"My Lord, at this moment he is doing penance for a heavy sin," said the Abbot in an uncertain voice.
"What sin?" asked the Count.
"A breach of obedience to the rules of our Order," explained the Abbot.
"Obedience! that is at an end! A Count of Reichenberg owes obedience to no man!"
"He is not a Count of Reichenberg--he is a brother of our Order; he has taken the vows and he cannot be absolved from them."
"It was a forced vow, against all law and justice--he was cheated into it!" shouted the Count. "I was lately with the Bishop of Chur and informed myself on the subject. If you refuse to give the boy up to me, I will accuse you before the Pope himself, and you will be laid under an interdict. For, as the Bishop told me, that is the law; Pope Celestin III. decreed that the decisions of the Church in Council at Toledo and Aix-la-Chapelle should come into force again, and that no Order might receive a child before he was of age without the consent of his parents. And will you hold him to a vow thus surreptitiously extorted from him--will you assert your claim to stolen goods? Am I not his father and did I ever give my consent to his becoming a monk? Answer!"
The brethren had come to a rapid understanding among themselves in Latin.
"Well and good, my Lord," replied the Abbot, "you speak truly, and according to the letter of the law you are in your rights when you require at our hands that which is your own. The only question is this: is that still yours which you threw away of your own free will and abandoned to destruction? I know very well that such an incredible instance of a perverted nature is not provided for by any law, and if you appeal against us the judgment will be in your favour; but, my Lord Count, you were no doubt also informed that the same Canon law permits young people when they come to full years of discretion to enter an order without their parents' consent. Are you or are you not aware of that?"
"Yes," said the Count, biting his lip.
"Well then, my Lord," continued the Abbot, "you may punish us according to the letter of the law, for that wherein we have sinned against the letter of the law--but you cannot break the vows your son has taken, for he is now of age and if he now renews them, he is answerable to the law."