The Abbot

Chapter 2

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.