le
temper, which his situation as a high and powerful feudal lord had given
him but too many opportunities of indulging.

"I am glad to see you, my Lord of March," said the King, with a
gracious inclination of his person. "You have been long absent from our
councils."

"My liege," answered March with a deep reverence to the King, and a
haughty and formal inclination to the Duke of Albany, "if I have been
absent from your Grace's councils, it is because my place has been
supplied by more acceptable, and, I doubt not, abler, counsellors. And
now I come but to say to your Highness, that the news from the English
frontier make it necessary that I should return without delay to my
own estates. Your Grace has your wise and politic brother, my Lord of
Albany, with whom to consult, and the mighty and warlike Earl of Douglas
to carry your counsels into effect. I am of no use save in my own
country; and thither, with your Highness's permission, I am purposed
instantly to return, to attend my charge, as Warden of the Eastern
Marches."

"You will not deal so unkindly with us, cousin," replied the gentle
monarch. "Here are evil tidings on the wind. These unhappy Highland
clans are again breaking into general commotion, and the tranquillity
even of our own court requires the wisest of our council to advise, and
the bravest of our barons to execute, what may be resolved upon. The
descendant of Thomas Randolph will not surely abandon the grandson of
Robert Bruce at such a period as this?"

"I leave with him the descendant of the far famed James of Douglas,"
answered March. "It is his lordship's boast that he never puts foot in
stirrup but a thousand horse mount with him as his daily lifeguard, and
I believe the monks of Aberbrothock will swear to the fact. Surely, with
all the Douglas's chivalry, they are fitter to restrain a disorderly
swarm of Highland kerne than I can be to withstand the archery of
England and power of Henry Hotspur? And then, here is his Grace of
Albany, so jealous in his care of your Highness's person, that he
calls your Brandanes to take arms when a dutiful subject like myself
approaches the court with a poor half score of horse, the retinue of
the meanest of the petty barons who own a tower and a thousand acres
of barren heath. When such precautions are taken where there is not the
slightest chance of peril--since I trust none was to be apprehended from
me--your royal person will surely be suitably guarded