There is something so sharp and _aigre_ in the demand of a peremptory
dun, that no human tympanum, however inaccessible to other tones, can
resist the application. David Ramsay started at once from his reverie,
and answered in a pettish tone, "Wow, George, man, what needs aw this
din about sax score o' pounds? Aw the world kens I can answer aw
claims on me, and you proffered yourself fair time, till his maist
gracious Majesty and the noble Duke suld make settled accompts wi' me;
and ye may ken, by your ain experience, that I canna gang rowting like
an unmannered Highland stot to their doors, as ye come to mine."

Heriot laughed, and replied, "Well, David, I see a demand of money is
like a bucket of water about your ears, and makes you a man of the
world at once. And now, friend, will you tell me, like a Christian
man, if you will dine with me to-morrow at noon, and bring pretty
Mistress Margaret, my god-daughter, with you, to meet with our noble
young countryman, the Lord
 of Glenvarloch?"

"The young Lord of Glenvarloch!" said the old mechanist; "wi' aw my
heart, and blithe I will be to see him again. We have not met these
forty years--he was twa years before me at the humanity classes--he is
a sweet youth."

"That was his father--his father--his father!--you old dotard Dot-and-
carry-one that you are," answered the goldsmith. "A sweet youth he
would have been by this time, had he lived, worthy nobleman! This is
his son, the Lord Nigel."

"His son!" said Ramsay; "maybe he will want something of a
chronometer, or watch--few gallants care to be without them now-a-
days."

"He may buy half your stock-in-trade, if ever he comes to his own, for
what I know," said his friend; "but, David, remember your bond, and
use me not as you did when my housewife had the sheep's-head and the
cock-a-leeky boiling for you as late as two of the clock afternoon."

"She had the more credit by her cookery," answered David, now fully
awake; "a sheep's-head over-boiled, were poison, according to our
saying."

"Well," answered Master George, "but as there will be no sheep's-head
to-morrow, it may chance you to spoil a dinner which a proverb cannot
mend. It may be you may forgather with your friend, Sir Mungo
Malagrowther, for I purpose to ask his worship; so, be sure and bide
tryste, Davie."

"That will I--I will be true as a chronometer," said Ramsay.

"I will not trust you, though," replied Heriot.--"Hear you, Jenkin
boy, tell Scots Janet to tell pretty Mistress Margaret, my god-child,
she must put her father in remembrance to put on his best doublet to-
morrow, and to bring him to Lombard Street at noon. Tell her they are
to meet a brave young Scots lord."

Jenkin coughed that sort of dry short cough uttered by those who are
either charged with errands which they do not like, or hear opinions
to which they must not enter a dissent.

"Umph!" repeated Master George--who, as we have already noticed, was
something of a martinet in domestic discipline--"what does _umph_
mean? Will you do mine errand or not, sirrah?"

"Sure, Master George Heriot," said the apprentice, touching his cap,
"I only meant, that Mistress Margaret was not likely to forget such an
invitation."

"Why, no," said Master George; "she is a dutiful girl to her god-
father, though I sometimes call her a jill-flirt.--And, hark ye,
Jenkin, you and your comrade had best come with your clubs, to see
your master and her safely home; but first shut shop, and loose the
bull-dog, and let the porter stay in the fore-shop till your return. I
will send two of my knaves with you; for I hear these wild youngsters
of the Temple are broken out worse and lighter than ever."

"We can keep their steel in order with good handbats," said Jenkin;
"and never trouble your servants for the matter."

"Or, if need be," said Tunstall, "we have swords as well as the
Templars."

"Fie upon it--fie upon it, young man," said the citizen;--"An
apprentice with a sword!--Marry, heaven forefend! I would as soon see
him in a hat and feather."

"Well, sir," said Jenkin--"we will find arms fitting to our station,
and will defend our master and his daughter, if we should tear up the
very stones of the pavement."

"There spoke a London 'prentice bold," said the citizen; "and, for
your comfort, my lads, you shall crush a cup of wine to the health of
the Fathers of the City. I have my eye on both of you--you are
thriving lads, each in his own way.--God be wi' you, Davie. Forget not
to-morrow at noon." And, so saying, he again turned his mule's head
westward, and crossed Temple Bar, at that slow and decent amble, which
at once became his rank and civic importance, and put his pedestrian
followers to no inconvenience to keep up with him.

At the Temple gate he again paused, dismounted, and sought his way
into one of the small booths occupied by scriveners in the
neighbourhood. A young man, with lank smooth hair combed straight to
his ears, and then cropped short, rose, with a cringing reverence,
pulled off a slouched hat, which he would upon no signal replace on
his head, and answered with much demonstration of reverence, to the
goldsmith's question of, "How goes business, Andrew?"--"Aw the better
for your worship's kind countenance and maintenance."

"Get a large sheet of paper, man, and make a new pen, with a sharp
neb, and fine hair-stroke. Do not slit the quill up too high, it's a
wastrife course in your trade, Andrew--they that do not mind corn-
pickles, never come to forpits. I have known a learned man write a
thousand pages with one quill." [Footnote: A biblical commentary by
Gill, which (if the author's memory serves him) occupies between five
and six hundred printed quarto pages, and must therefore have filled
more pages of manuscript than the number mentioned in the text, has
this quatrain at the end of the volume--
    "With one good pen I wrote this book,
       Made of a grey goose quill;
     A pen it was when it I took,
       And a pen I leave it still."]

"Ah! sir," said the lad, who listened to the goldsmith, though
instructing him in his own trade, with an air of veneration and
acquiescence, "how sune ony puir creature like mysell may rise in the
world, wi' the instruction of such a man as your worship!"

"My instructions are few, Andrew, soon told, and not hard to practise.
Be honest--be industrious--be frugal--and you will soon win wealth and
worship.--Here, copy me this Supplication in your best and most formal
hand. I will wait by you till it is done."

The youth lifted not his eye from the paper, and laid not the pen from
his hand, until the task was finished to his employer's satisfaction.
The citizen then gave the young scrivener an angel; and bidding him,
on his life, be secret in all business intrusted to him, again mounted
his mule, and rode on westward along the Strand.

