Of a truth you have made a most excellent man-at-arms, and 'tis equally certain that you were an exceedingly bad monk.

It would doubtless be well that 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.