The Earl of Murray was clad in a
sad-coloured morning-gown, with a cap and slippers of the same cloth,
but, even in this easy deshabill?, held his sheathed rapier in his
hand, a precaution which he adopted when receiving strangers, rather
in compliance with the earnest remonstrances of his friends and
partisans, than from any personal apprehensions of his own. He
answered with a silent nod the respectful obeisance of the page, and
took one or two turns through the small apartment in silence, fixing
his keen eye on Roland, as if he wished to penetrate into his very
soul. At length he broke silence.
"Your name is, I think, Julian Graeme?"
"Roland Graeme, my lord, not Julian," replied the page.
"Right--I was misled by some trick of my memory--Roland Graeme, from
the Debateable Land.--Roland, thou knowest the duties which belong to
a lady's service?"
"I should know them, my lord," replied Roland, "having been bred so
near the person of my Lady of Avenel; but I trust never more to
practise them, as the Knight hath promised----"
"Be silent, young man," said the Regent, "I am to speak, and you to
hear and obey. It is necessary that, for some space at least, you
shall again enter into the service of a lady, who, in rank, hath no
equal in Scotland; and this service accomplished, I give thee my word
as Knight and Prince, that it shall open to you a course of ambition,
such as may well gratify the aspiring wishes of one whom circumstances
entitle to entertain much higher views than thou.
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