Jane Seton: or, the Kings Advocate. A Scottish historical romance

Preface

. The genius of a monarch is said to stamp a character upon his time ; but this can scarcely be said to bave been tbe good fortune of tbe sovereign in whose reign I have laid the following romance. Like all the princes of his house, James V. was far in advance of the age in which he lived ; for to all his forefathers5 valour and passionate love of their native Scotland (for whose soil so many of them had shed their blood in battle), to their elegant taste in all the arts, their patronage of science and commerce, he united a love for romantic adventure, which, Uke James IV., made him the idol of the people. But the Scottish nobles, though affording us many bright and glorious examples of high valour and pure patriotism, have gene rally been a race of men too ready to sacrifice the dearest interests of their country for lucre or ambition; and were really, in all ages, a curse alike to our kings and the nation.

In the following pages I have endeavoured to por tray something of their savage pride and unscrupulous spirit; and to give a picture of those dark days of

PREFACE.

. violence when danger was the pastime and arms the occupation of our people ; when it was sadly but truly said, that grey hairs were seldom seen under a Scots man's bonnet, and that a Scottish mother had seldom a son left to lay her head in the grave, for in civil strife or foreign war they had all gone before her to the land of the leal. There is much that is veritable history, and much that is old tradition, woven up with my fiction; and though the reader may be able to distinguish these passages, I shall mention, that the king's adventure in the cavern, the three trees of Dysart, and John of Clatto are ancient legends of Fife ; while the point on which the whole story turns — the strange and frantic love of Otterburn — is taken partly from an incident mentioned in the annals of the House of Angus, and wbich bears a conspicuous place in the early criminal records of Scotland.

It will be found related at further length in the notes. The King's Advocate was so named, to distinguish him from the Crown Prince's Advocate, an office wliich existed before the abolition of many of those more im portant public institutions of which Scotland has lately too tamely permitted herself to be deprived ; thus affording — unless her people shake off their political lethargy — a most dangerous precedent for the destruc tion of the College of Justice itself. The King's Advocate, with whose name I have made so free in these volumes, was the son of Thomas Otter burn of Edinburgh, who was slain at the battle of

PREFACE.

. V Flodden, and of Katharine Brown. He was Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1524 to 1535, and was our ambassador to England between the same years. He was knighted in 1534., but was imprisoned in the castle of Dunbarton for being too partial to Englishmen. He was highly esteemed by Buchanan, who has embalmed his memory in beautiful Latin verse. Vipont, the hero, bears an old Scottish surname, which was famous in the middle ages, though it has now almost disappeared. Andro Wyntown, the Prior of St. Serf, mentions that Alan ye Vipownt was keeper of Lochlevin, and defended that fortress valiantly in the wars of the Scottish succession. Another, Sir William Vipont, was one of the two Scottish knights slain on the glorious 24th of June, 1314. They were barons of Aberdour on the northern shore of the Forth, where their ruined castle, a massive pde indicative of great strength and ancient grandeur, is yet to be seen.

Roland Vipont is meant to represent the last of that old race, whose arms are still recorded to have been six annulets or, with a swan's head rising from a coronet. Let it not be thought that I have made James V. or his minister speak too harshly of Henry VIII.'s moral character, when we bear in mind that Dr. Bayley, in his " Life of Bishop Fisher," has plainly asserted and proved, that the Enghsh king married Anne Boleyn, knowing her to be his own daughter. So much for the " Bluff King Hal" of romance. If, on one hand, I have omitted to portray the Cardinal Primate as the monster we have been taught VI

PREFACE.

. to believe him ; I do not, on the other, wish it to be thought that I consider the good Father St. Bernard as a type of the Scottish clergy in 1537. Very far from it ; they were the reverse of all I have made that meek old priest. But, doubtless, there must have been excep tions ; and it must be remembered, that all our accounts of them and the Cardinal have come down to us from their enemies. A Scottish novelist labours under a great disadvan tage, when endeavouring to introduce effectively for Enghsh readers old national characters who speak their own language, which to a modern Englishman would be as unintelligible as Choctaw; hence the conventional half-dialect usually adopted. It is a curious fact, that in the days of Alexander I. or Robert I., the dialects of the two nations were more alike than what they are to-day.

