The Monastery

Chapter 15

In the morning Christie of the Clinthill was nowhere to be seen. As this

worthy personage did seldom pique himself on sounding a trumpet before

his movements, no one was surprised at his moonlight departure, though

some alarm was excited lest he had not made it empty-handed. So, in the

language of the national ballad,

The safety of the premises was ascertained by Halbert, who instead of

catching up a gun or cross-bow, and sallying out for the day as had

been his frequent custom, now, with a gravity beyond his years, took a

survey of all around the tower, and then returned to the spence, or

public apartment, in which, at the early hour of seven, the morning

meal was prepared.

There he found the Euphuist in the same elegant posture of abstruse

calculation which he had exhibited on the preceding evening, his arms

folded in the same angle, his eyes turned up to the same cobwebs, and

his heels resting on the ground as before. Tired of this affectation

of indolent importance, and not much flattered with his guest's

persevering in it to the last, Halbert resolved at once to break the

ice, being determined to know what circumstance had brought to the

tower of Glendinning a guest at once so supercilious and so silent.

"Sir Knight," he said with some firmness, "I have twice given you good

morning, to which the absence of your mind hath, I presume, prevented

you from yielding attention, or from making return. This exchange of

courtesy is at your pleasure to give or withhold--But, as what I have

further to say concerns your comfort and your motions in an especial

manner, I will entreat you to give me some signs of attention, that I

may be sure I am not wasting my words on a monumental image."

At this unexpected address, Sir Piercie Shafton opened his eyes, and

afforded the speaker a broad stare; but as Halbert returned the glance

without either confusion or dismay, the knight thought proper to

change his posture, draw in his legs, raise his eyes, fix them on

young Glendinning, and assume the appearance of one who listens to

what is said to him. Nay, to make his purpose more evident, he gave

voice to his resolution in these words, "Speak! we do hear."

"Sir Knight," said the youth, "it is the custom of this Halidome, or

patrimony of St. Mary's, to trouble with inquiries no guests who

receive our hospitality, providing they tarry in our house only for a

single revolution of the sun. We know that both criminals and debtors

come hither for sanctuary, and we scorn to extort from the pilgrim,

whom chance may make our guest, an avowal of the cause of his

pilgrimage and penance. But when one so high above our rank as

yourself, Sir Knight, and especially one to whom the possession of

such pre-eminence is not indifferent, shows his determination to be

our guest for a longer time, it is our usage to inquire of him whence

he comes, and what is the cause of his journey?"

The English knight gaped twice or thrice before he answered, and then

replied in a bantering tone, "Truly, good villagio, your question hath

in it somewhat of embarrassment, for you ask me of things concerning

which I am not as yet altogether determined what answer I may find it

convenient to make. Let it suffice thee, kind juvenal, that thou hast

the Lord Abbot's authority for treating me to the best of that power

of thine, which, indeed, may not always so well suffice for my

accommodation as either of us would desire."

"I must have a more precise answer than this, Sir Knight," said the

young Glendinning.

"Friend," said the knight, "be not outrageous. It may suit your

northern manners thus to press harshly upon the secrets of thy

betters; but believe me, that even as the lute, struck by an unskilful

hand, doth produce discords, so----" At this moment the door of the

apartment opened, and Mary Avenel presented herself--"But who can talk

of discords," said the knight, assuming his complimentary vein and

humour, "when the soul of harmony descends upon us in the presence of

surpassing beauty! For even as foxes, wolves, and other animals void

of sense and reason, do fly from the presence of the resplendent sun

of heaven when he arises in his glory, so do strife, wrath, and all

ireful passions retreat, and, as it were, scud away, from the face

which now beams upon us, with power to compose our angry passions,

illuminate our errors and difficulties, soothe our wounded minds, and

lull to rest our disorderly apprehensions; for as the heat and warmth

of the eye of day is to the material and physical world, so is the eye

which I now bow down before to that of the intellectual microcosm."

He concluded with a profound bow; and Mary Avenel, gazing from one to

the other, and plainly seeing that something was amiss, could only

say, "For heaven's sake, what is the meaning of this?"

The newly-acquired tact and intelligence of her foster-brother was as

yet insufficient to enable him to give an answer. He was quite

uncertain how he ought to deal with a guest, who preserving a

singularly high tone of assumed superiority and importance, seemed

nevertheless so little serious in what he said, that it was quite

impossible to discern with accuracy whether he was in jest or earnest.

