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Books: The Monastery

S >> Sir Walter Scott >> The Monastery




"And well for thee that thou didst not," said the father; "wild and
headstrong as thou art, wouldst thou hate thy brother for partaking in
thine own folly?"

"Father," replied Edward, "the world esteems thee wise, and holds thy
knowledge of mankind high; but thy question shows that thou hast never
loved. It was by an effort that I saved myself from hating my kind and
affectionate brother, who, all unsuspicious of my rivalry, was
perpetually loading me with kindness. Nay, there were moods of my
mind, in which I could return that kindness for a time with energetic
enthusiasm. Never did I feel this so strongly as on the night which
parted us. But I could not help rejoicing when he was swept from my
path--could not help sorrowing when he was again restored to be a
stumbling-block in my paths."

"May God be gracious to thee, my son!" said the monk; "this is an
awful state of mind. Even in such evil mood did the first murderer
rise up against his brother, because Abel's was the more acceptable
sacrifice."

"I will wrestle with the demon which has haunted me, father," replied
the youth, firmly--"I will wrestle with him, and I will subdue him.
But first I must remove from the scenes which are to follow here. I
cannot endure that I should see Mary Avenel's eyes again flash with
joy at the restoration of her lover. It were a sight to make indeed a
second Cain of me! My fierce, turbid, and transitory joy discharged
itself in a thirst to commit homicide, and how can I estimate the
frenzy of my despair?"

"Madman!" said the Sub-Prior, "at what dreadful crime does thy fury
drive?"

"My lot is determined, father," said Edward, in a resolute tone; "I
will embrace the spiritual state which you have so oft recommended. It
is my purpose to return with you to Saint Mary's, and, with the
permission of the Holy Virgin and of Saint Benedict, to offer my
profession to the Abbot."

"Not now, my son," said the Sub-Prior, "not in this distemperature of
mind. The wise and good accept not gifts which are made in heat of
blood, and which may be after repented of; and shall we make our
offerings to wisdom and to goodness itself with less of solemn
resolution and deep devotion of mind, than is necessary to make them
acceptable to our own frail companions in this valley of darkness?
This I say to thee, my son, not as meaning to deter thee from the good
path thou art now inclined to prefer, but that thou mayst make thy
vocation and thine election sure."

"There are actions, father," returned Edward, "which brook no delay,
and this is one. It must be done this very _now_; or it may never
be done. Let me go with you; let me not behold the return of Halbert
into this house. Shame, and the sense of the injustice I have already
done him, will join with these dreadful passions which urge me to do
him yet farther wrong. Let me then go with you."

"With me, my son," said the Sub-Prior, "thou shalt surely go; but our
rule, as well as reason and good order, require that you should dwell
a space with us as a probationer, or novice, before taking upon thee
those final vows, which, sequestering thee for ever from the world,
dedicate thee to the service of Heaven."

"And when shall we set forth, father?" said the youth, as eagerly as
if the journey which he was now undertaking led to the pleasures of a
summer holiday.

"Even now, if thou wilt," said the Sub-Prior, yielding to his
impetuosity--"go, then, and command them to prepare for our
departure.--Yet stay," he said, as Edward, with all the awakened
enthusiasm of his character, hastened from his presence, "come hither,
my son, and kneel down."

Edward obeyed, and kneeled down before him. Notwithstanding his slight
figure and thin features, the Sub-Prior could, from the energy of his
tone, and the earnestness of his devotional manner, impress his pupils
and his penitents with no ordinary feelings of personal reverence. His
heart always was, as well as seemed to be, in the duty which he was
immediately performing; and the spiritual guide who thus shows a deep
conviction of the importance of his office, seldom fails to impress a
similar feeling upon his hearers. Upon such occasions as the present,
his puny body seemed to assume more majestic stature--his spare and
emaciated countenance bore a bolder, loftier, and more commanding
port--his voice, always beautiful, trembled as labouring under the
immediate impulse of the Divinity--and his whole demeanour seemed to
bespeak, not the mere ordinary man, but the organ of the Church in
which she had vested her high power for delivering sinners from their
load of iniquity.

"Hast thou, my fair son," said he, "faithfully recounted the
circumstances which have thus suddenly determined thee to a religious
life?"

"The sins I have confessed, my father," answered Edward, "but I have
not yet told of a strange appearance, which, acting in my mind, hath, I
think, aided to determine my resolution."

