"To the point, my lords, under favour of the king," said Sir Patrick Gray, gnawing his moustache in his impatience. CHAPTER XLIII. A LADLEFUL OF GOLD. Thou shalt not yield to lord nor loon, Nor shalt thou yield to me; But yield thee to the braken bush That grows on yon lilye lee.--OLD BALLAD. "What more have I to hear of this false noble and his followers?" said the king, after briefly, and to Gray's great annoyance, rehearsing the whole story of the murder of his vassal, the miller of Carluke, in the sanctuary of Lesmahago. "The earl has lawlessly seized, and ignominiously imprisoned, in his hold of Thrave, a good and loyal servant of your majesty." "That is nothing new; but what is his name?" asked James, grasping the arms of the chair, and thrusting aside the tabourette with his foot, while his hazel eyes flashed fire with anger, and his dark brows were knit. "Sir Thomas MacLellan, of Bombie," replied the chancellor, with grave energy. "My friend--the Lieutenant of my Guard!" "My brave kinsman!" Such were the exclamations of the king and of Sir Patrick Gray, who had come from the sunny recess of the window, and in deep anxiety stood near the chancellor's chair to listen. In his anger, James snatched from the table his amber rosary and dagger of mercy, as if about to utter some vague threat or malediction, and then cast them from him, though the latter was the gift of his brother-in-law, Sigismund of Austria, and was hilted by a single agate. "Sir Thomas MacLellan, of Bombie," resumed the chancellor, gravely and earnestly, "your majesty's steward of Kirkcudbright, is now a prisoner in the castle of Thrave manacled with the heaviest chains MacKim, the earl's smith, can forge, and hourly is menaced with death." "And wherefore has this been done?" "The whole of this new outrage is detailed to me in a letter from the abbot of Tongland, who has at _last_--the pedantic fool! the very dunce!--(excuse me, my lord abbot of Melrose)--abandoned the earl, his chief, and has secluded himself in his abbey, despairing, I presume, of the reformation of Douglas, as of that of the devil himself, concerning whom he so lately visited Rome."