It may be worth while to remind our readers, that the Temple Bar which
Heriot passed, was not the arched screen, or gateway, of the present
day; but an open railing, or palisade, which, at night, and in times
of alarm, was closed with a barricade of posts and chains. The Strand
also, along which he rode, was not, as now, a continued street,
although it was beginning already to assume that character. It still
might be considered as an open road, along the south side of which
stood various houses and hotels belonging to the nobility, having
gardens behind them down to the water-side, with stairs to the river,
for the convenience of taking boat; which mansions have bequeathed the
names of their lordly owners to many of the streets leading from the
Strand to the Thames. The north side of the Strand was also a long
line of houses, behind which, as in Saint Martin's Lane, and other
points, buildings, were rapidly arising; but Covent Garden was still a
garden, in the literal sense of the word, or at least but beginning to
be studded with irregular buildings. All that was passing around,
however, marked the rapid increase of a capital which had long enjoyed
peace, wealth, and a regular government. Houses were rising in every
direction; and the shrewd eye of our citizen already saw the period
not distant, which should convert the nearly open highway on which he
travelled, into a connected and regular street, uniting the Court and
the town with the city of London.

He next passed Charing Cross, which was no longer the pleasant
solitary village at which the judges were wont to breakfast on their
way to Westminster Hall, but began to resemble the artery through
which, to use Johnson's expression "pours the full tide of London
population." The buildings were rapidly increasing, yet certainly gave
not even a faint idea of its present appearance.

At last Whitehall received our traveller, who passed under one of the
beautiful gates designed by Holbein, and composed of tesselated brick-
work, being the same to which Moniplies had profanely likened the
West-Port of Edinburgh, and entered the ample precincts of the palace
of Whitehall, now full of all the confusion attending improvement. It
was just at the time when James,--little suspecting that he was
employed in constructing a palace, from the window of which his only
son was to pass in order that he might die upon a scaffold before it,--
was busied in removing the ancient and ruinous buildings of De Burgh,
Henry VIII., and Queen Elizabeth, to make way for the superb
architecture on which Inigo Jones exerted all his genius. The king,
ignorant of futurity, was now engaged in pressing on his work; and,
for that purpose, still maintained his royal apartments at Whitehall,
amidst the rubbish of old buildings, and the various confusion
attending the erection of the new pile, which formed at present a
labyrinth not easily traversed.

The goldsmith to the Royal Household, and who, if fame spoke true,
oftentimes acted as their banker,--for these professions were not as
yet separated from each other,--was a person of too much importance to
receive the slightest interruption from sentinel or porter; and,
leaving his mule and two of his followers in the outer-court, he
gently knocked at a postern-gate of the building, and was presently
admitted, while the most trusty of his attendants followed him
closely, with the piece of plate under his arm. This man also he left
behind him in an ante-room,--where three or four pages in the royal
livery, but untrussed, unbuttoned, and dressed more carelessly than
the place, and nearness to a king's person, seemed to admit, were
playing at dice and draughts, or stretched upon benches, and
slumbering with half-shut eyes. A corresponding gallery, which opened
from the ante-room, was occupied by two gentlemen-ushers of the
chamber, who gave each a smile of recognition as the wealthy goldsmith
entered.

No word was spoken on either side; but one of the ushers looked first
to Heriot, and then to a little door half-covered by the tapestry,
which seemed to say, as plain as a look could, "Lies your business
that way?" The citizen nodded; and the court-attendant, moving on
tiptoe, and with as much caution as if the floor had been paved with
eggs, advanced to the door, opened it gently, and spoke a few words in
a low tone. The broad Scottish accent of King James was heard in
reply,--"Admit him instanter, Maxwell. Have you hairboured sae lang at
the Court, and not learned, that gold and silver are ever welcome?"

The usher signed to Heriot to advance, and the honest citizen was
presently introduced into the cabinet of the Sovereign.

The scene of confusion amid which he found the king seated, was no bad
picture of the state and quality of James's own mind. There was much
that was rich and costly in cabinet pictures and valuable ornaments;
but they were arranged in a slovenly manner, covered with dust, and
lost half their value, or at least their effect, from the manner in
which they were presented to the eye. The table was loaded with huge
folios, amongst which lay light books of jest and ribaldry; and,
amongst notes of unmercifully long orations, and essays on king-craft,
were mingled miserable roundels and ballads by the Royal 'Prentice, as
he styled himself, in the art of poetry, and schemes for the general
pacification of Europe, with a list of the names of the king's hounds,
and remedies against canine madness.

The king's dress was of green velvet, quilted so full as to be dagger-
proof--which gave him the appearance of clumsy and ungainly
protuberance; while its being buttoned awry, communicated to his
figure an air of distortion. Over his green doublet he wore a sad-
coloured nightgown, out of the pocket of which peeped his hunting-
horn. His high-crowned grey hat lay on the floor, covered with dust,
but encircled by a carcanet of large balas rubies; and he wore a blue
velvet nightcap, in the front of which was placed the plume of a
heron, which had been struck down by a favourite hawk in some critical
moment of the flight, in remembrance of which the king wore this
highly honoured feather.

But such inconsistencies in dress and appointments were mere outward
types of those which existed in the royal character, rendering it a
subject of doubt amongst his contemporaries, and bequeathing it as a
problem to future historians. He was deeply learned, without
possessing useful knowledge; sagacious in many individual cases,
without having real wisdom; fond of his power, and desirous to
maintain and augment it, yet willing to resign the direction of that,
and of himself, to the most unworthy favourites; a big and bold
asserter of his rights in words, yet one who tamely saw them trampled
on in deeds; a lover of negotiations, in which he was always
outwitted; and one who feared war, where conquest might have been
easy. He was fond of his dignity, while he was perpetually degrading
it by undue familiarity; capable of much public labour, yet often
neglecting it for the meanest amusement; a wit, though a pedant; and a
scholar, though fond of the conversation of the ignorant and
uneducated. Even his timidity of temper was not uniform; and there
were moments of his life, and those critical, in which he showed the
spirit of his ancestors. He was laborious in trifles, and a trifler
where serious labour was required; devout in his sentiments, and yet
too often profane in his language; just and beneficent by nature, he
yet gave way to the iniquities and oppression of others. He was
penurious respecting money which he had to give from his own hand, yet
inconsiderately and unboundedly profuse of that which he did not see.
In a word, those good qualities which displayed themselves in
particular cases and occasions, were not of a nature sufficiently firm
and comprehensive to regulate his general conduct; and, showing
themselves as they occasionally did, only entitled James to the
character bestowed on him by Sully--that he was the wisest fool in
Christendom.

