The young Lord of Glenvarloch received the friend, who had evinced
such disinterested attachment, with the kind courtesy which well
became him.

Master Heriot then made him acquainted with the bounty of his
sovereign; which he paid over to his young friend, declining what he
had himself formerly advanced to him. Nigel felt all the gratitude
which the citizen's disinterested friendship had deserved, and was not
wanting in expressing it suitably.

Yet, as the young and high-born nobleman embarked to go to the
presence of his prince, under the patronage of one whose best, or most
distinguished qualification, was his being an eminent member of the
Goldsmiths' Incorporation, he felt a little surprised, if not abashed,
at his own situation; and Richie Moniplies, as he stepped over the
gangway to take his place forward in the boat, could not help
muttering,--"It was a changed day betwixt Master Heriot and his honest
father in the Kraemes;--but, doubtless, there was a difference between
clinking on gold and silver, and clattering upon pewter."

On they glided, by the assistance of the oars of four stout watermen,
along the Thames, which then served for the principal high-road
betwixt London and Westminster; for few ventured on horseback through
the narrow and crowded streets of the city, and coaches were then a
luxury reserved only for the higher nobility, and to which no citizen,
whatever was his wealth, presumed to aspire. The beauty of the banks,
especially on the northern side, where the gardens of the nobility
descended from their hotels, in many places, down to the water's edge,
was pointed out to Nigel by his kind conductor, and was pointed out in
vain. The mind of the young Lord of Glenvarloch was filled with
anticipations, not the most pleasant, concerning the manner in which
he was likely to be received by that monarch, in whose behalf his
family had been nearly reduced to ruin; and he was, with the usual
mental anxiety of those in such a situation, framing imaginary
questions from the king, and over-toiling his spirit in devising
answers to them.

His conductor saw the labour of Nigel's mind, and avoided increasing
it by farther conversation; so that, when he had explained to him
briefly the ceremonies observed at Court on such occasions of
presentation, the rest of their voyage was performed in silence.

They landed at Whitehall Stairs, and entered the Palace after
announcing their names,--the guards paying to Lord Glenvarloch the
respect and honours due to his rank.

The young man's heart beat high and thick within him as he came into
the royal apartments. His education abroad, conducted, as it had been,
on a narrow and limited scale, had given him but imperfect ideas of
the grandeur of a Court; and the philosophical reflections which
taught him to set ceremonial and exterior splendour at defiance,
proved, like other maxims of mere philosophy, ineffectual, at the
moment they were weighed against the impression naturally made on the
mind of an inexperienced youth, by the unusual magnificence of the
scene. The splendid apartments through which they passed,
 the rich apparel of the grooms, guards, and domestics in waiting, and
the ceremonial attending their passage through the long suite of
apartments, had something in it, trifling and commonplace as it might
appear to practised courtiers, embarrassing, and even alarming, to
one, who went through these forms for the first time, and who was
doubtful what sort of reception was to accompany his first appearance
before his sovereign.

Heriot, in anxious attention to save his young friend from any
momentary awkwardness, had taken care to give the necessary password
to the warders, grooms of the chambers, ushers, or by whatever name
they were designated; so they passed on without interruption.

In this manner they passed several ante-rooms, filled chiefly with
guards, attendants of the Court, and their acquaintances, male and
female, who, dressed in their best apparel, and with eyes rounded by
eager curiosity to make the most of their opportunity, stood, with
beseeming modesty, ranked against the wall, in a manner which
indicated that they were spectators, not performers, in the courtly
exhibition.

Through these exterior apartments Lord Glenvarloch and his city friend
advanced into a large and splendid withdrawing-room, communicating
with the presence-chamber, into which ante-room were admitted those
only who, from birth, their posts in the state or household, or by the
particular grant of the kings, had right to attend the Court, as men
entitled to pay their respects to their sovereign.

Amid this favoured and selected company, Nigel observed Sir Mungo
Malagrowther, who, avoided and discountenanced by those who knew how
low he stood in Court interest and favour, was but too happy in the
opportunity of hooking himself upon a person of Lord Glenvarloch's
rank, who was, as yet, so inexperienced as to feel it difficult to
shake off an intruder.

The knight forthwith framed his grim features to a ghastly smile, and,
after a preliminary and patronising nod to George Heriot, accompanied
with an aristocratic wave of the hand, which intimated at once
superiority and protection, he laid aside altogether the honest
citizen, to whom he owed many a dinner, to attach himself exclusively
to the young lord, although he suspected he might be occasionally in
the predicament of needing one as much as himself. And even the notice
of this original, singular and unamiable as he was, was not entirely
indifferent to Lord Glenvarloch, since the absolute and somewhat
constrained silence of his good friend Heriot, which left him at
liberty to retire painfully to his own agitating reflections, was now
relieved; while, on the other hand, he could not help feeling interest
in the sharp and sarcastic information poured upon him by an
observant, though discontented courtier, to whom a patient auditor,
and he a man of title and rank, was as much a prize, as his acute and
communicative disposition rendered him an entertaining companion to
Nigel Olifaunt. Heriot, in the meantime, neglected by Sir Mungo, and
avoiding every attempt by which the grateful politeness of Lord
Glenvarloch strove to bring him into the conversation, stood by, with
a kind of half smile on his countenance; but whether excited by Sir
Mungo's wit, or arising at his expense, did not exactly appear.

In the meantime, the trio occupied a nook of the ante-room, next to
the door of the presence-chamber, which was not yet thrown open, when
Maxwell, with his rod of office, came bustling into the apartment,
where most men, excepting those of high rank, made way for him. He
stopped beside the party in which we are interested, looked for a
moment at the young Scots nobleman, then made a slight obeisance to
Heriot, and lastly, addressing Sir Mungo Malagrowther, began a hurried
complaint to him of the misbehaviour of the gentlemen-pensioners and
warders, who suffered all sort of citizens, suitors, and scriveners,
to sneak into the outer apartments, without either respect or
decency.--"The English," he said, "were scandalised, for such a thing
durst not be attempted in the queen's days. In her time, there was
then the court-yard for the mobility, and the apartments for the
nobility; and it reflects on your place, Sir Mungo," he added,
"belonging to the household as you do, that such things should not be
better ordered."

