"
His splendid form, his eagle eyes, his light footstep, his merry laugh
and speaking glance made him envied of men and adored of women. He joyed
to linger in banquet bower, but often in the midst of wildest glee, a
shadow and an expression of pain flitted across the handsome face. His
hands instinctively clasped as he felt the pain of the penance belt,
worn in memory of his slain father. In a moment the pang was past, and
forward, with redoubled zest, he rushed into the stream of revelry.
Courtiers said that Lady Heron, wife of Sir Hugh of Norham, held sway
over the heart of the King. To Scotland's court she had come to be a
hostage, and to reconcile the offended King to her husband. The fair
Queen of France also held the king in thrall. She had sent him a
turquoise ring and a glove, and charged him as her knight in English
fray, to break for her a lance. For love of the French Queen, as much as
for the rights of Scotland, he clothed himself in mail and put his
country's noblest, dearest, and best in arms, to die on Flodden Field.
For Love of Lady Heron, he admitted English spies to his inmost
counsels.
"And thus, for both, he madly planned
The ruin of himself and land."
For these two artful women he sacrificed the true happiness of his home.
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