The monastery; The abbot.

376 WAVER LEY NOVELS.
so she'scapes Border doom-But why stind you gazing there? I promise
you my lord has wished for you, and asked for you."
"My Lord of Murray asked for me, and he Regent of the kingdom too!"
said Adam. " I hunger and thirst to pay my duty to my good lord;- but
I fancy his good lordship remembers the day's sport on Carnwath-moor;
and my Drummelzier falcon, that beat the hawks from the Isle of'Man, and
won his lordship a hundred crowns from the Southern baron whom they
called Stanley."
"Nay, not to flatter thee, Adam," said his court-friend, "he remembers
nought of thee, or of thy falcon either. He hath flown many a higher
flight since that, and struck his quarry too. But come, come hither away;
I trust we are to be good comrades on the old score."
" What!" said Adam, " you would have me crush a pot with you; but I
must first dispose of my eyas, where he will neither have girl to chase, nor
lad to draw sword upon."
"Is the youngster such a one?" said Michael.
" Ay, by my hood, he flies at all game," replied Woodcock.
" Then had he better come with us," said Michael Wing-the-wind; "for
we cannot have a proper carouse just now, only I would wet my lips, and
so must you. I want to hear the news from Saint Mary's before you see
my lord, and I will let you know how the wind sits up yonder."
While he thus spoke, he led the way to a side door which opened into
the court; and threading several dark passages with the air of one who
knew the most secret recesses of the palace, conducted them to a small
matted chamber, where he placed bread and cheese and a foaming flagon
of ale before the falconer and his young companion, who immediately did
justice to the latter in a hearty draught, which nearly emptied the measure.
Having drawn his breath, and dashed the froth from his whiskers, he
observed, that his anxiety for the boy had made him deadly dry.
" Mend your draught," said his hospitable friend, again supplying the
flagon fi:om a pitcher which stood beside. "I know the way to the butterybar. And now, mind what I say- this morning the Earl of Morton came
to my lord in a mighty chafe."
" What! they keep the old friendship, then?" said Woodcock.
"Ay, ay, man, what else?" said Michael; "one hand must scratch the
other. But in a mighty chafe was my Lord of Morton, who, to say truth,
looketh on such occasions altogether uncanny, and, as it were, fiendish;
and he says to my lord,- for I was in the chamber taking orders about a
cast of hawks that are to be fetched from Darnoway -they match your
long-winged falcons, friend Adam."
"I will believe that when I see them fly as high a pitch," replied
Woodcock, this professional observation forming a sort of parenthesis.
"IIowever," said Michael, pursuing his tale, "my Lord of Morton, in a
mighty chafe, asked my Lord Regent whether he was well dealt with-' for
my brother,' said he,'should have had a gift to be Commendator of Kennaquhair, and to have all the temporalities erected into a lordship of regality
for his benefit; and here,' said he,'the false monks have had the insolence
to choose a new Abbot to put his claim in my brother's way; and moreover, the rascality of the neighbourhood have burnt and plundered all that
was left in the Abbey, so that my brother will not have a house to dwell
in, when he hath ousted the lazy hounds of priests.' And my lord, seeing
him chafed, said mildly to him,' These are shrewd tidings, Douglas, but I
trust they be not true; for Halbert Glendinning went southward yesterday,
with a band of spears, and assuredly, had either of these chances happened,
that the monks had presumed to choose an Abbot, or that the Abbey had
been burnt, as you say, he had taken order on the spot for the punishment
of such insolence, and had despatched us a messenger.' And the Earl of
Morton replied -now I pray you, Adam, to notice, that I say this out of