, I will never be he
will say thee nay; but as for bidding the first armourer in Scotland
forego the forging of swords, curtal axes, and harness, it is enough to
drive patience itself mad. Out from my sight! and next morning I prithee
remember that, shouldst thou have the luck to see Henry the Smith, which
is more than thy usage of him has deserved, you see a man who has not
his match in Scotland at the use of broadsword and battle axe, and who
can work for five hundred marks a year without breaking a holyday."

The daughter, on hearing her father speak thus peremptorily, made a low
obeisance, and, without further goodnight, withdrew to the chamber which
was her usual sleeping apartment.

CHAPTER III.

Whence cometh Smith, be he knight, lord, or squire,
But from the smith that forged in the fire?

VERSTEGAN.

The armourer's heart swelled big with various and contending sensations,
so that it seemed as if it would burst the leathern doublet under which
it was shrouded. He arose, turned away his head, and extended his hand
towards the glover, while he averted his face, as if desirous that his
emotion should not be read upon his countenance.

"Nay, hang me if I bid you farewell, man," said Simon, striking the flat
of his hand against that which the armourer expanded towards him. "I
will shake no hands with you for an hour to come at least. Tarry but
a moment, man, and I will explain all this; and surely a few drops of
blood from a scratch, and a few silly words from a foolish wench's
lips, are not to part father and son when they have been so long without
meeting? Stay, then, man, if ever you would wish for a father's blessing
and St. Valentine's, whose blessed eve this chances to be."

The glover was soon heard loudly summoning Dorothy, and, after some
clanking of keys and trampling up and down stairs, Dorothy appeared
bearing three large rummer cups of green glass, which were then esteemed
a great and precious curiosity, and the glover followed with a huge
bottle, equal at least to three quarts of these degenerate days.

"Here is a cup of wine, Henry, older by half than I am myself; my
father had it in a gift from stout old Crabbe, the Flemish engineer,
who defended Perth so stoutly in the minority of David the Second. We
glovers could always do something in war, though our connexion with
it was less than yours who work in steel and iron. And my father had
pleased old Crabbe, some other d