So pitiful a thing is suitor's state!
Most miserable man, whom wicked fate
Hath brought to Court to sue, for _had I wist_,
That few have found, and many a one hath miss'd!
Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried,
What hell it is, in sueing long to bide:
To lose good days that might be better spent;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow;
To have thy Prince's grace, yet want her Peers';
To have thy asking, yet wait many years;
To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares--
To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs.
To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,
To spend, to give, to want, to be undone.
_Mother Hubbard's Tale._
On the morning of the day on which George Heriot had prepared to escort
the young Lord of Glenvarloch to the Court at Whitehall, it may be
reasonably supposed, that the young man, whose fortunes were likely to
depend on this cast, felt himself more than usually anxious. He rose
early, made his toilette with uncommon care, and, being enabled, by the
generosity of his more plebeian countryman, to set out a very handsome
person to the best advantage, he obtained a momentary approbation from
himself as he glanced at the mirror, and a loud and distinct plaudit
from his landlady, who declared at once, that, in her judgment, he would
take the wind out of the sail of every gallant in the presence--so much
had she been able to enrich her discourse with the metaphors of those
with whom her husband dealt.
At the appointed hour, the barge of Master George Heriot arrived,
handsomely manned and appointed, having a tilt, with his own cipher, and
the arms of his company, painted thereupon.
The young Lord of Glenvarloch received the friend, who had evinced such
disinterested attachment, with the kind courtesy which well became him.
Master Heriot then made him acquainted with the bounty of his sovereign;
which he paid over to his young friend, declining what he had himself
formerly advanced to him. Nigel felt all the gratitude which the
citizen's disinterested friendship had deserved, and was not wanting in
expressing it suitably.
Yet, as the young and high-born nobleman embarked to go to the
presence of his prince, under the patronage of one whose best, or most
distinguished qualification, was his being an eminent member of the
Goldsmiths' Incorporation, he felt a little surprised, if not abashed,
at his own situation; and Richie Moniplies, as he stepped over
the gangway to take his place forward in the boat, could not help
muttering,--"It was a changed day betwixt Master Heriot and his honest
father in the Kraemes;--but, doubtless, there was a difference between
clinking on gold and silver, and clattering upon pewter."
On they glided, by the assistance of the oars of four stout watermen,
along the Thames, which then served for the principal high-road betwixt
London and Westminster; for few ventured on horseback through the narrow
and crowded streets of the city, and coaches were then a luxury reserved
only for the higher nobility, and to which no citizen, whatever was his
wealth, presumed to aspire. The beauty of the banks, especially on the
northern side, where the gardens of the nobility descended from their
hotels, in many places, down to the water's edge, was pointed out to
Nigel by his kind conductor, and was pointed out in vain. The mind of
the young Lord of Glenvarloch was filled with anticipations, not the
most pleasant, concerning the manner in which he was likely to be
received by that monarch, in whose behalf his family had been nearly
reduced to ruin; and he was, with the usual mental anxiety of those
in such a situation, framing imaginary questions from the king, and
over-toiling his spirit in devising answers to them.
His conductor saw the labour of Nigel's mind, and avoided increasing it
by farther conversation; so that, when he had explained to him briefly
the ceremonies observed at Court on such occasions of presentation, the
rest of their voyage was performed in silence.
They landed at Whitehall Stairs, and entered the Palace after announcing
their names,--the guards paying to Lord Glenvarloch the respect and
honours due to his rank.
The young man's heart beat high and thick within him as he came into the
royal apartments. His education abroad, conducted, as it had been, on
a narrow and limited scale, had given him but imperfect ideas of the
grandeur of a Court; and the philosophical reflections which taught him
to set ceremonial and exterior splendour at defiance, proved, like other
maxims of mere philosophy, ineffectual, at the moment they were weighed
against the impression naturally made on the mind of an inexperienced
youth, by the unusual magnificence of the scene. The splendid apartments
through which they passed, the rich apparel of the grooms, guards, and
apartments, had something in it, trifling and commonplace as it might
appear to practised courtiers, embarrassing, and even alarming, to one,
who went through these forms for the first time, and who was doubtful
what sort of reception was to accompany his first appearance before his
sovereign.
