Two Penniless Princesses

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'Scarce like his father's son,' returned Sir Patrick, 'who gat
the bride with a kingdom for her tocher that these folks have
well-nigh lost among them.'

'The saints be praised if they have.'

'I cannot forget, my liege, how your own sainted father loved
and fought for King Harry of Monmouth. Foe as he was, I own
that I shall never look on his like again.'

'I hold with you in that, Patie,' said Bishop Kennedy; 'and
frown as you may, my young liege, a few years with such as he
would do more for you--as it did with your blessed father--than
ever we can.'

'I can hold mine own, I hope, without lessons from the enemy,'
said James, holding his head high, while his ruddy locks flew
back, his eyes glanced, and the red scar on his cheek widened.
'And is it true that you are for going through false England,
Patie?'

'I made friends there when I spent two years there with your
Grace's blessed father,' returned Sir Patrick, 'and so did my
good wife. She longs to see the lady who is now Sister Clare
at St. Katharine's in London, and it is well not to let her and
Annis brook the long sea voyage.'

'There, Jean! I'd brook ten sea voyages rather than hold myself
beholden to an Englishman!' quoth James.

'Nevertheless, there are letters and messages that it is well to
confide to so trusty and wise-headed a knight as Glenuskie,'
returned the Bishop.

The meal over, the silver bowls were carried round with water to
wash the hands by the two young Drummonds, sons of Glenuskie,
and by the King's pages, youths of about the same age, after
which the Bishop and Sir Patrick asked licence of the King to
retire for consultation to the Bishop's apartment, a permission
which, as may well be believed, he granted readily, only
rejoicing that he was not wanted.

The little ones were carried off by Mary and Nurse Ankaret; and
the King, his elder sisters, and the other youths of condition
betook themselves, followed by half-a-dozen great dogs, to the
court, where the Drummonds wanted to exhibit the horses procured
for the journey, and James and Jean to show the hawks that were
the pride of their heart.

By and by came an Italian priest, who acted as secretary to the
Bishop--a poor little man who grew yellower and yellower, was
always shivering, and seemed to be shrivelled into growing
smaller and smaller by the Scottish winds, but who had a most
keen and intelligent face.

'How now, Father Romuald,' called out James. 'Are ye come to
fetch me?'

'Di grazia, Signor Re', began the Italian in some fear, as the
dogs smelted his lambskin cape. 'The Lord Bishop entreats your
Majesty's presence.'

His Majesty, who, by the way, never was so called by any one
else, uttered some bitter growls and grumbles, but felt forced
to obey the call, taking with him, however, his beautiful falcon
on his wrist, and the two huge deer-hounds, who he declared
should be of the council if he was.

Jean and Eleanor then closed upon David and Malcolm, eagerly
demanding of them what they expected in that wonderful land to
which they were going, much against the will of young David, who
was sure there would be no hunting of deer, nor hawking for
grouse, nor riding after an English borderer or Hieland
cateran--nothing, in fact, worth living for! It would be all
a-wearying with their manners and their courtesies and such like
daft woman's gear! Why could not his father be content to let
him grow up like his fellows, rough and free and ready?

'And knowing nothing better--nothing beyond,' said Eleanor.

'What would you have better than the hill and the brae? To tame
a horse and fly a hawk, and couch a lance and bend a bow!
That's what a man is made for, without fashing himself with
letters and Latin and manners, no better than a monk; but my
father would always have it so!'

'Ye'll be thankful to him yet, Davie,' put in his graver
brother.

'Thankful! I shall forget all about it as soon as I am
knighted, and make you write all my letters--and few enough
there will be.'

'And you, Malcolm!' said Eleanor, 'would you be content to hide
within four walls, and know nothing by your own eyes?'

'No indeed, cousin,' replied the lad; 'I long for the fair
churches and cloisters and the learned men and books that my
father tells of. My mother says that her brother, that I am
named for, yearned to make this a land of peace and godliness,
and to turn these high spirits to God's glory instead of man's
strife and feud, and how it might have been done save for the
slaying of your noble father--Saints rest him!--which broke mine
uncle's heart, so that he died on his way home from pilgrimage.
She hopes to pray at his tomb that I may tread in his steps, and
be a blessing and not a curse to the land we love.'

Eleanor was silent, seeing for the first time that there might
be higher aims than escaping from dulness, strife, and peril;
whilst Jean cried--

''Tis the titles and jousts, the knights and ladies that I care
for--men that know what fair chivalry means, and make knightly
vows to dare all sorts of foes for a lady's sake.'

