within the bounds of Scotland.

"Who is above the law, gentlemen? I name to you the Earl of Douglas.
Who hath a retinue ten times more magnificent than that with which the
King rides forth? The Earl of Douglas! Who possesses more than half
Scotland, and that part the fairest and richest? Who holds in his
hands all the strong castles, is joined by bond of service and manrent
with the most powerful nobles of the land? Who but the Earl of
Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Warden of the Marches, hereditary
Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom?"

At this point the crafty eyes of Crichton the Chancellor were turned
full upon the speaker. His hand tugged nervously at his thin reddish
beard as if it had been combing the long goat's tuft which grew
beneath his smooth chin.

"But did not you yourself come all the way from France to endue him
with the duchy of Touraine?" he said. "Doth that look like pulling him
down from his high seat?"

The marshal moved a politic hand as if asking silence till he had
finished his explanation.

"Pardon," he said; "permit me yet a moment, most High Chancellor--but
have you heard so little of the skill and craft of Louis, our most
notable Dauphin, that you know not how he ever embraces men with the
left arm whilst he pierces them with the dagger in his right?"

The Chancellor nodded appreciation. It was a detail of statecraft well
known to him, and much practised by his house in all periods of their
history.

"Now, my lords," the ambassador continued, "you are here all
three--the men who need most to end this tyranny--you, my Lord of
Avondale, will you deign to deliver your mind upon this matter?"

The fat Earl hemmed and hawed, clearing his throat to gain time, and
knitting and unknitting his fingers over his stomach.

"Being a near kinsman," he said at last, "it is not seemly that I
should say aught against the Earl of Douglas; but this I do
know--there will be no peace in Scotland till that young man and his
brother are both cut off."

The Chancellor and de Retz exchanged glances. The anxiety of the
next-of-kin to the title of Earl of Douglas for the peace and
prosperity of the realm seemed to strike them both as exceedingly
natural in the circumstances.

"And now, Sir Alexander, what say you?" asked the Sieur de Retz,
turning to the King's guardian, who had been caressing the curls of
his beard with his white and signeted hand.

"I agree," he replied in a courtly tone, "that in the inter