Edw. And thou abasest not thy head before the majesty

of the sceptre.

Wal. I do.

Edw. I marked it not.

Wal. God beheld it when I did it; and he knoweth, as dost thou, king Edward, how devoutly in my heart's strength, I fought for it.

Edw. Robber! for what sceptre? who commissioned thee?

Wal. My country.

Edw. Thou liest: there is no country where there is no king.

Wal. Sir, it were unbecoming to ask in this palace, why there is no king in my country.

Edw. To spare thy modesty then, I will inform theebecause the kingdom is mine. Thou hast rebelled against me: thou hast presumed even to carry arms against both of those nobles, Bruce and Cummin, who contended for the Scottish throne, and with somewhat indeed of lawyers' likelihood.

Wal. They placed the Scottish throne under the Eng

lish.

Edw.

Audacious churl! is it not meet?

Wal. In Scotland we think otherwise.

Edw. Rebels do, subverters of order, low ignorant knaves, without any stake in the country. It has pleased God to bless my arms; what further manifestation of our just claims demandest thou? Silence becomes thee.

Wal. Where God is named. What is now to the right bank of a river, is to the left when we have crossed it and look around.

Edw. Thou wouldst be witty truly! Who was wittiest, thou or I, when thy companion delivered thee into my hands?

Wal. Unworthy companions are not the peculiar curse of private men. Sir, I have contended with you face to face; but would not here. Your glory eclipses mine, if this be glory.

Edw. So thou wouldst place thyself on a level with princes.

Wal. Willingly, if they attacked my country; and above them.

Edw. Recollectest thou the colloquy that Bruce condescended to hold with thee across the river?

Wal. I do, sir. Why would not he, being your soldier, and fighting loyally against his native land, pass the water, and exterminate an army so beaten and dispersed? Why not finish the business at once?

Edw. He wished to persuade thee, loose reviler, that thy resistance was useless.

Wal. He might have made himself heard better, if he had come across.

Edw. No trifling; no arguing with me; no remarks here, caitiff! I did not counsel the accusations and malignant taunts of Bruce.

Wal. Sir, I do not bear them in mind.

Edw. No!

Wal.

Indeed I neither do nor would.

Edw. Dull wretch! I should never forget such. make allowances; I am a king.

I can

Wal. Few have a right to punish, all to pardon. Edw. I perceive thou hast at last some glimmering of shame; and adversity makes thee very christianlike.

Wal. Adversity then, in exercising her power, loses her name and features. King Edward, thou hast raised me among men. Without thy banners and cross-bows in array against me, I had sunk into utter forgetfulness. Thanks to thee for placing me, eternally, where no strength of mine could otherwise have borne me! Thanks to thee for bathing my spirit in deep thoughts, in refreshing calm, in sacred stillness! This, O king, is the bath for knighthood: after this it may feast, and hear bold and sweet voices, and mount to its repose.

Edw. Return to Scotland; bring me Bruce's head back, and rule the kingdom as viceroy.

Wal. I would rather make him rue his words against me, and hear him.

Edw.
Wal.

mission.

Thou shalt.

Believe me, sir, you would repent of your per

Edw. Go, and try me-do not hesitate-I see thou art half inclined. I may never make the same offer again. Wal. I will not go.

Edw. Weak wavering man! hath imprisonment in one day or two wrought such a change in thee?

Wal. Slavery soon does it; but I am, and will ever be, unchanged.

Edw. It was not well, nor by my order, that thou wert

dragged along the road, barefooted and bareheaded, while it snowed throughout all the journey.

Children and women, fa

Wal. The worst was this. thers and sons, came running down the hills, some sinking knee-deep in the incrusted snow, others tripping lightly over it, to celebrate the nativity of our blessed Lord. They entreated, and the good priest likewise, that I might be led forth into the church, and might kneel down amidst them. Off," cried the guard, "would ye plead for Wallace the traitor?" I saw them tremble, for it was treason in them, and then came my grief upon me, and bore hard. They lifted up their eyes to heaven; and it gave me strength. Edw. Thou shalt not, I declare to thee, march back in such plight.

Wal. I will not, I declare to thee, march a traitor.

Edw. Right! right! I can trust thee-more than half already. Bruce is the traitor; the worst of the two; he raises the country against me: go, encompass him, entrap him, quell him. Thou shalt do it: let me have thy plan. Wal. Sir, I have none worthy of your royal participation.

Edw. Thou formest the best possible in one moment, and executest them in another.

