THE X JEWEL A ROMANCE OF THE DAYS OF JAMES VI. BY THE HON. FREDERICK MONCREIFF WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXCVI All Rights reserved THE X JEWEL CHAPTER I. I WAS brought out of the Low Countries into Scotland in the year 1585-by whom I need not to say here. For though it is now more than twenty years since the things I speak of passed, and they are forgotten by some who might have remembered them, there are others still in life who remember but may not wish them to be stirred. This, however, can I say that my coming back was known to one who required it, and whose wish it was scarce possible for me to pass by. So, on the 3d of May in the above year, having made a quick passage from the Scheldt on a quiet Α |