Here Sir Mungo, afflicted, as was frequently the case on such
occasions, with one of his usual fits of deafness, answered, "It was
no wonder the mobility used freedoms, when those whom they saw in
office were so little better in blood and havings than themselves."

"You are right, sir--quite right," said Maxwell, putting his hand on
the tarnished embroidery on the old knight's sleeve,--"when such
fellows see men in office dressed in cast-off suits, like paltry
stage-players, it is no wonder the Court is thronged with intruders."

"Were you lauding the taste of my embroidery, Maister Maxwell?"
answered the knight, who apparently interpreted the deputy-
chamberlain's meaning rather from his action than his words;--"it is
of an ancient and liberal pattern, having been made by your mother's
father, auld James Stitchell, a master-fashioner of honest repute, in
Merlin's Wynd, whom I made a point to employ, as I am now happy to
remember, seeing your father thought fit to intermarry with sic a
person's daughter."

Maxwell looked stern; but, conscious there was nothing to be got of
Sir Mungo in the way of amends, and that prosecuting the quarrel with
such an adversary would only render him ridiculous, and make public a
mis-alliance of which he had no reason to be proud, he covered his
resentment with a sneer; and, expressing his regret that Sir Mungo was
become too deaf to understand or attend to what was said to him,
walked on, and planted himself beside the folding-doors of the
presence-chamber, at which he was to perform the duty of deputy-
chamberlain, or usher, so soon as they should be opened.

"The door of the presence is about to open," said the goldsmith, in a
whisper, to his young friend; "my condition permits me to go no
farther with you. Fail not to present yourself boldly, according to
your birth, and offer your Supplication; which the king will not
refuse to accept, and, as I hope, to consider favourably."

As he spoke, the door of the presence-chamber opened accordingly, and,
as is usual on such occasions, the courtiers began to advance towards
it, and to enter in a slow, but continuous and uninterrupted stream.

As Nigel presented himself in his turn at the entrance, and mentioned
his name and title, Maxwell seemed to hesitate. "You are not known to
any one," he said. "It is my duty to suffer no one to pass to the
presence, my lord, whose face is unknown to me, unless upon the word
of a responsible person."

"I came with Master George Heriot," said Nigel, in some embarrassment
at this unexpected interruption.

"Master Heriot's name will pass current for much gold and silver, my
lord," replied Maxwell, with a civil sneer, "but not for birth and
rank. I am compelled by my office to be peremptory.--The entrance is
impeded--I am much concerned to say it--your lordship must stand
back."

"What is the matter?" said an old Scottish nobleman, who had been
speaking with George Heriot, after he had separated from Nigel, and
who now came forward, observing the altercation betwixt the latter and
Maxwell.

"It is only Master Deputy-Chamberlain Maxwell," said Sir Mungo
Malagrowther, "expressing his joy to see Lord Glenvarloch at Court,
whose father gave him his office--at least I think he is speaking to
that purport--for your lordship kens my imperfection." A subdued
laugh, such as the situation permitted, passed round amongst those who
heard this specimen of Sir Mungo's sarcastic temper. But the old
nobleman stepped still more forward, saying,--"What!--the son of my
gallant old opponent, Ochtred Olifaunt--I will introduce him to the
presence myself."

So saying, he took Nigel by the arm, without farther ceremony, and was
about to lead him forward, when Maxwell, still keeping his rod across
the door, said, but with hesitation and embarrassment--"My lord, this
gentleman is not known, and I have orders to be scrupulous."

"Tutti--taiti, man," said the old lord, "I will be answerable he is
his father's son, from the cut of his eyebrow--and thou, Maxwell,
knewest his father well enough to have spared thy scruples. Let us
pass, man." So saying, he put aside the deputy-chamberlain's rod, and
entered the presence-room, still holding the young nobleman by the
arm.

"Why, I must know you, man," he said; "I must know you. I knew your
father well, man, and I have broke a lance and crossed a blade with
him; and it is to my credit that I am living to brag of it. He was
king's-man and I was queen's-man during the Douglas wars--young
fellows both, that feared neither fire nor steel; and we had some old
feudal quarrels besides, that had come down from father to son, with
our seal-rings, two-harided broad-swords, and plate-coats, and the
crests on our burgonets."

"Too loud, my Lord of Huntinglen," whispered a gentleman of the
chamber,--"The King!--the King!"

The old earl (for such he proved) took the hint, and was silent; and
James, advancing from a side-door, received in succession the
compliments of strangers, while a little group of favourite courtiers,
or officers of the household, stood around him, to whom he addressed
himself from time to time. Some more pains had been bestowed on his
toilette than upon the occasion when we first presented the monarch to
our readers; but there was a natural awkwardness about his figure
which prevented his clothes from sitting handsomely, and the prudence
or timidity of his disposition had made him adopt the custom already
noticed, of wearing a dress so thickly quilted as might withstand the
stroke of a dagger, which added an ungainly stiffness to his whole
appearance, contrasting oddly with the frivolous, ungraceful, and
fidgeting motions with which he accompanied his conversation. And yet,
though the king's deportment was very undignified, he had a manner so
kind, familiar, and good-humoured, was so little apt to veil over or
conceal his own foibles, and had so much indulgence and sympathy for
those of others, that his address, joined to his learning, and a
certain proportion of shrewd mother-wit, failed not to make a
favourable impression on those who approached his person.

When the Earl of Huntinglen had presented Nigel to his sovereign, a
ceremony which the good peer took upon himself, the king received the
young lord very graciously, and observed to his introducer, that he
"was fain to see them twa stand side by side; for I trow, my Lord
Huntinglen," continued he, "your ancestors, ay, and e'en your
lordship's self and this lad's father, have stood front to front at
the sword's point, and that is a worse posture."

"Until your Majesty," said Lord Huntinglen, "made Lord Ochtred and me
cross palms, upon the memorable day when your Majesty feasted all the
nobles that were at feud together, and made them join hands in your
presence--"

"I mind it weel," said the king; "I mind it weel--it was a blessed
day, being the nineteen of September, of all days in the year--and it
was a blithe sport to see how some of the carles girned as they
clapped loofs together. By my saul, I thought some of them, mair
special the Hieland chiels, wad have broken out in our own presence;
but we caused them to march hand in hand to the Cross, ourselves
leading the way, and there drink a blithe cup of kindness with ilk
other, to the stanching of feud, and perpetuation of amity. Auld John
Anderson was Provost that year--the carle grat for joy, and the
bailies and councillors danced bare-headed in our presence like five-
year-auld colts, for very triumph."

