It was with a dubious and a sinking heart, therefore, that I followed my guide. We presently stopped before a great door. The officer knocked thereon, and after a moment was bidden to enter. Directing me to remain where I was until further notice, he at once opened the door, and passed within, leaving it slightly ajar. I had so much at stake that I did that from which under other circumstances I would have recoiled. I stepped closer to the door where I could hear what transpired, if I could neither see nor be seen. "Well, sir," I heard a voice from within saying, high, thin, imperious notes, "what means this interruption?" "May it please Your Majesty," was the reply, "there is a young woman without who seeks audience." "Woman! What woman?" the first voice ran on. "She says that her name is Clanranald, Your Majesty." "What!" came in violent suddenness from the one whom I judged to be the King. "Yes, Your Majesty. She professes to be Lady Katharine Clanranald, daughter of the earl of that ilk." "What would she with us? We will not see her." "A woman," broke in a third voice, harsh, cold, infinitely brutal and cruel, "Your Majesty, should ever be welcome to a king, especially if she have no natural protector." How I loathed and hated that voice with its frightful insinuation! I wondered whose it might be? But I had no time to indulge my emotions, for the King spoke again. "True," he laughed, "Clanranald must ere this have left his head by the block. Sir Hugh Richmond hath had time to go and come." "Those," said a fourth voice, "who are fatherless should have a father in the King, Your Majesty." It was in substance just what the other man had said, but how different was its tone and meaning? There were sweetness, gentleness, as well as force in the new voice that moved my heart. There was some kindness in that room then after all, I thought. "Well put, my lord," said the King. "Captain Culver, you may admit the lady." "How," said the third voice, which had made the ineffably brutal suggestion a moment before, "if she be armed and hath come to revenge her father's death?" "Well thought on, my lord," said the King. "I will take it upon myself to see that Your Majesty comes to no harm," broke in a fifth voice at this juncture, speaking our language brokenly with a slight French accent, by the way, which I shall not attempt to reproduce. "'Tis well, my friend. Stand you there on guard with your sword drawn and keep the girl at a distance." "I want no sword, Your Majesty," was the reply, "to master a woman." "I hold you responsible for her, Louis. Now, Captain Culver."