you should obtain a complete absolution from your vows; for
although I am sure that the good abbot regards you, now, as altogether
beyond his control, and would take no steps against you were he to hear
of your marriage, it might not be so in the case of his successor. He
is an old man, and the next abbot may be of a very different character;
and, looking through the books of the convent, he might say, 'What has
become of Brother Roger? I see no record of his death.'

"Then, pushing matters further, he might discover your backsliding, and
might summon you before him, and there is no saying what pains and
penalties he might inflict upon you."

Roger moved uneasily in his seat.

"Do not speak of such a thing, I pray you, master--imprisonment in a
cell, flagellation, nay, even worse might befall me at the hands of a
rigorous abbot; for in truth, nought could well be more serious than
the offences that I have already committed; and he might hold that,
even though the present abbot had been backward in taking notice of the
matter, this in no way would absolve him from doing his duty.

"And indeed, as it is, it was to Hotspur that he gave permission for me
to go out into the world. Hotspur is dead, and there is nought but my
own word in the matter."

"That, at any rate, I can put right, Roger, by going myself to the
abbot; and learning, from his lips, that he did give that permission to
Hotspur. Moreover, I received it from Hotspur's own lips. Still, it
would be useful for me to obtain, from the abbot, a letter giving full
absolution for all offences committed, up to the present time."

"That would be a great thing," Roger said eagerly. "'Tis a matter that
I have often turned over in my mind, when on a long day's ride, and I
have thought of what might happen were a new man to become abbot of
Alnwick; but such an absolution would assuredly go for much. No one can
doubt, more especially an abbot, that absolution by an abbot is most
effectual; and that the offences committed before it are wholly wiped
out, and cannot be revived."

"It would be best to obtain total absolution from your vows. Can the
abbot grant that, Roger?"

"'Tis a moot question," Roger replied. "Many affirm that he can do so,
and assuredly many abbots have exercised that power; others again hold
that, although abbots cannot lawfully do so, bishops can; while a few
maintain that even these are incapable, and that nothing short of the
absolution by the