“Wretched man!” said the Abbot, unable to suppress his rising indignation, “is it to the Abbot of St. Mary’s that you boast having misled the soul of a dweller in Our Lady’s Halidome into the paths of foul error and damning heresy?—Thou dost urge me, Wellwood, beyond what it becomes me to bear, and movest me to employ the few moments of power I may yet possess, in removing from the face of the earth one whose qualities, given by God, have been so utterly perverted as thine to the service of Satan.”
“Do thy pleasure,” said the preacher; “thy vain wrath shall not prevent my doing my duty to advantage thee, where it may be done without neglecting my higher call. I go to the Earl of Murray.”
Their conference, which was advancing fast into bitter disputation, was here interrupted by the deep
