And right certainly did I vow within my heart, that it would not be long before I renewed acquaintance with Sir Thomas and his tyrant, for it seemed a strange and merry thing to sec an Earl’s chaplain so used. It was, indeed, many a day since I had seen such sport. At last I was led in to the Earl. He sat in a rich dressing-robe, flowered with gold, and a leather-bound book with knobs and studs of brass lay open beside him. It was the account book of his estates and overlordships. ’What was that loud mirth I heard a moment since?’ he asked, for the Earl John did not seem to be in the best of tempers. Indeed he was said never to be canny to come near, when he was in the same house as his wife, a thing passing strange and but not wholly without precedent. I answered that I laughed at a good story of Sir Thomas Tode, his private chaplain. ’My what!’ he cried. ’Oh, ye mean old Tode of the Top-knot! Was his story about the Black Vault of Dunure?’ And without stopping for an answer he went on with one of his proverbs, just as though he had not sent me on an errand, and that in peril of my life. I never met a young man so broadened on wiseacre saws and proverbs in my life. It was clean ridiculous, though well enough in a gap-toothed grandfather, no doubt. ’The loud laughter of the idle gathereth no gear,’ said Earl John. ’No,’ replied I, ’but since it cheers the heart, it costs less than your good strong ale.’ ’Ay, but,’ he said, breaking in and looking pleased, ’but you have had some deal of that too. I can smell it.’ Then he looked briskly up, as if delighted with himself for his penetration, and catching me with my hand held guiltily before my mouth, he smiled. ’Well,’ he said, ’can you not come to the point—why stand so long agape? What of your mission?’ So, being nothing loath, I told him the whole matter, much as I have related it in this place. And though at the beginning he sat calmly enough to listen, long before I had finished he was striding up and down the room gripping at his thigh, where for common he wore his sword—for, after all, Earl John was a true Cassillis, and neither craven nor hen-hearted. ’And they roared upon you, standing still. Nay, you did well! I wish it had been I! Man, I will give you the horse you rode upon, and all the caparison. I declare I will!’ For which I thanked him in words; but in my heart I said, ’It is an easy present to give that which is your uncle’s, and hath indeed been mine for weeks.’ Then he seemed to remember, for he said, ’But give me back my signet. Ye have done well, and on Lammas day ye shall do better. Will ye take a ring or a sword for a keepsake?’ A moment only I divided my mind. A ring, if good, would indeed buy many swords. But Cassillis was not the man to give a ring of price. Contrariwise a sword was a thing that all men had good skill of, and for very shame’s sake a good sword would he give. ’I crave a sword,’ said I, briefly.