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The voice of Dryfesdale replied from within, in his usual tone of embittered sullenness, "The hour is passed, fair master you like not the inside of these walls even make it a complete holiday, and spend the night as well as the day out of bounds." "Open the door," exclaimed the indignant page, "or by Saint Giles I will make thy gold chain smoke for it!"
"Lady," answered Dryfesdale, "as my mistress, I may not dispute your words; but, as spiritually speaking, you are still but a burner of bricks in Egypt, ignorant of the freedom of the saints; for, as was well shown to me by that gifted man, Nicolaus Schoefferbach, who was martyred by the bloody Bishop of Munster, he cannot sin who doth but execute that which is predestined, since "
"Farewell, thou prating and speckled pie," said Dryfesdale, "that art so vain of thine idle tongue and variegated coat! Beware trap and lime-twig."
"Dying, and in my castle!" said the Lady, starting up in alarm; "of what disease, or by what accident?" "Bear patience, Lady. The ministry was mine." "Thine, villain and traitor! how didst thou dare " "I heard you insulted, Lady I heard you demand vengeance I promised you should have it, and I now bring tidings of it." "Dryfesdale, I trust thou ravest?" said the Lady.
"Away, fool!" said the Lady; "send me that hag hither; she shall avouch what it was that she hath given to the wretch Dryfesdale, or the pilniewinks and thumbikins shall wrench it out of her finger joints!" "Art hath no enemy unless the ignorant," said the mortified Doctor; veiling, however, his remark under the Latin version, and stepping apart into a corner to watch the result.
"Hark you, my friend, Mr. Dryfesdale," said Catherine, "I understand this announcement is a nightly form of yours.
"And wherefore?" demanded Dryfesdale, "seeing I come but to do my duty, and inquire what mean the shrieks from the apartment of the Moabitish woman. Wherefore, I say, since such is mine errand, can I not enter?" "Simply," replied the youth, "because the bolt is drawn, and I have no fancy to undo it. I have the right side of the door to-day, as you had last night."
"Not were the walls of the turret of egg-shells, and the lake sheeted ice," said Dryfesdale. "I am well taught, and strong in belief, that man does nought of himself; he is but the foam on the billow, which rises, bubbles, and bursts, not by its own effort, but by the mightier impulse of fate which urges him.
"I would I had good ghostly counsel, though," replied the steward, not attending to his mistress's rebuke, and seeming to speak to himself. "This woman of Moab " "Speak of her with reverence," said the Lady; "she is a king's daughter." "Be it so," replied Dryfesdale; "she goes where there is little difference betwixt her and a beggar's child Mary of Scotland is dying."
"Dryfesdale has been slain, madam," was the reply; "murdered as soon as he gained the dry land by young Master Henry Seyton." It was now Catherine's turn to start and grow pale "Has the murderer of the Douglas's vassal escaped?" was the Lady's hasty question. "Was the deed completed?" said the Lady. There was a pause when this fatal tale was told.
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