"I know his name--they told it to me there--but his quality and condition, father?" "You may be proud of his fellowship," said father Pierre; "he was once a scholar of the Jesuit school at Antwerp, of the class inscribed 'Princeps Diligentiae,' and brought thence by my Lord. A youth, Master Cocklescraft, of promise and discretion--a model to such as would learn good manners and cherish virtuous inclinations. You may scarcely fail to see him at the Collector's: the townspeople do say he has an eye somewhat dazzled there." "Craving pardon for my freedom, I say, father Pierre, a fig's end for such a model!" exclaimed the Skipper, pettishly: "you may have such by the score, wherever lazy, bookish men eat their bread. I like him not, with his laced band and feather, his book and lute: harquebuss and whinyard are the tools for these days. I hear the Fendalls have been at mischief again. We shall come to bilbo and buff before long. Your Secretary will do marvellous service in these straits, father." "Son, you are somewhat sinful in your scorn," said the priest, mildly; "the Secretary doth not deserve this taunt----" "By the holy hermits, father, I speak of the Secretary but as I think. He does not awe me with his greatness. I vail no topsail to him, I give you my word for it." "The saints preserve us from harm!" said the churchman. "We know not what may befall us from the might of our enemies, when this hot blood shall sunder our friends. In sober counsel, son, and not in rash divisions shall we find our safety. It doth not become thee, Master Cocklescraft, to let thy tetchy humour rouse thee against the Secretary. It might warrant my displeasure." "Mea culpa, holy father--I do confess my fault," said the seaman, in a tone of assumed self-constraint--"I will not again offend; and for my present atonement will offer a censer of pure silver, which in my travels I picked up, and in truth did then design to give, to the Chapel of St. Mary's. I will bring it to the chapel, father Pierre, as soon as my vessel is unladen." "You should offer up your anger too, to make this gift acceptable," returned the priest. "Let thy dedication be with a cleansed heart." "Ha, father Pierre," said the Skipper, jocularly; "my conscience does easily cast off a burden: so it shall be as you command. I did not tell you that whilst my brigantine lay in the Helder, I made a land flight to Louvaine, where a certain Abbot of Andoyne,--a pious, somewhat aged, and, thanks to a wholesome refectory! a good jolly priest,--hearing I came from the province, must needs send for me to ask if I knew father Pierre de la Maise, and upon my answer, that I did right well, he begs me to bring his remembrance back to you." "I knew father Gervase," replied the priest with a countenance full of benignity--"some forty years ago, when he was a reader in the Chair of St. Isidore at Rome. He remembers me?--a blessing on his head!--and he wears well, Master Skipper?"