The anxiety of the next-of-kin to the title of Earl of Douglas for the peace and prosperity of the realm seemed to strike them both as exceedingly natural in the circumstances.
"And now, Sir Alexander, what say you ?" asked the Sieur de Retz, turning to the King's guardian, who had been caressing the curls of his beard with his white and signeted hand.
"I agree," he replied in a courtly tone, "that in the interests of the King and of the noble lady whose care for her child hath led her to such sacrifices, we ought to put a limit to the pride and insolence of this youth!" The Chancellor bent over a parchment to hide a smile at the sacrifices which the Queen Mother had made for her son.
"It is indeed, doubtless," said Sir William Crichton, "a sacrifice that the King and his mother should dwell so long within this Castle of Stirling, exposed to every rude blast from off these barren Grampians.

Let her bring him to the mild and equable climate of Edinburgh, which, as I am sure your Excellency must have observed, is peculiarly suited to the rearing of such tender plants." He appealed to the Sieur de Retz.
The marshal bowed and answered immediately, "Indeed, it reminds me of the sunniest and most favoured parts of my native France." The tutor of the King looked somewhat uncomfortable at the suggestion and shook his head.

He had no idea of putting the King of Scots within the power of his arch enemy in the strong fortress of Edinburgh.
But the Frenchman broke in before the ill effects of the Chancellor's speech had time to turn the mind of the King's guardian from the present project against the Earl of Douglas.
"But surely, gentlemen, it should not be difficult for two such honourable men to unite in destroying this curse of the commonweal--and afterwards to settle any differences which may in the past have arisen between themselves." "Good," said the Chancellor, "you speak well.

But how are we to bring the Earl within our danger?
Already I have sent him offers of alliance, and so, I doubt not, hath my honourable friend the tutor of the King.

You know well what answer the proud chief of Douglas returned." The lips of Sir Alexander Livingston moved.