THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

peace be with her!-she had the ill-luck to meddle in | once more, I commend you to your pillow, my pearl
the matter of Somerset and Overbury, and so the of pearls, and Marguerite of Marguerites!"
great earl and his lady slipt their necks out of the
collar, and left her and some half-dozen others to
suffer in their stead. I shall never forget the sight of
her standing on the scaffold with the ruff round her
pretty neck, all done up with the yellow starch which
I had so often helped her to make, and that was so
soon to give place to a rough hempen cord. Such
a sight, sweetheart, will make one loath to meddle
with matters that are too hot or heavy for their hand-
ling."

"Out, you fool!" answered Mistress Margaret;
"am I one to speak to you about such criminal prac-
tices as that wretch died for? All I desire of you is,
to get me precise knowledge of what affair brings
this young nobleman to Court."

And when you have his secret," said Ursula, "what will it avail you, sweetheart ?-and yet would do your errand, if you could do as much for me." "And what is it you would have of me?" said Mistress Margaret.

What you have been angry with me for asking before," answered Dame Ursula. "I want to have some light about the story of your godfather's ghost, that is only seen at prayers."

"Not for the world," said Mistress Margaret, "will I be a spy on my kind godfather's secrets-No, Ursula that I will never pry into, which he desires to keep hidden. But thou knowest that I have a fortune of my own, which must at no distant day come under my own management-think of some other recompense.

in anxious silence. "I did ill," she at length murmured, "to let her wring this out of me; but she is Margaret Ramsay looked after her for some time, artful, bold, and serviceable and I think faithfulthat I can command. I would I had not spoken, however I have begun a hopeless work. For what or, if not, she will be true at least to her interest, and has he said to me, to warrant my meddling in his fortunes ?-Nothing but words of the most ordinary imknows"-she said, and then broke off, looking at the port-mere table-talk, and terms of course. Yet who great beauty, probably suggested to her mind a more favourable conclusion of the sentence than she cared glass the while; which, as it reflected back a face of to trust her tongue withal.

"Of that I can say no great matter, as yet," answered Dame Ursula; "only I know, the most powerful among his own countrymen are against him, and also the most powerful at the Court here. But I will learn more of it; for it will be a dim print that I will not read for your sake, pretty Mistress Margaret. Know you where this gallant dwells?"

"I heard by accident," said Margaret, as if ashamed of the minute particularity of her memory upon such an occasion," he lodges, I think-at one Christie's -if I mistake not-at Paul's Wharf-a ship-chandler's."

A proper lodging for a young baron!-Well, but cheer you up, Mistress Margaret-If he has come up a caterpillar, like some of his countrymen, he may cast his slough like them, and come out a butterfly.So I drink good-night, and sweet dreams to you, in another parting cup of sack; and you shall hear tidings of me within four-and-twenty hours. And, She was the widow of a physician, and had been eminently beautiful, as appears from the description of her in the poem called Overbury's Vision. There was produced in court a parcel of dolls or puppets belonging to this lady, some naked, some dressed, and which she used for exhibiting fashions upon. But, greatly to the horror of the spectators, who accounted these figures to be magical devices, there was, on their being shown, "heard a crack from the scaffold, which caused great fear, tumult, and confusion, among the spectators and throughout the hall, every one fearing hurt, as if the devil had been present, and grown angry to have his workmanship showed to such as were not his own scholars. History of King James for the First Fourteen Years, 1651, with Compare this curious passage in the the Aulicus Coquinarius of Dr. Heylin. Both works are published in the Secret History of King James.

to enrich her discourse with the metaphors of those
with whom her husband dealt.
gallant in the presence-so much had she been able

Heriot arrived, handsomely manned and appointed,
having a tilt with his own cipher, and the arms of
At the appointed hour, the barge of Master George
his company painted thereupon.

friend, who had evinced such disinterested attachment, with the kind courtesy which well became him. The young Lord of Glenvarloch received the

bounty of his Sovereign; which he paid over to his Master Heriot then made him acquainted with the advanced to him. Nigel felt all the gratitude which the citizen's disinterested friendship had deserved, young friend, declining what he had himself formerly and was not wanting in expressing it suitably.

barked to go to the presence of his Prince, under the patronage of one whose best, or most distinguished Yet, as the young and high-born nobleman emqualification, was his being an eminent member of the Goldsmith's Incorporation, he felt a little surprised, if not abashed, at his own situation; and Richie Moniplies, as he stepped over the gangway to take his place forward in the boat, could not help muttering,-"It was a changed day betwixt Master Heriot and his honest father in the Kræemes; but, doubtless, there was a difference between clinking on gold and silver, and clattering upon pewter."

