human
You will find them genuine, said Sir David.
gpt
I had my own fears regarding them at first, thinking that this foreigner was trying the trick which Robert Cockran, the mason, accomplished so successfully during the reign of your grandfather, mixing the silver coins with copper and lead; but I had them tested by a goldsmith in Edinburgh and was assured the pieces are just what they claim to be.
human
Prudent man! exclaimed the king, throwing himself down on a seat and jingling the gold pieces.
gpt
Well, Davie, what do you think of it all? Give me an opinion as honest as the coin.
human
Truth to tell, your majesty, I do not know what to think of it. It may be as he says, that the earth here contains particles of gold, that are drawn to the bars he throws in the melting-pot. If the man is a cheat, where can he hope for his profit?
gpt
Where indeed? I mind you told me he had other marvellous inventions; what are they?
human
He has a plan by which a man in full armour can enter the water and walk beneath it for any length of time without suffocating.
gpt
Have you seen this tried?
human
No, your majesty; there has been no opportunity.
gpt
What an admirable contrivance for invading Ireland! What are his plans as far as England is concerned? He seems, if I remember your tale aright, to have some animosity in that direction.
human
He has constructed a pair of wings, and each soldier being provided with them can sail through the air across the Border.
gpt
Admirable, admirable! exclaimed the king nodding his head.
human
Now indeed is England ours, and France too for that matter, if his wings will carry so far. Have you seen these wings?
gpt
Yes, your majesty, but I have not seen them tried. They seem to be made of fine silk stretched on an extremely light framework, and are worked by the arms thrust up or down; thus, he says, a man may rise or fall at will.
human
As to the falling, I believe him, and the rising I shall believe when I see it. Has our visit to-night then taught you nothing, David?
gpt
Nothing but what I knew before. What has it taught your majesty?
human
In the first place our charlatan does not want the king to know what he is doing, because when his subordinate refused me admittance and I said to him I would appeal to the king, he saw at once that this was serious, and wished to consult his master. His master was then willing to admit anyone so long as there was no appeal to the king. I therefore surmise he is most anxious to conceal his operations from me. What is your opinion, Davie?
gpt
It would seem that your majesty is in the right.
human
Then again if he is a real scientist and has discovered an easy method of producing gold and is desirous to enrich Scotland, why should he object to a plain farmer like the Guidman of Ballengeich profiting by his production?
gpt
That is quite true, your majesty; but I suppose the line must be drawn somewhere, and I imagine he purposes to enrich only those of the highest rank, as being more powerful than the yeomen.
human
Then we come back, Davie, to what I said before; why exclude the king who is of higher rank than any noble?
gpt
I have already confessed, your majesty, that I cannot fathom his motives.
human
Well, you see at what we have arrived. This foreigner wishes to influence those who can influence the king. He wishes to have among his audience none but those belonging to the court. He has some project that he dare not place before the king. We will now return to the consideration of that project. 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 used? He is therefore no Italian, but a Frenchman masquerading as an Italian. Therefore, the project, whatever it 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?
gpt
It thinks we should avenge Flodden; and many belonging to the court are in agreement with France on this point.
human
Has your necromancer ever mentioned Flodden?
gpt
Once or twice he spoke of it with regret.
human
I thought so, continued the king;
gpt
What your majesty says is very ingenious; but if I may be permitted to raise an objection to the theory, I would ask your majesty why this was not done through the French ambassador? French gold has been used before 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 a charlatan.
human
Ah, now we enter the domain of State secrets, Davie, and there is where a king has an advantage over the commoner. Of course I know many things hidden from you which give colour to my surmise. Some while ago the French ambassador offered me a subsidy. Now I am not so avaricious as my grandfather, nor so lavish as my father, and I told the ambassador that I would depend on Scottish gold. I acquainted him with the success of my German miners in extracting gold from Leadhills in the Clydesdale, and I showed him my newly coined pieces. He was so condescendingly pleased and interested that he begged the privilege of having his own bars of metal coined 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, I was glad to have some account of his expenditure. When I came in just now I examined these coins closely, and you imagined that I was suspicious of the purity of the metal. This was not so. I told my mint-master to coin all the bars the ambassador gave him, to keep a strict account of the issue, and to mark each piece with the letter 'F' on the margin. I find three of the coins which we received to-night bearing this private mark; therefore, they have passed through the hands of the French ambassador to the alchemist.
gpt
Now, said the king,
human
cried James in sudden anger, bringing his fist down on the table and making the coins jingle,
gpt
France is succeeding, through the blind stupidity of men who might have been expected to know their right hand from their left. The greatest heads of my realm are being cozened by a trickster; befooled in a way that any humble ploughman should be ashamed of. You see now why they wish to keep the silly proceedings from the king. I tell you, Davie, that Italian's head comes off, and thus in some small measure will I avenge Flodden.