"Now, do but look at that fellow's doublet, Comyn. Look, how gay they
pass below, and here am I, with my new, richly-broidered suit, with
which I thought to brave it with the best of them--here am I, I say,
pent up in stone walls like a caged goldfinch, 'stead of the
entertainment I had pictured; 'tis enough to chafe the spirit of a
saint."

"And canst thou think of such things now, thou sorry fool?" demanded
Buchan, sternly, pausing in his hurried stride up and down the narrow
precincts of the chamber; "hast thou no worthier subject for
contemplation?"

"None, save thy dutiful wife's most dutiful conduct, Comyn, which,
being the less agreeable of the two, I dismiss the first I owe her small
thanks for playing the representative of my house; methinks, her
imprisonment would better serve King Edward's cause and ours too."

"Aye, imprisonment--imprisonment for life," muttered the earl, slowly.
"Let but King Edward restore me my good sword, and he may wreak his
vengeance on her as he listeth. Not all the castles of Scotland, the
arms of Scottish men, dare guard a wife against her husband; bitterly
shall she rue this deed."

"And thy son, my gentle kinsman, what wilt thou do with him, bethink
thee? Thou wilt find him as great a rebel as his mother; I have ever
told thee thou wert a fool to leave him so long with his brainstruck
mother."

"She hath not, she dared not bring him with her to the murderer of his
kinsman--Duncan of Fife, I tell thee she dare not; but if she hath, why