"Tell it, then, now," returned the Sub-Prior; "it is thy duty to leave
me uninstructed in nought, so that thereby I may understand the
temptation that besets thee."

"I tell it with unwillingness," said Edward; "for although, God wot, I
speak but the mere truth, yet even while my tongue speaks it as truth,
my own ears receive it as fable."

"Yet say the whole," said Father Eustace; "neither fear rebuke from
me, seeing I may know reasons for receiving as true that which others
might regard as fabulous."

"Know, then, father," replied Edward, "that betwixt hope and
despair--and, heavens! what a hope!--the hope to find the corpse
mangled and crushed hastily in amongst the bloody clay which the foot
of the scornful victor had trod down upon my good, my gentle, my
courageous brother,--I sped to the glen called Corri-nan-shian; but,
as your reverence has been already informed, neither the grave, which
my unhallowed wishes had in spite of my better self longed to see, nor
any appearance of the earth having been opened, was visible in the
solitary spot where Martin had, at morning yesterday, seen the fatal
hillock. You know your dalesmen, father. The place hath an evil name,
and this deception of the sight inclined them to leave it. My
companions became affrighted, and hastened down the glen as men caught
in trespass. My hopes were too much blighted, my mind too much
agitated, to fear either the living or the dead. I descended the glen
more slowly than they, often looking back, and not ill pleased with
the poltroonery of my companions, which left me to my own perplexed
and moody humour, and induced them to hasten into the broader dale.
They were already out of sight, and lost amongst the windings of the
glen, when, looking back, I saw a female form standing beside the
fountain----"

"How, my fair son?" said the Sub-Prior, "beware you jest not with your
present situation!"

"I jest not, father," answered the youth; "it may be I shall never
jest again--surely not for many a day. I saw, I say, the form of a
female clad in white, such as the Spirit which haunts the house of
Avenel is supposed to be. Believe me, my father, for, by heaven and
earth, I say nought but what I saw with these eyes!"

"I believe thee, my son," said the monk; "proceed in thy strange
story."

"The apparition," said Edward Glendinning, "sung, and thus ran her
lay; for, strange as it may seem to you, her words abide by my
remembrance as if they had been sung to me from infancy upward:--

'Thou who seek'st my fountain lone,
With thoughts and hopes thou dar'st not own;
Whose heart within leap'd wildly glad
When most his brow seem'd dark and sad;
Hie thee back, thou find'st not here
Corpse or coffin, grave or bier;
The Dead Alive is gone and fled--
Go thou, and join the Living Dead!

'The Living Dead, whose sober brow
Oft shrouds such thoughts as thou hast now,
Whose hearts within are seldom cured
Of passions by their vows abjured;
Where, under sad and solemn show,
Vain hopes are nursed, wild wishes glow.
Seek the convent's vaulted room,
Prayer and vigil be thy doom;
Doff the green, and don the gray,
To the cloister hence away!'"

"'Tis a wild lay," said the Sub-Prior, "and chanted, I fear me, with
no good end. But we have power to turn the machinations of Satan to
his shame. Edward, thou shalt go with me as thou desirest; thou shalt
prove the life for which I have long thought thee best fitted--thou
shalt aid, my son, this trembling hand of mine to sustain the Holy
Ark, which bold unhallowed men press rashly forward to touch and to
profane.--Wilt thou not first see thy mother?"

"I will see no one," said Edward, hastily; "I will risk nothing that
may shake the purpose of my heart. From Saint Mary's they shall learn
my destination--all of them shall learn it. My mother--Mary Avenel--my
restored and happy brother--they shall all know that Edward lives no
longer to the world to be a clog on their happiness. Mary shall no
longer need to constrain her looks and expressions to coldness because
I am nigh. She shall no longer----"

"My son," said the Sub-Prior, interrupting him, "it is not by looking
back on the vanities and vexations of this world, that we fit
ourselves for the discharge of duties which are not of it. Go, get our
horses ready, and, as we descend the glen together, I will teach thee
the truths through which the fathers and wise men of old had that
precious alchemy, which can convert suffering into happiness."




Chapter the Thirty-Third.


Now, on my faith, this gear is all entangled,
Like to the yarn-clew of the drowsy knitter,
Dragg'd by the frolic kitten through the cabin,
While the good dame sits nodding o'er the fire!
Masters, attend; 'twill crave some skill to clear it.
OLD PLAY.

