to prevent the dispute betwixt Albany and himself. The tune, which
was played upon a viol, was gay and sprightly in the commencement,
with a touch of the wildness of the troubadour music. But, as it
proceeded, the faltering tones of the instrument, and of the female
voice which accompanied it, became plaintive and interrupted, as
if choked by the painful feelings of the minstrel.

The offended earl, whatever might be his judgment in such matters
on which the King had complimented him, paid, it may be supposed,
little attention to the music of the female minstrel. His proud
heart was struggling between the allegiance he owed his sovereign,
as well as the love he still found lurking in his bosom for the
person of his well natured king, and a desire of vengeance arising
out of his disappointed ambition, and the disgrace done to him by
the substitution of Marjory Douglas to be bride of the heir apparent,
instead of his betrothed daughter. March had the vices and virtues
of a hasty and uncertain character, and even now, when he came to
bid the King adieu, with the purpose of renouncing his allegiance
as soon as he reached his own feudal territories, he felt unwilling,
and almost unable, to resolve upon a step so criminal and so full
of peril. It was with such dangerous cogitations that he was occupied
during the beginning of the glee maiden's lay; but objects which
called his attention powerfully, as the songstress proceeded, affected
the current of his thoughts, and riveted them on what was passing
in the courtyard of the monastery. The song was in the Provencal
dialect, well understood as the language of poetry in all the
courts of Europe, and particularly in Scotland. It was more simply
turned, however, than was the general cast of the sirventes, and
rather resembled the lai of a Norman minstrel. It may be translated
thus: