For Malcolm to speak with his sister was well-nigh an impossibility. Had
he been detected, he would have been immediately treated as a spy, and
the suspicion thus excited would have been a dangerous preparation for
the King as well as for himself; nor was there any pretext for giving the
wandering scholar an interview with her.
But harsh and strict as was the Duchess of Albany--a tall, raw-boned, red-
haired woman, daughter of the fierce old Earl of Lennox--and resolved as
she was to bend Lilias by persecution to accept her son, she could not
debar a young gentleman of the royal kindred, like James Kennedy, from
entering the apartment where the ladies of the family sat with their
needles; and the Regent, half from pity, half from shame, had refused to
permit Lilias Stewart's being treated as a mere captive.
Thus Malcolm remained in Kennedy's room in much anxiety, while his cousin
went forth to do his best in his cause, and after some hours returned to
him with the tidings that he had succeeded in letting Lily know that he
was in the Castle. Standing over her while she bent over her embroidery,
and thus concealing her trembling agitation, he had found it possible to
whisper in her ears the tidings of her brother having come to save her,
and of hearing her insist that Malcolm, 'wee Malcolm, must run no peril,
but that she would do and dare everything--nay, would prefer death itself
to Walter Stewart.'
'Have you any device in this matter?' demanded James Kennedy, when he had
thus spoken.
'Have you your college gown here?' inquired Malcolm.
'I have, in yon kist,' said Kennedy. 'Would you disguise her therein?
You and she are nearly of a height.'
'Ay,' said Malcolm. 'The plot I thought on is this--the worst is that
the risk rests with you.'
'That is naught, less than naught,' said Kennedy. 'I had risked myself
ten times over had I seen any hope for her in so doing.'
Malcolm then explained his plan, namely, that if Lilias could have
Kennedy's gown conveyed to her, she should array herself therein, and be
conducted out of the castle by her cousin by one gate, he himself in
secular garb going by another, and joining at some place of meeting,
whence, as a pair of brothers, Malcolm and she might gain the English
border.
James Kennedy considered, and then added that he could improve on the
plan. He had long intended leaving Doune for his brother's castle, but
only tarried in case he could do anything for Lilias. He would at supper
publicly announce to the Regent his departure for the next day, and also
say that he had detained his fellow-scholar to go within him. Then
arranging for Malcolm's exit in a secular dress among his escort, as one
of the many unobserved loungers, Lilias should go with him in very early
morning in the bachelor's gown, which he would place in a corner of a
dark passage, where she could find it. Then if Malcolm and she turned
aside from his escort, as the pursuit as soon as her evasion was
discovered would be immediately directed on himself, they would have the
more time for escape.
It was a complicated plan, but there was this recommendation, that
Malcolm need not lose sight of his sister. Clerk as he was, young
Kennedy could not ride without an escort, and among his followers he
could place Malcolm. Accordingly at supper he announced his desire to
leave Doune at dawn next morning, and was, as a matter of course,
courteously pressed to remain. Malcolm in the meantime eluded
observation as much as possible while watching his sister, who, in spite
of all her efforts, was pale and red by turns, never durst glance towards
him, and trembled whenever any one went near him.
The ladies at length swept out of the hall, and Robert and Alexander
called for more wine for a rere-supper to drink to James's good journey;
but Kennedy tore himself from their hospitable violence, and again he and
Malcolm were alone, spending a night of anxiety and consultation.
Morning came; Malcolm arrayed himself in a somewhat worn dress of
Kennedy's, with the belt and dirk he had carried under his scholar's garb
now without, and a steel cap that his cousin had procured for him on his
head. With a parcel in his arms of Kennedy's gear, he might pass for a
servant sent from home to meet him; and so soon as this disguise was
complete, Kennedy opened the door. On the turret stair stood a hooded
black figure, that started as the door opened.
Malcolm's heart might well seem to leap to his lips, but both brother and
sister felt the tension of nerve that caution required too much to give
way for a moment.
