by Walter Scott
Chapter the Sixteenth.
A courtier extraordinary, who by diet Of meats and drinks, his temperate exercise, Choice music, frequent bath, his horary shifts Of shirts and waistcoats, means to immortalize Mortality itself, and makes the essence Of his whole happiness the trim of court. MAGNETIC LADY.
When the Lord Abbot had suddenly and superciliously vanished fromthe eyes of his expectant vassals, the Sub-Prior made amends for thenegligence of his principal, by the kind and affectionate greetingwhich he gave to all the members of the family, but especially to DameElspeth, her foster-daughter, and her son Edward. "Where," he evencondescended to inquire, "is that naughty Nimrod, Halbert?--He hathnot yet, I trust, turned, like his great prototype, his hunting-spearagainst man!"
"O no, an it please your reverence," said Dame Glendinning, "Halbertis up at the glen to get some venison, or surely he would not have beenabsent when such a day of honour dawned upon me and mine."
"Oh, to get savoury meat, such as our soul loveth," muttered theSub-Prior; "it has been at times an acceptable gift.--I bid you goodmorrow, my good dame, as I must attend upon his lordship the FatherAbbot."
"And O, reverend sir," said the good widow, detaining him, "if it mightbe your pleasure to take part with us if there is any thing wrong; andif there is any thing wanted, to say that it is just coming, or to makesome excuses your learning best knows how. Every bit of vassail andsilver work have we been spoiled of since Pinkie Cleuch, when I lostpoor Simon Glendinning, that was the warst of a'."
"Never mind--never fear," said the Sub-Prior, gently extricating hisgarment from the anxious grasp of Dame Elspeth, "the Refectioner haswith him the Abbot's plate and drinking cups; and I pray you to believethat whatever is short in your entertainment will be deemed amply madeup in your good-will."
So saying, he escaped from her and went into the spence, where suchpreparations as haste permitted were making for the noon collation ofthe Abbot and the English knight. Here he found the Lord Abbot, for whoma cushion, composed of all the plaids in the house, had been unable torender Simon's huge elbow-chair a soft or comfortable place of rest.
"Benedicite!" said Abbot Boniface, "now marry fie upon these hardbenches with all my heart--they are as uneasy as the _scabella_ of ournovices. Saint Jude be with us, Sir Knight, how have you contrived topass over the night in this dungeon? An your bed was no softer than yourseat, you might as well have slept on the stone couch of Saint Pacomius.After trotting a full ten miles, a man needs a softer seat than hasfallen to my hard lot."
With sympathizing faces, the Sacristan and the Refectioner ran to raisethe Lord Abbot, and to adjust his seat to his mind, which was at lengthaccomplished in some sort, although he continued alternately to bewailhis fatigue, and to exult in the conscious sense of having dischargedan arduous duty. "You errant cavaliers," said he, addressing the knight,"may now perceive that others have their travail and their toils toundergo as well as your honoured faculty. And this I will say for myselfand the soldiers of Saint Mary, among whom I may be termed captain,that it is not our wont to flinch from the heat of the service, or towithdraw from the good fight. No, by Saint Mary!--no sooner did Ilearn that you were here, and dared not for certain reasons come to theMonastery, where, with as good will, and with more convenience, we mighthave given you a better reception, than, striking the table withmy hammer, I called a brother--Timothy, said I, let them saddleBenedict--let them saddle my black palfrey, and bid the Sub-Prior andsome half-score of attendants be in readiness tomorrow after matins--wewould ride to Glendearg.--Brother Timothy stared, thinking, I imagine,that his ears had scarce done him justice--but I repeated my commands,and said, Let the Kitchener and Refectioner go before to aid the poorvassals to whom the place belongs in making a suitable collation. Sothat you will consider, good Sir Piercie, our mutual in commodities, andforgive whatever you may find amiss."
"By my faith," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "there is nothing toforgive--If you spiritual warriors have to submit to the grievousincommodities which your lordship narrates, it would ill become me,a sinful and secular man, to complain of a bed as hard as a board, ofbroth which relished as if made of burnt wool, of flesh, which, inits sable and singed shape, seemed to put me on a level with RichardCoeur-de-Lion,--when he ate up the head of a Moor carbonadoed, and ofother viands savouring rather of the rusticity of this northern region."
