"I should like to know how you did get in," answered James, who was exceedingly amused. "You must have got over the wall, I think."
"Not I," answered the man; "I came round by the stables, and through the back court; but what signifies it to you how I got in?"
"It signifies very much," cried Ramsay, fiercely, for his blood had continued boiling during the whole conversation, at what he considered the man's insolence.
But James interposed, exclaiming, "Hout, lad, keep your breath to cool your porridge. How can the man tell that I am the head keeper? He's clearly a stranger here, by his tongue."
"Oh, if you are the head keeper, that makes all the difference," answered the other. "I know what belongs to parks as well as any one; and the head keeper is always a very reverend gentleman in my eyes. A man should never quarrel with his bread and butter; and I've often got a capital venison steak for being civil to the head keeper. So, sir, I'll tell you I got quite honestly in, as you can learn yourself, if you go back with me to the palace. I've brought a letter from my lord to his majesty the king, and as I've long had a great wish to see him, I told a lie, and said I was to deliver it myself; but the people at the palace told me that his majesty was busy in his cabinet on affairs of state."
"The lying loons!" muttered James, with a laugh.
"And so," continued the other, "I just put up my horse at the hostel, and walked through the gates into the park."
"And so you had a great desire to see the king, had you?" said James. "What might that be for? Why should you want to see him more than any other man?"
"For three reasons," answered the other; "because they say he is as wise as King Solomon; because he's fond of proverbs; and because he's the greatest hunter upon earth since Nimrod."
James chuckled, till his quilted doublet shook; and then he asked, "Who told you all this?"