'Well, madam, I trust it will reconcile you to your retreat, that this deed shows the temper of those who might wish you at liberty. Blood-thirsty tyrants, and cruel men-quellers are they all, from the Clan-Ranald and Clan-Tosach in the north, to the Ferniherst and Buccleuch in the south?the murdering Seytons in the east, and?'
'Methinks, madam, you forget that I am a Seyton?' said Catherine, withdrawing her kerchief from her face, which was now coloured with indignation.
'If I had forgot it, fair mistress, your forward bearing would have reminded me,' said Lady Lochleven.
'If my brother has slain the villain that would have poisoned his Sovereign, and his sister,' said Catherine, 'I am only so far sorry that he should have spared the hangman his proper task. For aught farther, had it been the best Douglas in the land, he would have been honoured in falling by the Seyton's sword.'
'Farewell, gay mistress,' said the Lady of Lochleven, rising to withdraw; 'it is such maidens as you, who make giddy-fashioned revellers and deadly brawlers. Boys must needs rise, forsooth, in the grace of some sprightly damsel, who thinks to dance through life as through a French galliard.' She then made her reverence to the Queen, and added, 'Do you also, madam, fare you well, till curfew time, when I will make, perchance, more bold than welcome in attending upon your supper board.?Come with me, Randal, and tell me more of this cruel fact.'
''Tis an extraordinary chance,' said the Queen, when she had departed; 'and, villain as he was, I would this man had been spared time for repentance. We will cause something to be done for his soul, if we ever attain our liberty, and the Church will permit such grace to a heretic.?But, tell me, Catherine,
'If your Grace means in temper, you know whether I am so
'Nay, thou art prompt enough in all reasonable conscience,' replied the Queen; 'but thou art my own darling notwithstanding?But I meant, is this thy twin-brother as like thee in form and features as formerly? I remember thy dear mother alleged it as a reason for destining thee to the veil, that, were ye both to go at large, thou wouldst surely get the credit of some of thy brother's mad pranks.'
'I believe, madam,' said Catherine, 'there are some unusually simple people even yet, who can hardly distinguish betwixt us, especially when, for diversion's sake, my brother hath taken a female dress,'?and as she spoke, she gave a quick glance at Roland Graeme, to whom this conversation conveyed a ray of light, welcome as ever streamed into the dungeon of a captive through the door which opened to give him freedom.
'He must be a handsome cavalier this brother of thine, if he be so like you,' replied Mary. 'He was in France, I think, for these late years, so that I saw him not at Holyrood.'
'His looks, madam, have never been much found fault with,' answered Catherine Seyton; 'but I would he had less of that angry and heady spirit which evil times have encouraged amongst our young nobles. God knows, I grudge not his life in your Grace's quarrel; and love him for the willingness with which he labours for your rescue. But wherefore should he brawl with an old ruffianly serving-man, and stain at once his name with such a broil, and his hands with the blood of an old and ignoble wretch?'
'Nay, be patient, Catherine; I will not have thee traduce my gallant young knight. With Henry for my knight, and Roland Graeme for my trusty squire, methinks I am like a princess of romance, who may shortly set at defiance the dungeons and the weapons of all wicked sorcerers.?But my head aches with the agitation of the day. Take me
Once embarked upon the Sea of Histories, the Queen continued her labours with her needle, while Lady Fleming and Catherine read to her alternately for two hours.
As to Roland Graeme, it is probable that he continued in secret intent upon the Chronicle of Love, notwithstanding the censure which the Queen seemed to pass upon that branch of study. He now remembered a thousand circumstances of voice and manner, which, had his own prepossession been less, must surely have discriminated the brother from the sister; and he felt ashamed, that, having as it were by heart every particular of Catherine's gestures, words, and manners, he should have thought her, notwithstanding her spirits and levity, capable of assuming the bold step, loud tones, and forward assurance, which accorded well enough with her brother's hasty and masculine character. He endeavoured repeatedly to catch a glance of Catherine's eye, that he might judge how she was disposed to look upon him since he had made the discovery, but he was unsuccessful; for Catherine, when she was not reading herself, seemed to take so much interest in the exploits of the Teutonic knights against the Heathens of Esthonia and Livonia, that he could not surprise her eye even for a second. But when, closing the book, the Queen commanded their attendance in the garden, Mary, perhaps of set purpose, (for Roland's anxiety could not escape so practised an observer,) afforded him a favourable opportunity of accosting his mistress. The Queen commanded them to a little distance, while she engaged Lady Fleming in a particular and private conversation; the subject whereof we learn, from another authority, to have been the comparative excellence of the high standing ruff and the falling band. Roland must have been duller, and more sheepish than ever was youthful lover, if he had not endeavoured to avail himself of this opportunity.
'I have been longing this whole evening to ask of you, fair Catherine,' said the page, 'how foolish and unapprehensive you must have thought me, in being capable to mistake betwixt your brother and you?'
'The circumstance does indeed little honour to my rustic manners,' said Catherine, 'since those of a wild young man were so readily mistaken for mine. But I shall grow wiser in time; and with that view I am determined not to think of your follies, but to correct my own.'
'It will be the lighter subject of meditation of the two,' said Roland.
'I know not that,' said Catherine, very gravely; 'I fear we have been both unpardonably foolish.'
'I have been mad,' said Roland, 'unpardonably mad. But you, lovely Catherine?'
'I,' said Catherine, in the same tone of unusual gravity, 'have too long suffered you to use such expressions towards me?I fear I can permit it no longer, and I blame myself for the pain it may give you.'
'And what can have happened so suddenly to change our relation to each other, or alter, with such sudden cruelty, your whole deportment to me?'
'I can hardly tell,' replied Catherine, 'unless it is that the events of the day have impressed on my mind the necessity of our observing more distance to each other. A chance similar to that which betrayed to you the existence of my brother, may make known to Henry the terms you have used to me; and, alas! his whole conduct, as well as his deed, this day, makes me too justly apprehensive of the consequences.'
