass the Loch; which, after
+some space, one of them that rowed said merrily, 'Let us see what manner
+of dame this is,' and therewith offered to pull down her muffler, which
+to defend, she put up her hands, which they spied to be very fair and
+white; wherewith they entered into suspicion whom she was, beginning to
+wonder at her enterprise. Whereat she was little dismayed, but charged
+them, upon danger of their lives, to row her over to the shore, which
+they nothing regarded, but eftsoons rowed her back again, promising her
+it should be secreted, and especially from the lord of the house, under
+whose guard she lyeth. It seemeth she knew her refuge, and--where to
+have found it if she had once landed; for there did, and yet do linger,
+at a little village called Kinross, hard at the Loch side, the same
+George Douglas, one Sempel and one Beton, the which two were sometime
+her trusty servants, and, as yet appeareth, they mind her no less
+affection."--_Bishop Keith's History of the Affairs of Church and State
+in Scotland_, p. 490.
+
+Notwithstanding this disappointment, little spoke of by historians, Mary
+renewed her attempts to escape. There was in the Castle of Lochleven
+a lad, named William Douglas, some relation probably of the baron,
+and about eighteen years old. This youth proved as accessible to Queen
+Mary's prayers and promises, as was the brother of his patron, George
+Douglas, from whom this William must be carefully kept distinct. It was
+young William who played the part commonly assigned to his superior,
+George, stealing the keys of the castle from the table on which they
+lay, while his lord was at supper. He let the Queen and a waiting woman
+out of the apartment where they were secured, and out of the tower
+itself, embarked with them in a small skiff, and rowed them to the
+shore. To prevent instant pursuit, he, for precaution's sake, locked the
+iron grated door of the tower, and threw the keys into the lake. They
+found George Douglas and the Queen's servant, Beton, waiting for them,
+and Lord Seyton and James Hamilton of Orbeiston in attendance, at the
+head of a party of faithful followers, with whom they fled to Niddrie
+Castle, and from thence to Hamilton.
+
+In narrating this romantic story, both history and tradition confuse the
+two Douglasses together, and confer on George the successful execution
+of the escape from the castle, the merit of which belongs, in reality,
+to the boy called William, or, more frequently, the Little Douglas,
+either from his youth or his slight stature. The reader will observe,
+that in the romance, the part of the Little Douglas has been assigned
+to Roland Graeme. In another case, it would be tedious to point out in a
+work of amusement such minute points of historical fact; but the
+general interest taken in the fate of Queen Mary, renders every thing of
+consequence which connects itself with her misfortunes. ]
+
+"I knew," said Mary, drawing her breath more freely, as they were now
+out of reach of the musketry--"I knew my squire's truth, promptitude,
+and sagacity.--I must have him my dear friends--with my no less true
+knights, Douglas and Seyton--but where, then, is Douglas?"
+
+"Here, madam," answered the deep and melancholy voice of the boatman who
+sat next her, and who acted as steersman.
+
+"Alas! was it you who stretched your body before me," said the Queen,
+"when the balls were raining around us?"
+
+"Believe you," said he, in a low tone, "that Douglas would have resigned
+to any one the chance of protecting his Queen's life with his own?"
+
+The dialogue was here interrupted by a shot or two from one of those
+small pieces of artillery called falconets, then used in defending
+castles. The shot was too vague to have any effect, but the broader
+flash, the deeper sound, the louder return which was made by the
+midnight echoes of Bennarty, terrified and imposed silence on the
+liberated prisoners. The boat was alongside of a rude quay or landing
+place, running out from a garden of considerable extent, ere any of
+them again attempted to speak. They landed, and while the Abbot returned
+thanks aloud to Heaven,--which had thus far favoured their enterprise,
+Douglas enjoyed the best reward of his desperate undertaking, in
+conducting the Queen to the house of the gardener.
+
+Yet, not unmindful of Roland Graeme even in that moment of terror and
+exhaustion, Mary expressly commanded Seyton to give his assistance to
+Fleming, while Catherine voluntarily, and without bidding, took the arm
+of the page. Seyton presently resigned Lady Fleming to the care of the
+Abbot, alleging, he must look after their horses; and his attendants,
+disencumbering themselves of their boat-cloaks, hastened to assist him.
+
+While Mary spent in the gardener's cottage the few minutes which were
+necessary to prepare the steeds for their departure, she perceived, in
+a corner, the old man to whom the garden belonged, and called him to
+approach. He came as it were with reluctance.
+
+"How, brother," said the Abbot, "so slow to welcome thy royal Queen and
+mistress to liberty and to her kingdom!"
+
+The old man, thus admonished, came forward, and, in good terms of
+speech, gave her Grace joy of her deliverance. The Queen returned him
+thanks in the most gracious manner, and added, "It will remain to us
+to offer some immediate reward for your fidelity, for we wot well your
+house has been long the refuge in which our trusty servants have met
+to concert measures for our freedom." So saying, she offered gold, and
+added, "We will consider your services more fully hereafter."
+
+"Kneel, brother," said the Abbot, "kneel instantly, and thank her
+Grace's kindness."
+
+"Good brother, that wert once a few steps under me, and art still
+many years younger," replied the gardener, pettishly, "let me do mine
+acknowledgments in my own way. Queens have knelt to me ere now, and in
+truth my knees are too old and stiff to bend even to this lovely-faced
+lady. May it please your Grace, if your Grace's servants have occupied
+my house, so that I could not call it mine own--if they have trodden
+down my flowers in the zeal of their midnight comings and goings, and
+destroyed the hope of the fruit season, by bringing their war-horses
+into my garden, I do but crave of your Grace in requital, that you will
+choose your residence as far from me as possible. I am an old man
+who would willingly creep to my grave as easily as I can, in peace,
+good-will, and quiet labour."
+
+"I promise you fairly, good man," said the Queen, "I will not make
+yonder castle my residence again, if I can help it. But let me press on
+you this money--it will make some amends for the havoc we have made in
+your little garden and orchard."
+
+"I thank your Grace, but it will make me not the least amends," said the
+old man. "The ruined labours of a whole year are not so easily replaced
+to him who has perchance but that one year to live; and besides, they
+tell me I must leave this place and become a wanderer in mine old age--I
+that have nothing on earth saving these fruit-trees, and a few old
+parchments and family secrets not worth knowing. As for gold, if I had
+loved it, I might have remained Lord Abbot of St. Mary's--and yet, I
+wot not--for, if Abbot Boniface be but the poor peasant Blinkhoolie, his
+successor, the Abbot Ambrosius, is still transmuted for the worse into
+the guise of a sword-and-buckler-man."
+
+"Is this indeed the Abbot Boniface of whom I have heard?" said the
+Queen. "It is indeed I who should have bent the knee for your blessing,
+good Father."
+
+"Bend no knee to me, Lady! The blessing of an old man, who is no longer
+an Abbot, go with you over dale and down--I hear the trampling of your
+horses."
+
+"Farewell, Father," said the Queen. "When we are once more seated at
+Holyrood, we will neither forget thee nor thine injured garden."
+
+"Forget us both," said the Ex-Abbot Boniface, "and may God be with you!"
+
+As they hurried out of the house, they heard the old man talking and
+muttering to himself, as he hastily drew bolt and bar behind them.
+
+"The revenge of the Douglasses will reach the poor old man," said the
+Queen. "God help me, I ruin every one whom I approach!"
+
+"His safety is cared for," said Seyton; "he must not remain here, but
+will be privately conducted to a place of greater security. But I would
+your Grace were in the saddle.--To horse! to horse!"
+
+The party of Seyton and of Douglas were increased to about ten by those
+attendants who had remained with the horses. The Queen and her ladies,
+with all the rest who came from the boat, were instantly mounted; and
+holding aloof from the village, which was already alarmed by the firing
+from the castle, with Douglas acting as their guide, they soon reached
+the open ground and began to ride as fast as was consistent with keeping
+together in good order.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Sixth.
+
+
+  He mounted himself on a coal-black steed,
+   And her on a freckled gray,
+  With a bugelet horn hung down from his side,
+   And roundly they rode away.
+                               OLD BALLAD.
+
+The influence of the free air, the rushing of the horses over high and
+low, the ringing of the bridles, the excitation at once arising from a
+sense of freedom and of rapid motion, gradually dispelled the confused
+and dejected sort of stupefaction by which Queen Mary was at first
+overwhelmed. She could not at last conceal the change of her feelings to
+the person who rode at her rein, and who she doubted not was the Father
+Ambrosius; for Seyton, with all the heady impetuosity of a youth, proud,
+and justly so, of his first successful adventure, assumed all the bustle
+and importance of commander of the little party, which escorted, in the
+language of the time, the Fortune of Scotland. He now led the van,
+now checked his bounding steed till the rear had come up, exhorted the
+leaders to keep a steady, though rapid pace, and commanded those who
+were hindmost of the party to use their spurs, and allow no interval to
+take place in their line of march; and anon he was beside the Queen, or
+her ladies, inquiring how they brooked the hasty journey, and whether
+they had any commands for him. But while Seyton thus busied himself in
+the general cause with some advantage to the regular order of the march,
+and a good deal of personal ostentation, the horseman who rode beside
+the Queen gave her his full and undivided attention, as if he had
+been waiting upon some superior being. When the road was rugged and
+dangerous, he abandoned almost entirely the care of his own horse, and
+kept his hand constantly upon the Queen's bridle; if a river or larger
+brook traversed their course, his left arm retained her in the saddle,
+while his right held her palfrey's rein.
+
+"I had not thought, reverend Father," said the Queen, when they reached
+the other bank, "that the convent bred such good horsemen."--The person
+she addressed sighed, but made no other answer.--"I know not how it is,"
+said Queen Mary, "but either the sense of freedom, or the pleasure of
+my favourite exercise, from which I have been so long debarred, or both
+combined, seem to have given wings to me--no fish ever shot through the
+water, no bird through the air, with the hurried feeling of liberty
+and rapture with which I sweep through, this night-wind, and over these
+wolds. Nay, such is the magic of feeling myself once more in the
+saddle, that I could almost swear I am at this moment mounted on my own
+favourite Rosabelle, who was never matched in Scotland for swiftness,
+for ease of motion, and for sureness of foot."
+
+"And if the horse which bears so dear a burden could speak," answered
+the deep voice of the melancholy George of Douglas, "would she not
+reply, who but Rosabelle ought at such an emergence as this to serve her
+beloved mistress, or who but Douglas ought to hold her bridle-rein?"
+
+Queen Mary started; she foresaw at once all the evils like to arise to
+herself and him from the deep enthusiastic passion of this youth; but
+her feelings as a woman, grateful at once and compassionate, prevented
+her assuming the dignity of a Queen, and she endeavoured to continue the
+conversation in an indifferent tone.
+
+"Methought," she said, "I heard that, at the division of my spoils,
+Rosabelle had become the property of Lord Morton's paramour and
+ladye-love Alice."
+
+"The noble palfrey had indeed been destined to so base a lot," answered
+Douglas; "she was kept under four keys, and under the charge of a
+numerous crew of grooms and domestics--but Queen Mary needed Rosabelle,
+and Rosabelle is here."
+
+"And was it well, Douglas," said Queen Mary, "when such fearful risks of
+various kinds must needs be encountered, that you should augment their
+perils to yourself for a subject of so little moment as a palfrey?"
+
+"Do you call that of little moment," answered Douglas, "which has
+afforded you a moment's pleasure?--Did you not start with joy when I
+first said you were mounted on Rosabelle?--And to purchase you that
+pleasure, though it were to last no longer than the flash of lightning
+doth, would not Douglas have risked his life a thousand times?"