Kennedy whispered, 'Your license, fair Cousin,' and passed on with the
free step of lordly birth, while a few paces behind the seeming scholar
humbly followed, and Malcolm, putting on his soldier's tread and the
careless free-and-easy bearing he had affected before Meaux, brought up
the rear with Master Kennedy's mails.
As they anticipated, the household was not troubling itself to rise to
see the priest off. Not that this made the coast clear, for the floor of
the hall was cumbered with snoring sleepers in all sorts of
attitudes--nay, at the upper table, the flushed, debauched, though young
and handsome, faces of Robert and Alexander Stewart might have been
detected among those who lay snoring among the relics of their last
night's revel.
The old steward was, however, up and alert, ready to offer the stirrup-
cup, and the horses were waiting in the court; but what they had by no
means expected or desired was that Duke Murdoch himself, in his long
furred gown, came slowly across the hall to bid his young kinsman Kennedy
farewell.
'Speed you well, my lad,' he said kindly. 'I ask ye not to tarry in what
ye must deem a graceless household;' and he looked sadly across at his
two sons, boys in age, but seniors in excess. 'I would we had mair lads
like you. I fear me a heavy reckoning is coming.'
'You have ever been good lord to all, Sir,' said Kennedy, affectionately,
for he really loved and pitied the soft-hearted Duke.
'Too good, maybe,' said Murdoch. 'What! the scholar goes with you?' and
he fixed a look on Lily's face that brought the colour deep into it under
her hood.
'Yes, Sir,' answered Kennedy, respectfully. 'Here, you Tam,' indicating
Malcolm, 'take him behind you on the sumpter-horse.'
'Fare ye weel, gentle scholar,' said Murdoch, taking the hand that Lily
was far from offering. 'May ye win to your journey's end safe and sound;
and remember,' he added, holding the fingers tight, and speaking under
the hood, 'if ye have been hardly served, 'twas to make ye the second
lady in Scotland. Take care of her--him, young laddie,' he added,
turning on Malcolm: ''tis best so; and mind' (he spoke in the same
wheedling tone of self-excuse), 'if ye tell the tale down south, nae ill
hath been dune till her, and where could she have been mair fitly than
beneath her kinsman's roof? I'd not let her go, but that young blude is
hot and ill to guide.'
An answer would have been hard to find; and it was well that he did not
look for any. Indeed, Malcolm could not have spoken without being heard
by the seneschal, and therefore could only bow, take his seat on the
baggage-horse, and then feel his sister mounting behind him in an
attitude less unfamiliar on occasion even to the high-born ladies of the
fifteenth century than to those of our day. Four years it was since he
had felt her touch, four years since she had sat behind him as they
followed the King to Coldingham! His heart swelled with thankfulness as
he passed under the gateway, and the arms that clung round his waist
clasped him fervently; but neither ventured on a word, amid Kennedy's
escort, and they rode on a couple of miles in the same silence. Then
Kennedy, pausing, said, 'There lies your way, Brother. Tam, you may show
the scholar the way to the Gray Friars' Grange, bear them greetings frae
me, and halt till ye hear from me. Fare ye well.'
Lilias trusted her voice to say, 'Blessings on ye, Sir, for all ye have
done for me,' but Malcolm thought it wiser in his character of retainer
to respond only by a bow.
Of course they understood that the direction Kennedy gave was the very
one they were not to take, but they followed it till a tall bush of gorse
hid them from the escort; and then Malcolm, grasping his sister's hand,
plunged down among the rowans, ferns, and hazels, that covered the steep
bank of the river, and so soon as a footing was gained under shelter of a
tall rock, threw his arms round her, almost sobbing in an under-tone, 'My
Lily, my tittie!--safe at last! Oh, God be thanked! I knew her prayers
would be heard! Oh, would that Patrick were here!' Then, as her face
changed and quivered ready to weep, he cried, 'Eh, what! art still
deeming him dead?'
