BUT the most ridiculous and absurd investigation of the Princess Bona's conduct, was the domestic examination of the different portioning out her time in the interior of her household concerns; and all the minutiæ of such conduct were to be reported by faithful witnesses. This was at the instigation of Sir Douglas Malcolm and his lady. /

Sir Douglas was the godson, and a distant relation, of that Douglas who was aiming to wrest the Crown from the King of Scotland, and seat himself on the throne of that kingdom. Rebellion, in any shape, was sweet to him, Sir Douglas; and not being of so enterprising a nature as his kinsman, he judged it safest to attack the weakest; and, unfortunately for the Princess of Savoy, she was his destined victim; for she, during her stay in England, had forgotten to notice him or his lady, who was the daughter of a country apothecary, and both were of so insignificant an appearance that they were easily overlooked amidst the splendor of a court. But this palpable neglect, the pride of Sir Douglas Malcolm, descended from Scottish kings and thanes, could not forgive; / and when other knights, on a set day, performed a tournament in honour of the princess, and each bent the knee before her, as they dismounted from their courses, Sir Douglas refused to render the customary homage. The youthful princess only laughed at the sturdy pride of this doughty knight, and inquired into the reason of his churlishness, without her good nature being, in the least, offended at it. He gruffly replied to the inquiries, that he had frequently bowed to a princess, whose ancestors, he was proud to say, his own might rank with, and she had never noticed him.