Forming, however, the internal resolution to bring Sir Piercie Shafton

to a reckoning at a more fit place and season, he resolved to

prosecute the matter no farther at present; and the entrance of his

mother with the damsel of the Mill, and the return of the honest

Miller from the stack-yard, where he had been numbering and

calculating the probable amount of the season's grist, rendered

farther discussion impossible for the moment.

In the course of the calculation it could not but strike the man of

meal and grindstones, that after the church's dues were paid, and

after all which he himself could by any means deduct from the crop,

still the residue which must revert to Dame Glendinning could not be

less than considerable. I wot not if this led the honest Miller to

nourish any plans similar to those adopted by Elspeth; but it is

certain that he accepted with grateful alacrity an invitation which

the dame gave to his daughter, to remain a week or two as her guest at

Glendearg.

The principal persons being thus in high good humour with each other,

all business gave place to the hilarity of the morning repast; and so

much did Sir Piercie appear gratified by the attention which was paid

to every word that he uttered by the nut-brown Mysie, that,

notwithstanding his high birth and distinguished quality, he bestowed

on her some of the more ordinary and second-rate tropes of his

elocution.

Mary Avenel, when relieved from the awkwardness of feeling the full

weight of his conversation addressed to herself, enjoyed it much more;

and the good knight, encouraged by those conciliating marks of

approbation from the s*x, for whose sake he cultivated his oratorical

talents, made speedy intimation of his purpose to be more

communicative than he had shown himself in his conversation with

Halbert Glendinning, and gave them to understand, that it was in

consequence of some pressing danger that he was at present their

involuntary guest.

The conclusion of the breakfast was a signal for the separation of the

company. The Miller went to prepare for his departure; his daughter to

arrange matters for her unexpected stay; Edward was summoned to

consultation by Martin concerning some agricultural matter, in which

Halbert could not be brought to interest himself; the dame left the

room upon her household concerns, and Mary was in the act of following

her, when she suddenly recollected, that if she did so, the strange

knight and Halbert must be left alone together, at the risk of another

quarrel.

The maiden no sooner observed this circumstance, than she instantly

returned from the door of the apartment, and, seating herself in a

small stone window-seat, resolved to maintain that curb which she was

sensible her presence imposed on Halbert Glendinning, of whose quick

temper she had some apprehensions.

The stranger marked her motions, and, either interpreting them as

inviting his society, or obedient to those laws of gallantry which

permitted him not to leave a lady in silence and solitude, he

instantly placed himself near to her side and opened the conversation

as follows:--

"Credit me, fair lady" he said, addressing Mary Avenel, "it much

rejoiceth me, being, as I am, a banished man from the delights of mine

own country, that I shall find here in this obscure and silvan cottage

of the north, a fair form and a candid soul, with whom I may explain

my mutual sentiments. And let me pray you in particular, lovely lady,

that, according to the universal custom now predominant in our court,

the garden of superior wits, you will exchange with me some epithet

whereby you may mark my devotion to your service. Be henceforward

named, for example, my Protection, and let me be your Affability."

"Our northern and country manners, Sir Knight, do not permit us to

exchange epithets with those to whom we are strangers," replied Mary

Avenel.

"Nay, but see now," said the knight, "how you are startled! even as

the unbroken steed, which swerves aside from the shaking of a

handkerchief, though he must in time encounter the waving of a pennon.

This courtly exchange of epithets of honour, is no more than the

compliments which pass between valour and beauty, wherever they meet,

and under whatever circumstances. Elizabeth of England herself calls

Philip Sydney her Courage, and he in return calls that princess his

Inspiration. Wherefore, my fair Protection, for by such epithet it

shall be mine to denominate you--"

"Not without the young lady's consent, sir!" interrupted Halbert;

"most truly do I hope your courtly and quaint breeding will not so far

prevail over the more ordinary rules of civil behaviour."

"Fair tenant of an indifferent copyhold," replied the knight, with the

same coolness and civility of mien, but in a tone somewhat more lofty

than he used to the young lady, "we do not in the southern parts, much

intermingle discourse, save with those with whom we may stand on some

footing of equality; and I must, in all discretion, remind you, that

the necessity which makes us inhabitants of the same cabin, doth not

place us otherwise on a level with each other."

