“Raised!” laughed the king. “Raised where? In Northumberland? Are you sure ‘lift’ is not the word you mean?”
“Sir,” said the landlord, gravely, “there’s no lifting of cattle hereabout. This is not the Highlands. All in the neighbourhood are honest farmers or foresters.”
“Earning their bread by the sweat of their brow,” put in Sir David Lyndsay.
“Doubtless, when the English are after them,” suggested the cobbler.
The landlord did not join in their mirth, but merely said,—
“If your dinner is to your liking, my duty is done.”
“Quite so,” answered the king. “We were merely curious regarding the origin of your viands; but the question seems to be a ticklish one in this district.”
“Oh, not at all,” replied the innkeeper grimly. “If you question enough, you are sure to meet some one who will make you a suitable answer.”
The landlord, seemingly not liking the turn of the conversation, disappeared, and during the rest of the meal they were waited upon by a lowering, silent woman, who scowled savagely at them, and made no reply to the raillery of the king, who was in the highest spirits. They had ridden far that morning since breakfasting, and it was well after midday when they drew away from a table that had been devoted to their satisfying. Sir David and Flemming showed little inclination to proceed with their journey.
“The poor beasts must have a rest,” said the poet, although none of the three were horsemen enough to go out and see how the animals fared at the hands of the stableman. The king was accustomed to be waited upon, and the other two knew little and cared less about horses. As they sat there in great content they heard suddenly a commotion outside and the clatter of many hoofs on the stone causeway. The door burst in, and there came, trampling, half a dozen men, who entered with scant ceremony, led by a stalwart individual who cast a quick glance from one to the other of the three who were seated. His eye rested on the king, whom, with quick intuition, he took to be the leader of the expedition and, doffing his feathered bonnet in a salutation that had more of mockery than respect in it, he said: “I hear that, like myself, you’re in the cattle trade, and that you’re anxious to learn the prospect of doing business in this mountainous locality.”