"It was indeed a happy day," said Lord Huntinglen, "and will not be
forgotten in the history of your Majesty's reign."

"I would not that it were, my lord," replied the monarch--"I would not
that it were pretermitted in our annals. Ay, ay--BEATI PACIFICI. My
English lieges here may weel make much of me, for I would have them to
know, they have gotten the only peaceable man that ever came of my
family. If James with the Fiery Face had come amongst you," he said,
looking round him, "or my great grandsire, of Flodden memory!"

"We should have sent him back to the north again," whispered one
English nobleman.

"At least," said another, in the same inaudible tone, "we should have
had a MAN to our sovereign, though he were but a Scotsman."

"And now, my young springald," said the king to Lord Glenvarloch,
"where have you been spending your calf-time?"

"At Leyden, of late, may it please your Majesty," answered Lord Nigel.

"Aha! a scholar," said the king; "and, by my saul, a modest and
ingenuous youth, that hath not forgotten how to blush, like most of
our travelled Monsieurs. We will treat him conformably."

Then drawing himself up, coughing slightly, and looking around him
with the conscious importance of superior learning, while all the
courtiers who understood, or understood not, Latin, pressed eagerly
forward to listen, the sapient monarch prosecuted his inquiries as
follows:--

"Hem! hem! _salve bis, quaterque salve, glenvarlochides noster!
Nuperumne ab lugduno batavorum britanniam rediisti?_"

The young nobleman replied, bowing low--

"_Imo, rex augustissime--biennium fere apud lugdunenses Moratus sum._"

James proceeded--

"_Biennium dicis? Bene, bene, optume factum est--non uno Die, quod
dicunt,--intelligisti, domine glenvarlochiensis?_ Aha!"

Nigel replied by a reverent bow, and the king, turning to those behind
him, said--

"_Adolescens quidem ingenui vultus ingenuique pudoris._" Then resumed
his learned queries. "_et quid hodie lugdunenses loquuntur--vossius
vester nihilne novi scripsit?--nihil certe, quod doleo, typis recenter
editit_."

"_Valet quidem vossius, rex benevole._" replied Nigel, "_ast senex
veneratissimus annum agit, ni fallor, septuagesimum._"

"_Virum, mehercle, vix tam grandaevum crediderim_," replied the
monarch. "_et vorstius iste?--arminii improbi successor aeque ac
sectator--herosne adhuc, ut cum homero loquar_, ?" text in Greek

Nigel, by good fortune, remembered that Vorstius, the divine last
mentioned in his Majesty's queries about the state of Dutch
literature, had been engaged in a personal controversy with James, in
which the king had taken so deep an interest, as at length to hint in
his public correspondence with the United States, that they would do
well to apply the secular arm to stop the progress of heresy by
violent measures against the Professor's person--a demand which their
Mighty Mightinesses' principles of universal toleration induced them
to elude, though with some difficulty. Knowing all this, Lord
Glenvarloch, though a courtier of only five minutes' standing, had
address enough to reply--

"_Vivum quidem, haud diu est, hominem videbam--vigere autem quis dicat
qui sub fulminibus eloquentiae tuae, rex magne, jamdudum pronus jacet,
et prostratus?_"

[Footnote: Lest any lady or gentleman should suspect there is aught of
mystery concealed under the sentences printed in Italics, they will be
pleased to understand that they contain only a few commonplace Latin
phrases, relating to the state of letters in Holland, which neither
deserve, nor would endure, a literal translation.]

This last tribute to his polemical powers completed James's happiness,
which the triumph of exhibiting his erudition had already raised to a
considerable height.

He rubbed his hands, snapped his fingers, fidgeted, chuckled,
exclaimed--"_Euge! Belle! Optime!_" and turning to the Bishops of
Exeter and Oxford, who stood behind him, he said.--"Ye see, my lords,
no bad specimen of our Scottish Latinity, with which language we would
all our subjects of England were as well embued as this, and other
youths of honourable birth, in our auld kingdom; also, we keep the
genuine and Roman pronunciation, like other learned nations on the
continent, sae that we hold communing with any scholar in the
universe, who can but speak the Latin tongue; whereas ye, our learned
subjects of England, have introduced into your universities, otherwise
most learned, a fashion of pronouncing like unto the 'nippit foot and
clippit foot' of the bride in the fairy tale, whilk manner of speech,
(take it not amiss that I be round with you) can be understood by no
nation on earth saving yourselves; whereby Latin, _quoad anglos_,
ceaseth to be _communis lingua_, the general dragoman, or interpreter,
between all the wise men of the earth."

The Bishop of Exeter bowed, as in acquiescence to the royal censure;
but he of Oxford stood upright, as mindful over what subjects his see
extended, and as being equally willing to become food for fagots in
defence of the Latinity of the university, as for any article of his
religious creed.

The king, without awaiting an answer from either prelate, proceeded to
question Lord Nigel, but in the vernacular tongue,--"Weel, my likely
Alumnus of the Muses, and what make you so far from the north?"

"To pay my homage to your Majesty," said the young nobleman, kneeling
on one knee, "and to lay before you," he added, "this my humble and
dutiful Supplication."

The presenting of a pistol would certainly have startled King James
more, but could (setting apart the fright) hardly have been more
unpleasing to his indolent disposition.

"And is it even so, man?" said he; "and can no single man, were it but
for the rarity of the case, ever come up frae Scotland, excepting EX
PROPOSITO--on set purpose, to see what he can make out of his loving
sovereign? It is but three days syne that we had weel nigh lost our
life, and put three kingdoms into dule-weeds, from the over haste of a
clumsy-handed peasant, to thrust a packet into our hand, and now we
are beset by the like impediment in our very Court. To our Secretary
with that gear, my lord--to our Secretary with that gear."