four stout watermen, along the Thames, which then
served for the principal high-road betwixt London
On they glided, by the assistance of the oars of
and Westminster; for few ventured on horseback

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

through the narrow and crowded streets of the city, and coaches were then a luxury reserved only for the higher nobility, and to which no citizen, whatever was his wealth, presumed to aspire. The beauty of the banks, especially on the northern side, where the gardens of the nobility descended from their hotels, in many places, down to the water's edge, was pointed out to Nigel by his kind conductor, and was pointed out in vain. The mind of the young Lord of Glenvarloch was filled with anticipations, not the most pleasant, concerning the manner in which he was likely to be received by that monarch, in whose behalf his family had been nearly reduced to ruin; and he was, with the usual mental anxiety of those in such a situation, framing imaginary questions from the King, and over-toiling his spirit in devising answers to them.

His conductor saw the labour of Nigel's mind, and avoided increasing it by farther conversation; so that, when he had explained to him briefly the ceremonies observed at Court on such occasions of presentation, the rest of their voyage was performed in silence.

They landed at Whitehall Stairs, and entered the Palace after announcing their names,-the guards paying to Lord Glenvarloch the respect and honours due to his rank.

gether the honest citizen, to whom he owed many a
dinner, to attach himself exclusively to the young
lord, although he suspected he might be occasionally
in the predicament of needing one as much as himself.
And even the notice of this original, singular and
unamiable as he was, was not entirely indifferent to
Lord Glenvarloch, since the absolute and somewhat
constrained silence of his good friend Heriot, which
left him at liberty to retire painfully to his own
agitating reflections, was now relieved; while on the
other hand, he could not help feeling interest in the
sharp and sarcastic information poured upon him by
an observant, though discontented courtier, to whom
a patient auditor, and he a man of title and rank, was
as much a prize, as his acute and communicative
disposition rendered him an entertaining companion
to Nigel Olifaunt. Heriot, in the meantime, neglected
by Sir Mungo, and avoiding every attempt by which
the grateful politeness of Lord Glenvarloch strove
to bring him into the conversation, stood by, with
a kind of half smile on his countenance; but whether
did not exactly appear.
excited by Sir Mungo's wit, or arising at his expense,

In the meantime, the trio occupied a nook of the anteroom, next to the door of the presence-chamber, which was not yet thrown open, when Maxwell, with his rod of office, came bustling into the apartThe young man's heart beat high and thick within ment, where most men, excepting those of high him as he came into the royal apartments. His rank, made way for him. He stopped beside the pareducation abroad, conducted, as it had been, on a ty in which we are interested, looked for a moment narrow and limited scale, had given him but imper- at the young Scots nobleman, then made a slight fect ideas of the grandeur of a Court; and the philo- obeisance to Heriot, and lastly, addressing Sir Munsophical reflections which taught him to set cere-go Malagrowther, began a hurried complaint to him monial and exterior splendour at defiance, proved, of the misbehaviour of the gentlemen-pensioners like other maxims of mere philosophy, ineffectual, at and warders, who suffered all sort of citizens, suitors, the moment they were weighed against the impres- and scriveners, to sneak into the outer apartments, ion naturally made on the mind of an inexperienced without either respect or decency.-"The English," youth, by the unusual magnificence of the scene. he said, "were scandalized, for such a thing durst The splendid apartments through which they passed, not be attempted in the Queen's days. In her time, the rich apparel of the grooms, guards, and domes- there was then the court-yard for the mobility; and tics in waiting, and the ceremonial attending their the apartments for the nobility; and it reflects on passage through the long suite of apartments, had your place, Sir Mungo," he added, "belonging to the something in it, trifling and commonplace as it might household as you do, that such things should not be appear to practised courtiers, embarrassing and even better ordered." alarming, to one, who went through these forms for the first time, and who was doubtful what sort of reception was to accompany his first appearance before his Sovereign.

fashioner of honest repute, in Merlin's Wynd, whom I made a point to employ, as I am now happy to remember, seeing your father thought fit to intermarry with sic a person's daughter."

Maxwell looked stern; but conscious there was nothing to be got of Sir Mungo in the way of amends, and that prosecuting the quarrel with such an adversary would only render him ridiculous, and make a public mis-alliance of which he had no reason to be proud, he covered his resentment with a sneer; and expressing his regret that Sir Mungo was become too deaf to understand or attend to what was said to him, walked on, and planted himself beside the folding-doors of the presence-chamber, at which he was to perform the duty of deputy-chamberlain, or usher, so soon as they should be opened.

