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The Abbot

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From haunted spring and grassy ring,
Troop goblin, elf, and fairy;
And the kelpie must flit from the black bog-pit,
And the brownie must not tarry;
To Limbo-lake,
Their way they take,
With scarce the pith to flee.
Sing hay trix, trim-go-trix,
Under the greenwood tree.

"I think," he added, "that could Sir Halbert's patience have stretched
till we came that length, he would have had a hearty laugh, and that
is what he seldom enjoys."

"If it be all true that men tell of his early life," said Roland, "he
has less right to laugh at goblins than most men."

"Ay, _if_ it be all true," answered Adam Woodcock; "but who can
ensure us of that? Moreover, these were but tales the monks used to
gull us simple laymen withal; they knew that fairies and hobgoblins
brought aves and paternosters into repute; but, now we have given up
worship of images in wood and stone, methinks it were no time to be
afraid of bubbles in the water, or shadows in the air."

"However," said Roland Graeme, "as the Catholics say they do not
worship wood or stone, but only as emblems of the holy saints, and not
as things holy in themselves----"

"Pshaw! pshaw!" answered the falconer; "a rush for their prating.
They told us another story when these baptized idols of theirs brought
pike-staves and sandalled shoon from all the four winds, and whillied
the old women out of their corn and their candle ends, and their
butter, bacon, wool, and cheese, and when not so much as a gray groat
escaped tithing."

Roland Graeme had been long taught, by necessity, to consider his form
of religion as a profound secret, and to say nothing whatever in its
defence when assailed, lest he should draw on himself the suspicion of
belonging to the unpopular and exploded church. He therefore suffered
Adam Woodcock to triumph without farther opposition, marvelling in his
own mind whether any of the goblins, formerly such active agents,
would avenge his rude raillery before they left the valley of
Glendearg. But no such consequences followed. They passed the night
quietly in a cottage in the glen, and the next day resumed their route
to Edinburgh.




Chapter the Seventeenth.


Edina! Scotia's darling seat,
All hail thy palaces and towers,
Where once, beneath a monarch's feet,
Sate legislation's sovereign powers.
BURNS.

"This, then, is Edinburgh?" said the youth, as the fellow-travellers
arrived at one of the heights to the southward, which commanded a view
of the great northern capital--"This is that Edinburgh of which we
have heard so much!"

"Even so," said the falconer; "yonder stands Auld Reekie--you may see
the smoke hover over her at twenty miles' distance, as the gosshawk
hangs over a plump of young wild-ducks--ay, yonder is the heart of
Scotland, and each throb that she gives is felt from the edge of
Solway to Duncan's-bay-head. See, yonder is the old Castle; and see
to the right, on yon rising ground, that is the Castle of Craigmillar,
which I have known a merry place in my time."

"Was it not there," said the page in a low voice, "that the Queen held
her court?"

"Ay, ay," replied the falconer, "Queen she was then, though you must
not call her so now. Well, they may say what they will--many a true
heart will be sad for Mary Stewart, e'en if all be true men say of
her; for look you, Master Roland--she was the loveliest creature to
look upon that I ever saw with eye, and no lady in the land liked
better the fair flight of a falcon. I was at the great match on Roslin
Moor betwixt Bothwell--he was a black sight to her that Bothwell--and
the Baron of Roslin, who could judge a hawk's flight as well as any
man in Scotland--a butt of Rhenish and a ring of gold was the wager,
and it was flown as fairly for as ever was red gold and bright wine.
And to see her there on her white palfrey, that flew as if it scorned
to touch more than the heather blossom; and to hear her voice, as
clear and sweet as the mavis's whistle, mix among our jolly whooping
and whistling; and to mark all the nobles dashing round her; happiest
he who got a word or a look--tearing through moss and hagg, and
venturing neck and limb to gain the praise of a bold rider, and the
blink of a bonny Queen's bright eye!--she will see little hawking
where she lies now--ay, ay, pomp and pleasure pass away as speedily as
the wap of a falcon's wing."

"And where is this poor Queen now confined?" said Roland Graeme,
interested in the fate of a woman whose beauty and grace had made so
strong an impression even on the blunt and careless character of Adam
Woodcock.