"By Saint Mary," replied young Glendinning, "it is my thought that it

does; for plain men hold, that he who asks the shelter is indebted to

him who gives it; and so far, therefore, is our rank equalized while

this roof covers us both."

"Thou art altogether deceived," answered Sir Piercie; "and that thou

mayst fully adapt thyself to our relative condition, know that I

account not myself thy guest, but that of thy master, the Lord Abbot

of Saint Mary's, who, for reasons best known to himself and me,

chooseth to administer his hospitality to me through the means of

thee, his servant and vassal, who art, therefore, in good truth, as

passive an instrument of my accommodation as this ill-made and rugged

joint-stool on which I sit, or as the wooden trencher from which I eat

my coarse commons. Wherefore," he added, turning to Mary, "fairest

mistress, or rather, as I said before, most lovely Protection--"

[Footnote: There are many instances to be met with in the ancient

dramas of this whimsical and conceited custom of persons who formed an

intimacy, distinguishing: each, other by some quaint epithet. In

_Every Man out of his Humour_, there is a humorous debate upon

names most fit to bind the relation betwixt Sogliardo and Cavaliero

Shift, which ends by adopting those of Countenance and Resolution.

What is more to the point is in the speech of Hedon, a voluptuary and

a courtier in _Cynthia's Revels_. "you know that I call Madam

Plilantia my _Honour,_ and she calls me her _Ambition._ Now,

when I meet her in the presence, anon, I will come to her and say,

'Sweet Honour, I have hitherto contented my sense with the lilies of

your hand, and now I will taste the roses of your lip.' To which she

cannot but blushing answer, 'Nay, now you are too ambitious;' and then

do I reply, 'I cannot be too ambitious of Honour, sweet lady. Wilt not

be good?'"--I think there is some remnant of this foppery preserved in

masonic lodges, where each brother is distinguished by a name in the

Lodge, signifying some abstract quality as Discretion, or the like.

See the poems of Gavin Wilson.]

Mary Avenel was about to reply to him, when the stern, fierce, and

resentful expression of voice and countenance with which Halbert

exclaimed, "not from the King of Scotland, did he live, would I brook

such terms!" induced her to throw herself between him and the

stranger, exclaiming, "for God's sake, Halbert, beware what you do!"

"Fear not, fairest Protection," replied Sir Piercie, with the utmost

serenity, "that I can be provoked by this rustical and mistaught

juvenal to do aught misbecoming your presence or mine own dignity; for

as soon shall the gunner's linstock give fire unto the icicle, as the

spark of passion inflame my blood, tempered as it is to serenity by

the respect due to the presence of my gracious Protection."

"You may well call her your protection, Sir Knight" said Halbert; "by

Saint Andrew, it is the only sensible word I have heard you speak! But

we may meet where her protection shall no longer afford you shelter."

"Fairest Protection," continued the courtier, not even honouring with

a look, far less with a direct reply, the threat of the incensed

Halbert, "doubt not that thy faithful Affability will be more commoved

by the speech of this rudesby, than the bright and serene moon is

perturbed by the baying of the cottage-cur, proud of the height of his

own dunghill, which, in his conceit, lifteth him nearer unto the

majestic luminary."

To what lengths so unsavoury a simile might have driven Halbert's

indignation, is left uncertain; for at that moment Edward rushed into

the apartment with the intelligence that two most important officers

of the Convent, the Kitchener and Refectioner, were just arrived with

a sumpter-mule, loaded with provisions, announcing that the Lord

Abbot, the Sub-Prior, and the Sacristan, were on their way thither. A

circumstance so very extraordinary had never been recorded in the

annals of Saint Mary's, or in the traditions of Glendearg, though

there was a faint legendary report that a certain Abbot had dined

there in old days, after having been bewildered in a hunting

expedition amongst the wilds which lie to the northward. But that the

present Lord Abbot should have taken a voluntary journey to so wild

and dreary a spot, the very Kamtschatka of the Halidome, was a thing

never dreamt of; and the news excited the greatest surprise in all the

members of the family saving Halbert alone.

