He was about to use the privilege of his rank and birth to enter the royal apartment, when MacLouis, the commander of the guard of Brandanes, gave him to understand, in the most respectful terms, that he had special instructions which forbade his admittance.
"Go at least, MacLouis, and let them know that I wait their pleasure," said the Prince.

"If my uncle desires to have the credit of shutting the father's apartment against the son, it will gratify him to know that I am attending in the outer hall like a lackey." "May it please you," said MacLouis, with hesitation, "if your Highness would consent to retire just now, and to wait awhile in patience, I will send to acquaint you when the Duke of Albany goes; and I doubt not that his Majesty will then admit your Grace to his presence.

At present, your Highness must forgive me, it is impossible you can have access." "I understand you, MacLouis; but go, nevertheless, and obey my commands." The officer went accordingly, and returned with a message that the King was indisposed, and on the point of retiring to his private chamber; but that the Duke of Albany would presently wait upon the Prince of Scotland.
It was, however, a full half hour ere the Duke of Albany appeared--a period of time which Rothsay spent partly in moody silence, and partly in idle talk with MacLouis and the Brandanes, as the levity or irritability of his temper obtained the ascendant.
At length the Duke came, and with him the lord High Constable, whose countenance expressed much sorrow and embarrassment.
"Fair kinsman," said the Duke of Albany, "I grieve to say that it is my royal brother's opinion that it will be best, for the honour of the royal family, that your Royal Highness do restrict yourself for a time to the seclusion of the High Constable's lodgings, and accept of the noble Earl here present for your principal, if not sole, companion until the scandals which have been this day spread abroad shall be refuted or forgotten." "How is this, my lord of Errol ?" said the Prince in astonishment.

"Is your house to be my jail, and is your lordship to be my jailer ?" "The saints forbid, my lord," said the Earl of Errol "but it is my unhappy duty to obey the commands of your father, by considering your Royal Highness for some time as being under my ward." "The Prince--the heir of Scotland, under the ward of the High Constable! What reason can be given for this?
is the blighting speech of a convicted recreant of strength sufficient to tarnish my royal escutcheon ?" "While such accusations are not refuted and denied, my kinsman," said the Duke of Albany, "they will contaminate that of a monarch." "Denied, my lord!" exclaimed the Prince; "by whom are they asserted, save by a wretch too infamous, even by his own confession, to be credited for a moment, though a beggar's character, not a prince's, were impeached?
Fetch him hither, let the rack be shown to him; you will soon hear him retract the calumny which he dared to assert!" "The gibbet has done its work too surely to leave Bonthron sensible to the rack," said the Duke of Albany.

"He has been executed an hour since." "And why such haste, my lord ?" said the Prince; "know you it looks as if there were practice in it to bring a stain on my name ?" "The custom is universal, the defeated combatant in the ordeal of battle is instantly transferred from the lists to the gallows.