The monastery; The abbot.

520 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
"You will not leave us, mother," said the Queen —" you whose practices
in our favour were so powerful, who dared so many dangers, and wore so
many disguises, to blind our enemies and to confirm our friends-you will
not leave us in the dawn of our reviving fortunes, ere we have time to know
and to thank you?"
"You cannot know her," answered Magdalen Grgeme, "who knows not
herself-there are times, when, in this woman's frame of mine, there is the
strength of him of Gath -in this overtoiled brain, the wisdom of the most
sage counsellor-and again the mist is on me, and my strength is weakness,
my wisdom folly. I have spoken before princes and cardinals — ay, noble
Princess, even before the princes of thine own house of Lorraine; and I
know not whence the words of persuasion came which flowed from my lips,
and were drunk in by their ears.-And now, even when I most need words
of persuasion, there is something which chokes my voice, and robs me of
utterance."
" If there be aught in my power to do thee pleasure," said the Queen,
"the barely naming it shall avail as well as all thine eloquence."
"Sovereign Lady," replied the enthusiast, " it shames ime that at this
high moment something of human frailty should cling to one, whose vows
the saints have heard, whose labours in the rightful cause HIeaven has prospered. But it will be thus while the living spirit is shrined in the clay of
mortality -I will yield to the folly," she said, weeping as she spoke, "and
it shall be the last." Then seizing Roland's hand, she led him to the
Queen's feet, kneeling herself upon one knee, and causing him to kneel on
both. "Mighty Princess," she said, "look on this flower-it was found by
a kindly stranger on a bloody field of battle, and long it was ere my anxious
eyes saw, and my arms pressed, all that was left of my only daughter. For
your sake, and for that of the holy faith we both profess, I could leave this
plant, while it was yet tender, to the nurture of strangers-ay, of enemies,
by whom, perchance, his blood would have been poured forth as wine, had
the heretic Glendinning known that he had in his house the heir of Julian
Avenel. Since then I have seen him only in a few hours of doubt and
dread, and now I part with the child of my love-for ever-for ever!-Oh,
for every weary step I have made in your rightful cause, in this and in
foreign lands, give protection to the child whom I must no more call mine!"
"I swear to you, mother," said the Queen, deeply affected, "that, for
your sake and his own, his happiness and fortunes shall be our charge!"
" I thank you, daughter of princes," said Magdalen, and pressed her lips,
first to the Queen's hand, then to the brow of her grandson. " And now,"
she said, drying her tears, and rising with dignity, "Earth has had its own,
and Heaven claims the rest. - Lioness of Scotland, go forth and conquer i
and if the prayers of a devoted votaress can avail thee, they will rise in
many a land, and from many a distant shrine. I will glide like a ghost
from land to land, from temple to temple; and where the very name of my
country is unknown, the priests shall ask who is the Queen of that distant
northern land, for whom the aged pilgrim was so fervent in prayer. Farewell! Honour be thine, and earthly prosperity, if it be the will of God -
if not, may the penance thou shalt do here ensure thee happiness hereafter!
-Let no one speak or follow me-my resolution is taken-my vow cannot
be cancelled."
She glided from their presence as she spoke, and her last look was upon
her beloved grandchild. He would have risen and followed, but the Queen
and Lord Seyton interfered.
"Press not on her now," said Lord Seyton, "if you would not lose her
for ever. Many a time have we seen- the sainted mother, and often at the
most needful moment; but to press on her privacy, or to thwart her purpose,
is a crime which she cannot pardon. I trust we shall yet see her at her
need —a holy woman she is for certain, and dedicated wholly to prayer and