"By the good Saints, sir," said the Abbot, somewhat touched in point ofhis character for hospitality, of which he was in truth a most faithfuland zealous professor, "it grieves me to the heart that you have foundour vassals no better provided for your reception--Yet I crave leaveto observe, that if Sir Piercie Shafton's affairs had permitted him tohonour with his company our poor house of Saint Mary's, he might havehad less to complain of in respect of easements."
"To give your lordship the reasons," said Sir Piercie Shafton, "why Icould not at this present time approach your dwelling, or avail myselfof its well-known and undoubted hospitality, craves either some delay,or," looking around him, "a limited audience."
The Lord Abbot immediately issued his mandate to the Refectioner: "Hiethee to the kitchen, Brother Hilarius, and there make inquiry of ourbrother the Kitchener, within what time he opines that our collation maybe prepared, since sin and sorrow it were, considering the hardships ofthis noble and gallant knight, no whit mentioning or--weighing those weourselves have endured, if we were now either to advance or retard thehour of refection beyond the time when the viands are fit to be setbefore us."
Brother Hilarius parted with an eager alertness to execute the will ofhis Superior, and returned with the assurance, that punctually at oneafternoon would the collation be ready.
"Before that time," said the accurate Refectioner, "the wafers, flamms,and pastry-meat, will scarce have had the just degree of fire whichlearned pottingers prescribe as fittest for the body; and if it shouldbe past one o'clock, were it but ten minutes, our brother the Kitcheneropines, that the haunch of venison would suffer in spite of the skill ofthe little turn-broche whom he has recommended to your holiness by hispraises."
"How!" said the Abbot, "a haunch of venison!--from whence comes thatdainty? I remember not thou didst intimate its presence in thy hamper ofvivers."
"So please your holiness and lordship," said the Refectioner, "he is ason of the woman of the house who has shot it and sent it in--killedbut now; yet, as the animal heat hath not left the body, the Kitchenerundertakes it shall eat as tender as a young chicken--and this youthhath a special gift in shooting deer, and never misses the heart or thebrain; so that the blood is not driven through the flesh, as happenstoo often with us. It is a hart of grease--your holiness has seldom seensuch a haunch."
"Silence, Brother Hilarius," said the Abbot, wiping his mouth; "it isnot beseeming our order to talk of food so earnestly, especially as wemust oft have our animal powers exhausted by fasting, and be accessible(as being ever mere mortals) to those signs of longing" (he againwiped his mouth) "which arise on the mention of victuals to an hungryman.--Minute down, however, the name of that youth--it is fitting meritshould be rewarded, and he shall hereafter be a _frater ad succurrendum_in the kitchen and buttery."
"Alas! reverend Father and my good lord," replied the Refectioner,"I did inquire after the youth, and I learn he is one who prefers thecasque to the cowl, and the sword of the flesh to the weapons of thespirit."
"And if it be so," said the Abbot, "see that thou retain him asa deputy-keeper and man-at-arms, and not as a lay brother of theMonastery--for old Tallboy, our forester, waxes dim-eyed, and hath twicespoiled a noble buck, by hitting him unwarily on the haunch. Ah! 'tis afoul fault, the abusing by evil-killing, evil-dressing, evil-appetite,or otherwise, the good creatures indulged to us for our use. Wherefore,secure us the service of this youth, Brother Hilarius, in the way thatmay best suit him.--And now, Sir Piercie Shafton, since the fates haveassigned us a space of well-nigh an hour, ere we dare hope to enjoymo
re than the vapour or savour of our repast, may I pray you, of yourcourtesy, to tell me the cause of this visit; and, above all, to informus, why you will not approach our more pleasant and better furnished_hospitium_?"
"Reverend Father, and my very good lord," said Sir Piercie Shafton,"it is well known to your wisdom, that there are stone walls which haveears, and that secrecy is to be looked to in matters which concerna man's head." The Abbot signed to his attendants, excepting theSub-Prior, to leave the room, and then said, "Your valour, Sir Piercie,may freely unburden yourself before our faithful friend and counsellorFather Eustace, the benefits of whose advice we may too soon lose,inasmuch as his merits will speedily recommend him to an higher station,in which we trust he may find the blessing of a friend and adviser asvaluable as himself, since I may say of him, as our claustral rhymegoeth,[Footnote: The rest of this doggerel rhyme may be found inFosbrooke's Learned work on British Monachism.]
