onging every salver and decanter. Whereupon the wild Scot, being
restrained by no scruples, religious or otherwise, passed him first of
all a glass of wine behind his superior's back, which he drank at a gulp
without a sound, his eyes all the while on the lean rounded shoulders of
the father confessor.

A full bottle of wine followed and was instantly concealed beneath the
novice's long robe. A plate of grapes, half a dozen pears, a loaf of
wheaten bread, all were passed to him one by one, and as swiftly and
silently disappeared, none being bold enough to guess whither.

"By the Lord, I'll try him with a whole melon," muttered Rollo; "I
believe that, swollen as he is, he could stow away a keg of butter quite
comfortably."

But before he could put this jovial son of Peter the keybearer to the
test, Father Anselmo had gathered his robes ascetically about him, and
signed to the abbot's guests to follow him to the reliquary chamber.

CHAPTER VIII

SANCTUARY

The severe confessor solemnly preceded them, a candle in his hand. Rollo
thought that Father Anselmo had the air of perpetually assisting at an
excommunication, a burning of heretics, or other extreme disciplinary
ceremony of Holy Church. His inferior, the bearer of the Petrine keys,
dimpled behind him, rattling the wards vigorously to hide any tendency
of the bottle of wine to make music of its own in his ample skirts.

The treasury of Montblanch had indeed been most grievously despoiled by
the French, according to the immemorial custom of that most Christian
nation upon its campaigns, and only the most used dishes were now of
silver or silver gilt. All the rest were of homely pewter silvered
over--which, as the confessor said, resembled most men's characters, in
that they looked well enough from a distance, and on the whole served
just as well. He surveyed the company of young men so meaningly as he
said this, that the Scot was only restrained from challenging him on the
spot, by the pressure of John Mortimer's arm upon one side, and an
almost tearful expression of entreaty on Brother Hilario's face upon the
other.

The Confessor selected two keys from the bunch and inserted them into a
couple of locks in a small iron door at the foot of certain gloomy
steps.

The Scot who was imaginative, thought that he could discern some faint
stirrings of life about his feet. Accordingly he stamped once or twice,
having an instinctive hatred of little creeping v