The monastery; The abbot.

144 WAVERLLEY NOVELS.
chance of self-defence. I am only sorry to think, that, young and countrybred as thou art, it can but little avail thee. But thou must be well aware,
that in this quarrel I shall use no terms of quarter."
Rely on it, proud man," answered the youth, "that I shall ask none;
and although thou speakest as if I lay already at thy feet, trust me, that as
I am determined never to ask thy mercy, so I am not fearful of needing it."
"Thou wilt, then," said the knight, "do nothing to avert the certain fate
which thou hast provoked with such wantonness?"
" And how were that to he purchased?" replied Halbert Glendinning,
mote with the wish of obtaining some farther insight into the terms on
which he stood with this stranger, than to make him the submission which
he light require.
"Explain to me instantly," said Sir Piercie, "without equivocation or
delay, by what means thou wert enabled to wound my honour so deeply -
and shouldst thou point out to me by so doing an enemy more worthy of
my resentment, I will permit thine own obscure insignificance to draw a veil
over thine insolence."
"This is too high a flight," said Glendinning, fiercely, "for thine own
presumption to soar without being checked. Thou hast come to my father's
house, as well as I can guess, a fugitive and an exile, and thy first greeting
to its inhabitants lias been that of contempt and injury. By what means I
have been able to retort that contempt, let thine own conscience tell thee.
Enough for me that I stand on the privilege of a free Scotchman, and will
brook no insult unreturned, and no injury unrequited."
" It is well, then," said Sir Piercie Shafton; " we will dispute this matter
to-morrow morning with our swords. Let the time be daybreak, and do thou
assign the place. We will go forth as if to strike a deer."
"Content," replied Halbert Glendinning: "I will guide thee to a spot
where an hundred men might fight and fall without any chance of interruption."
"It is well," answered Sir Piercie Shafton. " Here then we part.-Many
will say, that in thus indulging the right of a gentleman to the son of a
clod-breaking peasant, I derogate from my sphere, even as the blessed sun
would derogate should he condescend to compare and match his golden
beams with the twinkle of a pale, blinking, expiring, gross-fed taper. But
no consideration of rank shall prevent my avenging the insult thou hast
offered me. We bear a smooth face, observe me, Sir Villagio, before the
worshipful inmates of yonder cabin, and to-morrow we try conclusions with
our swords." So saying, he turned away towards the tower.
It may not be unworthy of notice, that in the last speech only, had Sir
Piercie used some of those flowers of rhetoric which characterized the usual
style of his conversation. Apparently, a sense of wounded honour, and the
deep desire of vindicating his injured feelings, had proved too strong for the
fantastic affectation of his acquired habits. Indeed, such is usually the
influence of energy of mind, when called forth and exerted, that Sir Piercie
Shafton had never appeared in the eyes of his youthful antagonist half so
much deserving of esteem and respect as in this brief dialogue, by which
they exchanged mutual defiance. As he followed him slowly to the tower,
he could not help thinking to himself, that, had the English knight always
displayed this superior tone of bearing and feeling, he would not probably
have felt so earnestly disposed to take offence at his hand. Mortal offence,
however, had been exchanged, and the matter was to be put to mortal
arbitrement.
The family met at the evening meal, when Sir Piercie Shafton extended
the benignity of his countenance and the graces of his conversation far more
generally over the party than he had hitherto condescended to do. -The
greater part of his attention was, of course, still engrossed by his divine
and inimitable Discretion, as he chose to term Mary Avenel; but, neverthe