wn. And
even so will my son William."

"But he is taking David with him also!" cried Margaret. "I met him
even now on the stair, wild in haste to put on his shirt of mail and
the sword with the golden hilt which the ambassador of France gave
him."

A quick flush coloured the pale countenance of the Lady Countess.

"Nay, but one is surely enough to meet the Chancellor. David shall not
go. He is but a lad and knows nothing of these things."

For this boy was ever his mother's favourite, far more than either her
elder son or her little daughter, whom indeed she left entirely to the
care and companionship of Maud Lindesay.

My Lady of Douglas went slowly downstairs. The Earl, with Sholto by
his side, was ordering the accoutrement of the mounted men-at-arms in
the courtyard.

"William," she called, in a soft voice which would not have reached
him, busied as he was with his work, but that little Margaret raised
her childish treble and called out: "William, our mother desires to
speak with you. Do you not hear her?"

The Earl turned about, and, seeing his mother, came quickly to her and
stood bareheaded before her.

"You are not going to run into danger, William?" she said, still
softly.

"Nay, mother mine," he answered, smiling, "do not fear, I do but ride
to visit the Chancellor Crichton in his castle, and also to bid
farewell to the French ambassador, who abode here as our guest."

A sudden light shone in upon the mind of Maud Lindesay.

"'Tis all that French minx!" she whispered in Sholto's ear, "she hath
bewitched him. No one need try to stop him now."

His mother went on, with an added anxiety in her voice.

"But you will not take my little David with you? You will leave me one
son here to comfort me in my loneliness and old age?"

The Earl seemed about to yield, being, indeed, careless whether David
went with him or no.

"Mother," cried David, coming running forth from the castle, "you must
not persuade William to make me stay at home. I shall never be a man
if I am kept among women. There is Sholto MacKim, he is little older
than I, and already he hath won the archery prize and the sword-play,
and hath fought in a tourney and been knighted--while I have done
nothing except pull gowans with Maud Lindesay and play chuckie stones
with Margaret there."

And at that moment Sholto wished that this fate had been his, and the
honours David's. He told himself that he would willingly have given up
his very