+
+"Oh, peace, Douglas, peace," said the Queen, "this is unfitting
+language; and, besides, I would speak," said she, recollecting herself,
+"with the Abbot of Saint Mary's--Nay, Douglas, I will not let you quit
+my rein in displeasure."
+
+"Displeasure, lady!" answered Douglas: "alas! sorrow is all that I can
+feel for your well-warranted contempt--I should be as soon displeased
+with Heaven for refusing the wildest wish which mortal can form."
+
+"Abide by my rein, however," said Mary, "there is room for my Lord Abbot
+on the other side; and, besides, I doubt if his assistance would be
+so useful to Rosabelle and me as yours has been, should the road again
+require it."
+
+The Abbot came up on the other side, and she immediately opened a
+conversation with him on the topic of the state of parties, and the
+plan fittest for her to pursue inconsequence of her deliverance. In
+this conversation Douglas took little share, and never but when directly
+applied to by the Queen, while, as before, his attention seemed entirely
+engrossed by the care of Mary's personal safety. She learned, however,
+she had a new obligation to him, since, by his contrivance, the Abbot,
+whom he had furnished with the family pass-word, was introduced into the
+castle as one of the garrison.
+
+Long before daybreak they ended their hasty and perilous journey before
+the gates of Niddrie, a castle in West Lothian, belonging to Lord
+Seyton. When the Queen was about to alight, Henry Seyton, preventing
+Douglas, received her in his arms, and, kneeling down, prayed her
+Majesty to enter the house of his father, her faithful servant.
+
+"Your Grace," he added, "may repose yourself here in perfect safety--it
+is already garrisoned with good men for your protection; and I have sent
+a post to my father, whose instant arrival, at the head of five hundred
+men, may be looked for. Do not dismay yourself, therefore, should your
+sleep be broken by the trampling of horse; but only think that here are
+some scores more of the saucy Seytons come to attend you."
+
+"And by better friends than the Saucy Seytons, a Scottish Queen cannot
+be guarded," replied Mary. "Rosabelle went fleet as the summer breeze,
+and well-nigh as easy; but it is long since I have been a traveller, and
+I feel that repose will be welcome.--Catherine, _ma mignone_, you
+must sleep in my apartment to-night, and bid me welcome to your noble
+father's castle.--Thanks, thanks to all my kind deliverers--thanks, and
+a good night is all I can now offer; but if I climb once more to the
+upper side of Fortune's wheel, I will not have her bandage. Mary Stewart
+will keep her eyes open, and distinguish her friends.--Seyton, I need
+scarcely recommend the venerable Abbot, the Douglas, and my page, to
+your honour able care and hospitality."
+
+Henry Seyton bowed, and Catherine and Lady Fleming attended the Queen to
+her apartment; where, acknowledging to them that she should have found
+it difficult in that moment to keep her promise of holding her eyes
+open, she resigned herself to repose, and awakened not till the morning
+was advanced.
+
+Mary's first feeling when she awoke, was the doubt of her freedom; and
+the impulse prompted her to start from bed, and hastily throwing her
+mantle over her shoulders, to look out at the casement of her apartment.
+Oh, sight of joy! instead of the crystal sheet of Lochleven, unaltered
+save by the influence of the wind, a landscape of wood and moorland lay
+before her, and the park around the castle was occupied by the troops of
+her most faithful and most favourite nobles.
+
+"Rise, rise, Catherine," cried the enraptured Princess; "arise and come
+hither!--here are swords and spears in true hands, and glittering armour
+on loyal breasts. Here are banners, my girl, floating in the wind, as
+lightly as summer clouds--Great God! what pleasure to my weary eyes
+to trace their devices--thine own brave father's--the princely
+Hamilton's--the faithful Fleming's--See--see--they have caught a glimpse
+of me, and throng towards the window!"
+
+She flung the casement open, and with her bare head, from which the
+tresses flew back loose and dishevelled, her fair arm slenderly veiled
+by her mantle, returned by motion and sign the exulting shouts of the
+warriors, which echoed for many a furlong around. When the first burst
+of ecstatic joy was over, she recollected how lightly she was dressed,
+and, putting her hands to her face, which was covered with blushes at
+the recollection, withdrew abruptly from the window. The cause of her
+retreat was easily conjectured, and increased the general enthusiasm for
+a Princess, who had forgotten her rank in her haste to acknowledge the
+services of her subjects. The unadorned beauties of the lovely woman,
+too, moved the military spectators more than the highest display of her
+regal state might; and what might have seemed too free in her mode of
+appearing before them, was more than atoned for by the enthusiasm of the
+moment and by the delicacy evinced in her hasty retreat. Often as the
+shouts died away, as often were they renewed, till wood and hill rung
+again; and many a deep path was made that morning on the cross of the
+sword, that the hand should not part with the weapon, till Mary Stewart
+was restored to her rights. But what are promises, what the hopes of
+mortals? In ten days, these gallant and devoted votaries were slain,
+were captives, or had fled.
+
+Mary flung herself into the nearest seat, and still blushing, yet half
+smiling, exclaimed, "_Ma mignone_, what will they think of me?--to show
+myself to them with my bare feet hastily thrust into the slippers--only
+this loose mantle about me--my hair loose on my shoulders--my arms and
+neck so bare--Oh, the best they can suppose is, that her abode in yonder
+dungeon has turned their Queen's brain! But my rebel subjects saw me
+exposed when I was in the depth of affliction, why should I hold colder
+ceremony with these faithful and loyal men?--Call Fleming, however--I
+trust she has not forgotten the little mail with my apparel--We must be
+as brave as we can, _mignone_."
+
+"Nay, madam, our good Lady Fleming was in no case to remember any
+thing."
+
+"You jest, Catherine," said the Queen, somewhat offended; "it is not in
+her nature surely, to forget her duty so far as to leave us without a
+change of apparel?"
+
+"Roland Graeme, madam, took care of that," answered Catherine; "for he
+threw the mail, with your highness's clothes and jewels, into the boat,
+ere he ran back to lock the gate--I never saw so awkward a page as that
+youth--the packet well-nigh fell on my head."
+
+"He shall make thy heart amends, my girl," said Queen Mary, laughing,
+"for that and all other offences given. But call Fleming, and let us put
+ourselves into apparel to meet our faithful lords."
+
+Such had been the preparations, and such was the skill of Lady Fleming,
+that the Queen appeared before her assembled nobles in such attire as
+became, though it could not enhance, her natural dignity. With the most
+winning courtesy, she expressed to each individual her grateful thanks,
+and dignified not only every noble, but many of the lesser barons by her
+particular attention.
+
+"And whither now, my lords?" she said; "what way do your counsels
+determine for us?"
+
+"To Draphane Castle," replied Lord Arbroath, "if your Majesty is so
+pleased; and thence to Dunbarton, to place your Grace's person in
+safety, after which we long to prove if these traitors will abide us in
+the field."
+
+"And when do we journey?"
+
+"We propose," said Lord Seyton, "if your Grace's fatigue will permit, to
+take horse after the morning's meal."
+
+"Your pleasure, my Lords, is mine," replied the Queen; "we will rule our
+journey by your wisdom now, and hope hereafter to have the advantage of
+governing by it our kingdom.--You will permit my ladies and me, my
+good lords, to break our fasts along with you--We must be half soldiers
+ourselves, and set state apart."
+
+Low bowed many a helmeted head at this gracious proffer, when the Queen,
+glancing her eyes through the assembled leaders, missed both Douglas and
+Roland Graeme, and inquired for them in a whisper to Catherine Seyton.
+
+"They are in yonder oratory, madam, sad enough," replied Catherine; and
+the Queen observed that her favourite's eyes were red with weeping.
+
+"This must not be," said the Queen. "Keep the company amused--I will
+seek them, and introduce them myself."
+
+She went into the oratory, where the first she met was George Douglas,
+standing, or rather reclining, in the recess of a window, his back
+rested against the wall, and his arms folded on his breast. At the sight
+of the Queen he started, and his countenance showed, for an instant,
+an expression of intense delight, which was instantly exchanged for his
+usual deep melancholy.
+
+"What means this?" she said; "Douglas, why does the first deviser and
+bold executor of the happy scheme for our freedom, shun the company of
+his fellow-nobles, and of the Sovereign whom he has obliged?"
+
+"Madam," replied Douglas, "those whom you grace with your presence bring
+followers to aid your cause, wealth to support your state,--can offer
+you halls in which to feast, and impregnable castles for your defence.
+I am a houseless and landless man--disinherited by my mother, and
+laid under her malediction--disowned by my name and kindred--who bring
+nothing to your standard but a single sword, and the poor life of its
+owner."
+
+"Do you mean to upbraid me, Douglas," replied the Queen, "by showing
+what you have lost for my sake?"
+
+"God forbid, madam!" interrupted the young man, eagerly; "were it to do
+again, and had I ten times as much rank and wealth, and twenty times as
+many friends to lose, my losses would be overpaid by the first step you
+made, as a free princess, upon the soil of your native kingdom."
+
+"And what then ails you, that you will not rejoice with those who
+rejoice upon the same joyful occasion?" said the Queen.
+
+"Madam," replied the youth," though exheridated and disowned, I am yet
+a Douglas: with most of yonder nobles my family have been in feud for
+ages--a cold reception amongst them, were an insult, and a kind one yet
+more humiliating."
+
+"For shame, Douglas," replied the Queen, "shake off this unmanly
+gloom!--I can make thee match for the best of them in title and fortune,
+and, believe me, I will.--Go then amongst them, I command you."
+
+"That word," said Douglas, "is enough--I go. This only let me say, that
+not for wealth or title would I have done that which I have done--Mary
+Stewart will not, and the Queen cannot, reward me."
+
+So saying, he left the oratory, mingled with the nobles, and placed
+himself at the bottom of the table. The Queen looked after him, and put
+her kerchief to her eyes.
+
+"Now, Our Lady pity me," she said, "for no sooner are my prison cares
+ended, than those which beset me as a woman and a Queen again thicken
+around me.--Happy Elizabeth! to whom political interest is every thing,
+and whose heart never betrays thy head.--And now must I seek this
+other boy, if I would prevent daggers-drawing betwixt him and the young
+Seyton."
+
+Roland Graeme was in the same oratory, but at such a distance from
+Douglas, that he could not overhear what passed betwixt the Queen and
+him. He also was moody and thoughtful, but cleared his brow at the
+Queen's question, "How now, Roland? you are negligent in your attendance
+this morning. Are you so much overcome with your night's ride?"
+
+"Not so, gracious madam," answered Graeme; "but I am told the page of
+Lochleven is not the page of Niddrie Castle; and so Master Henry Seyton
+hath in a manner been pleased to supersede my attendance."
+
+"Now, Heaven forgive me," said the Queen, "how soon these cock-chickens
+begin to spar!--with children and boys, at least, I may be a queen.--I
+will have you friends.--Some one send me Henry Seyton hither." As she
+spoke the last words aloud, the youth whom she had named entered the
+apartment. "Come hither," she said, "Henry Seyton--I will have you give
+your hand to this youth, who so well aided in the plan of my escape."
+
+"Willingly, madam," answered Seyton, "so that the youth will grant me,
+as a boon, that he touch not the hand of another Seyton whom he knows
+of. My hand has passed current for hers with him before now--and to win
+my friendship, he must give up thoughts of my sister's love."
+
+"Henry Seyton," said the Queen, "does it become you to add any condition
+to my command?"
+
+"Madam," said Henry, "I am the servant of your Grace's throne, son to
+the most loyal man in Scotland. Our goods, our castles, our blood, are
+yours: Our honour is in our own keeping. I could say more, but--"
+
+"Nay, speak on, rude boy," said the Queen; "what avails it that I am
+released from Lochleven, if I am thus enthralled under the yoke of my
+pretended deliverers, and prevented from doing justice to one who has
+deserved as well of me as yourself?"