"I have already offered my humble Supplication to your Majesty's
Secretary of State," said Lord Glenvarloch--"but it seems----"

"That he would not receive it, I warrant?" said the king, interrupting
him; "bu my saul, our Secretary kens that point of king-craft, called
refusing, better than we do, and will look at nothing but what he
likes himsell--I think I wad make a better Secretary to him than he to
me.--Weel, my lord, you are welcome to London; and, as ye seem an
acute and learned youth, I advise ye to turn your neb northward as
soon as ye like, and settle yoursell for a while at Saint Andrews, and
we will be right glad to hear that you prosper in your studies.--
_Incumbite Remis Fortiter._"

While the king spoke thus, he held the petition of the young lord
carelessly, like one who only delayed till the supplicant's back was
turned, to throw it away, or at least lay it aside to be no more
looked at. The petitioner, who read this in his cold and indifferent
looks, and in the manner in which he twisted and crumpled together the
paper, arose with a bitter sense of anger and disappointment, made a
profound obeisance, and was about to retire hastily. But Lord
Huntinglen, who stood by him, checked his intention by an almost
imperceptible touch upon the skirt of his cloak, and Nigel, taking the
hint, retreated only a few steps from the royal presence, and then
made a pause. In the meantime, Lord Huntinglen kneeled before James,
in his turn, and said--"May it please your Majesty to remember, that
upon one certain occasion you did promise to grant me a boon every
year of your sacred life?"

"I mind it weel, man," answered James, "I mind it weel, and good
reason why--it was when you unclasped the fause traitor Ruthven's
fangs from about our royal throat, and drove your dirk into him like a
true subject. We did then, as you remind us, (whilk was unnecessary,)
being partly beside ourselves with joy at our liberation, promise we
would grant you a free boon every year; whilk promise, on our coming
to menseful possession of our royal faculties, we did confirm,
_restrictive_ always and _conditionaliter_, that your lordship's
demand should be such as we, in our royal discretion, should think
reasonable."

"Even so, gracious sovereign," said the old earl, "and may I yet
farther crave to know if I have ever exceeded the bounds of your royal
benevolence?"

"By my word, man, no!'" said the king; "I cannot remember you have
asked much for yourself, if it be not a dog or a hawk, or a buck out
of our park at Theobald's, or such like. But to what serves this
preface?"

"To the boon to which I am now to ask of your Grace," said Lord
Huntinglen; "which is, that your Majesty would be pleased, on the
instant, to look at the placet of Lord Glenvarloch, and do upon it
what your own just and royal nature shall think meet and just, without
reference to your Secretary or any other of your Council."

"By my saul, my lord, this is strange," said the king; "ye are
pleading for the son of your enemy!"

"Of one who WAS my enemy till your Majesty made him my friend,"
answered Lord Huntinglen.

"Weel spoken, my lord!" said the king; "and with, a true Christian
spirit. And, respecting the Supplication of this young man, I partly
guess where the matter lies; and in plain troth I had promised to
George Heriot to be good to the lad--But then, here the shoe pinches.
Steenie and Babie Charles cannot abide him--neither can your own son,
my lord; and so, methinks, he had better go down to Scotland before he
comes toill luck by them."

"My son, an it please your Majesty, so far as he is concerned, shall
not direct my doings," said the earl, "nor any wild-headed young man
of them all."

"Why, neither shall they mine," replied the monarch; "by my father's
saul, none of them all shall play Rex with me--I will do what I will,
and what I ought, like a free king."

"Your Majesty will then grant me my boon?" said the Lord Huntinglen.

"Ay, marry will I--marry will I," said the king; "but follow me this
way, man, where we may be more private."

He led Lord Huntinglen with rather a hurried step through the
courtiers, all of whom gazed earnestly on this unwonted scene, as is
the fashion of all Courts on similar occasions. The king passed into a
little cabinet, and bade, in the first moment, Lord Huntinglen lock or
bar the door; but countermanded his direction in the next, saying,--
"No, no, no--bread o' life, man, I am a free king--will do what I will
and what I should--I am _justus et tenax propositi_, man--
nevertheless, keep by the door, Lord Huntinglen, in case Steenie
should come in with his mad humour."

"O my poor master!" groaned the Earl of Huntinglen. "When you were in
your own cold country, you had warmer blood in your veins."

The king hastily looked over the petition or memorial, every now and
then glancing his eye towards the door, and then sinking it hastily on
the paper, ashamed that Lord Huntinglen, whom he respected, should
suspect him of timidity.

"To grant the truth," he said, after he had finished his hasty
perusal, "this is a hard case; and harder than it was represented to
me, though I had some inkling of it before. And so the lad only wants
payment of the siller due from us, in order to reclaim his paternal
estate? But then, Huntinglen, the lad will have other debts--and why
burden himsell with sae mony acres of barren woodland? let the land
gang, man, let the land gang; Steenie has the promise of it from our
Scottish Chancellor--it is the best hunting-ground in Scotland--and
Babie Charles and Steenie want to kill a buck there this next year--
they maun hae the land--they maun hae the land; and our debt shall be
paid to the young man plack and bawbee, and he may have the spending
of it at our Court; or if he has such an eard hunger, wouns! man,
we'll stuff his stomach with English land, which is worth twice as
much, ay, ten times as much, as these accursed hills and heughs, and
mosses and muirs, that he is sae keen after."

All this while the poor king ambled up and down the apartment in a
piteous state of uncertainty, which was made more ridiculous by his
shambling circular mode of managing his legs, and his ungainly fashion
on such occasions of fiddling with the bunches of ribbons which
fastened the lower part of his dress.

Lord Huntinglen listened with great composure, and answered, "An it
please your Majesty, there was an answer yielded by Naboth when Ahab
coveted his vineyard--' The Lord forbid that I should give the
inheritance of my fathers unto thee.'"

"Ey, my lord--ey, my lord!" ejaculated James, while all the colour
mounted both to his cheek and nose; "I hope ye mean not to teach me
divinity? Ye need not fear, my lord, that I will shun to do justice to
every man; and, since your lordship will give me no help to take up
this in a more peaceful manner--whilk, methinks, would be better for
the young man, as I said before,--why--since it maun be so--'sdeath, I
am a free king, man, and he shall have his money and redeem his land,
and make a kirk and a miln of it, an he will." So saying, he hastily
wrote an order on the Scottish Exchequer for the sum in question, and
then added, "How they are to pay it, I see not; but I warrant he will
find money on the order among the goldsmiths, who can find it for
every one but me.--And now you see, my Lord of Huntinglen, that I am
neither an untrue man, to deny you the boon whilk I became bound for,
nor an Ahab, to covet Naboth's vineyard; nor a mere nose-of-wax, to be
twisted this way and that, by favourites and counsellors at their
pleasure. I think you will grant now that I am none of those?"