'Dixit Abbas ad Prioris, Tu es homo boni moris, Quia semper sanioris Mihi das concilia.'
Indeed," he added, "the office of Sub-Prior is altogether beneath ourdear brother; nor can we elevate him unto that of Prior, which, forcertain reasons, is at present kept vacant amongst us. Howbeit, FatherEustace is fully possessed of my confidence, and worthy of yours, andwell may it be said of him, _Intravit in secretis nostris_."
Sir Piercie Shafton bowed to the reverend brethren, and, heaving a sigh,as if he would burst his steel cuirass, he thus commenced his speech:--
"Certes, reverend sirs, I may well heave such a suspiration, who have,as it were, exchanged heaven for purgatory, leaving the lightsome sphereof the royal court of England for a remote nook in this inaccessibledesert--quitting the tilt-yard, where I was ever ready among my compeersto splinter a lance, either for the love of honour, or for the honourof love, in order to couch my knightly spear against base and pilferingbesognios and marauders--exchanging the lighted halls, wherein I usednimbly to pace the swift coranto, or to move with a loftier grace in thestately galliard, for this rugged and decayed dungeon of rusty-colouredstone--quitting the gay theatre, for the solitary chimney-nook of aScottish dog-house--bartering the sounds of the soul-ravishing lute, andthe love-awaking viol-de-gamba, for the discordant squeak of a northernbagpipe--above all, exchanging the smiles of those beauties, who forma gay galaxy around the throne of England, for the cold courtesy of anuntaught damsel, and the bewildered stare of a miller's maiden. Moremight I say of the exchange of the conversation of gallant knights andgay courtiers of mine own order and capacity, whose conceits are brightand vivid as the lightning, for that of monks and churchmen--but it werediscourteous to urge that topic."
The Abbot listened to this list of complaints with great round eyes,which evinced no exact intelligence of the orator's meaning; andwhen the knight paused to take breath, he looked with a doubtful andinquiring eye at the Sub-Prior, not well knowing in what tone he shouldreply to an exordium so extraordinary. The Sub-Prior accordingly steppedin to the relief of his principal.
"We deeply sympathize with you, Sir Knight, in the severalmortifications and hardships to which fate has subjected you,particularly in that which has thrown you into the society of those,who, as they were conscious they deserved not such an honour, so neitherdid they at all desire it. But all this goes little way to expound thecause of this train of disasters, or, in plainer words, the reason whichhas compelled you into a situation having so few charms for you."
"Gentle and reverend sir," replied the knight, "forgive an unhappyperson, who, in giving a history of his miseries, dilateth upon themextremely, even as he who, having fallen from a precipice, lookethupward to measure the height from which he hath been precipitated."
"Yea, but," said Father Eustace, "methinks it were wiser in him to tellthose who come to lift him up, which of his bones have been broken."
"You, reverend sir," said the knight, "have, in the encounter of ourwits, made a fair attaint; whereas I may be in some sort said to havebroken my staff across. [Footnote: _Attaint_ was a term of tiltingused to express the champion's having _attained_ his mark, or, in otherwords, struck his lance straight and fair against the helmet or breastof his adversary. Whereas to break the lance across, intimated a totalfailure in directing the point of the weapon on the object of his aim.]Pardon me, grave sir, that I speak in the language of the tilt-yard,which is doubtless strange to your reverend years.--Ah! brave resortof the noble, the fair and the gay!--Ah! throne of love, and citadelof honour!--Ah! celestial beauties, by whose bright eyes it is graced!Never more shall Piercie Shafton advance, as the centre of your radiantglances, couch his lance, and spur his horse at the sound of thespirit-stirring trumpets, nobly called the voice of war--never moreshall he baffle his adversary's encounter boldly, break his speardexterously, and ambling around the lovely circle, receive the rewardswith which beauty honours chivalry!"