"Where is she now imprisoned?" said honest Adam; "why, in some castle
in the north, they say--I know not where, for my part, nor is it worth
while to vex one's sell anent what cannot be mended--An she had guided
her power well whilst she had it, she had not come to so evil a pass.
Men say she must resign her crown to this little baby of a prince, for
that they will trust her with it no longer. Our master has been as
busy as his neighbours in all this work. If the Queen should come to
her own again, Avenel Castle is like to smoke for it, unless he makes
his bargain all the better." "In a castle in the north Queen Mary is
confined?" said the page. "Why, ay--they say so, at least--In a
castle beyond that great river which comes down yonder, and looks like
a river, but it is a branch of the sea, and as bitter as brine."

"And amongst all her subjects," said the page, with some emotion, "is
there none that will adventure anything for her relief?"

"That is a kittle question," said the falconer; "and if you ask it
often, Master Roland, I am fain to tell you that you will be mewed up
yourself in some of those castles, if they do not prefer twisting your
head off, to save farther trouble with you--Adventure any thing? Lord,
why, Murray has the wind in his poop now, man, and flies so high and
strong, that the devil a wing of them can match him--No, no; there she
is, and there she must lie, till Heaven send her deliverance, or till
her son has the management of all--But Murray will never let her loose
again, he knows her too well.--And hark thee, we are now bound for
Holyrood, where thou wilt find plenty of news, and of courtiers to
tell it--But, take my counsel, and keep a calm sough, as the Scots
say--hear every man's counsel, and keep your own. And if you hap to
learn any news you like, leap not up as if you were to put on armour
direct in the cause--Our old Mr. Wingate says--and he knows
court-cattle well--that if you are told old King Coul is come alive
again, you should turn it off with, 'And is he in truth?--I heard not
of it,' and should seem no more moved, than if one told you, by way of
novelty, that old King Coul was dead and buried. Wherefore, look well
to your bearing, Master Roland, for, I promise you, you come among a
generation that are keen as a hungry hawk--And never be dagger out of
sheath at every wry word you hear spoken; for you will find as hot
blades as yourself, and then will be letting of blood without advice
either of leech or almanack."

"You shall see how staid I will be, and how cautious, my good friend,"
said Graeme; "but, blessed Lady, what goodly house is that which is
lying all in ruins so close to the city? Have they been playing at the
Abbot of Unreason here, and ended the gambol by burning the church?"

"There again now," replied his companion, "you go down the wind like a
wild haggard, that minds neither lure nor beck--that is a question you
should have asked in as low a tone as I shall answer it."

"If I stay here long," said Roland Graeme, "it is like I shall lose
the natural use of my voice--but what are the ruins then?"

"The Kirk of Field," said the falconer, in a low and impressive
whisper, laying at the same time his finger on his lip; "ask no more
about it--somebody got foul play, and somebody got the blame of it;
and the game began there which perhaps may not be played out in our
time.--Poor Henry Darnley! to be an ass, he understood somewhat of a
hawk; but they sent him on the wing through the air himself one bright
moonlight night."

The memory of this catastrophe was so recent, that the page averted
his eyes with horror from the scathed ruins in which it had taken
place; and the accusations against the Queen, to which it had given
rise, came over his mind with such strength as to balance the
compassion he had begun to entertain for her present forlorn
situation.

It was, indeed, with that agitating state of mind which arises partly
from horror, but more from anxious interest and curiosity, that young
Graeme found himself actually traversing the scene of those tremendous
events, the report of which had disturbed the most distant solitudes
in Scotland, like the echoes of distant thunder rolling among the
mountains.

"Now," he thought, "now or never shall I become a man, and bear my
part in those deeds which the simple inhabitants of our hamlets repeat
to each other, as if they were wrought by beings of a superior order
to their own. I will know now, wherefore the Knight of Avenel carries
his crest so much above those of the neighbouring baronage, and how it
is that men, by valour and wisdom, work their way from the hoddin-gray
coat to the cloak of scarlet and gold. Men say I have not much wisdom
to recommend me; and if that be true, courage must do it; for I will
be a man amongst living men, or a dead corpse amongst the dead."

From these dreams of ambition he turned his thoughts to those of
pleasure, and began to form many conjectures, when and where he should
see Catherine Seyton, and in what manner their acquaintance was to be
renewed. With such conjectures he was amusing himself, when he found
that they had entered the city, and all other feelings were suspended
in the sensation of giddy astonishment with which an inhabitant of the
country is affected, when, for the first time, he finds himself in the
streets of a large and populous city, a unit in the midst of
thousands.