That the fortunes of this monarch might be as little of apiece as his
character, he, certainly the least able of the Stewarts, succeeded
peaceably to that kingdom, against the power of which his predecessors
had, with so much difficulty, defended his native throne; and, lastly,
although his reign appeared calculated to ensure to Great Britain that
lasting tranquillity and internal peace which so much suited the
king's disposition, yet, during that very reign, were sown those seeds
of dissension, which, like the teeth of the fabulous dragon, had their
harvest in a bloody and universal civil war.

Such was the monarch, who, saluting Heriot by the name of Jingling
Geordie, (for it was his well-known custom to give nicknames to all
those with whom he was on terms of familiarity,) inquired what new
clatter-traps he had brought with him, to cheat his lawful and native
Prince out of his siller.

"God forbid, my liege," said the citizen, "that I should have any such
disloyal purpose. I did but bring a piece of plate to show to your
most gracious Majesty, which, both for the subject and for the
workmanship, I were loath to put into the hands of any subject until I
knew your Majesty's pleasure anent it."

"Body o' me, man, let's see it, Heriot; though, by my saul, Steenie's
service o' plate was sae dear a bargain, I had 'maist pawned my word
as a Royal King, to keep my ain gold and silver in future, and let
you, Geordie, keep yours."

"Respecting the Duke of Buckingham's plate," said the goldsmith, "your
Majesty was pleased to direct that no expense should be spared, and--"

"What signifies what I desired, man? when a wise man is with fules and
bairns, he maun e'en play at the chucks. But you should have had mair
sense and consideration than to gie Babie Charles and Steenie their
ain gate; they wad hae floored the very rooms wi' silver, and I wonder
they didna."

George Heriot bowed, and said no more. He knew his master too well to
vindicate himself otherwise than by a distant allusion to his order;
and James, with whom economy was only a transient and momentary twinge
of conscience, became immediately afterwards desirous to see the piece
of plate which the goldsmith proposed to exhibit, and dispatched
Maxwell to bring it to his presence. In the meantime he demanded of
the citizen whence he had procured it.

"From Italy, may it please your Majesty," replied Heriot.

"It has naething in it tending to papistrie?" said the king, looking
graver than his wont.

"Surely not, please your Majesty," said Heriot; "I were not wise to
bring any thing to your presence that had the mark of the beast."

"You would be the mair beast yourself to do so," said the king; "it is
weel kend that I wrestled wi' Dagon in my youth, and smote him on the
groundsill of his own temple; a gude evidence that I should be in time
called, however unworthy, the Defender of the Faith.--But here comes
Maxwell, bending under his burden, like the Golden Ass of Apuleius."

Heriot hastened to relieve the usher, and to place the embossed
salver, for such it was, and of extraordinary dimensions, in a light
favourable for his Majesty's viewing the sculpture.

"Saul of my body, man," said the king, "it is a curious piece, and, as
I think, fit for a king's chalmer; and the subject, as you say, Master
George, vera adequate and beseeming--being, as I see, the judgment of
Solomon--a prince in whose paths it weel becomes a' leeving monarchs
to walk with emulation."

"But whose footsteps," said Maxwell, "only one of them--if a subject
may say so much--hath ever overtaken."

"Haud your tongue for a fause fleeching loon!" said the king, but with
a smile on his face that showed the flattery had done its part. "Look
at the bonny piece of workmanship, and haud your clavering tongue.--
And whase handiwork may it be, Geordie?"

"It was wrought, sir," replied the goldsmith, "by the famous
Florentine, Benvenuto Cellini, and designed for Francis the First of
France; but I hope it will find a fitter master."

"Francis of France!" said the king; "send Solomon, King of the Jews,
to Francis of France!--Body of me, man, it would have kythed Cellini
mad, had he never done ony thing else out of the gate. Francis!--why,
he was a fighting fule, man,--a mere fighting fule,--got himsell ta'en
at Pavia, like our ain David at Durham lang syne;--if they could hae
sent him Solomon's wit, and love of peace, and godliness, they wad hae
dune him a better turn. But Solomon should sit in other gate company
than Francis of France."

"I trust that such will be his good fortune," said Heriot.

"It is a curious and very artificial sculpture," said the king, in
continuation; "but yet, methinks, the carnifex, or executioner there,
is brandishing his gully ower near the king's face, seeing he is
within reach of his weapon. I think less wisdom than Solomon's wad
have taught him that there was danger in edge-tools, and that he wad
have bidden the smaik either sheath his shabble, or stand farther
back."

George Heriot endeavoured to alleviate this objection, by assuring the
king that the vicinity betwixt Solomon and the executioner was nearer
in appearance than in reality, and that the perspective should be
allowed for.

"Gang to the deil wi' your prospective, man," said the king; "there
canna be a waur prospective for a lawful king, wha wishes to reign in
luve, and die in peace and honour, than to have naked swords flashing
in his een. I am accounted as brave as maist folks; and yet I profess
to ye I could never look on a bare blade without blinking and winking.
But a'thegither it is a brave piece;--and what is the price of it,
man?"

The goldsmith replied by observing, that it was not his own property,
but that of a distressed countryman.

"Whilk you mean to mak your excuse for asking the double of its worth,
I warrant?" answered the king. "I ken the tricks of you burrows-town
merchants, man."

"I have no hopes of baffling your Majesty's sagacity," said Heriot;
"the piece is really what I say, and the price a hundred and fifty
pounds sterling, if it pleases your Majesty to make present payment."

"A hundred and fifty punds, man! and as mony witches and warlocks to
raise them!" said the irritated Monarch. "My saul, Jingling Geordie,
ye are minded that your purse shall jingle to a bonny tune!--How am I
to tell you down a hundred and fifty punds for what will not weigh as
many merks? and ye ken that my very household servitors, and the
officers of my mouth, are sax months in arrear!"

