The page found his situation not a little embarrassing; for, as every reader has experienced who may have chanced to be in such a situation, it is extremely difficult to maintain the full dignity of an offended person in the presence of a beautiful girl, whatever reason we may have for being angry with her. Catherine Seyton, on her part, sate still like a lingering ghost, which, conscious of the awe which its presence imposes, is charitably disposed to give the poor confused mortal whom it visits, time to recover his senses, and comply with the grand rule of demonology by speaking first. But as Roland seemed in no hurry to avail himself of her condescension, she carried it a step farther, and herself opened the conversation.
'I pray you, fair sir, if it may be permitted me to disturb your august reverie by a question so simple,?what may have become of your rosary?'
'It is lost, madam?lost some time since,' said Roland, partly embarrassed and partly indignant.
'And may I ask farther, sir,' said Catherine, 'why you have not replaced it with another??I have half a mind,' she said, taking from her pocket a string of ebony beads adorned with gold, 'to bestow one upon yon, to keep for my sake, just to remind you of former acquaintance.'
There was a little tremulous accent in the tone with which these words were delivered, which at once put to flight Roland Graeme's resentment, and brought him to Catherine's side; but she instantly resumed the bold and firm accent which was more familiar to her. 'I did not bid you,' she said, 'come and sit so close by me; for the acquaintance that I spoke of, has been stiff and cold, dead and buried, for this many a day.'
'Now Heaven forbid!' said the page, 'it has only slept, and now that you desire it should awake, fair Catherine, believe me that a pledge of your returning favour?'
'Nay, nay,' said Catherine, withholding the rosary, towards which, as he spoke, he extended his hand, 'I have changed my mind on better reflection. What should a heretic do with these holy beads, that have been blessed by the father of the church himself?'
Roland winced grievously, for he saw plainly which way the discourse was now likely to tend, and felt that it must at all events be embarrassing. 'Nay, but,' he said, 'it was as a token of your own regard that you offered them.'
'Ay, fair sir, but that regard attended the faithful subject, the loyal and pious Catholic, the individual who was so solemnly devoted at the same time with myself to the same grand duty; which, you must now understand, was to serve the church and Queen. To such a person, if you ever heard of him, was my regard due, and not to him who associates with heretics, and is about to become a renegado.'
'I should scarce believe, fair mistress,' said Roland, indignantly, 'that the vane of your favour turned only to a Catholic wind, considering that it points so plainly to George Douglas, who, I think, is both kingsman and Protestant.'
'Think better of George Douglas,' said Catherine, 'than to believe?' and then checking herself, as if she had spoken too much, she went on, 'I assure you, fair Master Roland, that all who wish you well are sorry for you.'
'Their number is very few, I believe,' answered Roland, 'and their sorrow, if they feel any, not deeper than ten minutes' time will cure.'
'They are more numerous, and think more deeply concerning you, than you seem to be aware,' answered Catherine. 'But perhaps they think wrong?You are the best judge in your own affairs; and if you prefer gold and church-lands to honour and loyalty, and the faith of your fathers, why should you be hampered in conscience more than others?'
'May Heaven bear witness for me,' said Roland, 'that if I entertain any difference of opinion?that is, if I nourish any doubts in point of religion, they have been adopted on the conviction of my own mind, and the suggestion of my own conscience!'
'Ay, ay, your conscience?your conscience!' repeated she with satiric emphasis; 'your conscience is the scape-goat; I warrant it an able one?it will bear the burden of one of the best manors of the Abbey of Saint Mary of Kennaquhair', lately forfeited to our noble Lord the King, by the Abbot and community thereof, for the high crime of fidelity to their religious vows, and now to be granted by the High and Mighty Traitor, and so forth, James Earl of Murray, to the good squire of dames Roland Graeme, for his loyal and faithful service as under-espial, and deputy-turnkey, for securing the person of his lawful sovereign, Queen Mary.'
'You misconstrue me cruelly,' said the page; 'yes, Catherine, most cruelly?God knows I would protect this poor lady at the risk of my life, or with my life; but what can I do?what can any one do for her?'
'Much may be done?enough may be done?all may be done?if men will be but true and honourable, as Scottish men were in the days of Bruce and Wallace. Oh, Roland, from what an enterprise you are now withdrawing your heart and hand, through mere fickleness and coldness of spirit!'
'How can I withdraw,' said Roland, 'from an enterprise which has never been communicated to me??Has the Queen, or have you, or has any one, communicated with me upon any thing for her service which I have refused? Or have you not, all of you, held me at such distance from your counsels, as if I were the most faithless spy since the days of Ganelon?'[28]
'And who,' said Catherine Seyton, 'would trust the sworn friend, and pupil, and companion, of the heretic preacher Henderson? ay?a proper tutor you have chosen, instead of the excellent Ambrosius, who is now turned out of house and homestead, if indeed he is not languishing in a dungeon, for withstanding the tyranny of Morton, to whose brother the temporalities of that noble house of God have been gifted away by the Regent.'
'Is it possible?' said the page; 'and is the excellent Father Ambrose in such distress?'
'He would account the news of your falling away from the faith of your fathers,' answered Catherine, 'a worse mishap than aught that tyranny can inflict on himself.'
'But why,' said Roland, very much moved, 'why should you suppose that?that?that it is with me as you say?'
'Do you yourself deny it?' replied Catherine; 'do you not admit that you have drunk the poison which you should have dashed from your lips? ?Do you deny that it now ferments in your veins, if it has not altogether corrupted the springs of life??Do you deny that you have your doubts, as you proudly term them, respecting what popes and councils have declared it unlawful to doubt of??Is not your faith wavering, if not overthrown??Does not the heretic preacher boast his conquest??Does not the heretic woman of this prison-house hold up thy example to others??Do not the Queen and the Lady Fleming believe in thy falling away??And is there any except one?yes, I will speak it out, and think as lightly as you please of my good-will?is there one except myself that holds even a lingering hope that you may yet prove what we once all believed of you?'
