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?'