Heriot, in anxious attention to save his young friend from any momentary
awkwardness, had taken care to give the necessary password to the
warders, grooms of the chambers, ushers, or by whatever name they were
designated; so they passed on without interruption.
In this manner they passed several ante-rooms, filled chiefly with
guards, attendants of the Court, and their acquaintances, male and
female, who, dressed in their best apparel, and with eyes rounded by
eager curiosity to make the most of their opportunity, stood, with
beseeming modesty, ranked against the wall, in a manner which indicated
that they were spectators, not performers, in the courtly exhibition.
Through these exterior apartments Lord Glenvarloch and his city friend
advanced into a large and splendid withdrawing-room, communicating with
the presence-chamber, into which ante-room were admitted those only who,
from birth, their posts in the state or household, or by the particular
grant of the kings, had right to attend the Court, as men entitled to
pay their respects to their sovereign.
Amid this favoured and selected company, Nigel observed Sir Mungo
Malagrowther, who, avoided and discountenanced by those who knew how
low he stood in Court interest and favour, was but too happy in the
opportunity of hooking himself upon a person of Lord Glenvarloch's rank,
who was, as yet, so inexperienced as to feel it difficult to shake off
an intruder.
The knight forthwith framed his grim features to a ghastly smile, and,
after a preliminary and patronising nod to George Heriot, accompanied
with an aristocratic wave of the hand, which intimated at once
superiority and protection, he laid aside altogether the honest citizen,
to whom he owed many a dinner, to attach himself exclusively to the
young lord, although he suspected he might be occasionally in the
predicament of needing one as much as himself. And even the notice
of this original, singular and unamiable as he was, was not entirely
indifferent to Lord Glenvarloch, since the absolute and somewhat
constrained silence of his good friend Heriot, which left him at liberty
to retire painfully to his own agitating reflections, was now relieved;
while, on the other hand, he could not help feeling interest in the
sharp and sarcastic information poured upon him by an observant, though
discontented courtier, to whom a patient auditor, and he a man of
title and rank, was as much a prize, as his acute and communicative
disposition rendered him an entertaining companion to Nigel Olifaunt.
Heriot, in the meantime, neglected by Sir Mungo, and avoiding every
attempt by which the grateful politeness of Lord Glenvarloch strove to
bring him into the conversation, stood by, with a kind of half smile on
his countenance; but whether excited by Sir Mungo's wit, or arising at
his expense, did not exactly appear.
In the meantime, the trio occupied a nook of the ante-room, next to
the door of the presence-chamber, which was not yet thrown open, when
Maxwell, with his rod of office, came bustling into the apartment, where
most men, excepting those of high rank, made way for him. He stopped
beside the party in which we are interested, looked for a moment at
the young Scots nobleman, then made a slight obeisance to Heriot, and
lastly, addressing Sir Mungo Malagrowther, began a hurried complaint
to him of the misbehaviour of the gentlemen-pensioners and warders, who
suffered all sort of citizens, suitors, and scriveners, to sneak into
the outer apartments, without either respect or decency.--"The English,"
he said, "were scandalised, for such a thing durst not be attempted in
the queen's days. In her time, there was then the court-yard for the
mobility, and the apartments for the nobility; and it reflects on your
place, Sir Mungo," he added, "belonging to the household as you do, that
such things should not be better ordered."
Here Sir Mungo, afflicted, as was frequently the case on such occasions,
with one of his usual fits of deafness, answered, "It was no wonder
the mobility used freedoms, when those whom they saw in office were so
little better in blood and havings than themselves."
"You are right, sir--quite right," said Maxwell, putting his hand on the
tarnished embroidery on the old knight's sleeve,--"when such fellows see
men in office dressed in cast-off suits, like paltry stage-players, it
is no wonder the Court is thronged with intruders."
"Were you lauding the taste of my embroidery, Maister Maxwell?" answered
the knight, who apparently interpreted the deputy-chamberlain's meaning
rather from his action than his words;--"it is of an ancient and liberal
pattern, having been made by your mother's father, auld James Stitchell,
a master-fashioner of honest repute, in Merlin's Wynd, whom I made
a point to employ, as I am now happy to remember, seeing your father
thought fit to intermarry with sic a person's daughter."
