16
KING JAMES AND THE ROBBERS.
This order was obeyed with great readiness by the serving-maidens, who set before the stranger the household bread and cheese, and a bicker of no scanty dimensions, containing the reaming ale, for which Scotland has been so long famous. There was a malicious merriment twinkling from every eye as the scene went on; for all knew well that the overstrained kindness of the host was soon to be converted into outrageous and overwhelming abuse of the guest. The stranger, however, seemed either not to notice or to slight these indications. He partook heartily of the good cheer set before him, and amused himself by returning with good-humoured smiles the stolen looks of the simpering maidens. He looked in vain, however, for Edith, who had retired from the place.
'And now,' said Walter, who began to think the stranger somewhat more at ease than he could have wished, 'Your name, wooer?'
'My name!' said the stranger, somewhat embarrassed.
'Ay, your name—all men have a name. Knaves, (laying an emphasis on the word,) many.'
'True, gudeman, true. My name, then, is Stuart—James Stuart. I hope it pleases you?'
'The name is the best in the land,' said the old man, touching his bonnet. 'As to the wearer—hem!—a' Stuarts are no sib to the king, ye ken. What countryman are you?'
'I was born at Stirling,' said the stranger.
'Aye, aye, it may be, it may be,' replied Walter,—'but, to bring the matter to a point, what lands and living hae ye, friend?'
'Sometimes less, sometimes more,' replied the stranger, 'as I happen to be in the giving or the taking humour. At the lowest ebb, however, I think they are at least worth all that ever called a Colville master.'
'Faith, and that's a bauld word, neebour,' cried Walter, bitterly—'and one that I'm jalousing you'll find it difficult to make gude.'
'At your own time it shall be proved, gudeman; but it is not for myself I come to woo the bonny lass of Balmeny, I am, thanks to a wise old man who sits in Windsor, wived already.'
'And who, in Beelzebub's name, may you be blackfit for?' said Walter, rising in wrath.
'Give your daughter to the youth I shall name, and I will on her wedding-day, fill you up one lippie with the red gold, and five running o'er with silver.'
'Give her! To whom?'
'To one who loves her dearly; and, what is more, is dearly loved in return, old man.'