'As if any lass was worth it,' said David contemptuously.

'Ay, that's what you are! That's what it is to live in this
savage realm,' returned Jean.

At this moment, however, Brother Romuald was again seen
advancing, and this time with a request for the presence of the
ladies Jean and Eleanor.

'Could James be relenting on better advice?' they asked one
another as they went.

'More likely,' said Jean, with a sigh, amounting to a groan, 'it
is only to hear that we are made over, like a couple of kine, to
some ruffianly reivers, who will beat a princess as soon as a
scullion.'

They reached the chamber in time. Though the Bishop slept there
it also served for a council chamber; and as he carried his
chapel and household furniture about with him, it was a good
deal more civilised-looking than even the princesses' room.
Large folding screens, worked with tapestry, representing the
lives of the saints, shut off the part used as an oratory and
that which served as a bedchamber, where indeed the good man
slept on a rush mat on the floor. There were a table and
several chairs and stools, all capable of being folded up for
transport. The young King occupied a large chair of state, in
which he twisted himself in a very undignified manner; the
Bishop-Chancellor sat beside him, with the Great Seal of
Scotland and some writing materials, parchments, and letters
before him, and Sir Patrick came forward to receive and seat the
young ladies, and then remained standing--as few of his rank in
Scotland would have done on their account.

'Well, lassies,' began the King, 'here's lads enow for you.
There's the Master of Angus, as ye ken--'(Jean tossed her
head)--'moreover, auld Crawford wants one of you for his son.'

'The Tyger Earl,' gasped Eleanor.

'And with Stirling for your portion, the modest fellow,' added
James. 'Ay, and that's not all. There's the MacAlpin threats
me with all his clan if I dinna give you to him; and Mackay is
not behindhand, but will come down with pibroch and braidsword
and five hundred caterans to pay his court to you, and make
short work of all others. My certie, sisters seem but a cause
for threats from reivers, though maybe they would not be so
uncivil if once they had you.'

'Oh, Jamie! oh! dear holy Father,' cried Eleanor, turning from
the King to the Bishop, 'do not, for mercy's sake, give me over
to one of those ruffians.'

'They are coming, Eleanor,' said James, with a boy's love of
terrifying; 'the MacAlpin and Mackay are both coming down after
you, and we shall have a fight like the Clan Chattan and Clan
Kay. There's for the demoiselle who craved for knights to break
lances for her!'

'Knights indeed! Highland thieves,' said Jean; 'and 'tis for
what tocher they may force from you, James, not for her face.'

'You are right there, my puir bairn,' said the Bishop. 'These
men--save perhaps the young Master of Angus--only seek your
hands as a pretext for demands from your brother, and for
spuilzie and robbery among themselves. And I for my part would
never counsel his Grace to yield the lambs to the wolves, even
to save himself.'

'No, indeed,' broke in the King; we may not have them fighting
down here, though it would be rare sport to look on, if you were
not to be the prize. So my Lord Bishop here trows, and I am of
the same mind, that the only safety is that the birds should be
flown, and that you should have your wish and be away the morn,
with Patie of Glenuskie here, since he will take the charge of
two such silly lasses.'

The sudden granting of their wish took the maidens' breath away.
They looked from one to the other without a word; and the
Bishop, in more courtly language, explained that amid all these
contending parties he could not but judge it wiser to put the
King's two marriageable sisters out of reach, either of a
violent abduction, or of being the cause of a savage contest,
in either case ending in demands that would be either impossible
or mischievous for the Crown to grant, and moreover in misery
for themselves.

Sir Patrick added something courteous about the honour of the
charge.

'So soon!' gasped Jean; 'are we really to go the morn?'

'With morning light, if it be possible, fair ladies,' said Sir
Patrick.

'Ay,' said James, 'then will we take Mary and the weans to the
nunnery in St. Mary's Wynd, where none will dare to molest them,
and I shall go on to St. Andrews or Stirling, as may seem
fittest; while we leave old Seneschal Peter to keep the castle
gates shut. If the Hielanders come, they'll find the nut too
hard for them to crack, and the kernel gone, so you'd best burn
no more daylight, maidens, but busk ye, as women will.'

'Oh, Jamie, to speak so lightly of parting!' sighed Eleanor.

'Come--no fule greeting, now you have your will,' hastily said
James, who could hardly bear it himself.

'Our gear!' faltered Jeanie, with consternation at their ill-
furnished wardrobes.

