The monastery; The abbot.

THE ABBOT. 455
sense, and judgment, and steadiness of a waking, and a disenchanted, and
a reasonable man, who knows what he is doing, and wherefore he does it,
If one must walk with masks and spectres, who waft themselves from place
to place as it were in vision rather than reality, it might shake the soundest
faith and turn the wisest head. I sought, since I must needs avow my folly,
the same Catherine Seyton with whom you made me first acquainted, and
whom I most strangely.find in this village of Kinross, gayest among the
revellers, when I had but just left her in the well-guarded castle of Lochleven, the sad attendant of an imprisoned Queen-I sought her, and in her
place I find you, my mother, more strangely disguised than even she is."
"And what hadst thou to do with Catherine Seyton?" said the matron,
sternly; " is this a time or a world to follow maidens, or todance around a
Maypole? When the trumpet summons every true-hearted Scotsman around
the standard of the true sovereign, shalt thou be found loitering in a lady's
bower?"
" No, by Heaven, nor imprisoned in the rugged walls of an island castle!"
answered Roland Greeme: "I would the blast were to sound even now,
for I fear that nothing less loud will dispel the chimerical visions by which
I am surrounded."
"Doubt not that it will be winded," said the matron, "and that so
fearfully loud, that Scotland will never hear the like until the last and
loudest blast of all shall announce to mountain and to valley that time is no
more. Meanwhile, be thou but brave and constant Serve God and honour
thy sovereign -Abide by thy religion- I cannot-I will not-I dare not
ask thee the truth of the terrible surmises I have heard touching thy falling
away- perfect not that accursed sacrifice and yet, even at this late hour,
thou mayest be what I have hoped for the son of my dearest hope what
say I? the son of my hope- thou shalt be the hope of Scotland, her boast
and her honour!-Even thy wildest and most foolish wishes may perchance
be fulfilled-I might blush to mingle meaner motives with the noble guerdon I hold out to thee-It shames me, being such as I am, to mention the
idle passions of youth, save with contempt and the purpose of censure.
But we must bribe children to wholesome medicine by the offer of cates, and
youth to honourable achievement with the promise of pleasure. Mark me,
therefore, Roland. The love of Catherine Seyton will follow him only who
shall achieve the freedom of her mistress; and believe, it may be one day in
thine own power to be that happy lover. Cast, therefore, away doubt and
fear, and prepare to do what religion calls for, what thy country demands
of thee, what thy duty as a subject and as a servant alike require at your
hand; and be assured, even the idlest or wildest wishes of thy heart will be
most readily attained by following the call of thy duty."
As she ceased speaking, a double knock was heard against the inner
door. The matron hastily adjusting her muffler, and resuming her chair by
the hearth, demanded who was there.
" Salve in nomine sancto," was answered from without.
"Salvete et vos," answered Magdalen Greme.
And a man entered in the ordinary dress of a nobleman's retainer, wearing at his girdle a sword and buckler -" I sought you," said he, "my
mother, and him whom I see with you." Then addressing himself to Roland
Graeme, he said to him, " Hast thou not a packet from George Douglas?"
"I have," said the page, suddenly recollecting that which had been committed to his charge in the morning, " but I may not deliver it to any one
without some token that they have a right to ask it."
"You say well," replied the serving-man, and whispered into his ear,
"The packet which I ask is the report to his father-will this token
suffice?"
"It will," replied the page, and taking the packet from his bosom, gave
it to the man.