+
+"Be not in this distemperature for me, sovereign Lady," said Roland;
+"this young gentleman, being the faithful servant of your Grace, and the
+brother of Catherine Seyton, bears that about him which will charm down
+my passion at the hottest."
+
+"I warn thee once more," said Henry Seyton, haughtily, "that you make no
+speech which may infer that the daughter of Lord Seyton can be aught to
+thee beyond what she is to every churl's blood in Scotland."
+
+The Queen was again about to interfere, for Roland's complexion rose,
+and it became somewhat questionable how long his love for Catherine
+would suppress the natural fire of his temper. But the interposition of
+another person, hitherto unseen, prevented Mary's interference, There
+was in the oratory a separate shrine, enclosed with a high screen
+of pierced oak, within which was placed an image of Saint Bennet, of
+peculiar sanctity. From this recess, in which she had been probably
+engaged in her devotions, issued suddenly Magdalen Graeme, and addressed
+Henry Seyton, in reply to his last offensive expressions,--"And of
+what clay, then, are they moulded these Seytons, that the blood of the
+Graemes may not aspire to mingle with theirs? Know, proud boy, that when
+I call this youth my daughter's child, I affirm his descent from Malise
+Earl of Strathern, called Malise with the Bright Brand; and I trow the
+blood of your house springs from no higher source."
+
+"Good mother," said Seyton, "methinks your sanctity should make you
+superior to these worldly vanities; and indeed it seems to have rendered
+you somewhat oblivious touching them, since, to be of gentle descent,
+the father's name and lineage must be as well qualified as the
+mother's."
+
+"And if I say he comes of the blood of Avenel by the father's side,"
+replied Magdalen Graeme, "name I not blood as richly coloured as thine
+own?"
+
+"Of Avenel?" said the Queen; "is my page descended of Avenel?"
+
+"Ay, gracious Princess, and the last male heir of that ancient
+house--Julian Avenel was his father, who fell in battle against the
+Southron."
+
+"I have heard the tale of sorrow," said the Queen; "it was thy daughter,
+then, who followed that unfortunate baron to the field, and died on his
+body? Alas! how many ways does woman's affection find to work out her
+own misery! The tale has oft been told and sung in hall and bower--And
+thou, Roland, art that child of misfortune, who was left among the dead
+and dying? Henry Seyton, he is thine equal in blood and birth."
+
+"Scarcely so," said Henry Seyton, "even were he legitimate; but if the
+tale be told and sung aright, Julian Avenel was a false knight, and his
+leman a frail and credulous maiden."
+
+"Now, by Heaven, thou liest!" said Roland Graeme, and laid his hand on
+his sword. The entrance of Lord Seyton, however, prevented violence.
+
+"Save me, my lord," said the Queen, "and separate these wild and untamed
+spirits."
+
+"How, Henry," said the Baron, "are my castle, and the Queen's presence,
+no checks on thine insolence and impetuosity?--And with whom art thou
+brawling?--unless my eyes spell that token false, it is with the very
+youth who aided me so gallantly in the skirmish with the Leslies--Let me
+look, fair youth, at the medal which thou wearest in thy cap. By Saint
+Bennet, it is the same!--Henry, I command thee to forbear him, as thou
+lovest my blessing----"
+
+"And as you honour my command," said the Queen; "good service hath he
+done me."
+
+"Ay, madam," replied young Seyton, "as when he carried the billet
+enclosed in the sword-sheath to Lochleven--marry, the good youth knew no
+more than a pack-horse what he was carrying."
+
+"But I who dedicated him to this great work," said Magdalen Graeme--"I,
+by whose advice and agency this just heir hath been unloosed from her
+thraldom--I, who spared not the last remaining hope of a falling house
+in this great action--I, at least, knew and counselled; and what merit
+may be mine, let the reward, most gracious Queen, descend upon this
+youth. My ministry here is ended; you are free--a sovereign Princess,
+at the head of a gallant army, surrounded by valiant barons--My service
+could avail you no farther, but might well prejudice you; your fortune
+now rests upon men's hearts and men's swords. May they prove as trusty
+as the faith of women!"
+
+"You will not leave us, mother," said the Queen--"you whose practices in
+our favour were so powerful, who dared so many dangers, and wore so many
+disguises, to blind our enemies and to confirm our friends--you will not
+leave us in the dawn of our reviving fortunes, ere we have time to know
+and to thank you?"
+
+"You cannot know her," answered Magdalen Graeme, "who knows not
+herself--there are times, when, in this woman's frame of mine, there is
+the strength of him of Gath--in this overtoiled brain, the wisdom of the
+most sage counsellor--and again the mist is on me, and my strength
+is weakness, my wisdom folly. I have spoken before princes and
+cardinals--ay, noble Princess, even before the princes of thine own
+house of Lorraine; and I know not whence the words of persuasion came
+which flowed from my lips, and were drunk in by their ears.--And now,
+even when I most need words of persuasion, there is something which
+chokes my voice, and robs me of utterance."
+
+"If there be aught in my power to do thee pleasure," said the Queen,
+"the barely naming it shall avail as well as all thine eloquence."
+
+"Sovereign Lady," replied the enthusiast, "it shames me that at this
+high moment something of human frailty should cling to one, whose vows
+the saints have heard, whose labours in the rightful cause Heaven has
+prospered. But it will be thus while the living spirit is shrined in the
+clay of mortality--I will yield to the folly," she said, weeping as she
+spoke, "and it shall be the last." Then seizing Roland's hand, she led
+him to the Queen's feet, kneeling herself upon one knee, and causing him
+to kneel on both. "Mighty Princess," she said, "look on this flower--it
+was found by a kindly stranger on a bloody field of battle, and long it
+was ere my anxious eyes saw, and my arms pressed, all that was left of
+my only daughter. For your sake, and for that of the holy faith we
+both profess, I could leave this plant, while it was yet tender, to
+the nurture of strangers--ay, of enemies, by whom, perchance, his blood
+would have been poured forth as wine, had the heretic Glendinning known
+that he had in his house the heir of Julian Avenel. Since then I have
+seen him only in a few hours of doubt and dread, and now I part with the
+child of my love--for ever--for ever!--Oh, for every weary step I
+have made in your rightful cause, in this and in foreign lands, give
+protection to the child whom I must no more call mine!"
+
+"I swear to you, mother," said the Queen, deeply affected, "that, for
+your sake and his own, his happiness and fortunes shall be our charge!"
+
+"I thank you, daughter of princes," said Magdalen, and pressed her lips,
+first to the Queen's hand, then to the brow of her grandson. "And now,"
+she said, drying her tears, and rising with dignity, "Earth has had
+its own, and Heaven claims the rest.--Lioness of Scotland, go forth and
+conquer! and if the prayers of a devoted votaress can avail thee, they
+will rise in many a land, and from many a distant shrine. I will glide
+like a ghost from land to land, from temple to temple; and where the
+very name of my country is unknown, the priests shall ask who is the
+Queen of that distant northern land, for whom the aged pilgrim was so
+fervent in prayer. Farewell! Honour be thine, and earthly prosperity, if
+it be the will of God--if not, may the penance thou shalt do here ensure
+thee happiness hereafter!--Let no one speak or follow me--my resolution
+is taken--my vow cannot be cancelled."
+
+She glided from their presence as she spoke, and her last look was upon
+her beloved grandchild. He would have risen and followed, but the Queen
+and Lord Seyton interfered.
+
+"Press not on her now," said Lord Seyton, "if you would not lose her for
+ever. Many a time have we seen the sainted mother, and often at the most
+needful moment; but to press on her privacy, or to thwart her purpose,
+is a crime which she cannot pardon. I trust we shall yet see her at her
+need--a holy woman she is for certain, and dedicated wholly to prayer
+and penance; and hence the heretics hold her as one distracted, while
+true Catholics deem her a saint."
+
+"Let me then hope," said the Queen, "that you, my lord, will aid me in
+the execution of her last request."
+
+"What! in the protection of my young second?--cheerfully--that is, in
+all that your majesty can think it fitting to ask of me.--Henry, give
+thy hand upon the instant to Roland Avenel, for so I presume he must now
+be called."
+
+"And shall be Lord of the Barony," said the Queen, "if God prosper our
+rightful arms."
+
+"It can only be to restore it to my kind protectress, who now holds it,"
+said young Avenel. "I would rather be landless, all my life, than she
+lost a rood of ground by me."
+
+"Nay," said the Queen, looking to Lord Seyton, "his mind matches his
+birth--Henry, thou hast not yet given thy hand."
+
+"It is his," said Henry, giving it with some appearance of courtesy,
+but whispering Roland at the same time,--"For all this, thou hast not my
+sister's."
+
+"May it please your Grace," said Lord Seyton, "now that these passages
+are over, to honour our poor meal. Time it were that our banners were
+reflected in the Clyde. We must to horse with as little delay as may
+be."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Seventh.
+
+
+  Ay, sir--our ancient crown, in these wild times,
+  Oft stood upon a cast--the gamester's ducat,
+  So often staked, and lost, and then regain'd,
+  Scarce knew so many hazards.
+                          THE SPANISH FATHER.
+
+It is not our object to enter into the historical part of the reign of
+the ill-fated Mary, or to recount how, during the week which succeeded
+her flight from Lochleven, her partisans mustered around her with their
+followers, forming a gallant army, amounting to six thousand men. So
+much light has been lately thrown on the most minute details of the
+period, by Mr. Chalmers, in his valuable history of Queen Mary, that the
+reader may be safely referred to it for the fullest information
+which ancient records afford concerning that interesting time. It is
+sufficient for our purpose to say, that while Mary's head-quarters
+were at Hamilton, the Regent and his adherents had, in the King's name,
+assembled a host at Glasgow, inferior indeed to that of the Queen in
+numbers, but formidable from the military talents of Murray, Morton, the
+Laird of Grange, and others, who had been trained from their youth in
+foreign and domestic wars.
+
+In these circumstances, it was the obvious policy of Queen Mary to avoid
+a conflict, secure that were her person once in safety, the number of
+her adherents must daily increase; whereas, the forces of those opposed
+to her must, as had frequently happened in the previous history of her
+reign, have diminished, and their spirits become broken. And so evident
+was this to her counsellors, that they resolved their first step should
+be to place the Queen in the strong castle of Dunbarton, there to await
+the course of events, the arrival of succours from France, and the
+levies which were made by her adherents in every province of Scotland.
+Accordingly, orders were given, that all men should be on horseback or
+on foot, apparelled in their armour, and ready to follow the Queen's
+standard in array of battle, the avowed determination being to escort
+her to the Castle of Dunbarton in defiance of her enemies.
+
+The muster was made upon Hamilton-Moor, and the march commenced in all
+the pomp of feudal times. Military music sounded, banners and pennons
+waved, armour glittered far and wide, and spears glanced and twinkled
+like stars in a frosty sky. The gallant spectacle of warlike parade was
+on this occasion dignified by the presence of the Queen herself, who,
+with a fair retinue of ladies and household attendants, and a
+special guard of gentlemen, amongst whom young Seyton and Roland were
+distinguished, gave grace at once and confidence to the army, which
+spread its ample files before, around, and behind her. Many churchmen
+also joined the cavalcade, most of whom did not scruple to assume arms,
+and declare their intention of wielding them in defence of Mary and the
+Catholic faith. Not so the Abbot of Saint Mary's. Roland had not seen
+this prelate since the night of their escape from Lochleven, and he now
+beheld him, robed in the dress of his order, assume his station near the
+Queen's person. Roland hastened to pull off his basnet, and beseech the
+Abbot's blessing.
