corner of the
room. Waldron took one of them, and Rollo the other. When both the boys
were in bed they commenced conversation in respect to what they had been
reading.

"Come, Waldron," said Rollo, "tell me what you have been reading about."

"No," said Waldron, "you must begin."

"Well," said Rollo, "I read about King James the First. There have been
a good many King Jameses in Scotland."

"Yes," said Waldron, "six."

"This was King James the First. He was a bad king. He oppressed his
people, and they determined to kill him. So they banded together and
made a plot. They were going to kill him in a monastery where he stopped
on a journey.

"He was going over a river just before he came to the monastery, and a
woman, who pretended to be a prophetess, called out to him as he went
by towards the bank of the river, and told him to beware, for if he
crossed that river he would certainly be killed. The king was very
superstitious; so he sent one of his men back to ask the woman what she
meant. The man came to him again very soon, and said that it was nothing
but an old drunken woman raving, and that he must not mind her. So the
king went on.

"He crossed the water, and went to the monastery. The conspirators were
there before him. The leader of them was a man named Graham. He had
three hundred Highlanders with him. They were all concealed in the
neighborhood of the monastery. They were going to break into the king's
room in the monastery, at night, and kill him. They found out the room
where he was going to sleep, and they took off the bolts from the doors,
so as to keep them from fastening them.

"The woman that had met the king on the way followed him to the
monastery, and wanted to see the king. They told her she could not see
him. She said she _must_ see him. They told her that at any rate she
could not see him then--he was tired with his journey. She must go away,
they said, and come the next day. So she went away; but she told them
they would all be sorry for not letting her in."

"Do you suppose she really knew," asked Waldron, "that they were going
to kill the king?"

"I don't know," said Rollo. "At any rate, she seemed very much in
earnest about warning him."

"Well; go on with the story," said Waldron.

"Why, the conspirators broke into the room that night just as the king
was going to bed. He was sitting near the fire, in his gown and
slippers, talking with the queen and the other ladies that were