'Madam,' replied the youth,' though exheridated and disowned, I am yet a Douglas: with most of yonder nobles my family have been in feud for ages?a cold reception amongst them, were an insult, and a kind one yet more humiliating.'
'For shame, Douglas,' replied the Queen, 'shake off this unmanly gloom!?I can make thee match for the best of them in title and fortune, and, believe me, I will.?Go then amongst them, I command you.'
'That word,' said Douglas, 'is enough?I go. This only let me say, that not for wealth or title would I have done that which I have done?Mary Stewart will not, and the Queen cannot, reward me.'
So saying, he left the oratory, mingled with the nobles, and placed himself at the bottom of the table. The Queen looked after him, and put her kerchief to her eyes.
'Now, Our Lady pity me,' she said, 'for no sooner are my prison cares ended, than those which beset me as a woman and a Queen again thicken around me.?Happy Elizabeth! to whom political interest is every thing, and whose heart never betrays thy head.?And now must I seek this other boy, if I would prevent daggers-drawing betwixt him and the young Seyton.'
Roland Graeme was in the same oratory, but at such a distance from Douglas, that he could not overhear what passed betwixt the Queen and him. He also was moody and thoughtful, but cleared his brow at the Queen's question, 'How now, Roland? you are negligent in your attendance this morning. Are you so much overcome with your night's ride?'
'Not so, gracious madam,' answered Graeme; 'but I am told the page of Lochleven is not the page of Niddrie Castle; and so Master Henry Seyton hath in a manner been pleased to supersede my attendance.'
'Now, Heaven forgive me,' said the Queen, 'how soon these cock-chickens begin to spar!?with children and boys, at least, I may be a queen.?I will have you friends.?Some one send me Henry Seyton hither.' As she spoke the last words aloud, the youth whom she had named entered the apartment. 'Come hither,' she said, 'Henry Seyton?I will have you give your hand to this youth, who so well aided in the plan of my escape.'
'Willingly, madam,' answered Seyton, 'so that the youth will grant me, as a boon, that he touch not the hand of another Seyton whom he knows of. My hand has passed current for hers with him before now?and to win my friendship, he must give up thoughts of my sister's love.'
'Henry Seyton,' said the Queen, 'does it become you to add any condition to my command?'
'Madam,' said Henry, 'I am the servant of your Grace's throne, son to the most loyal man in Scotland. Our goods, our castles, our blood, are yours: Our honour is in our own keeping. I could say more, but?'
'Nay, speak on, rude boy,' said the Queen; 'what avails it that I am released from Lochleven, if I am thus enthralled under the yoke of my pretended deliverers, and prevented from doing justice to one who has deserved as well of me as yourself?'
'Be not in this distemperature for me, sovereign Lady,' said Roland; 'this young gentleman, being the faithful servant of your Grace, and the brother of Catherine Seyton, bears that about him which will charm down my passion at the hottest.'
'I warn thee once more,' said Henry Seyton, haughtily, 'that you make no speech which may infer that the daughter of Lord Seyton can be aught to thee beyond what she is to every churl's blood in Scotland.'
The Queen was again about to interfere, for Roland's complexion rose, and it became somewhat questionable how long his love for Catherine would suppress the natural fire of his temper. But the interposition of another person, hitherto unseen, prevented Mary's interference, There was in the oratory a separate shrine, enclosed with a high screen of pierced oak, within which was placed an image of Saint Bennet, of peculiar sanctity. From this recess, in which she had been probably engaged in her devotions, issued suddenly Magdalen Graeme, and addressed Henry Seyton, in reply to his last offensive expressions,?'And of what clay, then, are they moulded these Seytons, that the blood of the Graemes may not aspire to mingle with theirs? Know, proud boy, that when I call this youth my daughter's child, I affirm his descent from Malise Earl of Strathern, called Malise with the Bright Brand; and I trow the blood of your house springs from no higher source.'
'Good mother,' said Seyton, 'methinks your sanctity should make you superior to these worldly vanities; and indeed it seems to have rendered you somewhat oblivious touching them, since, to be of gentle descent, the father's name and lineage must be as well qualified as the mother's.'
'And if I say he comes of the blood of Avenel by the father's side,' replied Magdalen Graeme, 'name I not blood as richly coloured as thine own?'
'Of Avenel?' said the Queen; 'is my page descended of Avenel?'
'Ay, gracious Princess, and the last male heir of that ancient house?Julian Avenel was his father, who fell in battle against the Southron.'
'I have heard the tale of sorrow,' said the Queen; 'it was thy daughter, then, who followed that unfortunate baron to the field, and died on his body? Alas! how many ways does woman's affection find to work out her own misery! The tale has oft been told and sung in hall and bower?And thou, Roland, art that child of misfortune, who was left among the dead and dying? Henry Seyton, he is thine equal in blood and birth.'
'Scarcely so,' said Henry Seyton, 'even were he legitimate; but if the tale be told and sung aright, Julian Avenel was a false knight, and his leman a frail and credulous maiden.'
'Now, by Heaven, thou liest!' said Roland Graeme, and laid his hand on his sword. The entrance of Lord Seyton, however, prevented violence.
'Save me, my lord,' said the Queen, 'and separate these wild and untamed spirits.'
'How, Henry,' said the Baron, 'are my castle, and the Queen's presence, no checks on thine insolence and impetuosity??And with whom art thou brawling??unless my eyes spell that token false, it is with the very youth who aided me so gallantly in the skirmish with the Leslies?Let me look, fair youth, at the medal which thou wearest in thy cap. By Saint Bennet, it is the same!?Henry, I command thee to forbear him, as thou lovest my blessing??'
'And as you honour my command,' said the Queen; 'good service hath he done me.'
'Ay, madam,' replied young Seyton, 'as when he carried the billet enclosed in the sword-sheath to Lochleven?marry, the good youth knew no more than a pack-horse what he was carrying.'
'But I who dedicated him to this great work,' said Magdalen Graeme?'I, by whose advice and agency this
