"And why not, lad? a coach awaits us at the close-head, and you are a free man." "Free! my Lord, _free_!" "Free as the wind, and without a stain on thy scutcheon." "_My_ scutcheon," repeated Walter coldly. "Ah, my Lord, why jest with my nameless obscurity." "Think not so ungenerously of me. The day shall come, Walter, when we may see the argent and bend azure of the old Fentounes of that ilk (I don't doubt the Lyon Herald will make thee a sprout of that ancient stock) quartered, collared, and mantled with your own personal achievements. Tush, lad! the wide world is all before you, and you have your sword. Think how many Scottish cavaliers of fortune have led the finest armies, and won the greatest battles, and the proudest titles in Europe! I have this moment come from the Council Chamber, where with half a dozen words, I have reversed all thy doom, and had it expunged from their black books." "I would, noble Earl, that the same generosity had been extended to the Napiers of Bruntisfield." "Nor was it withheld. What think you of that beautiful minx Annie Laurie of Maxwelton (I warrant thou knowest her--all our gay fellows do) waylaying me in her sedan. We met at the Cowgate Stairs, which ascend to the Parliament House, and there desiring her linkboys and liverymen to halt right in that narrow path, she vowed by every bone in her fan, I should never get to Council to-night--ha! ha! unless I pledged my word as a belted Earl to have her friends the Napiers pardoned as well as thee. A brave damsel, faith! and would do well to follow the drum. Zooks! I wish young Finland had her." "And the Napiers----" "Are pardoned; but they have fled, egad! nobody knows where. How exasperated Perth, Balcarris, and other high-flying cavaliers were by the influence I seemed to possess over the votes at the Board, having won alike the noble Claverhouse, the ferocious Dalyel, and that addlepated senator, Swinton of Mersington." "Lord Dunbarton, I have no words to express my feelings." "Pshaw! in all this affair I see only the meanness of the despicable world. Deeming thee a poor and friendless lad, whose whole hope was the fortune of war, and whose only inheritance a poor half-pike, these blustering Lords of Council did not hesitate to misuse thee shamefully. Here thou art immured and forgotten, until one comes, on whom they reckoned not, but who, in addition to a coronet, writes himself Knight of the Thistle, Commander of the Scottish Forces, and Colonel of a devoted regiment of fifteen hundred brave hearts as ever marched to battle, and lo! his wish is law, his breath bears all before it. Walter Fenton, have a soul above the petty injuries of lordlings such as these, and cock thy feather not a whit the less for having endured their jack-in-office frowns." Here the Gudeman rattled his keys, and awe alone kept his constitutional impatience in check. "And how did your Lordship overcome the hatred of Clermistonlee, my most bitter persecutor?"