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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17733-8.txt b/17733-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c65e69 --- /dev/null +++ b/17733-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15370 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Douglas, by S. R. Crockett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Black Douglas + +Author: S. R. Crockett + +Illustrator: Frank Richards + +Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17733] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK DOUGLAS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: "AND AT THE LAST HE ... SAILED OVER THE SEAS TO HIS OWN + LAND." _Frontispiece_] + + + The Black Douglas + + + + By + + S.R. Crockett + + Author of "The Raiders," "The Stickit Minister," etc. + + + + New York + Doubleday & McClure Co. + 1899 + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1899, + + By S.R. CROCKETT. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I + +The Black Douglas rides Home. + +CHAPTER II + +My Fair Lady + +CHAPTER III + +Two riding together + +CHAPTER IV + +The Rose-red Pavilion + +CHAPTER V + +The Witch Woman + +CHAPTER VI + +The Prisoning of Malise the Smith + +CHAPTER VII + +The Douglas Muster + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Crossing of the Ford + +CHAPTER IX + +Laurence sings a Hymn + +CHAPTER X + +The Braes of Balmaghie + +CHAPTER XI + +The Ambassador of France + +CHAPTER XII + +Mistress Maud Lindesay + +CHAPTER XIII + +A Daunting Summons + +CHAPTER XIV + +Captain of the Earl's Guard + +CHAPTER XV + +The Night Alarm + +CHAPTER XVI + +Sholto captures a Prisoner of Distinction + +CHAPTER XVII + +The Lamp is blown out + +CHAPTER XVIII + +The Morning Light + +CHAPTER XIX + +La Joyeuse baits her Hook + +CHAPTER XX + +Andro the Penman gives an Account of his Stewardship. + +CHAPTER XXI + +The Bailies of Dumfries + +CHAPTER XXII + +Wager of Battle + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Sholto wins Knighthood + +CHAPTER XXIV + +The Second Flouting of Maud Lindesay + +CHAPTER XXV + +The Dogs and the Wolf hold Council + +CHAPTER XXVI + +The Lion Tamer + +CHAPTER XXVII + +The Young Lords ride away + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +On the Castle Roof + +CHAPTER XXIX + +Castle Crichton + +CHAPTER XXX + +The Bower by yon Burnside + +CHAPTER XXXI + +The Gaberlunzie Man + +CHAPTER XXXII + +"Edinburgh Castle, Tower, and Town" + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +The Black Bull's Head + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +Betrayed with a Kiss + +CHAPTER XXXV + +The Lion at Bay + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +The Rising of the Douglases + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A Strange Meeting + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +The MacKims come to Thrieve + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +The Gift of the Countess. + +CHAPTER XL + +The Mission of James the Gross + +CHAPTER XLI + +The Withered Garland + +CHAPTER XLII + +Astarte the She-wolf + +CHAPTER XLIII + +Malise fetches a Clout + +CHAPTER XLIV + +Laurence takes New Service + +CHAPTER XLV + +The Boasting of Gilles de Sillé + +CHAPTER XLVI + +The Country of the Dread + +CHAPTER XLVII + +Cćsar Martin's Wife + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +The Mercy of La Meffraye + +CHAPTER XLIX + +The Battle with the Were-wolves + +CHAPTER L + +The Altar of Iron + +CHAPTER LI + +The Marshal's Chamber + +CHAPTER LII + +The Jesting of La Meffraye + +CHAPTER LIII + +Sybilla's Vengeance + +CHAPTER LIV + +The Cross under the Apron + +CHAPTER LV + +The Red Milk + +CHAPTER LVI + +The Shadow behind the Throne + +CHAPTER LVII + +The Tower of Death + +CHAPTER LVIII + +The White Tower of Machecoul + +CHAPTER LIX + +The Last Sacrifice to Barran-Sathanas + +CHAPTER LX + +His Demon hath deserted him + +CHAPTER LXI + +Leap Year in Galloway + + + + +THE BLACK DOUGLAS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BLACK DOUGLAS RIDES HOME + + +Merry fell the eve of Whitsunday of the year 1439, in the fairest and +heartsomest spot in all the Scottish southland. The twined May-pole +had not yet been taken down from the house of Brawny Kim, master +armourer and foster father to William, sixth Earl of Douglas and Lord +of Galloway. + +Malise Kim, who by the common voice was well named "The Brawny," sat +in his wicker chair before his door, overlooking the island-studded, +fairy-like loch of Carlinwark. In the smithy across the green +bare-trodden road, two of his elder sons were still hammering at some +armour of choice. But it was a ploy of their own, which they desired +to finish that they might go trig and point-device to the Earl's +weapon-showing to-morrow on the braes of Balmaghie. Sholto and +Laurence were the names of the two who clanged the ringing steel and +blew the smooth-handled bellows of tough tanned hide, that wheezed and +puffed as the fire roared up deep and red before sinking to the right +welding-heat in a little flame round the buckle-tache of the girdle +brace they were working on. + +And as they hammered they talked together in alternate snatches and +silences?--Sholto, the elder, meanwhile keeping an eye on his father. +For their converse was not meant to reach the ear of the grave, strong +man who sat so still in the wicker chair with the afternoon sun +shining in his face. + +"Hark ye, Laurence," said Sholto, returning from a visit to the door +of the smithy, the upper part of which was open. "No longer will I be +a hammerer of iron and a blower of fires for my father. I am going to +be a soldier of fortune, and so I will tell him--" + +"When wilt thou tell him?" laughed his brother, tauntingly. "I wager +my purple velvet doublet slashed with gold which I bought with mine +own money last Rood Fair that you will not go across and tell him now. +Will you take the dare?" + +"The purple velvet--you mean it?" said Sholto, eagerly. "Mind, if you +refuse, and will not give it up after promising, I will nick that +lying throat of yours with my gullie knife!" + +And with that Sholto threw down his pincers and hammer, and valorously +pushed open the lower door of the smithy. He looked with bold, dark +blue eye at his father, and strode slowly across the grimy door-step. +Brawny Kim had not moved for an hour. His great hands lay in his lap, +and his eyes looked at the purple ridges of Screel, across the +beautiful loch of Carlinwark, which sparkled and dimpled restlessly +among its isles like a wilful beauty bridling under the gaze of a +score of gallants. + +But, even as he went, Sholto's step slowed, and lost its braggart +strut and confidence. Behind him Laurence chuckled and laughed, +smiting his thigh in his mocking glee. + +"The purple velvet, mind you, Sholto! How well it will become you, +coft from Rob Halliburton, our mother's own brother, seamed with red +gold and lined with yellow satin and cramosie. Well indeed will it set +you when Maud Lindesay, the maid who came from the north for company +to the Earl's sister, looks forth from the canopy upon you as you +stand in the archers' rank on the morrow's morn." + +Sholto squared his shoulders, and with a little backward hitch of his +elbow which meant "Wait till I come back, and I will pay you for this +flouting," he strode determinedly across the green space towards his +father. + +The master armourer of Earl Douglas did not lift his eyes till his son +had half crossed the road. Then, even as if a rank of spearmen at the +word of command had lifted their glittering points to the "ready," +Sholto MacKim stopped dead where he was, with a sort of gasp in his +throat, like one who finds his defenceless body breast high against +the line of hostile steel. + +"The purple velvet!" came the cautious whisper from behind. But the +taunt was powerless now. + +The smith held his son a moment with his eyes. + +"Well?" came in the deep low voice, more like the lowest tones of an +organ than the speech of a man. + +Sholto stood fixed, then half turning on his heel he began to walk +towards the corner of the dwelling-house, over which a gay streamer of +the early creeping convolvulus danced and swung in the stirring of the +light breeze. + +"You wish speech with me?" said his father, in the same level and +thrilling undertone. + +"No," said Sholto, hesitant in spite of himself, "but I thought--that +is I desired--saw you my sister Magdalen pass this way? I have +somewhat to give her." + +"Ah, so," said Brawny Kim, without moving, "a steel breastplate, +belike. Thou hast the brace-buckle in thy hand. Doth the little +Magdalen go with you to the weapon-show to-morrow?" + +"No, father," said Sholto, stammering, "but I was uneasy for the +child. It is full an hour since I heard her voice." + +"Then," said his father, "finish your work, put out the fire, and go +seek your sister." + +Sholto brought his hands together and made the little inclination of +the head which was a sign of filial respect. Then, solemn as if he had +been in his place in the ordered line of the Earl's first levy of +archer men, he turned him about and went back to the smithy. + +Laurence lay all abroad on the heap of charcoal of which the +armourer's welding fire was made. He was fairly expiring with +laughter, and when his brother angrily kicked him in the ribs, he only +waggled an ineffectual hand and feebly crowed in his throat like a +cock, in his efforts to stifle the sounds of mirth. + +"Get up, fool," hissed his angry brother; "help me with this accursed +hammer-striking, or I will make an end of such a giggling lout as you. +Here, hold up." + +And seizing his younger brother by the collar of his blue working +blouse, he dragged him upon his feet. + +"Now, by the saints," said Sholto, "if you cast your gibes upon me, +by Saint Andrew I will break every bone in your idiot's body." + +"The purple velvet--oh, the purple velvet!" gasped Laurence, as soon +as he could recover speech, "and the eyes of Maud Lindesay!" + +"That will teach you to think rather of the eyes of Laurence MacKim!" +cried Sholto, and without more ado he hit his brother with his +clinched knuckles a fair blow on the bridge of his nose. + +The next moment the two youths were grappling together like wild cats, +striking, kicking, and biting with no thought except of who should +have the best of the battle. They rolled on the floor, now tussling +among the crackling faggots, anon pitching soft as one body on the +peat dust in the corner, again knocking over a bench and bringing down +the tools thereon to the floor with a jingle which might have been +heard far out on the loch. They were still clawing and cuffing each +other in blind rage, when a hand, heavy and remorseless, was laid upon +each. Sholto found himself being dabbled in the great tempering +cauldron which stood by his father's forge. Laurence heard his own +teeth rattle as he was shaken sideways till his joints waggled like +those of a puppet at Keltonhill Fair. Then it was his turn to be +doused in the water. Next their heads were soundly knocked together, +and finally, like a pair of arrows sent right and left, Laurence sped +forth at the window in the gable end and found himself in the midst of +a gooseberry bush, whilst Sholto, flying out of the door, fell +sprawling on all fours almost under the feet of a horse on which a +young man sat, smilingly watching the scene. + +Brawny Kim scattered the embers of the fire on the forge-hearth, and +threw the breastplate and girdle-brace at which the boys had been +working into a corner of the smithy. Then he turned to lock the door +with the massive key, which stood so far out from the upper leaf that +to it the horses waiting their turns to be shod were ordinarily +tethered. + +As he did so he caught sight of the young man sitting silent on the +black charger. Instantly a change passed over his face. With one +motion of his hand he swept the broad blue bonnet from his brow, and +bowed the grizzled head which had worn it low upon his breast. Thus +for the breathing of a breath the master armourer stood, and then, +replacing his bonnet, he looked up again at the young knight on +horseback. + +"My lord," he said, after a long pause, in which he waited for the +youth to speak, "this is not well--you ride unattended and unarmed." + +"Ah, Malise," laughed the young Earl, "a Douglas has few privileges if +he may not sometimes on a summer eve lay aside his heavy prisonment of +armour and don such a suit as this! What think you, eh? Is it not a +valiant apparel, as might almost beseem one who rode a-courting?" + +The mighty master-smith looked at the young man with eyes in which +reverence, rebuke, and admiration strove together. + +"But," he said, wagging his head with a grave humorousness, "your +lordship needs not to ride a-courting. You are to be married to a +great dame who will bring you wealth, alliance, and the dower of +provinces." + +The young man shrugged his shoulders, and swung lightly off his +charger, which turned to look at him as he stood and patted its neck. + +"Know you not, Malise," he said, "that the Earl of Douglas must needs +marry provinces and the Lord of Galloway wed riches? But what is there +in that to prevent Will Douglas going courting at eighteen years of +his age as a young man ought. But have no fear, I come not hither +seeking the favour of any, save of that lily flower of yours, the only +true May-blossom that blooms on the Three Thorns of Carlinwark. I +would look upon the angel smile on the face of your little daughter +Magdalen. An she be here, I would toss her arm-high for a kiss of her +mouth, which I would rather touch than that of lady or leman. For I do +ever profess myself her vassal and slave. Where have you hidden her, +Malise? Declare it or perish!" + +The smith lifted up his voice till it struck on the walls of his +cottage and echoed like thunder along the shores of the lake. + +"Dame Barbara," he cried, and again, getting no answer, "ho, Dame +Barbara, I say!" + +Then at the second hallo, a shrill and somewhat peevish voice +proceeded from within the house opposite. + +"Aye, coming, can you not hear, great nolt! 'Deed and 'deed 'tis a +pretty pass when a woman with the cares of an household must come +running light-toe and clatter-heel to every call of such a lazy lout. +Husband, indeed--not house-band but house-bond, I wot--house-torment, +house-thorn, house-cross--" + +A sonsy, well-favoured, middle-aged head, strangely at variance with +the words which came from it, peeped out, and instantly the scolding +brattle was stilled. Back went the head into the dark of the house as +if shot from a bombard. + +Malise MacKim indulged in a low hoarse chuckle as he caught the words: +"Eh, 'tis my Lord William! Save us, and me wanting my Ryssil gown that +cost me ten silver shillings the ell, and no even so muckle as my +white peaked cap upon my head." + +Her husband glanced at the young Earl to see if he appreciated the +savour of the jest. Then he looked away, turning the enjoyment over +and over under his own tongue, and muttering: "Ah, well, 'tis not his +fault. No man hath a sense of humour before he is forty years of his +age--and, for that matter, 'tis all the riper at fifty." + +The young man's eyes were looking this way and that, up and down the +smooth pathway which skirted like a green selvage the shores of the +loch. + +"Malise," he said, as if he had already forgotten his late eager quest +for the little Magdalen, "Darnaway here has a shoe loose, and +to-morrow I ride to levy, and may also joust a bout in the tilt-yard +of the afternoon. I would not ask you to work in Whitsuntide, but that +there cometh my Lord Fleming and Alan Lauder of the Bass, bringing +with them an embassy from France--and I hear there may be fair ladies +in their company." + +"Ah!" quoth Malise, grimly, "so I have heard it said concerning the +embassies of Charles, King of France!" + +But the young man only smiled, and dusted off one or two flecks of +foam which had blown backwards from his horse's bit upon the rich +crimson doublet of finest velvet, which, cinctured closely at the +waist, fell half-way to his knees in heavy double pleats sewn with +gold. A hunting horn of black and gold was suspended about his neck by +a bandolier of dark leather, subtiley embroidered with bosses of gold. +Laced boots of soft black hide, drawn together on the outside from +ankle to mid-calf with a golden cord, met the scarlet "chausses" which +covered his thighs and outlined the figure of him who was the noblest +youth and the most gallant in all the realm of Scotland. + +Earl William wore no sword. Only a little gold-handled poignard with a +lady's finger ring set upon the point of the hilt was at his side, and +he stood resting easily his hand upon it as he talked, drawing it an +inch from its sheath and snicking it back again nonchalantly, with a +sound like the clicking of a well-oiled lock. + +"Clink the strokes strongly and featly, Malise, for to-morrow, when the +Black Douglas rides upon Black Darnaway under the eyes of--well--of +the ladies whom the ambassadors are bringing to greet me, there must +be no stumbling and no mistakes. Or on the head of Malise MacKim the +matter shall be, and let that wight remember that the Douglas does not +keep a dule tree up there by the Gallows Slock for nothing." + +The mighty smith was by this time examining the hoofs of the Earl's +charger one by one with such instinctive delicacy of touch that +Darnaway felt the kindly intent, and, bending his neck about, blew and +snuffled into the armourer's tangled mat of crisp grey hair. + +"Up there!" exclaimed MacKim, as the warm breath tickled his neck, and +at the burst of sound the steed shifted and clattered upon the +hard-beaten floor of the smithy, tossing his head till the bridle +chains rang again. + +"Eh, my Lord William," an altered voice came from the door-step, where +Dame Barbara MacKim, now clothed and in her right mind, stood louting +low before the young Earl, "but this is a blythe and calamitatious day +for this poor bit bigging o' the Carlinwark--to think that your honour +should visit his servants! Will you no come ben and sit doon in the +house-place? 'Tis far from fitting for your feet to pass thereupon. +But gin ye will so highly favour--" + +"Nay, I thank you, good Dame Barbara," said the Earl, very courteously +taking off the close-fitting black cap with the red feather in it +which was upon his head. "I must bide but a moment for your husband to +set right certain nails in the hoofs of Darnaway here, to ready me for +the morrow. Do you come to see the sport? So buxom a dame as the +mistress of Carlinwark should not be absent to encourage the lads to +do their best at the sword-play and the rivalry of the butts." + +And as the dame came forth courtesying and bowing her delighted +thanks, Earl William, setting a forefinger under her triple chin, +stooped and kissed her in his gayest and most debonair manner. + +"Eh, only to think on't," cried the dame, clapping her hands together +as she did at mass, "that I, Barbara MacKim, that am marriet to a +donnert auld carle like Malise there, should hae the privileege o' a +salute frae the bonny mou' o' Yerl William--(Thank ye kindly, my +lord!)--and be inveeted to the weepen-shawing to sit amang the leddies +and view the sport. Malise, my man, caa' ye no that an honour, a +privileege? Is that no owing to me being the sister--on my faither's +side--o' Ninian Halliburton, merchant and indweller in Dumfries?" + +"Nay, nay, good dame," laughed the Earl, "'tis all for the sake of +your own very sufficient charms! I trust that your good man here is +not jealous, for beauty, you well do ken, ever sends the wits of a +Douglas woolgathering. Nevertheless, let us have a draught of your +home-brewed ale, for kissing is but dry work, after all, and little do +I think of it save" (he set his cap on his head with a gallant wave of +his hand) "in the case of a lady so fair and tempting as Dame Barbara +MacKim!" + +At this the dame cast up her hands and her eyes again. "Eh, what will +Marget Ahanny o' the Shankfit say noo--this frae the Yerl William. Eh, +sirce, this is better than an Abbot's absolution. I declare 'tis mair +sustainin' than a' the consolations o' religion. Malise, do you hear, +great dour cuif that ye are, what says my lord? And you to think so +little of your married wife as ye do! Think shame, you being what ye +are, and me the ain sister to that master o' merchandise and Bailie o' +Dumfries, Maister Ninian Halliburton o' the Vennel!" + +And with that she vanished into the black oblong of the door opposite +the smithy. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MY FAIR LADY + + +The strong man of Carlinwark made no long job of the horseshoeing. +For, as he hammered and filed, he marked the eye of the young Earl +restlessly straying this way and that along the green riverside paths, +and his fingers nervously tapping the ashen casing of the smithy +window-sill. Malise MacKim smiled to himself, for he had not served a +Douglas for thirty years without knowing by these signs that there was +the swing of a kirtle in the case somewhere. + +Presently the last nail was made firm, and Black Darnaway was led, +passaging and tossing his bridle reins, out upon the green sward. +Malise stood at his head till the Douglas swung himself into the +saddle with a motion light as the first upward flight of a bird. + +He put his hand into a pocket in the lining of his "soubreveste" and +took out a golden "Lion" of the King's recent mintage. He spun it in +the air off his thumb and then looked at it somewhat contemptuously as +he caught it. + +"I think you and I, Master-Armourer, could send out a better coinage +than that with the old Groat press over there at Thrieve!" he said. + +Malise smiled his quiet smile. + +"If the Earl of Douglas deigns to make me the master of his mint, I +promise him plenty of good, sound, broad pieces of a noble +design--that is, till Chancellor Crichton hangs me for coining in the +Grassmarket of Edinburgh." + +"That would he never, with the Douglas lances to prick you a way out +and the Douglas gold to buy the good-will of traitorous judges!" + +Half unconsciously the Earl sighed as he looked at the fair lake +growing rosy in the light of the sunset. His boyish face was +overspread with care, and for the moment seemed all too young to have +inherited so great a burden. But the next moment he was himself again. + +"I know, Malise," he said, "that I cannot offer you gold in return for +your admirable handicraft. But 'tis nigh to Keltonhill Fair, do you +divide this gold Lion betwixt those two brave boys of yours. Faith, +right glad was I to be Earl of Douglas and not a son of his master +armourer when I saw you disciplining for their souls' good Messires +Sholto and Laurence there!" + +The smith smiled grimly. + +"They are good enough lads, Sholto and Laurence both, but they will be +for ever gnarring and grappling at each other like messan dogs round a +kirk door." + +"They will not make the worse soldiers for that, Malise. I pray you +forgive them for my sake." + +The master armourer took the hand of his young lord on which he was +about to draw a riding glove of Spanish leather. Very reverently he +kissed the signet ring upon it. + +"My dear lord," he said, "I can refuse naught to any of your great and +gracious house, and least of all to you, the light and pleasure of +it--aye, and the light of a surly old man's heart, more even than the +duty he owes to his own married wife! Oh, be careful, my lord, for you +are the desire of many hearts and the hope of all this land." + +He hesitated a moment, and then added with a kind of curious +bashfulness-- + +"But I am concerned about ye this nicht, William Douglas--I fear that +ye could not--would not permit me--" + +"Could not permit what--out with it, old grumble-pate?" + +"That I should saddle my Flanders mare and ride after you. Malise +MacKim would not be in the way even if ye went a-trysting. He kens +brawly, in such a case, when to turn his head and look upon the hills +and the woods and the bonny sleeping waters." + +The Earl laughed and shook his head. + +"Na, na, Malise," he said, "were I indeed on such a quest the sight of +your grey pow would fright a fair lady, and the mere trampling of that +club-footed she-elephant of yours put to flight every sentiment of +love. Remember the Douglas badge is a naked heart. Can I ride +a-courting, therefore, with all my fighting tail behind me as though I +besought an alliance with the King of England's daughter?" + +Silently and sadly the strong man watched the young Earl ride away to +the south along that fair lochside. He stood muttering to himself and +looking long under his hand after his lord. The rider bowed his head +as he passed under the rich blazonry of the white May-blossom, which, +like creamy lace, covered the Three Thorns of Carlinwark, now deeply +stained with rose colour from the clouds of sunset. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM OF DOUGLAS REINED UP DARNAWAY UNDERNEATH +THE WHISPERING FOLIAGE OF A GREAT BEECH.] + +"Aye, aye," he said, "the Douglas badge is indeed a heart--but it is a +bleeding heart. God avert the omen, and keep this young man safe--for +though many love him, there be more that would rejoice at his fall." + +The rider on Black Darnaway rode right into the saffron eye of the +sunset. On his left hand Carlinwark and its many islets burned rich +with spring-green foliage, all splashed with the golden sunset light. +Darnaway's well-shod hoofs sent the diamond drops flying, as, with +obvious pleasure, he trampled through the shallows. Ben Gairn and +Screel, boldly ridged against the southern horizon, stood out in dark +amethyst against the glowing sky of even, but the young rider never so +much as turned his head to look at them. + +Presently, however, he emerged from among the noble lakeside trees +upon a more open space. Broom and whin blossom clustered yellow and +orange beneath him, garrisoning with their green spears and golden +banners every knoll and scaur. But there were broad spaces of turf +here and there on which the conies fed, or fought terrible battles for +the meek ear-twitching does, "spat-spatting" at each other with their +fore paws and springing into the air in their mating fury. + +William of Douglas reined up Darnaway underneath the whispering +foliage of a great beech, for all at unawares he had come upon a sight +that interested him more than the noble prospect of the May sunset. + +In the centre of the golden glade, and with all their faces mistily +glorified by the evening light, he saw a group of little girls, +singing and dancing as they performed some quaint and graceful +pageant of childhood. + +Their young voices came up to him with a wistful, dying fall, and the +slow, graceful movement of the rhythmic dance seemed to affect the +young man strangely. Involuntarily he lifted his close-fitting +feathered cap from his head, and allowed the cool airs to blow against +his brow. + + _"See the robbers passing by, passing by, passing by, + See the robbers passing by, + My fair lady!"_ + +The ancient words came up clearly and distinctly to him, and softened +his heart with the indefinable and exquisite pathos of the refrain +whenever it is sung by the sweet voices of children. + +"These are surely but cottars' bairns," he said, smiling a little at +his own intensity of feeling, "but they sing like little angels. I +daresay my sweetheart Magdalen is amongst them." + +And he sat still listening, patting Black Darnaway meanwhile on the +neck. + + _"What did the robbers do to you, do to you, do to you, + What did the robbers do to you, + My fair lady?"_ + +The first two lines rang out bold and clear. Then again the +wistfulness of the refrain played upon his heart as if it had been an +instrument of strings, till the tears came into his eyes at the +wondrous sorrow and yearning with which one voice, the sweetest and +purest of all, replied, singing quite alone: + + _"They broke my lock and stole my gold, stole my gold, stole my gold, + Broke my lock and stole my gold, + My fair lady!"_ + +The tears brimmed over in the eyes of William Douglas, and a deep +foreboding of the mysteries of fate fell upon his heart and abode +there heavy as doom. + +He turned his head as though he felt a presence near him, and lo! +sudden and silent as the appearing of a phantom, another horse was +alongside of Black Darnaway, and upon a white palfrey a maiden dressed +also in white sat, smiling upon the young man, fair to look upon as an +angel from heaven. + +Earl William's lips parted, but he was too surprised to speak. +Nevertheless, he moved his hand to his head in instinctive salutation; +but, finding his bonnet already off, he could only stare at the vision +which had so suddenly sprung out of the ground. + +The lady slowly waved her hand in the direction of the children, whose +young voices still rang clear as cloister bells tolling out the +Angelus, and whose white dresses waved in the light wind as they +danced back and forth with a slow and graceful motion. + +"You hear, Earl William," she said, in a low, thrilling voice, +speaking with a foreign accent, "you hear? You are a good Christian, +doubtless, and you have heard from your uncle, the Abbot, how praise +is made perfect 'out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.' Hark to +them; they sing of their own destinies--and it may be also of yours +and mine." + +And so fascinated and moved at heart at once by her beauty and by her +strange words, the Douglas listened. + + _"What did the robbers do to you, do to you, do to you, + What did the robbers do to you, + My fair lady?"_ + +The lady on the delicately pacing palfrey turned the darkness of her +eyes from the white-robed choristers to the face of the young man. +Then, with an impetuous motion of her hand, she urged him to listen +for the next words, which swept over Earl William's heart with a +cadence of unutterable pain and inexplicable melancholy. + + _"They broke my lock and stole my gold, stole my gold, stole my gold, + Broke my lock and stole my gold, + My fair lady!"_ + +He turned upon his companion with a quick energy, as if he were afraid +of losing himself again. + +"Who are you, lady, and what do you here?" + +The girl (for in years she was little more) smiled and reined her +steed a little back from him with an air at once prettily petulant and +teasing. + +"Is that spoken as William Douglas or as the Justicer of Galloway--a +country where, as I understand, there is no trial by jury?" + +The light of a radiant smile passed from her lips into his soul. + +"It is spoken as a man speaks to a woman beautiful and queenly," he +said, not removing his eyes from her face. + +"I fear I may have startled you," she said, without continuing the +subject. "Even as I came I saw you were wrapped in meditation, and my +palfrey going lightly made no sound on the grass and leaves." + +Her voice was so sweet and low that William Douglas, listening to it, +wished that she would speak on for ever. + +"The hour grows late," he said, remembering himself. "You must have +far to ride. Let me be your escort homewards if you have none worthier +than I." + +"Alas," she answered, smiling yet more subtly, "I have no home near +by. My home is very far and over many turbulent seas. I have but a +maiden's pavilion in which to rest my head. Yet since I and my company +must needs travel through your domains, Earl William, I trust you will +not be so cruel as to forbid us?" + +"Yes,"--he was smiling now in turn, and catching somewhat of the gay +spirit of the lady,--"as overlord of all this province I do forbid you +to pass through these lands of Galloway without first visiting me in +my house of Thrieve!" + +The lady clapped her hands and laughed, letting her palfrey pace +onwards through the woodland glades bridle free, while Black Darnaway, +compelled by his master's hand, followed, tossing his head indignantly +because it had been turned from the direction of his nightly stable on +the Castle Isle. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TWO RIDING TOGETHER + + +"Joyous," she cried, as they went, "Oh, most joyous would it be to see +the noble castle and to have all the famous two thousand knights to +make love to me at once! To capture two thousand hearts at one sweep +of the net! What would Margaret of France herself say to that?" + +"Is there no single heart sufficient to satisfy you, fair maid?" said +the young man, in a low voice; "none loyal enough nor large enough for +you that you desire so many?" + +"And what would I do with one if it were in my hands," she said +wistfully; "that is, if it were a worthy heart and one worth the +taking. Ever since I was a child I have always broken my toys when I +tired of them." + +The voices of the singing children on the green came more faintly to +their ears, but the words were still clear to be understood. + + _"Off to prison you must go, you must go, you must go, + Off to prison you must go, + My fair lady!"_ + +"You hear? It is my fate!" she said. + +"Nay," answered the Earl, passionately, still looking in her eyes. +"Mine, mine--not yours! Gladly I would go to prison or to death for +the love of one so fair!" + +"My lord, my lord," she laughed, with a tolerant protest in her voice, +"you keep up the credit of your house right nobly. How goes the +distich? My mother taught it me upon the bridge of Avignon, where also +as here in Scotland the children dance and sing." + + "First in the love of Woman, + First in the field of fight, + First in the death that men must die, + Such is the Douglas' right!" + +"Here and now," he said, still looking at her, "'tis only the first I +crave." + +"Earl William, positively you must come to Court!" she shrilled into +sudden tinkling laughter; "there be ladies there more worthy of your +ardour than a poor errant maiden such as I." + +"A Court," cried Earl William, scornfully, "to the Seneschal's court! +Nay, truly. Could a Stewart ever keep his faith or pay his debts? +Never, since the first of them licked his way into a lady's favour." + +"Oh," she answered lightly, "I meant not the Court of Stirling nor yet +the Chancellor's Castle of Edinburgh. I meant the only great +Court--the Court of France, the Court of Charles the Seventh, the +Court which already owns the sway of its rarest ornament, your own +Scottish Princess Margaret." + +"Thither I cannot go unless the King of France grants me my father's +rights and estates!" he said, with a certain sternness in his tone. + +"Let me look at your hand," she answered, with a gentle inclination +of her fair head, from which the lace that had shrouded it now +streamed back in the cool wind of evening. + +Stopping Darnaway, the young Earl gave the girl his hand, and the +white palfrey came to rest close beneath the shoulder of the black war +charger. + +"To-morrow," she said, looking at his palm, "to-morrow you will be +Duke of Touraine. I promise it to you by my power of divination. Does +that satisfy you?" + +"I fear you are a witch, or else a being compound of rarer elements +than mere flesh and blood," said the Earl. + +"Is that a spirit's hand," she said, laughing lightly and giving her +own rosy fingers into his, "or could even the Justicer of Galloway +find it in his heart to burn these as part of the body of a witch?" + +She shuddered and pretended to gaze piteously up at him from under the +long lashes which hardly raised themselves from her cheek. + +"Spirit-slender, spirit-white they are," he replied, "and as for being +the fingers of a witch--doubtless you are a witch indeed. But I will +not burn so fair things as these, save as it might be with the +fervours of my lips." + +And he stooped and pressed kiss after kiss upon her hand. + +Gently she withdrew her fingers from his grasp and rode further apart, +yet not without one backward glance of perfectest witchery. + +"I doubt you have been overmuch at Court already," she said. "I did +not well to ask you to go thither." + +"Why must I not go thither?" he asked. + +"Because I shall be there," she replied softly, courting him yet again +with her eyes. + +As they rode on together through the rich twilight dusk, the young man +observed her narrowly as often as he could. + +Her skin was fair with a dazzling clearness, which even the gathering +gloom only caused to shine with a more perfect brilliance, as if a +halo of light dwelt permanently beneath its surface. Faint responsive +roses bloomed on either cheek and, as it seemed, cast a shadow of +their colour down her graceful neck. Dark eyes shone above, fresh and +dewy with love and youth, and smiled out with all ancientest +witcheries and allurements in their depths. Her lithe, slender body +was simply clad in a fair white cloth of some foreign fabric, and her +waist, of perfectest symmetry, was cinctured by a broad ring of solid +silver, which, to the young man, looked so slender that he could have +clasped it about with both his hands. + +So they rode on, through the woods mostly, until they reached a region +which to the Earl appeared unfamiliar. The glades were greener and +denser. The trees seemed more primeval, the foliage thicker overhead, +the interspaces of the golden evening sky darker and less frequent. + +"In what place may your company be assembled?" he asked. "Strange it +is that I know not this spot. Yet I should recognise each tree by +conning it, and of every rivulet in Galloway I should be able to tell +the name. Yet with shame do I confess that I know not where I am." + +"Ah," said the girl, her face growing luminous through the gloom, "you +called me a witch, and now you shall see. I wave my hands, so--and you +are no more in Galloway. You are in the land of faëry. I blow you a +kiss, so--and lo! you are no more William, sixth Earl of Douglas and +proximate Duke of Touraine, but you are even as True Thomas, the +Beloved of the Queen of the Fairies, and the slave of her spell!" + +"I am indeed well content to be Thomas Rhymer," he answered, +submitting himself to the wooing glamour of her eyes, "so be that you +are the Lady of the milk-white hind!" + +"A courtier indeed," she laughed; "you need not to seek your answer. +You make a poor girl afraid. But see, yonder are the lights of my +pavilion. Will it please you to alight and enter? The supper will be +spread, and though you must not expect any to entertain you, save only +this your poor Queen Mab" (here she made him a little bow), "yet I +think you will not be ill content. They do not say that Thomas of +Ercildoune had any cause for complaint. Do you know," she continued, a +fresh gaiety striking into her voice, "it was in this very wood that +he was lost." + +But William Douglas sat silent with the wonder of what he saw. Their +horses had all at once come out on a hilltop. The sequestered boskage +of the trees had gradually thinned, finally dwarfing into a green +drift of fern and birchen foliage which rose no higher than Black +Darnaway's chest, and through which his rider's laced boots brushed +till the Spanish leather of their gold-embossed frontlets was all +jetted with gouts of dew. + +Before him swept horizonwards a great upward drift of solemn pine +trees, the like of which for size he had never seen in all his domain. +Or so, at least, it seemed in that hour of mystery and glamour. For +behind them the evening sky had dulled to a deep and solemn wash of +blood red, across which lay one lonely bar of black cloud, solid as +spilled ink on a monkish page. But under the trees themselves, blazing +with lamps and breathing odours of all grace and daintiness, stood a +lighted pavilion of rose-coloured silk, anchored to the ground with +ropes of sendal of the richest crimson hue. + +"Let your horse go free, or tether him to a pine; in either case he +will not wander far," said the girl. "I fear my fellows have gone off +to lay in provisions. We have taken a day or two more on the way than +we had counted on, so that to-night's feast makes an end of our store. +But still there is enough for two. I bid you welcome, Earl William, to +a wanderer's tent. There is much that I would say to you." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ROSE-RED PAVILION + + +As the young Earl paused a moment without to tether Black Darnaway to +a fallen trunk of a pine, a chill and melancholy wind seemed to rise +suddenly and toss the branches dark against the sky. Then it flew off +moaning like a lost spirit, till he could hear the sound of its +passage far down the valley. An owl hooted and a swart raven +disengaged himself from the coppice about the door of the pavilion, +and fluttered away with a croak of disdainful anger. Black Darnaway +turned his head and whinnied anxiously after his master. + +But William Douglas, though little more than a boy if men's ages are +to be counted by years, was yet a true child of Archibald the Grim, +and he passed through the mysterious encampment to the door of the +lighted pavilion with a carriage at once firm and assured. He could +faintly discern other tents and pavilions set further off, with +pennons and bannerets, which the passing gust had blown flapping from +the poles, but which now hung slackly about their staves. + +"I would give a hundred golden St. Andrews," he muttered, "if I could +make out the scutcheon. It looks most like a black dragon couchant on +a red field, which is not a Scottish bearing. The lady is French, +doubtless, and passes through from Ireland to visit the Chancellor's +Court at Edinburgh." + +The Black Douglas paused a moment at the tent-flap, which, being of +silken fabric lined with heavier material, hung straight and heavy to +the ground. + +"Come in, my lord," cried the low and thrilling voice of his companion +from within. "With both hands I bid you welcome to my poor abode. A +traveller must not be particular, and I have only those condiments +with me which my men have brought from shipboard, knowing how poor was +the provision of your land. See, do you not already repent your +promise to sup with me?" + +She pointed to the table on which sparkled cut glass of Venice and +rich wreathed ware of goldsmiths' work. On these were set out oranges +and rare fruits of the Orient, such as the young man had never seen in +his own bleak and barren land. + +But the Douglas did no more than glance at the luxury of the +providing. A vision fairer and more beautiful claimed his eyes. For +even as he paused in amazement, the lady herself stood before him, +transformed and, as it seemed, glorified. In the interval she had +taken off the cloak which, while on horseback, she had worn falling +from her shoulders. A thin robe of white silk broidered with gold at +once clothed and revealed her graceful and gracious figure, even as a +glove covers but does not conceal the hand upon which it is drawn. +Whether by intent or accident, the collar had been permitted to fall +aside at the neck and showed the dazzling whiteness of the skin +beneath, but at the bosom it was secured by a button set with black +pearls which constituted the lady's only ornament. + +Her arms also were bare, and showed in the lamplight whiter than milk. +She had removed the silver belt, and was tying a red silken scarf +about her waist in a manner which revealed a swift grace and lithe +sinuosity of movement, making her beauty appear yet more wonderful and +more desirable to the young man's eyes. + +On either side the pavilion were placed folding couches of rosy silk, +and in the corner, draped with rich blue hangings, glimmered the +lady's bed, its fair white linen half revealed. Two embroidered +pillows were at the foot, and on a little table beside it a crystal +ball on a black platter. + +No crucifix or _prie-dieu_, such as in those days was in every lady's +bower, could be discerned anywhere about the pavilion. + +So soon as the tent-flap had fallen with a soft rustle behind him, the +Earl William abandoned himself to the strange enchantment of his +surroundings. He did not stop to ask himself how it was possible that +such dainty providings had been brought into the midst of his wide, +wild realm of Galloway. Nor yet why this errant damsel should in the +darksome night-time find herself alone on this hilltop with the tents +of her retinue standing empty and silent about. The present sufficed +him. The soft radiance of dark eyes fell upon him, and all the +quick-running, inconsiderate Douglas blood rushed and sang in his +veins, responsive to that subtle shining. + +He was with a fair woman, and she not unwilling to be kind. That was +ever enough for all the race of the Black Douglas. What the Red +Douglas loved is another matter. Their ambitions were more reputable, +but greatly less generous. + +"My lord," said the lady, giving him her hand, "will you lead me to +the table? I cannot offer you the refreshment of any elaborate +toilet, but here, at least, is wheaten bread to eat and wine of a good +vintage to drink." + +"You yourself scarce need such earthly sustenance," he answered +gallantly, "for your eyes have stolen the radiance of the stars, and +'tis evident that the night dews visit your cheek only as they do the +roses--to render them more fresh and fair." + +"My lord flatters well for one so young;" she smiled as she seated +herself and motioned him to sit close beside her. "How comes it that +in this wild place you have learned to speak so chivalrously?" + +"When one answers beauty the words are somehow given," he said, "and, +moreover, I have not dwelt in grey Galloway all my days." + +"You speak French?" she queried in that tongue. + +"Ah," she said when he answered, "the divine language. I knew you were +perfect." And so for a long while the young man sat spellbound, +watching the smiles coming and going upon her red and flower-like +lips, and listening to the fast-running ripple of her foreign talk. It +was pleasure enough to hearken without reply. + +It seemed no common food of mortal men that was set before William +Douglas, served with the sweep of white arms and the bend of delicate +fingers upon the chalice stem. He did not care to eat, but again and +again he set the wine cup down empty, for the vintage was new to him, +and brought with it a haunting aroma, instinct with strange hopes and +vivid with unknown joys. + +The pavilion, with its cords of sendal and its silver hanging lamps, +spun round about him. The fair woman herself seemed to dissolve and +reunite before his eyes. She had let down the full-fed river of her +hair, and it flowed in the Venetian fashion over her white shoulders, +sparkling with an inner fire--each fine silken thread, as it glittered +separate from its fellows, twining like a golden snake. + +And the ripple of her laughter played upon the young man's heart +carelessly as a lute is touched by the hands of its mistress. +Something of the primitive glamour of the night and the stars clung to +this woman. It seemed a thing impossible that she should be less pure +than the air and the waters, than the dewy grass beneath and the sky +cool overhead. He knew not that the devil sat from the first day of +creation on Eden wall, that human sin is all but as eternal as human +good, and that passion rises out of its own ashes like the phoenix +bird of fable and stands again all beautiful before us, a creature of +fire and dew. + +Presently the lady rose to her feet, and gave the Earl her hand to +lead her to a couch. + +"Set a footstool by me," she bade him, "I desire to talk to you." + +"You know not my name," she said, after a pause that was like a +caress, "though I know yours. But then the sun in mid-heaven cannot be +hidden, though nameless bide the thousand stars. Shall I tell you +mine? It is a secret; nevertheless, I will tell you if such be your +desire." + +"I care not whether you tell me or no," he answered, looking up into +her face from the low seat at her feet. "Birth cannot add to your +beauty, nor sparse quarterings detract from your charm. I have enough +of both, good lack! And little good they are like to do me." + +"Shall I tell you now," she went on, "or will you wait till you convoy +me to Edinburgh?" + +"To Edinburgh!" cried the young man, greatly astonished. "I have no +purpose of journeying to that town of mine enemies. I have been +counselled oft by those who love me to remain in mine own country. My +horoscope bids me refrain. Not for a thousand commands of King or +Chancellor will I go to that dark and bloody town, wherein they say +lies waiting the curse of my house." + +"But you will go to please a woman?" she said, and leaned nearer to +him, looking deep into his eyes. + +For a moment William Douglas wavered. For a moment he resisted. But +the dark, steadfast orbs thrilled him to the soul, and his own heart +rose insurgent against his reason. + +"I will come if you ask me," he said. "You are more beautiful than I +had dreamed any woman could be." + +"I do ask you!" she continued, without removing her eyes from his +face. + +"Then I will surely come!" he replied. + +She set her hand beneath his chin and bent smilingly and lightly to +kiss him, but with an imprisoned passionate cry the young man suddenly +clasped her in his arms. Yet even as he did so, his eyes fell upon two +figures, which, silent and motionless, stood by the open door of the +pavilion. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WITCH WOMAN + + +One of these was Malise the Smith, towering like a giant. His hands +rested on the hilt of a mighty sword, whose blade sparkled in the +lamplight as if the master armourer had drawn it that moment from the +midst of his charcoal fire. + +A little in front of Malise there stood another figure, less imposing +in physical proportions, but infinitely more striking in dignity and +apparel. This second was a man of tall and spare frame, of a +countenance grave and severe, yet with a certain kindly power latent +in him also. He was dressed in the white robe of a Cistercian, with +the black scapulary of the order. On his head was the mitre, and in +his hand the staff of the abbot of a great establishment which he +wears when he goes visiting his subsidiary houses. More remarkable +than all was the monk's likeness to the young man who now stood before +him with an expression of indignant surprise on his face, which slowly +merged into anger as he understood why these two men were there. + +He recognised his uncle the Abbot William Douglas, the head of the +great Abbey of Dulce Cor upon Solway side. + +This was he who, being the son and heir of the brother of the first +Duke of Touraine, had in the flower of his age suddenly renounced his +domains of Nithsdale that he might take holy orders, and who had ever +since been renowned throughout all Scotland for high sanctity and a +multitude of good works. + +The pair stood looking towards the lady and William Douglas without +speech, a kind of grim patience upon their faces. + +It was the Earl who was the first to speak. + +"What seek you here so late, my lord Abbot?" he said, with all the +haughtiness of the unquestioned head of his mighty house. + +"Nay, what seeks the Earl William here alone so late?" answered the +Abbot, with equal directness. + +The two men stood fronting each other. Malise leaned upon his +two-handed sword and gazed upon the ground. + +"I have come," the Abbot went on, after vainly waiting for the young +Earl to offer an explanation, "as your kinsman, tutor, and councillor, +to warn you against this foreign witch woman. What seeks she here in +this land of Galloway but to do you hurt? Have we not heard her with +our own ears persuade you to accompany her to Edinburgh, which is a +city filled with the power and deadly intent of your enemies?" + +Earl William bowed ironically to his uncle, and his eye glittered as +it fell upon Malise MacKim. + +"I thank you, Uncle," he said. "I am deeply indebted for your so great +interest in me. I thank you too, Malise, for bringing about this +timely interference. I will pay my debts one day. In the meantime your +duty is done. Depart, both of you, I command you!" + +Outside the thunder began to growl in the distance. An extraordinary +feeling of oppression had slowly filled the air. The lamps, swinging +on the pavilion roof tree, flickered and flared, alternately rising +and sinking like the life in the eyes of a dying man. + +All the while the lady sat still on the couch, with an expression of +amused contempt on her face. But now she rose to her feet. + +"And I also ask, in the name of the King of France, by what right do +you intrude within the precincts of a lady's bower. I bid you to leave +me!" + +She pointed imperiously with her white finger to the black, oblong +doorway, from which Malise's rude hand had dragged the covering flap +to the ground. + +But the churchman and his guide stood their ground. + +Suddenly the Abbot reached a hand and took the sword on which the +master armourer leaned. With its point he drew a wide circle upon the +rich carpets which formed the floor of the pavilion. + +"William Douglas," he said, "I command you to come within this circle, +whilst in the right of my holy office I exorcise that demon there who +hath so nearly beguiled you to your ruin." + +The lady laughed a rich ringing laugh. + +"These are indeed high heroics for so plain and poor an occasion. I +need not to utter a word of explanation. I am a lady travelling +peaceably under escort of an ambassador of France, through a Christian +country. By chance, I met the Earl Douglas, and invited him to sup +with me. What concern, spiritual or temporal, may that be of yours, +most reverend Abbot? Who made you my lord Earl's keeper?" + +"Woman or demon from the pit!" said the Abbot, sternly, "think not to +deceive William Douglas, the aged, as you have cast the glamour over +William Douglas, the boy. The lust of the flesh abideth no more for +ever in this frail tabernacle. I bid thee, let the lad go, for he is +dear to me as mine own soul. Let him go, I say, ere I curse thee with +the curse of God the Almighty!" + +The lady continued to smile, standing meantime slender and fair before +them, her bosom heaving a little with emotion, and her hair rippling +in red gold confusion down her back. + +"Certainly, my lord Earl came not upon compulsion. He is free to +return with you, if he yet be under tutors and governors, or afraid of +the master's stripes. Go, Earl William, I made a mistake; I thought +you had been a man. But since I was wrong I bid you get back to the +monk's chapter house, to clerkly copies and childish toys." + +Then black and sullen anger glared from the eyes of the Douglas. + +"Get hence," he cried. "Hence, both of you--you, Uncle William, ere I +forget your holy office and your kinsmanship; you, Malise, that I may +settle with to-morrow ere the sun sets. I swear it by my word as a +Douglas. I will never forgive either of you for this night's work!" + +The fair white hand was laid upon his wrist. + +"Nay," said the lady, "do not quarrel with those you love for my poor +sake. I am indeed little worth the trouble. Go back with them in +peace, and forget her who but sat by your side an hour neither doing +you harm nor thinking it." + +"Nay," he cried, "that will I not. I will show them that I am old +enough to choose my company for myself. Who is my uncle that he +should dictate to me that am an earl of Douglas and a peer of France, +or my servant that he should come forth to spy upon his master?" + +"Then," she whispered, smiling, "you will indeed abide with me?" + +He gave her his hand. + +"I will abide with you till death! Body and soul, I am yours alone!" + +"By the holy cross of our Lord, that shall you not!" cried Malise; +"not though you hang me high as Haman for this ere the morrow's morn!" + +And with these words he sprang forward and caught his master by the +wrist. With one strong pull of his mighty arm he dragged him within +the circle which the Abbot had marked out with the sword's point. + +The lady seemed to change colour. For at that moment a gust of wind +caused the lamps to flicker, and the outlines of her white-robed +figure appeared to waver like an image cast in water. + +"I adjure and command you, in the name of God the One and Omnipotent, +to depart to your own place, spirit or devil or whatever you may be!" + +The voice of the Abbot rose high above the roaring of the bursting +storm without. The lady seemed to reach an arm across the circle as if +even yet to take hold of the young man. The Abbot thrust forward his +crucifix. + +And then the bolt of God fell. The whole pavilion was illuminated with +a flash of light so intense and white that it appeared to blind and +burn up all about. The lady was seen no more. The silken covering +blazed up. Malise plunged outward into the darkness of the storm, +carrying his young master lightly as a child in his arms, while the +Abbot kept his feet behind him like a boat in a ship's wake. The +thunder roared overhead like the sea bellowing in a cave's mouth, and +the great pines bent their heads away from the mighty wind, straining +and creaking and lashing each other in their blind fury. + +Malise and the Abbot seemed to hear about them the plunging of +riderless horses as they stumbled downwards through the night, their +path lit by lightning flashes, green and lilac and keenest blue, and +bearing between them the senseless form of William Earl of Douglas. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PRISONING OF MALISE THE SMITH + + +[Now these things, material to the life and history of William, sixth +Earl of Douglas, are not written from hearsay, but were chronicled +within his lifetime by one who saw them and had part therein, though +the part was but a boy's one. His manuscript has come down to us and +lies before the transcriber. Sholto MacKim, the son of Malise the +Smith, testifies to these things in his own clerkly script. He adds +particularly that his brother Laurence, being at the time but a boy, +had little knowledge of many of the actual facts, and is not to be +believed if at any time he should controvert anything which he +(Sholto) has written. So far, however, as the present collector and +editor can find out, Laurence MacKim appears to have been entirely +silent on the subject, at least with his pen, so that his brother's +caveat was superfluous.] + + * * * * * + +The instant Lord William entered his own castle of Thrieve over the +drawbridge, and without even returning the salutations of his guard, +he turned about to the two men who had so masterfully compelled his +return. + +"Ho, guard, there!" he cried, "seize me this instant the Abbot of the +New Abbey and Malise MacKim." + +And so much surprised but wholly obedient, twenty archers of the +Earl's guard, commanded by old John of Abernethy, called Landless +Jock, fell in at back and front. + +Malise, the master armourer, stood silent, taking the matter with his +usual phlegm, but the Abbot was voluble. + +"William," he said, holding out his hands with an appealing gesture, +"I have laboured with you, striven with, prayed for you. To-night I +came forth through the storm, though an old man, to deliver you from +the manifest snares of the devil--" + +But the Earl interrupted his recital without compunction. + +"Set Malise MacKim in the inner dungeon," he cried. "Thrust his feet +into the great stocks, and let my lord Abbot be warded safely in the +castle chapel. He is little likely to be disturbed there at his +devotions." + +"Aye, my lord, it shall be done!" said Landless Jock, shaking his +head, however, with gloomy foreboding, as the haughty young Earl in +his wet and torn disarray flashed past him without further notice of +the two men whom the might of his bare word had committed to prison. +The Earl sprang up the narrow turret stairs, passing as he did so +through the vaulted hall of the men-at-arms, where more than a hundred +stout archers and spearmen sat carousing and singing, even at that +advanced hour of the night, while as many more lay about the corridors +or on the wooden shelves which they used for sleeping upon, and which +folded back against the wall during the day. At the first glimpse of +their young master, every man left awake among them struggled to his +feet, and stood stiffly propped, drunk or sober according to his +condition, with his eyes turned towards the door which gave upon the +turnpike stair. But with a slight wave of his hand the Earl passed on +to his own apartment. + +Here he found his faithful body-servant, René le Blesois, stretched +across the threshold. The staunch Frenchman rose mechanically at the +noise of his master's footsteps, and, though still soundly asleep, +stood with the latch of the door in his hand, and the other held +stiffly to his brow in salutation. + +Left to his own devices, Lord William Douglas would doubtless have +cast himself, wet as he was, upon his bed had not Le Blesois, +observing his lord's plight even in his own sleep-dulled condition, +entered the chamber after his master and, without question or speech, +silently begun to relieve him of his wet hunting dress. A loose +chamber gown of rich red cloth, lined with silk and furred with +"cristy" grey, hung over the back of an oaken chair, and into this the +young Earl flung himself in black and sullen anger. + +Le Blesois, still without a word spoken, left the room with the wet +clothes over his arm. As he did so a small object rolled from some +fold or crevice of the doublet, where it had been safely lodged till +displaced by the loosening of the belt, or the removing of the +banderole of his master's hunting horn. + +Le Blesois turned at the tinkling sound, and would have stopped to +lift it up after the manner of a careful servitor. But the eye of his +lord was upon the fallen object, and with an abrupt wave of his hand +towards the door, and the single word "Go!" the Earl dismissed his +body-servant from the room. + +Then rising hastily from his chair, he took the trinket in his hand +and carried it to the well-trimmed lamp which stood in a niche that +held a golden crucifix. + +The Lord Douglas saw lying in his palm a ring of singular design. The +main portion was formed of the twisting bodies of a pair of snakes, +the jewel work being very cunningly interlaced and perfectly finished. +Their eyes were set with rubies, and between their open mouths they +carried an opal, shaped like a heart. The stone was translucent and +faintly luminous like a moonstone, but held in its heart one fleck of +ruby red, in appearance like a drop of blood. By some curious trick of +light, in whatever position the ring was held, this drop still +appeared to be on the point of detaching itself and falling to the +ground. + +Earl William examined it in the flicker of the lamp. He turned it +every way, narrowly searching inside the golden band for a posy, but +not a word of any language could he find engraved upon it. + +"I saw the ring upon her hand--I am certain I saw it on her hand!" He +said these words over and over to himself. "It is then no dream that I +have dreamed." + +There came a low knocking at the door, a rustling and a whispering +without. Instantly the Earl thrust the ring upon his own finger with +the opal turned inward, and, with the dark anger mark of his race +strongly dinted upon his fair young brow, he faced the unseen +intruder. + +"Who is there?" he cried loudly and imperiously. + +The door opened with a rasping of the iron latch, and a little girlish +figure clothed from head to foot in a white night veil danced in. She +clapped her hands at sight of him. + +"You are come back," she cried; "and you have so fine a gown on too. +But Maud Lindesay says it is very wrong to be out of doors so late, +even if you are Earl of Douglas, and a great man now. Will you never +play at 'Catch-as-catch-can' with David and me any more?" + +"Margaret," said the young Earl, "what do you away from your chamber +at all? Our mother will miss you, and I do not want her here to-night. +Go back at once!" + +But the little wilful maiden, catching her skirts in her hands at +either side and raising them a little way from the ground, began to +dance a dainty _pas seul_, ending with a flashing whirl and a low bow +in the direction of her audience. + +At this William Douglas could not choose but smile, and soon threw +himself down on the bed, setting his clasped hands behind his head, +and contenting himself with looking at his little sister. + +Though at this time but eight years of age, Margaret of Douglas was +possessed of such extraordinary vitality and character that she seemed +more like eleven. She had the clear-cut, handsome Douglas face, the +pale olive skin, the flashing dark eyes, and the crisp, blue-black +hair of her brother. A lithe grace and quickness, like those of a +beautiful wild animal, were characteristic of every movement. + +"Our mother hath been anxious about you, brother mine," said the +little girl, tiring suddenly of her dance, and leaping upon the other +end of the couch on which her brother was reclining. Establishing +herself opposite him, she pulled the coverlet up about her so that +presently only her face could be seen peeping out from under the +silken folds. + +"Oh, I was so cold, but I am warmer now," she cried. "And if Maid +Betsy A'hannay comes to take me away, I want you to stretch out your +hand like this, and say: 'Seneschal, remove that besom to the deep +dungeon beneath the castle moat,' as we used to do in our plays before +you became a great man. Then I could stay very long and talk to you +all through the night, for Maud Lindesay sleeps so sound that nothing +can awake her." + +Gradually the anger passed out of the face of William Douglas as he +listened to his sister's prattle, like the vapours from the surface of +a hill tarn when the sun rises in his strength. He even thought with +some self-reproach of his treatment of Malise and of his uncle the +Abbot. But a glance at the ring on his finger, and the thought of what +might have been his good fortune at that moment but for their +interference, again hardened his resolution to adamant within his +breast. + +His sister's voice, clear and high in its childish treble, recalled +him to himself. + +"Oh, William, and there is such news; I forgot, because I have been so +overbusied with arranging my new puppet's house that Malise made for +me. But scarcely were you gone away on Black Darnaway ere a messenger +came from our granduncle James at Avondale that he and my cousins Will +and James arrive to-morrow at the Thrieve with a company to attend the +wappenshaw." + +The young man sprang to his feet, and dashed one hand into the palm of +the other. + +"This is ill tidings indeed!" he cried. "What does the Fat Flatterer +at Castle Thrieve? If he comes to pay homage, it will be but a +mockery. Neither he nor Angus had ever any good-will to my father, and +they have none to me." + +"Ah, do not be angry, William," cried the little maid. "It will be +beautiful. They will come at a fitting time. For to-morrow is the +great levy of the weapon-showing, and our cousins will see you in your +pride. And they will see me, too, in my best green sarcenet, riding on +a white palfrey at your side as you promised." + +"A weapon-showing is not a place for little girls," said the Earl, +mollified in spite of himself, casting himself down again on the +couch, and playing with the serpent ring on his finger. + +"Ah, now," cried his sister, her quick eyes dancing everywhere at +once, "you are not attending to a single word I say. I know by your +voice that you are not. That is a pretty ring you have. Did a lady +give it to you? Was it our Maudie? I think it must have been our Maud. +She has many beautiful things, but mostly it is the young men who wish +to give her such things. She never sends any of them back, but keeps +them in a box, and says that it is good to spoil the Egyptians. And +sometimes when I am tired she will tell me the history of each, and +whether he was dark or fair. Or make it all up just as good when she +forgets. But, oh, William, if I were a lady I should fall in love with +nobody but you. For you are so handsome--yes, nearly as handsome as I +am myself--(she passed her hands lightly through her curls as she +spoke). And you know I shall marry no one but a Douglas--only you must +not ask me to wed my cousin William of Avondale, for he is so stern +and solemn; besides, he has always a book in his pocket, and wishes me +to learn somewhat out of it as if I were a monk. A Douglas should not +be a monk, he should be a soldier." + +So she lay snugly on the bed and prattled on to her brother, who, +buried in his thoughts and occupied with his ring, let the hours slip +on till at the open door of the Earl's chamber there appeared the most +bewitching face in the world, as many in that castle and elsewhere +were ready to prove at the sword's point. The little girl caught sight +of it with a shrill cry of pleasure, instantly checked and hushed, +however, at the thought of her mother. + +"O Maudie," she cried, "come hither into William's room. He has such a +beautiful ring that a lady gave him. I am sure a lady gave it him. Was +it you, Maud Lindesay? You are a sly puss not to tell me if it was. +William, it is wicked and provoking of you not to tell me who gave you +that ring. If it had been some one you were not ashamed of, you would +be proud of the gift and confess. Whisper to me who it was. I will not +tell any one, not even Maudie." + +Her brother had risen to his feet with a quick movement, girding his +red gown about him as he rose. + +"Mistress Maud," he said respectfully, "I fear I have given you +anxiety by detaining your charge so late. But she is a wilful madam, +as you have doubtless good cause to know, and ill to advise." + +"She is a Douglas," smiled the fair girl, who stood at the chamber +door refusing his invitation to enter, with a flash of the eye and a +quick shake of the head which betokened no small share of the same +qualities; "is not that enough to excuse her for being wayward and +headstrong?" + +Earl William wasted no more words of entreaty upon his sister, but +seized her in his arms, and pulling the coverlet in which she had +huddled herself up with her pert chin on her knees, more closely about +her, he strode along the passage with her in his arms till he stopped +at an open door leading into a large chamber which looked to the +south. + +"There," he said, smiling at the girl who had followed behind him, "I +will lock her in with you and take the key, that I may make sure of +two such uncertain charges." + +But the girl had deftly extracted the key even as she passed in after +him, and as the bolts shot from within she cried: "I thank you right +courteously, Lord William, but mine apothecary, fearing that the air +of this isle of Thrieve might not agree with me, bade me ever to sleep +with the key of the door under my pillow. Against fevers and quinsies, +cold iron is a sovereign specific." + +And for all his wounded heart, Earl William smiled at the girl's +sauciness as he went slowly back to his chamber, taking, in spite of +his earldom, pains to pass his mother's door on tiptoe. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DOUGLAS MUSTER + + +The day of the great weapon-showing broke fair and clear after the +storm of the night. The windows of heaven had had all their panes +cleaned, and even after it was daylight the brighter stars +appeared--only, however, to wink out again when the sun arose and +shone on the wet fields, coming forth rejoicing like a bridegroom from +his chamber. + +And equally bright and strong came forth the young Earl, every trace +of the anger and disappointment of the night having been removed from +his face, if not from his mind, by the recreative and potent sleep of +youth and health. + +In the hall he called for Sir John of Abernethy, nicknamed Landless +Jock. + +"Conduct my uncle the Abbot from the chapel where he has been all +night at his devotions, to his chamber, and furnish him with what he +may require, and bring up Malise the Smith from the dungeon. Let him +come into my presence in the upper hall." + +William Douglas went into a large oak-ceiled chamber, wide and high, +running across the castle from side to side, and with windows that +looked every way over the broad and fertile strath of Dee. + +Presently, with a trampling of mailed feet and the double rattle which +denoted the grounding of a pair of steel-hilted partisans, Malise was +brought to the door by two soldiers of the Earl's outer guard. + +The huge bulk of Brawny Kim filled up the doorway almost completely, +and he stood watching the Douglas with an unmoved gravity which, in +the dry wrinkles about his eyes, almost amounted to humorous +appreciation of the situation. + +Yet it was Malise who spoke first. For at his appearance the Earl had +turned his back upon his retainer, and now stood at the window that +looks towards the north, from which he could see, over the broad and +placid stretches of the river, the men putting up the pavilions and +striking spears into the ground to mark out the spaces for the tourney +of the next day. + +"A fair good morrow to you, my lord," said the smith. "Grievous as my +sin has been, and just as is your resentment, give me leave to say +that I have suffered more than my deserts from the ill-made chains and +uncouth manacles wherewith they confined me in the black dungeon down +there. I trow they must have been the workmanship of Ninian Lamont the +Highlandman, who dares to call himself house-smith of Thrieve. I am +ready to die if it be your will, my lord; but if you are well advised +you will hang Ninian beside me with a bracelet of his own rascal +handiwork about his neck. Then shall justice be satisfied, and Malise +MacKim will die happy." + +The Earl turned and looked at his ancient friend. The wrinkles about +the brow were deeply ironical now, and the grey eyes of the master +armourer twinkled with appreciation of his jest. + +"Malise," cried his master, warningly, "do not play at cat's cradle +with the Douglas. You might tempt me to that I should afterwards be +sorry for. A man once dead comes not to life again, whatever monks +prate. But tell me, how knew you whither I had gone yester-even? For, +indeed, I knew not myself when I set out. And in any event, was it a +thing well done for my foster father to spy upon me the son who was +also his lord?" + +The anger was mostly gone now out of the frank young face of the Earl, +and only humiliation and resentment, with a touch of boyish curiosity, +remained. + +"Indeed," answered the smith, "I watched you not save under my hand as +you rode away upon Black Darnaway, and then I turned me to the seat by +the wall to listen to the cavillings of Dame Barbara, the humming of +the bees, and the other comfortable and composing sounds of nature." + +"How then did you come to follow me in the undesirable company of my +uncle the Abbot?" + +"For that you are in the debt of my son Sholto, who, seeing a lady +wait for you in the greenwood, climbed a tree, and there from amongst +the branches he was witness of your encounter." + +"So--" said the Douglas, grimly, "it is to Master Sholto that I am +indebted somewhat." + +"Aye," said his father, "do not forget him. For he is a good lad and a +bold, as indeed he proved to the hilt yestreen." + +"In what consisted his boldness?" asked the Earl. + +"In that he dared come home to me with a cock-and-bull story of a +witch lady, who appeared suddenly where none had been a moment before, +and who had immediately enchanted my lord Earl. Well nigh did I twist +his neck, but he stuck to it. Then came riding by my lord Abbot on his +way to Thrieve, and I judged that the matter, as one of witchcraft, +was more his affair than mine." + +"Now hearken," cried the Earl, in quick, high tones of anger, "let +there be no more of such folly, or on your life be it. The lady whom +you insulted was travelling with her company through Galloway from +France. She invited me to sup with her, and dared me to adventure to +Edinburgh in her company. Answer me, wherein was the witchcraft of +that, saving the witchery natural to all fair women?" + +"Did she not prophesy to you that to-day you would be Duke of +Touraine, and receive the ambassadors of the King of France?" + +"Well," said the Earl, "where is your wit that you give ear to such +babblings? Did she not come from that country, as I tell you, and who +should hear the latest news more readily than she?" + +The smith looked a little nonplussed, but stuck to it stoutly that +none but a witch woman would ride alone at nightfall upon a Galloway +moor, or unless by enchantment set up a pavilion of silk and strange +devices under the pines of Loch Roan. + +"Well," said Earl William, feeling his advantage and making the most +of it, "I see that in all my little love affairs I must needs take my +master armourer with me to decide whether or no the lady be a witch. +He shall resolve for me all spiritual questions with his forehammer. +Malise MacKim a witch pricker! Ha--this is a change indeed. Malise the +Smith will make the censor of his lord's love affairs, after what +certain comrades of his have told me of his own ancient love-makings. +Will he deign to come to the weapon-showing to-day, and instead of +examining the swords and halberts, the French arbalasts and German +fusils, demit that part of his office to Ninian the Highlandman, and +go peering into ladies' eyes for sorceries and scanning their lips for +such signs of the devil as lurk in the dimples of their chins? In this +he will find much employment and that of a congenial sort." + +Malise was vanquished, less by the sarcasm of the Earl than by the +fear that perhaps the Highlandman might indeed have his place of +honour as chief military expert by his master's right hand at the +examination of weapons that day on the green holms of Balmaghie. + +"I may have been overhasty, my lord," he said hesitatingly, "but still +do I think that the woman was far from canny." + +The Earl laughed and, turning him about by the shoulders, gave him a +push down the stair, crying, "Oh, Malise, Malise, have you lived so +long in the world without finding out that a beautiful woman is always +uncanny!" + +The levy that day of clansmen owning fealty to the Douglas was no +hasty or local one. It was not, indeed, a "rising of the countryside," +such as took place when the English were reported to be over the +border, when the beacon fires were thrown west from Criffel to Screel, +from Screel to Cairnharrow, and then tossed northward by the three +Cairnsmuirs and topmost Merrick far over the uplands of Kyle, till +from the sullen brow of Brown Carrick the bale fire set the town drum +of Ayr beating its alarming note. Still this muster was a day on +which every Douglas vassal must ride in mail with all his spears +behind him--or bide at home and take the consequences. + +All the night from distant parishes and outlying valleys horsemen had +been riding, clothed in complete panoply of mail. These were the +knights, barons, freeholders, who owned allegiance to the house of +Douglas. Each lord was followed by his appointed tail of esquires and +men-at-arms; behind these dense clusters of heavily armed spearmen +marched steadily along the easiest paths by the waterside and over the +lower hill passes. Light running footmen slung their swords over their +backs by leathern bandoliers and pricked it briskly southwards over +the bent so brown. Archers there were from the border towards the +Solway side--lithe men, accustomed to spring from tussock to tuft of +shaking grass, whose long strides and odd spasmodic side leapings +betrayed even on the plain and unyielding pasture lands the place of +their amphibious nativity. + +"The Jack herons of Lochar," these were named by the men of Galloway. +But there was no jeering to their faces, for not one of those +Maxwells, Sims, Patersons, and Dicksons would have thought twice of +leaping behind a tree stump to wing a cloth-yard shaft into a +scoffer's ribs at thirty yards, taking his chance of the dule tree and +the hempen cord thereafter for the honour of Lochar. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CROSSING OF THE FORD + + +It was still early morning of the great day, when Sholto and Laurence +MacKim, leaving their mother in the kitchen, and their young sister +Magdalen trying a yet prettier knot to her kerchief, took their way by +the fords of Glen Lochar to an eminence then denominated plainly the +Whinny Knowe, the same which afterwards gained and has kept to this +day the more fatal designation of Knock Cannon. The lads were dressed +as became the sons of so prosperous a craftsman (and master armourer +to boot) as Malise MacKim of the Carlinwark. + +Laurence, the younger, wore his archer's jack over the suit of purple +velvet, high boots of yellow leather, and, withal, a dainty cap set +far back on his head, from which sprouted the wing of a blackcock in +as close imitation as Master Laurence dared compass of the Earl +Douglas himself. His bow was slung at his back all ready for the +inspection. A sash of orange silk was twisted about his slim waist, +and in this he would set his thumb knowingly, and stare boldly as +often as the pair of brothers overtook a pretty girl. For Master +Laurence loved beauty, and thought not lightly of his own. + +Sholto, though, as we shall soon see, despised not love, had eyes more +for the knights and men-at-arms, and considered that his heaven would +be fully attained as soon as he should ride one of those great +prancing horses, and carry a lance with the pennon of the Douglas upon +it. + +Meanwhile he wore the steel cap of the home guard, the ringed neck +mail, the close-fitting doublet of blue dotted over with red Douglas +hearts and having the white cross of St. Andrew transversely upon it. +About his waist was a peaked brace of shining plate armour, damascened +in gold by Malise himself, and filling out his almost girlish waist to +manlier proportions. From this depended a row of tags of soft leather. +Close chain-mail covered his legs, to which at the knees were added +caps of triple plate. A sheaf of arrows in a blue and gold quiver on +his right side, a sword of metal on his left, and a short Scottish bow +in his hand completed the attire of a fully equipped and efficient +archer of the Earl's guard. + +The lads were soon at the fords of Lochar, where in the dry summers +the stones show all the way across--one in the midst being named the +Black Douglas, noted as the place where, as tradition affirms, +Archibald the Grim used to pause in crossing the ford to look at his +new fortress of Thrieve, rising on its impregnable island above the +rich water meadows. + +Now neither Sholto nor Laurence wished to wet their leg array before +the work and pageant of the day began. This was the desire of +Laurence, because of the maids who would assemble on the Boreland +Braes, and of Sholto inasmuch as he hoped to win the prize for the +best accoutrement and the most point-device attiring among all the +archers of the Earl's guard. The young men had asked crusty Simon +Conchie, the boatman at the Ferry Croft, to set them over, offering +him a groat for his pains. But he was far too busy to pay any +attention to mere silver coin on such an occasion, only pausing long +enough to cry to them that they must e'en cross at the fords, as many +of their betters would do that day. + +There was nothing for it, therefore, but either to strip to the waist +or to wait the chances of the traffic. Both Sholto and Laurence were +exceedingly loath to take the former course. They had not, however, +long to hesitate, for a train of sumpter mules, belonging to the Lord +Herries of Terregles, whose father had been with Archibald the Tineman +in France, came up laden with the choicest products of the border +country which he designed to offer as part of the "Service-Kane" to +his overlord, the Earl of Douglas. + +Now mules are all of them snorting, ill-conditioned brutes, and are +ever ready to run away upon the least excuse, or even without any. So +as soon as those of Lord Herries' train caught the glint of Sholto's +blue baldric and shining steel girdle-brace appearing suddenly from +behind a knoll, they incontinently bolted every way with noses to the +ground, scattering packs and brandishing heels like young colts turned +out to grass. It chanced that one of the largest mules made directly +towards the fords of Lochar, and the youths, catching the flying +bridle at either side, applied a sort of brake which sufficiently +slowed the beast's movements to enable such agile skipjacks as Sholto +and Laurence to mount. But as they were concerned more with their +leaping from the ground than with what was already upon the animal's +back, their heads met with a crash in the midst, in which collision +the superior weight of the younger had very naturally the better of +the encounter. + +Sholto dropped instantly back to the ground. He was somewhat stunned +by the blow, but the sight of his brother triumphantly splashing +through the shallows aroused him. He arose, and seizing the first +stone that came to hand hurled it after Laurence, swearing fraternally +that he would smite him in the brisket with a dirk as soon as he +caught him for that dastard blow. The first stone flew wide, though +the splash caused the mule to shy into deeper water, to the damping of +his rider's legs. But the second, being better aimed, took the animal +fairly on the rump, and, fetching up on a fly-galled spot, frightened +it with bumping bags and loud squeals into the woods of Glen Lochar, +which come down close to the fords on every side. Here presently +Laurence found himself, like Absalom, caught in the branches of a +beech, and left hanging between heaven and earth. A rider in complete +plate of black mail caught him down, still holding on to his bow, and, +placing him across the saddle, brought down the flat of his gauntleted +hand upon a spot of the lad's person which, being uncovered by mail, +responded with a resounding smack. Then, amid the boisterous laughter +of the men-at-arms, he let Laurence slip to the ground. + +But the younger son of Brawny Kim, master armourer of Carlinwark, was +not the lad to take such an insult meekly, even from a man-at-arms +riding on horseback. He threw his bow into the nearest thicket, and +seizing the most convenient ammunition, which chanced to be in great +plenty that day upon the braes of Balmaghie, pursued his insulter +along the glade with such excellent aim and good effect that the +black unadorned armour of the horseman showed disks of defilement all +over, like a tree trunk covered with toadstool growths. + +"Shoot down the intolerable young rascal! Shall he thus beard my Lord +Maxwell?" cried a voice from the troop which witnessed the chase. And +more than one bow was bent, and several hand-fusils levelled from the +company which followed behind. + +But the injured knight threw up his visor. + +"Hold, there!" he cried, "the boy is right. It was I who insulted him, +and he did right to be revenged, though the rogue's aim is more to be +admired than his choice of weapons. Come hither, lad. Tell me who thou +art, and what is thy father's quality?" + +"I am Laurence MacKim, an archer of my lord's guard, and the younger +son of Malise MacKim, master armourer to the Douglas." + +Laurence, being still angry, rang out his titles as if they had been +inscribed in the book of the Lion-King-at-Arms. + +"Saints save us," cried the knight in swart armour, "all that!" + +Then, seeing the boy ready to answer back still more fiercely, he +continued with a courteous wave of the hand. + +"I humbly ask your pardon, Master Laurence. I am glad the son of +Brawny Kim hath no small part of his father's spirit. Will you take +service and be my esquire, as becomes well a lad of parts who desires +to win his way to a knighthood?" + +The heart of Laurence MacKim beat quickly--a horse to ride--an +esquire--perhaps if he had luck and much fighting, a knighthood. +Nevertheless, he answered with a bold straight look out of his black +eyes. + +"I am an archer of my lord Douglas' outer guard. I can have no +promotion save from him or those of his house--not even from the King +himself." + +"Well said!" cried the knight; "small wonder that the Douglas is the +greatest man in Scotland. I will speak to the Earl William this day +concerning you." + +Lord Maxwell rode on at the head of his company with a courteous +salutation, which not a few behind him who had heard the colloquy +imitated. Laurence stood there with his heart working like yeast +within him, and his colour coming and going to think what he had been +offered and what he had refused. + +"God's truth," he said to himself, "I might have been a great man if I +had chosen, while Sholto, that old sober sides, was left lagging +behind." + +Then he looked about for his bow and went swaggering along as if he +were already Sir Laurence and the leader of an army. + +But Nemesis was upon him, and that in the fashion which his pride +would feel the most. + +"Take that, beast of a Laurence!" cried a voice behind him. + +And the lad received a jolt from behind which loosened his teeth in +their sockets and discomposed the dignified stride with which in +imagination he was commanding the armies of the Douglas. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LAURENCE SINGS A HYMN + + +Laurence turned and beheld his brother. In another instant the two +young men had clinched and were rolling on the ground, wrestling and +striking according to their ability. Sholto might easily have had the +best of the fray, but for the temper aroused by Laurence's recent +degradation, for the elder brother was taller by an inch, and of a +frame of body more lithe and supple. Moreover, the accuracy of Sholto +MacKim's shape and the severe training of the smithy had not left a +superfluous ounce of flesh on him anywhere. + +In a minute the brothers had become the centre of a riotous, laughing +throng of varlets--archers seeking their corps, and young squires sent +by their lords to find out the exact positions allotted to each +contingent by the provost of the camp. For as the wappenshaw was to be +of three days' duration in all its nobler parts, a wilderness of tents +had already begun to arise under the scattered white thorns of the +great Boreland Croft which stretched up from the river. + +These laughed and jested after their kind, encouraging the youths to +fight it out, and naming Laurence the brock or badger from his +stoutness, and the slim Sholto the whitterick or, as one might say, +weasel. + +"At him, Whitterick--grip him! Grip him! Now you have him at the +pinch! Well pulled, Brock! 'Tis a certainty for Brock--good Brock! +Well done--well done! Ah, would you? Hands off that dagger! Let +fisticuffs settle it! The Whitterick hath it--the Whitterick!" + +And thus ran the comment. Sholto being cumbered with his armour, +Laurence might in time have gotten the upper grip. But at this moment +a diversion occurred which completely altered the character of the +conflict. A stout, reddish young man came up, holding in his hand a +staff painted with twining stripes of white and red, which showed him +to be the marshal of that part of the camp which pertained to the Earl +of Angus. He looked on for a moment from the skirts of the crowd, and +then elbowed his way self-importantly into the centre, till he stood +immediately above Laurence and Sholto. + +"What means this hubbub, I say? Quit your hold there and come with me; +my Lord of Angus will settle this dispute." + +He had come up just when the young men were in the final grips, when +Sholto had at last gotten his will of his brother's head, and was, as +the saying is, giving him "Dutch spice" in no very knightly fashion. + +The Angus marshal, seeing this, seized Sholto by the collar of his +mailed shirt, and drawing him suddenly back, caused him to lose hold +of his brother, who as quickly rose to his feet. The red man began to +beat Sholto about the headpiece right heartily with his staff, which +exercise made a great ringing noise, though naturally, the skull cap +being the work of Malise MacKim, little harm ensued to the head +enclosed therein. + +But Master Laurence was instantly on fire. + +"Here, Foxy-face," he cried, "let my brother a-be! What business is it +of yours if two gentlemen have a difference? Go back to your Angus +kernes and ragged craw-bogle Highland folk!" + +Meanwhile Sholto had recovered from his surprise, and the crowd of +varlets was melting apace, thinking the Angus marshal some one of +consequence. But the brothers MacKim were not the lads to take beating +with a stick meekly, and the provost, who indeed had nothing to do +with the Galloway part of the encampment, had far better have confined +his officiousness to his own quarters. + +"Take him on the right, Sholto," cried Laurence, "and I will have at +him from this side." The Red Angus drew his sword and threatened +forthwith to slay the lads if they came near him. But with a spring +like that of a grey Grimalkin of the woods, Sholto leapt within his +guard ere he had time to draw back his arm for thrust or parry, and at +the same moment Laurence, snatching the red and white staff out of his +hand, dealt him so sturdy a clout between the shoulders that, though +he was of weight equal to both of his opponents taken together, he was +knocked breathless at the first blow and went down beneath the impetus +of Sholto's attack. + +Laurence coolly disengaged his brother, and began to thrash the Angus +man with his own staff upon all exposed parts, till the dry wood +broke. Then he threw the pieces at his head, and the two brothers went +off arm in arm to find a woody covert in which to repair damages +against the weapon-showing, and the inspection of their lord and his +keen-eyed master armourer. + +As soon as they had discovered such a sequestered holt, Laurence, who +had frequent experience of such rough-and-tumble encounters, stripped +off his doublet of purple velvet, and, turning the sleeve inside out, +he showed his brother that it was lined with a rough-surfaced felt +cloth almost of the nature of teasle. This being rubbed briskly upon +any dusty garment or fouled armour proved most excellent for restoring +its pristine gloss and beauty. The young men, being as it were born to +the trade and knowing that their armament must meet their father's +inexorable eye, as he passed along their lines with the Earl, rubbed +and polished their best, and when after half an hour's sharp work each +examined the other, not a speck or stain was left to tell of the +various casual incidents of the morning. Two bright, fresh-coloured +youths emerged from their thicket, immaculately clad, and with +countenances of such cherubic innocence, that my lord the Abbot +William of the great Cistercian Abbey of Dulce Cor, looking upon them +as with bare bowed heads they knelt reverently on one knee to ask his +blessing, said to his train, "They look for all the world like young +angels! It is a shame and a sin that two such fair innocents should be +compelled to join in aught ruder than the chanting of psalms in holy +service." + +Whereat one of his company, who had been witness to their treatment of +the Angus provost and also of Laurence's encounter with the knight of +the black armour, was seized incontinently with a fit of coughing +which almost choked him. + +"Bless you, my sons," said the Abbot, "I will speak to my nephew, the +Earl, concerning you. Your faces plead for you. Evil cannot dwell in +such fair bodies. What are your names?" + +The younger knelt with his fingers joined and his eyes meekly on the +grass, while Sholto, who had risen, stood quietly by with his steel +cap in his hand. + +"Laurence MacKim," answered the younger, modestly, without venturing +to raise his eyes from the ground, "and this is my brother Sholto." + +"Can you sing, pretty boy?" said the Abbot to Laurence. + +"We have never been taught," answered downright Sholto. But his +brother, feeling that he was losing chances, broke in: + +"I can sing, if it please your holiness." + +"And what can you sing, sweet lad?" asked the Abbot, smiling with +expectation and setting his hand to his best ear to assist his +increasing deafness. + +"Shut your fool's mouth!" said Sholto under his breath to his brother. + +"Shut your own! 'Tis ugly as a rat-trap at any rate!" responded +Laurence in the same key. Then aloud to the Abbot he said, "An it +please you, sir, I can sing 'O Mary Quean!'" + +The Abbot smiled, well pleased. + +"Ah, exceeding proper, a song to the honour of the Queen of Heaven (he +devoutly crossed himself at the name),--I knew that I could not be +mistaken in you." + +"Your pardon, most reverend," interjected Sholto, anxiously, "please +you to excuse my brother; his voice hath just broken and he cannot +sing at present." Then, under his breath, he added, "Laurie MacKim, +you God-forgotten fool, if you sing that song you will get us both +stripped in a thrice and whipped on the bare back for insolence to the +Earl's uncle!" + +"Go to," said his brother, "I _will_ sing. The old cook is monstrous +deaf at any rate." + +"Sing," said the Abbot, "I would hear you gladly. So fair a face must +be accompanied by the pipe of a nightingale. Besides, we sorely need a +tenor for the choir at Sweetheart." + +So, encouraged in this fashion, the daring Laurence began: + + _"Nae priests aboot me shall be seen + To mumble prayers baith morn and e'en, + I'll swap them a' for Mary Quean! + I'll bid nae mess for me be sung, + Dies ille, dies irć, + Nor clanking bells for me be rung, + Sic semper solet fieri! + I'll gang my ways to Mary Quean."_ + +"Ah, very good, very good, truly," said the Abbot, thrusting his hand +into his pouch beneath his gown, "here are two gold nobles for thee, +sweet lad, and another for your brother, whose countenance methinks is +somewhat less sweet. You have sung well to the praise of our Lady! +What did you say your name was? Of a surety, we must have you at +Sweetheart. And you have the Latin, too, as I heard in the hymn. It is +a thing most marvellous. Verily, the very unction of grace must have +visited you in your cradle!" + +Laurence held down his head with all his native modesty, but the more +open Sholto grew red in the face, hearing behind him the tittering and +shoulder-shaking of the priests and lay servants in the Abbot's train, +and being sure that they would inform their master as soon as he +passed on concerning the true import of Master Laurence's song. He was +muttering in a rapid recitative, "Oh, wait--wait, Laurie MacKim, till +I get you on the Carlinwark shore. A sore back and a stiff skinful of +bones shalt thou have, and not an inch of hide on thee that is not +black and blue. Amen!" he added, stopping his maledictions quickly, +for at that moment the Abbot came somewhat abruptly to the end of his +speech. + +The great churchman rode away on his fair white mule, with a smile and +a backward wave of his hand. + +"I will speak to my nephew concerning you this very day, my child," he +cried. + +And the countenance of that most gentle youth kept its sweet innocence +and angelic grace to the last, but that of Sholto was more dark and +frowning than ever. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BRAES OF BALMAGHIE + + +By ten of the clock the braes of Balmaghie were a sight most glorious +to look upon. Well nigh twelve thousand men were gathered there, of +whom five thousand were well-mounted knights and fully equipped +men-at-arms, every man of them ready and willing to couch a lance or +ride a charge. + +The line of the tents which had been set up extended from opposite the +Castle island of Thrieve to the kirk hill of Balmaghie. Every knight's +following was strictly kept within its own pale, or fence of green +wands set basket-wise, pointed and thrust into the earth like the +spring traps of those who catch mowdiewarts. Many also were the +quarrels and bickerings of the squires who had been sent forward to +choose and arrange the several encampments. Nor were rough and tumble +fights such as we have seen the MacKims indulging in, thought +derogatory to the dignity of any, save belted knights only. + +Each camp displayed the device of its own lord, but higher than all, +from the top of every mound and broomy hillock floated the banner of +the overlord. This was the lion of Galloway, white on a ground of +blue, and beneath it, but on the same staff, a pennon whereon was the +bleeding heart of the Douglas family. + +The lists were set up on the level meadow that is called the Boat +Croft. At either end a pavilion had been erected, and the jousting +green was strongly fenced in, with a rising tier of seats for the +ladies along one side, and a throne in the midst for the Douglas +himself, as high and as nobly upholstered as if the King of Scots had +been presiding in person. + +At ten by the great sun-dial of Thrieve, the Earl, armed in complete +armour of rare work, damascened with gold, and bearing in his hand the +truncheon of commander, rode first through the fords of Lochar, and +immediately after him came his brother David, a tall handsome boy of +fourteen, whose olive skin and highbred beauty attested his Douglas +birth. + +Next rode the Earl of Angus, a red, foxy-featured man, with mean and +shifty eyes. He sat his horse awkwardly, perpetually hunching his +shoulders forward as if he feared to fall over his beast's head. And +saving among his own company, no man did him any honour, which caused +him to grin with wicked sidelong smiles of hate and envy. + +Then amid the shouting of the people there appeared, on a milk-white +palfrey, Margaret, the Earl's only sister, already famous over all +Scotland as "The Fair Maid of Galloway." With her rode one who, in the +esteem of most who saw the pair that day, was a yet rarer flower, even +Maud Lindesay, who had come out of the bleak North to keep the lonely +little maid company. For Margaret of Douglas was yet no more than a +child, but Maud Lindesay was nineteen years of age and in the first +perfect bloom of her beauty. + +Behind these two came the whole array of the knights and barons who +owned allegiance to the Douglas,--Herons and Maxwells, Ardwell +Macullochs, Gordons from the Glen of Kells, with Agnews and MacDowalls +from the Shireside. But above all, and outnumbering all, there were +the lesser chiefs of the mighty name--Douglases of the North, the +future Moray and Ormond among them, the noble young sons of James the +Gross of Avondale, who rode nearest their cousin, the head of the +clan. Then came Douglases of the Border, Douglases of the Hermitage, +of Renfrew, of Douglasdale. Every third man in that great company +which splashed and caracoled through the fords of Lochar, was a +William, a James, or an Archibald Douglas. The King himself could not +have raised in all Scotland such a following, and it is small wonder +if the heart of the young man expanded within him. + +Presently, soon after the arrival of the cavalcade, the great +wappenshaw was set in array, and forming up company by company the +long double line extended as far as the eye could reach from north to +south along the side of the broad and sluggish-moving river. + +Sholto, who in virtue of his courage and good marksmanship had been +placed over the archer company which waited on the right of the ford, +fell in immediately behind the _cortčge_ of the Earl. He was first man +of all to have his equipment examined, and his weapons obtained, as +they deserved, the commendation of his liege lord, and the grim +unwilling approval of Malise, the master armourer, whose unerring eye +could not detect so much as a speck on the shirt of mail, or a grain +of rust on the waist brace of shining steel. + +Then the Earl rode down the lines, and Sholto, remembering the +encounter amidst the dust of the roadway, breathed more freely when he +saw his father's back. + +And surely that day the heart of the Douglas must have beat proud and +high within him, for there they stood, company behind ordered company, +the men on whom he could count to the death. And truly the lad of +eighteen, who in Scotland was greater than the King, looked upon their +steadfast thousands with a swelling heart. + +The Abbot had made particular inquiries where Laurence was stationed, +which was in the archer company of the Laird of Kelton. Most of the +monkish band had been made too happy by the deception practised on +their Abbot concerning "Mary Quean," and were too desirous to have +such a rogue to play his pranks in the dull abbey, to tell any tales +on Laurence MacKim. But one, Berguet, a Belgian priest who had begged +his way to Scotland, and whose nature was that of the spy and +sycophant, approached and volunteered the information to the Abbot +that this lad to whom he was desirous of showing favour, was a ribald +and hypocritical youth. + +"Eh, what?" said the Abbot, "a bodle for thy ill-set tongue, false +loon, dost think I did not hear him sing his fair and seemly orisons? +I tell thee, rude out-land jabberer, that I am a Douglas, and have ears +better than those of any Frenchman that ever breathed. For this thou +shalt kneel six nights on the cold stone of the holy chapel house, and +say of paternosters ten thousand and of misereres thou shall sing +three hundred. And this shall chance to teach thee to be scanter with +thy foul breath when thou speakest to the Abbot of the Foundation of +Devorgill concerning better men than thyself." + +The Belgian priest gasped and fell back, and none other was found to +say aught against Master Laurence, which, considering the ten thousand +paternosters and the three hundred misereres, was not unnatural. + +As the Earl passed along the line he was annoyed by the iterated +requests of his uncle to be informed when they should come to the +company of the Laird of Kelton. And the good Abbot, being like all +deaf men apt to speak a little loud, did not improve matters by +constantly making remarks behind his hand, upon the appearance or +character (as known to him) of the various dependents of the Douglas +House who had come out to show their loyalty and exhibit their +preparedness for battle. + +As thus it was. The young Earl would come in his inspection to a +company of Solway-side men--stiff-jointed fishers of salmon nets out +of the parishes of Rerrick or Borgue--or, as it might be, rough colts +from the rock scarps of Colvend, scramblers after wild birds' nests on +perilous heuchs, and poachers on the deer preserves of Cloak Moss, as +often as they had a chance. Then the Earl, having zealously commended +the particular Barnbacle or Munches who led them, all would be peace +and concord, till out of the crowd behind would issue the growling +comment of his uncle, the Abbot of Dulce Cor. + +"A close-fisted old thief! The saints pity him not! He will surely fry +in Hell! Last Shrovetide did he not drive off five of our best milch +cows, and hath steadfastly refused to restore them? _Anathema +maranatha_ to his vile body and condemned be his huckstering soul!" + +Needless to add, every word of this comment and addition was heard by +the person most concerned. + +Or it might be, "Henry A'milligan--his mother's son, God wot. And his +father's, too, doubtless--if only one could know who his father was. +The devil dwell in his fat belly! _Exorciso te_--" + +So it went on till the temper of the young lord of Galloway was +strained almost to the breaking point, for he wished not to cause a +disturbance among so great a company and on a day of such renown. + +At last they came to the muster of the clean-run limber lads of +Kelton, artificers mostly, and stated retainers of the castle and its +various adjacent bourgs of Carlinwark, Rhonehouse, Gelston, and Mains +of Thrieve. + +Some one at this point took the Abbot by the elbow and shouted in his +ear that this was the company he desired to see. Then he rode forward +to the left hand of his nephew, as Malise and he passed slowly down +the line examining the weapons. + +"Laurence MacKim, I would see Laurence MacKim!" cried the Abbot, +holding up his hand as if in the chapel of his monastery. The Earl +stopped, and Malise turned right about on his heel in great +astonishment. + +"What wants old marrowbones with our Laurie?" he muttered; "surely he +cannot have gotten into mischief with the lasses already. But I +kenna--I kenna. When I was sixteen I can mind--I can mind. And the +loon may well be his father's own son." + +And Malise, the man of brawn, watched out of his quiet grey eyes the +face of the Abbot William, wondering what was to come next. + +Laurence stood forth at a word of command from the Earl. He saluted, +and then dropped the point of his sword meekly upon the ground. His +white-and-rose cherub's face expressed the utmost goodness and +innocence. + +"Dear kinsman," said the Abbot to his nephew, "I have a request to +prefer which I hope you will grant, though it deprive you of one +retainer. This sweet youth is not fit company for rude soldiers and +ill-bred rufflers of the camp. His mind is already on higher things. +He hath good clerkly Latin also, being skilled in the humanities, as I +have heard proven with mine own ears. His grace of language and +deportment is manifest, and he can sing the sweetest and most +spiritual songs in praise of Mary and the saints. I would have him in +our choir at Sweetheart Abbey, where we have much need both of a voice +such as his, and also of a youth whose sanctity and innocence cannot +fail to leaven with the grace of the spirit the neophytes of our +college, and the consideration of whom may even bring repentance into +older and more hardened hearts." + +Malise MacKim could not believe his ears as he listened to the Abbot's +rounded periods. But all the same his grey eyes twinkled, his mouth +slowly drew itself together into the shape of an O, from which issued +a long low whistle, perfectly audible to all about him except the +Abbot. "Lord have mercy on the innocence and cloistered quiet of the +neophytes if they get our Laurie for an example!" muttered Malise to +himself as he turned away. + +Even the young Earl smiled, perhaps remembering the last time he had +seen the youth beside him, clutching and tearing like a wild cat at +his brother's throat in the smithy of Carlinwark. + +"You desire the life of a clerk?" said Lord William pleasantly to +Laurence. He would gladly have purchased his uncle's silence at even +greater price. + +"If your lordship pleases," said Laurence, meekly, adding to himself, +"it cannot be such hard work as hammering at the forge, and if I like +it not, why then I can always run away." + +"You think you have a call to become a holy clerk?" + +"I feel it here," quoth Master Laurence, hypocritically, indicating +correctly, however, the organ whose wants have made clerks of so +many--that is, the stomach. + +Earl William smiled yet more broadly, but anxious to be gone he said: +"Mine Uncle, here is the lad's father, Malise MacKim, my master +armourer and right good servant. Ask him concerning his son." + +"'Tis all up a rotten tree now," muttered Laurence to himself; "my +father will reveal all." + +Malise MacKim smiled grimly, but with a salutation to the dignitary of +the church and near relative of his chief, he said: "Truly, I had +never thought of this my son as worthy to be a holy clerk. But I will +not stand in the way of his advancement nor thwart your favour. Take +him for a year on trial, and if you can make a monk of him, do so and +welcome. I recommend a leathern strap, well hardened in the fire, for +the purpose of encouraging him to make a beginning in the holy life." + +"He shall indeed have penance if he need it. For the good of the soul +must the body suffer!" said Abbot William, sententiously. + +"Saints' bones and cracklings," muttered Laurence, "this is none so +cheerful! But I can always run away if the strap grows overlimber, and +then let them catch me if they can. Sholto will help me." + +"Fall out!" commanded the Earl, sharply, "and join yourself to the +company of the Abbot William. Come, Malise, we lose our time." + +Thus was one of our heroes brought into the way of becoming a learned +and holy clerk. But all those who knew him best agreed that he had a +far road to travel. