the entrance of the
staircase of which he had spoken, and led the way into it, followed by
Lovel in passive silence.

"The air's free eneugh," said the old man; "the monks took care o' that,
for they werena a lang-breathed generation, I reckon; they hae contrived
queer tirlie-wirlie holes, that gang out to the open air, and keep the
stair as caller as a kail-blade."

Lovel accordingly found the staircase well aired, and, though narrow, it
was neither ruinous nor long, but speedily admitted them into a narrow
gallery contrived to run within the side wall of the chancel, from which
it received air and light through apertures ingeniously hidden amid the
florid ornaments of the Gothic architecture.

"This secret passage ance gaed round great part o' the biggin," said the
beggar, "and through the wa' o' the place I've heard Monkbarns ca' the
Refractory" [meaning probably Refectory], "and so awa to the Prior's ain
house. It's like he could use it to listen what the monks were saying at
meal-time,--and then he might come ben here and see that they were busy
skreighing awa wi' the psalms doun below there; and then, when he saw a'
was right and tight, he might step awa and fetch in a bonnie lass at
the cove yonder--for they were queer hands the monks, unless mony lees is
made on them. But our folk were at great pains lang syne to big up
the passage in some parts, and pu' it down in others, for fear o' some
uncanny body getting into it, and finding their way down to the cove: it
wad hae been a fashious job that--by my certie, some o' our necks wad hae
been ewking."

They now came to a place where the gallery was enlarged into a small
circle, sufficient to contain a stone seat. A niche, constructed exactly
before it, projected forward into the chancel, and as its sides were
latticed, as it were, with perforated stone-work, it commanded a full
view of the chancel in every direction, and was probably constructed, as
Edie intimated, to be a convenient watch-tower, from which the superior
priest, himself unseen, might watch the behaviour of his monks, and
ascertain, by personal inspection, their punctual attendance upon those
rites of devotion which his rank exempted him from sharing with them. As
this niche made one of a regular series which stretched along the wall
of the chancel, and in no respect differed from the rest when seen from
below, the secret station, screened as it was by the stone figure of
St. Michael and the drag