Maxwell looked stern; but, conscious there was nothing to be got of Sir
Mungo in the way of amends, and that prosecuting the quarrel with
such an adversary would only render him ridiculous, and make public
a mis-alliance of which he had no reason to be proud, he covered his
resentment with a sneer; and, expressing his regret that Sir Mungo was
become too deaf to understand or attend to what was said to him,
walked on, and planted himself beside the folding-doors of
the presence-chamber, at which he was to perform the duty of
deputy-chamberlain, or usher, so soon as they should be opened.
"The door of the presence is about to open," said the goldsmith, in a
whisper, to his young friend; "my condition permits me to go no farther
with you. Fail not to present yourself boldly, according to your birth,
and offer your Supplication; which the king will not refuse to accept,
and, as I hope, to consider favourably."
As he spoke, the door of the presence-chamber opened accordingly, and,
as is usual on such occasions, the courtiers began to advance towards
it, and to enter in a slow, but continuous and uninterrupted stream.
As Nigel presented himself in his turn at the entrance, and mentioned
his name and title, Maxwell seemed to hesitate. "You are not known
to any one," he said. "It is my duty to suffer no one to pass to the
presence, my lord, whose face is unknown to me, unless upon the word of
a responsible person."
"I came with Master George Heriot," said Nigel, in some embarrassment at
this unexpected interruption.
"Master Heriot's name will pass current for much gold and silver, my
lord," replied Maxwell, with a civil sneer, "but not for birth and
rank. I am compelled by my office to be peremptory.--The entrance is
impeded--I am much concerned to say it--your lordship must stand back."
"What is the matter?" said an old Scottish nobleman, who had been
speaking with George Heriot, after he had separated from Nigel, and
who now came forward, observing the altercation betwixt the latter and
Maxwell.
"It is only Master Deputy-Chamberlain Maxwell," said Sir Mungo
Malagrowther, "expressing his joy to see Lord Glenvarloch at Court,
whose father gave him his office--at least I think he is speaking to
that purport--for your lordship kens my imperfection." A subdued laugh,
such as the situation permitted, passed round amongst those who heard
this specimen of Sir Mungo's sarcastic temper. But the old nobleman
stepped still more forward, saying,--"What!--the son of my gallant
old opponent, Ochtred Olifaunt--I will introduce him to the presence
myself."
So saying, he took Nigel by the arm, without farther ceremony, and was
about to lead him forward, when Maxwell, still keeping his rod across
the door, said, but with hesitation and embarrassment--"My lord, this
gentleman is not known, and I have orders to be scrupulous."
"Tutti--taiti, man," said the old lord, "I will be answerable he is his
father's son, from the cut of his eyebrow--and thou, Maxwell, knewest
his father well enough to have spared thy scruples. Let us pass, man."
So saying, he put aside the deputy-chamberlain's rod, and entered the
presence-room, still holding the young nobleman by the arm.
"Why, I must know you, man," he said; "I must know you. I knew your
father well, man, and I have broke a lance and crossed a blade with him;
and it is to my credit that I am living to brag of it. He was king's-man
and I was queen's-man during the Douglas wars--young fellows both,
that feared neither fire nor steel; and we had some old feudal quarrels
besides, that had come down from father to son, with our seal-rings,
two-harided broad-swords, and plate-coats, and the crests on our
burgonets."
"Too loud, my Lord of Huntinglen," whispered a gentleman of the
chamber,--"The King!--the King!"
