of tearing me
to pieces with the display of inevitable calamities, were it not kinder,
Robin, to point me out some mode to escape from them?"

"True, my liege; but as the only road of extrication is rough and
difficult, it is necessary your Grace should be first possessed with
the absolute necessity of using it, ere you hear it even described. The
chirurgeon must first convince his patient of the incurable condition of
a shattered member, ere he venture to name amputation, though it be the
only remedy."

The King at these words was roused to a degree of alarm and indignation
greater than his brother had deemed he could be awakened to.

"Shattered and mortified member, my Lord of Albany! amputation the only
remedy! These are unintelligible words, my lord. If thou appliest them
to our son Rothsay, thou must make them good to the letter, else mayst
thou have bitter cause to rue the consequence."

"You construe me too literally, my royal liege," said Albany. "I spoke
not of the Prince in such unbeseeming terms, for I call Heaven to
witness that he is dearer to me as the son of a well beloved brother
than had he been son of my own. But I spoke in regard to separating him
from the follies and vanities of life, which holy men say are like to
mortified members, and ought, like them, to be cut off and thrown from
us, as things which interrupt our progress in better things."

"I understand--thou wouldst have this Ramorny, who hath been thought the
instrument of my son's follies, exiled from court," said the relieved
monarch, "until these unhappy scandals are forgotten, and our subjects
are disposed to look upon our son with different and more confiding
eyes."

"That were good counsel, my liege; but mine went a little--a very
little--farther. I would have the Prince himself removed for some brief
period from court."

"How, Albany! part with my child, my firstborn, the light of my eyes,
and--wilful as he is--the darling of my heart! Oh, Robin! I cannot, and
I will not."

"Nay, I did but suggest, my lord; I am sensible of the wound such a
proceeding must inflict on a parent's heart, for am I not myself a
father?" And he hung his head, as if in hopeless despondency.

"I could not survive it, Albany. When I think that even our own
influence over him, which, sometimes forgotten in our absence, is ever
effectual whilst he is with us, is by your plan to be entirely removed,
what perils might he not rush upon? I could not sleep