ed away when she upbraids
Northumberland with his fatal delay. Could Malcolm and Lilias have known
her as we do in Shakespeare, they would have been the more gratified by
her welcome, whereas they only saw her kind face and the courtly sweep of
her curtsey, as, going straight up to the disguised girl, blushing and
trembling now more than ever, she said: 'Poor child, come with me, and we
will soon have you yourself again, ere any other eye see you;' and then
moved away again, holding Lily by the hand, while Ralf, who had followed
close behind her, again grasped Malcolm's hand.

'Well done, Glenuskie; you have all the adventures! They seek you, I
believe! So you have borne off your damosel errant, and are just in time
to receive your king.'

'Is he wedded then?'

'Ay, and you find us all here in full state, prepared to banquet him and
lodge him and his bride for a night, and then I fancy my brother is to go
through some ceremony, ere giving him up to his own subjects. We are
watching for him every day. Come to my chamber, and I'll apparel you.'

'Nay, but what brings you here, Ralf?--you, whom I thought in France.'

''Twas a Scottish bill that brought me,' answered Ralf. 'What, are you
too lost in parchment at Oxford to hear of us poor soldiers, or knew you
not how we fought at Crevant?'

'I heard of the battle, and that you were hurt, but that was months ago,
and I deemed you long since in the field again. Was it so sore a
matter?'

'Chiefly sore for that it hindered me from taking the old rogue Douglas,
and meriting my spurs as befitted a Percy. I was knighted while the
trumpet was sounding, and I did think that I was on the way to prowess,
for fully in the _melee_ I saw a fellow with the Douglas banner. I made
at it, thinking of my father's and of Otterburn; and, Malcolm, this very
hand was on the staff, when what must a big Scot do but chop at me with
his bill like a butcher's axe. Had it fallen on mine arm it would have
been lopped off like a bough of a tree, but, by St. George's grace, it
lit here, between my neck and shoulder, and stuck fast as I went down,
and the fellow was swept away from me. 'Twas so fixed in the very bone,
that they had much ado to wrench it out, when there was time after the
fight to look after us who had come by the worse. And what d'ye think
they found, Malcolm? Why, those honest Yorkshiremen, Trenton and Kitson,
stark dead, both of them. Trenton must have gone down fir