Here the merry king lay back and laughed excessively at this hunting song, which had been composed on one of his own amorous adventures. By this time the thieves had drunk deeply, but their hilarity began to subside, and their ferocious glances warned their guest that something unpleasant was about to terminate the noisy repast. Under his mantle the king felt secretly for his sword, and grew pale as death on discovering that, either by accident or design, when he was asleep, the blade had been broken in the sheath--leaving him defenceless, with seven armed outlaws, in a lonely cavern. He was in the very act of looking hurriedly round for some other weapon to snatch up in case of need, when lo! one of the ruffians held before him a plate, whereon (according to an ancient and barbarous custom) lay two naked poniards, as a signal that he was to be sacrificed, and might choose with which blade he was to die. Instead, as they expected, of being appalled, with the rapidity of lightning the gallant king clutched one in each hand, and striking to the right and to the left, buried both weapons in the breasts of the ruffians next him. "Dogs and villains!" he exclaimed, "slipper-helmetted dastards! come on, if you dare!" Armed with mauls and axes, the other four fell furiously upon him, and he must inevitably have been slain had not the earl, with the truncheon of his spear in one hand, and a burning brand in the other, attacked them in the rear, and with such impetuosity that, by two blows he broke the arm of one, the head of a second, and drove the whole from the cavern. Thus, in less than one minute, the king and he found themselves, with two dead bodies, the sole occupants of the place. "Well done, friend Bloodybeard!" exclaimed the breathless king; "by my soul, I thought thee one of them; and well it is for me thou didst strike in such good time. Complete me now thy service by cutting out the tongues of these two carrion, that I may give them to my hounds," he added, kicking the dead bodies, and untying his purse from his girdle. "I have here only twenty French crowns, but if thou wilt come to Falkland to-morrow, and ask fer--for----" "His majesty the king," replied the earl, whose eye moistened, and whose heart swelled, as (instead of kneeling) he drew himself proudly up to his full height; "replace your purse, James Stuart; surely Archibald Earl of Ashkirk hath not sunk so far as to be paid thus for fighting in the service of his king." "Ashkirk!" said King James, less astonished that he was recognised than at this rencontre and discovery. "Ashkirk, is it indeed thee, thou traitor and son of a traitress?" "I am no traitor, neither am I the son of a traitress; but an outlaw, certainly; and why? Because I am the hereditary foeman of the house of Hamilton. False king, thou wrongest me sorely by such epithets as these."