The principal street of Edinburgh was then, as now, one of the most
spacious in Europe. The extreme height of the houses, and the variety
of Gothic gables and battlements, and balconies, by which the sky-line
on each side was crowned and terminated, together with the width of
the street itself, might have struck with surprise a more practised
eye than that of young Graeme. The population, close packed within the
walls of the city, and at this time increased by the number of the
lords of the King's party who had thronged to Edinburgh to wait upon
the Regent Murray, absolutely swarmed like bees on the wide and
stately street. Instead of the shop-windows, which are now calculated
for the display of goods, the traders had their open booths projecting
on the street, in which, as in the fashion of the modern bazaars, all
was exposed which they had upon sale. And though the commodities were
not of the richest kinds, yet Graeme thought he beheld the wealth of
the whole world in the various bales of Flanders cloths, and the
specimens of tapestry; and, at other places, the display of domestic
utensils and pieces of plate struck him with wonder. The sight of
cutlers' booths, furnished with swords and poniards, which were
manufactured in Scotland, and with pieces of defensive armour,
imported from Flanders, added to his surprise; and, at every step, he
found so much to admire and gaze upon, that Adam Woodcock had no
little difficulty in prevailing on him to advance through such a scene
of enchantment.

The sight of the crowds which filled the streets was equally a subject
of wonder. Here a gay lady, in her muffler, or silken veil, traced her
way delicately, a gentleman-usher making way for her, a page bearing
up her train, and a waiting gentlewoman carrying her Bible, thus
intimating that her purpose was towards the church--There he might see
a group of citizens bending the same way, with their short Flemish
cloaks, wide trowsers, and high-caped doublets, a fashion to which, as
well as to their bonnet and feather, the Scots were long faithful.
Then, again, came the clergyman himself, in his black Geneva cloak and
band, lending a grave and attentive ear to the discourse of several
persons who accompanied him, and who were doubtless holding serious
converse on the religious subject he was about to treat of. Nor did
there lack passengers of a different class and appearance.

At every turn, Roland Graeme might see a gallant ruffle along in the
newer or French mode, his doublet slashed, and his points of the same
colours with the lining, his long sword on one side, and his poniard
on the other, behind him a body of stout serving men, proportioned to
his estate and quality, all of whom walked with the air of military
retainers, and were armed with sword and buckler, the latter being a
small round shield, not unlike the Highland target, having a steel
spike in the centre. Two of these parties, each headed by a person of
importance, chanced to meet in the very centre of the street, or, as
it was called, "the crown of the cause-way," a post of honour as
tenaciously asserted in Scotland, as that of giving or taking the wall
used to be in the more southern part of the island. The two leaders
being of equal rank, and, most probably, either animated by political
dislike, or by recollection of some feudal enmity, marched close up to
each other, without yielding an inch to the right or the left; and
neither showing the least purpose of giving way, they stopped for an
instant, and then drew their swords. Their followers imitated their
example; about a score of weapons at once flashed in the sun, and
there was an immediate clatter of swords and bucklers, while the
followers on either side cried their master's name; the one shouting
"Help, a Leslie! a Leslie!" while the others answered with shouts of
"Seyton! Seyton!" with the additional punning slogan, "Set on, set
on--bear the knaves to the ground!"

If the falconer found difficulty in getting the page to go forward
before, it was now perfectly impossible. He reined up his horse,
clapped his hands, and, delighted with the fray, cried and shouted as
fast as any of those who were actually engaged in it.

The noise and cries thus arising on the Highgate, as it was called,
drew into the quarrel two or three other parties of gentlemen and
their servants, besides some single passengers, who, hearing a fray
betwixt these two distinguished names, took part in it, either for
love or hatred.

