The monastery; The abbot.

THE MONASTERY. 2515
Gone to be married'?-Gone to swear a peace!
KING JOHN.
THE news of the lost battle, so quickly carried by the fugitives to the vili
rage and convent, had spread the greatest alarm among the inhabitants.
The Sacristan and other monks counselled flight; the Treasurer recommended that the church plate should be offered as a tribute to bribe the
English officer; the Abbot alone was unmoved and undaunted.
"My brethren," he said, " since God has not given our people victory in
the combat, it must be because he requires of us, his spiritual soldiers, to
fight the good fight of martyrdom, a conflict in which nothing but our own
faint-hearted cowardice can make us fail of victory. Let us assume, then,
the armour of faith, and prepare, if it be necessary, to die under the ruin
of these shrines, to the service of which we have devoted ourselves.'Highly
honoured are we all in this distinguished summons, from our dear brother
Nicholas, whose gray hairs have been preserved until they should be surrounded by the crown of martyrdom, down to my beloved son Edward, who,
arriving at the vineyard at the latest hour of the day, is yet permitted to
share its toils with those who have laboured from the morning. Be of good
courage, my children. I dare not, like my sainted predecessors, promise to
you that you shall be preserved by miracle-I and you are alike unworthy
of that especial interposition, which, in earlier times, turned the sword of
sacrilege against the bosom of tyrants by whom it was wielded, daunted
the hardened hearts of heretics with prodigies, and called down hosts of
angels to defend the shrine of God and of the Virgin. Yet, by -heavenly
aid, you shall this day see that your Father and Abbot will not disgrace
the mitre which sits upon his brow. Go to your cells, my children, and
exercise your private devotions. Array yourselves also in alb and cope, as
for our most solemn festivals, and be ready, when the tolling of the largest
bell announces the approach of the enemy, to march forth to meet them in
solemn procession. Let the church be opened to afford such refuge as may
be to those of our vassals, who, from their exertion in this day's unhappy
battle, or the cause, are particularly apprehensive of the rage of the enemy.
Tell Sir Piercie Shafton, if he has escaped the fight —-— "
"I am here, most venerable Abbot," replied Sir Piercie; "'and if it so
seemeth meet to you, I will presently assemble such of the men as have
escaped this escaramouche, and will renew the resistance, even unto the
death. Certes, you will learn from all, that I did my part in this unhappy
matter. Had it pleased Julian Avenel to have attended to my counsel,
specially in somewhat withdrawing of his main battle, even as you may
have marked the heron eschew the stoop of the falcon, receiving him rather
upon his beak than upon his wing, affairs, as I do conceive, might have had
a different face, and we might then, in a more bellacose manner, have maintained that affray. Nevertheless, I would not be understood to speak any
thing in disregard of Julian Avenel, whom I saw fall fighting manfully
with his face to his enemy, which hath banished from my memory the unseemly term of'meddling coxcomb,' with which it pleased him something
rashly to qualify my advice, and for which, had it pleased Heaven and the
saints to have prolonged the life of that excellent person, I had it bound
upon my soul to have put him to death with my own hand."
" Sir Piercie," said the Abbot, at length interrupting him, "our time allows brief leisure to speak'what might have been."
"You are right, most venerable Lord and Father," replied the incorrigible Euphuist; "the preterite, as grammarians have it, concerns frail mor*