Such as we have described him, Nigel Olifaunt, or rather the young
Lord Glenvarloch, was, when our narrative takes him up, under great
perplexity respecting the fate of his trusty and only follower,
Richard Moniplies, who had been dispatched by his young master, early
the preceding morning, as far as the court at Westminster, but had not
yet returned. His evening adventures the reader is already acquainted
with, and so far knows more of Richie than did his master, who had not
heard of him for twenty-four hours.

Dame Nelly Christie, in the meantime, regarded her guest with some
anxiety, and a great desire to comfort him, if possible. She placed on
the breakfast-table a noble piece of cold powdered beef, with its
usual guards of turnip and carrot, recommended her mustard as coming
direct from her cousin at Tewkesbury, and spiced the toast with her
own hands--and with her own hands, also, drew a jug of stout and nappy
ale, all of which were elements of the substantial breakfast of the
period.

When she saw that her guest's anxiety prevented him from doing justice
to the good cheer which she set before him, she commenced her career
of verbal consolation with the usual volubility of those women in her
station, who, conscious of good looks, good intentions, and good
lungs, entertain no fear either of wearying themselves or of fatiguing
their auditors.

"Now, what the good year! are we to send you down to Scotland as thin
as you came up?--I am sure it would be contrary to the course of
nature. There was my goodman's father, old Sandie Christie, I have
heard he was an atomy when he came up from the North, and I am sure he
died, Saint Barnaby was ten years, at twenty stone weight. I was a
bare-headed girl at the time, and lived in the neighbourhood, though I
had little thought of marrying John then, who had a score of years the
better of me--but he is a thriving man and a kind husband--and his
father, as I was saying, died as fat as a church-warden. Well, sir,
but I hope I have not offended you for my little joke--and I hope the
ale is to your honour's liking,--and the beef--and the mustard?"

"All excellent--all too good," answered Olifaunt; "you have every
thing so clean and tidy, dame, that I shall not know how to live when
I go back to my own country--if ever I go back there."

This was added as it seemed involuntarily, and with a deep sigh.

"I warrant your honour go back again if you like it," said the dame:
"unless you think rather of taking a pretty well-dowered English lady,
as some of your countryfolk have done. I assure you, some of the best
of the city have married Scotsmen. There was Lady Trebleplumb, Sir
Thomas Trebleplumb the great Turkey merchant's widow, married Sir
Awley Macauley, whom your honour knows, doubtless; and pretty Mistress
Doublefee, old Sergeant Doublefee's daughter, jumped out of window,
and was married at May-fair to a Scotsman with a hard name; and old
Pitchpost the timber merchant's daughters did little better, for they
married two Irishmen; and when folks jeer me about having a Scotsman
for lodger, meaning your honour, I tell them they are afraid of their
daughters and their mistresses; and sure I have a right to stand up
for the Scots, since John Christie is half a Scotsman, and a thriving
man, and a good husband, though there is a score of years between us;
and so I would have your honour cast care away, and mend your
breakfast with a morsel and a draught."

"At a word, my kind hostess, I cannot," said Olifaunt; "I am anxious
about this knave of mine, who has been so long absent in this
dangerous town of yours."

It may be noticed in passing that Dame Nelly's ordinary mode of
consolation was to disprove the existence of any cause for distress;
and she is said to have carried this so far as to comfort a neighbour,
who had lost her husband, with the assurance that the dear defunct
would be better to-morrow, which perhaps might not have proved an
appropriate, even if it had been a possible, mode of relief.

On this occasion she denied stoutly that Richie had been absent
altogether twenty hours; and as for people being killed in the streets
of London, to be sure two men had been found in Tower-ditch last week,
but that was far to the east, and the other poor man that had his
throat cut in the fields, had met his mishap near by Islington; and he
that was stabbed by the young Templar in a drunken frolic, by Saint
Clement's in the Strand, was an Irishman. All which evidence she
produced to show that none of these casualties had occurred in a case
exactly parallel with that of Richie, a Scotsman, and on his return
from Westminster.

"My better comfort is, my good dame," answered Olifaunt, "that the lad
is no brawler or quarreller, unless strongly urged, and that he has
nothing valuable about him to any one but me."

"Your honour speaks very well," retorted the inexhaustible hostess,
who protracted her task of taking away, and putting to rights, in
order that she might prolong her gossip. "I'll uphold Master Moniplies
to be neither reveller nor brawler, for if he liked such things, he
might be visiting and junketing with the young folks about here in the
neighbourhood, and he never dreams of it; and when I asked the young
man to go as far as my gossip's, Dame Drinkwater, to taste a glass of
aniseed, and a bit of the groaning cheese,--for Dame Drinkwater has
had twins, as I told your honour, sir,--and I meant it quite civilly
to the young man, but he chose to sit and keep house with John
Christie; and I dare say there is a score of years between them, for
your honour's servant looks scarce much older than I am. I wonder what
they could have to say to each other. I asked John Christie, but he
bid me go to sleep."

"If he comes not soon," said his master, "I will thank you to tell me
what magistrate I can address myself to; for besides my anxiety for
the poor fellow's safety, he has papers of importance about him."

"O! your honour may be assured he will be back in a quarter of an
hour," said Dame Nelly; "he is not the lad to stay out twenty-four
hours at a stretch. And for the papers, I am sure your honour will
pardon him for just giving me a peep at the corner, as I was giving
him a small cup, not so large as my thimble, of distilled waters, to
fortify his stomach against the damps, and it was directed to the
King's Most Excellent Majesty; and so doubtless his Majesty has kept
Richie out of civility to consider of your honour's letter, and send
back a fitting reply."

Dame Nelly here hit by chance on a more available topic of consolation
than those she had hitherto touched upon; for the youthful lord had
himself some vague hopes that his messenger might have been delayed at
Court until a fitting and favourable answer should be dispatched back
to him. Inexperienced, however, in public affairs as he certainly was,
it required only a moment's consideration to convince him of the
improbability of an expectation so contrary to all he had heard of
etiquette, as well as the dilatory proceedings in a
 court suit, and he answered the good-natured hostess with a sigh,
that he doubted whether the king would even look on the paper
addressed to him, far less take it into his immediate consideration.

