nd
was the King's almoner and chaplain, sometimes called Sir Martin Bennet,
at others Dr. Bennet, a great Oxford scholar, bred up among William of
Wykeham's original seventy at Winchester and New College, and now much
trusted and favoured by the King, whom he everywhere accompanied. That
Sir Martin was a pluralist must be confessed, but he was most
conscientious in providing substitutes, and was a man of much thought and
of great piety, in whom the fair pupil of the Canon of St. Agnes found a
congenial spirit.

CHAPTER VI: MALCOLM'S SUIT

'That is a gentle and gracious slip of the Stewart. What shall you do
with him?' asked King Henry of James, as they stood together at one end
of the tilt-yard at Westminster, watching Malcolm Stewart and Ralf Percy,
who were playing at closhey, the early form of nine-pins.

'I know what I should like to do,' said James.

'What may that be?'

'To marry him to the Lady Esclairmonde de Luxemburg.'

Henry gave a long whistle.

'Have you other views for her?'

'Not I! Am I to have designs on every poor dove who flies into my tent
from the hawk? Besides, are not they both of them vowed to a religious
life?'

'Neither vow is valid,' replied James.

'To meddle with such things is what I should not _dare_,' said Henry.

'Monks and friars are no such holy beings, that I should greatly concern
me about keeping an innocent had out of their company,' said James.

'Nor do I say they are,' said Henry; 'but it is ill to cross a vow of
devotion, and to bring a man back to the world is apt to render him not
worth the having. You may perchance get him down lower than you
intended.'

'This boy never had any real vocation at all,' said James; 'it was only
the timidity born of ill-health, and the longing for food for the mind.'

'Maybe so,' replied the English king, 'and you may be in the right; but
why fix on that grand Luxemburg wench, who ought to be a Lady Abbess of
Fontainebleau at least, or a very St. Hilda, to rule monks and nuns
alike?'

'Because they have fixed on each other. Malcolm needs a woman like her
to make a man of him; and with her spirit and fervent charity, we should
have them working a mighty change in Scotland.'

'If you get her there!'

'Have I your consent, Harry?'

'Mine? It's no affair of mine! You must settle it with Madame of
Hainault; but you had best take care. You are more like to make your
tame lambkin into a ravening wolf, than to get