The goldsmith stood his ground against all this objurgation, being
what he was well accustomed to, and only answered, that, if his
Majesty liked the piece, and desired to possess it, the price could be
easily settled. It was true that the party required the money, but he,
George Heriot, would advance it on his Majesty's account, if such were
his pleasure, and wait his royal conveniency for payment, for that and
other matters; the money, meanwhile, lying at the ordinary usage.

"By my honour," said James, "and that is speaking like an honest and
reasonable tradesman. We maun get another subsidy frae the Commons,
and that will make ae compting of it. Awa wi' it, Maxwell--awa wi' it,
and let it be set where Steenie and Babie Charles shall see it as they
return from Richmond.--And now that we are secret, my good auld friend
Geordie, I do truly opine, that speaking of Solomon and ourselves, the
haill wisdom in the country left Scotland, when we took our travels to
the Southland here."

George Heriot was courtier enough to say, that "the wise naturally
follow the wisest, as stags follow their leader." "Troth, I think
there is something in what thou sayest," said James; "for we
ourselves, and those of our Court and household, as thou thyself, for
example, are allowed by the English, for as self-opinioned as they
are, to pass for reasonable good wits; but the brains of those we have
left behind are all astir, and run clean hirdie-girdie, like sae mony
warlocks and witches on the Devil's Sabbath e'en."

"I am sorry to hear this, my liege," said Heriot. "May it please your
Grace to say what our countrymen have done to deserve such a
character?"

"They are become frantic, man--clean brain-crazed," answered the king.
"I cannot keep them out of the Court by all the proclamations that the
heralds roar themselves hoarse with. Yesterday, nae farther gane, just
as we were mounted, and about to ride forth, in rushed a thorough
Edinburgh gutterblood--a ragged rascal, every dud upon whose back was
bidding good-day to the other, with a coat and hat that would have
served a pease-bogle, and without havings or reverence, thrusts into
our hands, like a sturdy beggar, some Supplication about debts owing
by our gracious mother, and siclike trash; whereat the horse spangs on
end, and, but for our admirable sitting, wherein we have been thought
to excel maist sovereign princes, as well as subjects, in Europe, I
promise you we would have been laid endlang on the causeway."

"Your Majesty," said Heriot, "is their common father, and therefore
they are the bolder to press into your gracious presence."

"I ken I am _pater patriae_ well enough," said James; "but one would
think they had a mind to squeeze my puddings out, that they may divide
the inheritance, Ud's death, Geordie, there is not a loon among them
can deliver a Supplication, as it suld be done in the face of
majesty."

"I would I knew the most fitting and beseeming mode to do so," said
Heriot, "were it but to instruct our poor countrymen in better
fashions."

"By my halidome," said the king, "ye are a ceevileezed fellow,
Geordie, and I carena if I fling awa as much time as may teach ye.
And, first, see you, sir--ye shall approach the presence of majesty
thus,--shadowing your eyes with your hand, to testify that you are in
the presence of the Vice-gerent of Heaven.--Vera weel, George, that is
done in a comely manner.--Then, sir, ye sail kneel, and make as if ye
would kiss the hem of our garment, the latch of our shoe, or such
like.--Very weel enacted--whilk we, as being willing to be debonair
and pleasing towards our lieges, prevent thus,--and motion to you to
rise;--whilk, having a boon to ask, as yet you obey not, but, gliding
your hand into your pouch, bring forth your Supplication, and place it
reverentially in our open palm." The goldsmith, who had complied with
great accuracy with all the prescribed points of the ceremonial, here
completed it, to James's no small astonishment, by placing in his hand
the petition of the Lord of Glenvarloch. "What means this, ye fause
loon?" said he, reddening and sputtering; "hae I been teaching you the
manual exercise, that ye suld present your piece at our ain royal
body?--Now, by this light, I had as lief that ye had bended a real
pistolet against me, and yet this hae ye done in my very cabinet,
where nought suld enter but at my ain pleasure."

"I trust your Majesty," said Heriot, as he continued to kneel, "will
forgive my exercising the lesson you condescended to give me in the
behalf of a friend?"

"Of a friend!" said the king; "so much the waur--so much the waur, I
tell you. If it had been something to do _yoursell_ good there would
have been some sense in it, and some chance that you wad not have come
back on me in a hurry; but a man may have a hundred friends, and
petitions for every ane of them, ilk ane after other."

"Your Majesty, I trust," said Heriot, "will judge me by
 former experience, and will not suspect me of such presumption."

"I kenna," said the placable monarch; "the world goes daft, I think--
_sed semel insanivimus omnes_--thou art my old and faithful servant,
that is the truth; and, were't any thing for thy own behoof, man, thou
shouldst not ask twice. But, troth, Steenie loves me so dearly, that
he cares not that any one should ask favours of me but himself.--
Maxwell," (for the usher had re-entered after having carried off the
plate,) "get into the ante-chamber wi' your lang lugs.--In conscience,
Geordie, I think as that thou hast been mine ain auld fiduciary, and
wert my goldsmith when I might say with the Ethnic poet--_Non mea
renidet in domo lacunar_--for, faith, they had pillaged my mither's
auld house sae, that beechen bickers, and treen trenchers, and latten
platters, were whiles the best at our board, and glad we were of
something to put on them, without quarrelling with the metal of the
dishes. D'ye mind, for thou wert in maist of our complots, how we were
fain to send sax of the Blue-banders to harry the Lady of Loganhouse's
dowcot and poultry-yard, and what an awfu' plaint the poor dame made
against Jock of Milch, and the thieves of Annandale, wha were as
sackless of the deed as I am of the sin of murder?"

"It was the better for Jock," said Heriot; "for, if I remember weel,
it saved him from a strapping up at Dumfries, which he had weel
deserved for other misdeeds."

"Ay, man, mind ye that?" said the king; "but he had other virtues, for
he was a tight huntsman, moreover, that Jock of Milch, and could
hollow to a hound till all the woods rang again. But he came to an
Annandale end at the last, for Lord Torthorwald run his lance out
through him.--Cocksnails, man, when I think of those wild passages, in
my conscience, I am not sure but we lived merrier in auld Holyrood in
those shifting days, than now when we are dwelling at heck and manger.
_Cantabit vacuus_--we had but little to care for."

"And if your Majesty please to remember," said the goldsmith, "the
awful task we had to gather silver-vessail and gold-work enough to
make some show before the Spanish Ambassador."