"The door of the presence is about to open," said the goldsmith, in a whisper, to his young friend; "my condition permits me to go no farther with you. Fail not to present yourself boldly, according to your See Note to Chapter VI., p. 32. Sir Mungo Malagrowther. birth, and offer your Supplication; which the King

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

will not refuse to accept, and, as I hope, to consider | over or conceal his own foibles, and had so much in[CHAP. IX. favourably." As he spoke, the door of the presence-chamber address, joined to his learning, and a certain propordulgence and sympathy for those of others, that his opened accordingly, and, as is usual on such occa- tion of shrewd mother-wit, failed not to make a fasions, the courtiers began to advance towards it, and vourable impression on those who approached his to enter in a slow, but continuous and uninterrupted person. stream. As Nigel presented himself in his turn at the entrance, and mentioned his name and title, Maxwell seemed to hesitate. one," he said. "It is my duty to suffer no one to "You are not known to any (pass to the presence, my lord, whose face is unknown to me, unless upon the word of a responsible person." "I came with Master George Heriot," said Nigel, in some embarrassment at this unexpected interruption. "Master Heriot's name will pass current for much" gold and silver, my lord," replied Maxwell, with a civil sneer, "but not for birth and rank. I am compelled by my office to be peremptory.-The entrance is impeded-I am much concerned to say it-your lordship must stand back."

to his sovereign, a ceremony which the good peer When the Earl of Huntinglen had presented Nigel took upon himself, the King received the young lord he was fain to see them twa stand side by side; very graciously, and observed to his introducer, that for I trow, my Lord Huntinglen," continued he, "your ancestors, ay, and e'en your lordship's self and this lad's father, have stood front to front at the sword's point, and that is a worse posture." made Lord Ochtred and me cross palms, upon the "Until your Majesty, memorable day when your Majesty feasted all the "said Lord Huntinglen, nobles that were at feud together, and made them join hands in your presence"

"I mind it weel," said the King; "I mind it weelof all days in the year-and it was a blithe sport to see it was a blessed day, being the nineteen of September, how some of the carls girned as they clapped loofs together. By my saul, I thought some of them, mair special the Hieland chiels, wad have broken out hand in hand to the Cross, ourselves leading the in our own presence; but we caused them to march way, and there drink a blithe cup of kindness with ilk other, to the stanching of feud, and perpetuation of amity. Auld John Anderson was Provost that year-the carle grat for joy, and the Bailies and Councillors danced bareheaded in our presence like five year-auld-colts, for very triumph."

tone, "we should have had a man to our sovereign,
though he were but a Scotsman."
At least," said another, in the same inaudible

Lord Glenvarloch," where have you been spending
your calf-time?"
And now, my young springald," said the King to

answered Lord Nigel.
"At Leyden, of late, may it please your Majesty,"

saul, a modest and ingenuous youth, that hath not
forgotten how to blush, like most of our travelled
"Aha! a scholar," said the King; " and by my
Monsieurs. We will treat him comformably."

"Too loud, my Lord of Huntinglen," whispered a gentleman of the chamber-"the King!-the King!" The old Earl (for such he proved) took the hint, and was silent; and James, advancing from a sidedoor, received in succession the compliments of strangers, while a little group of favourite courtiers, or officers of the household, stood around him, to whom he addressed himself from time to time. more pains had been bestowed on his toilet than upon the occasion when we first presented the monarch to our readers; but there was natural awkwardness about his figure which prevented his clothes from sitting handsomely, and the prudence or timidity of his disposition had made him adopt the custom already noticed, of wearing a dress so thickly quilted as might withstand the stroke of a dagger, which add-ing to those behind him, saided an ungainly stiffness to his whole appearance, contrasting oddly with the frivolous, ungraceful, and fidgeting motions with which he accompanied his conversation. And yet, though the King's deportment was very undignified, he had a manner so kind, familiar, and good-humoured, was so little apt to veil]

of superior learning, while all the courtiers who un-
Then drawing himself up, coughing slightly, and
looking around him with the conscious importance
derstood, or understood not, Latin, pressed eagerly
forward to listen, the sapient monarch prosecuted
his inquiries as follows:-

lochides noster! Nuperumne ab Lugduno Batavorum
Britanniam rediisti?
"Hem! hem! Salve bis, quaterque salve, Glenvar-

Lugdunenses moratus sum."
The young nobleman replied, bowing low-
"Imo, Rex augustissime biennium fere apud
James proceeded-

Non uno die, quod dicunt,-intelligisti, Domine
"Biennium dicis? bene, bene, optume factum est-
Glenvarlochiensis? Aha!"