Since then, the language of south Britain has gradually been changing, and becoming what is strictly termed English; whde the gothic dialect of the north has remained pretty much the same; hence the Scot can read with ease, and fully understand, the obsolete phrases and idioms of Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare, &c, many parts of the old editions of whose works are now almost unintelligible to the mass of their own countrymen. Edinburgh, 1st January, 1853. CONTENTS OF THE FIEST VOLUME. CHAPTEB PAGE I. JANE SETON 1 II. MAGDALENE OF FRANCE 13 III. THE MASTER OF THE ORDNANCE 28 IV. REDHALL 41 V. THE WITCH-PRICKER 47 VI. THE ILLUMINATED SPIRE 54 VII. TWO OFFICIALS 66 VIII. THE QUEEN'S MASQUE 74 IX. LA VOLTA 87 X. LOVE AND ABHORRENCE 98 XI. SWORDBLADES AND SALVE 110 XII. EDINBURGH IN 1537 117 XIII.

SAINT GILES 127 XIV. THE CHANCELLOR OF SCOTLAND 140 XV. THE NOON OF LOVE CONTENTS. CHAPTER 'PAGE XVI. VIPONT'S HOUSEHOLD 159 XVII. A LORD ADVOCATE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 171 XVIII. THE CASTLE OF INCHKEITH 181 XIX. THE FORTUNATE SWORD THRUST 193 XX. THE BLACK PAGE 202 XXI. JOHN OF THE SILVERMILLS 214 XXII. TEN RED GRAINS 228 XXIII. THE FIRST VISIT 236 XXIV. THE KNIFE 249 XXV. DOUGLASDALE 259 XXVI. THE BARMKYN OF CAIRNTABLE 265 XXVII. THE POMMEL OF THE PONIARD ' 281 XXVIII. A DRAUGHT OF WATER THE KING'S ADVOCATE.

Chapter I. Jane Seton

I prithee mark His countenance: unlike bold calumny, Which sometime dare not speak the thing it looks, He dare not look the thing he speaks, but bends His gaze on the blind earth." The Cekci. On the 19th of May, 1537, the bells of Edinburgh rang joyously. It was a day of loyalty and merri ment such as never more may gladden Scotland's ancient capital. After a nine months' absence, James V. — "the good king James, the commons' king, the father of the poor, the patron of the infant arts and sciences, the mirror of chivalry and romance," as he was affectionately named by a people who idolized him — had arrived in the Firth of Forth with his young queen Magdalene of Valois, whom for her dazzling beauty he had chosen from among three princesses, all possessed of unusual charms, and whom he had espoused in the great cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, in presence of her father, the VOL. I. B oe, magnificent and magnanimous Francis I., seven cardi nals, and all the* noblesse and beauty of France.

After spending the honeymoon at the Hotel de Cluny, a beautiful old gothic house belonging to the famdy of Lorraine, they had saded for Scotland. All the capital vvas on tiptoe, and its streets were crowded to excess by the retinues of the nobles and lesser barons, who had come thither to gratify their curiosity and evince their loyalty on the auspicious occasion. The day was one of the most beautiful of ad that sunny month; and the summer air was laden with the perfume of flowers, for garlands and bouquets were fes tooned from window to window across the main street leading to the palace, a thoroughfare six-and-twenty yards in breadth ; while the stone columns of the girth cross of the holy sanctuary, the Jerusalem-cross of St. John, the great market-cross of the city bearing aloft the unicorn rearing on a tressured shield, and the famous stone statue of Our Lady which then stood at the east end of St. Gdes's church, were all wreathed and hidden under the spod of a hundred blooming gardens.

Scaffolds and balconies hung with tapestry and rare carpets of foreign manufacture, or painted with azure, starred with shining gold, occupied the sides of the streets in many places, and were crowded with the fami lies of the surrounding landholders, the better classes of citizens, and the baronial dweders of the BlackfriaiV Wynd and the Canongate ; a great part of the latter street consisted then of turretted vdlas, and stronglv-budt but detached mansion-houses, surrounded by spacious gardens. Banners innumerable, bearing the heraldic cognizances of the proud, the noble, and the brave of Scotland's ancient days, waved from window, turret and large dark eyes to heaven, prayed with deep pathos ■ • to God, the blessed Virgin, and aU the saints, for the happiness of Scotland, the land of her adoption, and its people."

