The monastery; The abbot.

THE ABBOT. 531
They set off accordingly —Roland lingered a moment to command the
attendants of the Knight of Avenel to convey their master to the Castle of
Crookstone, and to say that he demanded from him no other condition of
liberty, than his word, that he and his followers would keep secret the direction in which the Queen fled. As he turned his rein to depart, the honest
countenance of Adam Woodcock stared upon him with an expression of
surprise, which, at another time, would have excited his hearty mirth. He
had been one of the followers who had experienced the weight of Roland's
arm, and they now knew each other, Roland having put up his visor, and
the good yeoman having thrown away his barret-cap, with the iron bars in
front, that he might the more readily assist his master. Into this barretcap, as it lay on the ground, Roland forgot not to drop a few gold pieces,
(fruits of the Queen's liberality,) and with a signal of kind recollection and
enduring friendship, he departed at full gallop to overtake the Queen, the
dust raised by her train being already far down the hill.
"It is not fairy-money," said honest Adam, weighing and handling the
gold - -And it was Master Roland himself, that is a certain thing-the
same open hand, and, by our Lady!" (shrugging his shoulders)-"the
same ready fist!-My Lady will hear of this gladly, for she mourns for him
as if he were her son. And to see how gay he is! But these light lads
are as sure to be uppermost as the froth to be on the top of the quart-potYour man of solid parts remains ever a falconer." So saying, he went to
aid his comrades, who had now come up in greater numbers, to carry his
master into the Castle of Crookstone.
(laptr {8? W\Xrt4-6ig at0.
My native land, good night!
Y a bitter tear was shed, during the hasty flight of Queen Mary, over
MANY a bitter tear was shed, during the hasty flight of Queen Mary, over
fallen hopes, future prospects, and slaughtered friends. The deaths of the
brave Douglas, and of the fiery but gallant young Seyton, seemed to affect
the Queen as much as the fall from the throne, on which she had so nearly
been again seated. Catherine Seyton devoured in secret her own grief,
anxious to support the broken spirits of her mistress;and the Abbot, bending his troubled thoughts upon futurity, endeavoured in vain to form some
plan which had a shadow of hope. The spirit of young Roland —for'he
also mingled in the hasty debates held by the companions of the Queen's
flight-continued unchecked and unbroken.
"Your Majesty," he said, "has lost a battle-Your ancestor, Bruce, lost
seven successively, ere he sat triumphant on the Scottish throne, and proclaimed with the voice of a victor, in the field of Bannockburn, the independence of his country. Are not these heaths, which we may traverse at
will, better than the locked, guarded, and lake-moated Castle of Lochleven?
- We are free -in that one word there is comfort for all our losses."
He struck a bold note, but the heart of Mary made no response.
"Better," she said, "I had still been in Lochleven, than seen the slaughter made by rebels among the subjects who offered themselves. to death for
my sake. Speak not to me of farther efforts - they would only cost the
lives of you, the friends who recommend them! I would not again undergo
what I felt, when I saw from yonder mount the swords of the fell horsemen
of Morton raging among the faithful Seytons and Hamiltons, for their