"You are my own native and noble prince," said Huntinglen, as he knelt
to kiss the royal hand--"just and generous, whenever you listen to the
workings of your own heart."

"Ay, ay," said the king, laughing good-naturedly, as he raised his
faithful servant from the ground, "that is what ye all say when I do
any thing to please ye. There--there, take the sign-manual, and away
with you and this young fellow. I wonder Steenie and Babie Charles
have not broken in on us before now."

Lord Huntinglen hastened from the cabinet, foreseeing a scene at which
he was unwilling to be present, but which sometimes occurred when
James roused himself so far as to exert his own free will, of which he
boasted so much, in spite of that of his imperious favourite Steenie,
as he called the Duke of Buckingham, from a supposed resemblance
betwixt his very handsome countenance, and that with which the Italian
artists represented the protomartyr Stephen. In fact, the haughty
favourite, who had the unusual good fortune to stand as high in the
opinion of the heir-apparent as of the existing monarch, had
considerably diminished in his respect towards the latter; and it was
apparent, to the more shrewd courtiers, that James endured his
domination rather from habit, timidity, and a dread of encountering
his stormy passions, than from any heartfelt continuation of regard
towards him, whose greatness had been the work of his own hands. To
save himself the pain of seeing what was likely to take place on the
duke's return, and to preserve the king from the additional
humiliation which the presence of such a witness must have occasioned,
the earl left the cabinet as speedily as possible, having first
carefully pocketed the important sign-manual.

No sooner had he entered the presence-room, than he hastily sought
Lord Glenvarloch, who had withdrawn into the embrasure of one of the
windows, from the general gaze of men who seemed disposed only to
afford him the notice which arises from surprise and curiosity, and,
taking him by the arm, without speaking, led him out of the presence-
chamber into the first ante-room. Here they found the worthy
goldsmith, who approached them with looks of curiosity, which were
checked by the old lord, who said hastily, "All is well.--Is your
barge in waiting?" Heriot answered in the affirmative. "Then," said
Lord Huntinglen, "you shall give me a cast in it, as the watermen say;
and I, in requital, will give you both your dinner; for we must have
some conversation together."

They both followed the earl without speaking, and were in the second
ante-room when the important annunciation of the ushers, and the hasty
murmur with which all made ample way as the company repeated to each
other,--"The Duke--the Duke!" made them aware of the approach of the
omnipotent favourite.

He entered, that unhappy minion of Court favour, sumptuously dressed
in the picturesque attire which will live for ever on the canvas of
Vandyke, and which marks so well the proud age, when aristocracy,
though undermined and nodding to its fall, still, by external show and
profuse expense, endeavoured to assert its paramount superiority over
the inferior orders. The handsome and commanding countenance, stately
form, and graceful action and manners of the Duke of Buckingham, made
him become that picturesque dress beyond any man of his time. At
present, however, his countenance seemed discomposed, his dress a
little more disordered than became the place, his step hasty, and his
voice imperative.

All marked the angry spot upon his brow, and bore back so suddenly to
make way for him, that the Earl of Huntinglen, who affected no
extraordinary haste on the occasion, with his companions, who could
not, if they would, have decently left him, remained as it were by
themselves in the middle of the room, and in the very path of the
angry favourite. He touched his cap sternly as he looked on
Huntinglen, but unbonneted to Heriot, and sunk his beaver, with its
shadowy plume, as low as the floor, with a profound air of mock
respect. In returning his greeting, which he did simply and
unaffectedly, the citizen only said,--"Too much courtesy, my lord
duke, is often the reverse of kindness."

"I grieve you should think so, Master Heriot," answered the duke; "I
only meant, by my homage, to claim your protection, sir--your
patronage. You are become, I understand, a solicitor of suits--a
promoter--an undertaker--a fautor of court suitors of merit and
quality, who chance to be pennyless. I trust your bags will bear you
out in your new boast."

"They will bear me the farther, my lord duke," answered the goldsmith,
"that my boast is but small."

"O, you do yourself less than justice, my good Master Heriot,"
continued the duke, in the same tone of irony; "you have a marvellous
court-faction, to be the son of an Edinburgh tinker. Have the goodness
to prefer me to the knowledge of the high-born nobleman who is
honoured and advantaged by your patronage."

"That shall be my task," said Lord Huntinglen, with emphasis. "My lord
duke, I desire you to know Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glenvarloch,
representative of one of the most ancient and powerful baronial houses
in Scotland.--Lord Glenvarloch, I present you to his Grace the Duke of
Buckingham, representative of Sir George Villiers, Knight of
Brookesby, in the county of Leicester."

The duke coloured still more high as he bowed to Lord Glenvarloch
scornfully, a courtesy which the other returned haughtily, and with
restrained indignation. "We know each other, then," said the duke,
after a moment's pause; and as if he had seen something in the young
nobleman which merited more serious notice than the bitter raillery
with which he had commenced--"we know each other--and you know me, my
lord, for your enemy."

"I thank you for your plainness, my lord duke," replied Nigel; "an
open enemy is better than a hollow friend."

"For you, my Lord Huntinglen," said the duke, "methinks you have but
now overstepped the limits of the indulgence permitted to you, as the
father of the prince's friend, and my own."

"By my word, my lord duke," replied the earl, "it is easy for any one
to outstep boundaries, of the existence of which he was not aware. It
is neither to secure my protection nor approbation, that my son keeps
such exalted company."

"O, my lord, we know you, and indulge you," said the duke; "you are
one of those who presume for a life-long upon the merit of one good
action."

"In faith, my lord, and if it be so," said the old earl, "I have at
least the advantage of such as presume more than I do, without having
done any action of merit whatever. But I mean not to quarrel with you,
my lord--we can neither be friends nor enemies--you have your path,
and I have mine."

Buckingham only replied by throwing on his bonnet, and shaking its
lofty plume with a careless and scornful toss of the head. They parted
thus; the duke walking onwards through the apartments, and the others
leaving the Palace and repairing to Whitehall Stairs, where they
embarked on board the barge of the citizen.




