f
the courtiers, for it is not in accord with etiquette to show cold
steel to the eyes of the king. Down came the blades instantly and
together, each man splitting in two the goblet he had drunk from.

[Illustration: "AT LAST MACNAB SPRANG TO HIS FEET, HOLDING ALOFT HIS
BRIMMING FLAGON."]

"You must all come to Loch Tay," cried the chief, "and I will show you
a banqueting hall in honour of James the Fifth, such as you have never
before seen." Then to the horror of the courtiers, he suddenly smote
the king on the back with his open palm and cried, "Jamie, my lad,
you'll come and visit me at Loch Tay?"

The smitten king laughed heartily and replied,--

"Yes, Finlay, I will."

The next day the MacNabs marched from the castle and down through the
town of Stirling with much pomp and circumstance. They were escorted
by the king's own guard, and this time the populace made no sneering
remarks but thronged the windows and the roofs, cheering heartily,
while the Highlanders kept proud step to the shrill music of the
pipes. And thus the clansmen set faces towards the north on their long
tramp home.

"What proud 'deevils' they are," said Sir David Lyndsay to the king
after the northern company had departed. "I have been through the
MacNab country from one end of it to the other, and there is not a
decent hut on the hillside, let alone a castle fit to entertain a
king, yet the chief gives an invitation in the heat of wine, and when
he is sobered, he is too proud to admit that he cannot make good the
words he has uttered."

"That very thing is troubling me," replied the king, "but it's a long
time till July, and between now and then we will make him some excuse
for not returning his visit, and thus avoid putting the old man to
shame."

"But that too will offend him beyond repair," objected the poet.

"Well, we must just lay our heads together, Davie," answered the
king, "and think of some way that will neither be an insult nor a
humiliation. It might not be a bad plan for me to put on disguise and
visit Finlay alone."

"Would you trust yourself, unaccompanied, among those wild caterans?
One doesn't know what they might do."

"I wish I were as safe in Stirling as I should be among the MacNabs,"
replied the king.

However, affairs of state did not permit the carrying out of the
king's intention. Embassies came from various countries, and the king
must entertain the foreigners in a manner becoming their importance.
Th