"
"I am sorry for it," said Lord Huntinglen--then interrupting himself,
he said--"Heaven forgive me for being ungrateful for such comfort!--
but I am well-nigh sorry she should be as you represent her, so much
better than the villain deserves. To be condemned to wed beauty and
innocence and honest birth--"
"Ay, and wealth, my lord--wealth," insinuated the king, "is a better
sentence than his perfidy has deserved."
"It is long," said the embittered father, "since I saw he was selfish
and hardhearted; but to be a perjured liar--I never dreaded that such
a blot would have fallen on my race! I will never look on him again."
"Hoot ay, my lord, hoot ay," said the king; "ye maun tak him to task
roundly. I grant you should speak more in the vein of Demea than
Mitio, _vi nempe et via pervulgata patrum_; but as for not seeing him
again, and he your only son, that is altogether out of reason. I tell
ye, man, (but I would not for a boddle that Baby Charles heard me,)
that he might gie the glaiks to half the lasses of Lonnun, ere I could
find in my heart speak such harsh words as you have said of this deil
of a Dalgarno of yours."
"May it please your Majesty to permit me to retire," said Lord
Huntinglen, "and dispose of the case according to your own royal sense
of justice, for I desire no favour for him."
"Aweel, my lord, so be it; and if your lordship can think," added the
Monarch, "of any thing in our power which might comfort you--"
"Your Majesty's gracious sympathy," said Lord Huntinglen, "has already
comforted me as far as earth can; the rest must be from the King of
kings.
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