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE + + +The Earl had almost arrived at the pavilion erected at the southern +end of the jousting meadow, when a gust of cheering borne along the +lines announced the arrival of a belated company. The young man +glanced northward with intent to discover, by their pennons, who his +visitors might be. But the distance was too great, and identification +was made more difficult by the swarming of the populace round the +newcomers. So, being unable to make the matter out, Earl William +despatched his brother David to bring him word of their quality. + +Presently, however, and before David Douglas' return, shouts of +"Avondale, Avondale!" from the men of Lanarkshire informed the young +Earl of the name of one at least of those who had arrived. A frown so +quick and angry darkened his brow that it showed the consideration in +which the Douglas held his granduncle James the Gross, Earl of +Avondale. + +"I hope, at least," he said in a low voice to Malise, who stood half a +step behind him, "that my cousins Will and James have come with him. +They are good metal for a tourney, and worth breaking a lance with." + +By this time the banners of the visitors were discernible crossing the +fords of Lochar, while high advanced above all private pennons two +standards could be seen, the banner royal of Scotland, and close +beside the rampant lion the white lilies of France. + +"Saint Bride!" cried the Earl, "have they brought the King of Scots to +visit me? His Majesty had been better at his horn-book, or playing +ball in the tennis court of Stirling." + +Then came David back, riding swiftly on his fine dark chestnut, which, +being free from the mantle wherein the horses of knights were swathed, +and having its mane and tail left long, made a gallant show as the lad +threw it almost on its haunches in his boyish pride of horsemanship. + +"William," said David Douglas, "a word in your ear, brother. The whole +tribe are here,--fat Jamie and all his clan." + +The brothers conferred a little apart, for in those troubled times men +learned caution early, and though the Douglas was the greatest lord in +Scotland, yet, surrounded by meaner men as he was, it behoved him to +be jealous and careful of his life and honour. + +Earl Douglas came out of the sparred enclosure of the tilt-ring in +order to receive his guests. + +First, as an escort to the ambassador royal of France and Scotland who +came behind, rode the Earl of Avondale and his five sons, noble young +men, and most unlikely to have sprung from such a stock. James the +Gross rode a broad Clydesdale mare, a short, soft unwieldy man, +sitting squat on the saddle like a toad astride a roof, and glancing +slily sideways out of the pursy recesses of his eyes. + +Behind him came his eldest son William, a man of a true Douglas +countenance, quick, high, and stern. Then followed James, whose lithe +body and wonderful dexterity in arms were already winning him repute +as one of the bravest knights in all Christendom in every military and +manly exercise. + +Behind the Avondale Douglases rode two men abreast, with a lady on a +palfrey between them. + +The first to take the eye, both by his stature and his remarkable +appearance, rode upon a charger covered from head to tail in the +gorgeous red-and-gold diamonded trappings pertaining to a marshal of +France. He was in complete armour, and wore his visor down. A long +blue feather floated from his helmet, falling almost upon the flank of +his horse; a truncheon of gold and black was at his side. A pace +behind him the lilies of France were displayed, floating out languidly +from a black and white banner staff held in the hands of a young +squire. + +The knight behind whom the banner royal of Scotland fluttered was a +man of different mould. His spare frame seemed buried in the suit of +armour that he wore somewhat awkwardly. His pale ascetic countenance +looked more in place in a monkish cloister than on a knightly tilting +ground, and he glanced this way and that with the swift and furtive +suspicion of one who, while setting one trap, fears to be taken in +another. + +But the lady who rode on a white palfrey between these two took all +men's regard, even in the presence of a marshal of France and a herald +extraordinary of the King of Scots. + +The Earl Douglas, having let his eyes once rest upon her, could not +again remove them, being, as it were, fixed by the very greatness of +the wonder which he saw. + +It was the lady of the pavilion underneath the pines, the lady of the +evening light and of the midnight storm. + +She was no longer clothed in simple white, but arrayed like a king's +daughter. On her head was a high-peaked coiffure, from which there +flowed down a graceful cloud of finest lace. This, even as the Earl +looked at her, she caught at with a bewitching gesture, and brought +down over her shoulder with her gloved hand. A close-fitting robe of +palest blue outlined the perfections of her body. A single +fleur-de-lys in gold was embroidered on the breast of her white +bodice, and the same device appeared again and again on the white +housing of her palfrey. + +She sat in the saddle, gently smiling, and looking down with a +sweetness which was either the perfection of finished coquetry or the +expression of the finest natural modesty. + +Strangely enough, the first thought which came to the Earl Douglas +after his surprise was one in which triumph was blended with mirth. + +"What will the Abbot and Malise think of this?" he said, half aloud. +And he turned him about in order to look upon the face of his master +armourer. + +He found Malise MacKim ashen-pale and drawn of countenance, his mouth +open and squared with wonder. His jaw was fallen slack, and his hands +gripped one upon the other like those of a suppliant praying to the +saints. + +The Earl smiled, and bidding Malise unlace his helmet in compliment to +his guests, he stood presently bareheaded before them, his head +appearing above the blackness of his armour, bright as a flower with +youth and instinct with all the fiery beauty of his race. + +It was James the Gross who came forward to act as herald. "My +well-beloved nephew," he began in somewhat whining tones, "I bring you +two royal embassies, one from the King of France and the other from +the King of Scotland. I have the honour to present to you the Marshal +Gilles de Retz, ambassador of the most Christian King, Charles the +Seventh, who will presently deliver his master's message to you." + +The marshal, who till now had kept his visor down, slowly raised it, +and revealed a face which, being once seen, could never afterwards be +banished from the memory. + +It was a large grey-white countenance, with high cheek-bones and +colourless lips, which were continually working one upon the other. +Black eyes were set close together under heavy brows, and a long thin +nose curved between them like the beak of an unclean bird. + +"Earl William," said the marshal, "I give you greeting in the name of +our common liege lord, Charles, King of France, and also in that of +his son, the Dauphin Louis. I bring you also a further token of their +good-will, in that I hail you heir to the great estates and dignities +of your father and grandfather, sometime Dukes of Touraine and vassals +premier of the King of France." + +The young man bowed, but in spite of the interest of his message, the +marshal caught his eyes resting upon the face of the lady who rode +beside him. + +"To this I add that which, save for the message of the King, my +master, ought fitly to have come first. I present you to this fair +lady, my sister-in-law, the Damosel Sybilla de Thouars, maid of honour +to your high princess Margaret of Scotland, who of late hath expanded +into a yet fairer flower under the sun of our land of France." + +The Earl dismounted and threw the reins of his horse to Malise, whose +face wore an expression of bitterest disappointment and instinctive +hatred. Then he went to the side of the Lady Sybilla, and taking her +hand he bowed his head over it, touching the glove to his lips with +every token of respect. Still bareheaded, he took the reins of her +palfrey and led her to the stand reserved for the Queen of Beauty. + +Here the Earl invited her to dismount and occupy the central seat. + +"Till your arrival it lacked an occupant, saving my little sister; but +to-day the gods have been good to the house of Douglas, and for the +first time since the death of my father I see it filled." + +Smilingly the lady consented, and with a wave of his hand the Earl +William invited the Marshal de Retz to take the place on the other +side of the Lady Sybilla. + +Then turning haughtily to the herald of the King of Scots, who had +been standing alone, he said:-- + +"And now, sir, what would you with the Earl Douglas?" + +The ascetic, monkish man found his words with little loss of time, +showing, however, no resentment for Earl William's neglect of any +reverence to the banner under whose protection he came. + +"I am Sir James Irving of Drum," he said, "and I stand here on behalf +of Sir Alexander Livingston, tutor and guardian of the King of Scots, +to invite your friendship and aid. The Lord Crichton, sometime +Chancellor of this realm, hath rebelled against the royal authority +and fortified him in Edinburgh Castle. So both Sir Alexander +Livingston and the most noble lady, the Queen Mother, desire the +assistance of the great power of the Earl of Douglas to suppress this +revolt." + +Scarcely had these words been uttered when another knight stepped +forward out of the train which had followed the Earl of Avondale. + +"I am here on behalf of the Chancellor of Scotland, who is no rebel +against any right authority, but who wishes only to bring this +distracted realm back into some assured peace, and to deliver the +young King out of the hands of flatterers and lechers. I have the +honour, therefore, of requesting on behalf of the Chancellor of +Scotland, Sir William Crichton, the true representative of royal +authority, the aid and alliance of my Lord of Douglas." + +A smile of haughty contempt passed over the face of the Earl, and he +dismissed both heralds, uttering in the hearing of all those words +which afterwards became so famous over Scotland: + +"Let dog eat dog! Wherefore should the lion care?" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MISTRESS MAUD LINDESAY + + +The sports of the first day of the great wappenshaw were over. The +Lord James Douglas, second son of the Gross One, had won the single +tourneying by unhorsing all his opponents without even breaking a +lance. For the second time Sholto MacKim wore on his cap the golden +buckle of archery, and took his way happily homeward, much uplifted +that the somewhat fraudulent eyes of Mistress Maud Lindesay had smiled +upon him whilst the French lady was fastening it there. + +The knightly part of the great muster had already gone back to their +tents and lodgings. The commonalty were mostly stringing away through +the vales and hill passes to their homes, no longer in ordered +companies, but in bands of two or three. Disputes and misunderstandings +arose here and there between men of different provinces. The Galloway +men called "Annandale thieves" at those border lads who came at the +summons of the hereditary Warden of the Marches. The borderers replied +by loud bleatings, which signified that they held the Galwegians of no +better understanding than their native sheep. + +It was a strange and varied company which rode home to Thrieve to +receive the hospitality of the young Earl of Douglas and Duke of +Touraine. The castle itself, being no more than a military fortress, +containing in addition to the soldiers' quarters only the apartments +designed for the family (and scant enough even of those) could not, of +course, accommodate so great a company. + +But as was the custom at all great houses, though more in England and +France than in poverty-stricken Scotland, the Earl of Douglas had in +store an abundant supply of tents, some of them woven of arras and +ornamented with cloth of gold, others of humbler but equally +serviceable material. + +His mother, the Countess of Douglas, who knew nothing of the +occurrences of the night of the great storm, nor guessed at the +suspicions of witchcraft and diablerie which made a hell of the breast +of Malise, the master armourer, received her son's guests with +distinguished courtesy. Malise himself had gone to find the Abbot, so +soon as ever he set eyes on the companion of the Marshal de Retz, that +they might consult together--only, however, to discover that the +gentle churchman had quitted the field immediately after he had +obtained the consent of his nephew to the possession of the new +chorister, to whom he had taken so sudden and violent a fancy. + +The hoofs of the whole cavalcade were erelong sounding hollow and dull +upon the wooden bridge, which the Earl's father had erected from the +left bank to the southernmost corner of the Isle of Thrieve, a bridge +which a single charge of powder, or even a few strokes of a wood-man's +axe, had been sufficient to remove and disable, but which nevertheless +enabled the castle-dwellers to avoid the extreme inconvenience of +passing through the ford at all states of the river. + +Sholto MacKim, throwing all the consciousness of a shining success +into the stiffness of the neck which upheld the slight additional +weight of the Earl's gold buckle in his cap, found himself, not wholly +by accident, in the neighbourhood of his heart's beloved, Maud +Lindesay. For, like a valiant seneschal, she had kept her place all +day close beside the Fair Maid of Galloway. + +And now the little girl was more than ever eager to keep near to her +friend, for the ambassador of the King of France had bent one look +upon her, so strange and searching that Margaret, though not naturally +timid, had cried aloud involuntarily and clasped her friend's hand +with a grasp which she refused to loosen, till Sholto had promised to +walk by the side of her pony and allow her to net her trembling +fingers into the thick of his clustering curls. + +For the armourer's son was, in those simple days, an ancient ally and +playmate of the little noble damsel, and he dreamed, and not without +some excuse, that in an age when every man's strong arm and brave +heart constituted his fortune, the time might come when he might even +himself to Maud Lindesay, baron's daughter though she were. For both +his father and himself were already high in favour with their master +the Earl, who could create knighthoods and dispose lordships as easily +as (and much more effectually and finally than) the King himself. + +The emissaries of the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston did not +accompany the others back to the castle after the short and haughty +answer which they had received, but with their followers returned the +way they had come to their several headquarters, giving, as was +natural between foes so bitter, a wide berth to each other on their +northward journeys to Edinburgh and Stirling. + +"What think you of this day's doings, Mistress Lindesay?" asked Sholto +as he swung along beside the train with little Margaret Douglas's hand +still clutching the thick curls at the back of his neck. + +The maid of honour tossed her shapely head, and, with a little pretty +upward curl of the lip, exclaimed: "'Twas as stupid a tourney as ever +I saw. There was not a single handsome knight nor yet one beautiful +lady on the field this day." + +"What of James of Avondale when knights are being judged?" said +Sholto, with a kind of gloomy satisfaction, boyish and characteristic; +"he at least looked often enough in your direction to prove that he +did not agree with you about the lack of the beautiful lady." + +At this Maud Lindesay elevated her pretty nostrils yet further into +the air. "James of Avondale, indeed--" she said, "he is not to be +compared either for dignity or strength with the Earl himself, nor yet +with many others whom I know of lesser estate." + +"Sholto MacKim," cried the clear piping voice of the little Margaret, +"how in the world am I to keep hold of your hair if you shake and jerk +your head about like that? If you do not keep still I will send for +that pretty boy over there in the scarlet vest, or ask my cousin James +to ride with me. And he will, too, I know--for he likes bravely to be +beside my dear, sweet Maud Lindesay." + +After this Sholto held his head erect and forth-looking, as if he had +been under the inspection of the Earl and were doubtful of his weapons +passing muster. + +There came a subtle and roguish smile into the eyes of Mistress Maud +Lindesay as she observed the stiffening of Sholto's bearing. + +"Who were those others of humbler estate?" he queried, sending his +words straight out of his lips like pellets from a pop-gun, being in +fear lest he should unsettle the hand of the small tyrant upon his +hair. + +"Your brother Laurence for one," replied the minx, for no other +purpose than to see the flush of disappointment tinge his brow with +sudden red. + +"I wish my brother Laurence were in--" he began. But the girl +interrupted him. + +"Hush," she said, holding up her finger, "do not swear, especially at +a son of the holy church. Ha, ha! A fit clerk and a reverend will they +make of Laurence MacKim! I have heard of your ploys and ongoings, both +of you. Think not I am to be taken in by your meekness and pretence of +dutiful service. You go athwart the country making love to poor +maidens, and then, when you have won their hearts, you leave them +lamenting." + +And she affected to heave a deep sigh. + +"Ah, Maudie," said the little girl, reproachfully, "now you are being +bad. I know it by your voice. Do not be unkind to my Sholto, for his +hair is so pleasant to touch. I wish you could feel it. And, besides, +when you are wicked to him, you make him jerk, and if he does it often +I shall have to send him away." + +The Maid of Galloway was indeed entirely correct. For Maud Lindesay, +accustomed all her life to the homage of many men, and having been +brought up in a great castle in an age when chivalrous respect to +women had not yet given place to the licence of the Revival of +Letters, practised irritation like a fine art. She was brimful of the +superfluity of naughtiness, yet withal as innocent and playful as a +kitten. + +But Sholto, both from a feeling that he belonged to an inferior rank, +and also being exceedingly conscious of his youth, chose to be +bitterly offended. + +"You mistake me greatly, Mistress Lindesay," he said in an uneven +schoolboy's voice, to which he tried in vain to add a touch of worldly +coldness; "I do not make love to every girl I meet, nor yet do I love +them and leave them as you say. You have been most gravely +misinformed." + +"Nay," tripped the maid of honour, with arch quickness of reply, "I +said not that you were naturally equipped for such amorous quests. I +meant to designate your brother Laurence. 'Tis pity he is to be a +clerk. Though one day doubtless he will make a very proper and +consolatory father confessor--" + +Sholto walked on in silence, his eyes fixed before him, and in such +high dudgeon that he pretended to be unconscious of what the girl had +been saying. Then the little Margaret began to prattle in her pretty +way, and the youth answered "yes" and "no" sulkily and at random, his +thoughts being alternately on the doing of some great deed to make his +mistress repent her cruelty, and on a leap into the castle pool, in +whose unsunned deeps he might find oblivion from all the flouts of +hard-hearted beauty. + +Maud kept her eyes upon him, a smile of satisfaction on her lips so +long as he was not looking at her. She liked to play her fish as +satisfactorily as she could before grassing it at her feet. + +"Besides, it will do him good," she said to herself. "He hath lately +won the gold badge of archery, and, like all men, is apt to think +overmuch of himself at such times. Moreover, I can always make it up +to him after--if I like, that is." + +But as often as Sholto dropped a little behind, keeping pace with Maid +Margaret's slower palfrey so that Maud was sure he looked at her, the +pretty coquette cast down her eyes in affected humility and sorrow. +Whereupon immediately Sholto felt his resentment begin to melt like +snow off a dike top when the sun of April is shining. + +But neither of them uttered another word till they reached the +drawbridge which crossed the nether moat and conducted to the noble +gateway of Thrieve. Then, at the foot of the stairway to the hall, +Sholto, having swung the little maid from her pony, after a moment of +sullen hesitation went across to assist Mistress Maud Lindesay out of +her saddle. + +As he lifted the girl down his heart thundered tumultuously in his +breast, for he had never so touched her before. Her lashes rested +modestly on her cheek--long, black, and upcurled a little at the ends. +As her foot touched the ground, she raised them a moment, and looked +at him with one swift flash of violet eyes made darker by the +seclusion from which she had released them. Then in another moment she +had dropped them again, detaching them from his with a mighty +affectation of confusion. + +"Please, Sholto, I am sorry. I did not mean it." She spoke like a +child that is sorry for a fault and is fearful of being chidden. + +And even though knowing full well by bitter experience all her +naughtiness and hypocrisy, Sholto, gulping his heart well down into +his throat, could not do otherwise than forgive a thing so pretty and +so full of the innocent artifices which make mown hay of the hearts of +men. + +With a touch of his lips upon the hand of Margaret the Maid in token +of fealty, Sholto MacKim turned on his heel and went away towards the +fords of Thrieve, muttering to himself, "No, she does not mean it, I +do believe. But I have ever heard that of all women she who never +means it is the most dangerous." + +And this is a dict which no wise man can gainsay. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A DAUNTING SUMMONS + + +Not far before them had ridden the Earl and the Lady Sybilla. Behind +these two came the Marshal de Retz and the fat Lord of Avondale. They +were telling each other tales of the wars of La Pucelle, the latter +laughing and shaking shoulders, but at the end of every side-splitting +legend the Frenchman would glance over his shoulder at Maud Lindesay +and the little maiden Margaret. + +As Sholto passed them on his return he stood aside, poised at the +salute, looking meanwhile with awe on the great and notable French +soldier. Yet at the first glimpse of his unvisored face there fell +upon the young man a dislike so fierce and instinctive that he grasped +his bow and fumbled in his quiver for an arrow, in order to send it +through the unlaced joints of the Marshal's gorget, which for ease's +sake his squire had undone when they left the field. + +Sholto MacKim was at the fords waiting the chance of crossing and the +pleasure of the surly keeper of the bridge, Elson A'Cormack, who sat +in his wheelhouse, grunting curses on all who passed that way. + +"Foul feet, slow bellies, fushionless and slack ye are to run my +lord's errands! But quick enow to return home upon your trampling +clattering ruck of horses, and every rascal of you expecting to ride +over my bridge of good pine planking instead of washing the dirt from +your hoofs in honest Dee water." + +The long files of horsemen threaded their way across the green plain +of the isle towards the open space in front of Thrieve Castle, the +points of their spears shining high in the air, and the shafts so +thick underneath that, seen from a distance, they made a network of +slender lines reticulated against the brightness of the sun. + +The great island strength of the Douglases was then in its highest +state of perfection as a fortress and of dignity as a residence. +Archibald the Grim, who built the keep, could not have foreseen the +wondrous beauty and strength to which Thrieve would attain under his +successors. This night of the wappenshaw the lofty grey walls were +hung with gaily coloured tapestries draped from the overhanging +gallery of wood which ran round the top of the castle. From the four +corners of the roof flew the banners of four provinces which owned the +sway of the mighty house,--Galloway, Annandale, Lanark, and the +Marches,--while from the centre, on a flagstaff taller than any, flew +their standard royal, for so it might be called, the heart and stars +of the Douglases' more than royal house. + +While the outer walls thus blazed with colour, the woods around gave +back the constant reverberation of cannon, as with hand guns and +artillery of weight the garrison greeted the return of the Earl and +his guests. The green castle island from end to end was planted thick +with tents and gay with pavilions of many hues and various design, +their walls covered with intricate devices, and each flying the +colours of its owner, while on poles without dangled shields and +harness of various kinds, ready for the younger squires to clean and +oil for the use of their masters on the remaining days of the +tournament. + +Sholto waited at the bridge-head, impatient of the press, and eager to +be left alone with his own thoughts, that he might con over and over +the words and looks of his heart's idol, and suck all the sweet pain +he could out of her very hardheartedness. Suddenly tossed backwards +like a ball from lip to lip, according to the universal and, indeed, +obligatory custom of the time, there reached him the "passing of the +word." He heard his own name repeated over and over in fifty voices +and tones, waxing louder as the "word" neared him. + +"Sholto MacKim--Sholto MacKim, son of Malise, the armourer, wanted to +speak with the Earl. Sholto MacKim. Sholto--" + +A great nolt of a Moray Highlandman, with a mouth like a gash, shouted +it in his very ear. + +Surprised and somewhat anxious at heart, Sholto cast over in his mind +all the deeds, good and evil, which might procure him the honour of an +interview with Earl William Douglas, but could think of nothing except +his having involuntarily played the spy at the young lord's meeting +with the lady in the wood. It was therefore with some natural +trepidation that the young man obeyed the summons. + +"At any rate," he meditated with a slight return of complacency, as he +butted and shoved his way castle-wards, "he can scarcely mean to have +my head. For he was all day with my father at his elbow, and at the +worst I shall have another chance of seeing"--he did not call the +beloved by her Christian name even to himself, so he compromised by +adding somewhat lamely--"_her_." + +Thus Sholto, putting speed in his heels and swinging along over the +trampled sward with the easy tireless trot of a sleuthhound, threaded +his way among the groups of villein prickers and swearing men-at-arms +who cumbered the main approaches of the castle. + +He found the Earl walking swiftly up and down a little raised platform +which extended round three sides of Thrieve, outside the main +defences, but yet within the nether moat, the sluggish water of which +it over-looked on its inner side. + +Earl William was manifestly discomposed and excited by the events of +the day, and especially by the fact that the Lady Sybilla seemed +utterly unconscious of ever having set eyes upon him before, appearing +entirely oblivious of having received him in a pavilion of +rose-coloured silk under the shelter of a grove of tall pines. The +young lord instinctively recoiled from any communication with his +master armourer, whose grave and impassive face revealed nothing which +might be passing in his mind. Then the Earl's thoughts turned upon +Sholto, who had been the first to observe his beauteous companion of +the Carlinwark woods. + +Earl William was even younger than Sholto, but the cares and dignities +of a great position had rendered him far less boyish in manner and +carriage than the son of Malise MacKim. + +His head, now released from his helm, rose out from the richly +ornamented collar of his armour with the grace of a flower and the +strength of a tree rooted among rocks. He had already laid aside his +gorget, and when Sholto was announced, the Earl's ancient retainer, +old Landless Jock of Abernethy, was bringing him a cap of soft velvet +which he threw on the back of his head with an air of supreme +carelessness. Then he rose and walked up and down, carrying his armour +as if it had been a mere feather weight, whereas it was tilting +harness of double plate and designed only for wearing on horseback. + +Sholto marked in the young lord a boyish eagerness equal to his own. +Indeed, his impatient manner recalled his late feelings, as he had +stood on the bridge and desired to be left alone with his thoughts of +Maud Lindesay. + +Sholto stood still and quiet on the topmost step of the ascent from +the moat-bridge waiting for the Earl to signify his will. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CAPTAIN OF THE EARL'S GUARD + + +"Sholto MacKim," said the Earl of Douglas, abruptly, "saw you the lady +who arrived with the foreign ambassador?" + +"She is indeed wondrous fair to look on," answered Sholto, the whole +heart in him instantly wary, while outwardly he seemed more innocent +than before. + +"Have your eyes ever lighted on that lady before?" + +"Nay, my lord, of a surety no. In what manner should they, seeing that +I have never been in France in my life, nor indeed more than a score +of miles from this castle of Thrieve?" + +"Thou art a good lad, and also ready of wit, Master Sholto," said the +Earl, looking at the armourer's son musingly. "Clear of eye and true +of hand, so they tell me. Did you not win the arrow prize this day?" + +Lord William raised his eyes to where in the bonnet of the youth his +own golden badge of archery glistened. + +"And I also won the swording prize at the last wappenshaw on the moot +hill of Urr," said Sholto, taking courage, and being resolved that if +his fortune stood not now on tiptoe, it should not be on account of +any superfluity of modesty on his own part. + +"Ah," said the Earl, "I remember. It was two golden hearts joined +together with an arrow and a star in the midst--a fitting Douglas +emblem, by the bones of Saint Bride! Where hast thou left that badge +that thou dost not wear it along with the other?" + +Sholto blushed and muttered that he had forgotten it at home. He was +all of a breaking perspiration lest he should have to tell the Earl +that he had given it to Maud Lindesay, as indeed he meant to do +presently, along with the golden buckle of archery,--that is if the +dainty, mischievous-hearted maiden could be persuaded to accept +thereof. + +"Ah," said the Earl, smiling, "I comprehend. There is some maid in the +question, and if I advance you to the command of my house-guard and +give you an officer's responsibility, you will of a surety be ever +desiring to go gadding to the greenwood--and around the loch of +Carlinwark are most truly dangerous glades." + +"Nay, indeed nay," cried Sholto, eagerly. "If it is my lord's will to +appoint me to his guard, by Saint Bride and all the other saints I +swear never to leave the island, unless it be sometimes of a Sunday +afternoon for an hour or two--just to see my mother." + +"Your mother!" quoth the Earl, laughing heartily. "So then my two +golden hearts are in your mother's keeping. Art a good lad, Sholto, +and as for guile it is simply not in thee!" + +Sholto looked modestly down upon the earth, as if conscious of his own +exceeding merits, but willing for the nonce to say nothing about them. +But the young Earl came over to him, and dealing him a sound buffet on +the back, cried: "Nay, lad, that lamb-like look I have seen tried on +mine uncle the Abbot of Sweetheart. Thy brother Laurence is in the way +of clerkly advancement on account of that same sweetly innocent +regard, which he hath in even greater perfection. But I am a young +man, remember--and one youth flings not glamour easily into the eyes +of another. Sholto, neither you nor I are any better than we should +be, and if we are not so evil as some others, let us not set up as +overwhelmingly virtuous. For at twenty virtue is mostly but lack of +opportunity." + +Sholto blushed so becomingly at this accusation that if the Earl had +not seen the brothers locked in the death grip like crabs in a +fishwife's creel, even he might have been deceived. + +"Nevertheless," continued the Earl, "in spite of your claims to +virtue, I am resolved to make you officer of my castle-guard--if not +in name, at least in fact. For old Landless Jock of Abernethy must +keep the name while he lives, and stand first when my steward pays out +the chuckling golden Lions at Whitsun and eke Lady Day. But you shall +have enough and be no longer a charge upon your father. Malise should +be a proud man, having both his sons provided for in one day." + +The Earl turned him about with his usual quick imperiousness. +"Malise," he cried, "Malise MacKim!" + +And again the "word" ran through the castle, escaped the gate, +circumnavigated the moat, and ran round the circle of the tents till +the shouts of "Malise, Malise," could have been heard almost at the +deserted fords of Lochar, where sundry varlets were watching for a +chance to search the deserted pavilions for anything left behind +therein by the knights and squires. + +Presently there was seen ascending to the moat platform the huge form +of the master armourer himself. He stood waiting his master's +pleasure, with a knife which he had been sharpening in his hand. It +was a curious weapon, long, thin, and narrow in the blade, which was +double-edged and ground fine as a razor on both sides. + +"Ah, Malise," said the Earl, "you have not taught your son amiss. He +threatens to turn out a most marvellous lad, for not only can he make +weapons, but he can excel the best of my men-at-arms in their use. +Have you any objection that he be attached to my guard?" + +The strong man smiled with his usual calm, and kept his humorous grey +eyes fixed shrewdly on the Earl. + +"Aye," he said, "it is indeed more fitting that Sholto, my son, should +ride behind my Lord of Douglas than stiff old Malise upon his Flanders +mare." + +The Earl blushed a little, for he remembered how the armourer had +offered to ride behind him after he had shod Black Darnaway at the +Carlinwark. He went on somewhat hastily. + +"I have resolved to make your son, Sholto, officer of the +castle-guard. It is perhaps over-responsible a post for so young a +man, yet I myself am younger and have heavier burdens to bear. Also +Landless Jock is growing old and stiff, and will not suffer to be +spoken to. For my father's sake I cannot be severe with him. He will +die in his charge if he will, but on Douglasdale and not at Thrieve. +So now I would have your son do my bidding without question, which is +more than his father ever did before him." + +"I can answer for Sholto," said Malise MacKim. "He is afraid of +nothing save perhaps the strength of his father's right arm. He is +cool enough in danger. Nothing daunts him except the flutter of a +farthingale. But then my lord knows well that is a fault most +commendable in this castle of Thrieve. Sholto will be an honest +captain of your house-carls, if you see to it that the steward locks +up his loaves of sugar and his most toothsome preserves." + +"Faith," cried the Earl, heartily, "I know not but what I would join +Master Sholto in a raid on these dainties myself." + +In this fashion was Sholto MacKim placed in command of the house-guard +of the castle of Thrieve. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE NIGHT ALARM + + +At parting with his father, the young captain received many wise and +grave instructions, all of which he resolved to remember and profit +by--a resolution which he did not fail to keep for full five minutes. + +"Be douce in deportment," said his father, speaking quietly and yet +with a certain sternness of demeanour. "Think three times before you +give an order, but let no man think even once before obeying it. Set +him astraddle the wooden horse with a spear shaft at either foot to +teach him that a soldier's first duty is not to think. Keep your eyes +more on the alert for the approach of an enemy than for the ankles of +the women-folk at the turnings of the turret stairs." + +To these and many other maxims out of the incorporate wisdom of the +elders, Sholto promised most faithful attendance, and, for the time +being, he fully intended to keep his word. But no sooner was his +father gone, and he introduced to his new quarters and duties by David +Douglas, the Earl's younger brother, than he began to wonder which was +the window of Maud Lindesay's chamber and speculate on how soon he +would see her thereat. + +In the castle of Thrieve that night there was little sleeping room to +spare. The Earl and his brother lay wrapped in their plaids in one of +the round towers of the outer defences. In the castle hall the +retainers of the French ambassador slept side by side, or heads and +tails with the archers of the house-guard. Lights flickered on the +turnpike stair which led to the upper floors. The servitors had +cleared the great hall, and here on a dais, raised above the "marsh" +and sheltered by an arras curtain hastily arranged, James the Gross +slept on a soft French bed, which he had caused to be brought all the +way from his castle of Strathavon on the moors of Lanarkshire. + +In the Earl's chamber on the third floor was lodged the Marshal de +Retz. Next him ranged the apartment of the countess. Here also was the +Lady Sybilla at the end of the passage in the guest chamber which +looked to the north, and from the windows of which she could see the +broad river dividing itself about the castle island, and flowing as +calmly on as if the stern feudal pile had been a peaceful monastery +and the waving war banners no more than so many signs of holy cross. + +Above, in the low-roofed chambers, which gave upon the wooden balcony, +were the apartments of Maud Lindesay and her charge, little Margaret +Douglas, the Fair Maid of Galloway. + +Now the single postern stair of the castle was shut at the foot, where +it opened out upon the hall of the guard by a sparred iron gate, the +key of which was put into Sholto's charge. The night closed early upon +the castle-ful of wearied folk. The marshals of the camps caused the +lights to be put out at nine-of-the-clock in all the tents and +pavilions, but the lamps and candles burned longer in the castle +itself, where the Earl had been giving a banquet to his guests, of +the best that his estates could afford. Nevertheless, it was yet long +before midnight when the cheep of the mouse in the wainscot, the +restless stir or muffled snore of a crowded sleeper in the guardroom, +was the only sound to be heard from dungeon to banner-staff of the +great castle. + +Sholto's heart throbbed tumultuous and insurgent within him. And small +is the wonder. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined such a fate +as this, to be actual captain of the Earl's own body-guard, even +though neither title nor emolument was yet wholly his; better still, +that he should dwell night and day within arm's reach almost of the +desire of his heart, flinty-bosomed and mischievous as she was--these +were heights of good fortune to which his imagination had never +climbed in its most daring ascents. + +No longer did he envy his brother's good fortune, as he had been +somewhat inclined to do earlier in the day, when he thought of +returning to wield the forehammer all alone in his father's smithy. + +The first night of Captain Sholto's responsibility in the castle of +Thrieve was destined to be a memorable one. To the youth himself it +would have appeared so in any case. Only a panelled door divided him +from the girl who, wayward and scornful as she had ever been to him, +yet kept his heart dangling at her waist-belt as truly as if it had +been the golden key of her armoire. + +The ancient Sir John of Abernethy, dubbed Landless Jock, would not be +separated from his masters, and slept with two sergeants of the guard +in the turret adjacent to that in which the brothers of Douglas, +William and David, lay in the first sleep of youth and an easy mind. + +Sholto therefore found himself left with the undivided responsibility +for the safety of the castle and all who dwelt within it. He was also +the only man who, by reason of his charge and in virtue of his +master-key, was permitted to circulate freely through all the floors +and passages of the vast feudal pile. + +Sholto went out to the barred gate of the castle, where in a little +cubbyhole dark even at noonday, and black as Egypt now, the warder +slept with his hand upon his keys, and his head touching the lever of +the gear wherewith he drew the creaking portcullis up and rolled back +the iron doors which shut the keep off from the world of the wide +outer courtyard and the garrison which manned the turrets. + +The porter, Hugh MacCalmont, sat up on his elbow at Sholto's +salutation, only enough to see his visitor by the glint of the little +iron "cruisie" lamp hanging upon the wall. He knew him by the golden +chain of office which the Earl had given Sholto. + +"Captain of the guard," he muttered, "Lord, here's advancement indeed. +My lord might have remembered me that have served him faithfully these +thirty years, opening and shutting without mistake. He might have +named me captain of the guard, and not this limber Jack. But the young +love the young, and in truth 'tis natural. But what Landless Jock will +say when he comes to have this sprat set over him, I know not but I +can guess!" + +Satisfied that all was safe there, Sholto stepped gingerly over the +reclining forms of the first relief guard, who lay wrapped in their +cloaks, every man grasping his arms. Most of these were lying in the +dead sleep of tired men, whilst others restlessly moved about this +way and that, as if seeking an easier adaptation of their bones to the +corners of the blue whinstones and rough shell lime than had been +provided for when the castle was built by Archibald the Grim, Lord of +Thrieve and Galloway. + +Close by the last turn of the turret staircase yawned the iron-sparred +mouth of the dungeon, in which in its time many a notable prisoner had +been immured. It was closed with a huge grid of curved iron bars, each +as thick as a man's arm, cunningly held together by a gigantic +padlock, the key of which was nightly taken to the sleeping-room of +the Earl--whether, as was now the case, the cell stood empty, or +whether it contained an English lord waiting ransom or a rebellious +baron expectant of his morning summons to the dule tree of the Black +Douglas. + +Then taking the master-key from his belt, Sholto unlocked the sparred +gate leading from the _salle de garde_ into the turret stair which was +the sole communication with the upper floors of the castle. + +Slowly, and with a step no louder than the beating of his own heart, +he went upwards, glancing in midway upon the banquet hall, where the +dim light from the postern without revealed a number of dark forms +wrapped in slumber lying on the dining-table and on the floor; +ascending yet higher he came to the floor where slept the Countess of +Douglas, the Lady Sybilla, and in the Earl's own chamber the Marshal +de Retz, ambassador of the King of France. + +Sholto stood a moment with his hand raised in a listening attitude, +before he ventured to ascend those narrower stairs which led to the +uppermost floor of all, on which were the chambers occupied by the +little Maid Margaret and her companion and gossip Mistress Maud +Lindesay. + +He told himself that it was his duty to see to the safety of the whole +castle; that he had special instructions to visit three times, during +the course of each night of duty, all the passages and corridors of +the fortress. But nevertheless it needed all his courage to enable +Sholto to perform the task which had been laid upon him. As he dragged +one foot after the other up the turret stairs, it seemed as if a +leaden clog had been attached to each pointed shoe. + +He had also a vague sense of being watched by presences invisible to +him, but malign in their nature. Again and again he caught himself +listening for footsteps which seemed to dog his own. He heard +mysterious whisperings that flouted his utmost vigilance, and mocking +laughter that lurked in unseen crevices and broke out so soon as he +had passed. + +Sholto set his hand firmly upon his sword handle and bit his lips, +lest even to himself he should own his uneasiness. It was not seemly +that the captain of the Douglas guard should be frightened by shadows. + +Passing the corridor which led towards the sleeping rooms of the maid +and her companion, he ascended to the roof of the castle, thrusting +aside the turret door and issuing upon the wide, open spaces with an +assured step. The cool breeze from the west restored him to himself in +a moment. The waning moon cast a pale light across the landscape, and +he could see the tents on the castle island glimmer greyish white +beneath him. Beyond that again was the shining confluence of the +sluggish river about the isle, and the dark line of the woods of +Balmaghie opposite. He had begun to meditate on the rapid changes of +circumstance which had overtaken him, when suddenly a shrill and +piercing shriek rang out, coming up through the castle beneath, again +and again repeated. It was like the cry of a child in the grip of +instant and deadly terror. + +Sholto's heart gave a great bound. That something untoward should +happen on this the first night of his charge was too disastrous. He +drew his sword and set in his lips the silver call which depended from +the chain of office the Earl had thrown about his neck when he made +him captain of his guard. + +His feet hardly touched the stone stairs as he flew downwards, and +wings were added to his haste by the sounds of fear which continued to +increase. In another moment he was upon the last step of the turnpike +and at the entrance of the corridor which led to the rooms of the +little Lady Margaret and Maud Lindesay. + +As Sholto came rushing down the steep descent from the roof he caught +sight of a dark and shaggy beast running on all fours just turning out +of the corridor, and taking the first step of the descent towards the +floor beneath. Without pausing to consider, Sholto lunged forward with +all his might, and his sword struck the fugitive quadruped behind the +shoulder. He had time to see in the pale bluish flicker of the +_cruisie_ lamp that the beast he had wounded was of a dark colour, and +that its head seemed immensely too large for its body. + +Nevertheless, the thing did not fall, but ran on and vanished out of +Sholto's sight. The young man again set the silver call to his lips +and blew. The next moment he could hear the soldiers of the guard +clattering upward from their hall, and he himself ran along the +corridor towards the place whence the screams of terror seemed to +proceed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SHOLTO CAPTURES A PRISONER OF DISTINCTION + + +He found that the noise came from the chamber occupied by the little +Lady Margaret. When he arrived at the door it stood open to the wall. +The child was sitting up on her bed, clothed in the white garmentry of +the night. Bending over her, with her arms round the heaving shoulders +of the little girl, Sholto saw Maud Lindesay, clad in a dark, hooded +mantle thrown with the appearance of haste about her. The door of the +next chamber also stood wide, and from the coverlets cast on the floor +it was obvious that its occupant had left it hastily in order to fly +to her friend's assistance. + +At the sound of hasty footsteps Maud Lindesay turned about, and was +instantly stricken pale and astonished by the sight of the young man +with his sword bare. She cried aloud with a stern and defiant +countenance, "Sholto MacKim, what do you here?" + +And before he had time to answer, the little girl looked at him out of +her friend's arms and called out: "O Sholto, Sholto, I am so glad you +are come. I woke to find such a terrible thing looking at me out of +the night. It was shaped like a great wolf, but it was rough of hide, +and had upon it a head like a man's. I was so terrified that at first +I could not cry out. But when it came nearer, and gazed at me, then I +cried. Do not go away, Sholto. I am so glad, so glad that you are +here." + +Maud Lindesay had again turned towards Margaret. + +"Hush," she said soothingly, "it was a dream. You were frighted by a +vision, by a nightmare, by a succubus of the night. There is no beast +within the castle." + +"But I saw it plainly," the maid cried. "It opened the door as if it +had hands--I saw it stand there by the bed and look at me--oh, so +terribly! I saw its teeth glisten and heard them snap together!" + +"Little one, be still, it was but a dream," said Sholto, untruthfully; +"nevertheless I will go and search the rest of the castle." + +And with these words he went along the corridor, finding the men whom +he had summoned by means of his captain's silver call clustered upon +the landing of the turret stair which communicated with the third +floor. As he glanced along the oak-panelled corridor, it seemed to +Sholto that he discerned a figure vanishing at the further end. +Instantly he resolved on searching, and summoning his men to follow, +he led the way down the passage, sword in hand. As he went he snatched +the lamp from its pin on the wall, and held it in his left high above +his head. + +At the further end of the corridor was the door of a little chamber, +and it seemed to Sholto that the shape he had seen must have +disappeared at this point. + +He knocked loudly on the door with the hilt of his sword, and cried, +"If any be within, open--in the name of the Earl!" + +No voice replied, and Sholto boldly set his foot against the lower +panelling, and drove the door back to the wall with a clang. + +Then at sight of a something dark, wrapped in a cloak, standing +motionless against the window, the young captain of the guard elevated +his lamp, and let the flicker of the light fall on the erect figure +and haughty face of a young man, who, with his hand on his hip, stood +considering the rude advance of his pursuers with a calm and +questioning gaze. + +It was the Earl of Douglas himself. + +Sholto stood petrified at sight of him, and for a long minute could in +no wise recover his self-control nor regain any use of his tongue. + +"Well," said the Earl, haughtily, "whence this unseemly uproar? What +do you here, Sholto?" + +Then the spirit of his father came upon the young captain of the +guard. He knew that he had only done his duty in its strictness, and +he boldly answered the Earl: "Nay, my lord, were it not for courtesy, +I have more right to ask you that question. Your sister hath been +frighted, and at sound of her terror all we who were dispersed +throughout the castle rushed to the spot. As I came down the stairs +from the roof at speed, I saw something like to a great wolf about to +descend the turret before me. With my sword I struck at it, and to all +appearance wounded it. It vanished, and after searching the castle I +can find neither wolf nor dog. But I saw, as it seemed, a figure enter +this room, and upon opening it I find--the Earl of Douglas. That is +all I know, and I leave the matter in my lord's own hands." + +The haughty look gradually disappeared from the face of the Earl as +Sholto spoke. + +Smilingly he dismissed the guard with a word, saying that he would +inquire into the cause of the disturbance in person, and then turned +to Sholto. + +"You are right," he said, "you have entirely done your duty and +justified my appointment." + +He paused, looked this way and that along the corridor, and continued: + +"It chanced that in the tower without I could not sleep, and feeling +uneasy concerning my guests, I entered the castle by the private door +and staircase which leads into the apartment corresponding to this on +the floor beneath. I was assuring myself that you were doing your duty +when, being disturbed by the sudden hubbub, and judging it needless +that the men-at-arms should know of my presence in the castle, I came +in hither till the matter should have blown over. And so, but for your +good conscience and the keenness of your vision, the matter would have +ended." + +Sholto bowed coldly. + +"But, my lord," he said, ignoring the Earl's explanation, "the matter +grows more mysterious than ever. Your sister, the little Lady +Margaret, hath been grievously frighted by an appearance like a great +beast which (so she affirms) opened the door of her chamber and looked +within." + +"She but dreamed," said the Earl, carelessly; "such visions come from +supping late." + +"But, with all respect, your lordship," continued Sholto, "I also saw +the appearance even as I ran down the stairs from the roof at the +noise of her crying." + +"You were startled--excited, and but thought you saw." + +Sholto reversed his sword, which he had held with the point towards +the ground while he was speaking with his lord the Earl. + +Holding the blade midway with much deference, he presented the hilt to +William Douglas. + +"Will you examine the point of this sword?" he said. + +The Earl came a step nearer to him and Sholto advanced the steel till +it was immediately beneath the lamp. There was blood upon the last +inch or so of the blade. The Earl suddenly became violently agitated. + +"This is indeed passing strange. There is no hound within the castle +nor has there been for years. Even the presence of a lap-dog will fret +my mother, so in my father's time they were every one removed to the +kennels at the further end of the isle of Thrieve, whence even their +howling cannot be heard. But let us proceed to the Lady Margaret, and +on our way examine the place where you saw the apparition." + +Sholto stood aside for the Earl to pass, but with a wave of his hand +the latter said courteously, "Nay, but do you lead the way, captain of +the guard." + +They passed the door of the chamber where lay the Lady Sybilla. The +niece of the ambassador must have been a heavy sleeper, for there was +no sound within. Opposite was the chamber of the Earl's mother. She +also appeared to be undisturbed, but the increasing deafness of the +Countess offered a complete explanation of her tranquillity. + +Next the two young men came to the door of the marshal's chamber. As +they were about to pass, it opened silently, and a man-servant with a +closely cropped obsequious head appeared within. He unclosed the door +no further than would permit of his exit, and then he shut it again +behind him, and stood holding the latch in his hand. + +"His Excellency, being overfatigued, hath need of a little strong +spirit," he said, with a curious gobbling movement of his throat as if +he himself had been either thirsty or in deadly and overmastering +fear. + +The Earl ordered Sholto to wake the cellarer and bid him bring the +ambassador of France that which he required. He himself would go +onward to his sister's chamber. Sholto somewhat sullenly obeyed, for +his heart was hot and angry within him. He thought that he began to +see clearly the motive of the Earl's presence in the castle. The youth +was himself so deeply and hopelessly in love with Mistress Maud +Lindesay that he could not understand any other of his sex being +insensible to the charm of her beauty and myriad winsome graces. + +As he went down the stairs he recalled a thousand circumstances to +mind which now seemed capable of but one explanation. It was evident +that the Earl William came to visit some one by means of the private +staircase under cloud of night. Nay, more, Maud Lindesay and he might +be already privately married, and the matter kept secret on account of +the pride of his family, who devised another match for him. For though +the daughter of a knight, Maud Lindesay was assuredly no fit mate for +the head of the more than regal house of Douglas. He remembered how on +Sundays and saints' days Earl William always rode to and from the kirk +with his sister on one side and Maud Lindesay on the other. That the +young Earl was by no means insensible to beauty, Sholto knew well, +and he remembered his words to his own father, when he had asked to be +allowed to accompany him on his Flanders mare, that such attendance +was not seemly when a man was going a-courting. + +As is always the case, he grew more and more confirmed in his ill +humour, so soon as the eye of jealousy began to view everything in the +light of prepossession. + +Sholto awaked the cellarer out of his crib, who, presently, with +snorts of disdain and much jangling of steel keys, drew half a tankard +from a keg of spirit in the cellar on the dungeon floor and handed it +grudgingly to the captain of the guard. + +"The Frenchman wants it, does he?" he growled. "Had the messenger been +old Landless Jock, I had known down whose Scottish throat it had gone, +but this one is surely too young for such tricks. See that you spill +it not by the way, Master Sholto," he called out after him, as that +youth betook himself up to the chamber of the ambassador of France. + +At the shut portal he paused and knocked. His hand was on the pin to +enter with the tankard as was the custom. But the door opened no more +than an inch or two, and the dark face of the cropped servitor +appeared in the crevice. + +"In a moment, sir," he said, and again vanished within, while a strong +animal odour disengaged itself almost like something tangible from the +chinks of the doorway. + +Sholto stood in astonishment with the _eau de vie_ in his hand, till +presently the door was opened again very quickly. The form of the +servitor was seen, and with a swift edging motion he came out, drawing +the door behind him as before. He held a bar of iron in his hand like +the fastening of a window, and a little breath of heat told the +smith's son that though black it was still warm from the fire. + +"Take this iron," he said abruptly, "and bring it to me fully heated. +I am finishing a little device which his Excellency needs for the +combat of the morrow." + +The captain of the guard was nettled at the man's tone. Also he +desired much to know what his master was doing on the floor above. + +"Heat it at your own nose, fellow," he said rudely; "I am captain of +the castle-guard, and must attend to my own business. Take the spirit +out of my hand if you do not want it thrown in your face." + +The swarthy, bullet-headed man glared at him with eyes like burning +coals, but Sholto cared no jot for his anger. Forthwith he turned his +back upon him, glad at heart to have found some one to quarrel with, +and hoping that the ambassador's squire might prove courageous and +challenge him to fight on the morrow. + +But the man only replied: "I am Henriet, servant of the marshal. I bid +you remember that I shall make you live to regret these words." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE LAMP IS BLOWN OUT + + +The door of Margaret Douglas's chamber still stood open, and Sholto +found Earl William seated upon the foot of the bed, endeavouring by +every means in his power to distract his sister's attention from her +fears. Maud Lindesay, now more completely dressed than when he had +first seen her, sat on the other side of the little lady's couch. She +was laughing as he entered at some merry jest of the Earl's. And at +the sound of her tinkling mirth Sholto's heart sank within him. So +soon as she caught sight of the new captain of the guard the gladness +left her face, and she became grave and sober, like a gossip long +unconfessed when the holy father comes knocking at the door. + +At sight of her emotion Sholto resolved that if his fears should prove +to be well founded, he would resign his honourable office. For to +abide continually in the castle, and hourly observe Maud Lindesay's +love for another, was more than his philosophy could stand. + +In the meantime there was only his duty to be done. So he saluted the +Earl, and in a few words told him that which he had seen. But the soul +of William Douglas was utterly devoid of suspicion, both because he +held himself so great that none could touch him, and also because, +being high of spirit and open as the sky, he read into the acts of +others his own straightforwardness and unsuspicion. + +The Earl rose smilingly, declaring to Margaret that to-morrow he would +hang every dog and puppy in Galloway on the dule tree of Thrieve, +whereupon the child began to plead for the life of this cur and that +other of her personal acquaintances with a tearful earnestness which +told of a sorely jangled mind. + +"Well, at least," cried Earl Douglas, "I will not have such brutes +prowling about my castle of Thrieve even in my sister's dreams. +Captain Sholto, do you station a man of your guard in the angle of the +staircase where it looks along each corridor. Pick out your prettiest +cross-bowmen, for it were not seemly that my guests should be +disturbed by the rude shots and villanous reek of the fusil." + +Sholto bowed stiffly and waited the further pleasure of his master. +Then the two young men went out without Maud Lindesay having uttered a +word, or manifested the least surprise at the advancement which had +befallen the heir of the master armourer of Carlinwark. + +As soon as the door had closed upon the two maidens, the Earl turned a +face suddenly grave and earnest on his young captain of the guard. + +"What think you," he said, "was this appearance real?" + +"Real enough to leave these upon the floor," answered Sholto, pointing +to sundry gouts and drops of blood upon the turret stairs. + +The Earl took the lamp from his hand and earnestly scrutinised each +step in a downward direction. The spots ran irregularly as if the +wounded beast had shaken his head from side to side as he ran. They +turned along towards the corridor where at the first alarm Sholto had +found the Earl, and in the very midst of it abruptly stopped. While +Sholto and William Douglas were examining the floor, they both looked +over their shoulders, uneasily conscious of a regard upon them, as if +some one, unseen himself, had been looking down from behind. + +"Do you place your men as I told you," said the Earl, abruptly, "and +bring me a truckle bed out of the guardroom. I shall remain in this +closet till morning. But do you keep a special lookout on the floor +above, that the repose of my sister and her friend be not again +disturbed." + +Sholto bowed without speech, and hastening down to the guardroom he +commanded two of his best bowmen to follow him with their apparatus, +while he himself snatched up the low truckle couch which custom +assigned to the captain of the guard should he desire to rest himself +during the night, and on which Landless Jock had always passed the +majority of his hours of duty. This he carried to the Earl, and +placing it in the angle he saw his youthful master stretch himself +upon it, wrapped in his cloak and with a naked sword ready to his +hand. + +"A good and undisturbed slumber to you, my lord," said Sholto, curtly, +as he went out. + +He saw that his two men were duly posted upon the lower landing of the +stair, and then betook himself to the upper floor where slept the +little Maid of Galloway. + +He walked slowly to the end of the passage scrutinising every recess +and closet door, every garde-robe and wall press from which it was +possible that the beast he had seen might have emerged. He was wholly +unsuccessful in discovering anything suspicious, and had almost +resolved to station himself at the turn of the staircase which led +down from the roof, when, looking back, at the sharp click of a latch, +he saw Maud Lindesay coming out of the chamber of the little Maid of +Galloway. + +Softly closing the door behind her, she paused a moment as if +undecided, and then more with her chin than with her finger she +beckoned him to approach. + +"She sleeps," said the girl, softly, "but so uncertainly and with so +many startings of terror, that I will not leave her alone. Will you +aid me to remove the mattress of my couch and lay it on the floor +beside her?" + +Sholto signified his willingness. His mind was more than ever +oppressed by the thought that the Earl of Douglas loved this girl, +whom he had found listening to his jests with such frank joyousness. + +Maud stayed him with one of the long looks out from under her +eyelashes. The dark violet orbs rested upon him a moment reproachfully +with a hurt expression in their depths, and were then dropped with a +sigh. + +"You are still angry with me," she said, a little wistfully, "and I +wanted to tell you how happy it made me--made us, I mean--when we +heard that you were to be captain of the castle-guard instead of that +grumbling old curmudgeon, Jock of Abernethy." + +The heart of Sholto was instantly melted, more by her looks than by +her words, though deep within him he had still an angry feeling that +he was being played with. All the same, and in spite of his resolves, +the eyeshot from under those dark and sweeping lashes did its usual +and deadly work. + +"I did not know that aught which might befall me could be anything to +Mistress Maud Lindesay," said Sholto, with the last shreds of dignity +in his voice. + +"I said not to me, but to _us_," she corrected, smiling; "but tell me +what think you of this appearance which has so startled our Margaret. +Was it ghost or goblin or dream of the night? We have never had either +witch or warlock about the house of Thrieve since the old Abbot Gawain +laid the ghost of Archibald the Grim with four-and-forty masses, said +without ever breaking his fast, down there in the castle chapel." + +"Nay, ask me not," answered Sholto, "I am little skilled in matters +spiritual. I should try sword point and arrowhead on such gentry, and +if these do them no harm, why then I think they will not distress me +much." + +But all the same he said nothing to the girl about the red blood on +his sword or the splashed gouts on the steps of the staircase. + +He followed Maud Lindesay into her chamber, and being arrived there, +lifted couch and all in his arms, with an ease born of long +apprenticeship to the forehammer. The girl regarded him with +admiration which she was careful not to dissemble. + +"You are very strong," she said. Then, after a pause, she added, +"Margaret and I like strong men." + +The heart of the youth was glad within him, thus to be called a man, +even though he kept saying over and over to himself: "She means it +not! She means it not! She loves the Earl! I know well she loves the +Earl!" + +Maud Lindesay paused a moment before the chamber door of her little +charge, finger on lip, listening. + +"She sleeps--go quietly," she whispered, holding the door open for +him. He set down the bed where she showed him--by the side of the +small slumbering figure of the Maid of Galloway. + +Then he went softly to the door. The girl followed him. "You will not +be far away," she said doubtfully and with a perilous sort of +humility, "if this dreadful thing should come back again? I--that is +we, would feel safer if we knew that you--that any one strong and +brave was near at hand." + +Then the heart of Sholto broke out in quick anger. + +"Deceive me not," he cried, "I know well that the Earl loves you, and +that you love him in return." + +"Well, indeed, were it for my lord Earl if he loved as honest a +woman," said Maud Lindesay, pouting disdainfully. "But what is such a +matter, yea or nay, to you?" + +"It is all life and happiness to me," said Sholto, earnestly. "Ah, do +not go--stay a moment. I shall never sleep this night if you go +without giving me an answer." + +"Then," said the girl, "you will be the more in the line of your duty, +which allows not much sleep o' nights. You are but a silly, petulant +boy for all your fine captaincy. I wish it had been Landless Jock. He +would never have vexed me with foolish questions at such a time." + +"But I love you, and I demand an answer," cried Sholto, fuming. "Do +you love the Earl?" + +"What do you think yourself now?" she said, looking up at him with an +inimitable slyness, and pronouncing her words so as to imitate the +broad simplicity of countryside speech. + +Sholto vented a short gasp or inarticulate snort of anger, at which +Maud Lindesay started back with affected terror. + +"Do not fright a poor maid," she said. "Will you put me in the castle +dungeon if I do not answer? Tell me exactly what you want me to say, +and I will say it, most mighty captain." + +And she made him the prettiest little courtesy, turning at the same +time her eyes in mock humility on the ground. + +"Oh, Maud Lindesay," said Sholto, with a little conflicting sob in his +throat, ill becoming so noted a warrior as the captain of the +castle-guard of the Black Douglas, "if you knew how I loved you, you +would not treat me thus." + +The girl came nearer to him and laid a white and gentle hand on the +sleeve of his blue archer's coat. + +"Nay, lad," she said more soberly, lifting a finger to his face, +"surely you are no milksop to mind how a girl flouts you. Love the +Earl--say you? Well, is it not our duty to the bread we eat? Is he not +worthy? Is he not the head of our house?" + +"Cheat me not with words. The Earl loves you," said Sholto, lifting +his head haughtily out of her reach. (To have one's chin pushed this +way and that by a girl's forefinger, and as it were considered +critically from various points of view, may be pleasant, but it +interferes most seriously with dignity.) + +"He may, indeed," drolled the minx, "one can never tell. But he has +never said so. He is perhaps afraid, being born without the +self-conceit of some people--archers of the guard, fledgling captains, +and such-like gentrice." + +"Do you love him?" reiterated Sholto, determinedly. + +"I will tell you for that gold buckle," said Maud, calmly pointing +with her finger. + +Instantly Sholto pulled the cap from his head, undid the pin of the +archery prize, and thrust it into his wicked sweetheart's hands. + +She received it with a little cry of joy, then she pressed it to her +lips. Sholto, rejoicing at heart, moved a step nearer to her. But, in +spite of her arch delight, she was on the alert, for she retreated +deftly and featly within the chamber door of the Fair Maid of +Galloway. There was still more mirthful wickedness in her eyes. + +"Love the Earl?--Of course I do. Indeed, I doat upon him," she said. +"How I shall love this buckle, just because his hand gave it to you!" + +And with that she shut to the door. + +Sholto, in act to advance, stood a moment poised on one foot like a +goose. Then with a heart blazing with anger, and one of the first +oaths that had ever passed his lips, he turned on his heel and strode +away. + +"I will never think of her again--I will never see her. I will go to +France and perish in battle. I will throw me in the castle pool. I +will--" + +So the poor lad retreated, muttering hot and angry words, all his +heart sore within him because of the cruelty of this girl. + +But he had not proceeded twenty steps along the corridor, when he +heard the door softly open and a low voice whispered, "Sholto! Sholto! +I want you, Sholto!" + +He bent his brows and strode manfully on as if he had not heard a +word. + +"Sholto!--dear Sholto! Do not go, I need you." + +Against his will he turned, and, seeing the head of Maud Lindesay, her +pouting lips and beckoning finger, he went sulkily back. + +"Well?" he said, with the stern curtness of a military commander, as +he stood before her. + +She held the iron lamp in her hand. The wick had fallen aside and was +now wasting itself in a broad, unequal yellow flame. The maid of +honour looked at it in perplexity, knitting her pretty brows in a mock +frown. + +"It burned me as I was ordering my hair," she said. "I cannot blow it +out. I dare not. Will you--will you blow it out for me, Captain +Sholto?" + +She spoke with a sweet childlike humility. + +And she held the lamp up so that the iron handle was almost touching +her soft cheek. There was a dancing challenge in her dark eyes and her +lips smiled dangerously red. She could not, of course, have known that +the light made her look so beautiful, or she would have been more +careful. + +Sholto stood still a moment, at wrestle with himself, trying to +conquer his dignity, and to retain his attitude of stern disapproval. + +But the girl swept her lashes up towards him, dropped them again dark +as night upon her cheek, and anon looked a second time at him. + +"I am sorry," she said, more than ever like a child. "Forgive me, +and--the lamp is so hot." + +Now Sholto was young and inexperienced, but he was not quite a fool. +He stooped and blew out the light, and the next moment his lips rested +upon other lips which, as it had been unconsciously, resigned their +soft sweetness to his will. + +Then the door closed, and he heard the click of the lock as the bolts +were shot from within. The gallery ran round and round about him like +a clacking wheel. His heart beat tumultuously, and there was a strange +humming sound in his ears. + +The captain of the guard stumbled half distracted down the turret +stair. + +The old world had been destroyed in a moment and he was walking in a +new, where perpetual roses bloomed and the spring birds sang for +evermore. He knew not, this poor foolish Sholto, that he had much to +learn ere he should know all the tricks and stratagems of this most +naughty and prettily disdainful minx, Mistress Maud Lindesay. + +But for that night at least he thought he knew her heart and soul, +which made him just as happy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE MORNING LIGHT + + +In the morning Sholto MacKim had other views of it. Even when at last +he was relieved from duty he never closed an eye. The blowing out of +the lamp had turned his ideas and hopes all topsy-turvy. His heart +sang loud and turbulent within him. He had kissed other girls indeed +before at kirns and country dances. He laughed triumphantly within him +at the difference. They had run into corners and screamed and +struggled, and held up ineffectual hands. And when his lips did reach +their goal, it was generally upon the bridge of a nose or a tip of an +ear. He could not remember any especial pleasure accompanying the +rite. + +But this! The bolt of an arbalast could not have given him a more +instant or tremendous shock. His nerves still quivered responsive to +the tremulous yielding of the lips he had touched for a moment in the +dark of the doorway. He felt that never could he be the same man he +had been before. Deep in his heart he laughed at the thought. + +And then again, with a quick revulsion, the return wave came upon him. +"How, if she be as untouched as her beauty is fresh, has she learned +that skill in caressing?" + +He paused to think the matter over. + +"I remember my father saying that a wise man should always mistrust a +girl who kisses overwell." + +Then again his better self would reassert itself. + +"No," he would argue, tramping up and down the corridor, wheeling in +the short bounds of the turnpike head, and again returning upon his +own footsteps, "why should I belie her? She is as pure as the +air--only, of course, she is different to all others. She speaks +differently; her eyes are different, her hair, her hands--why should +she not be different also in this?" + +But when Maud Lindesay met Sholto in the morning, coming suddenly upon +him as he stood, with a pale face and dark rings of sleeplessness +about his eyes, as he looked meditatively out upon the broad river and +the blue smoke of the morning campfires, there was yet another +difference to be revealed to him. He had expected that, like others, +she would be confused and bashful meeting him thus in the daylight, +after--well, after the volcanic extinguishing of the lamp. + +But there she stood, dainty and calm under the morning sunshine, in +fresh clean gown of lace and varied whiteness, her face grave as a +benediction, her eyes deep and cool like the water of the castle well. + +Sholto started violently at sight of her, recovered himself, and +eagerly held out both his hands. + +"Maud," he said hoarsely, and then again, in a lower tone, "sweetest +Maud." + +But pretty Mistress Lindesay only gazed at him with a certain reserved +and grave surprise, looking him straight in the face and completely +ignoring his outstretched hands. + +"Captain Sholto," she said steadily and calmly, "the Lady Margaret +desires to see you and to thank you for your last night's care and +watchfulness. Will you do me the honour to follow me to her chamber?" + +There was no yielding softness about this maiden of the morning hours, +no conscious droop and a swift uplifting of penitent eyelids, no +lingering glances out of love-weighted eyes. A brisk and practical +little lady rather, her feet pattering most purposefully along the +flagged passages and skipping faster than even Sholto could follow +her. But at the top of the second stairs he was overquick for her. By +taking the narrow edges of the steps he reached the landing level with +his mistress. + +His desire was to put out his hand to circle her lithe waist, for +nothing is so certainly reproductive of its own species as a first +kiss. But he had reckoned without the lady's mutual intent and favour, +which in matters of this kind are proverbially important. Mistress +Maud eluded him, without appearing to do so, and stood farther off, +safely poised for flight, looking down at him with cold, reproachful +eyes. + +"Maud Lindesay, have you forgotten last night and the lamp?" he asked +indignantly. + +"What may you mean, Captain Sholto?" she said, with wonderment in her +tone, "Margaret and I never use lamps. Candles are so much safer, +especially at night." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +LA JOYEUSE BAITS HER HOOK + + +On the morrow, the ambassador of France being confined to his room +with a slight quinsy caught from the marshy nature of the environment +of Thrieve, the Earl escorted the Lady Sybilla to the field of the +tourney, where, as Queen of Beauty, her presence could not be +dispensed with. + +The Maid Margaret, the Earl's sister, remained also in the castle, not +having yet recovered from her fright of the preceding evening. + +With her was Maud Lindesay and her mother--"the Auld Leddy," as she +was called throughout all the wide dominions of her son. + +In spite of his weariness Sholto led his archer guard in person to the +field of the tournament. For this day was the day of the High Sport, +and many lances would be splintered, and often would the commonalty +need to be scourged from the barriers. + +But ere he went Sholto summoned two of the staunchest fellows of his +company, Andro, called the Penman, and his brother John. Then, having +posted them at either end of the corridor in which were the chambers +occupied by the two girls, he laid a straight charge, and a heavy, +upon them. + +"On your heads be it if you fail, or let one soul pass," he said. +"Stand ready with your hands on the wheel of your cross-bows, and if +any man come hither, challenge him to stand, and bid him return the +way he came. But if any dog or thing running on four feet ascend or +descend the stair, make no sound, ask no question, cry no warning, but +whang the steel bolt through his ribs, in at one side and out at the +other." + +Then Andro the Penman and his brother John, being silent capable +fellows, said nothing, but spat on their hands, smiled at each other +well pleased, and made the wheels of their cross-bows sing a clear +whirring note. + +"I would not like to be that dog--" said Andro the Swarthy. + +"Whose foul carcase I pray God to send speedily," echoed John the +Blond. + +Sholto had hoped that whilst he was at the guard-setting, he might +have had occasion to see once more the tantalising mischief-maker whom +he yet loved with all his heart, in spite of, or perhaps because of, +the distraction to which she continually reduced his spirit by means +of her manifold and incalculable contrarieties. + +Nevertheless, it was with an easier heart that Sholto wended his way +out of the castle yett, all arrayed in the new suit of armour his lord +had sent him. It was made of chain of the finest, composed of many +rings set alternately thick and thin, and the whole was flexible as +the deer leather which he wore underneath it. Over this a doublet of +blue silk carried the Lion of Galloway done in white upon it, and all +the cerulean of the ground was dotted over with the Douglas heart. +But, greatest joy of all, there was brought to him by command of the +Earl a suitable horse, not heavily armed like a charger for the tilt, +but light of foot, and answering easily to the hand. Blue and red were +the silken housings, fringed with long silver lace, through which +could be seen here and there as the wind blew the sheen of the glossy +skin. The buckles and bits were also of massive silver, and at sight +of them the cup of Sholto's happiness was full. For a space, as he +gazed upon his steed, he forgot even Maud Lindesay. + +Then when he was mounted and out upon the green, waiting for the +coming forth of his lord, what delight it was to feel the noble dark +grey answer to each touch of the rein, obeying his master's thought +more than the strength of his wrist or the prick of his heel. + +As he waited there, his predecessor in office, old Sir John of +Abernethy, Landless Jock as he was nicknamed, came out from the main +doorway. He carried a gleaming headpiece from which the blue feather +of the Douglas fell over his arm half-way to the ground. On its front +was a lion crest which ramped among golden _fleur-de-lys_. The old man +held it up for Sholto to take. + +"Hae," he said in a surly tone, "this is his lordship's new helmet +just brought as a present frae the Dauphin of France. So he has cast +off the well-tried one, and with it also the auld servant that hath +served him these many years." + +"Nay, Sir John," said Sholto, with courtesy, taking the helmet which +it was his duty as his master's esquire to carry before him on a +velvet-covered placque, "nay--well has the good servant deserved his +rest, and to take his ease. The young to the broil and the moil, the +old to the inglenook and the cup of wine beneath the shade." + +"Ah, lad, I envy ye not, think not that of puir Landless Jock," said +the mollified old man, sadly shaking his head; "I also have tried the +new office, the shining armour, and felt the words of command rise +proudly in the throat. I envy you not, though your advancement hath +been sudden--and well--for my own son John I had hoped, though indeed +the loon is paper backed and feckless. But now there remains for me +only to go to the Kirk of Saint Bride in Douglasdale, and there set me +down by my auld master's coffin till I die." + +At that moment there issued forth from the gateway the young Earl, +holding by the hand the Lady Sybilla. His mother, the Countess, came +to the door to see them ride away. The Queen of the Sports was in a +merry mood, and as she tripped down the steps she turned, and looking +over her shoulder she called to the Lady Douglas, "Fear not for your +son, I will take good care of him!" + +But the elder woman answered neither her smile nor yet her word, but +stood like a mother who sees a first-born son treading in places +perilous, yet dares not warn him, knowing well that she would drive +him to giddier and yet more dangerous heights. + +The pennons of the escort fluttered in the breeze as the men on +horseback tossed their lances high in the air, in salutation of their +lord. The archer guard stood ranked and ready, bows on their shoulders +and arrows in quiver. Horses neighed, armour clanked and sparkled, and +from the moat platform twenty silver trumpets blared a fanfare as the +Lady Sybilla, the arbiter of this day's chivalry, mounted her palfrey +with the help of Earl Douglas. She thanked him with a low word in his +ear, audible only to himself, as he set her in the saddle and bent to +kiss her hand. + +A right gallant pair were Douglas and Sybilla de Thouars as they rode +away, their heads close together, over the green sward and under the +tossing banners of the bridge. Sholto was behind them giving great +heed to the managing of his horse, and wondering in his heart if +indeed Maud Lindesay were looking down from her chamber window. As +they passed the drawbridge he turned him about in his saddle, as it +were, to see that his men rode all in good order. A little jet of +white fluttered quickly from the sparred wooden gallery which clung to +the grey walls of Thrieve, just outside the highest story. And the +young man's heart told him that this was the atonement of Mistress +Maud Lindesay. + +Earl Douglas was in his gayest humour on this second day of the great +tourneying. He had got rid of his most troublesome guests. His uncle +James of Avondale, his red cousin of Angus, the grave ill-assorted +figure of the Abbot of Dulce Cor, had all vanished. Only the young and +chivalrous remained,--his cousins, William and James, Hugh and +Archibald, good lances all and excellent fellows to boot. It was also +a most noble chance that the French ambassador was confined by the +quinsy, for it was certainly pleasant to ride out alone with that +beauteous head glancing so near his shoulder, to watch at will the sun +crimsoning yet more the red lips, sparkling in the eyes that were +bright as sunshine slanting through green leaves on a water-break, and +to mark as he fell a pace behind how every hair of that luxuriant coif +rippled golden and separate, like a halo of Florentine work about the +head of a saint. + +The Lady Sybilla de Thouars was merry also, but with what a different +mirth to that of Mistress Maud Lindesay--at least so thought Captain +Sholto MacKim, with a conscious glow of pride in his own Scottish +sweetheart. + +True, Sholto was scarce a fair judge in that he loved one and did not +love the other. He owned to himself in a moment of unusual candour +that there might be something in that. But when the gay tones of the +lady's laughter floated back on the air, as his master and she rode +forward by the edge of Dee towards the Lochar Fords, the first fear +with which he had looked upon her in the greenwood returned upon the +captain of the guard. + +Earl William and the Lady Sybilla talked together that which no one +else could hear. + +"So after all you have not become a churchman and gone off to drone +masses with the monks of your good uncle?" she said, looking up at him +with one of her lingering, drawing glances. + +"Nay," Earl William answered; "surely one Douglas at the time is gift +enough to holy church. At least, I can choose my own way in that, +though in most things I am as straitly constrained as the King +himself." + +"Speaking of the King," she said, "my uncle the Marshal must perforce +ride to Edinburgh to deliver his credentials. Would it not be a most +mirthful jest to ride with equipage such as this to that mongrel +poverty-stricken Court, and let the poor little King and his starved +guardian see what true greatness and splendour mean?" + +"I have sworn never again to enter Edinburgh town," said the Earl, +slowly; "it was prophesied that there one of my race must meet a +black bull which shall trample the house of Douglas into ruins." + +"Of course, if the Earl of Douglas is afraid--" mused the lady. The +young man started as if he had been stung. + +"Madame," he said with a sudden chill hauteur, "you come from far and +do not know. No Douglas has ever been afraid throughout all their +generations." + +The lady turned upon him with a sweet and moving smile. She held out +her fair hand. + +"Pardon--nay, a thousand pardons. I knew not what I said. I am not +acquainted with your Scottish speech nor yet with your Scottish +customs. Do not be angry with me; I am a stranger, young, far from my +own people and my own land. Think me foolish for speaking thus freely +if you like, but not wilfully unkind." + +And when the Earl looked at her, there were tears glittering in her +beautiful eyes. + +"I _will_ go to Edinburgh," he cried. "I am the Douglas. The Tutor and +the Chancellor are but as two straws in my hand, a longer and a +shorter. I fling them from me--thus!" + +The Lady Sybilla clapped her hands joyously and turned towards the +young man. "Will you indeed go with me?" she cried. "Will you truly? I +could kiss your hand, my Lord Douglas, you make me so glad." + +"Your kiss will keep," said the Earl, with a quiet passion quivering +in his voice. + +"Nay, I meant it not thus--not as you mean it. I knew not what I said. +But it will indeed change all things for me if you do but come. Then I +shall have some one to speak with--some one with whom to laugh at +their pitiful Court mummery, their fiasco of dignity. You are not like +these other beggarly Scots, my Lord Duke of Touraine." + +"They are brave men and loyal gentlemen," said the generous young +Earl. "They would die for me." + +"Nay, but so I declare would I," gaily cried the lady, glancing at his +handsome head with a quick admiring regard. "So would I--if I were a +man. Besides, there is so little worth living for in a country such as +this." + +The Earl was silent and she proceeded. + +"But how joyous we shall be at Edinburgh! Know you that at the Court +of Charles that was my name--La Joyeuse they called me. We will keep +solemn countenances, you and I, while we enter the presence of the +King. We will bow. We will make obeisances. Then, when all is over, we +will laugh together at the fatted calf of a Tutor, the cunning +Chancellor with his quirks of law, and the poor schoolboy scarce +breeched whom they call King of Scotland. But all the while I shall be +thinking of the true King of Scots--who alone shall ever be King to +me--" + +At this point La Joyeuse broke off short, as if her feelings were +hurrying her to say more than she had intended. + +"I did wrong to flout their messengers yesterday," said William +Douglas, his boyish heart misgiving him at dispraise of others; +"perhaps they meant me well. But I am naturally quick and easily +fretted, and the men annoyed me with their parchments royal, their +heralds-of-the-Lion, and the 'King of Scots' at every other word." + +"Who is the youth who rides at the head of your company?" said the +Lady Sybilla. + +"His name is Sholto MacKim, and it was but yesterday that I made him +captain of my guard," answered the Earl. + +"I like him not," said the Lady Sybilla; "he is full of ignorance and +obstinacy and pride. Besides which, I am sure he loves me not." + +"Save that last, I am not sure that a Douglas has a right to dislike +him for any such faults. Ignorance, obstinacy, and pride are, indeed, +good old Galloway virtues of the ancientest descent, and not to be +despised in the captain of an archer guard." + +"And pray, sir, what may be the ill qualities which, in Captain +Sholto, make up for these excellent Scottish virtues?" asked the lady, +disdainfully. + +"He is faithful--" began the Earl. + +"So is every dog!" interjected Sybilla de Thouars. + +The Earl laughed a little gay laugh. + +"There is one dog somewhere about the castle, licking an unhealed +sword-thrust, that wishes our Sholto had been a trifle less faithful." + +The Lady Sybilla sat silent in her saddle for a space; then, striking +abruptly into a new subject, she said, "Do you defend the lists +to-day?" + +"Nay," answered the Earl, "to-day it is my good fortune to sit by your +side and hold the truncheon while others meet in the shock. But the +knight who this day gains the prize, to-morrow must choose a side +against me and fight a _męlée_." + +"Ah," cried the girl, "I would that my uncle were healed of his +quinsy. He loveth that sport. He says that he is too old to defend +his shield all day against every comer, but in the _męlée_ he is still +as good a lance as when he rode by the side of the Maid over the +bridge of Orleans." + +"That is well thought of," cried the Earl; "he shall lead the Knights +of the Blue in my place." + +"Nay, my Lord Duke," cried the Lady Sybilla, "more than anything on +earth I desire to see you bear arms on the field of honour." + +"Oh, I am no great lance," replied the Douglas, modestly; "I am yet +too young and light. As things go now, the butterfly cannot tilt +against the beef barrel when both are trussed into armour. But with +the bare sword I will fight all day and be hungry for more. Aye, or +rattle a merry rally with the quarter-staff like any common varlet. +But at both Sholto there is my master, and doth ofttimes swinge me +tightly for my soul's good." + +The lady went on quickly, as if avoiding any further mention of +Sholto's name. + +"Nevertheless, to-morrow I must see you ride in the lists. My uncle +says that your father was a mighty lance when he rode at Amboise, on +the famous day of the Thirteen Victories." + +"Ah, but my father was twice the man that I am," said the Earl, who +had not taken his eyes from her face since she began to speak. + +"Great alike in love and war?" she queried, smiling. + +"So, at least, it is reported of him in Touraine," answered his son, +smiling back at her. + +"He loved and rode away, like all your race!" cried the girl, with a +strange sudden flicker of passion which died as suddenly. "But I think +it not of you, Lord William. I know you could be true--that is, where +you truly loved." + +And as she spoke she looked at him with a questioning eagerness in her +eyes which was almost pitiful. + +"I do love and I am loyal," said the young man, with a grave quiet +which became him well, and ought to have served him better with a +woman than many protestations. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ANDRO THE PENMAN GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STEWARDSHIP + + +In the fighting of that day James Douglas, the second son of the fat +Earl of Avondale, won the prize, worsting his elder brother William in +the final encounter. The victor was a nobly formed youth, of strength +and stature greater than those of his brother, but without William of +Avondale's haughty spirit and stern self-discipline. + +For James Douglas had the easy popular virtues which would drink with +any drawer or pricker at a tavern board, and made him ready to clap +his last gold Lion on the platter to pay for the draught--telling, as +like as not, the good gossip of the inn to keep the change, and (if +well favoured) give him a kiss therefor. The Douglas _cortčge_ rode +home amid the shoutings of the holiday makers who thronged all the +approaches to the ford in order to see the great nobles and their +trains ride by, and Sholto and his men had much trouble to keep these +spectators as far back as was decent and seemly. + +The Earl summoned his victorious cousins, William and James, to ride +with him and the tourney's Queen of Beauty. But William proved even +more silent than usual, and his dark face and upright carriage caused +him to sit his charger as if carved in iron. Jolly James, on the other +hand, attempted a jest or two which savoured rustically enough. +Nevertheless, he received the compliments of the Lady Sybilla on his +courage and address with the equanimity of a practised soldier. He was +already, indeed, the best knight in Scotland, even as he was twelve +years after when in the lists of Stirling he fought with the famous +Messire Lalain, the Burgundian champion. + +Earl William dropped behind to speak a moment with Sholto, and to give +him the orders which he was to convey to the provost of the games with +regard to the encounter of the morrow. + +La Joyeuse took the opportunity of addressing her nearer and more +silent companion. + +"You are, I think, the head of the other Douglas House," said the Lady +Sybilla, glancing up at the stern and unbending Master of Avondale. + +"There is but one house of Douglas, and but one head thereof," replied +Lord William, with a certain severity, and without looking at her. The +lady had the grace to blush, either with shame or with annoyance at +the rebuff. + +"Pardon," she said, "you must remember that I am a foreigner. I do not +understand your genealogies. I thought that even in France I had heard +of the Black Douglas and the Red." + +"The Red and the Black alike are the liegemen of William of Douglas, +whom Angus and Avondale both have the honour of serving," answered he, +still more uncompromisingly. + +"Aye," cried the jovial James, "cousin Will is the only chief, and +will make a rare lance when he hath eaten a score or two more bolls of +meal." + +The Earl William returned even as James was speaking. + +"What is that I hear about bolls of meal?" he said; "what wots this +fair damosel of our rude Scots measures for oats and bear? You talk +like the holder of a twenty-shilling land, James." + +"I was saying," answered James Douglas, "that you would be a proper +man of your lance when you had laid a score or two bolls of good +Galloway meal to your ribs. English beef and beer are excellent, and +drive a lance home into an unarmed foe; but it needs good Scots oats +at the back of the spear-haft to make the sparks fly when knight meets +with knight and iron rings on iron." + +"Indeed, cousin Jamie," said the Earl, "you have some right to your +porridge, for this day you have overturned well nigh a score of good +knights and come off unhurt and unashamed. Cousin William, how liked +you the whammel you got from James' lance in your final course?" + +"Not that ill," said the silent Master; "I am indeed better at taking +than at giving. James is a stouter lance than I shall ever be--" + +"Not so," cried jolly James. "Our Will never doth himself justice. He +is for ever reading Deyrolles and John Froissard in order to learn new +ways and tricks of fence, which he practises on the tilting ground, +instead of riding with a tight knee and the weight of his body behind +the shaft of ash. That is what drives the tree home, and so he gets +many a coup. Yet to fall, and to be up and at it again, is by far the +truer courage." + +The Lady Sybilla laughed, as it seemed, heartily, yet with some little +bitterness in the sound of it. + +"I declare you Douglases stick together like crabs in a basket. +Cousins in France do not often love each other so well. You are +fortunate in your relations, my Lord Duke." + +"Indeed, and that I am," cried the young man, joyously. "Here be my +cousins, William and James--Will ever ready to read me out of wise +books and advise me better than any clerk, Jamie aching to drive lance +through any man's midriff in my quarrel." + +"Lord, I would that I had the chance!" cried James. "Saint Bride! but +I would make a hole clean through him and out at the back, though my +elbuck should dinnle for a week after." + +So talking together, but with the lady riding more silent and somewhat +constrainedly in their midst, the three cousins of Douglas passed the +drawbridge and came again to the precincts of the noble towers of +Thrieve. + + * * * * * + +In an hour Sholto followed them, having ridden fast and furious across +the long broomy braes of Boreland, and wet the fringes of his +charger's silken coverture by vaingloriously swimming the Dee at the +castle pool instead of going round by the fords. This he did in the +hope that Maud Lindesay might see him. And so she did; for as he came +round by the outside of the moat, making his horse caracole and +thinking no little of himself, he heard a voice from an upper window +call out: "Sholto MacKim, Maudie says that you look like a draggled +crow. No, I will not be silent." + +Then the words were shut off as if a hand had been set over the mouth +which spoke. But presently the voice out of the unseen came again: +"And I hate you, Sholto MacKim. For we have had to keep in our chamber +this livelong day, because of the two men you have placed over us, as +if we had been prisoners in Black Archibald.