Edward, with the speed of one who doubts the steadiness of his own
resolution, hastened to prepare the horses for their departure, and at
the same time thanked and dismissed the neighbours who had come to his
assistance, and who were not a little surprised both at the suddenness
of his proposed departure, and at the turn affairs had taken.

"Here's cold hospitality," quoth Dan of the Howlet-hirst to his
comrades; "I trow the Glendinnings may die and come alive right oft,
ere I put foot in stirrup again for the matter."

Martin soothed them by placing food and liquor before them. They ate
sullenly, however, and departed in bad humour.

The joyful news that Halbert Glendinning lived, was quickly
communicated through the sorrowing family. The mother wept and thanked
Heaven alternately; until her habits of domestic economy awakening as
her feelings became calmer, she observed, "It would be an unco task to
mend the yetts, and what were they to do while they were broken in
that fashion? At open doors dogs come in."

Tibb remarked, "She aye thought Halbert was ower gleg at his weapon to
be killed sae easily by ony Sir Piercie of them a'. They might say of
these Southrons as they liked; but they had not the pith and wind of a
canny Scot, when it came to close grips."

On Mary Avenel the impression was inconceivably deeper. She had but
newly learned to pray, and it seemed to her that her prayers had been
instantly answered--that the compassion of Heaven, which she had
learned to implore in the words of Scripture, had descended upon her
after a manner almost miraculous, and recalled the dead from the grave
at the sound of her lamentations. There was a dangerous degree of
enthusiasm in this strain of feeling, but it originated in the purest
devotion.

A silken and embroidered muffler, one of the few articles of more
costly attire which she possessed, was devoted to the purpose of
wrapping up and concealing the sacred volume, which henceforth she was
to regard as her chiefest treasure, lamenting only that, for want of a
fitting interpreter, much must remain to her a book closed and a
fountain sealed. She was unaware of the yet greater danger she
incurred, of putting an imperfect or even false sense upon some of the
doctrines which appeared most comprehensible. But Heaven had provided
against both these hazards.

While Edward was preparing the horses, Christie of the Clinthill again
solicited his orders respecting the reformed preacher, Henry Warden,
and again the worthy monk laboured to reconcile in his own mind the
compassion and esteem which, almost in spite of him, he could not help
feeling for his former companion, with the duty which he owed to the
Church. The unexpected resolution of Edward had removed, he thought,
the chief objection to his being left at Glendearg.

"If I carry this Well-wood, or Warden, to the Monastery." he thought,
"he must die--die in his heresy--perish body and soul. And though such
a measure was once thought advisable, to strike terror into the
heretics, yet such is now their daily increasing strength, that it may
rather rouse them to fury and to revenge. True, he refuses to pledge
himself to abstain from sowing his tares among the wheat; but the
ground here is too barren to receive them. I fear not his making
impression on these poor women, the vassals of the Church, and bred up
in due obedience to her behests. The keen, searching, inquiring, and
bold disposition of Edward, might have afforded fuel to the fire; but
that is removed, and there is nothing left which the flame may catch
to.--Thus shall he have no power to spread his evil doctrines abroad,
and yet his life shall be preserved, and it may be his soul rescued as
a prey from the fowler's net. I will myself contend with him in
argument; for when we studied in common, I yielded not to him, and
surely the cause for which I struggle will support me, were I yet more
weak than I deem myself. Were this man reclaimed from his errors, an
hundred-fold more advantage would arise to the Church from his
spiritual regeneration, than from his temporal death."

Having finished these meditations, in which there was at once goodness
of disposition and narrowness of principle, a considerable portion of
self-opinion, and no small degree of self-delusion, the Sub-Prior
commanded the prisoner to be brought into his presence.

"Henry," he said, "whatever a rigid sense of duty may demand of me,
ancient friendship and Christian compassion forbid me to lead thee to
assured death. Thou wert wont to be generous, though stern and
stubborn in thy resolves; let not thy sense of what thine own thoughts
term duty, draw thee farther than mine have done. Remember, that every
sheep whom thou shalt here lead astray from the fold, will be demanded
in time and through eternity of him who hath left thee the liberty of
doing such evil. I ask no engagement of thee, save that thou remain a
prisoner on thy word at this tower, and wilt appear when summoned."