"Now, out upon you for a faint-hearted gentleman!" said the good dame;
"and why should he not do as much for us as our gracious Queen
Elizabeth? Many people say this and that about a queen and a king, but
I think a king comes more natural to us English folks; and this good
gentleman goes as often down by water to Greenwich, and employs as
many of the barge-men and water-men of all kinds; and maintains, in
his royal grace, John Taylor, the water-poet, who keeps both a sculler
and a pair of oars. And he has made a comely Court at Whitehall, just
by the river; and since the king is so good a friend to the Thames, I
cannot see, if it please your honour, why all his subjects, and your
honour in specialty, should not have satisfaction by his hands."

"True, dame--true,--let us hope for the best; but I must take my cloak
and rapier, and pray your husband in courtesy to teach me the way to a
magistrate."

"Sure, sir," said the prompt dame, "I can do that as well as he, who
has been a slow man of his tongue all his life, though I will give him
his due for being a loving husband, and a man as well to pass in the
world as any betwixt us and the top of the lane. And so there is the
sitting alderman, that is always at the Guildhall, which is close by
Paul's, and so I warrant you he puts all to rights in the city that
wisdom can mend; and for the rest there is no help but patience. But I
wish I were as sure of forty pounds as I am that the young man will
come back safe and sound."

Olifaunt, in great and anxious doubt of what the good dame so strongly
averred, flung his cloak on one shoulder, and was about to belt on his
rapier, when first the voice of Richie Moniplies on the stair, and
then that faithful emissary's appearance in the chamber, put the
matter beyond question. Dame Nelly, after congratulating Moniplies on
his return, and paying several compliments to her own sagacity for
having foretold it, was at length pleased to leave the apartment. The
truth was, that, besides some instinctive feelings of good breeding
which combated her curiosity, she saw there was no chance of Richie's
proceeding in his narrative while she was in the room, and she
therefore retreated, trusting that her own address would get the
secret out of one or other of the young men, when she should have
either by himself.

"Now, in Heaven's name, what is the matter?" said Nigel Olifaunt.--
"Where have you been, or what have you been about? You look as pale as
death. There is blood on your hand, and your clothes are torn. What
barns-breaking have you been at? You have been drunk, Richard, and
fighting."

"Fighting I have been," said Richard, "in a small way; but for being
drunk, that's a job ill to manage in this town, without money to come
by liquor; and as for barns-breaking, the deil a thing's broken but my
head. It's not made of iron, I wot, nor my claithes of chenzie-mail;
so a club smashed the tane, and a claught damaged the tither. Some
misleard rascals abused my country, but I think I cleared the causey
of them. However, the haill hive was ower mony for me at last, and I
got this eclipse on the crown, and then I was carried, beyond my
kenning, to a sma' booth at the Temple Port, whare they sell the
whirligigs and mony-go-rounds that measure out time as a man wad
measure a tartan web; and then they bled me, wold I nold I, and were
reasonably civil, especially an auld country-man of ours, of whom more
hereafter."

"And at what o'clock might this be?" said Nigel.

"The twa iron carles yonder, at the kirk beside the Port, were just
banging out sax o' the clock."

"And why came you not home as soon as you recovered?" said Nigel.

"In troth, my lord, every _why_ has its _wherefore_, and this has a
gude ane," answered his follower. "To come hame, I behoved to ken
whare hame was; now, I had clean tint the name of the wynd, and the
mair I asked, the mair the folk leugh, and the farther they sent me
wrang; sae I gave it up till God should send daylight to help me; and
as I saw mysell near a kirk at the lang run, I e'en crap in to take up
my night's quarters in the kirkyard."

"In the churchyard?" said Nigel--"But I need not ask what drove you to
such a pinch."

"It wasna sae much the want o' siller, my Lord Nigel," said Richie,
with an air of mysterious importance, "for I was no sae absolute
without means, of whilk mair anon; but I thought I wad never ware a
saxpence sterling on ane of their saucy chamberlains at a hostelry,
sae lang as I could sleep fresh and fine in a fair, dry, spring night.
Mony a time, when I hae come hame ower late, and faund the West-Port
steekit, and the waiter ill-willy, I have garr'd the sexton of Saint
Cuthbert's calf-ward serve me for my quarters. But then there are
dainty green graffs in Saint Cuthbert's kirkyard, whare ane may sleep
as if they were in a down-bed, till they hear the lavrock singing up
in the air as high as the Castle; whereas, and behold, these London
kirkyards are causeyed with through-stanes, panged hard and fast
thegither; and my cloak being something threadbare, made but a thin
mattress, so I was fain to give up my bed before every limb about me
was crippled. Dead folks may sleep yonder sound enow, but deil haet
else."

"And what became of you next?" said his master.

"I just took to a canny bulkhead, as they ca' them here; that is, the
boards on the tap of their bits of outshots of stalls and booths, and
there I sleepit as sound as if I was in a castle. Not but I was
disturbed with some of the night-walking queans and swaggering
billies, but when they found there was nothing to be got by me but a
slash of my Andrew Ferrara, they bid me good-night for a beggarly
Scot; and I was e'en weel pleased to be sae cheap rid of them. And in
the morning, I cam daikering here, but sad wark I had to find the way,
for I had been east as far as the place they ca' Mile-End, though it
is mair like sax-mile-end."

"Well, Richie," answered Nigel, "I am glad all this has ended so well
--go get something to eat. I am sure you need it."

"In troth do I, sir," replied Moniplies; "but, with your lordship's
leave--"

"Forget the lordship for the present, Richie, as I have often told you
before."

"Faith," replied Richie, "I could weel forget that your honour was a
lord, but then I behoved to forget that I am a lord's man, and that's
not so easy. But, however," he added, assisting his description with
the thumb and the two forefingers of his right hand, thrust out after
the fashion of a bird's claw, while the little finger and ring-finger
were closed upon the palm, "to the Court I went, and my friend that
promised me a sight of his Majesty's most gracious presence, was as
gude as his word, and carried me into the back offices, where I got
the best breakfast I have had since we came here, and it did me gude
for the rest of the day; for as to what I have eaten in this accursed
town, it is aye sauced with the disquieting thought that it maun be
paid for. After a', there was but beef banes and fat brose; but king's
cauff, your honour kens, is better than ither folk's corn; at ony
rate, it was a' in free awmous.--But I see," he added, stopping short,
"that your honour waxes impatient."