[1] This very day I am +going to ask my brother to hang Black Andro and John his brother on +the dule tree of Carlinwark." + +[Footnote 1: The pet name of the deepest dungeon of Castle Thrieve, +yet extant and plain to be seen by all.] + +"Yes, indeed, and most properly," cried another voice, which made his +very heart flutter, "and set his new captain of the guard a-dangle in +the midst, decked out from head to foot in peacocks' feathers." + +Sholto was very angry, for like a boy he took not chaffing lightly, +and had neither the harshness of hide which can endure the rasping of +a woman's tongue, nor the quickness of speech to give her the counter +retort. + +So he cast the reins of his horse to a stable varlet and stamped +indoors, carrying his master's helmet to the armoury. Then still +without speech to any he brushed hastily up the stairs towards the +upper floor, which he had set Andro the Penman and his brother to +guard. + +At the turning of the staircase David Douglas, the Earl's brother, +stopped him. Sholto moved in salute and would have passed by. + +But David detained him with an impetuous hand. + +"What is this?" he said; "you have set two archers on the stairs who +have shot and almost killed the ambassador's two servants, Poitou the +man-at-arms, and Henriet the clerk, just because they wished to take +the air upon the roof. Nay, even when I would have visited my sister, +I was not permitted--'None passes here save the Earl himself, till +our captain takes his orders off us!' That was the word they spoke. +Was ever the like done in the castle of Thrieve to a Master of Douglas +before?" + +"I am sorry, my Lord David," said Sholto, respectfully, "but there +were matters within the knowledge of the Earl which caused him to lay +this heavy charge upon me." + +"Well," said the lad, quickly relenting, "let us go and see Margaret +now. She must have been lonely all this fair day of summer." + +But Sholto smiled, well pleased, thinking of Maud Lindesay. + +"I would that I had a lifetime of such loneliness as Margaret's hath +been this day," he said to himself. + +At the turning of the stair they were stayed, for there, his foot +advanced, his bow ready to deliver its steel bolt at the clicking of a +trigger, stood Andro the Swarthy. + +From his stance he commanded the stair and could see along the +corridor as well. + +David Douglas caught his elbow on something which stood a few inches +out of the oaken panelling of the turnpike wall. He tried to pull it +out. It was the steel quarrel of a cross-bow wedged firmly into the +wood and masonry. He cried: "Whence came this? Have you been murdering +any other honest men?" + +The archer stood silent, glancing this way and that like a sentinel on +duty. The two young men went on up the stair. + +As their feet were approaching the sixth step, a sudden word came from +the Penman like a bolt from his bow. + +"Halt!" he cried, and they heard the _gur-r-r-r_ of his steel ratchet. + +Sholto smiled, for he knew the nature of the man. + +"It is I, your captain," he said. "You have done your duty well, Andro +the Penman. Now get down to your dinner. But first give an account of +your adventures." + +"Do you relieve us from our charge?" said the archer, with his bow +still at the ready. + +"Certainly," quoth Sholto. + +"Come, Jock, we are eased," cried Andro the Swarthy up the stair, and +he slid the steel bolt out of its grip with a little click; "faith, my +belly is toom as a last year's beef barrel." + +"Did any come hither to vex you?" asked Sholto. + +"Not to speak of," said the archer; "there were, indeed, two varlets +of the Frenchmen, and as they would not take a bidding to stand, I had +perforce to send a quarrel buzzing past their lugs into the wall. You +can see it there behind you." + +"Rascal," cried David Douglas, indignantly, "you do not say that first +of all you shot it through the arm of the poor clerk Henriet." + +"It is like enough," said Andro, coolly, "if his arm were in the way." + +Then came a voice down the stairs from above. + +"And the wretches would neither let any come to visit us nor yet +permit us to go into the hall that we might speak with our gossips." + +"How should we be responsible with our lives for the lasses if we had +let them gad about?" said Andro, preparing to salute and take himself +off. + +At this moment the little maid and her elder companion came forward +meekly and kneeled down before Sholto. + +"We are your humble prisoners," said Maud Lindesay, "and we know that +our offences against your highness are most heinous; but why should +you starve us to death? Burn us or hang us,--we will bear the extreme +penalty of the law gladly,--but torture is not for women. For dear +pity's sake, a bite of bread. We have had nothing to eat all day, +except two lace kerchiefs and a neck riband." + +"Lord of Heaven," cried Sholto, swinging on his heel and darting down +towards the kitchen, "what a fool unutterable I am!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BAILIES OF DUMFRIES + + +The combat of the third day was, by the will of the Earl, to be of a +peculiar kind. It was the custom at that time for the _męlée_ to be +fought between an equal number of knights in open lists, each being at +liberty to carry assistance to his friends as soon as he had disposed +of his own man. On this occasion, however, the fight was to be between +three knights with their several squires on the one side, and an equal +number of knights and squires on the other. + +As the combat of the previous day had decided, young James Douglas of +Avondale was to lead one party, being the successful tilter of the day +of single combat, while the Earl himself was to head the other. + +The chances of battle must be borne, and whatever happened in the +shock of fight was to be endured without complaint. But no blow was to +be struck at either knight or squire in any way disabled by wound. + +To Sholto's great and manifest joy the Earl, his master, chose the new +captain of his guard to support him in the fray, and told him to make +choice of the best battle-axe and sword he could find, as well as to +provide himself with the shield which most suited the strength of his +left arm. + +"By your permission I will ask my father," said Sholto. + +"He also fights on our side as the squire of Alan Fleming," said the +Earl; "if Laurence had not been a monk, he might have made a third +MacKim." + +Then was Sholto's heart high and uplifted within him, to think of the +victory he would achieve over his brother less than two days after +they had parted, and he hastened off to choose his arms under the +direction of his father. + +The party of James of Avondale consisted of his brother William and +young John Lauder, called Lauder of the Bass. These three had already +entered their pavilion to accoutre themselves for the combat when a +trumpet announced the arrival from the castle of the ambassador of +France, who, being recovered from his sickness, had come in haste to +see the fighting of the last and greatest day of the tourney. + +As soon as he heard the wager of battle the marshal cried: "I also +will strike a blow this day for the honour of France. My quinsy has +altogether left me, and my blood flows strong after the rest. I will +take part with James of Avondale." + +And, without waiting to be asked, he went off followed by his servant +Poitou towards the pavilion of the Avondale trio. + +Now as the Marshal de Retz was the chief guest, it was impossible for +James of Avondale to refuse his offer. But there was anger and +blasphemy in his heart, for he knew not what the Frenchman could do, +and though he had undoubtedly been a gallant knight in his day, yet in +these matters (as James Douglas whispered to his brother) a week's +steady practice is worth a lifetime of theory. Still there was nothing +for the brothers from Douglasdale but to make the best of their +bargain. The person most deserving of pity, however, was the young +laird of the Bass, who, being thus dispossessed, went out to the back +of the lists and actually shed tears, being little more than a boy, +and none looking on to see him. + +Then he came back hastily, and besought James of Douglas to let him +fight as his squire, saying that as he had never taken up the +knighthood which had been bestowed on him by the Earl for his journey +to France, there could be nothing irregular in his fighting once more +as a simple esquire. And thus, after an appeal to the Earl himself, it +was arranged, much to John Lauder's content. + +For his third knight the Douglas had made choice of his cousin Hugh, +younger brother of his two opponents, and at that William and James of +Avondale shook their heads. + +"He pushes a good tree, our Hughie," said James. "If he comes at you, +Will, mind that trick of swerving that he hath. Aim at his right +gauntlet, and you will hit his shield." + +The conflict on the Boat Croft differed much from the chivalrous +encounters of an earlier time and a richer country. And of this more +anon. + +It chanced that on the borders of the crowd which that day begirt the +great enclosure of the lists two burgesses of Dumfries stood on +tiptoe,--to wit, Robert Semple, merchant dealing in cloth and wool, +and Ninian Halliburton, the brother of Barbara, wife of Malise MacKim, +master armourer, whose trade was only conditioned by the amount of +capital he could find to lay out and the probability he had of +disposing of his purchase within a reasonable time. + +It would give an entirely erroneous impression of the state of +Scotland in 1440 if the sayings and doings of the wise and shrewd +burghers of the towns of Scotland were left wholly without a +chronicler. The burghs of Scotland were at once the cradles and +strongholds of liberty. They were not subject to the great nobles. +They looked with jealousy on all encroachments on their liberties, and +had sharp swords wherewith to enforce their objection. They had been +endowed with privileges by the wise and politic kings of Scotland, +from William the Lion down to James the First, of late worthy memory. +For they were the best bulwark of the central authority against the +power of the great nobles of the provinces. + +Now Robert Semple and Ninian Halliburton were two worthy citizens of +Dumfries, men of respectability, well provided for by the success of +their trade and the saving nature of their wives. They had come +westward to the Thrieve for two purposes: to deliver a large +consignment of goods and gear, foreign provisions and fruits, to the +controller of the Earl's household, and to receive payment therefor, +partly in money and partly in the wool and cattle; hides and tallow, +which have been the staple products of Galloway throughout her +generations. + +Their further purposes and intents in venturing so far west of the +safe precincts of their burgh of Dumfries may be gathered from their +conversation hereinafter to be reported. + +Ninian Halliburton was a rosy-faced, clean-shaven man, with a habit of +constantly pursing out his lips and half closing his eyes, as if he +were sagely deciding on the advisability of some doubtful bargain. His +companion, Robert Semple, had a similar look of shrewdness, but added +to it his face bore also the imprint of a sly and lurking humour not +unlike that of the master armourer himself. In time bygone he had kept +his terms at the college of Saint Andrews, where you may find on the +list of graduates the name of Robertus Semple, written by the +foundational hand of Bishop Henry Wardlaw himself. And upon his body, +as the Bailie of Dumfries would often feelingly recall, he bore the +memory, if not the marks, of the disciplining of Henry Ogilvy, Master +in Arts--a wholesome custom, too much neglected by the present regents +of the college, as he would add. + +"This is an excellent affair for us," said Ninian Halliburton, +standing with his hands folded placidly over his ample stomach, only +occasionally allowing them to wander in order to feel and approve the +pile of the brown velvet out of which the sober gown was constructed. +"A good thing for us, I say, that there are great lords like the Earl +of Douglas to keep up the expense of such days as this." + +"It were still better," answered his companion, dryly, "if the great +nobles would pay poor merchants according to their promises, instead +of threatening them with the dule tree if they so much as venture to +ask for their money. Neither you nor I, Bailie, can buy in the +lowlands of Holland without a goodly provision of the broad gold +pieces that are so hard to drag from the nobles of Scotland." + +The rosy-gilled Bailie of Dumfries looked up at his friend with a +quick expression of mingled hope and anxiety. + +"Does the Earl o' Douglas owe you ony siller?" he asked in a hushed +whisper, "for if he does, I am willing to take over the debt--for a +consideration." + +"Nay," said Semple, "I only wish he did. The Douglases of the Black +were never ill debtors. They keep their hand in every man's meal ark, +but as they are easy in taking, they are also quick in paying." + +"Siller in hand is the greatest virtue of a buyer," said the Bailie, +with unction. "But, Robert Semple, though I was willing to oblige ye +as a friend by taking over your debt, I'll no deny that ye gied me a +fricht. For hae I no this day delivered to the bursar o' the castle o' +Thrieve sax bales o' pepper and three o' the best spice, besides much +cumin, alum, ginger, seat-well, almonds, rice, figs, raisins, and +other sic thing. Moreover, there is owing to me, for wine and vinegar, +mair than twa hunder pound. Was that no enough to gar me tak a 'dwam' +when ye spoke o' the great nobles no payin'!" + +"I would that all our outlying monies were as safe," said Semple; "but +here come the knights and squires forth from their tents. Tell me, +Ninian, which o' the lads are your sister's sons." + +"There is but one o' the esquires that is Barbara Halliburton's son," +answered the Bailie; "the ither is her ain man--and a great ram-stam, +unbiddable, unhallowed deevil he is--Guid forbid that I should say as +muckle to his face!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +WAGER OF BATTLE + + +The knights had moved slowly out from their pavilions on either side, +and now stood waiting the order to charge. My Lord Maxwell sat by the +side of the Lady Sybilla, and held the truncheon, the casting down of +which was to part the combatants and end the fight. The three knights +on the southern or Earl's side were a singular contrast to their +opponents. Two of them, the Earl William and his cousin Hugh, were no +more than boys in years, though already old in military exercises; the +third, Alan Fleming of Cumbernauld, was a strong horseman and +excellent with his lance, though also slender of body and more +distinguished for dexterity than for power of arm. Yet he was destined +to lay a good lance in rest that day, and to come forth unshamed. + +The Avondale party were to the eye infinitely the stronger, that is +when knights only were considered. For James Douglas was little less +than a giant. His jolly person and frank manners seemed to fill all +the field with good humour, and from his station he cried challenges +to his cousin the Earl and defiances to his brother Hugh, with that +broad rollicking wit which endeared him to the commons, to whom +"Mickle Lord Jamie" had long been a popular hero. + +"Bid our Hugh there rin hame for his hippen clouts lest he make of +himself a shame," he cried; "'tis not fair that we should have to +fight with babes." + +"Mayhap he will be as David to your Goliath, thou great gomeril!" +replied the Earl with equal good humour, seeing his cousin Hugh blush +and fumble uncomfortably at his arms. + +Then to the lad himself he said: "Keep a light hand on your rein, a +good grip at the knee, and after the first shock we will ride round +them like swallows about so many bullocks." + +The other two Avondale knights, William Douglas and the Marshal de +Retz, were also large men, and the latter especially, clothed in black +armour and with the royal ermines of Brittany quartered on his shield, +looked a stern and commanding figure. + +The squires were well matched. These fought on foot, armed according +to custom with sword, axe, and dagger--though Sholto would much have +preferred to trust to his arrow skill even against the plate of the +knights. + +The trumpets blew their warning from the judge's gallery. The six +opposing knights laid their lances in rest. The squires leaned a +little forward as if about to run a race. Lord Maxwell raised his +truncheon. The trumpets sounded again, and as their stirring +_taran-tara_ rang down the wide strath of Dee, the riders spurred +their horses into full career. It so chanced that, as they had stood, +James of Avondale was opposite the Earl, each being in the midst as +was their right as leaders. The Master of Avondale opposed his brother +Hugh, and the Marshal de Retz couched spear against young Alan +Fleming. In this order they started to ride their course. But at the +last moment, instead of riding straight for his man, the Frenchman +swerved to the left, and, raising his lance high in the air, he threw +it in the manner of his country straight at the visor bars of the +young Earl of Douglas. The spear of James of Avondale at the same time +taking him fair in the middle of his shield, the double assault caused +the young man to fall heavily from his saddle, so that the crash +sounded dully over the field. + +"Treachery! Treachery!--A foul false stroke! A knave's device!" cried +nine-tenths of those who were crowded about the barriers. "Stop the +fight! Kill the Frenchman!" + +"Not so," cried Lord Maxwell, "they were to fight as best they could, +and they must fight it to the end!" + +And this being a decision not to be gainsaid, the combat proceeded on +very unequal terms. Sholto, who had been eagerly on the stretch to +match himself with the squire of James of Avondale, the young knight +of the Bass, found himself suddenly astride of his lord's body and +defending himself against both the French ambassador and his squire +Poitou, who had simultaneously crossed over to the attack. For the +Marshal de Retz, if not in complete defiance of the written rule of +chivalry, at least against the spirit of gallantry and the rules of +the present tourney, would have thrust the Earl through with his spear +as he lay, crying at the same time, "Ŕ outrance! Ŕ outrance!" to +excuse the foulness of his deed. + +It was lucky for himself that he did not succeed, for, undoubtedly, +the Douglases then on the field would have torn him to pieces for what +they not unnaturally considered his treachery. As it was, there +sounded a mighty roar of anger all about the barriers, and the crowd +pressed so fiercely and threateningly that it was as much as the +archers could do to keep them within reasonable bounds. + +"Saints' mercy!" puffed stout Ninian Halliburton, "let us get out of +this place. I am near bursen. Haud off there, varlet, ken ye not that +I am a Bailie of Dumfries? Keep your feet off the tail o' my brown +velvet gown. It cost nigh upon twenty silver shillings an ell!" + +"A Douglas! A Douglas! Treachery! Treachery!" yelled a wild Minnigaff +man, thrusting a naked brand high into the air within an inch of the +burgess's nose. That worthy citizen almost fell backwards in dismay, +and indeed must have done so but for the pressure of the crowd behind +him. He was, therefore, much against his will compelled to keep his +place in the front rank of the spectators. + +"Well done, young lad," cried the crowd, seeing Sholto ward and strike +at Poitou and his master, "God, but he is fechtin' like the black deil +himself!" + +"It will be as chancy for him," cried the wild Minnigaff hillman, "for +I will tear the harrigals oot o' Sholto MacKim if onything happen to +the Earl!" + +But the captain of the guard, light as a feather, had easily avoided +the thrust of the marshal's spear, taking it at an angle and turning +it aside with his shield. Then, springing up behind him, he pulled the +French knight down to the ground with the hook of his axe, by that +trick of attack which was the lesson taught once for all to the Scots +of the Lowlands upon the stricken field of the Red Harlaw. + +The marshal fell heavily and lay still, for he was a man of feeble +body, and the weight of his armour very great. + +"Slay him! Slay him!" yelled the people, still furious at what, not +without reason, they considered rank treachery. + +Sholto recovered himself, and reached his master only in time to find +Poitou bending over Earl Douglas with a dagger in his hand. + +With a wild yell he lashed out at the Breton squire, and Sholto's axe +striking fair on his steel cap, Poitou fell senseless across the body +of Douglas. + +"Well done, Sholto MacKim--well done, lad!" came from all the barrier, +and even Ninian Halliburton cried: "Ye shall hae a silken doublet for +that!" Then, recollecting himself, he added, "At little mair than cost +price!" + +"God in heeven, 'tis bonny fechtin!" cried the man from Minnigaff. +"Oh, if I could dirk the fause hound I wad dee happy!" + +And the hillman danced on the toes of the Bailie of Dumfries and shook +the barriers with his hand till he received a rap over the knuckles +from the handle of a partisan directed by the stout arms of Andro the +Penman. + +"Haud back there, heather-besom!" cried the archer, "gin ye want ever +again to taste 'braxy'!" + +Over the rest of the field the fortune of war had been somewhat +various. William of Douglas had unhorsed his brother Hugh at the first +shock, but immediately foregoing his advantage with the most +chivalrous courtesy, he leaped from his own horse and drew his sword. + +On the right Alan Fleming, being by the marshal's action suddenly +deprived of his opponent, had wheeled his charger and borne down +sideways upon James of Douglas, and that doughty champion, not having +fully recovered from the shock of his encounter with the Earl, and +being taken from an unexpected quarter, went down as much to his own +surprise as to that of the people at the barriers, who had looked upon +him as the strongest champion on the field. + +It was evident, therefore, that, in spite of the loss of their leader, +the Earl's party stood every chance to win the field. For not only was +Alan Fleming the only knight left on horseback, but Malise MacKim had +disposed of the laird of Stra'ven, squire to William of Avondale, +having by one mighty axe stroke beaten the Lanarkshire man down to his +knees. + +"A Douglas! A Douglas!" shouted the populace; "now let them have it!" + +And the adherents of the Earl were proceeding to carry out this +intent, when my Lord Maxwell unexpectedly put an end to the combat by +throwing down his truncheon and proclaiming a drawn battle. + +"False loon!" cried Sholto, shaking his axe at him in the extremity of +his anger, "we have beaten them fairly. Would that I could get at +thee! Come down and fight an encounter to the end. I will take any +Maxwell here in my shirt!" + +"Hold your tongue!" commanded his father, briefly, "what else can ye +expect of a border man but broken faith?" + +The archers of the guard rushed in, as was their duty, and separated +the remaining combatants. Hugh and his brother William fought it to +the last, the younger with all his vigour and with a fierce energy +born of his brother James's taunts, William with the calm courtesy and +forbearance of an old and assured knight towards one who has yet his +spurs to win. + +The stunned knights and squires were conveyed to their several +pavilions, where the Earl's apothecaries were at once in attendance. +William of Douglas was the first to revive, which he did almost as +soon as the laces of his helm had been undone and water dashed upon +his face. His head still sang, he declared, like a hive of bees, but +that was all. + +He bent with the anxiety of a generous enemy over the unconscious form +of the Marshal de Retz, from whom they were stripping his armour. At +the removal of the helmet, the strange parchment face with its +blue-black stubbly beard was seen to be more than usually pale and +drawn. The upper lip was retracted, and a set of long white teeth +gleamed like those of a wild beast. + +The apothecary was just commencing to strip off the leathern +under-doublet from the ambassador's body to search for a wound, when +Poitou, his squire, happened to open his eyes. He had been laid upon +the floor, as the most seriously wounded of the combatants, though +being the least in honour he fell to be attended last. + +Instantly he cried out a strange Breton word, unintelligible to all +present, and, leaping from the floor, he flung himself across the body +of his master, dashing aside the astonished apothecary, who had only +time to discern on the marshal's shoulder the scar of a recent +cautery before Poitou had restored the leathern under-doublet to its +place. + +"Hands off! Do not touch my master. I alone can bring him to. Leave +the room, all of you." + +"Sirrah!" cried the Earl, sternly, striding towards him, "I will teach +you to speak humbly to more honourable men." + +"My lord," cried Poitou, instantly recalled to himself, "believe me, I +meant no ill. But true it is that I only can recover him. I have often +seen him taken thus. But I must be left alone. My master hath a +blemish upon him, and one great gentleman does not humiliate another +in the presence of underlings. My Lord Douglas, as you love honour, +bid all to leave me alone for a brief space." + +"Much cared he for honour, when he threw the lance at my master!" +growled Sholto. "Had I known, I would have driven my bill-point six +inches lower, and then would there have been a most satisfactory +blemish in the joining of his neck-bone." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SHOLTO WINS KNIGHTHOOD + + +The ambassador recovered quickly after he had been left with his +servant Poitou, according to the latter's request. The Lady Sybilla +manifested the most tender concern in the matter of the accident of +judgment which had been the means of diverting her kinsman from his +own opponent and bringing him into collision with the Earl Douglas. + +"Often have I striven with my lord that he should ride no more in the +lists," she said, "for since he received the lance-thrust in the eye +by the side of La Pucelle before the walls of Orleans, he sees no more +aright, but bears ever in the direction of the eye which sees and away +from that wherein he had his wound." + +"Indeed, I knew not that the Marshal de Retz had been wounded in the +eye, or I should not have permitted him to ride in the tourney," +returned the Earl, gravely. "The fault was mine alone." + +The Lady Sybilla smiled upon him very sweetly and graciously. + +"You are great soldiers--you Douglases. Six knights are chosen from +the muster of half a kingdom to ride a _męlée_. Four are Douglases, +and, moreover, cousins germain in blood." + +"Indeed, we might well have compassed the sword-play," said the Earl +William, "for in our twenty generations we never learned aught else. +Our arms are strong enough and our skulls thick enough, for even mine +uncle, the Abbot, hath his Latin by the ear. And one Semple, a plain +burgher of Dumfries, did best him at it--or at least would have shamed +him, but that he desired not to lose the custom of the Abbey." + +"When you come to France," replied the girl, smiling on him, "it will +indeed be stirring to see you ride a bout with young Messire Lalain, +the champion of Burgundy, or with that Miriadet of Dijon, whose arm is +like that of a giant and can fell an ox at a blow." + +"Truly," said the young Earl, modestly, "you do me overmuch honour. My +cousin James there, he is the champion among us, and alone could +easily have over-borne me to-day, without the aid of your uncle's +blind eye. Even William of Avondale is a better lance than I, and +young Hugh will be when his time comes." + +"Your squire fought a good fight," she went on, "though his +countenance does not commend itself to me, being full of all +self-sufficience." + +"Sholto--yes; he is his father's son and fought well. He is a MacKim, +and cannot do otherwise. He will make a good knight, and, by Saint +Bride, I will dub him one, ere this sun set, for his valiant laying on +of the axe this day." + +The great muster was now over. The tents which had been dotted thickly +athwart the castle island were already mostly struck, and the ground +was littered with miscellaneous débris, soon to be carried off in +trail carts with square wooden bodies set on boughs of trees, and +flung into the river, by the Earl's varlets and stablemen. + +The multitudinous liegemen of the Douglas were by this time streaming +homewards along every mountain pass. Over the heather and through the +abounding morasses horse and foot took their way, no longer marching +in military order, as when they came, but each lance taking the route +which appeared the shortest to himself. North, east, and west +spear-heads glinted and armour flashed against the brown of the +heather and the green of the little vales, wherein the horses bent +their heads to pull at the meadow hay as their riders sought the +nearest way back again to their peel-towers and forty-shilling lands. + +It was at the great gate of Thrieve that the Earl called aloud for +Sholto. He had been speaking to his cousin William, a strong, silent +man, whose repute was highest for good counsel among all the branches +of the house of Douglas. + +Sholto came forward from the head of his archer guard with a haste +which betrayed his anxiety lest in some manner he had exceeded his +duty. The Earl bade him kneel down. A little behind, the young +Douglases of Avondale, William, James, and Hugh, sat their horses, +while the boy David, who had been left at home to keep the castle, +looked forth disconsolately from the window of the great hall. On the +steps stood the little Maid Margaret and her companion, Maud Lindesay, +who had come down to meet the returning train of riders. And, truth to +tell, that was what Sholto cared most about. He did not wish to be +disgraced before them all. + +So as he knelt with an anxious countenance before his lord, the Earl +took his cousin William's sword out of his hand, and, laying it on the +shoulder of Sholto MacKim, he said, "Great occasions bring forth good +men, and even one battle tries the temper of the sword. You, Sholto, +have been quickly tried, but thy father hath been long tempering you. +Three days agone you were but one of the archer guard, yesterday you +were made its captain, to-day I dub you knight for the strong courage +of the heart that is within, and the valiant service which this day +you did your lord. Rise, Sir Sholto!" + +But for all that he rose not immediately, for the head of the young +man whirled, and little drumming pulses beat in his temples. His heart +cried within him like the overword of a song, "Does she hear? Will she +care? Will this bring me nearer to her?" So that, in spite of his +lord's command, he continued to kneel, till lusty James of Avondale +came and caught him by the elbow. "Up, Sir Knight, and give grace and +good thank to your lord. Not your head but mine hath a right to be +muzzy with the coup I gat this day on the green meadow of the Boat +Croft." + +And practical William of Avondale whispered in his cousin's ear, "And +the lands for the youth that we spoke of." + +"Moreover," said the Earl, "that you may suitably support the +knighthood which your sword has won, I freely bestow on you the +forty-shilling lands of Aireland and Lincolns with Screel and Ben +Gairn, on condition that you and yours shall keep the watch-fires laid +ready for the lighting, and that in time you rear you sturdy yeomen to +bear in the Douglas train the banneret of MacKim of Aireland." + +Sholto stood before his generous lord trembling and speechless, while +James Douglas shook him by the elbow and encouraged him roughly, "Say +thy say, man; hast lost thy tongue?" + +But William Douglas nodded approval of the youth. + +"Nay," he said, "let alone, James! I like the lad the better that he +hath no ready tongue. 'Tis not the praters that fight as this youth +hath fought this day!" + +So all that Sholto found himself able to do, was no more than to kneel +on one knee and kiss his master's hand. + +"I am too young," he muttered. "I am not worthy." + +"Nay," said his master, "but you have fairly won your spurs. They made +me a knight when I was but two years of my age, and I cried all the +time for my nurse, your good mother, who, when she came, comforted me +with pap. Surely it was right that I should make a place for my +foster-brother within the goodly circle of the Douglas knights." + +[Illustration: "I AM TOO YOUNG," HE MUTTERED; "I AM NOT WORTHY."] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SECOND FLOUTING OF MAUD LINDESAY + + +Sholto MacKim stood on the lowest step of the ascent into the noble +gateway of Thrieve, hardly able to believe in his own good fortune. +But these were the days when no man awaked without having the +possibility of either a knighthood or the gallows tree to encourage +him to do his duty between dawn and dark. + +The lords of Douglas had gone within, and were now drinking the Cup of +Appetite as their armour was being unbraced by the servitors, and the +chafed limbs rubbed with oil and vinegar after the toils of the +tourney. But still Sholto stood where his master had left him, looking +at the green scum of duckweed which floated on the surface of the moat +of Thrieve, yet of a truth seeing nothing whatever, till a low voice +pierced the abstraction of his reverie. + +"Sir Sholto!" said Mistress Maud Lindesay, "I bid you a long good-by, +Sir Sholto MacKim! Say farewell to him, Margaret, as you hear me do!" + +"Good-by, kind Sir Sholto!" piped the childish voice of the Maid of +Galloway, as she made a little courtesy to Sholto MacKim in imitation +of her companion. "I know not where you are going, but Maudie bids me, +so I will!" + +"And wherefore say you good-by to me?" cried Sholto, finding his words +at once in the wholesome atmosphere of raillery which everywhere +accompanied that quipsome damosel, Mistress Maud Lindesay. + +"Why, because we are humble folk, and must get our ways upstairs out +of the way of dignities. Permit me to kiss your glove, fair lord!" and +here she tripped down the steps and pretended to take his hand. + +"Hold off!" he cried, snatching it away angrily, for her tone vexed +and thwarted him. + +The girl affected a great terror, which merged immediately into a meek +affectation of resignation. + +"No--you are right--we are not worthy even to kiss your knightly +hand," she said, "but we will respectfully greet you." Here she swept +him a full reverence, and ran up the steps again before he could take +hold of her. Then, standing on the topmost step, and holding her +friend's hand in hers, she spoke to the Maid of Galloway in a tone +hushed and regretful, as one speaks of the dead. + +"No, Margaret," she said, "he will no more play with us. Hide-and-seek +about the stack-yard ricks at the Mains is over in the gloamings. Sir +Sholto cares no more for us. He has put away childish things. He will +not even blow out a lamp for us with his own honourable lips. No, he +will call his squire to do it!" + +Sholto looked the indignation he would not trust himself to speak. + +"He will dine with the Earl in hall, and quaff and stamp and shout +with the best when they drink the toasts. But he has become too great +a man to carry you and me any more over the stepping-stones at the +ford, or pull with us the ripe berries when the briars are drooping +purple on the braes of Keltonhill. Bid him good-by, Margaret, for he +was our kind friend once. And when he rides out to battle, perhaps, if +we are good and respectful, he may again wave us a hand and say: +'There are two lassies that once I kenned!'" + +At this inordinate flouting the patience of the new knight, growing +more and more angry at each word, came quickly to the breaking point; +for his nerves were jarred and jangled by the excitement of the day. +He gave vent to a short sharp cry, and started up the steps with the +intention of making Mistress Lindesay pay in some fashion for her +impertinence. But that active and gamesome maid was most entirely on +the alert. Indeed, she had been counting from the first upon provoking +such a movement. And so, with her nimble charge at her heels, Mistress +Lindesay was already at the inner port, and through the iron-barred +gate of the turret stair, before the youthful captain of the guard, +still cumbered with his armour, could reach the top of the outer +steps. + +As soon as Sholto saw that he was hopelessly distanced, he slackened +his gait, and, with a sober tread befitting a knight and officer of a +garrison, he walked along the passage which led to the chamber +allotted to the captain of the guard, from which that day Landless +Jock had removed his effects. + +The soldiers of the guard, who had heard of the honours which had so +swiftly come upon the young man, rose and respectfully saluted their +chief. And Sholto, though he had been silent when the sharp tongue of +the mirth-loving maid tormented him, found speech readily enough now. + +"I thank you," he said, acknowledging their salutations. "We have +known each other before. Fortune and misfortune come to all, and it +will be your turns one day. But up or down, good or ill, we shall not +be the worse comrades for having kept the guard and sped the bolt +together." + +Then there came one behind him who stood at the door of his chamber, +as he was unhelming himself, and said: "My captain, there stand at the +turret stair the ladies Margaret and Maud with a message for you." + +"A message for me--what is it?" said Sholto, testily, being (and small +blame to him) a trifle ruffled in his temper. + +"Nay, sir," said the man, respectfully, "that I know not, but methinks +it comes from my lord." + +It will not do to say to what our gallant Sholto condemned all +tricksome queans and spiteful damosels in whose eyes dwelt mischief +brimming over, and whose tongues spoke softest words that yet stung +and rankled like fairy arrows dipped in gall and wormwood. + +But since the man stood there and repeated, "I judge the message to be +one from my lord," Sholto could do no less than hastily pull on his +doublet and again betake himself along the corridor to the foot of the +stair. + +When he arrived there he saw no one, and was about to depart again as +he had come, when the head of Maud Lindesay appeared round the upper +spiral looking more distractedly mischievous and bewitching than ever, +her head all rippling over with dark curls and her eyes fairly +scintillating light. She nodded to him and leaned a little farther +over, holding tightly to the baluster meanwhile. + +"Well," said Sholto, roughly, "what are my lord's commands for me, if, +indeed, he has charged you with any?" + +"He bids me say," replied Mistress Maud Lindesay, "that, since lamps +are dangerous things in maidens' chambers, he desires you to assist in +the trimming of the waxen tapers to-night--that is, if so menial a +service shame not your knighthood." + +"Pshaw!" muttered Sholto, "my lord said naught of the sort." + +"Well then," said Maud Lindesay, smiling down upon him with an +expression innocent and sweet as that of an angel on a painted +ceiling, "you will be kind and come and help us all the same?" + +"That I will not!" said Sholto, stamping his foot like an ill-tempered +boy. + +"Yes, you will--because Margaret asks you?" + +_"I will not!"_ + +"Then because _I_ ask you?" + +Spite of his best endeavours, Sholto could not take his eyes from the +girl's face, which seemed fairer and more desirable to him now than +ever. A quick sob of passion shook him, and he found words at last: + +"Oh, Maud Lindesay, why do you treat thus one who loves you with all +his heart?" + +The girl's face changed. The mischief died out of it, and something +vague and soft welled up in her eyes, making them mistily grey and +lustrous. But she only said: "Sholto, it is growing dark already! It +is time the tapers were trimmed!" + +Then Sholto followed her up the stairs, and though I do not know, +there is some reason for thinking that he forgave her all her +wickedness in the sweet interspace between the gloaming and the mirk, +when the lamps were being lighted on earth, and in heaven the stars +were coming out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE DOGS AND THE WOLF HOLD COUNCIL + + +It was a week or two after the date of the great wappenshaw and +tourneying at the Castle of Thrieve, that in the midmost golden haze +of a summer's afternoon four men sat talking together about a table in +a room of the royal palace of Stirling. + +No one of the four was any longer young, and one at least was +immoderately fat. This was James, Earl of Avondale, granduncle of the +present Earl of Douglas, and, save for young David, the Earl's +brother, nearest heir to the title and all the estates and honours +pertaining thereto, with the single exception of the Lordship of +Galloway. + +The other three were, first, Sir Alexander Livingston, the guardian of +the King's person, a handsome man with a curled beard, who was +supposed to stand high in the immediate favours of the Queen, and who +had long been tutor to his Majesty as well as guardian of his royal +person. Opposite to Livingston, and carefully avoiding his eye, sat a +man of thin and foxy aspect, whose smooth face, small shifty mouth, +and perilous triangular eyes marked him as one infinitely more +dangerous than either of the former--Sir William Crichton, the +Chancellor of the realm of Scotland. + +The fourth was speaking, and his aspect, strange and ofttimes +terrifying, is already familiar to us. But the pallid corpse-like +face, the blue-black beard, the wild-beast look, in the eyes of the +Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, were now more than +ever heightened in effect by the studied suavity of his demeanour and +the graciousness of language with which he was clothing what he had to +say. + +"I have brought you together after taking counsel with my good Lord of +Avondale. I am aware, most noble seigneurs, that there have been +differences between you in the past as to the conduct of the affairs +of this great kingdom; but I am obeying both the known wishes and the +express commands of my own King in endeavouring to bring you to an +agreement. You will not forget that the Dauphin of France is wedded to +the Scottish princess nearest the throne, and that therefore he is not +unconcerned in the welfare of this realm. + +"Now, messieurs, it cannot be hid from you that there is one +overriding and insistent peril which ought to put an end to all your +misunderstandings. There is a young man in this land, more powerful +than you or the King, or, indeed, all the powers legalised and +established within the bounds of Scotland. + +"Who is above the law, gentlemen? I name to you the Earl of Douglas. +Who hath a retinue ten times more magnificent than that with which the +King rides forth? The Earl of Douglas! Who possesses more than half +Scotland, and that part the fairest and richest? Who holds in his +hands all the strong castles, is joined by bond of service and manrent +with the most powerful nobles of the land? Who but the Earl of +Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Warden of the Marches, hereditary +Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom?" + +At this point the crafty eyes of Crichton the Chancellor were turned +full upon the speaker. His hand tugged nervously at his thin reddish +beard as if it had been combing the long goat's tuft which grew +beneath his smooth chin. + +"But did not you yourself come all the way from France to endue him +with the duchy of Touraine?" he said. "Doth that look like pulling him +down from his high seat?" + +The marshal moved a politic hand as if asking silence till he had +finished his explanation. + +"Pardon," he said; "permit me yet a moment, most High Chancellor--but +have you heard so little of the skill and craft of Louis, our most +notable Dauphin, that you know not how he ever embraces men with the +left arm whilst he pierces them with the dagger in his right?" + +The Chancellor nodded appreciation. It was a detail of statecraft well +known to him, and much practised by his house in all periods of their +history. + +"Now, my lords," the ambassador continued, "you are here all +three--the men who need most to end this tyranny--you, my Lord of +Avondale, will you deign to deliver your mind upon this matter?" + +The fat Earl hemmed and hawed, clearing his throat to gain time, and +knitting and unknitting his fingers over his stomach. + +"Being a near kinsman," he said at last, "it is not seemly that I +should say aught against the Earl of Douglas; but this I do +know--there will be no peace in Scotland till that young man and his +brother are both cut off." + +The Chancellor and de Retz exchanged glances. The anxiety of the +next-of-kin to the title of Earl of Douglas for the peace and +prosperity of the realm seemed to strike them both as exceedingly +natural in the circumstances. + +"And now, Sir Alexander, what say you?" asked the Sieur de Retz, +turning to the King's guardian, who had been caressing the curls of +his beard with his white and signeted hand. + +"I agree," he replied in a courtly tone, "that in the interests of the +King and of the noble lady whose care for her child hath led her to +such sacrifices, we ought to put a limit to the pride and insolence of +this youth!" + +The Chancellor bent over a parchment to hide a smile at the sacrifices +which the Queen Mother had made for her son. + +"It is indeed, doubtless," said Sir William Crichton, "a sacrifice +that the King and his mother should dwell so long within this Castle +of Stirling, exposed to every rude blast from off these barren +Grampians. Let her bring him to the mild and equable climate of +Edinburgh, which, as I am sure your Excellency must have observed, is +peculiarly suited to the rearing of such tender plants." + +He appealed to the Sieur de Retz. + +The marshal bowed and answered immediately, "Indeed, it reminds me of +the sunniest and most favoured parts of my native France." + +The tutor of the King looked somewhat uncomfortable at the suggestion +and shook his head. He had no idea of putting the King of Scots +within the power of his arch enemy in the strong fortress of +Edinburgh. + +But the Frenchman broke in before the ill effects of the Chancellor's +speech had time to turn the mind of the King's guardian from the +present project against the Earl of Douglas. + +"But surely, gentlemen, it should not be difficult for two such +honourable men to unite in destroying this curse of the +commonweal--and afterwards to settle any differences which may in the +past have arisen between themselves." + +"Good," said the Chancellor, "you speak well. But how are we to bring +the Earl within our danger? Already I have sent him offers of +alliance, and so, I doubt not, hath my honourable friend the tutor of +the King. You know well what answer the proud chief of Douglas +returned." + +The lips of Sir Alexander Livingston moved. He seemed to be taking +some bitter and nauseous drug of the apothecary. + +"Yes, Sir Alexander, I see you have not forgot. The words,'If dog eat +dog, what should the lion care?' made us every caitiff's scoff +throughout broad Scotland." + +"For that he shall yet suffer, if God give me speed," said the tutor, +for the answer had been repeated to the Queen, who, being English, +laughed at the wit of the reply. + +"I would that my boy should grow up such another as that Earl +Douglas," she had said. + +The tutor stroked his beard faster than ever, and there was in his +eyes the bitter look of a handsome man whose vanity is wounded in its +weakest place. + +"But, after all, who is to cage the lion?" said the Chancellor, +pertinently. + +The marshal of France raised his hand from the table as if commanding +silence. His suave and courtier-like demeanour had changed into +something more natural to the man. There came the gaunt forward thrust +of a wolf on the trail into the set of his head. His long teeth +gleamed, and his eyelids closed down upon his eyes till these became +mere twinkling points. + +"I have that at hand which hath already tamed the lion," he said, "and +is able to lead him into the cage with cords of silk." + +He rose from the table, and, going to a curtain that concealed the +narrow door of an antechamber, he drew it aside, and there came forth, +clothed in a garment of gold and green, close-fitting and fine, +clasped about the waist with a twining belt of jewelled snakes, the +Lady Sybilla. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE LION TAMER + + +On this summer afternoon the girl's beauty seemed more wondrous and +magical than ever. Her eyes were purple-black, like the berries of the +deadly nightshade seen in the twilight. Her face was pale, and the +scarlet of her lips lay like twin geranium petals on new-fallen snow. + +Gilles de Retz followed her with a certain grim and ghastly pride, as +he marked the sensation caused by her entrance. + +"This," he said, "is my lion tamer!" + +But the girl never looked at him, nor in any way responded to his +glances. + +"Sybilla," said de Retz, holding her with his eyes, "these gentlemen +are with us. They also are of the enemies of the house of +Douglas--speak freely that which is in your heart!" + +"My lords," said the Lady Sybilla, speaking in a level voice, and with +her eyes fixed on the leaf-shadowed square of grass, which alone could +be seen through the open window, "you have, I doubt not, each declared +your grievance against William, Earl of Douglas. I alone have none. He +is a gallant gentleman. France I have travelled, Spain also, and +Portugal, and have explored the utmost East,--wherever, indeed, my +Lord of Retz hath voyaged thither I have gone. But no braver or more +chivalrous youth than William Douglas have I found in any land. I have +no grievance against him, as I say, yet for that which hath been will +I deliver him into your hands." + +One of the men before her grew manifestly uneasy. + +"We did not come hither to listen to the praises of the Earl of +Douglas, even from lips so fair as yours!" sneered Crichton the +Chancellor, lifting his eyes one moment from the parchment before him +to the girl's face. + +"He is our enemy," said the tutor of the King, Alexander Livingston, +more generously, "but I will never deny that he is a gallant youth; +also of his person proper to look upon." + +And very complacently he smoothed down the lace ruffles which fell +from the neck of his silken doublet midway down its front. + +"The young man is a Douglas," said James the Gross, curtly; "if he +were of coward breed, we had not needed to come hither secretly!" + +"It needeth not four butchers to kill a sheep!" said de Retz. +"Concerning that, we agree. Proceed, my Lady Sybilla." + +The girl was now breathing more quickly, her bosom rising and falling +visibly beneath her light silken gown. + +"Yet because of those that have been of the house of Douglas before +him, shall I have no pity upon William, sixth Earl thereof! And +because of two dead Dukes of Touraine, will I deliver to you the third +Duke, into whose mouth hath hardly yet come the proper gust of living. +This is the tale I have heard a thousand times. There was in France, +it skills not where, a vale quiet as a summer Sabbath day. The vines +hung ripe-clustered in wide and pleasant vineyards. The olives rustled +grey on the slopes. The bell swung in the monastery tower. The cottage +in the dell was safe as the château on the hill. Then came the foreign +leader of a foreign army, and lo! in a day, there were a hundred dead +men in the valley, all honourable men slain in defence of their own +doors. The smoky flicker of flames broke through the roof in the +daylight. There was heard the crying of many women. And the man who +wrought this was an Earl of Douglas." + +The girl paused, and in a low whisper, intense as the breathing of the +sea, she said: + +_"And for this will I deliver into your hands his grandson, William of +Douglas!"_ + +Then her voice came again to the ears of the four listeners, in a note +low and monotonous like the wind that goes about the house on autumn +evenings. + +"There was also one who, being but a child, had escaped from that +tumult and had found shelter in a white convent with the sisters +thereof, who taught her to pray, and be happy in the peace of the hour +that is exactly like the one before it. The shadow of the dial finger +upon the stone was not more peaceful than the holy round of her life. + +"Then came one who met her by the convent wall, met her under the +shade of the orchard trees, met her under cloud of night, till his +soul had power over hers. She followed him by camp and city, fearing +no man's scorn, feeling no woman's reproach, for love's sake and his. +Yet at the last he cast her away, like an empty husk, and sailed over +the seas to his own land. She lived to wed the Sieur de Thouars and to +become my mother." + +_"And for this will I reckon with his son William, Duke of Touraine."_ + +She ceased, and de Retz began to speak. + +"By me this girl has been taught the deepest wisdom of the ancients. I +have delved deep in the lore of the ages that this maiden might be +fitted for her task. For I also, that am a marshal of France and of +kin to my Lord Duke of Brittany, have a score to settle with William, +Earl of Douglas, as hath also my master, Louis the Dauphin!" + +"It is enough," interjected Crichton the Chancellor, who had listened +to the recital of the Lady Sybilla with manifest impatience, "it is +the old story--the sins of the fathers are upon the children. And this +young man must suffer for those that went before him. They drank of +the full cup, and so he hath come now to the drains. It skills not why +we each desire to make an end of him. We are agreed on the fact. The +question is _how_." + +It was again the voice of de Retz which replied, the deep silence of +afternoon resting like a weight upon all about them. + +"If we write him a letter inviting him to the Castle of Edinburgh, he +will assuredly not come; but if we first entertain him with open +courtesy at one of your castles on the way, where you, most wise +Chancellor, must put yourself wholly in his hands, he will suspect +nothing. There, when all his suspicions are lulled, he will again meet +the Lady Sybilla; it will rest with her to bring him to Edinburgh." + +The Chancellor had been busily writing on the parchment before him +whilst de Retz was speaking. Presently he held up his hand and read +aloud that which he had written. + +"To the most noble William, Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine, +greeting! In the name of King James the Second, whom God preserve, and +in order that the realm may have peace, Sir William Crichton, +Chancellor of Scotland, and Sir Alexander Livingston, Governor of the +King's person, do invite and humbly intreat the Earl of Douglas to +come to the City of Edinburgh, with such following as shall seem good +to him, in order that he may be duly invested with the office of +Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, which office was his father's +before him. So shall the realm abide in peace and evil-doers be put +down, the peaceable prevented with power, and the Earl of Douglas +stand openly in the honourable place of his forebears." + +The Chancellor finished his reading and looked around for approbation. +James of Avondale was nodding gravely. de Retz, with a ghastly smile +on his face, seemed to be weighing the phrases. Livingston was +admiring, with a self-satisfied smile, the pinkish lights upon his +finger-nails, and the girl was gazing as before out of the window into +the green close wherein the leaves stirred and the shadows had begun +to swim lazily on the grass with the coming of the wind from off the +sea. + +"To this I would add as followeth," continued Crichton. "The +Chancellor of Scotland to William, Earl of Douglas, greeting and +homage! Sir William Crichton ventures to hope that the Earl of Douglas +will do him the great honour to come to his new Castle of Crichton, +there to be entertained as beseemeth his dignity, to the healing of +all ancient enmities, and also that they both may do honour to the +ambassador of the King of France ere he set sail again for his own +land." + +"It is indeed a worthy epistle," said James the Gross, who, being +sleepy, wished for an end to be made. + +"There is at least in it no lack of 'Chancellor of Scotland!'" sneered +Livingston, covertly. + +"Gently, gently, great sirs," interposed de Retz, as the Chancellor +looked up with anger in his eye; "have out your quarrels as you +will--after the snapping of the trap. Remember that this which we do +is a matter of life or death for all of us." + +"But the Douglases will wash us off the face of Scotland if we so much +as lay hand on the Earl," objected Livingston. "It might even affect +the safety of his Majesty's person!" + +James the Gross laughed a low laugh and looked at Crichton. + +"Perhaps," he said; "but what if the gallant boy David go with his +brother? Whoever after that shall be next Earl of Douglas can easily +prevent that. Also Angus is for us, and my Lord Maxwell will move no +hand. There remains, therefore, only Galloway, and my son William will +answer for that. I myself am old and fat, and love not fighting, but +to tame the Douglases shall be my part, and assuredly not the least." + +All this while the Lady Sybilla had been standing motionless gazing +out of the window. de Retz now motioned her away with an almost +imperceptible signal of his hand, whereat Sir Alexander Livingston, +seeing the girl about to leave the chamber of council, courteously +rose to usher her out. And with the very slightest acknowledgment of +his profound obeisance, Sybilla de Thouars went forth and left the +four men to their cabal of treachery and death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE YOUNG LORDS RIDE AWAY + + +This was the letter which, along with the Chancellor's invitations, +came to the hand of the Earl William as he rode forth to the +deer-hunting one morning from his Castle of Thrieve: + +"My lord, if it be not that you have wholly forgotten me and your +promise, this comes to inform you that my uncle and I purpose to abide +at the Castle of Crichton for ten days before finally departing forth +of this land. It is known to me that the Chancellor, moved thereto by +One who desires much to see you, hath invited the Earl of Douglas to +come thither with what retinue is best beseeming so great a lord. + +"But 'tis beyond hope that we should meet in this manner. My lord +hath, doubtless, ere this forgot all that was between us, and hath +already seen others fairer and more worthy of his courteous regard +than the Lady Sybilla. This is as well beseems a mighty lord, who +taketh up a cup full and setteth it down empty. But a woman hath +naught to do, save only to remember the things that have been, and to +think upon them. Grace be to you, my dear lord. And so for this time +and it may be for ever, fare you well!" + +When the Earl had read this letter from the Lady Sybilla, he turned +himself in his saddle without delay and said to his hunt-master: + +"Take back the hounds, we will not hunt the stag this day." + +The messenger stood respectfully before him waiting to take back an +answer. + +"Come you from the town of Edinburgh?" asked the Earl, quickly. + +"Nay," said the youth, "let it please your greatness, I am a servant +of my Lord of Crichton, and come from his new castle in the Lothians." + +"Doth the Chancellor abide there at this present?" asked the Earl. + +"He came two noons ago with but one attendant, and bade us make ready +for a great company who were to arrive there this very day. Then he +gave me these two letters and set my head on the safe delivery of +them." + +"Sholto," cried the young lord, "summon the guard and men-at-arms. +Take all that can be spared from the defence of the castle and make +ready to follow me. I ride immediately to visit the Chancellor of +Scotland at his castle in the Lothians." + +It was Sholto's duty to obey, but his heart sank within him, both at +the thought of the Earl thus venturing among his enemies, and also +because he must needs leave behind him Maud Lindesay, on whose wilful +and wayward beauty his heart was set. + +"My lord," he stammered, "permit me one word. Were it not better to +wait till a following of knights and gentlemen beseeming the Earl of +Douglas should be brought together to accompany you on so perilous a +journey?" + +"Do as I bid you, Sir Captain," was the Earl's short rejoinder; "you +have my orders." + +"O that the Abbot were here--" thought Sholto, as he moved heavily to +do his master's will; "he might reason with the Earl with some hope of +success." + +On his way to summon the guard Sholto met Maud Lindesay going out to +twine gowans with the Maid on the meadows about the Mains of Kelton. +For, as Margaret Douglas complained, "All ours on the isle were +trodden down by the men who came to the tourney, and they have not +grown up again." + +"Whither away so gloomy, Sir Knight?" cried Maud, all her winsome face +alight with pleasure in the bright day, and because of the excellent +joy of living. + +"On a most gloomy errand, indeed," said Sholto. "My lord rides with a +small company into the very stronghold of his enemy, and will hear no +word from any!" + +"And do you go with him?" cried Maud, her bright colour leaving her +face. + +"Not only I, but all that can be spared of the men-at-arms and of the +archer guard," answered Sholto. + +Maud Lindesay turned about and took the little girl's hand. + +"Margaret," she said, "let us go to my lady. Perhaps she will be able +to keep my Lord William at home." + +So they went back to the chamber of my Lady of Douglas. Now the +Countess had never been of great influence with her son, even during +her husband's lifetime, and had certainly none with him since. Still +it was possible that William Douglas might, for a time at least, +listen to advice and delay his setting out till a suitable retinue +could be brought together to protect him. Maud and Margaret found the +Lady of Douglas busily embroidering a vestment of silk and gold for +the Abbot of Sweetheart. She laid aside her work and listened with +gentle patience to the hasty tale told by Maud Lindesay. + +"I will speak with William," she answered, with a certain hopelessness +in her voice, "but I know well he will go his own gait for aught that +his mother can say. He is his father's son, and the men of the house +of Douglas, they come and they go, recking no will but their own. And +even so will my son William." + +"But he is taking David with him also!" cried Margaret. "I met him +even now on the stair, wild in haste to put on his shirt of mail and +the sword with the golden hilt which the ambassador of France gave +him." + +A quick flush coloured the pale countenance of the Lady Countess. + +"Nay, but one is surely enough to meet the Chancellor. David shall not +go. He is but a lad and knows nothing of these things." + +For this boy was ever his mother's favourite, far more than either her +elder son or her little daughter, whom indeed she left entirely to the +care and companionship of Maud Lindesay. + +My Lady of Douglas went slowly downstairs. The Earl, with Sholto by +his side, was ordering the accoutrement of the mounted men-at-arms in +the courtyard. + +"William," she called, in a soft voice which would not have reached +him, busied as he was with his work, but that little Margaret raised +her childish treble and called out: "William, our mother desires to +speak with you. Do you not hear her?" + +The Earl turned about, and, seeing his mother, came quickly to her and +stood bareheaded before her. + +"You are not going to run into danger, William?" she said, still +softly. + +"Nay, mother mine," he answered, smiling, "do not fear, I do but ride +to visit the Chancellor Crichton in his castle, and also to bid +farewell to the French ambassador, who abode here as our guest." + +A sudden light shone in upon the mind of Maud Lindesay. + +"'Tis all that French minx!" she whispered in Sholto's ear, "she hath +bewitched him. No one need try to stop him now." + +His mother went on, with an added anxiety in her voice. + +"But you will not take my little David with you? You will leave me one +son here to comfort me in my loneliness and old age?" + +The Earl seemed about to yield, being, indeed, careless whether David +went with him or no. + +"Mother," cried David, coming running forth from the castle, "you must +not persuade William to make me stay at home. I shall never be a man +if I am kept among women. There is Sholto MacKim, he is little older +than I, and already he hath won the archery prize and the sword-play, +and hath fought in a tourney and been knighted--while I have done +nothing except pull gowans with Maud Lindesay and play chuckie stones +with Margaret there." + +And at that moment Sholto wished that this fate had been his, and the +honours David's. He told himself that he would willingly have given up +his very knighthood that he might abide near that dainty form and +witching face. He tortured himself with the thought that Maud would +listen to others as she had listened to him; that she would practise +on others that heart-breaking slow droop and quick uplift of the +eyelashes which he knew so well. Who might not be at hand to aid her +to blow out her lamp when the guards were set of new in the corridors +of Thrieve? + +"Mother," the Earl answered, "David speaks good sense. He will never +make a man or a Douglas if he is to bide here within this warded isle. +He must venture forth into the world of men and women, and taste a +man's pleasures and chance a man's dangers like the rest." + +"But are you certain that you will bring him safe back again to me?" +said his mother, wistfully. "Remember, he is so young and eke so +reckless." + +"Nay," cried David, eagerly, "I am no younger than my cousin James was +when he fought the strongest man in Scotland, and I warrant I could +ride a course as well as Hughie Douglas of Avondale, though William +chose him for the tourney and left me to bite my thumbs at home." + +The lady sighed and looked at her sons, one of them but a youth and +the other no more than a boy. + +"Was there ever a Douglas yet who would take any advice but from his +own desire?" she said, looking down at them like a douce barn-door fowl +who by chance has reared a pair of eaglets. "Lads, ye are over strong +for your mother. But I will not sleep nor eat aright till I have my +David back again, and can see him riding his horse homeward through +the ford." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ON THE CASTLE ROOF + + +Maud Lindesay parted from Sholto upon the roof of the keep. She had +gone up thither to watch the cavalcade ride off where none could spy +upon her, and Sholto, noting the flutter of white by the battlements, +ran up thither also, pretending that he had forgotten something, +though he was indeed fully armed and ready to mount and ride. + +Maud Lindesay was leaning over the battlements of the castle, and, +hearing a step behind her, she looked about with a start of apparent +surprise. + +The after dew of recent tears still glorified her eyes. + +"Oh, Sholto," she cried, "I thought you were gone; I was watching for +you to ride away. I thought--" + +But Sholto, seeing her disorder, and having little time to waste, came +quickly forward and took her in his arms without apology or prelude, +as is (they say) wisest in such cases. + +"Maud," he said, his utterance quick and hoarse, "we go into the house +of our enemies. Thirty knights and no more accompany my lord, who +might have ridden out with three thousand in his train." + +"'Tis all that witch woman," cried the girl; "can you not advise him?" + +"The Earl of Douglas did not ask my advice," said Sholto, a little +dryly, being eager to turn the conversation upon his own matters and +to his own advantage. "And, moreover, if he rides into danger for the +sake of love--why, I for one think the more of him for it." + +"But for such a creature," objected Maud Lindesay. "For any true maid +it were most right and proper! Where is there a noble lady in Scotland +who would not have been proud to listen to him? But he must needs run +after this mongrel French woman!" + +"Even Mistress Maud Lindesay would accept him, would she?" said +Sholto, somewhat bitterly, releasing her a little. + +"Maud Lindesay is no great lady, only the daughter of a poor baron of +the North, and much bound to my Lord Douglas by gratitude for that +which he hath done for her family. As you right well know, Maud +Lindesay is little better than a tiremaiden in the house of my lord." + +"Nay," said Sholto, "I crave your pardon. I meant it not. I am hasty +of words, and the time is short. Will you pardon me and bid me +farewell, for the horses are being led from stall, and I cannot keep +my lord waiting?" + +"You are glad to go," she said reproachfully; "you will forget us whom +you leave behind you here. Indeed, you care not even now, so that you +are free to wander over the world and taste new pleasures. That is to +be a man, indeed. Would that I had been born one!" + +"Nay, Maud," said Sholto, trying to draw the girl again near him, +because she kept him at arm's length by the unyielding strength of her +wrist, "none shall ever come near my heart save Maud Lindesay alone! I +would that I could ride away as sure of you as you are of Sholto +MacKim!" + +"Indeed," cried the girl, with some show of returning spirit, "to that +you have no claim. Never have I said that I loved you, nor indeed that +I thought about you at all." + +"It is true," answered Sholto, "and yet--I think you will remember me +when the lamps are blown out. God speed, belovedst, I hear the trumpet +blow, and the horses trampling." + +For out on the green before the castle the Earl's guard was mustering, +and Fergus MacCulloch, the Earl's trumpeter, blew an impatient blast. +It seemed to speak to this effect: + + _"Hasten ye, hasten ye, come to the riding, + Hasten ye, hasten ye, lads of the Dee-- + Douglasdale come, come Galloway, Annandale, + Galloway blades are the best of the three!"_ + +Sholto held out his arms at the first burst of the stirring sound, and +the girl, all her wayward pride falling from her in a moment, came +straight into them. + +"Good-by, my sweetheart," he said, stooping to kiss the lips that now +said him not nay, but which quivered pitifully as he touched them, +"God knows whether these eyes shall rest again on the desire of my +heart." + +Maud looked into his face steadily and searchingly. + +"You are sure you will not forget me, Sholto?" she said; "you will +love me as much to-morrow when you are far away, and think me as fair +as you do when you hold me thus in your arms upon the battlements of +Thrieve?" + +Before Sholto had time to answer, the trumpet rang out again, with a +call more instant and imperious than before. + +[Illustration: "BUT THERE COMETH A NIGHT WHEN EVERY ONE OF US WATCHES +THE GREY SHALLOWS TO THE EAST FOR THOSE THAT SHALL RETURN NO MORE!"] + +Sholto clasped her close to him as the second summons shrilled up into +the air. + +"God keep my little lass!" he said; "fear not, Maud, I have never +loved any but you!" + +He was gone. And through her tears Maud Lindesay watched him from the +top of the great square keep, as he rode off gallantly behind the Earl +and his brother. + +"In time past I have dreamed," she thought to herself, "that I loved +this one and that; but it was not at all like this. I cannot put him +out of my mind for a moment, even when I would!" + +As the brothers William and David Douglas crossed the rough bridge of +pine thrown over the narrows of the Dee, they looked back +simultaneously. Their mother stood on the green moat platform of +Thrieve, with their little sister Margaret holding up her train with a +pretty modesty. She waved not a hand, fluttered no kerchief of +farewell, only stood sadly watching the sons with whom she had +travailed, like one who watches the dear dead borne to their last +resting-place. + +"So," she communed, "even thus do the women of the Douglas House watch +their beloveds ride out of sight. And so for many times they return +through the ford at dawn or dusk. But there cometh a night when every +one of us watches the grey shallows to the east for those that shall +return no more!" + +"See, see!" cried the little Margaret, "look, dear mother, they have +taken off their caps, and even Sholto hath his steel bonnet in his +hand. They are bidding us farewell. I wish Maudie had been here to +see. I wonder where she has hidden herself. How surprised she will be +to find that they are gone!" + +It was a true word that the little Maid of Galloway spoke, for, +according to the pretty custom of the young Earl, the cavalcade had +halted ere they plunged into the woods of Kelton. The Douglas lads +took their bonnets in their hands. Their dark hair was stirred by the +breeze. Sholto also bared his head and looked towards the speck of +white which he could just discern on the summit of the frowning keep. + +"Shall ever her eyelashes rise and fall again for me, and shall I see +the smile waver alternately petulant and tender upon her lips?" + +This was his meditation. For, being a young man in love, these things +were more to him than matins and evensong, king or chancellor, heaven +or hell--as indeed it was right and wholesome that they should be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +CASTLE CRICHTON + + +Crichton Castle was much more a defenced château and less a feudal +stronghold than Thrieve. It stood on a rising ground above the little +Water of Tyne, which flowed clear and swift beneath from the blind +"hopes" and bare valleys of the Moorfoot Hills. But the site was well +chosen both for pleasure and defence. The ground fell away on three +sides. Birch, alder, ash, girt it round and made pleasant summer +bowers everywhere. + +The fox-faced Chancellor had spent much money on beautifying it, and +the kitchens and larders were reported to be the best equipped in +Scotland. On the green braes of Crichton, therefore, in due time the +young Douglases arrived with their sparse train of thirty riders. Sir +William Crichton had ridden out to meet them across the innumerable +little valleys which lie around Temple and Borthwick to the brow of +that great heathy tableland which runs back from the Moorfoots clear +to the Solway. + +With him were only the Marshal de Retz and his niece, the Lady +Sybilla. + +Not a single squire or man-at-arms accompanied these three, for, as +the Chancellor well judged, there was no way more likely effectually +to lull the suspicions of a gallant man like the Douglas than to +forestall him in generous confidence. + +The three sat their horses and looked to the south for their guests at +that delightsome hour of the summer gloaming when the last bees are +reluctantly disengaging themselves from the dewy heather bells and the +circling beetles begin their booming curfew. + +"There they come!" cried de Retz, suddenly, pointing to a few specks +of light which danced and dimpled between them and the low horizon of +the south, against which, like a spacious armada, leaned a drift of +primrose sunset clouds. + +"There they come--I see them also!" said the Lady Sybilla, and +suddenly sighed heavily and without cause. + +"Where, and how many?" cried the Chancellor, in a shrill pipe usually +associated with the physically deformed, but which from him meant no +more than anxious discomposure. + +The marshal pointed with the steady hand of the practised commander to +the spot at which his keen eye had detected the cavalcade. + +"Yonder," he said, "where the pine tree stands up against the sky." + +"And how many? I cannot see them, my eyesight fails. I bid you tell me +how many," gasped the Chancellor. + +The ambassador looked long. + +"There are, as I think, no more than twenty or thirty riders." + +Instantly the Chancellor turned and held out his hand. + +"We have him," he muttered, withdrawing it again as soon as he saw +that the ambassador did not take it, being occupied gazing under his +palm at the approaching train of riders. + +The Lady Sybilla sat silent and watched the company which rode towards +them--with what thoughts in her heart, who shall venture to guess? She +kept her head studiously averted from the Marshal de Retz, and once +when he touched her arm to call attention to something, she shuddered +and moved a little nearer to the Chancellor. Nevertheless, she obeyed +her companion implicitly and without question when he bade her ride +forward with them to receive the Chancellor's guests. + +Crichton took it on himself to rally the girl on her silence. + +"Of what may you be thinking so seriously?" he said. + +"Of thirty pieces of silver," she replied instantly. + +And at these words the marshal turned upon the girl a regard so black +and relentless that the Chancellor, happening to encounter it, shrank +back abashed, even as some devilkin caught in a fault might shrink +from the angry eyes of the Master of Evil. + +But the Lady Sybilla looked calmly at her kinsman. + +"Of what do you complain?" he asked her. + +"I complain of nothing," she made him answer. "I am that which I am, +and I am that which you have made me, my Lord of Retz. Fear not, I +will do my part." + +Right handsome looked the young Earl of Douglas, as with a flush of +expectation and pleasure on his face he rode up to the party of three +who had come out to meet him. He made his obeisance to Sybilla first, +with a look of supremest happiness in his eyes which many women would +have given their all to see there. As he came close he leaped from his +horse, and advancing to his lady he bent and kissed her hand. + +"My Lady Sybilla," he said, "I am as ever your loyal servant." + +The Chancellor and the ambassador had both dismounted, not to be +outdone in courtesy, and one after the other they greeted him with +what cordiality they could muster. The narrow, thin-bearded face of +the Chancellor and the pallid death-mask of de Retz, out of which +glittered orbs like no eyes of human being, furnished a singular +contrast to the uncovered head, crisp black curls, slight moustache, +and fresh olive complexion of the young Earl of Douglas. + +And as often as he was not looking at her, the eyes of the Lady +Sybilla rested on Lord Douglas with a strange expression in their +deeps. The colour in her cheek came and went. The vermeil of her lip +flushed and paled alternate, from the pink of the wild rose-leaf to +the red of its autumnal berry. + +But presently, at a glance from her kinsman, Sybilla de Thouars seemed +to recall herself with difficulty from a land of dreams, and with an +obvious effort began to talk to William Douglas. + +"Whom have you brought to see me?" she said. + +"Only a few men-at-arms, besides Sholto my squire, and my brother +David," he made answer. "I did not wait for more. But let me bring the +lad to you. Sholto you did not like when he was a plain archer of the +guard, and I fear that he will not have risen in your grace since I +dubbed him knight." + +David Douglas willingly obeyed the summons of his brother, and came +forward to kiss the hand of the Lady Sybilla. + +"Here, Sholto," cried his lord, "come hither, man. It will do your +pride good to see a lady who avers that conceit hath eaten you up." + +Sholto came at the word and bowed before the French damosel as he was +commanded, meekly enough to all outward aspect. But in his heart he +was saying over and over to himself words that consoled him mightily: +"A murrain on her! The cozening madam, she will never be worth naming +on the same day as Maud Lindesay!" + +"Nay," cried the Lady Sybilla, laughing; "indeed, I said not that I +disliked this your squire. What woman thinks the worse of a lad of +mettle that he does not walk with his head between his feet. But 'tis +pity that there is no fair cruel maid to bind his heart in chains, and +make him fetch and carry to break his pride. He thinks overmuch of his +sword-play and arrow skill." + +"He must go to France for that humbling," said the Earl, gaily, "or +else mayhap some day a maid may come from France to break his heart +for him. The like hath been and may be again." + +"I would that I had known there were such gallant blades as you three, +my Lords of Douglas and their knight, sighing here in Scotland to have +your hearts broke for the good of your souls. I had then brought with +me a tierce of damsels fair as cruel, who had done it in the flashing +of a swallow's wing. But 'tis a contract too great for one poor maid." + +"Yet you yourself ventured all alone into this realm of forlorn and +desperate men," answered the Earl, scarcely recking what he said, nor +indeed caring so that her dark eyes should continue to rest on him +with the look he had seen in them at his first coming. + +"All alone--yes, much, much alone," she answered with a strange +glance about her. "My kinsman loves not womankind, and neither in his +castles nor yet in his company does he permit any of the sex long to +abide." + +The men now mounted again, and the three rode back in the midst of the +cavalcade of Douglas spears, the Chancellor talking as freely and +confidently to the Earl as if he had been his friend for years, while +the Earl of Douglas kept up the converse right willingly so long as, +looking past the Chancellor, his eyes could rest also upon the +delicately poised head and graceful form of the Lady Sybilla. + +And behind them a horse's length the Marshal de Retz rode, smiling in +the depths of his blue-black beard, and looking at them out of the +wicks of his triangular eyes. + +Presently the towers of the Castle of Crichton rose before them on its +green jutting spur. The Tyne Valley sank beneath into level meads and +rich pastures, while behind the Moorfoots spread brown and bare +without prominent peaks or distinguished glens, but nevertheless with +a certain large vagueness and solemnity peculiarly their own. + +The _fętes_ with which the Chancellor welcomed his guests were many +and splendid. But in one respect they differed from those which have +been described at Castle Thrieve. There was no military pomp of any +kind connected with them. The Chancellor studiously avoided all +pretence of any other distinction than that belonging to a plain man +whom circumstances have raised against his will to a position of +responsibility. + +The thirty spears of the Earl's guard, indeed, constituted the whole +military force within or about the Castle of Crichton. + +"I am a lawyer, my lord, a plain lawyer," he said; "all Scots lawyers +are plain. And I must ask you to garrison my bit peel-tower of +Crichton in a manner more befitting your own greatness, and the honour +due to the ambassador of France, than a humble knight is able to do." + +So Sholto was put into command of the court and battlements of the +castle, and posted and changed guard as though he had been at Thrieve, +while the Chancellor bustled about, affecting more the style of a rich +and comfortable burgess than that of a feudal baron. + +"'Tis a snug bit hoose," he would say, dropping into the countryside +speech; "there's nocht fine within it from cellar to roof tree, save +only the provend and the jolly Malmsey. And though I be but a poor +eater myself, I love that my betters, who do me the honour of +sojourning within my gates, should have the wherewithal to be merry." + +And it was even as he said, for the tables were weighted with +delicacies such as were never seen upon the boards of Thrieve or +Castle Douglas. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE BOWER BY YON BURNSIDE + + +And ever as he gazed at her the Earl of Douglas grew more and more in +love with the Lady Sybilla. There was no covert side through which a +burn plunged downward from the steep side of Moorfoot, but they +wandered it alone together. Early and late they might have been met, +he with his face turned upon her, and she looking straight forward +with the same inscrutable calm. And all who saw left them alone as +they took their way to gather flowers like children, or, as it might +be, stood still and silent like a pair of lovers under the evening +star. For in these summer days and nights bloomed untiringly the brief +passion-flower of William Douglas's life. + +Meanwhile Sholto gritted his teeth in impotent rage, but had nothing +to do save change guard and keep a wary eye upon the Chancellor, who +went about rubbing his hands and glancing sidelong as the copses +closed behind the Earl of Douglas and the Lady Sybilla. As for the +ambassador of France, he was, as was usual with him, much occupied in +his own chamber with his servants Poitou and Henriet, and save when +dinner was served in hall appeared little at the festivities. + +Sholto wished at times for the presence of his father; but at others, +when he saw William Douglas and Sybilla return with a light on their +faces, and their eyes large and vague, he bethought him of Maud +Lindesay, and was glad that, for a little at least, the sun of love +should shine upon his lord. + +It was in the gracious fulness of the early autumn, when the sheaves +were set up in many a park and little warded holt about the Moorfoot +braes, that William Douglas and Sybilla de Thouars stood together upon +a crest of hill, crowned with dwarf birch and thick foliaged alder--a +place in the retirement of whose sylvan bower they had already spent +many tranced hours. + +The Lady Sybilla sat down on a worn grey rock which thrust itself +through the green turf. William Douglas stood beside her pulling a +blade of bracken to pieces. The girl had been wearing a broad flat cap +of velvet, which in the coolness of the twilight she had removed and +now swung gently to and fro in her hand as she looked to the north, +where small as a toy and backed by the orange glow of sunset, the +Castle of Edinburgh could be seen black upon its wind-swept ridge. The +girl was speaking slowly and softly. + +"Nay, Earl Douglas," she said, "marriage must not be named to Sybilla +de Thouars, certainly never by an Earl of Douglas and Duke of +Touraine. He must wed for riches and fair provinces. His house is +regal already. He is better born than the King, more powerful also. +The daughter of a Breton squire, of a forlorn and deserted mother, the +kinswoman of Gilles de Retz of Machecoul and Champtocé, is not for +him." + +"A Douglas makes many sacrifices," said the young man with +earnestness; "but this is not demanded of him. Four generations of us +have wedded for power. It is surely time that one did so for love." + +The girl reached him her hand, saying softly: "Ah, William, would that +it had been so. Too late I begin to think on those things which might +have been, had Sybilla de Thouars been born under a more fortunate +star. As it is I can only go on--a terror to myself and a bane to +others." + +The young man, absorbed in his own thoughts, did not hear her words. + +"The world itself were little to give in order that in exchange I +might possess you," he answered. + +The girl laughed a strange laugh, and drew back her hand from his. + +"Possess me, well--but marry me--no. Honest men and honourable like +Earl Douglas do not wed with the niece of Gilles de Retz. I had +thought my heart within me to be as flint in the chalk, yet now I pray +you on my knees to leave me. Take your thirty lances and your young +brother and ride home. Then, safe in your island fortress of Thrieve, +blot out of your heart all memory that ever you found pleasure in a +creature so miserable as Sybilla de Thouars." + +"But," said the young Earl, passionately, "tell me why so, my lady. I +do not understand. What obstacle can there be? You tell me that you +love me, that you are not betrothed. Your kinsman is an honourable +man, a marshal and an ambassador of France, a cousin of the Duke of +Brittany, a reigning sovereign. Moreover, am not I the Douglas? I am +responsible to no man. William Douglas may wed whom he will--king's +daughter or beggar wench. Why should he not join with the honourable +daughter of an honourable house, and the one woman he has ever loved?" + +The girl let her velvet cap fall on the ground, and sank her face +between her hands. Her whole body was shaken with emotion. + +"Go--go," she cried, starting to her feet and standing before him, +"call out your lances and ride home this night. Never look more upon +the face of such a thing as Sybilla de Thouars. I bid you! I warn you! +I command you! I thought I had been of stone, but now when I see you, +and hear your words, I cannot do that which is laid upon me to do." + +William of Douglas smiled. + +"I cannot go," he said simply, "I love you. Moreover, I will not go--I +am Earl of Douglas." + +The girl clasped her hands helplessly. + +"Not if I tell you that I have deceived you, led you on?" she said. +"Not if I swear that I am the slave of a power so terrible that there +are no words in any language to tell the least of the things I have +suffered?" + +The Earl shook his head. The girl suddenly stamped her foot in anger. +"Go--go, I tell you," she cried; "stay not a day in this accursed +place, wherein no true word is spoken and no loyal deed done, save +those which come forth from your own true heart." + +"Nay," said William Douglas, with his eyes on hers, "it is too late, +Sybil. I have kissed the red of your lips. Your head hath lain on my +breast. My whole soul is yours. I cannot now go back, even if I would. +The boy I have been, I can be no more for ever." + +The girl rose from the stone on which she had been sitting. There was +a new smile in her eyes. She held out her hands to the youth who +stood so erect and proud before her. "Well, at the worst, William +Douglas," she said, "you may never live to wear a white head, but at +least you shall touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, +taste the fruitage and smell the blossoms thereof more than a hundred +greybeards. I had not thought that earth held anywhere such a man, or +that aught but blackness and darkness remained this side of hell for +one so desolate as I. I have bid you leave me. I have told you that +which, were it known, would cost me my life. But since you will not +go,--since you are strong enough to stand unblenching in the face of +doom,--you shall not lose all without a price." + +She opened her arms wide, and her eyes were glorious. + +"I love you," she said, her lips thrilling towards him, "I love you, +love you, as I never thought to love any man upon this earth." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE GABERLUNZIE MAN + + +The next morning the Chancellor came down early from his chamber, and +finding Earl Douglas already waiting in the courtyard, he rubbed his +hands and called out cheerfully: "We shall be more lonely to-day, but +perhaps even more gay. For there are many things men delight in which +even the fairest ladies care not for, fearing mayhap some invasion of +their dominions." + +"What mean you, my Lord Chancellor?" said the Douglas to his host, +eagerly scanning the upper windows meanwhile. + +"I mean," said the Chancellor, fawningly, "that his Excellency, the +ambassador of France, hath ridden away under cloud of night, and hath +taken his fair ward with him." + +The Earl turned pale and stood glowering at the obsequious Chancellor +as if unable to comprehend the purport of his words. At last he +commanded himself sufficiently to speak. + +"Was this resolution sudden, or did the Lady Sybilla know of it +yesternight?" + +"Nay, of a surety it was quite sudden," replied the Chancellor. "A +message arrived from the Queen Mother to the Marshal de Retz +requesting an immediate meeting on business of state, whereupon I +offered my Castle of Edinburgh for the purpose as being more +convenient than Stirling. So I doubt not that they are all met there, +the young King being of the party. It is, indeed, a quaint falling +out, for of late, as you may have heard, the Tutor and the Queen have +scarce been of the number of my intimates." + +The Earl of Douglas appeared strangely disturbed. He paid no further +attention to his host, but strode to and fro in the courtyard with his +thumbs in his belt, in an attitude of the deepest meditation. + +The Chancellor watched him from under his eyebrows with alternate +apprehension and satisfaction, like a timid hunter who sees the lion +half in and half out of the snare. + +"I have a letter for you, my Lord Douglas," he said, after a long +pause. + +"Ah," cried Douglas, with obvious relief, "why did you not tell me so +at first. Pray give it me." + +"I knew not whether it might afford you pleasure or no," answered the +Chancellor. + +"Give it me!" cried Douglas, imperiously, as though he spoke to an +underling. + +Sir William Crichton drew a square parcel from beneath his long-furred +gown, and handed it to William Douglas, who, without stepping back, +instantly broke the seal. + +"Pshaw," cried he, contemptuously, "it is from the Queen Mother and +Alexander Livingston!" + +He thought it had been from another, and his disappointment was +written clear upon his face. + +"Even so," said the Chancellor, suavely; "it was delivered by the same +servant who brought the message which called away the ambassador and +his companion." + +The Earl read it from beginning to end. After the customary greetings +and good wishes the letter ran as follows: + + "The King greatly desires to see his noble cousin of Douglas + at the castle of Edinburgh, presently put at his Majesty's + disposal by the High Chancellor of Scotland. Here in this + place are now assembled all the men who desire the peace and + assured prosperity of the realm, saving the greatest of all, + my Lord and kinsman of Douglas. The King sends affectionate + greeting to his cousin, and desires that he also may come + thither, that the ambassador of France may carry back to his + master a favourable report of the unity and kindly + governance of the kingdom during his minority." + +The Chancellor watched the Earl as he read this letter. To one more +suspicious than William Douglas it would have been clear that he was +himself perfectly acquainted with the contents. + +"I am bidden meet the King at the Castle of Edinburgh," said Douglas; +"I will set out at once." + +"Nay, my lord," said Crichton, "not this day, at least. Stay and hunt +the stag on the braes of Borthwick. My huntsmen have marked down a +swift and noble buck. To-morrow to Edinburgh an you will!" + +"I thank you, Sir William," the Douglas answered, curtly enough; "but +the command is peremptory. I must ride to Edinburgh this very day." + +"I pray you remember that Edinburgh is a turbulent city and little +inclined to love your great house. Is it, think you, wise to go +thither with so small a retinue?" + +The Earl waved his hand carelessly. + +"I am not afraid," he said; "besides, what harm can befall when I +lodge in the castle of the Lord Chancellor of Scotland?" + +Crichton bowed very low. + +"What harm, indeed?" he said; "I did but advise your lordship to +bethink himself. I am an old man, pray remember--fast growing feeble +and naturally inclined to overmuch caution. But the blood flows hot +through the veins of eighteen." + +Sholto, who knew nothing of these happenings, had just finished +exercising his men on the smooth green in front of the Castle of +Crichton, and had dismissed them, when a gaberlunzie or privileged +beggar, a long lank rascal with a mat of tangled hair, and clad in a +cast-off leathern suit which erstwhile some knight had worn under his +mail, leaped suddenly from the shelter of a hedge. Instinctively +Sholto laid his hand on his dagger. + +"Nay," snuffled the fellow, "I come peaceably. As you love your lord +hasten to give him this letter. And, above all, let not the Crichton +see you." + +He placed a small square scrap of parchment in Sholto's hand. It was +sealed in black wax with a serpent's head, and from the condition of +the outside had evidently been in places both greasy and grimy. Sholto +put it in his leathern pouch wherein he was used to keep the hone for +sharpening his arrows, and bestowed a silver groat upon the beggar. + +"Thy master's life is surely worth more than a groat," said the man. + +"I warrant you have been well enough paid already," said Sholto, "that +is, if this be not a deceit. But here is a shilling. On your head be +it, if you are playing with Sholto MacKim!" + +So saying the captain of the guard strode within. He had already +acquired the carriage and consequence of a veteran old in the wars. + +His master was still pacing up and down the courtyard, deep in +meditation. Sholto saluted the young Earl and asked permission to +speak a word with him. + +"Speak on, Sholto--well do you know that at all times you may say what +you will to me." + +"But this I desire to keep from prying eyes. My lord, there is a +letter in my wallet which was given me even now by a gaberlunzie man. +He declares that it concerns your life. I pray you take out my hone +stone as if to look at it, and with it the letter." + +The Earl nodded, as if Sholto had been making a report to him. Then he +went nearer and began to finger his squire's accoutrements, finally +opening his belt pouch and taking out the stone that was therein. + +"Where gat you this hone!" he said, holding it to the light; "it looks +not the right blue for a Water-of-Ayr stone." + +Sholto answered that it came from the Parton Hills, and, as the Earl +replaced it, he possessed himself of the square letter and thrust it +into the bosom of his doublet. + +As soon as William Douglas was alone, he broke the seal and tore open +the parchment. It was written in a delicate foreign script, the +characters fine and small: + + "My lord, do not, I beseech you, come to Edinburgh or think + of me more. Last night my Lord of Retz spied upon us and + this morning he hath carried me off. Wherever you are when + you receive this, turn instantly and ride with all speed to + one of your strong castles. As you love me, go! We can never + hope to see one another again. Forget an unfortunate girl + who can never forget you." + +There was no signature saving the impression of the joined serpents' +heads, which he remembered as the signet of the ring he had found and +given back to her on the day of the tournament. + +"I will never give her up. I must see her," cried the Earl of Douglas, +"and this very day. Aye, and though I were to die for it on the +morrow, see her I will!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +"EDINBURGH CASTLE, TOWER, AND TOWN" + + +It was with an anxious heart that Sholto rode out behind his master +over the bald northerly slopes of the Moorfoots. For a long time David +Douglas kept close to his brother, so that the captain of the guard +could speak no private word. For, though he knew that nothing was to +be gained by remonstrance, Sholto was resolved that he would not let +his reckless master run unwarned into danger so deadly and certain. + +He rode up, therefore, and craved permission to speak to the Earl, +seizing an occasion when David had fallen a little behind. + +"Thou art a true son of Malise MacKim, whatever thy mother may aver," +cried the Earl. "I'll wager a gold angel thou art going to say +something shrewdly unpleasant. That great lurdain, thy father, never +asks permission to speak save when he has stilettos rankling where his +honest tongue should be." + +"My lord," said Sholto, "bear a word from one who loves you. Go not +into this town of Edinburgh. Or at least wait till you can ride +thither with three thousand lances as did your father, and his father +before him." + +The Earl laughed merrily and clapped his young knight on the +shoulder. + +"Did you not tell me the same ere we came to the Castle of Crichton, +and lo! there we were ten days in the place and not a man-at-arms +within miles except your own Galloway varlets! Sholto, my lad, we +might have sacked the castle, rolled all the platters down the slopes +into the Tyne, and sent the cooks trundling after them, for all that +any one could have done to stop us. Yet here are we riding forth, +feathers in our bonnets, swords by our sides, panged full of the +Chancellor's good meat and drink, and at once, as soon as we are gone, +Sholto MacKim begins the same old discontented corbie's croak!" + +"But, my lord, 'tis a different matter yonder. The Castle of Edinburgh +is a strong place with many courts and doors--a hostile city round +about, not a solitary castle like Crichton. They may separate you from +us, and we may be able neither to save you nor yet to die with you, if +the worst comes to the worst." + +"I may inform you as well soon as syne, you waste your breath, +Sholto," said Earl Douglas, "and it ill becomes a young knight, let me +tell you, to be so chicken-hearted. The next time I will leave you at +home to hem linen for the bed-sheets. Malise is a licensed croaker, +but I thought better of you, Master Sholto MacKim!" + +The captain of the Earl's guard looked on the ground and his heart was +distressed within him. Yet, in spite of the raillery of the Douglas, +he resolved to make one more effort. + +"My lord," he said, "you know not the full hatred of these men against +your house. What other object save the destruction of the Douglas can +have drawn together foes so deadly as Crichton and Livingston? At +least, my lord, if you are set on risking your own life, send back one +of us with your brother David!" + +Then cried out David Douglas, who had joined them during the converse, +against so monstrous a proposal. + +"I will not go back in any case," said the lad; "William has the +earldom and the titles. I may at least be allowed part of the fun. +Sholto, if William dies without heirs and I become Earl, my first act +will be to hang you on the dule tree with a raven on either side, for +a slow-bellied knave and prophet of evil!" + +The Earl looked at his brother and seemed to hesitate. + +"There is something in what you say, Sholto." + +"My lord, if the blow fall, let not your line be wholly cut off. I +pray you let five good lads ride straight for Douglasdale with David +in the midst--" + +"Sholto," cried the boy, "I will not go back, nor be a palterer, all +because you are afraid for your own skin!" + +"My place is with my master," said Sholto, curtly, and the boy looked +ashamed for a moment; but he soon recovered himself and returned to +the charge. + +"Well, then, 'tis because you want to see Maud Lindesay that you are +so set on returning. I saw you kiss Maud's hand in the dark of the +stairs. Aha! Master Sholto, what say you now?" + +"Hold your tongue, David," cried his brother; "you might have seen him +kiss yet more pleasantly, and yet do no harm. But, after all, you and +I are Douglases and our star is in the zenith. We will fall together, +if fall we must. Not a word more about it. David, I will race you to +yonder dovecot for a golden lion." + +"Done with you!" cried his brother, joyously, and in an instant spurs +were into the flanks of their horses, and the young men flew +thundering over the green turf, riding swiftly into the golden haze +from which rose ever higher and higher the dark towers of the Castle +of Edinburgh. + +Past grey peel and wind-swept fortalice the young Lords of Douglas rode +that autumn day, gaily as to a wedding, on their way to place +themselves in the power of their house's enemies. The sea plain +pursued them, flecked green and purple on their right hand. Little +ships floated on the smooth surface of the firth, hardly larger in +size than the boats of fisher folk, yet ships withal which had +adventured into far seas and brought back rich produce into the barren +lands of the Scots. + +At last they entered the demesne of Holyrood, and saw the deer +crouching and basking about the copses or scampering over the broomy +knowes of the Nether Hill. As they came near to the Canongate Port, +they saw a gallant band gaily dressed coming forth to meet them, and +the Earl's eye brightened as it caught in the midst the glint of +ladies' attiring. + +"See, Sholto," he cried, "and repent! Yonder is not a single lance +shining, and you cannot turn your grumbling head but you will see nigh +two score, with a stout Douglas heart bumping under each." + +"Ah," said Sholto, without joy or conviction, "but we are neither in +nor yet out of this weary town of Edinburgh!" + +As the cavalcade approached, there came a boy on a pony at speed +towards them. He carried a switch in his hand, and with it he urged +his little beast to still greater endeavours. + +"The King!" cried David, cheerfully. "I heard he was a sturdy brat +enough!" + +And in another moment the two young men of the dominant house were +taking off their bonnets to the boy who, in name at least, was their +sovereign and overlord. + +"Hurrah!" cried the lad, as he circled about them, reckless and +irresponsible as a sea-gull, "I am so glad, so very glad you have +come. I like you because you are so bold and young. I have none about +me like you. You will teach me to ride a tourney. I have been hearing +all about yours at Thrieve from the Lady Sybilla. I wish you had asked +me. But now we shall be friends, and I will come and stay long months +with you all together--that is, if my mother will let me." + +All this the young King shouted as he ranged alongside of the two +brothers, and rode with them towards the city. + +King James II. of Scotland was at this time an open-hearted boy, with +no evident mark of the treachery and jealous fury which afterwards +distinguished him as a man. The schooling of Livingston, his tutor, +had not yet perverted his mind (as it did too soon afterwards), and he +welcomed the young Douglases as the embodiment of all that was great +and knightly, noble and gallant, in his kingdom. + +"Yesterday," he began, as soon as he had subdued the ardour of his +frolicsome little steed to a steadier gait, varied only by an +occasional curvet, "yesterday I was made to read in the Chronicles of +the Kings of Scotland, and lo, it was the Douglas did this and the +Douglas said that, till I cried out upon Master Kennedy, 'Enough of +Douglases--I am a Stewart. Read me of the Stewarts.' Then gave Master +Kennedy a look as when he laughs in his sleeve, and shook his head. +'This book concerneth battles,' said he, 'and not gear, plenishing, +and tocher. The Douglas won for King Robert his crown, the Stewart +only married his daughter--though that, if all tales be true, was the +braver deed!' Now that was no reverent speech to me that am a Stewart, +nor yet very gallant to my great-grandmother, was it, Earl Douglas?" + +"It was no fine courtier's flattery, at any rate," said the Douglas, +his eyes wandering hither and thither across the cavalcade which they +were now meeting, in search of the graceful figure and darkly splendid +head of the girl he loved. + +The Lady Sybilla was not there. + +"They have secluded her," he muttered, in sharp jealous anger; "'tis +all her kinsman's fault. He hath the marks of a traitor and worse. But +they shall not spite nor flout the Douglas." + +So with a countenance grave and unresponsive he saluted Livingston the +tutor, who came forth to meet him. The Chancellor was expected +immediately, for he had ridden in more rapidly by the hill way in +order that he might welcome his notable guests to the metropolitan +residence of the Kings of Scotland. + +The Castle of Edinburgh was at that time in the fulness of its +strength and power. The first James had greatly enlarged and +strengthened its works defensive. He had added thirty feet to the +height of David's Tower, which now served as a watch-station over all +the rock, and in his last days he had begun to build the great hall +which the Chancellor had but recently finished. + +It was here that presently the feast was set. The banquet-hall ran the +width of the keep, and the raised dais in the centre was large enough +to seat the whole higher baronage of Scotland, among whom (as the Earl +of Douglas thought with some scorn) neither of his entertainers, +Crichton and Livingston, had any right to place themselves. + +But the question where the Lady Sybilla was bestowed soon occupied the +Douglas more than any thought of his own safety or of the loyalty of +his entertainers. Sybilla, however, was neither in the courtly +cavalcade which met them at the entrance of the park, nor yet among +the more numerous ladies who stood at the castle yett to welcome to +Edinburgh the noble and handsome young lords of the South. + +Douglas therefore concluded that de Retz, discovering some part of the +love that was between them, or mayhap hearing of it from some spy or +other at Crichton Castle, had secluded his sweetheart. He loosened his +hand on the rein to lay it on the sword-hilt, as he thought of this +cruelty to a maid so pure and fair. + +Sholto kept his company very close behind him as they rode up the +High-street, a gloomy defile of tall houses dotted from topmost window +to pavement with the heads of chattering goodwives, and the flutter of +household clothing hung out to dry. + +At the first defences of the castle Douglas called Sholto and said: +"Your fellows are to be lodged here on the Castle Hill. The Chancellor +hath sent word that there is no room in the castle itself. For the +tutor's men and King's men have already filled it to the brim." + +These tidings agonised Sholto more than ever. + +"My lord," he said, in a tortured whisper, "turn about your rein and +we will cut our way out even yet. Do you not see that the devils would +separate you from all who love you? And I shall be blamed for this in +Galloway. At least, let me accompany you with half a dozen men." + +"Nay," said the Earl, "such suspicion were a poor return for the +Chancellor's putting himself in our hands all the days we spent with +him at his Castle of Crichton. To your lodgings, Sholto, and give God +thanks if there be therein a pretty maid or a dame complaisant, +according to the wont of young squires and men-at-arms." + +In this fashion rode the Earl of Douglas to take his first dinner in +the Castle of Edinburgh. And Sholto MacKim went behind him, no man +saying him nay. For his master had eyes only for one face, and that he +could not see. + +"But I shall find her yet," he said over and over in his heart. It was +but a boyish heart, and simple, too; but all so brave and high that +the gallantest and greatest gentleman in the world had not one like to +it for loyalty and courage. