We must return to the characters of our dramatic narrative whom we left at Perth, when we accompanied the glover and his fair daughter to Kinfauns, and from that hospitable mansion traced the course of Simon to Loch Tay; and the Prince, as the highest personage, claims our immediate attention.
This rash and inconsiderate young man endured with some impatience his sequestered residence with the Lord High Constable, with whose company, otherwise in every respect satisfactory, he became dissatisfied, from no other reason than that he held in some degree the character of his warder. Incensed against his uncle and displeased with his father, he longed, not unnaturally, for the society of Sir John Ramorny, on whom he had been so long accustomed to throw himself for amusement, and, though he would have resented the imputation as an insult, for guidance and direction. He therefore sent him a summons to attend him, providing his health permitted; and directed him to come by water to a little pavilion in the High Constable's garden, which, like that of Sir John's own lodgings, ran down to the Tay. In renewing an intimacy so dangerous, Rothsay only remembered that he had been Sir Join Ramorny's munificent friend; while Sir John, on receiving the invitation, only recollected, on his part, the capricious insults he had sustained from his patron, the loss of his hand, and the lightness with which he had treated the subject, and the readiness with which Rothsay had abandoned his cause in the matter of the bonnet maker's slaughter. He laughed bitterly when he read the Prince's billet.
"Eviot," he said, "man a stout boat with six trusty men — trusty men, mark me — lose not a moment, and bid Dwining instantly come hither.
"Heaven smiles on us, my trusty friend," he said to the mediciner. "I was but beating my brains how to get access to this fickle boy, and here he sends to invite me."
"Hem! I see the matter very clearly," said Dwining. "Heaven smiles on some untoward consequences — he! he! he!"
"No matter, the trap is ready; and it is baited, too, my friend, with what would lure the boy from a sanctuary, though a troop with drawn weapons waited him in the churchyard. Yet is it scarce necessary. His own weariness of himself would have done the job. Get thy matters ready — thou goest with us. Write to him, as I cannot, that we come instantly to attend his commands, and do it clerkly. He reads well, and that he owes to me."
"He will be your valiancie's debtor for more knowledge before he dies — he! he! he! But is your bargain sure with the Duke of Albany?"
"Enough to gratify my ambition, thy avarice, and the revenge of both. Aboard — aboard, and speedily; let Eviot throw in a few flasks of the choicest wine, and some cold baked meats."
"But your arm, my lord, Sir John? Does it not pain you?"
"The throbbing of my heart silences the pain of my wound. It beats as it would burst my bosom."
"Heaven forbid!" said Dwining; adding, in a low voice — "It would be a strange sight if it should. I should like to dissect it, save that its stony case would spoil my best instruments."
In a few minutes they were in the boat, while a speedy messenger carried the note to the Prince.
Rothsay was seated with the Constable, after their noontide repast. He was sullen and silent; and the earl had just asked whether it was his pleasure that the table should be cleared, when a note, delivered to the Prince, changed at once his aspect.
"As you will," he said. "I go to the pavilion in the garden — always with permission of my Lord Constable — to receive my late master of the horse."
"My lord!" said Lord Errol.
"Ay, my lord; must I ask permission twice?"
"No, surely, my lord," answered the Constable; "but has your Royal Highness recollected that Sir John Ramorny —"
"Has not the plague, I hope?" replied the Duke of Rothsay. "Come, Errol, you would play the surly turnkey, but it is not in your nature; farewell for half an hour."
"A new folly!" said Errol, as the Prince, flinging open a lattice of the ground parlour in which they sat, stept out into the garden — "a new folly, to call back that villain to his counsels. But he is infatuated."
The Prince, in the mean time, looked back, and said hastily:
"Your lordship's good housekeeping will afford us a flask or two of wine and a slight collation in the pavilion? I love the al fresco of the river."
The Constable bowed, and gave the necessary orders; so that Sir John found the materials of good cheer ready displayed, when, landing from his barge, he entered the pavilion.