This fiery youth was too full of the insult he had received to think

of anything as unconnected with it. "I am glad of it," he exclaimed;

"I am glad the Abbot comes hither. I will know of him by what right

this stranger is sent hither to domineer over us under our father's

roof, as if we were slaves and not freemen. I will tell the proud

priest to his beard--"

"Alas! alas! my brother," said Edward, "think what these words may

cost thee!"

"And what will, or what can they cost me," said Halbert, "that I should

sacrifice my human feelings and my justifiable resentment to the fear of

what the Abbot can do?"

"Our mother--our mother!" exclaimed Edward; "think, if she is deprived

of her home, expelled from her property, how can you amend what

your rashness may ruin?"

"It is too true, by Heaven!" said Halbert, striking his forehead.

Then, stamping his foot against the floor to express the full energy

of the passion to which he dared no longer give vent, he turned round

and left the apartment.

Mary Avenel looked at the stranger knight, while she was endeavouring

to frame a request that he would not report the intemperate violence

of her foster-brother to the prejudice of his family, in the mind of

the Abbot. But Sir Piercie, the very pink of courtesy, conjectured her

meaning from her embarrassment, and waited not to be entreated.

"Credit me, fairest Protection," said he, "your Affability is less

than capable of seeing or hearing, far less of reciting or

reiterating, aught of an unseemly nature which may have chanced while

I enjoyed the Elysium of your presence. The winds of idle passion may

indeed rudely agitate the bosom of the rude; but the heart of the

courtier is polished to resist them. As the frozen lake receives not

the influence of the breeze, even so--"

The voice of Dame Glendinning, in shrill summons, here demanded Mary

Avenel's attendance, who instantly obeyed, not a little glad to escape

from the compliments and similes of this courtlike gallant. Nor was it

apparently less a relief on his part; for no sooner was she past the

threshold of the room, than he exchanged the look of formal and

elaborate politeness which had accompanied each word he had uttered

hitherto, for an expression of the utmost lassitude and ennui; and

after indulging in one or two portentous yawns, broke forth into a

soliloquy.

"What the foul fiend sent this wench hither? As if it were not

sufficient plague to be harboured in a hovel that would hardly serve

for a dog's kennel in England, baited by a rude peasant-boy, and

dependent on the faith of a mercenary ruffian, but I cannot even have

time to muse over my own mishap, but must come aloft, frisk, fidget,

and make speeches, to please this pale hectic phantom, because she has

gentle blood in her veins? By mine honour, setting prejudice aside,

the mill-wench is the more attractive of the two--But patienza,

Piercie Shafton; thou must not lose thy well-earned claim to be

accounted a devout servant of the fair s*x, a witty-brained, prompt,

and accomplished courtier. Rather thank heaven, Piercie Shafton, which

hath sent thee a subject, wherein, without derogating from thy rank,

(since the honours of the Avenel family are beyond dispute,) thou

mayest find a whetstone for thy witty compliments, a strop whereon to

sharpen thine acute engine, a butt whereat to shoot the arrows of thy

gallantry. For even as a Bilboa blade, the more it is rubbed, the

brighter and the sharper will it prove, so--But what need I waste my

stock of similitudes in holding converse with myself?--Yonder comes

the monkish retinue, like some half score of crows winging their way

slowly up the valley--I hope, a'gad, they have not forgotten my

trunk-mails of apparel amid the ample provision they have made for

their own belly-timber--Mercy, a'gad, I were finely helped up if the

vesture has miscarried among the thievish Borderers!"

Stung by this reflection, he ran hastily down stairs, and caused his

horse to be saddled, that he might, as soon as possible, ascertain

this important point, by meeting the Lord Abbot and his retinue as

they came up the glen. He had not ridden a mile before he met them

advancing with the slowness and decorum which became persons of their

dignity and profession. The knight failed not to greet the Lord Abbot

with all the formal compliments with which men of rank at that period

exchanged courtesies. He had the good fortune to find that his mails

were numbered among the train of baggage which attended upon the

party; and, satisfied in that particular, he turned his horse's head,

and accompanied the Abbot to the Tower of Glendearg.

