The monastery; The abbot.

THE MONASTERY. 115
"not from the King of Scotland, did he live, would I brook such terms!"
induced iLer 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 I 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 de
prived 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 tho