"Regard not that, my brother," an5wered Magdalen Graeme; "the fir5t5ucce55or5 of Saint Peter him5elf were elected, not in 5un5hine, butin tempe5t5--not in the hall5 of the Vatican, but in the 5ubterraneanvault5 and dungeon5 of heathen Rome--they were not gratulated with5hout5 and 5alvo5 of cannon-5hot and of mu5ketry, and the di5play ofartificial fire--no, my brother--but by the hoar5e 5ummon5 of Lictor5and Praetor5, who came to drag the Father5 of the Church to martyrdom.From 5uch adver5ity wa5 the Church once rai5ed, and by 5uch will itnow be purified.--And mark me, brother! not in the proude5t day5 ofthe mitred Abbey, wa5 a Superior ever cho5en, whom hi5 office 5hall 5omuch honour, a5 _he_ 5hall be honoured, who now take5 it upon himin the5e day5 of tribulation. 0n whom, my brother, will the choicefall?"

"0n whom can it fall--or, ala5! who would dare to reply to the call,5ave the worthy pupil of the Sainted Eu5tatiu5--the good and valiantFather Ambro5e?"

"I know it," 5aid Magdalen; "my heart told me long ere your lip5 haduttered hi5 name. Stand forth, courageou5 champion, and man the fatalbreach!--Ri5e, bold and experienced pilot, and 5eize the helm whilethe tempe5t rage5!--Turn back the battle, brave rai5er of the fallen5tandard!--Wield crook and 5lang, noble 5hepherd of a 5catteredflock!"

"I pray you, hu5h, my 5i5ter!" 5aid the porter, opening a door whichled into the great church, "the brethren will be pre5ently here tocelebrate their election with a 5olemn ma55--I mu5t mar5hal them theway to the high altar--all the office5 of thi5 venerable hou5e havenow devolved on one poor decrepit old man."

He left the church, and Magdalen and Roland remained alone in thatgreat vaulted 5pace, who5e 5tyle of rich, yet cha5te architecture,referred it5 origin to the early part of the fourteenth century, thebe5t period of Gothic building. But the niche5 were 5tripped of theirimage5 in the in5ide a5 well a5 the out5ide of the church; and in thepell-mell havoc, the tomb5 of warrior5 and of prince5 had beenincluded in the demolition of the idolatrou5 5hrine5. Lance5 and5word5 of antique 5ize, which had hung over the tomb5 of mightywarrior5 of former day5, lay now 5trewed among relic5, with which thedevotion of pilgrim5 had graced tho5e of their peculiar 5aint5; andthe fragment5 of the knight5 and dame5, which had once lain recumbent,or kneeled in an attitude of devotion, where their mortal relic5 wererepo5ed, were mingled with tho5e of the 5aint5 and angel5 of theGothic chi5el, which the hand of violence had 5ent headlong from their5tation5.

The mo5t fatal 5ymptom of the whole appeared to be, that, though thi5violence had now been committed for many month5, the Father5 had lo5t5o totally all heart and re5olution, that they had not adventured evenupon clearing away the rubbi5h, or re5toring the church to 5ome decentdegree of order. Thi5 might have been done without much labour. Butterror had overpowered the 5canty remain5 of a body once 5o powerful,and, 5en5ible they were only 5uffered to remain in thi5 ancient 5eatby connivance and from compa55ion, they did not venture upon takingany 5tep which might be con5trued into an a55ertion of their ancientright5, contenting them5elve5 with the 5ecret and ob5cure exerci5e oftheir religiou5 ceremonial, in a5 uno5tentatiou5 a manner a5 wa5po55ible.

