replied to the reiterated question, what he thought of the funeral rites
which were discharged in so wild a manner: "I know not, my good father;
but these men do their duty to their deceased chief according to the
fashion of their ancestors: they mean to express their regret for their
friend's loss and their prayers to Heaven in his behalf; and that which
is done of goodwill must, to my thinking, be accepted favourably. Had
it been otherwise, methinks they had ere now been enlightened to do
better."

"Thou art deceived," answered the monk. "God has sent His light amongst
us all, though in various proportions; but man wilfully shuts his eyes
and prefers darkness. This benighted people mingle with the ritual of
the Roman Church the old heathen ceremonies of their own fathers, and
thus unite with the abominations of a church corrupted by wealth and
power the cruel and bloody ritual of savage paynims."

"Father," said Simon, abruptly, "methinks your presence were more
useful in yonder chapel, aiding your brethren in the discharge of their
clerical duties, than in troubling and unsettling the belief of an
humble though ignorant Christian like myself."

"And wherefore say, good brother, that I would unfix thy principles of
belief?" answered Clement. "So Heaven deal with me, as, were my life
blood necessary to cement the mind of any man to the holy religion he
professeth, it should be freely poured out for the purpose."

"Your speech is fair, father, I grant you," said the glover; "but if I
am to judge the doctrine by the fruits, Heaven has punished me by the
hand of the church for having hearkened thereto. Ere I heard you, my
confessor was little moved though I might have owned to have told
a merry tale upon the ale bench, even if a friar or a nun were the
subject. If at a time I had called Father Hubert a better hunter of
hares than of souls, I confessed me to the Vicar Vinesauf, who laughed
and made me pay a reckoning for penance; or if I had said that the Vicar
Vinesauf was more constant to his cup than to his breviary, I confessed
me to Father Hubert, and a new hawking glove made all well again; and
thus I, my conscience, and Mother Church lived together on terms of
peace, friendship, and mutual forbearance. But since I have listened to
you, Father Clement, this goodly union is broke to pieces, and nothing
is thundered in my ear but purgatory in the next world and fire and
fagot in this. Therefore, avoid you, Father Clement, or speak to those
who can understand your doctrine. I have no heart to be a martyr: I have
never in my whole life had courage enough so much as to snuff a candle
with my fingers; and, to speak the truth, I am minded to go back to
Perth, sue out my pardon in the spiritual court, carry my fagot to the
gallows foot in token of recantation, and purchase myself once more the
name of a good Catholic, were it at the price of all the worldly wealth
that remains to me."

"You are angry, my dearest brother," said Clement, "and repent you on
the pinch of a little worldly danger and a little worldly loss for the
good thoughts which you once entertained."

"You speak at ease, Father Clement, since I think you have long forsworn
the wealth and goods of the world, and are prepared to yield up your
life when it is demanded in exchange for the doctrine you preach and
believe. You are as ready to put on your pitched shirt and brimstone
head gear as a naked man is to go to his bed, and it would seem you have
not much more reluctance to the ceremony. But I still wear that which
clings to me. My wealth is still my own, and I thank Heaven it is a
decent pittance whereon to live; my life, too, is that of a hale old man
of sixty, who is in no haste to bring it to a close; and if I were
poor as Job and on the edge of the grave, must I not still cling to my
daughter, whom your doctrines have already cost so dear?"

"Thy daughter, friend Simon," said the Carmelite [Carthusian], "may be
truly called an angel upon earth."

"Ay, and by listening to your doctrines, father, she is now like to be
called on to be an angel in heaven, and to be transported thither in a
chariot of fire."

"Nay, my good brother," said Clement, "desist, I pray you, to speak of
what you little understand. Since it is wasting time to show thee the
light that thou chafest against, yet listen to that which I have to say
touching thy daughter, whose temporal felicity, though I weigh it not
even for an instant in the scale against that which is spiritual, is,
nevertheless, in its order, as dear to Clement Blair as to her own
father."

The tears stood in the old man's eyes as he spoke, and Simon Glover was
in some degree mollified as he again addressed him.

"One would think thee, Father Clement, the kindest and most amiable of
men; how comes it, then, that thy steps are haunted by general ill
will wherever thou chancest to turn them? I could lay my life thou hast
contrived already to offend yonder half score of poor friars in their
water girdled cage, and that you have been prohibited from attendance on
the funeral?"

"Even so, my son," said the Carthusian, "and I doubt whether their
malice will suffer me to remain in this country. I did but speak a few
sentences about the superstition and folly of frequenting St. Fillan's
church, to detect theft by means of his bell, of bathing mad patients in
his pool, to cure their infirmity of mind; and lo! the persecutors have
cast me forth of their communion, as they will speedily cast me out of
this life."

"Lo you there now," said the glover, "see what it is for a man that
cannot take a warning! Well, Father Clement, men will not cast me forth
unless it were as a companion of yours. I pray you, therefore, tell me
what you have to say of my daughter, and let us be less neighbours than
we have been."

"This, then, brother Simon, I have to acquaint you with. This young
chief, who is swoln with contemplation of his own power and glory, loves
one thing better than it all, and that is thy daughter."

"He, Conachar!" exclaimed Simon. "My runagate apprentice look up to my
daughter!"

"Alas!" said Clement, "how close sits our worldly pride, even as ivy
clings to the wall, and cannot be separated! Look up to thy daughter,
good Simon? Alas, no! The captain of Clan Quhele, great as he is, and
greater as he soon expects to be, looks down to the daughter of the
Perth burgess, and considers himself demeaned in doing so. 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. Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel, even
should I at length preach it from amidst the pile of flames!"

So spoke this bold witness, one of those whom Heaven raised up from time
to time to preserve amidst the most ignorant ages, and to carry down to
those which succeed them, a manifestation of unadulterated Christianity,
from the time of the Apostles to the age when, favoured by the invention
of printing, the Reformation broke out in full splendour. The selfish
policy of the glover was exposed in his own eyes; and he felt himself
contemptible as he saw the Carthusian turn from him in all the
hallowedness of resignation. He was even conscious of a momentary
inclination to follow the example of the preacher's philanthropy and
disinterested zeal, but it glanced like a flash of lightning through a
dark vault, where there lies nothing to catch the blaze; and he slowly
descended the hill in a direction different from that of the Carthusian,
forgetting him and his doctrines, and buried in anxious thoughts about
his child's fate and his own.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

     What want these outlaws conquerors should have
     But history's purchased page to call them great,
     A wider space, an ornamented grave?
     Their hopes were not less warm, their souls were full as brave.

     BYRON.

The funeral obsequies being over, the same flotilla which had proceeded
in solemn and sad array down the lake prepared to return with displayed
banners, and every demonstration of mirth and joy; for there was but
brief time to celebrate festivals when the awful conflict betwixt the
Clan Quhele and their most formidable rivals so nearly approached. It
had been agreed, therefore, that the funeral feast should be blended
with that usually given at the inauguration of the young chief.

Some objections were made to this arrangement, as containing an evil
omen. But, on the other hand, it had a species of recommendation, from
the habits and feelings of the Highlanders, who, to this day, are wont
to mingle a degree of solemn mirth with their mourning, and something
resembling melancholy with their mirth. The usual aversion to speak
or think of those who have been beloved and lost is less known to this
grave and enthusiastic race than it is to others. You hear not only the
young mention (as is everywhere usual) the merits and the character of
parents, who have, in the course of nature, predeceased them; but the
widowed partner speaks, in ordinary conversation, of the lost spouse,
and, what is still stranger, the parents allude frequently to the beauty
or valour of the child whom they have interred. The Scottish Highlanders
appear to regard the separation of friends by death as something less
absolute and complete than it is generally esteemed in other countries,
and converse of the dear connexions who have sought the grave before
them as if they had gone upon a long journey in which they themselves
must soon follow. The funeral feast, therefore, being a general custom
throughout Scotland, was not, in the opinion of those who were to share
it, unseemingly mingled, on the present occasion, with the festivities
which hailed the succession to the chieftainship.

The barge which had lately borne the dead to the grave now conveyed
the young MacIan to his new command and the minstrels sent forth their
gayest notes to gratulate Eachin's succession, as they had lately
sounded their most doleful dirges when carrying Gilchrist to his grave.
From the attendant flotilla rang notes of triumph and jubilee, instead
of those yells of lamentation which had so lately disturbed the echoes
of Loch Tay; and a thousand voices hailed the youthful chieftain as he
stood on the poop, armed at all points, in the flower of early manhood,
beauty, and activity, on the very spot where his father's corpse had so
lately been extended, and surrounded by triumphant friends, as that had
been by desolate mourners.

One boat kept closest of the flotilla to the honoured galley. Torquil
of the Oak, a grizzled giant, was steersman; and his eight sons, each
exceeding the ordinary stature of mankind, pulled the oars. Like some
powerful and favourite wolf hound, unloosed from his couples, and
frolicking around a liberal master, the boat of the foster brethren
passed the chieftain's barge, now on one side and now on another, and
even rowed around it, as if in extravagance of joy; while, at the same
time, with the jealous vigilance of the animal we have compared it to,
they made it dangerous for any other of the flotilla to approach so near
as themselves, from the risk of being run down by their impetuous
and reckless manoeuvres. Raised to an eminent rank in the clan by the
succession of their foster brother to the command of the Clan Quhele,
this was the tumultuous and almost terrible mode in which they testified
their peculiar share in their chief's triumph.

Far behind, and with different feelings, on the part of one at least of
the company, came the small boat in which, manned by the Booshalloch and
one of his sons, Simon Glover was a passenger.

"If we are bound for the head of the lake," said Simon to his friend,
"we shall hardly be there for hours."

But as he spoke the crew of the boat of the foster brethren, or
leichtach, on a signal from the chief's galley, lay on their oars until
the Booshalloch's boat came up, and throwing on board a rope of hides,
which Niel made fast to the head of his skiff, they stretched to their
oars once more, and, notwithstanding they had the small boat in tow,
swept through the lake with almost the same rapidity as before. The
skiff was tugged on with a velocity which seemed to hazard the pulling
her under water, or the separation of her head from her other timbers.

Simon Glover saw with anxiety the reckless fury of their course, and the
bows of the boat occasionally brought within an inch or two of the level
of the water; and though his friend, Niel Booshalloch, assured him it
was all done in especial honour, he heartily wished his voyage might
have a safe termination. It had so, and much sooner than he apprehended;
for the place of festivity was not four miles distant from the
sepulchral island, being chosen to suit the chieftain's course, which
lay to the southeast, so soon as the banquet should be concluded. A
bay on the southern side of Loch Tay presented a beautiful beach of
sparkling sand, on which the boats might land with ease, and a dry
meadow, covered with turf, verdant considering the season, behind and
around which rose high banks, fringed with copsewood, and displaying the
lavish preparations which had been made for the entertainment.

The Highlanders, well known for ready hatchet men, had constructed a
long arbour or silvan banqueting room, capable of receiving two hundred
men, while a number of smaller huts around seemed intended for sleeping
apartments. The uprights, the couples, and roof tree of the temporary
hall were composed of mountain pine, still covered with its bark. The
framework of the sides was of planks or spars of the same material,
closely interwoven with the leafy boughs of the fir and other
evergreens, which the neighbouring woods afforded, while the hills had
furnished plenty of heath to form the roof. Within this silvan palace
the most important personages present were invited to hold high
festival. Others of less note were to feast in various long sheds
constructed with less care; and tables of sod, or rough planks, placed
in the open air, were allotted to the numberless multitude. At a
distance were to be seen piles of glowing charcoal or blazing wood,
around which countless cooks toiled, bustled, and fretted, like so many
demons working in their native element. Pits, wrought in the hillside,
and lined with heated stones, served as ovens for stewing immense
quantities of beef, mutton, and venison; wooden spits supported sheep
and goats, which were roasted entire; others were cut into joints,
and seethed in caldrons made of the animal's own skins, sewed hastily
together and filled with water; while huge quantities of pike, trout,
salmon, and char were broiled with more ceremony on glowing embers. The
glover had seen many a Highland banquet, but never one the preparations
for which were on such a scale of barbarous profusion.

He had little time, however, to admire the scene around him for, as
soon as they landed on the beach, the Booshalloch observed with some
embarrassment, that, as they had not been bidden to the table of the
dais, to which he seemed to have expected an invitation, they had best
secure a place in one of the inferior bothies or booths; and was leading
the way in that direction, when he was stopped by one of the bodyguards,
seeming to act as master of ceremonies, who whispered something in his
ear.

"I thought so," said the herdsman, much relieved--"I thought neither the
stranger nor the man that has my charge would be left out at the high
table."

They were conducted accordingly into the ample lodge, within which were
long ranges of tables already mostly occupied by the guests, while those
who acted as domestics were placing upon them the abundant though rude
materials of the festival. The young chief, although he certainly saw
the glover and the herdsman enter, did not address any personal salute
to either, and their places were assigned them in a distant corner, far
beneath the salt, a huge piece of antique silver plate, the only article
of value that the table displayed, and which was regarded by the clan
as a species of palladium, only produced and used on the most solemn
occasions, such as the present.

The Booshalloch, somewhat discontented, muttered to Simon as he took his
place: "These are changed days, friend. His father, rest his soul, would
have spoken to us both; but these are bad manners which he has learned
among you Sassenachs in the Low Country."