+
+"Thou hast it, my son!" said the priest; "I see thee now under thy true
+name, and in thy rightful garb. The helmet with the holly branch befits
+your brows well--I have long waited for the hour thou shouldst assume
+it."
+
+"Then you knew of my descent, my good father?" said Roland.
+
+"I did so, but it was under seal of confession from thy grandmother;
+nor was I at liberty to tell the secret, till she herself should make it
+known."
+
+"Her reason for such secrecy, my father?" said Roland Avenel.
+
+"Fear, perchance of my brother--a mistaken fear, for Halbert would not,
+to ensure himself a kingdom, have offered wrong to an orphan; besides
+that, your title, in quiet times, even had your father done your mother
+that justice which I well hope he did, could not have competed with that
+of my brother's wife, the child of Julian's elder brother."
+
+"They need fear no competition from me," said Avenel. "Scotland is
+wide enough, and there are many manors to win, without plundering my
+benefactor. But prove to me, my reverend father, that my father was just
+to my mother--show me that I may call myself a legitimate Avenel, and
+make me your bounden slave for ever."
+
+"Ay," replied the Abbot, "I hear the Seytons hold thee cheap for that
+stain on thy shield. Something, however, I have learnt from the late
+Abbot Boniface, which, if it prove sooth, may redeem that reproach."
+
+"Tell me that blessed news," said Roland, "and the future service of my
+life--"
+
+"Rash boy!" said the Abbot, "I should but madden thine impatient temper,
+by exciting hopes that may never be fulfilled--and is this a time for
+them? Think on what perilous march we are bound, and if thou hast a sin
+unconfessed, neglect not the only leisure which Heaven may perchance
+afford thee for confession and absolution."
+
+"There will be time enough for both, I trust, when we reach Dunbarton,"
+answered the page.
+
+"Ay," said the Abbot, "thou crowest as loudly as the rest--but we are
+not yet at Dunbarton, and there is a lion in the path."
+
+"Mean you Murray, Morton, and the other rebels at Glasgow, my reverend
+father? Tush! they dare not look on the royal banner."
+
+"Even so," replied the Abbot, "speak many of those who are older, and
+should be wiser, than thou.--I have returned from the southern shires,
+where I left many a chief of name arming in the Queen's interest--I
+left the lords here wise and considerate men--I find them madmen on my
+return--they are willing, for mere pride and vain-glory, to brave the
+enemy, and to carry the Queen, as it were in triumph, past the walls of
+Glasgow, and under the beards of the adverse army.--Seldom does Heaven
+smile on such mistimed confidence. We shall be encountered, and that to
+the purpose."
+
+"And so much the better," replied Roland; "the field of battle was my
+cradle."
+
+"Beware it be not thy dying bed," said the Abbot. "But what avails it
+whispering to young wolves the dangers of the chase? You will know,
+perchance, ere this day is out, what yonder men are, whom you hold in
+rash contempt."
+
+"Why, what are they?" said Henry Seyton, who now joined them: "have
+they sinews of wire, and flesh of iron?--Will lead pierce and steel cut
+them?--If so, reverend father, we have little to fear."
+
+"They are evil men," said the Abbot, "but the trade of war demands
+no saints.--Murray and Morton are known to be the best generals in
+Scotland. No one ever saw Lindesay's or Ruthven's back--Kirkaldy of
+Grange was named by the Constable Montmorency the first soldier in
+Europe--My brother, too good a name for such a cause, has been far and
+wide known for a soldier."
+
+"The better, the better!" said Seyton, triumphantly; "we shall have all
+these traitors of rank and name in a fair field before us. Our cause
+is the best, our numbers are the strongest, our hearts and limbs match
+theirs--Saint Bennet, and set on!"
+
+The Abbot made no reply, but seemed lost in reflection; and his anxiety
+in some measure communicated itself to Roland Avenel, who ever, as their
+line of march led over a ridge or an eminence, cast an anxious look
+towards the towers of Glasgow, as if he expected to see symptoms of the
+enemy issuing forth. It was not that he feared the fight, but the issue
+was of such deep import to his country, and to himself, that the natural
+fire of his spirit burned with a less lively, though with a more intense
+glow. Love, honour, fame, fortune, all seemed to depend on the issue of
+one field, rashly hazarded perhaps, but now likely to become unavoidable
+and decisive.
+
+When, at length, their march came to be nearly parallel with the city of
+Glasgow, Roland became sensible that the high grounds before them were
+already in part occupied by a force, showing, like their own, the royal
+banner of Scotland, and on the point of being supported by columns of
+infantry and squadrons of horse, which the city gates had poured forth,
+and which hastily advanced to sustain those troops who already possessed
+the ground in front of the Queen's forces. Horseman after horseman
+galloped in from the advanced guard, with tidings that Murray had taken
+the field with his whole army; that his object was to intercept the
+Queen's march, and his purpose unquestionable to hazard a battle. It
+was now that the tempers of men were subjected to a sudden and a severe
+trial; and that those who had too presumptuously concluded that they
+would pass without combat, were something disconcerted, when, at once,
+and with little time to deliberate, they found themselves placed in
+front of a resolute enemy.--Their chiefs immediately assembled around
+the Queen, and held a hasty council of war. Mary's quivering lip
+confessed the fear which she endeavoured to conceal under a bold
+and dignified demeanour. But her efforts were overcome by painful
+recollections of the disastrous issue of her last appearance in arms at
+Carberry-hill; and when she meant to have asked them their advice for
+ordering the battle, she involuntarily inquired whether there were no
+means of escaping without an engagement?
+
+"Escaping?" answered the Lord Seyton; "when I stand as one to ten of
+your Highness's enemies, I may think of escape--but never while I stand
+with three to two!"
+
+"Battle! battle!" exclaimed the assembled lords; "we will drive the
+rebels from their vantage ground, as the hound turns the hare on the
+hill side."
+
+"Methinks, my noble lords," said the Abbot, "it were as well to prevent
+his gaining that advantage.--Our road lies through yonder hamlet on the
+brow, and whichever party hath the luck to possess it, with its little
+gardens and enclosures, will attain a post of great defence."
+
+"The reverend father is right," said the Queen. "Oh, haste thee, Seyton,
+haste, and get thither before them--they are marching like the wind."
+
+Seyton bowed low, and turned his horse's head.--"Your Highness honours
+me," he said; "I will instantly press forward, and seize the pass."
+
+"Not before me, my lord, whose charge is the command of the vanguard,"
+said the Lord of Arbroath.
+
+"Before you, or any Hamilton in Scotland," said the Seyton, "having the
+Queen's command--Follow me, gentlemen, my vassals and kinsmen--Saint
+Bennet, and set on!"
+
+"And follow me," said Arbroath, "my noble kinsmen, and brave
+men-tenants, we will see which will first reach the post of danger. For
+God and Queen Mary!"
+
+"Ill-omened haste, and most unhappy strife," said the Abbot, who saw
+them and their followers rush hastily and emulously to ascend the
+height without waiting till their men were placed in order.--"And you,
+gentlemen," he continued, addressing Roland and Seyton, who were each
+about to follow those who hastened thus disorderly to the conflict,
+"will you leave the Queen's person unguarded?"
+
+"Oh, leave me not, gentlemen!" said the Queen--"Roland and Seyton,
+do not leave me--there are enough of arms to strike in this fell
+combat--withdraw not those to whom I trust for my safety."
+
+"We may not leave her Grace," said Roland, looking at Seyton, and
+turning his horse.
+
+"I ever looked when thou wouldst find out that," rejoined the fiery
+youth.
+
+Roland made no answer, but bit his lip till the blood came, and spurring
+his horse up to the side of Catherine Seyton's palfrey, he whispered
+in a low voice, "I never thought to have done aught to deserve you;
+but this day I have heard myself upbraided with cowardice, and my sword
+remained still sheathed, and all for the love of you."
+
+"There is madness among us all," said the damsel; "my father, my
+brother, and you, are all alike bereft of reason. Ye should think
+only of this poor Queen, and you are all inspired by your own absurd
+jealousies--The monk is the only soldier and man of sense amongst you
+all.--My lord Abbot," she cried aloud, "were it not better we should
+draw to the westward, and wait the event that God shall send us, instead
+of remaining here in the highway, endangering the Queen's person, and
+cumbering the troops in their advance?"
+
+"You say well, my daughter," replied the Abbot; "had we but one to guide
+us where the Queen's person may be in safety--Our nobles hurry to the
+conflict, without casting a thought on the very cause of the war."
+
+"Follow me," said a knight, or man-at-arms, well mounted, and attired
+completely in black armour, but having the visor of his helmet closed,
+and bearing no crest on his helmet, or device upon his shield.
+
+"We will follow no stranger," said the Abbot, "without some warrant of
+his truth."
+
+"I am a stranger and in your hands," said the horseman; "if you wish to
+know more of me, the Queen herself will be your warrant."
+
+The Queen had remained fixed to the spot, as if disabled by fear, yet
+mechanically smiling, bowing, and waving her hand, as banners were
+lowered and spears depressed before her, while, emulating the strife
+betwixt Seyton and Arbroath, band on band pressed forward their march
+towards the enemy. Scarce, however, had the black rider whispered
+something in her ear, than she assented to what he said; and when he
+spoke aloud, and with an air of command, "Gentlemen, it is the Queen's
+pleasure that you should follow me," Mary uttered, with something like
+eagerness, the word "Yes."
+
+All were in motion in an instant; for the black horseman, throwing off a
+sort of apathy of manner, which his first appearance indicated, spurred
+his horse to and fro, making him take such active bounds and short
+turns, as showed the rider master of the animal; and getting the Queen's
+little retinue in some order for marching, he led them to the left,
+directing his course towards a castle, which, crowning a gentle yet
+commanding eminence, presented an extensive view over the country
+beneath, and in particular, commanded a view of those heights which both
+armies hastened to occupy, and which it was now apparent must almost
+instantly be the scene of struggle and dispute.
+
+"Yonder towers," said the Abbot, questioning the sable horseman, "to
+whom do they belong?--and are they in the hands of friends?"
+
+"They are untenanted," replied the stranger, "or, at least, they have
+no hostile inmates.--But urge these youths. Sir Abbot, to make more
+haste--this is but an evil time to satisfy their idle curiosity, by
+peering out upon the battle in which they are to take no share."
+
+"The worse luck mine," said Henry Seyton, who overheard him--"I
+would rather be under my father's banner at this moment than be made
+Chamberlain of Holyrood, for this my present duty of peaceful ward well
+and patiently discharged."
+
+"Your place under your father's banner will shortly be right dangerous,"
+said Roland Avenel, who, pressing his horse towards the westward,
+had still his look reverted to the armies; "for I see yonder body of
+cavalry, which presses from the eastward, will reach the village ere
+Lord Seyton can gain it."
+
+"They are but cavalry," said Seyton, looking attentively; "they cannot
+hold the village without shot of harquebuss."
+
+"Look more closely," said Roland; "you will see that each of these
+horseman who advance so rapidly from Glasgow, carries a footman behind
+him."
+
+"Now, by Heaven, he speaks well!" said the black cavalier; "one of you
+two must go carry the news to Lord Seyton and Lord Arbroath, that
+they hasten not their horsemen on before the foot, but advance more
+regularly."
+
+"Be that my errand," said Roland, "for I first marked the stratagem of
+the enemy."
+
+"But, by your leave," said Seyton, "yonder is my father's banner
+engaged, and it best becomes me to go to the rescue."
+
+"I will stand by the Queen's decision," said Roland Avenel.
+
+"What new appeal?--what new quarrel?" said Queen Mary--"Are there not
+in yonder dark host enemies enough to Mary Stewart, but must her very
+friends turn enemies to each other?"