Nigel replied by a reverend bow, and the King, turn

doris." Then resumed his learned queries. "Et quid
hodie Lugdunenses loquuntur-Vossius vester nihilne
Adolescens quidem ingenui vultus ingenuique pu-
novi scripsit?-nihil certe, quod doleo, typis recenter
edidit."ont war

Valet quidem Vossius, Rex benevole," replied Ni

gel,

"ast sener veneratissimus annum agit, ni fallor, septuagesimum."

Virum, mehercle, vix tam grandævum crediderim," replied the Monarch. Et Vorstius iste?Arminii improbi successor æque ac sectator Herosne adhuc, ut cum Homero loquar, Zwòs èorí kaì inì xlovì Φέρκων τ

Nigel, by good fortune, remembered that Vorstius, the divine last mentioned in his Majesty's queries about the state of Dutch literature, had been engaged in a personal controversy with James, in which the King had taken so deep an interest, as at length to hint in his public correspondence with the United States, that they would do well to apply the secular arm to stop the progress of heresy by violent measures against the Professor's person-a demand which their Mighty Mightinesses' principles of universal toleration induced them to elude, though with some difficulty. Knowing all this, Lord Glenvarloch, though a courtier of only five minutes' standing, had address enough to reply

“Virum quidem, haud diu est, hominem videbam tigere autem quis dicat qui sub fulminibus eloquentia tua, Rex magne, jamdudum pronus jacet, et prostratus."*

This last tribute to his polemical powers completed James's happiness, which the triumph of exhibiting his erudition had already raised to a considerable height.

"I have already offered my humble Supplication to your Majesty's Secretary of State," said Lord Glenvarloch-"but it seems"

"That he would not receive it, I warrant ?" said the King, interrupting him; "by my saul, our Secretary kens that point of king-craft, called refusing, better than we do, and will look at nothing but what he likes himsell-I think I wad make a better Secretary to him than he to me.-Weel, my lord, you are welcome to London; and, as ye seem an acute and learned youth, I advise ye to turn your neb northward as soon as ye like, and settle yoursell for a while at Saint Andrews, and we will be right glad to hear that you prosper in your studies.-Incumbite remis fortiter."

While the King spoke thus, he held the petition of the young lord carelessly, like one who only delayed till the supplicant's back was turned, to throw it away, or at least lay it aside to be no more looked at. The petitioner, who read this in his cold and indifferent looks, and in the manner in which he twisted and crumpled together the paper, arose with a bitter sense of anger and disappointment, made a profound obeisance, and was about to retire hastily. But Lord Huntinglen, who stood by him, checked his intention by an almost imperceptible touch upon the skirt of his cloak, and Nigel, taking the hint, retreated only a few steps from the royal presence, and then made a pause. In the meantime, Lord Huntinglen kneeled before James, in his turn, and said "May it please your Majesty to remember, that upon one certain occasion you did promise to grant me a boon every year of your sacred life."t

He rubbed his hands, snapped his fingers, fidgeted, chuckled, exclaimed-"Euge! belle! optime!" and turning to the Bishops of Exeter and Oxford, who stood behind him, he said, "Ye see, my lords, no "I mind it weel, man," answered James, "I mind bad specimen of our Scottish Latinity, with which it weel, and good reason why-it was when you unlanguage we would all our subjects of England were clasped the fause traitor Ruthven's fangs from about as well embued as this, and other youths of honour-our royal throat, and drove your dirk into him like a able birth, in our auld kingdom; also, we keep the true subject. We did then, as you remind us, (whilk genuine and Roman pronunciation, like other learned was unnecessary,) being partly beside ourselves with nations on the continent, sae that we hold commu- joy at our liberation, promise we would grant you a ning with any scholar in the universe, who can but free boon every year; whilk promise, on our coming speak the Latin tongue; whereas ye, our learned sub- to menseful possession of our royal faculties, we did jects of England, have introduced into your universi- confirm, restrictivé always and conditionaliter, that ties, otherwise most learned, a fashion of pronouncing your lordship's demand should be such as we, in our like unto the nippit foot and clippit foot of the bride royal discretion, should think reasonable." in the fairy tale, whilk manner of speech (take it not amiss that I be round with you) can be understood by no nation on earth saving yourselves; whereby Latin, quoad Anglos, ceaseth to be communis lingua, the general dragoman, or interpreter, between all the wise men of the earth."

The Bishop of Exeter bowed, as in acquiescence to the royal censure; but he of Oxford stood upright, as mindful over what subjects his see extended, and as being equally willing to become food for fagots in defence of the Latinity of the university, as for any article of his religious creed.

