“Treason, Sire! and in this guarded castle!” exclaimed Durward.
“You think it impossible,” said the King, not offended, it would seem, by his frankness; “but our history has shown that treason can creep into an auger hole.—Treason excluded by guards! Oh, thou silly boy!—quis custodiat ipsos custodes—who shall exclude the treason of those very warders?”
“Their Scottish honour,” answered Durward, boldly.
“True: most right:—thou pleasest me,” said the King, cheerfully; “the Scottish honour was ever true, and I trust it accordingly. But treason!”—here he relapsed into his former gloomy mood, and traversed the apartment with unequal steps—“she sits at our feasts, she sparkles in our bowls, she wears the beard of our counsellors, the smiles of our courtiers, the crazy laugh of our jesters—above all, she lies hid under the friendly air of a reconciled enemy. Louis of Orleans trusted John of Burgundy—he was murdered in the Rue Barbette. John of Burgundy trusted the faction of Orleans—he was murdered on the bridge of Montereau.—I will trust no one—no one. Hark ye; I will keep my eye on that insolent Count; ay, and on the churchman too, whom I hold not too faithful. When I say, Ecosse, en avant [Forward, Scotland], shoot Crevecoeur dead on the spot.”
“It is my duty,” said Quentin, “your Majesty's life being endangered.”
“Certainly—I mean it no otherwise,” said the King. “What should I get by slaying this insolent soldier?—Were it the Constable Saint Paul indeed”—here he paused, as if he thought he had said a word too much, but resumed, laughing, “our brother-in-law, James of Scotland—your own James, Quentin—poniarded the Douglas when on a hospitable visit, within his own royal castle of Skirling.”
[Douglas: the allusion in the text is to the fate of James, Earl of Douglas, who, upon the faith of a safe conduct, after several acts of rebellion, visited James the Second in the Castle of Stirling. The king stabbed Douglas, who received his mortal wound from Sir Patrick Grey, one of the king's attendants.]
“Of Stirling,” said Quentin, “and so please your Highness.—It was a deed of which came little good.”
“Stirling call you the castle?” said the King, overlooking the latter part of Quentin's speech. “Well, let it be Stirling—the name is nothing to the purpose. But I meditate no injury to these men—none.—It would serve me nothing. They may not purpose equally fair by me—I rely on thy harquebuss.”
“I shall be prompt at the signal,” said Quentin; “but yet”