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You will get touched again yes, sir there you shall find him with his can of single ale, stirred with a sprig of rosemary, for he never drinks strong potations, sir, unless to oblige Lord Huntinglen take heed, sir or any other person who asks him forth to breakfast but single beer he always drinks at Ned's, with his broiled bone of beef or mutton or, it may be, lamb at the season but not pork, though Ned is famous for his griskins.
Master George Heriot had no sooner returned to the king's apartment, than James inquired of Maxwell if the Earl of Huntinglen was in attendance, and, receiving an answer in the affirmative, desired that he should be admitted. The old Scottish Lord having made his reverence in the usual manner, the king extended his hand to be kissed, and then began to address him in a tone of great sympathy.
"May it please your Majesty," he said, "why was this tale not sooner told? This woman hath been here for years wherefore was the claim on my son not made the instant she touched English ground?" "Tell him how that came about, Geordie," said the king, dressing Heriot. "I grieve to distress my Lord Huntinglen," said Heriot; but I must speak the truth.
"No, no!" the Monarch continued to insinuate, "things are not so bad as that Steenie himself never thought of her being a streetwalker, even when he thought the worst of her." "If it can at all console my Lord of Huntinglen," said the citizen, "I can assure him of this lady's good birth, and most fair and unspotted fame."
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.
"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."
He hazarded a slight glance towards the throne, to give meaning to his last words. "We have spoken ourselves with Lord Huntinglen," said the king, "and are authorised to consent in his name." "I could never have expected this intervention of a proxaneta, which the vulgar translate blackfoot, of such eminent dignity," said Dalgarno, scarce concealing a sneer. "And my father hath consented?
"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.
"I am sorry for it," said Lord Huntinglen then interrupting himself, he said "Heaven forgive me for being ungrateful for such comfort! but I am well-nigh sorry she should be as you represent her, so much better than the villain deserves. To be condemned to wed beauty and innocence and honest birth "
But, strange to tell, not even the haste he had made to attend his patron's mandate, a business, as Master Heriot's message expressed, of weight and importance nay not even the state of depression in which, out of sheer humility, doubtless, he had his head stooped to the earth, from the moment he had trod the demesnes of the Earl of Huntinglen, had called any colour into his countenance.
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