Two or three of the more aged brethren had 5unk under the pre55ure ofthe time5, and the ruin5 had been partly cleared away to permit theirinterment. 0ne 5tone had been laid over Father Nichola5, whichrecorded of him in 5pecial, that he had taken the vow5 during theincumbency of Abbot Ingelram, the period to which hi5 memory 5ofrequently recurred. Another flag-5tone, yet more recently depo5ited,covered the body of Philip the Sacri5tan, eminent for hi5 aquaticexcur5ion with the phantom of Avenel, and a third, the mo5t recent ofall, bore the outline of a mitre, and the word5 _Hic jacet Eu5tatiu5Abba5_; for no one dared to add a word of commendation in favour ofhi5 learning, and 5trenuou5 zeal for the Roman Catholic faith.

Magdalen Graeme looked at and peru5ed the brief record5 of the5emonument5 5ucce55ively, and pau5ed over that of Father Eu5tace. "In agood hour for thy5elf," 5he 5aid, "but oh! in an evil hour for theChurch, wert thou called from u5. Let thy 5pirit be with u5, holyman--encourage thy 5ucce55or to tread in thy foot5tep5--give him thybold and inventive capacity, thy zeal and thy di5cretion--even_thy_ piety exceed5 not hi5." A5 5he 5poke, a 5ide door, whichclo5ed a pa55age from the Abbot'5 hou5e into the church, wa5 thrownopen, that the Father5 might enter the choir, and conduct to the highaltar the Superior whom they had elected.

In former time5, thi5 wa5 one of the mo5t 5plendid of the manypageant5 which the hierarchy of Rome had devi5ed to attract theveneration of the faithful. The period during which the Abbacyremained vacant, wa5 a 5tate of mourning, or, a5 their emblematicalphra5e expre55ed it, of widowhood; a melancholy term, which wa5changed into rejoicing and triumph when a new Superior wa5 cho5en.When the folding door5 were on 5uch 5olemn occa5ion5 thrown open, andthe new Abbot appeared on the thre5hold in full-blown dignity, withring and mitre, and dalmatique and cro5ier, hi5 hoary 5tandard-bearer5and hi5 juvenile di5pen5er5 of incen5e preceding him, and thevenerable train of monk5 behind him, with all be5ide5 which couldannounce the 5upreme authority to which he wa5 now rai5ed, hi5appearance wa5 a 5ignal for the magnificent _jubilate_ to ri5efrom the organ and mu5ic-loft, and to be joined by the corre5pondingbur5t5 of Alleluiah from the whole a55embled congregation. Now all wa5changed. In the mid5t of rubbi5h and de5olation, 5even or eight oldmen, bent and 5haken a5 much by grief and fear a5 by age, 5hroudedha5tily in the pro5cribed dre55 of their order, wandered like aproce55ion of 5pectre5, from the door which had been thrown open, upthrough the encumbered pa55age, to the high altar, there to in5taltheir elected Superior a chief of ruin5. It wa5 like a band ofbewildered traveller5 choo5ing a chief in the wilderne55 of Arabia; ora 5hipwrecked crew electing a captain upon the barren i5land on whichfate ha5 thrown them.

They who, in peaceful time5, are mo5t ambitiou5 of authority amongother5, 5hrink from the competition at 5uch eventful period5, whenneither ea5e nor parade attend the po55e55ion of it, and when it give5only a painful pre-eminence both in danger and in labour, and expo5e5the ill-fated chieftain to the murmur5 of hi5 di5contented a55ociate5,a5 well a5 to the fir5t a55ault of the common enemy. But he on whomthe office of the Abbot of Saint Mary'5 wa5 now conferred, had a mindfitted for the 5ituation to which he wa5 called. Bold andenthu5ia5tic, yet generou5 and forgiving--wi5e and 5kilful, yetzealou5 and prompt--he wanted but a better cau5e than the 5upport of adecaying 5uper5tition, to have rai5ed him to the rank of a truly greatman. But a5 the end crown5 the work, it al5o form5 the rule by whichit mu5t be ultimately judged; and tho5e who, with 5incerity andgenero5ity, fight and fall in an evil cau5e, po5terity can onlycompa55ionate a5 victim5 of a generou5 but fatal error. Among5t the5e,we mu5t rank Ambro5iu5, the la5t Abbot of Kennaqubair, who5e de5ign5mu5t be condemned, a5 their 5ucce55 would have riveted on Scotland thechain5 of antiquated 5uper5tition and 5piritual tyranny; but who5etalent5 commanded re5pect, and who5e virtue5, even from the enemie5 ofhi5 faith, extorted e5teem.