'How!' she cried wildly. 'He fell into the hands of your English, and--'
'He fell into the hands of your King and mine,' said Malcolm. 'Yes, King
James dragged him out of the burning house, and wrung his pardon out of
King Harry. He came with me to St. Abbs to fetch you, Lily, and only
went back because his knighthood would not serve in this quest like my
clerkship.'
'Patrick living, Patrick safe! Oh!' she fell on her knees among the
ferns, hid her face in her hands, and drew a long breath. 'Malcolm, this
is joy overmuch. The desolation of yesterday, the joy to-day!'
Malcolm, seeing her like one stifled by emotion, fell on his knees beside
her, and whispered forth a thanksgiving. She rested with her head on his
shoulder in content till he started up, saying in a lively manner, 'Come,
Lily, we must be on our way. A very bonnie young clerk you are, with
your berry-brown locks cut so short round your face.'
Lilias blushed up to the short dark curls she had left herself. 'Had I
thought he lived, I could scarce have done it.'
'What, not to get to him, silly maid? Here,' as he shook out and donned
the gown he had brought rolled up, 'now am I a scholar too. Stay, you
must take off this badge of the bachelor; you have only been in a
monastery school, you know; you are my young brother--what shall we call
you?'
'Davie,' softly suggested Lilias.
'Ay, Davie then, that I've come home to fetch to share my Paris lear. You
can be very shy and bashful, you know, and leave all the knapping of
Latin and logic to me.'
'If it is such as you did with Jamie Kennedy,' said Lilias, 'it will
indeed be well. Oh, Malcolm, I sat and marvelled at ye--so gleg ye took
him up. How could ye learn it? And ye are a brave warrior too in
battles,' she added, looking him over with a sister's fond pride.
'We have had no battle, no pitched field,' said Malcolm 'but I have seen
war.'
'So that ugly words can never be flung in your face again!' cried Lilias.
'Are you knighted, brother?'
'No, but they say I have won my spurs. I'll tell you all, Lily, as we
walk. Only let me bestow this iron cap where some mavis may nestle in
it. Ay, and the boots too, which scarce befit a clerk. There, your
hand, Clerk Davie; we must make westward to-day, lest poor Duke Murdoch
be forced to send to chase us. After that, for the Border and Patie.'
So brother and sister set forth on their wandering--and truly it was a
happy journey. The weather favoured them, and their hearts were light.
Lilias, delivered from terrible, hopeless captivity, her brother beside
her, and now not a brother to be pitied and protected, but to protect her
and be exulted in, trod the heather with an exquisite sense of joy and
freedom that buoyed her up against all hardships; and Malcolm was at
peace, as he had seldom been. His happiness was not exactly like his
sister's in her renewed liberty and restoration to love and joy, for he
had known a wider range of life, and though really younger than Lily, his
more complicated history could not but make him older in thought and
mind. Another self-abnegation was beginning to rise upon him, as he
travelled slowly southwards by stages suited to his sister's powers, and
by another track than that by which he had gone. On the moor, or by the
burn side, there was peace and brightness; but wherever he met with man
he found something to sadden him. Did they rest in a monastery, there
was often irregularity, seldom devotion, always crass ignorance. The
manse was often a scene of such dissolute life that Malcolm shunned to
bring his sister into the sight of it; the peel tower was the dwelling of
savagery; the farm homestead either rude and lawless or in constant
terror; the black spaces on many a brae side showed where dwellings had
been burned; more than once they passed skeletons depending from the
trees or lying rotting by the way-side. And it was frightful to Malcolm,
after his four years' absence, to find how little Lilias shared his
horror, taking quite naturally what to Alice Montagu would have seemed
beyond the bounds of possibility, and would have set Esclairmonde's soul
on fire, while Lilias seemed to think it her brother's amiable
peculiarity to be shocked, or to long to set such things straight.
He felt the truth of James Kennedy's words--that reformation could not be
the sole work of the King, but that his hands must be strengthened by all
the few who knew that a different state of things was possible, and that,
above all, the clergy needed to be awakened into vigour and intelligence.
