[Contents]CHAPTER XLVII.The Earl of Fife’s Council Meeting—The Challenge between the Scottish and English Knights.The health had hardly well gone round ere the shrill notes of a bugle were heard, followed by a stir that arose in the court-yard, the noise of which even reached the ears of those in the hall. A messenger had arrived express, and a letter was speedily delivered to the Earl of Fife.“Ha!” said he, with an air of surprise, as he surveyed the impression of the signet attached to the purple silk in which it was wrapped; and then hastily breaking it open, glanced rapidly over its contents.All eyes were turned towards him with eager inquiry. An[327]expression of earnest attention to what he read was very visibly marked on his features.“Your pardon, brother,” said he, starting up at length, after a moment’s thought; “I crave your pardon, and that of this honourable company, but this letter is from my Royal father, and on pressing state affairs. I must of needscost break up the banquet sooner than thy wonted hospitality would authorize me to demand of thee, were the business of a less urgent nature; but we must hold a council straightway to determine how we may best and most speedily fulfil the wishes of His Majesty. I shall wait thy coming in thy private apartment, and shall by and by hope for the attendance of such of the nobles and knights here assembled as may be required to aid our resolves.”Having said so, the Earl of Fife bowed graciously to the company with such a sweeping, yet particularizing glance, as left each individual in the firm belief that he had been especially distinguished by the great man’s notice; and, putting his hand into his bosom, he moved down the hall with all the appearance of being instantly absorbed in deep reflection.The Lord Welles and his suite of English knights, darting very significant looks towards one another, sat a few minutes, and then rising, retired in a body. The Countess of Moray, and the rest of the ladies, also soon afterwards left the board, and sought their apartments, and the Earl of Moray instantly broke up the banquet, and hastened to join his brother the Earl of Fife, taking with him the Earl of Douglas and the Earl of Dunbar. Such of the Scottish nobles and knights, however, as conceived that their presence might be required at the expected council, continued to pace the ample pavement in small parties, or to stand grouped together in little knots, all exercising their ingenuity in guessing at the probable cause and nature of so sudden and unlooked-for, and apparently so important a communication. The most prevalent surmise was, that a war with England was to be declared, and the very thought of such a thing gave joy to every manly bosom. Suspicions of the prospect of a rupture between the two countries had begun to be pretty general of late; and the circumstance of bringing down the English ambassadors to Tarnawa, was by some, who affected to be deeper read in such matters than others, interpreted into a fine piece of state policy to keep them out of the way, while preparations were maturing for the more powerful and successful commencement of hostilities on the part of Scotland. All were impatient to know the truth, and when a messenger came to the door of the hall with a roll of names, which he read over, calling[328]on those of the nobles and knights who were named in it, to remain in the hall, and take their places at the board, at the upper end of it, according to their rank, those who were so selected could not well hide their satisfaction, while those who were compelled to withdraw did so with extreme reluctance.Sir Patrick Hepborne was overjoyed to find that he was to be one of those in whom the Earl of Fife wished to confide. He took his seat at the table with the rest, and the most profound silence succeeded to the sounds of mirth and pleasure which had so lately reigned within the hall. Whatever conjectures might have escaped the lips of those around the board, whilst they mingled carelessly with those who were idly speculating on the probable purport of the King’s message, they now considered the seal of silence imposed on their lips, by their being selected as councillors; and accordingly they sat gazing at each other with grave and solemn looks, calmly awaiting the arrival of the Earl of Fife. Certain faces there were which betrayed something like a consciousness of greater self-importance than the rest, as if they either knew, or would have had others believe that they knew, something more than those around them. But whatever they knew or thought they ventured not to express it.At length the Earls of Fife, Moray, Douglas, and Dunbar appeared, and took their seats at the upper end of the table. All eyes and ears were fixed in attention; and the Earl of Fife, laying the King’s letter and packet on the table, began to open the business he had to communicate to them.“My Lords and Gentlemen,” said he, in a tone of voice which, though audible enough to every one of them, was yet too low to have found its way through any of the crannies of the door at the farther end of the hall, “I shall be as brief as possible with you. Ye all know how great is my consideration for you individually, so I trust that I have no need to waste time in assuring ye of my love for ye all, or of the zeal with which I am filled for promoting your respective interests. Highly sensible am I of the great blessing that hath befallen Scotland, in raising up such store of wisdom and valour among her sons, as I do know to exist in the persons of the noble lords and honourable knights by whom I have now the felicity of being surrounded; and I do the more congratulate myself upon this knowledge at the present time, seeing that the wisdom and the valour I have spoken of must now be called forth into important action. For, to withhold the news from you no longer, Scotland is about to be, nay, more probably hath been already invaded—a large army having hovered on the Eastern Marches, threatening[329]the Merse with fire and sword, the which may have ere this been poured out upon them. Your good King, and my Royal father, hath sent this intelligence express from Aberdeen, where he now abideth, at the same time commanding our instant attendance there to counsel and advise him, and to receive his orders for our future conduct. We are, moreover, directed to lead thither with us all the strength of dependants we can muster, and to take such immediate measures as may ensure the instant gathering of those districts which are under the control of each of us respectively. A large force must of needscost be quickly got together; it is therefore highly expedient that our vassals should be forthcoming with as little delay as possible, that they may be ready to unite themselves with the host wheresoever and whensoever it may assemble. Such of us as are wanted at Aberdeen must set forward to-morrow. These, then, are the matters and the commands which my Royal father sends you, and which I, as his organ, have been instructed to convey to you.”A murmur of applause ran round the table. Broken sentences burst from the respective knights, each shortly but pithily expressing the satisfaction he felt at the prospect of having something more serious than jousting to occupy him.“I have yet one more communication to make, my Lords and Gentlemen, of which you must be the witnesses, and I need not say that I entreat you to be the silent witnesses of it. I must convey to the Lord Welles intelligence, which I am not without suspicion he hath been for some time anticipating, from his own private knowledge of events. I mean to crave an immediate conference with him here in your presence; but it is my wish that no one whom I have here admitted to my confidence will talk to him, or any of the English knights, either now or afterwards of anything I have mentioned. I have to communicate to the Lord Welles the King’s license for his departure, and I hope I do not ask too much when I beg that I may be left to do so entirely unassisted, and that nothing he or his shall say may provoke ye to speak. Silence will best accord with your dignity. Go, brother, my Lord Earl of Moray, so please thee, and entreat the presence of the Lord Welles among us, with such of his suite as he may list to accompany him.”The Earl of Moray hastened to obey his brother-in-law, and, during his absence, the Earl of Fife seemed to have retreated into his own thoughts. The knights who sat with him remained in still contemplation of him and of one another. The English envoy was received with dignified decorum.