seeing what he had suffered for her sake, the great stake he had ventured, and the almost[90] hopeless uncertainty that appeared in every line of his face, raised in her heart a feeling unknown to her before; and highly did that heart exult at the signal advantage that her good fortune had given him over his rival. Yet she determined on trying the state of his affections and hopes. Before leaving Hawick, she had written a a letter to him, inclosing a lock of her hair neatly plaited; but this letter she kept back in order to sound her lover first without its influence. He asked her name and her business. She had much business, she said, but not a word save for his private ear. Douglas was struck with the youth's courtly manner, and looked at him with a dark searching eye,—"I have no secrets," said he, "with these my kinsmen: I desire, before them, to know your name and business."
"My name," said the princess pertly, "is Colin Roy M'Alpin,—I care not who knows my name; but no word further of my message do I disclose save to yourself."
"I must humour this pert stripling," said he, turning to his friends; "if his errand[91] turns out to be one of a trivial nature, and that does not require all this ceremony, I shall have him horse-whipped."
With that the rest of the gentlemen went away, and left the two by themselves. Colin, as we must now, for brevity's sake, term the princess, was at first somewhat abashed before the dark eye of Douglas, but soon displayed all the effrontery that his assumed character warranted, if not three times more.
"Well now, my saucy little master, Colin Roy M'Alpin, please condescend so far as to tell me whence you are, and what is your business here,—this secret business, of such vast importance."
"I am from court, my lor'; from the Scottish court, an't please you, my lor'; but not directly as a body may say,—my lor'; not directly—here—there—south—west—precipitately, incontrovertibly, ascertaining the scope and bearing of the progressive advance of the discomfiture and gradual wreck of your most flagrant and preposterous undertaking."
[92]
"The devil confound the impertinent puppy!"
"Hold, hold, my lor', I mean your presumptuous and foolhardy enterprise, first in presuming to the hand of my mistress, the king's daughter,