"Vera true," said the king, now in a full tide of gossip, "and I mind
not the name of the right leal lord that helped us with every unce he
had in his house, that his native Prince might have some credit in the
eyes of them that had the Indies at their beck."

"I think, if your Majesty," said the citizen, "will cast your eye on
the paper in your hand, you will recollect his name."

"Ay!" said the king, "say ye sae, man?--Lord Glenvarloch, that was his
name indeed--_Justus et tenax propositi_--A just man, but as obstinate
as a baited bull. He stood whiles against us, that Lord Randal
Olifaunt of Glenvarloch, but he was a loving and a leal subject in the
main. But this supplicator maun be his son--Randal has been long gone
where king and lord must go, Geordie, as weel as the like of you--and
what does his son want with us?"

"The settlement," answered the citizen, "of a large debt due by your
Majesty's treasury, for money advanced to your Majesty in great State
emergency, about the time of the Raid of Ruthven."

"I mind the thing weel," said King James--"Od's death, man, I was just
out of the clutches of the Master of Glamis and his complices, and
there was never siller mair welcome to a born prince,--the mair the
shame and pity that crowned king should need sic a petty sum. But what
need he dun us for it, man, like a baxter at the breaking? We aught
him the siller, and will pay him wi' our convenience, or make it
otherwise up to him, whilk is enow between prince and subject--We are
not _in meditatione fugae,_ man, to be arrested thus peremptorily."

"Alas! an it please your Majesty," said the goldsmith, shaking his
head, "it is the poor young nobleman's extreme necessity, and not his
will, that makes him importunate; for he must have money, and that
briefly, to discharge a debt due to Peregrine Peterson, Conservator of
the Privileges at Campvere, or his haill hereditary barony and estate
of Glenvarloch will be evicted in virtue of an unredeemed wadset."

"How say ye, man--how say ye?" exclaimed the king, impatiently; "the
carle of a Conservator, the son of a Low-Dutch skipper, evict the auld
estate and lordship of the house of Olifaunt?--God's bread, man, that
maun not be--we maun suspend the diligence by writ of favour, or
otherwise."

"I doubt that may hardly be," answered the citizen, "if it please your
Majesty; your learned counsel in the law of Scotland advise, that
there is no remeid but in paying the money."

"Ud's fish," said the king, "let him keep haud by the strong hand
against the carle, until we can take some order about his affairs."

"Alas!" insisted the goldsmith, "if it like your Majesty, your own
pacific government, and your doing of equal justice to all men, has
made main force a kittle line to walk by, unless just within the
bounds of the Highlands."

"Well--weel--weel, man," said the perplexed monarch, whose ideas of
justice, expedience, and convenience, became on such occasions
strangely embroiled; "just it is we should pay our debts, that the
young man may pay his; and he must be paid, and _in verbo regis_ he
shall be paid--but how to come by the siller, man, is a difficult
chapter--ye maun try the city, Geordie."

"To say the truth," answered Heriot, "please your gracious Majesty,
what betwixt loans and benevolences, and subsidies, the city is at
this present----"

"Donna tell me of what the city is," said King James; "our Exchequer
is as dry as Dean Giles's discourses on the penitentiary psalms--_Ex
nihilo nihil fit_--It's ill taking the breeks aff a wild Highlandman--
they that come to me for siller, should tell me how to come by it--the
city ye maun try, Heriot; and donna think to be called Jingling
Geordie for nothing--and _in verbo regis_ I will pay the lad if you
get me the loan--I wonnot haggle on the terms; and, between you and
me, Geordie, we will redeem the brave auld estate of Glenvarloch.--But
wherefore comes not the young lord to Court, Heriot--is he comely--is
he presentable in the presence?"

"No one can be more so," said George Heriot; "but----"

"Ay, I understand ye," said his Majesty--"I understand ye--_Res
angusta domi_--puir lad-puir lad!--and his father a right true leal
Scots heart, though stiff in some opinions. Hark ye, Heriot, let the
lad have twa hundred pounds to fit him out. And, here--here"--(taking
the carcanet of rubies from his old hat)--"ye have had these in pledge
before for a larger sum, ye auld Levite that ye are. Keep them in
gage, till I gie ye back the siller out of the next subsidy."

"If it please your Majesty to give me such directions in writing,"
said the cautious citizen.

"The deil is in your nicety, George," said the king; "ye are as
preceese as a Puritan in form, and a mere Nullifidian in the marrow of
the matter. May not a king's word serve ye for advancing your pitiful
twa hundred pounds?"

"But not for detaining the crown jewels," said George Heriot.

And the king, who from long experience was inured to dealing with
suspicious creditors, wrote an order upon George Heriot, his well-
beloved goldsmith and jeweller, for the sum of two hundred pounds, to
be paid presently to Nigel Olifaunt, Lord of Glenvarloch, to be
imputed as so much debts due to him by the crown; and authorizing the
retention of a carcanet of balas rubies, with a great diamond, as
described in a Catalogue of his Majesty's Jewels, to remain in
possession of the said George Heriot, advancer of the said sum, and so
forth, until he was lawfully contented and paid thereof. By another
rescript, his Majesty gave the said George Heriot directions to deal
with some of the monied men, upon equitable terms, for a sum of money
for his Majesty's present use, not to be under 50,000 merks, but as
much more as could conveniently be procured.

"And has he ony lair, this Lord Nigel of ours?" said the king.

George Heriot could not exactly answer this question; but believed
"the young lord had studied abroad."

"He shall have our own advice," said the king, "how to carry on his
studies to maist advantage; and it may be we will have him come to
Court, and study with Steenie and Babie Charles. And, now we think
on't, away--away, George--for the bairns will be coming hame
presently, and we would not as yet they kend of this matter we have
been treating anent. _Propera fedem,_ O Geordie. Clap your mule
between your boughs, and god-den with you."

Thus ended the conference betwixt the gentle King Jamie and his
benevolent jeweller and goldsmith.




