The monastery; The abbot.

202 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
handsome but silly mistress. As for Sir Piercie, he was in his element;
and, well assured of the interest and full approbation of his auditor, he
went on spouting Euphuism of more than usual obscurity, and at more
than usual length. Thus passed the morning, and noon brought them
within sight of a winding stream, on the side of which arose an ancient
baronial castle, surrounded by some large trees. At a small distance from
the gate of the mansion, extended, as in those days was usual, a straggling
hamlet, having a church in the centre.
"There are two hostelries in this Kirk-town," said Mysie, " but the worst
is best for our purpose; for it stands apart from the other houses, and I ken
the man weel, for he has dealt with my father for malt."
This causa scientice, to use a lawyer's phrase, was ill chosen for Mysie's
purpose; for Sir Piercie Shafton had, by dint of his own loquacity, been
talking himself all this while into a high esteem for his fellow-traveller,
and, pleased with the gracious reception which she afforded to his powers
of conversation, had well-nigh forgotten that she was not herself one of
those high-born beauties of whom he was recounting so many stories, when
this unlucky speech at once placed the most disadvantageous circumstances
attending her lineage under his immediate recollection. He said nothing,
however. What indeed could he say? Nothing was so natural as that a
miller's daughter should be acquainted with publicans who dealt with her
father for malt, and all that was to be wondered at was the concurrence of
events which had rendered such aTemale the companion and guide of Sir
Piercie Shafton of Wilverton, kinsman of the great Earl of Northumberland, whom princes and sovereigns themselves termed cousin, because of
the Piercie blood.* He felt the disgrace of strolling through the country
with a miller's maiden on the crupper behind him, and was even ungrateful
enough to feel some emotions of shame, when he halted his horse at the
door of the little inn.
But the alert intelligence of Mysie Happer spared him farther sense of
derogation, by instantly springing from his horse, and cramming the ears
of mine host, who came out with his mouth agape to receive a guest of the
knight's appearance, with an imagined tale, in which circumstance on circumstance were huddled so fast, as to astonish Sir Piercie Shafton, whose
own invention was none of the most brilliant. She explained to the publican that this was a great English knight travelling from the Monastery to
the court of Scotland, after having paid his vows to Saint Mary, and that
she had been directed to conduct him so far on the road; and that Ball, her
palfrey, had fallen by the way, because he had been over-wrought with carrying home the last melder of meal to the portioner of Langhope; and that
she had turned in Ball to graze in the Tasker's park, near Cripplecross, for
he had stood as still as Lot's wife with very weariness; and that the knight
had courteously insisted she should ride behind him, and that she had
brought him to her kend friend's hostelry rather than to proud Peter Peddie's, who got his malt at the Mellerstane mills; and that he must get the
best that the house afforded, and that he must get it ready in a moment of
time, and that she was ready to help in the kitchen.
All this ran glibly off the tongue without pause on the part of Mysie
Happer, or doubt on that of the landlord. The guest's horse was conducted
to the stable, and he himself installed in the cleanest corner and best seat
which the place afforded. Mysie, ever active and officious, was at once
engaged in preparing food, in spreading the table, and in making all the
better arrangements which her experience could suggest, for the honour
and comfort of her companion. He would fain have resisted this; for while
it was impossible not to be gratified with the eager and alert kindness
which was so active in his service, he felt an undefinable pain in seeing
* Fioissart tells us somewhere, (the readers of romances are indifferent to accurate reference,) that the
King of France called one of the Piercies cousin, because of the blood of Northumberland.