when the Duke of Albany goes; and I doubt not that
his Majesty will then admit your Grace to his presence. At present, your
Highness must forgive me, it is impossible you can have access."

"I understand you, MacLouis; but go, nevertheless, and obey my
commands."

The officer went accordingly, and returned with a message that the King
was indisposed, and on the point of retiring to his private chamber;
but that the Duke of Albany would presently wait upon the Prince of
Scotland.

It was, however, a full half hour ere the Duke of Albany appeared--a
period of time which Rothsay spent partly in moody silence, and
partly in idle talk with MacLouis and the Brandanes, as the levity or
irritability of his temper obtained the ascendant.

At length the Duke came, and with him the lord High Constable, whose
countenance expressed much sorrow and embarrassment.

"Fair kinsman," said the Duke of Albany, "I grieve to say that it is
my royal brother's opinion that it will be best, for the honour of the
royal family, that your Royal Highness do restrict yourself for a time
to the seclusion of the High Constable's lodgings, and accept of the
noble Earl here present for your principal, if not sole, companion until
the scandals which have been this day spread abroad shall be refuted or
forgotten."

"How is this, my lord of Errol?" said the Prince in astonishment. "Is
your house to be my jail, and is your lordship to be my jailer?"

"The saints forbid, my lord," said the Earl of Errol "but it is my
unhappy duty to obey the commands of your father, by considering your
Royal Highness for some time as being under my ward."

"The Prince--the heir of Scotland, under the ward of the High Constable!
What reason can be given for this? is the blighting speech of
a convicted recreant of strength sufficient to tarnish my royal
escutcheon?"

"While such accusations are not refuted and denied, my kinsman," said
the Duke of Albany, "they will contaminate that of a monarch."

"Denied, my lord!" exclaimed the Prince; "by whom are they asserted,
save by a wretch too infamous, even by his own confession, to be
credited for a moment, though a beggar's character, not a prince's, were
impeached? Fetch him hither, let the rack be shown to him; you will soon
hear him retract the calumny which he dared to assert!"

"The gibbet has done its work too surely to leave Bonthron sensible
to the rack," said the Duke of Albany. "He has been executed an hour