CHAPTER VI


  O I do know him--tis the mouldy lemon
  Which our court wits will wet their lips withal,
  When they would sauce their honied conversation
  With somewhat sharper flavour--Marry sir,
  That virtue's wellnigh left him--all the juice
  That was so sharp and poignant, is squeezed out,
  While the poor rind, although as sour as ever,
  Must season soon the draff we give our grunters,
  For two legg'd things are weary on't.
                     _The Chamberlain--A Comedy_

The good company invited by the hospitable citizen assembled at his
house in Lombard Street at the "hollow and hungry hour" of noon, to
partake of that meal which divides the day, being about the time when
modern persons of fashion, turning themselves upon their pillow, begin
to think, not without a great many doubts and much hesitation, that
they will by and by commence it. Thither came the young Nigel, arrayed
plainly, but in a dress, nevertheless, more suitable to his age and
quality than he had formerly worn, accompanied by his servant
Moniplies, whose outside also was considerably improved. His solemn
and stern features glared forth from under a blue velvet bonnet,
fantastically placed sideways on his head--he had a sound and tough
coat of English blue broad-cloth, which, unlike his former vestment,
would have stood the tug of all the apprentices in Fleet Street. The
buckler and broadsword he wore as the arms of his condition, and a
neat silver badge, bearing his lord's arms, announced that he was an
appendage of aristocracy. He sat down in the good citizen's buttery,
not a little pleased to find his attendance upon the table in the hall
was likely to be rewarded with his share of a meal such as he had
seldom partaken of.

Mr. David Ramsay, that profound and ingenious mechanic, was safely
conducted to Lombard Street, according to promise, well washed,
brushed, and cleaned, from the soot of the furnace and the forge. His
daughter, who came with him, was about twenty years old, very pretty,
very demure, yet with lively black eyes, that ever and anon
contradicted the expression of sobriety, to which silence, reserve, a
plain velvet hood, and a cambric ruff, had condemned Mistress Marget,
as the daughter of a quiet citizen.

There were also two citizens and merchants of London, men ample in
cloak, and many-linked golden chain, well to pass in the world, and
experienced in their craft of merchandise, but who require no
particular description. There was an elderly clergyman also, in his
gown and cassock, a decent venerable man, partaking in his manners of
the plainness of the citizens amongst whom he had his cure.

These may be dismissed with brief notice; but not so Sir Mungo
Malagrowther, of Girnigo Castle, who claims a little more attention,
as an original character of the time in which he flourished.

That good knight knocked at Master Heriot's door just as the clock
began to strike twelve, and was seated in his chair ere the last
stroke had chimed. This gave the knight an excellent opportunity of
making sarcastic observations on all who came later than himself, not
to mention a few rubs at the expense of those who had been so
superfluous as to appear earlier.

Having little or no property save his bare designation, Sir Mungo had
been early attached to Court in the capacity of whipping-boy, as the
office was then called, to King James the Sixth, and, with his
Majesty, trained to all polite learning by his celebrated preceptor,
George Buchanan. The office of whipping-boy doomed its unfortunate
occupant to undergo all the corporeal punishment which the Lord's
Anointed, whose proper person was of course sacred, might chance to
incur, in the course of travelling through his grammar and prosody.
Under the stern rule, indeed, of George Buchanan, who did not approve
of the vicarious mode of punishment, James bore the penance of his own
faults, and Mungo Malagrowther enjoyed a sinecure; but James's other
pedagogue, Master Patrick Young, went more ceremoniously to work, and
appalled the very soul of the youthful king by the floggings which he
bestowed on the whipping-boy, when the royal task was not suitably
performed. And be it told to Sir Mungo's praise, that there were
points about him in the highest respect suited to his official
situation. He had even in youth a naturally irregular and grotesque
set of features, which, when distorted by fear, pain, and anger,
looked like one of the whimsical faces which present themselves in a
Gothic cornice. His voice also was high-pitched and querulous, so
that, when smarting under Master Peter Young's unsparing inflictions,
the expression of his grotesque physiognomy, and the superhuman yells
which he uttered, were well suited to produce all the effects on the
Monarch who deserved the lash, that could possibly be produced by
seeing another and an innocent individual suffering for his delict.

Sir Mungo Malagrowther, for such he became, thus got an early footing
at Court, which another would have improved and maintained. But, when
he grew too big to be whipped, he had no other means of rendering
himself acceptable. A bitter, caustic, and backbiting humour, a
malicious wit, and an envy of others more prosperous than the
possessor of such amiable qualities, have not, indeed, always been
found obstacles to a courtier's rise; but then they must be
amalgamated with a degree of selfish cunning and prudence, of which
Sir Mungo had no share. His satire ran riot, his envy could not
conceal itself, and it was not long after his majority till he had as
many quarrels upon his hands as would have required a cat's nine lives
to answer. In one of these rencontres he received, perhaps we should
say fortunately, a wound, which served him as an excuse for answering
no invitations of the kind in future. Sir Rullion Rattray, of
Ranagullion, cut off, in mortal combat, three of the fingers of his
right hand, so that Sir Mungo never could hold sword again. At a later
period, having written some satirical verses upon the Lady Cockpen, he
received so severe a chastisement from some persons employed for the
purpose, that he was found half dead on the spot where they had thus
dealt with him, and one of his thighs having been broken, and ill set,
gave him a hitch in his gait, with which he hobbled to his grave. The
lameness of his leg and hand, besides that they added considerably to
the grotesque appearance of this original, procured him in future a
personal immunity from the more dangerous consequences of his own
humour; and he gradually grew old in the service of the Court, in
safety of life and limb, though without either making friends or
attaining preferment. Sometimes, indeed, the king was amused with his
caustic sallies, but he had never art enough to improve the favourable
opportunity; and his enemies (who were, for that matter, the whole
Court) always found means to throw him out of favour again. The
celebrated Archie Armstrong offered Sir Mungo, in his generosity, a
skirt of his own fool's coat, proposing thereby to communicate to him
the privileges and immunities of a professed jester--"For," said the
man of motley, "Sir Mungo, as he goes on just now, gets no more for a
good jest than just the king's pardon for having made it."

Even in London, the golden shower which fell around him did not
moisten the blighted fortunes of Sir Mungo Malagrowther. He grew old,
deaf, and peevish--lost even the spirit which had formerly animated
his strictures--and was barely endured by James, who, though himself
nearly as far stricken in years, retained, to an unusual and even an
absurd degree, the desire to be surrounded by young people.