[330]“My Lord Welles,” said the Earl of Fife to him after he was seated, “I have now to perform a piece of duty to my King, the which, as it regardeth thee, doth particularly erke me. As thou art thyself aware, I have this night received a letter from His Majesty, and I have now to tell thee, that in it I am commanded to inform thee that he will dispense with thy further attendance at his Royal Court. In so far as our personal intercourse hath gone, I have good reason to regret that it is to be discontinued so soon; and the more so that it hath fallen into my hands to snap it. This parchment, which I have now the honour of presenting to thee, doth contain a safe-conduct for thee, and all with thee, to return into thy native country by the shortest possible route. It doleth me much that we are to be so soon reft of thine agreeable society. Yea, the removal of thy presence is most especially galling at such a time, when all was prepared for making the days of thy stay in Scotland as light as mought be. Our coming tourney will be nought without thee.”“My Lord of Fife, of a truth this is a most sudden and unlooked-for event,” said the Lord Welles, with the appearance, if not with the reality, of surprise on his countenance. “Hath any reason been assigned, the which it may be permitted thee to utter to me?”“His Majesty’s reasons, my good Lord, are not always given,” replied the Earl of Fife, evasively; “but thou knowest that it is the part of a subject implicitly to obey, without inquiring too curiously into the nature of the wires that may be on the stretch to put him in motion; and I must submit as well as others. Hast thou had no communications lately from thine own court?”“If thy coming tourney doth ever hold,” said the Lord Welles, altogether avoiding the home question of the Earl of Fife, and glancing curiously into the faces of those around him, “it will suffer little in its pomp or circumstance, I trow, from my departure, where thou hast so great an assemblage of Scottish knights to give lustre to it, but if they should be called away, indeed, by anything connected with my dismissal, it may in that case dwindle, peraunter, and expire of very consumption ere it hath been well born.”The Lord Welles’s eyes returned from their excursion round the table, without displaying signs of having gathered anything from the firm Scottish countenances they had scanned.“And when must I of needscost set forward, my Lord?” continued the Lord Welles, addressing the Earl of Fife.“A party of lances will be in waiting to-morrow morning by[331]sunrise, to guide and protect thee on thy way, and I do believe that thou wilt find that sufficient time hath been given thee in the parchment thou hast, to make the journey easy. Shouldst thou, peradventure, covet the provision of anything that may contribute to thy comfort or expedition, the which I may have the power to procure for thee, I do beseech thee to let me be informed, and it shall be mine especial care that thou mayest be gratified.”“Nay, my Lord Earl of Fife, I lack nothing,” replied the Lord Welles.“And now, then, my good Lord, I bid thee good night,” said the Earl of Fife. “Farewell; it will give me joy again to meet with thee as a friend, until when may St. George be with thee.”“Receive our fullest thanks for all thy gracious courtesy,” replied the Lord Welles.The Earl of Fife now arose with the Earls Douglas, Moray, and Dunbar, and took his leave, with many condescending protestations. The Lord Welles and his friends loitered a little time after he was gone, and the Scottish knights having by this time risen from the council board, he mingled familiarly among them.“This dismissal of mine is something of the suddenest,” said he, in a general kind of manner, to a few of them who were clustered together. “Can any umbrage have been taken? Is it possible King Robert can mean to steal a march on His Majesty of England, and cross the Border ere he giveth him warning? or hath he already done so with an English envoy in his territories?”He paused after each of these short interrogatories, as if in the hope of fishing out a reply from some one, which might instruct him in the extent of the information that had come from the Scottish Monarch; but no one exhibited either the will or the power to gratify him, and he adroitly changed to another subject.“Ha! Sir David Lindsay,” said he, turning round and addressing that knight, “let us not forget to settle the engagement and darreigne that hath passed between us.”“Nay, trust me, that shall not I,” replied Sir David Lindsay; “I but waited until thou hadst concluded thy weightier and more pressing affairs, to entreat thee that we may enter into our articles of tilting now. I do hope that nothing may arise to baulk us of our sport.”“What, I beseech thee, can baulk us?” demanded the Lord[332]Welles slyly, and probably with the hope that he would yet catch what he had been angling for, by throwing this long line, and drawing it so skilfully round.“Nay, I know not,” replied Sir David Lindsay readily; “thou mightst have repented thee peraunter, and it would have sorely grieved me hadst thou wished to draw thy head from our agreement.”“Depardieux, thou needest be in no dread of that, Sir David; I am not a man of that kidney, I promise thee,” hastily replied the Lord Welles, in some degree thrown off his guard by the gentle touch which Lindsay had given to his honour; “for whether it be in war or in peace thou shalt have a safe-conduct from King Richard, if I have the influence that I do believe I have; yea, a safe-conduct for thee and thine, that thou mayest on thy part fulfil thy behote. Let us straightway hasten to arrange and register the terms of our meeting.”“’Tis well thought of,” said Sir David Lindsay; “let us have a clerk to put our mutual challenge in proper style, and distinct and lasting characters, that, each of us having a copy thereof, neither of us may mistake.”A scrivener was accordingly sent for, and the council board, again ordained to change the service it was destined to, now became a theatre, where the nicest points of chivalry and the minutest rules of tilting were canvassed at greater length and with more eagerness of debate than had been bestowed on the much more important business which had been previously gone through there. The superfine judgment of Sir Piers Courtenay in such matters was singularly pre-eminent; and his auditors were extremely edified by some long and very learned disquisitions with which he was pleased to favour them. At length everything was happily adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties, and written copies of the terms being signed and exchanged between the two principals in the proposed affair, they cordially shook hands and separated, with many chivalric and courteous speeches to each other.Things were no sooner settled thus, than several Scottish knights pressed forward to entreat Sir David Lindsay that they might be permitted to bear him company when the time should be finally fixed. The first of these was Sir William de Dalzell, and another was Sir Patrick Hepborne. To these, and to Sir John Halyburton, Sir David Lindsay readily promised that places should be preserved, however limited a number the safe-conduct might be granted for; but he declined further promises until he could be sure of fulfilling them. The Scottish knights,[333]who had been all too much interested in what was going forward to permit them to leave the hall until everything was finally adjusted, now hastened to call their esquires, and to make those private preparations for travelling which were not publicly to appear until after the departure of the English envoy and his suite.
