Page:Walter Scott - The Monastery (Henry Frowde, 1912).djvu/491

RV 423 (Rh) preacher, Henry Warden, who, upon leaving the monastery, had instantly joined them, was the only person admitted to their conference.

'You are determined, then,' said Morton to Murray, 'to give the heiress of Avenel, with all her pretensions, to this nameless and obscure young man?'

'Hath not Warden told you,' said Murray, 'that they have been bred together, and are lovers from their youth upward?'

'And that they are both,' said Warden, 'by means which may be almost termed miraculous, rescued from the delusions of Rome, and brought within the pale of the true church. My residence at Glendearg hath made me well acquainted with these things. Ill would it beseem my habit and my calling, to thrust myself into match-making and giving in marriage, but worse were it in me to see your lordships do needless wrong to the feelings which are proper to our nature, and which, being indulged honestly and under the restraints of religion, become a pledge of domestic quiet here, and future happiness in a better world. I say, that you will do ill to rend those ties asunder, and to give this maiden to the kinsman of Lord Morton, though Lord Morton's kinsman he be.'

'These are fair reasons, my Lord of Murray,' said Morton, 'why you should refuse me so simple a boon as to bestow this silly damsel upon young Bennygask. Speak out plainly, my lord; say you would rather see the Castle of Avenel in the hands of one who owes his name and existence solely to your favour, than in the power of a Douglas, and of my kinsman.'

'My Lord of Morton,' said Murray, 'I have done nothing in this matter which should aggrieve you. This young man Glendinning has done me good service, and may do me more. My promise was in some degree passed to him, and that while Julian Avenel was alive, when aught beside the maiden's lily hand would have been hard to come by; whereas, you never thought of such an alliance for your kinsman, till you saw Julian lie dead yonder on the field, and knew his land to be a waif free to the first who could seize it. Come, come, my lord, you do less than justice to your gallant kinsman, in wishing him a bride bred up under the