Formerly, the miserable aspect of the country had merely terrified him,
and driven him to strive to hide his head in a convent; but the strength
and the sense of duty he had acquired had brought his heart to respond to
Kennedy's call to work.
Esclairmonde's words wrought within him beyond her own ken or purpose in
speaking them. He began to understand that to bury himself in an Italian
university and dive into Aristotle's sayings, to heap up his own memory
with the stores of thought he loved, or to plunge into the mazes of
mathematics, philosophy, and music, while his brethren in his own country
were tearing one another to pieces for lack of any good influence to
teach or show them better things, would be a storing of treasure for
himself on earth, a pursuit of the light of knowledge indeed, but not a
wooing of the light of Wisdom, the true Light of the World, as seen in
Him who went about doing good. To complete his present course was, he
knew, necessary. He had seen enough of really learned scholars to know
the depths of his own ignorance, and to be aware that certain books must
be read under guidance, and certain studies gone through, before his
cultivation would be on a level with the standard of the best working
clergy of the English Church--such as Chicheley, Waynflete, or the like.
He would therefore remain at Oxford, he thought, long enough to take his
Master of Arts degree, and then, though to his own perceptions only the
one-eyed among the blind, he would make the real sacrifice of himself in
the rude and cruel world of Scotland.
He knew that his king was well satisfied with Patrick, and also that a
man of sound heart and prompt, hard hand was far fitter to rule as a
secular lord than his own more fine-drawn mature could ever be; but as a
priest, with the influence that his birth and the King's friendship would
give him, he already saw chances of raising the tone of the clergy, and
thus improving the wild and lawless people.
A deep purpose of self-devotion was growing up in his soul, but without
saddening him, only rendering him more energetic and cheerful than his
sister had ever known him.
As they walked together over the long stretches of moor, many were Lily's
questions; and Malcolm beguiled the way with many a story of camp and
court, told both for his own satisfaction in her sympathy, and with the
desire to make the Scottish lassie see what was the life and what the
thoughts of ladies of her own degree in other lands, so that the Lady of
Glenuskie might be awake to somewhat of the high purpose of virtuous home
government to which Alice of Salisbury had been trained.
As to the Flemish heiress, no representation would induce Lilias to love
her. Reject Malcolm for a convent's sake! It was unpardonable; and as
to a bedeswoman, working uncloistered in the streets, Lily viewed that as
neither the one thing nor the other, neither religious nor secular; and
she was persuaded that a little exertion on the part of the brother, whom
she viewed as a paladin, would overcome all coyness on the lady's part.
Malcolm found it vain to try to show his sister his sense of his own
deserts, and equally so to declare that if the maiden should so yield,
she would indeed be the Demoiselle de Luxemburg to whom he was pledged,
but not the Esclairmonde whom his better part adored. So he let the
matter pass by, and both enjoyed their masquing in one another's company
as a holiday such as they could never have again.
They had no serious alarms; the pursuit must have been disconcerted, and
the two young scholars were not worth the attention of freebooters. Their
winsomeness of manner won them kindness wherever they harboured; and
thus, after many days, without molestation they came to the walls of
Berwick. And now, while Malcolm thought his difficulties at an end, a
horror of bashfulness fell upon Lilias. She had been Clerk Davie merrily
enough while there was no one to suspect her, but the transmutation into
her proper self filled her with shame.
She hung back, and could be hardly dragged forward to the embattled
gateway of the bridge by her brother--who, as the guards, jealously
cautious even in this time of peace, called out to him to stand, showed
his ring bearing the royal arms, and desired to speak within the captain
of the garrison, who was commanding in the name of the Earl of
Northumberland, Governor of Berwick and Warden of the Marches, and who
had entertained him on his way north, and would have been warned by
Patrick of his probable return in this guise.