"By no means, Richie," said the young nobleman, with an air of
resignation, for he well knew his domestic would not mend his pace for
goading; "you have suffered enough in the embassy to have a right to
tell the story in your own way. Only let me pray for the name of the
friend who was to introduce you into the king's presence. You were
very mysterious on the subject, when you undertook, through his means,
to have the Supplication put into his Majesty's own hands, since those
sent heretofore, I have every reason to think, went no farther than
his secretary's."

"Weel, my lord," said Richie, "I did not tell you his name and quality
at first, because I thought you would be affronted at the like of him
having to do in your lordship's affairs. But mony a man climbs up in
Court by waur help. It was just Laurie Linklater, one of the yeomen of
the kitchen, that was my father's apprentice lang syne."

"A yeoman in the kitchen--a scullion!" exclaimed Lord Nigel, pacing
the room in displeasure.

"But consider, sir," said Richie, composedly, "that a' your great
friends hung back, and shunned to own you, or to advocate your
petition; and then, though I am sure I wish Laurie a higher office,
for your lordship's sake and for mine, and specially for his ain sake,
being a friendly lad, yet your lordship must consider, that a
scullion, if a yeoman of the king's most royal kitchen may be called a
scullion, may weel rank with a master-cook elsewhere; being that
king's cauff, as I said before, is better than--"

"You are right, and I was wrong," said the young nobleman. "I have no
choice of means of making my case known, so that they be honest."

"Laurie is as honest a lad as ever lifted a ladle," said Richie; "not
but what I dare to say he can lick his fingers like other folk, and
reason good. But, in fine, for I see your honour is waxing impatient,
he brought me to the palace, where a' was astir for the king going out
to hunt or hawk on Blackheath, I think they ca'd it. And there was a
horse stood with all the quarries about it, a bonny grey as ever was
foaled; and the saddle and the stirrups, and the curb and bit, o'
burning gowd, or silver gilded at least; and down, sir, came the king,
with all his nobles, dressed out in his hunting-suit of green, doubly
laced, and laid down with gowd. I minded the very face o' him, though
it was lang since I saw him. But my certie, lad, thought I, times are
changed since ye came fleeing down the back stairs of auld Holyrood
House, in grit fear, having your breeks in your hand without time to
put them on, and Frank Stewart, the wild Earl of Bothwell, hard at
your haunches; and if auld Lord Glenvarloch hadna cast his mantle
about his arm, and taken bluidy wounds mair than ane in your behalf,
you wald not have craw'd sae crouse this day; and so saying, I could
not but think your lordship's Sifflication could not be less than most
acceptable; and so I banged in among the crowd of lords. Laurie
thought me mad, and held me by the cloak-lap till the cloth rave in
his hand; and so I banged in right before the king just as he mounted,
and crammed the Sifflication into his hand, and he opened it like in
amaze; and just as he saw the first line, I was minded to make a
reverence, and I had the ill luck to hit his jaud o' a beast on the
nose with my hat, and scaur the creature, and she swarved aside, and
the king, that sits na mickle better than a draff-pock on the saddle,
was like to have gotten a clean coup, and that might have cost my
craig a raxing-and he flung down the paper amang the beast's feet, and
cried, 'Away wi' the fause loon that brought it!' And they grippit me,
and cried treason; and I thought of the Ruthvens that were dirked in
their ain house, for, it may be, as small a forfeit. However, they
spak only of scourging me, and had me away to the porter's lodge to
try the tawse on my back, and I was crying mercy as loud as I could;
and the king, when he had righted himself on the saddle, and gathered
his breath, cried to do me nae harm; for, said he, he is ane of our
ain Norland stots, I ken by the rowt of him,--and they a' laughed and
rowted loud eneugh. And then he said, 'Gie him a copy of the
Proclamation, and let him go down to the North by the next light
collier, before waur come o't.' So they let me go, and rode out, a
sniggering, laughing, and rounding in ilk ither's lugs. A sair life I
had wi' Laurie Linklater; for he said it wad be the ruin of him. And
then, when I told him it was in your matter, he said if he had known
before he would have risked a scauding for you, because he minded the
brave old lord, your father. And then he showed how I suld have done,
--and that I suld have held up my hand to my brow, as if the grandeur
of the king and his horse-graith thegither had casten the glaiks in my
een, and mair jackanape tricks I suld hae played, instead of offering
the Sifflication, he said, as if I had been bringing guts to a bear.
[Footnote: I am certain this prudential advice is not original on Mr.
Linklater's part, but I am not at present able to produce my
authority. I think it amounted to this, that James flung down a
petition presented by some supplicant who paid no compliments to his
horse, and expressed no admiration at the splendour of his furniture,
saying, "Shall a king cumber himself about the petition of a beggar,
while the beggar disregards the king's splendour?" It is, I think, Sir
John Harrington who recommends, as a sure mode to the king's favour,
to praise the paces of the royal palfrey.]

'For,' said he, 'Richie, the king is a weel-natured and just man of
his ain kindly nature, but he has a wheen maggots that maun be cannily
guided; and then, Richie,' says he, in a very laigh tone, 'I would
tell it to nane but a wise man like yoursell, but the king has them
about him wad corrupt an angel from heaven; but I could have gi'en you
avisement how to have guided him, but now it's like after meat
mustard.'--'Aweel, aweel, Laurie,' said I, 'it may be as you say', but
since I am clear of the tawse and the porter's lodge, sifflicate wha
like, deil hae Richie Moniplies if he come sifflicating here again.'--
And so away I came, and I wasna far by the Temple Port, or Bar, or
whatever they ca' it, when I met with the misadventure that I tauld
you of before."

"Well, my honest Richie," said Lord Nigel, "your attempt was well
meant, and not so ill conducted, I think, as to have deserved so bad
an issue; but go to your beef and mustard, and we'll talk of the rest
afterwards."