The bright sunshine of the glorious May morning, poured aslant its flaky radiance between the breaks and openings in those irregular masses of budding, that tower up to such a giddy height on both sides of the central street of the ancient city; the south was sombre and grey, but the north was glowing in warmth, as the sun light played along its far-stretching vista. Many of these houses were flat-roofed, flagged with large stones, hke ancient towers, or covered with thatch; but few that overlooked the pageant about to be described are standing now, as the city was fired by tbe English in eight places seven years after, in the war with Henry VIII. By the skill of a certain cunning craftsman, the High-street, even at that early period, was well paved ; and the monks of Holyrood kept the Canongate (which is but a further continuation of the same thoroughfare) well causewayed, for which the Reverend Lord Abbot levied a duty upon every cart, laden or unladen, which entered the eastern barrier of the burgh.

All the open windows of that great street, the tall edifices of which rise to the height of eight and ten stories, exciting stdl the astonishment of every traveller, were filled with glad f'uccs; every bartizan, outshot, and projection bore its load of shouting urchins ; even the leads and parapets of the great cathedral, with its hideously grotesque stone gutters, carved into devils and dragons, wyverns and other monsters, bore a freight of spectators, the buzz of whose voices, above and below, imparted a liveliness to large dark eyes to heaven, prayed with deep pathos ■ • to God, the blessed Virgin, and ad the saints, for the happiness of Scotland, the land of her adoption, and its people." The bright sunshine of the glorious May morning, poured aslant its flaky radiance between the breaks and openings in those irregular masses of budding, that tower up to such a giddy height on both sides of the central street of the ancient city; the south was sombre and grey, but the north was glowing in warmth, as the sun light played along its far-stretching vista.

Many of these houses were flat-roofed, flagged with large stones, hke ancient towers, or covered with thatch; but few that overlooked the pageant about to be described are standing now, as the city was fired by tbe English in eight places seven years after, in the war with Hemy VIII. By the skill of a certain cunning craftsman, the High-street, even at that early period, was well paved ; and the monks of Holyrood kept the Canongate (which is but a further continuation of the same thoroughfare) well causewayed, for which the Reverend Lord Abbot levied a duty upon every cart, laden or unladen, which entered the eastern barrier of the burgh. All the open windows of that great street, the tall edifices of which rise to the height of eight and ten stories, exciting stdl the astonishment of every traveller, were filled with glad slices; every bartizan, outshot, and projection bore its load of shouting urchins ; even the leads and parapets of the great cathedral, with its hideously grotesque stone gutters, carved into devils and dragons, wyverns and other monsters, bore a freight of spectators, the buzz of whose voices, above and below, imparted a liveliness to the scene, and relieved the tedium of long expectation and waiting for the approach of the royal party.

The utmost good-humour pervaded these expectant crowds, though sometimes a brawl seemed likely to ensue, when a gentleman of pride and pedigree, with velvet cloak, a long rapier, and tall feather, despising tlie authority of the convener and his bands of mechani cal craftsmen, marched down the centre of the street, with a few well-armed serving-men following doggedly at his heels, with brows bent, their swords girt up, and that expression on their faces which seemed so much as to say, "We are Humes, Douglasses, or Scotts, or Setons, and who will dare to meddle with us !" With these, such was the patent of gentle blood, the burgher archers dared not to interfere; but their un strung bows and gauntletted hands pommelled without mercy any luckless countryman or denizen of Leith or St. Ninian's Row, who encroached on the causeway, which by order of the knightly provost vvas to be kept clear by ad.

Such incidental brawls were generally queUed by the interference of some passing grey friar or Dominican. Those cavaliers who assumed the right of perambu lating the open street vvere, as I have said, almost inva riably attended by bands of foUowers, armed with swords and round targets, steel caps and corselets. Several of these were invariably greeted by a yed of hostility and. epithets of opprobrium from those who occupied the windows, and who found this a more safe experiment than it could have proved to those who stood in the street below. These obnoxious personages were generally lesser barons and gentlemen of the house of Douglas, a clan which, from its numerical force, pride, power, and tur bulence, had long been inimical to the house of Stuart, and more especially to James V., who after many efforts had completely broken its strength, reduced its numerous strongholds, and driven the chief, Archibald sixth Earl of Angus, and Knight of St. Michael, from his high offices of Lord Chancedor and Lieutenant of the East and Middle Marches, with all the noblesse of his sirname and faction, to exde in England ; where, like all Scottish rebels and malcontents, according to the ancient line of southern policy, they were fostered and protected by Henry VIII.

