The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-20

est rank as being more powerful than
the yeomen."
tsThen we come back, Davie, to what
I said before; why exclude the king,
who is of higher rank than any noble ?"
IT have already confessed, your ma
jesty, that cannot fathom his mo-
tives.'' s4f aae IS sae
well you see at what we have ar
rived. This foreigner wishes to infu-
ence those who can influence the king.
He wishes to have. amongthts audience
none but those belonging to the court.
He has some project that he dare not
place before the king. We5will now re-
turn to the consideration of that prof
ect. In the first place, the man is not
an Italian. Did a scholar like you,
Davie, fail to notice that when he was
in want of a word, it WAS a French
word he usedt?, He is therefore no
italian, but a Frenchman masquerade
ing as an italian. Therefore, the
project, whatever 1t is, pertains to
France, and it is his desire that this
shall not be known. Now what does
France most desire Scotland to do at
this moment? % ~ snyii
'sIt thinks we should avenge Flod-
den; and many belonging to the court
are in agreement with France ON this
point"
toned FIodden?"
''Once or twice he spoke aof 1t with
regret"
81 thought So" continued the king;
"and now 1 hope you are beginning
to see his design"
What your majesty says is very in
.genious; but if / may be permitted to
raise an objection to the theory, /
would ask your majesty why this was
mot 1OI ~ To-
dor. French gold has been used be-
fore now in the Scottish court; and it
seems to me that a great nation like
France would not Stoop to enlist the
devices of a charlatan, if this man be q
charlatan."
"Ah, now we enter the domain of
state secrets. Davie. and there is where
a king has an advantage over the COM
Iloner. Some while ago the French
ambassador offened me subsidy. Now
I am not as avarieiouS as my grand
father, nor so lavish as my father, and
told the ambassador that would
depend on Scottish gold. I acquainted
him with the success of my German
miners in extracting gold from Lead
hills in the Clyaesda1e, and I showed
him my newly coined pieces. He was
SO condescendingly pleased and inter
ested that he begged the privilege Of
.ndN11S his OWL -UdTS Ol sittOedl iCOtIlcu.
in my mint, in order to diSburSe his
expenses in the coin of the realm, and
also to send some of our bonnet pieces
as specimens to France itself This
right OF coinage I willingly bestowed
upon him; firstly, because he asked
it; secondly, WAS glad to have some
account of his expenditure When d
came in just now 1 examined these
coins closely, and you imagined that
was suspicious of the purity, of the
metal. This was not so. told my
mint master to coin all the bars the
ambassador gave to him, to keep a
strict account of the issue, and to mark
each piece with the letter F. On the
margin. find three of the coins which
we received tonight bearing this pri-
waite mark; therefore, they have pass
ed through the hands of the French.
ambassador to the alcfemist."
Sir David gave forth an exclama-
ton of surprise. He left his seat, took
the bonnet pieces from his pocket and
placed them under the lamp.
NOW" said the king, you need
sharp eyes to detect this mark, but
there 1t is, and there, and there. Let
us look a little closer into the object
of France The English king is my
uncle. and France fears that I will
keep peace with my neighbor; so
through his ambassador he sounds me
and learns that such indeed is my
intention. France resolves to leave
me alone and accomplish its object by
corrupting, with gold coined in my
own mint, the mobiles of my court, and,
by Godio .cried4James in sudden anger,
bringing his fist down on the table
and making the coins jingle, France