Chapter 32 - Page 2

honoured letter threatens
me, until I am capable to read Hebrew like your Majesty, I fear I
shall die in ignorance of the misfortune which hath befallen, or is
about to befall, my house."

"You will learn it but too soon, my lord," replied the king. "I grieve
to say it, but your son Dalgarno, whom I thought a very saint, as he
was so much with Steenie and Baby Charles, hath turned out a very
villain."

"Villain!" repeated Lord Huntinglen; and though he instantly checked
himself, and added, "but it is your Majesty speaks the word," the
effect of his first tone made the king step back as if he had received
a blow. He also recovered himself again, and said in the pettish way
which usually indicated his displeasure--"Yes, my lord, it was we that
said it--_non surdo canis_--we are not deaf--we pray you not to raise
your voice in speech with us--there is the bonny memorial--read, and
judge for yourself."

The king then thrust into the old nobleman's hand a paper, containing
the story of the Lady Hermione, with the evidence by which it was
supported, detailed so briefly and clearly, that the infamy of Lord
Dalgarno, the lover by whom she had been so shamefully deceived,
seemed undeniable. But a father yields not up so easily the cause of
his son.

"May it please your Majesty," he said, "why was this tale not sooner
told? This woman hath been here for years--wherefore was the claim on
my son not made the instant she touched English ground?"

"Tell him how that came about, Geordie," said the king, dressing
Heriot.

"I grieve to distress my Lord Huntinglen," said Heriot; but I must
speak the truth. For a long time the Lady Hermione could not brook the
idea of making her situation public; and when her mind became changed
in that particular, it was necessary to recover the evidence of the
false marriage, and letters and papers connected with it, which, when
she came to Paris, and just before I saw her, she had deposited with a
correspondent of her father in that city. He became afterwards
bankrupt, and in consequence of that misfortune the lady's papers
passed into other hands, and it was only a few days since I traced and
recovered them. Without these documents of evidence, it would have
been imprudent for her to have preferred her complaint, favoured as
Lord Dalgarno is by powerful friends."

"Ye are saucy to say sae," said the king; "I ken what ye mean weel
eneugh--ye think Steenie wad hae putten the weight of his foot into
the scales of justice, and garr'd them whomle the bucket--ye forget,
Geordie, wha it is whose hand uphaulds them. And ye do poor Steenie
the