The old earl (for such he proved) took the hint, and was silent;
and James, advancing from a side-door, received in succession the
compliments of strangers, while a little group of favourite courtiers,
or officers of the household, stood around him, to whom he addressed
himself from time to time. Some more pains had been bestowed on his
toilette than upon the occasion when we first presented the monarch to
our readers; but there was a natural awkwardness about his figure which
prevented his clothes from sitting handsomely, and the prudence or
timidity of his disposition had made him adopt the custom already
noticed, of wearing a dress so thickly quilted as might withstand the
stroke of a dagger, which added an ungainly stiffness to his whole
appearance, contrasting oddly with the frivolous, ungraceful, and
fidgeting motions with which he accompanied his conversation. And yet,
though the king's deportment was very undignified, he had a manner so
kind, familiar, and good-humoured, was so little apt to veil over or
conceal his own foibles, and had so much indulgence and sympathy for
those of others, that his address, joined to his learning, and a
certain proportion of shrewd mother-wit, failed not to make a favourable
impression on those who approached his person.
When the Earl of Huntinglen had presented Nigel to his sovereign, a
ceremony which the good peer took upon himself, the king received the
young lord very graciously, and observed to his introducer, that he
"was fain to see them twa stand side by side; for I trow, my Lord
Huntinglen," continued he, "your ancestors, ay, and e'en your lordship's
self and this lad's father, have stood front to front at the sword's
point, and that is a worse posture."
"Until your Majesty," said Lord Huntinglen, "made Lord Ochtred and me
cross palms, upon the memorable day when your Majesty feasted all the
nobles that were at feud together, and made them join hands in your
presence--"
"I mind it weel," said the king; "I mind it weel--it was a blessed day,
being the nineteen of September, of all days in the year--and it was a
blithe sport to see how some of the carles girned as they clapped loofs
together. By my saul, I thought some of them, mair special the Hieland
chiels, wad have broken out in our own presence; but we caused them to
march hand in hand to the Cross, ourselves leading the way, and there
drink a blithe cup of kindness with ilk other, to the stanching of feud,
and perpetuation of amity. Auld John Anderson was Provost that year--the
carle grat for joy, and the bailies and councillors danced bare-headed
in our presence like five-year-auld colts, for very triumph."
"It was indeed a happy day," said Lord Huntinglen, "and will not be
forgotten in the history of your Majesty's reign."
"I would not that it were, my lord," replied the monarch--"I would not
that it were pretermitted in our annals. Ay, ay--BEATI PACIFICI. My
English lieges here may weel make much of me, for I would have them
to know, they have gotten the only peaceable man that ever came of my
family. If James with the Fiery Face had come amongst you," he said,
looking round him, "or my great grandsire, of Flodden memory!"
"We should have sent him back to the north again," whispered one English
nobleman.
"At least," said another, in the same inaudible tone, "we should have
had a MAN to our sovereign, though he were but a Scotsman."
"And now, my young springald," said the king to Lord Glenvarloch, "where
have you been spending your calf-time?"
"At Leyden, of late, may it please your Majesty," answered Lord Nigel.
"Aha! a scholar," said the king; "and, by my saul, a modest and
ingenuous youth, that hath not forgotten how to blush, like most of our
travelled Monsieurs. We will treat him conformably."
Then drawing himself up, coughing slightly, and looking around him with
the conscious importance of superior learning, while all the courtiers
who understood, or understood not, Latin, pressed eagerly forward to
listen, the sapient monarch prosecuted his inquiries as follows:--
"Hem! hem! _salve bis, quaterque salve, glenvarlochides noster!
Nuperumne ab lugduno batavorum britanniam rediisti?_"
The young nobleman replied, bowing low--
"_Imo, rex augustissime--biennium fere apud lugdunenses Moratus sum._"
James proceeded--
"_Biennium dicis? Bene, bene, optume factum est--non uno Die, quod
dicunt,--intelligisti, domine glenvarlochiensis?_ Aha!"
Nigel replied by a reverent bow, and the king, turning to those behind
him, said--
"_Adolescens quidem ingenui vultus ingenuique pudoris._" Then resumed
his learned queries. "_Et quid hodie lugdunenses loquuntur--vossius
vester nihilne novi scripsit?--nihil certe, quod doleo, typis recenter
editit_."
