ving, the wine was Bacharac, of the first vintage, and great age.

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Ay," said the poor lay brother," it came out of the nook which old Brother Nicholas, (may his soul be happy,) was wont to call Abbot Ingelram's corner; and Abbot Ingelram was bred at the Convent of Wurtzburg, which I understand to be near where that choice wine grows."

"True, my reverend sir," said Sir Halbert; " and therefore I entreat my brother and you to pledge 'me in a cup of this orthodox vintage."

The thin old porter looked with a wishful glance towards the Abbot. "Do Veniam," said his Superior; and the old man seized, with a trembling hand, a beverage to which he had been long unaccustomed, drained the cup with protracted delight, as if dwelling on the flavour and perfume, and set it down with a melancholy smile and shake of the head, as if bidding adieu in future to such delicious potations. The brothers smiled. But when Sir Halbert motioned to the Abbot to take up his cup and do him reason, the Abbot, in turn, shook his head, and replied-" This is no day for the Abbot of Saint Mary's to eat the fat and drink the sweet. In water from our Lady's well," he added, filling a cup with the limpid element, "I wish you, my brother, all happiness, and, above all, a true sight of your spiritual errors."

"And to you, my beloved Edward,” replied

Glendinning, "I wish the free exercise of your own free reason, and the discharge of more important duties than are connected with the idle name which you have so rashly assumed."

The brothers parted with deep regret; and yet, each confident in his opinion, felt somewhat relieved by the absence of one whom he respected so much, and with whom he could agree so little.

Soon afterwards the sound of the Knight of Avenel's trumpets were heard, and the Abbot went to the top of a tower, from whose dismantled battlements he could soon see the horsemen ascending the rising ground in the direction of the drawbridge. As he gazed, Magdalen Græme came to his side.

"Thou art come," he said, "to catch the last glimpse of thy grandson, my sister. Yonder he wends, under the charge of the best knight in Scotland, his faith ever excepted."

"Thou canst bear witness, my father, that it was no wish either of mine or of Roland's," replied the matron," which induced the Knight of Avenel, as he is called, again to entertain my grandson in his househould-Heaven, which confounds the wise with their own wisdom, and the wicked with their own policy, hath placed him where, for the service of the Church, I would most wish him to be."

"I know not what you mean, my sister," said the Abbot.

"Reverend father," replied Magdalen, "hast thou never heard that there are spirits powerful to rend the walls of a castle asunder when once admitted, which yet cannot enter the house unless they are invited, nay, dragged over the threshold? Twice hath Roland Græme been thus drawn into the household of Avenel by those who now hold the title. Let them look to the issue."

So saying, she left the turret; and the Abbot, after pausing a moment on her words, which he imputed to the unsettled state of her mind, followed down the winding stair to celebrate his admission to his high office by fast and prayer, instead of revelling and thanksgiving.

CHAPTER XVI.

Youth! thou wear'st to manhood now,

Darker lip and darker brow,

Statelier step, more pensive mien

In thy face and gait are seen :

Thou must now brook midnight watches,

Take thy food and sport by snatches;

For the gambol and the jest,

Thou wert wont to love the best,

Graver follies must thou follow,

But as senseless, false, and hollow.

Life, a Poem.

YOUNG ROLAND GREME now trotted gaily forward in the train of Sir Halbert Glendinning. He was relieved from his most galling apprehension, the encounter of the scorn and taunt which might possibly hail his immediate return to the Castle of Avenel. There will be a change ere they see me again, he thought to himself; I shall wear the coat of plate instead of the buff jerkin, and the steel morion for the bonnet and feather. They will be bold that may venture to break a gibe on the man-at-arms for the follies of the page; and I trust, that ere we return I shall have done something more worthy of note, than hallooing a hound

after a deer, or scrambling a crag for a kite's nest. He could not, indeed, help marvelling that his grandmother, with all her religious prejudices, leaning it would seem to the other side, had consented so readily to his re-entering the service of the House of Avenel; and yet more, at the mysterious joy with which she took leave of him at the Abbey.

"Heaven," said the dame, as she kissed her young relation, and bade him farewell, "works its own work, even by the hands of those of our enemies who think themselves the strongest and the wisest. Thou, my child, be ready to act upon the call of thy religion and country; and remember, each earthly bond which thou canst form is, compared to the ties which bind thee to them, like the loose flax to the twisted cable. Thou hast not forgot the face or form of the damsel Catherine Seyton ?"

Roland would have replied in the negative, but the word seemed to stick in his throat, and Magdalen continued her exhortations.

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Thou must not forget her, my son; and here I entrust thee with a token, which I trust thou wilt speedily find an opportunity of delivering with care and secrecy into her own hand."

She put here into Roland's hand a very small packet, of which she again enjoined him to take the strictest care, and to suffer it to be seen by no