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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abbot, by Sir Walter Scott
+#26 in our series by Sir Walter Scott
+
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+
+Title: The Abbot
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6407]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on December 8, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABBOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Alan Millar, David Moynihan, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ROLAND GRAEME AND CATHERINE SETON BEFORE QUEEN MARY.]
+
+
+
+           THE ABBOT.
+
+BEING THE SEQUEL TO THE MONASTERY.
+
+     By Sir Walter Scott
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+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 protegé 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, arid 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 I"
+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 arid
+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 arid 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 _tête-â-tête_ 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 arid
+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 deshabillé, 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 yon, 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 sé;
+  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 nightés cold and dayés 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 mignóne_," 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 Français!_--
+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 hare 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 mignóne_--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 à 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
+_mignóne_ 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,
+_mignóne_."
+
+"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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