+
+"Nay, madam," said Roland, "the young master of Seyton and I did but
+dispute who should leave your person to do a most needful message to the
+host. He thought his rank entitled him, and I deemed that the person of
+least consequence, being myself, were better perilled--"
+
+"Not so," said the Queen; "if one must leave me, be it Seyton."
+
+Henry Seyton bowed till the white plumes on his helmet mixed with the
+flowing mane of his gallant war-horse, then placed himself firm in the
+saddle, shook his lance aloft with an air of triumph and determination,
+and striking his horse with the spurs, made towards his father's banner,
+which was still advancing up the hill, and dashed his steed over every
+obstacle that occurred in his headlong path.
+
+"My brother! my father!" exclaimed Catherine, with an expression
+of agonized apprehension--"they are in the midst of peril, and I in
+safety!"
+
+"Would to God," said Roland, "that I were with them, and could ransom
+every drop of their blood by two of mine!"
+
+"Do I not know thou dost wish it?" said Catherine--"Can a woman say to
+a man what I have well-nigh said to thee, and yet think that he could
+harbour fear or faintness of heart?--There is that in yon distant sound
+of approaching battle that pleases me even while it affrights me. I
+would I were a man, that I might feel that stern delight, without the
+mixture of terror!"
+
+"Ride up, ride up, Lady Catherine Seyton," cried the Abbot, as they
+still swept on at a rapid pace, and were now close beneath the walls
+of the castle--"ride up, and aid Lady Fleming to support the Queen--she
+gives way more and more."
+
+They halted and lifted Mary from the saddle, and were about to
+support her towards the castle, when she said faintly, "Not there--not
+there--these walls will I never enter more!"
+
+"Be a Queen, madam," said the Abbot, "and forget that you are a woman."
+
+"Oh, I must forget much, much more," answered the unfortunate Mary,
+in an under tone, "ere I can look with steady eyes on these well-known
+scenes!--I must forget the days which I spent here as the bride of the
+lost--the murdered----"
+
+"This is the Castle of Crookstone," said the Lady Fleming, "in which the
+Queen held her first court after she was married to Darnley."
+
+"Heaven," said the Abbot, "thy hand is upon us!--Bear yet up,
+madam--your foes are the foes of Holy Church, and God will this day
+decide whether Scotland shall be Catholic or heretic."
+
+A heavy and continued fire of cannon and musketry, bore a tremendous
+burden to his words, and seemed far more than they to recall the spirits
+of the Queen.
+
+"To yonder tree," she said, pointing to a yew-tree which grew on a small
+mount close to the castle; "I know it well--from thence you may see a
+prospect wide as from the peaks of Schehallion."
+
+And freeing herself from her assistants, she walked with a determined,
+yet somewhat wild step, up to the stem of the noble yew. The Abbot,
+Catherine, and Roland Avenel followed her, while Lady Fleming kept back
+the inferior persons of her train. The black horseman also followed the
+Queen, waiting on her as closely as the shadow upon the light, but ever
+remaining at the distance of two or three yards---he folded his arms on
+his bosom, turned his back to the battle, and seemed solely occupied by
+gazing on Mary, through the bars of his closed visor. The Queen regarded
+him not, but fixed her eyes upon the spreading yew."
+
+"Ay, fair and stately tree," she said, as if at the sight of it she had
+been rapt away from the present scene, and had overcome the horror
+which had oppressed her at the first approach to Crookstone, "there thou
+standest, gay and goodly as ever, though thou hearest the sounds of war,
+instead of the vows of love. All is gone since I last greeted thee--love
+and lover--vows and vower--king and kingdom.--How goes the field, my
+Lord Abbot?--with us, I trust--yet what but evil can Mary's eyes witness
+from this spot?"
+
+Her attendants eagerly bent their eyes on the field of battle, but could
+discover nothing more than that it was obstinately contested. The small
+enclosures and cottage gardens in the village, of which they had a full
+and commanding view, and which shortly before lay, with their lines of
+sycamore and ash-trees, so still and quiet in the mild light of a May
+sun, were now each converted into a line of fire, canopied by smoke; and
+the sustained and constant report of the musketry and cannon, mingled
+with the shouts of meeting combatants, showed that as yet neither party
+had given ground.
+
+"Many a soul finds its final departure to heaven or hell, in these awful
+thunders," said the Abbot; "let those that believe in the Holy Church,
+join me in orisons for victory in this dreadful combat."
+
+"Not here--not here," said the unfortunate Queen; "pray not here,
+father, or pray in silence--my mind is too much torn between the past
+and the present, to dare to approach the heavenly throne--Or, if we
+will pray, be it for one whose fondest affections have been her greatest
+crimes, and who has ceased to be a queen, only because she was a
+deceived and a tender-hearted woman."
+
+"Were it not well," said Roland, "that I rode somewhat nearer the hosts,
+and saw the fate of the day?"
+
+"Do so, in the name of God," said the Abbot; "for if our friends are
+scattered, our flight must be hasty--but beware thou approach not too
+nigh the conflict; there is more than thine own life depends on thy safe
+return."
+
+"Oh, go not too nigh," said Catherine; "but fail not to see how the
+Seytons fight, and how they bear themselves."
+
+"Fear nothing, I will be on my guard," said Roland Avenel; and without
+waiting farther answer, rode towards the scene of conflict, keeping, as
+he rode, the higher and unenclosed ground, and ever looking cautiously
+around him, for fear of involving himself in some hostile party. As he
+approached, the shots rung sharp and more sharply on his ear, the shouts
+came wilder and wilder, and he felt that thick beating of the heart,
+that mixture of natural apprehension, intense curiosity, and anxiety for
+the dubious event, which even the bravest experience when they approach
+alone to a scene of interest and of danger.
+
+At length he drew so close, that from a bank, screened by bushes and
+underwood, he could distinctly see where the struggle was most keenly
+maintained. This was in a hollow way, leading to the village, up
+which the Queen's vanguard had marched, with more hasty courage than
+well-advised conduct, for the purpose of possessing themselves of that
+post of advantage. They found their scheme anticipated, and the hedges
+and enclosures already occupied by the enemy, led by the celebrated
+Kirkaldy of Grange and the Earl of Morton; and not small was the loss
+which they sustained while struggling forward to come to close with
+the men-at-arms on the other side. But, as the Queen's followers were
+chiefly noblemen and barons, with their kinsmen and followers, they had
+pressed onward, contemning obstacles and danger, and had, when Roland
+arrived on the ground, met hand to hand at the gorge of the pass with
+the Regent's vanguard, and endeavoured to bear them out of the village
+at the spear-point; while their foes, equally determined to keep the
+advantage which they had attained, struggled with the like obstinacy
+to drive back the assailants. Both parties were on foot, and armed in
+proof; so that, when the long lances of the front ranks were fixed in
+each other's shields, corslets, and breastplates, the struggle resembled
+that of two bulls, who fixing their frontlets hard against each other,
+remain in that posture for hours, until the superior strength or
+obstinacy of the one compels the other to take to flight, or bears him
+down to the earth. Thus locked together in the deadly struggle, which
+swayed slowly to and fro, as one or other party gained the advantage,
+those who fell were trampled on alike by friends and foes; those whose
+weapons were broken, retired from the front rank, and had their place
+supplied by others; while the rearward ranks, unable otherwise to share
+in the combat, fired their pistols, and hurled their daggers, and the
+points and truncheons of the broken weapons, like javelins against the
+enemy.
+
+"God and the Queen!" resounded from the one party; "God and the King!"
+thundered from the other; while, in the name of their sovereign,
+fellow-subjects on both sides shed each other's blood, and, in the name
+of their Creator, defaced his image. Amid the tumult was often heard the
+voices of the captains, shouting their commands; of leaders and chiefs,
+crying their gathering words; of groans and shrieks from the falling and
+the dying.
+
+The strife had lasted nearly an hour. The strength of both parties
+seemed exhausted; but their rage was unabated, and their obstinacy
+unsubdued, when Roland, who turned eye and ear to all around him, saw
+a column of infantry, headed by a few horsemen, wheel round the base
+of the bank where he had stationed himself, and, levelling their long
+lances, attack the Queen's vanguard, closely engaged as they were in
+conflict on their front. The very first glance showed him that the
+leader who directed this movement was the Knight of Avenel, his ancient
+master; and the next convinced him, that its effects would be decisive.
+The result of the attack of fresh and unbroken forces upon the flank of
+those already wearied with a long and obstinate struggle, was, indeed,
+instantaneous.
+
+The column of the assailants, which had hitherto shown one dark, dense,
+and united line of helmets, surmounted with plumage, was at once
+broken and hurled in confusion down the hill, which they had so long
+endeavoured to gain. In vain were the leaders heard calling upon their
+followers to stand to the combat, and seen personally resisting when all
+resistance was evidently vain. They were slain, or felled to the earth,
+or hurried backwards by the mingled tide of flight and pursuit. What
+were Roland's feelings on beholding the rout, and feeling that all that
+remained for him was to turn bridle, and endeavour to ensure the safety
+of the Queen's person! Yet, keen as his grief and shame might be,
+they were both forgotten, when, almost close beneath the bank which
+he occupied, he saw Henry Seyton forced away from his own party in the
+tumult, covered with dust and blood, and defending himself desperately
+against several of the enemy who had gathered around him, attracted by
+his gay armour. Roland paused not a moment, but pushing his steed down
+the bank, leaped him amongst the hostile party, dealt three or four
+blows amongst them, which struck down two, and made the rest stand
+aloof; then reaching Seyton his hand, he exhorted him to seize fast on
+his horse's mane.
+
+"We live or die together this day," said he; "keep but fast hold till we
+are out of the press, and then my horse is yours."
+
+Seyton heard and exerted his remaining strength, and, by their joint
+efforts, Roland brought him out of danger, and behind the spot from
+whence he had witnessed the disastrous conclusion of the fight. But
+no sooner were they under shelter of the trees, than Seyton let go his
+hold, and, in spite of Roland's efforts to support him, fell at length
+on the turf. "Trouble yourself no more with me," he said; "this is my
+first and my last battle--and I have already seen too much to wish
+to see the close. Hasten to save the Queen--and commend me to
+Catherine--she will never more be mistaken for me nor I for her--the
+last sword-stroke has made an eternal distinction."
+
+"Let me aid you to mount my horse," said Roland, eagerly, "and you may
+yet be saved--I can find my own way on foot--turn but my horse's head
+westward, and he will carry you fleet and easy as the wind."
+
+"I will never mount steed more," said the youth; "farewell--I love thee
+better dying, than ever I thought to have done while in life--I would
+that old man's blood were not on my hand!--_Sancte Benedicte, ora pro
+me_--Stand not to look on a dying man, but haste to save the Queen!"
+
+These words were spoken with the last effort of his voice, and scarce
+were they uttered ere the speaker was no more. They recalled Roland to
+a sense of the duty which he had well-nigh forgotten, but they did not
+reach his ears only.
+
+"The Queen--where is the Queen?" said Halbert Glendinning, who, followed
+by two or three horsemen, appeared at this instant. Roland made no
+answer, but, turning his horse, and confiding in his speed, gave him at
+once rein and spur, and rode over height and hollow towards the Castle
+of Crookstone. More heavily armed, and mounted upon a horse of less
+speed, Sir Halbert Glendinning followed with couched lance, calling out
+as he rode, "Sir, with the holly-branch, halt, and show your right to
+bear that badge--fly not thus cowardly, nor dishonour the cognizance
+thou deservest not to wear!--Halt, sir coward, or by Heaven, I will
+strike thee with my lance on the back, and slay thee like a dastard--I
+am the Knight of Avenel--I am Halbert Glendinning."
