in real danger."

"My Lord of March," said the Duke of Albany, "the meanest of the barons
of whom you speak put their followers in arms even when they receive
their dearest and nearest friends within the iron gate of their castle;
and, if it please Our Lady, I will not care less for the King's person
than they do for their own. The Brandanes are the King's immediate
retainers and household servants, and an hundred of them is but a small
guard round his Grace, when yourself, my lord, as well as the Earl of
Douglas, often ride with ten times the number."

"My Lord Duke," replied March, "when the service of the King requires
it, I can ride with ten times as many horse as your Grace has named;
but I have never done so either traitorously to entrap the King nor
boastfully to overawe other nobles."

"Brother Robert," said the King, ever anxious to be a peacemaker, "you
do wrong even to intimate a suspicion of my Lord of March. And you,
cousin of March, misconstrue my brother's caution. But hark--to divert
this angry parley--I hear no unpleasing touch of minstrelsy. You know
the gay science, my Lord of March, and love it well. Step to yonder
window, beside the holy prior, at whom we make no question touching
secular pleasures, and you will tell us if the music and play be worth
listening to. The notes are of France, I think. My brother of Albany's
judgment is not worth a cockle shell in such matters, so you, cousin,
must report your opinion whether the poor glee maiden deserves
recompense. Our son and the Douglas will presently be here, and then,
when our council is assembled, we will treat of graver matters."

With something like a smile on his proud brow, March withdrew into the
recess of the window, and stood there in silence beside the prior, like
one who, while he obeyed the King's command, saw through and despised
the timid precaution which it implied, as an attempt to prevent the
dispute betwixt Albany and himself. The tune, which was played upon a
viol, was gay and sprightly in the commencement, with a touch of the
wildness of the troubadour music. But, as it proceeded, the faltering
tones of the instrument, and of the female voice which accompanied it,
became plaintive and interrupted, as if choked by the painful feelings
of the minstrel.

The offended earl, whatever might be his judgment in such matters on
which the King had complimented him, paid, it may be supposed, little
attention to the music of the female