my lord," said the queen, without
replying to the ambassador's salutation otherwise than by a slight
inclination of the head; "but a woman does not like to receive even
enemies without having spent a few minutes over her toilet. It is
true that men are less tenacious of ceremony," added she, throwing a
significant glance at Lord Lindsay's rusty armour and soiled and pierced
doublet. "Good day, Melville," she continued, without paying attention
to some words of excuse stammered by Lindsay; "be welcome in my prison,
as you were in my palace; for I believe you as devoted to the one as to
the other".

Then, turning to Lindsay, who was looking interrogatively at the door,
impatient as he was for Ruthven to come--

"You have there, my lord," said she, pointing to the sword he carried
over his shoulder, "a faithful companion, though it is a little heavy:
did you expect, in coming here, to find enemies against whom to
employ it? In the contrary case, it is a strange ornament for a lady's
presence. But no matter, my lord, I, am too much of a Stuart to fear the
sight of a sword, even if it were naked, I warn you."

"It is not out of place here, madam," replied Lindsay, bringing it
forward and leaning his elbow on its cross hilt, "for it is an old
acquaintance of your family."

"Your ancestors, my lord, were brave and loyal enough for me not to
refuse to believe what you tell me. Besides, such a good blade must have
rendered them good service."

"Yes, madam, yes, surely it has done so, but that kind of service
that kings do not forgive. He for whom it was made was Archibald
Bell-the-Cat, and he girded himself with it the day when, to justify
his name, he went to seize in the very tent of King James III, your
grandfather, his un worthy favourites, Cochran, Hummel, Leonard, and
Torpichen, whom he hanged on Louder Bridge with the halters of his
soldiers' horses. It was also with this sword that he slew at one blow,
in the lists, Spens of Kilspindie, who had insulted him in the presence
of King James IV, counting on the protection his master accorded him,
and which did not guard him against it any more than his shield, which
it split in two. At his master's death, which took place two years after
the defeat of Flodden, on whose battlefield he left his two sons and two
hundred warriors of the name of Douglas, it passed into the hands of the
Earl of Angus, who drew it from the scabbard when he drove the Hamiltons
out of Edinburgh