+
+But Roland, who had no purpose of encountering his old master, and who,
+besides, knew the Queen's safety depended on his making the best speed
+he could, answered not a word to the defiances and reproaches which Sir
+Halbert continued to throw out against him; but making the best use of
+his spurs, rode yet harder than before, and had gained about a hundred
+yards upon his pursuer, when, coming near to the yew-tree where he had
+left the Queen, he saw them already getting to horse, and cried out
+as loud as he could, "Foes! foes!--Ride for it, fair ladies--Brave
+gentlemen, do your devoir to protect them!"
+
+So saying, he wheeled his horse, and avoiding the shock of Sir Halbert
+Glendinning, charged one of that Knight's followers, who was nearly on
+a line with him, so rudely with his lance, that he overthrew horse and
+man. He then drew his sword and attacked the second, while the black
+man-at-arms, throwing himself in the way of Glendinning, they rushed on
+each other so fiercely, that both horses were overthrown, and the riders
+lay rolling on the plain. Neither was able to arise, for the black
+horseman was pierced through with Glendinning's lance, and the Knight
+of Avenel, oppressed with the weight of his own horse and sorely bruised
+besides, seemed in little better plight than he whom he had mortally
+wounded.
+
+"Yield thee, Sir Knight of Avenel, rescue or no rescue," said Roland,
+who had put a second antagonist out of condition to combat, and hastened
+to prevent Glendinning from renewing the conflict.
+
+"I may not choose but yield," said Sir Halbert, "since I can no longer
+fight; but it shames me to speak such a word to a coward like thee!"
+
+"Call me not coward," said Roland, lifting his visor, and helping his
+prisoner to rise, "since but for old kindness at thy hands, and yet more
+at thy lady's, I had met thee as a brave man should."
+
+"The favourite page of my wife!" said Sir Halbert, astonished; "Ah!
+wretched boy, I have heard of thy treason at Lochleven."
+
+"Reproach him not, my brother," said the Abbot, "he was but an agent in
+the hands of Heaven."
+
+"To horse, to horse!" said Catherine Seyton; "mount and begone, or we
+are all lost. I see our gallant army flying for many a league--To horse,
+my Lord Abbot--To horse, Roland--my gracious Liege, to horse! Ere this,
+we should have ridden many a mile."
+
+"Look on these features," said Mary, pointing to the dying knight, who
+had been unhelmed by some compassionate hand; "look there, and tell me
+if she who ruins all who love her, ought to fly a foot farther to save
+her wretched life!"
+
+The reader must have long anticipated the discovery which the Queen's
+feelings had made before her eyes confirmed it. It was the features of
+the unhappy George Douglas, on which death was stamping his mark.
+
+"Look--look at him well," said the Queen, "thus has it been with all who
+loved Mary Stewart!--The royalty of Francis, the wit of Chastelar, the
+power and gallantry of the gay Gordon, the melody of Rizzio, the portly
+form and youthful grace of Darnley, the bold address and courtly
+manners of Bothwell--and now the deep-devoted passion of the noble
+Douglas--nought could save them!--they looked on the wretched Mary, and
+to have loved her was crime enough to deserve early death! No sooner had
+the victim formed a kind thought of me, than the poisoned cup, the axe
+and block, the dagger, the mine, were ready to punish them for casting
+away affection on such a wretch as I am!--Importune me not--I will fly
+no farther--I can die but once, and I will die here."
+
+While she spoke, her tears fell fast on the face of the dying man, who
+continued to fix his eyes on her with an eagerness of passion, which
+death itself could hardly subdue.--"Mourn not for me," he said faintly,
+"but care for your own safety--I die in mine armour as a Douglas should,
+and I die pitied by Mary Stewart!"
+
+He expired with these words, and without withdrawing his eyes from her
+face; and the Queen, whose heart was of that soft and gentle mould,
+which in domestic life, and with a more suitable partner than Darnley,
+might have made her happy, remained weeping by the dead man, until
+recalled to herself by the Abbot, who found it necessary to use a style
+of unusual remonstrance. "We also, madam," he said, "we, your Grace's
+devoted followers, have friends and relatives to weep for. I leave
+a brother in imminent jeopardy--the husband of the Lady Fleming--the
+father and brothers of the Lady Catherine, are all in yonder bloody
+field, slain, it is to be feared, or prisoners. We forget the fate
+of our nearest and dearest, to wait on our Queen, and she is too much
+occupied with her own sorrows to give one thought to ours."
+
+"I deserve not your reproach, father," said the Queen, checking her
+tears; "but I am docile to it--where must we go--what must we do?"
+
+"We must fly, and that instantly," said the Abbot; "whither is not so
+easily answered, but we may dispute it upon the road--Lift her to her
+saddle, and set forward."
+
+[Footnote: I am informed in the most polite manner, by D. MacVean, Esq.
+of Glasgow, that I have been incorrect in my locality, in giving an
+account of the battle of Langside. Crookstone Castle, he observes, lies
+four miles west from the field of battle, and rather in the rear of
+Murray's army. The real place from which Mary saw the rout of her last
+army, was Cathcart Castle, which, being a mile and a half east from
+Langside, was, situated in the rear of the Queen's own army. I was led
+astray in the present case, by the authority of my deceased friend,
+James Grahame the excellent and amiable author of the Sabbath, in his
+drama on the subject of Queen Mary; and by a traditionary report of Mary
+having seen the battle from the Castle of Crookstone, which seemed so
+much to increase the interest of the scene, that I have been unwilling
+to make, in this particular instance, the fiction give way to the fact,
+which last is undoubtedly in favour of Mr. MacVean's system.
+
+It is singular how tradition, which is sometimes a sure guide to truth,
+is, in other cases, prone to mislead us. In the celebrated field of
+battle at Killiecrankie, the traveller is struck with one of those
+rugged pillars of rough stone, which indicate the scenes of ancient
+conflict. A friend of the author, well acquainted with the circumstances
+of the battle, was standing near this large stone, and looking on the
+scene around, when a highland shepherd hurried down from the hill to
+offer his services as cicerone, and proceeded to inform him, that Dundee
+was slain at that stone, which was raised to his memory. "Fie, Donald."
+answered my friend, "how can you tell such a story to a stranger? I
+am sure you know well enough that Dundee was killed at a considerable
+distance from this place, near the house of Fascally, and that this
+stone was here long before the battle, in 1688."--"Oich! oich!" said
+Donald, no way abashed, "and your honour's in the right, and I see you
+ken a' about it. And he wasna killed on the spot neither, but lived till
+the next morning; but a' the Saxon gentlemen like best to hear he was
+killed at the great stane." It is on the same principle of pleasing my
+readers, that I retain Crookstone Castle instead of Cathcart.
+
+If, however, the author has taken a liberty in removing the actual field
+of battle somewhat to the eastward, he has been tolerably strict in
+adhering to the incidents of the engagement, as will appear from it
+comparison of events in the novel, with the following account from an
+old writer.
+
+"The Regent was out on foot and all his company, except the Laird of
+Grange, Alexander Hume of Manderston, and some borderers to the number
+of two hundred. The Laird of Grange had already viewed the ground, and
+with all imaginable diligence caused every horseman to take behind him
+a footman of the Regent's, to guard behind them, and rode with speed
+to the head of Langside-hill, and set down the footmen with their
+culverings at the head of a straight lane, where there were some cottage
+houses and yards of great advantage. Which soldiers with their continual
+shot killed divers of the vaunt guard, led by the Hamiltons, who,
+courageously and fiercely ascending up the hill, were already out of
+breath, when the Regent's vaunt guard joined with them. Where the
+worthy Lord Hume fought on foot with his pike in his hand very manfully,
+assisted by the Laird of Cessford, his brother-in-law, who helped him up
+again when he was strucken to the ground by many strokes upon his face,
+through the throwing pistols at him after they had been discharged. He
+was also wounded with staves, and had many strokes of spears through his
+legs; for he and Grange, at the joining, cried to let their adversaries
+first lay down their spears, to bear up theirs; which spears were so
+thick fixed in the others' jacks, that some of the pistols and great
+staves that were thrown by them which were behind, might be seen lying
+upon the spears.
+
+"Upon the Queen's side the Earl of Argyle commanded the battle, and the
+Lord of Arbroth the vaunt guard. But the Regent committed to the Laird
+of Grange the special care, as being an experimented captain, to oversee
+every danger, and to ride to every wing, to encourage and make help
+where greatest need was. He perceived, at the first joining, the right
+wing of the Regent's vaunt guard put back and like to fly, whereof the
+greatest part were commons of the barony of Renfrew; whereupon he rode
+to them, and told them that their enemy was already turning their backs,
+requesting them to stay and debate till he should bring them fresh men
+forth of the battle. Whither at full speed he did ride alone, and told
+the Regent that the enemy were shaken and flying away behind the little
+village, and desired a few number of fresh men to go with him. Where he
+found enough willing, as the Lord Lindesay, the Laird of Lochleven,
+Sir James Balfour, and all the Regent's servants, who followed him with
+diligence, and reinforced that wing which was beginning to fly; which
+fresh men with their loose weapons struck the enemies in their flank and
+faces, which forced them incontinent to give place and turn back after
+long fighting and pushing others to and fro with their spears. There
+were not many horsemen to pursue after them, and the Regent cried to
+save and not to kill, and Grange was never cruel, so that there were few
+slain and taken. And the only slaughter was at the first rencounter
+by the shot of the soldiers, which Grange had planted at the lane head
+behind some dikes."
+
+It is remarkable that, while passing through the small town of Renfrew,
+some partisans, adherents of the House of Lennox, attempting to arrest
+Queen Mary and her attendants, were obliged to make way for her not
+without slaughter.]
+
+They set off accordingly--Roland lingered a moment to command the
+attendants of the Knight of Avenel to convey their master to the Castle
+of Crookstone, and to say that he demanded from him no other condition
+of liberty, than his word, that he and his followers would keep secret
+the direction in which the Queen fled. As he turned his rein to
+depart, the honest countenance of Adam Woodcock stared upon him with an
+expression of surprise, which, at another time, would have excited his
+hearty mirth. He had been one of the followers who had experienced the
+weight of Roland's arm, and they now knew each other, Roland having put
+up his visor, and the good yeoman having thrown away his barret-cap,
+with the iron bars in front, that he might the more readily assist his
+master. Into this barret-cap, as it lay on the ground, Roland forgot not
+to drop a few gold pieces, (fruits of the Queen's liberality,) and with
+a signal of kind recollection and enduring friendship, he departed at
+full gallop to overtake the Queen, the dust raised by her train being
+already far down the hill.
+
+"It is not fairy-money," said honest Adam, weighing and handling the
+gold--"And it was Master Roland himself, that is a certain thing--the
+same open hand, and, by our Lady!" (shrugging his shoulders)--"the same
+ready fist!--My Lady will hear of this gladly, for she mourns for him as
+if he were her son. And to see how gay he is! But these light lads
+are as sure to be uppermost as the froth to be on the top of the
+quart-pot--Your man of solid parts remains ever a falconer." So saying,
+he went to aid his comrades, who had now come up in greater numbers, to
+carry his master into the Castle of Crookstone.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter the Thirty-Eighth.
+
+
+  My native land, good night!
+                            BYRON.
+
+Many a bitter tear was shed, during the hasty flight of Queen Mary, over
+fallen hopes, future prospects, and slaughtered friends. The deaths of
+the brave Douglas, and of the fiery but gallant young Seyton, seemed to
+affect the Queen as much as the fall from the throne, on which she had
+so nearly been again seated. Catherine Seyton devoured in secret her own
+grief, anxious to support the broken spirits of her mistress; and the
+Abbot, bending his troubled thoughts upon futurity, endeavoured in
+vain to form some plan which had a shadow of hope. The spirit of young
+Roland--for he also mingled in the hasty debates held by the companions
+of the Queen's flight--continued unchecked and unbroken.