CHAPTER X


  Bid not thy fortune troll upon the wheels
  Of yonder dancing cubes of mottled bone;
  And drown it not, like Egypt's royal harlot,
  Dissolving her rich pearl in the brimm'd wine-cup.
  These are the arts, Lothario, which shrink acres
  Into brief yards--bring sterling pounds to farthings,
  Credit to infamy; and the poor gull,
  Who might have lived an honour'd, easy life,
  To ruin, and an unregarded grave.
              _The Changes._

When they were fairly embarked on the Thames, the earl took from his
pocket the Supplication, and, pointing out to George Heriot the royal
warrant indorsed thereon, asked him, if it were in due and regular
form? The worthy citizen hastily read it over, thrust forth his hand
as if to congratulate the Lord Glenvarloch, then checked himself,
pulled out his barnacles, (a present from old David Ramsay,) and again
perused the warrant with the most business-like and critical
attention. "It is strictly correct and formal," he said, looking to
the Earl of Huntinglen; "and I sincerely rejoice at it."

"I doubt nothing of its formality," said the earl; "the king
understands business well, and, if he does not practise it often, it
is only because indolence obscures parts which are naturally well
qualified for the discharge of affairs. But what is next to be done
for our young friend, Master Heriot? You know how I am circumstanced.
Scottish lords living at the English Court have seldom command of
money; yet, unless a sum can be presently raised on this warrant,
matters standing as you hastily hinted to me, the mortgage, wadset, or
whatever it is called, will be foreclosed."

"It is true," said Heriot, in some embarrassment; "there is a large
sum wanted in redemption--yet, if it is not raised, there will be an
expiry of the legal, as our lawyers call it, and the estate will be
evicted."

"My noble--my worthy friends, who have taken up my cause so
undeservedly, so unexpectedly," said Nigel, "do not let me be a burden
on your kindness. You have already done too much where nothing was
merited."

"Peace, man, peace," said Lord Huntinglen, "and let old Heriot and I
puzzle this scent out. He is about to open--hark to him!"

"My lord," said the citizen, "the Duke of Buckingham sneers at our
city money-bags; yet they can sometimes open, to prop a falling and a
noble house."

"We know they can," said Lord Huntinglen--"mind not Buckingham, he is
a Peg-a-Ramsay--and now for the remedy."

"I partly hinted to Lord Glenvarloch already," said Heriot, "that the
redemption money might be advanced upon such a warrant as the present,
and I will engage my credit that it can. But then, in order to secure
the lender, he must come in the shoes of the creditor to whom he
advances payment."

"Come in his shoes!" replied the earl; "why, what have boots or shoes
to do with this matter, my good friend?"

"It is a law phrase, my lord. My experience has made me pick up a few
of them," said Heriot.

"Ay, and of better things along with them, Master George," replied
Lord Huntinglen; "but what means it?"

"Simply this," resumed the citizen; "that the lender of this money
will transact with the holder of the mortgage, or wadset, over the
estate of Glenvarloch, and obtain from him such a conveyance to his
right as shall leave the lands pledged for the debt, in case the
warrant upon the Scottish Exchequer should prove unproductive. I fear,
in this uncertainty of public credit, that without some such counter
security, it will be very difficult to find so large a sum."

"Ho la!" said the Earl of Huntinglen, "halt there! a thought strikes
me.--What if the new creditor should admire the estate as a hunting-
field, as much as my Lord Grace of Buckingham seems to do, and should
wish to kill a buck there in the summer season? It seems to me, that
on your plan, Master George, our new friend will be as well entitled
to block Lord Glenvarloch out of his inheritance as the present holder
of the mortgage."

The citizen laughed. "I will engage," he said, "that the keenest
sportsman to whom I may apply on this occasion, shall not have a
thought beyond the Lord Mayor's Easter-Hunt, in Epping Forest. But
your lordship's caution is reasonable. The creditor must be bound to
allow Lord Glenvarloch sufficient time to redeem his estate by means
of the royal warrant, and must wave in his favour the right of instant
foreclosure, which may be, I should think, the more easily managed, as
the right of redemption must be exercised in his own name."

"But where shall we find a person in London fit to draw the necessary
writings?" said the earl. "If my old friend Sir John Skene of Halyards
had lived, we should have had his advice; but time presses, and--"

"I know," said Heriot, "an orphan lad, a scrivener, that dwells by
Temple Bar; he can draw deeds both after the English and Scottish
fashion, and I have trusted him often in matters of weight and of
importance. I will send one of my serving-men for him, and the mutual
deeds may be executed in your lordship's presence; for, as things
stand, there should be no delay." His lordship readily assented; and,
as they now landed upon the private stairs leading down to the river
from the gardens of the handsome hotel which he inhabited, the
messenger was dispatched without loss of time.

Nigel, who had sat almost stupefied while these zealous friends
volunteered for him in arranging the measures by which his fortune was
to be disembarrassed, now made another eager attempt to force upon
them his broken expressions of thanks and gratitude. But he was again
silenced by Lord Huntinglen, who declared he would not hear a word on
that topic, and proposed instead, that they should take a turn in the
pleached alley, or sit upon the stone bench which overlooked the
Thames, until his son's arrival should give the signal for dinner.

"I desire to introduce Dalgarno and Lord Glenvarloch to each other,"
he said, "as two who will be near neighbours, and I trust will be more
kind ones than their fathers were formerly. There is but three Scots
miles betwixt the castles, and the turrets of the one are visible from
the battlements of the other."

The old earl was silent for a moment, and appeared to muse upon the
recollections which the vicinity of the castles had summoned up.

"Does Lord Dalgarno follow the Court to Newmarket next week?" said
Heriot, by way of removing the conversation.

"He proposes so, I think," answered Lord Huntinglen, relapsed into his
reverie for a minute or two, and then addressed Nigel somewhat
abruptly--

"My young friend, when you attain possession of your inheritance, as I
hope you soon will, I trust you will not add one to the idle followers
of the Court, but reside on your patrimonial estate, cherish your
ancient tenants, relieve and assist your poor kinsmen, protect the
poor against subaltern oppression, and do what our fathers used to do,
with fewer lights and with less means than we have."

"And yet the advice to keep the country," said Heriot, "comes from an
ancient and constant ornament of the Court."