[Contents]CHAPTER XLVII.The Earl of Fife’s Council Meeting—The Challenge between the Scottish and English Knights.The health had hardly well gone round ere the shrill notes of a bugle were heard, followed by a stir that arose in the court-yard, the noise of which even reached the ears of those in the hall. A messenger had arrived express, and a letter was speedily delivered to the Earl of Fife.“Ha!” said he, with an air of surprise, as he surveyed the impression of the signet attached to the purple silk in which it was wrapped; and then hastily breaking it open, glanced rapidly over its contents.All eyes were turned towards him with eager inquiry. An[327]expression of earnest attention to what he read was very visibly marked on his features.“Your pardon, brother,” said he, starting up at length, after a moment’s thought; “I crave your pardon, and that of this honourable company, but this letter is from my Royal father, and on pressing state affairs. I must of needscost break up the banquet sooner than thy wonted hospitality would authorize me to demand of thee, were the business of a less urgent nature; but we must hold a council straightway to determine how we may best and most speedily fulfil the wishes of His Majesty. I shall wait thy coming in thy private apartment, and shall by and by hope for the attendance of such of the nobles and knights here assembled as may be required to aid our resolves.”Having said so, the Earl of Fife bowed graciously to the company with such a sweeping, yet particularizing glance, as left each individual in the firm belief that he had been especially distinguished by the great man’s notice; and, putting his hand into his bosom, he moved down the hall with all the appearance of being instantly absorbed in deep reflection.The Lord Welles and his suite of English knights, darting very significant looks towards one another, sat a few minutes, and then rising, retired in a body. The Countess of Moray, and the rest of the ladies, also soon afterwards left the board, and sought their apartments, and the Earl of Moray instantly broke up the banquet, and hastened to join his brother the Earl of Fife, taking with him the Earl of Douglas and the Earl of Dunbar. Such of the Scottish nobles and knights, however, as conceived that their presence might be required at the expected council, continued to pace the ample pavement in small parties, or to stand grouped together in little knots, all exercising their ingenuity in guessing at the probable cause and nature of so sudden and unlooked-for, and apparently so important a communication. The most prevalent surmise was, that a war with England was to be declared, and the very thought of such a thing gave joy to every manly bosom. Suspicions of the prospect of a rupture between the two countries had begun to be pretty general of late; and the circumstance of bringing down the English ambassadors to Tarnawa, was by some, who affected to be deeper read in such matters than others, interpreted into a fine piece of state policy to keep them out of the way, while preparations were maturing for the more powerful and successful commencement of hostilities on the part of Scotland. All were impatient to know the truth, and when a messenger came to the door of the hall with a roll of names, which he read over, calling[328]on those of the nobles and knights who were named in it, to remain in the hall, and take their places at the board, at the upper end of it, according to their rank, those who were so selected could not well hide their satisfaction, while those who were compelled to withdraw did so with extreme reluctance.Sir Patrick Hepborne was overjoyed to find that he was to be one of those in whom the Earl of Fife wished to confide. He took his seat at the table with the rest, and the most profound silence succeeded to the sounds of mirth and pleasure which had so lately reigned within the hall. Whatever conjectures might have escaped the lips of those around the board, whilst they mingled carelessly with those who were idly speculating on the probable purport of the King’s message, they now considered the seal of silence imposed on their lips, by their being selected as councillors; and accordingly they sat gazing at each other with grave and solemn looks, calmly awaiting the arrival of the Earl of Fife. Certain faces there were which betrayed something like a consciousness of greater self-importance than the rest, as if they either knew, or would have had others believe that they knew, something more than those around them. But whatever they knew or thought they ventured not to express it.At length the Earls of Fife, Moray, Douglas, and Dunbar appeared, and took their seats at the upper end of the table. All eyes and ears were fixed in attention; and the Earl of Fife, laying the King’s letter and packet on the table, began to open the business he had to communicate to them.“My Lords and Gentlemen,” said he, in a tone of voice which, though audible enough to every one of them, was yet too low to have found its way through any of the crannies of the door at the farther end of the hall, “I shall be as brief as possible with you. Ye all know how great is my consideration for you individually, so I trust that I have no need to waste time in assuring ye of my love for ye all, or of the zeal with which I am filled for promoting your respective interests. Highly sensible am I of the great blessing that hath befallen Scotland, in raising up such store of wisdom and valour among her sons, as I do know to exist in the persons of the noble lords and honourable knights by whom I have now the felicity of being surrounded; and I do the more congratulate myself upon this knowledge at the present time, seeing that the wisdom and the valour I have spoken of must now be called forth into important action. For, to withhold the news from you no longer, Scotland is about to be, nay, more probably hath been already invaded—a large army having hovered on the Eastern Marches, threatening[329]the Merse with fire and sword, the which may have ere this been poured out upon them. Your good King, and my Royal father, hath sent this intelligence express from Aberdeen, where he now abideth, at the same time commanding our instant attendance there to counsel and advise him, and to receive his orders for our future conduct. We are, moreover, directed to lead thither with us all the strength of dependants we can muster, and to take such immediate measures as may ensure the instant gathering of those districts which are under the control of each of us respectively. A large force must of needscost be quickly got together; it is therefore highly expedient that our vassals should be forthcoming with as little delay as possible, that they may be ready to unite themselves with the host wheresoever and whensoever it may assemble. Such of us as are wanted at Aberdeen must set forward to-morrow. These, then, are the matters and the commands which my Royal father sends you, and which I, as his organ, have been instructed to convey to you.”A murmur of applause ran round the table. Broken sentences burst from the respective knights, each shortly but pithily expressing the satisfaction he felt at the prospect of having something more serious than jousting to occupy him.“I have yet one more communication to make, my Lords and Gentlemen, of which you must be the witnesses, and I need not say that I entreat you to be the silent witnesses of it. I must convey to the Lord Welles intelligence, which I am not without suspicion he hath been for some time anticipating, from his own private knowledge of events. I mean to crave an immediate conference with him here in your presence; but it is my wish that no one whom I have here admitted to my confidence will talk to him, or any of the English knights, either now or afterwards of anything I have mentioned. I have to communicate to the Lord Welles the King’s license for his departure, and I hope I do not ask too much when I beg that I may be left to do so entirely unassisted, and that nothing he or his shall say may provoke ye to speak. Silence will best accord with your dignity. Go, brother, my Lord Earl of Moray, so please thee, and entreat the presence of the Lord Welles among us, with such of his suite as he may list to accompany him.”The Earl of Moray hastened to obey his brother-in-law, and, during his absence, the Earl of Fife seemed to have retreated into his own thoughts. The knights who sat with him remained in still contemplation of him and of one another. The English envoy was received with dignified decorum.