Here he paused, wrung his hands, looked upwards, and seemed lost incontemplation of his own fallen fortunes.
"Mad, very mad," whispered the Abbot to the Sub-Prior; "I would we werefairly rid of him; for, of a truth, I expect he will proceed from ravingto mischief--Were it not better to call up the rest of the brethren?"
But the Sub-Prior knew better than his Superior how to distinguish thejargon of affectation from the ravings of insanity, and although theextremity of the knight's passion seemed altogether fantastic, yethe was not ignorant to what extravagancies the fashion of the day canconduct its votaries.
Allowing, therefore, two minutes' space to permit the knight'senthusiastic feelings to exhaust themselves, he again gravely remindedhim that the Lord Abbot had taken a journey, unwonted to his age andhabits, solely to learn in what he could serve Sir Piercie Shafton--thatit was altogether impossible he could do so without his receivingdistinct information of the situation in which he had now sought refugein Scotland.--"The day wore on," he observed, looking at the window;"and if the Abbot should be obliged to return to the Monastery withoutobtaining the necessary intelligence, the regret might be mutual, butthe inconvenience was like to be all on Sir Piercie's own side."
The hint was not thrown away.
"O, goddess of courtesy!" said the knight, "can I so far have forgottenthy behests as to make this good prelate's ease and time a sacrifice tomy vain complaints! Know, then, most worthy, and not less worshipful,that I, your poor visitor and guest, am by birth nearly bound to thePiercie of Northumberland, whose fame is so widely blown through allparts of the world where English worth hath been known. Now, thispresent Earl of Northumberland, of whom I propose to give you the briefhistory----"
"It is altogether unnecessary," said the Abbot; "we know him to be agood and true nobleman, and a sworn upholder of our Catholic faith,in the spite of the heretical woman who now sits upon the throne ofEngland. And it is specially as his kinsman, and as knowing that yepartake with him in such devout and faithful belief and adherence to ourholy Mother Church, that we say to you, Sir Piercie Shafton, that ye beheartily welcome to us, and that, and we wist how, we would labour to doyou good service in your extremity."
"For such kind offer I rest your most humble debtor," said Sir Piercie,"nor need I at this moment say more than that my Right Honourable Cousinof Northumberland, having devised with me and some others, the choiceand picked spirits of the age, how and by what means the worship of God,according to the Catholic Church, might be again introduced into thisdistracted kingdom of England, (even as one deviseth, by the assistanceof his friend, to catch and bridle a runaway steed,) it pleased him sodeeply to intrust me in those communications, that my personal safetybecomes, as it were, entwined or complicated therewith. Natheless, aswe have had sudden reason to believe, this Princess Elizabeth, whomaintaineth around her a sort of counsellors skilful in trackingwhatever schemes may be pursued for bringing her title into challenge,or for erecting again the discipline of the Catholic Church, hasobtained certain knowledge of the trains which we had laid before wecould give fire unto them. Wherefore, my Right Honourable Cousin ofNorthumber
land, thinking it best belike that one man should takeboth blame and shame for the whole, did lay the burden of all thistrafficking upon my back; which load I am the rather content to bear,in that he hath always shown himself my kind and honourable kinsman,as well as that my estate, I wot not how, hath of late been somewhatinsufficient to maintain the expense of those braveries, wherewith itis incumbent on us, who are chosen and selected spirits, to distinguishourselves from the vulgar."
"So that possibly," said the Sub-Prior, "your private affairs rendered aforeign journey less incommodious to you than it might have been to thenoble earl, your right worthy cousin?"
"You are right, reverend sir," answered the courtier; "_rem acu_--youhave touched the point with a needle--My cost and expenses had beenindeed somewhat lavish at the late triumphs and tourneys, and theflat-capp'd citizens had shown themselves unwilling to furnish my pocketfor new gallantries for the honour of the nation, as well as for mineown peculiar glory--and, to speak truth, it was in some part the hopeof seeing these matters amended that led me to desire a new world inEngland."
"So that the miscarriage of your public enterprise, with the derangementof your own private affairs," said the Sub-Prior, "have induced you toseek Scotland as a place of refuge?"
