detecting perhaps the ring of the coin, broke forth in stirring tones--

"It fell about the Lammas tide,
When moormen win their hay,
The doughty Earl of Douglas rode
Into England to catch a prey."

Again he stood transfixed, beating time with his hand, his eyes beaming,
his hips moving as he followed the spirit-stirring ballad; and then, as
Douglas falls, and is laid beneath the bracken bush, unseen by his men,
and Montgomery forces Hotspur to yield, not to him, but

'to the bracken bush
That grows upon the lily lea,'

he sobbed without disguise; and no sooner was the ballad ended than he
sprang forward to the harper, crying, 'Again, again; another gold crown
to hear it again!'

'Sir,' entreated Nigel, 'remember how much hangs on your speed.'

'The ballad I _must_ have,' exclaimed Sir James, trying to shake him off.
'It moves the heart more than aught I ever heard! How runs it?'

'_I_ know the ballad,' said Malcolm, half in impatience, half in
contempt. 'I could sing every word of it. Every glee-man has it.'

'Nay--hear you, Sir--the lad can sing it,' reiterated Nigel; and Sir
James, throwing the promised guerdon to the minstrel, let himself be led
away to the front of the inn; but there was a piper, playing to a group