commonly called, was a near kinswoman
of the Royal House, Lilias Stewart, a grand-daughter of King Robert II.,
and thus first cousin to the late King. Her brother, Malcolm Stewart,
had resigned to her the little barony of Glenuskie upon his embracing
the life of a priest, and her becoming the wife of Sir Patrick Drummond,
the son of his former guardian.

Sir Patrick had served in France in the Scotch troop who came to the
assistance of the Dauphin, until he was taken prisoner by his native
monarch, James I., then present with the army of Henry V. He had then
spent two years at Windsor, in attendance upon that prince, until both
were set at liberty by the treaty made by Cardinal Beaufort. In the
meantime, his betrothed, Lilias, being in danger at home, had been
bestowed in the household of the Countess of Warwick, where she had
been much with an admirable and saintly foreign lady, Esclairmonde de
Luxembourg, who had taken refuge from the dissensions of her own vexed
country among the charitable sisterhood of St. Katharine in the Docks in
London.

Sir Patrick and his lady had thus enjoyed far more training in the
general European civilisation than usually fell to the lot of their
countrymen; and they had moreover imbibed much of the spirit of that
admirable King, whose aims at improvement, religious, moral, and
political, were so piteously cut short by his assassination. During the
nine miserable years that had ensued it had not been possible, even
in conjunction with Bishop Kennedy, to afford any efficient support or
protection to the young King and his mother, and it had been as much as
Sir Patrick could do to protect his own lands and vassals, and do his
best to bring up his children to godly, honourable, and chivalrous
ways; but amid all the evil around he had decided that it was well-nigh
impossible to train them to courage without ruffianism, or to prevent
them from being tainted by the prevailing standard. Even among the
clergy and monastic orders the type was very low, in spite of the
endeavours of Bishop Kennedy, who had not yet been able to found his
university at St. Andrews; and it had been agreed between him and Sir
Patrick that young Malcolm Drummond, a devout and scholarly lad of
earnest aspiration, should be trained at the Paris University, and
perhaps visit Padua and Bologna in preparation for that foundation,
which, save for that cruel Eastern's E'en, would have been commenced by
the uncle whose name