"There is nae mair to be spoken, sir," said his follower, "except that
I met ane very honest, fair-spoken, weel-put-on gentleman, or rather
burgher, as I think, that was in the whigmaleery man's back-shop; and
when he learned wha I was, behold he was a kindly Scot himsell, and,
what is more, a town's-bairn o' the gude town, and he behoved to
compel me to take this Portugal piece, to drink, forsooth--my certie,
thought I, we ken better, for we will eat it--and he spoke of paying
your lordship a visit."

"You did not tell him where I lived, you knave?" said the Lord Nigel,
angrily. "'Sdeath! I shall have every clownish burgher from Edinburgh
come to gaze on my distress, and pay a shilling for having seen the
motion of the Poor Noble!"

"Tell him where you lived?" said Richie, evading the question; "How
could I tell him what I kendna mysell? If I had minded the name of the
wynd, I need not have slept in the kirkyard yestreen."

"See, then, that you give no one notice of our lodging," said the
young nobleman; "those with whom I have business I can meet at Paul's,
or in the Court of Requests."

"This is steeking the stable-door when the steed is stolen," thought
Richie to himself; "but I must put him on another pin."

So thinking, he asked the young lord what was in the Proclamation
which he still held folded in his hand; "for, having little time to
spell at it," said he, "your lordship well knows I ken nought about it
but the grand blazon at the tap--the lion has gotten a claught of our
auld Scottish shield now, but it was as weel upheld when it had a
unicorn on ilk side of it."

Lord Nigel read the Proclamation, and he coloured deep with shame and
indignation as he read; for the purport was, to his injured feelings,
like the pouring of ardent spirits upon a recent wound.

"What deil's in the paper, my lord?" said Richie, unable to suppress
his curiosity as he observed his master change colour; "I wadna ask
such a thing, only the Proclamation is not a private thing, but is
meant for a' men's hearing."

"It is indeed meant for all men's hearing," replied Lord Nigel, "and
it proclaims the shame of our country, and the ingratitude of our
Prince."

"Now the Lord preserve us! and to publish it in London, too!"
ejaculated Moniplies.

"Hark ye, Richard," said Nigel Olifaunt, "in this paper the Lords of
the Council set forth, that, 'in consideration of the resort of idle
persons of low condition forth from his Majesty's kingdom of Scotland
to his English Court--filling the same with their suits and
supplications, and dishonouring the royal presence with their base,
poor, and beggarly persons, to the disgrace of their country in the
estimation of the English; these are to prohibit the skippers, masters
of vessels and others, in every part of Scotland, from bringing such
miserable creatures up to Court under pain of fine and impisonment."'

"I marle the skipper took us on board," said Richie.

"Then you need not marvel how you are to get back again," said Lord
Nigel, "for here is a clause which says, that such idle suitors are to
be transported back to Scotland at his Majesty's expense, and punished
for their audacity with stripes, stocking, or incarceration, according
to their demerits--that is to say, I suppose, according to the degree
of their poverty, for I see no other demerit specified."

"This will scarcely," said Richie, "square with our old proverb--

     A King's face
     Should give grace--

But what says the paper farther, my lord?"

"O, only a small clause which especially concerns us, making some
still heavier denunciations against those suitors who shall be so bold
as to approach the Court, under pretext of seeking payment of old
debts due to them by the king, which, the paper states, is, of all
species of importunity, that which is most odious to his Majesty."

"The king has neighbours in that matter," said Richie; "but it is not
every one that can shift off that sort of cattle so easily as he
does."

Their conversation was here interrupted by a knocking at the door.
Olifaunt looked out at the window, and saw an elderly respectable
person whom he knew not. Richie also peeped, and recognised, but,
recognising, chose not to acknowledge, his friend of the preceding
evening. Afraid that his share in the visit might be detected, he made
his escape out of the apartment under pretext of going to his
breakfast; and left their landlady the task of ushering Master George
into Lord Nigel's apartment, which she performed with much courtesy.




CHAPTER IV


  Ay, sir, the clouted shoe hath oft times craft in't,
  As says the rustic proverb; and your citizen,
  In's grogram suit, gold chain, and well-black'd shoes,
  Bears under his flat cap ofttimes a brain
  Wiser than burns beneath the cap and feather,
  Or seethes within the statesman's velvet nightcap.
                               _Read me my Riddle._

The young Scottish nobleman received the citizen with distant
politeness, expressing that sort of reserve by which those of the
higher ranks are sometimes willing to make a plebeian sensible that he
is an intruder. But Master George seemed neither displeased nor
disconcerted. He assumed the chair, which, in deference to his
respectable appearance, Lord Nigel offered to him, and said, after a
moment's pause, during which he had looked attentively at the young
man, with respect not unmingled with emotion--"You will forgive me for
this rudeness, my lord; but I was endeavouring to trace in your
youthful countenance the features of my good old lord, your excellent
father."

There was a moment's pause ere young Glenvarloch replied, still with a
reserved manner,--"I have been reckoned like my father, sir; and am
happy to see any one that respects his memory. But the business which
calls me to this city is of a hasty as well as a private nature, and--"

"I understand the hint, my lord," said Master George, "and would not
be guilty of long detaining you from business, or more agreeable
conversation. My errand is almost done when I have said that my name
is George Heriot, warmly befriended, and introduced into the
employment of the Royal Family of Scotland, more than twenty years
since, by your excellent father; and that, learning from a follower of
yours that your lordship was in this city in prosecution of some
business of importance, it is my duty,--it is my pleasure,--to wait on
the son of my respected patron; and, as I am somewhat known both at
the Court, and in the city, to offer him such aid in the furthering of
his affairs as my credit and experience may be able to afford."

"I have no doubt of either, Master Heriot," said Lord Nigel, "and I
thank you heartily for the good-will with which you have placed them
at a stranger's disposal; but my business at Court is done and ended,
and I intend to leave London and, indeed, the island, for foreign
travel and military service. I may add, that the suddenness of my
departure occasions my having little time at my disposal."

Master Heriot did not take the hint, but sat fast, with an embarrassed
countenance however, like one who had something to say that he knew
not exactly how to make effectual. At length he said, with a dubious
smile, "You are fortunate, my lord, in having so soon dispatched your
business at Court. Your talking landlady informs me you have been but
a fortnight in this city. It is usually months and years ere the Court
and a suitor shake hands and part."

"My business," said Lord Nigel, with a brevity which was intended to
stop further discussion, "was summarily dispatched."