The King, without awaiting an answer from either prelate, proceeded to question Lord Nigel, but in the vernacular tongue,-"Weel, my likely Alumnus of the Muses, and what make you so far from the north?" "To pay my homage to your Majesty," said the young nobleman, kneeling on one knee, "and to lay before you," he added, "this my humble and dutiful Supplication."

The presenting of a pistol would certainly have startled King James more, but could (setting apart the fright) hardly have been more unpleasing to his indolent disposition.

And is it even so, man?" said he; "and can no single man, were it but for the rarity of the case, ever come up frae Scotland, excepting ex proposito-on set purpose, to see what he can make out of his loving Sovereign? It is but three days syne that we had weelnigh lost our life, and put three kingdoms into duleweeds, from the over haste of a clumsy-handed peasant, to thrust a packet into our hand, and now we are beset by the like impediment in our very Court. To our Secretary with that gear, my lord-to our Secretary with that gear."

*Leat any lady or gentleman should suspect there is aught of mystery concealed under the sentences printed in Italics, they will be pleased to understand that they contain only a few commonplace Latin phrases, relating to the state of letters in Holland, which neither deserve, nor would endure a literal translation. F

VOL. IV.

"Even so, gracious Sovereign," said the old Earl, "and may I yet farther crave to know if I have ever exceeded the bounds of your royal benevolence?"

"By my word, man, no!" said the King; "I cannot remember you have asked much for yourself, if it be not a dog, or a hawk, or a buck out of our park at Theobald's, or such like. But to what serves this preface?"

"To the boon which I am now to ask of your Grace," said Lord Huntinglen; "which is, that your Majesty would be pleased, on the instant, to look at the placet of Lord Glenvarloch, and do upon it what your own just and royal nature shall think meet and just, without reference to your Secretary or any other of your Council."

By my saul, my lord, this is strange," said the King; "ye are pleading for the son of your enemy!" "Of one who was my enemy till your Majesty made him my friend," answered Lord Huntinglen.

"Weel spoken, my lord!" said the King; "and with a true Christian spirit. And, respecting the Supplication of this young man, I partly guess where the matter lies; and in plain troth I had promised to George Heriot to be good to the lad-But then, here the shoe pinches. Steenie and Baby Charles cannot abide him-neither can your own son, my lord; ard so, methinks, he had better go down to Scotland before he comes to ill luck by them."

The credit of having rescued James I, from the dagger of Alexander Ruthven, is here fictitiously ascribed to an imaginary his preserver was John Ramsay, afterwards created Earl of Lord Huntinglen. In reality, as may be read in every history, Holderness, who stabbed the younger Ruthven with his dagger while he was struggling with the King. Sir Anthony Weldon informs us, that, upon the annual return of the day, the King's deliverance was commemorated by an anniversary feast. The time was the fifth of August, "upon which," proceeds the satirical historian, "Sir John Ramsay, for his good service in that preservation, was the principal guest, and so did the King grant him any boon he would ask that day. But he had such li mitation made to his asking, as made his suit as unprofitable, as the action for which he asked it for was unserviceable to the King."

He entered, that unhappy minion of court favour, sumptuously dressed in the picturesque attire which will live for ever on the canvass of Vandyke, and "Ey, my lord-ey, my lord!" ejaculated James, which marks so well the proud age, when aristocrawhile all the colour mounted both to his cheek and cy, though undermined and nodding to its fall, still, nose; "I hope ye mean not to teach me divinity ?- by external show and profuse expense, endeavoured Ye need not fear, my lord, that I will shun to do jus- to assert its paramount superiority over the inferior tice to every man; and, since your lordship will give orders. The handsome and commanding counteme no help to take up this in a more peaceful man-nance, stately form, and graceful action and manners ner-whilk, methinks, would be better for the young of the Duke of Buckingham, made him become that man, as I said before,-why-since it maun be so- picturesque dress beyond any man of his time. At 'sdeath, I am a free King, man, and he shall have his present, however, his countenance seemed discompomoney and redeem his land, and make a kirk and a sed, his dress a little more disordered than became miln of it, an he will." So saying, he hastily wrote the place, his step hasty, and his voice imperative. an order on the Scottish Exchequer for the sum in question, and then added, "How they are to pay it, I see not; but I warrant he will find money on the order among the goldsmiths, who can find it for every one but me.-And now you see, my Lord of Huntinglen, that I am neither an untrue man, to deny you the boon whilk I became bound for, nor an Ahab, to covet Naboth's vineyard; nor a mere nose-of-wax, to be twisted this way and that, by favourites and counsellors at their pleasure. I think you will grant now that I am none of those?"