Accordingly Malcolm and his companions rode up to the chief gateway, a
grand circular archway, with all the noble though grotesque mouldings,
zigzag and cable, dog-tooth and parrot-beak, visages human and diabolic,
wherewith the Norman builders loved to surround their doorways. The
doors were of solid oak, heavily guarded with iron, and from a little
wicket in the midst peered out a cowled head, and instantly ensued the
exclamation--

'Benedicite! Welcome, my Lord Malcolm! Ah! but this will ease the heart
of the Tutor of Glenuskie!'

'Ah! then he is here?' cried Malcolm.

'Here, Sir, but in woful plight; borne in an hour syne by four carles who
said you had been set upon by the Master of Albany, and sair harried, and
they say the Tutor doth nought but wail for his bairns. How won ye out
of his hands, my Lord?'

'Thanks to this good knight,' said Malcolm; and the gate was opened, and
the new-comers dismounted to pass under the archway, which taught
humility. A number of the brethren met them as they came forth into the
first quadrangle, surrounded by a beautiful cloister, and containing what
was called Edgar's Walls, a house raised by the good founder, for his own
lodging and that of visitors, within the monastery. It was a narrow
building, about thirty feet from the church, was perfectly familiar to
Malcolm, who bent his steps at once thither, among the congratulations of
the monks; and Lilias was not prevented from accompanying him thus far
within the convent, but all beyond the nave of the church was forbidden
ground to her sex, though the original monastery destroyed by the Danes
had been one of the double foundations for monks and nuns.