Ha! thou at mine elbow, honest Harry Smith?
What dost thou here ?" "There has been something of a fight, my lord," answered our acquaintance the smith, "between the townsmen and the Southland loons who ride with the Douglas; and we have swinged them as far as the abbey gate." "I am glad of it--I am glad of it.

And you beat the knaves fairly ?" "Fairly, does your Highness ask ?" said Henry.

"Why, ay! We were stronger in numbers, to be sure; but no men ride better armed than those who follow the Bloody Heart.

And so in a sense we beat them fairly; for, as your Highness knows, it is the smith who makes the man at arms, and men with good weapons are a match for great odds." While they thus talked, the Earl of March, who had spoken with some one near the palace gate, returned in anxious haste.

"My Lord Duke!--my Lord Duke! your father is recovered, and if you haste not speedily, my Lord of Albany and the Douglas will have possession of his royal ear." "And if my royal father is recovered," said the thoughtless Prince, "and is holding, or about to hold, counsel with my gracious uncle and the Earl of Douglas, it befits neither your lordship nor me to intrude till we are summoned.