Still Master Heriot remained seated, and there was a cordial good-
humour added to the reverence of his appearance, which rendered it
impossible for Lord Nigel to be more explicit in requesting his
absence.

"Your lordship has not yet had time," said the citizen, still
attempting to sustain the conversation, "to visit the places of
amusement,--the playhouses, and other places to which youth resort.
But I see in your lordship's hand one of the new-invented plots of the
piece, [Footnote: Meaning, probably, playbills.] which they hand about
of late--May I ask what play?"

"Oh! a well-known piece," said Lord Nigel, impatiently throwing down
the Proclamation, which he had hitherto been twisting to and fro in
his hand,--"an excellent and well-approved piece--_A New Way to Pay
Old Debts._"

Master Heriot stooped down, saying, "Ah! my old acquaintance, Philip
Massinger;" but, having opened the paper and seen the purport, he
looked at Lord Nigel with surprise, saying, "I trust your lordship
does not think this prohibition can extend either to _your_ person or
your claims?" "I should scarce have thought so myself," said the young
nobleman; "but so it proves. His Majesty, to close this discourse at
once, has been pleased to send me this Proclamation, in answer to a
respectful Supplication for the repayment of large loans advanced by
my father for the service of the State, in the king's utmost
emergencies."

"It is impossible!" said the citizen--"it is absolutely impossible!--
If the king could forget what was due to your father's memory, still
he would not have wished--would not, I may say, have dared--to be so
flagrantly unjust to the memory of such a man as your father, who,
dead in the body, will long live in the memory of the Scottish
people." "I should have been of your opinion," answered Lord
 Nigel, in the same tone as before; "but there is no fighting with
facts."

"What was the tenor of this Supplication?" said Heriot; "or by whom
was it presented? Something strange there must have been in the
contents, or else--"

"You may see my original draught," said the young lord, taking it out
of a small travelling strong-box; "the technical part is by my lawyer
in Scotland, a skilful and sensible man; the rest is my own, drawn, I
hope, with due deference and modesty."

Master Heriot hastly cast his eye over the draught. "Nothing," he
said, "can be more well-tempered and respectful. Is it possible the
king can have treated this petition with contempt?"

"He threw it down on the pavement," said the Lord of Glenvarloch, "and
sent me for answer that Proclamation, in which he classes me with the
paupers and mendicants from Scotland, who disgrace his Court in the
eyes of the proud English--that is all. Had not my father stood by him
with heart, sword, and fortune, he might never have seen the Court of
England himself."

"But by whom was this Supplication presented, my lord?" said Heriot;
"for the distaste taken at the messenger will sometimes extend itself
to the message."

"By my servant," said the Lord Nigel; "by the man you saw, and, I
think, were kind to."

"By your servant, my lord?" said the citizen; "he seems a shrewd
fellow, and doubtless a faithful; but surely--"

"You would say," said Lord Nigel, "he is no fit messenger to a king's
presence?--Surely he is not; but what could I do? Every attempt I had
made to lay my case before the king had miscarried, and my petitions
got no farther than the budgets of clerks and secretaries; this fellow
pretended he had a friend in the household that would bring him to the
king's presence,--and so--"

"I understand," said Heriot; "but, my lord, why should you not, in
right of your rank and birth, have appeared at Court, and required an
audience, which could not have been denied to you?"

The young lord blushed a little, and looked at his dress, which was
very plain; and, though in perfect good order, had the appearance of
having seen service.

"I know not why I should be ashamed of speaking the truth," he said,
after a momentary hesitation,--"I had no dress suitable for appearing
at Court. I am determined to incur no expenses which I cannot
discharge; and I think you, sir, would not advise me to stand at the
palace-door, in person, and deliver my petition, along with those who
are in very deed pleading their necessity, and begging an alms."

"That had been, indeed, unseemly," said the citizen; "but yet, my
lord, my mind runs strangely that there must be some mistake.--Can I
speak with your domestic?"

"I see little good it can do," answered the young lord, "but the
interest you take in my misfortunes seems sincere, and therefore----"
He stamped on the floor, and in a few seconds afterwards Moniplies
appeared, wiping from his beard and mustaches the crumbs of bread, and
the froth of the ale-pot, which plainly showed how he had been
employed.--"Will your lordship grant permission," said Heriot, "that I
ask your groom a few questions?" "His lordship's page, Master George,"
answered Moniplies, with a nod of acknowledgment, "if you are minded
to speak according to the letter."

"Hold your saucy tongue," said his master, "and reply distinctly to
the questions you are to be asked."

"And _truly,_ if it like your pageship," said the citizen, "for you
may remember I have a gift to discover falset."

"Weel, weel, weel," replied the domestic, somewhat embarrassed, in
spite of his effrontery--"though I think that the sort of truth that
serves my master, may weel serve ony ane else."

"Pages lie to their masters by right of custom," said the citizen;
"and you write yourself in that band, though I think you be among the
oldest of such springalds; but to me you must speak truth, if you
would not have it end in the whipping-post."

"And that's e'en a bad resting-place," said the well-grown page; "so
come away with your questions, Master George."

"Well, then," demanded the citizen, "I am given to understand that you
yesterday presented to his Majesty's hand a Supplication, or petition,
from this honourable lord, your master."

"Troth, there's nae gainsaying that, sir," replied Moniplies; "there
were enow to see it besides me."

"And you pretend that his Majesty flung it from him with contempt?"
said the citizen. "Take heed, for I have means of knowing the truth;
and you were better up to the neck in the Nor-Loch, which you like so
well, than tell a leasing where his Majesty's name is concerned."

"There is nae occasion for leasing-making about the matter," answered
Moniplies, firmly; "his Majesty e'en flung it frae him as if it had
dirtied his fingers."

"You hear, sir," said Olifaunt, addressing Heriot.

"Hush!" said the sagacious citizen; "this fellow is not ill named--he
has more plies than one in his cloak. Stay, fellow," for Moniplies,
muttering somewhat about finishing his breakfast, was beginning to
shamble towards the door, "answer me this farther question--When you
gave your master's petition to his Majesty, gave you nothing with it?"

"Ou, what should I give wi' it, ye ken, Master George?"

"That is what I desire and insist to know," replied his interrogator.

