"My lords," said the Lady Sybilla, speaking in a level voice, and with
her eyes fixed on the leaf-shadowed square of grass, which alone could
be seen through the open window, "you have, I doubt not, each declared
your grievance against William, Earl of Douglas. I alone have none. He
is a gallant gentleman. France I have travelled, Spain also, and
Portugal, and have explored the utmost East,--wherever, indeed, my
Lord of Retz hath voyaged thither I have gone. But no braver or more
chivalrous youth than William Douglas have I found in any land. I have
no grievance against him, as I say, yet for that which hath been will
I deliver him into your hands."

One of the men before her grew manifestly uneasy.

"We did not come hither to listen to the praises of the Earl of
Douglas, even from lips so fair as yours!" sneered Crichton the
Chancellor, lifting his eyes one moment from the parchment before him
to the girl's face.

"He is our enemy," said the tutor of the King, Alexander Livingston,
more generously, "but I will never deny that he is a gallant youth;
also of his person proper to look upon."

And very complacently he smoothed down the lace ruffles which fell
from the neck of his silken doublet midway down its front.

"The young man is a Douglas," said James the Gross, curtly; "if he
were of coward breed, we had not needed to come hither secretly!"

"It needeth not four butchers to kill a sheep!" said de Retz.
"Concerning that, we agree. Proceed, my Lady Sybilla."