Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 5

DERMOID. 227
" Indeed, good friend," was the answer. " Then evil must, of a surety,
be in the clouds Avhen such as you take to prating of honour."
"Silence, brawling knaves !" shouted the chieftain. "ISTo bandying
of quarrelsome words in my presence. Let your companion pass until
some base deed attests his villany. Hitherto he has been faithful. Me-
thinks that should satisfy you. Come, let's be merry. What, ho ! Jar-
loff ! get your harp in tune ; and sing us a saga of the days of old. Drink
to the death of Lorn. Eound with the goblet. Let each son of Dun-
kerlyne drink down to his peg."
The ale circulated, and Jarloff had just attuned his harp to a thrilling
fragment of IsTorwegian minstrelsy, when friar Dominick was ushered in.
" Jesu Maria !" was his first exclamation as he piously crossed him-
self. " Save us from the lures of Satan. By the soul of St Francis the
arm of the Church must bear on the receivers of heretics. Hear me, sir
Chief ; silence this singing Pagan or tremble at my Avords."
" Be patient, good father," said Brian. " Something must ail you to-
night. Are your revenues unprosperous ? If so I'll supply the deficiency.
If it be merely melancholy that oppresses you, I have ale enow to ex-
I orcise a hundred sable devils. Come, sit you down and be merry. The
1 saga is interesting, and Jarloft' is well skilled in the gentle art of the
minstrel"
i The harper, who had stopped the tale at the first interruption, re-
' sumed the song, when the friar indignantly exclaimed, " Silence, paynim
[ wretch, or hell shall yawn for you. Put up your instrument of Lucifer,
f or beshrew me but I'll break every string it possesses."
! " Peace with you, canting monk, or by the soul of Odin I'U warm
I your hide with a cudgelling," shouted the old man in a fit of rage, as he
approached the friar in a threatening attitude.
Clement, overcome with pious horror, started from his seat, and held
i back the Norseman. The friar, with uplifted hands, stood aghast in as-
.; tonishment. Some of the men were shocked, but the most of them, ex-
I hilarated with repeated draughts of ale, looked on and laughed.
i " Nest of unholy heretics " began Dominick, but Brian interposed,
I " Peace with you, good father ! You are in a most execrable humour.
I Take your seat and be merry."
" Farewell, ye renegades. I would not " continued Dominick.
! Here Brian sprung from his seat and thrust himself betwixt the friar
' and the door. " Hold, good father Dominick," he said, " you shall not
budge until you have shriven and absolved each one of us."
Dominick halted, swithering whether he should submit or enforce his
exit with the terror of the Church. He knew too well, however, how
s thoughtless and violent the pirate might become, half intoxicated as he
j was.
! " I have much reason," said Dominick, " to bring down the curse of
\ Eome upon you, but I forbear. Send this paynim dog away and all will
' yet be well ; otherwise, I must depart and leave you to reap the whirl-
wind which ye have sown."
Brian signed to Jarloff, who retired with a look of rage and disap-
pointment stamped on his aged features. The friar, somewhat despoiled
: of the ease and dignity which characterised his first entry, and conscious
that he had been vilely insulted, took his seat among the desperate crew.