The monastery; The abbot.

THE MONASTERY. 161
head of Henry Warden at his foot, and thou shalt have praise instead of
censure."
Halbert Glendinning stepped back in surprise. "What! are you that
Henry Warden so famous among the heretics, that even Knox's name is
scarce more frequently in their mouths? Art thou he, and darest thou to
approach the Halidome of Saint Mary's?"
"I am Henry Warden, of a surety," said the old man, "far unworthy to
be named in the same breath with Knox, but yet willing to venture on
-whatever dangers my master's service may call me to."
"Hearken to me, then," said Halbert; " to slay thee, I have no heartto make thee prisoner, were equally to bring thy blood on my head —to
leave thee in this wild without a guide, were little better. I will conduct
thee, as I promised, in safety to the Castle of Avenel; but breathe not,
while we are on the journey, a word against the doctrines of the holy church
of which I am an unworthy-but though an ignorant, a zealous member.When thou art there arrived, beware of thyself-there is a high price upon
thy head, and Julian Avenel loves the glance of gold bonnet-pieces." *
"Yet thou sayest not," answered the Protestant preacher, for such he
was, "that for lucre he would sell the blood of his guest?"
"Not if thou comest an invited stranger, relying on his faith," said the
youth; "evil as Julian may be, he dare not break the rites of hospitality;
for, loose as we on these marches may be in all other ties, these are respected amongst us even to idolatry, and his nearest relations would think
it incumbent on them to spill his blood themselves, to efface the disgrace
such treason would bring upon their name and lineage. But if thou goest
self-invited, and without assurance of safety, I promise thee thy risk is
great."
" I am in God's hand," answered the preacher; " it is on His errand that
I traverse these wilds amidst dangers of every kind; while I am useful for
my master's service, they shall not prevail against me, and when, like the
barren fig-tree, I can no longer produce fruit, what imports it when or by
whom the axe is laid to the root?"
" Your courage and devotion," said Glendinning, " are worthy of a better
cause."
" That," said Warden, " cannot be-mine is the very best."
They continued their journey in silence, Halbert Glendinning tracing
with the utmost accuracy the mazes of the dangerous and intricate morasses
and hills which divided the HIalidome from the barony of Avenel. From
time to time he was obliged to stop, in order to assist his companion to
cross the black intervals of quaking bog, called in the Scottish dialect hags,
by which the firmer parts of the morass were intersected.
" Courage, old man," said Halbert, as he saw his companion almost exhausted with fatigue, "we shall soon be upon hard ground. And yet soft
as this moss is, I have seen the merry falconers go through it as light as
deer when the quarry was upon the flight."
"True, my son," answered Warden, " for so I will still call you, though
you term me no longer father; and even so doth headlong youth pursue its
pleasures, without regard to the mire and the peril of the paths through
which they are hurried."
" I have already told thee," answered Halbert Glendinning, sternly, "that
I will hear nothing from thee that savours of doctrine."
"Nay, but, my son," answered Warden, "thy spiritual father himself
would surely not dispute the truth of what I have now spoken for your
edification!"
Glendinning stoutly replied, "I know not how that may be - but I wot
* A gold coin of James V., the most beautiful of the Scottish series; so called because the effigy of the
sovereignty is represented wearing a bonnet.
VOL. V.-11 Q2