Page:Walter Scott - The Monastery (Henry Frowde, 1912).djvu/501

RV 433 (Rh) a fashioner of doublets was descended from a crowned head at least!'

'I hold with the abbot,' said Murray; 'there were little honour in surrendering him to Elizabeth, but he shall be sent where he can do her no injury. Our pursuivant and Bolton shall escort him to Dunbar, and ship him off for Flanders. But soft, here he comes, and leading a female, as I think.'

'Lords and others,' said the English knight with great solemnity, 'make way for the lady of Piercie Shafton—a secret which I listed not to make known, till fate, which hath betrayed what I vainly strove to conceal, makes me less desirous to hide that which I now announce to you.'

'It is Mysie Happer, the miller's daughter, on my life!' said Tibb Tacket. 'I thought the pride of these Piercies would have a fa'.'

'It is indeed the lovely Mysinda,' said the knight, 'whose merits towards her devoted servant deserved higher rank than he had to bestow.'

'I suspect, though.' said Murray, 'that we should not have heard of the miller's daughter being made a lady, had not the knight proved to be the grandson of a tailor.'

'My lord,' said Piercie Shafton, 'it is poor valour to strike him that cannot smite again; and I hope you will consider what is due to a prisoner by the law of arms, and say nothing more on this odious subject. When I am once more mine own man, I will find a new road to dignity.'

'Shape one, I presume,' said the Earl of Morton.

'Nay, Douglas, you will drive him mad,' said Murray; 'besides, we have other matter in hand. I must see Warden wed Glendinning with Mary Avenel, and put him in possession of his wife's castle without delay. It will be best done ere our forces leave these parts.'

'And I,' said the miller, 'have the like grist to grind; for I hope some one of the good fathers will wed my wench with her gay bridegroom.'

'It needs not,' said Shafton; 'the ceremonial hath been solemnly performed.'

'It w ill not be the worse of another bolting,' said the miller; 'it is always best to be sure, as I say when I chance to take multure twice from the same meal-sack.'