"_Valet quidem vossius, rex benevole._" replied Nigel, "_ast senex
veneratissimus annum agit, ni fallor, septuagesimum._"
"_Virum, mehercle, vix tam grandaevum crediderim_," replied the
monarch. "_et vorstius iste?--arminii improbi successor aeque ac
sectator--herosne adhuc, ut cum homero loquar_, [ZOOS ESTI KAI EPI THONI
DERKOV]?" text in Greek
Nigel, by good fortune, remembered that Vorstius, the divine last
mentioned in his Majesty's queries about the state of Dutch literature,
had been engaged in a personal controversy with James, in which the
king had taken so deep an interest, as at length to hint in his public
correspondence with the United States, that they would do well to apply
the secular arm to stop the progress of heresy by violent measures
against the Professor's person--a demand which their Mighty
Mightinesses' principles of universal toleration induced them to elude,
though with some difficulty. Knowing all this, Lord Glenvarloch, though
a courtier of only five minutes' standing, had address enough to reply--
"_Vivum quidem, haud diu est, hominem videbam--vigere autem quis dicat
qui sub fulminibus eloquentiae tuae, rex magne, jamdudum pronus jacet,
et prostratus?_"
[Footnote: Lest any lady or gentleman should suspect there is aught of
mystery concealed under the sentences printed in Italics, they will be
pleased to understand that they contain only a few commonplace Latin
phrases, relating to the state of letters in Holland, which neither
deserve, nor would endure, a literal translation.]
This last tribute to his polemical powers completed James's happiness,
which the triumph of exhibiting his erudition had already raised to a
considerable height.
He rubbed his hands, snapped his fingers, fidgeted, chuckled,
exclaimed--"_Euge! Belle! Optime!_" and turning to the Bishops of Exeter
and Oxford, who stood behind him, he said.--"Ye see, my lords, no bad
specimen of our Scottish Latinity, with which language we would all our
subjects of England were as well embued as this, and other youths of
honourable birth, in our auld kingdom; also, we keep the genuine and
Roman pronunciation, like other learned nations on the continent, sae
that we hold communing with any scholar in the universe, who can but
speak the Latin tongue; whereas ye, our learned subjects of England,
have introduced into your universities, otherwise most learned, a
fashion of pronouncing like unto the 'nippit foot and clippit foot' of
the bride in the fairy tale, whilk manner of speech, (take it not amiss
that I be round with you) can be understood by no nation on earth saving
yourselves; whereby Latin, _quoad anglos_, ceaseth to be _communis
lingua_, the general dragoman, or interpreter, between all the wise men
of the earth."
The Bishop of Exeter bowed, as in acquiescence to the royal censure;
but he of Oxford stood upright, as mindful over what subjects his see
extended, and as being equally willing to become food for fagots in
defence of the Latinity of the university, as for any article of his
religious creed.
The king, without awaiting an answer from either prelate, proceeded to
question Lord Nigel, but in the vernacular tongue,--"Weel, my likely
Alumnus of the Muses, and what make you so far from the north?"
"To pay my homage to your Majesty," said the young nobleman, kneeling on
one knee, "and to lay before you," he added, "this my humble and dutiful
Supplication."
The presenting of a pistol would certainly have startled King James
more, but could (setting apart the fright) hardly have been more
unpleasing to his indolent disposition.
"And is it even so, man?" said he; "and can no single man, were it but
for the rarity of the case, ever come up frae Scotland, excepting EX
PROPOSITO--on set purpose, to see what he can make out of his loving
sovereign? It is but three days syne that we had weel nigh lost our
life, and put three kingdoms into dule-weeds, from the over haste of a
clumsy-handed peasant, to thrust a packet into our hand, and now we are
beset by the like impediment in our very Court. To our Secretary with
that gear, my lord--to our Secretary with that gear."
