friends, that, although an Armstrong by name and by nature, I have the blood of the Douglases in my veins." The Scottish students, who appeared to be entirely under the management of David Armstrong, took the hint promptly; and, after shaking hands roughly and warmly with Sir Archibald, retired to find their way to bed in the dark. 66 And mind me, lads,” cried David, bawling after them before he shut the door, "it will hardly be worth while to take off your clothes so late; but keep your cudgels within arm's length at the least in case of call; and above all things, commend your souls to the care of God and the Blessed Virgin before you dare to close an eye!" 66 Not that I would have you think, Archibald," continued he, after he had fastened the door, "that they are likely to forget their prayers, poor lads; ; or, in fact, for all my jokes upon the stair, that they are more ebriosi, or, in the vulgar speech, given to drink, than most of the other students: but enough of this for the present; you will know them better if you remain long in Paris.” "I have cause to know them already," said Douglas, "and to remember them all my life; but as for how long I shall remain in Paris, or whither I may bend my steps when I leave it, or what I am to be about; these are questions, my dear friend, that I cannot answer, seeing that I am in profound ignorance upon the subject myself." "Well, if that is not amazing! So near a kinsman, and a godson to boot, of the Earl Archibald of Douglas, duke of Touraine, whose soul may heaven assoil! Why, I should have thought you might have put forth your hand at will among the loaves and fishes. But it is the way of the world, I suppose. The Earl is dead on the field of battle; and so is his son; and so are most of the five thousand brave Scots they brought over with them; and the English are flying the country, bewitched even by the ashes of that wonderful wench Joan; and Charles VII. is the little king of Bourges no more, but the master of lordly France. Well! well! well!" "Your thoughts fly too fast, good David, and overshoot the mark. I have been received by king Charles with a distinction due to the name I bear; and I have reason to believe that my chance at court is far higher than my personal deserts. But yet, I know not how it is; I feel, as it were, unsettled. I-," and the knight paused, and observed that the candle wanted snuffing. While Armstrong was performing this operation, slowly and methodically, by taking out the candle-end from its socket with one hand, and decapitating the burnt wick with the finger and thumb of the other, he threw a keen glance of observation upon his friend between his half-closed eyelids. His expansive and sagacious brow then began to curl towards the nose; he sucked in his cheeks, and his mouth twisted itself awry; but having subdued these indecorums of features usually characterized by a kind of good-tempered solemnity, he turned gravely to the knight. 66 66 "Archibald of the Braes," said he, "I was forgetting to ask after the health of Margaret Leslie of the Lynhead." Alas, poor girl! she is dead of consumption long ago." May her soul find grace! But it was rather the young Agnes of the Holmes who was in my thoughts; she for whom you may remember you fought so bitterly with the knight of Lochmahow when as yet you were both pages." 66 Agnes of the Holmes," replied Sir Archibald, composedly, "is now the wife of the knight of Lochmahow." "A-hem! And Mary Elliot? whom in our wild days, may the Lord forgive us! we used to call the Virgin Mary, because of her pride and fierceness to the young men." "Tush! her golden hair has turned as red as Nigel's." "God's will be done! I have nothing to say to it." At this moment the candle sunk to the bottom of the deep socket, whence it emitted only a fitful glare. The apartment was vast, and solidly built; but time and neglect had defaced and injured the massive walls which they could not altogether ruin. Some benches seemed to be the only furniture; and these were formed of rough planks, which had experienced at divers times the fate so recently threatened them; but a dusky object also appeared in the distance, which might have been a pulpit, or other seat of honour, consecrated to the service of the regent. The fireplace was a vast gulf, which contained the dust and litter of the school, for aught we know from the time of St. Louis; but the damp unwholesome air of the room proclaimed that fuel was not considered an object of necessity in the Scottish college. When the knight had gazed for some moments at this scene by the dying light of the candle, he withdrew his eyes to fix them on the face of his friend. David Armstrong's features were all decidedly handsome; but taken collectively, they formed a portrait more full of what is called character than manly beauty. His expansive forehead was intersected by several small horizontal wrinkles; his eyes, glowing, rather than sparkling with steady light, were set deep in his head, and overhung by dark eyebrows, delicately pencilled, but somewhat fuller than became his age; his nose, arched, massive, and firmly placed, conveyed an idea of decision and determination; while his mouth and chin, divested of the beard, expressed a degree of benevolence amounting to softness; and his head was surmounted by a small, round, black cap, almost the shape of the skull, from the sides and back of which, a mass of dark matted hair fell down to his shoulders. His gown, open in front, and betraying every possible mark both of neglect and strife, disclosed a strong square-built, yet symmetrical figure of the middle height; while the hood, or cowl, falling in absolute rags upon his back, threw an air of poverty and desolation over a portrait which otherwise would have been only striking and picturesque. As Sir Archibald looked, the embarrassment which had been visible in his manner wore off, and an expression of kindness, tinged with pity, took its place. "My dear friend," said he, grasping the hand of his old comrade, "it was to answer all your questions; to tell you all I know; and to crave the counsel, and, if need be, the aid of one who is wise and true as