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE BLACK BULL'S HEAD + + +The banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle, but lately out of artificers' +hands, was a noble oblong chamber reaching from side to side of the +south-looking keep, begun by James I. It was decorated in the French +manner with oak ceilings and panellings, all bossed and cornered with +massive silver-gilt mouldings. + +Save in the ordering of the repast itself there was a marked absence +of ostentation. Only a soldier or two could be seen, mostly on guard +at the outer gates, and Sholto, who till now had been uneasy and +fearful for his master, became gradually more reassured when he saw +with what care every want of the Earl and his brother was attended to, +and if possible even forestalled. + +The young King was in jubilant spirits, and could scarcely be +persuaded to let the brothers Douglas remain a moment alone. He was +resolved, he said, to have his bed brought into their chamber that he +might talk to them all night of tourneys and noble deeds of arms. +Never had he met with any whom he loved so much, and on their part the +young Lords of Douglas became boys again, in this atmosphere of frank +and boyish admiration. + +It was a state banquet to which they sat down. That is, there was no +hungry crowd of hangers-on clustered below the salt. To each +gentleman was allotted a silver trenchard for his own use, instead of +one betwixt two as was the custom. The service was ordered in the +French manner, and there was manifest through all a quiet observance +and good taste which won upon the Earl of Douglas. Nevertheless, his +eyes still continued to range this way and that through the castle, +scanning each tower, glancing up at every balcony and archway, in +search of the Lady Sybilla. + +In the banquet-hall the little King sat on his high chair in the +midst, with the brothers of Douglas one on either side of him. He +spoke loudly and confidently after the manner of a pampered boy of +high spirits. + +"I will soon come and visit you in return at the Castle of Thrieve. +The Lady Sybilla hath told me how strong it is and how splendid are +the tourneys there, as grand, she swears, as those of France." + +"The Lady Sybilla is peradventure gone to her own land?" ventured +Douglas, not wishing to ask a more direct question. He spoke freely, +however, on all other subjects with the King, laughing and talking +mostly with him, and finding little to say to the tutor Livingston or +the Chancellor, who, either from humility or from fear, had taken care +to interpose half a dozen knights between himself and his late guests. + +"Nay," cried the young King, looking querulously at his tutor, "but, +indeed, I wot not what they have done with my pretty gossip, Sybilla; +I have not seen her for three weeks, save for a moment this morning. +And before she went away she promised to teach me to dance a coranto +in the French manner, and the trick of the handkerchief to hide a +dagger in the hand." + +As the Earl listened to the boy's prattle, he became more and more +convinced that the Marshal de Retz, having in some way discovered +their affection for each other, had removed Sybilla out of his reach. +Her letter, indeed, showed clearly that she was in fear of +ill-treatment both for himself and for her. + +The banquet passed with courtesies much more elaborate than was usual +in Scotland, but which indicated the great respect in which the +Douglases were held. Between each course a servant clad in the royal +colours presented a golden salver filled with clear water for the +guests to wash their hands. Through the interstices of the ceiling +strains of music filtered down from musicians hidden somewhere above, +which sounded curiously soothing and far away. + +The Chancellor bowed and drank every few minutes to the health of the +Earl and his brother across the board, while the tutor sat smiling +upon all with the polish of a professional courtier. In his high seat +at the table end the little King chatted incessantly of the times when +he could do as he pleased, and when he and his cousin of Douglas would +ride together to battle and tourney, or feast together in hall. + +"Be sure, then, I will not keep all these grey-beard sorners about +me," he said, lowering his voice cautiously; "I will only have young +gallant men like you and David there. But what comes here?" + +There was a stir among the servitors at the upper end of the room. +Sholto, who stood behind his master's chair, heard the skirl of the +war-pipes approach nearer. It grew louder, more insistent, finally +almost oppressive. The doors at either end were filled with armed +men. They filed silently into the hall in dark armour, all carrying +shining Lochaber axes. + +Douglas leaned back in his chair, and looked nonchalantly on like a +spectator of a pageant. He continued to talk to the King easily and +calmly, as if he were in his own Castle of Thrieve. But Sholto saw the +white and ghastly look on the face of the Chancellor, and noted his +hands nervously grip the table. He observed him also lean across and +confer with Livingston, who nodded like one that agrees that the +moment of action has come. + +At the upper end of the hall were wide folding doors which till now +had been shut. These were opened swiftly, either half falling back to +the wall. And through the archway came two servitors in black habits, +carrying between them on a huge platter of silver a black bull's head, +ghastly and ominous even in death, with staring eyeballs and matted +frontlet of ensanguined hair. + +"Treachery!" instantly cried Sholto, and ere the men could approach he +had drawn his sword and stood ready to do battle for his lord. For +throughout all Scotland a bull's head served at table is the symbol of +death. + +The Earl did not move or speak. He watched the progress of the men in +black, who staggered under their heavy burden. David also had risen to +his feet with his hand on his sword, but William Douglas sat still. +Alarm, wonder, and anxiety chased each other across the face of the +young King. + +"What is this, Chancellor--why is the room filled with armed men?" he +cried. + +But Crichton had withdrawn himself behind the partisans of his +soldiers, and down the long table there was not a man but had risen +and bared his sword. Every eye was turned upon the young Earl. A score +of men-at-arms came forward to seize him. + +"Stand back on your lives!" cried Sholto, sweeping his blade about him +to keep a space clear about his youthful master. + +But still the Earl William sat calm and unmoved, though all others had +risen to their feet and held arms in their hands. + +"What means this mumming?" he said, high and clear. "If a mystery is +to be played, surely it were better to put it off till after dinner." + +Then through the open doorway came a voice piercing and reedy. + +"The play is played indeed, William of Douglas, and the lion is now +safe in the power of the dogs. How like you our kennel, most mighty +lion?" + +It was the voice of the Chancellor Crichton. + +The young King came running from his place and threw his arms about +the Earl's neck. + +"I am the King," he cried; "not one of you shall touch or hurt my +cousin Douglas!" + +"Stand back, James," said the tutor Livingston; "the Douglas is a +traitor, and you shall never reign while he rules. He and his brother +must be tried for treason. They have claimed the King's throne, and +usurped his authority." + +Sholto MacKim turned about. In all that threatening array of armed men +no friendly eye met his, and none of all he had trusted drew a blade +for the Douglas. Sholto stood calculating the chances. To die like a +man was easy, but how to die to some purpose seemed more difficult. +He saw the King with his arm about the neck of William Douglas, who +remained quietly in his place with a pale but assured countenance. + +It was Sholto's only chance. With his left hand he seized the young +King by the collar of his doublet, and set the point of his sword to +his back between the shoulder-blades. + +"Now," he cried, "let a man lay hand on my Lord Douglas and I will +slay the King!" + +At this there was great consternation, and but for fear of Sholto's +keeping his word half a score would have rushed forward to the +assistance of the boy. The scream of a woman from some concealed +portal showed that the Queen Mother was waiting to witness the +downfall of the mighty house which, as she had been taught, alone +threatened her boy's throne. + +Sholto's arm was already drawn back for the thrust, when the voice of +the Earl of Douglas was heard. He had risen to his feet, and now stood +easy and careless as ever, with his thumb in the blue silken sash +which girt his waist. + +"Sholto," he said calmly, "you forget your place. Let the King go +instantly, and ask his Majesty's pardon. Set your sword again in its +sheath. I am your lord. I dubbed you knight. Do as I command you." + +Most unwillingly Sholto did as he was bidden, and the King, instead of +withdrawing, placed himself still closer to William of Douglas. + +"And now," cried the Earl, facing the array of armed men who thronged +the banquet-hall, "what would ye with the Douglas? Do ye mean my +death, as by the Bull's Head here on the table ye would have me +believe?" + +"For black treason do we apprehend you, Earl of Douglas," creaked the +voice of the Chancellor, still speaking from behind his array of +men-at-arms, "and because you have set yourself above the King. But we +are no butchers, and trial shall ye have by your peers." + +"And who in this place are the peers of the Earl of Douglas?" said the +young man, haughtily. + +"I will not bandy words with you, my Lord Douglas. You are +overmastered. Yield yourself, therefore, as indeed you must without +remeed. Deliver your weapons and submit; 'tis our will." + +"My brave Chancellor," said the Earl William, still in a voice of +pleasant irony, "you have well chosen your time to shame yourself. We +are your invited guests, and the guests of the King of Scotland. We +are here unarmed, sitting at meat with you in your own house. We have +come hither unattended, trusting to the honour of these noble knights +and gentlemen. Therefore my brother and I have no swords to deliver. +But if, being honourable men, you stand, as is natural, upon a nice +punctilio, I can satisfy you." + +He turned again to Sholto MacKim. + +"Give me your sword," he said. "'Tis better I should render it than +you." + +With great unwillingness the captain of the guard of Thrieve did as he +was bidden. The Earl reversed it in his hand and held it by the point. + +"And now, my Lord Chancellor, I deliver you a Douglas sword, depending +upon the word of an honourable man and the invitation of the King of +Scotland." + +But even so the chancellor would not advance from behind the cover of +his soldiery, and the Earl looked around for some one to whom to +surrender. + +"Will you then appoint one of your knights to whom I may deliver this +weapon? Is there none who will dare to come near even the hilt of a +Douglas sword? Here then, Sholto, break it over your knee and cast it +upon the board as a witness against all treachery." + +Sholto did as he was told, breaking his sword and casting the pieces +upon the table in the place where the King of Scots had sat. + +"And now, my lords, I am ready," said the Earl, and his brother David +stood up beside him, looking as they faced the unbroken ring of their +foes the two noblest and gallantest youths in Scotland. + +At this the King caught Lord William by the hand, and, lifting up his +voice, wept aloud with the sudden breaking lamentation of a child. + +"My cousin, my dear cousin Douglas," he cried, "they shall not harm +you, I swear it on my faith as a King." + +At last an officer of the Chancellor's guard mustered courage to +approach the Earl of Douglas, and, saluting, he motioned him to +follow. This, with his head erect, and his usual easy grace, he did, +David walking abreast of him. And Sholto, with all his heart filled +with the deadly chill of hopelessness, followed them through the +sullen ranks of the traitors. + +And even as he went Earl Douglas looked about him every way that he +might see once more her for whose sake he had adventured within the +portals of death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +BETRAYED WITH A KISS + + +The earl and his brother were incarcerated in the lower chamber of the +High Keep called David's Tower, which rose next in order eastward from +the banqueting-hall, following the line of the battlements. + +Beneath, the rock on which the castle was built fell away towards the +Nor' Loch in a precipice so steep that no descent was to be thought +of--and this indeed was the chief defence of the prison, for the +window of the chamber was large and opened easily according to the +French fashion. + +"I pray that you permit my young knight, Sir Sholto MacKim, to +accompany me," said the Earl to the officer who conducted them to +their prison-house. + +"I have no orders concerning him," said the man, gruffly, but +nevertheless permitted Sholto to enter after the Earl and his brother. + +The chamber was bare save for a _prie-dieu_ in the angle of the wall, +at which the Douglas looked with a strange smile upon his face. + +"Right _ŕ propos_," said he; "they have need of religion in this house +of traitors." + +David Douglas went to the window-seat of low stone, and bent his head +into his hands. He was but a boy and life was sweet to him, for he had +just begun to taste the apple and to dream of the forbidden fruit. He +held his head down and was silent a space. Then suddenly he sobbed +aloud with a quick, gasping noise, startling enough in that still +place. + +"For God's dear sake, David laddie," said his brother, going over to +him, placing his hand upon his shoulder, "be silent. They will think +that we are afraid." + +The boy stilled himself instantly at the word, and looked up at his +brother with a pale sort of smile. + +"No, William, I am not afraid, and if indeed we must die I will not +disgrace you. Be never feared of that. Yet I thought on our mother's +loneliness. She will miss me sore, for she fleeched and pled with me +not to come, yet I would not listen to her." + +Sholto stood by the door, erect as if on duty at Thrieve. + +"Come and sit with us," said the Earl William kindly to him, "we are +no more master and servant, earl and esquire. We are but three youths +that are to die together, and the axe's edge levels all. You, Sholto, +are in some good chance to live the longest of the three by some half +score of minutes. I am glad I made you a knight on the field of +honour, Sir Sholto, for then they cannot hang you to a bough, like a +varlet caught stealing the King's venison." + +Sholto slowly came over to the window-seat and stood there +respectfully as before, with his arms straight at his side, feeling +more than anything else the lack of his sword-hilt to set his right +hand upon. + +"Nay, but do as I bid you," said the Earl, looking up at him; "sit +down, Sholto." + +And Sholto sat on the window-seat and looked forth upon the lights +leaping out one after another down among the crowded gables of the +town as this and that burgher lit lamp or lantern at the nearing of +the hour of supper. + +Far away over the shore-lands the narrow strip of the Forth showed +amethystine and mysterious, and farther out still the coast of Fife +lay in a sort of opaline haze. + +"I wonder," said William Douglas, after a long pause, "what they have +done with our good lads. Had they been taken or perished we had surely +heard more noise, I warrant. Two score lads of Galloway would not give +up their arms without a tulzie for it." + +"They might induce them to leave them behind, when they went out to +take their pleasures among the maids of the Lawnmarket," said Sholto. + +"Not their swords," said the Earl, "it needed all your lord's commands +to make yours quit your side. I warrant these fellows will give an +excellent account of themselves." + +Presently the night fell darker, and a smurr of rain drifted over from +the edges of Pentland, mostly passing high above, but with lower +fringes that dragged, as it were, on the Castle Rock and the Hill of +Calton. + +The three young men were still silently looking out when suddenly from +the darkness underneath there came a low voice. + +"'Ware window!" it said, "stand back there above." + +To Sholto the words sounded curiously familiar, and almost without +thinking what he did, he seized the Earl and his brother and dragged +them away from the wide space of the lattice, which opened into the +summer's night. + +"'Ware window!" came again the cautious voice from far below. Sholto +heard the whistle and "spat" of an arrow against the wall without. It +must have fallen again, for the voice 'came a third time--"'Ware +window!" + +And on this occasion the archer was successful, guided doubtless by +the illumination of the lantern the guard had hung on a nail, and +whose flicker would outline the lattice faintly against the darkness +of the wall. + +An arrow entered with a soft hiss. It struck beyond them with a click, +and its iron point tinkled on the floor, the plaster of the opposite +wall not holding it. + +Sholto scrambled about the floor on hands and knees till he found it. +It was a common archer's arrow. A cord was fastened about it, and a +note stuck in the slit along with the feather. + +"It is my brother Laurence," whispered Sholto. "I warrant he is +beneath with a rope and a posse of stout fellows. We shall escape them +yet." + +But even as he raised the letter to read it by the faint blue flicker +of the lantern, there came a cry of pain from within the castle. It +was a woman's voice that cried, and at the sound of pleading speech in +some chamber above them, William Douglas started to his feet. + +The words were clear enough, but in a language not understood by +Sholto MacKim. They seemed intelligible enough, however, to the Earl. + +"I knew it," he cried; "the false hounds have imprisoned her also. It +is Sybilla's voice. God in heaven--they are torturing her!" + +He ran to the door and shook it vehemently. + +"Ho! Without there!" he cried imperiously, as if in his own Castle at +Thrieve. + +But no one paid any attention to his shouts, and presently the woman's +voice died down to a slow sobbing which was quite audible in the room +beneath, where the three young men listened. + +"What did she say?" asked David, presently, of his brother, who still +stood with his ear to the door. + +The Earl first made a gesture commanding silence, and then, hearing +nothing more, he came slowly over to the window. "It is the Lady +Sybilla," he said, in a voice which revealed his deep emotion. "She +said, in the French language, 'You shall not kill him. You shall not! +He trusted me and he shall not die.'" + +Meanwhile Sholto, knowing that there was no time to lose, had been +drawing in the cord, which presently thickened into a rope stout +enough to support the weight of a light and active youth such as any +of the three young men imprisoned in David's Tower. + +But the sound of the woman's tears had thrown the Earl into an +excitement so extreme that he hammered on the great bolt-studded door +with his bare clenched hands, and cried aloud to the Chancellor and +Livingston, commanding them to open to him. His first calmness seemed +completely broken up. + +Meanwhile Sholto, his whole soul bent on the cord which gave the +unseen Douglases a chance of saving the lives of their masters, had +drawn thirty yards of stout rope into the room. He fixed it by a +double knot, first to a ring which was let into the wall, and +afterwards to the massive handle of the door itself. + +"Now, my lord," he whispered, as he finished, "be pleased to go +first. Our lads are beneath, and in the shaking of a cow's tail we +shall be safe in the midst of them." + +The Earl held up his hand with the quick imperative motion he used to +command silence. The sound of the woman's voice came again from above, +now quick and high, like one who makes an agonised petition, and now +in tones lower that seemed broken with sobs and lamentations. + +At first William Douglas did not appear to comprehend the meaning of +Sholto's words, being so bent on his listening. But when the young +captain of the guard again reminded him that the time of their chances +for relief was quickly passing, and that the soldiers of the +Chancellor might come at any moment to lead them to their doom, the +Earl broke out upon him in sudden anger. + +"For what crawling thing do you take me, Sholto MacKim?" he cried; "I +will not leave this place till I know what they have done with her. +She trusted me, and shall I prove a recreant? I would have you know +that I am William, Earl of Douglas, and fear not the face of any +Crichton that ever breathed. Ho--there--without!" and again he shook +the door with ineffectual anger. + +His only answer was the sound of that beseeching woman's voice, and +the measured tread of the sentry, whose partisan they could see +flashing in the lamplight through the narrow barred wicket, as he +turned in front of their door. + +And it was now all in vain that Sholto pled with his master. To every +argument Lord Douglas replied, "I cannot go--it consorts not with +mine honour to leave this castle so long as the Lady Sybilla is in +their hands." + +Sholto told him how they could now escape, and in a week would raise +the whole of the south, returning to the siege of the castle and the +destruction of the traitors Crichton and Livingston. But even to this +the Earl had his answer. + +"What--flee like a coward and leave this girl, who has loved and +trusted me, defenceless in their hands! You yourself have heard her +weeping. I tell you I cannot go--I will not go. Let David and you +escape! My place is here, and neither snivelling Crichton nor that +backstairs lap-dog Livingston shall say that they took the Earl of +Douglas, and that he fled from them under cloud of night." + +David Douglas had been standing by hopefully while Sholto tied the +rope to the rings. At his brother's words he sat down again. William +of Douglas turned about upon him. + +"Go, David, I bid you. Escape, and if aught happen to me, fail not to +make the traitors pay dearly for it." + +But David Douglas sat still and answered not. Then Sholto, desperate +of success with his master, approached David, and with gentle force +would have compelled him to the window. But, at the first touch of his +hand, the boy thrust him away, striking him fiercely upon the +shoulder. + +"Hands off!" he cried, "I also am a Douglas and no craven. I will +abide by my brother to the end." + +"No, my David," said the Earl, turning for a moment from the door +where he had been again listening, "you shall not stay! You are the +hope of our house. My mother would fret to death if aught happened to +you. This is not a matter which concerns you. Go, I bid you. On me it +lies, and if I must pay the reckoning, why at least only I drank the +wine." + +"I will not;" cried the boy; "I tell you I will bide where my brother +bides and his fate shall be mine." + +Then Sholto, well nigh frantic with apprehension and disappointment, +went to the window and leaned out, gripping the sill with his hands. + +"They will not leave the castle," he whispered as loud as he dared; +"the Earl will not escape while the Lady Sybilla remains a prisoner +within." + +"God in heaven!" cried a stern voice from below which made Sholto +start, "we shall be broken first and last upon that woman. Would to +God I had slain her with my hand! Tell the Earl that if he will not +come to those that wait for him underneath the tower, I, Malise +MacKim, will come and fetch him like a child in my arms, even as I did +from under the pine trees at Loch Roan." + +And as he spoke the strain of the rope and its swaying over the +window-sill proclaimed that the mighty form of the master armourer was +even then on the way upwards towards the dungeon of his chief. + +"Go back, I command you, Malise MacKim," he said, "go back instantly. +I have made up my mind. I will not escape from the Castle of Edinburgh +this night." + +But Malise answered not a word, only pulled more desperately on the +rope, till the sound of his labouring breath and grasping palms could +be heard from side to side of the chamber. + +The Earl leaned further out. + +"Malise," he said, calm and clear, "you see this knife. I would not +have your blood on my hands. You have been a good and faithful servant +to our house. But, by the oath of a Douglas, if you come one foot +farther, I will cut the rope and you shall be dashed in pieces +beneath." + +The master armourer stopped--not with any fear of death upon him, but +lest a stroke of his master's dirk should destroy their well-arranged +mode of escape. + +"O Earl William, my dear lord, hear me," he said in a gasping voice, +still hanging perilously between earth and heaven. "If I have indeed +been a faithful servant, I beseech you come with me--for the sake of +the house of Douglas and of your mother, a widow and alone." + +"Go down, Malise MacKim," said the Earl, more gently; "I will speak +with you only at the rope's foot." + +So very unwillingly Malise went back. + +"Now," said the Earl, "hearken--this will I do and no other. I will +remain here and abide that which shall befall me, as is the will of +God. I am bound by a tie that I cannot break. What life is to another, +honour and his word must be to a Douglas. But I send your son Sholto +to you. I bid him ride fast to Galloway and bring all that are +faithful with speed here to Edinburgh. Go also into Douglasdale and +tell my cousin William of Avondale--and if he is too late to save, I +know well he will avenge me." + +"O William Douglas, if indeed ye will neither fleech nor drive, I pray +you for the sake of the great house to send your brother David, that +the Douglases of the Black be not cut off root and branch. Remember, +your mother is sore set on the lad." + +"I will not go," cried David, as he heard this; "by the saints I will +stand by my brother's shoulder, though I be but a boy! I will not go +so much as a step, and if by force ye stir me I will cry for the +guard!" + +By this time the young David was leaning half out of the window, and +almost shouting out his words down to the unseen Douglases beneath. + +"Go, Sholto," said the Earl, setting his hand on his squire's +shoulder. "You alone can ride to Galloway without drawing rein. Go +swiftly and bring back every true lad that can whang bow, or gar +sword-iron whistle. The Douglas must drie the Douglas weird. I would +have made you a great man, Sir Sholto, but if you get a new master, he +will surely do that which I had not time to perform." + +"Come, Sholto," said his father, "there is a horse at the outer port. +I fear the Crichton's men are warned. As it is we shall have to fight +for it." + +Sholto still hesitated, divided between obedience and grief. + +"Sholto MacKim," said the Earl, "if indeed you owe me aught of love or +service, go and do that thing which I have laid upon you. Bear a +courteous greeting from me to your sweetheart Maud, and a kiss to our +Maid Margaret. And now haste you and begone!" + +Sholto bent a moment on his knee and kissed the hand of his young +master. His voice was choked with sobs. The Earl patted him on the +shoulder. "Dinna greet, laddie," he said, in the kindly country speech +which comes so meltingly to all Galloway folk in times of distress, +gentle and simple alike, "dinna greet. If one Douglas fall in the +breach, there stands ever a better behind him." + +"But never one like you, my lord, my lord!" said Sholto. + +The Earl raised him gently, led him to the window, and himself +steadied the rope by which his squire was to descend. + +"Go!" he said; "honour keeps the Douglas here, and his brother bides +with him--since not otherwise it may be. But the honour of obedience +sends Sholto MacKim to the work that is given him!" + +Then, after the captain of his guard had gone out into the dark and +disappeared down the rope, the Earl only waited till the tension +slackened before stooping and cutting the cord at the point of +juncture with the iron ring. + +"And now, Davie lad," he said, setting an arm about his brother's +neck, "there are but you and me for it, and I think a bit prayer would +not harm either of us." + +So the two young lads, being about to die, kneeled down together +before the cross of Him who was betrayed with a kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE LION AT BAY + + +The morning had broken broad and clear from the east when the door of +the prison-house was opened, and a seneschal appeared. He saluted the +brothers, and in a shaking voice summoned them to come forth and be +tried for offences of treason and rebellion against the King and his +ministers. + +William of Douglas waved a hand to him, but answered nothing to the +summons. He wasted no words upon one who merely did as he was bidden. +All night the brothers had sat looking out on the city humming +sleeplessly beneath them, till the light slowly dawned over the Forth +and away to the eastward Berwick Law stood dwarfed and clear. At first +they had sat apart, but as the hours stole on David came a little +nearer and his hand sought that of his brother, clasped it, and abode +as it had been contented. The elder brother returned the pressure. + +"David," he said, "if perish we must, at least you and I will show +them how Douglases can die." + +So when they rose to follow the seneschal who summoned them, as they +left the chamber of detention and the clanking guard fell in behind +them, Earl William put his hand affectionately on his young brother's +shoulder and kept it there. In this wise they came into the great +hall wherein yester-even the banquet of treachery had been served. The +dais had been removed to the upper end of the room, and upon it in the +furred robes of judges of the realm, there sat on either side of the +empty throne Crichton the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston. +Behind were crowded groups of knights, pages, men-at-arms, and all the +hangers-on of a court. But of men of dignity and place only the +Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, was present. + +He sat alone on a high seat ranged crosswise upon the dais. The floor +in the centre of the hall was kept clear for the entrance of the +brothers of Douglas. + +Crichton and Livingston looked uneasily at each other as the feet of +the guard conducting the prisoners were heard in the corridor without, +and with a quick, apprehensive wave of his hand Crichton motioned the +armed men of his guard closer about him, and gave their leader +directions in a hushed voice behind his palm. + +The seneschal who had summoned them strode in first, and then after a +sufficient interval entered the young Lords of Douglas, William and +David his brother. The elder still kept one hand affectionately on the +shoulder of the younger. His other was set as usual in the silken belt +which he wore about his waist, and he walked carelessly, with a high +air and an easy step, like one that goes in expectantly to a pleasant +entertainment. + +But as soon as the brothers perceived in whose presence they were, an +air of pride came over their faces and stiffened their figures into +the sterner aspect of warriors who stand on the field of battle. + +Some three paces before the steps of the dais on which sat the +self-constituted judges was arranged a barrier of strong wooden posts +tipped with iron, and two soldiers with drawn swords were on guard at +either end. + +The Douglases stood silent, haughtily awaiting the first words of +accusation. And the face of young David was to the full as haughty and +contemptuous as that of Earl William himself. + +It was the Chancellor who spoke first, in his high rasping creak. + +"William, Earl of Douglas, and you David, called the Master of +Douglas," he began, "you are summoned hither by the King's authority +to answer for many crimes of treason against his royal person--for +rebellion also and the arming of forces against his authority--for +high speeches and studied contempt of those who represent his +sovereign Majesty in this realm, for treasonable alliances with rebel +lords, and above all for swearing allegiance to another monarch, even +to the King of France. What have you to say to these charges?" + +The Earl of Douglas swept his eyes across the dais from side to side +with a slow contempt which made the Chancellor writhe in his chair. +Then after a long pause he deigned to reply, but rather like a king +who grants a favour than like one accused before judges in whose hands +is the power of life and death. + +"I see," said he, "two knights before me on a high seat, one the +King's tutor, the other his purse-bearer. I have yet to learn who +constituted them judges of any cause whatsoever, still less of aught +that concerns William Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Earl of Douglas, +hereditary Lieutenant-Governor of the realm of Scotland." + +And he kept his eyes upon them with a straight forth-looking glance, +palpably embarrassing to the traitors on the dais. + +"Earl Douglas," said the Chancellor again, "pray remember that you are +not now in Castle Thrieve. Your six thousand horsemen wait not in the +courtyard out there. Learn to be more humble and answer to the things +whereof you are accused. Do you desire that witness should be +brought?" + +"Of what need are witnesses? I own no court or jurisdiction. I have +heard no accusations!" said the Earl William. + +The Chancellor motioned with his hand, whereupon Master Robert Berry, +a procurator of the city, advanced and read a long parchment which set +forth in phrase and detail of legality twenty accusations against the +Earl,--of treason, rebellion, and manifest oppression. + +When he had finished the Chancellor said, "And now, Earl Douglas, what +answer have you to these things?" + +"Does it matter at all what I answer?" asked the Earl, succinctly. + +"I do not bandy words with you," said the Chancellor; "I order you to +make your pleading, or stand within your danger." + +"And yet," said William Douglas, gravely, "words are all that you dare +bandy with me. Even if I honoured you by laying aside my dignities and +consented to break a lance with you, you would refuse to afford me +trial by battle, which is the right of every peer accused." + +"'Tis a barbarous custom," said the Chancellor; "we will try your case +upon its merit." + +The Earl laughed a little mocking laugh. + +"It will be somewhat safer," said he, "but haste you and get the sham +done with. I plead nothing. I do not even tell you that you lie. What +doth one expect of a gutter-dog but that it should void the garbage it +hath devoured? But I do ask you, Marshal de Retz, as a brave soldier +and the representative of an honourable King, what you have done with +the Lady Sybilla?" + +The Marshal de Retz smiled--a smile so chill, cruel, hard, that the +very soldiers on guard, seeing it, longed to slay him on the spot. + +"May I, in return, ask my Lord Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine +what is that to him?" he said, with sneering emphasis upon the titles. + +"It matters to me," replied William Douglas, boldly, "more than life, +and almost as much as honour. The Lady Sybilla did me the grace to +tell me that she loved me. And I in turn am bound to her in life and +death." + +The Chancellor and the tutor broke into laughter, but the marshal +continued to smile his terrible smile of determinate evil. + +"Listen," he said at last, "hear this, my Lord of Touraine; ever since +we came to this kingdom, and, indeed, long before we left the realm of +France, the Lady Sybilla intended nothing else than your deception and +destruction. Poor dupe, do you not yet understand? She it was that +cozened you with fair words. She it was that advised you to come +hither that we might hold you in our hands. For her sake you obeyed. +She was the willing bait of the trap your foes set for you. What think +you of the Lady Sybilla now?" + +William of Douglas did not answer in words, but as the marshal ceased +speaking, he drew himself together like a lithe animal that sways this +way and that before springing. His right hand dropped softly from his +brother's shoulder upon the hilt of his own dagger. + +Then with one sudden bound he was over the barrier and upon the dais. +Almost his blade was at the marshal's throat, and but for the crossed +partisans of two guards who stood on either side of de Retz, he had died +there and then by the dagger of William Douglas. As it was, the youth +was brought to a stand with his breast pressed vainly against the steel +points, and paused there crying out in fury, "Liar and toad! Come out +from behind these varlets that I may slay thee with my hand." + +A score of men-at-arms approached from behind, and forced the young +man back to his place. + +"Bring in the Lady Sybilla," said the marshal, still smiling, while +the judges sat silent and afraid at the anger of one man. + +And even while the Earl stood panting after his outburst of furious +anger, they opened the door at the back of the dais and through it +there entered the Lady Sybilla. Instantly the eyes of William Douglas +fixed themselves upon her, but she did not raise hers nor look at him. +She stood at the farther side at the edge of the dais, her hands +joined in front of her, and her hair streamed down her back and fell +in waves over her white dress. + +An angel of light coming through the open door of heaven could not +have appeared more innocent and pure. + +The Marshal de Retz turned towards his sister-in-law, and, with his +eyes fixed upon hers and with the same pitiless chill in them, he said +in a low tone, "Look at me." + +The girl raised her eyes slowly, and, as it had been, reluctantly, and +in them, instead of the meek calm of an angel, there appeared the +terror and dismay of a lost soul that listens to its doom. + +"Sybilla," hissed rather than spoke de Retz, "is +it true that ever since by the lakeside of Carlinwark you met the Earl +of Douglas you have deceived him and sought his doom?" + +"I care not to hear the answer," said the young man, "even did I +believe that which you by your power may compel her to say. Unfaith in +another is not unfaith in me. I am bound to this lady in love and +honour--aye, even unto death, if that be her will!" + +"I have, indeed, deceived him!" replied the girl, slowly, the words +seeming to be forced from her one by one. + +"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal, turning upon the +young man, who stood still and motionless, never taking his eyes off +the slender figure in white. + +The marshal continued his pitiless questioning. + +"At Castle Thrieve you persuaded him to follow you to Crichton and +afterwards to Edinburgh, knowing well that you brought him to his +death." + +"It is true!" said the girl, with a voice like one speaking out of the +grave itself. + +"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal. + +"And at Castle Crichton you played the play to the end. With false +cozening words you deceived this young man. You led him on with love +on your lips and hate in your heart. You kissed him with the Judas +kiss. You led his soul captive to death by the drawing of your eyes." + +In a voice that could hardly be heard the girl replied, her whole +figure fixed and turned to stone by the intensity of her tormentor's +gaze. + +_"I did these things! I am accursed!"_ + +The ambassador turned with a fleering triumph. + +"You hear, William of Douglas," he said, "you hear what your true love +says!" + +Then it was that, with the calm air and steady voice of a great +gentleman, William Douglas answered, "I hear, but I do not believe." + +A spasm of joy passed over the countenance of the Lady Sybilla. She +half sprang towards her lover as if to clasp him in her arms. + +But in the midst, between intent and act, she restrained herself. + +"No, I am not worthy," she said. And again, and lower, like a +lamentation, "I am not worthy!" + +Then, while all watched eagerly, the marshal rose from his seat to his +full height. + +"Girl--look at me!" he cried in a loud and terrible voice. But Sybilla +did not seem to hear him. + +She was looking at the Earl, and her eyes were great and grey and +vague. + +"Listen, my true lord, and then hate me if you will," she said; +"listen, William of Douglas. Never before have I found in all the +world one man true to the core. I did not believe that such an one +lived. Hear this and then turn from me in loathing. + +"For the sake of this man's life, forfeit ten times over" (she +pointed, as she spoke, at the marshal), "to whom, by the powers of +hell, my soul is bound, I came at the bidding of the King of France +and of this man, my master, to compass the destruction of the Earl of +Douglas. Our King's son desired his duchy, and promised to this man +pardon for his evil deeds. I came to satisfy them both. On my guilty +head be the punishment. It is true that I cozened and led you on. It +is true that at Castle Thrieve I deceived you, knowing well that which +would happen. I knew to what you would follow me, and for the sake of +the evil wrought by your fathers, I was glad. But afterwards at +Crichton, when, in the woods by the waterside, I told you that I loved +you, I did not lie. I did love you then. And by God's grace I do love +you now--yea, before all men I declare it. Once for a season of +glorious forgetting, all too brief, I was yours to love, now I am +yours to hate and to despise. I tried to save you, but though you had +my warning you would not go back or forget me. Now it is too late!" + +As she spoke over the face of William Douglas there had come a +glow--the red blood flooding up and routing the white determined +pallor of his cheek. + +"My lady," he answered her, gently, "be not grieved for a little thing +that is past. That you love me truly is enough. I ask for no more, +least of all for pity. I have not lived long. I have not had time +allotted me wherein to do great things, but for your sake I can die as +well as any! You have given me of your love, and of the flower +thereof. I am glad. That you have loved me was my crown of life. Now +it remains but to pay a little price soon paid, for a joy exceeding +great." + +But the Chancellor had had enough of this. He rose, and, stretching +forth his hand towards the barrier, he said: "William of Douglas, you +and your brother are condemned to instant death as enemies of the King +and his ministers. Soldiers, do your duty. Lead them forth to the +block!" + +And with these words he left the dais, followed by Sir Alexander +Livingston. The girl stood in the place whence she had spoken her last +words. Then, as the men-at-arms went shamefacedly to take the Earl by +the arm, she suddenly threw herself across the platform, leaped +lightly over the barrier, and fell into his arms. + +"William, once I would have betrayed you," she said, "but now I love +you. I will die with you--or by the great God I will live to avenge +you." + +"Hush, sweetheart," said William Douglas, touching her brow gently +with his lips, and putting her into the arms of an officer of the +court whom her uncle had sent to remove her. "Fear not for me! Death +is swift and easy. I expected nothing else. That you love me is +enough! Dear love, fare thee well!" + +But the girl heard him not. She had fainted in the arms that held her. +Yet the Marshal de Retz had still more for her to suffer. He stood +beside her and dashed water upon her till she awoke, that she might +see that which remained to be done. + + * * * * * + +It was a scene dreary beyond all power of words to tell it, when into +the courtyard of the Castle of Edinburgh they brought the two noble +young men forth to die. The sun had long risen, but the first flush of +broad morning sunshine still lingered upon the low platform on which +stood the block, and beside it the headsman sullenly waiting to do his +appointed work. + +The young Lords of Douglas came out looking brave and handsome as +bridegrooms on a day of betrothing. William had once more his hand on +David's shoulder, his other rested carelessly on his thigh as his +custom was. The brothers were bareheaded, and to the eyes of those who +looked on they seemed to be conversing together of light matters of +love and ladies' favours. + +High above upon a balcony, hung like an iron cage upon the castle +wall, appeared the Chancellor and the tutor. The young King was with +them, weeping and crying out, "Do nothing to my dear cousins--I +command you--I am the King!" + +But the tutor roughly bade him be still, telling him that he would +never reign if these young men lived, and presently another came there +and stood beside him. The Marshal de Retz it was, who, with a fiendish +smile upon his sleek parchment face, conducted the Lady Sybilla to see +the end. But it was a good end to see, and nobler far than most lives +that are lived to fourscore years. + +The brothers embraced as they came to the block, kneeled down, and +said a short prayer like Christians of a good house. So great was +their enemies' haste that they were not allowed even a priest to +shrive them, but they did what they could. + +The executioner motioned first to David. An attendant brought him the +heading cup of wine, which it was the custom to offer to those about +to die upon the scaffold. + +"Drink it not," said Earl William, "lest they say it was drugged." + +And David Douglas bowed his head upon the block, being only in the +fifteenth year of his age. + +"Farewell, brother," he said, "be not long after me. It is a darksome +road to travel so young." + +"Fear not, Davie lad," said William Douglas, tenderly, "I will +overtake you ere you be through the first gate." + +He turned a little aside that he might not see his brother die, and +even as he did so he saw the Lady Sybilla lean upon the balcony paler +than the dead. + +Then when it came to his turn they offered the Earl William also the +heading cup filled with the rich wine of Touraine, his own fair +province that he was never to see. + +He lifted the cup high in his right hand with a knightly and courtly +gesture. Looking towards the balcony whereon stood the Lady Sybilla, +he bowed to her. + +"I drink to you, my lady and my love," he cried, in a voice loud and +clear. + +Then, touching but the rim of the goblet with his lips, he poured out +the red wine upon the ground. + + * * * * * + +And thus passed the gallantest gentleman and truest lover in whom God +ever put heart of grace to live courteously and die greatly, keeping +his faith in his lady even against herself, and holding death itself +sweet because that in death she loved him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE RISING OF THE DOUGLASES + + +It was upon the Earl's own charger, Black Darnaway, that Sholto rode +southward to raise to their chief's assistance the greatest and +compactest clan that ever, even in Scotland, had done the bidding of +one man. + +The young man's heart was high and hopeful within him. The King's +guardians dared not, so he told himself, let aught befall the puissant +Douglases in the Castle of Edinburgh, without trial and under cover of +the most courteous hospitality. + +"Try the Earl of Douglas!" so Sholto thought within him. He laughed at +the notion. "Why, Earl William could by a word bring a hundred +thousand men of Galloway and the Marches to make a fitting jury." + +So he meditated, his thoughts running fast and fiery to the beating of +Black Darnaway's feet as he climbed the heathery slopes which led +towards Douglasdale. Day was breaking as he rode down to the town of +Lanark yet asleep and smokeless in the caller airs of the morn. At the +gates of this frontier town he delivered his first summons of +feudality. For the burghers of Lanark were liegemen of the Douglases +of Douglasdale, and were (though not with much good-will) bound to +furnish service at call. + +Sholto had some difficulty in making himself heard athwart the +ponderous wooden gates, bossed with leather and studded with iron. At +first he shouted angrily to the silences, but presently nearer and +nearer came a bellow as of a brazen bull, thunderous and far echoing. + +"Fower o' the clock and a braw, braw morning." + +It was Grice Elshioner, watchman of the town of Lanark, evidencing to +the magistrates and lieges thereof that he was earning his three +shillings in the week--a handsome wage in these hard times, and one +well able to provide belly-timber for himself and also for the wife +and weans who, dwelling in a close off the High-street, were called by +his name. + +Sholto thundered again upon the rugged portal. + +"Open there! Open, I say, in the name of the Earl of Douglas!" + +"Fower o' the morning! Lord, what's a' the steer? In the name o' the +Yerl o' Douglas! But wha kens that it isna the English? Na, na, Grice +Elshioner opens not to every night-raking loon that likes to cry the +name o' the Yerl o' Douglas ower oor toon wa'!" + +And Grice the valorous would have taken him off with a fresh, +sleep-dispelling bellow had it not been that he heard himself summoned +in a voice that brooked no delay. + +"Open, varlet of a watchman, or by Saint Bride I will have you +swinging in half an hour from the bars of your own portcullis. I who +speak am Sholto MacKim, captain of the Earl's guard. Every liegeman in +the town must arm, mount, and ride this instant to Edinburgh. I give +you fair warning. You hear my words, I will not enter your rascal +town. But if so much as one be wanting at the muster, I swear in the +name of my master that his house shall be burned with fire and razed +to the ground, and his wife be a widow or ever the cock craw on +another Sabbath morn!" + +And without waiting for a reply Sholto laid the reins upon the neck of +Black Darnaway and rode on southward up Douglas Water to the home nest +of the lordly race. + +And behind him, with a wail in it, blared through the narrow streets +the stormy voice of Grice Elshioner, watchman of Lanark, "Wauken ye, +wauken ye, burgesses a'! The Douglas hath sent to bid ye mount and +ride." + +The _birr_ of the war drum saluted Sholto's ears ere he had turned the +corner of the town parks. Then came the answering shouts of the +burghers who thrust inquiring and indignant heads out of gable windows +and turret speering-holes. + +"_Birr!_" continued the undaunted and insistent town drum. + +"Harness your backs! Fill your bellies, and stand ready! The Douglas +has need o' ye, lieges a'!" cried the sonorous voice of the watch. +Sholto smiled as he listened. + +"I have at least set them on the alert. They will join the Douglasdale +men as they pass by, or we will show them reason why. But they of +Lanark are ill-set town-ward men, and of no true leal heart, save an +it be to their own coffers. Yet will they march with us for fear of +the harrying hand and the burning roof tree." + +The sun rose fair on the battlements of Douglas Castle as Sholto rode +up to the level mead, whereon a little company of men was exercising. +He could hear the words of command cried gruffly in the broad Galloway +speech. Landless Jock was drilling his spearmen, and as the shining +triple line of points dropped to the "ready to receive," the old +knight and former captain of the Earl's guard came forward a little +way to welcome his successor with what grace was at his command. + +"Eh, siree, and what has brocht sic a braw young knight and grand +frequenter o' courts sae far as Douglas Castle? Could ye no even let +puir Landless Jock hae the tilt-yaird here to exercise his handfu' in, +and keep his auld banes a wee while frae the rust and the green +mould?" + +But even as the crusty old soldier spoke these words, the white +anxiety in Sholto's face struck through his half-humorous complaint, +and the words died on his lips in a perturbed "What is't--what is't +ava, laddie?" + +Sholto told him in the fewest words. + +"The Yerl and Dawvid in the power o' their hoose's enemies. Blessed +Saint Anthony, and here was I flighterin' and ragin' aboot my +naethings. Here, lads, blaw the horn and cry the slogan. Fetch the +horses frae the stall and stand ready in your war gear within ten +minutes by the knock. Aye, faith, will we raise Douglasdale! Gang your +ways to Gallowa'--there shall not a man bide at hame this day. Certes, +we wull that! Ca' in the by-gaun at Lanark--aye, lad, and, gin the +rascals are no willing or no ready, we will hang the provost and +magistrates at their ain door-cheeks to learn them to bide frae the +cried assembly o' their liege lord!" + +Sholto had done enough in Douglasdale. He turned north again on a yet +more important errand. It was forenoon full and broad when he halted +before the little town of Strathaven, upon which the Castle of +Avondale looks down. It seemed of the greatest moment that the +Avondale Douglases should know that which had befallen their cousin. +For no suspicion of treachery within the house and name of Douglas +itself touched with a shade of shadow the mind of Sholto MacKim. + +He thundered at the town-ward port of the castle (to which a steep +ascent led up from a narrow vennel), where presently the outer guard +soon crowded about him, listening to his story and already fingering +bowstring and examining rope-matches preparatory to the expected march +upon Edinburgh. + +"I have not time to waste, comrades; I would see my lords," said +Sholto. "I must see them instantly." + +And even as he spoke there on the steps before him appeared the dark, +handsome face and tall but slightly stooping figure of William Douglas +of Avondale. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, and his +serious thought-weighted brow bent upon the concourse about Sholto. + +With a push of his elbows this way and that, the young captain of the +Earl's guard opened a road through the press. + +In short, emphatic sentences he told his tale, and at the name of +prisonment and treachery to his cousins the countenance of William +Douglas grew stern and hard. His face twitched as if the news came +very near to him. He did not answer for a moment, but stood biting his +lips and glooming upon Sholto, as though the young man had been a +prisoner waiting sentence of pit or gallows for evil doing. + +"I must see James concerning this ill news," he said when Sholto had +finished telling him of the Black Bull's Head at the Chancellor's +banquet-table. + +He turned to go within. + +"My lord," said Sholto, "will you give me another horse, and let +Darnaway rest in your stables? I must instantly ride south again to +raise Galloway." + +"Order out all the horses which are ready caparisoned," commanded +William of Avondale, "and do you, Captain Sholto, take your choice of +them." + +He went within forthwith and there ensued a pause filled with the +snorting and prancing of steeds, as, mettlesome with oats and hay, +they issued from their stalls, or with the grass yet dewy about their +noses were led in from the field. Darnaway took his leave of Sholto +with a backward neigh of regret, as if to say he was not yet tired of +going on his master's service. + +Then presently on the terrace above appeared lazy Lord James, busily +buckling the straps of his body-armour and talking hotly the while +with his brother William. + +"I care not even whether our father--" he cried aloud ere, with a +restraining hand upon his wrist, his elder brother could succeed in +stopping him. + +"Hush, James," he said, "at least be mindful of those that stand +around." + +"I care not, I tell you, William," cried the headstrong youth, +squaring his shoulders as he was wont to do before a fight. "I tell +you that you and I are no traitors to our name, and who meddles with +our coz, Will of Thrieve, hath us to reckon with!" + +William of Avondale said nothing, but held out his hand with a slow, +determinate gesture. Said he, "An it were the father that begat us." +Whereat, with all the impetuousness of his race and nature, James +dashed his palm into that of his brother. + +"Whiles, William," he cried, "ye appear clerkish and overcautious, and +I break out and miscall ye for no Douglas, when ye will not spend your +siller like a man and are afraid of the honest pint stoup. But at the +heart's heart ye are aye a Douglas--and though the silly gaping +commons like ye not so well as they like me, ye are the best o' us, +for all that." + +So it came to pass that within the space of half an hour the Avondale +Douglases had sent men to the four airts, young Hugh Douglas himself +riding west, while James stirred the folk of Avondale and Strathavon, +and in all the courtyards and streets of the little feudal bourg there +began the hum and buzz of the war assembly. + +Lord William went with Sholto to see staunch Darnaway duly stabled, +and to approve the horse which was to bear the messenger to the south +without halt, now that his mission was accomplished in the west. When +they came out Sholto's riding harness had been transferred to a noble +grey steed large enough to carry even the burly James, let alone the +slim captain of the archer guard of Thrieve. + +In the court, ranked and ready, bridle to bridle were ranged the +knights and squires in waiting about the Castle of Avondale, while out +on a level green spot on the edge of the moor gathered the denser +array of the townfolk with spears and partisans. + +In an hour the Avondale Douglases were ready to ride to the assistance +of their cousins. Alas, that Earl William would take no advice, for +had these and others gone in with him to the fatal town, there would +have been no Black Bull's Head on the Chancellor's dinner table in the +banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A STRANGE MEETING + + +It was approaching the evening of the third day after riding forth +upon his mission when Sholto, sleepless yet quite unconscious of +weariness, approached the loch of Carlinwark and the cottage of Brawny +Kim. West and south he had raised the Douglas country as it had never +been raised before. And now behind him every armiger and squire, every +spearman and light-foot archer, was hasting Edinburgh-ward, eager to +be first to succour the young and headstrong chief of his great house. + +Sholto had ridden and cried the slogan as was his duty, without +allowing his mind to dwell over much upon whether all might not arrive +too late. And ever as he rode out of village or across the desolate +moors from castle to fortified farmhouse, it seemed that not he but +some other was upon this quest. + +Something sterner and harder stirred in his breast. Light-hearted +Sholto MacKim, the careless lad of the jousting day, the proud young +captain of the Earl's guard, was dead with all his vanity. And in his +place a man rode southward grim and determined, with vengeful angers +a-smoulder in his bosom,--hunger, thirst, love, the joy of living and +the fear of death all being swallowed up by deadly hatred of those who +had betrayed his master. + +Maud Lindesay was doubtless within a few miles of Sholto, yet he +scarcely gave even his sweetheart a thought as he urged his weary grey +over the purple Parton moors towards the loch of Carlinwark and the +little hamlet nestling along its western side under the ancient thorn +trees of the Carlin's hill. + +He rode down over the green and empty Crossmichael braes on which the +broom pods were crackling in the afternoon sunshine, through hollows +where the corn lingered as though unwilling to have done with such a +scene of beauty, and find itself mewed in dusty barns, ground in +mills, or close pressed in thatched rick. He breasted the long smooth +rise and entered the woods which encircle the bright lakelet of +Carlinwark, the pearl of all southland Scottish lochs. + +With a strange sense of detachment he looked down upon the green sward +between him and his mother's gable end, upon which as a child he had +wandered from dawn to dusk. Then it was nearly as large as the world, +and the grass was most comfortable to bare feet. There were children +playing upon it now, even as there had been of old, among them his own +little sister Magdalen, whose hair was spun gold, and her eyes blue as +the forget-me-not on the marshes of the Isle Wood. The children were +dressed in white, five little girls in all, as for a festal day, and +their voices came upward to Sholto's ear through the arches of the +great beeches which studded the turf with pavilions of green shade, +tenderly as they had done to that of William Douglas in the +spring-time of the year. + +The minor note, the dying fall of the innocent voices, tugged at his +heartstrings. He could hear little Magdalen leading the chorus: + + _"Margaret Douglas, fresh and fair, + A bunch of roses she shall wear, + Gold and silver by her side, + I know who's her bride."_ + +It was at "Fair Maid" they were playing, the mystic dance of Southland +maidenhood, at whose vestal rites no male of any age was ever +permitted to be present. The words broke in upon the gloom which +oppressed Sholto's heart. Momentarily he forgot his master and saw +Maud Lindesay with the little Margaret Douglas of whom the children +sang, once again gathering the gowans on the brae sides of Thrieve or +perilously reaching out for purple irises athwart the ditches of the +Isle. + + _"Take her by the lily-white hand, + Lead her o'er the water; + Give her kisses, one, two, three, + For she's a lady's daughter."_ + +As Sholto MacKim listened to the quaint and moving lullaby, suddenly +there came into the field of his vision that which stiffened him into +a statue of breathing marble. + +For without clatter of accoutrement or tramp of hoof, without +companion or attendant, a white palfrey had appeared through the green +arches of the woodlands. A girl was seated upon the saddle, swaying +with gentle movement to the motion of her steed. At the sight of her +figure as she came nearer a low cry of horror and amazement broke from +Sholto's lips. + +It was the Lady Sybilla. + +Yet he knew that he had left her behind him in Edinburgh, the siren +temptress of Earl Douglas, the woman who had led his master into the +power of the enemy, she for whose sake he had refused the certainty +of freedom and life. Anger against this smiling enchantress suddenly +surged up in Sholto's heart. + +"Halt there--on your life!" he cried, and urged his wearied steed +forward. Like dry leaves before a winter wind, the children were +dispersed every way by the gust of his angry shout. But the maiden on +the palfrey either heeded not or did not hear. + +Whereupon Sholto rode furiously crosswise to intercept her. He would +learn what had befallen his master. At least he would avenge him upon +one--the chiefest and subtlest of his enemies. But not till he had +come within ten paces did the Lady Sybilla turn upon him the fulness +of her regard. Then he saw her face. It broke upon him sudden as the +sight of imminent hell to one sure of salvation. He had expected to +find there gratified ambition, sated lust, exultant pride, cruelest +vengeance. He saw instead as it had been the face of an angel cast out +of heaven, or perhaps, rather, of a martyr who has passed through the +torture chamber on her way to the place of burning. + +The sight stopped Sholto stricken and wavering. His anger fell from +him like a cloak shed when the sun shines in his strength. + +The Lady Sybilla's face showed of no earthly paleness. Marble white it +was, the eyes heavy with weeping, purple rings beneath accentuating +the horror that dwelt eternally in them. The lips that had been as the +bow of Apollo were parted as though they had been singing the dirge of +one beloved, and ever as she rode the tears ran down her cheeks and +fell on her white robe, and lower upon her palfrey's mane. + +She looked at Sholto when he came near, but not as one who sees or +recognises. Rather, as it were, dumb, drunken, besotted with grief, +looked forth the soul of the Lady Sybilla upon the captain of the +Douglas guard. She heeded not his angry shout, for another voice rang +in her ears, speaking the knightliest words ever uttered by a man +about to die. Sholto's sword was raised threateningly in his hand, but +Sybilla saw another blade gleam bright in the morning sun ere it fell +to rise again dimmed and red. Therefore she checked not her steed, nor +turned aside, till Sholto laid his fingers upon her bridle-rein and +leaped quickly to the ground, sword in hand, leaving his own beast to +wander where it would. + +"What do you here?" he cried. "Where is my master? What have they done +to him? I bid you tell me on your life!" + +Sholto's voice had no chivalrous courtesy in it now. The time for that +had gone by. He lowered his sword point and there was tense iron in +the muscles of his arm. He was ready to kill the temptress as he would +a beautiful viper. + +The Lady Sybilla looked upon him, but in a dazed fashion, like one who +rests between the turns of the rack. In a little while she appeared to +recognise him. She noted the sword in his hand, the death in his +eye--and for the first time since the scene in the courtyard of +Edinburgh Castle, she smiled. + +Then the fury in Sholto's heart broke suddenly forth. + +"Woman," he cried, "show me cause why I should not slay you. For, by +God, I will, if aught of harm hath overtaken my master. Speak, I bid +you, speak quickly, if you have any wish to live." + +But the Lady Sybilla continued to smile--the same dreadful, mocking +smile--and somehow Sholto, with his weapon bare and his arm nerved to +the thrust, felt himself grow weak and helpless under the stillness +and utter pitifulness of her look. + +"You would kill me--kill _me_, you say--" the words came low and +thrilling forth from lips which were as those of the dead whose chin +has not yet been bound about with a napkin, "ah, would that you could! +But you cannot. Steel will not slay, poison will not destroy, nor +water drown Sybilla de Thouars till her work be done!" + +Sholto escaped from the power of her eye. + +"My master--" he gasped, "my master--is he well? I pray you tell me." + +Was it a laugh he heard in answer? Rather a sound, not of human mirth +but as of a condemned spirit laughing deep underground. Then again the +low even voice replied out of the expressionless face. + +"Aye, your master is well." + +"Ah, thank God," burst forth Sholto, "he is alive." + +The Lady Sybilla moved her hand this way and that with the gesture of +a blind man groping. + +"Hush," she said, "I only said that he was well. And he is well. As I +am already in the place of torment, I know that there is a heaven for +those who die as William Douglas died." + +Sholto's cry rang sudden, loud, despairing. + +"Dead--dead--Earl William dead--my master dead!" + +He dropped the palfrey's rein, which till now he had held. His sword +fell unheeded on the turf, and he flung himself down in an agony of +boyish grief. But from her white palfrey, sitting still where she was, +the maiden watched the paroxysms of his sorrow. She was dry eyed now, +and her face was like a mask cut in snow. + +Then as suddenly recalling himself, Sholto leaped from the ground, +snatched up his sword, and again passionately advanced upon the Lady +Sybilla. + +"You it was who betrayed him," he cried, pointing the blade at her +breast; "answer if it were not so!" + +"It is true I betrayed him," she answered calmly. + +"You whom he loved--God knows how unworthily--" + +"God knows," she said simply and calmly. + +"You betrayed him to his death. Why then should not I kill you?" + +Again she smiled upon him that disarming, hopeless, dreadful smile. + +"Because you cannot kill me. Because it were too crowning a mercy to +kill me. Because, for three inches of that blade in my heart, I would +bless you through the eternities. Because I must do the work that +remains--" + +"And that work is--?" + +"Vengeance!!" + +Sholto was silent, trying to piece things together. He found it hard +to think. He was but a boy, and experience so strange as that of the +Lady Sybilla was outside him. Yet vaguely he felt that her emotion was +real, more real perhaps than his own instinct of crude slaying--the +desire of the wasp whose nest has been harried to sting the first +comer. This woman's hatred was something deadlier, surer, more +persistent. + +"Vengeance--" he said at last, scarce knowing what he said, "why +should you, who betrayed him, speak of avenging him?" + +"Because," said the Lady Sybilla, "I loved him as I never thought to +love man born of woman. Because when the fiends of the pit tie me limb +to limb, lip to lip, with Judas who sold his master with a kiss, when +they burn me in the seventh hell, I shall remember and rejoice that to +the last he loved me, believed in me, gloried in his love for me. And +God who has been cruel to me in all else, will yet do this thing for +me. He will not let William Douglas know that I deceived him or that +he trusted me in vain." + +"But the Vengeance that you spoke of--what of that?" said Sholto, +dwelling upon that which was uppermost in his own thought. + +"Aye," said the Lady Sybilla, "that alone can be compassed by me. For +I am bound by a chain, the snapping of which is my death. To him who, +in a far land, devised all these things, to the man who plotted the +fall of the Douglas house--to Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France, I am +bound. But--I shall not die--even you cannot kill me, till I have +brought that head that is so high to the hempen cord, and delivered +the foul fiend's body to the fires of both earth and hell." + +"And the Chancellor Crichton--the tutor Livingston--what of them?" +urged Sholto, like a Scot thinking of his native traitors. + +The Lady Sybilla waved a contemptuous hand. + +"These are but lesser rascals--they had been nothing without their +master and mine. You of the Douglas house must settle with them." + +"And why have you returned to this country of Galloway?" said Sholto. +"And why are you thus alone?" + +"I am here," said the Lady Sybilla, "because none can harm me with my +work undone. I travel alone because it suits my mood to be alone, +because my master bade me join him at your town of Kirkcudbright, +whence, this very night, he takes ship for his own country of +Brittany." + +"And why do you, if as you say you hate him so, continue to follow +him?" + +"Ah, you are simple," she said; "I follow him because it is my fate, +and who can escape his doom? Also, because, as I have said, my work is +not yet done." + +She relapsed into her former listless, forth-looking, unconscious +regard, gazing through him as if the young man had no existence. He +dropped the rein and the point of his sword with one movement. The +white palfrey started forward with the reins loose on its neck. And as +she went the eyes of the Lady Sybilla were fixed on the distant hills +which hid the sea. + +So, leaving Sholto standing by the lakeside with bowed head and abased +sword, the strange woman went her way to work out her appointed task. + +But ere the Lady Sybilla disappeared among the trees, she turned and +spoke once more. + +"I have but one counsel, Sir Knight. Think no more of your master. Let +the dead bury their dead. Ride to Thrieve and never once lose sight of +her whom you call your sweetheart, nor yet of her charge, Margaret +Douglas, the Maid of Galloway, till the snow falls and winter comes +upon the land." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE MACKIMS COME TO THRIEVE + + +Sholto MacKim stood watching awhile as the white palfrey disappeared +with its rider into the purple twilight of the woods which barred the +way to the Solway. Then with a violent effort of will he recalled +himself and looked about for his horse. The tired beast was gently +cropping the lush dewy herbage on the green slope which led downwards +to his native cottage. Sholto took the grey by the bridle and walked +towards his mother's door, pondering on the last words of the Lady +Sybilla. A voice at once strenuous and familiar broke upon his ear. + +"Shoo wi' you, impident randies that ye are, shoo! Saw I ever the like +aboot ony decent hoose? Thae hens will drive me oot o' my mind! +Sholto, lad, what's wrang? Is't your faither? Dinna tell me it's your +faither." + +"It is more bitter than that, mither mine." + +"No the Earl--surely no the Earl himsel'--the laddie that I hae +nursed--the laddie that was to Barbara Halliburton as her ain dear +son!" + +"Mother, it is the Earl and young David too. They are dead, betrayed +into the hands of their enemies, cruelly and treacherously slain!" + +Then the keening cry smote the air as Barbara MacKim sank on her knees +and lifted up her hands to heaven. + +"Oh, the bonny laddies--the twa bonny, bonny laddies! Mair than my ain +bairns I loved them. When their ain mother wasna able for mortal +weakness to rear him, William Douglas drew his life frae me. What for, +Sholto, are ye standin' there to tell the tale? What for couldna ye +have died wi' him? Ae mither's milk slockened ye baith. The same arms +cradled ye. I bade ye keep your lord safe wi' your body and your soul. +And there ye daur to stand, skin-hale and bane unbroken, before your +mither. Get hence--ye are nae son o' Barbara MacKim. Let me never look +on your face again, gin ye bringna back the pride o' the warld, the +gladness o' the auld withered heart o' her ye ca' your mither!" + +"Mother," said Sholto, "my lord was not dead when I left him--he sent +me to raise the country to his rescue." + +"And what for then are ye standin' there clavering, and your lord in +danger among his foes?" cried his mother, angrily. + +"Dear mother, I have something more to tell ye--" + +"Aye, I ken, ye needna break the news. It is that Malise, my man, is +dead--that Laurence, wha ran frae the Abbey to gang wi' him to the +wars, is nae mair. Aweel they are worthily spent, since they died for +their chief! Ye say that ye were sent to raise the clan--then what +seek ye at the Carlinwark? To Thrieve, man, to Thrieve; as hard as ye +can ride! To Castle Thrieve!" + +"Mother," said Sholto, still more gently, "hearken but a moment. +Thirty thousand men are on their way to Edinburgh. Three days and +nights have I ridden without sleep. Douglasdale is awake. The Upper +Ward is already at the gates of the city. To a man, Galloway is on +the march. The border is aflame. But it is all too late already, I +have had news of the end. Before ever a man could reach within miles, +the fatal axe had fallen, and my lords, for whom each one of us would +gladly have died with smiles upon our faces, lay headless in the +courtyard of Edinburgh Castle." + +"And if the laddies were alive when ye rode awa', wha brocht the news +faster than my Sholto could ride--tell me that?" + +"I came not directly to Galloway, mother. First I raised the west from +Strathaven to Ayr. Thence I carried the news to Dumfries and along the +border side. But to-day I have seen the Lady Sybilla on her way to +take ship for France. From her I heard the news that all I had done +was too late." + +"That foreigneerin' randy! Wad ye believe the like o' her? Yon woman +that they named 'Queen o' Beauty' at the tournay by the Fords o' +Lochar!--Certes, I wadna believe her on oath, no if she swore on the +blessed banes o' Saint Andro himsel'. To the castle, man, or I'll kilt +my coats and be there afore you to shame ye!" + +"I go, mother," said Sholto, trying vainly to stem the torrent of +denunciation which poured upon him; "I came only to see that all was +well with you." + +"And what for should a' be weel wi' me? What can be ill wi' me, if it +be not to gang on leevin' when the noblest young men in the warld--the +lad that was suckled at my bosom, lies cauld in the clay. Awa wi' ye, +Sholto MacKim, and come na back till ye hae rowed every traitor in the +same bloody windin' sheet!" + +The foster mother of the Douglases sank on the ground in the dusk, +leaning against the wall of her house. She held her face in her hands +and sobbed aloud, "O Willie, Willie Douglas, mair than ony o' my ain I +loed ye. Bonny were ye as a bairn. Bonny were ye as a laddie. Bonny +abune a' as a noble young man and the desire o' maidens' e'en. But +nane o' them a' loed ye like poor auld Barbara, that wad hae gien her +life to pleasure ye. And noo she canna even steek thae black, black +e'en, nor wind the corpse-claith aboot yon comely limbs--sae straight +and bonny as they were--I hae straiked and kissed sae oft and oft. O +wae's me--wae's me! What will I do withoot my bonny laddies!" + +It was with the sound of his mother's lament still in his ears that +Sholto rode sadly over the hill to Thrieve. The way is short and easy, +and it was not long before the captain of the guard looked down upon +the lights of the castle gleaming through the gathering gloom. But +instead of being, as was its wont, lighted from highest battlement to +flanking tower, only one or two lamps could be discerned shining out +of that vast cliff of masonry. + +But, on the other hand, lights were to be seen wandering this way and +that over the long Isle of Thrieve, following the outlines of its +winding shores, shining from the sterns of boats upon the pools of the +Dee water, weaving intricately among the broomy braes on either side +of the ford, and even streaming out across the water meadows of +Balmaghie. + +Sholto was so full of his own sorrow and the certain truth of the +terrible news he must bring home to the Lady of Douglas and those two +whom he loved, Maud Lindesay and her fair maid, that he paid little +heed to these wandering lanterns and distant flaring torches. + +He was pausing at the bridge head to wait the lowering of the +draw-chains, when out of the covert above him there dashed a desperate +horseman, who stayed neither for bridge nor ford, but rode straight at +the eastern castle pool where it was deepest. To the stirrup clung +another figure strange and terrible, seen in the uncertain light from +the gate-house and in the pale beams of the rising moon. + +The drawbridge clattered down, and sending his spurs home into the +flanks of his tired steed, in a moment more Sholto was hard on the +track of the first headlong horseman. Scarce a length separated them +as they reached the outer guard of the castle. Abreast they reined +their horses in the quadrangle, and in a moment Sholto had recognised +in the rider his brother Laurence, pale as death, and the figure that +had clung to the stirrup as the horse took the water, was his father, +Malise MacKim. + +Thus in one moment came the three MacKims to the door-step of Thrieve. + +The clatter and cry of their arrival brought a pour of torches from +every side of the isle and from within the castle keep. + +"Have you found them--where are they?" came from every side. But +Laurence seemed neither to hear nor see. + +"Where is my lady?" he cried in a hoarse man's voice; and again, +"Instantly I must see my lady." + +Sholto stood aside, for he knew that these two brought later tidings +than he. Presently he went over to his father, who was leaning panting +upon a stone post, and asked him what were the news. But Malise thrust +him back apparently without recognising him. + +"My lady," he gasped, "I would see my lady!" + +Then through the torches clustered about the steps of the castle came +the tall, erect figure of the Earl's mother, the Countess of Douglas. +She stood with her head erect, looking down upon the MacKims and upon +the dropped heads and heaving shoulders of their horses. Above and +around the torches flared, and their reek blew thwartwise across the +strange scene. + +"I am here," she said, speaking clearly and naturally; "what would ye +with the Lady of Douglas?" + +Thrice Laurence essayed to speak, but his ready tongue availed him not +now. He caught at his horse's bridle to steady him and turned weakly +to his father. + +"Do you speak to my lady--I cannot!" he gasped. + +A terrible figure was Malise MacKim, the strong man of Galloway, as he +came forward. Stained with the black peat of the morasses, his armour +cast off piecemeal that he might run the easier, his under-apparel +torn almost from his great body, his hair matted with the blood which +still oozed from an unwashed wound above his brow. + +"My lady," he said hoarsely, his words whistling in his throat, "I +have strange things to tell. Can you bear to hear them?" + +"If you have found my daughter dead or dying, speak and fear not!" + +"I have things more terrible than the death of many daughters to tell +you!" + +"Speak and fear not--an it touch the lives of my sons, speak freely. +The mother of the Douglases has learned the Douglas lesson." + +"Then," said Malise, sinking his head upon his breast, "God help you, +lady, your two sons are dead!" + +"Is David dead also?" said the Lady of Douglas. + +"He is dead," replied Malise. + +The lady tottered a little as she stood on the topmost step of the +ascent to Thrieve. One or two of the torch-bearers ran to support her. +But she commanded herself and waved them aside. + +"God--He is the God," she said, looking upwards into the black night. +"In one day He has made me a woman solitary and without children. Sons +and daughter He has taken from me. But He shall not break my heart. +No, not even He. Stand up, Malise MacKim, and tell me how these things +came to pass." + +And there in the blown reek of torches and the hush of the courtyard +of Thrieve Malise told all the tale of the Black Dinner and the fatal +morning, of the short shrift and the matchless death, while around him +strong men sobbed and lifted up right hands to swear the eternal +vengeance. + +But alone and erect as a banner staff stood the mother of the dead. +Her eyes were dry, her lips compressed, her nostrils a little +distended like those of a war-horse that sniffs the battle from afar. +Outside the castle wall the news spread swiftly, and somewhere in the +darkness a voice set up the Celtic keen. + +"Bid that woman hold her peace. I will hear the news and then we will +cry the slogan. Say on, Malise!" + +Then the smith told how his horse had broken down time and again, how +he had pressed on, running and resting, stripped almost naked that he +might keep up with his son, because that no ordinary charger could +long carry his great weight. + +Then when he had finished the Lady of Thrieve turned to Sholto--"And +you, captain of the guard, what have you done, and wherefore left you +your master in his hour of need?" + +Then succinctly and to the point Sholto spoke, his father and Laurence +assenting and confirming as he told of the Earl's commission and of +how he had accomplished those things that were laid upon him. + +"It is well," said the lady, calmly, "and now I also will tell you +something that you do not know. My little daughter, whom ye call the +Fair Maid of Galloway, with her companion, Mistress Maud Lindesay, +went out more than twelve hours agone to the holt by the ford to +gather hazelnuts, and no eye of man or woman hath seen them since." + +And, even as she spoke, there passed a quick strange pang through the +heart of Sholto. He remembered the warning of the Lady Sybilla. Had he +once more come too late? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +THE GIFT OF THE COUNTESS + + +It was the Countess of Douglas who commanded that night in the Castle +of Thrieve. Sholto wished to start at once upon the search for the +lost maidens. But the lady forbade him. + +"There are a thousand searchers who during the night will do all that +you could do--and better. To-morrow we shall surely want you. You have +been three nights without sleep. Take your rest. I order you in your +master's name." + +And on the bare stone, outside Maud Lindesay's empty room, Sholto +threw himself down and slept as sleep the dead. + +But that night, save about the chamber where abode the mother of the +Douglases, the hum of life never ceased in the great Castle of +Thrieve. Whether my lady slept or not, God knows. At any rate the door +was closed and there was silence within. + +Sholto awoke smiling in the early dawn. He had been dreaming that he +and Maud Lindesay were walking on the shore together. It was a lonely +beach with great driftwood logs whereon they sat and rested ere they +took hands again and walked forth on their way. In his dream Maud was +kind, her teasing, disdainful mood quite gone. So Sholto awoke +smiling, but in a moment he wished that he had slept on. + +He lay a space, becoming conscious of a pain in his heart--the +overnight pain of a great disaster not yet realised. For a little he +knew not what it was. Then he saw himself lying at Maud's open door, +and he remembered--first the death of his masters, then the loss of +the little maid, and lastly that of Maud, his own winsome sweetheart +Maud. In another moment he had leaped to his feet, buckled his +sword-belt tighter, slung his cloak into a corner, and run downstairs. + +The house guard which had ridden to Crichton and Edinburgh had been +replaced from the younger yeomen of the Kelton and Balmaghie levies, +even as the Earl had arranged before his departure. But of these only +a score remained on duty. All who could be spared had gone to join the +march on Edinburgh, for Galloway was set on having vengeance on the +Chancellor and had sworn to lay the capital itself in ashes in revenge +for the Black Dinner of the castle banqueting-hall. + +The rest of the guard was out searching for the bonny maids of +Thrieve, as through all the countryside Margaret Douglas and Maud +Lindesay were named. + +Eager as Sholto was to accompany the searchers, and though he knew +well that no foe was south of the Forth to assault such a strong place +as Thrieve, he did not leave the castle till he had set all in order +so far as he could. He appointed Andro the Penman and his brother John +officers of the garrison during his absence. + +Then, having seen to his accoutrement and providing, for he did not +mean to return till he had found the maids, he went lastly to the +chamber door of the Lady of Douglas to ask her leave to depart. + +At the first knock he heard a foot come slowly across the floor. It +was my lady, who opened the latch herself and stood before Sholto in +the habit she had worn when at the castle gateway Malise had told his +news. Her couch was unpressed. Her window stood open towards the +south. A candle still glimmered upon a little altar in an angle of the +wall. She had been kneeling all night before the image of the Virgin, +with her lips upon the feet of her who also was a woman, and who by +treachery had lost a son. + +"I would have your permission to depart, my Lady Countess," said +Sholto, bowing his head upon his breast that he might not intrude upon +her eyes of grief; "the castle is safe, and I can be well spared. By +God's grace I shall not return till I bring either the maids +themselves or settled news of them. Have I your leave to go?" + +The Lady of Douglas looked at him a moment without speech. + +"Surely you are not the same who rode away behind my son William. You +went out light and gay as David, my other young son. There is now a +look of Earl William himself in your face--his mother tells you so. +Well, you were suckled at the same breast as he. May a double portion +of his spirit rest on you! That lowering regard is the Douglas mark. +Follow on and turn not back till you find. Strike and cease not, till +all be avenged. I have now no son left to save or to strike. Go, +Sholto MacKim. He who is dead loved you and made you knight. I said at +the time that you were too young and would have dissuaded him. But +when did a Douglas listen to woman's advice--his mother's or his +wife's? Foster brother you are--brother you shall be. By this kiss I +make you even as my son." + +She bent and laid her lips on the young man's brow. They were hot as +iron uncooled from the smithy anvil. + +"Come with me," she added, and with a vehemence strangely at odds with +her calm of the night before, she took Sholto by the hand and drew him +after her into the room that had been Earl William's. + +From the bundle of keys at her side she took a small one of French +design. With this she unlocked a tall cabinet which stood in a corner. +She threw the folding doors open, and there in the recess hung a +wonderful suit of armour, of the sort called at that time "secret." + +"This," said the Lady of Douglas, "I had designed for my son. Ten +years was it in the making. His father trysted it from a cunning +artificer in Italy. All these years has it been perfecting for him. It +comes too late. His eyes shall never see it, nor his body wear it. But +I give it to you. No Avondale shall ever do it upon him. It will fit +you, for you and he were of a bigness. No sword can cut through these +links, were it steel of Damascus forged for a Sultan. No spear-thrust +can pierce it, though I leave you to avenge the bruise. Yet it will +lie soft as silk, concealed and unsuspected under the rags of a beggar +or the robes of a king. The cap will turn the edge of an axe, even +when swung by a giant's hand, yet it will fit into the lining of a +Spanish hat or velvet bonnet. This your present errand may prove more +dangerous than you imagine. Go and put it on." + +Sholto kneeled down and kissed the hand of his liege lady. Then when +he had risen she gave him down the armour piece by piece, dusting +each with her kerchief with a sort of reverent action, as one might +touch the face of the dead. In Sholto's hands it proved indeed light +almost as woven cloth of homespun from Dame Barbara's loom, and +flexible as the spun silk of Lyons which the great wear next their +bodies. + +With it there went an under-suit of finest and softest leather, that +the skin should not be chafed by the cunning links as they worked +smoothly over one another at each movement of the body within. + +Sholto buckled on his lady's gift with a swelling heart. It was his +dead master's armour. And as piece by piece fitted him as a glove fits +the hand, the spirit of William Douglas seemed to enter more and more +into the lad. + +Then Sholto covered this most valuable gift with his own clothing +which he had brought from the house of Carlinwark, and presently +emerged, a well-looking but still slim squire of decent family. + +Then the Countess belted on him the sword of price which went +therewith, a blade of matchless Toledan steel, but covered with a +plain scabbard of black pigskin. + +"Draw and thrust," commanded the lady, pointing at the rough stone of +the wall at the end of the passage. + +Sholto looked ruefully at the glittering blade which he held in his +hand, flashing blue from point to double guard. + +"Thrust and fear not," said the Countess of Douglas the second time. + +Sholto lunged out at the stone with all his might. Fire flew from the +smitten blue whinstone where the point, with all the weight of his +young body behind it, impinged on the wall. A tingling shock of +acutest agony ran up the striker's wrist to the shoulder blade. The +sword dropped ringing on the pavement, and Sholto's arm fell numb and +useless to his side. + +"Lift the sword and look," commanded the Lady Douglas. + +Sholto did as he was bidden, with his left hand, and lo, the point +which had bent like a hoop was sharp and straight as if just from the +armourer's. "Can you strike with your left hand?" asked the lady. + +"As with my right," answered the son of Malise the Brawny. + +There was a bar at a window in the wall bending outward in shape like +the letter U. + +"Then strike a cutting stroke with your left hand." + +Sholto took the sword. It seemed to him short-sighted policy that in +the hour of his departure on a perilous quest he should disable +himself in both arms. But Sholto MacKim was not the youth to question +an order. He lifted the sword in his left hand, and with a strong +ungraceful motion struck with all his might. + +At first he thought that he had missed altogether. There was no +tingling in his arm, no jar when the blade should have encountered the +iron. But the Countess was examining the centre of the hoop. + +"I have missed," said Sholto. + +"Come hither and look," she said, without turning round. + +And when he looked, lo, the thick iron had been cut through almost +without bending. The sides of the break were fresh, bright, and true. + +"Now look at the edge of your sword," she said. + +There was no slightest dint anywhere upon it, so that Sholto, +armourer's son as he was, turned about the blade to see if by any +chance he could have smitten with the reverse. + +Failing in this, he could only kneel to his lady and say, "This is a +great gift--I am not worthy." + +For in these times of peril jewels and lands were as nothing to the +value of such a suit of armour, which kings and princes might well +have made war to obtain. + +The faintest disembodied ghost of a smile passed over the face of the +Countess of Douglas. + +"It is the best I can do with it now," she said, "and at least no one +of the Avondales shall ever possess it." + +After the Lady Douglas had armed the young knight and sped him upon +his quest, Sholto departed over the bridge where the surly custodian +still grumbled at his horse's feet trampling his clean wooden +flooring. The young man rode a Spanish jennet of good stock, a plain +beast to look upon, neither likely to attract attention nor yet to +stir cupidity. + +His father and Laurence were already on their way. Sholto had arranged +that whether they found any trace of the lost ones or no, they were +all to meet on the third day at the little town of Kirkcudbright. For +Sholto, warned by the Lady Sybilla, even at this time had his idea, +which, because of the very horror of it, he had as yet communicated to +no one. + +It chanced that as the youth rode southward along the banks of the +Dee, glancing this way and that for traces of the missing maids, but +seeing only the grass trampled by hundreds of feet and the boats in +the stream dragging every pool with grapnels and ropes, two horsemen +on rough ponies ambled along some distance in front of him. By their +robes of decent brown they seemed merchants on a journey, portly of +figure, and consequential of bearing. + +As Sholto rapidly made up to them, with his better horse and lighter +weight, he perceived that the travellers were those two admirable and +noteworthy magistrates of Dumfries, Robert Semple and his own uncle +Ninian Halliburton of the Vennel. + +Hearing the clatter of the jennet's hoofs, they turned about suddenly +with mighty serious countenances. For in such times when the wayfarer +heard steps behind him, whether of man or beast, it repaid him to give +immediate attention thereto. + +So at the sound of hoofs Ninian and his friend set their hands to +their thighs and looked over their shoulders more quickly than seemed +possible to men of their build. + +"Ha, nephew Sholto," cried Ninian, exceedingly relieved, "blithe am I +to see you, lad. You will tell us the truth of this ill news that has +upturned the auld province. By your gloomy face I see that the major +part is overtrue. The Earl is dead, and he awes me for twenty-four +peck of wheaten meal, forbye ten firlots of malt and other sundries, +whilk siller, if these hungry Avondale Douglases come into possession, +I am little likely ever to see. Surely I have more cause to mourn +him--a fine lad and free with his having. If ye gat not settlement +this day, why then ye gat it the neist, with never a word of drawback +nor craving for batement." + +Sholto told them briefly concerning the tragedy of Edinburgh. He had +no will for any waste of words, and as briefly thereafter of the loss +of the little maid and her companion. + +The Bailie of Dumfries lifted up his hands in consternation. + +"'Tis surely a plot o' thae Avondales. Stra'ven folk are never to +lippen to. And they hae made a clean sweep. No a Gallowa' Douglas +left, if they hae speerited awa' the bonny bit lass. Man, Robert, she +was heir general to the province, baith the Lordship o' Gallowa' and +the Earldom o' Wigton, for thae twa can gang to a lassie. But as soon +as the twa laddies were oot o' the road, Fat Jamie o' Avondale cam' +into the Yerldom o' Douglas and a' the Douglasdale estates, forbye the +Borders and the land in the Hielands. Wae's me for Ninian Halliburton, +merchant and indweller in Dumfries, he'll never see hilt or hair o' +his guid siller gin that wee lassie be lost. Man, Sholto, is't no an +awfu' peety?" + +During this lamentation, to which his nephew paid little attention, +looking only from side to side as they three rode among the willows by +the waterside, the other merchant, Robert Semple, had been pondering +deeply. + +"How could she be lost in this country of Galloway?" he said, "a land +where there are naught but Douglases and men bound body and soul to +the Douglas, from Solway even to the Back Shore o' Leswalt? 