Sir Mungo, thus fallen into the yellow leaf of years and fortune,
showed his emaciated form and faded embroidery at Court as seldom as
his duty permitted; and spent his time in indulging his food for
satire in the public walks, and in the aisles of Saint Paul's, which
were then the general resort of newsmongers and characters of all
descriptions, associating himself chiefly with such of his countrymen
as he accounted of inferior birth and rank to himself. In this manner,
hating and contemning commerce, and those who pursued it, he
nevertheless lived a good deal among the Scottish artists and
merchants, who had followed the Court to London. To these he could
show his cynicism without much offence; for some submitted to his
jeers and ill-humour in deference to his birth and knighthood, which
in those days conferred high privileges--and others, of more sense,
pitied and endured the old man, unhappy alike in his fortunes and his
temper.

Amongst the latter was George Heriot, who, though his habits and
education induced him to carry aristocratical feelings to a degree
which would now be thought extravagant, had too much spirit and good
sense to permit himself to be intruded upon to an unauthorized excess,
or used with the slightest improper freedom, by such a person as Sir
Mungo, to whom he was, nevertheless, not only respectfully civil, but
essentially kind, and even generous.

Accordingly, this appeared from the manner in which Sir Mungo
Malagrowther conducted himself upon entering the apartment. He paid
his respects to Master Heriot, and a decent, elderly, somewhat severe-
looking female, in a coif, who, by the name of Aunt Judith, did the
honours of his house and table, with little or no portion of the
supercilious acidity, which his singular physiognomy assumed when he
made his bow successively to David Ramsay and the two sober citizens.
He thrust himself into the conversation of the latter, to observe he
had heard in Paul's, that the bankrupt concern of Pindivide, a great
merchant,--who, as he expressed it, had given the crows a pudding, and
on whom he knew, from the same authority, each of the honest citizens
has some unsettled claim,--was like to prove a total loss--"stock and
block, ship and cargo, keel and rigging, all lost, now and for ever."

The two citizens grinned at each other; but, too prudent to make their
private affairs the subject of public discussion, drew their heads
together, and evaded farther conversation by speaking in a whisper.

The old Scots knight next attacked the watchmaker with the same
disrespectful familiarity.--"Davie," he said,--"Davie, ye donnard auld
idiot, have ye no gane mad yet, with applying your mathematical
science, as ye call it, to the book of Apocalypse? I expected to have
heard ye make out the sign of the beast, as clear as a tout on a
bawbee whistle."

"Why, Sir Mungo," said the mechanist, after making an effort to recall
to his recollection what had been said to him, and by whom, "it may
be, that ye are nearer the mark than ye are yoursell aware of; for,
taking the ten horns o' the beast, ye may easily estimate by your
digitals--"

"My digits! you d--d auld, rusty, good-for-nothing time-piece!"
exclaimed Sir Mungo, while, betwixt jest and earnest, he laid on his
hilt his hand, or rather his claw, (for Sir Rullion's broadsword has
abridged it into that form,)--"D'ye mean to upbraid me with my
mutilation?"

Master Heriot interfered. "I cannot persuade our friend David," he
said, "that scriptural prophecies are intended to remain in obscurity,
until their unexpected accomplishment shall make, as in former days,
that fulfilled which was written. But you must not exert your knightly
valour on him for all that."

"By my saul, and it would be throwing it away," said Sir Mungo,
laughing. "I would as soon set out, with hound and horn, to hunt a
sturdied sheep; for he is in a doze again, and up to the chin in
numerals, quotients, and dividends.--Mistress Margaret, my pretty
honey," for the beauty of the young citizen made even Sir Mungo
Malagrowther's grim features relax themselves a little, "is your
father always as entertaining as he seems just now?"

Mistress Margaret simpered, bridled, looked to either side, then
straight before her; and, having assumed all the airs of bashful
embarrassment and timidity which were necessary, as she thought, to
cover a certain shrewd readiness which really belonged to her
character, at length replied: "That indeed her father was very
thoughtful, but she had heard that he took the habit of mind from her
grandfather."

"Your grandfather!" said Sir Mungo,--after doubting if he had heard
her aright,--"Said she her grandfather! The lassie is distraught!--I
ken nae wench on this side of Temple Bar that is derived from so
distant a relation."

"She has got a godfather, however, Sir Mungo," said George Heriot,
again interfering; "and I hope you will allow him interest enough with
you, to request you will not put his pretty godchild to so deep a
blush."

"The better--the better," said Sir Mungo. "It is a credit to her,
that, bred and born within the sound of Bow-bell, she can blush for
any thing; and, by my saul, Master George," he continued, chucking the
irritated and reluctant damsel under the chin, "she is bonny enough to
make amends for her lack of ancestry--at least, in such a region as
Cheapside, where, d'ye mind me, the kettle cannot call the porridge-
pot--"

The damsel blushed, but not so angrily as before. Master George Heriot
hastened to interrupt the conclusion of Sir Mungo's homely proverb, by
introducing him personally to Lord Nigel.

Sir Mungo could not at first understand what his host said,--"Bread of
Heaven, wha say ye, man?"

Upon the name of Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glenvarloch, being again
hollowed into his ear, he drew up, and, regarding his entertainer with
some austerity, rebuked him for not making persons of quality
acquainted with each other, that they might exchange courtesies before
they mingled with other folks. He then made as handsome and courtly a
congee to his new acquaintance as a man maimed in foot and hand could
do; and, observing he had known my lord, his father, bid him welcome
to London, and hoped he should see him at Court.

Nigel in an instant comprehended, as well from Sir Mungo's manner, as
from a strict compression of their entertainer's lips, which intimated
the suppression of a desire to laugh, that he was dealing with an
original of no ordinary description, and accordingly, returned his
courtesy with suitable punctiliousness. Sir Mungo, in the meanwhile,
gazed on him with much earnestness; and, as the contemplation of
natural advantages was as odious to him as that of wealth, or other
adventitious benefits, he had no sooner completely perused the
handsome form and good features of the young lord, than like one of
the comforters of the man of Uz, he drew close up to him, to enlarge
on the former grandeur of the Lords of Glenvarloch, and the regret
with which he had heard, that their representative was not likely to
possess the domains of his ancestry. Anon, he enlarged upon the
beauties of the principal mansion of Glenvarloch--the commanding site
of the old castle--the noble expanse of the lake, stocked with
wildfowl for hawking--the commanding screen of forest, terminating in
a mountain-ridge abounding with deer--and all the other advantages of
that fine and ancient barony, till Nigel, in spite of every effort to
the contrary, was unwillingly obliged to sigh.