"Weel, then--I am not free to say, that maybe I might not just slip
into the king's hand a wee bit Sifflication of mine ain, along with my
lord's--just to save his Majesty trouble--and that he might consider
them baith at ance."

"A supplication of your own, you varlet!" said his master.

"Ou dear, ay, my lord," said Richie--"puir bodies hae their bits of
sifflications as weel as their betters."

"And pray, what might your worshipful petition import?" said Master
Heriot.--"Nay, for Heaven's sake, my lord, keep your patience, or we
shall never learn the truth of this strange matter.--Speak out,
sirrah, and I will stand your friend with my lord."

"It's a lang story to tell--but the upshot is, that it's a scrape of
an auld accompt due to my father's yestate by her Majesty the king's
maist gracious mother, when she lived in the Castle, and had sundry
providings and furnishings forth of our booth, whilk nae doubt was an
honour to my father to supply, and whilk, doubtless, it will be a
credit to his Majesty to satisfy, as it will be grit convenience to me
to receive the saam."

"What string of impertinence is this?" said his master.

"Every word as true as e'er John Knox spoke," said Richie; "here's the
bit double of the Sifflication."

Master George took a crumpled paper from the fellow's hand, and said,
muttering betwixt his teeth--"'Humbly showeth--um--um--his Majesty's
maist gracious mother--um--um--justly addebted and owing the sum of
fifteen merks--the compt whereof followeth--Twelve nowte's feet for
jellies--ane lamb, being Christmas--ane roasted capin in grease for
the privy chalmer, when my Lord of Bothwell suppit with her Grace.'--I
think, my lord, you can hardly be surprised that the king gave this
petition a brisk reception; and I conclude, Master Page, that you took
care to present your own Supplication before your master's?"

"Troth did I not," answered Moniplies. "I thought to have given my
lord's first, as was reason gude; and besides that, it wad have redd
the gate for my ain little bill. But what wi' the dirdum an'
confusion, an' the loupin here and there of the skeigh brute of a
horse, I believe I crammed them baith into his hand cheek-by-jowl, and
maybe my ain was bunemost; and say there was aught wrang, I am sure I
had a' the fright and a' the risk--"

"And shall have all the beating, you rascal knave," said Nigel; "am I
to be insulted and dishonoured by your pragmatical insolence, in
blending your base concerns with mine?"

"Nay, nay, nay, my lord," said the good-humoured citizen, interposing,
"I have been the means of bringing the fellow's blunder to light--
allow me interest enough with your lordship to be bail for his bones.
You have cause to be angry, but still I think the knave mistook more
out of conceit than of purpose; and I judge you will have the better
service of him another time, if you overlook this fault--Get you gone,
sirrah--I'll make your peace."

"Na, na," said Moniplies, keeping his ground firmly, "if he likes to
strike a lad that has followed him for pure love, for I think there
has been little servant's fee between us, a' the way frae Scotland,
just let my lord be doing, and see the credit he will get by it--and I
would rather (mony thanks to you though, Master George) stand by a
lick of his baton, than it suld e'er be said a stranger came between
us."

"Go, then," said his master, "and get out of my sight."

"Aweel I wot that is sune done," said Moniplies, retiring slowly; "I
did not come without I had been ca'd for--and I wad have been away
half an hour since with my gude will, only Maister George keepit me to
answer his interrogation, forsooth, and that has made a' this stir."

And so he made his grumbling exit, with the tone much rather of one
who has sustained an injury, than who has done wrong.

"There never was a man so plagued as I am with a malapert knave!--The
fellow is shrewd, and I have found him faithful--I believe he loves
me, too, and he has given proofs of it--but then he is so uplifted in
his own conceit, so self-willed, and so self-opinioned, that he seems
to become the master and I the man; and whatever blunder he commits,
he is sure to make as loud complaints, as if the whole error lay with
me, and in no degree with himself."

"Cherish him, and maintain him, nevertheless," said the citizen; "for
believe my grey hairs, that affection and fidelity are now rarer
qualities in a servitor, than when the world was younger. Yet, trust
him, my good lord, with no commission above his birth or breeding, for
you see yourself how it may chance to fall."

"It is but too evident, Master Heriot," said the young nobleman; "and
I am sorry I have done injustice to my sovereign, and your master. But
I am, like a true Scotsman, wise behind hand--the mistake has
happened--my Supplication has been refused, and my only resource is to
employ the rest of my means to carry Moniplies and myself to some
counter-scarp, and die in the battle-front like my ancestors."

"It were better to live and serve your country like your noble father,
my lord," replied Master George. "Nay, nay, never look down or shake
your head--the king has not refused your Supplication, for he has not
seen it--you ask but justice, and that his place obliges him to give
to his subjects--ay, my lord, and I will say that his natural temper
doth in this hold bias with his duty."

"I were well pleased to think so, and yet----" said Nigel Olifaunt,--
"I speak not of my own wrongs, but my country hath many that are
unredressed."

"My lord," said Master Heriot, "I speak of my royal master, not only
with the respect due from a subject--the gratitude to be paid by a
favoured servant, but also with the frankness of a free and loyal
Scotsman. The king is himself well disposed to hold the scales of
justice even; but there are those around him who can throw without
detection their own selfish wishes and base interests into the scale.
You are already a sufferer by this, and without your knowing it."

"I am surprised, Master Heriot," said the young lord, "to hear you,
upon so short an acquaintance, talk as if you were familiarly
acquainted with my affairs."

"My lord," replied the goldsmith, "the nature of my employment affords
me direct access to the interior of the palace; I am well known to be
no meddler in intrigues or party affairs, so that no favourite has as
yet endeavoured to shut against me the door of the royal closet; on
the contrary, I have stood well with each while he was in power, and I
have not shared the fall of any. But I cannot be thus connected with
the Court, without hearing, even against my will, what wheels are in
motion, and how they are checked or forwarded. Of course, when I
choose to seek such intelligence, I know the sources in which it is to
be traced. I have told you why I was interested in your lordship's
fortunes. It was last night only that I knew you were in this city,
yet I have been able, in coming hither this morning, to gain for you
some information respecting the impediments to your suit."

