United States or Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The female coloured deeply, and returned to her seat. "And what strangers hast thou brought with thee, Christie, that stand yonder like two stone statues?" said the Baron. "The taller," answered Christie, "is, so please you, a young fellow called Halbert Glendinning, the eldest son of the old widow at Glendearg." "What brings him here?" said the Baron; "hath he any message from Mary Avenel?"
The crafty Lethington, the deep and dark Morton, have held secret council with me, and Grange and Lindsay have owned, that in the field I did the devoir of a gallant knight but let the emergence be passed when they need my head and hand, and they only know me as son of the obscure portioner of Glendearg."
"Martin should keep a well-scrapit tongue in his head," said Elspeth, "and not slander the kin of any body that quarters at Glendearg; forby, that Sir Piercie Shafton is much respected with the holy fathers of the community, and they will make up to us ony fasherie that we may have with him, either by good word or good deed, I'se warrant them. He is a considerate lord the Lord Abbot."
And wherefore should he not keep a high head? They that ettle to the top of the ladder will at least get up some rounds. While Martin returned to Glendearg with the venison, Halbert prosecuted his walk, breathing more easily since he was free of his companion.
These had long since passed from them into other hands, but they still enjoyed an ancient Barony of considerable extent, not very far from the patrimony of Saint Mary's, and lying upon the same side of the river with the narrow vale of Glendearg, at the head of which was the little tower of the Glendinnings.
A circumstance so very extraordinary had never been recorded in the annals of Saint Mary's, or in the traditions of Glendearg, though there was a faint legendary report that a certain Abbot had dined there in old days, after having been bewildered in a hunting expedition amongst the wilds which lie to the northward.
The report soon spread through the patrimony of Saint Mary's and its vicinity, that the Mistress of Glendearg had received assurance from the English Captain, and that her cattle were not to be driven off, or her corn burned.
"I mean," answered Dame Glendinning, "that it was brought back to the tower of Glendearg, the saints best know how that same book which Father Philip carried with him but yesterday. Old Martin, that is my tasker and the lady's servant, was driving out the cows to the pasture for we have three good milk-cows, reverend father, blessed be Saint Waldave, and thanks to the holy Monastery "
"Ay, but at the expense of our friends this butterfly may fold his wings, and lie under cover in the cold air of Glendearg; but were he at Holyrood, he would, did his life depend on it, expand his spangled drapery in the eyes of the queen and court Rather than fail of distinction, he would sue for love to our gracious sovereign the eyes of all men would be upon him in the course of three short days, and the international peace of the two ends of the island endangered for a creature, who, like a silly moth, cannot abstain from fluttering round a light."
He retired therefore to his cell, to try how far psalmody might be able to drive off the sounds of the syren tune which haunted his memory. Meanwhile, Father Eustace proceeded to the drawbridge, in his way to the lonely valley of Glendearg. In a brief conversation with the churlish warder, he had the address to render him more tractable in the controversy betwixt him and the convent.
Word Of The Day