"I have already offered my humble Supplication to your Majesty's
Secretary of State," said Lord Glenvarloch--"but it seems----"
"That he would not receive it, I warrant?" said the king, interrupting
him; "bu my saul, our Secretary kens that point of king-craft, called
refusing, better than we do, and will look at nothing but what he
likes himsell--I think I wad make a better Secretary to him than he to
me.--Weel, my lord, you are welcome to London; and, as ye seem an acute
and learned youth, I advise ye to turn your neb northward as soon as ye
like, and settle yoursell for a while at Saint Andrews, and we will be
right glad to hear that you prosper in your studies.--_Incumbite Remis
Fortiter._"
While the king spoke thus, he held the petition of the young lord
carelessly, like one who only delayed till the supplicant's back was
turned, to throw it away, or at least lay it aside to be no more looked
at. The petitioner, who read this in his cold and indifferent looks, and
in the manner in which he twisted and crumpled together the paper,
arose with a bitter sense of anger and disappointment, made a profound
obeisance, and was about to retire hastily. But Lord Huntinglen, who
stood by him, checked his intention by an almost imperceptible touch
upon the skirt of his cloak, and Nigel, taking the hint, retreated
only a few steps from the royal presence, and then made a pause. In
the meantime, Lord Huntinglen kneeled before James, in his turn, and
said--"May it please your Majesty to remember, that upon one certain
occasion you did promise to grant me a boon every year of your sacred
life?"
"I mind it weel, man," answered James, "I mind it weel, and good reason
why--it was when you unclasped the fause traitor Ruthven's fangs
from about our royal throat, and drove your dirk into him like a true
subject. We did then, as you remind us, (whilk was unnecessary,) being
partly beside ourselves with joy at our liberation, promise we would
grant you a free boon every year; whilk promise, on our coming
to menseful possession of our royal faculties, we did confirm,
_restrictive_ always and _conditionaliter_, that your lordship's demand
should be such as we, in our royal discretion, should think reasonable."
"Even so, gracious sovereign," said the old earl, "and may I yet
farther crave to know if I have ever exceeded the bounds of your royal
benevolence?"
"By my word, man, no!'" said the king; "I cannot remember you have asked
much for yourself, if it be not a dog or a hawk, or a buck out of our
park at Theobald's, or such like. But to what serves this preface?"
"To the boon to which I am now to ask of your Grace," said Lord
Huntinglen; "which is, that your Majesty would be pleased, on the
instant, to look at the placet of Lord Glenvarloch, and do upon it
what your own just and royal nature shall think meet and just, without
reference to your Secretary or any other of your Council."
"By my saul, my lord, this is strange," said the king; "ye are pleading
for the son of your enemy!"
"Of one who WAS my enemy till your Majesty made him my friend," answered
Lord Huntinglen.
"Weel spoken, my lord!" said the king; "and with, a true Christian
spirit. And, respecting the Supplication of this young man, I partly
guess where the matter lies; and in plain troth I had promised to George
Heriot to be good to the lad--But then, here the shoe pinches. Steenie
and Babie Charles cannot abide him--neither can your own son, my lord;
and so, methinks, he had better go down to Scotland before he comes
toill luck by them."
"My son, an it please your Majesty, so far as he is concerned, shall not
direct my doings," said the earl, "nor any wild-headed young man of them
all."
"Why, neither shall they mine," replied the monarch; "by my father's
saul, none of them all shall play Rex with me--I will do what I will,
and what I ought, like a free king."
"Your Majesty will then grant me my boon?" said the Lord Huntinglen.
"Ay, marry will I--marry will I," said the king; "but follow me this
way, man, where we may be more private."
He led Lord Huntinglen with rather a hurried step through the courtiers,
all of whom gazed earnestly on this unwonted scene, as is the fashion of
all Courts on similar occasions. The king passed into a little cabinet,
and bade, in the first moment, Lord Huntinglen lock or bar the door; but
countermanded his direction in the next, saying,--"No, no, no--bread o'
life, man, I am a free king--will do what I will and what I should--I am
_justus et tenax propositi_, man--nevertheless, keep by the door, Lord
Huntinglen, in case Steenie should come in with his mad humour."
"O my poor master!" groaned the Earl of Huntinglen. "When you were in
your own cold country, you had warmer blood in your veins."
The king hastily looked over the petition or memorial, every now and
then glancing his eye towards the door, and then sinking it hastily
on the paper, ashamed that Lord Huntinglen, whom he respected, should
suspect him of timidity.