"Thou hast found an invention to bind my hands," replied the preacher,
"more sure than would have been the heaviest shackles in the prison of
thy convent. I will not rashly do what may endanger thee with thy
unhappy superiors, and I will be the more cautious, because, if we had
farther opportunity of conference, I trust thine own soul may yet be
rescued as a brand from the burning, and that, casting from thee the
livery of Anti-Christ, that trader in human sins and human souls, I
may yet assist thee to lay hold on the Rock of Ages."

The Sub-Prior heard the sentiment, so similar to that which had
occurred to himself, with the same kindly feelings with which the
game-cock hears and replies to the challenge of his rival.

"I bless God and Our Lady," said he, drawing himself up, "that my
faith is already anchored on that Rock on which Saint Peter founded
his Church."

"It is a perversion of the text," said the eager Henry Warden,
"grounded on a vain play upon words--a most idle paronomasia."

The controversy would have been rekindled, and in all probability--for
what can insure the good temper and moderation of polemics?--might
have ended in the preacher's being transported a captive to the
Monastery, had not Christie of the Clinthill observed that it was
growing late, and that he, having to descend the glen, which had no
good reputation, cared not greatly for travelling there after sunset.
The Sub-Prior, therefore, stifled his desire of argument, and again
telling the preacher, that he trusted to his gratitude and generosity,
he bade him farewell.

"Be assured, my old friend," replied Warden, "that no willing act of
mine shall be to thy prejudice. But if my Master shall place work
before me, I must obey God rather than man."

These two men, both excellent from natural disposition and acquired
knowledge, had more points of similarity than they themselves would
have admitted. In truth, the chief distinction betwixt them was, that
the Catholic, defending a religion which afforded little interest to
the feelings, had, in his devotion to the cause he espoused, more of
the head than of the heart, and was politic, cautious, and artful;
while the Protestant, acting under the strong impulse of more
lately-adopted conviction, and feeling, as he justly might, a more
animated confidence in his cause, was enthusiastic, eager, and
precipitate in his desire to advance it. The priest would have been
contented to defend, the preacher aspired to conquer; and, of course,
the impulse by which the latter was governed, was more active and more
decisive. They could not part from each other without a second
pressure of hands, and each looked in the face of his old companion,
as he bade him adieu, with a countenance strongly expressive of
sorrow, affection, and pity.

Father Eustace then explained briefly to Dame Glendinning, that this
person was to be her guest for some days, forbidding her and her whole
household, under high spiritual censures, to hold any conversation
with him on religious subjects, but commanding her to attend to his
wants in all other particulars.

"May Our Lady forgive me, reverend father," said Dame Glendinning,
somewhat dismayed at this intelligence, "but I must needs say, that
ower mony guests have been the ruin of mony a house, and I trow they
will bring down Glendearg. First came the Lady of Avenel--(her soul be
at rest--she meant nae ill)--but she brought with her as mony bogles
and fairies, as hae kept the house in care ever since, sae that we
have been living as it were in a dream. And then came that English
knight, if it please you, and if he hasna killed my son outright, he
has chased him aff the gate, and it may be lang eneugh ere I see him
again--forby the damage done to outer door and inner door. And now
your reverence has given me the charge of a heretic, who, it is like,
may bring the great horned devil himself down upon us all; and they
say that it is neither door nor window will serve him, but he will
take away the side of the auld tower along with him. Nevertheless,
reverend father, your pleasure is doubtless to be done to our power."

"Go to, woman," said the Sub-Prior; "send for workmen from the
clachan, and let them charge the expense of their repairs to the
Community, and I will give the treasurer warrant to allow them.
Moreover, in settling the rental mails, and feu-duties, thou shalt
have allowance for the trouble and charges to which thou art now put,
and I will cause strict search to be made after thy son."

The dame curtsied deep and low at each favourable expression; and when
the Sub-Prior had done speaking, she added her farther hope that the
Sub-Prior would hold some communing with her gossip the Miller,
concerning the fate of his daughter, and expound to him that the
chance had by no means happened through any negligence on her part.

"I sair doubt me, father," she said, "whether Mysie finds her way back
to the Mill in a hurry; but it was all her father's own fault that let
her run lamping about the country, riding on bare-backed naigs, and
never settling to do a turn of wark within doors, unless it were to
dress dainties at dinner-time for his ain kyte."

"You remind me, dame, of another matter of urgency," said Father
Eustace; "and, God knows, too many of them press on me at this moment.
This English knight must be sought out, and explanation given to him
of these most strange chances. The giddy girl must also be recovered.
If she hath suffered in reputation by this unhappy mistake, I will not
hold myself innocent of the disgrace. Yet how to find them out I know
not."

