in his absence--I
should hear his death groan in every breeze; and you, Albany, though you
conceal it better, would be nearly as anxious."

Thus spoke the facile monarch, willing to conciliate his brother and
cheat himself, by taking it for granted that an affection, of which
there were no traces, subsisted betwixt the uncle and nephew.

"Your paternal apprehensions are too easily alarmed, my lord," said
Albany. "I do not propose to leave the disposal of the Prince's motions
to his own wild pleasure. I understand that the Prince is to be placed
for a short time under some becoming restraint--that he should
be subjected to the charge of some grave counsellor, who must be
responsible both for his conduct and his safety, as a tutor for his
pupil."

"How! a tutor, and at Rothsay's age!" exclaimed the' King; "he is two
years beyond the space to which our laws limit the term of nonage."

"The wiser Romans," said Albany, "extended it for four years after the
period we assign; and, in common sense, the right of control ought to
last till it be no longer necessary, and so the time ought to vary with
the disposition. Here is young Lindsay, the Earl of Crawford, who they
say gives patronage to Ramorny on this appeal. He is a lad of fifteen,
with the deep passions and fixed purpose of a man of thirty; while my
royal nephew, with much more amiable and noble qualities both of head
and heart, sometimes shows, at twenty-three years of age, the wanton
humours of a boy, towards whom restraint may be kindness. And do not
be discouraged that it is so, my liege, or angry with your brother for
telling the truth; since the best fruits are those that are slowest in
ripening, and the best horses such as give most trouble to the grooms
who train them for the field or lists."

The Duke stopped, and, after suffering King Robert to indulge for two
or three minutes in a reverie which he did not attempt to interrupt, he
added, in a more lively tone: "But, cheer up, my noble liege; perhaps
the feud may be made up without farther fighting or difficulty. The
widow is poor, for her husband, though he was much employed, had idle
and costly habits. The matter may be therefore redeemed for money, and
the amount of an assythment may be recovered out of Ramorny's estate."

"Nay, that we will ourselves discharge," said King Robert, eagerly
catching at the hope of a pacific termination of this unpleasing debate.
"Ramorny's prospects will be destroyed by