By the knights and gentlemen of the proscribed name those marks of hostility from the vulgar herd were treated with sdent scorn; but their foUowers scowled about them with clenched weapons and kindling eyes, that showed how intensely they longed to react the great High-street conflict of 1520, and revenge on the rabble of Edinburgh the insults they now endured. These evidences of hostility and political disgust were soon lost amid the general sphit of rejoicing that pervaded the entire body of the people ; for loyalty and devotion to their old hereditary hne of princes was then an inborn sentiment in the Scots, who were devout behevers in the divine right of kings, and had not yet been taught by their preachers to view theh old regal race as tyrants and oppressors. Among all this mirth and festivity there were two persons whose sobriety and staidness of demeanour were very remarkable.

One was a young man about six-and-twenty, who had, apparently, just entered the city, for his boots and leathern gambadoes were covered with dust. He wore a plain gaberdine, or frock, of white Galloway frieze, with horn buttons ; but beneath it appeared a doublet of escaupd to protect him from sword thrusts, an un usual garment for one of his class, for his grey maud, or plaid, blue bonnet, backsword, and hunting-knife, announced him a yeoman or agriculturist. He carried a great knotty walking-staff, recently cut from some wayside thicket ; but to a close observer it would have seemed perfectly evident that the profusion of his beard and moustache was worn rather for disguise than adorn ment. He was reading a paper affixed to the cross of St. John of Jerusalem, which stood in the centre of the Canongate, immediately opposite the arch which now gives admittance to St. John's-street, the ground of which was then closely budt upon.

It was a proclamation, issued by the nobles who governed in the king's absence, offering a thousand merks of Scottish money for "ye heid of Archibald Seton, umquhile Earle of Ashkirk," accused of leaguing with that false traitor, Archibald Douglas, sometime Earl of Angus, who had recently been on the borders, at the head of some English moss-troopers, infesting the bounds of the knight, Sir Mark Kerr, of Cess ford. With a brow that loured, and fierce eye that kindled, the young man read, from beginning to end, this pro clamation (which was obnoxious to so many), and his hand gradually tightened on the handle of his poniard as he proceeded. Suddenly remembering that he might be observed, a smile of scorn, such a lordly smde as never clown could have given, spread over his dark features ; he gave a glance of peculiar import at a group of ladies who occupied a balcony immediately opposite St. John's Cross, and, drawing his bonnet weU over his brows, looked round for some obscure nook from whence to see, in security, the progress of the royal pageant.

" How little can they imagine that / am so near them," said the Earl of Ashkirk (for the stranger was no other than he), as he dived among the crowd and dis appeared. The other personage to whom reference has been made, was a tall and finely-formed man, of a noble pre sence and commanding stature, possessing a remarkably handsome face, with a loftiness of bearing that never failed to strike the beholder with interest. His com plexion was dark, his nose slightly aqudine, his eyes black, and sparkling beneath two brows that were almost joined together. At times, a fierce and restless expression ht up these fiery and penetrating eyes, and knit his smooth expansive forehead, whde his moustachioed lip curled with pride and severity ; and then a languor and sadness stole over them, as other and softer emotions subdued the bitter thoughts some passing incident had roused.

He was dressed in a doublet aud trunk hose of black velvet, laced and buttoned with silver, and trimmed with miniver; a black velvet bonnet, adorned by a single diamond and one taU white ostrich feather, shaded his dark, short, curly hair. He wore a short poniard and long rapier in an embroidered belt, and had spurs, heavily gilded and embossed, on the heels of his maroquin boots. This man was Sir Adam Otterburn, of Redhall, the King's Advocate in the recently-instituted CoUege of Justice, a great favourite with his royal master, and one who, for his learning, probity, courage, and office, was loved by some, respected by many, and feared by all. His features were pale and hoUow, for he was recovering from a late dlness, brought on by a wound received in a conflict with the Douglasses, a circumstance which alone, on this auspicious day, confined him to a cushioned chah at the window of his house, which overlooked the High-street, where all the beauty and bravery of Edin burgh had thronged to welcome home King James.