'For that,' said the Bishop, 'you must leave the supply till you
are over the Border, when the Lady Glenuskie will see to your
appearing as nigh as may be as befits the daughters of Scotland
among your English kin.'

'But we have not a mark between us,' said Jean, 'and all my
mother's jewels are pledged to the Lombards.'

'There are moneys falling due to the Crown,' said the Bishop,
'and I can advance enow to Sir Patrick to provide the gear and
horses.'

'And my gude wife's royal kin are my guests till they win to
their sister,' added Sir Patrick.

And so it was settled. It was an evening of bustle and a night
of wakefulness. There were floods of tears poured out by and
over sweet little Mary and good old Ankaret, not to speak of
those which James scorned to shed. Had a sudden stop been put
to the journey, perhaps, Eleanor would have been relieved but
Jean sorely disappointed.

It was further decided that Father Romuald should accompany the
party, both to assist in negotiations with Henry VI. and
Cardinal Beaufort, and to avail himself of the opportunity of
returning to his native land, far away from the blasts of the
north, and to show cause to the Pope for erecting St. Andrews
into an archiepiscopal see, instead of leaving Scotland under
the primacy of York.

Hawk and harp were all the properties the princesses-errant took
with them; but Jean, as her old nurse sometimes declared, loved Skywing better than all the weans, and Elleen's small
travelling-harp was all that she owned of her father's--except
the spirit that loved it.

CHAPTER 2

DEPARTURE

'I bowed my pride,
A horse-boy in his train to ride.'--SCOTT.

The Lady of Glenuskie, as she was commonly called, was a near
kinswoman of the Royal House, Lilias Stewart, a grand-daughter
of King Robert II., and thus first cousin to the late King. Her
brother, Malcolm Stewart, had resigned to her the little barony
of Glenuskie upon his embracing the life of a priest, and her
becoming the wife of Sir Patrick Drummond, the son of his former
guardian.

Sir Patrick had served in France in the Scotch troop who came to
the assistance of the Dauphin, until he was taken prisoner by
his native monarch, James I., then present with the army of
Henry V. He had then spent two years at Windsor, in attendance
upon that prince, until both were set at liberty by the treaty
made by Cardinal Beaufort. In the meantime, his betrothed,
Lilias, being in danger at home, had been bestowed in the
household of the Countess of Warwick, where she had been much
with an admirable and saintly foreign lady, Esclairmonde de
Luxembourg, who had taken refuge from the dissensions of her
own vexed country among the charitable sisterhood of St.
Katharine in the Docks in London.

Sir Patrick and his lady had thus enjoyed far more training in
the general European civilisation than usually fell to the lot
of their countrymen; and they had moreover imbibed much of the
spirit of that admirable King, whose aims at improvement,
religious, moral, and political, were so piteously cut short by
his assassination. During the nine miserable years that had
ensued it had not been possible, even in conjunction with Bishop Kennedy, to afford any efficient support or protection to the
young King and his mother, and it had been as much as Sir
Patrick could do to protect his own lands and vassals, and do
his best to bring up his children to godly, honourable, and
chivalrous ways; but amid all the evil around he had decided
that it was well-nigh impossible to train them to courage
without ruffianism, or to prevent them from being tainted by the
prevailing standard. Even among the clergy and monastic orders
the type was very low, in spite of the endeavours of Bishop
Kennedy, who had not yet been able to found his university at
St. Andrews; and it had been agreed between him and Sir Patrick
that young Malcolm Drummond, a devout and scholarly lad of
earnest aspiration, should be trained at the Paris University,
and perhaps visit Padua and Bologna in preparation for that
foundation, which, save for that cruel Eastern's E'en, would
have been commenced by the uncle whose name he bore.

The daughter had likewise been promised in her babyhood to the
Sire de Terreforte, a knight of Auvergne, who had come on a
mission to the Scotch Court in the golden days of the reign of
James I., and being an old companion-in-arms of Sir Patrick,
had desired to unite the families in the person of his infant
son Olivier and of Annis Drummond.

Lady Drummond had ever since been preparing her little daughter
and her wardrobe. The whole was in a good state of forwardness;
but it must be confessed that she was somewhat taken aback when
she beheld two young ladies riding up the glen with her husband,
sons, and their escort; and found, on descending to welcome them,
that they were neither more nor less than the two eldest
unmarried princesses of Scotland.

