Lord Huntinglen listened with great composure, and answered, "An it
please your Majesty, there was an answer yielded by Naboth when Ahab
coveted his vineyard--' The Lord forbid that I should give the
inheritance of my fathers unto thee.'"
"Ey, my lord--ey, my lord!" ejaculated James, while all the colour
mounted both to his cheek and nose; "I hope ye mean not to teach me
divinity? Ye need not fear, my lord, that I will shun to do justice to
every man; and, since your lordship will give me no help to take up
this in a more peaceful manner--whilk, methinks, would be better for
the young man, as I said before,--why--since it maun be so--'sdeath, I
am a free king, man, and he shall have his money and redeem his land,
and make a kirk and a miln of it, an he will." So saying, he hastily
wrote an order on the Scottish Exchequer for the sum in question, and
then added, "How they are to pay it, I see not; but I warrant he will
find money on the order among the goldsmiths, who can find it for
every one but me.--And now you see, my Lord of Huntinglen, that I am
neither an untrue man, to deny you the boon whilk I became bound for,
nor an Ahab, to covet Naboth's vineyard; nor a mere nose-of-wax, to be
twisted this way and that, by favourites and counsellors at their
pleasure. I think you will grant now that I am none of those?"
"You are my own native and noble prince," said Huntinglen, as he knelt
to kiss the royal hand--"just and generous, whenever you listen to the
workings of your own heart.
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