The sentence appeared a terrible one to the older monks, who had
become so used to the safe and regular life of the Abbey that
they would have been as helpless as children in the outer world.
From their pious oasis they looked dreamily out at the desert of
life, a place full of stormings and strivings--comfortless,
restless, and overshadowed by evil. The young novice, however,
appeared to have other thoughts, for his eyes sparkled and his
smile broadened. It needed but that to add fresh fuel to the
fiery mood of the prelate.

"So much for thy spiritual punishment," he cried. "But it is to
thy grosser feelings that we must turn in such natures as thine,
and as thou art no longer under the shield of holy church there
is the less difficulty. Ho there! lay-brothers--Francis, Naomi,
Joseph--seize him and bind his arms! Drag him forth, and let the
foresters and the porters scourge him from the precincts!"

As these three brothers advanced towards him to carry out the
Abbot's direction, the smile faded from the novice's face, and he
glanced right and left with his fierce brown eyes, like a bull at
a baiting. Then, with a sudden deep-chested shout, he tore up
the heavy oaken prie-dieu and poised it to strike, taking two
steps backward the while, that none might take him at a vantage.

"By the black rood of Waltham!" he roared, "if any knave among
you lays a finger-end upon the edge of my gown, I will crush his
skull like a filbert!" With his thick knotted arms, his
thundering voice, and his bristle of red hair, there was
something so repellent in the man that the three brothers flew