"_Rem acu_, once again," said Sir Piercie; "and not without good cause,since my neck, if I remained, might have been brought within thecircumstances of a halter--and so speedy was my journey northward, thatI had but time to exchange my peach-coloured doublet of Genoa velvet,thickly laid over with goldsmith's work, for this cuirass, which wasmade by Bonamico of Milan, and travelled northward with all speed,judging that I might do well to visit my Right Honourable Cousin ofNorthumberland, at one of his numerous castles. But as I posted towardsAlnwick, even with the speed of a star, which, darting from its nativesphere, shoots wildly downwards, I was met at Northallerton by one HenryVaughan, a servant of my right honourable kinsman, who showed me, thatas then I might not with safety come to his presence, seeing that, inobedience to orders from his court, he was obliged to issue out lettersfor my incarceration."
"This," said the Abbot, "seems but hard measure on the part of yourhonourable kinsman."
"It might be so judged, my lord," replied Sir Piercie; "nevertheless, Iwill stand to the death for the honour of my Right Honourable Cousin ofNorthumberland. Also, Henry Vaughan gave me, from my said cousin, agood horse, and a purse of gold, with two Border-prickers, as they arecalled, for my guides, who conducted me, by such roads and by-paths ashave never been seen since the days of Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristrem,into this kingdom of Scotland, and to the house of a certain baron, orone who holds the style of such, called Julian Avenel, with whom I foundsuch reception as the place and party could afford."
"And that," said the Abbot, "must have been right wretched; for tojudge from the appetite which Julian showeth when abroad, he hath not, Ijudge, over-abundant provision at home."
"You are right, sir--your reverence is in the right," continued SirPiercie; "we had but lenten fare, and, what was worse, a score toclear at the departure; for though this Julian Avenel called us tono reckoning, yet he did so extravagantly admire the fashion of myponiard--the _poignet_ being of silver exquisitely hatched, and indeedthe weapon being altogether a piece of exceeding rare device andbeauty--that in faith I could not for very shame's sake but pray hisacceptance of it; words which he gave me not the trouble of repeatingtwice, before he had stuck it into his greasy buff-belt, where,credit me, reverend sir, it showed more like a butcher's knife than agentleman's dagger."
"So goodly a gift might at least have purchased you a few days'hospitality," said Father Eustace.
"Reverend sir," said Sir Piercie, "had I abidden with him, I should havebeen complimented out of every remnant of my wardrobe--actually flayed,by the hospitable gods I swear it! Sir, he secured my spare doublet, andhad a pluck at my galligaskins--I was enforced to beat a retreat beforeI was altogether unrigged. That Border knave, his serving man, hada pluck at me too, and usurped a scarlet cassock and steel cuirassbelonging to the page of my body, whom I was fain to leave behind me. Ingood time I received a letter from my Right Honourable Cousin, showingme that he had written to you in my behalf, and sent to your charge twomails filled with wearing apparel--namely, my rich crimson silk doublet,slashed out and lined with cloth of gold, which I wore at the lastrevels, with baldric and trimmings to correspond--also two pairblack silk slops, with hanging garters of carnation silk--also theflesh-coloured silken doublet, with the trimmings of fur, in which Idanced the salvage man at the Gray's-Inn mummery--also----"
"Sir Knight," said the Sub-Prior, "I pray you to spare the fartherinventory of your wardrobe. The monks of Saint Mary's are nofree-booting barons, and whatever part of your vestments arrived atour house, have been this day faithfully brought hither, with the mailswhich contained them. I may presume from what has been said, as we haveindeed been, given to understand by the Earl of Northumberland, thatyour desire is to remain for the present as unknown and as unnoticed, asmay be consistent with your high worth and distinction?"
"Alas, reverend father!" replied the courtier, "a blade when it is inthe scabbard cannot give lustre, a diamond when it is in the casketcannot give light, and worth, when it is compelled by circumstances toobscure itself, cannot draw observation--my retreat can only attractthe admiration of those few to whom circumstances permit its displayingitself."