'Tis just +no possible--I'll wager that it is that Hieland gipsy Mistress +Lindesay that has some love ploy on hand, and has gane aff and aiblins +ta'en the lass wi' her for company." + +At these words Sholto twisted about in his saddle, as if a wasp had +stung him suddenly. + +"Master Semple," he said, "I would have you speak more carefully. +Mistress Lindesay is a baron's daughter and has no love ploys, as you +are pleased to call them." + +The two burgesses shook with jolly significant laughter, which angered +Sholto exceedingly. + +"Your mirth, sirs, I take leave to tell you, is most mightily ill +timed," he said, "and I shall consider myself well rid of your +company." + +He was riding away when his uncle set his hand upon the bridle of +Sholto's jennet. + +"Bide ye, wild laddie," he said, "there is nae service in gaun aff +like a fuff o' tow. My freend here meaned to speak nae ill o' the +lass. But at least I ken o' ae love ploy that Mistress Lindesay is +engaged in, or your birses wadna be so ready to stand on end, my bonny +man. But guid luck to ye. Ye hae the mair chance o' finding the flown +birdies, that ye maybes think mair o' the bonny norland quey than ye +think o' the bit Gallowa' calf. But God speed ye, I say, for gin ye +bringna back the wee lass that's heir to the braid lands o' Thrieve, +it's an ill chance Ninian Halliburton has ever to fill his loof wi' +the bonny gowden 'angels' that (next to high heeven) are a man's best +freends in an evil and adulterous generation." + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +THE MISSION OF JAMES THE GROSS + + +From all sides the Douglases were marching upon Edinburgh. After the +murder of the young lords the city gates had been closed by order of +the Chancellor. The castle was put into a thorough state of defence. +The camp of the Avondale Douglases, William and James, was already on +the Boroughmuir, and the affrighted citizens looked in terror upon the +thickening banners with the bloody Douglas heart upon them, and upon +the array of stalwart and determined men of the south. Curses both +loud and deep were hurled from the besiegers' lines at every head seen +above the walls, together with promises to burn Edinburgh, castle and +burgh alike, and to slocken the ashes with the blood of every living +thing within, all for the cause of the Black Dinner and the Bull's +Head set before the brothers of Douglas. + +But at midnoon of a glorious day in the late September, a man rode out +from the west port of the city, a fat man flaccid of body, pale and +tallowy of complexion. A couple of serving-men went behind him, with +the Douglas arms broidered on their coats. They looked no little +terrified, and shook upon their horses, as indeed well they might. +This little cavalcade rode directly out of the city gates towards the +pavilion of the young Douglases of Avondale. As they went two running +footmen kept them company, one on either side of their leader, and as +that unwieldy horseman swayed this way and that in the saddle, first +one and then the other applied with his open palm the force requisite +to keep the rider erect upon his horse. + +It was the new Earl of Douglas, James the Gross, on his way to visit +the camp of his sons. As he approached the sentries who stood on guard +upon the broomy braes betwixt Merchiston and Bruntsfield, he was +challenged in a fierce southland shout by one of the Carsphairn levies +who knew him not. + +"Stand back there, fat loon, gin ye wantna a quarrel shot intil that +swagging tallow-bag ye ca' your wame!" + +"Out of my way, hill varlet!" cried the man on horseback. + +But the Carsphairn man stood with his cross-bow pointed straight at the +leader of the cavalcade, crying at the same time in a loud, +far-carrying voice over his shoulder, "Here awa', Anthon--here awa', +Bob! Come and help me to argue wi' this fat rogue." + +Several other hillmen came hurrying up, and the little company of +riders was brought to a standstill. Then ensued this colloquy. + +"Who are you that dare stop my way?" demanded the Earl. + +"Wha may ye be that comes shuggy-shooin' oot o' the bluidy city o' +Edinburgh intil oor camp," retorted him of Carsphairn, "sitting your +beast for all the warld like a lump o' potted-head whammelled oot o' a +bowl?" + +"I am the Earl of Douglas." + +"The Yerl o' Dooglas! Then a bonny hand they hae made o' him in +Edinburgh. I heard they had only beheaded him." + +"I tell you I am Earl of Douglas. I bid you beware. Conduct me to the +tent of my sons!" + +At this point an aged man of some authority stood forward and gazed +intently at James the Gross, looking beneath his hand as at an +extensive prospect of which he wished to take in all the details. + +"Lads," he said, "hold your hands--it rins i' my head that this +craitur' may be Jamie, the fat Yerl o' Avondale. We'll let him gang by +in peace. His sons are decent lads." + +There came from the hillmen a chorus of "Avondale he may be--there's +nae sayin' what they can breed up there by Stra'ven. But we are weel +assured that he is nae richt Douglas. Na, nae Douglas like yon man was +ever cradled or buried in Gallowa'." + +At this moment Lord William Douglas, seeing the commotion on the +outposts, came down the brae through the broom. Upon seeing his father +he took the plumed bonnet from off his head, and, ordering the +Carsphairn men sharply to their places, he set his hand upon the +bridle of the gross Earl's horse. So with the two running footmen +still preserving some sort of equilibrium in his unsteady bulk, James +of Avondale was brought to the door of a tent from which floated the +banner of the Douglas house, blue with a bleeding heart upon it. + +At the entering in of the pavilion, all stained and trodden into the +soil by the feet of passers-by, lay the royal banner of the Stewarts, +so placed by headstrong James Douglas the younger, in contempt of +both tutor and Chancellor, who, being but cowards and murderers, had +usurped the power of the king within the realm. + +That sturdy youth came to the door of his pavilion half-dressed as he +had lain down, yawning and stretching reluctantly, for he had been on +duty all night perfecting the arrangements for besieging the town. + +"James--James," cried his father, catching sight of his favourite son +rubbing sleepily his mass of crisp hair, "what's this that I hear? +That you and William are in rebellion and are defying the power o' the +anointed king--?" + +At this moment the footman undid the girths of his horse, which, being +apparently well used to the operation, stood still with its feet +planted wide apart. Then they ran quickly round to the side towards +which the swaying bulk threatened to fall, the saddle slipped, and, +like a top-heavy forest tree, James the Gross subsided into the arms +of his attendants, who, straining and panting, presently set him on +his feet upon the blazoned royal foot-cloth at the threshold of the +pavilion. + +Almost he had fallen backwards when he saw the use to which his daring +sons had put the emblem of royal authority. + +"Guid save us a', laddies," he cried, staggering across the flag into +the tent, "ken ye what ye do? The royal banner o' the King o' +Scots--to mak' a floor-clout o'! Sirce, sirce, in three weeks I shall +be as childless as the Countess o' Douglas is this day." + +"That," said William Douglas, coldly, indicating with his finger the +trampled cloth, "is not the banner of Scotland, but only that of the +Seneschal Stewarts. The King of Scots is but a puling brat, and they +who usurp his name are murderous hounds whose necks I shall presently +stretch with the rogue's halter!" + +Young James Douglas had set an oaken folding chair for his father at +the upper end of the pavilion, and into this James the Gross fell +rather than seated himself. + +His sons William and James continued to stand before him, as was the +dutiful habit of the time. Their father recovered his breath before +beginning to speak. + +"What's this--what's this I hear?" he exclaimed testily, "is it true +that ye are in flat rebellion against the lawful authority of the +king? Laddies, laddies, ye maun come in wi' me to his excellence the +Chancellor and make instanter your obedience. Ye are young and for my +sake he will surely overlook this. I will speak with him." + +"Father," said William Douglas, with a cold firmness in his voice, "we +are here to punish the murderers of our cousins. We shall indeed enter +the guilty city, but it will be with fire and sword." + +"Aye," cried rollicking, headstrong James, "and we will roast the +Crichton on a spit and hang that smug traitor, Tutor Livingston, over +the walls of David's Tower, a bonny ferlie for his leman's wonder!" + +There came a cunning look into the small pig's eyes of James the +Gross. + +"Na, na, foolish laddies, thae things will ye no do. Mind ye not the +taunts and scorns that the Earl--the late Earl o' Douglas that is--put +upon us a'? Think on his pride and vainglory, whilk Scripture says +shall be brocht low. Think in especial how this righteous judgment +that has fallen on him and on his brother has cleared our way to the +Earldom." + +The choleric younger brother leaped forward with an oath on his lips, +but his calmer senior kept him back with his hand. + +"Silence, James!" he said; "I will answer our father. Sir, we have +heard what you say, but our minds are not changed. What cause to +associate yourself with traitors and mansworn you may have, we do not +know and we do not care." + +At his son's first words James the Gross rose with a sudden surprising +access of dignity remarkable in one of his figure. + +"I bid you remember," he said, speaking southland English, as he was +wont to do in moments of excitement, "I bid you remember, sirrah, that +I am the Earl of Douglas and Avondale, Justicer of Scotland--and your +father." + +William Douglas bowed, respectful but unmoved. + +"My lord," he said, "I forget nothing. I do not judge you. You are in +authority over our house. You shall do what you will with these forces +without there, so be you can convince them of your right. Black +murder, whether you knew and approved it or no, has made you Earl of +Douglas. But, sir, if you take part with my cousins' murderers now, or +screen them from our just vengeance and the vengeance of God, I tell +you that from this day you are a man without children. For in this +matter I speak not only for myself, but for all your sons!" He turned +to his brother. + +"James," he said, "call in the others." James went to the tent door +and called aloud. + +"Archibald, Hugh, and John, come hither quickly." + +A moment after three young men of noble build, little more than lads +indeed, but with the dark Douglas allure stamped plainly upon their +countenances, entered, bowed to their father, and stood silent with +their hands crossed upon the hilts of their swords. + +William Douglas went on with the same determinate and relentless calm. + +"My lord," he said, very respectfully, "here stand your five sons, all +soldiers and Douglases, waiting to hear your will. Murder has been +done upon the chief of our house by two men of cowardly heart and mean +consideration, Crichton and Livingston, instigated by the false +ambassador of the King of France. We have come hither to punish these +slayers of our kin, and we desire to know what you, our father, think +concerning the matter." + +James the Gross was still standing, steadying himself with his hand on +the arm of the oaken chair in which he had been sitting. He spoke with +some difficulty, which might proceed either from emotion or from the +plethoric habit of the man. + +"Have I for this brought children into the world," he said, "that they +should lift up their hands against the father that begat them? Ye know +that I have ever warned you against the pride and arrogance of your +cousins of Galloway." + +"You mean, of the late Earl of Douglas and the boy his brother," +answered William; "the pride of eighteen and fourteen is surely vastly +dangerous." + +"I mean those who have been tried and executed in Edinburgh by royal +authority for many well-grounded offences against the state," cried +the Earl, loudly. + +"Will you deign to condescend upon some of them?" said his son, as +quietly as before. + +"Your cousins' pride and ostentation of riches and retinue, being far +beyond those of the King, constituted in themselves an eminent danger +to the state. Nay, the turbulence of their followers has more than +once come before me in my judicial capacity as Justicer of the realm. +What more would you have?" + +"Were you, my lord, of those who condemned them to death?" + +"Not so, William; it had not been seemly in a near kinsman and the +heir to their dignities--that is, save and except Galloway, which by +ill chance goes in the female line, if we find not means to break that +unfortunate reservation. Your cousins were condemned by my Lords +Crichton and Livingston." + +"We never heard of either of them," said William, calmly. + +"In their judicial aspect they may be styled lords, as is the Scottish +custom," said James the Gross, "even as when I was laird of Balvany +and a sitter on the bed of justice, it was my right to be so +nominated." + +"Then our cousins were condemned with your approval, my Lord of +Douglas and Avondale?" persisted his son. + +James the Gross was visibly perturbed. + +"Approval, William, is not the word to use--not a word to use in the +circumstances. They were near kinsmen!" + +"But upon being consulted you did not openly disapprove--is it not so? +And you will not aid us to avenge our cousins' murder now?" + +"Hearken, William, it was not possible--I could not openly disapprove +when I also was in the Chancellor's hands, and I knew not but that he +might include me in the same condemnation. Besides, lads, think of the +matter calmly. There is no doubt that the thing happens most +conveniently, and the event falls out well for us. Our own barren +acres have many burdens upon them. What could I do? I have been a poor +man all my life, and after the removal of obstacles I saw my way to +become the richest man in Scotland. How could I openly object?" + +William Douglas bowed. + +"So--" he said, "that is what we desired to know! Have I your +permission to speak further?" + +His father nodded pleasantly, seating himself again as one that has +finished a troublesome business. He rubbed his hands together, and +smiled upon his sons. + +"Aye, speak gin ye like, William, but sit doon--sit doon, lads. We are +all of one family, and it falls out well for you as it does for me. +Let us all be pleasant and agreeable together!" + +"I thank you, my lord," said his son, "but we will not sit down. We +are no longer of one family. We may be your sons in the eye of the law +and in natural fact. But from this day no one of us will break bread, +speak word, hold intimacy or converse with you. So far as in us lies +we will renounce you as our father. We will not, because of the +commandment, rise in rebellion against you. You are Earl of Douglas, +and while you live must rule your own. But for me and my brothers we +will never be your children to honour, your sons to succour, nor your +liegemen to fight for you. We go to offer our services to our cousin +Margaret, the little Maid of Galloway. We will keep her province with +our swords as the last stronghold of the true Douglases of the Black. +I have spoken. Fare you well, my lord!" + +During his son's speech the countenance of the newly made Earl of +Douglas grew white and mottled, tallowy white and dull red in turns +showing upon it, like the flesh of a drained ox. He rose unsteadily to +his feet, moving one hand deprecatingly before him, like a helpless +man unexpectedly stricken. His nether lip quivered, pendulous and +piteous, in the midst of his grey beard, and for a moment he strove in +vain with his utterance. + +His eyes fell abashed from the cold sternness of his eldest son's +glance, and he seemed to scan the countenances of the younger four for +any token of milder mood. + +"James," he said, "ye hear William. Surely ye do not hold with him? +Remember I am your father, and I was aye particular fond o' you, +Jamie. I mind when ye wad rin to sit astride my shoulder. And ye used +to like that fine!" + +There were tears in the eyes of the weak, cunning, treacherous-hearted +man. The lips of James Douglas quivered a little, and his voice failed +him, as he strove to answer his father. What he would have said none +knows, but ere he could voice a word, the eyes of his brother, stern +as the law given to Moses on the mount, were bent upon him. He +straightened himself up, and, with a look carefully averted from the +palsied man before him, he said, in a steady tone, "What my brother +William says, I say." + +His father looked at him again, as if still hoping against hope for +some kinder word. Then he turned to his younger sons. + +"Archie, Hugh, little Jockie, ye willna take part against your ain +faither?" + +"We hold with our brothers!" said the three, speaking at once. + +At this moment there came running in at the door of the tent a lad of +ten--Henry, the youngest of the Avondale brothers. He stopped short in +the midst, glancing wonderingly from one to the other. His little +sword with which he had been playing dropped from his hand. James the +Gross looked at him. + +"Harry," he said, "thy brothers are a' for leavin' me. Will ye gang +wi' them, or bide wi' your faither?" + +"Father," said the boy, "I will go with you, if ye will let me help to +kill Livingston and the Chancellor!" + +"Come, laddie," said the Earl, "ye understand not these matters. I +will explain to you when we gang back to the braw things in Edinbra' +toon!" + +"No, no," cried the boy, stooping to pick up his sword, "I will bide +with my brothers, and help to kill the murderers of my cousins. What +William says, I say." + +Then the five young men went out and called for their horses, their +youngest brother following them. And as the flap of the tent fell, and +he was left alone, James the Gross sank his head between his soft, +moist palms, and sobbed aloud. + +For he was a weak, shifty, unstable man, loving approval, and a burden +to himself in soul and body when left to bear the consequences of his +acts. + +"Oh, my bairns," he cried over and over, "why was I born? I am not +sufficient for these things!" + +And even as he sobbed and mourned, the hoofs of his sons' horses rang +down the wind as they rode through the camp towards Galloway. And +little Henry rode betwixt William and James. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +THE WITHERED GARLAND + + +Meanwhile Sholto fared onwards down the side of the sullen water of +Dee. The dwellers along the bank were all on the alert, and cried many +questions to him about the death of the Earl, most thinking him a +merchant travelling from Edinburgh to take ship at Kirkcudbright. +Sholto answered shortly but civilly, for the inquirers were mostly +decent folk well on in years, whose lads had gone to the levy, and who +naturally desired to know wherefore their sons had been summoned. + +In return he asked everywhere for news of any cavalcade which might +have passed that way, but neither from the country folk, nor yet from +hoof-marks upon the grassy banks, could he glean the least information +pertinent to the purpose of his quest. + +Not till he came within a few miles of the town did he meet with man +or woman who could give him any material assistance. It was by the +Fords of Tongland that he first met with one Tib MacLellan, who with +much volubility and some sagacity retailed fresh fish to the burghers +of Kirkcudbright and the whole countryside, giving a day to each +district so long as the supply of her staple did not fail. + +"Fair good day to ye, mistress!" said Sholto, taking off his bonnet to +the sonsy upstanding fishwife. + +"And to you, bonny lad," replied the complimented dame, dropping a +courtesy, "may the corbie never cry at ye nor ill-faured pie juik at +your left elbow. May candle creesh never fa' on ye, red fire burn ye, +nor water scald ye." + +Tib was reeling off her catalogue of blessings when Sholto cut her +short. + +"Can you tell me, good lady," he asked, in his most insinuating tones, +"if there has been any vessel cleared from the port during these last +weeks?" + +"'Deed, sir, that I should ken, for is no my ain sister marriet on +Jock Wabster, wha's cousin by marriage twice removed is the bailie +officer o' the port? So I can advise ye that there was a boat frae the +Isle o' Man wi' herrin's for the great houses, though never a fin o' +them like the halesome fish I carry here in my creel. Wad ye like to +see them, to buy a dozen for the bonny lass that's waiting for ye? +That were a present to recommend ye, indeed--far mair than your gaudy +flowers, fule ballads, and sic like trash!" + +"You cannot remember any other ship of larger size than the Manx +fishing-boat?" continued Sholto. + +"Weel, no to ca' cleared frae the port," Tib went on, "but there was a +pair o' uncanny-looking foreign ships that lay oot there by the +Manxman's Lake for eight days, and the nicht afore yestreen they gaed +oot with the tide. They were saying aboot the foreshore that they gaed +west to some other port to tak' on board the French monzie that cam' +to the Thrieve at the great tournaying! But I kenna what wad tak' him +awa' to the Fleet or the Ferry Toon o' Cree, and leave a' the +pleasures o' Kirkcudbright ahint him. Forbye sic herrin's as are +supplied by me, Tib MacLellan, at less than cost price--as I houp +your honour will no forget, when in the course o' natur' and the +providence o' God you and her comes to hae a family atween ye." + +Sholto promised that he would not forget when the time alluded to +arrived. Then, turning his jennet off the direct road to Kirkcudbright +town, and betaking him through the Ardendee fords, he made all speed +towards a little port upon the water of Fleet, at the point where that +fair moorland stream winds lazily through the water-meadows for a mile +or two, after its brawling passage down from the hills of heather and +before it commits itself to the mother sea. + +But it was not until he had long crossed it and reached the lonely +Cassencary shore that Sholto found his first trace of the lost +maidens. For as he rode along the cliffs his keen eye noted a +well-marked trail through the heather approaching the shore at right +angles to his own line of march. The tracks, still perfectly evident +in the grassy places, showed that as many as twenty horses had passed +that way within the last two or three days. He stood awhile examining +the marks, and then, leading his beast slowly by the bridle, he +continued to follow them westward till they became confused and lost +near a little jetty erected by the lairds of Cree and Cassencary for +convenience of traffic with Cumberland and the Isle of Man. Here on +the very edge of the foreshore, blown by some chance wind behind a +stone and wonderfully preserved there, Sholto found a child's chain of +woodbine entwined with daisies and autumnal pheasant's eye. He took it +up and examined it. Some of the flowers were not yet withered. The +inter-weaving was done after a fashion he had taught the little Maid +of Galloway himself, one happy day when he had walked on air with the +glamour of Maud Lindesay's smiles uplifting his heart. For that +tricksome grace had asked him to teach her also, and he remembered the +lingering touch of her fingers ere she could compass the quaint device +of the pheasant's eye peeping out from the midst of each white +festoon. + +Then a deep despair settled down on Sholto's spirit. He knew that Maud +Lindesay and the fair Maid of Galloway had undoubtedly fallen into the +power of the terrible Marshal de Retz, Sieur of Machecoul, ambassador +of the King of France, and also many things else which need not in +this place be put on record. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +ASTARTE THE SHE-WOLF + + +In a dark wainscoted room overlooking that branch of the Seine which +divides the northern part of Paris from the Isle of the City, Gilles +de Retz, lately Chamberlain of the King of France, sat writing. The +hotel had recently been redecorated after the sojourn of the English. +Wooden pavements had again been placed in the rooms where the +barbarians had strewed their rushes and trampled upon their rotting +fishbones. Noble furniture from the lathes of Poitiers, decorated with +the royal ermines of Brittany, stood about the many alcoves. The table +itself whereon the famous soldier wrote was closed in with drawers and +shelves which descended to the floor and seemed to surround the +occupant like a cell. + +Before de Retz stood a curious inkstand, made by some cunning jeweller +out of the upper half of a human skull of small size, cut across at +the eye-holes, inverted, and set in silver with a rim of large rubies. +This was filled with ink of a startling vermilion colour. + +The document which Gilles de Retz was busy transcribing upon sheets of +noble vellum in this strange ink was of an equally mysterious +character. The upper part had the appearance of a charter engrossed by +the hand of some deft legal scribe, but the words which followed were +as startling as the vehicle by means of which they were made to stand +out from the vellum. + +"Unto Barran-Sathanas; Lord most glorious and puissant in hell +beneath and in the earth above, I, his unworthy servitor Gilles de +Retz, make my vows, hereby forever renouncing God, Christ, and the +Blessed Saints." + +To this appalling introduction succeeded many lines of close and +delicate script, interspersed with curious cabalistic signs, in which +that of the cross reversed could frequently be detected. Gilles de +Retz wrote rapidly, rising only at intervals to throw a fresh log of +wood across the vast iron dogs on either side of the wide fireplace, +as the rain from the northwest beat more and more fiercely upon the +small glazed panes of the window and howled among the innumerable +gargoyles and twisted roof-stacks of the Hotel de Pornic. + +Within the chamber itself, in the intervals of the storm, a low +continuous growling made itself evident. At first it was disregarded +by the writer, but presently, by its sheer pertinacity, the sound so +irritated him that he rose from his seat, and, striding to a narrow +door covered with a heavy curtain, he threw it wide open to the wall. +Then through the black oblong so made, a huge and shaggy she-wolf +slouched slowly into the room. + +The marshal kicked the brute impatiently with his slippered foot as +she entered, and, strange to relate, the wolf slunk past him with the +cowed air of a dog conscious of having deserved punishment. + +"Astarte, vilest beast," he cried, "have I not a thousand times warned +you to be silent and wait outside when I am at work within my +chamber?" + +The she-wolf eyed her master as he went back towards his table. Then, +seeing him lift his pen, with a sigh of content she dropped down upon +the warm hearthstone, lying with her haunches towards the blazing logs +and her bristling head couched upon her paws. Her yellow shining eyes +blinked sleepily and approvingly at him, while with her tongue she +rasped the soft pads of her feet one by one, biting away the fur from +between the toes with her long and gleaming teeth. Presently Astarte +appeared to doze off. Her eyes were shut, her attitude relaxed. But so +soon as ever her master moved even an inch to consult a marked list of +dates which hung on a hook beside him, or leaned over to dip a quill +in his scarlet ink, the flashing yellow eye and the gleam of white +teeth underneath told that Astarte was awake and intently watching +every movement of the worker. + +Through the heavy boom of the storm without, the thresh of the rain +upon the lattice casement, and the irregular whipping gusts which +shook the house, the soft wheeze of the engrossing quill could be +heard, the crackle of the burning logs and the heavy regular breathing +of the couchant she-wolf being the only other sounds audible within +the apartment. + +Gilles de Retz wrote on, smiling to himself as he added line after +line to his manuscript. His beard shone with a truculent blue-black +lustre. For the moment the aged look had quite gone out of his face. +His cheek appeared flushed with the hues of youth and reinvigorated +hope, yet withal of a youth without innocence or charm. Rather it +seemed as if fresh blood had been injected into the veins of some aged +demon, moribund and cruel, giving, instead of health or grace, only a +new lease of cruelty and lust. + +Presently another door opened, the main entrance of the apartment this +time, not the small private portal through which Astarte the wolf had +been admitted. A girl came in, thrusting aside the curtain, and, for +the space of a moment, holding it outstretched with an arm gowned in +pure white before dropping it with a rustle of heavy silken fabric +upon the ground. + +The Marshal de Retz wrote on without appearing to be conscious of any +new presence in his private chamber. The girl stood regarding him, +with eyes that blazed with an intent so deadly and a hate so +all-possessing that the yellow treachery in those of Astarte the +she-wolf appeared kind and affectionate by contrast. + +At the girl's entrance that shaggy beast had raised herself upon her +fore paws, and presently she gave vent to a low growl, half of +distrust and half of warning, which at once reached the ears of the +busy worker. + +Gilles de Retz looked up quickly, and, catching sight of the Lady +Sybilla, with a sweep of his hand he thrust his manuscript into an +open drawer of the escritoire. + +"Ah, Sybilla," he said, leaning back in his chair with an air of easy +familiarity, "you are more sparing of your visits to me than of yore. +To what do I owe the pleasure and honour of this one?" + +The girl eyed him long before answering. She stood statue-still by the +curtain at the entrance of the apartment, ignoring the chair which the +marshal had offered her with a bow and a courteous wave of his hand. + +"I have come," she made answer at last, in the deep even tones which +she had used before the council of the traitors at Stirling, "to +demand from you, Messire Gilles de Retz, what you mean to do with the +little Margaret Douglas and her companion, whom you wickedly +kidnapped from their own country and have brought with you in your +train to France?" + +"I have satisfaction in informing you," replied the marshal, suavely, +"that it is my purpose to dispose of both these agreeable young ladies +entirely according to my own pleasure." + +The girl caught at her breast with her hand, as if to stay a sudden +spasm of pain. + +"Not at Tiffauges--" she gasped, "not at Champtocé?" + +The marshal leaned back, enjoying her terror, as one tastes in slow +sips a rare brand of wine. He found the flavour of her fears +delicious. + +"No, Sybilla," he replied at last, "neither at Champtocé nor yet at +Tiffauges--for the present, that is, unless some of your Scottish +friends come over to rescue them out of my hands." + +"How, then, do you intend to dispose of them?" she urged. + +"I shall send them to your puking sister and her child, hiding their +heads and sewing their samplers at Machecoul. What more can you ask? +Surely the young and fair are safe in such worthy society, even if +they may chance to find it a little dull." + +"How can I believe him, or know that for once he will forego his +purposes of hell?" Sybilla murmured, half to herself. + +The Marshal de Retz smiled, if indeed the contraction of muscles which +revealed a line of white teeth can be called by that name. In the +sense in which Astarte would have smiled upon a defenceless sheepfold, +so Gilles de Retz might have been said to smile at his visitor. + +"You may believe me, sweet Lady Sybilla," said the marshal, "because +there is one vice which it is needless for me to practise in your +presence, that of uncandour. I give you my word that unless your +friends come worrying me from the land of Scots, the maids shall not +die. Perhaps it were better to warn any visitors that even at +Machecoul we are accustomed to deal with such cases. Is it not so, +Astarte?" + +At the sound of her name the huge wolf rose slowly, and, walking to +her master's knee, she nosed upon him like a favourite hound. + +"And if your intent be not that which causes fear to haunt the +precincts of your palaces like a night-devouring beast, and makes your +name an execration throughout Brittany and the Vendée, why have you +carried the little child and the other pretty fool forth from their +country? Was it not enough that you should slay the brothers? +Wherefore was it necessary utterly to cut off the race of the +Douglases?" + +"Sybilla, dear sister of my sainted Catherine," purred the marshal, +"it is your privilege that you should speak freely. When it is +pleasing to me I may even answer you. It pleases me now, listen--you +know of my devotion to science. You are not ignorant at what cost, at +what vast sacrifices, I have in secret pushed my researches beyond the +very confines of knowledge. The powers of the underworlds are +revealing themselves to me, and to me alone. Evil and good alike shall +be mine. I alone will pluck the blossom of fire, and tear from hell +and hell's master their cherished mystery." + +He paused as if mentally to recount his triumphs, and then continued. + +"But at the moment of success I am crossed by a prejudice. The +ignorant people clamour against my life--_canaille_! I regard them +not. But nevertheless their foolish prejudices reach other ears. +Hearken!" + +And like a showman he beckoned Sybilla to the window. A low roar of +human voices, fitful yet sustained, made itself distinctly audible +above the shriller hooting of the tempest. + +"Open the window!" he commanded, standing behind the curtain. + +The girl unhasped the brazen hook and looked out. Beneath her a little +crowd of poor people had collected about a woman who was beating with +bleeding hands upon the shut door of the Hotel de Pornic. + +"Justice! justice!" cried the woman, her hands clasped and her long +black hair streaming down her shoulders, "give me my child, my little +Pierre. Yester-eve he was enticed into the monster's den by his +servant Poitou, and I shall never see him more! Give me my boy, +murderer! Restore me my son!" + +And the answering roar of the people's voices rose through the open +window to the ears of the marshal. "Give the woman her son, Gilles de +Retz!" + +At that moment the woman caught sight of Sybilla. Instantly she +changed her tone from entreaty to fierce denunciation. + +"Behold the witch, friends, let us tear her to pieces. She is kept +young and beautiful by drinking the blood of children. Throw thyself +down, Jezebel, that the dogs may eat thee in the streets." + +And a shout went up from the populace as Sybilla shut to the window, +shuddering at the horrors which surrounded her. + +The Marshal de Retz had not moved, watching her face without regarding +the noise outside. Now he went back to his chair, and bending his +slender white fingers together, he looked up at her. + +Presently he struck a silver bell by his side three times, and the +mellow sound pervaded the house. + +Poitou appeared instantly at the inner door through which the she-wolf +had entered. + +"How does it go?" asked the marshal, with his usual careless easy +grace. + +"Not well," said Poitou, shaking his head; "that is, rightly up to a +point, and then--all wrong!" + +For the first time the countenance of the marshal appeared troubled. + +"And I was sure of success this time. We must try them younger. It is +all so near, yet, strangely it escapes us. Well, Poitou, I shall come +in a little when I have finished with this lady. Tell De Sillé to +expect me." + +Poitou bowed respectfully and was withdrawing, too well trained to +smile or even lift his eyes to where Sybilla stood by the window. + +His master appeared to recollect himself. + +"A moment, Poitou--there are some troublesome people of the city +rabble at the door. Bid the guard turn out, and thrust them away. Tell +them to strike not too gently with the flats of their swords and the +butts of their spears." + +Gilles de Retz listened for some time after the disappearance of his +familiar. Presently the low droning note of popular execration +changed into sharper exclamations of hatred, mingled with cries of +pain. + +Then the marshal smiled, and rubbed his hands lightly one over the +other. + +"That's my good lads," he said; "hear the rattle of the spear-hilts +upon the paving-stones? They are bringing the butts into close +acquaintance with certain very ill-shod feet. Ah, now they are gone!" + +The marshal took a long breath and went on, half to himself and half +to Sybilla. + +"But I own it is all most inconvenient," he said, thoughtfully. "Here +in Paris, in King Charles's country, it does not so greatly matter. +For the affair in Scotland has set me right with the King and in +especial with the Dauphin. By the death of the Douglases I have given +back the duchy of Touraine to the kings of France after three +generations. I have therefore well earned the right to be allowed to +seek knowledge in mine own way." + +"The service of the devil is a poor way to knowledge," said the girl. + +"Ah, there it is," said the marshal, raising his hand with gentle +deprecation, "even you, who are so highly privileged, are not wholly +superior to vulgar prejudice. I keep a college of priests for the +service of God and the Virgin. They have done me but little good. +Surely therefore I may be allowed a little service of That Other, who +has afforded me such exquisite pleasure and aided me so much. The +Master of Evil knows all things, and he can help whom he will to the +secrets of wealth, of power, and of eternal youth." + +"Have you gained any of these by the aid of that Master whom you +serve?" asked the Lady Sybilla, with great quiet in her voice. + +"Nay, not yet," cried the marshal, moved for the first time, "not +yet--perhaps because I have sought too eagerly and hotly. But I am now +at least within sight of the wondrous goal. See," he added, with +genuine excitement labouring in his voice, "see--I am still a young +man, yet though I, Gilles de Retz, was born to the princeliest fortune +in France, and by marriage added another, they have both been spent +well nigh to the last stiver in learning the hidden secrets of the +universe. I am still a young man, I say, but look at my whitening +hair, count the deep wrinkles on my forehead, consider my withered +cheek. Have I not tasted all agonies, renounced all delights, and cast +aside all scruples that I might win back my youth, and with it the +knowledge of good and evil?" + +Sybilla went to the door and stood again by the curtain. + +"Then you swear by your own God that you will let no evil befall the +Scottish maids?" she said. + +"I have told you already--let that suffice!" he replied with sudden +coldness; "you know that, like the Master whom I serve, I can keep my +word. I will not harm them, so long as their Scottish kinsfolk come +not hither meddling with my purposes. I have enough of meddlers in +France without adding outlanders thereto! I cannot keep a new and +permanent danger at grass within my gates." + +The Lady Sybilla passed through the portal by which she had entered, +without adieu or leave-taking of any kind. Gilles de Retz rose as soon +as the curtain had fallen, and shook himself with a yawn, like one +who has got through a troublesome necessary duty. Then he walked to +the window and looked out. The woman had come back and was kneeling +before the Hotel de Pornic. + +[Illustration: A BRIGHT LIGHT AS OF A FURNACE BURNT UP BEFORE HIM, AND +THE HEAT WAS OVERPOWERING AS IT RUSHED LIKE A RUDDY TIDE-RACE AGAINST +HIS FACE.] + +At sight of him she cried with sudden shrillness, "My lord, my great +lord, give me back my child--my little Pierre. He is my heart's heart. +My lord, he never did you any harm in all his innocent life!" + +The Marshal de Retz shut the window with a shrug of protest against +the vulgarity of prejudice. He did not notice four men in the garb of +pilgrims who stood in the dark of a doorway opposite. + +"This is both unnecessary and excessively discomposing," he muttered; +"I fear Poitou has not been judicious enough in his selections." + +He turned towards the private door, and as he did so Astarte the +she-wolf rose and silently followed him with her head drooped forward. +He went along a dark passage and pushed open a little iron door. A +bright light as of a furnace burnt up before him, and the heat was +overpowering as it rushed like a ruddy tide-race against his face. + +"Well, Poitou, does it go better?" he said cheerfully, "or must we try +them of the other sex and somewhat younger, as I at first proposed?" + +He let the door slip back, and the action of a powerful spring shut +out Astarte. Whereat she sat down on her haunches in the dark of the +passage, and showed her gleaming teeth in a grin, as, with cocked +ears, she listened to the sounds from within the secret laboratory of +the Marshal de Retz. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +MALISE FETCHES A CLOUT + + +The four men whom the Messire Gilles, by good fortune, failed to see +standing in the doorway opposite the Hotel de Pornic were attired in +the habit of pilgrims to the shrine of Saint James of Compostella. +Upon their heads they wore broad corded hats of brown. Long brown +robes covered them from head to foot. Their heads were tonsured, and +as they went along they fumbled at their beads and gave their +benediction to the people that passed by, whether they returned them +an alms or not. This they did by spreading abroad the fingers of both +hands and inclining their heads, at the same time muttering to +themselves in a tongue which, if not Latin, was at least equally +unknown to the good folk of Paris. + +"It is the house," said the tallest of the four, "stand well back +within the shade!" + +"Nay, Sholto, what need?" grumbled another, a very thickset palmer he; +"if the maids be within, let us burst the gates, and go and take them +out!" + +"Be silent, Malise," put in the third pilgrim, whose dress of richer +stuff than that of his companions, added to an air of natural command, +betrayed the man of superior rank, "remember, great jolterhead, that +we are not at the gates of Edinburgh with all the south country at our +backs." + +The fourth, a slender youth and fresh of countenance, stood somewhat +behind the first three, without speaking, and wore an air of profound +meditation and abstraction. + +It is not difficult to identify three out of the four. Sholto's quest +for his sweetheart was a thing fixed and settled. That his father and +his brother Laurence should accompany him was also to be expected. But +the other and more richly attired was somewhat less easy to be +certified. The Lord James of Douglas it was, who spoke French with the +idiomatic use and easy accentuation of a native, albeit of those +central provinces which had longest owned the sway of the King of +France. The brothers MacKim also spoke the language of the country +after a fashion. For many Frenchmen had come over to Galloway in the +trains of the first two Dukes of Touraine, so that the Gallic speech +was a common accomplishment among the youths who sighed to adventure +where so many poor Scots had won fortune, in the armies of the Kings +of France. + +Indeed, throughout the centuries Paris cannot be other than Paris. And +Paris was more than ever Paris in the reign of Charles the Seventh. +Her populace, gay, fickle, brave, had just cast off the yoke of the +English, and were now venting their freedom from stern Saxon policing +according to their own fashion. Not the King of France, but the Lord +of Misrule held the sceptre in the capital. + +It was not long therefore before a band of rufflers swung round a +corner arm-in-arm, taking the whole breadth of the narrow causeway +with them as they came. It chanced that their leader espied the four +Scots standing in the wide doorway of the house opposite the Hotel de +Pornic. + +"Hey, game lads," he cried, in that roistering shriek which then +passed for dashing hardihood among the youth of Paris, "here be some +holy men, pilgrims to the shrine of Saint Denis, I warrant. I, too, am +a clerk of a sort, for Henriet tonsured me on Wednesday sennight. Let +us see if these men of good works carry any of the deceitful vanities +of earth about with them in their purses. Sometimes such are not ill +lined!" + +The youths accepted the proposal of their leader with alacrity. + +"Let us have the blessing of the holy palmers," they cried, "and eke +the contents of their pockets!" + +So with a gay shout, and in an evil hour for themselves, they bore +down upon the four Scots. + +"Good four evangelists," cried the youth who had spoken first--a tall, +ill-favoured, and sallow young man in a cloak of blue lined with +scarlet, swaggering it with long strides before the others, "tell us +which of you four is Messire Matthew. For, being a tax-gatherer, he +will assuredly have money of his own, and besides, since the sad death +of your worthy friend Judas, he must have succeeded him as your +treasurer." + +"This is the keeper of our humble store, noble sir," answered the Lord +James Douglas, quietly, indicating the giant Malise with his left +hand, "but spare him and us, I pray you courteously!" + +"Ha, so," mocked the tall youth, turning to Malise, "then the +gentleman of the receipt of custom hath grown strangely about the +chest since he went a-wandering from Galilee!" + +And he reached forward his hand to pull away the cloak which hung +round the great frame of the master armourer. + +Malise MacKim understood nothing of his words or of his intent, but +without looking at his tormentor or any of the company, he asked of +James Douglas, in a voice like the first distant mutterings of a +thunder-storm, "Shall I clout him?" + +"Nay, be patient, Malise, I bid you. This is an ill town in which to +get rid of a quarrel once begun. Be patient!" commanded James Douglas +under his breath. + +"We are clerks ourselves," the swarthy youth went on, "and we have +come to the conclusion that such holy palmers as you be, men from +Burgundy or the Midi, as I guess by your speech, Spaniards by your +cloaks and this good tax-gatherer's beard, ought long ago to have +taken the vows of poverty. If not, you shall take them now. For, most +worthy evangelistic four, be it known unto you that I am Saint Peter +and can loose or bind. So turn out your money-bags. Draw your blades, +limber lads!" + +Whereupon his companions with one accord drew their swords and +advanced upon the Scots. These stood still without moving as if they +had been taken wholly unarmed. + +"Shall I clout them now?" rumbled Malise the second time, with an +anxious desire in his voice. + +"Bide a wee yet," whispered the Lord James; "we will try the soft +answer once more, and if that fail, why then, old Samson, you may +clout your fill." + +"_His_ fill!" corrected Malise, grimly. + +"Your pardon, good gentlemen," said James of Douglas aloud to the +spokesman, "we are poor men and travel with nothing but the merest +necessities--of which surely you would not rob us." + +"Nay, holy St. Luke," mocked the swarthy one, "not rob. That is an +evil word--rather we would relieve you of temptation for your own +souls' good. You are come for your sins to Paris. You know that the +love of money is the root of all evil. So in giving to us who are +clerks of Paris you will not lose your ducats, but only contribute of +your abundance to Holy Mother Church. I am a clerk, see--I do not +deceive you! I will both shrive and absolve you in return for the +filthy lucre!" + +And, commanding one of his rabble to hold a torch close to his head, +he uncovered and showed a tonsured crown. + +"And if we refuse?" said Lord James, quietly. + +"Then, good Doctor Luke," answered the youth, "we are ten to four--and +it would be our sad duty to send you all to heaven and then ease your +pockets, lest, being dead, some unsanctified passer-by might be +tempted to steal your money." + +"Surely I may clout him now?" came again like the nearer growl of a +lion from Malise the smith. + +Seeing the four men apparently intimidated and without means of +defence, the ten youths advanced boldly, some with swords in their +right hands and torches in their left, the rest with swords and +daggers both. The Scots stood silent and firm. Not a weapon showed +from beneath a cloak. + +"Down on your knees!" cried the leader of the young roisterers, and +with his left hand he thrust a blazing torch into the grey beard of +Malise. + +There was a quick snort of anger. Then, with a burst of relief and +pleasure, came the words, "By God, I'll clout him now!" The sound of a +mighty buffet succeeded, something cracked like a broken egg, and the +clever-tongued young clerk went down on the paving-stones with a +clatter, as his torch extinguished itself in the gutter and his sword +flew ringing across the street. + +"Come on, lads--they have struck the first blow. We are safe from the +law. Kill them every one!" cried his companions, advancing to the +attack with a confidence born of numbers and the consciousness of +fighting on their own ground. + +But ere they reached the four men who had waited so quietly, the Scots +had gathered their cloaks about their left arms in the fashion of +shields, and a blade, long and stout, gleamed in every right hand. +Still no armour was to be seen, and, though somewhat disconcerted, the +assailants were by no means dismayed. + +"Come on--let us revenge De Sillé!" they cried. + +"Lord, Lord, this is gaun to be a sair waste o' guid steel," grumbled +Malise; "would that I had in my fist a stieve oaken staff out of +Halmyre wood. Then I could crack their puir bit windlestaes o' swords, +without doing them muckle hurt! Laddies, laddies, be warned and gang +decently hame to your mithers before a worse thing befall. James, ye +hae their ill-contrived lingo, tell them to gang awa' peaceably to +their naked beds!" + +For, having vented his anger in the first buffet, Malise was now +somewhat remorseful. There was no honour in such fighting. But all +unwarned the youthful roisterers of Paris advanced. This was a nightly +business with them, and indeed on such street robberies of strangers +and shopkeepers the means of continuing their carousings depended. + +It chanced that at the first brunt of the attack Sholto, who was at +the other end of the line from his father, had to meet three opponents +at once. He kept them at bay for a minute by the quickness of his +defence, but being compelled to give back he was parrying a couple of +their blades in front, when the third got in a thrust beneath his arm. +It was as if the hostile sword had stricken a stone wall. The flimsy +and treacherous blade went to flinders, and the would-be robber was +left staring at the guard suddenly grown light in his hand. + +With a quick backward step, Sholto slashed his last assailant across +the upper arm, effectually disabling him. Then, catching his heel in a +rut, he fell backward, and it would have gone ill with him but for the +action of his father. The brawny one was profoundly disgusted at +having to waste his strength and science upon such a rabble, and now, +at the moment of his son's fall, he suddenly dropped his sword and +seized a couple of torches which had fallen upon the pavement. With +these primitive weapons he fell like a whirlwind upon the foe, taking +them unexpectedly in flank. A sweep of his mighty arms right and left +sent two of the assailants down, one with the whole side of his face +scarified from brow to jaw, and the other with his mouth at once +widened by the blow and hermetically closed by the blazing tar. + +Next, Sholto's pair of assailants received each a mighty buffet and +went down with cracked sconces. The rest, seeing this revolving and +decimating fire-mill rushing upon them as Malise waved the torches +round his head, turned tail and fled incontinently into the narrow +alleys which radiated in all directions from the Hotel de Pornic. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +LAURENCE TAKES NEW SERVICE + + +"Look to them well, Malise," said the Lord James; "'twas you who did +the skull-cracking at any rate. See if your leechcraft can tell us if +any of these young rogues are likely to die. I would not have their +deaths on my conscience if I can avoid it." + +First picking up and sheathing his sword, then bidding Sholto hold a +torch, Malise turned the youths over on their backs. Four of them +grunted and complained of the flare of the light in their eyes, like +men imperfectly roused from sleep. + +"Thae loons will be round in half an hour," said Malise, confidently. +"But they will hae richt sair heads the morn, I'se warrant, and some +o' them may be marked aboot the chafts for a Sabbath or twa!" + +But the swarthy youth whom the others called De Sillé, he who had been +spokesman and who had fallen first, was more seriously injured. He had +worn a thin steel cap on his head, which had been cracked by the +buffet he had received from the mighty fist of the master armourer. +The broken pieces had made a wound in the skull, from which blood +flowed freely. And in the uncertain light of the torch Malise could +not make any prolonged examination. + +"Let us tak' the callant up to the tap o' the hoose," he said at +last; "we can put him in the far ben garret till we see if he is gaun +to turn up his braw silver-taed shoon." + +Without waiting for any permission or dissent, the smith of Carlinwark +tucked his late opponent under his arm as easily as an ordinary man +might carry a puppy. Then, sheathing their swords, the other three +Scots made haste to leave the place, for the gleaming of lanthorns +could already be seen down the street, which might either mark the +advent of the city watch or the return of the enemy with +reinforcements. + +It was to a towering house with barred windows and great doors that +the four Scots retreated. Entering cautiously by a side portal, Malise +led the way with his burden. This mansion had been the town residence +of the first Duke of Touraine, Archibald the Tineman. It had been +occupied by the English for military purposes during their tenancy of +the city, and now that they were gone, it had escaped by its very +dilapidation the fate of the other possessions of the house of Douglas +in France. + +James Douglas had obtained the keys from Gervais Bonpoint, the trusty +agent of the Avondales in Paris, who also attended to the foreign +concerns of most others of the Scottish nobility. So the four men had +taken possession, none saying them nay, and, indeed, in the disordered +state of the government, but few being aware of their presence. + +Upon an old bedstead hastily covered with plaids, Malise proceeded to +make his prisoner comfortable. Then, having washed the wound and +carefully examined it by candlelight, he pronounced his verdict: + +"The young cheat-the-wuddie will do yet, and live to swing by the lang +cord about his craig!" + +Which, when interpreted in the vulgar, conveyed at once an expectation +of a life to be presently prolonged to the swarthy de Sillé, but after +a time to be cut suddenly short by the hangman. + +Every day James Douglas and Sholto haunted the precincts of the Hotel +de Pornic and made certain that its terrible master had not departed. +Malise wished to leave Paris and proceed at once to the De +Retz country, there to attempt in succession the marshal's great +castles of Machecoul, Tiffauges, and Champtocé, in some one of which +he was sure that the stolen maids must be immured. + +But James Douglas and Sholto earnestly dissuaded him from the +adventure. How did they know (they reminded him) in which to look? +They were all fortresses of large extent, well garrisoned, and it was +as likely as not that they might spend their whole time fruitlessly +upon one, without gaining either knowledge or advantage. + +Besides, they argued it was not likely that any harm would befall the +maids so long as their captor remained in Paris--that is, none which +had not already overtaken them on their journey as prisoners on board +the marshal's ships. + +So the Hotel de Pornic and its inhabitants remained under the strict +espionage of Sholto and Lord James, while up in the garret in the Rue +des Ursulines Laurence nursed his brother clerk and Malise sat +gloomily polishing and repolishing the weapons and secret armour of +the party. + +It was the evening of the third day before the "clout" showed signs +of healing. Its recipient had been conscious on the second day, but, +finding himself a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, he had been +naturally enough inclined to be a little sulky and suspicious. But the +bright carelessness of Laurence, who dashed at any speech in idiomatic +but ungrammatical outlander's French, gradually won upon him. As also +the fact that Laurence was clerk-learned and could sing and play upon +the viol with surprising skill for one so young. + +The prisoner never tired of watching the sunny curls upon the brow of +Laurence MacKim, as he wandered about trying the benches, the chairs, +and even the floor in a hundred attitudes in search of a comfortable +position. + +"Ah," the sallow youth said at last, one afternoon as he lay on his +pallet, "you should be one of the choristers of my master's chapel. +You can sing like an angel!" + +"Well," laughed Laurence in reply, "I would be indeed content, if he +be a good master, and if in his house it snoweth wherewithal to eat +and drink. But tell me what unfortunate may have the masterage of so +profitless a servant as yourself?" + +"I am the poor gentleman Gilles de Sillé of the household of the +Marshal de Retz!" answered the swarthy youth, readily. + +"De Silly indeed to bide with such a master!" quoth Laurence, with his +usual prompt heedlessness of consequences. + +The sallow youth with his bandaged head did not understand the poor +jest, but, taking offence at the tone, he instantly reared himself on +his elbow and darted a look at Laurence from under brows so lowering +and searching that Laurence fell back in mock terror. + +"Nay," he cried, shaking at the knees and letting his hands swing +ludicrously by his sides, "do not affright a poor clerk! If you look +at me like that I will call the cook from yonder eating-stall to +protect me with his basting-ladle. I wot if he fetches you one on the +other side of your cracked sconce, you will never take service again +with the Marshal de Retz." + +"What know you of my master?" reiterated Gilles de Sillé, glowering at +his mercurial jailer, without heeding his persiflage. + +"Why, nothing at all," said Laurence, truthfully, "except that while +we stood listening to the singing of the choir within his hotel, a +poor woman came crying for her son, whom (so she declared) the marshal +had kidnapped. Whereat came forth the guard from within, and thrust +her away. Then arrived you and your varlets and got your heads broken +for your impudence. That is all I know or want to know of your +master." + +Gilles de Sillé lay back on his pallet with a sigh, still, however, +continuing to watch the lad's countenance. + +"You should indeed take service with the marshal. He is the most +lavish and generous master alive. He thinks no more of giving a +handful of gold pieces to a youth with whom he is taken than of +throwing a crust to a beggar at his gate. He owns the finest province +in all the west from side to side. He has castles well nigh a dozen, +finer and stronger than any in France. He has a college of priests, +and the service at his oratory is more nobly intoned than that in the +private chapel of the Holy Father himself. When he goes in procession +he has a thurifer carried before him by the Pope's special permission. +And I tell you, you are just the lad to take his fancy. That I can +see at a glance. I warrant you, Master Laurence, if you will come with +me, the marshal will make your fortune." + +"Did the other young fellow make his fortune?" said Laurence. Gilles +de Sillé glared as if he could have slain him. + +"What other?" he growled, truculently. + +"Why, the son of the poor woman who cried beneath your kind master's +window the night before yestreen'." + +The lank swarthy youth ground his teeth. + +"'Tis ill speaking against dignities," he replied presently, with a +certain sullen pride. "I daresay the young fellow took service with +the marshal to escape from home, and is in hiding at Tiffauges, or +mayhap Machecoul itself. Or he may well have been listening at some +lattice of the Hotel de Pornic itself to the idiot clamour of his +mother and of the ignorant rabble of Paris!" + +"Your master loves the society of the young?" queried Laurence, +mending carefully a string of his viol and keeping the end of the +catgut in his mouth as he spoke. + +"He doats on all young people," answered Gilles de Sillé, eagerly, the +flicker of a smile running about his mouth like wild-fire over a swamp. +"Why, when a youth of parts once takes service with my master, he +never leaves it for any other, not even the King's!" + +Which in its way was a true enough statement. + +"Well," quoth Master Laurence, when he had tied his string and +finished cocking his viol and twingle-twangling it to his +satisfaction, "you speak well. And I am not sure but what I may think +of it. I am tired both of working for my father without pay, and of +singing psalms in a monastery to please my lord Abbot. Moreover, in +this city of Paris I have to tell every jack with a halbert that I am +not the son of the King of England, and then after all as like as not +he marches me to the bilboes!" + +"Of what nativity are you?" asked de Sillé. + +"Och, I'm all of a rank Irelander, and my name is Laurence O'Halloran, +at your service," quoth the rogue, without a blush. For among other +accomplishments which he had learned at the Abbey of Dulce Cor, was +that of lying with the serene countenance of an angel. Indeed, as we +have seen, he had the rudiments of the art in him before setting out +from the tourneying field at Glenlochar on his way to holy orders. + +"Then you will come with me to-morrow?" said Gilles, smiling. + +Laurence listened to make sure that neither his father nor Sholto was +approaching the garret. + +"I will go with you on two conditions," he said: "you shall not +mention my purpose to the others, and when we escape, I must put a +bandage over your eyes till we are half a dozen streets away." + +"Why, done with you--after all you are a right gamesome cock, my +Irelander," cried Gilles, whom the conditions pleased even better than +Laurence's promise to accompany him. + +Then, lending the prisoner his viol wherewith to amuse himself and +locking the door, Laurence made an excuse to go to the kitchen, where +he laughed low to himself, chuckling in his joy as he deftly handled +the saucepans. + +"Aha, Master Sholto, you are the captain of the guard and a knight, +forsooth, and I am but poor clerk Laurence--as you have ofttimes +reminded me. But I will show you a shift worth two of watching outside +the door of the marshal's hotel for tidings of the maids. I will go +where the marshal goes, and see all he sees. And then, when the time +comes, why, I will rescue them single-handed and thereafter make up my +mind which of them I shall marry, whether Sholto's sweetheart or the +Fair Maid of Galloway herself." + +Thus headlong Laurence communed with himself, not knowing what he said +nor to what terrible adventure he was committing himself. + +But Gilles de Sillé of the house of the Marshal de Retz, being left to +himself in the half darkness of the garret, took up the viol and sang +a curious air like that with which the charmer wiles his snakes to +him, and at the end of every verse, he also laughed low to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE BOASTING OF GILLES DE SILLÉ + + +But, as fate would have it, it was not in the Hotel de Pornic nor yet +in the city of Paris that Laurence O'Halloran was destined to enter +the service of the most mighty Marshal de Retz. + +Not till three days after his converse with the prisoner did Laurence +find an opportunity of escaping from the house in the street of the +Ursulines. Sholto and his father meantime kept their watch upon the +mansion of the enemy, turn and turn about; but without discovering +anything pertinent to their purpose, or giving Laurence a chance to +get clear off with Gilles de Sillé. The Lord James had also frequently +adventured forth, as he declared, in order to spy out the land, though +it is somewhat sad to relate that this espionage conducted itself in +regions which gave more opportunities for investigating the peculiar +delights of Paris than of discovering the whereabouts of Maud Lindesay +and his cousin, the Fair Maid of Galloway. + +The head of Gilles de Sillé was still swathed in bandages when, with +an additional swaddling of disguise across his eyes, he and Laurence, +that truant scion of the house of O'Halloran, stole out into the +night. A frosty chill had descended with the darkness, and a pale, +dank mist from the marshes of the Seine made the pair shiver as arm in +arm they ventured carefully forth. + +Laurence was doing a foolish, even a wicked, thing in thus, without +warning, deserting his companions. But he was just at the age when it +is the habit of youth to deceive themselves with the thought that a +shred of good intent covers a world of heedless folly. + +The fugitives found the Hotel de Pornic practically deserted. They +approached it cautiously from the back, lest they should run into the +arms of any of the numerous enemies of its terrible lord, who, though +not abhorred in Paris as in most other places which he favoured with +his visits, had yet little love spent upon him even there. + +The custodian in the stone cell by the gate came yawning out to the +bars at the sound of Gilles de Sillé's knocking, and after a growl of +disfavour admitted the youth and his companion. + +"What, gone--my master gone!" cried Gilles, striking his hand on his +thigh with an astounded air, "impossible!" + +"It was, indeed, a thing particularly unthoughtful and discourteous of +my Lord de Retz, Marshal of France and Chamberlain of the King, to +undertake a journey without consulting you," replied the man, who +considered irony his strong point, but feebly concealing his pleasure +at the favourite's discomfiture; "we all know upon what terms your +honourable self is with my lord. But you must not blame him, for he +waited whole twenty-four hours for news of you. It was reported that +you were set upon by four giants, and that your bones, crushed like a +filbert, had been discovered in the horse pond at the back of the +Convent of the Virgins of Complaisance." + +Gilles de Sillé looked as if he could very well have murdered the +speaker on the spot. His favour with his lord was evidently not a +thing of repute in his master's household. So much was clear to +Laurence, who, for the first time, began to have fears as to his own +reception, having such an unpopular person as voucher and introducer. + +"If you do not keep a civil tongue in your head, sirrah Labord,"--the +youth hissed the words through his clenched teeth,--"I will have your +throat cut." + +"Ah, I am too old," said the man, boldly; "besides, this is Paris, and +I have been twenty years concierge to his Grace the Duke of Orleans. I +and my wife have his secrets even as you, most noble Sire de Sillé, +possess those of my new master. You, or he either, by God's grace, +will think twice before cutting my throat. Moreover, you will be good +enough at this point to state your business or get to bed. For I am +off to mine. I serve my master, but I am not compelled to spend the +night parleying with his lacqueys." + +Now the concierges of Paris are very free and independent personages, +and their tongues are accustomed to wag freely and to some purpose in +their heads. + +"Whither has my master gone?" asked de Sillé, curbing his wrath in +order to get an answer. + +"He _said_ that he went to Tiffauges. Whether that be true, you have +better means of knowing than I." + +The swarthy youth turned to Laurence. + +"How much money have you, Master O'Halloran? I have spent all of mine, +and this city swine will not lend me a single sou for my expenses. We +must to the stables and follow the Sieur de Retz forthwith to +Brittany." + +"I have ten golden angels which the prior of the convent gave me at +my departure," said Laurence, with some pride. + +His companion nodded approvingly. + +"So much will see us through--that is, with care. Give them here to +me," he added after a moment's thought; "I will pay them out with more +economy, being of the country through which we pass." + +But Laurence, though sufficiently headlong and reckless, had not been +born a Scot for naught. + +"Wait till there is necessity," he replied cautiously, "and the angels +shall not be lacking. Till then they are quite safe with me. For +security I carry them in a secret place ill to be gotten at hastily." + +Gilles de Sillé turned away with some movement of impatience, yet +without saying another word upon the subject. + +"To the stables," he said; then turning to the concierge he added, "I +suppose we can have horses to ride after my lord?" + +"So far as I am concerned," growled Labord, "you can have all the +horses you want--and break your necks off each one of them if you +will. It will save some good hemp and hangman's hire. Such devil's +dogs as you two be bear your dooms ready written on your faces." + +And this saying nettled our Laurence, who prided himself no little on +an allure blonde and gallant. + +But Gilles de Sillé cared no whit for the servitor's sneers, so long +as they got horses between their knees and escaped out of Paris that +night. In an hour they were ready to start, and Laurence had expended +one of his gold angels on the provend for the journey, which his +companion and he stored in their saddle-bags. + +And in this manner, like an idle lad who for mischief puts body and soul +in peril, went forth Laurence MacKim to take up service with the +redoubtable Messire Gilles de Laval, Sieur de Retz, High Chamberlain of +Charles the Seventh, Marshal of France, and lately companion-in-arms of +the martyred Maid of Orleans. + +Now, before he went forth from the street of the Ursulines, he had +laid a sealed letter on the bed of his brother, which ran thus: "Ha, +Sir Sholto MacKim, while you stand about in the rain and shiver under +your cloak, I am off to find out the mystery. When I have done all +without assistance from the wise Sir Sholto, I will return. But not +before. Fare your knightship well." + +Laurence and Gilles de Sillé rode out of Paris by the Versailles road, +and the latter insisted on silence till they had passed the forest of +St. Cyr, which was at that time exceedingly dangerous for horsemen not +travelling in large companies. Once they were fairly on the road to +Chartres, however, and clear of the valley of the Seine and its +tangled boscage of trees, Gilles relaxed sufficiently to break a +bottle of wine to the success of their journey and to the new service +and duty upon which Laurence was to enter at the end of it. + +Having proposed this toast, he handed the bumper first to Laurence, +who, barely tasting the excellent Poitevin vintage, handed the +leathern bottle back to de Sillé. That sallow youth immediately, +without giving his companion a second chance, proceeded to quaff the +entire contents of the pigskin. + +Then as the stiff brew penetrated downwards, it was not long before +the favourite of the marshal began to wax full of vanity and swelling +words. + +"I tell you what it is," he said, "there would be trembling in the +heart of a very great man when the nine cravens returned without me. +For I am no shaveling ignoramus, but a gentleman of birth; aye, and +one who, though poor, is a near cousin of the marshal himself. I +warrant the rascals who ran away would smart right soundly for leaving +me behind. For Gilles de Sillé is no simpleton. He knows more than is +written down in the catechism of Holy Church. None can touch my favour +with my lord, no matter what they testify against me. For me I have +only to ask and have. That is why I take such pride in bringing you to +my Lord of Retz. I know that he will give you a post about his person, +and if you are not a simple fool you may go very far. For my master is +a friend of the King and, what is better, of Louis the Dauphin. He gat +the King back a whole province--a dukedom so they say, from the hands +of some Scots fool that had it off his grandfather for deeds done in +the ancient wars. And in return the King will protect my master +against all his enemies. Do I not speak the truth?" + +Laurence hoped that he did, but liked not the veiled hints and +insinuations of some surprising secret in the life of the marshal, +possessed by his dear cousin and well-beloved servant Gilles de Sillé. + +With an ever loosening tongue the favourite went on: + +"A great soldier is our master--none greater, not even Dunois himself. +Why, he rode into Orleans at the right hand of the Maid. None in all +the army was so great with her as he. I tell you, Charles himself +liked it not, and that was the beginning of all the bother of talk +about my lord--ignorant gabble of the countryside I call it. Lord, if +they only knew what I know, then, indeed--but enough. Marshal Gilles +is a mighty scholar as well, and hath Henriet the clerk--a weak, +bleating ass that will some day blab if my master permit me not to +slice his gizzard in time--he hath him up to read aloud Latin by the +mile, all out of the books called Suetonius and Tacitus--such +high-flavoured tales and full of--well, of things such as my master +loves." + +So ran Gilles de Sillé on as the miles fled back behind their horses' +heels and the towers of Chartres rose grey and solemn through the +morning mists before the travellers. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +THE COUNTRY OF THE DREAD + + +The three remaining Scottish palmers were riding due west into a +sunset which hung like a broad red girdle over the Atlantic. All the +sky above their heads was blue grey and lucent. But along the horizon, +as it seemed for the space of two handbreadths, there was suspended +this bandolier of flaming scarlet. + +The adventurers were not weary of their quest. They were only sick at +heart with the fruitlessness of it. + +First upon leaving Paris they had gone on to the Castle of Champtocé, +and from beneath had surveyed the noble range of battlements crowning +the heights above the broad, poplar-guarded levels of the Loire. The +Chateau de Thouars also they had seen, a small white-gabled house, +most like a Scottish baron's tower, which the Marshal de Retz +possessed in virtue of his neglected wife Katherine. In it her sister +the Lady Sybilla had been born. Solitary and tenantless, save for a +couple of guards and their uncovenanted womenkind, it looked down on +its green island meadows, while on the horizon hung the smoke of the +wood fires lit at morn and eve by the good wives of Nantes. + +To that place the three had next journeyed and had there beheld the +great Hotel de Suze, set like an enemy's fortress in the midst of the +turbulent city, over against the Castle of the King. But the Hotel, +though held like a place of arms, was untenanted by the marshal, his +retinue, or the lost Scottish maids. + +Next they found the strong Castle of Tiffauges, above the green and +rippling waters of the Sevres, void also as the others. No light +gleamed out of that window of sinister repute, high up in the +cliff-like wall, from which strange shapes were reported to look forth +even at deep midnoon. + +North, south, and east the three had ridden through the country of +Retz. There remained but Machecoul, more remote and also darker in +repute than any of the other dwelling-places of Gilles de Retz. As +they rode westward towards it, they became day by day more conscious +of the darkening down of the atmosphere of fear and suspicion, which, +murky and lowering, overhung all that fair land of southern Brittany. + +The vast pine forests from which rose the lonely towers of this the +marshal's most remote castle could now be seen, serrated darkly +against the broad belt of the sky. The sombre blackness of their +spreading branches, the yet blacker darkness where the gaps between +their red trunks showed a way into the wood, increased the gloom of +the weary travellers. Yet they rode on, Sholto eagerly, Malise grimly, +and the Lord James with the dogged resignation of a good knight who +may be depended on to see an adventure through, however irksome it may +be proving. + +James of Avondale thought within himself that the others had greater +interests in the quest than he--the younger MacKim having at stake the +honour of his sweetheart Maud, the elder the life of his young +mistress, the last of the Galloway house of Douglas. + +Yet it was with that jolly heart of his beating strong and loyal under +his brown palmer's coat, that James Douglas rode towards Machecoul, +only whistling low to himself and wishing that something would happen +to break the monotony of their journey. + +Nor had he long to wait. For just as the sun was setting they rode all +three of them abreast into the little hamlet of Saint Philbert, and +saw the sullen waters of the Étang de Grande Lieu spread marshy and +brackish as far as the eye could reach, edged by peat bogs and +overhung perilously by gloomy pines nodding over pools blacker than +scrivener's ink. + +As the three Scots looked into the stockaded entrance of the village, +they could see the children playing on the long, irregular street, and +the elder folk sitting about their doors in the evening light. + +But as soon as the clatter of horses' hoofs was heard, borne from far +down the aisles of the forest, there arose a sudden clamour and a +crying. From each little sparred enclosure rushed forth a woman who +snatched a baby here and there and drove a herd of children before her +indoors, glancing around and behind her as she did so with the anxious +look of a motherly barn-door fowl when the hawk hangs poised in the +windless sky. + +By the time the three men had entered the gate and ridden up the +village street, all was silent and dark. The windows were shut, the +doors were barred, and the village had become a street of living +tombs. + +"What means this?" said the Lord James; "the people are surely afraid +of us." + +"'Tis doubtless but their wonted welcome to their lord, the Sieur de +Retz. He seems to be popular wherever he goes," said Malise, grimly; +"but let us dismount and see if we can get stabling for our beasts. +Did they not tell us there was not another house for miles betwixt +here and Machecoul?" + +So without waiting for dissent or counter opinion, the master armourer +went directly up to the door of the most respectable-appearing house +in the village, one which stood a little back from the road and was +surrounded by a wall. Here he dismounted and knocked loudly with his +sword-hilt upon the outer gate. The noise reverberated up and down the +street, and was tossed back in undiminished volume from the green wall +of pines which hemmed in the village. + +But there was no answer, and Malise grew rapidly weary of his own +clamour. + +"Hold my bridle," he said curtly to Sholto, and with a single push of +his shoulders he broke the wooden bar, and the two halves of the outer +gate fell apart before him. A great, smooth-haired yellow dog of the +country rushed furiously at the intruders, but Malise, who was as +dexterous as he was powerful, received him with so sound a buffet on +the head that he paused bewildered, shaking his ears, whereat Malise +picked him up, tucked him under his arm, and with thumbs about his +windpipe effectually choked his barking. Then releasing him, Malise +took no further notice of this valorous enemy, and the poor, loyal, +baffled beast, conscious of defeat, crept shamefacedly away to hide +his disgrace among the faggots. + +But Malise was growing indignant and therefore dangerous and ill to +cross. + +"Never did I see such mannerless folk," he growled; "they will not +even give a stranger a word or a bite for his beast." + +Then he called to his companions, "Come hither and speak to these +cravens ere I burst their inner doors as well." + +At this by no means empty threat came the Lord James and spoke aloud +in his cheery voice to those within the silent house: "Good people, we +are no robbers, but poor travellers and strangers. Be not afraid. All +we want is that you should tell us which house is the inn that we may +receive refreshment for ourselves and our horses." + +Then there came a voice from behind the door: "There is no inn nearer +than Pornic. We are poor people and cannot support one. We pray your +highness to depart in peace." + +"But, good sir," answered James Douglas, "that we cannot do. Our +steeds are foot weary with a long day's journey. Give us the shelter +of your barns and a bundle of fodder and we will be content. We have +food and drink with us. Open, and be not afraid." + +"Of what country are you? Are you of the household of the Sieur de +Retz?" + +"Nay," cried James again, "we are pilgrims returning to our own city +of Albi in the Tarn country. We know nothing of any Sieur de Retz. +Look forth from a window and satisfy yourself." + +"Then if there be treachery in your hearts, beware," said the +tremulous voice again; "for I have four young men here by me whose +powder guns are even now ready to fire from all the windows if you +mean harm." + +A white face looked out for a moment from the casement, and as quickly +ducked within. Then the voice continued its bleating. + +"My lords, I will open the door. But forgive the fears of a poor old +man in a wide, empty house." + +The door opened and a curious figure appeared within. It was a man +apparently decrepit and trembling, who in one hand carried a lantern +and in the other a staff over which he bent with many wheezings of +exhausted breath. + +"What would you with a poor old man?" he said. + +"We would have shelter and fodder, if it please you to give them to us +for the sake of God's grace." + +The old man trembled so vehemently that he was in danger of shaking +out the rushlight which flickered dismally in his wooden lantern. + +"I am a poor, poor man," he quavered; "I have naught in the world save +some barley meal and a little water." + +"That will do famously," said James Douglas; "we are hungry men, and +will pay well for all you give us." + +The countenance of the cripple instantly changed. He looked up at the +speaker with an alert expression. + +"Pay," he said, "pay--did you not say you would pay? Why, I thought +you were gentlefolks! Now, by that I know that you are none, but of +the commonalty like myself." + +James Douglas took a gold angel out of his belt and threw it to him. +The cripple collapsed upon the top of the piece of money and groped +vainly for it with eager, outspread fingers in the dust of the yard. + +"I cannot find it, good gentleman," he piped, shrill as an east wind; +"alas, what shall I do? Poor Cćsar cannot find it. It was not a piece +of gold;--do tell me that it was not a piece of gold; to lose a piece +of gold, that were ruin indeed." + +Sholto picked up the lantern which had slipped from his trembling +hand. The tallow was beginning to gutter out as it lay on its side, +and a moment's search showed him the gold glittering on some farmyard +rubbish. With a little shrill cry like a frightened bird the old man +fell upon it, as it had been with claws. + +"Bite upon it and see if the gold be good," said Sholto, smiling. + +"Alas," cried the cripple, "I have but one tooth. But I know the coin. +It is of the right mintage and greasiness. O lovely gold! Beautiful +gentlemen, bide where you are and I will be back with you in a +moment." + +And the old man limped away with astonishing quickness to hide his +acquisition, lest, mayhap, his guests should repent them and retract +their liberality. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +CĆSAR MARTIN'S WIFE + + +Presently he returned and conducted them to a decent stable, where +they saw their beasts bestowed and well provided with bedding and +forage for the night. Then the old cripple, more than ever bent upon +his stick, but nevertheless chuckling to himself all the way, preceded +them into the house. + +"Ah, she is clever," he muttered; "she thinks her demon tells her +everything. But even La Meffraye will not know where I have hidden +that beautiful gold." + +So he sniggered senilely to himself between his fits of coughing. + +It was a low, wide room of strange aspect into which the old man +conducted his guests. The floor was of hard-beaten earth, but cleanly +kept and firm to the feet. The fireplace, with a hearth round it of +built stone, was placed in the midst, and from the rafters depended +many chains and hooks. A wooden settle ran half round the hearthstone +on the side farthest from the draught of the door. The weary three sat +down and stretched their limbs. The fire had burnt low, and Sholto, +reaching to a faggot heap by the side wall, began to toss on boughs of +green birch in handfuls, till the lovely white flame arose and the sap +spat and hissed in explosive puffs. + + _"Birk when 'tis green + Makes a fire for a king!"_ + +Malise hummed the old Scots lines, and the cripple coming in at that +moment raised a shrill bark of protest. + +"My good wood, my fuel that cost me so many sore backs--be careful, +young sir. Faggots of birch are dear in this country of Machecoul. My +lord is of those who give nothing for naught." + +"Oh, we shall surely pay for what we use," cried careless James; "let +us eat, and warm our toes, and therewith have somewhat less of thy +prating, old dotard. It can be shrewdly cold in this westerly country +of yours." + +"Pay," cried the old man, holding up his clawed hands; "do you mean +_more_ pay--more besides the beautiful gold angel? Here--" + +He ran out and presently returned with armful after armful of faggots, +while his guests laughed to find his mood so changed. + +"Here," he cried, running to and fro like a fretful hen, "take it all, +and when that is done, this also, and this. Nay, I will stay up all +night to carry more from the forest of Machecoul." + +"And you who were so afraid to open to three honest men, would you +venture to bring faggots by night from yon dark wood?" + +"Nay," said the old man, cunningly, "I meant not from the forest, but +from my neighbours' woodpiles. Yet for lovely gold I would even +venture to go thither--that is, if I had my image of the Blessed +Mother about my neck and the moon shone very bright." + +"Now haste thee with the barley brew," said Lord James, "for my +stomach is as deep as a well and as empty as the purse of a younger +son." + +The strange cripple emitted another bird-like cachinnation, resembling +the sound which is made by the wooden cogwheels wherewithal boys +fright the crows from the cornfields when the August sun is yellowing +the land. + +"Poor old Cćsar Martin can show you something better than that," he +cried, as he hirpled out (for so Malise described it afterwards) and +presently returned dragging a great iron pot with a strength which +seemed incredible in so ramshackle a body. + +"Ha! ha!" he said, "here is fragrant stew; smell it. Is it not good? +In ten minutes it will be so hot and toothsome that you will scarce +have patience to wait till it be decently cool in the platters. This +is not common Angevin stew, but Bas Breton--which is a far better +thing." + +Malise rose, and, relieving the old man, with one finger swung the pot +to a crook that hung over the cheerful blaze of the birchwood. + +The old cripple Cćsar Martin now mounted on a stool and stirred the +mess with a long stick, at the end of which was a steel fork of two +prongs. And as he stirred he talked: + +"God bless you, say I, brave gentlemen and good pilgrims. Surely it +was a wind noble and fortunate that blew you hither to taste my broth. +There be fine pigeons here, fat and young. There be leverets juicy and +tender as a maid untried. There--what think you of that?" (he held +each ingredient up on a prong as he spoke). "And here be larks, +partridge stuffed with sage, ripe chestnuts from La Valery, and +whisper it not to any of the marshal's men, a fawn from the park of a +month old, dressed like a kid so that none may know." + +"I suppose that so much providing is for your four sons?" said Sholto. + +The cripple laughed again his feeble, fleering laugh. + +"I have no sons, honest sir," he said; "it was but a weakling's policy +to tell you so, lest there should have been evil in your hearts. But I +have a wife and that is enough. You may have heard of her. She is +called La Meffraye." + +As he spoke his face took on an access of white terror, even as it had +done when he looked out of the window. + +"La Meffraye is she well named," he repeated the appellation with a +harsh croak as of a night-hawk screaming. "God forfend that she should +come home to-night and find you here!" + +"Why, good sir," smiled James Douglas, "if that be the manner in which +you speak of your housewife, faith, I am right glad to have remained a +bachelor." + +Cćsar the cripple looked about him and lowered his voice. + +"Hush!" he quavered, breathing hard so that his words whistled between +his toothless gums, "you do not know my wife. I tell you, she is the +familiar of the marshal himself." + +"Then," cried James Douglas, slapping his thigh, "she is young and +pretty, of a surety. I know what these soldiers are familiar with. I +would that she would come home and partake with us now." + +"Nay," said the old man, without taking offence, "you mistake, kind +sir, I meant familiar in witchcraft, in devilry--not (as it were) in +levity and cozenage." + +The fragrant stew was now ready to be dished in great platters of +wood, and the guests fell to keenly, each being provided with a wooden +spoon. The meat they cut with their daggers, but the most part was, +however, tender enough to come apart in their fingers, which, as all +know, better preserves the savour. + +At first the cripple denied having any wine, but another gold angel +from the Lord James induced him to draw a leathern bottle from some +secret hoard, and decant it into a pitcher for them. It was resinous +and Spanish, but, as Malise said, "It made warm the way it went down." +And after all with wine that is always the principal thing. + +As the feast proceeded old Cćsar Martin told the three Scots why the +long street of the village had been cleared of children so quickly at +the first sound of their horses' feet. + +"And in truth if you had not come across the moor, but along the +beaten track from the Chateau of Machecoul, you would never have +caught so much as a glimpse of any child or mother in all Saint +Philbert." + +At this point he beckoned Sholto, Malise, and the Lord James to come +nearer to him, and standing with his back to the fire and their three +heads very close, he related the terrible tale of the Dread that for +eight years had stalked grim and gaunt through the westlands of +France, La Vendée, and Bas Bretagne. In all La Vendée there was not a +village that had not lost a child. In many a hamlet about the shores +of the sunny Loire was there scarce a house from which one had not +vanished. They were seen playing in the greenwood, the eye was lifted, +and lo! they were not. A boy went to the well. An hour after his +pitcher stood beside it filled to the brim. But he himself was never +more seen by holt or heath. A little maid, sweet and innocent, looked +over the churchyard wall; she spied something that pleased her. She +climbed over to get it--and was not. + +"Oh, I could tell you of a thousand such if I had time," shrilled the +thin treble of the cripple in their eager ears, "if I dared--if I only +dared!" + +"Dared," said Malise; "why man--what is the matter with you? None +could hear you but we three men." + +"My wife--my wife," he quavered; "I bid you be silent, or at least +speak not so loud. La Meffraye she is called--she can hear all things. +See--" + +He made a sudden movement and bared his right arm. It was withered to +the shoulder and of a dark purple colour approaching black. + +"La Meffraye did that," he gasped; "she blasted it because I would not +do the evil she wished." + +"Then why do you not kill her?" said Malise, whose methods were not +subtle. "If she were mine, I would throttle her, and give her body to +the hounds." + +"Hush, I bid you be silent for dear God's sake in whom I believe," +again came the voice of the cripple. "You do not know what you say. La +Meffraye cannot die. Perhaps she will vanish away in a blast of the +fire of hell--one day when God is very strong and angry. But she +cannot die. She only leads others to death. She dies not herself." + +"You are kind, gentlemen," he went on after a pause, finding them +continue silent; "I will show you all. Pray the saint for me at his +shrine that I may die and go to purgatory. Or (if it were to a +different one) even to hell--that I might escape for ever from La +Meffraye." + +His hand fumbled a moment at the closely buttoned collar of his blue +blouse. Then he succeeded in undoing it and showed his neck. From chin +to bosom it was a mass of ghastly bites, some partially healed, more +of them recent and yet raw, while the skin, so far as the three Scots +could observe it, was covered with a hieroglyphic of scratches, claw +marks, and, as it seemed, the bites of some fierce wild beast. + +"Great Master of Heaven!" cried James Douglas. "What hell hound hath +done this to you?" + +"The wife of my bosom," quoth very grimly Cćsar the cripple. + +"A good evening to you, gentlemen all," said a soft and winning voice +from the doorway. + +At the sound the old man staggered, reeled, and would have swayed into +the fire had not Sholto seized him and dragged him out upon the floor. +All rose to their feet. + +In the doorway of the cottage stood an old woman, small, smiling, +delicate of feature. She looked benignly upon them and continued to +smile. Her hair and her eyes were her most noticeable features. The +former was abundant and hung loosely about the woman's brow and over +her shoulders in wisps of a curious greenish white, the colour almost +of mouldy cheese, while, under shaggy white eyebrows, her large eyes +shone piercing and green as emerald stones on the hand of some dusky +monarch of the Orient. + +The old woman it was who spoke first, before any of the men could +recover from their surprise. + +"My husband," she said, still calmly smiling upon them, "my poor +husband has doubtless been telling you his foolish tales. The saints +have permitted him to become demented. It is a great trial to a poor +woman like me, but the will of heaven be done!" + +The three Scots stood silent and transfixed, for it was an age of +belief. But the cripple lay back on the settle where Sholto had placed +him, his lips white and gluey. And as he lay he muttered audibly, "La +Meffraye! La Meffraye! Oh, what will become of poor Cćsar Martin this +night!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +THE MERCY OF LA MEFFRAYE + + +It was a strange night that which the three Scots spent in the little +house standing back from the street of Saint Philbert on the gloomy +edges of the forest of Machecoul. The hostess, indeed, was unweariedly +kind and brought forth from her store many dainties for their +delectation. She talked with touching affection of her poor husband, +afflicted with these strange fits of wolfish mania, in the paroxysms +of which he was wont to tear himself and grovel in the dust like a +beast. + +This she told them over and over as she moved about setting before +them provend from secret stores of her own, obviously unknown or +perhaps forbidden to Cćsar Martin. + +Wild bee honey from the woods she placed before them and white wheaten +bread, such as could not be got nearer than Paris, with wine of some +rarer vintage than that out of the cripple's resinous pigskin. These +and much else La Meffraye pressed upon them till she had completely +won over the Lord James, and even Malise, easy natured like most very +strong men, was taken by the sympathetic conversation and gracious +kindliness of the wife of poor afflicted Cćsar Martin of Saint +Philbert. Only Sholto kept his suspicion edged and pointed, and +resolved that he would not sleep that night, but watch till the dawn +the things which might befall in the house on the forest's border. + +Yet it was conspicuously to Sholto that La Meffraye directed most of +her blandishments. + +Her ruddy face, so bright that it seemed almost as if wholly covered +with a birthmark, gleamed with absolute good nature as she looked at +him. She threw off the black veil which half concealed her strange +coiffure of green toadstool-coloured hair. She placed her choicest +morsels before the young captain of the Douglas guard. + +"'Tis hard," she said, touching him confidentially on the shoulder, +"hard to dwell here in this country wherein so many deeds of blood are +wrought, alone with a poor imbecile like my husband. None cares to +help me with aught, all being too busy with their own affairs. It +falls on me to till the fields, which, scanty as they are, are more +than my feeble strength can compass unaided. Alone I must prune and +water the vines, bring in the firewood, and go out and in by night and +day to earn a scanty living for this afflicted one and myself. You +will hear, perchance, mischief laid to my charge in this village of +evil speakers and lazy folk. They hate me because I am no gadabout to +spend time abusing my neighbours at the village well. But the children +love me, and that is no ill sign. Their young hearts are open to love +a poor lone old woman. What cares La Meffraye for the sneers of the +ignorant and prejudiced so long as the children run to her gladly and +search her pockets for the good things she never forgets to bring them +from her kitchen?" + +So the old woman, talking all the time, bustled here and there, +setting sweet cakes baked with honey, confitures and bairns' goodies, +figs, almonds, and cheese before her guests. But through all her +blandishments Sholto watched her and had his eyes warily upon what +should befall her husband, who could be seen lying apparently either +asleep or unconscious upon the bed in an inner room. + +"You do not speak like the folk of the south," she said to the Lord +James. "Neither are you Northmen nor of the Midi. From what country +may you come?" The question dropped casually as to fill up the time. + +"We are poor Scots who have lived under the protection of your good +King Charles, the seventh of that name, and having been restored to +our possessions after the turning out of the English, we are making a +pilgrimage in order to visit our friends and also to lay our thanks +upon the altar of the blessed Saint Andrew in his own town in +Scotland." + +The old woman listened, approvingly nodding her head as the Lord James +reeled off this new and original narrative. But at the mention of the +land of the Scots La Meffraye pricked her ears. + +"Scots," she said meditatively; "that will surely interest my lord, +who hath but recently returned from that country, whither they say he +hath been upon a very confidential embassy from the King." + +It was the Lord James who asked the next question. + +"Have you heard whether any of our nation returned with him from our +country? We would gladly meet with any such, that we might hear again +the tongue of our nativity, which is ever sweet in a strange land--and +also, if it might be, take back tidings of them to their folk in +Scotland." + +"Nay," answered La Meffraye, standing before them with her eyes +shrewdly fixed upon the face of the speaker, "I have heard of none +such. Yet it may well be, for the marshal is very fond of the society +of the young, even as I am myself. He has many boy singers in his +choir, maidens also for his religious processions. Indeed, never do I +visit Machecoul without finding a pretty boy or a stripling girl +passing so innocently in and out of his study, that it is a pleasure +to behold." + +"Is his lordship even now at Machecoul?" asked James Douglas, bluntly. +The Lord James prided himself upon his tact, but when he set out to +manifest it, Sholto groaned inwardly. He was never certain from one +moment to another what the reckless young Lord might do or say next. + +"I do not even know whether the marshal is now at Machecoul. The rich +and great, they come and go, and we poor folk understand it no more +than the passing of the wind or the flight of the birds. But let us +get to our couches. The morn will soon be here, and it must not find +our bodies unrested or our eyes unrefreshed." + +La Meffraye showed her guests where to make their beds in the outer +room of the cottage, which they did by moving the bench back and +stretching themselves with their heads to the wall and their feet to +the fire. Sholto lay on the side furthest from the entrance of the +room to which La Meffraye had retired with her husband. Malise was on +the other side, and Lord James lay in the midst, as befitted his rank. + +These last were instantly asleep, being tired with their journey and +heavy with the meal of which they had partaken. But every sense in +Sholto's body was keenly awake. A vague inexpressible fear possessed +him. He lay watching the red unequal glow thrown upwards from the +embers, and through the wide opening in the roof he could discern the +twinkling of a star. + +Within the chamber of La Meffraye there was silence. Sholto could not +even hear the heavy breathing of Cćsar Martin. The silence was +complete. + +Suddenly, from far away, there came up the howling of a wolf. It was +not an uncommon sound in the forests of France, or even in those of +his own country, yet somehow Sholto listened with a growing dread. +Nearer and nearer it came, till it seemed to reverberate immediately +beneath the eaves of the dwelling of Cćsar the cripple. + +The flicker of the embers died slowly out. Malise lay without a sound, +his head couched on his hand. Lord James began to groan and move +uneasily, like one in the grip of nightmare. Sholto listened yet more +acutely. Outside the house he could hear the soft pad-pad of wild +animals. Their pelts seemed almost to brush against the wooden walls +behind his head with a rustle like that of corded silk. Sholto felt +nervously for his sword and cleared it instinctively of the coverture +in which he was wrapped. Expectation tingled in his cheeks and palms. +The silence grew more and more oppressive. He could hear nothing but +that soft brushing and the galloping pads outside, as of something +that went round and round the house, weaving a coil of terror and +death about the doomed inmates. + +Suddenly from the adjoining chamber a cry burst forth, so shrill and +terrible that not only Sholto but Malise also leaped to his feet. + +"Mercy--mercy! Have mercy, La Meffraye!" it wailed. + +Sholto rushed across the floor, striding the body of James Douglas in +his haste. He dashed the door of the inner chamber open and was just +in time to see something dark and lithe dart through the window and +disappear into the indigo gloom without. From the bed there came a +series of gasping moans, as from a man at the point of death. + +"For God's sake bring a light!" cried Sholto, "there is black murder +done here." + +His father ran to the hearth, and, seizing a birchen brand, the end of +which was still red, he blew upon it with care and success so that it +burst into a white brilliant flame that lighted all the house. Then +he, too, entered the room where Sholto, with his sword ready in his +hand, was standing over the gasping, dying thing on the bed. + +When Malise thrust forward his torch, lo! there, extended on the couch +to which they had carried him two hours before, lay the yet twitching +body of Cćsar the cripple with his throat well nigh bitten away. + +But La Meffraye was nowhere to be seen. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +THE BATTLE WITH THE WERE-WOLVES + + +"Let us get out of this hellish place," cried James Douglas so soon as +he had seen with his eyes that which lay within the bedchamber of the +witch woman, and made certain that it was all over with Cćsar Martin. + +So the three men issued out into the gloom of the night, and made +their way to the stable wherein they had disposed their horses so +carefully the night before. + +The door lay on the ground smashed and broken. It had been driven to +kindling wood from within. Its inner surface was dinted and riven by +the iron shoes of the frightened steeds, but the horses themselves +were nowhere to be found. They had broken their halters and vanished. +The three Scots were left in the heart of the enemy's country without +means of escape save upon their own feet. + +But the horror which lay behind them in the house of La Meffraye drove +them on. + +Almost without knowing whither they went, they turned their faces +towards the west, in the direction in which lay Machecoul, the castle +of the dread Lord of all the Pays de Retz. Malise, as was his custom, +walked in front, Sholto and the Lord James Douglas a step behind. + +A chill wind from the sea blew through the forest. The pines bent +soughing towards the adventurers. The night grew denser and blacker +about them, as with the wan waters of the marismas on one side and the +sombre arches of the forest on the other, they advanced sword in hand, +praying that that which should happen might happen quickly. + +But as they went the woods about them grew clamorous with horrid +noises. All the evil beasts of the world seemed abroad that night in +the forests of Machecoul. Presently they issued forth into a more open +space. The greyish dark of the turf beneath their feet spread further +off. The black blank wall of the pines retreated and they found +themselves suddenly with the stars twinkling infinitely chill and +remote above them. + +They were now, however, no more alone, for round them circled and +echoed the crying of many packs of wolves. In the forest of Machecoul +the guardian demons of its lord had been let loose, and throughout all +its borders poor peasant folk shivered in their beds, or crouched +behind the weak defences of their twice barred doors. For they knew +that the full pack never hunted in the Pays de Retz without bringing +death to some wanderer found defenceless within the borders of that +region of dread. + +"Let us stop here," said Sholto; "if these howling demons attack us, +we are at least in somewhat better case to meet them and fight it out +till the morning than in the dense darkness of the woods." + +In the centre of the open glade in which they found themselves, they +stumbled against the trunk of a huge pine which had been blasted by +lightning. It still stood erect with its withered branches stretching +bare and angular away from the sea. About this the three Scots posted +themselves, their backs to the corrugations of the rotting stump, and +their swords ready in their hands to deal out death to whatever should +attack them. + +Well might Malise declare the powers of evil were abroad that night. +At times the three men seemed wholly ringed with devilish cries. Yells +and howls as of triumphant fiends were borne to their ears upon the +western wind. The noises approached nearer, and presently out of the +dark of the woods shadowy forms glided, and again Sholto heard the +soft pad-pad of many feet. Gleaming eyes glared upon them as the +wolves trotted out and sat down in a wide circle to wait for the full +muster of the pack before rushing their prey. + +Sholto knew well how those in the service of Satan were able to change +themselves into the semblance of wolves, and he never doubted for a +moment that he and his friends were face to face with the direct +manifestations of the nether pit. Nevertheless Sholto MacKim was by +nature of a stout heart, and he resolved that if he had to die, it +would be as well to die as became a captain of the Douglas guard. + +The blue leme of summer lightning momentarily lit up the western sky. +The men could see the great gaunt pack wolves sitting upon their +haunches or moving restlessly to and fro across each other, while from +the denser woods behind rose the howling of fresh levies, hastening to +the assistance of the first. Sholto noted in especial one gigantic +she-wolf, which appeared at every point of the circle and seemed to +muster and encourage the pack to the attack. + +[Illustration: ALL THE WILD BEASTS APPEARED TO BE OBEYING THE SUMMONS +OF THE WITCH WOMAN.] + +The wild-fire flickered behind the jet black silhouettes of the dense +trees so that their tops stood out against the pale sky as if carved +in ebony. Then the night shut down darker than before. As the +soundless lightning wavered and brightened, the shadows of the wolves +appeared simultaneously to start forward and then retreat, while the +noise of their howling carried with it some diabolic suggestion of +discordant human voices. + +"_La Meffraye! La Meffraye! Meffraye!_" + +So to the excited minds of the three Scots the wolf legions seemed to +be crying with one voice as they came nearer. All the wild beasts of +the wood appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman. + +The strain of the situation first told upon the Lord James Douglas. +"Great Saints!" he cried, "let us attack them and die sword in hand. I +cannot endure much more of this." + +"Stand still where you are. It is our only chance," commanded Sholto, +as abruptly as if James Douglas had been a doubtful soldier of his +company. + +"It were better to find a tree that we could climb," growled Malise +with a practical suggestiveness, which, however, came too late. For +they dared not move out of the open space, and the great trunk of the +blasted pine rose behind them bare of branches almost to the top. + +"Your daggers in your left hands, they are upon us!" cried Sholto, +who, standing with his face to the west, had a lower horizon and more +light than the others. The three men had cast their palmers' cloaks +from their shoulders and now stood leaning a little forward, +breathing hard as they waited the assault of foes whom they believed +to be frankly diabolic and instinct with all the powers of hell. This +required greater courage than storming many fortifications. + +Almost as he spoke Sholto became aware that a fierce rush of shaggy +beasts was crossing the scanty grass towards him. He saw a vision of +red mouths, gleaming teeth, and hairy breasts, into the leaping chaos +of which he plunged and replunged his sword till his arm ached. Mostly +the stricken died snapping and tearing at each other; but ever and +anon one stronger than the rest would overleap the barrier of dead and +dying wolves that grew up in front of the three men, and Sholto would +feel the teeth click clean and hard upon the mail of his arm or thigh +before he could stoop to despatch the brute with the dirk which he +grasped in his left hand. + +The rush upon Sholto's side fortunately did not last long, but while +it continued the battle was strange and silent and grim--this notable +fight of man and beast. As the youth at last cleared his front of a +hairy monster that had sprung at his throat, he found himself +sufficiently free to look round the trunk of the blasted pine that he +might see how it fared with his companions. + +At first he could see nothing clearly, for the same strange and weird +conditions continued to permeate the earth and air. + +For a moment all would be dark and then flash on continuous flash +would follow, the wild-fire running about the tree-tops and glinting +up through the recesses of the woods as if the heavens themselves were +instinct with diabolic light. + +As he looked, Sholto saw his father, a gigantic figure standing black +and militant against the brightest of it. His hand grasped a huge wolf +by the heels, and he swung the beast about his head as easily as he +was wont to handle the forehammer at home. With his living weapon +Malise had swept a space about him clear, and the beasts seemed to +have fallen back in terror before such a strange enemy. + +But what of the Lord James? Overleaping the pile of dead and dying +wolves which his sword and dagger had made, and from which savage +heads still bit and snarled up at him as he went, Sholto ran round to +seek the young Lord of Avondale. At the first flash after leaving the +tree trunk he was nowhere to be seen, but a second revealed him lying +on the ground, with four shaggy beasts bending over him and tearing +fiercely at his gorget and breast-armour. With a loud shout Sholto was +among them. He passed his sword through and through the largest, and +in its fall the wounded monster turned and bit savagely at the fore +leg of a companion. The bone cracked as a rotten branch snaps +underfoot, and in another moment the two animals were rolling over and +over, locked together in the death grapple. + +Once, twice, and thrice Sholto struck right and left. The rest of the +beasts, seemingly astonished by the sudden flank attack, turned and +fled. Then, pushing off a huge wounded brute which lay gasping out its +life in red jets upon the breast of the fallen man, he dragged James +Douglas back to the tree which had been their fortress and propped him +up against the trunk. + +At the same moment a long wailing cry from the forest called the +wolves off. They retreated suddenly, disappearing apparently by magic +into the depths of the forest, leaving their dead in quivering heaps +all about the little bare glade where the unequal fight had been +fought. + +Malise the Brawny flung down the wolf whose head had served him with +such deadly effect as a weapon against his brethren. The beast had +long been dead, with a skull smashed in and a neck dislocated by the +sweeping blows it had dealt its kin. + +"Sholto! My Lord James!" cried Malise, coming up to them hastily. "How +fares it with you?" + +"We are both here," answered his son. "Come and help me with the Lord +James. He has fallen faint with the stress of his armour." + +After the disappearance of the wolves the unearthly brilliance of the +wild-fire gradually diminished, and now it flickered paler and less +frequently. + +But another hail from Sholto revealed to Malise the whereabouts of his +companions, and presently he also was on his knees beside the young +Lord of Avondale. + +Sholto gave him into the strong arms of Malise and stood erect to +listen for any renewal of the attack. The wise smith, whose skill as a +leech was proverbial, carefully felt James Douglas all over in the +darkness, and took advantage of every flicker of summer lightning to +examine him as well as his armour would permit. + +"Help me to loosen his gorget and ease him of his body mail," said +Malise, at last. "He has gotten a bite or two, but nothing that +appears serious. I think he has but fainted from pressure." + +Sholto bent down and with his dagger cut string by string the stout +leathern twists which secured the knight's mail. And as he did so his +father widened it out with his powerful fingers to ease the weight +upon the young man's chest. + +Presently, with a long sigh, James Douglas opened his eyes. + +"Where are the wolves?" he said, with a grimace of disgust. Sholto +told him how all that were left alive had, for the present at least, +disappeared. + +"Ugh, the filthy brutes!" said Lord James. "I fought till the stench +of their hot breaths seemed to stifle me. I felt my head run round +like a dog in a fit, and down I went. What happened after that?" + +"This," said Malise, sententiously, pointing to the heaps of dead +wolves which were becoming more apparent as the night ebbed and the +blue flame rose and fell like a fluttering pulse along the horizon. + +"Then to one or the other of you I owe my life," said Lord James +Douglas, reaching a hand to both. + +"Sholto dragged you from under half a dozen of the devils," said +Malise. + +"My father it was who brought you to," said Sholto. + +"I thank you both with all my heart--for this as for all the rest. I +know not, indeed, where to begin," said James Douglas, gratefully. +"Give me your hands. I can stand upright now." + +So saying, and being assisted by Malise, he rose to his feet. + +"Will they come again?" he asked, as with an intense disgust he +surveyed the battle-field in the intermittent light from over the +marshes. + +"Listen," said Malise. + +The low howling of the wolves had retreated farther, but seemed to +retain more and more of its strange human character. + +"_La Meffraye! La Meff--raye!