since."

"And why such haste, my lord?" said the Prince; "know you it looks as if
there were practice in it to bring a stain on my name?"

"The custom is universal, the defeated combatant in the ordeal of battle
is instantly transferred from the lists to the gallows. And yet, fair
kinsman," continued the Duke of Albany, "if you had boldly and strongly
denied the imputation, I would have judged right to keep the wretch
alive for further investigation; but as your Highness was silent, I
deemed it best to stifle the scandal in the breath of him that uttered
it."

"St. Mary, my lord, but this is too insulting! Do you, my uncle and
kinsman, suppose me guilty of prompting such an useless and unworthy
action as that which the slave confessed?"

"It is not for me to bandy question with your Highness, otherwise I
would ask whether you also mean to deny the scarce less unworthy, though
less bloody, attack upon the house in Couvrefew Street? Be not angry
with me, kinsman; but, indeed, your sequestering yourself for some brief
space from the court, were it only during the King's residence in this
city, where so much offence has been given, is imperiously demanded."

Rothsay paused when he heard this exhortation, and, looking at the Duke
in a very marked manner, replied:

"Uncle, you are a good huntsman. You have pitched your toils with much
skill, but you would have been foiled, not withstanding, had not the
stag rushed among the nets of free will. God speed you, and may you have
the profit by this matter which your measures deserve. Say to my father,
I obey his arrest. My Lord High Constable, I wait only your pleasure to
attend you to your lodgings. Since I am to lie in ward, I could not have
desired a kinder or more courteous warden."

The interview between the uncle and nephew being thus concluded, the
Prince retired with the Earl of Errol to his apartments; the citizens
whom they met in the streets passing to the further side when they
observed the Duke of Rothsay, to escape the necessity of saluting
one whom they had been taught to consider as a ferocious as well as
unprincipled libertine. The Constable's lodgings received the owner and
his princely guest, both glad to leave the streets, yet neither feeling
easy in the situation which they occupied with regard to each other
within doors.

We must return to the lists after the combat had ceased, and when the
nobles had withdrawn. The crowds were now separated into tw