Chapter 11

You call this education, do you not?
Why 'tis the forced march of a herd of bullocks
Before a shouting drover. The glad van
Move on at ease, and pause a while to snatch
A passing morsel from the dewy greensward,
While all the blows, the oaths, the indignation,
Fall on the croupe of the ill-fated laggard
That cripples in the rear.
OLD PLAY.

Two or three years glided on, during which the storm of the
approaching alteration in church government became each day louder and
more perilous. Owing to the circumstances which we have intimated in
the end of the last chapter, the Sub-Prior Eustace appeared to have
altered considerably his habits of life. He afforded, on all
extraordinary occasions, to the Abbot, whether privately, or in the
assembled Chapter, the support of his wisdom and experience; but in
his ordinary habits he seemed now to live more for himself, and less
for the community, than had been his former practice.

He often absented himself for whole days from the convent; and as the
adventure of Glendearg dwelt deeply on his memory, he was repeatedly
induced to visit that lonely tower, and to take an interest in the
orphans who had their shelter under its roof. Besides, he felt a deep
anxiety to know whether the volume which he had lost, when so
strangely preserved from the lance of the murderer, had again found
its way back to the Tower of Glendearg. "It was strange," he thought,
"that a spirit," for such he could not help judging the being whose
voice he had heard, "should, on the one side, seek the advancement of
heresy, and, on the other, interpose to save the life of a zealous
Catholic priest."

But from no inquiry which he made of the various inhabitants of the
Tower of Glendearg could he learn that the copy of the translated
Scriptures, for which he made such diligent inquiry, had again been
seen by any of them.

In the meanwhile, the good father's occasional visits were of no small
consequence to Edward Glendinning and to Mary Avenel. The former
displayed a power of apprehending and retaining whatever was taught
him, which tilled Father Eustace with admiration. He was at once acute
and industrious, alert and accurate; one of those rare combinations of
talent and industry, which are seldom united.

It was the earnest desire of Father Eustace that the excellent
qualities thus early displayed by Edward should be dedicated to the
service of the Church, to which he thought the youth's own consent
might be easily obtained, as he was of a calm, contemplative, retired
habit, and seemed to consider knowledge as the principal object, and
its enlargement as the greatest pleasure, in life. As to the mother,
the Sub-Prior