[330]“My Lord Welles,” said the Earl of Fife to him after he was seated, “I have now to perform a piece of duty to my King, the which, as it regardeth thee, doth particularly erke me. As thou art thyself aware, I have this night received a letter from His Majesty, and I have now to tell thee, that in it I am commanded to inform thee that he will dispense with thy further attendance at his Royal Court. In so far as our personal intercourse hath gone, I have good reason to regret that it is to be discontinued so soon; and the more so that it hath fallen into my hands to snap it. This parchment, which I have now the honour of presenting to thee, doth contain a safe-conduct for thee, and all with thee, to return into thy native country by the shortest possible route. It doleth me much that we are to be so soon reft of thine agreeable society. Yea, the removal of thy presence is most especially galling at such a time, when all was prepared for making the days of thy stay in Scotland as light as mought be. Our coming tourney will be nought without thee.”“My Lord of Fife, of a truth this is a most sudden and unlooked-for event,” said the Lord Welles, with the appearance, if not with the reality, of surprise on his countenance. “Hath any reason been assigned, the which it may be permitted thee to utter to me?”“His Majesty’s reasons, my good Lord, are not always given,” replied the Earl of Fife, evasively; “but thou knowest that it is the part of a subject implicitly to obey, without inquiring too curiously into the nature of the wires that may be on the stretch to put him in motion; and I must submit as well as others. Hast thou had no communications lately from thine own court?”“If thy coming tourney doth ever hold,” said the Lord Welles, altogether avoiding the home question of the Earl of Fife, and glancing curiously into the faces of those around him, “it will suffer little in its pomp or circumstance, I trow, from my departure, where thou hast so great an assemblage of Scottish knights to give lustre to it, but if they should be called away, indeed, by anything connected with my dismissal, it may in that case dwindle, peraunter, and expire of very consumption ere it hath been well born.”The Lord Welles’s eyes returned from their excursion round the table, without displaying signs of having gathered anything from the firm Scottish countenances they had scanned.“And when must I of needscost set forward, my Lord?” continued the Lord Welles, addressing the Earl of Fife.“A party of lances will be in waiting to-morrow morning by[331]sunrise, to guide and protect thee on thy way, and I do believe that thou wilt find that sufficient time hath been given thee in the parchment thou hast, to make the journey easy. Shouldst thou, peradventure, covet the provision of anything that may contribute to thy comfort or expedition, the which I may have the power to procure for thee, I do beseech thee to let me be informed, and it shall be mine especial care that thou mayest be gratified.”“Nay, my Lord Earl of Fife, I lack nothing,” replied the Lord Welles.“And now, then, my good Lord, I bid thee good night,” said the Earl of Fife. “Farewell; it will give me joy again to meet with thee as a friend, until when may St. George be with thee.”“Receive our fullest thanks for all thy gracious courtesy,” replied the Lord Welles.The Earl of Fife now arose with the Earls Douglas, Moray, and Dunbar, and took his leave, with many condescending protestations. The Lord Welles and his friends loitered a little time after he was gone, and the Scottish knights having by this time risen from the council board, he mingled familiarly among them.“This dismissal of mine is something of the suddenest,” said he, in a general kind of manner, to a few of them who were clustered together. “Can any umbrage have been taken? Is it possible King Robert can mean to steal a march on His Majesty of England, and cross the Border ere he giveth him warning? or hath he already done so with an English envoy in his territories?”He paused after each of these short interrogatories, as if in the hope of fishing out a reply from some one, which might instruct him in the extent of the information that had come from the Scottish Monarch; but no one exhibited either the will or the power to gratify him, and he adroitly changed to another subject.“Ha! Sir David Lindsay,” said he, turning round and addressing that knight, “let us not forget to settle the engagement and darreigne that hath passed between us.”“Nay, trust me, that shall not I,” replied Sir David Lindsay; “I but waited until thou hadst concluded thy weightier and more pressing affairs, to entreat thee that we may enter into our articles of tilting now. I do hope that nothing may arise to baulk us of our sport.”“What, I beseech thee, can baulk us?” demanded the Lord[332]Welles slyly, and probably with the hope that he would yet catch what he had been angling for, by throwing this long line, and drawing it so skilfully round.“Nay, I know not,” replied Sir David Lindsay readily; “thou mightst have repented thee peraunter, and it would have sorely grieved me hadst thou wished to draw thy head from our agreement.”“Depardieux, thou needest be in no dread of that, Sir David; I am not a man of that kidney, I promise thee,” hastily replied the Lord Welles, in some degree thrown off his guard by the gentle touch which Lindsay had given to his honour; “for whether it be in war or in peace thou shalt have a safe-conduct from King Richard, if I have the influence that I do believe I have; yea, a safe-conduct for thee and thine, that thou mayest on thy part fulfil thy behote. Let us straightway hasten to arrange and register the terms of our meeting.”“’Tis well thought of,” said Sir David Lindsay; “let us have a clerk to put our mutual challenge in proper style, and distinct and lasting characters, that, each of us having a copy thereof, neither of us may mistake.”A scrivener was accordingly sent for, and the council board, again ordained to change the service it was destined to, now became a theatre, where the nicest points of chivalry and the minutest rules of tilting were canvassed at greater length and with more eagerness of debate than had been bestowed on the much more important business which had been previously gone through there. The superfine judgment of Sir Piers Courtenay in such matters was singularly pre-eminent; and his auditors were extremely edified by some long and very learned disquisitions with which he was pleased to favour them. At length everything was happily adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties, and written copies of the terms being signed and exchanged between the two principals in the proposed affair, they cordially shook hands and separated, with many chivalric and courteous speeches to each other.Things were no sooner settled thus, than several Scottish knights pressed forward to entreat Sir David Lindsay that they might be permitted to bear him company when the time should be finally fixed. The first of these was Sir William de Dalzell, and another was Sir Patrick Hepborne. To these, and to Sir John Halyburton, Sir David Lindsay readily promised that places should be preserved, however limited a number the safe-conduct might be granted for; but he declined further promises until he could be sure of fulfilling them. The Scottish knights,[333]who had been all too much interested in what was going forward to permit them to leave the hall until everything was finally adjusted, now hastened to call their esquires, and to make those private preparations for travelling which were not publicly to appear until after the departure of the English envoy and his suite.
CHAPTER XLVII.The Earl of Fife’s Council Meeting—The Challenge between the Scottish and English Knights.
