While Sir Jocelyn was debating whether he should comply with the Duke’s advice, the door of the presence-chamber was thrown open; and James, coming forth from it, marched slowly along the corridor.

Our young knight now fondly hoped that the King might deign to look upon him, and so enable him to plead his cause; and perhaps the Lord Chamberlain himself entertained similar expectations, for he did not insist upon Sir Jocelyn’s withdrawal, but allowed him to remain within the corridor, though he was kept aloof by the halberdiers.  But both were disappointed.  James, no doubt, designedly, bestowed his most gracious marks of condescension on Buckingham and De Gondomar, and lingered for a few minutes to laugh and talk with them.  After this, as he was passing Sir Jocelyn, he pretended to notice him for the first time, and observed, in a tone of reproof to the Lord Chamberlain, “What doth the spy here, my Lord Duke?  I thought you had our orders concerning him.  See they are better obeyed in future.”  And, when the young knight would have spoken, he interrupted him by an imperious gesture, crying out, “Not a word, Sir!—­not a word!  We will hear naught mair frae ye.  We hae heard ower meikle already.”  And he passed on.

Thus was Mounchensey’s disgrace accomplished by his enemies.

CHAPTER XVIII.

How Sir Jocelyn’s cause was espoused by the ’prentices.

Stung almost to madness by the sense of intolerable wrong, our young knight quitted Whitehall, never, as he imagined at the moment, to enter the palace again.  Yet he was not humiliated by his disgrace, because he felt it to be wholly unmerited.  His enemies had triumphed over him; but he would not have heeded the defeat, provided he could efface the foul stigma cast upon his reputation, and rebut the false charge brought against him by De Gondomar.

With a heart overflowing with rage and bitterness, and with a thousand wild projects passing through his brain, Sir Jocelyn took a boat at Whitehall stairs, and ordered the watermen to row down the river, without assigning any paticular place of landing.  After awhile, he succeeded, to a certain extent, in controlling his angry emotions; and as the watermen rested on their oars for a moment, to inquire his destination, he looked round, and perceiving he was just opposite the Three Cranes in the Vintry, he desired to be put ashore there.

No better retreat wherein to recover his composure seemed to offer itself than Madame Bonaventure’s comfortable house of entertainment; and thither, therefore, he proceeded, and at his request was shown into a private room overlooking the river.  Scarcely was he installed within it, than the buxom hostess, who had caught sight of him as he mounted the stairs, entered, and in her blandest accents, and with her most bewitching smiles, begged to know his commands; declaring that all that her house possessed was at his service.