Mystery!: Cadfael (TV Series)

The Devil's Novice (1996)

Christien Anholt: Meriet

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Brother Cadfael : Well then, off you go. Your vocation is elsewhere.

  Meriet Ashby : And yours is truly here?

  Brother Cadfael : Oh, yes, it is. And not merely from atonement and weariness. In middle life you too may stop and look inside yourself and wonder, "what now?" I was ripe for change, and I find that change refreshing.

  Meriet Ashby : But I shall be married then, with twelve children.

  Isobel : We'll see about the twelve.

  [Meriet laughs] 

  Isobel : God keep you, Brother Cadfael.

  Brother Cadfael : I hope he will.

  [Meriet and Isobel leave] 

  Brother Cadfael : I hope he will.

• [Clemence is "regaling" the company at dinner] 

  Peter Clemence : ...and the Church is not sure which side the nobles favor in the civil war.

  [pause] 

  Peter Clemence : You *do* know that there is a civil war between King Stephen and his frightful cousin Maud, for the crown of England?

  Meriet Ashby : [levelly]  We have had friends die in it, sir.

• Leoric Ashby : I have misprized you, Meriet. Almost from the day that you were born.

  Meriet Ashby : The fault was not all yours, sir. No man could have had a more irksome son.

  [Leoric laughs, then begins to cry and hugs Meriet close] 

  Leoric Ashby : Come home.

• Abbot Radulfus : What is your prayer, my son?

  Meriet Ashby : Father, to enter the cloistered life and serve God.

  Abbot Radulfus : The life you seek is a hard one. Are you ready to accept that hardship, to obey and to bear ignominy for the love of Christ?

  Meriet Ashby : Yes, by the grace of God.

  Abbot Radulfus : Stand.

  [Meriet does] 

  Abbot Radulfus : Are you freeborn, in good health, and free from incurable disease?

  Meriet Ashby : Yes, by the grace of God.

  Abbot Radulfus : Are you free from debt and irregularities?

  Meriet Ashby : Yes, by the grace of God.

  Abbot Radulfus : Are you bound by promise of marriage?

  Meriet Ashby : [with the barest noticeable hesitation]  No, by the grace of God.

  Abbot Radulfus : Then your prayer is granted.

• Sergeant Warden : Brother Meriet! To accept banishment to the cloister may be deemed a great self-sacrifice, and there is virtue in it when it is done to save the family honour. But you still have your life, and if you killed, then that life is forfeit.

  Meriet Ashby : [stares back at him, unflinching]  And I accept that penalty. No starving runaway must take my place.

• Meriet Ashby : [from his sickbed, with a broken ankle]  *I* killed Peter Clemence! I shot him down in the forest not three miles from Ashby! Tell Sergeant Warden to let that poor wretch Harald free! I never thought when he was taken...!

  Brother Cadfael : Easy, easy! Why did you commit such a mortal sin?

  Meriet Ashby : Why? Because he made free with my brother's bride, the woman I too loved!

  Brother Cadfael : And your father, does he know of this?

  Meriet Ashby : How else should I be here? He gave me a choice which was no choice: to undergo this lifelong penance of the cloister, or to admit my guilt and go to shameful death, thus destroying our family name and ancient honour, and so him.