a sheet! He well-nigh swooned at the
tidings. You seek her, forsooth!' and Patrick laughed bitterly.

'Yes, Patie,' said Malcolm, 'for this I am strong. It is my duty and not
yours, and God will strengthen me for it.'

Patrick burst out at this: 'Neither man nor devil shall tell me it is not
mine!'

'You are the King's prisoner still,' said Malcolm, rising to energy; 'you
are bound to return to him. The tidings must be taken to him at once.'

'A groom could do that.'

'Neither so swiftly nor surely as you. Moreover, your word of honour
binds you not to wander at your own pleasure.'

'My honour binds me not to trust you--wee Malcolm--to wander into the
wolf's cage alone.'

'I am not the silly feckless callant I once was, Patie,' answered
Malcolm. 'There are many places where my student's serge gown will take
me safely, where your corslet and lance would never find entrance. No
one will know me again as I am now: will they, holy Mother?'

'Assuredly not,' said the Abbess.

'A student is too mean a prey to be meddled with,' proceeded Malcolm,
'and is sure of hospitality in castle or convent. I can try at
Coldingham to find out whither the two monks are gone, and then follow up
the track.'

Patrick stormed at the plan, and was most unwilling it should be adopted.
He at least must follow, and keep watch over his young cousin, or it
would be a mere throwing the helve after the hatchet--a betrayal of his
trust.

But a little reflection convinced him that thus to follow would only
bring suspicion on Malcolm and defeat his plans; and that it were better
to obtain some certain information ere the King should come home, and
have to interfere with a high hand; and Malcolm's arguments about his
obligations as a captive, too, had their effect. He perceived his own
incapacity to act; and in his despair at nothing being done consented to
risk Malcolm in the search, while he himself should proceed to the King,
only ascertaining on the way that Lilias was not at Whitby. And so, in
grief and anxiety, the cousins parted, and Malcolm alone durst speak a
word of hope.

CHAPTER XVII: THE BEGGING SCHOLAR

'The poor scholar,' now only existing in Ireland and Brittany--nay, we
believe extinct there since the schoolmaster has become not abroad, but
at home, in Government colleges--was to be found throughout the
commonwealth of Europe in the Middle Ages. Young lads, in whom convent
schools had developed a thirst