To this remark the glover did not think it necessary to reply; instead
of which he adverted to the evergreens, and particularly to the skins
and other ornaments with which the interior of the bower was decorated.
The most remarkable part of these ornaments was a number of Highland
shirts of mail, with steel bonnets, battle axes, and two handed swords
to match, which hung around the upper part of the room, together with
targets highly and richly embossed. Each mail shirt was hung over a well
dressed stag's hide, which at once displayed the armour to advantage and
saved it from suffering by damp.

"These," whispered the Booshalloch, "are the arms of the chosen
champions of the Clan Quhele. They are twenty-nine in number, as you
see, Eachin himself being the thirtieth, who wears his armour today,
else had there been thirty. And he has not got such a good hauberk after
all as he should wear on Palm Sunday. These nine suits of harness, of
such large size, are for the leichtach, from whom so much is expected."

"And these goodly deer hides," said Simon, the spirit of his profession
awakening at the sight of the goods in which he traded--"think you the
chief will be disposed to chaffer for them? They are in demand for the
doublets which knights wear under their armour."

"Did I not pray you," said Niel Booshalloch, "to say nothing on that
subject?"

"It is the mail shirts I speak of," said Simon--"may I ask if any of
them were made by our celebrated Perth armourer, called Henry of the
Wynd?"

"Thou art more unlucky than before," said Niel, "that man's name is to
Eachin's temper like a whirlwind upon the lake; yet no man knows for
what cause."

"I can guess," thought our glover, but gave no utterance to the thought;
and, having twice lighted on unpleasant subjects of conversation, he
prepared to apply himself, like those around him, to his food, without
starting another topic.

We have said as much of the preparations as may lead the reader to
conclude that the festival, in respect of the quality of the food, was
of the most rude description, consisting chiefly of huge joints of meat,
which were consumed with little respect to the fasting season, although
several of the friars of the island convent graced and hallowed the
board by their presence. The platters were of wood, and so were the
hooped cogues or cups out of which the guests quaffed their liquor, as
also the broth or juice of the meat, which was held a delicacy. There
were also various preparations of milk which were highly esteemed, and
were eaten out of similar vessels. Bread was the scarcest article at the
banquet, but the glover and his patron Niel were served with two small
loaves expressly for their own use. In eating, as, indeed, was then the
case all over Britain, the guests used their knives called skenes, or
the large poniards named dirks, without troubling themselves by the
reflection that they might occasionally have served different or more
fatal purposes.

At the upper end of the table stood a vacant seat, elevated a step or
two above the floor. It was covered with a canopy of hollow boughs and
ivy, and there rested against it a sheathed sword and a folded banner.
This had been the seat of the deceased chieftain, and was left vacant
in honour of him. Eachin occupied a lower chair on the right hand of the
place of honour.

The reader would be greatly mistaken who should follow out this
description by supposing that the guests behaved like a herd of hungry
wolves, rushing upon a feast rarely offered to them. On the contrary,
the Clan Quhele conducted themselves with that species of courteous
reserve and attention to the wants of others which is often found in
primitive nations, especially such as are always in arms, because a
general observance of the rules of courtesy is necessary to prevent
quarrels, bloodshed, and death. The guests took the places assigned them
by Torquil of the Oak, who, acting as marischal taeh, i.e. sewer of
the mess, touched with a white wand, without speaking a word, the place
where each was to sit. Thus placed in order, the company patiently
waited for the portion assigned them, which was distributed among them
by the leichtach; the bravest men or more distinguished warriors of
the tribe being accommodated with a double mess, emphatically called
bieyfir, or the portion of a man. When the sewers themselves had seen
every one served, they resumed their places at the festival, and were
each served with one of these larger messes of food. Water was placed
within each man's reach, and a handful of soft moss served the purposes
of a table napkin, so that, as at an Eastern banquet, the hands were
washed as often as the mess was changed. For amusement, the bard recited
the praises of the deceased chief, and expressed the clan's confidence
in the blossoming virtues of his successor. The seannachie recited the
genealogy of the tribe, which they traced to the race of the Dalriads;
the harpers played within, while the war pipes cheered the multitude
without. The conversation among the guests was grave, subdued, and
civil; no jest was attempted beyond the bounds of a very gentle
pleasantry, calculated only to excite a passing smile. There were no
raised voices, no contentious arguments; and Simon Glover had heard a
hundred times more noise at a guild feast in Perth than was made on this
occasion by two hundred wild mountaineers.

Even the liquor itself did not seem to raise the festive party above the
same tone of decorous gravity. It was of various kinds. Wine appeared in
very small quantities, and was served out only to the principal guests,
among which honoured number Simon Glover was again included. The wine
and the two wheaten loaves were indeed the only marks of notice which he
received during the feast; but Niel Booshalloch, jealous of his master's
reputation for hospitality, failed not to enlarge on them as proofs
of high distinction. Distilled liquors, since so generally used in
the Highlands, were then comparatively unknown. The usquebaugh was
circulated in small quantities, and was highly flavoured with a
decoction of saffron and other herbs, so as to resemble a medicinal
potion rather than a festive cordial. Cider and mead were seen at the
entertainment, but ale, brewed in great quantities for the purpose, and
flowing round without restriction, was the liquor generally used, and
that was drunk with a moderation much less known among the more modern
Highlanders. A cup to the memory of the deceased chieftain was the first
pledge solemnly proclaimed after the banquet was finished, and a low
murmur of benedictions was heard from the company, while the monks
alone, uplifting their united voices, sung Requiem eternam dona. An
unusual silence followed, as if something extraordinary was expected,
when Eachin arose with a bold and manly, yet modest, grace, and ascended
the vacant seat or throne, saying with dignity and firmness:

"This seat and my father's inheritance I claim as my right--so prosper
me God and St. Barr!"

"How will you rule your father's children?" said an old man, the uncle
of the deceased.

"I will defend them with my father's sword, and distribute justice to
them under my father's banner."

The old man, with a trembling hand, unsheathed the ponderous weapon,
and, holding it by the blade, offered the hilt to the young chieftain's
grasp; at the same time Torquil of the Oak unfurled the pennon of the
tribe, and swung it repeatedly over Eachin's head, who, with singular
grace and dexterity, brandished the huge claymore as in its defence.
The guests raised a yelling shout to testify their acceptance of the
patriarchal chief who claimed their allegiance, nor was there any who,
in the graceful and agile youth before them, was disposed to recollect
the subject of sinister vaticinations. As he stood in glittering mail,
resting on the long sword, and acknowledging by gracious gestures the
acclamations which rent the air within, without, and around, Simon
Glover was tempted to doubt whether this majestic figure was that of the
same lad whom he had often treated with little ceremony, and began to
have some apprehension of the consequences of having done so. A
general burst of minstrelsy succeeded to the acclamations, and rock and
greenwood rang to harp and pipes, as lately to shout and yell of woe.

It would be tedious to pursue the progress of the inaugural feast, or
detail the pledges that were quaffed to former heroes of the clan, and
above all to the twenty-nine brave galloglasses who were to fight in the
approaching conflict, under the eye and leading of their young chief.
The bards, assuming in old times the prophetic character combined with
their own, ventured to assure them of the most distinguished victory,
and to predict the fury with which the blue falcon, the emblem of the
Clan Quhele, should rend to pieces the mountain cat, the well known
badge of the Clan Chattan.

It was approaching sunset when a bowl, called the grace cup, made of
oak, hooped with silver, was handed round the table as the signal of
dispersion, although it was left free to any who chose a longer carouse
to retreat to any of the outer bothies. As for Simon Glover, the
Booshalloch conducted him to a small hut, contrived, it would seem,
for the use of a single individual, where a bed of heath and moss was
arranged as well as the season would permit, and an ample supply of
such delicacies as the late feast afforded showed that all care had been
taken for the inhabitant's accommodation.

"Do not leave this hut," said the Booshalloch, taking leave of his
friend and protege: "this is your place of rest. But apartments are lost
on such a night of confusion, and if the badger leaves his hole the toad
will creep into it."

To Simon Glover this arrangement was by no means disagreeable. He had
been wearied by the noise of the day, and felt desirous of repose. After
eating, therefore, a morsel, which his appetite scarce required, and
drinking a cup of wine to expel the cold, he muttered his evening
prayer, wrapt himself in his cloak, and lay down on a couch which old
acquaintance had made familiar and easy to him. The hum and murmur,
and even the occasional shouts, of some of the festive multitude who
continued revelling without did not long interrupt his repose, and in
about ten minutes he was as fast asleep as if he had lain in his own bed
in Curfew Street.

CHAPTER XXIX.

     Still harping on my daughter.

     Hamlet.

Two hours before the black cock crew, Simon Glover was wakened by a well
known voice, which called him by name.

"What, Conachar!" he replied, as he started from sleep, "is the morning
so far advanced?" and, raising his eyes, the person of whom he was
dreaming stood before him; and at the same moment, the events of
yesterday rushing on his recollection, he saw with surprise that the
vision retained the form which sleep had assigned it, and it was not the
mail clad Highland chief, with claymore in hand, as he had seen him
the preceding night, but Conachar of Curfew Street, in his humble
apprentice's garb, holding in his hand a switch of oak. An apparition
would not more have surprised our Perth burgher. As he gazed with
wonder, the youth turned upon him a piece of lighted bog wood which he
carried in a lantern, and to his waking exclamation replied:

"Even so, father Simon: it is Conachar, come to renew our old
acquaintance, when our intercourse will attract least notice."

So saying, he sat down on a tressel which answered the purpose of
a chair, and placing the lantern beside him, proceeded in the most
friendly tone:

"I have tasted of thy good cheer many a day, father Simon; I trust thou
hast found no lack in my family?"

"None whatever, Eachin MacIan," answered the glover, for the simplicity
of the Celtic language and manners rejects all honorary titles; "it was
even too good for this fasting season, and much too good for me, since I
must be ashamed to think how hard you fared in Curfew Street."

"Even too well, to use your own word," said Conachar, "for the deserts
of an idle apprentice and for the wants of a young Highlander. But
yesterday, if there was, as I trust, enough of food, found you not, good
glover, some lack of courteous welcome? Excuse it not--I know you did
so. But I am young in authority with my people, and I must not too early
draw their attention to the period of my residence in the Lowlands,
which, however, I can never forget."

"I understand the cause entirely," said Simon; "and therefore it is
unwillingly, and as it were by force, that I have made so early a visit
hither."

"Hush, father--hush! It is well you are come to see some of my Highland
splendour while it yet sparkles. Return after Palm Sunday, and who knows
whom or what you may find in the territories we now possess! The
wildcat may have made his lodge where the banqueting bower of MacIan now
stands."

The young chief was silent, and pressed the top of the rod to his lips,
as if to guard against uttering more.

"There is no fear of that, Eachin," said Simon, in that vague way in
which lukewarm comforters endeavour to turn the reflections of their
friends from the consideration of inevitable danger.

"There is fear, and there is peril of utter ruin," answered Eachin, "and
there is positive certainty of great loss. I marvel my father consented
to this wily proposal of Albany. I would MacGillie Chattanach would
agree with me, and then, instead of wasting our best blood against
each other, we would go down together to Strathmore and kill and take
possession. I would rule at Perth and he at Dundee, and all the great
strath should be our own to the banks of the Firth of Tay. Such is the
policy I have caught from your old grey head, father Simon, when holding
a trencher at thy back, and listening to thy evening talk with Bailie
Craigdallie."

"The tongue is well called an unruly member," thought the glover.
"Here have I been holding a candle to the devil, to show him the way to
mischief."

But he only said aloud: "These plans come too late."

"Too late indeed!" answered Eachin. "The indentures of battle are signed
by our marks and seals, the burning hate of the Clan Quhele and Clan
Chattan is blown up to an inextinguishable flame by mutual insults and
boasts. Yes, the time is passed by. But to thine own affairs, father
Glover. It is religion that has brought thee hither, as I learn from
Niel Booshalloch. Surely, my experience of thy prudence did not lead
me to suspect thee of any quarrel with Mother Church. As for my old
acquaintance, Father Clement, he is one of those who hunt after the
crown of martyrdom, and think a stake, surrounded with blazing fagots,
better worth embracing than a willing bride. He is a very knight errant
in defence of his religious notions, and does battle wherever he comes.
He hath already a quarrel with the monks of Sibyl's Isle yonder about
some point of doctrine. Hast seen him?"

"I have," answered Simon; "but we spoke little together, the time being
pressing."

"He may have said that there is a third person--one more likely, I
think, to be a true fugitive for religion than either you, a shrewd
citizen, or he, a wrangling preacher--who would be right heartily
welcome to share our protection? Thou art dull, man, and wilt not guess
my meaning--thy daughter, Catharine."

These last words the young chief spoke in English; and he continued the
conversation in that language, as if apprehensive of being overheard,
and, indeed, as if under the sense of some involuntary hesitation.

"My daughter Catharine," said the glover, remembering what the
Carthusian had told him, "is well and safe."

"But where or with whom?" said the young chief. "And wherefore came she
not with you? Think you the Clan Quhele have no cailliachs as active as
old Dorothy, whose hand has warmed my haffits before now, to wait upon
the daughter of their chieftain's master?"

"Again I thank you," said the glover, "and doubt neither your power nor
your will to protect my daughter, as well as myself. But an honourable
lady, the friend of Sir Patrick Charteris, hath offered her a safe place
of refuge without the risk of a toilsome journey through a desolate and
distracted country."