Instead of the stalwart form of the veteran sub-governor, however, a
quick step came hurrying to the gateway, and the light figure of a young
knight stood before him, with outstretched hands, crying: 'Welcome to the
good town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, dear comrade!' And he added in a lower
tone: 'So you have succeeded in your quest--if, as I trow, this fairest
of clerks be your lady sister. May I--'
'Hold!' softly said Malcolm. 'She is so shamefast that she cannot brook
a word;' and in fact Lilias had pulled her hood over her face, and shrunk
behind him, at the first approach of the young gentleman.
'We will to my mother,' said Ralf, aloud. 'She has always a soft corner
in her heart for a young clerk or a wanderer.'
And so saying, without even looking at the disguised figure, he gave the
pass-word, and holding Malcolm by the arm, led him, followed by Lilias,
through the defences and into the court of the castle, then to a side-
door, where, bounding up several steps at once of a stone stair, he
opened a sort of anteroom door, and bade the two strangers wait there
while he fetched his mother.
'That is well! Who would have looked to see him here!' cried Malcolm,
joyously. 'What, you knew him not? It was Ralf Percy, my dear old
companion!'
'Ralf Percy! he that was so bold and daring?' cried Lilias. 'Nay, but
how can it be, he was as meek and shamefast--'
'As yourself,' smiled Malcolm. 'Ah, sister, you have much to learn of
the ways of an English gentleman among ladies.'
Before many further words could be exchanged, there entered a fair and
matronly dame in the widow's veil she had worn ever since the fatal day
of Shrewsbury--that eager, loving, yet almost childish woman whom we know
so well as Hotspur's gentle Kate (only that unfortunately her name was
Elizabeth); fondling, teasing, being fondled and teased in return, and
then with all her pretty puerilities scorched away when she upbraids
Northumberland with his fatal delay. Could Malcolm and Lilias have known
her as we do in Shakespeare, they would have been the more gratified by
her welcome, whereas they only saw her kind face and the courtly sweep of
her curtsey, as, going straight up to the disguised girl, blushing and
trembling now more than ever, she said: 'Poor child, come with me, and we
will soon have you yourself again, ere any other eye see you;' and then
moved away again, holding Lily by the hand, while Ralf, who had followed
close behind her, again grasped Malcolm's hand.
'Well done, Glenuskie; you have all the adventures! They seek you, I
believe! So you have borne off your damosel errant, and are just in time
to receive your king.'
'Is he wedded then?'
'Ay, and you find us all here in full state, prepared to banquet him and
lodge him and his bride for a night, and then I fancy my brother is to go
through some ceremony, ere giving him up to his own subjects. We are
watching for him every day. Come to my chamber, and I'll apparel you.'
'Nay, but what brings you here, Ralf?--you, whom I thought in France.'
''Twas a Scottish bill that brought me,' answered Ralf. 'What, are you
too lost in parchment at Oxford to hear of us poor soldiers, or knew you
not how we fought at Crevant?'
'I heard of the battle, and that you were hurt, but that was months ago,
and I deemed you long since in the field again. Was it so sore a
matter?'
'Chiefly sore for that it hindered me from taking the old rogue Douglas,
and meriting my spurs as befitted a Percy. I was knighted while the
trumpet was sounding, and I did think that I was on the way to prowess,
for fully in the _melee_ I saw a fellow with the Douglas banner. I made
at it, thinking of my father's and of Otterburn; and, Malcolm, this very
hand was on the staff, when what must a big Scot do but chop at me with
his bill like a butcher's axe. Had it fallen on mine arm it would have
been lopped off like a bough of a tree, but, by St. George's grace, it
lit here, between my neck and shoulder, and stuck fast as I went down,
and the fellow was swept away from me. 'Twas so fixed in the very bone,
that they had much ado to wrench it out, when there was time after the
fight to look after us who had come by the worse. And what d'ye think
they found, Malcolm? Why, those honest Yorkshiremen, Trenton and Kitson,
stark dead, both of them. Trenton must have gone down first, with a
lance-thrust in the throat; and there was Kitson over him, his shield
over his head, and his own cleft open with an axe! They laid them side
by side--so I was told--in their grave; and sure 'twas as strange and as
true a brotherhood as ever was between two brave men.'