"From an old courtier, indeed," said the earl, "and the first of my
family that could so write himself--my grey beard falls on a cambric
ruff and a silken doublet--my father's descended upon a buff coat and
a breast-plate. I would not that those days of battle returned; but I
should love well to make the oaks of my old forest of Dalgarno ring
once more with halloo, and horn, and hound, and to have the old stone-
arched hall return the hearty shout of my vassals and tenants, as the
bicker and the quaigh walked their rounds amongst them. I should like
to see the broad Tay once more before I die--not even the Thames can
match it, in my mind."

"Surely, my lord," said the citizen, "all this might be easily done--
it costs but a moment's resolution, and the journey of some brief
days, and you will be where you desire to be--what is there to prevent
you?"

"Habits, Master George, habits," replied the earl, "which to young men
are like threads of silk, so lightly are they worn, so soon broken;
but which hang on our old limbs as if time had stiffened them into
gyves of iron. To go to Scotland for a brief space were but labour in
vain; and when I think of abiding there, I cannot bring myself to
leave my old master, to whom I fancy myself sometimes useful, and
whose weal and woe I have shared for so many years. But Dalgarno shall
be a Scottish noble."

"Has he visited the North?" said Heriot.

"He was there last year and made such a report of the country, that
the prince has expressed a longing to see it." "Lord Dalgarno is in
high grace with his Highness and the Duke of Buckingham?" observed the
goldsmith.

"He is so," answered the earl,--"I pray it may be for the advantage of
them all. The prince is just and equitable in his sentiments, though
cold and stately in his manners, and very obstinate in his most
trifling purposes; and the duke, noble and gallant, and generous and
open, is fiery, ambitious, and impetuous. Dalgarno has none of these
faults, and such as he may have of his own, may perchance be corrected
by the society in which he moves.--See, here he comes."

Lord Dalgarno accordingly advanced from the farther end of the alley
to the bench on which his father and his guests were seated, so that
Nigel had full leisure to peruse his countenance and figure. He was
dressed point-device, and almost to extremity, in the splendid fashion
of the time, which suited well with his age, probably about five-and-
twenty, with a noble form and fine countenance, in which last could
easily be traced the manly features of his father, but softened by a
more habitual air of assiduous courtesy than the stubborn old earl had
ever condescended to assume towards the world in general. In other
respects, his address was gallant, free, and unencumbered either by
pride or ceremony--far remote certainly from the charge either of
haughty coldness or forward impetuosity; and so far his father had
justly freed him from the marked faults which he ascribed to the
manners of the prince and his favourite Buckingham.

While the old earl presented his young acquaintance Lord Glenvarloch
to his son, as one whom he would have him love and honour, Nigel
marked the countenance of Lord Dalgarno closely, to see if he could
detect aught of that secret dislike which the king had, in one of his
broken expostulations, seemed to intimate, as arising from a clashing
of interests betwixt his new friend and the great Buckingham. But
nothing of this was visible; on the contrary, Lord Dalgarno received
his new acquaintance with the open frankness and courtesy which makes
conquest at once, when addressed to the feelings of an ingenuous young
man.

It need hardly be told that his open and friendly address met equally
ready and cheerful acceptation from Nigel Olifaunt. For many months,
and while a youth not much above two-and-twenty, he had been
restrained by circumstances from the conversation of his equals. When,
on his father's sudden death, he left the Low Countries for Scotland,
he had found himself involved, to all appearance inextricably, with
the details of the law, all of which threatened to end in the
alienation of the patrimony which should support his hereditary rank.
His term of sincere mourning, joined to injured pride, and the
swelling of the heart under unexpected and undeserved misfortune,
together with the uncertainty attending the issue of his affairs, had
induced the young Lord of Glenvarloch to live, while in Scotland, in a
very private and reserved manner. How he had passed his time in
London, the reader is acquainted with. But this melancholy and
secluded course of life was neither agreeable to his age nor to his
temper, which was genial and sociable. He hailed, therefore, with
sincere pleasure, the approaches which a young man of his own age and
rank made towards him; and when he had exchanged with Lord Dalgarno
some of those words and signals by which, as surely as by those of
freemasonry, young people recognise a mutual wish to be agreeable to
each other, it seemed as if the two noblemen had been acquainted for
some time.

Just as this tacit intercourse had been established, one of Lord
Huntinglen's attendants came down the alley, marshalling onwards a man
dressed in black buckram, who followed him with tolerable speed,
considering that, according to his sense of reverence and propriety,
he kept his body bent and parallel to the horizon from the moment that
he came in sight of the company to which he was about to be presented.

"Who is this, you cuckoldy knave," said the old lord, who had retained
the keen appetite and impatience of a Scottish baron even during a
long alienation from his native country; "and why does John Cook, with
a murrain to him, keep back dinner?"

"I believe we are ourselves responsible for this person's intrusion,"
said George Heriot; "this is the scrivener whom we desired to see.--
Look up, man, and see us in the face as an honest man should, instead
of beating thy noddle charged against us thus, like a battering-ram."

The scrivener did look up accordingly, with the action of an automaton
which suddenly obeys the impulse of a pressed spring. But, strange to
tell, not even the haste he had made to attend his patron's mandate, a
business, as Master Heriot's message expressed, of weight and
importance--nay not even the state of depression in which, out of
sheer humility, doubtless, he had his head stooped to the earth, from
the moment he had trod the demesnes of the Earl of Huntinglen, had
called any colour into his countenance. The drops stood on his brow
from haste and toil, but his cheek was still pale and tallow-coloured
as before; nay, what seemed stranger, his very hair, when he raised
his head, hung down on either cheek as straight and sleek and
undisturbed as it was when we first introduced him to our readers,
seated at his quiet and humble desk.

Lord Dalgarno could not forbear a stifled laugh at the ridiculous and
puritanical figure which presented itself like a starved anatomy to
the company, and whispered at the same time into Lord Glenvarloch's
ear--

     "The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon,
      Where got'st thou that goose-look?"

Nigel was too little acquainted with the English stage to understand a
quotation which had already grown matter of common allusion in London.
Lord Dalgarno saw that he was not understood, and continued, "That
fellow, by his visage, should either be a saint, or a most
hypocritical rogue--and such is my excellent opinion of human nature,
that I always suspect the worst. But they seem deep in business. Will
you take a turn with me in the garden, my lord, or will you remain a
member of the serious conclave?"