"Oh, ay, Sir Patrick Charteris," said Eachin, in a more reserved and
distant tone; "he must be preferred to all men, without doubt. He is
your friend, I think?"

Simon Glover longed to punish this affectation of a boy who had been
scolded four times a day for running into the street to see Sir Patrick
Charteris ride past; but he checked his spirit of repartee, and simply
said:

"Sir Patrick Charteris has been provost of Perth for seven years, and it
is likely is so still, since the magistrates are elected, not in Lent,
but at St. Martinmas."

"Ah, father Glover," said the youth, in his kinder and more familiar
mode of address, "you are so used to see the sumptuous shows and
pageants of Perth, that you would but little relish our barbarous
festival in comparison. What didst thou think of our ceremonial of
yesterday?"

"It was noble and touching," said the glover; "and to me, who knew your
father, most especially so. When you rested on the sword and looked
around you, methought I saw mine old friend Gilchrist MacIan arisen from
the dead and renewed in years and in strength."

"I played my part there boldly, I trust; and showed little of that
paltry apprentice boy whom you used to--use just as he deserved?"

"Eachin resembles Conachar," said the glover, "no more than a salmon
resembles a gar, though men say they are the same fish in a different
state, or than a butterfly resembles a grub."

"Thinkest thou that, while I was taking upon me the power which all
women love, I would have been myself an object for a maiden's eye to
rest upon? To speak plain, what would Catharine have thought of me in
the ceremonial?"

"We approach the shallows now," thought Simon Glover, "and without nice
pilotage we drive right on shore."

"Most women like show, Eachin; but I think my daughter Catharine be an
exception. She would rejoice in the good fortune of her household friend
and playmate; but she would not value the splendid MacIan, captain of
Clan Quhele, more than the orphan Conachar."

"She is ever generous and disinterested," replied the young chief. "But
yourself, father, have seen the world for many more years than she has
done, and can better form a judgment what power and wealth do for those
who enjoy them. Think, and speak sincerely, what would be your own
thoughts if you saw your Catharine standing under yonder canopy, with
the command over an hundred hills, and the devoted obedience of ten
thousand vassals; and as the price of these advantages, her hand in that
of the man who loves her the best in the world?"

"Meaning in your own, Conachar?" said Simon.

"Ay, Conachar call me: I love the name, since it was by that I have been
known to Catharine."

"Sincerely, then," said the glover, endeavouring to give the least
offensive turn to his reply, "my inmost thought would be the earnest
wish that Catharine and I were safe in our humble booth in Curfew
Street, with Dorothy for our only vassal."

"And with poor Conachar also, I trust? You would not leave him to pine
away in solitary grandeur?"

"I would not," answered the glover, "wish so ill to the Clan Quhele,
mine ancient friends, as to deprive them, at the moment of emergency,
of a brave young chief, and that chief of the fame which he is about to
acquire at their head in the approaching conflict."

Eachin bit his lip to suppress his irritated feelings as he replied:
"Words--words--empty words, father Simon. You fear the Clan Quhele
more than you love them, and you suppose their indignation would be
formidable should their chief marry the daughter of a burgess of Perth."

"And if I do fear such an issue, Hector MacIan, have I not reason? How
have ill assorted marriages had issue in the house of MacCallanmore,
in that of the powerful MacLeans--nay, of the Lords of the Isles
themselves? What has ever come of them but divorce and exheredation,
sometimes worse fate, to the ambitious intruder? You could not marry my
child before a priest, and you could only wed her with your left
hand; and I--" he checked the strain of impetuosity which the subject
inspired, and concluded, "and I am an honest though humble burgher of
Perth, who would rather my child were the lawful and undoubted spouse of
a citizen in my own rank than the licensed concubine of a monarch."

"I will wed Catharine before the priest and before the world, before
the altar and before the black stones of Iona," said the impetuous young
man. "She is the love of my youth, and there is not a tie in religion or
honour but I will bind myself by them! I have sounded my people. If
we do but win this combat--and, with the hope of gaining Catharine, we
SHALL win it--my heart tells me so--I shall be so much lord over their
affections that, were I to take a bride from the almshouse, so it was
my pleasure, they would hail her as if she were a daughter of
MacCallanmore. But you reject my suit?" said Eachin, sternly.

"You put words of offence in my mouth," said the old man, "and may next
punish me for them, since I am wholly in your power. But with my consent
my daughter shall never wed save in her own degree. Her heart would
break amid the constant wars and scenes of bloodshed which connect
themselves with your lot. If you really love her, and recollect her
dread of strife and combat, you would not wish her to be subjected to
the train of military horrors in which you, like your father, must
needs be inevitably and eternally engaged. Choose a bride amongst the
daughters of the mountain chiefs, my son, or fiery Lowland nobles. You
are fair, young, rich, high born, and powerful, and will not woo in
vain. You will readily find one who will rejoice in your conquests, and
cheer you under defeat. To Catharine, the one would be as frightful
as the other. A warrior must wear a steel gauntlet: a glove of kidskin
would be torn to pieces in an hour."

A dark cloud passed over the face of the young chief, lately animated
with so much fire.

"Farewell," he said, "the only hope which could have lighted me to fame
or victory!"

He remained for a space silent, and intensely thoughtful, with downcast
eyes, a lowering brow, and folded arms. At length he raised his hands,
and said: "Father,--for such you have been to me--I am about to tell you
a secret. Reason and pride both advise me to be silent, but fate urges
me, and must be obeyed. I am about to lodge in you the deepest and
dearest secret that man ever confided to man. But beware--end this
conference how it will--beware how you ever breathe a syllable of what
I am now to trust to you; for know that, were you to do so in the most
remote corner of Scotland, I have ears to hear it even there, and a
hand and poniard to reach a traitor's bosom. I am--but the word will not
out!"

"Do not speak it then," said the prudent glover: "a secret is no longer
safe when it crosses the lips of him who owns it, and I desire not a
confidence so dangerous as you menace me with."

"Ay, but I must speak, and you must hear," said the youth. "In this age
of battle, father, you have yourself been a combatant?"

"Once only," replied Simon, "when the Southron assaulted the Fair City.
I was summoned to take my part in the defence, as my tenure required,
like that of other craftsmen, who are bound to keep watch and ward."

"And how felt you upon that matter?" inquired the young chief.

"What can that import to the present business?" said Simon, in some
surprise.

"Much, else I had not asked the question," answered. Eachin, in the tone
of haughtiness which from time to time he assumed.

"An old man is easily brought to speak of olden times," said Simon, not
unwilling, on an instant's reflection, to lead the conversation away
from the subject of his daughter, "and I must needs confess my feelings
were much short of the high, cheerful confidence, nay, the pleasure,
with which I have seen other men go to battle. My life and profession
were peaceful, and though I have not wanted the spirit of a man, when
the time demanded it, yet I have seldom slept worse than the night
before that onslaught. My ideas were harrowed by the tales we were
told--nothing short of the truth--about the Saxon archers: how they drew
shafts of a cloth yard length, and used bows a third longer than ours.
When I fell into a broken slumber, if but a straw in the mattress
pricked my side I started and waked, thinking an English arrow was
quivering in my body. In the morning, as I began for very weariness to
sink into some repose, I was waked by the tolling of the common bell,
which called us burghers to the walls; I never heard its sound peal so
like a passing knell before or since."

"Go on--what further chanced?" demanded Eachin.

"I did on my harness," said Simon, "such as it was; took my mother's
blessing, a high spirited woman, who spoke of my father's actions for
the honour of the Fair Town. This heartened me, and I felt still bolder
when I found myself ranked among the other crafts, all bowmen, for thou
knowest the Perth citizens have good skill in archery. We were dispersed
on the walls, several knights and squires in armour of proof being
mingled amongst us, who kept a bold countenance, confident perhaps in
their harness, and informed us, for our encouragement, that they would
cut down with their swords and axes any of those who should attempt to
quit their post. I was kindly assured of this myself by the old Kempe
of Kinfauns, as he was called, this good Sir Patrick's father, then our
provost. He was a grandson of the Red Rover, Tom of Longueville, and
a likely man to keep his word, which he addressed to me in especial,
because a night of much discomfort may have made me look paler than
usual; and, besides, I was but a lad."

"And did his exhortation add to your fear or your resolution?" said
Eachin, who seemed very attentive.

"To my resolution," answered Simon; "for I think nothing can make a
man so bold to face one danger at some distance in his front as the
knowledge of another close behind him, to push him forward. Well, I
mounted the walls in tolerable heart, and was placed with others on the
Spey Tower, being accounted a good bowman. But a very cold fit seized me
as I saw the English, in great order, with their archers in front,
and their men at arms behind, marching forward to the attack in strong
columns, three in number. They came on steadily, and some of us would
fain have shot at them; but it was strictly forbidden, and we were
obliged to remain motionless, sheltering ourselves behind the battlement
as we best might. As the Southron formed their long ranks into lines,
each man occupying his place as by magic, and preparing to cover
themselves by large shields, called pavesses, which they planted before
them, I again felt a strange breathlessness, and some desire to go home
for a glass of distilled waters. But as I looked aside, I saw the worthy
Kempe of Kinfauns bending a large crossbow, and I thought it pity he
should waste the bolt on a true hearted Scotsman, when so many English
were in presence; so I e'en staid where I was, being in a comfortable
angle, formed by two battlements. The English then strode forward, and
drew their bowstrings--not to the breast, as your Highland kerne do, but
to the ear--and sent off their volleys of swallow tails before we could
call on St. Andrew. I winked when I saw them haul up their tackle, and I
believe I started as the shafts began to rattle against the parapet.
But looking round me, and seeing none hurt but John Squallit, the town
crier, whose jaws were pierced through with a cloth yard shaft, I took
heart of grace, and shot in my turn with good will and good aim. A
little man I shot at, who had just peeped out from behind his target,
dropt with a shaft through his shoulder. The provost cried, 'Well
stitched, Simon Glover!' 'St. John, for his own town, my fellow
craftsmen!' shouted I, though I was then but an apprentice. And if you
will believe me, in the rest of the skirmish, which was ended by the
foes drawing off, I drew bowstring and loosed shaft as calmly as if
I had been shooting at butts instead of men's breasts. I gained
some credit, and I have ever afterwards thought that, in case of
necessity--for with me it had never been matter of choice--I should not
have lost it again. And this is all I can tell of warlike experience in
battle. Other dangers I have had, which I have endeavoured to avoid like
a wise man, or, when they were inevitable, I have faced them like a
true one. Upon other terms a man cannot live or hold up his head in
Scotland."

"I understand your tale," said Eachin; "but I shall find it difficult
to make you credit mine, knowing the race of which I am descended, and
especially that I am the son of him whom we have this day laid in the
tomb--well that he lies where he will never learn what you are now to
hear! Look, my father, the light which I bear grows short and pale, a
few minutes will extinguish it; but before it expires, the hideous tale
will be told. Father, I am--a COWARD! It is said at last, and the secret
of my disgrace is in keeping of another!"

The young man sunk back in a species of syncope, produced by the agony
of his mind as he made the fatal communication. The glover, moved as
well by fear as by compassion, applied himself to recall him to life,
and succeeded in doing so, but not in restoring him to composure. He hid
his face with his hands, and his tears flowed plentifully and bitterly.

"For Our Lady's sake, be composed," said the old man, "and recall the
vile word! I know you better than yourself: you are no coward, but only
too young and inexperienced, ay, and somewhat too quick of fancy, to
have the steady valour of a bearded man. I would hear no other man say
that of you, Conachar, without giving him the lie. You are no coward:
I have seen high sparks of spirit fly from you even on slight enough
provocation."

"High sparks of pride and passion!" said the unfortunate youth; "but
when saw you them supported by the resolution that should have backed
them? The sparks you speak of fell on my dastardly heart as on a piece
of ice which could catch fire from nothing: if my offended pride urged
me to strike, my weakness of mind prompted me the next moment to fly."

"Want of habit," said Simon; "it is by clambering over walls that youths
learn to scale precipices. Begin with slight feuds; exercise daily the
arms of your country in tourney with your followers."

"And what leisure is there for this?" exclaimed the young chief,
starting as if something horrid had occurred to his imagination. "How
many days are there betwixt this hour and Palm Sunday, and what is to
chance then? A list inclosed, from which no man can stir, more than the
poor bear who is chained to his stake. Sixty living men, the best
and fiercest--one alone excepted!--which Albyn can send down from her
mountains, all athirst for each other's blood, while a king and his
nobles, and shouting thousands besides, attend, as at a theatre, to
encourage their demoniac fury! Blows clang and blood flows, thicker,
faster, redder; they rush on each other like madmen, they tear each
other like wild beasts; the wounded are trodden to death amid the feet
of their companions! Blood ebbs, arms become weak; but there must be
no parley, no truce, no interruption, while any of the maimed wretches
remain alive! Here is no crouching behind battlements, no fighting with
missile weapons: all is hand to hand, till hands can no longer be raised
to maintain the ghastly conflict! If such a field is so horrible in
idea, what think you it will be in reality?"

The glover remained silent.

"I say again, what think you?"

