Chapter 31

At school I knew him--a sharp-witted youth,
Grave, thoughtful, and reserved among his mates,
Turning the hours of sport and food to labour,
Starving his body to inform his mind.
OLD PLAY.

The Sub-Prior, at the Borderer's request, had not failed to
return to the tower, into which he was followed by Christie of
the Clinthill, who, shutting the door of the apartment, drew near,
and began his discourse with great confidence and familiarity.

"My master," he said, "sends me with his commendations to you, Sir
Sub-Prior, above all the community of Saint Mary's, and more specially
than even to the Abbot himself; for though he be termed my lord, and
so forth, all the world knows that you are the tongue of the trump."

"If you have aught to say to me concerning the community," said the
Sub-Prior, "it were well you proceeded in it without farther delay.
Time presses, and the fate of young Glendinnning dwells on my mind."

"I will be caution for him, body for body," said Christie. "I do
protest to you, as sure as I am a living man, so surely is he one."

"Should I not tell his unhappy mother the joyful tidings?" said Father
Eustace,--"and yet better wait till they return from searching the
grave. Well, Sir Jackman, your message to me from your master?"

"My lord and master," said Christie, "hath good reason to believe
that, from the information of certain back friends, whom he will
reward at more leisure, your reverend community hath been led to deem
him ill attached to Holy Church, allied with heretics and those who
favour heresy, and a hungerer after the spoils of your Abbey."

"Be brief, good henchman," said the Sub-Prior, "for the devil is ever
most to be feared when he preacheth."

"Briefly, then--my master desires your friendship; and to excuse
himself from the maligner's calumnies, he sends to your Abbot that
Henry Warden, whose sermons have turned the world upside down, to be
dealt with as Holy Church directs, and as the Abbot's pleasure may
determine."

The Sub-Prior's eyes sparkled at the intelligence; for it had been
accounted a matter of great importance that this man should be
arrested, possessed, as he was known to be, of so much zeal and
popularity, that scarcely the preaching of Knox himself had been more
awakening to the people, and more formidable to the Church of Rome.

In fact, that ancient system, which so well accommodated its doctrines
to the wants and wishes of a barbarous age, had, since the art of
printing, and the gradual diffusion of knowledge, lain floating like
some huge Leviathan, into which ten thousand