"I conceive now, my venerable father and lord," said the Sub-Prior,"that your wisdom will assign such a course of conduct to this nobleknight, as may be alike consistent with his safety, and with the weal ofthe community. For you wot well, that perilous strides have been madein these audacious days, to the destruction of all ecclesiasticalfoundations, and that our holy community has been repeatedly menaced.Hitherto they have found no flaw in our raiment; but a party, friendlyas well to the Queen of England, as to the heretical doctrines ofthe schismatical church, or even to worse and wilder forms of heresy,prevails now at the court of our sovereign, who dare not yield to hersuffering clergy the protection she would gladly extend to them."
"My lord, and reverend sir," said the knight, "I will gladly relieveyou of my presence, while ye canvass this matter at your freedom; andto speak truly, I am desirous to see in what case the chamberlain of mynoble kinsman hath found my wardrobe, and how he hath packed the same,and whether it has suffered from the journey--there are four suits ofas pure and elegant device as ever the fancy of a fair lady doated upon,every one having a treble, and appropriate change of ribbons, trimmings,and fringes, which, in case of need, may as it were renew each ofthem, and multiply the four into twelve.--There is also my sad-colouredriding-suit, and three cut-work shirts with falling bands--I pray you,pardon me--I must needs see how matters stand with them without fartherdallying."
Thus speaking, he left the room; and the Sub-Prior, looking after himsignificantly, added, "Where the treasure is will the heart be also."
"Saint Mary preserve our wits!" said the Abbot, stunned with theknight's abundance of words; "were man's brains ever so stuffed withsilk and broadcloth, cut-work, and I wot not what besides! Andwhat could move the Earl of Northumberland to assume for his bosomcounsellor, in matters of death and danger, such a feather-brainedcoxcomb as this?"
"Had he been other than what he is, venerable father," said theSub-Prior, "he had been less fitted for the part of scape-goat, towhich his Right Honourable Cousin had probably destined him from thecommencement, in case of their plot failing. I know something of thisPiercie Shafton. The legitimacy of his mother's descent from the Pierciefamily, the point on which he is most jealous, hath been called inquestion. If hairbrained courage, and an outrageous spirit of gallantry,can make good his pretensions to the high lineage he claims, thesequalities have never been denied him. For the rest, he is one of theruffling gallants of the time, like Howland Yorke, Stukely,
[Footnote: "Yorke," says Camden, "was a Londoner, a man of loose anddissolute behaviour, and desperately audacious--famous in his time
amongst the common bullies and swaggerers, as being the first that, tothe great admiration of many at his boldness, brought into England thebold and dangerous way of fencing with the rapier in duelling. Whereas,till that time, the English used to fight with long swords and bucklers,striking with the edge, and thought it no part of man either to push orstrike beneath the girdle.
Having a command in the Low Countries, Yorke revolted to the Spaniards,and died miserably, poisoned, as was supposed, by his new allies. Threeyears afterwards, his bones were dug up and gibbeted by the command ofthe States of Holland.
Thomas Stukely, another distinguished gallant of the time, was bred amerchant, being the son of a rich clothier in the west. He wedded thedaughter and heiress of a wealthy alderman of London, named Curtis,after whose death he squandered the riches he thus acquired in allmanner of extravagance. His wife, whose fortune supplied his waste,represented to him that he ought to make more of her. Stukely replied,"I will make as much of thee, believe me, as it is possible for any todo;" and he kept his word in one sense, having stripped her even of herwearing apparel, before he finally ran away from her.
Having fled to Italy, he contrived to impose upon the Pope, with aplan of invading Ireland, for which he levied soldiers, and made somepreparations, but ended by engaging himself and his troops in theservice of King Sebastian of Portugal. He sailed with that prince on hisfatal voyage to Barbary, and fell with him at the battle of Alcazar.
Stukely, as one of the first gallants of the time, has had the honourto be chronicled in song, in Evans' Old Ballads, vol. iii, edition 1810.His fate is also introduced in a tragedy, by George Peel, as has beensupposed, called the Battle of Alcazar, from which play Dryden isalleged to have taken the idea of Don Sebastian; if so, it is surprisinghe omitted a character so congenial to King Charles the Second's time asthe witty, brave, and profligate Thomas Stukely.]
and others, who wear out their fortunes, and endanger their lives,in idle braveries, in order that they may be esteemed the only choicegallants of the time; and afterwards endeavour to repair their estate,by engaging in the desperate plots and conspiracies which wiserheads have devised. To use one of his own conceited similitudes, suchcourageous fools resemble hawks, which the wiser conspirator keepshooded and blinded on his wrist until the quarry is on the wing, and whoare then flown at them."
