Page:Walter Scott - The Monastery (Henry Frowde, 1912).djvu/81

RV 13 (Rh) cloak, bright armour, and dancing plume proclaimed him a leader, saw no better protection for herself than to issue from the iron grate, covered with a long mourning veil, and holding one of her two sons in each hand, to meet the Englishman, state her deserted condition, place the little tower at his command, and beg for his mercy. She stated, in a few brief words, her intention, and added, 'I submit, because I have nae means of resistance.'

'And I do not ask your submission, mistress, for the same reason,' replied the Englishman. 'To be satisfied of your peaceful intentions is all I ask; and, from what you tell me, there is no reason to doubt them.'

'At least, sir,' said Elspeth Brydone, 'take share of what our spence and our garners afford. Your horses are tired; your folk want refreshment.'

'Not a whit—not a whit,' answered the honest Englishman; 'it shall never be said we disturbed by carousal the widow of a brave soldier, while she was mourning for her husband. Comrades, face about. Yet stay,' he added, checking his war-horse, 'my parties are out in every direction; they must have some token that your family are under my assurance of safety. Here, my little fellow,' said he, speaking to the eldest boy, who might be about nine or ten years old, 'lend me thy bonnet.'

The child reddened, looked sulky, and hesitated, while the mother, with many a fye and nay pshaw, and such sarsenet chidings as tender mothers give to spoiled children, at length succeeded in snatching the bonnet from him, and handing it to the English leader.

Stawarth Bolton took his embroidered red cross from his barret-cap, and putting it into the loop of the boy's bonnet, said to the mistress (for the title of lady was not given to dames of her degree), 'By this token, which all my people will respect, you will be freed from any importunity on the part of our forayers.'$n$ He placed it on the boy's head; but it was no sooner there, than the little fellow', his veins swelling, and his eyes shooting fire through tears, snatched the bonnet from his head, and, ere his mother could interfere, skimmed it into the brook. The other boy ran instantly to fish it out again, threw it back to his brother, first taking out the cross, which, with great veneration,