A stable lad must mount a horse at once, and deliver this letter personally." Then he gave a great sigh of relief, as if two hundred thousand stones had been lifted from his heart with these two hundred thousand florins.
He had never felt so happy as he was at that moment.
How Abellino received this noble disposition to stretch out the right hand of fellowship and forgiveness, we shall see presently.
* * * * * Master Jock could scarce await the dawn of St.John Baptist's Day; he was as delighted as a child who knows that some long-wished-for amusement awaits him.

He was awakened long before sunrise by the baying of the dogs and the rattling of the baggage-waggons into the courtyard.
The huntsmen were coming back from the forest with newly shot game; over the sides of the lofty wains the horned heads of the noble antlered stags bobbed up and down; heaps of pheasants were carried between two poles; well-fattened heath fowl were slung over the shoulders of the beaters.

The cook came forth to meet them in his white _kantus_, and tapped row after row of the fat game, his face beaming with satisfaction all the time.

Master Jock himself was looking down from the latticed-window into the courtyard; even then the day had only just begun to dawn, and the eastern curtain of the sky was aflame with purple, pink, carmine, and saffron hues.

The whole plain around was calm and still; and silver mists lay here and there over the fields like fairy lakes.
And now the Nabob lay down for another little snatch of slumber.