"To grant the truth," he said, after he had finished his hasty perusal,
"this is a hard case; and harder than it was represented to me, though I
had some inkling of it before. And so the lad only wants payment of the
siller due from us, in order to reclaim his paternal estate? But then,
Huntinglen, the lad will have other debts--and why burden himsell with
sae mony acres of barren woodland? let the land gang, man, let the land
gang; Steenie has the promise of it from our Scottish Chancellor--it is
the best hunting-ground in Scotland--and Babie Charles and Steenie want
to kill a buck there this next year--they maun hae the land--they maun
hae the land; and our debt shall be paid to the young man plack and
bawbee, and he may have the spending of it at our Court; or if he has
such an eard hunger, wouns! man, we'll stuff his stomach with English
land, which is worth twice as much, ay, ten times as much, as these
accursed hills and heughs, and mosses and muirs, that he is sae keen
after."
All this while the poor king ambled up and down the apartment in a
piteous state of uncertainty, which was made more ridiculous by his
shambling circular mode of managing his legs, and his ungainly fashion
on such occasions of fiddling with the bunches of ribbons which fastened
the lower part of his dress.
Lord Huntinglen listened with great composure, and answered, "An it
please your Majesty, there was an answer yielded by Naboth when
Ahab coveted his vineyard--' The Lord forbid that I should give the
inheritance of my fathers unto thee.'"
"Ey, my lord--ey, my lord!" ejaculated James, while all the colour
mounted both to his cheek and nose; "I hope ye mean not to teach me
divinity? Ye need not fear, my lord, that I will shun to do justice to
every man; and, since your lordship will give me no help to take up
this in a more peaceful manner--whilk, methinks, would be better for the
young man, as I said before,--why--since it maun be so--'sdeath, I am
a free king, man, and he shall have his money and redeem his land, and
make a kirk and a miln of it, an he will." So saying, he hastily wrote
an order on the Scottish Exchequer for the sum in question, and then
added, "How they are to pay it, I see not; but I warrant he will find
money on the order among the goldsmiths, who can find it for every one
but me.--And now you see, my Lord of Huntinglen, that I am neither an
untrue man, to deny you the boon whilk I became bound for, nor an Ahab,
to covet Naboth's vineyard; nor a mere nose-of-wax, to be twisted this
way and that, by favourites and counsellors at their pleasure. I think
you will grant now that I am none of those?"
"You are my own native and noble prince," said Huntinglen, as he knelt
to kiss the royal hand--"just and generous, whenever you listen to the
workings of your own heart."
"Ay, ay," said the king, laughing good-naturedly, as he raised his
faithful servant from the ground, "that is what ye all say when I do any
thing to please ye. There--there, take the sign-manual, and away with
you and this young fellow. I wonder Steenie and Babie Charles have not
broken in on us before now."
Lord Huntinglen hastened from the cabinet, foreseeing a scene at which
he was unwilling to be present, but which sometimes occurred when James
roused himself so far as to exert his own free will, of which he boasted
so much, in spite of that of his imperious favourite Steenie, as he
called the Duke of Buckingham, from a supposed resemblance betwixt
his very handsome countenance, and that with which the Italian artists
represented the protomartyr Stephen. In fact, the haughty favourite,
who had the unusual good fortune to stand as high in the opinion of the
heir-apparent as of the existing monarch, had considerably diminished in
his respect towards the latter; and it was apparent, to the more
shrewd courtiers, that James endured his domination rather from habit,
timidity, and a dread of encountering his stormy passions, than from any
heartfelt continuation of regard towards him, whose greatness had been
the work of his own hands. To save himself the pain of seeing what was
likely to take place on the duke's return, and to preserve the king from
the additional humiliation which the presence of such a witness must
have occasioned, the earl left the cabinet as speedily as possible,
having first carefully pocketed the important sign-manual.
No sooner had he entered the presence-room, than he hastily sought Lord
Glenvarloch, who had withdrawn into the embrasure of one of the windows,
from the general gaze of men who seemed disposed only to afford him the
notice which arises from surprise and curiosity, and, taking him by
the arm, without speaking, led him out of the presence-chamber into the
first ante-room. Here they found the worthy goldsmith, who approached
them with looks of curiosity, which were checked by the old lord, who
said hastily, "All is well.--Is your barge in waiting?" Heriot answered
in the affirmative. "Then," said Lord Huntinglen, "you shall give me a
cast in it, as the watermen say; and I, in requital, will give you both
your dinner; for we must have some conversation together."
