stood by him in
the encounter at Meaux; and how it had been impossible to leave him
senseless to the flames; and how he had trusted that a capture made thus,
accidentally, of a helpless man, would not fall under Henry's strict
rules against accepting Scottish prisoners.

'Hm!' said Henry; 'it must be as you will; only I trust to you not to let
him loose on us, either here or on the Border. Take back your sword,
Jamie. If I spoke over hotly last night--a man hardly knows what he says
when he has a goad in the side--you forgive it, Jamie.' And as the Scots
king, with the dew in his eyes, wrung his hand, he added anxiously, 'Your
sword! What, not here! Here's mine. Which is it?' Then, as James
handed it to him: 'Ay, I would fain you wore it! 'Tis the sword of my
knighthood, when poor King Richard dubbed me in Ireland; and many a brave
scheme came with it!'

The soft movement of the barge upon the water had a soothing influence;
and he was certainly in a less suffering state, though silent and dreamy,
as he lay half raised on cushions under an awning, James anxiously
watching over him, and Malcolm with a few other attendants near at hand;
stout bargemen propelling the craft, and the guard keeping along the bank
of the river.

His thoughts were perhaps with the battle, for presently he looked up,
and murmured the verse:

'"I had a dream, a weary dream,
Ayont the Isle of Skye;
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I."

That stave keeps ringing in my brain; nor can I tell where or when I have
heard it.'

''Tis from the Scottish ballad that sings of the fight of Otterburn,'
said James; 'I brought it with me from Scotland.'

'And got little thanks for your pains,' said Henry, smiling. 'But,
methinks, since no Percy is in the way, I would hear it again; there was
true knighthood in the Douglas that died there.'

James's harp was never far off; and again his mellow voice went through
that gallant and plaintive strain, though in a far more subdued manner
than the first time he had sung it; and Henry, weakened and softened,
actually dropped a brave man's tear at the 'bracken bush upon the lily
lea,' and the hero who lay there.

'That I should weep for a Douglas!' he said, half laughing; 'but the
hearts of all honest men lie near together, on whatever side they draw
their swords. God have mercy on whosoever may fall to-morrow! I trow,
Jamie, thou couldst not sing that rough r