well as brave-it was for this that I am here to-night. But there is now no time for a story like mine; it is late, and we shall soon be in the dark; and, to say the truth, David, I feel that I ought not to speak to you here of any affairs but your own." David's eyes followed those of his friend round the room. "It is well-sized," said he, "that you must allow ; and yet not so well cared for as it might be. The truth is, we students, as I said before, are a thought wild as it were; and although, in this individual college, owing to the war and accidents and desertions, our whole number at the present blessed moment amounts to no more than four; yet Bauldy, and Nigel, and Andrew, poor fellows, will have a break out at times, and then stone and wood cannot hold them! Man! I have seen them battle their way home, with a train of friends and enemies at their heels, till within these four walls we were seven score of us poor scholars, all fighting pell-mell like so many devils!" Poor scholars indeed!" "And then, you see, Archibald, the luxuries of the world, in whole furniture, and evenly-plastered walls, and swept floors, and darned gowns, and such like vanities, would ill become the vocation to which we are called "Hold! what vocation may that be?" " "What vocation may that be?" exclaimed the student with heat, 66 was there ever such ignorance heard tell of? Do you not know that we are the clerks of the University? Do you not see the sacred tonsure?" and snatching off his cap, he showed his scalp bare about a hand's-breadth. The knight stared in amazement-he even felt the bald crown of his friend, with something like the infidelity of St. Thomas. "Yes, Archibald of the Braes," continued David with solemnity, "we are priests before the Lord every mother's son of us! But we are not monks, my dear friend; on the contrary, we hate with a religious hatred all such lazy and luxurious vagabonds. We are not brethren of this or that order, but brethren of the whole Gospel; we are aspirants of the holy ministry, whereof the ministers are the canons regular of the church of Christ!". 66 "You must allow, notwithstanding," said Douglas, when he had recovered from his surprise, that the church takes but little carnal care of her nursery." 66 "Too much! too much!" replied his friend, our privileges unite in one those of the clergy and nobility. And is it nothing to belong to a body which controls the very state? which gives its sanction, sometimes, even to a treaty of peace? which cites the very magistrates before its tribunal? which excommunicates the officers of government themselves, when they put forth their tax-gathering fingers upon the carnal wealth of a scholar?" 66 But touching this carnal wealth—” "Why, it is but a few years, as I may say, since Messire de Savoisy, the chamberlain of the king, was dismissed from his office, and banished the kingdom, because some of his people rode through our procession on its way to St. Catherine of the Val des Ecoliers, thereby compelling the poor students to break the heads of the intruders with stones!" "That is excellent," exclaimed the knight, rubbing his hands; "but I would fain know by what means the University exercises a power so extraordinary, and no doubt so reasonable." "By means of an humble remonstrance and petition, imploring the government with tears and groans, as it were, not to drive it to the cruel necessity of exiling itself from a city where such outrages could be perpetrated with impunity. Supposing the document, for instance, to be addressed to the king, it shall commence thus- Vivat rex! vivat rex! vivat rex! May he live corporeally; may he live spiritually; may he live civilly; may he live spiritually, lastingly, and reasonably. This beautiful salutation is offered and proposed by the daughter of the king, by the fair clear sun of France, and of all Christendom' "By whom, in the name of the saints?" 66 By the daughter of the king,' I say, 'the fount? in of all science, the light of our faith, the beauty, the ornament, the honour of France and of the world-the University of Paris.' 66 66 Excellent, wonderful!" Or, supposing the rector petitions in behalf of his suf fering mother, as in the aforesaid affair of Messire de Savoisy-In exposing to you,' says he, Messeigneurs,'—for you see we were at that time even as a helpless orphan because of the lunacy of King Charles VI. and were therefore obliged to address the parliament-In exposing to you, Messeigneurs' and a slight snuffle, but so slight as to be hardly observable, gave a richness to the scholar's voice'the pitiful and very miserable complaint of the daughter of the king, my mother the University of Paris, I shall commence by a suitable saying of Scripture-Estote misericordus !'" "Good! good! ha! ha! ha!" shouted the knight; and his hearty laugh, which had been preparing while the student spoke, rung through the room. David Armstrong, however, continued with imperturbable gravity, and without noticing even by the slightest expression of feature the mirth of his friend. "As for carnal wealth, Archibald," said he, "seeing that we are but seekers after wisdom, and fore-destined ministers of the sanctuary, what end would it serve? In general, we are bursars; and it is only lately that they have begun to throw open the colleges to boarders and dayscholars. If stipendiaries of the school, the regent, who is but human after all, tries no doubt to turn the penny by us as well as he can; if martinets-for so we termed those who are able to flit about like swallows from teacher to teacher-the Lord have mercy upon us when it comes to argumentations and examinations!" "That is to say you are as badly off in one case as in the other." 66 'Not so: the bursars are educated, and supposed to be fed at the expense of the founders of the bursary; while the martinets must feed themselves, and pay besides a matter of four sous a month for leave to learn in the college." "That accounts," said Douglas with emotion, "for the spectacle I witnessed with horror and disgust to-day in the public streets." 66 They were not Scots!" cried the student quickly, and he withdrew his face into the shade. "But what matters |