had visited Glenuskie within a special view to profiting by the wisdom of
Sir David Drummond, and had then been at Stirling, Edinburgh, and Perth.
On his way back, falling in with Malcolm in his distress, he had
conceived the project of taking him to England; and finding himself
already more than half recognized by Sir David, had obtained his most
grateful and joyous consent. In truth, James's heart had yearned to his
young cousin, his own situation had become much more lonely of late; for
Henry was no longer the comrade he had once been, since he had become a
keeper instead of a fellow-sufferer. It was true that he did his best to
forget this by lavishing indulgences on his captive, and insisting on
being treated on terms of brotherly familiarity; but though his
transcendent qualities commanded love, the intimacy could be but a
semblance of the once equal friendship. Moreover, that conspiracy which
cost the life of the Earl of Cambridge had taught James that cautious
reserve was needed in dealing with even his old friends the princes, so
easily might he be accused of plotting either with Henry's immediate heir
or with the Mortimers; and, in this guarded life, he had hailed with
delight the opportunity of taking to himself the young orphan cousin of
kindred blood, of congenial tastes, and home-like speech, whom he might
treat at once as a younger brother and friend, and mould by and by into a
trusty counsellor and assistant. That peculiar wistfulness and
gentleness of Malcolm's look and manner, together with the refinement and
intellect apparent to all who conversed with him without alarming him,
had won the King's heart, and made him long to keep the boy with him. As
to Malcolm's longing for the cloister, he deemed it the result of the
weakly health and refined nature which shrank from the barbarism of the
outer world, and he thought it would pass away under shelter from the
rude taunts of the fierce cousins, at a distance from the well-meaning
exhortations of the monks, and at the spectacle of brave and active men
who could also be pious, conscientious, and cultivated. In the renewed