'And Dame Lilias,' proceeded her knight, 'you must busk and
boune you to be in the saddle betimes the morn, and put Tweed
between these puir lasses and their foes--or shall I say their
ower well wishers?'

The ladies of Scotland lived to receive startling intelligence,
and Lady Drummond's kind heart was moved by the two forlorn,
weary-looking figures, with traces of tears on their cheeks.
She kissed them respectfully, conducted them to the
guest-chamber, which was many advances beyond their room at
Dunbar in comfort, and presently left her own two daughters,
Annis and Lilias, and their nurse, to take care of them, since
they seemed to have neither mails nor attendants of their own,
while she sought out her husband, as he was being disarmed by
his sons, to understand what was to be done.

He told her briefly of the danger and perplexity in which the
presence of the two poor young princesses might involve
themselves, their brother, and the kingdom itself, by exciting
the greed, jealousy, and emulation of the untamed nobles and
Highland chiefs, who would try to gain them, both as an excuse
for exactions from the King and out of jealousy of one another.
To take them out of reach was the only ready means of preventing
mischief, and the Bishop of St. Andrews had besought Sir Patrick
to undertake the charge.

'We are bound to do all we can for their father's daughters,'
Dame Lilias owned, 'alike as our King and the best friend that
ever we had, or my dear brother Malcolm, Heaven rest them both!
But have they no servants, no plenishing?'

'That must we provide,' said Sir Patrick. 'We must be their
servants, Dame. Our lasses must lend them what is fitting, till
we come where I can make use of this, which my good Lord of St.
Andrews gave me.'

'What is it, Patie? Not the red gold?'

'Oh no! I have heard of the like. Ye ken Morini, as they call
him, the Lombard goldsmith in the Canongate? Weel, for sums
that the Bishop will pay to Morini, sums owing, he says, by
himself to the Crown--though I shrewdly suspect 'tis the other
way, gude man!--then the Lombard's fellows in York, London, or
Paris, or Bourges will, on seeing this bit bond, supply us up to
the tune of a hundred crowns. Thou look'st mazed, Lily, but I
have known the like before. 'Tis no great sum, but mayhap the
maidens' English kin will do somewhat for them before they win
to their sister.'

'I would not have them beholden to the English,' said Dame
Lilias, not forgetting that she was a Stewart.

Her husband perhaps scarcely understood the change made in the
whole aspect of the journey to her. Not only had she to hurry
her preparations for the early start, but instead of travelling
as the mistress of the party, she and her daughter would, in
appearance at least, be the mere appendages of the two
princesses, wait upon them, give them the foremost place, supply
their present needs from what was provided for themselves, and
it was quite possible have likewise to control girlish petulance
and inexperience in the strange lands where her charges must
appear at their very best, to do honour to their birth and their
country.

But the loyal woman made up her mind without a word of complaint
after the first shock, and though a busy night was not the best
preparation for a day's journey, she never lay down; nor indeed
did her namesake daughter, who was to be left at a Priory on
their way, there to decide whether she had a vocation to be a
nun.

So effectually did she bestir herself that by six o'clock the
next morning the various packages were rolled up for bestowal on
the sumpter horses, and the goods to be left at home locked up
in chests, and committed to the charge of the trusty seneschal
and his wife; a meal, to be taken in haste, was spread on the
table in the hall, to be swallowed while the little rough ponies
were being laden.

Mass was to be heard at the first halting-place, the Benedictine
nunnery of Trefontana on Lammermuir, where Lilias Drummond was
to be left, to be passed on, when occasion served, to the
Sisterhood at Edinburgh.

The fresh morning breezes over the world of heather brightened
the cheeks and the spirits of the two sisters; the first wrench
of parting was over with them, and they found themselves treated
with much more observance than usual, though they did not know
that the horses they were riding had been trained for the
special use of the Lady of Glenuskie and her daughter Annis upon
the journey.

They rode on gaily, Jean with her inseparable falcon Skywing,
Eleanor with her father's harp bestowed behind her--she would
trust it to no one else. They were squired by their two
cousins, David and Malcolm, who, in spite of David's murmurs,
felt the exhilaration of the future as much as they did, as they
coursed over the heather, David with two great greyhounds with
majestic heads at his side, Finn and Finvola, as they were
called.

The graver and sadder ones of the party, father, mother, and the
two young sisters, rode farther back, the father issuing
directions to the seneschal, who accompanied them thus far, and
the mother watching over the two fair young girls, whose hearts
were heavy in the probability that they would never meet again,
for how should a Scottish Benedictine nun and the wife of a
French seigneur ever come together? nor would there be any
possibility of correspondence to bridge over the gulf.

