The monastery; The abbot.

THE MON A S TiER Y. 213
C0nEprr tlj ^intl-rh titv
At school I knew him-a sharp-witted youth,
Grave. thoughtful, and reserved anmong his mates,
Turning the hours of sport and food to labour,
Starving his body to inform his mind.
OLD PLAY.
TrHE Sub-Prior, at the Borderer's request, had not failed to return to the
tower, into which he was followed by Christie of the Clinthill, who, shutting
the door of the apartment, drew near, and began his discourse with great
confidence and familiarity.
"My master," he said, "sends me with his commendations to you, Sir
Sub-Prior, above all the community of Saint Mary's, and more specially
than even to the Abbot himself; for though he be termed my lord, and so
forth, all the world knows that you are the tongue of the trump."
"If you have aught to say to me concerning the community," said the
Sub-Prior, "it were well you proceeded in it without farther delay. Time
presses, and the fate of young Glendinnning dwells on my mind."
" I will be caution for him, body for body," said Christie. "I do protest
to you, as sure as I am a living man, so surely is he one."
" Should I not tell his unhappy mother the joyful tidings?" said Father
Eustace, -" and yet better wait till they return from searching the grave.
Well, Sir Jackman, your message to me from your master?"
"My lord and master," said Christie, "hath good reason to believe that,
from the information of certain back friends, whom he will reward at more
leisure, your reverend community hath been led to deem him ill attached to
Holy Church, allied with heretics and those who favour heresy, and a hungerer after the spoils of your Abbey."
" Be brief, good henchman," said -the Sub-Prior, " for the devil is ever
most to be feared when he preacheth."
"Briefly, then- my master desires your friendship; and to excuse himself from the maligner's calumnies, he sends to your Abbot that Henry
Warden, whose sermons have turned the world upside down, to be dealt
with as Holy Church directs, and as the Abbot's pleasure may determine."
The Sub-Prior's eyes sparkled at the intelligence; for it had been accounted a matter of great importance that this man should be arrested,
possessed, as he was known to be, of so much zeal and popularity, that
scarcely the preaching of Knox himself had been more awakening to the
people, and more formidable to the Church of Rome.
In fact, that ancient system, which so well accommodated its doctrines to
the wants and wishes of a barbarous age, had, since the art of printing,
and the gradual diffusion of knowledge, lain floating like some huge Leviathan, into which ten thousand reforming fishers were darting their harpoons. The Roman Church of Scotland, in particular, was at her last gasp,
actually blowing blood and water, yet still with unremitted, though animal
exertions, maintaining the conflict with the assailants, who on every side
were plunging their weapons into her bulky body. In many large towns,
the monasteries had been suppressed by the fury of the populace; in other
places, their possessions had been usurped by the power of the reformed
nobles; but still the hierarchy made a part of the common law of the realm,
and might claim both its property and its privileges wherever it had the
means of- asserting them. The community of Saint Mary's of Kennaquhair
was considered as being particularly in this situation. They had retained,
undiminished, their territorial power and influence; and the great barons
in the neighbourhood, partly from their attachment to the party in the state
who still upheld the old system of religion, partly because each grudged the