the notice of a man much less shrewd than was James the Fifth.
The king rose to his feet, checking a laugh.

"Man Flemming," he said, "I wonder at you! Have you forgotten that Sir
David Lyndsay married Janet Douglas?"

The palpable dismay on the cobbler's countenance caused the young man
to laugh outright.

"The cobbler should stick to his honesty, and not endeavour to tread
the slippery path of courtiership. Flemming, if I wanted flattery I
could get that up at the castle. I come down here for something
better. If anything I could write were half so good as Sir David's
worst, I should be a pleased man. But I'm learning, Flemming, I'm
learning. This very day some of my most powerful nobles have presented
me with a respectful petition. A year ago I should have said 'No'
before I had got to the signature of it. But now I have thanked them
for their attention to affairs of State, although between me and you
and that bench, Flemming, it's a pure matter of their own greed and
selfishness. So I've told them I will give the subject my deepest
consideration, and that they shall have their answer this day
fortnight. Is not that the wisdom of the serpent combined with the
harmlessness of the dove?"

"It is indeed," agreed the cobbler.

"Very well; to-morrow it shall be given out that this petition will
occupy my mind for at least a week, and during that time the king is
invisible to all comers, high or low. To-morrow, Flemming, you'll get
me as clean a suit of beggar's rags as you can lay your hands on. I'll
come down here as the Master of Ballengeich, and leave these farmer's
clothes in your care. I shall pass from this door as a beggar, and
come back to it in the same condition a week or ten days hence, so see
that you're at hand to receive me."

"Does your majesty intend to go alone?"

"Entirely alone, Flemming. Bless me, do you imagine I would tramp the
country as a beggar with a troop of horse at my back?"

"Your majesty would be wise to think twice of such a project," warned
the cobbler.

"Oh, well, I've doubled the number; I've thought four times about it;
once when I was writing the poem, and three times while you were
raising objections to my assertion that the beggar is the happiest man
on earth."

"If your majesty's mind is fixed, then there's no more to be said. But
take my advice and put a belt round your body with a number of gold
pieces in it, for the time may come when you'll want a horse in a
hurry,