The nunnery was strong, but not with the strength of secular
buildings, for, except when a tempting heiress had taken refuge
there, convents were respected even by the rudest men.

Numerous unkempt and barely-clothed figures were coming away
from the gates, a pilgrim or two with brown gown, broad hat, and
scallop shell, the morning's dole being just over; but a few,
some on crutches, some with heads or limbs bound up, were
waiting for their turn of the sister-infirmarer's care. The
pennon of the Drummond had already been recognised, and the
gate-ward readily admitted the party, since the house of
Glenuskie were well known as pious benefactors to the Church.

They were just in time for a mass which a pilgrim priest was
about to say, and they were all admitted to the small nave of
the little chapel, beyond which a screen shut off the choir of
nuns. After this the ladies were received into the refectory to
break their fast, the men folk being served in an outside
building for the purpose. It was not sumptuous fare, chiefly
consisting of barley bannocks and very salt and dry fish, with
some thin and sour ale; and David's attention was a good deal
taken up by a man-at-arms who seemed to have attached himself
to the party, but whom he did not know, and who held a little
aloof from the rest--keeping his visor down while eating and
drinking, in a somewhat suspicious manner, as though to avoid
observation.

Just as David had resolved to point this person out to his
father, Sir Patrick was summoned to speak to the Lady Prioress.
Therefore the youth thought it incumbent upon him to deal with
the matter, and advancing towards the stranger, said, 'Good
fellow, thou art none of our following. How, now!' for a pair
of gray eyes looked up with recognition in them, and a low voice
whispered, 'Davie Drummond, keep my secret till we be across the
Border.'

'Geordie, what means this?'

'I canna let her gang! I ken that she scorns me.'

'That proud peat Jean?'

'Whist! whist! She scorns me, and the King scarce lent a lug to
my father's gude offer, so that he can scarce keep the peace
with their pride and upsettingness. But I love her, Davie, the
mere sight of her is sunshine, and wha kens but in the stour of
this journey I may have the chance of standing by her and
defending her, and showing what a leal Scot's heart can do? Or
if not, if I may not win her, I shall still be in sight of her
blessed blue een!'

David whistled his perplexity. 'The Yerl,' said he, 'doth he
ken?'

'I trow not! He thinks me at Tantallon, watching for the raid
the Mackays are threatening--little guessing the bird would be
flown.'

'How cam' ye to guess that same, which was, so far as I know,
only decided two days syne?'

'Our pursuivant was to bear a letter to the King, and I garred
him let me bear him company as one of his grooms, so that I
might delight mine eyes with the sight of her.'

David laughed. His time was not come, and this love and
admiration for his young cousin was absurd in his eyes. 'For a
young bit lassie,' he said; 'gin it had been a knight! But what
will your father say to mine?'

'I will write to him when I am well over the Border,' said
Geordie, 'and gin he kens that your father had no hand in it he
will deem no ill-will. Nor could he harm you if he did.'

David did not feel entirely satisfied, on one side of his mind
as to his own loyalty to his father, or Geordie's to 'the Yerl,'
and yet there was something diverting to the enterprising mind
in the stolen expedition; and the fellow-feeling which results
in honour to contemporaries made him promise not to betray the
young man and to shield him from notice as best he might. With
Geordie's motive he had no sympathy, having had too many
childish squabbles with his cousin for her to be in his eyes a
sublime Princess Joanna, but only a masterful Jeanie.

Sir Patrick, absorbed in orders to his seneschal, did not
observe the addition to his party; and as David acted as his
squire, and had been seen talking to the young man, no further
demur was made until the time when the home party turned to ride
back to Glenuskie, and Sir Patrick made a roll-call of his
followers, picked men who could fairly be trusted not to embroil
the company by excesses or imprudences in England or France.

Besides himself, his wife, sons and daughters, and the two
princesses, the party consisted of Christian, female attendant
for the ladies, the wife of Andrew of the Cleugh, an elderly,
well-seasoned man-at-arms, to whom the banner was entrusted;
Dandie their son, a stalwart youth of two or three-and-twenty,
who, under his father, was in charge of the horses; and six
lances besides. Sir Patrick following the French fashion, which
gave to each lance two grooms, armed likewise, and a horse-boy.
For each of the family there was likewise a spare palfrey, with
a servant in charge, and one beast of burthen, but these last
were to be freshly hired with their attendants at each stage.

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