Oblivious of the bustle pervading that long and stately thoroughfare, the streaming pennons, the waving banners, tbe gaudy tapestries and garlands that festooned every balcony and decorated every window, the Knight of Redhall continued to gaze upon the fair occupants of the temporary gaUery which we have before mentioned as standing near St. John's Cross. It was hung and canopied with scarlet cloth and festoons of flowers ; the front was painted with gold and azure, and thereon lay a banner, bearing under an earl's coronet, and within a widow's lozenge, the three crescents of Seton, within a double tressure, flowered and counter-flowered with golden fleurs-de-lis, quartered with " the bloody heart," the dreaded cognizance of the obnoxious Douglasses — a badge, which though it seldom gained love, never faded to inspire fear.

An old lady and several fair young belles, whose beauty alone saved them from the insults which popular hatred leveUed at all in alliance with the exiled Earl of Angus, occupied this balcony, and reclined beneath its shady canopy, chatting gaily, and expectant of the royal approach. The elder lady was Margaret Douglas, of the house of Kdspindie, dowager of John Earl of Ashkirk, and mother of Archibald, the present earl, who was then under doom of exile with Lord Angus, his kinsman and aUy. The younger ladies were Jane Seton her daugh ter, Marion Logan of Restalrig, Alison Hume of Fast castle, and Sybil Douglas of Kdspindie, aU noble damsels, who had come to Edinburgh to witness the splendid entree of Queen Magdalene. TaU in stature and dark in complexion, with deep black eyes, and a hauteur of brow, which the sweet expression of her mouth alone relieved, the Countess Dowager of Ashkirk, though all but unable to read or write (for letters were then held in low repute), was a woman of a shrewd and masculine turn of mind ; for the inborn dignity of noble birth, the martial spirit of her race, and the stormy hfe she had led since chdd hood among feudal brawls and intestine battles, had imparted an emphatic decision, if not a fierceness, at times, to her manner and modes of expression.

A stiff suit of the richest Genoese brocade lent additional stateliness to her figure, whde the diamond-shaped head dress then in fashion for noble matrons, added greatly to her stature, which was far above the middle height. The inner folds of this angular coif were of white linen, the outer of purple silk edged with yeUow fringe, and it formed a corner at each ear with an apex at the top, whde the folds lay close to her cheeks, scarcely per mitting her hair to be visible, and where it was so its raven hue seemed turning fast to sdver-grey. A httle negro boy, black as Lucifer, but dressed entirely in a rich suit of white satin, puffed and slashed at the trunks and shoulders, held up her train. LTgly as a fiend, with a broad nose, capacious mouth, and long pendant ears adorned with massive sdver rings, Master Sabrino, being the first or the second person of his colour ever seen in Scotland, was an object of fear to some, disgust to others, and wonder to ad.

The vulgar viewed him as an imp or devd incarnate, and studiously avoided the glance of his shining black eye baUs; but the creature, as they termed him, was affectionately devoted to his mistress, and to aU who used him kindly. Though the fashion of being attended by a black page or dwarf vvas not uncommon at continental courts, and had been first introduced into Scotland by Anne de la Tour of Vendome, Duchess of Albany, it did not tend to increase the popularity of the proud and distant Dowager of Ashkirk, whom, as a Douglas, the people were generaUy disposed to view with hostility and mistrust. Lady Jane Seton was, in many respects, the reverse of her mother ; for she had neither her lofty stature, her keenness of eye, nor her haughty decision of man ner; for her figure, though fuU and round, was, by turns, light, graceful, and yielding.

Neither her youth, for she was barely twenty, nor her beauty, though it was of the first class, were her chief characteristics. There was a depth of expression in her dark blue eye, which, by turns, was dreamy and thoughtful, or bright and laughing, a charm in her radiant complexion and a fascination in her manner, which drew aU instinctively towards her. When silent, she seemed fuU of intense thought ; when speaking, all vivacity and animation. Her hah was of the darkest and glossiest brown, and her neck arched and slender. Simple and pleasing, sinless in soul and pure in heart, her goodness and gen tleness were her greatest charms; and though she ap peared petite beside her towering mother, there was a grace in aU her movements, and a bewitching piquancy in every expression, that made Jane Seton adorable to her lovers, and she had many.

