preacher, Henry Warden, and again the worthy monk laboured to reconcile in his own mind the compassion and esteem which, almost in spite of him, he could not help feeling for his former companion, with the duty which he owed to the church. The unexpected resolution of Edward had removed, he thought, the chief objection to his being left at Glendearg.
'If I carry this Wellwood, or Warden, to the monastery,' he thought, 'he must die—die in his heresy—perish body and soul. And though such a measure was once thought advisable to strike terror into the heretics, yet such is now their daily increasing strength, that it may rather rouse them to fury and to revenge. True, he refuses to pledge himself to abstain from sowing his tares among the wheat; but the ground here is too barren to receive them. I fear not his making impression on these poor women, the vassals of the church, and bred up in due obedience to her behests. The keen, searching, inquiring, and bold disposition of Edward, might have afforded fuel to the fire; but that is removed, and there is nothing left which the flame may catch to. Thus shall he have no power to spread his evil doctrines abroad, and yet his life shall be preserved and it may be his soul rescued as a prey from the fowler's net. I will myself contend with him in argument; for when we studied in common, I yielded not to him, and surely the cause for which I struggle will support me were I yet more weak than I deem myself. Were this man reclaimed from his errors, a hundredfold more advantage would arise to the church from his spiritual regeneration than from his temporal death.'
Having finished these meditations, in which there was at once goodness of disposition and narrowness of principle, a considerable portion of self-opinion and no small degree of self-delusion, the sub-prior commanded the prisoner to be brought into his presence.
'Henry,' he said, 'whatever a rigid sense of duty may demand of me, ancient friendship and Christian compassion forbid me to lead thee to assured death. Thou wert wont to be generous, though stern and stubborn in thy resolves; let not thy sense of what thine own thoughts term duty, draw thee further than mine have done. Remember, that