"With you, my lord, most willingly," said Nigel; and they were turning
away accordingly, when George Heriot, with the formality belonging to
his station, observed, that, "as their business concerned Lord
Glenvarloch, he had better remain, to make himself master of it, and
witness to it."

"My presence is utterly needless, my good lord;-and, my best friend,
Master Heriot," said the young nobleman, "I shall understand nothing
the better for cumbering you with my ignorance in these matters; and
can only say at the end, as I now say at the beginning, that I dare
not take the helm out of the hand of the kind pilots who have already
guided my course within sight of a fair and unhoped-for haven.
Whatever you recommend to me as fitting, I shall sign and seal; and
the import of the deeds I shall better learn by a brief explanation
from Master Heriot, if he will bestow so much trouble in my behalf,
than by a thousand learned words and law terms from this person of
skill."

"He is right," said Lord Huntinglen; "our young friend is right, in
confiding these matters to you and me, Master George Heriot--he has
not misplaced his confidence."

Master George Heriot cast a long look after the two young noblemen,
who had now walked down the alley arm-in-arm, and at length said, "He
hath not, indeed, misplaced his confidence, as your lordship well and
truly says--but, nevertheless, he is not in the right path; for it
behoves every man to become acquainted with his own affairs, so soon
as he hath any that are worth attending to."

When he had made this observation, they applied themselves, with the
scrivener, to look into various papers, and to direct in what manner
writings should be drawn, which might at once afford sufficient
security to those who were to advance the money, and at the same time
preserve the right of the young nobleman to redeem the family estate,
provided he should obtain the means of doing so, by the expected
reimbursement from the Scottish Exchequer, or otherwise. It is
needless to enter into those details. But it is not unimportant to
mention, as an illustration of character, that Heriot went into the
most minute legal details with a precision which showed that
experience had made him master even of the intricacies of Scottish
conveyancing; and that the Earl of Huntinglen, though far less
acquainted with technical detail, suffered no step of the business to
pass over, until he had attained a general but distinct idea of its
import and its propriety.

They seemed to be admirably seconded in their benevolent intentions
towards the young Lord Glenvarloch, by the skill and eager zeal of the
scrivener, whom Heriot had introduced to this piece of business, the
most important which Andrew had ever transacted in his life, and the
particulars of which were moreover agitated in his presence between an
actual earl, and one whose wealth and character might entitle him to
be an alderman of his ward, if not to be lord mayor, in his turn.

While they were thus in eager conversation on business, the good earl
even forgetting the calls of his appetite, and the delay of dinner, in
his anxiety to see that the scrivener received proper instructions,
and that all was rightly weighed and considered, before dismissing him
to engross the necessary deeds, the two young men walked together on
the terrace which overhung the river, and talked on the topics which
Lord Dalgarno, the elder, and the more experienced, thought most
likely to interest his new friend.

These naturally regarded the pleasures attending a Court life; and
Lord Dalgarno expressed much surprise at understanding that Nigel
proposed an instant return to Scotland.

"You are jesting with me," he said. "All the Court rings--it is
needless to mince it--with the extraordinary success of your suit--
against the highest interest, it is said, now influencing the horizon
at Whitehall. Men think of you--talk of you--fix their eyes on you--
ask each other, who is this young Scottish lord, who has stepped so
far in a single day? They augur, in whispers to each other, how high
and how far you may push your fortune--and all that you design to make
of it, is, to return to Scotland, eat raw oatmeal cakes, baked upon a
peat-fire, have your hand shaken by every loon of a blue-bonnet who
chooses to dub you cousin, though your relationship comes by Noah;
drink Scots twopenny ale, eat half-starved red-deer venison, when you
can kill it, ride upon a galloway, and be called my right honourable
and maist worthy lord!"

"There is no great gaiety in the prospect before me, I confess," said
Lord Glenvarloch, "even if your father and good Master Heriot should
succeed in putting my affairs on some footing of plausible hope. And
yet I trust to do something for my vassals as my ancestors before me,
and to teach my children, as I have myself been taught, to make some
personal sacrifices, if they be necessary, in order to maintain with
dignity the situation in which they are placed by Providence."

Lord Dalgarno, after having once or twice stifled his laughter during
this speech, at length broke out into a fit of mirth, so hearty and so
resistless, that, angry as he was, the call of sympathy swept Nigel
along with him, and despite of himself, he could not forbear to join
in a burst of laughter, which he thought not only causeless, but
almost impertinent.

He soon recollected himself, however, and said, in a tone qualified to
allay Lord Dalgarno's extreme mirth: "This is all well, my lord; but
how am I to understand your merriment?" Lord Dalgarno only answered
him with redoubled peals of laughter, and at length held by Lord
Glenvarloch's cloak, as if to prevent his falling down on the ground,
in the extremity of his convulsion.

At length, while Nigel stood half abashed, half angry, at becoming
thus the subject of his new acquaintance's ridicule, and was only
restrained from expressing his resentment against the son, by a sense
of the obligations he owed the father, Lord Dalgarno recovered
himself, and spoke in a half-broken voice, his eyes still running with
tears: "I crave your pardon, my dear Lord Glenvarloch--ten thousand
times do I crave your pardon. But that last picture of rural dignity,
accompanied by your grave and angry surprise at my laughing at what
would have made any court-bred hound laugh, that had but so much as
bayed the moon once from the court-yard at Whitehall, totally overcame
me. Why, my liefest and dearest lord, you, a young and handsome
fellow, with high birth, a title, and the name of an estate, so well
received by the king at your first starting, as makes your further
progress scarce matter of doubt, if you know how to improve it--for
the king has already said you are a 'braw lad, and well studied in the
more humane letters'--you, too, whom all the women, and the very
marked beauties of the Court, desire to see, because you came from
Leyden, were born in Scotland, and have gained a hard-contested suit
in England--you, I say, with a person like a prince, an eye of fire,
and a wit as quick, to think of throwing your cards on the table when
the game is in your very hand, running back to the frozen north, and
marrying--let me see--a tall, stalking, blue-eyed, fair-skinned bony
wench, with eighteen quarters in her scutcheon, a sort of Lot's wife,
newly descended from her pedestal, and with her to shut yourself up in
your tapestried chamber! Uh, gad!--Swouns, I shall never survive the
idea!"