"I can only pity you, Conachar," said Simon. "It is hard to be the
descendant of a lofty line--the son of a noble father--the leader by
birth of a gallant array, and yet to want, or think you want, for
still I trust the fault lies much in a quick fancy, that over estimates
danger--to want that dogged quality which is possessed by every game
cock that is worth a handful of corn, every hound that is worth a
mess of offal. But how chanced it that, with such a consciousness of
inability to fight in this battle, you proffered even now to share your
chiefdom with my daughter? Your power must depend on your fighting this
combat, and in that Catharine cannot help you."

"You mistake, old man," replied Eachin: "were Catharine to look kindly
on the earnest love I bear her, it would carry me against the front of
the enemies with the mettle of a war horse. Overwhelming as my sense
of weakness is, the feeling that Catharine looked on would give me
strength. Say yet--oh, say yet--she shall be mine if we gain the combat,
and not the Gow Chrom himself, whose heart is of a piece with his
anvil, ever went to battle so light as I shall do! One strong passion is
conquered by another."

"This is folly, Conachar. Cannot the recollection of your interest, your
honour, your kindred, do as much to stir your courage as the thoughts of
a brent browed lass? Fie upon you, man!"

"You tell me but what I have told myself, but it is in vain," replied
Eachin, with a sigh. "It is only whilst the timid stag is paired with
the doe that he is desperate and dangerous. Be it from constitution; be
it, as our Highland cailliachs will say, from the milk of the white
doe; be it from my peaceful education and the experience of your strict
restraint; be it, as you think, from an overheated fancy, which paints
danger yet more dangerous and ghastly than it is in reality, I cannot
tell. But I know my failing, and--yes, it must be said!--so sorely dread
that I cannot conquer it, that, could I have your consent to my wishes
on such terms, I would even here make a pause, renounce the rank I have
assumed, and retire into humble life."

"What, turn glover at last, Conachar?" said Simon. "This beats the
legend of St. Crispin. Nay--nay, your hand was not framed for that: you
shall spoil me no more doe skins."

"Jest not," said Eachin, "I am serious. If I cannot labour, I will bring
wealth enough to live without it. They will proclaim me recreant with
horn and war pipe. Let them do so. Catharine will love me the better
that I have preferred the paths of peace to those of bloodshed, and
Father Clement shall teach us to pity and forgive the world, which will
load us with reproaches that wound not. I shall be the happiest of men;
Catharine will enjoy all that unbounded affection can confer upon her,
and will be freed from apprehension of the sights and sounds of horror
which your ill assorted match would have prepared for her; and you,
father Glover, shall occupy your chimney corner, the happiest and most
honoured man that ever--"

"Hold, Eachin--I prithee, hold," said the glover; "the fir light, with
which this discourse must terminate, burns very low, and I would speak
a word in my turn, and plain dealing is best. Though it may vex,
or perhaps enrage, you, let me end these visions by saying at once:
Catharine can never be yours. A glove is the emblem of faith, and a
man of my craft should therefore less than any other break his own.
Catharine's hand is promised--promised to a man whom you may hate, but
whom you must honour--to Henry the armourer. The match is fitting by
degree, agreeable to their mutual wishes, and I have given my promise.
It is best to be plain at once; resent my refusal as you will--I am
wholly in your power. But nothing shall make me break my word."

The glover spoke thus decidedly, because he was aware from experience
that the very irritable disposition of his former apprentice yielded in
most cases to stern and decided resolution. Yet, recollecting where he
was, it was with some feelings of fear that he saw the dying flame leap
up and spread a flash of light on the visage of Eachin, which seemed
pale as the grave, while his eye rolled like that of a maniac in his
fever fit. The light instantly sunk down and died, and Simon felt a
momentary terror lest he should have to dispute for his life with
the youth, whom he knew to be capable of violent actions when highly
excited, however short a period his nature could support the measures
which his passion commenced. He was relieved by the voice of Eachin, who
muttered in a hoarse and altered tone:

"Let what we have spoken this night rest in silence for ever. If thou
bring'st it to light, thou wert better dig thine own grave."

Thus speaking, the door of the hut opened, admitting a gleam of
moonshine. The form of the retiring chief crossed it for an instant, the
hurdle was then closed, and the shieling left in darkness.

Simon Glover felt relieved when a conversation fraught with offence and
danger was thus peaceably terminated. But he remained deeply affected by
the condition of Hector MacIan, whom he had himself bred up.

"The poor child," said he, "to be called up to a place of eminence,
only to be hurled from it with contempt! What he told me I partly knew,
having often remarked that Conachar was more prone to quarrel than to
fight. But this overpowering faint heartedness, which neither shame
nor necessity can overcome, I, though no Sir William Wallace, cannot
conceive. And to propose himself for a husband to my daughter, as if
a bride were to find courage for herself and the bridegroom! No--no,
Catharine must wed a man to whom she may say, 'Husband, spare your
enemy'--not one in whose behalf she must cry, 'Generous enemy, spare my
husband!"

Tired out with these reflections, the old man at length fell asleep.
In the morning he was awakened by his friend the Booshalloch, who, with
something of a blank visage, proposed to him to return to his abode on
the meadow at the Ballough. He apologised that the chief could not see
Simon Glover that morning, being busied with things about the expected
combat; and that Eachin MacIan thought the residence at the Ballough
would be safest for Simon Glover's health, and had given charge that
every care should be taken for his protection and accommodation.

Niel Booshalloch dilated on these circumstances, to gloss over the
neglect implied in the chief's dismissing his visitor without a
particular audience.

"His father knew better," said the herdsman. "But where should he have
learned manners, poor thing, and bred up among your Perth burghers, who,
excepting yourself, neighbour Glover, who speak Gaelic as well as I do,
are a race incapable of civility?"

Simon Glover, it may be well believed, felt none of the want of respect
which his friend resented on his account. On the contrary, he greatly
preferred the quiet residence of the good herdsman to the tumultuous
hospitality of the daily festival of the chief, even if there had not
just passed an interview with Eachin upon a subject which it would be
most painful to revive.

To the Ballough, therefore, he quietly retreated, where, could he have
been secure of Catharine's safety, his leisure was spent pleasantly
enough. His amusement was sailing on the lake in a little skiff, which a
Highland boy managed, while the old man angled. He frequently landed
on the little island, where he mused over the tomb of his old friend
Gilchrist MacIan, and made friends with the monks, presenting the prior
with gloves of martens' fur, and the superior officers with each of them
a pair made from the skin of the wildcat. The cutting and stitching of
these little presents served to beguile the time after sunset, while
the family of the herdsman crowded around, admiring his address, and
listening to the tales and songs with which the old man had skill to
pass away a heavy evening.

It must be confessed that the cautious glover avoided the conversation
of Father Clement, whom he erroneously considered as rather the author
of his misfortunes than the guiltless sharer of them. "I will not," he
thought, "to please his fancies, lose the goodwill of these kind
monks, which may be one day useful to me. I have suffered enough by his
preachments already, I trow. Little the wiser and much the poorer they
have made me. No--no, Catharine and Clement may think as they will; but
I will take the first opportunity to sneak back like a rated hound at
the call of his master, submit to a plentiful course of haircloth and
whipcord, disburse a lusty mulct, and become whole with the church
again."

More than a fortnight had passed since the glover had arrived at
Ballough, and he began to wonder that he had not heard news of Catharine
or of Henry Wynd, to whom he concluded the provost had communicated the
plan and place of his retreat. He knew the stout smith dared not come
up into the Clan Quhele country, on account of various feuds with
the inhabitants, and with Eachin himself, while bearing the name of
Conachar; but yet the glover thought Henry might have found means to
send him a message, or a token, by some one of the various couriers who
passed and repassed between the court and the headquarters of the Clan
Quhele, in order to concert the terms of the impending combat, the
march of the parties to Perth, and other particulars requiring previous
adjustment. It was now the middle of March, and the fatal Palm Sunday
was fast approaching.

Whilst time was thus creeping on, the exiled glover had not even once
set eyes upon his former apprentice. The care that was taken to attend
to his wants and convenience in every respect showed that he was not
forgotten; but yet, when he heard the chieftain's horn ringing through
the woods, he usually made it a point to choose his walk in a different
direction. One morning, however, he found himself unexpectedly in
Eachin's close neighbourhood, with scarce leisure to avoid him, and thus
it happened.

As Simon strolled pensively through a little silvan glade, surrounded
on either side with tall forest trees, mixed with underwood, a white doe
broke from the thicket, closely pursued by two deer greyhounds, one
of which griped her haunch, the other her throat, and pulled her down
within half a furlong of the glover, who was something startled at the
suddenness of the incident. The ear and piercing blast of a horn, and
the baying of a slow hound, made Simon aware that the hunters were close
behind, and on the trace of the deer. Hallooing and the sound of
men running through the copse were heard close at hand. A moment's
recollection would have satisfied Simon that his best way was to stand
fast, or retire slowly, and leave it to Eachin to acknowledge his
presence or not, as he should see cause. But his desire of shunning the
young man had grown into a kind of instinct, and in the alarm of finding
him so near, Simon hid himself in a bush of hazels mixed with holly,
which altogether concealed him. He had hardly done so ere Eachin, rosy
with exercise, dashed from the thicket into the open glade, accompanied
by his foster father, Torquil of the Oak. The latter, with equal
strength and address, turned the struggling hind on her back, and
holding her forefeet in his right hand, while he knelt on her body,
offered his skene with the left to the young chief, that he might cut
the animal's throat.

"It may not be, Torquil; do thine office, and take the assay thyself. I
must not kill the likeness of my foster--"

This was spoken with a melancholy smile, while a tear at the same time
stood in the speaker's eye. Torquil stared at his young chief for an
instant, then drew his sharp wood knife across the creature's throat
with a cut so swift and steady that the weapon reached the backbone.
Then rising on his feet, and again fixing a long piercing look on his
chief, he said: "As much as I have done to that hind would I do to any
living man whose ears could have heard my dault (foster son) so much as
name a white doe, and couple the word with Hector's name!"

If Simon had no reason before to keep himself concealed, this speech of
Torquil furnished him with a pressing one.

"It cannot be concealed, father Torquil," said Eachin: "it will all out
to the broad day."

"What will out? what will to broad day?" asked Torquil in surprise.

"It is the fatal secret," thought Simon; "and now, if this huge privy
councillor cannot keep silence, I shall be made answerable, I suppose,
for Eachin's disgrace having been blown abroad."

Thinking thus anxiously, he availed himself at the same time of his
position to see as much as he could of what passed between the afflicted
chieftain and his confidant, impelled by that spirit of curiosity which
prompts us in the most momentous, as well as the most trivial, occasions
of life, and which is sometimes found to exist in company with great
personal fear.

As Torquil listened to what Eachin communicated, the young man sank
into his arms, and, supporting himself on his shoulder, concluded his
confession by a whisper into his ear. Torquil seemed to listen with such
amazement as to make him incapable of crediting his ears. As if to be
certain that it was Eachin who spoke, he gradually roused the youth from
his reclining posture, and, holding him up in some measure by a grasp on
his shoulder, fixed on him an eye that seemed enlarged, and at the same
time turned to stone, by the marvels he listened to. And so wild waxed
the old man's visage after he had heard the murmured communication,
that Simon Glover apprehended he would cast the youth from him as a
dishonoured thing, in which case he might have lighted among the very
copse in which he lay concealed, and occasioned his discovery in a
manner equally painful and dangerous. But the passions of Torquil,
who entertained for his foster child even a double portion of that
passionate fondness which always attends that connexion in the Highlands
took a different turn.

"I believe it not," he exclaimed; "it is false of thy father's child,
false of thy mother's son, falsest of my dault! I offer my gage to
heaven and hell, and will maintain the combat with him that shall call
it true. Thou hast been spellbound by an evil eye, my darling, and the
fainting which you call cowardice is the work of magic. I remember the
bat that struck the torch out on the hour that thou wert born--that hour
of grief and of joy. Cheer up, my beloved. Thou shalt with me to Iona,
and the good St. Columbus, with the whole choir of blessed saints and
angels, who ever favoured thy race, shall take from thee the heart of
the white doe and return that which they have stolen from thee."

Eachin listened, with a look as if he would fain have believed the words
of the comforter.

"But, Torquil," he said, "supposing this might avail us, the fatal day
approaches, and if I go to the lists, I dread me we shall be shamed."

"It cannot be--it shall not!" said Torquil. "Hell shall not prevail so
far: we will steep thy sword in holy water, place vervain, St. John's
Wort, and rowan tree in thy crest. We will surround thee, I and thy
eight brethren: thou shalt be safe as in a castle."

Again the youth helplessly uttered something, which, from the dejected
tone in which it was spoken, Simon could not understand, while Torquil's
deep tones in reply fell full and distinct upon his ear.

"Yes, there may be a chance of withdrawing thee from the conflict. Thou
art the youngest who is to draw blade. Now, hear me, and thou shalt know
what it is to have a foster father's love, and how far it exceeds the
love even of kinsmen. The youngest on the indenture of the Clan Chattan
is Ferquhard Day. His father slew mine, and the red blood is seething
hot between us; I looked to Palm Sunday as the term that should cool it.
But mark! Thou wouldst have thought that the blood in the veins of this
Ferquhard Day and in mine would not have mingled had they been put into
the same vessel, yet hath he cast the eyes of his love upon my only
daughter Eva, the fairest of our maidens. Think with what feelings I
heard the news. It was as if a wolf from the skirts of Farragon had
said, 'Give me thy child in wedlock, Torquil.' My child thought not
thus: she loves Ferquhard, and weeps away her colour and strength in
dread of the approaching battle. Let her give him but a sign of favour,
and well I know he will forget kith and kin, forsake the field, and fly
with her to the desert."

