He had left in the anteroom the page of honour who carried his sword.

The Earl was a well built, handsome man, fair complexioned, with a considerable profusion of light coloured hair, and bright blue eyes, which gleamed like those of a falcon.

He exhibited in his countenance, otherwise pleasing, the marks of a hasty and irritable temper, which his situation as a high and powerful feudal lord had given him but too many opportunities of indulging.
"I am glad to see you, my Lord of March," said the King, with a gracious inclination of his person.

"You have been long absent from our councils." "My liege," answered March with a deep reverence to the King, and a haughty and formal inclination to the Duke of Albany, "if I have been absent from your Grace's councils, it is because my place has been supplied by more acceptable, and, I doubt not, abler, counsellors.

And now I come but to say to your Highness, that the news from the English frontier make it necessary that I should return without delay to my own estates.