To return from this digression: The Prince, with his train, advanced,
and were near the place where Lord Glenvarloch and Sir Mungo had stood
aside, according to form, in order to give the Prince passage, and to
pay the usual marks of respect. Nigel could now remark that Lord
Dalgarno walked close behind the Duke of Buckingham, and, as he
thought, whispered something in his ear as they came onward. At any
rate, both the Prince's and Duke of Buckingham's attention seemed to
be directed by such circumstance towards Nigel, for they turned their
heads in that direction and looked at him attentively--the Prince with
a countenance, the grave, melancholy expression of which was blended
with severity; while Buckingham's looks evinced some degree of
scornful triumph. Lord Dalgarno did not seem to observe his friend,
perhaps because the sunbeams fell from the side of the walk on which
Nigel stood, obliging Malcolm to hold up his hat to screen his eyes.
As the Prince passed, Lord Glenvarloch and Sir Mungo bowed, as respect
required; and the Prince, returning their obeisance with that grave
ceremony which paid to every rank its due, but not a tittle beyond it,
signed to Sir Mungo to come forward. Commencing an apology for his
lameness as he started, which he had just completed as his hobbling
gait brought him up to the Prince, Sir Mungo lent an attentive, and,
as it seemed, an intelligent ear, to questions, asked in a tone so
low, that the knight would certainly have been deaf to them had they
been put to him by any one under the rank of Prince of Wales.
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