Great, in the meanwhile, had been the turmoil of the good Dame Elspeth

and her coadjutors, to prepare for the fitting reception of the Father

Lord Abbot and his retinue. The monks had indeed taken care not to

trust too much to the state of her pantry; but she was not the less

anxious to make such additions as might enable her to claim the thanks

of her feudal lord and spiritual father. Meeting Halbert, as, with his

blood on fire, he returned from his altercation with her guest, she

commanded him instantly to go forth to the hill, and not to return

without venison; reminding him that he was apt enough to go thither

for his own pleasure, and must now do so for the credit of the house.

The Miller, who was now hastening his journey homewards, promised to

send up some salmon by his own servant. Dame Elspeth, who by this time

thought she had guests enough, had begun to repent of her invitation

to poor Mysie, and was just considering by what means, short of giving

offence, she could send off the Maid of the Mill behind her father,

and adjourn all her own aerial architecture till some future

opportunity, when this unexpected generosity on the part of the sire

rendered any present attempt to return his daughter on his hands too

highly ungracious to be farther thought on. So the Miller departed

alone on his homeward journey.

Dame Elspeth's sense of hospitality proved in this instance its own

reward; for Mysie had dwelt too near the Convent to be altogether

ignorant of the noble art of cookery, which her father patronized to

the extent of consuming on festival days such dainties as his daughter

could prepare in emulation of the luxuries of the Abbot's kitchen.

Laying aside, therefore, her holiday kirtle, and adopting a dress more

suitable to the occasion, the good-humored maiden bared her snowy arms

above the elbows; and, as Elspeth acknowledged, in the language of the

time and country, took "entire and aefauld part with her" in the

labours of the day; showing unparalleled talent, and indefatigable

industry, in the preparation of _mortreux_, _blanc-manger_,

and heaven knows what delicacies besides, which Dame Glendinning,

unassisted by her skill, dared not even have dreamt of presenting.

Leaving this able substitute in the kitchen, and regretting that Mary

Avenel was so brought up, that she could intrust nothing to her care,

unless it might be seeing the great chamber strewed with rushes, and

ornamented with such flowers and branches as the season afforded, Dame

Elspeth hastily donned her best attire, and with a beating heart

presented herself at the door of her little tower, to make her

obeisance to the Lord Abbot as he crossed her humble threshold. Edward

stood by his mother, and felt the same palpitation, which his

philosophy was at a loss to account for. He was yet to learn how long

it is ere our reason is enabled to triumph over the force of external

circumstances, and how much our feelings are affected by novelty, and

blunted by use and habit.

On the present occasion, he witnessed with wonder and awe the approach

of some half-score of riders, sober men upon sober palfreys, muffled

in their long black garments, and only relieved by their white

scapularies, showing more like a funeral procession than aught else,

and not quickening their pace beyond that which permitted easy

conversation and easy digestion. The sobriety of the scene was indeed

somewhat enlivened by the presence of Sir Piercie Shafton, who, to

show that his skill in the manege was not inferior to his other

accomplishments, kept alternately pressing and checking his gay

courser, forcing him to piaffe, to caracole, to passage, and to do all

the other feats of the school, to the great annoyance of the Lord

Abbot, the wonted sobriety of whose palfrey became at length

discomposed by the vivacity of its companion, while the dignitary kept

crying out in bodily alarm, "I do pray you--Sir Knight--good now, Sir

Piercie--Be quiet, Benedict, there is a good steed--soh, poor fellow"

and uttering all the other precatory and soothing exclamations by

which a timid horseman usually bespeaks the favour of a frisky

companion, or of his own unquiet nag, and concluding the bead-roll

with a sincere _Deo gratias_ so soon as he alighted in the

court-yard of the Tower of Glendearg.

The inhabitants unanimously knelt down to kiss the hand of the Lord

Abbot, a ceremony which even the monks were often condemned to. Good

Abbot Boniface was too much fluttered by the incidents of the latter

part of his journey, to go through this ceremony with much solemnity,

or indeed with much patience. He kept wiping his brow with a

snow-white handkerchief with one hand, while another was abandoned to

the homage of his vassals; and then signing the cross with his

outstretched arm, and exclaiming, "Bless ye--bless ye, my children" he

hastened into the house, and murmured not a little at the darkness and

steepness of the rugged winding stair, whereby he at length scaled the

spence destined for his entertainment, and, overcome with fatigue,

threw himself, I do not say into an easy chair, but into the easiest

the apartment afforded.