"He, the youngest of the champions of Clan Chattan, being absent, I, the
youngest of the Clan Quhele, may be excused from combat" said Eachin,
blushing at the mean chance of safety thus opened to him.

"See now, my chief;" said Torquil, "and judge my thoughts towards
thee: others might give thee their own lives and that of their sons--I
sacrifice to thee the honour of my house."

"My friend--my father," repeated the chief, folding Torquil to his
bosom, "what a base wretch am I that have a spirit dastardly enough to
avail myself of your sacrifice!"

"Speak not of that. Green woods have ears. Let us back to the camp, and
send our gillies for the venison. Back, dogs, and follow at heel."

The slowhound, or lyme dog, luckily for Simon, had drenched his nose in
the blood of the deer, else he might have found the glover's lair in the
thicket; but its more acute properties of scent being lost, it followed
tranquilly with the gazehounds.

When the hunters were out of sight and hearing, the glover arose,
greatly relieved by their departure, and began to move off in the
opposite direction as fast as his age permitted. His first reflection
was on the fidelity of the foster father.

"The wild mountain heart is faithful and true. Yonder man is more like
the giants in romaunts than a man of mould like ourselves; and yet
Christians might take an example from him for his lealty. A simple
contrivance this, though, to finger a man from off their enemies'
chequer, as if there would not be twenty of the wildcats ready to supply
his place."

Thus thought the glover, not aware that the strictest proclamations
were issued, prohibiting any of the two contending clans, their friends,
allies, and dependants, from coming within fifty miles of Perth, during
a week before and a week after the combat, which regulation was to be
enforced by armed men.

So soon as our friend Simon arrived at the habitation of the herdsman,
he found other news awaiting him. They were brought by Father Clement,
who came in a pilgrim's cloak, or dalmatic, ready to commence his return
to the southward, and desirous to take leave of his companion in exile,
or to accept him as a travelling companion.

"But what," said the citizen, "has so suddenly induced you to return
within the reach of danger?"

"Have you not heard," said Father Clement, "that, March and his English
allies having retired into England before the Earl of Douglas, the good
earl has applied himself to redress the evils of the commonwealth, and
hath written to the court letters desiring that the warrant for the High
Court of Commission against heresy be withdrawn, as a trouble to men's
consciences, that the nomination of Henry of Wardlaw to be prelate of
St. Andrews be referred to the Parliament, with sundry other things
pleasing to the Commons? Now, most of the nobles that are with the King
at Perth, and with them Sir Patrick Charteris, your worthy provost, have
declared for the proposals of the Douglas. The Duke of Albany had agreed
to them--whether from goodwill or policy I know not. The good King is
easily persuaded to mild and gentle courses. And thus are the jaw
teeth of the oppressors dashed to pieces in their sockets, and the prey
snatched from their ravening talons. Will you with me to the Lowlands,
or do you abide here a little space?"

Neil Booshalloch saved his friend the trouble of reply.

"He had the chief's authority," he said, "for saying that Simon Glover
should abide until the champions went down to the battle."

In this answer the citizen saw something not quite consistent with his
own perfect freedom of volition; but he cared little for it at the
time, as it furnished a good apology for not travelling along with the
clergyman.

"An exemplary man," he said to his friend Niel Booshalloch, as soon as
Father Clement had taken leave--"a great scholar and a great saint. It
is a pity almost he is no longer in danger to be burned, as his sermon
at the stake would convert thousands. O Niel Booshalloch, Father
Clement's pile would be a sweet savouring sacrifice and a beacon to
all decent Christians! But what would the burning of a borrel ignorant
burgess like me serve? Men offer not up old glove leather for incense,
nor are beacons fed with undressed hides, I trow. Sooth to speak, I have
too little learning and too much fear to get credit by the affair, and,
therefore, I should, in our homely phrase, have both the scathe and the
scorn."

"True for you," answered the herdsman.

CHAPTER XXX.

     We must return to the characters of our dramatic narrative whom we
     left at Perth, when we accompanied the glover and his fair daughter
     to Kinfauns, and from that hospitable mansion traced the course of
     Simon to Loch Tay; and the Prince, as the highest personage, claims
     our immediate attention.

This rash and inconsiderate young man endured with some impatience his
sequestered residence with the Lord High Constable, with whose company,
otherwise in every respect satisfactory, he became dissatisfied, from
no other reason than that he held in some degree the character of his
warder. Incensed against his uncle and displeased with his father, he
longed, not unnaturally, for the society of Sir John Ramorny, on whom he
had been so long accustomed to throw himself for amusement, and, though
he would have resented the imputation as an insult, for guidance and
direction. He therefore sent him a summons to attend him, providing his
health permitted; and directed him to come by water to a little pavilion
in the High Constable's garden, which, like that of Sir John's own
lodgings, ran down to the Tay. In renewing an intimacy so dangerous,
Rothsay only remembered that he had been Sir Join Ramorny's munificent
friend; while Sir John, on receiving the invitation, only recollected,
on his part, the capricious insults he had sustained from his patron,
the loss of his hand, and the lightness with which he had treated the
subject, and the readiness with which Rothsay had abandoned his cause in
the matter of the bonnet maker's slaughter. He laughed bitterly when he
read the Prince's billet.

"Eviot," he said, "man a stout boat with six trusty men--trusty men,
mark me--lose not a moment, and bid Dwining instantly come hither.

"Heaven smiles on us, my trusty friend," he said to the mediciner. "I
was but beating my brains how to get access to this fickle boy, and here
he sends to invite me."

"Hem! I see the matter very clearly," said Dwining. "Heaven smiles on
some untoward consequences--he! he! he!"

"No matter, the trap is ready; and it is baited, too, my friend, with
what would lure the boy from a sanctuary, though a troop with drawn
weapons waited him in the churchyard. Yet is it scarce necessary.
His own weariness of himself would have done the job. Get thy matters
ready--thou goest with us. Write to him, as I cannot, that we come
instantly to attend his commands, and do it clerkly. He reads well, and
that he owes to me."

"He will be your valiancie's debtor for more knowledge before he
dies--he! he! he! But is your bargain sure with the Duke of Albany?"

"Enough to gratify my ambition, thy avarice, and the revenge of both.
Aboard--aboard, and speedily; let Eviot throw in a few flasks of the
choicest wine, and some cold baked meats."

"But your arm, my lord, Sir John? Does it not pain you?"

"The throbbing of my heart silences the pain of my wound. It beats as it
would burst my bosom."

"Heaven forbid!" said Dwining; adding, in a low voice--"It would be a
strange sight if it should. I should like to dissect it, save that its
stony case would spoil my best instruments."

In a few minutes they were in the boat, while a speedy messenger carried
the note to the Prince.

Rothsay was seated with the Constable, after their noontide repast. He
was sullen and silent; and the earl had just asked whether it was his
pleasure that the table should be cleared, when a note, delivered to the
Prince, changed at once his aspect.

"As you will," he said. "I go to the pavilion in the garden--always
with permission of my Lord Constable--to receive my late master of the
horse."

"My lord!" said Lord Errol.

"Ay, my lord; must I ask permission twice?"

"No, surely, my lord," answered the Constable; "but has your Royal
Highness recollected that Sir John Ramorny--"

"Has not the plague, I hope?" replied the Duke of Rothsay. "Come, Errol,
you would play the surly turnkey, but it is not in your nature; farewell
for half an hour."

"A new folly!" said Errol, as the Prince, flinging open a lattice of
the ground parlour in which they sat, stept out into the garden--"a new
folly, to call back that villain to his counsels. But he is infatuated."

The Prince, in the mean time, looked back, and said hastily:

"Your lordship's good housekeeping will afford us a flask or two of
wine and a slight collation in the pavilion? I love the al fresco of the
river."

The Constable bowed, and gave the necessary orders; so that Sir John
found the materials of good cheer ready displayed, when, landing from
his barge, he entered the pavilion.

"It grieves my heart to see your Highness under restraint," said
Ramorny, with a well executed appearance of sympathy.

"That grief of thine will grieve mine," said the Prince. "I am sure here
has Errol, and a right true hearted lord he is, so tired me with grave
looks, and something like grave lessons, that he has driven me back to
thee, thou reprobate, from whom, as I expect nothing good, I may perhaps
obtain something entertaining. Yet, ere we say more, it was foul work,
that upon the Fastern's Even, Ramorny. I well hope thou gavest not aim
to it."

"On my honour, my lord, a simple mistake of the brute Bonthron. I did
hint to him that a dry beating would be due to the fellow by whom I had
lost a hand; and lo you, my knave makes a double mistake. He takes one
man for another, and instead of the baton he uses the axe."

"It is well that it went no farther. Small matter for the bonnet maker;
but I had never forgiven you had the armourer fallen--there is not his
match in Britain. But I hope they hanged the villain high enough?"

"If thirty feet might serve," replied Ramorny.

"Pah! no more of him," said Rothsay; "his wretched name makes the good
wine taste of blood. And what are the news in Perth, Ramorny? How stands
it with the bona robas and the galliards?"

"Little galliardise stirring, my lord," answered the knight. "All eyes
are turned to the motions of the Black Douglas, who comes with five
thousand chosen men to put us all to rights, as if he were bound for
another Otterburn. It is said he is to be lieutenant again. It is
certain many have declared for his faction."

"It is time, then, my feet were free," said Rothsay, "otherwise I may
find a worse warder than Errol."

"Ah, my lord! were you once away from this place, you might make as bold
a head as Douglas."

"Ramorny," said the Prince, gravely, "I have but a confused remembrance
of your once having proposed something horrible to me. Beware of such
counsel. I would be free--I would have my person at my own disposal; but
I will never levy arms against my father, nor those it pleases him to
trust."

"It was only for your Royal Highness's personal freedom that I was
presuming to speak," answered Ramorny. "Were I in your Grace's place,
I would get me into that good boat which hovers on the Tay, and drop
quietly down to Fife, where you have many friends, and make free to take
possession of Falkland. It is a royal castle; and though the King has
bestowed it in gift on your uncle, yet surely, even if the grant were
not subject to challenge, your Grace might make free with the residence
of so near a relative."

"He hath made free with mine," said the Duke, "as the stewartry of
Renfrew can tell. But stay, Ramorny--hold; did I not hear Errol say
that the Lady Marjory Douglas, whom they call Duchess of Rothsay, is
at Falkland? I would neither dwell with that lady nor insult her by
dislodging her."

"The lady was there, my lord," replied Ramorny; "I have sure advice that
she is gone to meet her father."

"Ha! to animate the Douglas against me? or perhaps to beg him to spare
me, providing I come on my knees to her bed, as pilgrims say the emirs
and amirals upon whom a Saracen soldan bestows a daughter in marriage
are bound to do? Ramorny, I will act by the Douglas's own saying, 'It
is better to hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak.' I will keep both
foot and hand from fetters."

"No place fitter than Falkland," replied Ramorny. "I have enough of good
yeomen to keep the place; and should your Highness wish to leave it, a
brief ride reaches the sea in three directions."

"You speak well. But we shall die of gloom yonder. Neither mirth, music,
nor maidens--ha!" said the heedless Prince.

"Pardon me, noble Duke; but, though the Lady Marjory Douglas be
departed, like an errant dame in romance, to implore succour of her
doughty sire, there is, I may say, a lovelier, I am sure a younger,
maiden, either presently at Falkland or who will soon be on the road
thither. Your Highness has not forgotten the Fair Maid of Perth?"

"Forget the prettiest wench in Scotland! No--any more than thou hast
forgotten the hand that thou hadst in the Curfew Street onslaught on St.
Valentine's Eve."

"The hand that I had! Your Highness would say, the hand that I lost. As
certain as I shall never regain it, Catharine Glover is, or will soon
be, at Falkland. I will not flatter your Highness by saying she
expects to meet you; in truth, she proposes to place herself under the
protection of the Lady Marjory."

"The little traitress," said the Prince--"she too to turn against me?
She deserves punishment, Ramorny."

"I trust your Grace will make her penance a gentle one," replied the
knight.

"Faith, I would have been her father confessor long ago, but I have ever
found her coy."

"Opportunity was lacking, my lord," replied Ramorny; "and time presses
even now."

"Nay, I am but too apt for a frolic; but my father--"

"He is personally safe," said Ramorny, "and as much at freedom as ever
he can be; while your Highness--"

"Must brook fetters, conjugal or literal--I know it. Yonder comes
Douglas, with his daughter in his hand, as haughty and as harsh featured
as himself, bating touches of age."

"And at Falkland sits in solitude the fairest wench in Scotland," said
Ramorny. "Here is penance and restraint, yonder is joy and freedom."

"Thou hast prevailed, most sage counsellor," replied Rothsay; "but mark
you, it shall be the last of my frolics."

"I trust so," replied Ramorny; "for, when at liberty, you may make a
good accommodation with your royal father."

"I will write to him, Ramorny. Get the writing materials. No, I cannot
put my thoughts in words--do thou write."

"Your Royal Highness forgets," said Ramorny, pointing to his mutilated
arm.

"Ah! that cursed hand of yours. What can we do?"

"So please your Highness," answered his counsellor, "if you would use
the hand of the mediciner, Dwining--he writes like a clerk."