+
+"Your Majesty," he said, "has lost a battle--Your ancestor, Bruce, lost
+seven successively, ere he sat triumphant on the Scottish throne, and
+proclaimed with the voice of a victor, in the field of Bannockburn, the
+independence of his country. Are not these heaths, which we may traverse
+at will, better than the locked, guarded, and lake-moated Castle of
+Lochleven?--We are free--in that one word there is comfort for all our
+losses."
+
+He struck a bold note, but the heart of Mary made no response.
+
+"Better," she said, "I had still been in Lochleven, than seen the
+slaughter made by rebels among the subjects who offered themselves to
+death for my sake. Speak not to me of farther efforts--they would only
+cost the lives of you, the friends who recommend them! I would not again
+undergo what I felt, when I saw from yonder mount the swords of the fell
+horsemen of Morton raging among the faithful Seytons and Hamiltons, for
+their loyalty to their Queen--I would not again feel what I felt when
+Douglas's life-blood stained my mantle for his love to Mary Stewart--not
+to be empress of all that Britain's seas enclose. Find for me some place
+where I can hide my unhappy head, which brings destruction on all
+who love it--it is the last favour that Mary asks of her faithful
+followers."
+
+In this dejected mood, but still pursuing her flight with unabated
+rapidity, the unfortunate Mary, after having been joined by Lord Herries
+and a few followers, at length halted, for the first time, at the Abbey
+of Dundrennan, nearly sixty miles distant from the field of battle. In
+this remote quarter of Galloway, the Reformation not having yet been
+strictly enforced against the monks, a few still lingered in their
+cells unmolested; and the Prior, with tears and reverence, received the
+fugitive Queen at the gate of his convent.
+
+"I bring you ruin, my good father," said the Queen, as she was lifted
+from her palfrey.
+
+"It is welcome," said the Prior, "if it comes in the train of duty."
+
+Placed on the ground, and supported by her ladies, the Queen looked for
+an instant at her palfrey, which, jaded and drooping its head, seemed as
+if it mourned the distresses of its mistress.
+
+"Good Roland," said the Queen, whispering, "let Rosabelle be cared
+for--ask thy heart, and it will tell thee why I make this trifling
+request even in this awful hour."
+
+She was conducted to her apartment, and in the hurried consultation
+of her attendants, the fatal resolution of the retreat to England was
+finally adopted. In the morning it received her approbation, and
+a messenger was despatched to the English warden, to pray him for
+safe-conduct and hospitality, on the part of the Queen of Scotland. On
+the next day the Abbot Ambrose walked in the garden of the Abbey with
+Roland, to whom he expressed his disapprobation of the course pursued.
+"It is madness and ruin," he said; "better commit herself to the savage
+Highlanders or wild Bordermen, than to the faith of Elizabeth. A woman
+to a rival woman--a presumptive successor to the keeping of a jealous
+and childless Queen!--Roland, Herries is true and loyal, but his counsel
+has ruined his mistress."
+
+"Ay, ruin follows us every where," said an old man, with a spade in
+his hand, and dressed like a lay-brother, of whose presence, in the
+vehemence of his exclamation, the Abbot had not been aware--"Gaze not on
+me with such wonder!--I am he who was the Abbot Boniface at Kennaquhair,
+who was the gardener Blinkhoolie at Lochleven, hunted round to the
+place in which I served my noviciate, and now ye are come to rouse me
+up again!--A weary life I have had for one to whom peace was ever the
+dearest blessing!"
+
+"We will soon rid you of our company, good father," said the Abbot; "and
+the Queen will, I fear, trouble your retreat no more."
+
+"Nay, you said as much before," said the querulous old man, "and yet I
+was put forth from Kinross, and pillaged by troopers on the road.--They
+took from me the certificate that you wot of--that of the Baron--ay,
+he was a moss-trooper like themselves--You asked me of it, and I could
+never find it, but they found it--it showed the marriage of--of--my
+memory fails me--Now see how men differ! Father Nicholas would have
+told you an hundred tales of the Abbot Ingelram, on whose soul God have
+mercy!--He was, I warrant you, fourscore and six, and I am not more
+than--let me see----"
+
+"Was not Avenel the name you seek, my good father?" said Roland,
+impatiently, yet moderating his tone for fear of alarming or offending
+the infirm old man.
+
+"Ay, right--Avenel, Julian Avenel--You are perfect in the name--I kept
+all the special confessions, judging it held with my vow to do so--I
+could not find it when my successor, Ambrosius, spoke on't--but the
+troopers found it, and the Knight who commanded the party struck his
+breast, till the target clattered like an empty watering-can."
+
+"Saint Mary!" said the Abbot, "in whom could such a paper excite such
+interest! What was the appearance of the knight, his arms, his colours?"
+
+"Ye distract me with your questions--I dared hardly look at him--they
+charged me with bearing letters for the Queen, and searched my
+mail--This was all along of your doings at Lochleven."
+
+"I trust in God," said the Abbot to Roland, who stood beside him,
+shivering and trembling "with impatience," the paper has fallen into the
+hands of my brother--I heard he had been with his followers on the scout
+betwixt Stirling and Glasgow.--Bore not the Knight a holly-bough on his
+helmet?--Canst thou not remember?"
+
+"Oh, remember--remember," said the old man pettishly; "count as many
+years as I do, if your plots will let you, and see what, and how much,
+you remember.--Why, I scarce remember the pear-mains which I graffed
+here with my own hands some fifty years since."
+
+At this moment a bugle sounded loudly from the beach.
+
+"It is the death-blast to Queen Mary's royalty," said Ambrosius; "the
+English warden's answer has been received, favourable doubtless, for
+when was the door of the trap closed against the prey which it was set
+for?--Droop not, Roland--this matter shall be sifted to the bottom--but
+we must not now leave the Queen--follow me--let us do our duty, and
+trust the issue with God--Farewell, good Father--I will visit thee again
+soon."
+
+He was about to leave the garden, followed by Roland, with
+half-reluctant steps. The Ex-Abbot resumed his spade.
+
+"I could be sorry for these men," he said, "ay, and for that poor Queen,
+but what avail earthly sorrows to a man of fourscore?--and it is a rare
+dropping morning for the early colewort."
+
+"He is stricken with age," said Ambrosius, as he dragged Roland down
+to the sea-beach; "we must let him take his time to collect
+himself--nothing now can be thought on but the fate of the Queen."
+
+They soon arrived where she stood, surrounded by her little train,
+and by her side the sheriff of Cumberland, a gentleman of the house of
+Lowther, richly dressed and accompanied by soldiers. The aspect of the
+Queen exhibited a singular mixture of alacrity and reluctance to depart.
+Her language and gestures spoke hope and consolation to her attendants,
+and she seemed desirous to persuade even herself that the step she
+adopted was secure, and that the assurance she had received of kind
+reception was altogether satisfactory; but her quivering lip, and
+unsettled eye, betrayed at once her anguish at departing from Scotland,
+and her fears of confiding herself to the doubtful faith of England.
+
+"Welcome, my Lord Abbot," she said, speaking to Ambrosius, "and you,
+Roland Avenel, we have joyful news for you--our loving sister's officer
+proffers us, in her name, a safe asylum from the rebels who have driven
+us from our home--only it grieves me we must here part from you for a
+short space."
+
+"Part from us, madam!" said the Abbot. "Is your welcome in England,
+then, to commence with the abridgment of your train, and dismissal of
+your counsellors?"
+
+"Take it not thus, good Father," said Mary; "the Warden and the Sheriff,
+faithful servants of our Royal Sister, deem it necessary to obey her
+instructions in the present case, even to the letter, and can only
+take upon them to admit me with my female attendants. An express will
+instantly be despatched from London, assigning me a place of residence;
+and I will speedily send to all of you whenever my Court shall be
+formed."
+
+"Your Court formed in England! and while Elizabeth lives and reigns?"
+said the Abbot--"that will be when we shall see two suns in one heaven!"
+
+"Do not think so," replied the Queen; "we are well assured of our
+sister's good faith. Elizabeth loves fame--and not all that she has won
+by her power and her wisdom will equal that which she will acquire by
+extending her hospitality to a distressed sister!--not all that she may
+hereafter do of good, wise, and great, would blot out the reproach of
+abusing our confidence.--Farewell, my page--now my knight--farewell for
+a brief season. I will dry the tears of Catherine, or I will weep with
+her till neither of us can weep longer."--She held out her hand to
+Roland, who flinging himself on his knees, kissed it with much emotion.
+He was about to render the same homage to Catherine, when the Queen,
+assuming an air of sprightliness, said, "Her lips, thou foolish boy!
+and, Catherine, coy it not--these English gentlemen should see,
+that, even in our cold clime, Beauty knows how to reward Bravery and
+Fidelity!"
+
+"We are not now to learn the force of Scottish beauty, or the mettle of
+Scottish valour," said the Sheriff of Cumberland, courteously--"I would
+it were in my power to bid these attendants upon her who is herself
+the mistress of Scottish beauty, as welcome to England as my poor cares
+would make them. But our Queen's orders are positive in case of such an
+emergence, and they must not be disputed by her subject.--May I remind
+your Majesty that the tide ebbs fast?"
+
+The Sheriff took the Queen's hand, and she had already placed her foot
+on the gangway, by which she was to enter the skiff, when the Abbot,
+starting from a trance of grief and astonishment at the words of the
+Sheriff, rushed into the water, and seized upon her mantle.
+
+"She foresaw it!--She foresaw it!"--he exclaimed--"she foresaw your
+flight into her realm; and, foreseeing it, gave orders you should be
+thus received. Blinded, deceived, doomed--Princess! your fate is sealed
+when you quit this strand.--Queen of Scotland, thou shalt not leave
+thine heritage!" he continued, holding a still firmer grasp upon her
+mantle; "true men shall turn rebels to thy will, that they may save thee
+from captivity or death. Fear not the bills and bows whom that gay man
+has at his beck--we will withstand him by force. Oh, for the arm of my
+warlike brother!--Roland Avenel, draw thy sword."
+
+The Queen stood irresolute and frightened; one foot upon the plank, the
+other on the sand of her native shore, which she was quitting for ever.
+
+"What needs this violence, Sir Priest?" said the Sheriff of Cumberland;
+"I came hither at your Queen's command, to do her service; and I will
+depart at her least order, if she rejects such aid as I can offer. No
+marvel is it if our Queen's wisdom foresaw that such chance as this
+might happen amidst the turmoils of your unsettled State; and, while
+willing to afford fair hospitality to her Royal Sister, deemed it wise
+to prohibit the entrance of a broken army of her followers into the
+English frontier."
+
+"You hear," said Queen Mary, gently unloosing her robe from the Abbot's
+grasp, "that we exercise full liberty of choice in leaving this shore;
+and, questionless, the choice will remain free to us in going to France,
+or returning to our own dominions, as we shall determine--Besides, it is
+too late--Your blessing, Father, and God speed thee!"
+
+"May He have mercy on thee, Princess, and speed thee also!" said the
+Abbot, retreating. "But my soul tells me I look on thee for the last
+time!" The sails were hoisted, the oars were plied, the vessel went
+freshly on her way through the firth, which divides the shores of
+Cumberland from those of Galloway; but not till the vessel diminished
+to the size of a child's frigate, did the doubtful, and dejected, and
+dismissed followers of the Queen cease to linger on the sands; and
+long, long could they discern the kerchief of Mary, as she waved the
+oft-repeated signal of adieu to her faithful adherents, and to the
+shores of Scotland.
