Yet this, my dear father, you call prompt and valiant service.
The king, I am told, could not sit upright for a fortnight, though all
the cushions in Falkland were placed in his chair of state, and the
Provost of Dunfermline's borrowed to the boot of all."
"It is a lie," said the old earl, "a false lie, forge it who list!--It
is true I wore a dagger of service by my side, and not a bodkin like
yours, to pick one's teeth withal--and for prompt service--Odds nouns!
it should be prompt to be useful when kings are crying treason and
murder with the screech of a half-throttled hen. But you young
courtiers know nought of these matters, and are little better than the
green geese they bring over from the Indies, whose only merit to their
masters is to repeat their own words after them--a pack of mouthers,
and flatterers, and ear-wigs.--Well, I am old and unable to mend, else
I would break all off, and hear the Tay once more flinging himself
over the Campsie Linn."
"But there is your dinner-bell, father," said Lord Dalgarno, "which,
if the venison I sent you prove seasonable, is at least as sweet a
sound."
"Follow me, then, youngsters, if you list," said the old earl; and
strode on from the alcove in which this conversation was held, towards
the house, followed by the two young men.
In their private discourse, Lord Dalgarno had little trouble in
dissuading Nigel from going immediately to Court; while, on the other
hand, the offers he made him of a previous introduction to the Duke of
Buckingham, were received by Lord Glenvarloch with a positive and
contemptuous refusal.
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