"
"Troth, man, I have small doubt that he will," quoth the king; "I gave
him the schedule of her worldly substance, which you delivered to us
in the council, and we allowed him half-an-hour to chew the cud upon
that. It is rare reading for bringing him to reason. I left Baby
Charles and Steenie laying his duty before him; and if he can resist
doing what _they_ desire him--why, I wish he would teach _me_ the gate
of it. O Geordie, Jingling Geordie, it was grand to hear Baby Charles
laying down the guilt of dissimulation, and Steenie lecturing on the
turpitude of incontinence!"
"I am afraid," said George Heriot, more hastily than prudently, "I
might have thought of the old proverb of Satan reproving sin."
"Deil hae our saul, neighbour," said the king, reddening, "but ye are
not blate! I gie ye license to speak freely, and, by our saul, ye do
not let the privilege become lost _non utendo_--it will suffer no
negative prescription in your hands. Is it fit, think ye, that Baby
Charles should let his thoughts be publicly seen?--No--no--princes'
thoughts are _arcana imperii_--_Qui nescit dissimulare nescit
regnare_. Every liege subject is bound to speak the whole truth to the
king, but there is nae reciprocity of obligation--and for Steenie
having been whiles a dike-louper at a time, is it for you, who are his
goldsmith, and to whom, I doubt, he awes an uncomatable sum, to cast
that up to him?"
Heriot did not feel himself called on to play the part of Zeno and
sacrifice himself for upholding the cause of moral truth; he did not
desert it, however, by disavowing his words, but simply expressed
sorrow for having offended his Majesty, with which the placable king
was sufficiently satisfied.
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