The Earl of Fife’s Council Meeting—The Challenge between the Scottish and English Knights.
The Earl of Fife’s Council Meeting—The Challenge between the Scottish and English Knights.
The health had hardly well gone round ere the shrill notes of a bugle were heard, followed by a stir that arose in the court-yard, the noise of which even reached the ears of those in the hall. A messenger had arrived express, and a letter was speedily delivered to the Earl of Fife.“Ha!” said he, with an air of surprise, as he surveyed the impression of the signet attached to the purple silk in which it was wrapped; and then hastily breaking it open, glanced rapidly over its contents.All eyes were turned towards him with eager inquiry. An[327]expression of earnest attention to what he read was very visibly marked on his features.“Your pardon, brother,” said he, starting up at length, after a moment’s thought; “I crave your pardon, and that of this honourable company, but this letter is from my Royal father, and on pressing state affairs. I must of needscost break up the banquet sooner than thy wonted hospitality would authorize me to demand of thee, were the business of a less urgent nature; but we must hold a council straightway to determine how we may best and most speedily fulfil the wishes of His Majesty. I shall wait thy coming in thy private apartment, and shall by and by hope for the attendance of such of the nobles and knights here assembled as may be required to aid our resolves.”Having said so, the Earl of Fife bowed graciously to the company with such a sweeping, yet particularizing glance, as left each individual in the firm belief that he had been especially distinguished by the great man’s notice; and, putting his hand into his bosom, he moved down the hall with all the appearance of being instantly absorbed in deep reflection.The Lord Welles and his suite of English knights, darting very significant looks towards one another, sat a few minutes, and then rising, retired in a body. The Countess of Moray, and the rest of the ladies, also soon afterwards left the board, and sought their apartments, and the Earl of Moray instantly broke up the banquet, and hastened to join his brother the Earl of Fife, taking with him the Earl of Douglas and the Earl of Dunbar. Such of the Scottish nobles and knights, however, as conceived that their presence might be required at the expected council, continued to pace the ample pavement in small parties, or to stand grouped together in little knots, all exercising their ingenuity in guessing at the probable cause and nature of so sudden and unlooked-for, and apparently so important a communication. The most prevalent surmise was, that a war with England was to be declared, and the very thought of such a thing gave joy to every manly bosom. Suspicions of the prospect of a rupture between the two countries had begun to be pretty general of late; and the circumstance of bringing down the English ambassadors to Tarnawa, was by some, who affected to be deeper read in such matters than others, interpreted into a fine piece of state policy to keep them out of the way, while preparations were maturing for the more powerful and successful commencement of hostilities on the part of Scotland. All were impatient to know the truth, and when a messenger came to the door of the hall with a roll of names, which he read over, calling[328]on those of the nobles and knights who were named in it, to remain in the hall, and take their places at the board, at the upper end of it, according to their rank, those who were so selected could not well hide their satisfaction, while those who were compelled to withdraw did so with extreme reluctance.Sir Patrick Hepborne was overjoyed to find that he was to be one of those in whom the Earl of Fife wished to confide. He took his seat at the table with the rest, and the most profound silence succeeded to the sounds of mirth and pleasure which had so lately reigned within the hall. Whatever conjectures might have escaped the lips of those around the board, whilst they mingled carelessly with those who were idly speculating on the probable purport of the King’s message, they now considered the seal of silence imposed on their lips, by their being selected as councillors; and accordingly they sat gazing at each other with grave and solemn looks, calmly awaiting the arrival of the Earl of Fife. Certain faces there were which betrayed something like a consciousness of greater self-importance than the rest, as if they either knew, or would have had others believe that they knew, something more than those around them. But whatever they knew or thought they ventured not to express it.At length the Earls of Fife, Moray, Douglas, and Dunbar appeared, and took their seats at the upper end of the table. All eyes and ears were fixed in attention; and the Earl of Fife, laying the King’s letter and packet on the table, began to open the business he had to communicate to them.“My Lords and Gentlemen,” said he, in a tone of voice which, though audible enough to every one of them, was yet too low to have found its way through any of the crannies of the door at the farther end of the hall, “I shall be as brief as possible with you. Ye all know how great is my consideration for you individually, so I trust that I have no need to waste time in assuring ye of my love for ye all, or of the zeal with which I am filled for promoting your respective interests. Highly sensible am I of the great blessing that hath befallen Scotland, in raising up such store of wisdom and valour among her sons, as I do know to exist in the persons of the noble lords and honourable knights by whom I have now the felicity of being surrounded; and I do the more congratulate myself upon this knowledge at the present time, seeing that the wisdom and the valour I have spoken of must now be called forth into important action. For, to withhold the news from you no longer, Scotland is about to be, nay, more probably hath been already invaded—a large army having hovered on the Eastern Marches, threatening[329]the Merse with fire and sword, the which may have ere this been poured out upon them. Your good King, and my Royal father, hath sent this intelligence express from Aberdeen, where he now abideth, at the same time commanding our instant attendance there to counsel and advise him, and to receive his orders for our future conduct. We are, moreover, directed to lead thither with us all the strength of dependants we can muster, and to take such immediate measures as may ensure the instant gathering of those districts which are under the control of each of us respectively. A large force must of needscost be quickly got together; it is therefore highly expedient that our vassals should be forthcoming with as little delay as possible, that they may be ready to unite themselves with the host wheresoever and whensoever it may assemble. Such of us as are wanted at Aberdeen must set forward to-morrow. These, then, are the matters and the commands which my Royal father sends you, and which I, as his organ, have been instructed to convey to you.”A murmur of applause ran round the table. Broken sentences burst from the respective knights, each shortly but pithily expressing the satisfaction he felt at the prospect of having something more serious than jousting to occupy him.“I have yet one more communication to make, my Lords and Gentlemen, of which you must be the witnesses, and I need not say that I entreat you to be the silent witnesses of it. I must convey to the Lord Welles intelligence, which I am not without suspicion he hath been for some time anticipating, from his own private knowledge of events. I mean to crave an immediate conference with him here in your presence; but it is my wish that no one whom I have here admitted to my confidence will talk to him, or any of the English knights, either now or afterwards of anything I have mentioned. I have to communicate to the Lord Welles the King’s license for his departure, and I hope I do not ask too much when I beg that I may be left to do so entirely unassisted, and that nothing he or his shall say may provoke ye to speak. Silence will best accord with your dignity. Go, brother, my Lord Earl of Moray, so please thee, and entreat the presence of the Lord Welles among us, with such of his suite as he may list to accompany him.”The Earl of Moray hastened to obey his brother-in-law, and, during his absence, the Earl of Fife seemed to have retreated into his own thoughts. The knights who sat with him remained in still contemplation of him and of one another. The English envoy was received with dignified decorum.