abandon the reins, but resolved to watch for a fitter opportunity of
obtaining the sinister advantages to which new quarrels betwixt the King
and Prince were soon, he thought, likely to give rise.

In the mean time, King Robert, afraid lest his brother should resume
the painful subject from which he had just escaped, called aloud to the
prior of the Dominicans, "I hear the trampling of horse. Your station
commands the courtyard, reverend father. Look from the window, and tell
us who alights. Rothsay, is it not?"

"The noble Earl of March, with his followers," said the prior.

"Is he strongly accompanied?" said the King. "Do his people enter the
inner gate?"

At the same moment, Albany whispered the King, "Fear nothing, the
Brandanes of your household are under arms."

The King nodded thanks, while the prior from the window answered the
question he had put. "The Earl is attended by two pages, two gentlemen,
and four grooms. One page follows him up the main staircase, bearing his
lordship's sword. The others halt in the court, and--Benedicite, how is
this? Here is a strolling glee woman, with her viol, preparing to sing
beneath the royal windows, and in the cloister of the Dominicans, as
she might in the yard of an hostelrie! I will have her presently thrust
forth."

"Not so, father," said the King. "Let me implore grace for the poor
wanderer. The joyous science, as they call it, which they profess,
mingles sadly with the distresses to which want and calamity condemn a
strolling race; and in that they resemble a king, to whom all men cry,
'All hail!' while he lacks the homage and obedient affection which
the poorest yeoman receives from his family. Let the wanderer remain
undisturbed, father; and let her sing if she will to the yeomen and
troopers in the court; it will keep them from quarrelling with each
other, belonging, as they do, to such unruly and hostile masters."

So spoke the well meaning and feeble minded prince, and the prior bowed
in acquiescence. As he spoke, the Earl of March entered the hall of
audience, dressed in the ordinary riding garb of the time, and wearing
his poniard. He had left in the anteroom the page of honour who carried
his sword. The Earl was a well built, handsome man, fair complexioned,
with a considerable profusion of light coloured hair, and bright
blue eyes, which gleamed like those of a falcon. He exhibited in his
countenance, otherwise pleasing, the marks of a hasty and irritab