"So please you," said Christie of the Clinthill, "I am willing to take
the chase, and bring them back by fair means or foul; for though you
have always looked as black as night at me, whenever we have
forgathered, yet I have not forgotten that had it not been for you, my
neck would have kend the weight of my four quarters. If any man can
track the tread of them, I will say in the face of both Merse and
Teviotdale, and take the Forest to boot, I am that man. But first I
have matters to treat of on my master's score, if you will permit me
to ride down the glen with you."

"Nay, but my friend," said the Sub-Prior, "thou shouldst remember I
have but slender cause to trust thee for a companion through a place
so solitary."

"Tush! tush!" said the Jackman, "fear me not; I had the worst too
surely to begin that sport again. Besides, have I not said a dozen of
times, I owe you a life? and when I owe a man either a good turn or a
bad, I never fail to pay it sooner or later. Moreover, beshrew me if I
care to go alone down the glen, or even with my troopers, who are,
every loon of them, as much devil's bairns as myself; whereas, if your
reverence, since that is the word, take beads and psalter, and I come
along with jack and spear, you will make the devils take the air, and
I will make all human enemies take the earth."

Edward here entered, and told his reverence that his horse was
prepared. At this instant his eye caught his mother's, and the
resolution which he had so strongly formed was staggered when he
recollected the necessity of bidding her farewell. The Sub-Prior saw
his embarrassment, and came to his relief.

"Dame," said he, "I forgot to mention that your son Edward goes with
me to Saint Mary's, and will not return for two or three days."

"You'll be wishing to help him to recover his brother? May the saints
reward your kindness!"

The Sub-Prior returned the benediction which, in this instance, he had
not very well deserved, and he and Edward set forth on their route.
They were presently followed by Christie, who came up with his
followers at such a speedy pace, as intimated sufficiently that his
wish to obtain spiritual convoy through the glen, was extremely
sincere. He had, however, other matters to stimulate his speed, for he
was desirous to communicate to the Sub-Prior a message from his master
Julian, connected with the delivery of the prisoner Warden; and having
requested the Sub-Prior to ride with him a few yards before Edward,
and the troopers of his own party, he thus addressed him, sometimes
interrupting his discourse in a manner testifying that his fear of
supernatural beings was not altogether lulled to rest by his
confidence in the sanctity of his fellow-traveller.

"My master," said the rider, "deemed he had sent you an acceptable
gift in that old heretic preacher; but it seems, from the slight care
you have taken of him, that you make small account of the boon."

"Nay," said the Sub-Prior, "do not thus judge of it. The Community
must account highly of the service, and will reward it to thy master in
goodly fashion. But this man and I are old friends, and I trust to bring
him back from the paths of perdition."

"Nay," said the moss-trooper, "when I saw you shake hands at the
beginning I counted that you would fight it all out in love and
honour, and that there would be no extreme dealings betwixt ye--
however it is all one to my master--Saint Mary! what call you yon, Sir
Monk?"

"The branch of a willow streaming across the path betwixt us and the
sky."

"Beshrew me," said Christie, "if it looked not like a man's hand
holding a sword.--But touching my master, he, like a prudent man, hath
kept himself aloof in these broken times, until he could see with
precision what footing he was to stand upon. Right tempting offers he
hath had from the Lords of Congregation, whom you call heretics; and
at one time he was minded, to be plain with you, to have taken their
way--for he was assured that the Lord James [Footnote: Lord James
Stewart, afterwards the Regent Murray.] was coming this road at the
head of a round body of cavalry. And accordingly Lord James did so far
reckon upon him, that he sent this man Warden, or whatsoever be his
name, to my master's protection, as an assured friend; and, moreover,
with tidings that he himself was marching hitherward at the head of a
strong body of horse."

"Now, Our Lady forfend!" said the Sub-Prior.

"Amen!" answered Christie, in some trepidation, "did your reverence
see aught?"

"Nothing whatever," replied the monk; "it was thy tale which wrested
from me that exclamation."

"And it was some cause," replied he of the Clinthill, "for if Lord
James should come hither, your Halidome would smoke for it. But be of
good cheer--that expedition is ended before it was begun. The Baron of
Avenel had sure news that Lord James has been fain to march westward
with his merry-men, to protect Lord Semple against Cassilis and the
Kennedies. By my faith, it will cost him a brush; for wot ye what
they say of that name,--