'The good fellows!' cried Malcolm. 'Nay, after what I saw I can hardly
grieve. I went to Kitson's home, where they knew as little as I did of
his death, and verily his place had closed up behind him, so that I
scarce think his mother even cared to see him more, and the whole of them
seemed more concerned at his amity with Trenton than proud of his feats
of arms. I was marvelling if their friendship would be allowed to
subsist at home, even when they, poor fellows, were lying side by side in
their French grave.'
'We warriors should never come home,' said Percy; 'we are spoilt for
aught but our French camp. I am wearying to get back once more, but so
long as I cannot swing my sword-arm I must play the idler here.'
'It must have been a fearsome wound,' said Malcolm. 'The marvel is your
overgetting it.'
'So say they all; and truly it has lasted no small time. They shipped me
off home so soon as I could leave my bed, and bade me rest. Nay, and my
mother herself came even to London, when my brother was summoned to
Parliament,--she who had never been there since the first year after she
was wedded!'
'You can scarce complain of such kin as that,' said Malcolm.
''Tis not the kin, but this petty Border life, that frets me. Here we
move from castle to castle, and now and then come tidings of a cattle
lifting, and Harry dons his helm and rides forth, but nine times out of
ten 'tis a false alarm, or if it be true, the thieves have made off, and
being time of peace, he, as Warden, cannot make a raid in return. I'm
sick of the life, after the only warfare fit for a knight, with French
nobles instead of Border thieves; and back I will. If my right arm will
not serve me, the left shall. I can use a lance indifferent well
already.'
As Sir Ralf Percy spoke, a bugle-call rang through the castle. He
started. 'Hark! that's the warder's horn,' and flying to the door, he
soon returned crying--'Your king is in sight, Malcolm!'
'How soon will he be here?'
'In less than half an hour. There's time to array yourself. I'll take
you to my chamber.'
'Thanks,' said Malcolm; 'but this gown is no disguise to me. I had
rather meet the King thus, for it is my fitting garb. Only I would
remove the soil of the journey, and then take my sister by the hand.'
For this there was ample time, and Malcolm had arranged his hair, and
brushed away the dust from his gown, washed his face and hands, and made
himself look more like an Oxford bachelor, and less like a begging clerk,
than he had of late judged it prudent to appear, ere Ralf took him to the
great hall, where he found Lord Northumberland and the chief gentlemen of
his household, with his mother, Lady Percy, and his young wife, together
with their ladies, assembling for the reception of their royal guests.
Malcolm was presented to, and kindly greeted by, each of the principal
personages, and then the Earl, Sir Ralf, and their officers went forth to
meet the King at the gateway. Malcolm, however, at his sister's
entreaty, remained with her, for in the doubt whether Patrick were really
at hand, and a fond unreasonable vexation that he had had no part in her
liberation, her colour was coming and going, and she looked as if she
might almost faint in her intense excitement.
But when, marshalled by the two Percies, King James and Queen Joan had
entered the hall, and the blare of trumpets without and rejoicings
within, and had been welcomed with deep reverences by the two ladies,
Ralf said: 'Sir, methinks you have here what you may be glad to see.'
And standing aside, he made way for the two figures to stand forth, one
in the plain black gown and hood, the other in the rich robes of a high-
born maiden, her dark eyes on the ground, her fair face quivering within
emotion, as both she and her brother bent the knee before their royal
master.
'Ha!' cried James, 'this is well indeed. Thou hast her, then, lad? See,
Patrick! Where is he? Nay, but, fair wife, I must present thee the
first kinswoman of mine thou hast seen. How didst bring her off,
Malcolm?' And he embraced Malcolm with the ardour of a happy man, as he
added, 'This is all that was wanting.'