_" they seemed to wail, with a curious +swelling upon the last syllable. + +"I hear only the yelling of the infernal brutes," said the Lord James; +"they seem to be calling on their patron saint--the woman whom we saw +in the house of the poor cripple. I am sure I saw her going to and fro +among the devils and encouraging them to the assault." + +"'Tis black work at the best," answered Malise; "these are no common +wolves who would dare to attack armed men--demons of the nethermost +pit rather, driven on by their hellish hunt-mistress. There will be +many dead warlocks to-morrow throughout the lands of France." + +"Stand to your arms," cried Sholto, from the other side of the tree. +And indeed the howling seemed suddenly to grow nearer and louder. The +noise circled about them, and they could again perceive dusky forms +which glided to and fro in the faint light among the arches of the +forest. + +In the midst of the turmoil Malise took off his bonnet and stood +reverently at prayer. + +"Aid us, Thy true men," he cried in a loud and solemn voice, "against +all the powers of evil. In the name of God--Amen!" + +The howling stopped and there fell a silence. Lord James would have +spoken. + +"Hush!" said Malise, yet more solemnly. + +And far off, like an echo from another world, thin and sweet and +silver clear, a cock crew. + +The blue leaping flame of the wild-fire abruptly ceased. The dawn +arose red and broad in the east. The piles of dead beasts shone out +black on the grey plain of the forest glade, and on the topmost bough +of a pine tree a thrush began to sing. + + + + +CHAPTER L + +THE ALTAR OF IRON + + +And now what of Master Laurence, lately clerk in the Abbey of Dulce +Cor, presently in service with the great Lord of Retz, Messire Gilles +de Laval, Marshal and Chamberlain of the King of France? + +Laurence had been a month at Machecoul and had not yet worn out his +welcome. He was sunning himself with certain young clerks and +choristers of the marshal's privy chapel of the Holy Innocents. +Suddenly Clerk Henriet appeared under the arches at the upper end of +the pretty cloisters, in the aisles of which the youths were seated. +Henriet regarded them silently for a moment, looking with special +approval upon the blonde curls and pink cheeks of the young Scottish +lad. + +Machecoul was a vast feudal castle with one great central square tower +and many smaller ones about it. The circuit of its walls enclosed +gardens and pleasaunces, and included within its limits the new and +beautiful chapel which has been recently finished by that good +Catholic and ardent religionary, the Marshal de Retz. + +As yet, Laurence had been able to learn nothing of the maids, not even +whether they were alive or dead, whether at Machecoul or elsewhere. At +the first mention of maidens being brought from Scotland to the +castle, or seen about its courts, a dead silence fell upon the +company of priests and singers in the marshal's chapel. It was the +same when Laurence spoke of the business privately to any of his new +acquaintances. + +No matter how briskly the conversation had been prospering hitherto, +if, at Holy Mass or jovial supper board, Laurence so much as breathed +a question concerning the subject next his heart, an instant blight +passed over the gaiety of his companions. Fear momently wiped every +other expression from their faces, and they answered with lame +evasion, or more often not at all. + +The shadow of the Lord of Machecoul lay heavy upon them. + +Clerk Henriet stood awhile watching the lads and listening to their +talk behind the carved lattice of Caen stone, with its lace-like +tracery of buds and flowers, through which the natural roses pushed +their way, and over which the clematis tangled its twining stems. + +"Stand up and prove on my body that I am a rank Irelander," Laurence +was saying defiantly to the world at large, with his fists up and his +head thrown back. "Saint Christopher, but I will take the lot of you +with one hand tied behind me. Stand up and I will teach you how to +sing 'Miserable sinners are we all!' to a new and unkenned tune." + +"'Tis easy for you to boast, Irelander," retorted Blaise Renouf, the +son of the lay choir-master, who had been brought specially from Rome +to teach the choir-boys of the marshal's chapel the latest fashions in +holy song. "We will either fight you with swords or not at all. We do +not fight with our bare knuckles, being civilised. And that indeed +proves that you are no true lover of the French, but an English dog of +unknightly birth." + +This retort still further irritated the hot-headed son of Malise. + +"I will fight you or any galley slave of a French frog with the sword, +or spit you upon the rapier. I will cleave you with the axe, transfix +you with the arrow, or blow you to the pit with the devil's sulphur. I +will fight any of you or all of you with any weapons from a +battering-ram to a toothpick--and God assist the better man. And there +you have Laurence O'Halloran, at your service!" + +"You are a loud-crowing young cock for a newcomer," said Henriet, the +confidential clerk of the marshal, suddenly appearing in the doorway; +"you are desired to follow me to my lord's chamber immediately. There +we will see if you will flap your wings so boldly." + +Laurence could not help noticing the blank alarm which this +announcement caused among the youth with whom he had been playing the +ancient game of brag. + +It was Blaise Renouf who first recovered. He looked across the little +rose-grown space of the cloister to see that Henriet had turned his +back, and then came quickly up to Laurence MacKim. + +"Listen to me," he said; "you are a game lad enough, but you do not +know where you are going, nor yet what may happen to you there. We +will fight you if you come back safe, but meantime you are one of +ourselves, and we of the choir have sworn to stand by one another. Can +you keep a pea in your mouth without swallowing it?" + +"Why, of course I can," said Laurence, wondering what was to come +next. "I can keep a dozen and shoot them through a bore of alder tree +at a penny without missing once, which I wot is more than any +Frenchman ever--" + +"Well, then," whispered the lad Renouf, breaking in on his boast with +a white countenance, "hearken well to me. When you enter the chamber +of the marshal, put this in your mouth. And if nothing happens keep it +there, but be careful neither to swallow it nor yet to bite upon it. +But if it should chance that either Henriet or Poitou or Gilles de +Sillé seize hold of your arms, bite hard upon the pellet till you feel +a bitter taste and then swallow. That is all. You are indeed a cock +whose comb wants cutting, and if all be well, we will incise it for +your soul's good. But in the meanwhile you are of our company and +fellowship. So for God's sake and your own do as you are bid. Fare you +well." + +As he followed Clerk Henriet, Laurence looked at the round pellet in +his hand. It was white, soft like ripe fruit, of an elastic +consistency, and of the largeness of a pea. + +As Laurence ascended the stairs, he heard the practice of the choir +beginning in the chapel. Precentor Renouf, the father of Blaise, had +summoned the youths from the cloisters with a long mellow whistle upon +his Italian pitch-pipe, running up and down the scale and ending with +a flourished "A-a-men." + +The open windows and the pierced stone railing of the great staircase +of Machecoul brought up the sound of that sweet singing from the +chapel to the ear of the adventurous Scot as through a funnel. They +were beginning the practice for the Christmas services, though the +time was not yet near. + + "_Unto God be the glory + In the Highest; + Peace be on the earth, + On the earth, + Unto men who have good-will._" + +So they chanted in their white robes in the Chapel of the Holy +Innocents in the Castle of Machecoul near by the Atlantic shore. + +The chamber of Gilles de Retz testified to the extraordinary +advancement of that great man in knowledge which has been claimed as +peculiar to much later centuries. The window casements were so +arranged that in a moment the place could either be made as dark as +midnight or flooded with bright light. The walls were always freshly +whitewashed, and the lime was constantly renewed. The stone floor was +stained a deep brick red, and that, too, would often be applied +freshly during the night. At a time when the very word "sanitation" +was unknown, Gilles had properly constructed conduits leading from an +adjoining apartment to the castle ditch. The chimney was wide as a +peasant's whole house, and the vast fireplace could hold on its iron +dogs an entire waggon-load of faggots. Indeed, that amount was +regularly consumed every day when the marshal deigned to abide at +Machecoul for his health and in pursuance of his wonderful studies +into the deep things of the universe. + +"Bide here a moment," said Clerk Henriet, bending his body in a +writhing contortion to listen to what might be going on inside the +chamber; "I dare not take you in till I see whether my lord be in good +case to receive you." + +So at the stair-head, by a window lattice which looked towards the +chapel, Laurence stood and waited. At first he kept quite still and +listened with pleasure to the distant singing of the boys. He could +even hear Precentor Renouf occasionally stop and rebuke them for +inattention or singing out of tune. + + "_My soul is like a watered garden, + And I shall not sorrow any more at all!_" + +So he hummed as he listened, and beat the time on the ledge with his +fingers. He felt singularly content. Now he was on the eve of +penetrating the mystery. At last he would discover where the missing +maidens were concealed. + +But soon he began to look about him, growing, like the boy he was, +quickly weary of inaction. His eye fell upon a strange door with +curious marks burnt upon its panels apparently by hot irons. There +were circles complete and circles that stopped half-way, together with +letters of some unknown language arranged mostly in triangles. + +This door fixed the lad's attention with a certain curious +fascination. He longed to touch it and see whether it opened, but for +the moment he was too much afraid of his guide's return to summon him +into the presence of the marshal. + +He listened intently. Surely he heard a low sound, like the wind in a +distant keyhole--or, as it might be (and it seemed more like it), the +moaning of a child in pain, it knows not why. + +The heart of the youth gave a sudden leap. It came to him that he had +hit upon the hiding-place of Margaret Douglas, the heiress of the +great province of Galloway. His fortune was made. + +With a trembling hand he moved a step towards the door of white wood +with the curious burned marks upon it. He stood a moment listening, +half for the returning footsteps of Clerk Henriet, and half to the +low, persistent whimper behind the panels. Suddenly he felt his right +foot wet, for, as was the fashion, he wore only a velvet shoe pointed +at the toe. He looked down, and lo! from under the door trickled a +thin stream of red. + +Laurence drew his foot away, with a quick catching sob of the breath. +But his hand was already on the door, and at a touch it appeared to +open almost of its own accord. He found himself looking from the dusk +of the outer whitewashed passage into a high, vaulted chapel, wherein +many dim lights glimmered. At the end there was a great altar of iron +standing square and solemn upon the platform on which it was set up, +and behind it, cut indistinctly against a greenish glow of light, and +imagined rather than clearly defined, the vast statue of a man with a +curiously high shaped head. Laurence could not distinguish any +features, so deep was the gloom, but the whole figure seemed to be +bending slightly forward, as if gloating upon that which was laid upon +the altar. But what struck Laurence with a sense of awe and terror was +the fact that as the greenish light behind waxed and waned, he could +see shadowy horns which projected from either side of the forehead, +and lower, short ears, pricked and shaggy like those of a he-goat. + +Nearer the door, where he stood in the densest gloom, something moved +to and fro, and as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness Laurence +could see that it was the bent figure of a woman. He could not +distinguish her face, but it was certainly a woman of great age and +bodily weakness, whose tangled hair hung down her back, and who halted +curiously upon one foot as she walked. She was bending over a low +couch, whereon lay a little shrouded figure, from which proceeded the +low whimpering sound which he had heard from without. But even at that +moment, as he waited trembling at the door, the moaning ceased, and +there ensued a long silence, in which Laurence could clearly +distinguish the beating of his own heart. It sounded loud in his ears +as a drum that beats the alarm in the streets of a city. + +The figure of the woman bent low to the couch, and, after a pause, +with a satisfied air she threw a white cloth over the shrouded form +which lay upon it. Then, without looking towards the door where +Laurence stood, she went to the great iron altar at the upper end of +the weird chapel and threw something on the red embers which glowed +upon it. + +"_Barran--most mighty Barran-Sathanas, accept this offering, and +reveal thyself to my master!_" she said in a voice like a chant. + +A greenish smoke of stifling odour rose and filled all the place, and +through it the huge horned figure above the altar seemed to turn its +head and look at the boy. + +Laurence could scarcely repress a cry of terror. He set his hand to +the door, and lo! as it had opened, so it appeared to shut of itself. +He sank almost fainting against the cold iron bars of the window which +looked out upon the courtyard below. The wind blew in upon him sweet +and cool, and with it there came again the sound of the singing of the +choir. They were practising the song of the Holy Innocents, which, by +command of the marshal himself, Precentor Renouf had set to excellent +and accordant music of his own invention. + + "_A voice was heard in Ramah, + In Ramah, + Lamentations and bitter weeping, + Rachel weeping for her children, + Refused to be comforted: + For her children, + Because they were not._" + +Obviously there was some mistake or lack of attention on the part of +the choir, for the last line had to be repeated three times. + + "_Because they were not._" + + + + +CHAPTER LI + +THE MARSHAL'S CHAMBER + + +There came a low voice in Laurence MacKim's ear, chill and sinister: +"You do well to look out upon the fair world. None knoweth when we may +have to leave it. Yonder is a star. Look well at it. They say God made +it. Perhaps He takes more interest in it than in the concerns of this +other world He hath made." + +The son of Malise MacKim gripped himself, as it were, with both hands, +and turned a face pale as marble to look into the grim countenance +which hid the soul of the Lord of Machecoul. + +Gilles de Retz appeared to peruse each feature of the boy's person as +if he read in a book. Yet even as Laurence gave back glance for +glance, and with the memory of what he had seen yet fresh upon him, a +strange courage began to glow in the heart of the young Scot. There +came a kind of contempt, too, into his breast, as though he had it in +him to be a man in despite of the devil and all his works. + +The marshal continued his scrutiny, and Laurence returned his gaze +with interest. + +"Well, boy," said the marshal, smiling as if not ill pleased at his +boldness, "what do you think of me?" + +"I think, sir," said Laurence, simply, "that you have grown older +since I saw you in the lists at Thrieve." + +It seemed to Laurence that the words were given him. And all the time +he was saying to himself: "Now I have done it. For this he will surely +put me to death. He cannot help himself. Why did I not stick to it +that I was an Irelander?" + +But, somehow, the answer seemed like an arrow from a bow shot at a +venture, entering in between the joints of the marshal's armour. + +"Do you think so?" he said, with some startled anxiety, yet without +surprise; "older than at Thrieve? I do not believe it. It is +impossible. Why, I grow younger and younger every day. It has been +promised me that I should." + +And setting his elbow on the sill of the window, Gilles de Retz looked +thoughtfully out upon the cool dusk of the rose garden. Then all at +once it came to him what was implied in that unlucky speech of +Laurence's. The grim intensity returned to his eyes as he erected +himself and bent his brows, white with premature age, upon the boy, +who confronted him with the fearlessness born of youth and ignorance. + +"Ah," he said, "this is interesting; you have changed your nation. You +were an Irishman to De Sillé in Paris, to the clerk Henriet, and to +the choir at Machecoul. Yet to me you admit in the very first words +you speak that you are a Scot and saw me at the Castle of Thrieve." + +Even yet the old Laurence might have turned the corner. He had, as we +know, graduated as a liar ready and expert. He had daily practised his +art upon the Abbot. He had even, though more rarely, succeeded with +his father. But now in the day of his necessity the power and wit had +departed from him. + +To the lord of the Castle of Machecoul Laurence simply could not lie. +Ringed as he was by evil, his spirit became strong for good, and he +testified like one in the place of final judgment, when the earthly +lendings of word and phrase and covering excuse must all be cast aside +and the soul stand forth naked and nakedly answer that which is +required. + +"I am a Scot," said Laurence, briefly, and without explanation. + +"Come with me into my chamber," said the marshal, and turned to +precede him thither. + +And without word of complaint or backward glance, the lad followed the +great lord to the chamber, into which so many had gone before him of +the young and beautiful of the earth, and whence so few had come out +alive. + +As he passed the threshold, Laurence put into his mouth the elastic +pellet which had been given him by Blaise Renouf, the choir-master's +son. + +The marshal threw himself upon a chair, reclining with a wearied air +upon the hands which were clasped behind his head. In the action of +throwing himself back one could see that Gilles de Retz was a young +and not an old man, though ordinarily his vitality had been worn to +the quick, and both in appearance and movement he was already +prematurely aged. + +"What is your name?" + +The question came with military directness from the lips of the +marshal of France. + +"Laurence MacKim," said the lad, with equal directness. + +"For what purpose did you come to the Castle of Machecoul?" + +"I came," said Laurence, coolly, "to take service with you, my lord. +And because I was tired of monk rule, and getting only the husks of +life, tired too of sitting dumb and watching others eat the kernel." + +"Ha!" cried Gilles de Retz, "I am with you there. There is, after all, +some harmony between our immortal parts. For my part, I would have all +of life,--husk, kernel, stalk,--aye, and the root that grows amid the +dung." + +He paused a moment, looking at Laurence with the air of a connoisseur. + +"Come hither, lad," he said, with a soft and friendly accent; "sit on +this seat with your back to the window. Turn your head so that the +lamp shines aright upon your face. You are not so handsome as was +reported, but that there is something wondrously taking about your +countenance, I do admit. There--sit so, and fear nothing." + +Laurence sat down with the bad grace of a manly youth who is admired +for what he privately despises, and wishes himself well quit of. But, +notwithstanding this, there was something so insinuating and pleasant +about the marshal's manner that the lad almost thought he must have +dreamed the incident of the burned door and the sacrifice upon the +iron altar. + +"You came hither to search for Margaret of Douglas," said the marshal, +suddenly bending forward as if to take him by surprise. + +Laurence, wholly taken aback, answered neither yea nor nay, but held +his peace. + +Then Gilles de Retz nodded sagely, with a quiet satisfaction in his +own prevision, which to one less bold and reckless than the young +clerk of Dulce Cor would have proved disconcerting. Then he propounded +his next question: + +"How many came hither with you?" + +"One," said Laurence, promptly; "I came here alone with your servant +De Sillé." + +The marshal smiled. + +"Good--we will try some other method with you," he said; "but be +advised and speak. None hath ever hidden aught from Gilles de Retz." + +"Then, my lord," said Laurence, "there is the less reason for you to +put me to the question." + +"I can expound dark speeches," said the marshal, "and I also know my +way through the subtleties of lying tongues. Hope not to lie to me. +How many were they that came to France with you?" + +"I will not tell you," said the son of Malise. + +The marshal smiled again and nodded his head repeatedly with a certain +gustful appreciation. + +"You would make a good soldier. It is a pity that I have gone out of +the business. Yet I have only (as it were) descended from wholesale to +particular, from the gross to the detail." + +Laurence, who felt that the true policy was to be sparing of his +words, made no answer. + +"You say that you are a clerk. Can you read Latin?" + +"Yes," said Laurence, "and write it too." + +"Read this, then," said the marshal, and handed him a book. + +Laurence had been well instructed in the humanities by Father Colin of +Saint Michael's Kirk by the side of Dee water, and he read the words, +which record the cruelties of the Emperor Caligula with exactness and +decorum. + +"You read not ill," said his auditor; "you have been well taught, +though you have a vile foreign accent and know not the shades of +meaning that lie in the allusions. + +"You say that you came to Machecoul with desire to serve me," the +marshal continued after a pause for thought. "In what manner did you +think you could serve, and why went you not into the house of some +other lord?" + +"As to service," said Laurence, "I came because I was invited by your +henchman de Sillé. And as to what I can do, I profess that I can sing, +having been well taught by a master, the best in my country. I can +play upon the viol and eke upon the organ. I am fairly good at fence, +and excellent as any at singlestick. I can faithfully carry a message +and loyally serve those who trust me. I would have some money to +spend, which I have never had. I wish to live a life worth living, +wherein is pleasure and pain, the lack of sameness, and the joy of +things new. And if that may not be--why, I am ready to die, that I may +make proof whether there be anything better beyond." + +"A most philosophic creed," cried the marshal. "Well, there is one +thing in which I can prove, if indeed you lie not. Sing!" + +Then Laurence stood up and sang, even as the choir had done, the +lamentation of Rachel according to the setting of the Roman precentor. + + "_A voice was heard in Ramah!_" + +And as he sang, the Lord of Retz took up the strain, and, with true +accord and feeling, accompanied him to the end. + +[Illustration: THE PRISONERS OF THE WHITE TOWER.] + +"Brava!" cried Gilles de Retz when Laurence had finished; "that is +truly well sung indeed! You shall sing it alone in my chapel next +feast day of the Holy Innocents." + +He paused as if to consider his words. + +"And now for this time go. But remember that this Castle of Machecoul +is straiter than any prison cell, and better guarded than a fortress. +It is surrounded with constant watchers, secret, invisible, +implacable. Whoso tries to escape, dies. You are a bold lad, and, as I +think, fear not much death for yourself. But come hither, and I will +show you something which will chain you here." + +With a kind of solicitous familiarity the Marshal de Retz took the lad +by the arm and drew him to another window on the further side of the +keep. + +"Look forth and tell me what you see," he said. + +Laurence set his head out of the window. He looked upon an intricate +mass of building, composing the western wing of the castle, and it was +some moments before he could distinguish what the Sieur de Retz wished +him to see. Then, as his eyes took in the details, he saw on the flat +roof of a square tower beneath him two maidens seated, and when he +looked closer--lo! they were Margaret Douglas and, beside her, his +brother's sweetheart Maud Lindesay. These two were sitting hand in +hand, as was their wont, and the head of the child was bowed almost to +her friend's knee. Maud's arm was about Margaret's neck, and her +fingers caressed the childish tangle of hair. Presently the elder +lifted the younger upon her knee and hushed her like a mother who +puts a tired child to sleep. + +Immediately behind this group, in the shadow of a buttress, Laurence +saw a tall man, masked, clad in a black suit, and with a drawn sword +in his hand. + +The marshal looked out over the lad's shoulder. + +"The day you are missed from the Castle of Machecoul, or the day that +the rest of your company arrives here, that sword shall fall, but in a +more terrible fashion than I can tell you! That sentinel can neither +hear nor speak, but he has his orders and will obey them. I bid you +good night. Go to your singing in the choir. It is time for the +chanting of vespers in the chapel of the Holy Innocents." + + + + +CHAPTER LII + +THE JESTING OF LA MEFFRAYE + + +It was in the White Tower of Machecoul that the Scottish maidens were +held at the mercy of the Lord of Retz. At their first arrival in the +country they had been taken to the quiet Chateau of Pouzauges, the +birthplace of Poitou, the marshal's most cruel and remorseless +confidant. Here, as the marshal had very truly informed the Lady +Sybilla, they had been under the care of--or, rather, fellow-prisoners +with--the neglected wife of Gilles de Retz, and at Pouzauges they had +spent some days of comparative peace and security in the society of +her daughter. + +But at the first breath of the coming of the three strangers to the +district they had been seized and securely conveyed to Machecoul +itself--there to be interned behind the vast walls and triple bastions +of that fortress prison. + +"I wonder, Maudie," said Margaret Douglas, as they sat on the flat +roof of the White Tower of Machecoul and looked over the battlements +upon the green pine glades and wide seaward Landes, "I wonder whether +we shall ever again see the water of Dee and our mother--and Sholto +MacKim." + +It is to be feared that the last part of the problem exceeded in +interest all others in the eyes of Maud Lindesay. + +"It seems as if we never could again behold any one we loved or wished +to see--here in this horrible place," sighed Maud Lindesay. "If ever I +get back to the dear land and see Solway side, I will be a different +girl." + +"But, Maud," said the little maid, reproachfully, "you were always +good and kind. It is not well done of you to speak against yourself in +that fashion." + +Maud Lindesay shook her pretty head mournfully. + +"Ah, Margaret, you will know some day," she said. "I have been +wicked,--not in things one has to confess to Father Gawain, +but,--well, in making people like me, and give me things, and come to +see me, and then afterwards flouting them for it and sending them +away." + +It was not a lucid description, but it sufficed. + +"Ah, but," said Margaret Douglas, "I think not these things to be +wicked. I hope that some day I shall do just the same, though, of +course, I shall not be as beautiful as you, Maudie; no, never! I asked +Sholto MacKim if I would, and he said, 'Of course not!' in a deep +voice. It was not pretty of him, was it, Maud?" + +"I think it was very prettily said of him," answered Maud Lindesay, +with the first flicker of a smile on her face. Her conscience was +quite at ease about Sholto. He was different. Whatever pain she had +caused him, she meant to make up to him with usury thereto. The others +she had exercised no more for her own amusement than for their own +souls' good. + +"My brother William must indeed be very angry with us, that he hath +never sent to find us and bring us home," went on the little girl. "It +is three months since we met that horrible old woman in the woods +above Thrieve Island, and believed her when she told us that the Earl +had instant need of us--and that Sholto MacKim was with him." + +"None saw us taken away. Margaret," said the elder, "and perhaps, who +knows, they may never have found any of the pieces of flower garlands +I threw down before they put us in the boats from the beach of +Cassencary." + +But the eyes of the little Maid of Galloway were now fixed upon +something in the green courtyard below. + +"Maud, Maud, come hither quickly!" she whispered; "if yonder be not +Laurence MacKim talking to the singing lads and dressed like +them--why, then, I do not know Laurie MacKim!" + +Maud came quickly now. Her face and neck blushed suddenly crimson with +the springing of hope in her heart. + +She looked down, and there, far below them indeed, but yet distinct +enough, they saw Laurence daring Blaise Renouf to single combat and +vaunting his Irish prowess, as we have already seen him do. Maud +Lindesay caught her companion's hand as she looked. + +"They have found us," she whispered; "at least, they are seeking for +us. If Laurence is here, I warrant Sholto cannot be very far away. Oh, +Margaret, am I looking very ill? Will he think I am as--(she paused +for a word)--as comely as he thought me before in Scotland? Or have I +grown old and ugly with being shut up so long?" + +But the Maid of Galloway heard her not. She was pondering on the +meaning of Laurence's presence in the Castle of Machecoul. + +"Perhaps William hath sent Laurence to spy us out, and is even now +coming from his French duchy with an army. He is a far greater man +than the marshal, and will make him give us up as soon as he finds out +where we are. Shall I call down to Laurie to let him know that we are +here?" + +Maud put her hand hastily over her companion's mouth. + +"Hush!" she said, "we must not appear to know him, or they will surely +kill him--and perhaps the others, too. If Laurence is here, I wot well +that help is not far away. Let us be patient and abide. Come back from +the wall and sit by me as if nothing, had happened." + +But all the same she kept her own place in a spot where she could +command the pleasaunce below, and looked longingly yet fearfully to +see Sholto follow his brother across the green sward. + + * * * * * + +"Sweet and fair is the air of the evening," purred behind them a low +voice--that of the woman who was called La Meffraye. "It brings the +colour to the cheeks of the young. But I am old and wise, and I would +advise that two maids so fair should not look down on the sports of +the youths, lest they hear and see more than is fitting for such +innocent eyes." + +The girls turned away without looking at their custodian, who stood +leaning upon her little hand crutch and smiling upon them her terrible +soft smile. + +"Ah," she said, "proud, are you? 'Tis an ill place to bring pride to, +this Castle of Machecoul. You will not deign to speak a word to a poor +old woman now. But the day is not far distant when I shall have my +pretty spitfire clinging about these old trembling knees, and +beseeching me whom you despise, as a woman either to save you or kill +you--you will not care which. _As a woman!_ Ha! ha! How long is it +since La Meffraye was a woman? Was she ever rocked in a cradle? Did +she play about any cottage door and fashion daisy chains, as I have +seen you do, my pretties, long ere you came to Machecoul or even heard +of the Sieur de Retz? Hath La Meffraye ever lain in any man's +bosom--save as the tigress crouches upon her prey?" + +She paused and smiled still more bitterly and malevolently than before +upon the two maidens. + +"Did you chance to be awake yester-even?" she went on. "Aye, I know +well that you were awake. La Meffraye saw right carefully to that. And +you heard the crying that rang out of yonder high window, from which +the light streamed all through the night. Wait, wait, my pretties, +till it is your turn to be sent for up thither, when the shining knife +is sharpened and the red fire kindled. You will not despise La +Meffraye when that day comes. You will grovel and weep, and then will +La Meffraye spurn you with her foot, till the noise of your crying be +borne out over the forest, and for very gladness the wolves howl in +the darkness." + +The little Maid of Galloway was moved to answer, and her lips +quivered. But Maud Lindesay sat pale and motionless, looking towards +the north, from which she hoped for help to come. + +"Our brother, the Earl of Douglas, will bring an army from his dukedom +of Touraine, and sweep you and your castle from the face of the earth, +if your master dares to lay so much as a finger upon us." + +La Meffraye laughed a low, cackling laugh, and in the act showed the +four long eye-teeth which were the sole remaining dental equipment of +her mouth. + +"Oh, Great Barran--" she chuckled, "listen to the pretty fool! Our +brother will do this--our brother will do that. _Our_ brother will +lick the country of Retz as clean as a dog licks a platter. Know you +not, silly fool, that both your brothers are long since dead and under +sod in the castle of your city of Edinburgh. I tell you my master set +his little finger upon them and crushed them like flies on a summer +chamber wall!" + +Maud Lindesay rose to her feet as La Meffraye spoke these words. + +"It is not true," she cried; "you lie to us as you have done from the +first. The Earl of Douglas is not dead!" + +It was now little Margaret who showed the spirit of her race, and put +out her hand to clasp that of her elder comrade. + +"Do not let her even know that she has power to hurt us with her +words," she whispered low to Maud Lindesay. Then she spoke aloud: + +"If that which you say be true and my brothers are dead--there are yet +Douglases. Our cousins will deliver us." + +"Your cousins have entered into your possessions," jeered the hag; "it +is indeed a likely thing that they will desire your return to Scotland +in order to rob them of that which is their own." + +"We are not afraid," said the little maid, stoutly; "there are many in +the land of the Scots who would gladly die to help us." + +"Aye, that is it. They shall die--all die. Three of them died +yester-even, torn to pieces by my lord's wolves. Fine, swift, +four-footed guardians of the Castle of Machecoul--La Meffraye's +friends! And one young cock below there of the same gang hath gone +even now to my lord's chamber. He hath mounted the stairs he will +never descend." + +"Well," said the Maid of Galloway, "even so--we are not afraid. We can +die, as died our friends." + +"Die--die!" cried the hag, sharply, angered at the child's +persistence. "'Tis easy to talk. To snuff a candle out is to die. +Poof, 'tis done! But the young and beautiful like you, my dearies, do +not so die at Machecoul. No; rather as a dying candle flickers +out--falls low, and rises again, so they die. As wine oozes drop by +drop from the needle-punctured wine-skin--so shall you die, weeping, +beseeching, drained to the white like a dripping calf in the shambles, +yet at the same time reddened and shamed with the shame deadly and +unnameable. Then La Meffraye, whom now you disdain to answer with a +look, will wash her hands in your life's blood and laugh as your tears +fall slowly upon the latchet of her shoon!" + +But a new voice broke in upon the railing of the hideous woman fiend. + +"_Out, foul hag! Get you to your own place!_" it said, with an accent +strong and commanding. + +And the affrighted and heart-sick girls turned them about to see the +Lady Sybilla stand fair and pale at the head of the turret stair which +opened out upon the roof of the White Tower. + +At this interruption the eyes of La Meffraye seemed to burn with a +fresher fury, and the green light in them shone as shines an emerald +stone held up to the sun. + +The hag cowered, however, before the outstretched index finger of +Sybilla de Thouars. + +"Ah, fair lady," she whimpered, "be not angry--and tell not my lord, I +beseech you. I did but jest." + +"_Hence!_" the finger was still outstretched, and, in obedience to the +threatening gesture, the hag shrank away. But as she passed through +the portal down the steps of the turret, she flung back certain words +with a defiant fleer. + +"Ah, you are young, my lady, and for the present--for the present your +power is greater than mine. But wait! Your beauty will wither and grow +old. Your power will depart from you. But La Meffraye can never grow +older, and when once the secret is discovered, and my lord is young +again, La Meffraye is the one who with him shall bloom with immortal +youth, while you, proud lady, lie cold in the belly of the worm." + + * * * * * + +"It is true--all too true," said Sybilla de Thouars, sadly, "they are +dead. The young, the noble were--and are no more. I who speak saw them +die. And that so greatly, that even in death their lives cease not. +Their glory shall flow on so that the young brook shall become a +river, and the river become a sea." + +Then in few words and quiet, she told them all the heavy tale. + +But when the maids made as though they would cleave to her for the +sympathy that was in her words and because of her tears, she set the +palms of her hands against their breasts and cried, "Come not near one +whom not all the fires of purgatory can purify--one who, like +Iscariot, hath contracted herself outside the mercy of God and of our +Lord Christ!" + +But all the more they clave to her, overpassing her protestations and +clasping her, so that, being deeply moved, she sat down on the steps +of a corner turret which rose from the greater, and wept there, with +the weeping wherewith women are wont to ease the heart. + +Then went Maud Lindesay to her and set her hand about her neck, and +kissed her, saying: "Do not be sorry any more. Confess to the minister +of God. I also have sinned and been sorry. Yet after came forgiveness +and the unbound heart." + +Then the Lady Sybilla ceased quickly and looked up, as it had been, +smiling. Yet she was not smiling as maidens are wont to smile. + +"Pretty innocent," she said, "you mean well, but you know not what the +word 'sin' means to such as I. Confess--absolve! Not even the Holy One +and the Just could give me that. I tell you I have eaten of the apple +of the knowledge of good and evil--yes, the very core I have eaten. I +have the taste of innocent blood upon my lips. I have seen the axe +fall, the axe which I put into the headsman's hands. I am condemned, +and that justly. But one of you shall live to taste sweet love, and +the crown of life, and to feel the innocent lips of children at her +breasts. And the other--but enough. Farewell. Fear not. God, who has +been cruel in all else, has given your lives to Sybilla de Thouars, +ere in His own time He strike that guilty one with His thunderbolt." + +And as she went within, the eyes of the maids followed her; but the +masked man with the naked sword never so much as turned his head, +gazing straight forward over the battlements of the White Tower into +the lilac mist which hung above the Atlantic. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII + +SYBILLA'S VENGEANCE + + +There stands a solitary rock at the base of which is a cave, on the +seashore of La Vendée. Behind stretch the marshes, and the place is +shut in and desolate. Birds cry there. The bittern booms in the +thickets of grey willow and wet-shot alder. The herons nest upon the +pine trees near by, till the stale scent of them comes down the wind +from far. Ospreys fish in the waters of the shallow lake behind, and +the scales of their prey flash in the sun of morning as they rise +dripping from the dive. + +In this place Sholto, Malise, and the Lord James Douglas were +presently abiding. + +It was but a tiny cell, originally formed by two portions of marly +rock fallen together in some ancient convulsion or dropped upon each +other from a floating iceberg. In some former age the cleft had been a +lair of wild beasts, or the couch of some hairy savage hammering flint +arrowheads for the chase, and drawing with a sharp point upon polished +bone the yet hairier mammoth he hunted. But this solitary lodging in +the wilderness had been enlarged in more recent times, till now the +interior was about eight feet square and of the height of a man of +stature when he stands erect. + +The hearts of the three present cave-dwellers were sick and sad, and +of them all the bitterest was the heart of Sholto MacKim. It seemed +to his eager lover's spirit, as he climbed to the top of the sand +dunes and gazed towards the massive towers of Machecoul rising above +the green woodlands, that hitherto they had but wandered and done +nothing. The sorcerer had prevented them about with his evil. They had +lost Laurence utterly, and for the rest they had not even touched the +outer defences of their arch enemy. + +Thrice they had tried to enter the castle. The first time they had +taken by force two waggons of fuel from certain men who went towards +Machecoul, leaving the woodmen behind in the forest, bound and +helpless. But at the first gate of the outer hall the marshal's guard +had stopped them, and demanded that they should wait till the cars +were unloaded and brought back to them. So, having received the money, +the Scots returned as they went to the men whom they had left in the +forest. + +After this repulse they had gone round and round the vast walls of +Machecoul seeking a place vulnerable, but finding none. The ramparts +rose as it had been to heaven, and the flanking towers were crowded +night and day with men on the watch. Round the walls for the space of +a bow-shot every way there ran a green space fair and open to the +view, but in reality full of pitfalls and secret engines. From the +battlements began the arrow hail, so soon as any attempted to approach +the castle along any other way than the thrice-defended road to the +main gate. + +The wolves howled in the forests by night, and more than once came so +near that one of the three men had to take it in turns to keep watch +in the cave's mouth. But for a reason not clear to them at the time +they were not again attacked by the marshal's wild allies of the +wood. + +The third time they had tried to enter the castle in their pilgrim's +garb, and the outer picket courteously received them. But when they +were come to the inner curtain, one Robin Romulart, the officer of the +guard, a stout fellow, suddenly called to his men to bind and gag +them--in which enterprise, but for the great strength of Malise, they +might have succeeded. For the outer gates had been shut with a clang, +and they could hear the soldiers of the garrison hasting from all +sides in answer to Robin's summons. + +But Malise snatched up the bar wherewith the winding cogs of the gate +were turned, and, having broken more than one man's head with it, he +forced the massive doors apart by main force, so that they were able +all unharmed to withdraw themselves into the shelter of the woods. So +near capture had they been, however, that over and over again they +heard the shouting of the parties who scoured the woods in search of +them. + +It was the worst feature of their situation that the Marshal de Retz +certainly knew of their presence in his territories, and that he would +be easily able to guess their errand and take measures to prevent it +succeeding. + +Their last and most fatal failure had happened several days before, +and the first eager burst of the search for them had passed. But the +Scots knew that the enemy was thoroughly alarmed, and that it behoved +them to abide very closely within their hiding-place. + +The Lord James took worst of all with the uncertainty and confinement. +Any restraint was unsuited to his jovial temper and open-air life. But +for the present, at least, and till they could gain some further +information as to the whereabouts of the maidens, it was obvious that +they could do no better than remain in their seaside shelter. + +Their latest plan was to abide in the cave till the marshal set out +again upon one of his frequent journeys. Then it would be +comparatively easy to ascertain by an ambush whether he was taking the +captives with him, or if he had left them behind. If the maids were of +his travelling company, the three rescuers would be guided by +circumstances and the strength of the escort, as to whether or not +they should venture to make an attack. + +But if by any unhoped-for chance Margaret and Maud were left behind at +Machecoul, it would at least be a more feasible enterprise to attack +the fortress during the absence of its master and his men. + +Alone among the three Scots Malise faced their predicament with some +philosophy. Sholto ate his heart out with uncertainty as to the fate +of his sweetheart. The Lord James chafed at the compulsory confinement +and at the consistent ill success which had pursued them. But Malise, +unwearied of limb and ironic of mood as ever, fished upon the tidal +flats for brown-spotted flounders and at the rocky points for white +fish, often remaining at his task till far into the night. He +constructed snares with a mechanical ingenuity in advance of his age. +And what was worth more to the company than any material help, he kept +up the spirits of Sholto and of Lord James Douglas both by his brave +heart and merry speech, and still more by constantly finding them +something to do. + +At the hour of even, one day after they had been a fortnight in the +country of Retz, the three Scots were sitting moodily on a little +hillock which concealed the entrance to their cave. The forest lay +behind them, an impenetrable wall of dense undergrowth crowned along +the distant horizon by the solemn domes of green stone pines. It +circumvented them on all sides, save only in front, where, through +several beaker-shaped breaks in the high sand dunes they could catch a +glimpse of the sea. The Atlantic appeared to fill these clefts half +full, like Venice goblets out of which the purple wine has been +partially drained. To right and left the pines grew scantier, so that +the rays of the sunset shone red as molten metal upon their stems and +made a network of alternate gold and black behind them. + +The three sat thus a long time without speech, only looking up from +their tasks to let their eyes rest wistfully for a moment upon the +deep and changeful amethyst of the sea, and then with a light sigh +going back to the cleaning of their armoury or the shaping of a long +bow. + +It chanced that for several minutes no sound was heard except those +connected with their labour, the low whistle with which the Lord James +accompanied his polishing, the _wisp-wisp_ of Malise's arms as he +sewed the double thread back and forth through a rent in his leathern +jack, and the rasp of Sholto's file as he carved out the finials of +the bow, the notched grooves wherein the string was to lie so easily +and yet so firmly. + +Thus they continued to work, absorbed, each of them in the sadness of +his own thought, till suddenly a shadow seemed to strike between them +and the red light of the western sky. They looked up, and before them, +as it were ascending out of the very glow of sunset, they saw a woman +on a white palfrey approaching them by the way of the sea. + +So suddenly did she appear that the Lord James uttered a low cry of +wonder, while Malise the practical reached for his sword. But Sholto +had seen this vision twice already, and knew their visitor for the +Lady Sybilla. + +"Hold there!" he said in an undertone. "Remember it is as I said. This +woman, though we have no cause to love her, is now our only hope. Her +words brought us here. They were true words, and I believe that she +comes as a friend. I will stake my life on it." + +"Or if she comes as an enemy we are no worse off," grumbled sceptical +Malise. "We can at least encourage the woman and then hold her as an +hostage." + +The three Scots were standing to receive their guest when the Lady +Sybilla rode up. Her face had lost none of the pale sadness which +marked it when Sholto last saw her, and though the look of utter agony +had passed away, the despair of a soul in pain had only become more +deeply printed upon it. + +The girl having acknowledged their salutations with a stately and +well-accustomed motion of the head, reached a hand for Sholto to lift +her from her palfrey. + +Then, still without spoken word, she silently seated herself on the +grey-lichened rock rudely shaped into the semblance of a chair, on +which Malise had been sitting at his mending. The strange maiden +looked long at the blue sea deepening in the notches of the sand dunes +beneath them. The three men stood before her waiting for her to speak. +Each of them knew that lives, dearer and more precious than their own, +hung upon what she might have to say. + +At last she spoke, in a voice low as the wind when it blows its +lightest among the trees: + +"You have small cause to trust me or to count me your friend," she +said; "but we have that which binds closer than friendship--a common +enemy and a common cause of hatred. It were better, therefore, that we +should understand one another. I have never lost sight of you since +you came to this fatal land of Retz. I have been near you when you +knew it not. To accomplish this I have deceived the man who is my +taskmaster, swearing to him that in the witch crystal I have seen you +depart. And I shall yet deceive him in more deadly fashion." + +Sholto could restrain himself no longer. + +"Enough," he said roughly; "tell us whether the maidens are alive, and +if they are abiding in this Castle of Machecoul." + +The Lady Sybilla did not remove her eyes from the red west. + +"Thus far they are safe," she said, in the same calm monotone. "This +very hour I have come from the White Tower, in which they are +confined. But he whom I serve swears by an oath that if you or other +rescuers are heard of again in this country, he will destroy them +both." + +She shuddered as she spoke with a strong revulsion of feeling. + +"Therefore, be careful with a great carefulness. Give up all thought +of rescuing them directly. Remember what you have been able to +accomplish, and that your slightest actions will bring upon those you +love a fate of which you little dream." + +"After what we remember of Crichton Castle, how can we trust you, +lady?" said Malise, sternly. "Do you now speak the truth with your +mouth?" + +"You have indeed small cause to think so," she answered without taking +offence. "Yet, having no choice, you must e'en trust me." + +She turned sharply upon Sholto with a strip of paper in her +outstretched hand. + +"I think, young sir, that you have some reason to know from whom that +comes." + +Sholto grasped at the writing with a new and wonderful hope in his +heart. He knew instinctively before he touched it that none but Maud +Lindesay could have written that script--small, clear, and distinct as +a motto cut on a gem. + +"_To our friends in France and Scotland,_" so it ran. "_We are still +safe this eve of the Blessed Saint Michael. Trust her who brings this +letter. She is our saviour and our only hope in a dark and evil place. +She is sorry for that which by her aid hath been done. As you hope for +forgiveness, forgive her. And for God's dear sake, do immediately the +thing she bids you. This comes from Margaret de Douglas and Maud +Lindesay. It is written by the hand of M. L._" + +The wax at the bottom was sealed in double with the boar's head of +Lindesay and the heart of Margaret of Douglas. + +Sholto, having read the missive silently, passed it to the Lord James +that he might prove the seals, for it was his only learning to be +skilled in heraldry. + +"It is true," he said; "I myself gave the little maid that ring. See, +it hath a piece broken from the peak of the device." + +"My lady," said Sholto, "that which you bring is more than enough. We +kiss your hand and we will sacredly do all your bidding, were it unto +the death or the trial by fire." + +Then, as was the custom to do to ladies whom knights would honour, the +Lord James and Sholto kneeled down and kissed the hand of Sybilla de +Thouars. But Malise, not being a knight, took it only and settled it +upon his great grizzled head, where it rested for a moment, lightly as +upon some grey and ancient tower lies a flake of snow before it melts. + +"I thank you for your overmuch courtesy," the girl said, casting her +eyes on the ground with a new-born shyness most like that of a modest +maid; "I thank you, indeed. You do me honour far above my desert. +Still, after all, we work for one end. You have, it is true, the +nobler motive,--the lives of those you love; but I the deadlier,--the +death of one I hate! Hearken!" + +She paused as if to gather strength for that which she had to reveal, +and then, reaching her hands out, she motioned the three men to gather +more closely about her, as if the blue Atlantic waves or the red boles +of the pine trees might carry the matter. + +"Listen," she said, "the end comes fast--faster than any know, save I, +to whom for my sins the gift of second sight hath been given. I who +speak to you am of Brittany and of the House of De Thouars. To one of +us in each generation descends this abhorred gift of second sight. And +I, because as a child it was my lot to meet one wholly given over to +evil, have seen more and clearer than all that have gone before me. +But now I do foresee the end of the wickedest and most devilish soul +ever prisoned within the body of man." + +As she spoke the heads of the three Scots bent lower and closer to +catch every word, for the voice of the Lady Sybilla was more like the +cooing of a mating turtle as it answers its comrade than that of a +woman betrayed, denouncing vengeance and death upon him whom her soul +hated. + +"Be of good heart, then, and depart as I shall bid you. None can help +or hinder here at Machecoul but I alone. Be sure that at the worst the +unnameable shall not happen to the maids. For in me there is the power +to slay the evil-doer. But slay I will not unless it be to keep the +lives of the maids. Because I desire for Gilles de Retz a fate +greater, more terrible, more befitting iniquity such as the world hath +never heard spoken of since it arose from the abyss. + +"And this is it given to me to bring upon him whom my soul hateth," +she went on. "I have seen the hempen cord by which he shall hang. I +have seen the fire through which his soul shall pass to its own place. +Through me this fate shall come upon him suddenly in one night." + +Her face lighted up with an inner glow, and shone translucent in the +darkening of the day and the dusk of the trees, as if the fair veil of +flesh wavered and changed about the vengeful soul within. + +"And now," she went on after a pause, "I bid you, gentlemen of the +house of Douglas, to depart to John, Duke of Brittany, and having +found him to lay this paper before him. It contains the number and the +names of those who have died in the castles of de Retz. It shows in +what hidden places the bones of these slaughtered innocents may be +found. Clamour in his ear for justice in the name of the King of +France, and if he will not hear, then in the name of the folk of +Brittany. And if still because of his kinship he will not listen, go +to the Bishop of Nantes, who hates Gilles de Retz. Better than any he +knows how to stir the people, and he will send with you trusty men to +cause the country to rise in rebellion. Then they will overturn all +the castles of de Retz, and the hidden things shall come to light. +This do, and for this time depart from Machecoul, and entrust me (as +indeed you must) with the honour and lives of those you love. I will +keep them with mine own until destruction pass upon him who is outcast +from God, and whom now his own fiend from hell hath deserted." + +Then, having sworn to do her bidding, the three Scots conducted the +Lady Sybilla with honour and observance to her white palfrey, and like +a spirit she vanished into the sea mists which had sifted up from the +west, going back to the drear Castle of Machecoul, but bearing with +her the burden of her revenge. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV + +THE CROSS UNDER THE APRON + + +The face of Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz, had shone all day with an +unholy lustre like that of iron in which the red heat yet struggles +with the black. In the Castle of Machecoul his familiars went about, +wearing expressions upon their countenances in which disgust and +expectation were mingled with an overwhelming fear of the terrible +baron. + +The usual signs of approaching high saturnalia at Machecoul had not +been wanting. + +Early in the morning La Meffraye had been seen hovering like an +unclean bird of prey about the playing grounds of the village children +at Saint Benoit on the edges of the forest. At nine the frightened +villagers heard the howl of a day-hunting wolf, and one Louis Verger, +a woodman who was cutting bark for the tanneries in the valley, saw a +huge grey wolf rush out and seize his little son, Jean, a boy of five +years old, who came bringing his father's breakfast. With a great cry +he hurried back to alarm the village, but when men gathered with +scythes and rude weapons of the chase, the beast's track was lost in +the depth of the forest. + +Little Jean Verger of Saint Benoit was never seen again, unless it +were he who, half hidden under the long black cloak of La Meffraye, +was brought at noon by the private postern of the baron into the +Castle of Machecoul. + +So the men of Saint Benoit went not back to their work, but abode +together all that day, sullen anger burning in their hearts. And one +calling himself the servant of the Bishop of Nantes went about among +them, and his words were as knives, sharp and bitter beyond belief. +And ever as he spoke the men turned them about till they faced +Machecoul. Their lips moved like those of a Moslemite who says his +prayers towards Mecca. And the words they uttered were indeed prayers +of solemnest import. + +With his usual devotion at such seasons, Gilles de Retz had attended +service thrice that day in his Chapel of the Holy Innocents. His +behaviour had been marked by intense devoutness. An excessive +tenderness of conscience had characterised his confessions to Pčre +Blouyn, his spiritual director-in-ordinary. He confessed as his most +flagrant sin that his thoughts were overmuch set on the vanities of +the world, and that he had even sometimes been tempted of the devil to +question the right of Holy Church herself to settle all questions +according to the will of her priests and prelates. + +Whereupon Pčre Blouyn, with suave correctness of judgment, had pointed +out wherein his master erred; but also cautioned him against that +undue tenderness of conscience natural to one with his exalted +position and high views of duty and life. Finally the marshal had +received absolution. + +In the late afternoon the Lord of Retz commanded the fire to be laid +ready for lighting in his chamber aloft in the keep of Machecoul, and +set himself down to listen to the singing of the choir, which, under +the guidance of Precentor Renouf, rehearsed for him the sweetest hymns +recently written for the choir of the Holy Father at Rome. For there +the marshal's choir-master had been trained, and with its leader he +still kept up a correspondence upon kindred interests. + +Gilles de Retz, as he sat under the late blooming roses in the +afternoon sunshine of the autumn of western France, appeared to the +casual eye one of the most noble seigneurs and the most enlightened in +the world. He affected a costume already semiecclesiastic as a token +of his ultimate intention to enter holy orders. It seemed indeed as if +the great soldier who had ridden into Orleans with Dunois and the Maid +had begun to lay aside his earthly glories and seek the heavenly. + +There, upon a chair set within the cloisters, in a place which the +sunshine touched most lovingly and where it lingered longest, he sat, +nodding his head to the sound of the sweet singing, and bowing low at +each mention of the name of Jesus (as the custom is)--a still, +meditative, almost saintly man. Upon the lap of his furred robe (for, +after all, it was a sunshine with a certain shrewd wintriness in it) +lay an illuminated copy of the Holy Gospels; and sometimes as he +listened to the choir-boys singing, he glanced therein, and read of +the little children to whom belongs the kingdom. Upon occasion he +lifted the book also, and looked with pleasure at the pictured cherubs +who cheered the way of the Master Jerusalemwards with strewn palm +leaves and shouted hosannas. + +And ever sweeter and sweeter fell the music upon his ear, till +suddenly, like the silence after a thunderclap, the organ ceased to +roll, the choir was silent, and out of the quiet rose a single +voice--that of Laurence the Scot singing in a tenor of infinite +sweetness the words of blessing: + + "_Suffer the little children to come unto Me, + And forbid them not; + For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven._" + +And as the boy's voice welled out, clear and thrilling as the song of +an upward pulsing lark, the tears ran down the face of Gilles de Retz. + +God knows why. Perhaps it was some glint of his own innocent +childhood--some half-dimmed memory of his happily dead mother. +Perhaps--but enough. Gilles de Laval de Retz went up the turret stair +to find Poitou and Gilles de Sillé on guard on either side the portals +which closed his chamber. + +"Is all ready?" he asked, though the tears were scarcely dry on his +cheeks. + +They bowed before him to the ground. + +"All is ready, lord and master," they said as with one voice. + +"And Prelati?" + +"He is in waiting." + +"And La Meffraye," he went on, "has she arrived?" + +"La Meffraye has arrived," they said; "all goes fortunately." + +"Good!" said Gilles de Retz, and shedding his furred monkish cloak +carelessly from off his shoulders, he went within. + +Poitou and Gilles de Sillé both reached to catch the mantle ere it +fell. As they did so their hands met and touched. And at the meeting +of each other's flesh they started and drew apart. Their eyes +encountered furtively and were instantly withdrawn. Then, having hung +up the cloak, with pallid countenances and lips white and tremulous, +they slowly followed the marshal within. + + * * * * * + +"Sybilla de Thouars, as you are in my power, so I bid you work my +will!" + +It was the deep, stern voice of the Marshal de Retz which spoke. The +Lady Sybilla lay back in a great chair with her eyes closed, breathing +slowly and gently through her parted lips. Messire Gilles stood before +her with his hands joined palm to palm and his white fingertips almost +touching the girl's brow. + +"Work my will and tell me what you see!" + +Her hands were clasped under a light silken apron which she wore +descending from her neck and caught in a loose loop behind her gown. +The fingers were firmly netted one over the other and clutched between +them was a golden crucifix. + +The girl was praying, as one prays who dares not speak. + +"O God, who didst hang on this cross--keep now my soul. Condemn it +afterwards, but help me to keep it this night. Deliver me--oh, deliver +from the power of this man. Help me to lie. By Thy Son's blood, help +me to lie well this night." + +"Where are the three men from the land of the Scots? Tell me what you +see. Tell me all," the marshal commanded, still standing before her in +the same posture. + +Then the voice of the Lady Sybilla began to speak, low and even, and +with that strange halt at the end of the sentences. The Lord of Retz +nodded, well pleased when he heard the sound. It was the voice of the +seeress. Oftentimes he had heard it before, and it had never deceived +him. + +"I see a boat on a stormy sea," she said; "there are three men in it. +One is great of stature and very strong. The others are young men. +They are trying to furl the sail. A gust strikes them. The boat heels +and goes over. I see them struggling in the pit of waters. There are +cliffs white and crumbling above them. They are calling for help as +they cling to the boat. Now there is but one of them left. I see him +trying to climb up the slippery rocks. He falls back each time. He is +weary with much buffeting. The waves break about him and suck him +under. Now I do not see the men any more, but I can hear the broken +mast of the boat knocking hollow and dull against the rocks. Some few +shreds of the sail are wrapped about it. But the three men are gone." + +She ceased suddenly. Her lips stopped their curiously detached +utterance. + +But under her breath and deep in her soul Sybilla de Thouars was still +praying as before. And this which follows was her prayer: + +"O God, his devil is surely departed from him. I thank thee, God of +truth, for helping me to lie." + +"It is well," said Gilles de Retz, standing erect with +a satisfied air. "All is well. The three Scots who sought my life are +gone to their destruction. Now, Sybilla de Thouars, I bid you look +upon John, Duke of Brittany. Tell me what he does and says." + +The level, impassive, detached voice began again. The hands clasped +the cross of gold more closely under the silk apron. + +"I see a room done about with silver scallop shells and white-painted +ermines. I see a fair, cunning-faced, soft man. Behind him stands one +tall, spare, haggard--" + +"Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Brittany--one that hates me," said +de Retz, grimly between his teeth. "I will meet my fingers about his +dog's throat yet. What of him?" + +The Lady Sybilla, without a quiver of her shut eyelids took up the +cue. + +"He hath his finger on a parchment. He strives to point out something +to the fair-haired man, but that other shakes his head and will not +agree--" + +The marshal suddenly grew intent, and even excited. + +"Look closer, Sybilla--look closer. Can you not read that which is +written on the parchment? I bid you, by all my power, to read it." + +Then the countenance of the Lady Sybilla was altered. Striving and +blank failure were alternately expressed upon it. + +"I cannot! Oh, I cannot!" she cried. + +"By my power, I bid you. By that which I will make you suffer if you +fail me, I command you!" cried Gilles de Retz, bending himself towards +her and pressing his fingers against her brow so that the points +dented her skin. + +The tears sprang from underneath the dark lashes which lay so +tremulously upon her white cheek. + +"You make me do it! It hurts! I cannot!" she said in the pitiful voice +of a child. + +"Read--or suffer the shame!" cried Gilles de Retz. + +"I will--oh, I will! Be not angry," she answered pleadingly. + +And underneath the silk the hands were grasped with a grip like that +of a vice upon the golden cross she had borrowed from the little Maid +of Galloway. + +"Read me that which is written on the paper," said the marshal. + +The Lady Sybilla began to speak in a voice so low that Gilles de Retz +had to incline his ear very close to her lips to listen. + +"Accusation against the great lord and most noble seigneur, Gilles de +Laval de Retz, Sire de--" + +"That is it--go on after the titles," said the eager voice of the +marshal. + +"Accused of having molested the messengers of his suzerain, the +supreme Duke John of Brittany, accused of ill intent against the +State; accused of quartering the arms-royal upon his shield; called to +answer for these offences in the city of Nantes--and that is all." + +She ended abruptly, like one who is tired and desires no more than to +sleep. + +Gilles de Retz drew a long sigh of relief. + +"All is hid," he said; "these things are less than nothing. What does +the Duke?" + +"I cannot look again, I am weary," she said. + +"Look again!" thundered her taskmaster. + +"I see the fair-haired man take the parchment from the hand of the +dark, stern man--" + +"With whom I will reckon!" + +"He tries to tear it in two, but cannot. He throws it angrily in the +fire." + +"My enemies are destroyed," said Gilles de Retz, "I thank thee, great +Barran-Sathanas. Thou hast indeed done that which thou didst promise. +Henceforth I am thy servant and thy slave." + +So saying, he took a glass of water from the table and dashed it on +the face of the Lady Sybilla. + +"Awake," he said, "you have done well. Go now and repose that you may +again be ready when I have need of you." + +A flicker of conscious life appeared under the purple-veined eyelids +of the Lady Sybilla. Her long, dark lashes quivered, tried to rise, +and again lay still. + +The marshal took the illuminated copy of the Evangelists from the +table and fanned her with the thin parchment leaves. + +"Awake!" he cried harshly and sternly. + +The eyes of the girl slowly opened their pupils dark and dilated. She +carried her hand to her head, but wearily, as if even that slight +movement pained her. The golden cross swung unseen under the silken +folds of her apron. + +"I am so tired--so tired," the girl murmured to herself as Gilles de +Retz assisted her to rise. Then hastily handing her over to Poitou, he +bade him conduct her to her own chamber. + +But as she went through the door of the marshal's laboratory she +looked upon the floor and smiled almost joyously. + +"His devil has indeed departed from him," she murmured to herself. "I +thank the God of Righteousness who this night hath enabled me to +baffle him with a woman's poor wit, and to lie to him that he may be +led quick to destruction, and fall himself into the pit which he hath +prepared for the feet of the innocent." + + + + +CHAPTER LV + +THE RED MILK + + +Darkly and swiftly the autumn night descended upon Machecoul. In the +streets of the little feudal bourg there were few passers-by, and such +as there were clutched their cloaks tighter round them and scurried +on. Or if they raised their heads, it was only to take a hasty, +fearful glance at the vast bulk of the castle looming imminent above +them. + +From a window high in the central keep a red light streamed out, and +when the clouds flew low, strange dilated shadows were wont to be cast +upon the rolling vapour. Sometimes smoke, acrid and heavy, bellied +forth, and anon wild cries of pain and agony floated down to silence +the footfalls of the home-returning rustics and chill the hearts of +burghers trembling in their beds. + +But none dared to question in public the doings of the great and +puissant lord of all the country of Retz. It fared not well with him +who even looked too much at the things which were done. + +The night was yet darker up aloft in the Castle of Machecoul itself. +In the sacristy good Father Blouyn, with an air of resigned +reluctance, was handing over to an emissary of his master the moulds +in which the tall altar candles for the Chapel of the Holy Innocents +were usually cast and compacted. And as Clerk Henriet went out with +the moulds he took a long look through a private spy-hole at the lads +of the choir who were sitting in the hall apportioned to their use. +They were supposed to be busy with their lessons, and, indeed, a few +were poring over their books with some show of studious absorption. +But for the most part they were playing at cards and dominos, or, in +the absence of the master, sticking intimate pins and throwing about +indiscriminate ink, according to the immemorial use of the choir-boy. + +Clerk Henriet counted them twice over and in especial looked carefully +to see what did the young Scots lad, who had so mysteriously escaped +from the dread room of his master. Laurence MacKim played X's and O's +upon a board with Blaise Renouf, the precentor's son, and at some +hitch in the game he incontinently clouted the Frenchman upon the ear. +Whereupon ensued trouble and the spilling of much ink. + +Henriet, perfectly satisfied, took up the heavy moulds and made his +way to his lord's chamber, where many things were used for purposes +other than those for which they had been intended. + +Upon the back of his departure came in the Precentor Renouf, who laid +his baton conjointly and freely about the ears of his son and those of +Laurence MacKim. + +"Get to your beds both of you, and that supperless, for uproar and +conduct ill becoming two youths who worship God all day in his +sanctuary, and are maintained at grievous expense by our most devout +and worthy lord, Messire Gilles of Laval and Retz, Seigneur and Lord!" + +Laurence, who had of set purpose provoked the quarrel, was slinking +away, when the "Psalta" (as the choir-master is called in lower +Brittany) ordered them to sleep in separate rooms for the better +keeping of the peace. + +"And do you, Master Laurence, perform your vigil of the night upon the +pavement of the chapel. For you are the most rebellious and +troublesome of all--indeed, past bearing. Go! Not a word, sirrah!" + +So, much rejoiced in heart that matters had thus fallen out, Laurence +MacKim betook himself to the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, and was +duly locked in by the irate precentor. + +For, upon various occasions, he had watched the Lord of Retz descend +into the chapel by a private staircase which opened out in an angle +behind the altar. He had also seen Poitou, his confidential +body-servant, lock it after him with a small key of a yellow colour +which he took from his fork pocket. + +Now Master Laurence, as may have already been observed, was (like most +of the youthful unordained clergy) little troubled, at least in minor +matters, with scruples about such slight distinctions as those which +divide _meum_ and _tuum_. He found no difficulty therefore in +abstracting this key when Poitou was engaged in attending his master +from the chapel, in which service it was his duty to pass the stalls +with open lattice ends of carven work in which sat the elder +choir-boys. Having secured the key, Laurence hid it instantly beneath +the leaden saint on his cap, refastening the long pin which kept our +Lady of Luz in her place through the fretwork of the little brazen +key. + +Presently he saw Poitou come back and look carefully here and there +upon the floor, but after a while, not finding anything, he went out +again to search elsewhere. + +The idea had come to Laurence that at the head of the stairway from +the chapel was the prison chamber of Maud Lindesay and her ward, the +little Maid Margaret of Galloway. + +He told himself at least that this was his main object, and doubtless +he had the matter in his mind. But a far stronger motive was his +curiosity and the magic influence of the mysterious and the unknown +upon the heart of youth. + +More than to deliver Margaret of Galloway, Laurence longed to look +again upon the iron altar and to know the truth concerning the strange +sacrifices which were consummated there. And he yearned to see again +that rough-eared image graven after the fashion of a man. + +And the reason was not far to seek. + +For if even the worship of the High God, according to the practice of +the most enlightened nations, grounds itself upon blood and sacrifice, +what wonder if, in the worship of the lords of Hell, the blood of the +innocent is an oblation well pleasing and desirable. + +Rooted and ineradicable is the desire in man's heart to know good and +evil--but particularly evil. And so now Laurence desired to see the +sacrifice laid between the horns of the altar and the image above lean +over as if to gloat upon the sweet savour of its burning. + +Long and carefully Laurence listened before he ventured forth. The +Chapel of the Innocents was dark and silent. Only a reflection of the +red light which burned in the keep struck through the clerestory upon +the great cross which swung above the altar. This, being dispersed +like a halo about the sign of Christ's redemption, rendered the corner +where was placed the door into the secret stairway light enough to +enable the youth to insert therein Poitou's key. The wards were turned +with well-accustomed smoothness. + +Carefully shutting the door behind him so that if any one chanced to +enter the chapel nothing would be observed, Laurence set his feet upon +the steps and began his adventure of supreme peril. + +It was a narrow staircase, only wide enough indeed for one to ascend +or descend at once. And the heart of Laurence sank within him at the +thought of meeting the dread Lord of Machecoul face to face in its +strait, black spirals. + +He accomplished the ascent, however, without incident, and, passing +through another low arch, found himself at the end of the passage over +against the door with the curious burned hieroglyphics imprinted upon +it. There was no light in the corridor, and Laurence eagerly set his +hand to the latch. It opened as before and admitted him at a touch. + +The temple-like hall was silent and dim. Only an occasional thrill as +if of an earthquake passed across it, waving the heavy hangings and +bringing a hot breath of some strange heady perfume to the nostrils. +Laurence, with a beating heart, ensconced himself in a hidden nook +behind the door. The niche was covered by a curtain and furnished with +a grooved slab of marble placed there for some purpose he could not +fathom. + +Yet it was by no means wholly dark. A light shone into the Chapel of +Evil from the opposite side, and through it he could discern shadows +cast upon the floors and striding gigantic across the roof, as unseen +personages passed the light which streamed into the dusky temple. + +In the gloomiest part of the background, hinted rather than seen, he +could make out the vast dark figure dominating the iron altar. + +Then Laurence remembered that the chamber of the marshal lay on the +other side--the room with the immense fireplace which he had once +entered and from which he had barely escaped with his life. + +Little by little Laurence raised himself upon the grooved slab until, +standing erect, he could see some small part of the whitewashed, +red-floored chamber he remembered so well--only a strip, however, +extending from the door through which he looked to the great fireplace +whereon the heaped wood had already been kindled. + +At first all was confused. Laurence saw Henriet and Poitou going +hastily here and there, as servitors do who prepare for a great +function. Then came a pause, heavy with doom. On the back of this he +heard or seemed to hear the frightened pleading of a child, the short, +sharp commands of a soldier's voice, a sound as of a blow stricken, +and then again a whimpering hush. Laurence leaned against the wall +with his face in his hands. He dared not look within. Then he lifted +his head, and lo! in the gloom it seemed as if the huge image had +turned towards him, and in a pleased, confidential way were nodding +approval of his presence. + +He heard the voice of the Marshal de Retz again--this time kindly, and +even affectionate. Some one was not to be frightened. Some one was to +take a draught from the goblet and fear nothing. They would not hurt +him. They had but played with him. + +Again Henriet and Poitou passed and repassed, and once Gilles de Sillé +flashed across the interspace handing a broad-edged gleaming knife +swiftly and surreptitiously to some one unseen. + +Then came a short, sharp cry of agony, a gurgling moan, and black, +blank, unutterable horror shut down on Laurence's spirit. + +He sank down on his face behind the door and covered his eyes and ears +with his hands. So he lay for a space without motion, almost without +sense, upon the naked grooves of the marble slab. When he came to +himself, a dusky light was diffused through the chapel. As he looked +he saw La Meffraye come to the door and set her face within, like some +bird of night, hideous and foul. Then she returned and Gilles de Sillé +and Clerk Henriet came into the chapel bearing between them a great +golden cup, filled (as it seemed by the care with which they carried +it) to the very brim with some precious liquid. + +To them, all clad in a priest's robe of flame-coloured velvet, +succeeded the Lord of Retz himself. He held in his hand like a +service-book the great manuscript written in red, which he had been +transcribing at Sybilla's entrance, and as he walked he chanted, with +a strange intonation, words that thrilled the very soul of the young +man listening. + +And yet, as Laurence looked forth from his hiding-place, it appeared +that the black statue nodded once more to him as one who would say, +"Take note and remember what thou seest; for one day thy testimony +shall be needful." + +These were the words he heard in the chanting monotone: + +"O great and mighty Barran-Sathanas--my only lord and master, whom +with all due observance I do worship, look mercifully upon this the +sacrifice of innocent blood; let it be grateful to thee--to whom all +evil is as the breath of life! + +"Hear us, O Barran-Sathanas! Thou hast been deaf in past days, because +we served thee not without drawback or withholding, without sparing +and without remorse. Because we hesitated to give thee the best, the +delicatest, the most pitiful. But now take this innocentest innocence. +Behold I, Gilles de Retz, make to thee the matchless sacrifice of the +Red Milk thou lovest. + +"The Red Milk I pour for thee. The Red Milk I bring thee. The Red Milk +I drink to thee--that thou mayest be pleased to restore vital energy +and new youth to my veins, to make me strong as a young man in his +strength, and wiser than the wisdom of age. Hear me, O great master of +all the evil of the universe, thou equal and coadjutor of the Master +of Good, hear and manifest thy so mighty power. Hear me and answer, O +Barran-Sathanas!" + +Gilles de Retz took the cup from the hands of the servitors. He seemed +so weak with his crying that he could hardly hold it between his +trembling palms. + +He lifted his head and again cried aloud: + +"See, I am weak, my Satan--see how I tremble. Strength is departed +from me. Youth is dead. Help thy faithful servant, aid him to lift up +this precious oblation to thee!" + +And as the great dusky image seemed to lean over him, with a hoarse +cry Gilles de Retz raised the cup and held it high above his head. As +he did so a beam, sudden as lightning, fell upon it, and with a quick, +instinctive horror, Laurence saw that it was filled to the brim with +blood fresh and red. + +The marshal's voice strengthened. + +"It is coming! It is coming! Barran manifests himself! O great lord, +to thee I drain this draught!" cried Gilles de Retz. "The Red Milk, +the precious milk of innocence, to thee I drink it!" + +And he set the cup to his lips and drank deep and long. + + * * * * * + +"It comes. It fills me. I am strong. O Barran, give me yet more +strength. My limbs revive. My pulse beats. I am young as when I rode +with Dunois. Barran, thou art indeed mightier than God. I will give +thee yet more and more. I swear it. I have kept the best wine till the +last--the death vintage of a great house. The wine of beauty and +brightness--I have kept it for thee. Halt not to make me stronger! +Help me--Barran, help--I fail--!" + +His voice had risen higher and higher till it was well nigh a scream +of agony. Strangely too, in spite of the fictitious youth that glowed +in his veins and coloured his cheek, it sounded like a senile shriek. + +But all suddenly, at the very height of his exaltation, the cup from +which he had drunk slipped from his hand and rolled upon the +tesselated pavement of the temple, staining it in gouts and vivid +blotches of crimson. + +"Hasten, ere I lose the power--I feel it checked. Poitou, De Sillé, +Henriet, go bring hither from the White Tower the Scottish maids. +Run, dogs--or you die! Quick, Henriet! Good De Sillé, quick! Fail not +your master now! It ebbs, it weakens--and it was so near completion. +Stay, O Barran, till I finish the sacrifice, and here at thy feet +offer up to thee the richest, and the fairest, and the noblest! Bring +hither the maidens! I tell you, bring them quickly!" + +And the terrible Lord of Retz, exhausted with his own fury, cast +himself at the feet of the gigantic image, which, bending over him, +seemed with the same grimace sardonically to mock alike his exaltation +and his downfall. + +But Laurence heard no more. For sense and feeling had wholly departed +from him, and he lay as one dead behind the door of the temple of +Barran-Sathanas, Lord of Evil, in the thrice-abhorrent Castle of +Machecoul. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI + +THE SHADOW BEHIND THE THRONE + + +Within the grim walls of Black Angers Duke John of Brittany and +reigning sovereign of western France was holding his court. The city +and fortress did not properly, of right and parchment holding, +appertain to him. But he had occupied it during the recent troubles +with the English, and his loving cousin and nominal suzerain Charles +the Seventh of France had not yet been strong enough to make him +render it up again. + +The Duke sat in the central tower of the fortress of Black Angers, +that which looks between the high flanking turrets of the mighty +enceinte of walls. He wriggled discontentedly in his chair and +grumbled under his breath. + +At his shoulder, tall, gaunt, angular, with lantern jaws and a mouth +like a wolf trap, deep-set eyes that flamed under bushy eyebrows, +stood Pierre de l'Hopital, the true master of Brittany. + +"I tell you I will go to the tennis-courts--the three Scots must wait +audience till to-morrow. What errand can they have with me--some +rascals whom Charles will not pay now that his job is done? They come +to take service doubtless. A beggarly lot are all such out-land +varlets, but brave--yes, excellent soldiers are the Scots, so long as +they are well fed, that is." + +"Nay, my Lord Duke," said Pierre de l'Hopital, standing up tall and +sombre, his long black gown accentuating the peculiarities of his +figure. "It were almost necessary to see these men now and hear what +they have to say. I myself have seen them and judge it to be so." + +John of Brittany threw down the little sceptre, fashioned in imitation +of that made for the King of France, with which he had been toying. +The action was that of a pettish child. + +"Oh," he cried, "if you have decided, there remains nothing for me but +to obey!" + +"I thank your Excellency for your gracious readiness to grant the men +an interview," said Pierre de l'Hopital, having regard to the +essential matter and disregarding the unessential manner. + +Duke John sat glooming and kicking his feet to and fro on the raised +dais, while behind his chair, impassive as the Grand Inquisitor +himself, Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Brittany, lifted a hand to +an unseen servitor; and in a few moments the three Scots were ushered +into the ducal presence. + +The Lord James in virtue of his quality stood a little in front, not +by his own will or desire, but because Sholto and his father had so +placed themselves that the young noble should have his own rightful +precedence. For as to these things all Scots are careful by nature. + +Duke John continued to keep his eyes averted from the men who sought +his presence. He teased a little lop-eared spaniel, and nipped it till +it yelped. But the President of Brittany never took his eyes off the +strangers, examining them with a bold, keen, remorseless glance, in +which, however, there was neither evil nor the tolerance of it. Not a +man to make himself greatly beloved, this Pierre de l'Hopital. + +And little he cared whether or no. In Brittany men did his will. That +was enough. + +James Douglas was nettled at the inattention of the Duke. He was of +that large and sanguine nature which is at once easily touched by any +discourtesy and very quick to resent it. + +"My Lord of Brittany," he began in a loud clear voice, and in his +usual immaculate French, "I claim your attention for a little. I come +to lay before you that which touches your kin and kingdom." + +Duke John continued to play with the lap-dog, and in addition he +formed his mouth to whistle. But he never whistled. + +"His Grace of Brittany will now give you his undivided attention," +said the President from behind, without moving a muscle either of his +body or of his face, save those necessary to propel the words from his +vocal cords. + +The brow of Duke John flushed with anger, but he did not disobey. He +raised his head and gazed straight at the three men, fixing his eyes, +however, with a studied discourtesy upon Sholto instead of upon their +natural leader and spokesman. + +Behind his chair Pierre de l'Hopital let his deep inscrutable eye +droop once upon his master, and his spare and sinewy wrists twitched +as he held his arms by his side. He seemed upon the point of dealing +ducal dignity a box on the ear both sound and improving. + +"I am the Lord James of Douglas and Avondale," said the leader of the +Scots with grave dignity, "and I had three years ago the honour of +breaking a lance with you in the tilt-yard of Poitiers, when in that +town your Grace met with the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy." + +At this John of Brittany looked up quickly. + +"I do not remember you," he said, "and I never forget faces. Even +Pierre will grant me that." + +"Your Grace may possibly remember, then, the dint in your shoulder +that you got from the point of a spear, caused by the breaking of the +links of your shoulder-piece." + +A light kindled in the Duke's eyes. + +"What," he cried, "you are the young Scot who fought so well and kept +his shield up day by day over the door of a common sergeant's tent, +having no pavilion of his own, till it was all over dints like an +alehouse tankard?" + +"As were also the knights who dinted it," grimly commented Pierre de +l'Hopital. + +The Lord James of Avondale bowed. + +"I am that knight," he said quietly and with gravity. + +"But," cried the Duke, "I knew not then that you were of Douglas. That +is a great name in Poitiers, and had we known your race and quality we +had not been so ready with our shield-rapping." + +"At that time," said James Douglas, "I had not the right to add 'of +Douglas' to my titles. But during this year my father hath succeeded +to the Earldom and estates." + +"What--then is your father Duke of Touraine?" cried the Duke of +Brittany, much astonished. + +"Nay, my lord," said James Douglas, with some little bitterness. "The +King of France hath caused that to revert to himself by the success +which attended a certain mission executed for him in Scotland by his +Chamberlain, the Marshal de Retz, concerning whom we have come from +far to speak with you." + +"Ah, my cousin Gilles!" cried Duke John. "He is not a beauty to look +at, but he is a brave man, our Gilles. I heard he had gone to +Scotland. I wonder if he contrived to make himself as popular in your +land as he has done in ours." + +With a certain grave severity to which Pierre de l'Hopital nodded +approval, the Lord James replied: "At the instigation of the King of +France and Louis the Dauphin he succeeded in murdering my two cousins +William and David of Douglas, and in carrying over hither with him to +his own country their only sister, the little Countess of +Galloway--thus rooting out the greatest house in Scotland to the hurt +of the whole realm." + +"But to your profit, my Lord James of Avondale," commented the hollow +voice of Pierre de l'Hopital, speaking over his master's head. + +The face of James Douglas flushed quickly. + +"No, messire," he answered with a swift heat. "Not to my profit--to my +infinite loss. For I loved my cousin. I honoured him, and for his sake +would have fought to the death. For his sake have I renounced my own +father that begat me. And for his sake I stand here to ask for justice +to the little maiden, the last of his race, to whom by right belongs +the fairest province of his dominions. No, messire, you are wrong. In +all this have I had no profit but only infinite hurt." + +Pierre de l'Hopital bowed low. There was a pleased look on his face +that almost amounted to a smile. + +"I crave your pardon, my lord," he said; "that is well said indeed, +and he is a gentleman who speaks it." + +"Aye, it is indeed well said, and he had you shrewdly on the hip that +time, Pierre," cried Duke John. "I wish he could teach me thus +cleverly to answer you when you croak." + +"If you had as good a cause, my lord," said the President of Brittany +to the Duke, "it were not difficult to answer me as sharply. But we +are keeping these gentlemen from declaring the purpose of their +journey hither." + +The Lord James waited for no further invitation. + +"I come," he said boldly, holding a parchment in his hand, the same he +had received from the Lady Sybilla, "to denounce Gilles de Retz and to +accuse him of many cruel and unrighteous acts such as have never been +done in any kingdom. I accuse him of the murder of over four hundred +children of all ages and both sexes in circumstances of unparalleled +barbarity. I am ready to lead you to the places where lie their +bodies, some of them burned and their ashes cast into the ditch, +others charred and thrown into unused towers. I have here names, +instances, evidence enough to taint and condemn a hundred monsters +such as Gilles de Retz." + +"Ah, give me the paper," came the raucous voice of the President of +Brittany, as he reached a bony hand over his master's shoulder to +seize it. + +The Lord James advanced, and giving it to him said, "Messire, I would +have you know that a copy of this is already in the hands of a trusty +person in each of the towns and villages which are named here, and +from which children have been led to cruel death by him whom I have +accused, Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France." + +The President of Brittany nodded as he almost snatched the paper in +his eagerness to peruse it. + +"The point is cleverly taken," he said, "as justly indeed as if you +knew my Lord of Brittany as well as, for instance, I know him." + +The Duke was obviously discomfited. He shuffled his feet more than +ever on the dais and combed his straggling fair beard with soft, +white, tapering fingers. + +"This is wild and wholly absurd," he said, without however looking at +James Douglas; "our cousin Gilles is in ill odour with the commonalty. +He is a philosopher and makes smells with bottles. But there is +neither harm nor witchcraft in it. He is only trying to discover the +elixir of life. So the silly folk think him a wizard. I know him +better. He is a brave soldier and my good cousin. I will not have him +molested." + +"My lord speaks of kinship," grated the voice of Pierre de l'Hopital. +"Here are the names of four hundred fathers and mothers who have also +a claim to be heard on that subject, and whose voices, if I judge +right, are being heard at this moment around the Castles of Machecoul, +Tiffauges, Champtocé, and Pouzages. I wot there is now a crowd of a +thousand men pouring through the passages of the Hotel de Suze in your +Grace's own ducal city of Nantes. And if there goes a bruit abroad, +that your Highness is protecting this monster whom the people hate, +and the evidences of whose horrid cruelty are by this time in their +hands--well, your Grace knows the Bretons as well as I. They will +make one end of Gilles de Retz and of his cousin John, Duke of +Brittany." + +"Think you so--think you so truly, Pierre?" cried the unhappy reigning +prince; "I would not screen him if this be true. But the King--what of +the King? They say he hath promised him support with arms and men for +recovering to him and to Louis the Dauphin the Duchy of Touraine." + +"And think you, my lord, that the Dauphin will keep his promise, if we +show him good cause why he should fare better by breaking it?" +suggested Pierre de l'Hopital, with the grim irony which had become +habitual to him. + +John of Brittany paused irresolute. + +"Besides which," continued James Douglas, "I may add that this paper +is already in the hands of the Cardinal Bishop of Nantes, and if your +Grace will not move in the matter, his Eminence has promised to see +justice done." + +"The hireling--the popular mouther after favour! I know him," cried +Duke John, angrily. "What accursed demon sent you to him? In this, as +in other matters, he will strive to oust me from the hearts of the +folk of Brittany. He will be the people's advocate and will gain great +honour from this trial, will he? We shall see. Ho! guards there! Turn +out. Summon those that are asleep. Let the full muster be called. I +will lead you to Machecoul myself. And these gentlemen shall march +with us. But by Heaven and the bones of Saint Anne of Auray, if in one +jot they shall fail to substantiate against Gilles de Retz those +things which they have testified, they shall die by the rack, and by +the cord, and by disembowelling, and by fire. So swear I, Duke John +of Brittany." + +"It is good," said James Douglas. And "It is good," accorded also +Malise and Sholto MacKim. + +"But before any dies in Brittany, Gilles de Retz or another, _I_ will +judge the case," commented Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Justice +and Grand Councillor of the reigning sovereign. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII + +THE TOWER OF DEATH + + +Throughout La Vendée and all the country of Retz had run a terrible +rumour. "The Marshal de Retz is the murderer of our children. He has a +thousand bodies in the vaults of his castles. The Duke of Brittany has +given orders that they shall be searched. His soldiers are forsaking +him. The names of the dead have been written in black and white, and +are in the hands of the headmen of the villages. Hasten--it is the +hour of vengeance! Let us overwhelm him! Rise up and let us seek our +lost ones, even if we find no more than their bones!" + +And terrible as had been the gathering of the were-wolves in the dark +forests around Machecoul upon the night of the fight by the hollow +tree, far more threatening and terrible was the uprising of the angry +commons. + +In whole villages there was not a man left, and mothers too marched in +that muster armed with choppers and kitchen knives, wild eyed and +angry hearted as lionesses robbed of their cubs. From the deep glens +and deeper woods of the country of Retz they poured. They disgorged +from the caves of the earth whither the greed and rapacity of their +terrible lord had driven them. + +Schoolmasters were there with the elder of their pupils. For many of +the vanished children had disappeared on their way to school, and +these men were in danger of losing both their credit and occupation. + +Towards Tiffauges, Champtocé, Machecoul, the angry populace, long +repressed, surged tumultuously, and with them, much wondering at their +orders, went the soldiers of the Duke. + +But it is with the columns that concentrated upon Machecoul that we +have chiefly to do. Our three Scots accompanied these, and here, too, +marched John of Brittany himself with his Councillor Pierre de +l'Hopital by his side. + +Night fell as they journeyed on, ever joined by fresh contingents from +all the country round. In the van pressed forward the folk of Saint +Philbert, warm from the utter destruction of the house of the witch +woman, La Meffraye, so that not one stone was left upon another. +Guided by these the Duke and his party made their way easily through +the forest, even in the darkness of the night. And as they passed +hamlet or cottage ever and anon some frenzied mother would rush upon +them and fall on her knees before the Duke, praying him to look well +for her darling, and bringing mayhap some pitiful shred of clothing or +lock of hair by which the searchers might identify the lost innocent. + +As they went forward the soldiers pricked on ahead, and caused the +people to fall to the rear, lest any foreknowledge of their purpose +might reach the wizard and warn him to escape. + +The woods of Machecoul were dark and silent that night. Not the howl +of a questing wolf was heard. Truly the marshal's demons had forsaken +him, or mayhap they were all busy at that last carnival in the keep +of the Castle of Machecoul. + +As the storming party approached nearer, and while yet they were +several miles distant, they became aware of a great red light that +gleamed forth above them. They could not see whence it came, but the +peasants of Saint Philbert with affrighted glances told how it +beaconed only after the disappearance of some little one from their +homes, what strange cries were heard ringing out from that lofty +tower, and how for days after the smoke of a great burning would hang +about the gloomy turrets of devil-haunted Machecoul. + +Fiercer and ever fiercer shone the red glare, and the faces of the +soldiers were lit up so that Pierre de l'Hopital ordered them to keep +to the more gloomy arcades of the forest. + +Then by midnight the cordon was drawn so closely that none might pass +in or out. And behind the soldiery the common folk lay crouched, anger +in their hearts, and their eyes turned towards the open windows in the +keep of Machecoul, from which flared the red light of bale. + +Then, covering their lanterns, the three Scots, with Duke John, Pierre +de l'Hopital, and a score of officers, stole silently towards the +tower by which the Lady Sybilla had promised that an entrance should +be gained to the Castle of Machecoul. + +It was situated at the western corner towards the south, and was +joined to its fellows at the corresponding angles of the fortress by +galleried walls of great height. Ten feet above the ground was a +little door of embossed iron, but ordinarily no steps led to it when +the castle was in a state of defence. Yet when Sholto adventured into +the angle of the wall, he stumbled upon a ladder that leaned against +the little landing-ledge, above which was the entrance denoted on the +plan. + +Sholto ascended first, being the lightest and most agile of all. As he +had expected, he found the door unlocked and a narrow passage leading +within the tower. He lay a moment and listened, and then, being +certain there was a light and the sounds of labour within, he crawled +back to the ladder head, and whispered to the Lord James an order for +total silence. + +Whereupon, Sholto holding the ladder at the top, Duke John and his +Councillor mounted like shadows, and with Malise and James Douglas to +guard them they were presently crouched in the passage with the door +shut behind them, and the officers keeping watch at the foot of the +tower without. + +These five listened to the sounds of busy picks within the tower. They +could hear the ring of iron on stones and the panting of men engaged +in severe toil. + +"The marshal is preparing for flight," whispered the Duke, exultantly. +"He is interring his treasures. He has been warned. But we will be +overspeedy for him." + +And he chuckled in his satisfaction so loudly that Malise, using no +ceremony with Duke or varlet at such a season, put his hand over his +mouth. + +Then one by one they crawled along the narrow passage on their hands +and knees, and presently from a little balcony, plastered like a +swallow's nest on the inner wall of the tower, they found themselves +looking down upon a strange scene. + +A flight of steps led slantwise to the bottom, and at the foot of the +tower, stripped to the waist, they beheld two men busily filling great +sacks with a curious cargo. + +The turret had never been finished. It contained nothing whatever +except the staircase. So far as Sholto could see there was not even a +window anywhere. The door by which they had entered and another which +evidently led into the interior of the castle were its only outlets. +The earth at the bottom had remained as it had been left by the +builders, who surely must have thought that no madder architectural +freak was ever planned than this shut tower of the Castle of Machecoul +with its blank walls and sordid accoutrement. + +But most strange of all, the original earth had been covered to the +depth of a foot or more with dark objects, the true significance of +which did not appear from the distance of the little gallery where the +party of five had stationed themselves. + +The two men at work below had brought torches with them, which were +fastened to the walls by iron spikes. The smoke from these hung in +heavy masses about the tower, still further diminishing the clearness +with which the watchers aloft could observe what went on below. + +One of the workmen was tall and spare, with the forward thrust of head +and neck seen in vultures and other unclean birds. The other, who held +the sacks while his companion shovelled, was on the contrary stout and +short, of a notably jovial, rubicund countenance, in habit like the +hostler of an inn, or perhaps a well-to-do carrier upon the roads. + +The two worked without speaking, as if the task were distasteful. When +one sack was full, both would seize their picks and dig furiously at +the floor of the tower. Then when they had enough loosened, they +would fall to shovelling the curiously shaped objects into the sacks +again. + +As Sholto looked down he heard a hissing whisper at his ear. + +"These be Blanchet the sorcerer and Robin Romulart. But last week they +took notice of my little Jean and praised him for a noble boy." + +Sholto turned round, and there at his elbow, having followed them in +spite of all orders and precautions, he discerned the woodman Louis +Verger, whose little son had been carried off by the grey she-wolf. + +Sholto motioned him back, and at a sign from the Duke, his father and +he began to descend. So silently did they make their way down the +stone steps, and so intent were the men upon their work, that in a +minute after leaving the little gallery Malise stood behind the taller +and Sholto stole like a shadow along the wall nearer to the little +rotund man who had been called Robin Romulart. + +The Duke held up his hand. Sholto and Malise each took their man about +the throat with their left arms and pulled them backward, at the same +time covering their mouths with their right hands. Blanchet never +moved in the strong arms of Malise. But Robin, whose rotund figure +concealed his great muscular development, might have escaped from +Sholto had not the woodman Verger flung himself at the little man's +throat and brought him to the ground. Then the Duke and the others +descended, and as they did so they became conscious of a choking +mephitic vapour which clung dank and heavy to the lower courses of the +tower. + +Suddenly a wild cry made all shiver. It came from Louis Verger, who +had sprung upon something that lay tossed aside in a corner. + +"Silence, man--on your life! Silence!" hissed Pierre de l'Hopital. +"Whatever you have found, think only of revenge and help us to it!" + +"I have found him. He is dead! The fiends! The fiends!" sobbed Louis +Verger, covering a small partially charred object with the curtmantle +of which he had rapidly divested himself for the purpose. + +Then it came upon those who stood on the floor of the tower that they +were in the marshal's main charnel-house. These vague forms, mostly +charred like half-burned wood, these scraps of white bone, these +little crushed skulls, were all that remained of the innocent children +who, in the freshness of their youth and beauty, had been seduced into +the fatal Castle of Machecoul. + +And what wonder that an appalling terror sat on the heart and mastered +the soul of Sholto MacKim. For how did he know that he was not +treading under foot at each step the calcined fragments of the fair +body of Maud Lindesay? + +Twenty sacks had been filled ready for transport, and as many more lay +folded and empty in a heap in a corner. The marshal, uneasy perhaps as +to the suspicions against him, and anxious to remove evidence from the +precincts of his castle, had ordered this Tower of Death to be +cleared. But truly his devil had once more forsaken him. The order had +been given a day too late. + +"God's grace, I stifle. Let us get out of this, and seize the +murderer," quoth Duke John, making his way towards the door. + +"Wait a moment," said Pierre de l'Hopital, "we must consider. We +cannot let the commons see this or they will sack the castle from +foundation to roof tree, and slay the innocent with the guilty. We +must seize and hold for fair trial all who are found within. _And I, +Pierre de l'Hopital, will try them!