The combat became now very sharp, and although the sword-and-buckler
men made more clatter and noise than they did real damage, yet several
good cuts were dealt among them; and those who wore rapiers, a more
formidable weapon than the ordinary Scottish swords, gave and received
dangerous wounds. Two men were already stretched on the causeway, and
the party of Seyton began to give ground, being much inferior in
number to the other, with which several of the citizens had united
themselves, when young Roland Graeme, beholding their leader, a noble
gentleman, fighting bravely, and hard pressed with numbers, could
withhold no longer. "Adam Woodcock," he said, "an you be a man, draw,
and let us take part with the Seyton." And, without waiting a reply,
or listening to the falconer's earnest entreaty, that he would leave
alone a strife in which he had no concern, the fiery youth sprung from
his horse, drew his short sword, and shouting like the rest, "A
Seyton! a Seyton! Set on! set on!" thrust forward into the throng, and
struck down one of those who was pressing hardest upon the gentleman
whose cause he espoused. This sudden reinforcement gave spirit to the
weaker party, who began to renew the combat with much alacrity, when
four of the magistrates of the city, distinguished by their velvet
cloaks and gold chains, came up with a guard of halberdiers and
citizens, armed with long weapons, and well accustomed to such
service, thrust boldly forward, and compelled the swordsmen to
separate, who immediately retreated in different directions, leaving
such of the wounded on both sides, as had been disabled in the fray,
lying on the street.

The falconer, who had been tearing his beard for anger at his
comrade's rashness, now rode up to him with the horse which he had
caught by the bridle, and accosted him with "Master Roland--master
goose--master mad-cap--will it please you to get on horse, and budge?
or will you remain here to be carried to prison, and made to answer
for this pretty day's work?"

The page, who had begun his retreat along with the Seytons, just as if
he had been one of their natural allies, was by this unceremonious
application made sensible that he was acting a foolish part; and,
obeying Adam Woodcock with some sense of shame, he sprung actively on
horseback, and upsetting with the shoulder of the animal a
city-officer, who was making towards him, he began to ride smartly
down the street, along with his companion, and was quickly out of the
reach of the hue and cry. In fact, rencounters of the kind were so
common in Edinburgh at that period, that the disturbance seldom
excited much attention after the affray was over, unless some person
of consequence chanced to have fallen, an incident which imposed on
his friends the duty of avenging his death on the first convenient
opportunity. So feeble, indeed, was the arm of the police, that it was
not unusual for such skirmishes to last for hours, where the parties
were numerous and well matched. But at this time the Regent, a man of
great strength of character, aware of the mischief which usually arose
from such acts of violence, had prevailed with the magistrates to keep
a constant guard on foot for preventing or separating such affrays as
had happened in the present case.

The falconer and his young companion were now riding down the
Canongate, and had slackened their pace to avoid attracting attention,
the rather that there seemed to be no appearance of pursuit. Roland
hung his head as one who was conscious his conduct had been none of
the wisest, whilst his companion thus addressed him:

"Will you be pleased to tell me one thing, Master Roland Graeme, and
that is, whether there be a devil incarnate in you or no?"

"Truly, Master Adam Woodcock," answered the page, "I would fain
hope there is not."

"Then," said Adam, "I would fain know by what other influence or
instigation you are perpetually at one end or the other of some bloody
brawl? What, I pray, had you to do with these Seytons and Leslies,
that you never heard the names of in your life before?"

"You are out there, my friend," said Roland Graeme, "I have my own
reasons for being a friend to the Seytons."

"They must have been very secret reasons then," answered Adam
Woodcock, "for I think I could have wagered, you had never known one
of the name; and I am apt to believe still, that it was your
unhallowed passion for that clashing of cold iron, which has as much
charm for you as the clatter of a brass pan hath for a hive of bees,
rather than any care either for Seyton or for Leslie, that persuaded
you to thrust your fool's head into a quarrel that no ways concerned
you. But take this for a warning, my young master, that if you are to
draw sword with every man who draws sword on the Highgate here, it
will be scarce worth your while to sheathe bilbo again for the rest of
your life, since, if I guess rightly, it will scarce endure on such
terms for many hours--all which I leave to your serious
consideration."

"By my word, Adam, I honour your advice; and I promise you, that I
will practise by it as faithfully as if I were sworn apprentice to
you, to the trade and mystery of bearing myself with all wisdom and
safety through the new paths of life that I am about to be engaged
in."

"And therein you will do well," said the falconer; "and I do not
quarrel with you, Master Roland, for having a grain over much spirit,
because I know one may bring to the hand a wild hawk which one never
can a dung-hill hen--and so betwixt two faults you have the best
on't. But besides your peculiar genius for quarrelling and lugging out
your side companion, my dear Master Roland, you have also the gift of
peering under every woman's muffler and screen, as if you expected to
find an old acquaintance. Though were you to spy one, I should be as
much surprised at it, well wotting how few you have seen of these same
wild-fowl, as I was at your taking so deep an interest even now in the
Seyton."

