d
Crawford wants one of you for his son.'

'The Tyger Earl,' gasped Eleanor.

'And with Stirling for your portion, the modest fellow,' added James.
'Ay, and that's not all. There's the MacAlpin threats me with all his
clan if I dinna give you to him; and Mackay is not behindhand, but will
come down with pibroch and braidsword and five hundred caterans to pay
his court to you, and make short work of all others. My certie, sisters
seem but a cause for threats from reivers, though maybe they would not
be so uncivil if once they had you.'

'Oh, Jamie! oh! dear holy Father,' cried Eleanor, turning from the King
to the Bishop, 'do not, for mercy's sake, give me over to one of those
ruffians.'

'They are coming, Eleanor,' said James, with a boy's love of terrifying;
'the MacAlpin and Mackay are both coming down after you, and we shall
have a fight like the Clan Chattan and Clan Kay. There's for the
demoiselle who craved for knights to break lances for her!'

'Knights indeed! Highland thieves,' said Jean; 'and 'tis for what tocher
they may force from you, James, not for her face.'

'You are right there, my puir bairn,' said the Bishop. 'These men--save
perhaps the young Master of Angus--only seek your hands as a pretext
for demands from your brother, and for spuilzie and robbery among
themselves. And I for my part would never counsel his Grace to yield the
lambs to the wolves, even to save himself.'

'No, indeed,' broke in the King; we may not have them fighting down
here, though it would be rare sport to look on, if you were not to be
the prize. So my Lord Bishop here trows, and I am of the same mind, that
the only safety is that the birds should be flown, and that you should
have your wish and be away the morn, with Patie of Glenuskie here, since
he will take the charge of two such silly lasses.'

The sudden granting of their wish took the maidens' breath away. They
looked from one to the other without a word; and the Bishop, in more
courtly language, explained that amid all these contending parties he
could not but judge it wiser to put the King's two marriageable sisters
out of reach, either of a violent abduction, or of being the cause of
a savage contest, in either case ending in demands that would be either
impossible or mischievous for the Crown to grant, and moreover in misery
for themselves.

Sir Patrick added something courteous about the honour of the charge.

'So soon!' gasped Jean; 'are we really to go