Sir Mungo, skilful in discerning when the withers of those he
conversed with were wrung, observed that his new acquaintance winced,
and would willingly have pressed the discussion; but the cook's
impatient knock upon the dresser with the haft of his dudgeon-knife,
now gave a signal loud enough to be heard from the top of the house to
the bottom, summoning, at the same time, the serving-men to place the
dinner upon the table, and the guests to partake of it.

Sir Mungo, who was an admirer of good cheer,--a taste which, by the
way, might have some weight in reconciling his dignity to these city
visits,--was tolled off by the sound, and left Nigel and the other
guests in peace, until his anxiety to arrange himself in his due place
of pre-eminence at the genial board was duly gratified. Here, seated
on the left hand of Aunt Judith, he beheld Nigel occupy the station of
yet higher honour on the right, dividing that matron from pretty
Mistress Margaret; but he saw this with the more patience, that there
stood betwixt him and the young lord a superb larded capon.

The dinner proceeded according to the form of the times. All was
excellent of the kind; and, besides the Scottish cheer promised, the
board displayed beef and pudding, the statutory dainties of Old
England. A small cupboard of plate, very choicely and beautifully
wrought, did not escape the compliments of some of the company, and an
oblique sneer from Sir Mungo, as intimating the owner's excellence in
his own mechanical craft.

"I am not ashamed of the workmanship, Sir Mungo," said the honest
citizen. "They say, a good cook knows how to lick his own fingers;
and, methinks, it were unseemly that I, who have furnished half the
cupboards in broad Britain, should have my own covered with paltry
pewter."

The blessing of the clergyman now left the guests at liberty to attack
what was placed before them; and the meal went forward with great
decorum, until Aunt Judith, in farther recommendation of the capon,
assured her company that it was of a celebrated breed of poultry,
which she had herself brought from Scotland.

"Then, like some of his countrymen, madam," said the pitiless Sir
Mungo, not without a glance towards his landlord, "he has been well
larded in England."

"There are some others of his countrymen," answered Master Heriot, "to
whom all the lard in England has not been able to render that good
office."

Sir Mungo sneered and reddened, the rest of the company laughed; and
the satirist, who had his reasons for not coming to extremity with
Master George, was silent for the rest of the dinner.

The dishes were exchanged for confections, and wine of the highest
quality and flavour; and Nigel saw the entertainments of the
wealthiest burgomasters, which he had witnessed abroad, fairly
outshone by the hospitality of a London citizen. Yet there was nothing
ostentatious, or which seemed inconsistent with the degree of an
opulent burgher.

While the collation proceeded, Nigel, according to the good-breeding
of the time, addressed his discourse principally to Mrs. Judith, whom
he found to be a woman of a strong Scottish understanding, more
inclined towards the Puritans than was her brother George, (for in
that relation she stood to him, though he always called her aunt,)
attached to him in the strongest degree, and sedulously attentive to
all his comforts. As the conversation of this good dame was neither
lively nor fascinating, the young lord naturally addressed himself
next to the old horologer's very pretty daughter, who sat upon his
left hand. From her, however, there was no extracting any reply beyond
the measure of a monosyllable; and when the young gallant had said the
best and most complaisant things which his courtesy supplied, the
smile that mantled upon her pretty mouth was so slight and evanescent,
as scarce to be discernible.

Nigel was beginning to tire of his company, for the old citizens were
speaking with his host of commercial matters in language to him
totally unintelligible, when Sir Mungo Malagrowther suddenly summoned
their attention.

That amiable personage had for some time withdrawn from the company
into the recess of a projecting window, so formed and placed as to
command a view of the door of the house, and of the street. This
situation was probably preferred by Sir Mungo on account of the number
of objects which the streets of a metropolis usually offer, of a kind
congenial to the thoughts of a splenetic man. What he had hitherto
seen passing there, was probably of little consequence; but now a
trampling of horse was heard without, and the knight suddenly
exclaimed,--"By my faith, Master George, you had better go look to
shop; for here comes Knighton, the Duke of Buckingham's groom, and two
fellows after him, as if he were my Lord Duke himself."

"My cash-keeper is below," said Heriot, without disturbing himself,
"and he will let me know if his Grace's commands require my immediate
attention."

"Umph!--cash-keeper?" muttered Sir Mungo to himself; "he would have
had an easy office when I first kend ye.--But," said he, speaking
aloud, "will you not come to the window, at least? for Knighton has
trundled a piece of silver-plate into your house--ha! ha! ha!--
trundled it upon its edge, as a callan' would drive a hoop. I cannot
help laughing--ha! ha! ha!--at the fellow's impudence."

"I believe you could not help laughing," said George Heriot, rising up
and leaving the room, "if your best friend lay dying."

"Bitter that, my lord--ha?" said Sir Mungo, addressing Nigel. "Our
friend is not a goldsmith for nothing--he hath no leaden wit. But I
will go down, and see what comes on't."

Heriot, as he descended the stairs, met his cash-keeper coming up,
with some concern in his face.--"Why, how now, Roberts," said the
goldsmith, "what means all this, man?"

"It is Knighton, Master Heriot, from the Court--Knighton, the Duke's
man. He brought back the salver you carried to Whitehall, flung it
into the entrance as if it had been an old pewter platter, and bade me
tell you the king would have none of your trumpery."

"Ay, indeed," said George Heriot--"None of my trumpery!--Come hither
into the compting-room, Roberts.--Sir Mungo," he added, bowing to the
knight, who had joined, and was preparing to follow them, "I pray your
forgiveness for an instant."

In virtue of this prohibition, Sir Mungo, who, as well as the rest of
the company, had overheard what passed betwixt George Heriot and his
cash-keeper, saw himself condemned to wait in the outer business-room,
where he would have endeavoured to slake his eager curiosity by
questioning Knighton; but that emissary of greatness, after having
added to the uncivil message of his master some rudeness of his own,
had again scampered westward, with his satellites at his heels.