Wal. Peradventure the only one I could devise and execute, in this contingency, might not please you.

Edw. It would, beyond measure, I promise thee: set about it instantly: I must enjoy it before I rest. me, tell it me.

Wal.
Edw.
Wal.

Must I?

Thou must; I am faint with waiting.

Tell it

I would go unto him bare-headed: I would kiss his hand.

Edw. Nothing can be better-wary, provident, deep. Wal. I would lead him before the altar, if my entreaty could do it-I would adjure him by the Lord of hosts, the preserver of Scotland

Edw. No harm in that.

Wal. To pity his country,

Edw. Ay; it would vex him to reflect on what a state it is in at present.

Wal. And to proclaim a traitor to his king and God every Scotchman who abandons or despairs of her.

Edw. What is this? why would it hurt him? I comprehend not half the stratagem. How! thy limbs swell huger, thy stature higher-thou scornest, thou scoffest, thou

defiest me!-a prisoner! a bondman! Guards away with him. A traitor's doom awaits thee.

Wal. Because I would not be one.

Edw. Laughter too! and lewd mockery! Carry him back to prison cord him! pinion him! cart him! Wal. Thou followest me to death, less willingly, and slower.

SECTION LXV.

SPEECH OF KING LOUIS, FROM QUENTIN DURWARD.
Sir Walter Scott.

NOBLES of France and of Burgundy! Knights of the Holy Spirit and of the Golden Fleece! since a king must plead his cause as an accused person, he cannot desire nobler judges than the flower of nobleness, and muster and pride of chivalry, Our fair cousin of Burgundy hath but darkened the dispute between us, in so far as his courtesy has declined to state it in precise terms. I, who have no cause for observing such delicacy, nay, whose condition permits me not to do so, crave leave to speak more precisely. It is to us, my lords,-to us, his liege lord, his kinsman, his ally, that unhappy circumstances, perverting our cousin's clear judgment and better nature, have induced him to apply the hateful charges of seducing his vassals from their allegiance, stirring up the people of Liege to revolt, and stimulating the outlawed William de la Marck to commit a most cruel and sacrilegious murder.

Nobles of France and Burgundy, I might truly appeal to the circumstances in which I now stand, as being in themselves a complete contradiction of such an accusation; for is it to be supposed, that having the sense of a rational being left me, I should have thrown myself unreservedly into the power of the Duke of Burgundy, while I was practising treachery against him such as could not fail to be discovered, and which, being discovered, must place me as I now stand, in the power of a justly exasperated prince? The folly of one who should seat himself quietly down to repose on a mine, after he had lighted the match which was to cause instant explosion, would have been wisdom compared to mine. I have no doubt, that, amongst the perpetrators of those horrible treasons at Schonwaldt, villains have been busy with my name; but am I to be answerable, who have

given them no right to use it? If two silly women, disgusted on account of some romantic cause of displeasure, sought refuge at my court, does it follow that they did so by my direction ?-It will be found, when inquired into, that, since honour and chivalry forbade my sending them back prisoners to the court of Burgundy,-which I think, gentlemen, no one who wears the collar of these orders would suggest, that I came as nearly as possible to the same point, by placing them in the hands of the venerable father in God, who is now a saint in heaven.

In the hands, I say, of a member of my own family, and still more closely united with that of Burgundy, whose situation, exalted condition in the church, and, alas! whose numerous virtues, qualified him to be the protector of these unhappy wanderers for a little while, and the mediator betwixt them and their liege lord. I say, therefore, the only circumstances which seem in my brother of Burgundy's hasty view of this subject, to argue unworthy suspicions against me, are such as can be explained on the fairest and most honourable motives; and I say, moreover, that no one particle of credible evidence can be brought to support the injurious charges which have induced my brother to alter his friendly looks towards one who came to him in full confidence of friendship, have caused him to turn his festive hall into a court of justice, and his hospitable apartments into a prison.

SECTION LXVI.

REMBRANDT-DUTCH TRADER-FRANK..... Blackwood's Magazine.

Dutch Trader. GooD morrow, friend. I wish to have a picture of yours to leave to my wife, before I go to sail the salt seas again.

Rembrandt. Would you have your own face painted?

Tra. My face has seen both fair and foul, in its time, and belike it may not do for a canvass, for I am no fresh water pippin-cheek.

Rem. Bear a good heart. Your face is of the kind I like. There is no room for tricks of the pencil upon too smooth a skin.

Tra. By this hand, I know nothing of these things; but my wife shall have a picture.