[330]“My Lord Welles,” said the Earl of Fife to him after he was seated, “I have now to perform a piece of duty to my King, the which, as it regardeth thee, doth particularly erke me. As thou art thyself aware, I have this night received a letter from His Majesty, and I have now to tell thee, that in it I am commanded to inform thee that he will dispense with thy further attendance at his Royal Court. In so far as our personal intercourse hath gone, I have good reason to regret that it is to be discontinued so soon; and the more so that it hath fallen into my hands to snap it. This parchment, which I have now the honour of presenting to thee, doth contain a safe-conduct for thee, and all with thee, to return into thy native country by the shortest possible route. It doleth me much that we are to be so soon reft of thine agreeable society. Yea, the removal of thy presence is most especially galling at such a time, when all was prepared for making the days of thy stay in Scotland as light as mought be. Our coming tourney will be nought without thee.”“My Lord of Fife, of a truth this is a most sudden and unlooked-for event,” said the Lord Welles, with the appearance, if not with the reality, of surprise on his countenance. “Hath any reason been assigned, the which it may be permitted thee to utter to me?”“His Majesty’s reasons, my good Lord, are not always given,” replied the Earl of Fife, evasively; “but thou knowest that it is the part of a subject implicitly to obey, without inquiring too curiously into the nature of the wires that may be on the stretch to put him in motion; and I must submit as well as others. Hast thou had no communications lately from thine own court?”“If thy coming tourney doth ever hold,” said the Lord Welles, altogether avoiding the home question of the Earl of Fife, and glancing curiously into the faces of those around him, “it will suffer little in its pomp or circumstance, I trow, from my departure, where thou hast so great an assemblage of Scottish knights to give lustre to it, but if they should be called away, indeed, by anything connected with my dismissal, it may in that case dwindle, peraunter, and expire of very consumption ere it hath been well born.”The Lord Welles’s eyes returned from their excursion round the table, without displaying signs of having gathered anything from the firm Scottish countenances they had scanned.“And when must I of needscost set forward, my Lord?” continued the Lord Welles, addressing the Earl of Fife.“A party of lances will be in waiting to-morrow morning by[331]sunrise, to guide and protect thee on thy way, and I do believe that thou wilt find that sufficient time hath been given thee in the parchment thou hast, to make the journey easy. Shouldst thou, peradventure, covet the provision of anything that may contribute to thy comfort or expedition, the which I may have the power to procure for thee, I do beseech thee to let me be informed, and it shall be mine especial care that thou mayest be gratified.”“Nay, my Lord Earl of Fife, I lack nothing,” replied the Lord Welles.“And now, then, my good Lord, I bid thee good night,” said the Earl of Fife. “Farewell; it will give me joy again to meet with thee as a friend, until when may St. George be with thee.”“Receive our fullest thanks for all thy gracious courtesy,” replied the Lord Welles.The Earl of Fife now arose with the Earls Douglas, Moray, and Dunbar, and took his leave, with many condescending protestations. The Lord Welles and his friends loitered a little time after he was gone, and the Scottish knights having by this time risen from the council board, he mingled familiarly among them.“This dismissal of mine is something of the suddenest,” said he, in a general kind of manner, to a few of them who were clustered together. “Can any umbrage have been taken? Is it possible King Robert can mean to steal a march on His Majesty of England, and cross the Border ere he giveth him warning? or hath he already done so with an English envoy in his territories?”He paused after each of these short interrogatories, as if in the hope of fishing out a reply from some one, which might instruct him in the extent of the information that had come from the Scottish Monarch; but no one exhibited either the will or the power to gratify him, and he adroitly changed to another subject.“Ha! Sir David Lindsay,” said he, turning round and addressing that knight, “let us not forget to settle the engagement and darreigne that hath passed between us.”“Nay, trust me, that shall not I,” replied Sir David Lindsay; “I but waited until thou hadst concluded thy weightier and more pressing affairs, to entreat thee that we may enter into our articles of tilting now. I do hope that nothing may arise to baulk us of our sport.”“What, I beseech thee, can baulk us?” demanded the Lord[332]Welles slyly, and probably with the hope that he would yet catch what he had been angling for, by throwing this long line, and drawing it so skilfully round.“Nay, I know not,” replied Sir David Lindsay readily; “thou mightst have repented thee peraunter, and it would have sorely grieved me hadst thou wished to draw thy head from our agreement.”“Depardieux, thou needest be in no dread of that, Sir David; I am not a man of that kidney, I promise thee,” hastily replied the Lord Welles, in some degree thrown off his guard by the gentle touch which Lindsay had given to his honour; “for whether it be in war or in peace thou shalt have a safe-conduct from King Richard, if I have the influence that I do believe I have; yea, a safe-conduct for thee and thine, that thou mayest on thy part fulfil thy behote. Let us straightway hasten to arrange and register the terms of our meeting.”“’Tis well thought of,” said Sir David Lindsay; “let us have a clerk to put our mutual challenge in proper style, and distinct and lasting characters, that, each of us having a copy thereof, neither of us may mistake.”A scrivener was accordingly sent for, and the council board, again ordained to change the service it was destined to, now became a theatre, where the nicest points of chivalry and the minutest rules of tilting were canvassed at greater length and with more eagerness of debate than had been bestowed on the much more important business which had been previously gone through there. The superfine judgment of Sir Piers Courtenay in such matters was singularly pre-eminent; and his auditors were extremely edified by some long and very learned disquisitions with which he was pleased to favour them. At length everything was happily adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties, and written copies of the terms being signed and exchanged between the two principals in the proposed affair, they cordially shook hands and separated, with many chivalric and courteous speeches to each other.Things were no sooner settled thus, than several Scottish knights pressed forward to entreat Sir David Lindsay that they might be permitted to bear him company when the time should be finally fixed. The first of these was Sir William de Dalzell, and another was Sir Patrick Hepborne. To these, and to Sir John Halyburton, Sir David Lindsay readily promised that places should be preserved, however limited a number the safe-conduct might be granted for; but he declined further promises until he could be sure of fulfilling them. The Scottish knights,[333]who had been all too much interested in what was going forward to permit them to leave the hall until everything was finally adjusted, now hastened to call their esquires, and to make those private preparations for travelling which were not publicly to appear until after the departure of the English envoy and his suite.
