Page:The Monastery, Volume 1 - Scott (1820).djvu/39

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INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE.
29

"that I am speaking with a Catholic clergyman?"

"An unworthy Monk of the order of Saint Benedict," said the stranger, "belonging to a community of your own countrymen, long established in France, and scattered unhappily by the events of the Revolution."

"Then," said I, "you are a native Scotsman, and from this neighbourhood?"

"Not so," answered the Monk; "I am a Scotsman by extraction only, and never was in this neighbourhood during my whole life."

"Never in this neighbourhood, and yet so minutely acquainted with its history, its traditions, and even its external scenery! You surprise me, sir," I replied.

"It is not surprising," he said, "that I should have that sort of local information, when it is considered, that my uncle, an excellent man, as well as a good Scotsman, the head also of our religious community, employed much of his leisure in making me

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