"With siller bells at his bridle?"
"Yes—yes!"
"Well, then, I havena seen oucht o' him."
"God confound thee! thou wordy carle, dost laugh at us?" said a falconer, angrily, as he shook his long pole threateningly towards Birrel, whose natural insolence could not omit this opportunity of indulging itself a little.
"'Twas an evil day this to come forth hawking," said the young lady; "the day on which my dearest friend is to die——"
"Now haud ye, Lady Marion," said the white-haired falconer, cautiously; "for ken ye not, that noble though that lady be, it's far frae being safe or wise to claim friendship wi' her at the present time. If Sir Robert turned towards the Corstorphine marshes——"
"I hope not, for they are both dangerous and deep," said the young lady, looking westward, and shading her large blue eyes with an ungloved hand, that was white as the hawthorn blossom. "God knoweth how sadly and unwillingly I came forth this day; and it was but to please him that I forsook our little oratory for the saddle. Thou knowest my father, Steenie——?"
"Aye, the auld knicht winna thole steerin," replied the old falconer, as he also shaded his sunburned face with a large brown hand, and scanned the glowing west.
"'Tis very strange, Steenie—where was my father seen last?"
"Galloping over the mains, after his favourite hawk, madam," replied a servitor, touching his bonnet.