upright ease of one well trained.

'Soh!' said Sir Patrick, looking him over, 'how ca' they you,
lad?'

'Geordie o' the Red Peel,' he answered.

'That's a by-name,' said the knight sternly; 'I must have the
full name of any man who rides with me.'

'George Douglas, then, if nothing short of that will content
you!'

'Are ye sib to the Earl?'

'Ay, sir, and have rid in his company.'

'Whose word am I to take for that?'

'Mine, sir, a word that none has ever doubted,' said the youth
boldly. 'By that your son kens me.'

David here vouched for having seen the young man in the Angus
following, when he had accompanied his father in the last riding
of the Scots Parliament at Edinburgh; and this so far satisfied
Sir Patrick that he consented to receive the stranger into his
company, but only on condition of an oath of absolute obedience
so long as he remained in the troop.

David could see that this had not been reckoned on by the high-