"You have been in France, doubtless?" said Anna.
"Frequently, on embassies from our late queen regent, Mary of Guise and Lorraine, to the court of the magnificent Francis. Ah! some of the happiest days of my life—yes, and some of the saddest too—have been spent in the palace of the Tournelles."
A momentary frown gathered on the Earl's brow, but was immediately replaced by a smile.
"And has your embassy from Mary of Scotland to Frederick of Denmark been accomplished happily?"
"Not as yet, fair Anna," replied Bothwell hurriedly, while his brow flushed; "for his Danish majesty lacks much the spirit of his Scandinavian ancestors. Yet, dear madam, I cannot but deem my sojourn in this northern clime a happy one, since it ends here," and he slightly touched her hand.
While with open mouth the old governor of Bergen had been turning alternately from his niece to the stranger, surprised to hear them conversing so fluently in a language quite unknown to him, several servants in red gaberdines and voluminous trunk breeches laid supper on the long central table; while the warmth of the hall was increased by a number of torches placed in grotesque stone brackets, projecting from the walls, on the red masonry of which they shed a ruddy glow.
The Earl courteously handed the young lady to a seat, and placed himself beside her.
Konrad had been in the act of advancing to assume his usual chair by her side; but finding himself anticipated, and feeling instinctively and sadly that perhaps he was not missed, he retired to the other end of the table, and seated himself beside the strong and swarthy knight of Ormiston.
"Twice hath he kissed her hand this night!" thought the young man with a bitter sigh; "that hand which I have scarcely dared to touch—and twice she seemed pleased by the attention; for her cheek flushed, and her eye sparkled with the brightness of her joy."
The evening repast was somewhat plain and coarse, as the governor made it his boast and pride to have every thing after the ancient Norwegian fashion, and would as readily have permitted poison as any foreign luxury or innovation to invade his board.