The Firebrand

an excommunication, a burning of heretics, or other extreme disciplinary ceremony of Holy Church. His inferior, the bearer of the Petrine key

l 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

nd inserted them into a couple of locks in a sma

about his feet. Accordingly he stamped once or twice, having an instinctive hatred of lit

e novice bearing simultaneously on the keys, which turned together quite suddenly. T

e despatches which he forwarded to his imperial master this fact appeared in the following form: "After half an hour's persuasion the Abbot of Montblanch decided to g

p for by the extraordinary number of relics of saints which the monastery possessed. It was at this poin

id with a solemn voice, precisely as if he had been or

over each other with haste the

epulchre; the stone on which holy St. Peter stumbled when he let John outrun him; the words he said on that occasion, which are not included in Holy Writ, but were embroidered on a handkerchief by his mother-in-law, probably out of spite; the stone on which the

h his enumeration when a groan came as it were fr

I think! Open it, you black-a-vised sweep of darkness! I am a true-blue Presby

shook his head, and for

f their treasure-chamber, as giving ignorant men the idea that the properties of the Abbey were protected by demons! I had not, however, hoped that the ingenious little arrangement would dece

, with some reluctance, and speaking not

with his foot and battered the walls with the basket of his sword, till he added a dint or two to the tasselled hilt

essor grimly, "on which Holy Church is bui

can show you in a quarter of an hour that the Romanist argument from these wo

upwards as the sound of a bell was wafted down to them fain

ctrine of the Rock of Peter was shut within him. It was n

till, with a sudden "Attention!" he halted them before a

ld seemed suddenly filled with

nselmo ushered the three young men into the great

s of doubtful relics and the chill darkness of earth-smelling passages, to thi

laces, that it must be disordered. They followed their guide mechanically to the Holy Water laver. Etienne made the necessary signs and a low reverence towards the altar. Rollo's devotion to the Presbyt

some of the water on one finger and make the sign of the cross

myself, but my father is a Primitive Methodist, and built them a church in Chorley. And I never c

ou'll ever ship then, my good friend,"

ent and squared his hands by his sides as one wh

doggedly. "I won't go back to Chorley after having denied my fat

king her with cream!" growled Rollo; "take t

uriosity, with the utmost gravity Rollo made certain gestures with his hands, and dipping his fingers again in the

St. Vicente Ferrer of Valencia that he will not make the sign of the cross upon his person till he

the Confessor. "I will deal with

by the sacristans, and on two of the latter John Mortimer and Rollo presently found themselves, while Brother Hilario went off to the gallery reserved for novices of his standing. Now and then a woman would

d there on a woman's golden ornament. The Abbot sat to the right in his episcopal robes, with

organ and choir far down the church, high to the right of the pillar by which the young men sat. The presence of

of blue and gold above them, now sweet and lonesome as a bird warbling down in Elie meadows in the noon silences. Anon Rollo shut his eyes and the Chapel of the Virgin of Montblanch incontinently vanished. He was among the great Congregation of all the Faithful, he alone without a wedding garment. The place where he stood seemed filled with surges of aureate light,

ath perfect

keth no

el of un

s in sinn

rchance, a better man. The night that was waiting imminent outside, silently overleapt the barriers of golden light. Rollo Blair's head fell forward against a pillar-and, while the music thund

but he was awakened by a violent thrust i

what's that? L

saw dimly without understanding the swinging altar lamps in a blur of purple haze, the richly-robed priests, the myriad candles, the dark forms of the worshipp

titudinous angry cries of men, the clatter of feet, the sha

ke the murder

a smile he let the blade slide back, which it did as easily as a stone slips into water. For though Killiecrankie's hilt might be battered, without r

of the elders, faithful women whom piety and deafness kept to their reverence. The men

clinging to him rushed up the aisle of the nave. His hair was red-wet and matted about his brow. There was a gash on one shoulder. His righ

ces behind him. "There are a hundred

rms filled the doorways. Sword bayonets glinted from behind pillars, as eager pursuers rushed

unted man. On the steps which lead up to the gilded railing he threw down

n, and in another he had cast himself down on the uppermost steps of the high altar itself and

en gate through which the hunted man had come one moment before the pursuers. These were the regular

, they would have rushed after the fugitive an

must first pass over his body. He held aloft a cross of gold with a gesture of st

to the presence of the Prince of Peace. This man hath laid his hands upon th