The health had hardly well gone round ere the shrill notes of a bugle were heard, followed by a stir that arose in the court-yard, the noise of which even reached the ears of those in the hall. A messenger had arrived express, and a letter was speedily delivered to the Earl of Fife.
“Ha!” said he, with an air of surprise, as he surveyed the impression of the signet attached to the purple silk in which it was wrapped; and then hastily breaking it open, glanced rapidly over its contents.
All eyes were turned towards him with eager inquiry. An[327]expression of earnest attention to what he read was very visibly marked on his features.
“Your pardon, brother,” said he, starting up at length, after a moment’s thought; “I crave your pardon, and that of this honourable company, but this letter is from my Royal father, and on pressing state affairs. I must of needscost break up the banquet sooner than thy wonted hospitality would authorize me to demand of thee, were the business of a less urgent nature; but we must hold a council straightway to determine how we may best and most speedily fulfil the wishes of His Majesty. I shall wait thy coming in thy private apartment, and shall by and by hope for the attendance of such of the nobles and knights here assembled as may be required to aid our resolves.”
Having said so, the Earl of Fife bowed graciously to the company with such a sweeping, yet particularizing glance, as left each individual in the firm belief that he had been especially distinguished by the great man’s notice; and, putting his hand into his bosom, he moved down the hall with all the appearance of being instantly absorbed in deep reflection.
The Lord Welles and his suite of English knights, darting very significant looks towards one another, sat a few minutes, and then rising, retired in a body. The Countess of Moray, and the rest of the ladies, also soon afterwards left the board, and sought their apartments, and the Earl of Moray instantly broke up the banquet, and hastened to join his brother the Earl of Fife, taking with him the Earl of Douglas and the Earl of Dunbar. Such of the Scottish nobles and knights, however, as conceived that their presence might be required at the expected council, continued to pace the ample pavement in small parties, or to stand grouped together in little knots, all exercising their ingenuity in guessing at the probable cause and nature of so sudden and unlooked-for, and apparently so important a communication. The most prevalent surmise was, that a war with England was to be declared, and the very thought of such a thing gave joy to every manly bosom. Suspicions of the prospect of a rupture between the two countries had begun to be pretty general of late; and the circumstance of bringing down the English ambassadors to Tarnawa, was by some, who affected to be deeper read in such matters than others, interpreted into a fine piece of state policy to keep them out of the way, while preparations were maturing for the more powerful and successful commencement of hostilities on the part of Scotland. All were impatient to know the truth, and when a messenger came to the door of the hall with a roll of names, which he read over, calling[328]on those of the nobles and knights who were named in it, to remain in the hall, and take their places at the board, at the upper end of it, according to their rank, those who were so selected could not well hide their satisfaction, while those who were compelled to withdraw did so with extreme reluctance.
Sir Patrick Hepborne was overjoyed to find that he was to be one of those in whom the Earl of Fife wished to confide. He took his seat at the table with the rest, and the most profound silence succeeded to the sounds of mirth and pleasure which had so lately reigned within the hall. Whatever conjectures might have escaped the lips of those around the board, whilst they mingled carelessly with those who were idly speculating on the probable purport of the King’s message, they now considered the seal of silence imposed on their lips, by their being selected as councillors; and accordingly they sat gazing at each other with grave and solemn looks, calmly awaiting the arrival of the Earl of Fife. Certain faces there were which betrayed something like a consciousness of greater self-importance than the rest, as if they either knew, or would have had others believe that they knew, something more than those around them. But whatever they knew or thought they ventured not to express it.
At length the Earls of Fife, Moray, Douglas, and Dunbar appeared, and took their seats at the upper end of the table. All eyes and ears were fixed in attention; and the Earl of Fife, laying the King’s letter and packet on the table, began to open the business he had to communicate to them.
“My Lords and Gentlemen,” said he, in a tone of voice which, though audible enough to every one of them, was yet too low to have found its way through any of the crannies of the door at the farther end of the hall, “I shall be as brief as possible with you. Ye all know how great is my consideration for you individually, so I trust that I have no need to waste time in assuring ye of my love for ye all, or of the zeal with which I am filled for promoting your respective interests. Highly sensible am I of the great blessing that hath befallen Scotland, in raising up such store of wisdom and valour among her sons, as I do know to exist in the persons of the noble lords and honourable knights by whom I have now the felicity of being surrounded; and I do the more congratulate myself upon this knowledge at the present time, seeing that the wisdom and the valour I have spoken of must now be called forth into important action. For, to withhold the news from you no longer, Scotland is about to be, nay, more probably hath been already invaded—a large army having hovered on the Eastern Marches, threatening[329]the Merse with fire and sword, the which may have ere this been poured out upon them. Your good King, and my Royal father, hath sent this intelligence express from Aberdeen, where he now abideth, at the same time commanding our instant attendance there to counsel and advise him, and to receive his orders for our future conduct. We are, moreover, directed to lead thither with us all the strength of dependants we can muster, and to take such immediate measures as may ensure the instant gathering of those districts which are under the control of each of us respectively. A large force must of needscost be quickly got together; it is therefore highly expedient that our vassals should be forthcoming with as little delay as possible, that they may be ready to unite themselves with the host wheresoever and whensoever it may assemble. Such of us as are wanted at Aberdeen must set forward to-morrow. These, then, are the matters and the commands which my Royal father sends you, and which I, as his organ, have been instructed to convey to you.”
A murmur of applause ran round the table. Broken sentences burst from the respective knights, each shortly but pithily expressing the satisfaction he felt at the prospect of having something more serious than jousting to occupy him.
“I have yet one more communication to make, my Lords and Gentlemen, of which you must be the witnesses, and I need not say that I entreat you to be the silent witnesses of it. I must convey to the Lord Welles intelligence, which I am not without suspicion he hath been for some time anticipating, from his own private knowledge of events. I mean to crave an immediate conference with him here in your presence; but it is my wish that no one whom I have here admitted to my confidence will talk to him, or any of the English knights, either now or afterwards of anything I have mentioned. I have to communicate to the Lord Welles the King’s license for his departure, and I hope I do not ask too much when I beg that I may be left to do so entirely unassisted, and that nothing he or his shall say may provoke ye to speak. Silence will best accord with your dignity. Go, brother, my Lord Earl of Moray, so please thee, and entreat the presence of the Lord Welles among us, with such of his suite as he may list to accompany him.”
