s free of my house and my
grounds as if you were the most welcome of guests. But I warn you that
if, when you pass your words, you attempt to tamper with any of my
men, I shall know of it very soon after, and then comes the dungeon."

The king hesitated and looked at his friend, but MacDonald, who had
taken no part in this conversation, seemed in an absent dream, his
eyes gazing on vacancy, or perhaps beholding a vision that entranced
him.

"What do you say, MacDonald?" enquired the king sharply.

MacDonald recovered himself with a start.

"To what?" he asked.

"To the terms proposed by our gaoler."

"I did not hear them; what are they?"

"Will you give your word not to escape?"

"Oh, willingly."

"And not to communicate with Stirling?"

"I don't care if I never see Stirling again."

The king turned to the chief.

"There is little difficulty, you see," he said, "with your fellow
Highlander. I however, am supposed to be a Lowlander, and therefore
cautious. I give you my word not to communicate with Stirling. As for
the other proviso, I amend it as follows. I shall not leave this
island without your knowledge and your company. If that is
satisfactory, I pledge my faith."

"Perfectly satisfactory," answered the MacLeod, and with that the two
young men took their departure.

Once more in the king's room, from which, earlier in the day they had
set out so confidently, MacDonald flung himself upon a bench, but the
king paced up and down the apartment. The former thought the latter
was ruminating on the conditions that had been wrung from him, but the
first words of the king proved his mistake.

"Jamie, you hardly gave me fair play, you and your Gaelic, with that
dainty offspring of so grim a sire."

"Master of Ballengeich," replied the Highlander, "a man plays for his
own hand. You should have learned the Gaelic long ago."

The king stopped abruptly in his walk.

"Why do you call me by that name?"

"Merely to show that in this ploy the royal prerogative is not brought
into play; it is already settled that when I meet the king, I am
defeated. It remains to be seen what luck plain James MacDonald has in
a contest with plain James Stuart."

"Oh, it's to be a contest then?"

"Not unless you wish it so. I am content to exchange all the fair
damsels of Stirling for this one Highland lassie."

"You'll exchange!" cried the king. "I make bold to say she is not
yours to exchange."

"I intend to make her