In the mean time, King Robert, afraid lest his brother should
resume the painful subject from which he had just escaped, called
aloud to the prior of the Dominicans, "I hear the trampling of
horse. Your station commands the courtyard, reverend father. Look
from the window, and tell us who alights. Rothsay, is it not?"

"The noble Earl of March, with his followers," said the prior.

"Is he strongly accompanied?" said the King. "Do his people enter
the inner gate?"

At the same moment, Albany whispered the King, "Fear nothing, the
Brandanes of your household are under arms."

The King nodded thanks, while the prior from the window answered
the question he had put. "The Earl is attended by two pages,
two gentlemen, and four grooms. One page follows him up the main
staircase, bearing his lordship's sword. The others halt in the
court, and--Benedicite, how is this? Here is a strolling glee
woman, with her viol, preparing to sing beneath the royal windows,
and in the cloister of the Dominicans, as she might in the yard of
an hostelrie! I will have her presently thrust forth."

"Not so, father," said the King. "Let me implore grace for the poor
wanderer. The joyous science, as they call it, which they profess,
mingles sadly with the distresses to which want and calamity condemn
a strolling race; and in that they resemble a king, to whom all men
cry, 'All hail!' while he lacks the homage and obedient affection
which the poorest yeoman receives from his family. Let the wanderer
remain undisturbed, father; and let her sing if she will to the