The Earl of Moray hastened to obey his brother-in-law, and, during his absence, the Earl of Fife seemed to have retreated into his own thoughts. The knights who sat with him remained in still contemplation of him and of one another. The English envoy was received with dignified decorum.[330]
“My Lord Welles,” said the Earl of Fife to him after he was seated, “I have now to perform a piece of duty to my King, the which, as it regardeth thee, doth particularly erke me. As thou art thyself aware, I have this night received a letter from His Majesty, and I have now to tell thee, that in it I am commanded to inform thee that he will dispense with thy further attendance at his Royal Court. In so far as our personal intercourse hath gone, I have good reason to regret that it is to be discontinued so soon; and the more so that it hath fallen into my hands to snap it. This parchment, which I have now the honour of presenting to thee, doth contain a safe-conduct for thee, and all with thee, to return into thy native country by the shortest possible route. It doleth me much that we are to be so soon reft of thine agreeable society. Yea, the removal of thy presence is most especially galling at such a time, when all was prepared for making the days of thy stay in Scotland as light as mought be. Our coming tourney will be nought without thee.”
“My Lord of Fife, of a truth this is a most sudden and unlooked-for event,” said the Lord Welles, with the appearance, if not with the reality, of surprise on his countenance. “Hath any reason been assigned, the which it may be permitted thee to utter to me?”
“His Majesty’s reasons, my good Lord, are not always given,” replied the Earl of Fife, evasively; “but thou knowest that it is the part of a subject implicitly to obey, without inquiring too curiously into the nature of the wires that may be on the stretch to put him in motion; and I must submit as well as others. Hast thou had no communications lately from thine own court?”
“If thy coming tourney doth ever hold,” said the Lord Welles, altogether avoiding the home question of the Earl of Fife, and glancing curiously into the faces of those around him, “it will suffer little in its pomp or circumstance, I trow, from my departure, where thou hast so great an assemblage of Scottish knights to give lustre to it, but if they should be called away, indeed, by anything connected with my dismissal, it may in that case dwindle, peraunter, and expire of very consumption ere it hath been well born.”
The Lord Welles’s eyes returned from their excursion round the table, without displaying signs of having gathered anything from the firm Scottish countenances they had scanned.
“And when must I of needscost set forward, my Lord?” continued the Lord Welles, addressing the Earl of Fife.
“A party of lances will be in waiting to-morrow morning by[331]sunrise, to guide and protect thee on thy way, and I do believe that thou wilt find that sufficient time hath been given thee in the parchment thou hast, to make the journey easy. Shouldst thou, peradventure, covet the provision of anything that may contribute to thy comfort or expedition, the which I may have the power to procure for thee, I do beseech thee to let me be informed, and it shall be mine especial care that thou mayest be gratified.”
“Nay, my Lord Earl of Fife, I lack nothing,” replied the Lord Welles.
“And now, then, my good Lord, I bid thee good night,” said the Earl of Fife. “Farewell; it will give me joy again to meet with thee as a friend, until when may St. George be with thee.”
“Receive our fullest thanks for all thy gracious courtesy,” replied the Lord Welles.
The Earl of Fife now arose with the Earls Douglas, Moray, and Dunbar, and took his leave, with many condescending protestations. The Lord Welles and his friends loitered a little time after he was gone, and the Scottish knights having by this time risen from the council board, he mingled familiarly among them.
“This dismissal of mine is something of the suddenest,” said he, in a general kind of manner, to a few of them who were clustered together. “Can any umbrage have been taken? Is it possible King Robert can mean to steal a march on His Majesty of England, and cross the Border ere he giveth him warning? or hath he already done so with an English envoy in his territories?”
He paused after each of these short interrogatories, as if in the hope of fishing out a reply from some one, which might instruct him in the extent of the information that had come from the Scottish Monarch; but no one exhibited either the will or the power to gratify him, and he adroitly changed to another subject.
“Ha! Sir David Lindsay,” said he, turning round and addressing that knight, “let us not forget to settle the engagement and darreigne that hath passed between us.”
“Nay, trust me, that shall not I,” replied Sir David Lindsay; “I but waited until thou hadst concluded thy weightier and more pressing affairs, to entreat thee that we may enter into our articles of tilting now. I do hope that nothing may arise to baulk us of our sport.”
“What, I beseech thee, can baulk us?” demanded the Lord[332]Welles slyly, and probably with the hope that he would yet catch what he had been angling for, by throwing this long line, and drawing it so skilfully round.
“Nay, I know not,” replied Sir David Lindsay readily; “thou mightst have repented thee peraunter, and it would have sorely grieved me hadst thou wished to draw thy head from our agreement.”
“Depardieux, thou needest be in no dread of that, Sir David; I am not a man of that kidney, I promise thee,” hastily replied the Lord Welles, in some degree thrown off his guard by the gentle touch which Lindsay had given to his honour; “for whether it be in war or in peace thou shalt have a safe-conduct from King Richard, if I have the influence that I do believe I have; yea, a safe-conduct for thee and thine, that thou mayest on thy part fulfil thy behote. Let us straightway hasten to arrange and register the terms of our meeting.”
“’Tis well thought of,” said Sir David Lindsay; “let us have a clerk to put our mutual challenge in proper style, and distinct and lasting characters, that, each of us having a copy thereof, neither of us may mistake.”
A scrivener was accordingly sent for, and the council board, again ordained to change the service it was destined to, now became a theatre, where the nicest points of chivalry and the minutest rules of tilting were canvassed at greater length and with more eagerness of debate than had been bestowed on the much more important business which had been previously gone through there. The superfine judgment of Sir Piers Courtenay in such matters was singularly pre-eminent; and his auditors were extremely edified by some long and very learned disquisitions with which he was pleased to favour them. At length everything was happily adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties, and written copies of the terms being signed and exchanged between the two principals in the proposed affair, they cordially shook hands and separated, with many chivalric and courteous speeches to each other.
Things were no sooner settled thus, than several Scottish knights pressed forward to entreat Sir David Lindsay that they might be permitted to bear him company when the time should be finally fixed. The first of these was Sir William de Dalzell, and another was Sir Patrick Hepborne. To these, and to Sir John Halyburton, Sir David Lindsay readily promised that places should be preserved, however limited a number the safe-conduct might be granted for; but he declined further promises until he could be sure of fulfilling them. The Scottish knights,[333]who had been all too much interested in what was going forward to permit them to leave the hall until everything was finally adjusted, now hastened to call their esquires, and to make those private preparations for travelling which were not publicly to appear until after the departure of the English envoy and his suite.