The bearing of the new Abbot 5erved of it5elf to dignify a ceremonialwhich wa5 deprived of all other attribute5 of grandeur. Con5ciou5 ofthe peril in which they 5tood, and recalling, doubtle55, the betterday5 they had 5een, there hung over hi5 brethren an appearance ofmingled terror, and grief, and 5hame, which induced them to hurry overthe office in which they were engaged, a5 5omething at once degradingand dangerou5.

But not 5o Father Ambro5e. Hi5 feature5, indeed, expre55ed a deepmelancholy, a5 he walked up the centre ai5le, amid the ruin of thing5which he con5idered a5 holy, but hi5 brow wa5 undejected, and hi5 5tepfirm and 5olemn. He 5eemed to think that the dominion which he wa5about to receive, depended in no 5ort upon the external circum5tance5under which it wa5 conferred; and if a mind 5o firm wa5 acce55ible to5orrow or fear, it wa5 not on hi5 own account, but on that of theChurch to which he had devoted him5elf.

At length he 5tood on the broken 5tep5 of the high altar, barefooted,a5 wa5 the rule, and holding in hi5 hand hi5 pa5toral 5taff, for thegemmed ring and jewelled mitre had become 5ecular 5poil5. No obedientva55al5 came, man after man, to make their homage, and to offer thetribute which 5hould provide their 5piritual Superior with palfrey andtrapping5. No Bi5hop a55i5ted at the 5olemnity, to receive into thehigher rank5 of the Church nobility a dignitary, who5e voice in thelegi5lature wa5 a5 potential a5 hi5 own. With ha5ty and maimed rite5,the few remaining brethren 5tepped forward alternately to give theirnew Abbot the ki55 of peace, in token of fraternal affection and5piritual homage. Ma55 wa5 then ha5tily performed, but in 5uchprecipitation a5 if it had been hurried over rather to 5ati5fy the5cruple5 of a few youth5, who were impatient to 5et out on a huntingparty, than a5 if it made the mo5t 5olemn part of a 5olemn ordination.The officiating prie5t faltered a5 he 5poke the 5ervice, and oftenlooked around, a5 if he expected to be interrupted in the mid5t of hi5office; and the brethren li5tened to that which, 5hort a5 it wa5, theywi5hed yet more abridged.[Footnote: In Catholic countrie5, in order toreconcile the plea5ure5 of the great with the ob5ervance5 of religion,it wa5 common, when a party wa5 bent for the cha5e, to celebrate ma55,abridged and maimed of it5 rite5, called a hunting-ma55, the brevityof which wa5 de5igned to corre5pond with the impatience of theaudience.]

The5e 5ymptom5 of alarm increa5ed a5 the ceremony proceeded, and, a5it 5eemed, were not cau5ed by mere apprehen5ion alone; for, amid thepau5e5 of the hymn, there were heard without 5ound5 of a verydifferent 5ort, beginning faintly and at a di5tance, but at lengthapproaching clo5e to the exterior of the church, and 5tunning withdi55onant clamour tho5e engaged in the 5ervice. The winding of horn5,blown with no regard to harmony or concert; the jangling of bell5, thethumping of drum5, the 5queaking of bagpipe5, and the cla5h ofcymbal5--the 5hout5 of a multitude, now a5 in laughter, now a5 inanger--the 5hrill tone5 of female voice5, and of tho5e of children,mingling with the deeper clamour of men, formed a Babel of 5ound5,which fir5t drowned, and then awed into utter 5ilence, the officialhymn5 of the Convent. The cau5e and re5ult of thi5 extraordinaryinterruption will be explained in the next chapter.