+
+If good tidings of a private nature could have consoled Roland for
+parting with his mistress, and for the distresses of his sovereign,
+he received such comfort some days subsequent to the Queen's leaving
+Dundrennan. A breathless post--no other than Adam Woodcock--brought
+despatches from Sir Halbert Glendinning to the Abbot, whom he found with
+Roland, still residing at Dundrennan, and in vain torturing Boniface
+with fresh interrogations. The packet bore an earnest invitation to his
+brother to make Avenel Castle for a time his residence. "The clemency of
+the Regent," said the writer, "has extended pardon both to Roland and
+to you, upon condition of your remaining a time under my wardship. And
+I have that to communicate respecting the parentage of Roland, which
+not only you will willingly listen to, but which will be also found to
+afford me, as the husband of his nearest relative, some interest in the
+future course of his life."
+
+The Abbot read this letter, and paused, as if considering what were best
+for him to do. Meanwhile, Woodcock took Roland side, and addressed him
+as follows:--"Now, look, Mr. Roland, that you do not let any papestrie
+nonsense lure either the priest or you from the right quarry. See you,
+you ever bore yourself as a bit of a gentleman. Read that, and thank
+God that threw old Abbot Boniface in our way, as two of the Seyton's
+men were conveying him towards Dundrennan here.--We searched him for
+intelligence concerning that fair exploit of yours at Lochleven, that
+has cost many a man his life, and me a set of sore bones--and we found
+what is better for your purpose than ours."
+
+The paper which he gave, was, indeed, an attestation by Father Philip,
+subscribing himself unworthy Sacristan, and brother of the House of
+Saint Mary's, stating, "that under a vow of secrecy he had united, in
+the holy sacrament of marriage, Julian Avenel and Catherine Graeme; but
+that Julian having repented of his union, he, Father Philip, had been
+sinfully prevailed on by him to conceal and disguise the same, according
+to a complot devised betwixt him and the said Julian Avenel, whereby the
+poor damsel was induced to believe that the ceremony had been performed
+by one not in holy orders, and having no authority to that effect. Which
+sinful concealment the undersigned conceived to be the cause why he was
+abandoned to the misguiding of a water-fiend, whereby he had been under
+a spell, which obliged him to answer every question, even touching the
+most solemn matters, with idle snatches of old songs, besides being
+sorely afflicted with rheumatic pains ever after. Wherefore he had
+deposited this testificate and confession with the day and date of the
+said marriage, with his lawful superior Boniface, Abbot of Saint Mary's,
+_sub sigillo confessionis_."
+
+It appeared by a letter from Julian, folded carefully up with the
+certificate, that the Abbot Boniface had, in effect, bestirred himself
+in the affair, and obtained from the Baron a promise to avow his
+marriage; but the death of both Julian and his injured bride, together
+with the Abbot's resignation, his ignorance of the fate of their unhappy
+offspring, and above all, the good father's listless and inactive
+disposition, had suffered the matter to become totally forgotten, until
+it was recalled by some accidental conversation with the Abbot Ambrosius
+concerning the fortunes of the Avenel family. At the request of his
+successor, the quondam Abbot made search for it; but as he would receive
+no assistance in looking among the few records of spiritual experiences
+and important confessions, which he had conscientiously treasured,
+it might have remained for ever hidden amongst them, but for the more
+active researches of Sir Halbert Glendinning.
+
+"So that you are like to be heir of Avenel at last, Master Roland, after
+my lord and lady have gone to their place," said Adam; "and as I have
+but one boon to ask, I trust you will not nick me with nay."
+
+"Not if it be in my power to say yes, my trusty friend."
+
+"Why then, I must needs, if I live to see that day, keep on feeding the
+eyases with unwashed flesh," said Woodcock sturdily, as if doubting the
+reception that his request might meet with.
+
+"Thou shalt feed them with what you list for me," said Roland, laughing;
+"I am not many months older than when I left the Castle, but I trust I
+have gathered wit enough to cross no man of skill in his own vocation."
+
+"Then I would not change places with the King's falconer," said Adam
+Woodcock, "nor with the Queen's neither--but they say she will be mewed
+up and never need one.--I see it grieves you to think of it, and I could
+grieve for company; but what help for it?--Fortune will fly her own
+flight, let a man hollo himself hoarse."
+
+The Abbot and Roland journeyed to Avenel, where the former was tenderly
+received by his brother, while the lady wept for joy to find that in her
+favourite orphan she had protected the sole surviving branch of her
+own family. Sir Halbert Glendinning and his household were not a little
+surprised at the change which a brief acquaintance with the world had
+produced in their former inmate, and rejoiced to find, in the pettish,
+spoiled, and presuming page, a modest and unassuming young man, too
+much acquainted with his own expectations and character, to be hot
+or petulant in demanding the consideration which was readily and
+voluntarily yielded to him. The old Major Domo Wingate was the first
+to sing his praises, to which Mistress Lilias bore a loud echo, always
+hoping that God would teach him the true gospel.
+
+To the true gospel the heart of Roland had secretly long inclined, and
+the departure of the good Abbot for France, with the purpose of
+entering into some house of his order in that kingdom, removed his chief
+objection to renouncing the Catholic faith. Another might have existed
+in the duty which he owed to Magdalen Graeme, both by birth and from
+gratitude. But he learned, ere he had been long a resident in Avenel,
+that his grandmother had died at Cologne, in the performance of a
+penance too severe for her age, which she had taken upon herself in
+behalf of the Queen and Church of Scotland, as soon as she heard of the
+defeat at Langside. The zeal of the Abbot Ambrosius was more regulated;
+but he retired into the Scottish convent of------, and so lived there,
+that the fraternity were inclined to claim for him the honours of
+canonization. But he guessed their purpose, and prayed them, on his
+death-bed, to do no honours to the body of one as sinful as themselves;
+but to send his body and his heart to be buried in Avenel burial-aisle,
+in the monastery of Saint Mary's, that the last Abbot of that celebrated
+house of devotion might sleep among its ruins.
+
+[Footnote: This was not the explanation of the incident of searching for
+the heart, mentioned in the introduction to the tale, which the author
+originally intended. It was designed to refer to the heart of Robert
+Bruce. It is generally known that that great monarch, being on his
+death-bed, bequeathed to the good Lord James of Douglas, the task of
+carrying his heart to the Holy Land, to fulfil in a certain degree his
+own desire to perform a crusade. Upon Douglas's death, fighting against
+the Moors in Spain, a sort of military hors d'oeuvre to which he could
+have pleaded no regular call of duty, his followers brought back the
+Bruce's heart, and deposited it in the Abbey church of Melrose, the
+Kennaquhair of the tale.
+
+This Abbey has been always particularly favoured by the Bruce. We have
+already seen his extreme anxiety that each of the reverend brethren
+should be daily supplied with a service of boiled almonds, rice and
+milk, pease, or the like, to be called the King's mess, and that without
+the ordinary service of their table being either disturbed in quantity
+or quality. But this was not the only mark of the benignity of good King
+Robert towards the monks of Melrose, since, by a charter of the dale
+29th May, 1326, he conferred on the Abbot of Melrose the sum of two
+thousand pounds sterling, for rebuilding: the church of St. Mary's,
+ruined by the English; and there is little or no doubt that the
+principal part of the remains which now display such exquisite specimens
+of Gothic architecture, at its very purest period, had their origin in
+this munificent donation. The money was to be paid out of crown lands,
+estates forfeited to the King, and other property or demesnes of the
+crown.
+
+A very curious letter written to his son about three weeks before his
+death, has been pointed out to me by my friend Mr. Thomas Thomson,
+Deputy-Register for Scotland. It enlarges so much on the love of the
+royal writer to the community of Melrose, that it is well worthy of
+being inserted in a work connected in some degree with Scottish History.
+
+LITERA DOMINI REGIS ROBERTI AD FILIUM SUUM DAVID.
+
+"Robertius dei gratia Rex Scottorum, David precordialissimo filio suo,
+ac ceteris successoribus suis; Salutem, et sic ejus precepta tenere,
+ut cum sua benedictione possint regnare. Fili carissime, digne censeri
+videtur filius, qui, paternos in bonis mores imitans, piam ejus nititur
+exequi voluntatem; nec proprie sibi sumit nomen heredis, qui salubribus
+predecessoris affectibus non adherit: Cupientes igitur, ut piam
+affectionem et scinceram delectionem, quam erga monasterium de Melros,
+ubi cor nostrum ex speciali devotione disposuimus tumularidum, et erga
+Religiosos ibidem Deo servientes, ipsorum vita sanctissima nos ad hoc
+excitante, concepimus; Tu ceterique successores mei pia scinceritate
+prosequarimi, ut, ex vestre dilectionis affectu dictis Religiosis nostri
+causa post mortem nostrum ostenso, ipsi pro nobis ad orandum ferveucius
+et forcius animentur: Vobis precipimus quantum possumus, instanter
+supplicamus, et ex toto corde injungimus, Quatinus assignacionibus quas
+eisdem yiris Religiosis et fabrica Ecclesie sue de novo fecimus ac eciam
+omnibus aliis donacionibus nostris, ipsos libere gaudere permittatis,
+Easdem potius si necesse fuerit augmentantes quam diminuentes, ipsorum
+peticiones auribus benevolis admittentes, ac ipsos contra suos
+invasores et emuios pia defensione protegentes. Hanc autem exhortacionem
+supplicacionem et preceptum tu, fili ceterique successores nostri
+prestanti animo complere curetis, si nostram benedictionem habere
+velitis, una cum benedictione filii summi Regis, qui filios docuit
+patrum voluntates in bono perficere, asserens in mundum se venisse non
+ut suam voluntatem faceret sed paternam. In testimonium autem nostre
+devotionis ergra locum predictum sic a nobis dilectum et electum
+concepte, presentem literam Religiosis predictis dimittimus, nostris
+successoribus in posterum ostendendam. Data apud Cardros, undecimo die
+Maij, Anno Regni nostri vicesimo quarto."
+
+If this charter be altogether genuine, and there is no appearance of
+forgery, it gives rise to a curious doubt in Scottish History. The
+letter announces that the King had already destined his heart to be
+deposited at Melrose. The resolution to send it to Palestine, under the
+charge of Douglas, must have been adopted betwixt 11th May 1329, the
+date of the letter, and 7th June of the same year, when the Bruce died;
+or else we must suppose that the commission of Douglas extended not only
+to taking the Bruce's heart to Palestine, but to bring it safe back to
+its final place of deposit in the Abbey of Melrose.
+
+It would not be worth inquiring: by what caprice the author was induced
+to throw the incident of the Bruce's heart entirely out of the story,
+save merely to say, that he found himself unable to fill up the canvass
+he had sketched, and indisposed to prosecute the management of
+the supernatural machinery with which his plan, when it was first
+rough-hewn, was connected and combined.]
+
+Long before that period arrived, Roland Avenel was wedded to Catherine
+Seyton, who, after two years' residence with her unhappy mistress, was
+dismissed upon her being subjected to closer restraint than had been at
+first exercised. She returned to her father's house, and as Roland was
+acknowledged for the successor and lawful heir of the ancient house of
+Avenel, greatly increased as the estate was by the providence of Sir
+Halbert Gleninning, there occurred no objections to the match on the
+part of her family. Her mother was recently dead when she first entered
+the convent; and her father, in the unsettled times which followed Queen
+Mary's flight to England, was not averse to an alliance with a youth,
+who, himself loyal to Queen Mary, still held some influence, through
+means of Sir Halbert Glendinning, with the party in power.
+
+Roland and Catherine, therefore, were united, spite of their differing
+faiths; and the White Lady, whose apparition had been infrequent when
+the house of Avenel seemed verging to extinction, was seen to sport by
+her haunted well, with a zone of gold around her bosom as broad as the
+baldrick of an Earl.
+
+END OF THE ABBOT.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abbot, by Sir Walter Scott
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