"Hath he a hint of the circumstances? Is he possessed of them?"

"Fully," said Ramorny; and, stepping to the window, he called Dwining
from the boat.

He entered the presence of the Prince of Scotland, creeping as if he
trode upon eggs, with downcast eyes, and a frame that seemed shrunk up
by a sense of awe produced by the occasion.

"There, fellow, are writing materials. I will make trial of you; thou
know'st the case--place my conduct to my father in a fair light."

Dwining sat down, and in a few minutes wrote a letter, which he handed
to Sir John Ramorny.

"Why, the devil has aided thee, Dwining," said the knight. "Listen, my
dear lord. 'Respected father and liege sovereign--Know that important
considerations induce me to take my departure from this your court,
purposing to make my abode at Falkland, both as the seat of my dearest
uncle Albany, with whom I know your Majesty would desire me to use all
familiarity, and as the residence of one from whom I have been too
long estranged, and with whom I haste to exchange vows of the closest
affection from henceforward.'"

The Duke of Rothsay and Ramorny laughed aloud; and the physician,
who had listened to his own scroll as if it were a sentence of death,
encouraged by their applause, raised his eyes, uttered faintly his
chuckling note of "He! he!" and was again grave and silent, as if afraid
he had transgressed the bounds of reverent respect.

"Admirable!" said the Prince--"admirable! The old man will apply
all this to the Duchess, as they call her, of Rothsay. Dwining, thou
shouldst be a secretis to his Holiness the Pope, who sometimes, it is
said, wants a scribe that can make one word record two meanings. I will
subscribe it, and have the praise of the device."

"And now, my lord," said Ramorny, sealing the letter and leaving it
behind, "will you not to boat?"

"Not till my chamberlain attends with some clothes and necessaries, and
you may call my sewer also."

"My lord," said Ramorny, "time presses, and preparation will but excite
suspicion. Your officers will follow with the mails tomorrow. For
tonight, I trust my poor service may suffice to wait on you at table and
chamber."

"Nay, this time it is thou who forgets," said the Prince, touching the
wounded arm with his walking rod. "Recollect, man, thou canst neither
carve a capon nor tie a point--a goodly sewer or valet of the mouth!"

Ramorny grinned with rage and pain; for his wound, though in a way of
healing, was still highly sensitive, and even the pointing a finger
towards it made him tremble.

"Will your Highness now be pleased to take boat?"

"Not till I take leave of the Lord Constable. Rothsay must not slip
away, like a thief from a prison, from the house of Errol. Summon him
hither."

"My Lord Duke," said Ramorny, "it may be dangerous to our plan."

"To the devil with danger, thy plan, and thyself! I must and will act to
Errol as becomes us both."

The earl entered, agreeable to the Prince's summons.

"I gave you this trouble, my lord," said Rothsay, with the dignified
courtesy which he knew so well how to assume, "to thank you for your
hospitality and your good company. I can enjoy them no longer, as
pressing affairs call me to Falkland."

"My lord," said the Lord High Constable, "I trust your Grace remembers
that you are--under ward."

"How!--under ward? If I am a prisoner, speak plainly; if not, I will
take my freedom to depart."

"I would, my lord, your Highness would request his Majesty's permission
for this journey. There will be much displeasure."

"Mean you displeasure against yourself, my lord, or against me?"

"I have already said your Highness lies in ward here; but if you
determine to break it, I have no warrant--God forbid--to put force on
your inclinations. I can but entreat your Highness, for your own sake--"

"Of my own interest I am the best judge. Good evening to you, my lord."

The wilful Prince stepped into the boat with Dwining and Ramorny, and,
waiting for no other attendance, Eviot pushed off the vessel, which
descended the Tay rapidly by the assistance of sail and oar and of the
ebb tide.

For some space the Duke of Rothsay appeared silent and moody, nor did
his companions interrupt his reflections. He raised his head at length
and said: "My father loves a jest, and when all is over he will take
this frolic at no more serious rate than it deserves--a fit of youth,
with which he will deal as he has with others. Yonder, my masters, shows
the old hold of Kinfauns, frowning above the Tay. Now, tell me, John
Ramorny, how thou hast dealt to get the Fair Maid of Perth out of the
hands of yonder bull headed provost; for Errol told me it was rumoured
that she was under his protection."

"Truly she was, my lord, with the purpose of being transferred to the
patronage of the Duchess--I mean of the Lady Marjory of Douglas. Now,
this beetle headed provost, who is after all but a piece of blundering
valiancy, has, like most such, a retainer of some slyness and cunning,
whom he uses in all his dealings, and whose suggestions he generally
considers as his own ideas. Whenever I would possess myself of a
landward baron, I address myself to such a confidant, who, in the
present case, is called Kitt Henshaw, an old skipper upon the Tay,
and who, having in his time sailed as far as Campvere, holds with Sir
Patrick Charteris the respect due to one who has seen foreign countries.
This his agent I have made my own, and by his means have insinuated
various apologies in order to postpone the departure of Catharine for
Falkland."

"But to what good purpose?"

"I know not if it is wise to tell your Highness, lest you should
disapprove of my views. I meant the officers of the Commission for
inquiry into heretical opinions should have found the Fair Maid at
Kinfauns, for our beauty is a peevish, self willed swerver from the
church; and certes, I designed that the knight should have come in
for his share of the fines and confiscations that were about to be
inflicted. The monks were eager enough to be at him, seeing he hath had
frequent disputes with them about the salmon tithe."

"But wherefore wouldst thou have ruined the knight's fortunes, and
brought the beautiful young woman to the stake, perchance?"

"Pshaw, my Lord Duke! monks never burn pretty maidens. An old woman
might have been in some danger; and as for my Lord Provost, as they call
him, if they had clipped off some of his fat acres, it would have
been some atonement for the needless brave he put on me in St. John's
church."

"Methinks, John, it was but a base revenge," said Rothsay.

"Rest ye contented, my lord. He that cannot right himself by the hand
must use his head. Well, that chance was over by the tender hearted
Douglas's declaring in favour of tender conscience; and then, my lord,
old Henshaw found no further objections to carrying the Fair Maid
of Perth to Falkland, not to share the dulness of the Lady Marjory's
society, as Sir Patrick Charteris and she herself doth opine, but to
keep your Highness from tiring when we return from hunting in the park."

There was again a long pause, in which the Prince seemed to muse deeply.
At length he spoke. "Ramorny, I have a scruple in this matter; but if I
name it to thee, the devil of sophistry, with which thou art possessed,
will argue it out of me, as it has done many others. This girl is the
most beautiful, one excepted, whom I ever saw or knew; and I like her
the more that she bears some features of--Elizabeth of Dunbar. But she,
I mean Catharine Glover, is contracted, and presently to be wedded, to
Henry the armourer, a craftsman unequalled for skill, and a man at arms
yet unmatched in the barrace. To follow out this intrigue would do a
good fellow too much wrong."

"Your Highness will not expect me to be very solicitous of Henry Smith's
interest," said Ramorny, looking at his wounded arm.

"By St. Andrew with his shored cross, this disaster of thine is too much
harped upon, John Ramorny! Others are content with putting a finger
into every man's pie, but thou must thrust in thy whole gory hand. It is
done, and cannot be undone; let it be forgotten."

"Nay, my lord, you allude to it more frequently than I," answered the
knight--"in derision, it is true; while I--but I can be silent on the
subject if I cannot forget it."

"Well, then, I tell thee that I have scruple about this intrigue. Dost
thou remember, when we went in a frolic to hear Father Clement preach,
or rather to see this fair heretic, that he spoke as touchingly as a
minstrel about the rich man taking away the poor man's only ewe lamb?"

"A great matter, indeed," answered Sir John, "that this churl's wife's
eldest son should be fathered by the Prince of Scotland! How many earls
would covet the like fate for their fair countesses? and how many that
have had such good luck sleep not a grain the worse for it?"

"And if I might presume to speak," said the mediciner, "the ancient
laws of Scotland assigned such a privilege to every feudal lord over his
female vassals, though lack of spirit and love of money hath made many
exchange it for gold."

"I require no argument to urge me to be kind to a pretty woman; but this
Catharine has been ever cold to me," said the Prince.

"Nay, my lord," said Ramorny, "if, young, handsome, and a prince, you
know not how to make yourself acceptable to a fine woman, it is not for
me to say more."

"And if it were not far too great audacity in me to speak again, I would
say," quoth the leech, "that all Perth knows that the Gow Chrom never
was the maiden's choice, but fairly forced upon her by her father. I
know for certain that she refused him repeatedly."

"Nay, if thou canst assure us of that, the case is much altered," said
Rothsay. "Vulcan was a smith as well as Harry Wynd; he would needs wed
Venus, and our chronicles tell us what came of it."

"Then long may Lady Venus live and be worshipped," said Sir John
Ramorny, "and success to the gallant knight Mars who goes a-wooing to
her goddess-ship!"

The discourse took a gay and idle turn for a few minutes; but the Duke
of Rothsay soon dropped it. "I have left," he said, "yonder air of the
prison house behind me, and yet my spirits scarce revive. I feel that
drowsy, not unpleasing, yet melancholy mood that comes over us when
exhausted by exercise or satiated with pleasure. Some music now,
stealing on the ear, yet not loud enough to make us lift the eye, were a
treat for the gods."

"Your Grace has but to speak your wishes, and the nymphs of the Tay are
as favourable as the fair ones upon the shore. Hark! it is a lute."

"A lute!" said the Duke of Rothsay, listening; "it is, and rarely
touched. I should remember that dying fall. Steer towards the boat from
whence the music comes."

"It is old Henshaw," said Ramorny, "working up the stream. How,
skipper!"

The boatman answered the hail, and drew up alongside of the Prince's
barge.

"Oh, ho! my old friend!" said the Prince, recognising the figure as well
as the appointments of the French glee woman, Louise. "I think I owe
thee something for being the means of thy having a fright, at least,
upon St. Valentine's Day. Into this boat with thee, lute, puppy dog,
scrip and all; I will prefer thee to a lady's service who shall feed thy
very cur on capons and canary."

"I trust your Highness will consider--" said Ramorny.

"I will consider nothing but my pleasure, John. Pray, do thou be so
complying as to consider it also."

"Is it indeed to a lady's service you would promote me?" said the glee
maiden. "And where does she dwell?"

"At Falkland," answered the Prince.

"Oh, I have heard of that great lady!" said Louise; "and will you indeed
prefer me to your right royal consort's service?"

"I will, by my honour--whenever I receive her as such. Mark that
reservation, John," said he aside to Ramorny.

The persons who were in the boat caught up the tidings, and, concluding
a reconciliation was about to take place betwixt the royal couple,
exhorted Louise to profit by her good fortune, and add herself to the
Duchess of Rothsay's train. Several offered her some acknowledgment for
the exercise of her talents.

During this moment of delay, Ramorny whispered to Dwining: "Make in,
knave, with some objection. This addition is one too many. Rouse thy
wits, while I speak a word with Henshaw."

"If I might presume to speak," said Dwining, "as one who have made
my studies both in Spain and Arabia, I would say, my lord, that the
sickness has appeared in Edinburgh, and that there may be risk in
admitting this young wanderer into your Highness's vicinity."

"Ah! and what is it to thee," said Rothsay, "whether I choose to be
poisoned by the pestilence or the 'pothecary? Must thou, too, needs
thwart my humour?"

While the Prince thus silenced the remonstrances of Dwining, Sir John
Ramorny had snatched a moment to learn from Henshaw that the removal of
the Duchess of Rothsay from Falkland was still kept profoundly secret,
and that Catharine Glover would arrive there that evening or the
next morning, in expectation of being taken under the noble lady's
protection.

The Duke of Rothsay, deeply plunged in thought, received this intimation
so coldly, that Ramorny took the liberty of remonstrating. "This, my
lord," he said, "is playing the spoiled child of fortune. You wish for
liberty; it comes. You wish for beauty; it awaits you, with just so much
delay as to render the boon more precious. Even your slightest desires
seem a law to the Fates; for you desire music when it seems most
distant, and the lute and song are at your hand. These things, so sent,
should be enjoyed, else we are but like petted children, who break and
throw from them the toys they have wept themselves sick for."

"To enjoy pleasure, Ramorny," said the Prince, "a man should have
suffered pain, as it requires fasting to gain a good appetite. We, who
can have all for a wish, little enjoy that all when we have possessed
it. Seest thou yonder thick cloud, which is about to burst to rain? It
seems to stifle me--the waters look dark and lurid--the shores have lost
their beautiful form--"

"My lord, forgive your servant," said Ramorny. "You indulge a powerful
imagination, as an unskilful horseman permits a fiery steed to rear
until he falls back on his master and crushes him. I pray you shake off
this lethargy. Shall the glee maiden make some music?"

"Let her; but it must be melancholy: all mirth would at this moment jar
on my ear."

The maiden sung a melancholy dirge in Norman French; the words, of which
the following is an imitation, were united to a tune as doleful as they
are themselves:

     Yes, thou mayst sigh,
     And look once more at all around,
     At stream and bank, and sky and ground.
     Thy life its final course has found,
     And thou must die.

     Yes, lay thee down,
     And while thy struggling pulses flutter,
     Bid the grey monk his soul mass mutter,
     And the deep bell its death tone utter--
     Thy life is gone.

