, ere thou speakest treason, Sir Earl; give me not the pain of
draining another flagon of this sparkling hypocras to gain strength for
thine arrest, good friend," exclaimed Lancaster, laying the flat of his
sword on the earl's shoulder.

Hereford half smiled. "Thou art too happy in thy light-hearted mirth for
me to say aught that would so disturb it," he said; "yet I say, and will
say again, would to heaven, I had been before the gates of Kildrummie,
and left to thee all the honor and glory, an thou wilt, of this
capture."

"Honor and glory, thou bitter piece of satire!" rejoined Lancaster,
holding up a large golden flagon, to hide his face from the earl.
"Unhappy me, were this all the glory I could win. I will wipe away the
stain, if stain there be, at Kildrummie, an it be not surrendered ere we
reach it."

"The stain is with the base traitor Ross, not with thee or me," answered
Hereford; "'tis that I abhor the nature of such expeditions, that I
loathe, aye, loathe communication with such as he, and that--if it can
be--that worse traitor Buchan, that makes me rejoice I have naught
before me now but as fair a field as a siege may be. Would to God, this
devastating and most cruel war were over, I do say! on a fair field it
may be borne, but not to war with women and children, as has been my
fate."

"Aye, by the way, this is not the first fair prize thou hast sent to
Edward; the Countess of Buchan was a rare jewel for our coveting
monarch--somewhat more than possession, there was room for vengeance
there. Bore she her captivity more queenly than the sobbing and weeping
Margaret?"

The question was reiterated by most of the knights around the dais, but
Hereford evidently shrunk from the inquiry.

"Speak not of it, I charge ye," he said. "There is no room for jesting
on grief as hers; majestic and glorious she was, but if the reported
tale be true, her every thought, her every feeling was, as I even then
imagined, swallowed up in one tearless and stern but all-engrossing
anguish."

"The reported tale! meanest thou the fate of her son?" asked one of the
knights.

"If it be true!" resumed another; "believest thou, my lord, there is
aught of hope to prove it false?"

"More likely to be true than false," added Lancaster; "I can believe any
thing of that dark scowling villain Buchan--even the murder of his
child."

"I believe it _not_," answered Hereford; "bad as that man is, hard in
heart as in temper, he has too