"Sir, I am obliged by your zeal, however little it may be merited,"
answered Nigel, still with some reserve; "yet I hardly know how I have
deserved this interest."

"First let me satisfy you that it is real," said the citizen; "I blame
you not for being unwilling to credit the fair professions of a
stranger in my inferior class of society, when you have met so little
friendship from relations, and those of your own rank, bound to have
assisted you by so many ties. But mark the cause. There is a mortgage
over your father's extensive estate, to the amount of 40,000 merks,
due ostensibly to Peregrine Peterson, the Conservator of Scottish
Privileges at Campvere."

"I know nothing of a mortgage," said the young lord; "but there is a
wadset for such a sum, which, if unredeemed, will occasion the
forfeiture of my whole paternal estate, for a sum not above a fourth
of its value--and it is for that very reason that I press the king's
government for a settlement of the debts due to my father, that I may
be able to redeem my land from this rapacious creditor."

"A wadset in Scotland," said Heriot, "is the same with a mortgage on
this side of the Tweed; but you are not acquainted with your real
creditor. The Conservator Peterson only lends his name to shroud no
less a man than the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, who hopes, under
cover of this debt, to gain possession of the estate himself, or
perhaps to gratify a yet more powerful third party. He will probably
suffer his creature Peterson to take possession, and when the odium of
the transaction shall be forgotten, the property and lordship of
Glenvarloch will be conveyed to the great man by his obsequious
instrument, under cover of a sale, or some similar device."

"Can this be possible?" said Lord Nigel; "the Chancellor wept when I
took leave of him--called me his cousin--even his son--furnished me
with letters, and, though I asked him for no pecuniary assistance,
excused himself unnecessarily for not pressing it on me, alleging the
expenses of his rank and his large family. No, I cannot believe a
nobleman would carry deceit so far."

"I am not, it is true, of noble blood," said the citizen; "but once
more I bid you look on my grey hairs, and think what can be my
interest in dishonouring them with falsehood in affairs in which I
have no interest, save as they regard the son of my benefactor.
Reflect also, have you had any advantage from the Lord Chancellor's
letters?"

"None," said Nigel Olifaunt, "except cold deeds and fair words. I have
thought for some time, their only object was to get rid of me--one
yesterday pressed money on me when I talked of going abroad, in order
that I might not want the means of exiling myself."

"Right," said Heriot; "rather than you fled not, they would themselves
furnish wings for you to fly withal."

"I will to him this instant," said the incensed youth, "and tell him
my mind of his baseness."

"Under your favour," said Heriot, detaining him, "you shall not do so.
By a quarrel you would become the ruin of me your informer; and though
I would venture half my shop to do your lordship a service, I think
you would hardly wish me to come by damage, when it can be of no
service to you."

The word _shop_ sounded harshly in the ear of the young nobleman, who
replied hastily--"Damage, sir?--so far am I from wishing you to incur
damage, that I would to Heaven you would cease your fruitless offers
of serving one whom there is no chance of ultimately assisting!"

"Leave me alone for that," said the citizen: "you have now erred as
far on the bow-hand. Permit me to take this Supplication--I will have
it suitably engrossed, and take my own time (and it shall be an early
one) for placing it, with more prudence, I trust, than that used by
your follower, in the king's hand--I will almost answer for his taking
up the matter as you would have him--but should he fail to do so, even
then I will not give up the good cause."

"Sir," said the young nobleman, "your speech is so friendly, and my
own state so helpless, that I know not how to refuse your kind
proffer, even while I blush to accept it at the hands of a stranger."

"We are, I trust, no longer such," said the goldsmith; "and for my
guerdon, when my mediation proves successful, and your fortunes are
re-established, you shall order your first cupboard of plate from
George Heriot."

"You would have a bad paymaster, Master Heriot," said Lord Nigel.

"I do not fear that," replied the goldsmith; "and I am glad to see you
smile, my lord--methinks it makes you look still more like the good
old lord your father; and it emboldens me, besides, to bring out a
small request--that you would take a homely dinner with me to-morrow.
I lodge hard by in Lombard Street. For the cheer, my lord, a mess of
white broth, a fat capon well larded, a dish of beef collops for auld
Scotland's sake, and it may be a cup of right old wine, that was
barrelled before Scotland and England were one nation--Then for
company, one or two of our own loving countrymen--and maybe my
housewife may find out a bonny Scots lass or so."

"I would accept your courtesy, Master Heriot," said Nigel, "but I hear
the city ladies of London like to see a man gallant--I would not like
to let down a Scottish nobleman in their ideas, as doubtless you have
said the best of our poor country, and I rather lack the means of
bravery for the present."

"My lord, your frankness leads me a step farther," said Master George.
"I--I owed your father some monies; and--nay, if your lordship looks
at me so fixedly, I shall never tell my story--and, to speak plainly,
for I never could carry a lie well through in my life--it is most
fitting, that, to solicit this matter properly, your lordship should
go to Court in a manner beseeming your quality. I am a goldsmith, and
live by lending money as well as by selling plate. I am ambitious to
put an hundred pounds to be at interest in your hands, till your
affairs are settled."

"And if they are never favourably settled?" said Nigel.

"Then, my lord," returned the citizen, "the miscarriage of such a sum
will be of little consequence to me, compared with other subjects of
regret."

"Master Heriot," said the Lord Nigel, "your favour is generously
offered, and shall be frankly accepted. I must presume that you see
your way through this business, though I hardly do; for I think you
would be grieved to add any fresh burden to me, by persuading me to
incur debts which I am not likely to discharge. I will therefore take
your money, under the hope and trust that you will enable me to repay
you punctually."

"I will convince you, my lord," said the goldsmith, "that I mean to
deal with you as a creditor from whom I expect payment; and therefore,
you shall, with your own good pleasure, sign an acknowledgment for
these monies, and an obligation to content and repay me."

He then took from his girdle his writing materials, and, writing a few
lines to the purport he expressed, pulled out a small bag of gold from
a side-pouch under his cloak, and, observing that it should contain an
hundred pounds, proceeded to tell out the contents very methodically
upon the table. Nigel Olifaunt could not help intimating that this was
an unnecessary ceremonial, and that he would take the bag of gold on
the word of his obliging creditor; but this was repugnant to the old
man's forms of transacting business.

