dy Drummond, and putting on her holyday
kirtle, prepared to attend her father to the Blackfriars monastery,
which was adjacent to Couvrefew Street in which they lived. On their
passage, Simon Glover, an ancient and esteemed burgess of Perth,
somewhat stricken in years and increased in substance, received from
young and old the homage due to his velvet jerkin and his golden chain,
while the well known beauty of Catharine, though concealed beneath her
screen--which resembled the mantilla still worn in Flanders--called both
obeisances and doffings of the bonnet from young and old.

As the pair moved on arm in arm, they were followed by a tall handsome
young man, dressed in a yeoman's habit of the plainest kind, but which
showed to advantage his fine limbs, as the handsome countenance that
looked out from a quantity of curled tresses, surmounted by a small
scarlet bonnet, became that species of headdress. He had no other weapon
than a staff in his hand, it not being thought fit that persons of his
degree (for he was an apprentice to the old glover) should appear on
the street armed with sword or dagger, a privilege which the jackmen, or
military retainers of the nobility, esteemed exclusively their own. He
attended his master at holytide, partly in the character of a domestic,
or guardian, should there be cause for his interference; but it was
not difficult to discern, by the earnest attention which he paid to
Catharine Glover, that it was to her, rather than to her father, that he
desired to dedicate his good offices.

Generally speaking, there was no opportunity for his zeal displaying
itself; for a common feeling of respect induced passengers to give way
to the father and daughter.

But when the steel caps, barrets, and plumes of squires, archers, and
men at arms began to be seen among the throng, the wearers of these
warlike distinctions were more rude in their demeanour than the
quiet citizens. More than once, when from chance, or perhaps from an
assumption of superior importance, such an individual took the wall of
Simon in passing, the glover's youthful attendant bristled up with a
look of defiance, and the air of one who sought to distinguish his zeal
in his mistress's service by its ardour. As frequently did Conachar, for
such was the lad's name, receive a check from his master, who gave him
to understand that he did not wish his interference before he required
it.

"Foolish boy," he said, "hast thou not lived