_" + +"What then do you propose?" said the Duke, getting as near the door as +possible. + +"Let us bring in hither the officers and what soldiers you can +trust--that is not my business," answered the President. "Then we will +go through the castle, and after we have secured the prisoners and +made sure of sufficient pieces of justificative evidence, of which we +have infinite supply in these sacks, we may e'en permit the people to +work their will." + +As it was Sholto who had first entered, so it was Sholto who first +left the Tower of Death. He it was also who, at the head of a strong +band, surprised the marshal's sleepy inner guard, and helped to bind +them with his own hands. It was Sholto who, at the foot of the stairs +of the great keep, stood listening that he might know the right moment +to lead the besiegers upward. + +But even as he stood thus, down the stairway there came pealing a +terrible cry, the shriek of a woman in the final agony, shrill, +desperate, unavailing. + +And at the sound Sholto flew up the stone steps in the direction of +the cry, not knowing what he did, save that he went to kill. + +And scarce a foot behind him followed the woodman, Louis Verger, and +as they fled upward the red gloom grew brighter till they seemed to be +rushing headlong into a furnace mouth. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII + +THE WHITE TOWER OF MACHECOUL + + +So at the command of the Marshal de Retz they sent to bring forth +Margaret of Douglas and Maud Lindesay out of the White Tower, where +they had been abiding. Margaret had gone to bed, and, as was her +custom, Maud Lindesay sat awhile by her side. For so far as they could +they kept to the good and kindly traditions of Castle Thrieve. It +seemed somehow to bring them nearer home in that horrible place where +they were doomed to abide. + +"Give me your hand, Maud, and tell on," said little Margaret, nestling +closer to her friend, and laying her head against her arm as she +leaned on the low bedstead beside her. + +Margaret was gowned in a white linen night-rail, made long ago for the +marshal's daughter, little Marie de Retz, in the brighter days before +the setting up of the iron altar. Catherine, his deserted wife, had +been kind to the girls at Pouzages, and had given to both of them such +articles of garmenture as they were sorely in need of. + +"Tell on--haste you," commanded little Margaret, with the +imperiousness of loving childhood, nestling yet closer as she spoke. +"It helps me to forget. I can almost think when you are speaking that +we are again at Thrieve, and that if we looked out at the window we +should see the Dee running by and Screet and Ben Gairn--and hear +Sholto MacKim drilling his men out in the courtyard. Why, Maudie, what +is the matter? I did not mean to make you cry. But it is all so sweet +to think upon in this place. Oh, Maudie, Maudie, what would you give +to hear a whaup whistle?" + +Then drawing herself into a sitting posture, with her hands about +Maud's neck, she took a kerchief from under the pillow and dried her +friend's tears, murmuring the while, "Ah, do not cry, Maud, my vision +will yet come true, and you shall indeed see Ben Gairn and +Thrieve--and everything. I was dreaming about it last night. Shall I +tell you about it, sweet Maud?" + +Maud Lindesay did not reply, not having recovered power over her +voice. So the little Maid of Galloway went on unbidden. + +"Yes, I dreamed a glad dream yester-even. Shall I tell it you all and +all? I will--though you can tell stories far better than I. + +"Methought that I and you--I mean, dear Maud, you and I, were sitting +together in the gloaming at the door of a little house up on the edges +of the moorland, where the heather is prettiest, and reddest, and +longest. And we were happy. We were waiting for some one. I shall not +tell you who, Maudie, but if you are good, and stop crying, you can +guess. And there was a ring on your finger, Maud. No, not like the old +ones--not a pretty ring like those in your box, yet you loved it more +than them all, and never stopped turning it about between your finger +and thumb. + +"They had let me come up to stay with you, and the men who had +accompanied me were drinking in the clachan. As we sat I seemed to +hear their loud chorus, sounding up from the change-house. + +"And you listened and said: 'I wish he would come. He is very long. It +is always long when he is away.' But you never said who it was that +was long away. And I shall not tell you, though I know. Perhaps it was +old Jock Lacklands, who used to be captain of the guard, and perhaps +grouting Peter, from the gate-house by the ford. But somehow I do not +think so. Ah, that is better! Now do not cry again. But listen, else I +will not tell you any more, but go off to sleep instead. + +"Perhaps you do not want to hear the rest. Yet--it was such a pretty +dream, and of good omen. + +"You _do_ want to hear? Well, then, be good! + +"As we sat there we could hear the bumblebees scurrying home, and +every now and then one of the big boom-beetles would sail whirring +past us. We could hear the sheep crying below in the little green +meadows so lonesomely, and the snipe bleating an answer away up in the +sky above their heads, and you said, '_It is all so empty, wanting +him!_' + +"Then the maids brought in the cows, and milked them standing at the +gable end, and we could smell the smell of their breath, sweet like +the scent of the flowers they had been eating all day long. Then, +after a while, they were driven out of the yard again, and went in a +string, one after the other, back to their pastures, doucely and +sedately, just like folk going to holy kirk on Sabbath days when it is +summer time in Galloway. + +"Then you said, 'I am weary of waiting for him!' And I answered, +'Why,--he has not been gone more than a day. Sometimes I do not see +him for weeks, and _I_ never fret like that!' + +"Then you answered (it has all come so clear into my mind), 'Some day +you will know, little one!' And you patted me on the head, and went to +the house end to look into the sunset. You looked many minutes under +your hand, and when you came back you said, as if you had never said +it before, 'He is long a-coming! I wonder what can be keeping him.' + +"Then the maidens told us that the supper was ready to put on the +table, whereat you scolded them, telling them that it was too early, +and that they must keep it hot against their master's coming. And to +me you said, 'You are not hungry, are you?' And I answered, 'No,' +though I was indeed very hungry--(in my dream, that is). Then you said +again, sighing: 'It is strange that he should not come home! I cannot +eat till he comes! Perhaps he has fallen into a ditch, or some eagle +may have pecked out his eyes!' + +"Then all the while it grew darker, and still no one came. Whereat you +cried a little softly, and said: 'He might have come--I know right +well he could have been here by this time if he had tried. But he does +not love me any more.' And you were patting the ground with your foot +as you used to do when--well, when he went away from Thrieve without +coming out upon the leads to say 'Good-night.' Then, all at once, +there was a noise of quick feet brushing eagerly through the heather, +and some one (no, not Landless Jock) leaped the wall and caught +me--_me_--in his arms." + +"No, it was not you whom he caught in his arms!" cried Maud Lindesay, +indignantly, and then stopped, abashed at her own folly. But the +little maid laughed merrily. + +"Aha!" she said, "_I_ caught you that time in my trap. You know who it +was in my dream, though I have never told you, nor so much as hinted. + +"And he asked if you had missed him, and you made a sign for me not to +speak, just as you used to do at Castle Thrieve, and answered, 'No, +not a little bit! Margaret and I were quite happy. We hoped you would +not come back at all this night, for then we could have slept +together.'" + +Maud Lindesay drew a long, soft breath, and looked out of the window +of the White Tower into the dark. + +"That is a sweet dream," she murmured. "Ah, would that it were true, +and that Sholto--!" + +She broke off short again, for the maid clapped her hands gleefully. +"You said it! You said it!" she cried. "You called him Sholto. Now I +know; and I am so glad, for he is nearly as good to play with as you. +And I shall not mind him a bit." + +Little Margaret stopped short in her turn, seeing something in her +friend's face. + +"Why are you suddenly grown so sad, Maudie?" she asked. + +"It came upon me, dear Margaret," said Maud, "how that we are but two +helpless maids in a dreadful place without a friend. Let us say a +prayer to God to keep us!" + +Then Margaret Douglas turned and knelt with her face to the pillow and +her small hands clasped in front of her. + +"Give me your silver cross," she said, "I lent the little gold one +that was William's to the Lady Sybilla, and she hath not returned it +me again." + +Maud gave her the cross and she took it and held it in the palm of her +hand looking long at it. Then she repeated one by one the children's +orisons she had been taught, and after that she made a little prayer +of her own. This is the prayer. + +"Lord of mercy, be good to two maids who are lonely and weak, and shut +up in this place of evil men. Keep our lives and our souls, and also +our bodies from harm. Make us not afraid of the dark or of the devil. +For Thou art the stronger. And do not forget to be near us this night, +for we have no other friend and sorely do we need one to love and +deliver us. Amen." + +It was true. More bitterly than any two in the whole world, these +maidens needed a friend at that moment. For scarcely had the childish +accents been lost in the night silence, when the outer door of the +White Tower was thrown open to the wall, and on the steps of the +turret stair they heard the noise of men coming upwards to their +prison-room. + +But first, though the inner door of their chamber was locked within, +the bolts glided back apparently of their own accord. It opened, and +the hideous face of La Meffraye looked in upon them with a cackle of +fiendish laughter. + +"Come, sweet maidens," she cried gleefully, as the frightened girls +clasped each other closer upon the bed, "come away. The Marshal de +Retz calls for you. He hath need of your beauty to grace his feast. +The lights of the banquet burn in his hall. See the fire of burning +shine out upon the night. The very trees are red with it. The skies +are red. All is red. Come--up--make yourselves fair for the eyes of +the great lord to behold!" + +Then behind La Meffraye entered Gilles de Sillé and Poitou, the +marshal's servants. + +"Make ready in haste--you are both to go instantly before my lord, who +abides your coming!" said Gilles de Sillé. "Poitou and I will abide +without the door, and La Meffraye here shall be your tirewoman and see +that you have that which you need. But hasten, for my lord is instant +and cannot be kept waiting!" + + * * * * * + +So they brought the Scottish maidens down from the White Tower into +the night. They walked hand in hand. Their steps did not falter, and, +as they went, they prayed to God to keep them from the dangers of the +place. Astarte, the she-wolf, who must have kept guard beneath, +stalked before them, and behind them they seemed to hear the hobbling +crutch and cackling laughter of La Meffraye. + +Across the wide courtyard of Machecoul they went. It also was filled +with the reflection of the red tide of light which ebbed and flowed, +waxing and waning above. Saving for that window the whole castle was +wrapped in gloom and silence, and if there were any awake within the +precincts they knew better than to spy upon the midnight doings of +their dread lord. + +The little party passed up the great staircase of the keep and +presently halted before the inscribed wooden door by which Laurence +had entered the Temple of Evil. + +As Gilles de Sillé opened it for the maids to precede him, the skirt +of Maud Lindesay's robe, blown back by the draught of the chamber, +fluttered against the cheek of Laurence MacKim as he lay on his face +in the niche of the wall. At the light touch he came to himself, and +looked about with a strange and instant change in all the affections +and movements of his heart. + +With the coming in of the maidens, fear seemed utterly to forsake him. +A clarity of purpose, an alertness of brain, a strength of heart +unknown before, took the place of the trembling bath of horror in +which he had swooned away. + +It was like the sudden appearance of two white angels walking fearless +and unscathed through the grim dominions of the Lords of Hell. + +Incarnate Good had somehow entered the house of the Demon, though it +was in the slender periphery of two maidens' bodies, and evil, strong +and resistless before, seemed in the moment to lose half its power. + +[Illustration: IT WAS LIKE THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF TWO WHITE ANGELS +WALKING FEARLESS AND UNSCATHED THROUGH THE GRIM DOMINIONS OF THE LORDS +OF HELL.] + + + + +CHAPTER LIX + +THE LAST SACRIFICE TO BARRAN-SATHANAS + + +And as Laurence MacKim, crouched in the dim obscurity of the curtained +doorway, looked forth, this is what he saw. + +Maud Lindesay and Margaret Douglas advanced into the centre of the +temple where was a slab of white marble let into the floor. As if by +instinct the two maids stopped upon it, standing hand in hand before +the iron altar and the vast shadowy image which gloomed above and +appeared to reach forward in act to clutch them. After the first check +in his hideous incantations, Gilles de Retz had returned to his own +chamber, in which, after his entrance, the light gleamed brighter and +more fiercely red than ever. As the maidens stood on the marble square +La Meffraye went to the door and called certain words within, +conveying some message which Laurence could not hear. + +Then with an assured carriage and haughty stride came forth the +marshal, his grey hair and blue-black beard in strong contrast with +his haggard corpse-pale face, from which the momentary glow of youth +half-restored had already faded, as fades a footprint upon wet sand. + +Gilles de Sillé and Poitou bowed silently before him as men who have +done their commission, and who retire to await further orders. But La +Meffraye, once more apparent, stood her ground. + +"Here are the dainty maids from the far land; no beggars' brats are +they. No strays and pickings from the streets. No, nor yet silly +village innocents who follow La Meffraye from the play-fields through +the woodlands to the Paradise of our Lord Gilles! Hasten not the joy! +Let these pearls of youth and beauteousness die indeed, but let them +die slowly and deliciously. And in the last blood of an ancient race +let our master bathe and find the new life he seeks. Hear us, O +Barran-Sathanas, and grant our prayer!" + +Then La Meffraye approached the maids and would have touched the dress +of the little Margaret, as if to order it more daintily for the +pleasing of her master's eye. But Maud Lindesay thrust her aside like +an unclean thing. + +Whereat La Meffraye laughed till her rusty black cloak quivered and +rustled from hood to hem. + +"Ah, my proud lady," she croaked, "in a little, in a very little, you +too will be calling upon La Meffraye to save you, to pity you. But I, +La Meffraye, will gloat over each drop of blood that distils from your +fair neck. Aha, you shall change your tone when at the white +throat-apple which your sweetheart would have loved to kiss, you feel +the bite of the sharp slow knife. Then you will not thrust aside La +Meffraye. Then you shall cry and none shall pity. Then she will spurn +you from her knees." + +"Out!" said Gilles de Retz, briefly, and like some inferior imping +devilkin before the great Master of Evil, La Meffraye retreated +hobbling to the doorway of the marshal's chamber, where she crouched +nodding and chuckling, mumbling inaudible words, and mingling them +ever with her dry cackling laughter. + +Gilles de Retz stopped at the corner of the platform and looked long +at Maud and Margaret where they stood on the great central square of +marble. It was the Maid who spoke first. + +"Dear Messire," she said sweetly and almost confidently, "you have a +little girl of your own. I know, for I have played with her. I love +her. Therefore you will not hurt us. I am sure you will not hurt us. +You are going to send us back in a ship to our own country, because it +is lonely here where Maud and I know no one!" + +The marshal smiled upon her his inhuman inscrutable smile. He leaned +against a pillar of strangely twisted design, and contemplated the two +victims at his ease. + +"Life is sweet to you, is it not?" he said at last; "you are truly +happy, being young, and so have no need to be made young again." + +"Oh, but I am very old," cried the Maid, gaining some confidence from +the quiet of his voice, "I am nearly eight years old. And our Maudie +here, she is--oh, a dreadful age! She is very, very old!" + +"You would not like to die?" suggested Gilles de Retz, with a certain +soft insinuation. + +"Oh, no," said Margaret Douglas, "I am going to live long and +long--till every one in the world loves me. I am going to help every +one to get what he most desires. And you know I can, for I shall be +very rich. And if what they say is true, and I am Princess of +Galloway, I shall marry and be a very great lady. But I shall never +marry any one who is not a Douglas." + +The marshal nodded. + +"I do not think that you shall marry any one who is not a Douglas!" he +said, with a certain grave and not discourteous irony in his tones. + +"Yes," the little Maid went on. She had lost all fear in the very act +of speech. "Yes, and Maud, she is going to marry Sholto--and they will +be very happy, for they love each other so. I know it, for she told me +to-night just before you sent for us to come to your feast. That was +kind of you to remember us, though it was past bed-time. But now, good +marshal, you will send us back, will you not? Now, look kind to-night. +You will be glad afterwards that you were good to two maids who never +harmed you, but are ready to love you if you prove kind to them." + +"Hush, Margaret," said Maud Lindesay. "It is useless to speak such +words to such a man." + +The Marshal de Retz turned sharply to her. + +"Ah," he said, with a curious bite in his speech, "then, my young +lady, you would not love me, even if I were to let you go!" + +"I should hate and abominate you for ever and ever, even if you helped +me into Paradise!" quoth Maud Lindesay, giving him defiance in a full +eye-volley. + +"So," he said calmly, "I am indeed likely to help you into Paradise +this very night. That is, unless Saint Peter of the Keys makes up his +mind that so outspoken and tricksome a maid had best take a few +thousand years of purgatory--as it were on her way upwards, _en +passant_." + +A sudden lowering passion at this point altered his countenance. + +"No," he thundered, standing up erect from the pillar against which +he had been leaning, and his whole voice and bearing changing past +description, "it is enough--listen! I will be brief with you. I have +brought both of you here that you may die. I cannot expect of you that +you will understand or appreciate my motives, which are indeed above +the knowledge of children. This is a temple to a Great God, and he +demands the sacrifice of the noblest and most innocent blood. I do you +the honour to believe that it is here to my hand. Also, your deaths +will cause a number of people both in Scotland and elsewhere to sit +easier in their seats. Lastly, I had sworn that you should die if your +friends from Scotland came to trouble me. They have come, and Gilles +de Retz keeps his word--as doth the Master whom he serveth!" + +He bowed in the direction of the vast shadowy figure, which to +Laurence's eye appeared to turn towards his niche with a leer, as if +to say, "Listen to him. What a fool he is!" + +The maids stood silent, not comprehending aught save that they were to +die. Then suddenly Gilles de Retz cried out in his loudest military +tones--"Henriet, Poitou, De Sillé, bind these maidens upon the iron +altar, that Barran-Sathanas may feed his eyes on their beauty and +rejoice!" + +And as they stood motionless upon the square of white marble, the +servitors came forward and led them to the great altar of iron. They +lifted the maidens up and laid their bodies crosswise upon the vast +grid, the bars of which were as thick as a man's arm, arranging them +so that their heads hung without support over the bar next the shadowy +image. + +As they bound them rudely hand and foot, the long and beautiful hair +of Maud Lindesay escaped from its fastenings and fell down till it +reached the bath of red porphyry which extended underneath the whole +length of the altar of iron. + +Then through all the Temple of Evil there ensued sudden silence. Not a +sob or a moan escaped from the doomed maidens, and the feet of the +assistants fell silent and soft as the paws of wild beasts upon the +ebon floor. + +Gilles de Retz waited till his acolytes had retired to their appointed +places, where they stood like carven statues watching what should +happen. Then slowly and deliberately he ascended to the broad platform +from which the iron altar rose, and stood with his arms folded over +his flame-coloured robe, looking gloatingly down, upon his innocent +victims. Maud Lindesay was the nearer to him, and her unbound hair +fell back and touched the peak of his pointed shoe of crimson Cordovan +leather. + +With a quick movement he caught up a handful of its rich luxuriance +and allowed it to run through his fingers like sand again and yet +again, with apparent delight in the sensation. + +Even as he did so the dim figure of the horned demon above appeared to +lean forward as if to touch him, and with a rushing noise the great +hour-glass set upon a pedestal at the foot of the image turned itself +completely over. Gilles with a startled air turned also, and seeing +what it was he laughed a strange hollow laugh. + +"It is indeed the hour, the hour of doom, fair maids," he said, +looking down upon them as deferentially as if he had been paying his +court in the great hall of Thrieve, "but it shall not pass without +taking with it your souls to another, and I trust a higher, sphere!" + +He paused, but no complaint or appeal reached his cruel and inexorable +ear. The certain graciousness of Providence to those in extreme peril +seemed to have blunted the edge of fear in the innocent victims. They +lay still and apparently without consciousness upon the iron altar. +The red glow played upon their faces, shining through from the inner +chamber, and the figure of the marshal stood out black against it. + +On the floor lay the goblet from which he had drunk the Red Milk. + +"Give me the knife!" he cried, sudden as a trumpet that is blown. + +And reaching a withered hand within the marshal's chamber as if to +detach something from the wall, La Meffraye hobbled quickly across the +altar platform, bearing in her hand a shining weapon of steel, broad +of blade and curved at the point. She placed the ebony handle in the +marshal's hand, who weighed it lovingly in his grasp. + +Then for the first time since the men had bound her, the sweet +childish eyes of little Margaret were unclosed and looked up at Gilles +de Retz with the touching wonder of helplessness and innocence. + +At that moment the image appeared to Laurence to beckon to him out of +the gloom. A quick and nervous resolve ran through his veins. His +muscles became like steel within his flesh. He rose to his feet, and, +without pause for thought, rushed across the chapel from the niche +where he had been hidden. + +"Murderer! Fiend! I will kill you!" he cried, and with his dagger bare +in his hand he would have thrown himself upon the marshal. But swifter +than the rush of the young man in his strength there came another from +the door of the inner chamber. + +With a deep-throated roar of wholly bestial fury, Astarte the she-wolf +sprang upon Laurence, and, though he sank his dagger twice to the hilt +in her hairy chest, she over-bore him and they fell to the ground with +her teeth gripping his shoulder. Laurence felt the hot life-blood of +the beast spurt forth and mingle with his own. Then a flood of +swirling waters seemed to bear him suddenly away into the unknown. + + * * * * * + +When Laurence MacKim came to himself he emerged into a chill world in +which he felt somehow infinitely lonely and forsaken. Next he grew +slowly conscious that his feet and arms were bound tightly with cords +that cut painfully into the flesh. Then he realised that he, too, had +taken his place beside the maids upon the altar of iron. Strangely +enough he did not feel afraid nor even wish himself elsewhere. He only +wondered what would happen next. + +He opened his eyes and lo! they looked directly into the leering +countenance of the monstrous image. Yet there seemed something +curiously encouraging and even beneficent about the aspect of the +demon. But so often as Gilles de Retz passed the triple array of his +victims with his back to the image, the regard of the sculptured devil +followed him, grim and mocking. + +Words of angry altercation came to the ears of Laurence MacKim. + +"I tell you," cried the voice of Gilles de Retz, "I will not spare +them. Well nigh had I succeeded. Almost I was young again. I was +tasting the first sweetness of knowledge wide as that of the gods. I +felt the new life stirring within me. But I had not enough of the +blood of innocence, which is the only worthy libation to +Barran-Sathanas, who alone can bestow youth and life." + +Then the Lady Sybilla answered him. "I pray you, Gilles de Retz, as +you hope for mercy, slay not these maidens and this youth. Take me, +and bind me, instead, for the sacrifice of death. I have wrought +enough of evil! Take of my blood and work out your purpose. Let me +give you the libation you desire. Gilles de Retz, if ever I have aided +you, grant me this boon now. I beseech you, let these innocents go, +and bind me upon the altar in their places." + +Long and loud laughed Gilles de Retz, a hard, evil, and relentless +laugh. + +"Sybilla de Thouars an innocent maiden's sacrifice! Barran-Sathanas +himself laughs at the jest. He would have no pleasure in your death. +Soul and body you are his already. He desires only the blood and +suffering of the innocent--of those on whom he has never set his mark. +Nay, these three shall surely die, and in that bath of porphyry +hollowed out under his altar I will lave me from head to foot in the +Red Milk of innocence. I have no more need of you, Sybilla mine. You +have done your work, and for your reward you can now depart to your +own place. Out of my way, I say. Henriet, Poitou, quick! Remove this +woman from before the altar!" + +Then, struggling strongly in their hands, the servitors carried the +Lady Sybilla to the farther end of the chapel, where they abode on +either side, holding her fast. And as the last grains of sand began to +swirl towards their fall and a little whirlpool to form funnel-wise in +the midst of the hour-glass, the butcher was left alone with his +victims upon the platform of the iron altar. + +Gilles de Retz turned towards the image, and, lifting up his hand +solemnly, he cried in a great voice, "O Barran-Sathanas, be pleased to +behold this innocent blood spilled slowly in thine honour. As the red +fount flows and the red fire burns, restore my youth and make me +strong. Faithfully will I serve thee and thee alone, renouncing all +other. O Barran-Sathanas, great and only Lord, receive my sacrifice. +It is the hour!" + +And so saying he laid hold of Maud Lindesay by the hair, and raised +the curved knife on high. + +Then from the end of the chapel to which the Lady Sybilla had been +taken there came a sound. With a great despairing effort she burst +from her captors' hands and ran forward. She knelt down on the marble +slab whereon the maids had stood at their first entering, and as she +knelt she held aloft a golden crucifix. + +"If there be a God in heaven, let him manifest himself now!" she +cried, "by the virtue of this cross of His son Jesus Christ, I call +upon Him!" + +Then suddenly all the place was filled with a mighty rushing noise. +The last grains ran low in the hour-glass. It shifted in its stand and +turned over. A tremor like that of an earthquake shook all the castle +to its foundations. The solid keep itself rocked like a vessel in a +stormy sea. The great image overturned, and by its fall Gilles de +Retz was stricken senseless to the earth. The next moment, like +flood-gates burst by a mighty tide, the doors of the temple were +opened with a clang, and through them a crowd of armed men came +rushing in with triumphant shouts and angry cries of vengeance. + +Sholto was far ahead of the others, and, as if led by the unerring +instinct of love, he ran to the altar whereon his love lay white as +death, but without a mark upon her fair body. + +It was the work of a moment to cut their cords and chafe the numbed +wrists and ankles. James Douglas took the little Margaret. Sholto had +his sweetheart in his arms, while Laurence recovered quickly enough to +aid his father in securing Gilles de Retz and his servants. La +Meffraye they took not, for she lay dead within the inner chamber, +where yet burned the great fire which was used to consume the bodies +of the demon's victims. Two gaping wounds were found in her breast, in +the same place in which the dagger of Laurence MacKim had smitten the +she-wolf as she sprang upon him. But Astarte, woman witch or +were-wolf, was never seen again, neither by starlight, moonlight, nor +yet in the eye of day. Truly of Gilles de Retz was it said, "His demon +hath deserted him." + +Beneath in the courts and quadrangles, swarming through the towers and +clambering perilously on the roofs, surged the press of the furious +populace. It was all that Duke John and his officers could do to keep +the prisoners in ward, and to prevent them from being torn limb from +limb (as had perhaps been fittest), and tossed alive into the flaming +funeral pyre of Castle Machecoul, which, lighted by a hundred hands, +presently began to flame like a volcano to the skies. + +For the hour that comes to every evil-doer had come to Gilles de Retz. +And in that hour, as it shall ever be, the devil in whom he trusted +had forsaken him. + +But the Lady Sybilla stood on the garden tower that in happier days +had been her pleasaunce, and beheld. And as she watched she kissed the +golden crucifix of the child Margaret. And her heart rejoiced because +the lives of the innocent as well as the death of the guilty had been +given her for her portion. + +"And now, O Lord, I am ready to pay the price!" she said. + + + + +CHAPTER LX + +HIS DEMON HATH DESERTED HIM + + +The soldiers of the Duke of Brittany stood with bared swords and +deadly pikes around the Marshal de Retz and those of his servants who +had been taken--that is to say, round Poitou, Clerk Henriet, Blanquet, +and Robin Romulart. About them surged ever more fiercely the angry +populace, drunk with the hot wine of destruction, having been filled +with inconceivable fury by that which they had seen in the round tower +wherein stood the filled bags of little charred remains. + +"Tear the wolves into gobbets! Kill them! Burn them! Send them quick +to Hell!" So ran the cry. + +And twice and thrice the villagers of the Pays de Retz charged +desperately as men who fight for their lives. + +"Stand to it, men!" cried Pierre de l'Hopital. "Gilles de Retz shall +have fair trial! + +"_But I shall try him!_" he added, under his breath. + +Never was seen such a sight as the procession which conducted Gilles +de Retz to the city of Nantes. The Duke had sent for his whole band of +soldiers, and these, in ordered companies, marched in front and rear. +A triple file guarded the prisoners, and even their levelled pikes +could scarce beat back the furious rushes of the populace. + +It was like a civil war, for the assailants struck fiercely at the +soldiers--as if in protecting him, they became accessory to the crimes +of the hated marshal. + +"_Barbe Bleu! Barbe Bleu!_" they cried. "Slay _Barbe Bleu_! Make his +beard blood-red. He hath dipped it often in the life-blood of our +children. Now we will redden it with his own!" + +So ran the tumult, surging and gathering and scattering. And ever the +pikes of the guard flashed, and the ordered files shouldered a path +through the press. + +"Make way there!" cried the provost marshals. "Make way for the +prisoners of the Duke!" + +And as they entered the city, from behind and before, from all the +windows and roofs, rose the hoarse grunting roar of the hatred and +cursing of a whole people. + +But the object of all this rested calm and unmoved, and his cruel grey +eye had no expression in it save a certain tolerant and amused +contempt. + +"Bah!" he muttered. "Would that I had slain ten millions of you! It is +my only regret that I had not the time. It is almost unworthy to die +for a few score children!" + +During the journey to Nantes, Gilles de Retz kept the grand reserve +with which, when he came to himself, he had treated those who had +captured him. To the Duke only would he condescend to reply, and to +him he rather spoke as an equal unjustly treated than as a guilty +prisoner and suppliant. + +"For this, Sire of Brittany," he said, "must you answer to your +overlord, the King of France, whose minister and marshal I am!" + +The Duke would have made some feeble reply, but Pierre de l'Hopital +cut across the conversation with that stern irony which characterised +him. + +"My lord," he said, "remember that before you were made Marshal of +France you were born a subject of the Duke of Brittany! And as such +you shall be judged." + +"I decline to stand at your tribunal!" said the marshal, haughtily. + +"_Soit!_" said the President, indifferently, "but all the same you +shall be tried!" + +Duke John, knowing well that while his court was being held in the +capital city of his province, and especially during the trial of +Gilles de Retz, Nantes was no place for young maidens who had suffered +like Maud Lindesay and Margaret Douglas, sent them under escort to the +Castle of Angers. + +Sholto MacKim and his father were allowed to accompany them, that they +might not be without some of their own country to speak with during +their sojourn in France. The Lord James, however, elected to abide +with the court. For there were many ladies there, and, having nobility +of address and desiring to perfect himself in the niceties of +fashionable speech (which changed daily), he had great pleasure in +their society, and rode in the lists by the side of the Loire with +even more than his former gallantry and success. + +For, as he said, he needed some compensation for the long abstinence +enforced upon him by his habit of holy palmer. And right amply did he +make himself amends, and was accounted by dames fair and free the +lightsomest and properest Scot who had ever come into the land of +France. + +With him Laurence remained, both because his father was still angry +with him on account of his desertion of them in Paris, and also +because having been so long in the Castle of Machecoul, there were +important matters concerning which in the forthcoming trial he alone +could give evidence. + +Pierre de l'Hopital would have detained the Lady Sybilla as a possible +accomplice of the Sieur de Retz, but by the intercession of the +Scottish maidens, as well as by the sworn evidence of Sholto and the +Lord James, testifying that wholly by her means Gilles de Retz had +finally been caught red-handed, she was permitted to depart whither +she would. + +"I will go to my sister," she said to Sholto, who came to know how he +could serve her. "It matters little. My work is nearly done!" + +So, riding as was her custom all alone upon a white palfrey, she +passed out of their sight towards the south. + + * * * * * + +In the city of Nantes the rumour of the taking of Gilles de Retz had +spread like wild-fire, and as the cavalcade rode through the streets, +the windows rained down curses and the citizens hooted up from the +sidewalks. But the marshal kept his haughty and disdainful regard, +appearing like a noble nature who perforce companies for the nonce +with meaner men. He sat his favourite charger like a true companion of +Dunois and De Richemont, and, as more than one remarked, on this +occasion he looked like the royal prince and the Duke of Brittany the +prisoner. + +So in the New Tower of the Castle of Nantes, Gilles de Retz was placed +to wait his trial. There is no need to give a long account of it. The +documents have been printed in plain letter, and all the world knows +how Clerk Henriet faltered under the stern questioning of Pierre de +l'Hopital, and how finally he declared fully all these iniquities +without parallel in which he had borne so cruel a part. + +Poitou, more faithful to his master, held out till the threat of +torture and the appeals of his friend Henriet broke him down. But the +attitude and bearing of the chief culprit deserve that the historian +should not wholly pass them over. + +Even in his first haughty and contemptuous silence, Gilles de Retz was +shifting his ground, and with a cool unheated intelligence orienting +himself to new conditions. It soon became evident to his mind that the +powers of Evil in which he trusted, and to whose service he had +consecrated his life and fortune, had befooled and betrayed him. + +Well--even so would he fool them--if, by the grace of God, there were +yet any merit or hope in the service of Good. The priests said so. The +Scripture said so, and they might be right after all. At least, the +thing was worth trying. + +For a cold and calculating brain lay behind the worst excesses of the +terrible Lord de Retz. The religion of the Cross might not be of much +final use--still, it was all that remained, and Gilles de Retz +determined to avail himself of it. So once more he apostasised from +Barran-Sathanas to Jehovah. + +With an effrontery almost too stupendous for belief, he arrayed +himself in the white robes of a Carmelite novice and spent his prison +days in singing litanies and in private confession with his religious +adviser. + +When the great day of the trial at last arrived, the marshal, who had +expected on the bench the weak kindly countenance of Duke John, was +called upon to confront the indomitable judicial rectitude of Pierre +de l'Hopital, President and Grand-Seneschal of Brittany. + +Gilles de Retz appeared at his trial dressed in white of the richest +materials and with all his military decorations upon him. But his +judge, habited in stern and simple black, was not in the least +intimidated. + +Then came the great surprise. After the evidence of Henriet and Poitou +had been read to him, the marshal was asked to plead. To the surprise +of all, the accused claimed benefit of clergy. + +"I have been a great sinner," he said, "I have indeed deserved a +thousand deaths. But now I am a man of God. I have confessed. I have +received absolution for all my sins. God has forgiven me, and my soul +is cleansed!" + +"Good!" answered Pierre de l'Hopital, "I have nothing to do with your +soul. I must leave that, as you very pertinently remark, to God. But I +am here to try your body, and if found guilty to condemn that body to +suffer the penalties by law provided according to the statutes of +Brittany." + +Then Clerk Henriet was brought in to testify more fully of the crimes +beyond parallel in the history of mankind. + +The court had been hung round with black, and the only object which +appeared prominent was a beautiful ivory crucifix with a noble figure +of the Redeemer of Men carved upon it. This was suspended, according +to the custom, over the head of the President of the Tribunal. + +Henriet had not proceeded far with his terrible relation of well nigh +inconceivable crimes when he stopped. + +"I cannot go on," he said, in a broken appealing voice; "I cannot tell +what I have to tell with That Figure looking down upon me!" + +So, with the whole Court standing up in reverence, the image of the +Most Pitiful was solemnly veiled from sight, that such deeds of +darkness might not be so much as named in that holy and gracious +presence. + +And during the ceremony Friar Gilles of the order of the Carmelites +stood up more reverently than any, for now, seeing that no better +might be, he had definitely renounced Barran-Sathanas and cast in his +lot with God Almighty. + + * * * * * + +"The sentence of this court is that you, Gilles de Laval, Lord of +Retz, Marshal of France, and you, Poitou and Henriet, be carried to +the meadow of La Biesse at nine of the clock on the morning of +to-morrow, and that you be there hanged and burned till you be dead. +And to God the Just One be the glory!" + +The voice of Pierre de l'Hopital rang out through the silence of the +hall of judgment. + +"Amen!" said Friar Gilles, devoutly crossing himself. + +And so in due course on the meadow of La Biesse, by the side of the +blue Loire, the evil soul of Gilles de Retz went to its own place with +all the paraphernalia of repentance and in the full odour of a +somewhat hectic sanctity. + + * * * * * + +The day after the burning, a little company of riders left the city of +Angers, journeying westward along the Loire. It consisted of the +maidens Margaret Douglas and Maud Lindesay, with Sholto MacKim and a +dozen horsemen belonging to his Grace of Brittany. It had been +arranged that they were to be joined, upon an eminence above the river +on the right bank, by the Lord James, Malise, and Laurence, with the +escort which was to accompany them to the port of Saint Nazaire. There +(as was necessary in order to escape the troublesome navigation of the +swift and treacherous upper reaches) they would find vessels ready to +set sail for Scotland. + +As the little cloud of riders left behind them the black towers of +Angers, they passed through woodland glades wherein, in spite of the +lateness of the season, the birds were singing. The air was mild and +delightsome. At last, leaving the river, they struck away inland, +having the frowning towers of Champtocé on their left as they rode. +Presently they came to a forest, wherein in days before the great +cruelty, Gilles de Retz had often hunted the wolf and the wild boar. + +Here the woodland paths were covered deep with fallen leaves, and the +naked branches spoke of the desolation of a dead year. + +As the maids rode forward first of their company and talked, as was +natural, of that which had taken place the day before at Nantes, they +became aware of the Lady Sybilla riding towards them on her palfrey of +white. She would have passed them without speech, with her head +downcast and her eyes fixed upon the dank ground with its covering +drift of dead autumnal leaves. + +But Margaret, grateful for that which the Lady Sybilla had done for +them at Machecoul, spurred her steed and rode thwartwise to intercept +her. + +"Sybilla," she said, "you will come with us to Scotland. I have many +castles there, and, they tell me, a princessdom of mine own. We shall +all be happy together and forget these ill times. Maud and I can never +repay that which you have done for us." + +"Yes, I pray you come with us," said Maud, a little more slowly, "we +will be your sisters, and the ill times shall not come again." + +The Lady Sybilla smiled a sad subtle smile and shook her head. + +"I thank you. I thank you more than you know. It eases my heart that +you should forgive a woman such as I for all the evil she has brought +you and yours. But I am now no fit companion for you or any. I am +become but a wandering shape, speaking to one who cannot answer, and +seeking him whom I can never find." + +The little Maid, being but a child, mistook her meaning. + +"No, no," she cried, "your life is not done. If the one whom you love +hath left you unkindly--well, bide awhile, and when the first smart is +passed, we will marry you to some braver and more handsome knight. +There are many such in Scotland. I pray you come with Maud and me even +as we wish you. Why, there would not be three like us in all the land. +I wager we will set kings by the ears between us. Though, as for me, I +can only marry a Douglas!" + +The smile of the Lady Sybilla grew ever sadder and ever sweeter. + +"The man whom I loved, and who loved me, I betrayed to the death. +There is no forgiveness for such as I in this life. Perhaps there may +be in the next. At least, _he_ forgave me, and that is enough. He +believed in me against myself, and I will wait. Till then I go hither +and thither and none shall hinder me or molest--for upon Sybilla de +Thouars God hath set the seal of Cain!" + +Margaret Douglas flicked her steed impatiently, causing the spirited +little beast to curvet. + +"I think it is very ill-done of you not to come to Scotland with us," +she said petulantly, "when we would have been so good to you!" + +"Too good, too kind," said the Lady Sybilla, very gently; "such +kindness is not for such as I am. But if I may, while I live I will +keep the golden cross you lent me--the crucifix your brother gave to +you on your birthday!" + +"Keep it--it is yours! I do not want it!" cried Margaret, glad to have +found some way of evidencing her gratitude. + +"I thank you," said Sybilla de Thouars; "some day I may come to +Scotland. And if I do, you shall come out from Thrieve and meet me by +the white thorns of the Carlinwark at the hour when the little +children sing!" + +And so, without other farewell, she turned and rode slowly away down +the avenues of fallen leaves, till the folding woodlands hid her from +the sight of those two who watched her with tear-blurred eyes and +hearts strangely stirred with pity for the fate of her whom they had +once hated with such good cause. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI + +LEAP YEAR IN GALLOWAY + + +Morning dawned fair over the wide strath of Dee. Cairnsmuir and Ben +Gairn stood out south and north like blue, round-shouldered sentinels. +Castle Thrieve rose grey in the midst of the water-meadows, massive +and sombre in the early sunrise. + +Andro the Penman and his brother John, with the taciturnity natural to +early risers, were silently hoisting the flag which denoted the +presence of the noble young chatelaine of the great fortress. + +Sholto also was early astir, for the affairs of the castle and of the +host were in his hand, and there was much business to be despatched +that morning. The young Avondale Douglases were riding away from +Thrieve, for word had come that James the Gross, seventh Earl of +Douglas, was surely at death's door. + +"Besides," said William Douglas, "wherefore should we stay--our work +is done. No one will molest our cousin in her heritages now! We five +have stood about her while there was need. But for the present Sir +Sholto and his men can keep count and reckoning with any from the +back-shore of Leswalt to Berwick bound." + +"Aye, indeed," cried James Douglas, "we will go till the time come +when the suitors gather, like corbies about a dead lamb!" + +"That is not a savoury comparison," cried Margaret of Douglas, now +grown older, and already giving more than a mere promise of that +wondrous beauty which afterwards made her celebrated in all lands, +"but after all, you, cousin James, have some right to make it. For, +but for you and our good Sholto there, this little ewe lamb would have +been carrion indeed!" + +"Good-by!" cried James of Avondale. "Haste thee and grow up, sweet +coz. Then will I come back with the rest of the corbies and take my +chance of the feast. I will keep myself for that day." + +But William Douglas sat square and silent on his charger. + +The Maid of Galloway waved her hand gaily to the younger of the +knights. + +"You shall have your chance with the rest," she cried; "but you will +not care about me then. Very likely I may have to fleech and cozen +with you like a sweetie-wife at a fair before either of you will marry +me. And you know I have sworn on the bones of Saint Bride to marry +none but a Douglas of the Douglases!" + +Then William Douglas saluted without a word, and turning his +bridle-rein rode away with his face steadfastly set to the north. But +James ever cried back farewells and jovial words long after he was out +of hearing. And even on the heights of Keltonmuir he still fluttered a +gay kerchief in his left hand. + +Then Margaret Douglas went back within the gates, where her eyes fell +upon Maud Lindesay, coming through the castle yard to meet her. For +that morning she had not wished to encounter Sholto--at least not +among so many. The two maidens walked on together, and which was the +fairer, the black or the nut-brown, none could say who beheld them. + +After a while Margaret Douglas sighed. + +"I wonder which of them I like the best," she said. + +Maud laughed a merry, scornful laugh in which was a world of superior +knowledge. + +"You do not like either of them very much yet, or you would have no +difficulty about the matter!" said this wise woman. + +"Well, I wonder which of them loves me best," she went on; "James +tells me of it a hundred times every day and all day. But William says +nothing. He only looks at me often, as if he disapproved of me. I am +over light for him, I trow. He thinks not of me." + +Then after a pause she said, again with her finger on her lip, "I +wonder which of them would do most for my sake?" + +"I know!" said Maud Lindesay, promptly. + + * * * * * + +With the young Avondales there had ridden forth Malise and his son +Laurence on their way to the Abbey of Dulce Cor. Sholto went also with +them to convoy them to the fords of Urr. + +For Laurence was to be a clerk after all. + +And this is the way he explained it. + +"The Abbot cannot live long, and there is no Douglas to succeed him. +Then your little Maid will make me Abbot, if that Maud of yours does +her duty." + +"She is not my Maud yet," sighed Sholto. For, as they say in Scotland, +the lady had proved "driech to draw up." + +"But she will be in good time," urged Laurence, "and she must +persuade the Lady Margaret of my many and surprising virtues." + +"The Lady Margaret hath doubtless seen these for herself. Were you not +bound beside her on the iron altar?" said Sholto. + +"Yes, but I dirked the old witch-woman, or so they say. And that was +no clerkly action!" objected his brother. + +"Fear not," said Sholto, "you have all of her favour you need without +working by means of another's petticoat. But how about marrying? You +cannot wed or woo if you are a clerk. You did not use to be so unfond +of a lass in the gloamings along the sweet strand called the Walk of +Lovers--you know where!" + +"Pshaw," cried Laurence, "I never yet saw the lass I liked better than +myself. And I never expect to see one that I shall like better than +the fat revenues of the Abbacy of Dulce Cor!" + +He paused a moment as if roguishly considering some point. + +"Besides," he went on, "wed I may not, but woo--that is another +matter! I have never yet heard that an Abbot--" + +"Good-day!" cried Sholto, suddenly, at this point, "I will not stay to +hear you blaspheme!" + +And leaving his father and Laurence to ride westward he turned him +back towards Thrieve. + +"I will surely return to-morrow," cried Malise; "I must first see this +gay bird safely in mew. Aye, and bid the Abbot William clip his wings +too!" + +So in the gay morning sunshine and with the reflection of the lift +glinting dark blue from tarn and lakelet, Sholto MacKim rode towards +the Castle of Thrieve. He bethought him on all that was bygone. The +Avondales were gone, James the Gross might die any moment--might even +now be dead and William Douglas be Earl in his place! + +He thought over William of Avondale's last words to himself, spoken +with deep solemnity and in all the dignity of a great spirit. + +"Sholto, you and yours have brought to justice the chief betrayer. The +time is at hand when, having the power, I will settle with Crichton +and Livingston, the lesser villains. And in that count and reckoning +you must be my right-hand man. Keep your Countess, the sweet young +Margaret, safe for my sake. She is very precious to me--indeed, beyond +my life. And for this time fare you well!" + +And he had reached a mailed hand to the captain of the Douglas guard, +and when Sholto would have bent his head upon it to kiss it, William +of Avondale gripped his suddenly as one grasps a comrade's hand when +the heart is touched, and so was gone. + +At the verge of the flowery pastures that ring the isle of Thrieve, +Sholto met Maud Lindesay, wandering alone. At sight of her he leaped +from his horse, and, without salutation of spoken speech, walked by +her side. + +"How came you here alone?" he asked. + +Maud made her little pouting movement of the lips, and kicked +viciously at a tuft of grass. + +"I forgot," she said hypocritically, "I ought to have asked leave of +that noble knight the Captain of Thrieve. We poor maids must not +breathe without his permission--no, nor even walk out to meet him when +we are lonesome." + +Maud Lindesay lifted her eyes suddenly and shot at Sholto a glance so +disabling, that, alarmed for the consequences, she veiled her eyes +again circumspectly by dropping her long lashes upon her cheek. + +"Did you really come out to meet me, Maud?" cried Sholto, all the life +flooding back into his cheeks, "in this do you speak truth and no +mockery?" + +"I only said that we maidens were so much in fear of our Castle +Governor, that we must not walk out even to meet him!" + +At this Sholto let his horse go where it would, and, as they were +passing at the time through a coppice of hazel, he caught his saucy +sweetheart quickly by the wrist. + +"Mistress Maud, you shall not play with me!" he said; "you will tell +me plainly--do you love me or do you not?" + +Maud Lindesay puckered her pretty face as if she had been about to +cry. + +"You hurt my arm!" she said plaintively, looking up at him with the +long pathetic gaze of a gentle helpless animal undeservedly put in +pain. + +Sholto perforce released the pressure on her arm. She instantly put +both hands behind her. + +"You did not hurt me at all--hear you that, Master Sholto," she cried, +"and I do not love you--not that much, Sir Noble Bully!" + +And she snapped her finger and thumb like a flash beneath his nose. + +"Not that much!" she repeated viciously, and did it again. Sholto +turned away sternly. + +"You are nothing but a silly girl, and not worthy that any true man +should either love or marry you!" he said, walking off in the +direction of the castle. + +Maud Lindesay looked after him a moment as if not believing her eyes +and ears. Then, so soon as she made sure that he was indeed not coming +back, she tripped quickly after him. He was taking long strides, and +it required a series of small hops and skips to keep up with him. + +"Not really, Sholto?" she said beseechingly, almost running beside him +now. He walked so fast. + +"Yes, madam, really!" said that young knight, still more sternly. + +She took a little run to get a step in front of him, so that she might +advantageously look up into his face. + +"Then you will not marry me, Sholto?" + +Her hands were clasped with the sweetest petitionary grace. + +"_No!_" + +The monosyllable escaped from his lips with a snort like a puff of +steam from under the lid of a boiling pot. + +"Not even if I ask you very nicely, Sholto?" + +"No!" + +The negative came again, apparently fiercer than before, almost like +an explosion indeed. But still there was a hollow sound about it +somewhere. + +At this the girl stopped suddenly and, drawing a little lace kerchief +from her bosom, she sank her head into it in apparent abandonment of +grief. + +"Oh, what shall I do?" she wailed, "Sholto says he will not marry me, +and I have asked him so sweetly. What shall I do? What shall I do? I +will e'en go and drown me in the Dee water!" + +And with her kerchief still held to her eyes--or at least (to be +wholly accurate) to one of them--the despised maiden ran towards the +river bank. She did not run very fast, but still she ran. + +Now this was more than Sholto had bargained for, and he in turn +pursued her light-foot, swifter than he had ever run in his life. He +overtook her just as she reached the little ascent of the rocks by the +river margin. + +His hand fell upon her shoulder and he turned her round. She was still +shaking with sobs--or something. + +"I will--I will, I _will_ drown myself!" she cried, her kerchief +closer to her eyes. + +"I will marry you--I will do anything. I love you, Maud!" + +"You do not--you cannot!" she cried, pushing him fiercely away, "you +said you would not! That I was not fit to marry." + +"I did not mean it--I lied! I did not know what I said! I will do +whatever you bid me!" Sholto was grovelling now. + +"Then you will marry me--if I do not drown myself?" + +She spoke with a sort of relenting, delicious and tentative. + +"Yes--yes! When you will--to-morrow--now!" + +She dropped the kerchief and the laughing eyes of naughty Maud +Lindesay looked suddenly out upon Sholto like sunshine in a dark +place. They were dry and full of merriment. Not a trace of tears was +to be discerned in either of them. + +Then she gave another little skip, and, catching him by the arm, +forced him to walk with her toward Castle Thrieve. + +"Of course you will marry me, silly! You could not help yourself, +Sholto--and it shall be when I like too. But now that you have been so +stern and crusty with me, I am not sure that I will not take Landless +Jock after all!" + + * * * * * + +This is the end, and yet not the end. For still, say the country folk, +when the leaves are greenest by the lakeside, when the white thorn is +whitest and the sun drops most gloriously behind the purpling hills of +the west, when the children sing like mavises on the clachan greens, +you may chance to spy under the Three Thorns of Carlinwark a lady +fairer than mortal eye hath seen. She will be sitting gracefully on a +white palfrey and hearkening to the bairns singing by the watersides. +And the tears fall down her cheeks as she listens, in the place where +in the spring-time of the year young William Douglas first met the Lady +Sybilla. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Douglas, by S. R. Crockett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK DOUGLAS *** + +***** This file should be named 17733-8.txt or 17733-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/3/17733/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Crockett. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: solid black 1px;} + .tocch { text-align: center; vertical-align: top;} + .tocpg {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } +.img1{border-style:solid; border-color:#030303; border-width:thin; } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i7 {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i13 {display: block; margin-left: 13em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i14 {display: block; margin-left: 14em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i15 {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i16 {display: block; margin-left: 16em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i27 {display: block; margin-left: 27em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i35 {display: block; margin-left: 35em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Douglas, by S. R. Crockett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Black Douglas + +Author: S. R. Crockett + +Illustrator: Frank Richards + +Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17733] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK DOUGLAS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_01.jpg" alt="Cover" width="400" height="574" /></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_02.jpg" width="400" height="610" alt=""And at the last he ... sailed over the seas to his own land."--Frontispiece" title=""And at the last he ... sailed over the seas to his own land."--Frontispiece" /> +<span class="caption">"And at the last he ... sailed over the seas to his own land."— Frontispiece</span> +</div> +<p> </p> +<h1>The Black Douglas</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h3>By</h3> +<h2>S.R. Crockett</h2> + +<h4>Author of "The Raiders," "The Stickit Minister," etc.</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;"> +<img src="images/image_10.jpg" width="150" height="190" alt="Seal" /> + +</div> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>New York<br /> +Doubleday & McClure Co.<br /> +1899</h3> + + + + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1899,</p> + +<p class="center">By S.R. CROCKETT.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td> </td><td class="tocpg">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr> + <td> </td> + <td class="tocpg"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_I">The Black Douglas rides Home.</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">My Fair Lady</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Two riding together</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">The Rose-red Pavilion</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">The Witch Woman</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">The Prisoning of Malise the Smith</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">The Douglas Muster</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">The Crossing of the Ford</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Laurence sings a Hymn</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">The Braes of Balmaghie</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">The Ambassador of France</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Mistress Maud Lindesay</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">A Daunting Summons</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Captain of the Earl's Guard</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">The Night Alarm</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Sholto captures a Prisoner of Distinction</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">The Lamp is blown out</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">The Morning Light</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">La Joyeuse baits her Hook</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Andro the Penman gives an Account of his Stewardship.</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">The Bailies of Dumfries</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">Wager of Battle</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">Sholto wins Knighthood</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">The Second Flouting of Maud Lindesay</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">The Dogs and the Wolf hold Council</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">The Lion Tamer</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">The Young Lords ride away</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">On the Castle Roof</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">Castle Crichton</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">The Bower by yon Burnside</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">The Gaberlunzie Man</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">"Edinburgh Castle, Tower, and Town"</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">The Black Bull's Head</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">Betrayed with a Kiss</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">The Lion at Bay</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">The Rising of the Douglases</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">A Strange Meeting</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">The MacKims come to Thrieve</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">The Gift of the Countess.</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">The Mission of James the Gross</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">The Withered Garland</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">CHAPTER XLII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">Astarte the She-wolf</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">CHAPTER XLIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">Malise fetches a Clout</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">CHAPTER XLIV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">Laurence takes New Service</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_322">322</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">CHAPTER XLV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">The Boasting of Gilles de Sillé</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">CHAPTER XLVI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">The Country of the Dread</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">CHAPTER XLVII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">Cæsar Martin's Wife</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_344">344</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">CHAPTER XLVIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">The Mercy of La Meffraye</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_352">352</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX">CHAPTER XLIX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX">The Battle with the Were-wolves</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_358">358</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_L">CHAPTER L</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_L">The Altar of Iron</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_368">368</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LI">CHAPTER LI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LI">The Marshal's Chamber</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LII">CHAPTER LII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LII">The Jesting of La Meffraye</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_385">385</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LIII">CHAPTER LIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LIII">Sybilla's Vengeance</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_394">394</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LIV">CHAPTER LIV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LIV">The Cross under the Apron</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_405">405</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LV">CHAPTER LV</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LV">The Red Milk</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_414">414</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LVI">CHAPTER LVI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LVI">The Shadow behind the Throne</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_424">424</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LVII">CHAPTER LVII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LVII">The Tower of Death</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_433">433</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LVIII">CHAPTER LVIII</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LVIII">The White Tower of Machecoul</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_441">441</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LIX">CHAPTER LIX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LIX">The Last Sacrifice to Barran-Sathanas</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_449">449</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LX">CHAPTER LX</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_LX">His Demon hath deserted him</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_461">461</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tocch"><a href="#CHAPTER_LXI">CHAPTER LXI</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td ><a href="#CHAPTER_LXI">Leap Year in Galloway</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_471">471</a></td></tr> + +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>THE BLACK DOUGLAS</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE BLACK DOUGLAS RIDES HOME</h3> + + +<p>Merry fell the eve of Whitsunday of the year 1439, in the fairest and +heartsomest spot in all the Scottish southland. The twined May-pole +had not yet been taken down from the house of Brawny Kim, master +armourer and foster father to William, sixth Earl of Douglas and Lord +of Galloway.</p> + +<p>Malise Kim, who by the common voice was well named "The Brawny," sat +in his wicker chair before his door, overlooking the island-studded, +fairy-like loch of Carlinwark. In the smithy across the green +bare-trodden road, two of his elder sons were still hammering at some +armour of choice. But it was a ploy of their own, which they desired +to finish that they might go trig and point-device to the Earl's +weapon-showing to-morrow on the braes of Balmaghie. Sholto and +Laurence were the names of the two who clanged the ringing steel and +blew the smooth-handled bellows of tough tanned hide, that wheezed and +puffed as the fire roared up deep and red before sinking to the right +welding-heat in a little flame round the buckle-tache of the girdle +brace they were working on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> + +<p>And as they hammered they talked together in alternate snatches and +silences?—Sholto, the elder, meanwhile keeping an eye on his father. +For their converse was not meant to reach the ear of the grave, strong +man who sat so still in the wicker chair with the afternoon sun +shining in his face.</p> + +<p>"Hark ye, Laurence," said Sholto, returning from a visit to the door +of the smithy, the upper part of which was open. "No longer will I be +a hammerer of iron and a blower of fires for my father. I am going to +be a soldier of fortune, and so I will tell him—"</p> + +<p>"When wilt thou tell him?" laughed his brother, tauntingly. "I wager +my purple velvet doublet slashed with gold which I bought with mine +own money last Rood Fair that you will not go across and tell him now. +Will you take the dare?"</p> + +<p>"The purple velvet—you mean it?" said Sholto, eagerly. "Mind, if you +refuse, and will not give it up after promising, I will nick that +lying throat of yours with my gullie knife!"</p> + +<p>And with that Sholto threw down his pincers and hammer, and valorously +pushed open the lower door of the smithy. He looked with bold, dark +blue eye at his father, and strode slowly across the grimy door-step. +Brawny Kim had not moved for an hour. His great hands lay in his lap, +and his eyes looked at the purple ridges of Screel, across the +beautiful loch of Carlinwark, which sparkled and dimpled restlessly +among its isles like a wilful beauty bridling under the gaze of a +score of gallants.</p> + +<p>But, even as he went, Sholto's step slowed, and lost its braggart +strut and confidence. Behind him Laurence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> chuckled and laughed, +smiting his thigh in his mocking glee.</p> + +<p>"The purple velvet, mind you, Sholto! How well it will become you, +coft from Rob Halliburton, our mother's own brother, seamed with red +gold and lined with yellow satin and cramosie. Well indeed will it set +you when Maud Lindesay, the maid who came from the north for company +to the Earl's sister, looks forth from the canopy upon you as you +stand in the archers' rank on the morrow's morn."</p> + +<p>Sholto squared his shoulders, and with a little backward hitch of his +elbow which meant "Wait till I come back, and I will pay you for this +flouting," he strode determinedly across the green space towards his +father.</p> + +<p>The master armourer of Earl Douglas did not lift his eyes till his son +had half crossed the road. Then, even as if a rank of spearmen at the +word of command had lifted their glittering points to the "ready," +Sholto MacKim stopped dead where he was, with a sort of gasp in his +throat, like one who finds his defenceless body breast high against +the line of hostile steel.</p> + +<p>"The purple velvet!" came the cautious whisper from behind. But the +taunt was powerless now.</p> + +<p>The smith held his son a moment with his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well?" came in the deep low voice, more like the lowest tones of an +organ than the speech of a man.</p> + +<p>Sholto stood fixed, then half turning on his heel he began to walk +towards the corner of the dwelling-house, over which a gay streamer of +the early creeping convolvulus danced and swung in the stirring of the +light breeze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You wish speech with me?" said his father, in the same level and +thrilling undertone.</p> + +<p>"No," said Sholto, hesitant in spite of himself, "but I thought—that +is I desired—saw you my sister Magdalen pass this way? I have +somewhat to give her."</p> + +<p>"Ah, so," said Brawny Kim, without moving, "a steel breastplate, +belike. Thou hast the brace-buckle in thy hand. Doth the little +Magdalen go with you to the weapon-show to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"No, father," said Sholto, stammering, "but I was uneasy for the +child. It is full an hour since I heard her voice."</p> + +<p>"Then," said his father, "finish your work, put out the fire, and go +seek your sister."</p> + +<p>Sholto brought his hands together and made the little inclination of +the head which was a sign of filial respect. Then, solemn as if he had +been in his place in the ordered line of the Earl's first levy of +archer men, he turned him about and went back to the smithy.</p> + +<p>Laurence lay all abroad on the heap of charcoal of which the +armourer's welding fire was made. He was fairly expiring with +laughter, and when his brother angrily kicked him in the ribs, he only +waggled an ineffectual hand and feebly crowed in his throat like a +cock, in his efforts to stifle the sounds of mirth.</p> + +<p>"Get up, fool," hissed his angry brother; "help me with this accursed +hammer-striking, or I will make an end of such a giggling lout as you. +Here, hold up."</p> + +<p>And seizing his younger brother by the collar of his blue working +blouse, he dragged him upon his feet.</p> + +<p>"Now, by the saints," said Sholto, "if you cast your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> gibes upon me, +by Saint Andrew I will break every bone in your idiot's body."</p> + +<p>"The purple velvet—oh, the purple velvet!" gasped Laurence, as soon +as he could recover speech, "and the eyes of Maud Lindesay!"</p> + +<p>"That will teach you to think rather of the eyes of Laurence MacKim!" +cried Sholto, and without more ado he hit his brother with his +clinched knuckles a fair blow on the bridge of his nose.</p> + +<p>The next moment the two youths were grappling together like wild cats, +striking, kicking, and biting with no thought except of who should +have the best of the battle. They rolled on the floor, now tussling +among the crackling faggots, anon pitching soft as one body on the +peat dust in the corner, again knocking over a bench and bringing down +the tools thereon to the floor with a jingle which might have been +heard far out on the loch. They were still clawing and cuffing each +other in blind rage, when a hand, heavy and remorseless, was laid upon +each. Sholto found himself being dabbled in the great tempering +cauldron which stood by his father's forge. Laurence heard his own +teeth rattle as he was shaken sideways till his joints waggled like +those of a puppet at Keltonhill Fair. Then it was his turn to be +doused in the water. Next their heads were soundly knocked together, +and finally, like a pair of arrows sent right and left, Laurence sped +forth at the window in the gable end and found himself in the midst of +a gooseberry bush, whilst Sholto, flying out of the door, fell +sprawling on all fours almost under the feet of a horse on which a +young man sat, smilingly watching the scene.</p> + +<p>Brawny Kim scattered the embers of the fire on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> forge-hearth, and +threw the breastplate and girdle-brace at which the boys had been +working into a corner of the smithy. Then he turned to lock the door +with the massive key, which stood so far out from the upper leaf that +to it the horses waiting their turns to be shod were ordinarily +tethered.</p> + +<p>As he did so he caught sight of the young man sitting silent on the +black charger. Instantly a change passed over his face. With one +motion of his hand he swept the broad blue bonnet from his brow, and +bowed the grizzled head which had worn it low upon his breast. Thus +for the breathing of a breath the master armourer stood, and then, +replacing his bonnet, he looked up again at the young knight on +horseback.</p> + +<p>"My lord," he said, after a long pause, in which he waited for the +youth to speak, "this is not well—you ride unattended and unarmed."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Malise," laughed the young Earl, "a Douglas has few privileges if +he may not sometimes on a summer eve lay aside his heavy prisonment of +armour and don such a suit as this! What think you, eh? Is it not a +valiant apparel, as might almost beseem one who rode a-courting?"</p> + +<p>The mighty master-smith looked at the young man with eyes in which +reverence, rebuke, and admiration strove together.</p> + +<p>"But," he said, wagging his head with a grave humorousness, "your +lordship needs not to ride a-courting. You are to be married to a +great dame who will bring you wealth, alliance, and the dower of +provinces."</p> + +<p>The young man shrugged his shoulders, and swung<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> lightly off his +charger, which turned to look at him as he stood and patted its neck.</p> + +<p>"Know you not, Malise," he said, "that the Earl of Douglas must needs +marry provinces and the Lord of Galloway wed riches? But what is there +in that to prevent Will Douglas going courting at eighteen years of +his age as a young man ought. But have no fear, I come not hither +seeking the favour of any, save of that lily flower of yours, the only +true May-blossom that blooms on the Three Thorns of Carlinwark. I +would look upon the angel smile on the face of your little daughter +Magdalen. An she be here, I would toss her arm-high for a kiss of her +mouth, which I would rather touch than that of lady or leman. For I do +ever profess myself her vassal and slave. Where have you hidden her, +Malise? Declare it or perish!"</p> + +<p>The smith lifted up his voice till it struck on the walls of his +cottage and echoed like thunder along the shores of the lake.</p> + +<p>"Dame Barbara," he cried, and again, getting no answer, "ho, Dame +Barbara, I say!"</p> + +<p>Then at the second hallo, a shrill and somewhat peevish voice +proceeded from within the house opposite.</p> + +<p>"Aye, coming, can you not hear, great nolt! 'Deed and 'deed 'tis a +pretty pass when a woman with the cares of an household must come +running light-toe and clatter-heel to every call of such a lazy lout. +Husband, indeed—not house-band but house-bond, I wot—house-torment, +house-thorn, house-cross—"</p> + +<p>A sonsy, well-favoured, middle-aged head, strangely at variance with +the words which came from it, peeped out, and instantly the scolding +brattle was stilled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> Back went the head into the dark of the house as +if shot from a bombard.</p> + +<p>Malise MacKim indulged in a low hoarse chuckle as he caught the words: +"Eh, 'tis my Lord William! Save us, and me wanting my Ryssil gown that +cost me ten silver shillings the ell, and no even so muckle as my +white peaked cap upon my head."</p> + +<p>Her husband glanced at the young Earl to see if he appreciated the +savour of the jest. Then he looked away, turning the enjoyment over +and over under his own tongue, and muttering: "Ah, well, 'tis not his +fault. No man hath a sense of humour before he is forty years of his +age—and, for that matter, 'tis all the riper at fifty."</p> + +<p>The young man's eyes were looking this way and that, up and down the +smooth pathway which skirted like a green selvage the shores of the +loch.</p> + +<p>"Malise," he said, as if he had already forgotten his late eager quest +for the little Magdalen, "Darnaway here has a shoe loose, and +to-morrow I ride to levy, and may also joust a bout in the tilt-yard +of the afternoon. I would not ask you to work in Whitsuntide, but that +there cometh my Lord Fleming and Alan Lauder of the Bass, bringing +with them an embassy from France—and I hear there may be fair ladies +in their company."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" quoth Malise, grimly, "so I have heard it said concerning the +embassies of Charles, King of France!"</p> + +<p>But the young man only smiled, and dusted off one or two flecks of +foam which had blown backwards from his horse's bit upon the rich +crimson doublet of finest velvet, which, cinctured closely at the +waist, fell half-way to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> knees in heavy double pleats sewn with +gold. A hunting horn of black and gold was suspended about his neck by +a bandolier of dark leather, subtiley embroidered with bosses of gold. +Laced boots of soft black hide, drawn together on the outside from +ankle to mid-calf with a golden cord, met the scarlet "chausses" which +covered his thighs and outlined the figure of him who was the noblest +youth and the most gallant in all the realm of Scotland.</p> + +<p>Earl William wore no sword. Only a little gold-handled poignard with a +lady's finger ring set upon the point of the hilt was at his side, and +he stood resting easily his hand upon it as he talked, drawing it an +inch from its sheath and snicking it back again nonchalantly, with a +sound like the clicking of a well-oiled lock.</p> + +<p>"Clink the strokes strongly and featly, Malise, for to-morrow, when the +Black Douglas rides upon Black Darnaway under the eyes of—well—of +the ladies whom the ambassadors are bringing to greet me, there must +be no stumbling and no mistakes. Or on the head of Malise MacKim the +matter shall be, and let that wight remember that the Douglas does not +keep a dule tree up there by the Gallows Slock for nothing."</p> + +<p>The mighty smith was by this time examining the hoofs of the Earl's +charger one by one with such instinctive delicacy of touch that +Darnaway felt the kindly intent, and, bending his neck about, blew and +snuffled into the armourer's tangled mat of crisp grey hair.</p> + +<p>"Up there!" exclaimed MacKim, as the warm breath tickled his neck, and +at the burst of sound the steed shifted and clattered upon the +hard-beaten floor of the smithy, tossing his head till the bridle +chains rang again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Eh, my Lord William," an altered voice came from the door-step, where +Dame Barbara MacKim, now clothed and in her right mind, stood louting +low before the young Earl, "but this is a blythe and calamitatious day +for this poor bit bigging o' the Carlinwark—to think that your honour +should visit his servants! Will you no come ben and sit doon in the +house-place? 'Tis far from fitting for your feet to pass thereupon. +But gin ye will so highly favour—"</p> + +<p>"Nay, I thank you, good Dame Barbara," said the Earl, very courteously +taking off the close-fitting black cap with the red feather in it +which was upon his head. "I must bide but a moment for your husband to +set right certain nails in the hoofs of Darnaway here, to ready me for +the morrow. Do you come to see the sport? So buxom a dame as the +mistress of Carlinwark should not be absent to encourage the lads to +do their best at the sword-play and the rivalry of the butts."</p> + +<p>And as the dame came forth courtesying and bowing her delighted +thanks, Earl William, setting a forefinger under her triple chin, +stooped and kissed her in his gayest and most debonair manner.</p> + +<p>"Eh, only to think on't," cried the dame, clapping her hands together +as she did at mass, "that I, Barbara MacKim, that am marriet to a +donnert auld carle like Malise there, should hae the privileege o' a +salute frae the bonny mou' o' Yerl William—(Thank ye kindly, my +lord!)—and be inveeted to the weepen-shawing to sit amang the leddies +and view the sport. Malise, my man, caa' ye no that an honour, a +privileege? Is that no owing to me being the sister—on my faither's +side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>—o' Ninian Halliburton, merchant and indweller in Dumfries?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay, good dame," laughed the Earl, "'tis all for the sake of +your own very sufficient charms! I trust that your good man here is +not jealous, for beauty, you well do ken, ever sends the wits of a +Douglas woolgathering. Nevertheless, let us have a draught of your +home-brewed ale, for kissing is but dry work, after all, and little do +I think of it save" (he set his cap on his head with a gallant wave of +his hand) "in the case of a lady so fair and tempting as Dame Barbara +MacKim!"</p> + +<p>At this the dame cast up her hands and her eyes again. "Eh, what will +Marget Ahanny o' the Shankfit say noo—this frae the Yerl William. Eh, +sirce, this is better than an Abbot's absolution. I declare 'tis mair +sustainin' than a' the consolations o' religion. Malise, do you hear, +great dour cuif that ye are, what says my lord? And you to think so +little of your married wife as ye do! Think shame, you being what ye +are, and me the ain sister to that master o' merchandise and Bailie o' +Dumfries, Maister Ninian Halliburton o' the Vennel!"</p> + +<p>And with that she vanished into the black oblong of the door opposite +the smithy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>MY FAIR LADY</h3> + + +<p>The strong man of Carlinwark made no long job of the horseshoeing. +For, as he hammered and filed, he marked the eye of the young Earl +restlessly straying this way and that along the green riverside paths, +and his fingers nervously tapping the ashen casing of the smithy +window-sill. Malise MacKim smiled to himself, for he had not served a +Douglas for thirty years without knowing by these signs that there was +the swing of a kirtle in the case somewhere.</p> + +<p>Presently the last nail was made firm, and Black Darnaway was led, +passaging and tossing his bridle reins, out upon the green sward. +Malise stood at his head till the Douglas swung himself into the +saddle with a motion light as the first upward flight of a bird.</p> + +<p>He put his hand into a pocket in the lining of his "soubreveste" and +took out a golden "Lion" of the King's recent mintage. He spun it in +the air off his thumb and then looked at it somewhat contemptuously as +he caught it.</p> + +<p>"I think you and I, Master-Armourer, could send out a better coinage +than that with the old Groat press over there at Thrieve!" he said.</p> + +<p>Malise smiled his quiet smile.</p> + +<p>"If the Earl of Douglas deigns to make me the master<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> of his mint, I +promise him plenty of good, sound, broad pieces of a noble +design—that is, till Chancellor Crichton hangs me for coining in the +Grassmarket of Edinburgh."</p> + +<p>"That would he never, with the Douglas lances to prick you a way out +and the Douglas gold to buy the good-will of traitorous judges!"</p> + +<p>Half unconsciously the Earl sighed as he looked at the fair lake +growing rosy in the light of the sunset. His boyish face was +overspread with care, and for the moment seemed all too young to have +inherited so great a burden. But the next moment he was himself again.</p> + +<p>"I know, Malise," he said, "that I cannot offer you gold in return for +your admirable handicraft. But 'tis nigh to Keltonhill Fair, do you +divide this gold Lion betwixt those two brave boys of yours. Faith, +right glad was I to be Earl of Douglas and not a son of his master +armourer when I saw you disciplining for their souls' good Messires +Sholto and Laurence there!"</p> + +<p>The smith smiled grimly.</p> + +<p>"They are good enough lads, Sholto and Laurence both, but they will be +for ever gnarring and grappling at each other like messan dogs round a +kirk door."</p> + +<p>"They will not make the worse soldiers for that, Malise. I pray you +forgive them for my sake."</p> + +<p>The master armourer took the hand of his young lord on which he was +about to draw a riding glove of Spanish leather. Very reverently he +kissed the signet ring upon it.</p> + +<p>"My dear lord," he said, "I can refuse naught to any of your great and +gracious house, and least of all to you,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> the light and pleasure of +it—aye, and the light of a surly old man's heart, more even than the +duty he owes to his own married wife! Oh, be careful, my lord, for you +are the desire of many hearts and the hope of all this land."</p> + +<p>He hesitated a moment, and then added with a kind of curious +bashfulness—</p> + +<p>"But I am concerned about ye this nicht, William Douglas—I fear that +ye could not—would not permit me—"</p> + +<p>"Could not permit what—out with it, old grumble-pate?"</p> + +<p>"That I should saddle my Flanders mare and ride after you. Malise +MacKim would not be in the way even if ye went a-trysting. He kens +brawly, in such a case, when to turn his head and look upon the hills +and the woods and the bonny sleeping waters."</p> + +<p>The Earl laughed and shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Na, na, Malise," he said, "were I indeed on such a quest the sight of +your grey pow would fright a fair lady, and the mere trampling of that +club-footed she-elephant of yours put to flight every sentiment of +love. Remember the Douglas badge is a naked heart. Can I ride +a-courting, therefore, with all my fighting tail behind me as though I +besought an alliance with the King of England's daughter?"</p> + +<p>Silently and sadly the strong man watched the young Earl ride away to +the south along that fair lochside. He stood muttering to himself and +looking long under his hand after his lord. The rider bowed his head +as he passed under the rich blazonry of the white May-blossom, which, +like creamy lace, covered the Three Thorns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> of Carlinwark, now deeply +stained with rose colour from the clouds of sunset.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_03.jpg" width="400" height="740" alt="William of Douglas reined up Darnaway underneath the whispering foliage of a great beech." title="William of Douglas reined up Darnaway underneath the whispering foliage of a great beech." /> +<span class="caption">William of Douglas reined up Darnaway underneath the whispering foliage of a great beech.</span> +</div> + + + +<p>"Aye, aye," he said, "the Douglas badge is indeed a heart—but it is a +bleeding heart. God avert the omen, and keep this young man safe—for +though many love him, there be more that would rejoice at his fall."</p> + +<p>The rider on Black Darnaway rode right into the saffron eye of the +sunset. On his left hand Carlinwark and its many islets burned rich +with spring-green foliage, all splashed with the golden sunset light. +Darnaway's well-shod hoofs sent the diamond drops flying, as, with +obvious pleasure, he trampled through the shallows. Ben Gairn and +Screel, boldly ridged against the southern horizon, stood out in dark +amethyst against the glowing sky of even, but the young rider never so +much as turned his head to look at them.</p> + +<p>Presently, however, he emerged from among the noble lakeside trees +upon a more open space. Broom and whin blossom clustered yellow and +orange beneath him, garrisoning with their green spears and golden +banners every knoll and scaur. But there were broad spaces of turf +here and there on which the conies fed, or fought terrible battles for +the meek ear-twitching does, "spat-spatting" at each other with their +fore paws and springing into the air in their mating fury.</p> + +<p>William of Douglas reined up Darnaway underneath the whispering +foliage of a great beech, for all at unawares he had come upon a sight +that interested him more than the noble prospect of the May sunset.</p> + +<p>In the centre of the golden glade, and with all their faces mistily +glorified by the evening light, he saw a group of little girls, +singing and dancing as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> performed some quaint and graceful +pageant of childhood.</p> + +<p>Their young voices came up to him with a wistful, dying fall, and the +slow, graceful movement of the rhythmic dance seemed to affect the +young man strangely. Involuntarily he lifted his close-fitting +feathered cap from his head, and allowed the cool airs to blow against +his brow.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"See the robbers passing by, passing by, passing by,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i5"><i>See the robbers passing by,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i13"><i>My fair lady!"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>The ancient words came up clearly and distinctly to him, and softened +his heart with the indefinable and exquisite pathos of the refrain +whenever it is sung by the sweet voices of children.</p> + +<p>"These are surely but cottars' bairns," he said, smiling a little at +his own intensity of feeling, "but they sing like little angels. I +daresay my sweetheart Magdalen is amongst them."</p> + +<p>And he sat still listening, patting Black Darnaway meanwhile on the +neck.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"What did the robbers do to you, do to you, do to you,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i5"><i>What did the robbers do to you,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i14"><i>My fair lady?"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>The first two lines rang out bold and clear. Then again the +wistfulness of the refrain played upon his heart as if it had been an +instrument of strings, till the tears came into his eyes at the +wondrous sorrow and yearning with which one voice, the sweetest and +purest of all, replied, singing quite alone:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"They broke my lock and stole my gold, stole my gold, stole my gold,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i7"><i>Broke my lock and stole my gold,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i16"><i>My fair lady!"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>The tears brimmed over in the eyes of William Douglas, and a deep +foreboding of the mysteries of fate fell upon his heart and abode +there heavy as doom.</p> + +<p>He turned his head as though he felt a presence near him, and lo! +sudden and silent as the appearing of a phantom, another horse was +alongside of Black Darnaway, and upon a white palfrey a maiden dressed +also in white sat, smiling upon the young man, fair to look upon as an +angel from heaven.</p> + +<p>Earl William's lips parted, but he was too surprised to speak. +Nevertheless, he moved his hand to his head in instinctive salutation; +but, finding his bonnet already off, he could only stare at the vision +which had so suddenly sprung out of the ground.</p> + +<p>The lady slowly waved her hand in the direction of the children, whose +young voices still rang clear as cloister bells tolling out the +Angelus, and whose white dresses waved in the light wind as they +danced back and forth with a slow and graceful motion.</p> + +<p>"You hear, Earl William," she said, in a low, thrilling voice, +speaking with a foreign accent, "you hear? You are a good Christian, +doubtless, and you have heard from your uncle, the Abbot, how praise +is made perfect 'out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.' Hark to +them; they sing of their own destinies—and it may be also of yours +and mine."</p> + +<p>And so fascinated and moved at heart at once by her beauty and by her +strange words, the Douglas listened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"What did the robbers do to you, do to you, do to you,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i5"><i>What did the robbers do to you,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i14"><i>My fair lady?"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>The lady on the delicately pacing palfrey turned the darkness of her +eyes from the white-robed choristers to the face of the young man. +Then, with an impetuous motion of her hand, she urged him to listen +for the next words, which swept over Earl William's heart with a +cadence of unutterable pain and inexplicable melancholy.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"They broke my lock and stole my gold, stole my gold, stole my gold,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i7"><i>Broke my lock and stole my gold,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i16"><i>My fair lady!"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>He turned upon his companion with a quick energy, as if he were afraid +of losing himself again.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, lady, and what do you here?"</p> + +<p>The girl (for in years she was little more) smiled and reined her +steed a little back from him with an air at once prettily petulant and +teasing.</p> + +<p>"Is that spoken as William Douglas or as the Justicer of Galloway—a +country where, as I understand, there is no trial by jury?"</p> + +<p>The light of a radiant smile passed from her lips into his soul.</p> + +<p>"It is spoken as a man speaks to a woman beautiful and queenly," he +said, not removing his eyes from her face.</p> + +<p>"I fear I may have startled you," she said, without continuing the +subject. "Even as I came I saw you were wrapped in meditation, and my +palfrey going lightly made no sound on the grass and leaves."</p> + +<p>Her voice was so sweet and low that William Doug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>las, listening to it, +wished that she would speak on for ever.</p> + +<p>"The hour grows late," he said, remembering himself. "You must have +far to ride. Let me be your escort homewards if you have none worthier +than I."</p> + +<p>"Alas," she answered, smiling yet more subtly, "I have no home near +by. My home is very far and over many turbulent seas. I have but a +maiden's pavilion in which to rest my head. Yet since I and my company +must needs travel through your domains, Earl William, I trust you will +not be so cruel as to forbid us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes,"—he was smiling now in turn, and catching somewhat of the gay +spirit of the lady,—"as overlord of all this province I do forbid you +to pass through these lands of Galloway without first visiting me in +my house of Thrieve!"</p> + +<p>The lady clapped her hands and laughed, letting her palfrey pace +onwards through the woodland glades bridle free, while Black Darnaway, +compelled by his master's hand, followed, tossing his head indignantly +because it had been turned from the direction of his nightly stable on +the Castle Isle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>TWO RIDING TOGETHER</h3> + + +<p>"Joyous," she cried, as they went, "Oh, most joyous would it be to see +the noble castle and to have all the famous two thousand knights to +make love to me at once! To capture two thousand hearts at one sweep +of the net! What would Margaret of France herself say to that?"</p> + +<p>"Is there no single heart sufficient to satisfy you, fair maid?" said +the young man, in a low voice; "none loyal enough nor large enough for +you that you desire so many?"</p> + +<p>"And what would I do with one if it were in my hands," she said +wistfully; "that is, if it were a worthy heart and one worth the +taking. Ever since I was a child I have always broken my toys when I +tired of them."</p> + +<p>The voices of the singing children on the green came more faintly to +their ears, but the words were still clear to be understood.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Off to prison you must go, you must go, you must go,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i5"><i>Off to prison you must go,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i12"><i>My fair lady!"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>"You hear? It is my fate!" she said.</p> + +<p>"Nay," answered the Earl, passionately, still looking in her eyes. +"Mine, mine—not yours! Gladly I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> would go to prison or to death for +the love of one so fair!"</p> + +<p>"My lord, my lord," she laughed, with a tolerant protest in her voice, +"you keep up the credit of your house right nobly. How goes the +distich? My mother taught it me upon the bridge of Avignon, where also +as here in Scotland the children dance and sing."