They both followed the earl without speaking, and were in the second
ante-room when the important annunciation of the ushers, and the hasty
murmur with which all made ample way as the company repeated to each
other,--"The Duke--the Duke!" made them aware of the approach of the
omnipotent favourite.
He entered, that unhappy minion of Court favour, sumptuously dressed
in the picturesque attire which will live for ever on the canvas of
Vandyke, and which marks so well the proud age, when aristocracy, though
undermined and nodding to its fall, still, by external show and profuse
expense, endeavoured to assert its paramount superiority over the
inferior orders. The handsome and commanding countenance, stately form,
and graceful action and manners of the Duke of Buckingham, made him
become that picturesque dress beyond any man of his time. At present,
however, his countenance seemed discomposed, his dress a little
more disordered than became the place, his step hasty, and his voice
imperative.
All marked the angry spot upon his brow, and bore back so suddenly
to make way for him, that the Earl of Huntinglen, who affected no
extraordinary haste on the occasion, with his companions, who could not,
if they would, have decently left him, remained as it were by themselves
in the middle of the room, and in the very path of the angry favourite.
He touched his cap sternly as he looked on Huntinglen, but unbonneted
to Heriot, and sunk his beaver, with its shadowy plume, as low as the
floor, with a profound air of mock respect. In returning his greeting,
which he did simply and unaffectedly, the citizen only said,--"Too much
courtesy, my lord duke, is often the reverse of kindness."
"I grieve you should think so, Master Heriot," answered the duke; "I
only meant, by my homage, to claim your protection, sir--your patronage.
You are become, I understand, a solicitor of suits--a promoter--an
undertaker--a fautor of court suitors of merit and quality, who chance
to be pennyless. I trust your bags will bear you out in your new boast."
"They will bear me the farther, my lord duke," answered the goldsmith,
"that my boast is but small."
"O, you do yourself less than justice, my good Master Heriot,"
continued the duke, in the same tone of irony; "you have a marvellous
court-faction, to be the son of an Edinburgh tinker. Have the goodness
to prefer me to the knowledge of the high-born nobleman who is honoured
and advantaged by your patronage."
"That shall be my task," said Lord Huntinglen, with emphasis. "My
lord duke, I desire you to know Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glenvarloch,
representative of one of the most ancient and powerful baronial houses
in Scotland.--Lord Glenvarloch, I present you to his Grace the Duke of
Buckingham, representative of Sir George Villiers, Knight of Brookesby,
in the county of Leicester."
The duke coloured still more high as he bowed to Lord Glenvarloch
scornfully, a courtesy which the other returned haughtily, and with
restrained indignation. "We know each other, then," said the duke, after
a moment's pause; and as if he had seen something in the young nobleman
which merited more serious notice than the bitter raillery with which he
had commenced--"we know each other--and you know me, my lord, for your
enemy."
"I thank you for your plainness, my lord duke," replied Nigel; "an open
enemy is better than a hollow friend."
"For you, my Lord Huntinglen," said the duke, "methinks you have but now
overstepped the limits of the indulgence permitted to you, as the father
of the prince's friend, and my own."
"By my word, my lord duke," replied the earl, "it is easy for any one
to outstep boundaries, of the existence of which he was not aware. It is
neither to secure my protection nor approbation, that my son keeps such
exalted company."
"O, my lord, we know you, and indulge you," said the duke; "you are one
of those who presume for a life-long upon the merit of one good action."
"In faith, my lord, and if it be so," said the old earl, "I have at
least the advantage of such as presume more than I do, without having
done any action of merit whatever. But I mean not to quarrel with you,
my lord--we can neither be friends nor enemies--you have your path, and
I have mine."
Buckingham only replied by throwing on his bonnet, and shaking its lofty
plume with a careless and scornful toss of the head. They parted thus;
the duke walking onwards through the apartments, and the others leaving
the Palace and repairing to Whitehall Stairs, where they embarked on
board the barge of the citizen.