Truly James looked as if nothing were wanting to his joy, as there he
stood after his years of waiting, a bridegroom, free, and on the borders
of his native land. His eyes shone with joy, and there was a bright
energy and alacrity in his bearing that, when Malcolm bethought him of
those former grave movements, and the quiet demeanour as though only
interested by an effort, marked the change from the captive to the free
man. And beautiful Joan, lovelier than ever, took on her her queenly
dignity with all her wonted grace and graciousness.
She warmly embraced Lilias, hailing her as cousin, and auguring joyously
of the future from the sight of this first Stewart maiden whom she had
seen; and the next moment Patrick Drummond, hurrying forward, fell on his
knee before his lady, grasped, kissed, fondled her hand, and struggled
and stammered between his rejoicing over her liberation and despair that
he had no part in it.
'Yea,' said the King 'it was well-nigh a madman whom you sent home to me,
Malcolm. He was neither to have nor to hold; and what he would have had
me do, or have let him do, I'll not say, nor doth he know either. I must
hear your story ere I sleep, Malcolm.'
The King did not ask for it then: he would not brook the exposure of the
disunion and violence of Scotland to the English, especially the Percies;
and it was not till he could see Malcolm alone that he listened to his
history.
'Cousin,' he said, 'you have done both bravely and discreetly. Methinks
you have redeemed my pledge to your good guardian that in the south you
should be trained to true manhood; though I am free to own that 'twas not
under my charge that you had the best training. How is it to be,
Malcolm? Patrick tells me you saw the Lady of Light.'
'Ay, Sir, but neither her purpose nor mine is shaken. My lord, I believe
I see how best to serve God and yourself. If you will consent, I will
finish my first course at Oxford, and then offer myself for the
priesthood.'
'Not hide thyself in cloister or school--that is well!' exclaimed the
King.
'No, Sir. Methinks I could serve yonder rude people best if I were among
them as a priest.'
James considered, then said: 'I pledged myself not to withstand your
conscience, Malcolm; and though I grieve that the lady should be lost,
she has never wavered, and cannot be balked of her will. Godly and
learned priests will indeed be needed; and between you and James Kennedy,
when both are come to elder years, we may perchance lift our poor
Scottish Church to some clearer sense of what a church should be.
Meanwhile--' The King stopped and considered. 'Study in England! Ay!
You see, Malcolm, I must take my seat, and have the reins of my unruly
steed firm in my hand, ere I take cognizance of these offences. The
caitiff Walter--mansworn that he is--he shall abye it; but that can
scarce be as yet, and methinks it were not well that I entered Scotland
with you and your sister at my side, for then must I seem to have
overlooked an offence that, by this holy relic, I will never pardon. So,
Malcolm, instead of entering Scotland with me--bonnie land, how sweet its
air blows from the north!--ye must e'en turn south! But how to dispose
of your sister? Some nunnery--'
'Poor Lily, she is weary of convents,' said Malcolm 'but if Lady Montagu
would let her be with her and the Lady Esclairmonde, then would she learn
somewhat of the ways of a well-ordered English noble house. And I could
well provide for her being there as befits her station.'
'Well thought of! The gentle Lady Alice will no doubt welcome her,' said
the King; 'and Patrick must endure.'
Thus then was it fixed. The King and Queen, stately and beautiful,
royally robed, and mounted on splendid steeds, were escorted the next
morning to the Scottish gate of Berwick by Lord Northumberland and his
retinue, and they were met by an imposing band of Scottish nobles, with
the white-haired Earl of Lennox at their head. To these the captive was
formally surrendered by Northumberland; and James, flinging himself from
his horse, kissed his native soil, and gave thanks aloud to God, ere he
stood up and received the homage of his subjects, to most of whom he was
a total stranger.
Malcolm and Lilias on the walls could see all, but could not hear, and
finally beheld the glittering troop wind their way over the hills to make
ready for the coronation of James and Joan as king and queen of Scotland.