of the same Stuart of Scotland and of
the same Elizabeth More?"

"I have not forgot that it is so," said Albany, arising; "but I must not
omit, in the familiarity of the brother, the respect that is due to the
king."

"Oh, true--most true, Robin," answered the King. "The throne is like a
lofty and barren rock, upon which flower or shrub can never take root.
All kindly feelings, all tender affections, are denied to a monarch.
A king must not fold a brother to his heart--he dare not give way to
fondness for a son."

"Such, in some respects, is the doom of greatness, sire," answered
Albany; "but Heaven, who removed to some distance from your Majesty's
sphere the members of your own family, has given you a whole people to
be your children."

"Alas! Robert," answered the monarch, "your heart is better framed for
the duties of a sovereign than mine. I see from the height at which fate
has placed me that multitude whom you call my children. I love them, I
wish them well; but they are many, and they are distant from me. Alas!
even the meanest of them has some beloved being whom he can clasp to
his heart, and upon whom he can lavish the fondness of a father. But all
that a king can give to a people is a smile, such as the sun bestows
on the snowy peaks of the Grampian mountains, as distant and as
ineffectual. Alas, Robin! our father used to caress us, and if he chid
us it was with a tone of kindness; yet he was a monarch as well as I,
and wherefore should not I be permitted, like him, to reclaim my poor
prodigal by affection as well as severity?"

"Had affection never been tried, my liege," replied Albany, in the tone
of one who delivers sentiments which he grieves to utter, "means of
gentleness ought assuredly to be first made use of. Your Grace is best
judge whether they have been long enough persevered in, and whether
those of discouragement and restraint may not prove a more effectual
corrective. It is exclusively in your royal power to take what measures
with the Duke of Rothsay you think will be most available to his
ultimate benefit, and that of the kingdom."

"This is unkind, brother," said the King: "you indicate the painful path
which you would have me pursue, yet you offer me not your support in
treading it."

"My support your Grace may ever command," replied Albany; "but would it
become me, of all men on earth, to prompt to your Grace severe measures
against your son and heir? Me, on whom, in case of failure