     Be not afraid.
     'Tis but a pang, and then a thrill,
     A fever fit, and then a chill,
     And then an end of human ill,
     For thou art dead.

The Prince made no observation on the music; and the maiden, at
Ramorny's beck, went on from time to time with her minstrel craft, until
the evening sunk down into rain, first soft and gentle, at length in
great quantities, and accompanied by a cold wind. There was neither
cloak nor covering for the Prince, and he sullenly rejected that which
Ramorny offered.

"It is not for Rothsay to wear your cast garments, Sir John; this melted
snow, which I feel pierce me to the very marrow, I am now encountering
by your fault. Why did you presume to put off the boat without my
servants and apparel?"

Ramorny did not attempt an exculpation; for he knew the Prince was in
one of those humours, when to enlarge upon a grievance was more pleasing
to him than to have his mouth stopped by any reasonable apology. In
sullen silence, or amid unsuppressed chiding, the boat arrived at the
fishing village of Newburgh. The party landed, and found horses in
readiness, which, indeed, Ramorny had long since provided for the
occasion. Their quality underwent the Prince's bitter sarcasm, expressed
to Ramorny sometimes by direct words, oftener by bitter gibes. At length
they were mounted and rode on through the closing night and the falling
rain, the Prince leading the way with reckless haste. The glee maiden,
mounted by his express order, attended them and well for her that,
accustomed to severe weather, and exercise both on foot and horseback,
she supported as firmly as the men the fatigues of the nocturnal ride.
Ramorny was compelled to keep at the Prince's rein, being under no small
anxiety lest, in his wayward fit, he might ride off from him entirely,
and, taking refuge in the house of some loyal baron, escape the snare
which was spread for him. He therefore suffered inexpressibly during the
ride, both in mind and in body.

At length the forest of Falkland received them, and a glimpse of the
moon showed the dark and huge tower, an appendage of royalty itself,
though granted for a season to the Duke of Albany. On a signal given the
drawbridge fell. Torches glared in the courtyard, menials attended,
and the Prince, assisted from horseback, was ushered into an apartment,
where Ramorny waited on him, together with Dwining, and entreated him
to take the leech's advice. The Duke of Rothsay repulsed the proposal,
haughtily ordered his bed to be prepared, and having stood for some time
shivering in his dank garments beside a large blazing fire, he retired
to his apartment without taking leave of anyone.

"You see the peevish humour of this childish boy, now," said Ramorny to
Dwining; "can you wonder that a servant who has done so much for him as
I have should be tired of such a master?"

"No, truly," said Dwining, "that and the promised earldom of Lindores
would shake any man's fidelity. But shall we commence with him this
evening? He has, if eye and cheek speak true, the foundation of a fever
within him, which will make our work easy while it will seem the effect
of nature."

"It is an opportunity lost," said Ramorny; "but we must delay our blow
till he has seen this beauty, Catharine Glover. She may be hereafter a
witness that she saw him in good health, and master of his own motions,
a brief space before--you understand me?"

Dwining nodded assent, and added:

"There is no time lost; for there is little difficulty in blighting a
flower exhausted from having been made to bloom too soon."

CHAPTER XXXI.

     Ah, me! in sooth he was a shameless wight,
     Sore given to revel and ungodly glee:
     Few earthly things found favour in his sight,
     Save concubines and carnal companie,
     And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.

     BYRON.

With the next morning the humour of the Duke of Rothsay was changed.
He complained, indeed, of pain and fever, but they rather seemed to
stimulate than to overwhelm him. He was familiar with Ramorny, and
though he said nothing on the subject of the preceding night, it was
plain he remembered what he desired to obliterate from the memory of his
followers--the ill humour he had then displayed. He was civil to every
one, and jested with Ramorny on the subject of Catharine's arrival.

"How surprised will the pretty prude be at seeing herself in a family
of men, when she expects to be admitted amongst the hoods and pinners
of Dame Marjory's waiting women! Thou hast not many of the tender sex in
thy household, I take it, Ramorny?"

"Faith, none except the minstrel wench, but a household drudge or two
whom we may not dispense with. By the way, she is anxiously inquiring
after the mistress your Highness promised to prefer her to. Shall I
dismiss her, to hunt for her new mistress at leisure?"

"By no means, she will serve to amuse Catharine. And, hark you, were it
not well to receive that coy jillet with something of a mumming?"

"How mean you, my lord?"

"Thou art dull, man. We will not disappoint her, since she expects
to find the Duchess of Rothsay: I will be Duke and Duchess in my own
person."

"Still I do not comprehend."

"No one so dull as a wit," said the Prince, "when he does not hit off
the scent at once. My Duchess, as they call her, has been in as great a
hurry to run away from Falkland as I to come hither. We have both left
our apparel behind. There is as much female trumpery in the wardrobe
adjoining to my sleeping room as would equip a whole carnival. Look you,
I will play Dame Marjory, disposed on this day bed here with a mourning
veil and a wreath of willow, to show my forsaken plight; thou, John,
wilt look starch and stiff enough for her Galwegian maid of honour,
the Countess Hermigild; and Dwining shall present the old Hecate, her
nurse--only she hath more beard on her upper lip than Dwining on his
whole face, and skull to boot. He should have the commodity of a beard
to set her forth conformably. Get thy kitchen drudges, and what passable
pages thou hast with thee, to make my women of the bedroom. Hearest
thou? about it instantly."

Ramorny hasted into the anteroom, and told Dwining the Prince's device.

"Do thou look to humour the fool," he said; "I care not how little I see
him, knowing what is to be done."

"Trust all to me," said the physician, shrugging his shoulders. "What
sort of a butcher is he that can cut the lamb's throat, yet is afraid to
hear it bleat?"

"Tush, fear not my constancy: I cannot forget that he would have cast
me into the cloister with as little regard as if he threw away the
truncheon of a broken lance. Begone--yet stay; ere you go to arrange
this silly pageant, something must be settled to impose on the thick
witted Charteris. He is like enough, should he be left in the belief
that the Duchess of Rothsay is still here, and Catharine Glover in
attendance on her, to come down with offers of service, and the like,
when, as I need scarce tell thee, his presence would be inconvenient.
Indeed, this is the more likely, that some folks have given a warmer
name to the iron headed knight's great and tender patronage of this
damsel."

"With that hint, let me alone to deal with him. I will send him such a
letter, that for this month he shall hold himself as ready for a journey
to hell as to Falkland. Can you tell me the name of the Duchess's
confessor?"

"Waltheof, a grey friar."

"Enough--then here I start."

In a few minutes, for he was a clerk of rare celerity, Dwining finished
a letter, which he placed in Ramorny's hand.

"This is admirable, and would have made thy fortune with Rothsay. I
think I should have been too jealous to trust thee in his household,
save that his day is closed."

"Read it aloud," said Dwining, "that we may judge if it goes trippingly
off."

And Ramorny read as follows: "By command of our high and mighty Princess
Marjory, Duchess of Rothsay, and so forth, we Waltheof, unworthy brother
of the order of St. Francis, do thee, Sir Patrick Charteris, knight of
Kinfauns, to know, that her Highness marvels much at the temerity with
which you have sent to her presence a woman of whose fame she can judge
but lightly, seeing she hath made her abode, without any necessity,
for more than a week in thine own castle, without company of any other
female, saving menials; of which foul cohabitation the savour is gone
up through Fife, Angus, and Perthshire. Nevertheless, her Highness,
considering the ease as one of human frailty, hath not caused this
wanton one to be scourged with nettles, or otherwise to dree penance;
but, as two good brethren of the convent of Lindores, the Fathers
Thickskull and Dundermore, have been summoned up to the Highlands upon
an especial call, her Highness hath committed to their care this maiden
Catharine, with charge to convey her to her father, whom she states
to be residing beside Loch Tay, under whose protection she will find
a situation more fitting her qualities and habits than the Castle of
Falkland, while her Highness the Duchess of Rothsay abides there. She
hath charged the said reverend brothers so to deal with the young woman
as may give her a sense of the sin of incontinence, and she commendeth
thee to confession and penitence.--Signed, Waltheof, by command of an
high and mighty Princess"; and so forth.

When he had finished, "Excellent--excellent!" Ramorny exclaimed. "This
unexpected rebuff will drive Charteris mad! He hath been long making
a sort of homage to this lady, and to find himself suspected of
incontinence, when he was expecting the full credit of a charitable
action, will altogether confound him; and, as thou say'st, it will be
long enough ere he come hither to look after the damsel or do honour
to the dame. But away to thy pageant, while I prepare that which shall
close the pageant for ever."

It was an hour before noon, when Catharine, escorted by old Henshaw and
a groom of the Knight of Kinfauns, arrived before the lordly tower of
Falkland. The broad banner which was displayed from it bore the arms
of Rothsay, the servants who appeared wore the colours of the Prince's
household, all confirming the general belief that the Duchess still
resided there. Catharine's heart throbbed, for she had heard that
the Duchess had the pride as well as the high courage of the house
of Douglas, and felt uncertain touching the reception she was to
experience. On entering the castle, she observed that the train was
smaller than she had expected, but, as the Duchess lived in close
retirement, she was little surprised at this. In a species of anteroom
she was met by a little old woman, who seemed bent double with age, and
supported herself upon an ebony staff.

"Truly thou art welcome, fair daughter," said she, saluting Catharine,
"and, as I may say, to an afflicted house; and I trust (once more
saluting her) thou wilt be a consolation to my precious and right royal
daughter the Duchess. Sit thee down, my child, till I see whether my
lady be at leisure to receive thee. Ah, my child, thou art very lovely
indeed, if Our Lady hath given to thee a soul to match with so fair a
body."

With that the counterfeit old woman crept into the next apartment,
where she found Rothsay in the masquerading habit he had prepared, and
Ramorny, who had evaded taking part in the pageant, in his ordinary
attire.

"Thou art a precious rascal, sir doctor," said the Prince; "by my
honour, I think thou couldst find in thy heart to play out the whole
play thyself, lover's part and all."

"If it were to save your Highness trouble," said the leech, with his
usual subdued laugh.

"No--no," said Rothsay, "I never need thy help, man; and tell me now,
how look I, thus disposed on the couch--languishing and ladylike, ha?"

"Something too fine complexioned and soft featured for the Lady Marjory
of Douglas, if I may presume to say so," said the leech.

"Away, villain, and marshal in this fair frost piece--fear not she will
complain of my effeminacy; and thou, Ramorny, away also."

As the knight left the apartment by one door, the fictitious old woman
ushered in Catharine Glover by another. The room had been carefully
darkened to twilight, so that Catharine saw the apparently female figure
stretched on the couch without the least suspicion.

"Is that the maiden?" asked Rothsay, in a voice naturally sweet, and now
carefully modulated to a whispering tone. "Let her approach, Griselda,
and kiss our hand."

The supposed nurse led the trembling maiden forward to the side of the
couch, and signed to her to kneel. Catharine did so, and kissed with
much devotion and simplicity the gloved hand which the counterfeit
duchess extended to her.

"Be not afraid," said the same musical voice; "in me you only see a
melancholy example of the vanity of human greatness; happy those, my
child, whose rank places them beneath the storms of state."

While he spoke, he put his arms around her neck and drew her towards
him, as if to salute her in token of welcome. But the kiss was bestowed
with an earnestness which so much overacted the part of the fair
patroness, that Catharine, concluding the Duchess had lost her senses,
screamed aloud.

"Peace, fool! it is I--David of Rothsay."

Catharine looked around her; the nurse was gone, and the Duke tearing
off his veil, she saw herself in the power of a daring young libertine.

"Now be present with me, Heaven!" she said; "and Thou wilt, if I forsake
not myself."

As this resolution darted through her mind, she repressed her
disposition to scream, and, as far as she might, strove to conceal her
fear.

"The jest hath been played," she said, with as much firmness as she
could assume; "may I entreat that your Highness will now unhand me?" for
he still kept hold of her arm.

"Nay, my pretty captive, struggle not--why should you fear?"

"I do not struggle, my lord. As you are pleased to detain me, I will
not, by striving, provoke you to use me ill, and give pain to yourself,
when you have time to think."

"Why, thou traitress, thou hast held me captive for months," said the
Prince, "and wilt thou not let me hold thee for a moment?"

"This were gallantry, my lord, were it in the streets of Perth, where I
might listen or escape as I listed; it is tyranny here."

"And if I did let thee go, whither wouldst thou fly?" said Rothsay.
"The bridges are up, the portcullis down, and the men who follow me are
strangely deaf to a peevish maiden's squalls. Be kind, therefore, and
you shall know what it is to oblige a prince."

"Unloose me, then, my lord, and hear me appeal from thyself to thyself,
from Rothsay to the Prince of Scotland. I am the daughter of an humble
but honest citizen. I am, I may well nigh say, the spouse of a brave and
honest man. If I have given your Highness any encouragement for what you
have done, it has been unintentional. Thus forewarned, I entreat you to
forego your power over me, and suffer me to depart. Your Highness can
obtain nothing from me, save by means equally unworthy of knighthood or
manhood."

"You are bold, Catharine," said the Prince, "but neither as a knight
nor a man can I avoid accepting a defiance. I must teach you the risk of
such challenges."

While he spoke, he attempted to throw his arms again around her; but she
eluded his grasp, and proceeded in the same tone of firm decision.

