Chapter XIII. THE LANDS OF CONISTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 90, 16 January 1875, Page 13

Chapter XIII. THE LANDS OF CONISTON.

It was nigh, over, the deed of surrender had been signed and delivered to the commissioners of King Henry ; the great seal of the abbey was broken, and the superior and community of Fumess were for the last time assembled in the spacious and magnificent guest chamber, where they had so often dispensed almost princely hospitality. That beloved and venerable roof -tree was to shelter them no more, they were to depart that night, that very hour. The grantee of the abbey lands first nominated by the long was his favorite, Sir Everard Tilney. That recreant never came into possession, for the hour of his triumph was also doomed to be the hour of his humiliation and defeat. He had kept in the bapk ground while the attack on the monastery was made, and the preliminaries of the surrender being settled. Now in the supreme moment, when the abbot and his monks were assembled to quit the noble bdilding, when the people, who were to be the ultimate sufferers, were waiting and watching in the court for a last glance of, a last blessing from, their munificent landlords and benefactors, the base spoiler came to enjoy histriumph, to gloat over the humiliation of the monks, and the grief of their tenants and dependants. . It was wearing towards evening, and the light which had been all day so grey and feeble, fell dimly though the painted windows of the spacious gothic chamber. The rain coutinued to patter down but the wind had risen* sobbing athwart the valley of the Nightshade, and round the stately pile of St. Mary's with a voice like that of human lamentation.

Sir Everard Tilney had ridden from Lancaster, and Ms rich dress was travel-stained, Ms scarlet riding mantle dripped with the rain, and the wMte ostrich plume in the Spanish hat, wMch he did not deign to doff when he entered into the presence of the despoiled community, lay flat upon his shoulder. Costly gems sparkled upon his baldric, fastened the falling lace collar at his throat, and studded the hilt of his sword and of Ms dagger. With a puerile vanity, the rapacious spoiler had arrayed himself as for a bridal feast when he rode to Furness as a sacrilegious robber. There was a dull clank of Ms military boots, a jingle of Ms gold spurs, as he strode into the apartment, and stood erect and defiant before the abbot. A man of noble figure and majestic demeanor, but with Ms face shadowed by Ms napping Spanish hat and the gloom of the dying day. "I am Sir Everard Tilney ! " he said. And Ms clear and strong but harsh voice, called echoes from the vaulted roof. " And I expect that these halls be at once vacated ! " " Fear not, Sir Everard ! " replied the abbot, in a calm, sad voice, "We are even now ready to depart ! Yet, unwilling as lam to trespass upon charity in a place where I so long bestowed it, I am fain to turn suppliant to you I Turn not away in wrath, Sir Everard. The favors I seek of you are few in number." "It is well ! Let them also be small in amount, abbot ! " replied the knight. " I like not thy preface ; and as to charity, thou shalt be surer to need it when thou and thy droning monks are swept from the lands they have cumbered so long ! " The abbott noted not tMs brutal rejoinder further than by saying, " Fear not, Sir Everard Tilney. The favours I seek of thee will not tax the funds of the monastery ! The first is to pray of you to allow the shelter of tMs roof for the night to one of our sick brethern ! He is a stranger who has lately joined us from Ireland, where he took his vows. His health has • been long infirm, for a sore domestic sorrow drove Mm from the world, and now he is well nigh spent. We have a lodging for Mm at Dalton, but we fear he will die upon the journey ; and if you are pleased to suffer him to remain here ; a few feet of earth in the cemetry may be all he will want from charity by to-morrow's dawn. "I doubt me," replied the savage knight, "tMs is but a cunning pretext to leave some of thy whining tribe still in possession ; and I am not a man learned in the law, so that I know not if I grant your request, how you may circumvent me ! However, let me see thy sick brother. If he is so near death, I will demand not that you should remove him. I know the signs of death, for I have fronted the grim horror on many a bloody battle-field ; for it was in seeking a soldier's fame, that I sought forgetfulness of domestic woe and wrong, and not in the dull life of a puling monk, as tMs thy brother has done ! "