Nigel Tranter: The Wisest Fool

"You are not dancing, Master Heriot," he said. "Nor yet drinking. Nor even wenching. What do you do for amusement?"

"Some might say I count figures, my lord Duke. Jingle my well-known gold. Jinglin' Geordie Heriot!"

"Then some are fools! I know better. I think your entertainment is to laugh at us all. In that cool, knowing head of yours. Especially at the crowned mountebank up there-yet whom, I swear, you'd give your life for!"

Perturbed at the younger man's percipience, Heriot coughed. "Not laugh at, my lord. Laugh with, where I decently may. Otherwise regard, heed-aye, and seek to understand my fellow-men, lofty and less so. Is that not permissible? Even a cat, they do say, may look at a king.'' "To be sure. I but envy you your detachment"

"I do not think that I am detached, my lord. Not sufficiently for my comfort."

"Surely when we are alone, man, you can forget the lording and duking! My friends call me Vicky, as you know well." "But your friends are not… tradesmen, I think 1"

"Damnation, man-be not so prickly I You, who could buy us all and scarce notice the price!"

"I am sorry if I sound prickly, my lord Duke. I would hope not to be that. Any more than purse-proud. But you will grant me that I have to walk warily? His Grace is kind to me, relies on me much. Too much. That offends many, I know well And men who lend money are seldom popular-especially to their debtors! I have heard, indeed, that there is a new play written by this English playwright on this very theme-I have forgot his name-set in Venice, I think. Many would pull down a man in my position, should I seem to ride even a little too high."

"So I must remain my lord Duke even when we are alone-lest men think I owe George Heriot more than I do and so he takes liberties!"

Heriot laughed. "Very well, Vicky-as you will. My friends, like my enemies, all call me Geordie!" They stood for a few moments, watching the King.

"As you said, back at Berwick, fames does not change," Lennox observed, at length "These English are shocked. And will be more so."

"Did you expect him to change? When he crossed the Border? He has been a king for thirty-six years, since he was one year old. He is as he has always been, the Lord's Anointed. It is Elizabeth's England which will have to change, not its new liege lord."

"And yet… He has been waiting for this for so long, living for it. For the day when he would sit on the dual throne. I would have thought that he would have been concerned to display himself in a more acceptable, more dignified light." "Once he told me that dignity was for those who required its support. He does not. As for being acceptable, it matters still less. He is the King. He must be accepted. So he is himself, only and entirely himself. Perhaps the only man in two realms who may be. We all play a part, or many parts, since we must. But he is James, by the Grace of God-and aware of it!"

Lennox looked at the other curiously. "You have considered it well, I see." "I have had occasion to do so."

"And you do not blame him? For behaving as he does? Sitting up there drinking. Fondling these odious young men of his. Ignoring, indeed rejecting his host and these English."

"Who am I to blame or withhold blame of my lord the King? But I understand what he is and what he does, I think. He of a purpose holds the English at bay, so that they have no doubts as to who is master. He dallies with his favourites to demonstrate that he, representer on earth of heavenly power, is not bound by the codes which control the acts and behaviour of his subjects. He establishes his position before these new subjects. And though he drinks heavily, he is not drunk. Indeed, I have never seen His Grace drunk. Have you?"

"Now that you remark on it-no. I had not really thought on it. But, no-he is never drunk, however much drink-taken."

"Aye. So there you have him, my lord Vicky. The Lord's Anointed. With one of the cleverest heads in Christendom on those padded shoulders!" "Eh? You think that? You really think so, Geordie?"

"Can you name any, any at all, whom you deem cleverer, shrewder, more sure of himself and his course?" "M'mmm. We-e-ell. Only, perhaps, the Master of Gray!"

"Aye. There is the one man who may rival His Grace. This century's Machiavelli! My sorrow that they now are unfriends. That was an unwise move, at Berwick, I think-to send him away, in public mockery. I fear no good can come of it. But perhaps His Grace deemed it absolutely necessary. He must have planned to do it, for long. It was not done on impulse, that I am sure."

"It was folly. But then, James is the veriest fool, so frequently. A figure of fun…" "Seems so. Acts the fool, perhaps. But is he? My livelihood, Vicky, depends on judgment of men, of character, or risks to run and trust to be taken. And I assess King James as clever, able, and far from a fool. Strange yes, difficult yes, ruthless yes-but a king. The English will discover it in due course-and perhaps have cause to be thankful for it" "You surprise me-by God, you do!"

As though James Stewart had realised that they were discussing him-as indeed were many others in that great room-he suddenly pushed Ramsay aside, looked up and directly at them, and grabbing a silver wine flagon, banged it heavily on the dais table, slopping the contents.

Shaken, the dancers came to a halt, the musicians stopped playing and talk and laughter stilled as the banging went on. All eyes turned to the dais and its high chair.

"Hey, Geordie Heriot-here to me, man," the monarch called. "Aye, and you too, Vicky Stewart To me, I say."

Side by side they obediently made their way to the dais, and bowed before it James shooed away his drinking companions, and leaned over the table. "A cup o' wine, Geordie? Come closer, man. Come drink a farewell cup wi' me." "Farewell, Your Grace? So-o-o! I am to go? Back to Scotland?"

"Aye. Back to Scotland. I have been sitting here thinking on it That it's maybe time. Aye, time."

"I agree, Sire. Your Grace will remember that I asked you to allow me to return, at Newcastle. That my affairs were left hurriedly and in no very good shape…"

"It's no' the shape o' your affairs I'm concerned wi', man-it's mine! Or my Annie's. Guid kens what she'll be up to! She lacks sense, the woman, in maist things. Och, they a' do! And lacking me to take order wi' her, she'll be fair above hersel'. And there'll be none to cry her down. Yon Seton, Fyvie, hasna the weight for it. She's the Queen I I've thought much on this. She'll heed you, Geordie." "I, I do not see why Her Grace should, Sire…"

"Oh aye, she will. She thinks a deal o' Jinglin' Geordie Heriot Fine I ken it Forby, she owes you money, much money-and she'll hae to keep the right side o' you or she'll no' get her gewgaws and trinkets, eh? And you ken, if anyone does, how much they mean to my Annie! Aye, she'll heed you, Geordie. As she wouldna heed Duke Vicky, here. Or any other. You're to go watch ower her, man. And to bring her, and the bairns, down to me in London. When a's ready and I send for you."

"If you say so, Sire. But I have no authority to control Her Grace…"

' Waesucks, you have not, sirrah I Nor has any man, under God, save my ain sel' She is the Queen. None will control the Queen, by authority."

"I humbly beg Your Grace's pardon. A foolish slip of the tongue…"

"Aye, it was, Geordie Heriot. You're going back to Edinburgh to guide the Queen, no' to control her. And no' by any authority, but by your wits, honest, decent wits-aye, and the fact that she needs you. Forby, there's the matter o' yon ill limmer, the Master o' Gray." James glanced at Lennox, only too well aware of that man's involvement with Mary Gray and the strange love-hate relationship he had with her father. "I'm feart for what he may be up to, see you. He'll no' be pleased at being sent back. But I wasna having him setting London by the ears the way he's set Scotland. And teaching the English how to be clever-eh? Na, na. There's no room for me and Patrick both, in London. But he'll be up to mischief in Scotland, if I ken him! And he kens Annie's weak. So you watch him, Geordie-watch him."