You see I am busy in preparation.

All is to be in the same order as when"-- "The king breakfasted at Tillietudlem," said the Major, who, like all Lady Margaret's friends, dreaded the commencement of that narrative, and was desirous to cut it short,--"I remember it well; you know I was waiting on his majesty." "You were, brother," said Lady Margaret; "and perhaps you can help me to remember the order of the entertainment." "Nay, good sooth," said the Major, "the damnable dinner that Noll gave us at Worcester a few days afterwards drove all your good cheer out of my memory .-- But how's this ?--you have even the great Turkey-leather elbow-chair, with the tapestry cushions, placed in state." "The throne, brother, if you please," said Lady Margaret, gravely.
"Well, the throne be it, then," continued the Major.

"Is that to be Claver'se's post in the attack upon the pasty ?" "No, brother," said the lady; "as these cushions have been once honoured by accommodating the person of our most sacred Monarch, they shall never, please Heaven, during my life-time, be pressed by any less dignified weight." "You should not then," said the old soldier, "put them in the way of an honest old cavalier, who has ridden ten miles before breakfast; for, to confess the truth, they look very inviting.

But where is Edith ?" "On the battlements of the warder's turret," answered the old lady, "looking out for the approach of our guests." "Why, I'll go there too; and so should you, Lady Margaret, as soon as you have your line of battle properly formed in the hall here.

It's a pretty thing, I can tell you, to see a regiment of horse upon the march." Thus speaking, he offered his arm with an air of old-fashioned gallantry, which Lady Margaret accepted with such a courtesy of acknowledgment as ladies were wont to make in Holyroodhouse before the year 1642, which, for one while, drove both courtesies and courts out of fashion.
Upon the bartizan of the turret, to which they ascended by many a winding passage and uncouth staircase, they found Edith, not in the attitude of a young lady who watches with fluttering curiosity the approach of a smart regiment of dragoons, but pale, downcast, and evincing, by her countenance, that sleep had not, during the preceding night, been the companion of her pillow.