in every respect the fittest to act as champion on the
occasion. But the widow waited not for the general prompting of their
looks. As soon as Sir Patrick had spoken, she crossed the floor to the
place where, near the bottom of the table, the armourer stood among the
men of his degree, and took him by the hand.

"Henry Gow, or Smith," she said, "good burgher and draftsman, my--my--"

"Husband," she would have said, but the word would not come forth: she
was obliged to change the expression.

"He who is gone, loved and prized you over all men; therefore meet it is
that thou shouldst follow out the quarrel of his widow and orphans."

If there had been a possibility, which in that age there was not, of
Henry's rejecting or escaping from a trust for which all men seemed to
destine him, every wish and idea of retreat was cut off when the widow
began to address him; and a command from Heaven could hardly have made a
stronger impression than did the appeal of the unfortunate Magdalen. Her
allusion to his intimacy with the deceased moved him to the soul. During
Oliver's life, doubtless, there had been a strain of absurdity in his
excessive predilection for Henry, which, considering how very different
they were in character, had in it something ludicrous. But all this
was now forgotten, and Henry, giving way to his natural ardour, only
remembered that Oliver had been his friend and intimate--a man who had
loved and honoured him as much as he was capable of entertaining such
sentiments for any one, and, above all, that there was much reason to
suspect that the deceased had fallen victim to a blow meant for Henry
himself.

It was, therefore, with an alacrity which, the minute before, he could
scarce have commanded, and which seemed to express a stern pleasure,
that, having pressed his lips to the cold brow of the unhappy Magdalen,
the armourer replied:

"I, Henry the Smith, dwelling in the Wynd of Perth, good man and true,
and freely born, accept the office of champion to this widow Magdalen
and these orphans, and will do battle in their quarrel to the death,
with any man whomsoever of my own degree, and that so long as I shall
draw breath. So help me at my need God and good St. John!"

There arose from the audience a half suppressed cry, expressing the
interest which the persons present took in the prosecution of the
quarrel, and their confidence in the issue.

Sir Patrick Charteris then took measures for repairing to th