Page:Walter Scott - The Monastery (Henry Frowde, 1912).djvu/498

RV 430 (Rh) will little avail thee; the days are gone by when Rome's priests were permitted to brave noblemen with impunity. Give us up this Piercie Shafton, or by my father's crest I will set thy abbey in a bright flame!'

'And if thou dost, Lord of Morton, its ruins will tumble above the tombs of thine own ancestors. Be the issue as God wills, the Abbot of Saint Mary's gives up no one whom he hath promised to protect.'

'Abbot!' said Murray, 'bethink thee ere we are driven to deal roughly. The hands of these men,' he said, pointing to the soldiers, 'will make wild work among shrines and cells, if we are compelled to undertake a search for this Englishman.'

'Ye shall not need,' said a voice from the crowd; and, advancing gracefully before the Earls, the Euphuist flung from him the mantle in which he was muffled. 'Via the cloud that shadowed Shafton!' said he; 'behold, my lords, the Knight of Wil ver ton, who spares you the guilt of violence and sacrilege.'

'I protest before God and man against any infraction of the privileges of this house,' said the abbot, 'by an attempt to impose violent hands upon the person of this noble knight. If there be yet spirit in a Scottish Parliament, we will make you hear of this elsewhere, my lords!'

'Spare your threats,' said Murray; 'it may be, my purpose with Sir Piercie Shafton is not such as thou dost suppose. Attach him, pursuivant, as our prisoner, rescue or no rescue.'

'I yield myself,' said the Euphuist, 'reserving my right to defy my Lord of Murray and my Lord of Morton to single duel, even as one gentleman may demand satisfaction of another.'

'You shall not want those who will answer your challenge, sir knight,' replied Morton, 'without aspiring to men above thine own degree.'

'And where am I to find these superlative champions,' said the English knight, 'whose blood runs more pure than that of Piercie Shafton?'

'Here is a flight for you, my lord!' said Murray.

'As ever was flown by a wild goose,' said Stawarth Bolton, who had now approached to the front of the party.