 high,
considering how destitute he was of means to support them, being somewhat
mortified by the innkeeper's reply, did not hesitate to avail himself of a
practice common enough in that age. »Carry to the ladies,« he said, »a flask of
vernât with my humble duty; and say, that Quentin Durward, of the house of
Glen-houlakin, a Scottish cavalier of honour, and now their fellow-lodger,
desires the permission to dedicate his homage to them in a personal interview.«
    The messenger departed, and returned, almost instantly, with the thanks of
the ladies, who declined the proffered refreshment, and, with their
acknowledgments to the Scottish cavalier, regretted that, residing there in
privacy, they could not receive his visit.
    Quentin bit his lip, took a cup of the rejected vernât, which the host had
placed on the table. »By the mass, but this is a strange country,« said he to
himself, »where merchants and mechanics exercise the manners and munificence of
nobles, and little travelling damsels, who hold their court in a cabaret, keep
their state like disguised princesses! I will see that black-browed maiden
again, or it will go hard, however;« and having formed this prudent resolution,
he demanded to be conducted to the apartment which he was to call his own.
    The landlord presently ushered him up a turret staircase, and from thence
along a gallery, with many doors opening from it, like those of cells in a
convent; a resemblance which our young hero, who recollected, with much ennui,
an early specimen of a monastic life, was far from admiring. The host paused at
the very end of the gallery, selected a key from the large bunch which he
carried at his girdle, opened the door, and showed his guest the interior of a
turret-chamber, small, indeed, but which, being clean and solitary, and having
the pallet bed, and the few articles of furniture, in unusually good order,
seemed, on the whole, a little palace.
    »I hope you will find your dwelling agreeable here, fair sir,« said the
landlord. - »I am bound to pleasure every friend of Maitre Pierre.«
    »Oh, happy ducking!« exclaimed Quentin Durward, cutting a caper on the
floor, so soon as his host had retired: »Never came good luck in a better or a
wetter form. I have been fairly deluged by my good fortune.«
    As he spoke thus, he stepped towards the little window, which
