sorrow almost instantly changed to
fury--a mood so contrary to the gentleness and timidity of his nature,
that the remorse of Albany was drowned in his fear.

"And this is the end," said the King, "of thy moral saws and religious
maxims! But the besotted father who gave the son into thy hands--who
gave the innocent lamb to the butcher--is a king, and thou shalt know
it to thy cost. Shall the murderer stand in presence of his
brother--stained with the blood of that brother's son? No! What ho,
without there!--MacLouis!--Brandanes! Treachery! Murder! Take arms, if
you love the Stuart!"

MacLouis, with several of the guards, rushed into the apartment.

"Murder and treason!" exclaimed the miserable King. "Brandanes, your
noble Prince--" Here his grief and agitation interrupted for a moment
the fatal information it was his object to convey. At length he resumed
his broken speech: "An axe and a block instantly into the courtyard!
Arrest--" The word choked his utterance.

"Arrest whom, my noble liege?" said MacLouis, who, observing the King
influenced by a tide of passion so different from the gentleness of his
ordinary demeanour, almost conjectured that his brain had been disturbed
by the unusual horrors of the combat he had witnessed.

"Whom shall I arrest, my liege?" he replied. "Here is none but your
Grace's royal brother of Albany."

"Most true," said the King, his brief fit of vindictive passion
soon dying away. "Most true--none but Albany--none but my parent's
child--none but my brother. O God, enable me to quell the sinful passion
which glows in this bosom. Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!"

MacLouis cast a look of wonder towards the Duke of Albany, who
endeavoured to hide his confusion under an affectation of deep sympathy,
and muttered to the officer: "The great misfortune has been too much for
his understanding."

"What misfortune, please your Grace?" replied MacLouis. "I have heard of
none."

"How! not heard of the death of my nephew Rothsay?"

"The Duke of Rothsay dead, my Lord of Albany?" exclaimed the faithful
Brandane, with the utmost horror and astonishment. "When, how, and
where?"

"Two days since--the manner as yet unknown--at Falkland."

MacLouis gazed at the Duke for an instant; then, with a kindling eye
and determined look, said to the King, who seemed deeply engaged in his
mental devotion: "My liege! a minute or two since you left a word--one
word--unspoken. Let it pass your lips, and your ple