‘Hush,’ said Esclairmonde; ’I am no saint—­only a maiden pledged.  But, Sir, I thank you fervently.  You have lightened my heart of one of my fears.’

Malcolm could not but be cheered by being for once spoken to by her in so friendly a tone; and he added, gravely and resolutely:  ’My suit, then, I yield up, lady—­yield for ever.  Am I permitted once to kiss that fair and holy hand, as I resign my presumptuous hopes thereof?’

‘Mayhap it were wiser left undone,’ said Esclairmonde.  ’My mind misgives me that this meeting is planned to bring us into trouble.  Farewell, my lord.’

As she had apprehended, the door was flung back, and Countess Jaqueline rushed in, clasping her hands in an affectation of merry surprise, as she cried, ‘Here they are!  See, Monseigneur!  No keeping doves apart!’

‘Madame,’ said Esclairmonde, turning on her with cold dignity, ’I have been thanking Monsieur de Glenuskie for having resigned the suit that I always declared to be in vain.’

‘You misunderstood, Clairette,’ said Jaqueline.  ’No gentleman ever so spoke!  No, no; my young lord has kept his promise to me, and I will not fail him.’

‘Madame,’ faltered Malcolm, ‘I came by command of the King of Scots.’

‘So much the better,’ cried Jaqueline.  ’So he can play into our hands, for all his grandeur!  It will lose him his wager, though!  Here is bride—­there is priest—­nay, bishop!’ pointing to him of Therouenne, who had accompanied her, but hitherto had stood silent.

‘Madame,’ said Malcolm, ‘the time and state of the household forbid.’

’Ma foi!  What is that to us?  King Henry is neither our brother nor our father; and Catherine will soon laugh at it as a good joke.’

‘Nay,’ said the Bishop, with more propriety, ’it is the contract and troth-plight alone that could take place at present.  That secure, the full solemnities will await a fitting time; but it is necessary that the troth be exchanged at once.’

‘Monseigneur,’ said Esclairmonde, ‘mine is in other keeping.’

‘And, Monseigneur,’ added Malcolm, ’I have just told the lady that I repent of having fallen from my vocation, and persecuted her.’

‘How, Sir!’ said the Bishop, turning on him; ’do you thus lightly treat a lady of the house of Luxemburg?  Beware!  There are those who know how to visit an insult on a malapert lad, who meddles with the honour of the family.’

‘Be not threatened, Lord Malcolm,’ said Esclairmonde, with a gleam in her eye.

And Malcolm was Stewart enough to answer with spirit:  ’My lord, I will meet them if needed.  This lady is so affianced, that it is sacrilege to aspire to her.’

‘Ah!’ said the Bishop, in an audible aside to the giggling Countess:  ’this comes of her having thrown herself at the youth’s head.  Now he will no more of her.’

Crimson with wrath, and also with a wild sense of hope that the obligation had become absolute, Malcolm made a vehement incoherent exclamation; but Esclairmonde retained her composure.