I did not come from
Avenel to be browbeaten in Holyrood."
"Bravo, my lad!" said Michael; "it is a fine spirit if you can but
hold it--but see, the door opens."
The usher appeared, and, in a more civil tone of voice and manner,
said, that his Grace the Regent would receive the Knight of Avenel's
message; and accordingly marshalled Roland Graeme the way into the
apartment, from which the Council had been just dismissed, after
finishing their consultations. There was in the room a long oaken
table, surrounded by stools of the same wood, with a large elbow
chair, covered with crimson velvet, at the head. Writing materials and
papers were lying there in apparent disorder; and one or two of the
privy counsellors who had lingered behind, assuming their cloaks,
bonnets, and swords, and bidding farewell to the Regent, were
departing slowly by a large door, on the opposite side to that through
which the page entered. Apparently the Earl of Murray had made some
jest, for the smiling countenances of the statesmen expressed that
sort of cordial reception which is paid by courtiers to the
condescending pleasantries of a prince.
The Regent himself was laughing heartily as he said, "Farewell, my
lords, and hold me remembered to the Cock of the North."
He then turned slowly round towards Roland Graeme, and the marks of
gaiety, real or assumed, disappeared from his countenance, as
completely as the passing bubbles leave the dark mirror of a still
profound lake into which a traveller has cast a stone; in the course
of a minute his noble features had assumed their natural expression of
deep and even melancholy gravity.
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