dust from the plates, of which she supposed him to complain.
'Forbear, Dame Elspeth,' said the monk; 'your plates are as clean as wooden trenchers and pewter flagons can well be; the foulness of which I speak is of that pestilential heresy which is daily becoming ingrained in this our Holy Church of Scotland, and as a canker-worm in the rose-garland of the Spouse.'
'Holy Mother of Heaven!' said Dame Elspeth, crossing herself, 'have I kept house with a heretic?'
'No, Elspeth, no,' replied the monk; 'it were too strong a speech for me to make of this unhappy lady, but I would I could say she is free from heretical opinions. Alas! they fly about like the pestilence by noonday, and infest even the first and fairest of the flock! For it is easy to see of this dame, that she hath been high in judgement as in rank.'
'And she can write and read, I had almost said, as weel as your reverence,' said Elspeth.
'Whom doth she write to, and what doth she read?' said the monk, eagerly.
'Nay,' replied Elspeth, 'I cannot say I ever saw her write at all, but her maiden that was—she now serves the family—says she can write—And for reading, she has often read to us good things out of a thick black volume with silver clasps.'
'Let me see it,' said the monk, hastily, 'on your allegiance as a true vassal—on your faith as a Catholic Christian—instantly—instantly let me see it.'
The good woman hesitated, alarmed at the tone in which the confessor took up her information; and being moreover of opinion, that what so good a woman as the Lady of Avenel studied so devoutly, could not be of a tendency actually evil. But borne down by the clamour, exclamations, and something like threats used by Father Philip, she at length brought him the fatal volume. It was easy to do this without suspicion on the part of the owner, as she lay on her bed exhausted with the fatigue of a long conference with her confessor, and as the small round, or turret closet, in which was the book and her other trifling property, was accessible by another door. Of all her
