"Agreed!" said Preston, glancing round with an air of satisfaction and curiosity to see how the announcement was received.
"On that day, sirs," added Master Patten, "the infant queen of Scotland shall share the glory of being joint sovereign of a realm containing the English, Irish, and Welsh, the Cornishmen, and the French of Jersey, Guernsey, and Calais."
"But," said Glencairn, "what if our devil of a regent, with a good array of Scottish pikes, standeth in the way of all this?"
"Then, by heaven, sirs, black velvet will be in demand among the surname of Hamilton!" exclaimed Kilmaurs.
"How?" asked Claude of Preston angrily. "Would you dare——"
"Exactly so!" interrupted Kilmaurs with his deadly smile.
"And the said Claude Hamilton, laird of Preston," continued poor Master Patten, reading very fast to avoid further interruptions, "hereby binds and obliges himself to bestow in marriage upon Master Edward Shelly, captain of the King of England's Boulogners, in reward for his services touching these state matters, the hand and estates of his niece, the Lady Madeline Hame, Countess of Yarrow, now his ward, and according to law in his custody as overlord, by the will of her late father the earl, who bound her to remain so until the age of twenty-one years."
"Thou art in luck, Master Shelly," said Kilmaurs, "for the lady is said to be beautiful."
"But suppose she will not have me?" suggested Shelly, who now smiled and played with the feather in his bonnet.
"Dare she refuse!" growled Claude Hamilton, gnawing his wiry moustache.