appetite. We, who
can have all for a wish, little enjoy that all when we have possessed
it. Seest thou yonder thick cloud, which is about to burst to rain? It
seems to stifle me--the waters look dark and lurid--the shores have lost
their beautiful form--"

"My lord, forgive your servant," said Ramorny. "You indulge a powerful
imagination, as an unskilful horseman permits a fiery steed to rear
until he falls back on his master and crushes him. I pray you shake off
this lethargy. Shall the glee maiden make some music?"

"Let her; but it must be melancholy: all mirth would at this moment jar
on my ear."

The maiden sung a melancholy dirge in Norman French; the words, of which
the following is an imitation, were united to a tune as doleful as they
are themselves:

Yes, thou mayst sigh,
And look once more at all around,
At stream and bank, and sky and ground.
Thy life its final course has found,
And thou must die.

Yes, lay thee down,
And while thy struggling pulses flutter,
Bid the grey monk his soul mass mutter,
And the deep bell its death tone utter--
Thy life is gone.

Be not afraid.
'Tis but a pang, and then a thrill,
A fever fit, and then a chill,
And then an end of human ill,
For thou art dead.

The Prince made no observation on the music; and the maiden, at
Ramorny's beck, went on from time to time with her minstrel craft, until
the evening sunk down into rain, first soft and gentle, at length in
great quantities, and accompanied by a cold wind. There was neither
cloak nor covering for the Prince, and he sullenly rejected that which
Ramorny offered.

"It is not for Rothsay to wear your cast garments, Sir John; this melted
snow, which I feel pierce me to the very marrow, I am now encountering
by your fault. Why did you presume to put off the boat without my
servants and apparel?"

Ramorny did not attempt an exculpation; for he knew the Prince was in
one of those humours, when to enlarge upon a grievance was more pleasing
to him than to have his mouth stopped by any reasonable apology. In
sullen silence, or amid unsuppressed chiding, the boat arrived at the
fishing village of Newburgh. The party landed, and found horses in
readiness, which, indeed, Ramorny had long since provided for the
occasion. Their quality underwent the Prince's bitter sarcasm, expressed
to Ramorny sometimes by direct words, oftener by bitter gibes. At le