But, to use his own profane expression, Catharine is dearer to him than life here and Heaven hereafter: he cannot live without her." "Then he may die, if he lists," said Simon Glover, "for she is betrothed to an honest burgess of Perth; and I would not break my word to make my daughter bride to the Prince of Scotland." "I thought it would be your answer," replied the monk; "I would, worthy friend, thou couldst carry into thy spiritual concerns some part of that daring and resolved spirit with which thou canst direct thy temporal affairs." "Hush thee--hush, Father Clement!" answered the glover; "when thou fallest into that vein of argument, thy words savour of blazing tar, and that is a scent I like not.

As to Catharine, I must manage as I can, so as not to displease the young dignitary; but well is it for me that she is far beyond his reach." "She must then be distant indeed," said the Carmelite [Carthusian].
"And now, brother Simon, since you think it perilous to own me and my opinions, I must walk alone with my own doctrines and the dangers they draw on me.

But should your eye, less blinded than it now is by worldly hopes and fears, ever turn a glance back on him who soon may be snatched from you, remember, that by nought save a deep sense of the truth and importance of the doctrine which he taught could Clement Blair have learned to encounter, nay, to provoke, the animosity of the powerful and inveterate, to alarm the fears of the jealous and timid, to walk in the world as he belonged not to it, and to be accounted mad of men, that he might, if possible, win souls to God.

Heaven be my witness, that I would comply in all lawful things to conciliate the love and sympathy of my fellow creatures! It is no light thing to be shunned by the worthy as an infected patient, to be persecuted by the Pharisees of the day as an unbelieving heretic, to be regarded with horror at once and contempt by the multitude, who consider me as a madman, who may be expected to turn mischievous.

But were all those evils multiplied an hundredfold, the fire within must not be stifled, the voice which says within me 'Speak' must receive obedience.