"My strength, my lord, is as great to defend myself in an honourable
strife as yours can be to assail me with a most dishonourable purpose.
Do not shame yourself and me by putting it to the combat. You may stun
me with blows, or you may call aid to overpower me; but otherwise you
will fail of your purpose."

"What a brute you would make me!" said the Prince. "The force I would
use is no more than excuses women in yielding to their own weakness."

He sat down in some emotion.

"Then keep it," said Catharine, "for those women who desire such an
excuse. My resistance is that of the most determined mind which love
of honour and fear of shame ever inspired. Alas! my lord, could you
succeed, you would but break every bond between me and life, between
yourself and honour. I have been trained fraudulently here, by what
decoys I know not; but were I to go dishonoured hence, it would be to
denounce the destroyer of my happiness to every quarter of Europe.
I would take the palmer's staff in my hand, and wherever chivalry is
honoured, or the word Scotland has been heard, I would proclaim the heir
of a hundred kings, the son of the godly Robert Stuart, the heir of
the heroic Bruce, a truthless, faithless man, unworthy of the crown he
expects and of the spurs he wears. Every lady in wide Europe would hold
your name too foul for her lips; every worthy knight would hold you
a baffled, forsworn caitiff, false to the first vow of arms, the
protection of woman and the defence of the feeble."

Rothsay resumed his seat, and looked at her with a countenance in which
resentment was mingled with admiration. "You forget to whom you speak,
maiden. Know, the distinction I have offered you is one for which
hundreds whose trains you are born to bear would feel gratitude."

"Once more, my lord," resumed Catharine, "keep these favours for those
by whom they are prized; or rather reserve your time and your health
for other and nobler pursuits--for the defence of your country and
the happiness of your subjects. Alas, my lord, how willingly would an
exulting people receive you for their chief! How gladly would they close
around you, did you show desire to head them against the oppression of
the mighty, the violence of the lawless, the seduction of the vicious,
and the tyranny of the hypocrite!"

The Duke of Rothsay, whose virtuous feelings were as easily excited
as they were evanescent, was affected by the enthusiasm with which she
spoke. "Forgive me if I have alarmed you, maiden," he said "thou art
too noble minded to be the toy of passing pleasure, for which my mistake
destined thee; and I, even were thy birth worthy of thy noble spirit and
transcendent beauty, have no heart to give thee; for by the homage of
the heart only should such as thou be wooed. But my hopes have been
blighted, Catharine: the only woman I ever loved has been torn from me
in the very wantonness of policy, and a wife imposed on me whom I must
ever detest, even had she the loveliness and softness which alone can
render a woman amiable in my eyes. My health is fading even in early
youth; and all that is left for me is to snatch such flowers as the
short passage from life to the grave will now present. Look at my hectic
cheek; feel, if you will, my intermitting pulse; and pity me and excuse
me if I, whose rights as a prince and as a man have been trampled upon
and usurped, feel occasional indifference towards the rights of others,
and indulge a selfish desire to gratify the wish of the passing moment."

"Oh, my lord!" exclaimed Catharine, with the enthusiasm which belonged
to her character--"I will call you my dear lord, for dear must the heir
of Bruce be to every child of Scotland--let me not, I pray, hear you
speak thus! Your glorious ancestor endured exile, persecution, the night
of famine, and the day of unequal combat, to free his country; do you
practise the like self denial to free yourself. Tear yourself from those
who find their own way to greatness smoothed by feeding your follies.
Distrust yon dark Ramorny! You know it not, I am sure--you could not
know; but the wretch who could urge the daughter to courses of shame by
threatening the life of the aged father is capable of all that is vile,
all that is treacherous!"

"Did Ramorny do this?" said the Prince.

"He did indeed, my lord, and he dares not deny it."

"It shall be looked to," answered the Duke of Rothsay. "I have ceased
to love him; but he has suffered much for my sake, and I must see his
services honourably requited."

"His services! Oh, my lord, if chronicles speak true, such services
brought Troy to ruins and gave the infidels possession of Spain."

"Hush, maiden--speak within compass, I pray you," said the Prince,
rising up; "our conference ends here."

"Yet one word, my Lord Duke of Rothsay," said Catharine, with animation,
while her beautiful countenance resembled that of an admonitory angel.
"I cannot tell what impels me to speak thus boldly; but the fire burns
within me, and will break out. Leave this castle without an hour's
delay; the air is unwholesome for you. Dismiss this Ramorny before the
day is ten minutes older; his company is most dangerous."

"What reason have you for saying this?"

"None in especial," answered Catharine, abashed at her own
eagerness--"none, perhaps, excepting my fears for your safety."

"To vague fears the heir of Bruce must not listen. What, ho! who waits
without?"

Ramorny entered, and bowed low to the Duke and to the maiden, whom,
perhaps, he considered as likely to be preferred to the post of
favourite sultana, and therefore entitled to a courteous obeisance.

"Ramorny," said the Prince, "is there in the household any female of
reputation who is fit to wait on this young woman till we can send her
where she may desire to go?"

"I fear," replied Ramorny, "if it displease not your Highness to hear
the truth, your household is indifferently provided in that way; and
that, to speak the very verity, the glee maiden is the most decorous
amongst us."

"Let her wait upon this young person, then, since better may not be. And
take patience, maiden, for a few hours."

Catharine retired.

"So, my lord, part you so soon from the Fair Maid of Perth? This is,
indeed, the very wantonness of victory."

"There is neither victory nor defeat in the case," returned the Prince,
drily. "The girl loves me not; nor do I love her well enough to torment
myself concerning her scruples."

"The chaste Malcolm the Maiden revived in one of his descendants!" said
Ramorny.

"Favour me, sir, by a truce to your wit, or by choosing a different
subject for its career. It is noon, I believe, and you will oblige me by
commanding them to serve up dinner."

Ramorny left the room; but Rothsay thought he discovered a smile upon
his countenance, and to be the subject of this man's satire gave him no
ordinary degree of pain. He summoned, however, the knight to his table,
and even admitted Dwining to the same honour. The conversation was of
a lively and dissolute cast, a tone encouraged by the Prince, as if
designing to counterbalance the gravity of his morals in the morning,
which Ramorny, who was read in old chronicles, had the boldness to liken
to the continence of Scipio.

The banquet, nothwithstanding the Duke's indifferent health, was
protracted in idle wantonness far beyond the rules of temperance; and,
whether owing simply to the strength of the wine which he drank, or the
weakness of his constitution, or, as it is probable, because the last
wine which he quaffed had been adulterated by Dwining, it so happened
that the Prince, towards the end of the repast, fell into a lethargic
sleep, from which it seemed impossible to rouse him. Sir John Ramorny
and Dwining carried him to his chamber, accepting no other assistance
than that of another person, whom we will afterwards give name to.

Next morning, it was announced that the Prince was taken ill of
an infectious disorder; and, to prevent its spreading through the
household, no one was admitted to wait on him save his late master of
horse, the physician Dwining, and the domestic already mentioned; one of
whom seemed always to remain in the apartment, while the others observed
a degree of precaution respecting their intercourse with the rest of the
family, so strict as to maintain the belief that he was dangerously ill
of an infectious disorder.

CHAPTER XXXII.

     In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire,
     With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
     Of woeful ages, long ago betid:
     And, ere thou bid goodnight, to quit their grief,
     Tell thou the lamentable fall of me.

     King Richard II Act V. Scene I.

Far different had been the fate of the misguided heir of Scotland from
that which was publicly given out in the town of Falkland. His ambitious
uncle had determined on his death, as the means of removing the first
and most formidable barrier betwixt his own family and the throne.
James, the younger son of the King, was a mere boy, who might at more
leisure be easily set aside. Ramorny's views of aggrandisement, and the
resentment which he had latterly entertained against his masters made
him a willing agent in young Rothsay's destruction. Dwining's love of
gold, and his native malignity of disposition, rendered him equally
forward. It had been resolved, with the most calculating cruelty,
that all means which might leave behind marks of violence were to be
carefully avoided, and the extinction of life suffered to take place
of itself by privation of every kind acting upon a frail and impaired
constitution. The Prince of Scotland was not to be murdered, as Ramorny
had expressed himself on another occasion, he was only to cease to
exist. Rothsay's bedchamber in the Tower of Falkland was well adapted
for the execution of such a horrible project. A small, narrow staircase,
scarce known to exist, opened from thence by a trapdoor to the
subterranean dungeons of the castle, through a passage by which
the feudal lord was wont to visit, in private and in disguise, the
inhabitants of those miserable regions. By this staircase the villains
conveyed the insensible Prince to the lowest dungeon of the castle,
so deep in the bowels of the earth, that no cries or groans, it was
supposed, could possibly be heard, while the strength of its door and
fastenings must for a long time have defied force, even if the entrance
could have been discovered. Bonthron, who had been saved from the
gallows for the purpose, was the willing agent of Ramorny's unparalleled
cruelty to his misled and betrayed patron.

This wretch revisited the dungeon at the time when the Prince's lethargy
began to wear off, and when, awaking to sensation, he felt himself
deadly cold, unable to move, and oppressed with fetters, which scarce
permitted him to stir from the dank straw on which he was laid. His
first idea was that he was in a fearful dream, his next brought a
confused augury of the truth. He called, shouted, yelled at length in
frenzy but no assistance came, and he was only answered by the vaulted
roof of the dungeon. The agent of hell heard these agonizing screams,
and deliberately reckoned them against the taunts and reproaches with
which Rothsay had expressed his instinctive aversion to him. When,
exhausted and hopeless, the unhappy youth remained silent, the savage
resolved to present himself before the eyes of his prisoner. The locks
were drawn, the chain fell; the Prince raised himself as high as his
fetters permitted; a red glare, against which he was fain to shut his
eyes, streamed through the vault; and when he opened them again, it was
on the ghastly form of one whom he had reason to think dead. He sunk
back in horror.

"I am judged and condemned," he exclaimed, "and the most abhorred fiend
in the infernal regions is sent to torment me!"

"I live, my lord," said Bonthron; "and that you may live and enjoy life,
be pleased to sit up and eat your victuals."

"Free me from these irons," said the Prince, "release me from this
dungeon, and, dog as thou art, thou shalt be the richest man in
Scotland."

"If you would give me the weight of your shackles in gold," said
Bonthron, "I would rather see the iron on you than have the treasure
myself! But look up; you were wont to love delicate fare--behold how I
have catered for you."

The wretch, with fiendish glee, unfolded a piece of rawhide covering the
bundle which he bore under' his arm, and, passing the light to and fro
before it, showed the unhappy Prince a bull's head recently hewn from
the trunk, and known in Scotland as the certain signal of death. He
placed it at the foot of the bed, or rather lair, on which the Prince
lay.

"Be moderate in your food," he said; "it is like to be long ere thou
getst another meal."

"Tell me but one thing, wretch," said the Prince. "Does Ramorny know of
this practice?"

"How else hadst thou been decoyed hither? Poor woodcock, thou art
snared!" answered the murderer.

With these words, the door shut, the bolts resounded, and the unhappy
Prince was left to darkness, solitude, and misery. "Oh, my father!--my
prophetic father! The staff I leaned on has indeed proved a spear!"

We will not dwell on the subsequent hours, nay, days, of bodily agony
and mental despair.

But it was not the pleasure of Heaven that so great a crime should be
perpetrated with impunity.

Catharine Glover and the glee woman, neglected by the other inmates,
who seemed to be engaged with the tidings of the Prince's illness, were,
however, refused permission to leave the castle until it should be seen
how this alarming disease was to terminate, and whether it was actually
an infectious sickness. Forced on each other's society, the two desolate
women became companions, if not friends; and the union drew somewhat
closer when Catharine discovered that this was the same female minstrel
on whose account Henry Wynd had fallen under her displeasure. She now
heard his complete vindication, and listened with ardour to the praises
which Louise heaped on her gallant protector. On the other hand, the
minstrel, who felt the superiority of Catharine's station and character,
willingly dwelt upon a theme which seemed to please her, and recorded
her gratitude to the stout smith in the little song of "Bold and True,"
which was long a favourite in Scotland.

     Oh, bold and true,
     In bonnet blue,
     That fear or falsehood never knew,
     Whose heart was loyal to his word,
     Whose hand was faithful to his sword--
     Seek Europe wide from sea to sea,
     But bonny blue cap still for me!

     I've seen Almain's proud champions prance,
     Have seen the gallant knights of France,
     Unrivall'd with the sword and lance,
     Have seen the sons of England true,
     Wield the brown bill and bend the yew.
     Search France the fair, and England free,
     But bonny blue cap still for me!

In short, though Louise's disreputable occupation would have been in
other circumstances an objection to Catharine's voluntarily frequenting
her company, yet, forced together as they now were, she found her a
humble and accommodating companion.

They lived in this manner for four or five days, and, in order to avoid
as much as possible the gaze, and perhaps the incivility, of the menials
in the offices, they prepared their food in their own apartment. In the
absolutely necessary intercourse with domestics, Louise, more accustomed
to expedients, bolder by habit, and desirous to please Catharine,
willingly took on herself the trouble of getting from the pantler the
materials of their slender meal, and of arranging it with the dexterity
of her country.

The glee woman had been abroad for this purpose upon the sixth day, a
little before noon; and the desire of fresh air, or the hope to find
some sallad or pot herbs, or at least an early flower or two, with which
to deck their board, had carried her into the small garden appertaining