"Tush, man! nonsense and folly," answered Roland Graeme, "I but
sought to see what eyes these gentle hawks have got under their hood."

"Ay, but it's a dangerous subject of inquiry," said the falconer; "you
had better hold out your bare wrist for an eagle to perch upon.--Look
you, Master Roland, these pretty wild-geese cannot be hawked at
without risk--they have as many divings, boltings, and volleyings, as
the most gamesome quarry that falcon ever flew at--And besides, every
woman of them is manned with her husband, or her kind friend, or her
brother, or her cousin, or her sworn servant at the least--But you
heed me not, Master Roland, though I know the game so well--your eye
is all on that pretty damsel who trips down the gate before us--by my
certes, I will warrant her a blithe dancer either in reel or revel--a
pair of silver morisco bells would become these pretty ankles as well
as the jesses would suit the fairest Norway hawk."

"Thou art a fool, Adam," said the page, "and I care not a button about
the girl or her ankles--But, what the foul fiend, one must look at
something!"

"Very true, Master Roland Graeme," said his guide, "but let me pray
you to choose your objects better. Look you, there is scarce a woman
walks this High-gate with a silk screen or a pearlin muffler, but, as
I said before, she has either gentleman-usher before her, or kinsman,
or lover, or husband, at her elbow, or it may be a brace of stout
fellows with sword and buckler, not so far behind but what they can
follow close--But you heed me no more than a goss-hawk minds a yellow
yoldring."

"O yes, I do--I do mind you indeed," said Roland Graeme; "but hold my
nag a bit--I will be with you in the exchange of a whistle." So
saying, and ere Adam Woodcock could finish the sermon which was dying
on his tongue, Roland Graeme, to the falconer's utter astonishment,
threw him the bridle of his jennet, jumped off horseback, and pursued
down one of the closes or narrow lanes, which, opening under a vault,
terminate upon the main-street, the very maiden to whom his friend had
accused him of showing so much attention, and who had turned down the
pass in question.

"Saint Mary, Saint Magdalen, Saint Benedict, Saint Barnabas!" said the
poor falconer, when he found himself thus suddenly brought to a pause
in the midst of the Canongate, and saw his young charge start off like
a madman in quest of a damsel whom he had never, as Adam supposed,
seen in his life before,--"Saint Satan and Saint Beelzebub--for this
would make one swear saint and devil--what can have come over the lad,
with a wanion! And what shall I do the whilst!--he will have his
throat cut, the poor lad, as sure as I was born at the foot of
Roseberry-Topping. Could I find some one to hold the horses! but they
are as sharp here north-away as in canny Yorkshire herself, and quit
bridle, quit titt, as we say. An I could but see one of our folks
now, a holly-sprig were worth a gold tassel; or could I but see one of
the Regent's men--but to leave the horses to a stranger, that I
cannot--and to leave the place while the lad is in jeopardy, that I
wonot."

We must leave the falconer, however, in the midst of his distress, and
follow the hot-headed youth who was the cause of his perplexity.

The latter part of Adam Woodcock's sage remonstrance had been in a
great measure lost upon Roland, for whose benefit it was intended;
because, in one of the female forms which tripped along the street,
muffled in a veil of striped silk, like the women of Brussels at this
day, his eye had discerned something which closely resembled the
exquisite shape and spirited bearing of Catherine Seyton.--During all
the grave advice which the falconer was dinning in his ears, his eye
continued intent upon so interesting an object of observation; and at
length, as the damsel, just about to dive under one of the arched
passages which afforded an outlet to the Canongate from the houses
beneath, (a passage, graced by a projecting shield of arms, supported
by two huge foxes of stone,) had lifted her veil for the purpose
perhaps of descrying who the horseman was who for some time had eyed
her so closely, young Roland saw, under the shade of the silken plaid,
enough of the bright azure eyes, fair locks, and blithe features, to
induce him, like an inexperienced and rash madcap, whose wilful ways
never had been traversed by contradiction, nor much subjected to
consideration, to throw the bridle of his horse into Adam Woodcock's
hand, and leave him to play the waiting gentleman, while he dashed
down the paved court after Catherine Seyton--all as aforesaid.

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