"Bear with me," he said, "my good lord,--we citizens are a wary and
thrifty generation; and I should lose my good name for ever within the
toll of Paul's, were I to grant quittance, or take acknowledgment,
without bringing the money to actual tale. I think it be right now--
and, body of me," he said, looking out at the window, "yonder come my
boys with my mule; for I must Westward Hoe. Put your monies aside, my
lord; it is not well to be seen with such goldfinches chirping about
one in the lodgings of London. I think the lock of your casket be
indifferent good; if not, I can serve you at an easy rate with one
that has held thousands;--it was the good old Sir Faithful Frugal's;--
his spendthrift son sold the shell when he had eaten the kernel--and
there is the end of a city-fortune."

"I hope yours will make a better termination, Master Heriot," said the
Lord Nigel.

"I hope it will, my lord," said the old man, with a smile; "but," to
use honest John Bunyan's phrase--'therewithal the water stood in his
eyes,' "it has pleased God to try me with the loss of two children;
and for one adopted shild who ives--Ah! woe is me! and well-a-day!--
But I am patient and thankful; and for the wealth God has sent me,
it shall not want inheritors while there are orphan lads in Auld
Reekie.--I wish you good-morrow, my lord."

"One orphan has cause to thank you already," said Nigel, as he
attended him to the door of his chamber, where, resisting further
escort, the old citizen made his escape.

As, in going downstairs, he passed the shop where Dame Christie stood
becking, he made civil inquiries after her husband. The dame of course
regretted his absence; but he was down, she said, at Deptford, to
settle with a Dutch ship-master.

"Our way of business, sir," she said, "takes him much from home, and
my husband must be the slave of every tarry jacket that wants but a
pound of oakum."

"All business must be minded, dame," said the goldsmith. "Make my
remembrances--George Heriot, of Lombard Street's remembrances--to your
goodman. I have dealt with him--he is just and punctual--true to time
and engagements;--be kind to your noble guest, and see he wants
nothing. Though it be his pleasure at present to lie private and
retired, there be those that care for him, and I have a charge to see
him supplied; so that you may let me know by your husband, my good
dame, how my lord is, and whether he wants aught."

"And so he _is_ a real lord after all?" said the good dame. "I am sure
I always thought he looked like one. But why does he not go to
Parliament, then?"

"He will, dame," answered Heriot, "to the Parliament of Scotland,
which is his own country."

"Oh! he is but a Scots lord, then," said the good dame; "and that's
the thing makes him ashamed to take the title, as they say."

"Let him not hear _you_ say so, dame," replied the citizen.

"Who, I, sir?" answered she; "no such matter in my thought, sir. Scot
or English, he is at any rate a likely man, and a civil man; and
rather than he should want any thing, I would wait upon him myself,
and come as far as Lombard Street to wait upon your worship too."

"Let your husband come to me, good dame," said the goldsmith, who,
with all his experience and worth, was somewhat of a formalist and
disciplinarian. "The proverb says, 'House goes mad when women gad;'
and let his lordship's own man wait upon his master in his chamber--it
is more seemly. God give ye good-morrow."

"Good-morrow to your worship," said the dame, somewhat coldly; and,
so soon as the adviser was out of hearing, was ungracious enough to
mutter, in contempt of his council, "Marry quep of your advice, for
an old Scotch tinsmith, as you are! My husband is as wise, and very
near as old, as yourself; and if I please him, it is well enough; and
though he is not just so rich just now as some folks, yet I hope to see
him ride upon his moyle, with a foot-cloth, and have his two blue-coats
after him, as well as they do."




CHAPTER V


Wherefore come ye not to court?
Certain 'tis the rarest sport;
There are silks and jewels glistening,
Prattling fools and wise men listening,
Bullies among brave men justling,
Beggars amongst nobles bustling;
Low-breath'd talkers, minion lispers,
Cutting honest throats by whispers;
Wherefore come ye not to court?
Skelton swears 'tis glorious sport.
                 _Skelton Skeltonizeth._

It was not entirely out of parade that the benevolent citizen was
mounted and attended in that manner, which, as the reader has been
informed, excited a gentle degree of spleen on the part of Dame
Christie, which, to do her justice, vanished in the little soliloquy
which we have recorded. The good man, besides the natural desire to
maintain the exterior of a man of worship, was at present bound to
Whitehall in order to exhibit a piece of valuable workmanship to King
James, which he deemed his Majesty might be pleased to view, or even
to purchase. He himself was therefore mounted upon his caparisoned
mule, that he might the better make his way through the narrow, dirty,
and crowded streets; and while one of his attendants carried under his
arm the piece of plate, wrapped up in red baize, the other two gave an
eye to its safety; for such was then the state of the police of the
metropolis, that men were often assaulted in the public street for the
sake of revenge or of plunder; and those who apprehended being beset,
usually endeavoured, if their estate admitted such expense, to secure
themselves by the attendance of armed followers. And this custom,
which was at first limited to the nobility and gentry, extended by
degrees to those citizens of consideration, who, being understood to
travel with a charge, as it was called, might otherwise have been
selected as safe subjects of plunder by the street-robber.

As Master George Heriot paced forth westward with this gallant
attendance, he paused at the shop door of his countryman and friend,
the ancient horologer, and having caused Tunstall, who was in
attendance, to adjust his watch by the real time, he desired to speak
with his master; in consequence of which summons, the old Time-meter
came forth from his den, his face like a bronze bust, darkened with
dust, and glistening here and there with copper filings, and his
senses so bemused in the intensity of calculation, that he gazed on
his friend the goldsmith for a minute before he seemed perfectly to
comprehend who he was, and heard him express his invitation to David
Ramsay, and pretty Mistress Margaret, his daughter, to dine with him
next day at noon, to meet with a noble young countrymen, without
returning any answer.

"I'll make thee speak, with a murrain to thee," muttered Heriot to
himself; and suddenly changing his tone, he said aloud,--"I pray you,
neighbour David, when are you and I to have a settlement for the
bullion wherewith I supplied you to mount yonder hall-clock at
Theobald's, and that other whirligig that you made for the Duke of
Buckingham? I have had the Spanish house to satisfy for the ingots,
and I must needs put you in mind that you have been eight months
behind-hand."