"Saint Mary," said the Abbot, "he were an evil guest to introduce intoour quiet household. Our young monks make bustle enough, and more thanis beseeming God's servants, about their outward attire already--thisknight were enough to turn their brains, from the _Vestiarius_ down tothe very scullion boy."
"A worse evil might follow," said the Sub-Prior: "in these bad days, thepatrimony of the church is bought and sold, forfeited and distrained,as if it were the unhallowed soil appertaining to a secular baron. Thinkwhat penalty awaits us, were we convicted of harbouring a rebel to herwhom they call the Queen of England! There would neither be wantingScottish parasites to beg the lands of the foundation, nor an army fromEngland to burn and harry the Halidome. The men of Scotland were onceScotsmen, firm and united in the love of their country, and throwingevery other consideration aside when the frontier was menaced--nowthey are--what shall I call them--the one part French, the otherpart English, considering their dear native country merely as aprize-fighting stage, upon which foreigners are welcome to decide theirquarrels."
"Benedictine!" replied the Abbot, "they are indeed slippery and eviltimes."
"And therefore," said Father Eustace, "we must walk warily--we must not,for example, bring this man--this Sir Piercie Shafton, to our house ofSaint Mary's."
"But how then shall we dispose of him?" replied the Abbot; "bethink theethat he is a sufferer for holy Church's sake--that his patron, the Earlof Northumberland, hath been our friend, and that, lying so near us, hemay work us weal or wo according as we deal with his kinsman."
"And, accordingly," said the Sub-Prior, "for these reasons, as well asfor discharge of the great duty of Christian charity, I would protectand relieve this man. Let him not go back to Julian Avenel--thatunconscientious baron would not stick to plunder the exiledstranger--Let him remain here--the spot is secluded, and if theaccommodation be beneath his quality, discovery will become the lesslikely. We will make such means for his convenience as we can devise."
"Will he be persuaded, thinkest thou?" said the Abbot; "I will leave myown travelling bed for his repose, and send up a suitable easy-chair."
"With such easements," said the Sub-Prior, "he must not complain; andthen, if threatened by any sudden danger, he can soon come down tothe sanctuary, where we will harbour him in secret until means can bedevised of dismissing him in safety."
"Were we not better," said the Abbot, "send him on to the court, and getrid of him at once?"
"Ay, but at the expense of our friends--this butterfly may fold hiswings, and lie under cover in the cold air of Glendearg; but were heat Holyrood, he would, did his life depend on it, expand his spangleddrapery in the eyes of the queen and court--Rather than fail ofdistinction, he would sue for love to our gracious sovereign--the eyesof all men would be upon him in the course of three short days, andthe international peace of the two ends of the island endangered for acreature, who, like a silly moth, cannot abstain from fluttering round alight."
"Thou hast prevailed with me, Father Eustace," said the Abbot, "and itwill go hard but I improve on thy plan--I will send up in secret, notonly household stuff, but wine and wassell-bread. There is a youngswankie here who shoots venison well. I will give him directions to seethat the knight lacks none."
"Whatever accommodation he can have, which infers not a risk ofdiscovery," said the Sub-Prior, "it is our duty to afford him."
"Nay," said the Abbot, "we will do more, and will instantly despatch aservant express to the keeper of our revestiary to send us such thingsas he may want, even this night. See it done, good father."
"I will," answered Father Eustace; "but I hear the gull clamorous forsome one to truss his points.[Footnote: The points were the strings ofcord or ribbon, (so called, because _pointed_ with metal like the lacesof women's stays,) which attached the doublet to the hose. They werevery numerous, and required assistance to tie them properly, which wascalled _trussing_.] He will be fortunate if he lights on any one herewho can do him the office of groom of the chamber."
"I would he would appear," said the Abbot, "for here comes theRefectioner with the collation--By my faith, the ride hath given me asharp appetite!"
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