With his natural ferocity of disposition, and being usually in the habit of giving full vent to every gust of fury, the earl found great difficulty in preserving an aspect of external composure during the remainder of the evening; but immediately on the Dyck Graf's departure for the castle of Bommel, the company broke up, and Douglas prepared to retire, with a scowl on his brow, and bitterness in his heart. "God--den to you, father abbot; art still labouring hard to ruin the empire of the prince of darkness? Oh, if ever thou shouldst fall into _his_ hand!" said he with a mocking laugh, as he passed the worthy churchman, who started at the sound, for Douglas seldom laughed, and _never_ in merriment. Achanna and Count Ludwig, who had been extremely ill at ease in the vicinity of the Dyck Graf, now withdrew together to plot mischief and to discover Gray. "James Achanna," said Albany, as they were bowing themselves out, "remember that I am to see you to-morrow." "At Carl Langfanger's auberge, _The Forester_." "Yes, at noon." "I am at the disposal of your _highness_," said Achanna, using the title by which kings were then addressed in Scotland and England. Albany started, and the colour mounted to his usually pale temples as he said, "Sir, I desire that you will not address me thus." "Why!" asked the earl with surprise as he paused in the doorway. "Because I consider it premature, and as such unlucky." "Your grace, perhaps, is right," replied the earl, gloomily, and somewhat contemptuously; "however, time will show." CHAPTER XXXIV. NOON--THE PLOT. 'Twas thus these cozening villains laid their scheme Against his life, his youth, and comeliness: Woe worth the end!--OLD PLAY. Three miles from the southern gate of Bommel, on the road which led to Ameldroyen, there stood a solitary auberge, or wayside tavern. It was named _The Forester_, from the circumstance that on a signboard it had a hideous representation of a hunter sounding a horn, and this passed for a likeness of Liderick du Bucq, the first forester of Flanders. The signboard, moreover, informed the passers, in tolerably-spelt Flemish, that there was entertainment for man and horse, with good German beer within; while a green _bush_, which hung over the door in the more ancient fashion, announced that there also could be had the good wines of Alicant and Burgundy, with perhaps the strong waters of Anjou and Languedoc, _i.e._, brandy. The country in its vicinity was lonely, and thinly populated. Save a wind-mill or two, and a gibbet on an eminence, with a man hanging thereon between the spectator and the sky, there was little to be seen but the dense forest, which then spread for miles along the banks of the river Waal, and away towards Bois-le-duc and Ravenstein.