"Permit us to pass, my lord, and do not add one more insult to the many we have received at your hands." "I deplore that you should speak thus to me, madam; but your father is a noble, and I cannot see his honour trifled with by fishermen and merchant mariners, though the king may knight them, and set them to fight and man his ships. I pray you to pardon my curiosity--but you gave that seaman a letter, I think." "He gave me a packet, you mean," said Euphemia, trembling with apprehension, as the calm, bold eye of Hailes scrutinized her beautiful face with more of pity than indignation. "And this packet----" "You are very inquisitive." "Your _betrothed_, the Lord Home, is my dear friend." Euphemia bit her lips with anger, while her eyes filled with tears. "And this packet?" said Hailes again. "Contained a book--only a book found in an English ship; and your lordship knows that a printed book is worth some crofts of corn." "It may be so, but I would rather have the crofts," said Hailes, with a smile of scorn, as Euphemia opened the black-letter folio. "Thank God, I have no need to write; for I can bite my thumb, and affix my seal, like the good lord my father before me, to aught that is requisite in peace, and with this--his sword--I make my mark, where it suits me, in time of war; but what is this most precious tome?" "One, the perusal of which might be of infinite service to your lordship." "Indeed!--then what may it be--read, if it please you, fair madam." "'_The Book of Good Manners_,'" said Euphemia, with a smile, as she read the title page, which we give literally from the original now before us; "'_fynisshed and translated out of frensshe in to englisshe, the viiij day of Juyne, in the yere of our Lord_, 1487, _and the first yere of the regne of Kyng harry the vij_--compiled by the venerable _Frere Jacques le Graunt, an Augustin_,' and the study thereof would, I am assured, benefit you much, so God keep you, my lord--and now, fare-you-well." Sybilla laughed, as Euphemia gave one of her lofty bows, and they swept past Hailes, into whose proud heart the broad taunt sank deeply, for he had perception enough to feel his own want of manner and of education; so he bit his nether lip as he muttered, "I shall byde my time, and when I have either of you in my castle by the Tyne, her tongue shall be bridled, should a brank of iron be made for it!" Then turning on his heel, he hurried after Home to wreak his smothered wrath on the interloping mariner. CHAPTER XLVII. BORTHWICK'S NEW MISSION. "Your pardon, sir, But sure this lack of Christian charity Looks not like Christian truth." "I would give ten of my best horses, if by so doing I could find this stunted vagabond in the grey gaberdine!" said Hailes to Home, as they met in the Broad Wynd; "and so he has escaped your lordship too?" "Yes, but we shall find him yet. Canst think of any one to employ, Blackcastle?" asked Home of a Hepburn who attended them.