Her companions were worthy the association, aU fair and handsome girls. Alison, of Fastcastle, was a beautiful blonde; she carried a falcon on her wrist, and from time to time ; OR, pressed its smooth pinions against her dimpled cheek. Marion, of Restalrig, was a tall, flaxen-haired, and blue eyed beauty, ever laughing and ever gay; whde Sybd Douglas, of Kdspindie, was a brunette like aU the beauties of her house. Her deep black eyes and sable tresses would have lost nothing by comparison with those of Andalucia ; and though generaUy quiet, and, as some deemed her, insipid, her sdence concealed a world of sentiment and thoughts that vvere exquisitely feminine; but though silent and retiring, there were times when this fair daughter of the house of Douglas could mani fest a fire and spirit becoming Black Liddesdale himself.

They were all dressed nearly alike, in white satin, slashed at the breast and shoulders with variously coloured sdk, and all had coifs of velvet squared above theh temples, and falling in lappets on their cheeks. They were all talking at once, laughing at everything, like Sabrino the page, whose wide mouth was expanded in an endless grin ; but the old countess was buried in thought, and with her forehead resting on her hand, and her elbow on the edge of the balcony, continued to gaze abstractedly on the long and bustling vista of the sunlit Canongate.

Chapter II. Magdalene Of France

" Saw'st thou not the great preparatives, Of Edinburgh that famous noble town ; Thou saw'st the people labouring for their lives, To make triumph with trump and clarion : Thou saw'st full well many a fresh galland, ordered for receiving of their queen, Each craftsman with his bent bow in his hand, Eight gallantlie in clothing short of green." Lindesay or the Mount. " Their graces tarry long," said the countess, glancing impatiently up the street ; " it is almost midday by the sun. Jane, child, hast got thy pocket dial about thee ?" Lady Jane took from her embroidered girdle a httle sdver dial, and placing it duly east and west, found the hour to be twrelve by the shadow of the gnomon, for the sun shone brightly. " I warrant me," said the countess, " that his eminence the cardinal will be relieving himself of some prosy oration at the foot of the Broad Wynd, for the benefit of the king's grace."

"Of the queen's, you mean, Lady Ashkirk," said Alison Home, "for his lordship is a great admirer of beauty. Thou knowest, cousin Jane, how often he hath admired thee." Jane coloured with something of displeasure at this remark, for, by the rumour of his gaUantries, to be ad mired by this great prelate was no high honour. " I would the king were come, for my patience is wearing fast away," said she, raising her bright eyes from the silver index to her mother's thoughtful face. " Is it for the king alone thou art so impatient, chdd?" said the old lady, with a keen but smiling glance. " Nay, for one who accompanies him — for the queen," said Jane, growing pale, for she always turned pale where others grew red. " Is not James the avowed enemy of our house ?" " But is there no other for whom ye long, silly lassie ?" asked Marion Logan, throwing an arm round Jane.

" My sweet friend — yes ; for one who is dearer to me almost than thee; he who sent me this dial from Paris. Oh, Marion ! to think that he hath been there for nine weary months !" " Marry, come up, bairn, what matters it ?" said the countess, who overheard them, though the two fair friends spoke in low tones ; " he wiU be so changed, and improved in gaUantry and grace, that you wiU scarcely recognise him." " I cry you mercy, mother," said Jane, pouting ; " I knew not that he required improvement in either." " By my troth, lady countess," said Alison Home, " if you mean Sir Rowland Vipont, the Master of the King's Ordnance, I think him so finished a cavalier that no court in Europe could improve him more." " Save the court of king Cupid," said Marion. " And where does he reign ?" asked Jane.

" In thine own heai't, cousin," said httle Sybd, quietly, and then ad the girls laughed aloud. " I thank you, sweet Alison," said Jane, in a low voice, kissing her friend, for her heart danced hghtly to hear her lover praised ; but dost thou know that though I am sud of joy, I would give the world to shed a shower of quiet tears just now." " Heaven give thee happiness to-day, dear Jane," rephed her friend, in the same soft, earnest voice, " and may it send thy lover back to thee in love and truth, and health and comehness, as when he left thee these nine long months ago." " Sabrino," said the countess, suddenly ; " prick up those long ears of thine ! dost thou not hear the sound of trumpets ?" " Ees, madame — me tink so," grinned the sable page, whose efforts at articulation cost him a frightful grimace.