"Now, then, Captain Howard, let us to business," said he, filling his wine-horn.
"Ay, to business," added Borthwick, filling his, and imitating the nonchalance of the baron.
"Well," said Howard, "how does his Grace of Rothesay's amour proceed (for of that we have heard at the English court), and what chance is there of his ranging up amicably alongside of a fair English princess, yard-arm and yard-arm, with Cupid ahead?"
"Very little, I fear, since this affair with Barton."
"Barton was a brave seaman, and man of honour," said the Englishman; "but," he added, contemptuously, "I have just paid for that piece of sport."
"You have paid King Henry's spy," retorted Sir James Shaw, warmly; "but remember that King James, and more than he, old Andrew Wood, and Barton's eldest son, will amply avenge your battle in the Channel, unless we have them both fettered, or disposed of otherwise."
"Then dispose of them, in God's name, and as many more angry Scots as are in the same unruly mood; for King Henry wishes no more of this work; and indeed, ere long, an ambassador will leave London, to clear up the story of our conflict with the ships of Barton, against which, I think, we may fairly set off Lord Angus's invasion of Northumberland."
"Well, but what is King Henry's new proposal?"
"Simply this, Sir Patrick; that by force or fraud we must either bring off the young prince and have him wedded to the Princess Margaret Tudor, in terms of their betrothal, or we must kidnap the young Dame Margaret Drummond, whichever your most worshipful knighthoods think can be most easily accomplished, for we have undoubted proofs that Rothesay loves her."
"Ah!—is it so?" said Gray, with a dark frown; "but what does Henry VII. propose to do with her? for I would not have evil done to the maiden."