The Abbot

Chapter 31

However weary Roland Graeme might be of the Castle of

Lochleven--however much he might wish that the plan for Mary's escape

had been perfected, I question if he ever awoke with more pleasing

feelings than on the morning after George Douglas's plan for

accomplishing her deliverance had been frustrated. In the first place,

he had the clearest conviction that he had misunderstood the innuendo

of the Abbot, and that the affections of Douglas were fixed, not on

Catherine Seyton, but on the Queen; and in the second place, from the

sort of explanation which had taken place betwixt the steward and him,

he felt himself at liberty, without any breach of honour towards the

family of Lochleven, to contribute his best aid to any scheme which

should in future be formed for the Queen's escape;