The Abbot

Chapter 3

"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.