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><b>"First in the love of Woman,</b><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><b>First in the field of fight,</b><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><b> First in the death that men must die,</b><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><b> Such is the Douglas' right!"</b><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Here and now," he said, still looking at her, "'tis only the first I +crave."</p> + +<p>"Earl William, positively you must come to Court!" she shrilled into +sudden tinkling laughter; "there be ladies there more worthy of your +ardour than a poor errant maiden such as I."</p> + +<p>"A Court," cried Earl William, scornfully, "to the Seneschal's court! +Nay, truly. Could a Stewart ever keep his faith or pay his debts? +Never, since the first of them licked his way into a lady's favour."</p> + +<p>"Oh," she answered lightly, "I meant not the Court of Stirling nor yet +the Chancellor's Castle of Edinburgh. I meant the only great +Court—the Court of France, the Court of Charles the Seventh, the +Court which already owns the sway of its rarest ornament, your own +Scottish Princess Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Thither I cannot go unless the King of France grants me my father's +rights and estates!" he said, with a certain sternness in his tone.</p> + +<p>"Let me look at your hand," she answered, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> gentle inclination +of her fair head, from which the lace that had shrouded it now +streamed back in the cool wind of evening.</p> + +<p>Stopping Darnaway, the young Earl gave the girl his hand, and the +white palfrey came to rest close beneath the shoulder of the black war +charger.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," she said, looking at his palm, "to-morrow you will be +Duke of Touraine. I promise it to you by my power of divination. Does +that satisfy you?"</p> + +<p>"I fear you are a witch, or else a being compound of rarer elements +than mere flesh and blood," said the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Is that a spirit's hand," she said, laughing lightly and giving her +own rosy fingers into his, "or could even the Justicer of Galloway +find it in his heart to burn these as part of the body of a witch?"</p> + +<p>She shuddered and pretended to gaze piteously up at him from under the +long lashes which hardly raised themselves from her cheek.</p> + +<p>"Spirit-slender, spirit-white they are," he replied, "and as for being +the fingers of a witch—doubtless you are a witch indeed. But I will +not burn so fair things as these, save as it might be with the +fervours of my lips."</p> + +<p>And he stooped and pressed kiss after kiss upon her hand.</p> + +<p>Gently she withdrew her fingers from his grasp and rode further apart, +yet not without one backward glance of perfectest witchery.</p> + +<p>"I doubt you have been overmuch at Court already," she said. "I did +not well to ask you to go thither."</p> + +<p>"Why must I not go thither?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Because I shall be there," she replied softly, courting him yet again +with her eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + +<p>As they rode on together through the rich twilight dusk, the young man +observed her narrowly as often as he could.</p> + +<p>Her skin was fair with a dazzling clearness, which even the gathering +gloom only caused to shine with a more perfect brilliance, as if a +halo of light dwelt permanently beneath its surface. Faint responsive +roses bloomed on either cheek and, as it seemed, cast a shadow of +their colour down her graceful neck. Dark eyes shone above, fresh and +dewy with love and youth, and smiled out with all ancientest +witcheries and allurements in their depths. Her lithe, slender body +was simply clad in a fair white cloth of some foreign fabric, and her +waist, of perfectest symmetry, was cinctured by a broad ring of solid +silver, which, to the young man, looked so slender that he could have +clasped it about with both his hands.</p> + +<p>So they rode on, through the woods mostly, until they reached a region +which to the Earl appeared unfamiliar. The glades were greener and +denser. The trees seemed more primeval, the foliage thicker overhead, +the interspaces of the golden evening sky darker and less frequent.</p> + +<p>"In what place may your company be assembled?" he asked. "Strange it +is that I know not this spot. Yet I should recognise each tree by +conning it, and of every rivulet in Galloway I should be able to tell +the name. Yet with shame do I confess that I know not where I am."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the girl, her face growing luminous through the gloom, "you +called me a witch, and now you shall see. I wave my hands, so—and you +are no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> more in Galloway. You are in the land of faëry. I blow you a +kiss, so—and lo! you are no more William, sixth Earl of Douglas and +proximate Duke of Touraine, but you are even as True Thomas, the +Beloved of the Queen of the Fairies, and the slave of her spell!"</p> + +<p>"I am indeed well content to be Thomas Rhymer," he answered, +submitting himself to the wooing glamour of her eyes, "so be that you +are the Lady of the milk-white hind!"</p> + +<p>"A courtier indeed," she laughed; "you need not to seek your answer. +You make a poor girl afraid. But see, yonder are the lights of my +pavilion. Will it please you to alight and enter? The supper will be +spread, and though you must not expect any to entertain you, save only +this your poor Queen Mab" (here she made him a little bow), "yet I +think you will not be ill content. They do not say that Thomas of +Ercildoune had any cause for complaint. Do you know," she continued, a +fresh gaiety striking into her voice, "it was in this very wood that +he was lost."</p> + +<p>But William Douglas sat silent with the wonder of what he saw. Their +horses had all at once come out on a hilltop. The sequestered boskage +of the trees had gradually thinned, finally dwarfing into a green +drift of fern and birchen foliage which rose no higher than Black +Darnaway's chest, and through which his rider's laced boots brushed +till the Spanish leather of their gold-embossed frontlets was all +jetted with gouts of dew.</p> + +<p>Before him swept horizonwards a great upward drift of solemn pine +trees, the like of which for size he had never seen in all his domain. +Or so, at least, it seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> in that hour of mystery and glamour. For +behind them the evening sky had dulled to a deep and solemn wash of +blood red, across which lay one lonely bar of black cloud, solid as +spilled ink on a monkish page. But under the trees themselves, blazing +with lamps and breathing odours of all grace and daintiness, stood a +lighted pavilion of rose-coloured silk, anchored to the ground with +ropes of sendal of the richest crimson hue.</p> + +<p>"Let your horse go free, or tether him to a pine; in either case he +will not wander far," said the girl. "I fear my fellows have gone off +to lay in provisions. We have taken a day or two more on the way than +we had counted on, so that to-night's feast makes an end of our store. +But still there is enough for two. I bid you welcome, Earl William, to +a wanderer's tent. There is much that I would say to you."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE ROSE-RED PAVILION</h3> + + +<p>As the young Earl paused a moment without to tether Black Darnaway to +a fallen trunk of a pine, a chill and melancholy wind seemed to rise +suddenly and toss the branches dark against the sky. Then it flew off +moaning like a lost spirit, till he could hear the sound of its +passage far down the valley. An owl hooted and a swart raven +disengaged himself from the coppice about the door of the pavilion, +and fluttered away with a croak of disdainful anger. Black Darnaway +turned his head and whinnied anxiously after his master.</p> + +<p>But William Douglas, though little more than a boy if men's ages are +to be counted by years, was yet a true child of Archibald the Grim, +and he passed through the mysterious encampment to the door of the +lighted pavilion with a carriage at once firm and assured. He could +faintly discern other tents and pavilions set further off, with +pennons and bannerets, which the passing gust had blown flapping from +the poles, but which now hung slackly about their staves.</p> + +<p>"I would give a hundred golden St. Andrews," he muttered, "if I could +make out the scutcheon. It looks most like a black dragon couchant on +a red field, which is not a Scottish bearing. The lady is French, +doubtless, and passes through from Ireland to visit the Chancellor's +Court at Edinburgh."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Black Douglas paused a moment at the tent-flap, which, being of +silken fabric lined with heavier material, hung straight and heavy to +the ground.</p> + +<p>"Come in, my lord," cried the low and thrilling voice of his companion +from within. "With both hands I bid you welcome to my poor abode. A +traveller must not be particular, and I have only those condiments +with me which my men have brought from shipboard, knowing how poor was +the provision of your land. See, do you not already repent your +promise to sup with me?"</p> + +<p>She pointed to the table on which sparkled cut glass of Venice and +rich wreathed ware of goldsmiths' work. On these were set out oranges +and rare fruits of the Orient, such as the young man had never seen in +his own bleak and barren land.</p> + +<p>But the Douglas did no more than glance at the luxury of the +providing. A vision fairer and more beautiful claimed his eyes. For +even as he paused in amazement, the lady herself stood before him, +transformed and, as it seemed, glorified. In the interval she had +taken off the cloak which, while on horseback, she had worn falling +from her shoulders. A thin robe of white silk broidered with gold at +once clothed and revealed her graceful and gracious figure, even as a +glove covers but does not conceal the hand upon which it is drawn. +Whether by intent or accident, the collar had been permitted to fall +aside at the neck and showed the dazzling whiteness of the skin +beneath, but at the bosom it was secured by a button set with black +pearls which constituted the lady's only ornament.</p> + +<p>Her arms also were bare, and showed in the lamplight whiter than milk. +She had removed the silver belt, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> was tying a red silken scarf +about her waist in a manner which revealed a swift grace and lithe +sinuosity of movement, making her beauty appear yet more wonderful and +more desirable to the young man's eyes.</p> + +<p>On either side the pavilion were placed folding couches of rosy silk, +and in the corner, draped with rich blue hangings, glimmered the +lady's bed, its fair white linen half revealed. Two embroidered +pillows were at the foot, and on a little table beside it a crystal +ball on a black platter.</p> + +<p>No crucifix or <i>prie-dieu</i>, such as in those days was in every lady's +bower, could be discerned anywhere about the pavilion.</p> + +<p>So soon as the tent-flap had fallen with a soft rustle behind him, the +Earl William abandoned himself to the strange enchantment of his +surroundings. He did not stop to ask himself how it was possible that +such dainty providings had been brought into the midst of his wide, +wild realm of Galloway. Nor yet why this errant damsel should in the +darksome night-time find herself alone on this hilltop with the tents +of her retinue standing empty and silent about. The present sufficed +him. The soft radiance of dark eyes fell upon him, and all the +quick-running, inconsiderate Douglas blood rushed and sang in his +veins, responsive to that subtle shining.</p> + +<p>He was with a fair woman, and she not unwilling to be kind. That was +ever enough for all the race of the Black Douglas. What the Red +Douglas loved is another matter. Their ambitions were more reputable, +but greatly less generous.</p> + +<p>"My lord," said the lady, giving him her hand, "will you lead me to +the table? I cannot offer you the re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>freshment of any elaborate +toilet, but here, at least, is wheaten bread to eat and wine of a good +vintage to drink."</p> + +<p>"You yourself scarce need such earthly sustenance," he answered +gallantly, "for your eyes have stolen the radiance of the stars, and +'tis evident that the night dews visit your cheek only as they do the +roses—to render them more fresh and fair."</p> + +<p>"My lord flatters well for one so young;" she smiled as she seated +herself and motioned him to sit close beside her. "How comes it that +in this wild place you have learned to speak so chivalrously?"</p> + +<p>"When one answers beauty the words are somehow given," he said, "and, +moreover, I have not dwelt in grey Galloway all my days."</p> + +<p>"You speak French?" she queried in that tongue.</p> + +<p>"Ah," she said when he answered, "the divine language. I knew you were +perfect." And so for a long while the young man sat spellbound, +watching the smiles coming and going upon her red and flower-like +lips, and listening to the fast-running ripple of her foreign talk. It +was pleasure enough to hearken without reply.</p> + +<p>It seemed no common food of mortal men that was set before William +Douglas, served with the sweep of white arms and the bend of delicate +fingers upon the chalice stem. He did not care to eat, but again and +again he set the wine cup down empty, for the vintage was new to him, +and brought with it a haunting aroma, instinct with strange hopes and +vivid with unknown joys.</p> + +<p>The pavilion, with its cords of sendal and its silver hanging lamps, +spun round about him. The fair woman herself seemed to dissolve and +reunite before his eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> She had let down the full-fed river of her +hair, and it flowed in the Venetian fashion over her white shoulders, +sparkling with an inner fire—each fine silken thread, as it glittered +separate from its fellows, twining like a golden snake.</p> + +<p>And the ripple of her laughter played upon the young man's heart +carelessly as a lute is touched by the hands of its mistress. +Something of the primitive glamour of the night and the stars clung to +this woman. It seemed a thing impossible that she should be less pure +than the air and the waters, than the dewy grass beneath and the sky +cool overhead. He knew not that the devil sat from the first day of +creation on Eden wall, that human sin is all but as eternal as human +good, and that passion rises out of its own ashes like the phœnix +bird of fable and stands again all beautiful before us, a creature of +fire and dew.</p> + +<p>Presently the lady rose to her feet, and gave the Earl her hand to +lead her to a couch.</p> + +<p>"Set a footstool by me," she bade him, "I desire to talk to you."</p> + +<p>"You know not my name," she said, after a pause that was like a +caress, "though I know yours. But then the sun in mid-heaven cannot be +hidden, though nameless bide the thousand stars. Shall I tell you +mine? It is a secret; nevertheless, I will tell you if such be your +desire."</p> + +<p>"I care not whether you tell me or no," he answered, looking up into +her face from the low seat at her feet. "Birth cannot add to your +beauty, nor sparse quarterings detract from your charm. I have enough +of both, good lack! And little good they are like to do me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you now," she went on, "or will you wait till you convoy +me to Edinburgh?"</p> + +<p>"To Edinburgh!" cried the young man, greatly astonished. "I have no +purpose of journeying to that town of mine enemies. I have been +counselled oft by those who love me to remain in mine own country. My +horoscope bids me refrain. Not for a thousand commands of King or +Chancellor will I go to that dark and bloody town, wherein they say +lies waiting the curse of my house."</p> + +<p>"But you will go to please a woman?" she said, and leaned nearer to +him, looking deep into his eyes.</p> + +<p>For a moment William Douglas wavered. For a moment he resisted. But +the dark, steadfast orbs thrilled him to the soul, and his own heart +rose insurgent against his reason.</p> + +<p>"I will come if you ask me," he said. "You are more beautiful than I +had dreamed any woman could be."</p> + +<p>"I do ask you!" she continued, without removing her eyes from his +face.</p> + +<p>"Then I will surely come!" he replied.</p> + +<p>She set her hand beneath his chin and bent smilingly and lightly to +kiss him, but with an imprisoned passionate cry the young man suddenly +clasped her in his arms. Yet even as he did so, his eyes fell upon two +figures, which, silent and motionless, stood by the open door of the +pavilion.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE WITCH WOMAN</h3> + + +<p>One of these was Malise the Smith, towering like a giant. His hands +rested on the hilt of a mighty sword, whose blade sparkled in the +lamplight as if the master armourer had drawn it that moment from the +midst of his charcoal fire.</p> + +<p>A little in front of Malise there stood another figure, less imposing +in physical proportions, but infinitely more striking in dignity and +apparel. This second was a man of tall and spare frame, of a +countenance grave and severe, yet with a certain kindly power latent +in him also. He was dressed in the white robe of a Cistercian, with +the black scapulary of the order. On his head was the mitre, and in +his hand the staff of the abbot of a great establishment which he +wears when he goes visiting his subsidiary houses. More remarkable +than all was the monk's likeness to the young man who now stood before +him with an expression of indignant surprise on his face, which slowly +merged into anger as he understood why these two men were there.</p> + +<p>He recognised his uncle the Abbot William Douglas, the head of the +great Abbey of Dulce Cor upon Solway side.</p> + +<p>This was he who, being the son and heir of the brother of the first +Duke of Touraine, had in the flower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> of his age suddenly renounced his +domains of Nithsdale that he might take holy orders, and who had ever +since been renowned throughout all Scotland for high sanctity and a +multitude of good works.</p> + +<p>The pair stood looking towards the lady and William Douglas without +speech, a kind of grim patience upon their faces.</p> + +<p>It was the Earl who was the first to speak.</p> + +<p>"What seek you here so late, my lord Abbot?" he said, with all the +haughtiness of the unquestioned head of his mighty house.</p> + +<p>"Nay, what seeks the Earl William here alone so late?" answered the +Abbot, with equal directness.</p> + +<p>The two men stood fronting each other. Malise leaned upon his +two-handed sword and gazed upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"I have come," the Abbot went on, after vainly waiting for the young +Earl to offer an explanation, "as your kinsman, tutor, and councillor, +to warn you against this foreign witch woman. What seeks she here in +this land of Galloway but to do you hurt? Have we not heard her with +our own ears persuade you to accompany her to Edinburgh, which is a +city filled with the power and deadly intent of your enemies?"</p> + +<p>Earl William bowed ironically to his uncle, and his eye glittered as +it fell upon Malise MacKim.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Uncle," he said. "I am deeply indebted for your so great +interest in me. I thank you too, Malise, for bringing about this +timely interference. I will pay my debts one day. In the meantime your +duty is done. Depart, both of you, I command you!"</p> + +<p>Outside the thunder began to growl in the distance. An extraordinary +feeling of oppression had slowly filled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> the air. The lamps, swinging +on the pavilion roof tree, flickered and flared, alternately rising +and sinking like the life in the eyes of a dying man.</p> + +<p>All the while the lady sat still on the couch, with an expression of +amused contempt on her face. But now she rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"And I also ask, in the name of the King of France, by what right do +you intrude within the precincts of a lady's bower. I bid you to leave +me!"</p> + +<p>She pointed imperiously with her white finger to the black, oblong +doorway, from which Malise's rude hand had dragged the covering flap +to the ground.</p> + +<p>But the churchman and his guide stood their ground.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the Abbot reached a hand and took the sword on which the +master armourer leaned. With its point he drew a wide circle upon the +rich carpets which formed the floor of the pavilion.</p> + +<p>"William Douglas," he said, "I command you to come within this circle, +whilst in the right of my holy office I exorcise that demon there who +hath so nearly beguiled you to your ruin."</p> + +<p>The lady laughed a rich ringing laugh.</p> + +<p>"These are indeed high heroics for so plain and poor an occasion. I +need not to utter a word of explanation. I am a lady travelling +peaceably under escort of an ambassador of France, through a Christian +country. By chance, I met the Earl Douglas, and invited him to sup +with me. What concern, spiritual or temporal, may that be of yours, +most reverend Abbot? Who made you my lord Earl's keeper?"</p> + +<p>"Woman or demon from the pit!" said the Abbot, sternly, "think not to +deceive William Douglas, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> aged, as you have cast the glamour over +William Douglas, the boy. The lust of the flesh abideth no more for +ever in this frail tabernacle. I bid thee, let the lad go, for he is +dear to me as mine own soul. Let him go, I say, ere I curse thee with +the curse of God the Almighty!"</p> + +<p>The lady continued to smile, standing meantime slender and fair before +them, her bosom heaving a little with emotion, and her hair rippling +in red gold confusion down her back.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, my lord Earl came not upon compulsion. He is free to +return with you, if he yet be under tutors and governors, or afraid of +the master's stripes. Go, Earl William, I made a mistake; I thought +you had been a man. But since I was wrong I bid you get back to the +monk's chapter house, to clerkly copies and childish toys."</p> + +<p>Then black and sullen anger glared from the eyes of the Douglas.</p> + +<p>"Get hence," he cried. "Hence, both of you—you, Uncle William, ere I +forget your holy office and your kinsmanship; you, Malise, that I may +settle with to-morrow ere the sun sets. I swear it by my word as a +Douglas. I will never forgive either of you for this night's work!"</p> + +<p>The fair white hand was laid upon his wrist.</p> + +<p>"Nay," said the lady, "do not quarrel with those you love for my poor +sake. I am indeed little worth the trouble. Go back with them in +peace, and forget her who but sat by your side an hour neither doing +you harm nor thinking it."</p> + +<p>"Nay," he cried, "that will I not. I will show them that I am old +enough to choose my company for myself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> Who is my uncle that he +should dictate to me that am an earl of Douglas and a peer of France, +or my servant that he should come forth to spy upon his master?"</p> + +<p>"Then," she whispered, smiling, "you will indeed abide with me?"</p> + +<p>He gave her his hand.</p> + +<p>"I will abide with you till death! Body and soul, I am yours alone!"</p> + +<p>"By the holy cross of our Lord, that shall you not!" cried Malise; +"not though you hang me high as Haman for this ere the morrow's morn!"</p> + +<p>And with these words he sprang forward and caught his master by the +wrist. With one strong pull of his mighty arm he dragged him within +the circle which the Abbot had marked out with the sword's point.</p> + +<p>The lady seemed to change colour. For at that moment a gust of wind +caused the lamps to flicker, and the outlines of her white-robed +figure appeared to waver like an image cast in water.</p> + +<p>"I adjure and command you, in the name of God the One and Omnipotent, +to depart to your own place, spirit or devil or whatever you may be!"</p> + +<p>The voice of the Abbot rose high above the roaring of the bursting +storm without. The lady seemed to reach an arm across the circle as if +even yet to take hold of the young man. The Abbot thrust forward his +crucifix.</p> + +<p>And then the bolt of God fell. The whole pavilion was illuminated with +a flash of light so intense and white that it appeared to blind and +burn up all about. The lady was seen no more. The silken covering +blazed up. Malise plunged outward into the darkness of the storm, +carrying his young master lightly as a child in his arms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> while the +Abbot kept his feet behind him like a boat in a ship's wake. The +thunder roared overhead like the sea bellowing in a cave's mouth, and +the great pines bent their heads away from the mighty wind, straining +and creaking and lashing each other in their blind fury.</p> + +<p>Malise and the Abbot seemed to hear about them the plunging of +riderless horses as they stumbled downwards through the night, their +path lit by lightning flashes, green and lilac and keenest blue, and +bearing between them the senseless form of William Earl of Douglas.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE PRISONING OF MALISE THE SMITH</h3> + + +<p>[Now these things, material to the life and history of William, sixth +Earl of Douglas, are not written from hearsay, but were chronicled +within his lifetime by one who saw them and had part therein, though +the part was but a boy's one. His manuscript has come down to us and +lies before the transcriber. Sholto MacKim, the son of Malise the +Smith, testifies to these things in his own clerkly script. He adds +particularly that his brother Laurence, being at the time but a boy, +had little knowledge of many of the actual facts, and is not to be +believed if at any time he should controvert anything which he +(Sholto) has written. So far, however, as the present collector and +editor can find out, Laurence MacKim appears to have been entirely +silent on the subject, at least with his pen, so that his brother's +caveat was superfluous.]</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The instant Lord William entered his own castle of Thrieve over the +drawbridge, and without even returning the salutations of his guard, +he turned about to the two men who had so masterfully compelled his +return.</p> + +<p>"Ho, guard, there!" he cried, "seize me this instant the Abbot of the +New Abbey and Malise MacKim."</p> + +<p>And so much surprised but wholly obedient, twenty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> archers of the +Earl's guard, commanded by old John of Abernethy, called Landless +Jock, fell in at back and front.</p> + +<p>Malise, the master armourer, stood silent, taking the matter with his +usual phlegm, but the Abbot was voluble.</p> + +<p>"William," he said, holding out his hands with an appealing gesture, +"I have laboured with you, striven with, prayed for you. To-night I +came forth through the storm, though an old man, to deliver you from +the manifest snares of the devil—"</p> + +<p>But the Earl interrupted his recital without compunction.</p> + +<p>"Set Malise MacKim in the inner dungeon," he cried. "Thrust his feet +into the great stocks, and let my lord Abbot be warded safely in the +castle chapel. He is little likely to be disturbed there at his +devotions."</p> + +<p>"Aye, my lord, it shall be done!" said Landless Jock, shaking his +head, however, with gloomy foreboding, as the haughty young Earl in +his wet and torn disarray flashed past him without further notice of +the two men whom the might of his bare word had committed to prison. +The Earl sprang up the narrow turret stairs, passing as he did so +through the vaulted hall of the men-at-arms, where more than a hundred +stout archers and spearmen sat carousing and singing, even at that +advanced hour of the night, while as many more lay about the corridors +or on the wooden shelves which they used for sleeping upon, and which +folded back against the wall during the day. At the first glimpse of +their young master, every man left awake among them struggled to his +feet, and stood stiffly propped, drunk or sober<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> according to his +condition, with his eyes turned towards the door which gave upon the +turnpike stair. But with a slight wave of his hand the Earl passed on +to his own apartment.</p> + +<p>Here he found his faithful body-servant, René le Blesois, stretched +across the threshold. The staunch Frenchman rose mechanically at the +noise of his master's footsteps, and, though still soundly asleep, +stood with the latch of the door in his hand, and the other held +stiffly to his brow in salutation.</p> + +<p>Left to his own devices, Lord William Douglas would doubtless have +cast himself, wet as he was, upon his bed had not Le Blesois, +observing his lord's plight even in his own sleep-dulled condition, +entered the chamber after his master and, without question or speech, +silently begun to relieve him of his wet hunting dress. A loose +chamber gown of rich red cloth, lined with silk and furred with +"cristy" grey, hung over the back of an oaken chair, and into this the +young Earl flung himself in black and sullen anger.</p> + +<p>Le Blesois, still without a word spoken, left the room with the wet +clothes over his arm. As he did so a small object rolled from some +fold or crevice of the doublet, where it had been safely lodged till +displaced by the loosening of the belt, or the removing of the +banderole of his master's hunting horn.</p> + +<p>Le Blesois turned at the tinkling sound, and would have stopped to +lift it up after the manner of a careful servitor. But the eye of his +lord was upon the fallen object, and with an abrupt wave of his hand +towards the door, and the single word "Go!" the Earl dismissed his +body-servant from the room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then rising hastily from his chair, he took the trinket in his hand +and carried it to the well-trimmed lamp which stood in a niche that +held a golden crucifix.</p> + +<p>The Lord Douglas saw lying in his palm a ring of singular design. The +main portion was formed of the twisting bodies of a pair of snakes, +the jewel work being very cunningly interlaced and perfectly finished. +Their eyes were set with rubies, and between their open mouths they +carried an opal, shaped like a heart. The stone was translucent and +faintly luminous like a moonstone, but held in its heart one fleck of +ruby red, in appearance like a drop of blood. By some curious trick of +light, in whatever position the ring was held, this drop still +appeared to be on the point of detaching itself and falling to the +ground.</p> + +<p>Earl William examined it in the flicker of the lamp. He turned it +every way, narrowly searching inside the golden band for a posy, but +not a word of any language could he find engraved upon it.</p> + +<p>"I saw the ring upon her hand—I am certain I saw it on her hand!" He +said these words over and over to himself. "It is then no dream that I +have dreamed."</p> + +<p>There came a low knocking at the door, a rustling and a whispering +without. Instantly the Earl thrust the ring upon his own finger with +the opal turned inward, and, with the dark anger mark of his race +strongly dinted upon his fair young brow, he faced the unseen +intruder.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" he cried loudly and imperiously.</p> + +<p>The door opened with a rasping of the iron latch, and a little girlish +figure clothed from head to foot in a white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> night veil danced in. She +clapped her hands at sight of him.</p> + +<p>"You are come back," she cried; "and you have so fine a gown on too. +But Maud Lindesay says it is very wrong to be out of doors so late, +even if you are Earl of Douglas, and a great man now. Will you never +play at 'Catch-as-catch-can' with David and me any more?"</p> + +<p>"Margaret," said the young Earl, "what do you away from your chamber +at all? Our mother will miss you, and I do not want her here to-night. +Go back at once!"</p> + +<p>But the little wilful maiden, catching her skirts in her hands at +either side and raising them a little way from the ground, began to +dance a dainty <i>pas seul</i>, ending with a flashing whirl and a low bow +in the direction of her audience.</p> + +<p>At this William Douglas could not choose but smile, and soon threw +himself down on the bed, setting his clasped hands behind his head, +and contenting himself with looking at his little sister.</p> + +<p>Though at this time but eight years of age, Margaret of Douglas was +possessed of such extraordinary vitality and character that she seemed +more like eleven. She had the clear-cut, handsome Douglas face, the +pale olive skin, the flashing dark eyes, and the crisp, blue-black +hair of her brother. A lithe grace and quickness, like those of a +beautiful wild animal, were characteristic of every movement.</p> + +<p>"Our mother hath been anxious about you, brother mine," said the +little girl, tiring suddenly of her dance, and leaping upon the other +end of the couch on which her brother was reclining. Establishing +herself opposite him, she pulled the coverlet up about her so that +pres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>ently only her face could be seen peeping out from under the +silken folds.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I was so cold, but I am warmer now," she cried. "And if Maid +Betsy A'hannay comes to take me away, I want you to stretch out your +hand like this, and say: 'Seneschal, remove that besom to the deep +dungeon beneath the castle moat,' as we used to do in our plays before +you became a great man. Then I could stay very long and talk to you +all through the night, for Maud Lindesay sleeps so sound that nothing +can awake her."</p> + +<p>Gradually the anger passed out of the face of William Douglas as he +listened to his sister's prattle, like the vapours from the surface of +a hill tarn when the sun rises in his strength. He even thought with +some self-reproach of his treatment of Malise and of his uncle the +Abbot. But a glance at the ring on his finger, and the thought of what +might have been his good fortune at that moment but for their +interference, again hardened his resolution to adamant within his +breast.</p> + +<p>His sister's voice, clear and high in its childish treble, recalled +him to himself.</p> + +<p>"Oh, William, and there is such news; I forgot, because I have been so +overbusied with arranging my new puppet's house that Malise made for +me. But scarcely were you gone away on Black Darnaway ere a messenger +came from our granduncle James at Avondale that he and my cousins Will +and James arrive to-morrow at the Thrieve with a company to attend the +wappenshaw."</p> + +<p>The young man sprang to his feet, and dashed one hand into the palm of +the other.</p> + +<p>"This is ill tidings indeed!" he cried. "What does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> the Fat Flatterer +at Castle Thrieve? If he comes to pay homage, it will be but a +mockery. Neither he nor Angus had ever any good-will to my father, and +they have none to me."</p> + +<p>"Ah, do not be angry, William," cried the little maid. "It will be +beautiful. They will come at a fitting time. For to-morrow is the +great levy of the weapon-showing, and our cousins will see you in your +pride. And they will see me, too, in my best green sarcenet, riding on +a white palfrey at your side as you promised."</p> + +<p>"A weapon-showing is not a place for little girls," said the Earl, +mollified in spite of himself, casting himself down again on the +couch, and playing with the serpent ring on his finger.</p> + +<p>"Ah, now," cried his sister, her quick eyes dancing everywhere at +once, "you are not attending to a single word I say. I know by your +voice that you are not. That is a pretty ring you have. Did a lady +give it to you? Was it our Maudie? I think it must have been our Maud. +She has many beautiful things, but mostly it is the young men who wish +to give her such things. She never sends any of them back, but keeps +them in a box, and says that it is good to spoil the Egyptians. And +sometimes when I am tired she will tell me the history of each, and +whether he was dark or fair. Or make it all up just as good when she +forgets. But, oh, William, if I were a lady I should fall in love with +nobody but you. For you are so handsome—yes, nearly as handsome as I +am myself—(she passed her hands lightly through her curls as she +spoke). And you know I shall marry no one but a Douglas—only you must +not ask me to wed my cousin William of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> Avondale, for he is so stern +and solemn; besides, he has always a book in his pocket, and wishes me +to learn somewhat out of it as if I were a monk. A Douglas should not +be a monk, he should be a soldier."</p> + +<p>So she lay snugly on the bed and prattled on to her brother, who, +buried in his thoughts and occupied with his ring, let the hours slip +on till at the open door of the Earl's chamber there appeared the most +bewitching face in the world, as many in that castle and elsewhere +were ready to prove at the sword's point. The little girl caught sight +of it with a shrill cry of pleasure, instantly checked and hushed, +however, at the thought of her mother.</p> + +<p>"O Maudie," she cried, "come hither into William's room. He has such a +beautiful ring that a lady gave him. I am sure a lady gave it him. Was +it you, Maud Lindesay? You are a sly puss not to tell me if it was. +William, it is wicked and provoking of you not to tell me who gave you +that ring. If it had been some one you were not ashamed of, you would +be proud of the gift and confess. Whisper to me who it was. I will not +tell any one, not even Maudie."</p> + +<p>Her brother had risen to his feet with a quick movement, girding his +red gown about him as he rose.</p> + +<p>"Mistress Maud," he said respectfully, "I fear I have given you +anxiety by detaining your charge so late. But she is a wilful madam, +as you have doubtless good cause to know, and ill to advise."</p> + +<p>"She is a Douglas," smiled the fair girl, who stood at the chamber +door refusing his invitation to enter, with a flash of the eye and a +quick shake of the head which betokened no small share of the same +qualities; "is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> not that enough to excuse her for being wayward and +headstrong?"</p> + +<p>Earl William wasted no more words of entreaty upon his sister, but +seized her in his arms, and pulling the coverlet in which she had +huddled herself up with her pert chin on her knees, more closely about +her, he strode along the passage with her in his arms till he stopped +at an open door leading into a large chamber which looked to the +south.</p> + +<p>"There," he said, smiling at the girl who had followed behind him, "I +will lock her in with you and take the key, that I may make sure of +two such uncertain charges."</p> + +<p>But the girl had deftly extracted the key even as she passed in after +him, and as the bolts shot from within she cried: "I thank you right +courteously, Lord William, but mine apothecary, fearing that the air +of this isle of Thrieve might not agree with me, bade me ever to sleep +with the key of the door under my pillow. Against fevers and quinsies, +cold iron is a sovereign specific."</p> + +<p>And for all his wounded heart, Earl William smiled at the girl's +sauciness as he went slowly back to his chamber, taking, in spite of +his earldom, pains to pass his mother's door on tiptoe.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE DOUGLAS MUSTER</h3> + + +<p>The day of the great weapon-showing broke fair and clear after the +storm of the night. The windows of heaven had had all their panes +cleaned, and even after it was daylight the brighter stars +appeared—only, however, to wink out again when the sun arose and +shone on the wet fields, coming forth rejoicing like a bridegroom from +his chamber.</p> + +<p>And equally bright and strong came forth the young Earl, every trace +of the anger and disappointment of the night having been removed from +his face, if not from his mind, by the recreative and potent sleep of +youth and health.</p> + +<p>In the hall he called for Sir John of Abernethy, nicknamed Landless +Jock.</p> + +<p>"Conduct my uncle the Abbot from the chapel where he has been all +night at his devotions, to his chamber, and furnish him with what he +may require, and bring up Malise the Smith from the dungeon. Let him +come into my presence in the upper hall."</p> + +<p>William Douglas went into a large oak-ceiled chamber, wide and high, +running across the castle from side to side, and with windows that +looked every way over the broad and fertile strath of Dee.</p> + +<p>Presently, with a trampling of mailed feet and the double rattle which +denoted the grounding of a pair of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> steel-hilted partisans, Malise was +brought to the door by two soldiers of the Earl's outer guard.</p> + +<p>The huge bulk of Brawny Kim filled up the doorway almost completely, +and he stood watching the Douglas with an unmoved gravity which, in +the dry wrinkles about his eyes, almost amounted to humorous +appreciation of the situation.</p> + +<p>Yet it was Malise who spoke first. For at his appearance the Earl had +turned his back upon his retainer, and now stood at the window that +looks towards the north, from which he could see, over the broad and +placid stretches of the river, the men putting up the pavilions and +striking spears into the ground to mark out the spaces for the tourney +of the next day.</p> + +<p>"A fair good morrow to you, my lord," said the smith. "Grievous as my +sin has been, and just as is your resentment, give me leave to say +that I have suffered more than my deserts from the ill-made chains and +uncouth manacles wherewith they confined me in the black dungeon down +there. I trow they must have been the workmanship of Ninian Lamont the +Highlandman, who dares to call himself house-smith of Thrieve. I am +ready to die if it be your will, my lord; but if you are well advised +you will hang Ninian beside me with a bracelet of his own rascal +handiwork about his neck. Then shall justice be satisfied, and Malise +MacKim will die happy."</p> + +<p>The Earl turned and looked at his ancient friend. The wrinkles about +the brow were deeply ironical now, and the grey eyes of the master +armourer twinkled with appreciation of his jest.</p> + +<p>"Malise," cried his master, warningly, "do not play at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> cat's cradle +with the Douglas. You might tempt me to that I should afterwards be +sorry for. A man once dead comes not to life again, whatever monks +prate. But tell me, how knew you whither I had gone yester-even? For, +indeed, I knew not myself when I set out. And in any event, was it a +thing well done for my foster father to spy upon me the son who was +also his lord?"</p> + +<p>The anger was mostly gone now out of the frank young face of the Earl, +and only humiliation and resentment, with a touch of boyish curiosity, +remained.</p> + +<p>"Indeed," answered the smith, "I watched you not save under my hand as +you rode away upon Black Darnaway, and then I turned me to the seat by +the wall to listen to the cavillings of Dame Barbara, the humming of +the bees, and the other comfortable and composing sounds of nature."</p> + +<p>"How then did you come to follow me in the undesirable company of my +uncle the Abbot?"</p> + +<p>"For that you are in the debt of my son Sholto, who, seeing a lady +wait for you in the greenwood, climbed a tree, and there from amongst +the branches he was witness of your encounter."</p> + +<p>"So—" said the Douglas, grimly, "it is to Master Sholto that I am +indebted somewhat."</p> + +<p>"Aye," said his father, "do not forget him. For he is a good lad and a +bold, as indeed he proved to the hilt yestreen."</p> + +<p>"In what consisted his boldness?" asked the Earl.</p> + +<p>"In that he dared come home to me with a cock-and-bull story of a +witch lady, who appeared suddenly where none had been a moment before, +and who had immediately enchanted my lord Earl. Well nigh did I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> twist +his neck, but he stuck to it. Then came riding by my lord Abbot on his +way to Thrieve, and I judged that the matter, as one of witchcraft, +was more his affair than mine."</p> + +<p>"Now hearken," cried the Earl, in quick, high tones of anger, "let +there be no more of such folly, or on your life be it. The lady whom +you insulted was travelling with her company through Galloway from +France. She invited me to sup with her, and dared me to adventure to +Edinburgh in her company. Answer me, wherein was the witchcraft of +that, saving the witchery natural to all fair women?"</p> + +<p>"Did she not prophesy to you that to-day you would be Duke of +Touraine, and receive the ambassadors of the King of France?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Earl, "where is your wit that you give ear to such +babblings? Did she not come from that country, as I tell you, and who +should hear the latest news more readily than she?"</p> + +<p>The smith looked a little nonplussed, but stuck to it stoutly that +none but a witch woman would ride alone at nightfall upon a Galloway +moor, or unless by enchantment set up a pavilion of silk and strange +devices under the pines of Loch Roan.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Earl William, feeling his advantage and making the most +of it, "I see that in all my little love affairs I must needs take my +master armourer with me to decide whether or no the lady be a witch. +He shall resolve for me all spiritual questions with his forehammer. +Malise MacKim a witch pricker! Ha—this is a change indeed. Malise the +Smith will make the censor of his lord's love affairs, after what +certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> comrades of his have told me of his own ancient love-makings. +Will he deign to come to the weapon-showing to-day, and instead of +examining the swords and halberts, the French arbalasts and German +fusils, demit that part of his office to Ninian the Highlandman, and +go peering into ladies' eyes for sorceries and scanning their lips for +such signs of the devil as lurk in the dimples of their chins? In this +he will find much employment and that of a congenial sort."</p> + +<p>Malise was vanquished, less by the sarcasm of the Earl than by the +fear that perhaps the Highlandman might indeed have his place of +honour as chief military expert by his master's right hand at the +examination of weapons that day on the green holms of Balmaghie.</p> + +<p>"I may have been overhasty, my lord," he said hesitatingly, "but still +do I think that the woman was far from canny."</p> + +<p>The Earl laughed and, turning him about by the shoulders, gave him a +push down the stair, crying, "Oh, Malise, Malise, have you lived so +long in the world without finding out that a beautiful woman is always +uncanny!"</p> + +<p>The levy that day of clansmen owning fealty to the Douglas was no +hasty or local one. It was not, indeed, a "rising of the countryside," +such as took place when the English were reported to be over the +border, when the beacon fires were thrown west from Criffel to Screel, +from Screel to Cairnharrow, and then tossed northward by the three +Cairnsmuirs and topmost Merrick far over the uplands of Kyle, till +from the sullen brow of Brown Carrick the bale fire set the town drum +of Ayr beating its alarming note. Still this muster was a day on +which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> every Douglas vassal must ride in mail with all his spears +behind him—or bide at home and take the consequences.</p> + +<p>All the night from distant parishes and outlying valleys horsemen had +been riding, clothed in complete panoply of mail. These were the +knights, barons, freeholders, who owned allegiance to the house of +Douglas. Each lord was followed by his appointed tail of esquires and +men-at-arms; behind these dense clusters of heavily armed spearmen +marched steadily along the easiest paths by the waterside and over the +lower hill passes. Light running footmen slung their swords over their +backs by leathern bandoliers and pricked it briskly southwards over +the bent so brown. Archers there were from the border towards the +Solway side—lithe men, accustomed to spring from tussock to tuft of +shaking grass, whose long strides and odd spasmodic side leapings +betrayed even on the plain and unyielding pasture lands the place of +their amphibious nativity.</p> + +<p>"The Jack herons of Lochar," these were named by the men of Galloway. +But there was no jeering to their faces, for not one of those +Maxwells, Sims, Patersons, and Dicksons would have thought twice of +leaping behind a tree stump to wing a cloth-yard shaft into a +scoffer's ribs at thirty yards, taking his chance of the dule tree and +the hempen cord thereafter for the honour of Lochar.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>THE CROSSING OF THE FORD</h3> + + +<p>It was still early morning of the great day, when Sholto and Laurence +MacKim, leaving their mother in the kitchen, and their young sister +Magdalen trying a yet prettier knot to her kerchief, took their way by +the fords of Glen Lochar to an eminence then denominated plainly the +Whinny Knowe, the same which afterwards gained and has kept to this +day the more fatal designation of Knock Cannon. The lads were dressed +as became the sons of so prosperous a craftsman (and master armourer +to boot) as Malise MacKim of the Carlinwark.</p> + +<p>Laurence, the younger, wore his archer's jack over the suit of purple +velvet, high boots of yellow leather, and, withal, a dainty cap set +far back on his head, from which sprouted the wing of a blackcock in +as close imitation as Master Laurence dared compass of the Earl +Douglas himself. His bow was slung at his back all ready for the +inspection. A sash of orange silk was twisted about his slim waist, +and in this he would set his thumb knowingly, and stare boldly as +often as the pair of brothers overtook a pretty girl. For Master +Laurence loved beauty, and thought not lightly of his own.</p> + +<p>Sholto, though, as we shall soon see, despised not love, had eyes more +for the knights and men-at-arms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> and considered that his heaven would +be fully attained as soon as he should ride one of those great +prancing horses, and carry a lance with the pennon of the Douglas upon +it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he wore the steel cap of the home guard, the ringed neck +mail, the close-fitting doublet of blue dotted over with red Douglas +hearts and having the white cross of St. Andrew transversely upon it. +About his waist was a peaked brace of shining plate armour, damascened +in gold by Malise himself, and filling out his almost girlish waist to +manlier proportions. From this depended a row of tags of soft leather. +Close chain-mail covered his legs, to which at the knees were added +caps of triple plate. A sheaf of arrows in a blue and gold quiver on +his right side, a sword of metal on his left, and a short Scottish bow +in his hand completed the attire of a fully equipped and efficient +archer of the Earl's guard.</p> + +<p>The lads were soon at the fords of Lochar, where in the dry summers +the stones show all the way across—one in the midst being named the +Black Douglas, noted as the place where, as tradition affirms, +Archibald the Grim used to pause in crossing the ford to look at his +new fortress of Thrieve, rising on its impregnable island above the +rich water meadows.</p> + +<p>Now neither Sholto nor Laurence wished to wet their leg array before +the work and pageant of the day began. This was the desire of +Laurence, because of the maids who would assemble on the Boreland +Braes, and of Sholto inasmuch as he hoped to win the prize for the +best accoutrement and the most point-device attiring among all the +archers of the Earl's guard. The young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> men had asked crusty Simon +Conchie, the boatman at the Ferry Croft, to set them over, offering +him a groat for his pains. But he was far too busy to pay any +attention to mere silver coin on such an occasion, only pausing long +enough to cry to them that they must e'en cross at the fords, as many +of their betters would do that day.</p> + +<p>There was nothing for it, therefore, but either to strip to the waist +or to wait the chances of the traffic. Both Sholto and Laurence were +exceedingly loath to take the former course. They had not, however, +long to hesitate, for a train of sumpter mules, belonging to the Lord +Herries of Terregles, whose father had been with Archibald the Tineman +in France, came up laden with the choicest products of the border +country which he designed to offer as part of the "Service-Kane" to +his overlord, the Earl of Douglas.</p> + +<p>Now mules are all of them snorting, ill-conditioned brutes, and are +ever ready to run away upon the least excuse, or even without any. So +as soon as those of Lord Herries' train caught the glint of Sholto's +blue baldric and shining steel girdle-brace appearing suddenly from +behind a knoll, they incontinently bolted every way with noses to the +ground, scattering packs and brandishing heels like young colts turned +out to grass. It chanced that one of the largest mules made directly +towards the fords of Lochar, and the youths, catching the flying +bridle at either side, applied a sort of brake which sufficiently +slowed the beast's movements to enable such agile skipjacks as Sholto +and Laurence to mount. But as they were concerned more with their +leaping from the ground than with what was already upon the animal's +back, their heads met with a crash in the midst, in which collision<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +the superior weight of the younger had very naturally the better of +the encounter.</p> + +<p>Sholto dropped instantly back to the ground. He was somewhat stunned +by the blow, but the sight of his brother triumphantly splashing +through the shallows aroused him. He arose, and seizing the first +stone that came to hand hurled it after Laurence, swearing fraternally +that he would smite him in the brisket with a dirk as soon as he +caught him for that dastard blow. The first stone flew wide, though +the splash caused the mule to shy into deeper water, to the damping of +his rider's legs. But the second, being better aimed, took the animal +fairly on the rump, and, fetching up on a fly-galled spot, frightened +it with bumping bags and loud squeals into the woods of Glen Lochar, +which come down close to the fords on every side. Here presently +Laurence found himself, like Absalom, caught in the branches of a +beech, and left hanging between heaven and earth. A rider in complete +plate of black mail caught him down, still holding on to his bow, and, +placing him across the saddle, brought down the flat of his gauntleted +hand upon a spot of the lad's person which, being uncovered by mail, +responded with a resounding smack. Then, amid the boisterous laughter +of the men-at-arms, he let Laurence slip to the ground.</p> + +<p>But the younger son of Brawny Kim, master armourer of Carlinwark, was +not the lad to take such an insult meekly, even from a man-at-arms +riding on horseback. He threw his bow into the nearest thicket, and +seizing the most convenient ammunition, which chanced to be in great +plenty that day upon the braes of Balmaghie, pursued his insulter +along the glade with such excellent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> aim and good effect that the +black unadorned armour of the horseman showed disks of defilement all +over, like a tree trunk covered with toadstool growths.</p> + +<p>"Shoot down the intolerable young rascal! Shall he thus beard my Lord +Maxwell?" cried a voice from the troop which witnessed the chase. And +more than one bow was bent, and several hand-fusils levelled from the +company which followed behind.</p> + +<p>But the injured knight threw up his visor.</p> + +<p>"Hold, there!" he cried, "the boy is right. It was I who insulted him, +and he did right to be revenged, though the rogue's aim is more to be +admired than his choice of weapons. Come hither, lad. Tell me who thou +art, and what is thy father's quality?"</p> + +<p>"I am Laurence MacKim, an archer of my lord's guard, and the younger +son of Malise MacKim, master armourer to the Douglas."</p> + +<p>Laurence, being still angry, rang out his titles as if they had been +inscribed in the book of the Lion-King-at-Arms.</p> + +<p>"Saints save us," cried the knight in swart armour, "all that!"</p> + +<p>Then, seeing the boy ready to answer back still more fiercely, he +continued with a courteous wave of the hand.</p> + +<p>"I humbly ask your pardon, Master Laurence. I am glad the son of +Brawny Kim hath no small part of his father's spirit. Will you take +service and be my esquire, as becomes well a lad of parts who desires +to win his way to a knighthood?"</p> + +<p>The heart of Laurence MacKim beat quickly—a horse to ride—an +esquire—perhaps if he had luck and much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> fighting, a knighthood. +Nevertheless, he answered with a bold straight look out of his black +eyes.</p> + +<p>"I am an archer of my lord Douglas' outer guard. I can have no +promotion save from him or those of his house—not even from the King +himself."</p> + +<p>"Well said!" cried the knight; "small wonder that the Douglas is the +greatest man in Scotland. I will speak to the Earl William this day +concerning you."</p> + +<p>Lord Maxwell rode on at the head of his company with a courteous +salutation, which not a few behind him who had heard the colloquy +imitated. Laurence stood there with his heart working like yeast +within him, and his colour coming and going to think what he had been +offered and what he had refused.</p> + +<p>"God's truth," he said to himself, "I might have been a great man if I +had chosen, while Sholto, that old sober sides, was left lagging +behind."</p> + +<p>Then he looked about for his bow and went swaggering along as if he +were already Sir Laurence and the leader of an army.</p> + +<p>But Nemesis was upon him, and that in the fashion which his pride +would feel the most.</p> + +<p>"Take that, beast of a Laurence!" cried a voice behind him.</p> + +<p>And the lad received a jolt from behind which loosened his teeth in +their sockets and discomposed the dignified stride with which in +imagination he was commanding the armies of the Douglas.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>LAURENCE SINGS A HYMN</h3> + + +<p>Laurence turned and beheld his brother. In another instant the two +young men had clinched and were rolling on the ground, wrestling and +striking according to their ability. Sholto might easily have had the +best of the fray, but for the temper aroused by Laurence's recent +degradation, for the elder brother was taller by an inch, and of a +frame of body more lithe and supple. Moreover, the accuracy of Sholto +MacKim's shape and the severe training of the smithy had not left a +superfluous ounce of flesh on him anywhere.</p> + +<p>In a minute the brothers had become the centre of a riotous, laughing +throng of varlets—archers seeking their corps, and young squires sent +by their lords to find out the exact positions allotted to each +contingent by the provost of the camp. For as the wappenshaw was to be +of three days' duration in all its nobler parts, a wilderness of tents +had already begun to arise under the scattered white thorns of the +great Boreland Croft which stretched up from the river.</p> + +<p>These laughed and jested after their kind, encouraging the youths to +fight it out, and naming Laurence the brock or badger from his +stoutness, and the slim Sholto the whitterick or, as one might say, +weasel.</p> + +<p>"At him, Whitterick—grip him! Grip him! Now you have him at the +pinch! Well pulled, Brock! 'Tis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> a certainty for Brock—good Brock! +Well done—well done! Ah, would you? Hands off that dagger! Let +fisticuffs settle it! The Whitterick hath it—the Whitterick!"</p> + +<p>And thus ran the comment. Sholto being cumbered with his armour, +Laurence might in time have gotten the upper grip. But at this moment +a diversion occurred which completely altered the character of the +conflict. A stout, reddish young man came up, holding in his hand a +staff painted with twining stripes of white and red, which showed him +to be the marshal of that part of the camp which pertained to the Earl +of Angus. He looked on for a moment from the skirts of the crowd, and +then elbowed his way self-importantly into the centre, till he stood +immediately above Laurence and Sholto.</p> + +<p>"What means this hubbub, I say? Quit your hold there and come with me; +my Lord of Angus will settle this dispute."</p> + +<p>He had come up just when the young men were in the final grips, when +Sholto had at last gotten his will of his brother's head, and was, as +the saying is, giving him "Dutch spice" in no very knightly fashion.</p> + +<p>The Angus marshal, seeing this, seized Sholto by the collar of his +mailed shirt, and drawing him suddenly back, caused him to lose hold +of his brother, who as quickly rose to his feet. The red man began to +beat Sholto about the headpiece right heartily with his staff, which +exercise made a great ringing noise, though naturally, the skull cap +being the work of Malise MacKim, little harm ensued to the head +enclosed therein.</p> + +<p>But Master Laurence was instantly on fire.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here, Foxy-face," he cried, "let my brother a-be! What business is it +of yours if two gentlemen have a difference? Go back to your Angus +kernes and ragged craw-bogle Highland folk!"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Sholto had recovered from his surprise, and the crowd of +varlets was melting apace, thinking the Angus marshal some one of +consequence. But the brothers MacKim were not the lads to take beating +with a stick meekly, and the provost, who indeed had nothing to do +with the Galloway part of the encampment, had far better have confined +his officiousness to his own quarters.</p> + +<p>"Take him on the right, Sholto," cried Laurence, "and I will have at +him from this side." The Red Angus drew his sword and threatened +forthwith to slay the lads if they came near him. But with a spring +like that of a grey Grimalkin of the woods, Sholto leapt within his +guard ere he had time to draw back his arm for thrust or parry, and at +the same moment Laurence, snatching the red and white staff out of his +hand, dealt him so sturdy a clout between the shoulders that, though +he was of weight equal to both of his opponents taken together, he was +knocked breathless at the first blow and went down beneath the impetus +of Sholto's attack.</p> + +<p>Laurence coolly disengaged his brother, and began to thrash the Angus +man with his own staff upon all exposed parts, till the dry wood +broke. Then he threw the pieces at his head, and the two brothers went +off arm in arm to find a woody covert in which to repair damages +against the weapon-showing, and the inspection of their lord and his +keen-eyed master armourer.</p> + +<p>As soon as they had discovered such a sequestered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> holt, Laurence, who +had frequent experience of such rough-and-tumble encounters, stripped +off his doublet of purple velvet, and, turning the sleeve inside out, +he showed his brother that it was lined with a rough-surfaced felt +cloth almost of the nature of teasle. This being rubbed briskly upon +any dusty garment or fouled armour proved most excellent for restoring +its pristine gloss and beauty. The young men, being as it were born to +the trade and knowing that their armament must meet their father's +inexorable eye, as he passed along their lines with the Earl, rubbed +and polished their best, and when after half an hour's sharp work each +examined the other, not a speck or stain was left to tell of the +various casual incidents of the morning. Two bright, fresh-coloured +youths emerged from their thicket, immaculately clad, and with +countenances of such cherubic innocence, that my lord the Abbot +William of the great Cistercian Abbey of Dulce Cor, looking upon them +as with bare bowed heads they knelt reverently on one knee to ask his +blessing, said to his train, "They look for all the world like young +angels! It is a shame and a sin that two such fair innocents should be +compelled to join in aught ruder than the chanting of psalms in holy +service."</p> + +<p>Whereat one of his company, who had been witness to their treatment of +the Angus provost and also of Laurence's encounter with the knight of +the black armour, was seized incontinently with a fit of coughing +which almost choked him.</p> + +<p>"Bless you, my sons," said the Abbot, "I will speak to my nephew, the +Earl, concerning you. Your faces plead for you. Evil cannot dwell in +such fair bodies. What are your names?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<p>The younger knelt with his fingers joined and his eyes meekly on the +grass, while Sholto, who had risen, stood quietly by with his steel +cap in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Laurence MacKim," answered the younger, modestly, without venturing +to raise his eyes from the ground, "and this is my brother Sholto."</p> + +<p>"Can you sing, pretty boy?" said the Abbot to Laurence.</p> + +<p>"We have never been taught," answered downright Sholto. But his +brother, feeling that he was losing chances, broke in:</p> + +<p>"I can sing, if it please your holiness."</p> + +<p>"And what can you sing, sweet lad?" asked the Abbot, smiling with +expectation and setting his hand to his best ear to assist his +increasing deafness.</p> + +<p>"Shut your fool's mouth!" said Sholto under his breath to his brother.</p> + +<p>"Shut your own! 'Tis ugly as a rat-trap at any rate!" responded +Laurence in the same key. Then aloud to the Abbot he said, "An it +please you, sir, I can sing 'O Mary Quean!'"</p> + +<p>The Abbot smiled, well pleased.</p> + +<p>"Ah, exceeding proper, a song to the honour of the Queen of Heaven (he +devoutly crossed himself at the name),—I knew that I could not be +mistaken in you."</p> + +<p>"Your pardon, most reverend," interjected Sholto, anxiously, "please +you to excuse my brother; his voice hath just broken and he cannot +sing at present." Then, under his breath, he added, "Laurie MacKim, +you God-forgotten fool, if you sing that song you will get us both +stripped in a thrice and whipped on the bare back for insolence to the +Earl's uncle!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Go to," said his brother, "I <i>will</i> sing. The old cook is monstrous +deaf at any rate."</p> + +<p>"Sing," said the Abbot, "I would hear you gladly. So fair a face must +be accompanied by the pipe of a nightingale. Besides, we sorely need a +tenor for the choir at Sweetheart."</p> + +<p>So, encouraged in this fashion, the daring Laurence began:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Nae priests aboot me shall be seen</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>To mumble prayers baith morn and e'en,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><i>I'll swap them a' for Mary Quean!</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>I'll bid nae mess for me be sung,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Dies ille, dies iræ,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>Nor clanking bells for me be rung,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Sic semper solet fieri!</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>I'll gang my ways to Mary Quean."</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Ah, very good, very good, truly," said the Abbot, thrusting his hand +into his pouch beneath his gown, "here are two gold nobles for thee, +sweet lad, and another for your brother, whose countenance methinks is +somewhat less sweet. You have sung well to the praise of our Lady! +What did you say your name was? Of a surety, we must have you at +Sweetheart. And you have the Latin, too, as I heard in the hymn. It is +a thing most marvellous. Verily, the very unction of grace must have +visited you in your cradle!"</p> + +<p>Laurence held down his head with all his native modesty, but the more +open Sholto grew red in the face, hearing behind him the tittering and +shoulder-shaking of the priests and lay servants in the Abbot's train, +and being sure that they would inform their master as soon as he +passed on concerning the true import of Master Laurence's song. He was +muttering in a rapid recitative,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> "Oh, wait—wait, Laurie MacKim, till +I get you on the Carlinwark shore. A sore back and a stiff skinful of +bones shalt thou have, and not an inch of hide on thee that is not +black and blue. Amen!" he added, stopping his maledictions quickly, +for at that moment the Abbot came somewhat abruptly to the end of his +speech.</p> + +<p>The great churchman rode away on his fair white mule, with a smile and +a backward wave of his hand.</p> + +<p>"I will speak to my nephew concerning you this very day, my child," he +cried.</p> + +<p>And the countenance of that most gentle youth kept its sweet innocence +and angelic grace to the last, but that of Sholto was more dark and +frowning than ever.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE BRAES OF BALMAGHIE</h3> + + +<p>By ten of the clock the braes of Balmaghie were a sight most glorious +to look upon. Well nigh twelve thousand men were gathered there, of +whom five thousand were well-mounted knights and fully equipped +men-at-arms, every man of them ready and willing to couch a lance or +ride a charge.</p> + +<p>The line of the tents which had been set up extended from opposite the +Castle island of Thrieve to the kirk hill of Balmaghie. Every knight's +following was strictly kept within its own pale, or fence of green +wands set basket-wise, pointed and thrust into the earth like the +spring traps of those who catch mowdiewarts. Many also were the +quarrels and bickerings of the squires who had been sent forward to +choose and arrange the several encampments. Nor were rough and tumble +fights such as we have seen the MacKims indulging in, thought +derogatory to the dignity of any, save belted knights only.</p> + +<p>Each camp displayed the device of its own lord, but higher than all, +from the top of every mound and broomy hillock floated the banner of +the overlord. This was the lion of Galloway, white on a ground of +blue, and beneath it, but on the same staff, a pennon whereon was the +bleeding heart of the Douglas family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<p>The lists were set up on the level meadow that is called the Boat +Croft. At either end a pavilion had been erected, and the jousting +green was strongly fenced in, with a rising tier of seats for the +ladies along one side, and a throne in the midst for the Douglas +himself, as high and as nobly upholstered as if the King of Scots had +been presiding in person.</p> + +<p>At ten by the great sun-dial of Thrieve, the Earl, armed in complete +armour of rare work, damascened with gold, and bearing in his hand the +truncheon of commander, rode first through the fords of Lochar, and +immediately after him came his brother David, a tall handsome boy of +fourteen, whose olive skin and highbred beauty attested his Douglas +birth.</p> + +<p>Next rode the Earl of Angus, a red, foxy-featured man, with mean and +shifty eyes. He sat his horse awkwardly, perpetually hunching his +shoulders forward as if he feared to fall over his beast's head. And +saving among his own company, no man did him any honour, which caused +him to grin with wicked sidelong smiles of hate and envy.</p> + +<p>Then amid the shouting of the people there appeared, on a milk-white +palfrey, Margaret, the Earl's only sister, already famous over all +Scotland as "The Fair Maid of Galloway." With her rode one who, in the +esteem of most who saw the pair that day, was a yet rarer flower, even +Maud Lindesay, who had come out of the bleak North to keep the lonely +little maid company. For Margaret of Douglas was yet no more than a +child, but Maud Lindesay was nineteen years of age and in the first +perfect bloom of her beauty.</p> + +<p>Behind these two came the whole array of the knights<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> and barons who +owned allegiance to the Douglas,—Herons and Maxwells, Ardwell +Macullochs, Gordons from the Glen of Kells, with Agnews and MacDowalls +from the Shireside. But above all, and outnumbering all, there were +the lesser chiefs of the mighty name—Douglases of the North, the +future Moray and Ormond among them, the noble young sons of James the +Gross of Avondale, who rode nearest their cousin, the head of the +clan. Then came Douglases of the Border, Douglases of the Hermitage, +of Renfrew, of Douglasdale. Every third man in that great company +which splashed and caracoled through the fords of Lochar, was a +William, a James, or an Archibald Douglas. The King himself could not +have raised in all Scotland such a following, and it is small wonder +if the heart of the young man expanded within him.</p> + +<p>Presently, soon after the arrival of the cavalcade, the great +wappenshaw was set in array, and forming up company by company the +long double line extended as far as the eye could reach from north to +south along the side of the broad and sluggish-moving river.</p> + +<p>Sholto, who in virtue of his courage and good marksmanship had been +placed over the archer company which waited on the right of the ford, +fell in immediately behind the <i>cortège</i> of the Earl. He was first man +of all to have his equipment examined, and his weapons obtained, as +they deserved, the commendation of his liege lord, and the grim +unwilling approval of Malise, the master armourer, whose unerring eye +could not detect so much as a speck on the shirt of mail, or a grain +of rust on the waist brace of shining steel.</p> + +<p>Then the Earl rode down the lines, and Sholto, re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>membering the +encounter amidst the dust of the roadway, breathed more freely when he +saw his father's back.</p> + +<p>And surely that day the heart of the Douglas must have beat proud and +high within him, for there they stood, company behind ordered company, +the men on whom he could count to the death. And truly the lad of +eighteen, who in Scotland was greater than the King, looked upon their +steadfast thousands with a swelling heart.</p> + +<p>The Abbot had made particular inquiries where Laurence was stationed, +which was in the archer company of the Laird of Kelton. Most of the +monkish band had been made too happy by the deception practised on +their Abbot concerning "Mary Quean," and were too desirous to have +such a rogue to play his pranks in the dull abbey, to tell any tales +on Laurence MacKim. But one, Berguet, a Belgian priest who had begged +his way to Scotland, and whose nature was that of the spy and +sycophant, approached and volunteered the information to the Abbot +that this lad to whom he was desirous of showing favour, was a ribald +and hypocritical youth.</p> + +<p>"Eh, what?" said the Abbot, "a bodle for thy ill-set tongue, false +loon, dost think I did not hear him sing his fair and seemly orisons? +I tell thee, rude out-land jabberer, that I am a Douglas, and have ears +better than those of any Frenchman that ever breathed. For this thou +shalt kneel six nights on the cold stone of the holy chapel house, and +say of paternosters ten thousand and of misereres thou shall sing +three hundred. And this shall chance to teach thee to be scanter with +thy foul breath when thou speakest to the Abbot of the Foundation of +Devorgill concerning better men than thyself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Belgian priest gasped and fell back, and none other was found to +say aught against Master Laurence, which, considering the ten thousand +paternosters and the three hundred misereres, was not unnatural.</p> + +<p>As the Earl passed along the line he was annoyed by the iterated +requests of his uncle to be informed when they should come to the +company of the Laird of Kelton. And the good Abbot, being like all +deaf men apt to speak a little loud, did not improve matters by +constantly making remarks behind his hand, upon the appearance or +character (as known to him) of the various dependents of the Douglas +House who had come out to show their loyalty and exhibit their +preparedness for battle.</p> + +<p>As thus it was. The young Earl would come in his inspection to a +company of Solway-side men—stiff-jointed fishers of salmon nets out +of the parishes of Rerrick or Borgue—or, as it might be, rough colts +from the rock scarps of Colvend, scramblers after wild birds' nests on +perilous heuchs, and poachers on the deer preserves of Cloak Moss, as +often as they had a chance. Then the Earl, having zealously commended +the particular Barnbacle or Munches who led them, all would be peace +and concord, till out of the crowd behind would issue the growling +comment of his uncle, the Abbot of Dulce Cor.</p> + +<p>"A close-fisted old thief! The saints pity him not! He will surely fry +in Hell! Last Shrovetide did he not drive off five of our best milch +cows, and hath steadfastly refused to restore them? <i>Anathema +maranatha</i> to his vile body and condemned be his huckstering soul!"</p> + +<p>Needless to add, every word of this comment and addition was heard by +the person most concerned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>Or it might be, "Henry A'milligan—his mother's son, God wot. And his +father's, too, doubtless—if only one could know who his father was. +The devil dwell in his fat belly! <i>Exorciso te</i>—"</p> + +<p>So it went on till the temper of the young lord of Galloway was +strained almost to the breaking point, for he wished not to cause a +disturbance among so great a company and on a day of such renown.</p> + +<p>At last they came to the muster of the clean-run limber lads of +Kelton, artificers mostly, and stated retainers of the castle and its +various adjacent bourgs of Carlinwark, Rhonehouse, Gelston, and Mains +of Thrieve.</p> + +<p>Some one at this point took the Abbot by the elbow and shouted in his +ear that this was the company he desired to see. Then he rode forward +to the left hand of his nephew, as Malise and he passed slowly down +the line examining the weapons.</p> + +<p>"Laurence MacKim, I would see Laurence MacKim!" cried the Abbot, +holding up his hand as if in the chapel of his monastery. The Earl +stopped, and Malise turned right about on his heel in great +astonishment.</p> + +<p>"What wants old marrowbones with our Laurie?" he muttered; "surely he +cannot have gotten into mischief with the lasses already. But I +kenna—I kenna. When I was sixteen I can mind—I can mind. And the +loon may well be his father's own son."</p> + +<p>And Malise, the man of brawn, watched out of his quiet grey eyes the +face of the Abbot William, wondering what was to come next.</p> + +<p>Laurence stood forth at a word of command from the Earl. He saluted, +and then dropped the point of his sword meekly upon the ground. His +white-and-rose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> cherub's face expressed the utmost goodness and +innocence.</p> + +<p>"Dear kinsman," said the Abbot to his nephew, "I have a request to +prefer which I hope you will grant, though it deprive you of one +retainer. This sweet youth is not fit company for rude soldiers and +ill-bred rufflers of the camp. His mind is already on higher things. +He hath good clerkly Latin also, being skilled in the humanities, as I +have heard proven with mine own ears. His grace of language and +deportment is manifest, and he can sing the sweetest and most +spiritual songs in praise of Mary and the saints. I would have him in +our choir at Sweetheart Abbey, where we have much need both of a voice +such as his, and also of a youth whose sanctity and innocence cannot +fail to leaven with the grace of the spirit the neophytes of our +college, and the consideration of whom may even bring repentance into +older and more hardened hearts."</p> + +<p>Malise MacKim could not believe his ears as he listened to the Abbot's +rounded periods. But all the same his grey eyes twinkled, his mouth +slowly drew itself together into the shape of an O, from which issued +a long low whistle, perfectly audible to all about him except the +Abbot. "Lord have mercy on the innocence and cloistered quiet of the +neophytes if they get our Laurie for an example!" muttered Malise to +himself as he turned away.</p> + +<p>Even the young Earl smiled, perhaps remembering the last time he had +seen the youth beside him, clutching and tearing like a wild cat at +his brother's throat in the smithy of Carlinwark.</p> + +<p>"You desire the life of a clerk?" said Lord William<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> pleasantly to +Laurence. He would gladly have purchased his uncle's silence at even +greater price.</p> + +<p>"If your lordship pleases," said Laurence, meekly, adding to himself, +"it cannot be such hard work as hammering at the forge, and if I like +it not, why then I can always run away."</p> + +<p>"You think you have a call to become a holy clerk?"</p> + +<p>"I feel it here," quoth Master Laurence, hypocritically, indicating +correctly, however, the organ whose wants have made clerks of so +many—that is, the stomach.</p> + +<p>Earl William smiled yet more broadly, but anxious to be gone he said: +"Mine Uncle, here is the lad's father, Malise MacKim, my master +armourer and right good servant. Ask him concerning his son."</p> + +<p>"'Tis all up a rotten tree now," muttered Laurence to himself; "my +father will reveal all."</p> + +<p>Malise MacKim smiled grimly, but with a salutation to the dignitary of +the church and near relative of his chief, he said: "Truly, I had +never thought of this my son as worthy to be a holy clerk. But I will +not stand in the way of his advancement nor thwart your favour. Take +him for a year on trial, and if you can make a monk of him, do so and +welcome. I recommend a leathern strap, well hardened in the fire, for +the purpose of encouraging him to make a beginning in the holy life."</p> + +<p>"He shall indeed have penance if he need it. For the good of the soul +must the body suffer!" said Abbot William, sententiously.</p> + +<p>"Saints' bones and cracklings," muttered Laurence, "this is none so +cheerful! But I can always run away if the strap grows overlimber, and +then let them catch me if they can. Sholto will help me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fall out!" commanded the Earl, sharply, "and join yourself to the +company of the Abbot William. Come, Malise, we lose our time."</p> + +<p>Thus was one of our heroes brought into the way of becoming a learned +and holy clerk. But all those who knew him best agreed that he had a +far road to travel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE</h3> + + +<p>The Earl had almost arrived at the pavilion erected at the southern +end of the jousting meadow, when a gust of cheering borne along the +lines announced the arrival of a belated company. The young man +glanced northward with intent to discover, by their pennons, who his +visitors might be. But the distance was too great, and identification +was made more difficult by the swarming of the populace round the +newcomers. So, being unable to make the matter out, Earl William +despatched his brother David to bring him word of their quality.</p> + +<p>Presently, however, and before David Douglas' return, shouts of +"Avondale, Avondale!" from the men of Lanarkshire informed the young +Earl of the name of one at least of those who had arrived. A frown so +quick and angry darkened his brow that it showed the consideration in +which the Douglas held his granduncle James the Gross, Earl of +Avondale.</p> + +<p>"I hope, at least," he said in a low voice to Malise, who stood half a +step behind him, "that my cousins Will and James have come with him. +They are good metal for a tourney, and worth breaking a lance with."</p> + +<p>By this time the banners of the visitors were discernible crossing the +fords of Lochar, while high advanced above all private pennons two +standards could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> be seen, the banner royal of Scotland, and close +beside the rampant lion the white lilies of France.</p> + +<p>"Saint Bride!" cried the Earl, "have they brought the King of Scots to +visit me? His Majesty had been better at his horn-book, or playing +ball in the tennis court of Stirling."</p> + +<p>Then came David back, riding swiftly on his fine dark chestnut, which, +being free from the mantle wherein the horses of knights were swathed, +and having its mane and tail left long, made a gallant show as the lad +threw it almost on its haunches in his boyish pride of horsemanship.</p> + +<p>"William," said David Douglas, "a word in your ear, brother. The whole +tribe are here,—fat Jamie and all his clan."</p> + +<p>The brothers conferred a little apart, for in those troubled times men +learned caution early, and though the Douglas was the greatest lord in +Scotland, yet, surrounded by meaner men as he was, it behoved him to +be jealous and careful of his life and honour.</p> + +<p>Earl Douglas came out of the sparred enclosure of the tilt-ring in +order to receive his guests.</p> + +<p>First, as an escort to the ambassador royal of France and Scotland who +came behind, rode the Earl of Avondale and his five sons, noble young +men, and most unlikely to have sprung from such a stock. James the +Gross rode a broad Clydesdale mare, a short, soft unwieldy man, +sitting squat on the saddle like a toad astride a roof, and glancing +slily sideways out of the pursy recesses of his eyes.</p> + +<p>Behind him came his eldest son William, a man of a true Douglas +countenance, quick, high, and stern.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> Then followed James, whose lithe +body and wonderful dexterity in arms were already winning him repute +as one of the bravest knights in all Christendom in every military and +manly exercise.</p> + +<p>Behind the Avondale Douglases rode two men abreast, with a lady on a +palfrey between them.</p> + +<p>The first to take the eye, both by his stature and his remarkable +appearance, rode upon a charger covered from head to tail in the +gorgeous red-and-gold diamonded trappings pertaining to a marshal of +France. He was in complete armour, and wore his visor down. A long +blue feather floated from his helmet, falling almost upon the flank of +his horse; a truncheon of gold and black was at his side. A pace +behind him the lilies of France were displayed, floating out languidly +from a black and white banner staff held in the hands of a young +squire.</p> + +<p>The knight behind whom the banner royal of Scotland fluttered was a +man of different mould. His spare frame seemed buried in the suit of +armour that he wore somewhat awkwardly. His pale ascetic countenance +looked more in place in a monkish cloister than on a knightly tilting +ground, and he glanced this way and that with the swift and furtive +suspicion of one who, while setting one trap, fears to be taken in +another.</p> + +<p>But the lady who rode on a white palfrey between these two took all +men's regard, even in the presence of a marshal of France and a herald +extraordinary of the King of Scots.</p> + +<p>The Earl Douglas, having let his eyes once rest upon her, could not +again remove them, being, as it were,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> fixed by the very greatness of +the wonder which he saw.</p> + +<p>It was the lady of the pavilion underneath the pines, the lady of the +evening light and of the midnight storm.</p> + +<p>She was no longer clothed in simple white, but arrayed like a king's +daughter. On her head was a high-peaked coiffure, from which there +flowed down a graceful cloud of finest lace. This, even as the Earl +looked at her, she caught at with a bewitching gesture, and brought +down over her shoulder with her gloved hand. A close-fitting robe of +palest blue outlined the perfections of her body. A single +fleur-de-lys in gold was embroidered on the breast of her white +bodice, and the same device appeared again and again on the white +housing of her palfrey.</p> + +<p>She sat in the saddle, gently smiling, and looking down with a +sweetness which was either the perfection of finished coquetry or the +expression of the finest natural modesty.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, the first thought which came to the Earl Douglas +after his surprise was one in which triumph was blended with mirth.</p> + +<p>"What will the Abbot and Malise think of this?" he said, half aloud. +And he turned him about in order to look upon the face of his master +armourer.</p> + +<p>He found Malise MacKim ashen-pale and drawn of countenance, his mouth +open and squared with wonder. His jaw was fallen slack, and his hands +gripped one upon the other like those of a suppliant praying to the +saints.</p> + +<p>The Earl smiled, and bidding Malise unlace his helmet in compliment to +his guests, he stood presently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> bareheaded before them, his head +appearing above the blackness of his armour, bright as a flower with +youth and instinct with all the fiery beauty of his race.</p> + +<p>It was James the Gross who came forward to act as herald. "My +well-beloved nephew," he began in somewhat whining tones, "I bring you +two royal embassies, one from the King of France and the other from +the King of Scotland. I have the honour to present to you the Marshal +Gilles de Retz, ambassador of the most Christian King, Charles the +Seventh, who will presently deliver his master's message to you."</p> + +<p>The marshal, who till now had kept his visor down, slowly raised it, +and revealed a face which, being once seen, could never afterwards be +banished from the memory.</p> + +<p>It was a large grey-white countenance, with high cheek-bones and +colourless lips, which were continually working one upon the other. +Black eyes were set close together under heavy brows, and a long thin +nose curved between them like the beak of an unclean bird.</p> + +<p>"Earl William," said the marshal, "I give you greeting in the name of +our common liege lord, Charles, King of France, and also in that of +his son, the Dauphin Louis. I bring you also a further token of their +good-will, in that I hail you heir to the great estates and dignities +of your father and grandfather, sometime Dukes of Touraine and vassals +premier of the King of France."</p> + +<p>The young man bowed, but in spite of the interest of his message, the +marshal caught his eyes resting upon the face of the lady who rode +beside him.</p> + +<p>"To this I add that which, save for the message<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> of the King, my +master, ought fitly to have come first. I present you to this fair +lady, my sister-in-law, the Damosel Sybilla de Thouars, maid of honour +to your high princess Margaret of Scotland, who of late hath expanded +into a yet fairer flower under the sun of our land of France."</p> + +<p>The Earl dismounted and threw the reins of his horse to Malise, whose +face wore an expression of bitterest disappointment and instinctive +hatred. Then he went to the side of the Lady Sybilla, and taking her +hand he bowed his head over it, touching the glove to his lips with +every token of respect. Still bareheaded, he took the reins of her +palfrey and led her to the stand reserved for the Queen of Beauty.</p> + +<p>Here the Earl invited her to dismount and occupy the central seat.</p> + +<p>"Till your arrival it lacked an occupant, saving my little sister; but +to-day the gods have been good to the house of Douglas, and for the +first time since the death of my father I see it filled."</p> + +<p>Smilingly the lady consented, and with a wave of his hand the Earl +William invited the Marshal de Retz to take the place on the other +side of the Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>Then turning haughtily to the herald of the King of Scots, who had +been standing alone, he said:—</p> + +<p>"And now, sir, what would you with the Earl Douglas?"</p> + +<p>The ascetic, monkish man found his words with little loss of time, +showing, however, no resentment for Earl William's neglect of any +reverence to the banner under whose protection he came.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am Sir James Irving of Drum," he said, "and I stand here on behalf +of Sir Alexander Livingston, tutor and guardian of the King of Scots, +to invite your friendship and aid. The Lord Crichton, sometime +Chancellor of this realm, hath rebelled against the royal authority +and fortified him in Edinburgh Castle. So both Sir Alexander +Livingston and the most noble lady, the Queen Mother, desire the +assistance of the great power of the Earl of Douglas to suppress this +revolt."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had these words been uttered when another knight stepped +forward out of the train which had followed the Earl of Avondale.</p> + +<p>"I am here on behalf of the Chancellor of Scotland, who is no rebel +against any right authority, but who wishes only to bring this +distracted realm back into some assured peace, and to deliver the +young King out of the hands of flatterers and lechers. I have the +honour, therefore, of requesting on behalf of the Chancellor of +Scotland, Sir William Crichton, the true representative of royal +authority, the aid and alliance of my Lord of Douglas."</p> + +<p>A smile of haughty contempt passed over the face of the Earl, and he +dismissed both heralds, uttering in the hearing of all those words +which afterwards became so famous over Scotland:</p> + +<p>"Let dog eat dog! Wherefore should the lion care?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>MISTRESS MAUD LINDESAY</h3> + + +<p>The sports of the first day of the great wappenshaw were over. The +Lord James Douglas, second son of the Gross One, had won the single +tourneying by unhorsing all his opponents without even breaking a +lance. For the second time Sholto MacKim wore on his cap the golden +buckle of archery, and took his way happily homeward, much uplifted +that the somewhat fraudulent eyes of Mistress Maud Lindesay had smiled +upon him whilst the French lady was fastening it there.</p> + +<p>The knightly part of the great muster had already gone back to their +tents and lodgings. The commonalty were mostly stringing away through +the vales and hill passes to their homes, no longer in ordered +companies, but in bands of two or three. Disputes and +misunderstandings arose here and there between men of different +provinces. The Galloway men called "Annandale thieves" at those border +lads who came at the summons of the hereditary Warden of the Marches. +The borderers replied by loud bleatings, which signified that they +held the Galwegians of no better understanding than their native +sheep.</p> + +<p>It was a strange and varied company which rode home to Thrieve to +receive the hospitality of the young Earl of Douglas and Duke of +Touraine. The castle itself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> being no more than a military fortress, +containing in addition to the soldiers' quarters only the apartments +designed for the family (and scant enough even of those) could not, of +course, accommodate so great a company.</p> + +<p>But as was the custom at all great houses, though more in England and +France than in poverty-stricken Scotland, the Earl of Douglas had in +store an abundant supply of tents, some of them woven of arras and +ornamented with cloth of gold, others of humbler but equally +serviceable material.</p> + +<p>His mother, the Countess of Douglas, who knew nothing of the +occurrences of the night of the great storm, nor guessed at the +suspicions of witchcraft and diablerie which made a hell of the breast +of Malise, the master armourer, received her son's guests with +distinguished courtesy. Malise himself had gone to find the Abbot, so +soon as ever he set eyes on the companion of the Marshal de Retz, that +they might consult together—only, however, to discover that the +gentle churchman had quitted the field immediately after he had +obtained the consent of his nephew to the possession of the new +chorister, to whom he had taken so sudden and violent a fancy.</p> + +<p>The hoofs of the whole cavalcade were erelong sounding hollow and dull +upon the wooden bridge, which the Earl's father had erected from the +left bank to the southernmost corner of the Isle of Thrieve, a bridge +which a single charge of powder, or even a few strokes of a wood-man's +axe, had been sufficient to remove and disable, but which nevertheless +enabled the castle-dwellers to avoid the extreme inconvenience of +passing through the ford at all states of the river.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sholto MacKim, throwing all the consciousness of a shining success +into the stiffness of the neck which upheld the slight additional +weight of the Earl's gold buckle in his cap, found himself, not wholly +by accident, in the neighbourhood of his heart's beloved, Maud +Lindesay. For, like a valiant seneschal, she had kept her place all +day close beside the Fair Maid of Galloway.</p> + +<p>And now the little girl was more than ever eager to keep near to her +friend, for the ambassador of the King of France had bent one look +upon her, so strange and searching that Margaret, though not naturally +timid, had cried aloud involuntarily and clasped her friend's hand +with a grasp which she refused to loosen, till Sholto had promised to +walk by the side of her pony and allow her to net her trembling +fingers into the thick of his clustering curls.</p> + +<p>For the armourer's son was, in those simple days, an ancient ally and +playmate of the little noble damsel, and he dreamed, and not without +some excuse, that in an age when every man's strong arm and brave +heart constituted his fortune, the time might come when he might even +himself to Maud Lindesay, baron's daughter though she were. For both +his father and himself were already high in favour with their master +the Earl, who could create knighthoods and dispose lordships as easily +as (and much more effectually and finally than) the King himself.</p> + +<p>The emissaries of the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston did not +accompany the others back to the castle after the short and haughty +answer which they had received, but with their followers returned the +way they had come to their several headquarters, giving, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> was +natural between foes so bitter, a wide berth to each other on their +northward journeys to Edinburgh and Stirling.</p> + +<p>"What think you of this day's doings, Mistress Lindesay?" asked Sholto +as he swung along beside the train with little Margaret Douglas's hand +still clutching the thick curls at the back of his neck.</p> + +<p>The maid of honour tossed her shapely head, and, with a little pretty +upward curl of the lip, exclaimed: "'Twas as stupid a tourney as ever +I saw. There was not a single handsome knight nor yet one beautiful +lady on the field this day."</p> + +<p>"What of James of Avondale when knights are being judged?" said +Sholto, with a kind of gloomy satisfaction, boyish and characteristic; +"he at least looked often enough in your direction to prove that he +did not agree with you about the lack of the beautiful lady."</p> + +<p>At this Maud Lindesay elevated her pretty nostrils yet further into +the air. "James of Avondale, indeed—" she said, "he is not to be +compared either for dignity or strength with the Earl himself, nor yet +with many others whom I know of lesser estate."</p> + +<p>"Sholto MacKim," cried the clear piping voice of the little Margaret, +"how in the world am I to keep hold of your hair if you shake and jerk +your head about like that? If you do not keep still I will send for +that pretty boy over there in the scarlet vest, or ask my cousin James +to ride with me. And he will, too, I know—for he likes bravely to be +beside my dear, sweet Maud Lindesay."</p> + +<p>After this Sholto held his head erect and forth-looking, as if he had +been under the inspection of the Earl and were doubtful of his weapons +passing muster.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> + +<p>There came a subtle and roguish smile into the eyes of Mistress Maud +Lindesay as she observed the stiffening of Sholto's bearing.</p> + +<p>"Who were those others of humbler estate?" he queried, sending his +words straight out of his lips like pellets from a pop-gun, being in +fear lest he should unsettle the hand of the small tyrant upon his +hair.</p> + +<p>"Your brother Laurence for one," replied the minx, for no other +purpose than to see the flush of disappointment tinge his brow with +sudden red.</p> + +<p>"I wish my brother Laurence were in—" he began. But the girl +interrupted him.</p> + +<p>"Hush," she said, holding up her finger, "do not swear, especially at +a son of the holy church. Ha, ha! A fit clerk and a reverend will they +make of Laurence MacKim! I have heard of your ploys and ongoings, both +of you. Think not I am to be taken in by your meekness and pretence of +dutiful service. You go athwart the country making love to poor +maidens, and then, when you have won their hearts, you leave them +lamenting."</p> + +<p>And she affected to heave a deep sigh.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Maudie," said the little girl, reproachfully, "now you are being +bad. I know it by your voice. Do not be unkind to my Sholto, for his +hair is so pleasant to touch. I wish you could feel it. And, besides, +when you are wicked to him, you make him jerk, and if he does it often +I shall have to send him away."</p> + +<p>The Maid of Galloway was indeed entirely correct. For Maud Lindesay, +accustomed all her life to the homage of many men, and having been +brought up in a great castle in an age when chivalrous respect to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +women had not yet given place to the licence of the Revival of +Letters, practised irritation like a fine art. She was brimful of the +superfluity of naughtiness, yet withal as innocent and playful as a +kitten.</p> + +<p>But Sholto, both from a feeling that he belonged to an inferior rank, +and also being exceedingly conscious of his youth, chose to be +bitterly offended.</p> + +<p>"You mistake me greatly, Mistress Lindesay," he said in an uneven +schoolboy's voice, to which he tried in vain to add a touch of worldly +coldness; "I do not make love to every girl I meet, nor yet do I love +them and leave them as you say. You have been most gravely +misinformed."</p> + +<p>"Nay," tripped the maid of honour, with arch quickness of reply, "I +said not that you were naturally equipped for such amorous quests. I +meant to designate your brother Laurence. 'Tis pity he is to be a +clerk. Though one day doubtless he will make a very proper and +consolatory father confessor—"</p> + +<p>Sholto walked on in silence, his eyes fixed before him, and in such +high dudgeon that he pretended to be unconscious of what the girl had +been saying. Then the little Margaret began to prattle in her pretty +way, and the youth answered "yes" and "no" sulkily and at random, his +thoughts being alternately on the doing of some great deed to make his +mistress repent her cruelty, and on a leap into the castle pool, in +whose unsunned deeps he might find oblivion from all the flouts of +hard-hearted beauty.</p> + +<p>Maud kept her eyes upon him, a smile of satisfaction on her lips so +long as he was not looking at her. She liked to play her fish as +satisfactorily as she could before grassing it at her feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Besides, it will do him good," she said to herself. "He hath lately +won the gold badge of archery, and, like all men, is apt to think +overmuch of himself at such times. Moreover, I can always make it up +to him after—if I like, that is."</p> + +<p>But as often as Sholto dropped a little behind, keeping pace with Maid +Margaret's slower palfrey so that Maud was sure he looked at her, the +pretty coquette cast down her eyes in affected humility and sorrow. +Whereupon immediately Sholto felt his resentment begin to melt like +snow off a dike top when the sun of April is shining.</p> + +<p>But neither of them uttered another word till they reached the +drawbridge which crossed the nether moat and conducted to the noble +gateway of Thrieve. Then, at the foot of the stairway to the hall, +Sholto, having swung the little maid from her pony, after a moment of +sullen hesitation went across to assist Mistress Maud Lindesay out of +her saddle.</p> + +<p>As he lifted the girl down his heart thundered tumultuously in his +breast, for he had never so touched her before. Her lashes rested +modestly on her cheek—long, black, and upcurled a little at the ends. +As her foot touched the ground, she raised them a moment, and looked +at him with one swift flash of violet eyes made darker by the +seclusion from which she had released them. Then in another moment she +had dropped them again, detaching them from his with a mighty +affectation of confusion.</p> + +<p>"Please, Sholto, I am sorry. I did not mean it." She spoke like a +child that is sorry for a fault and is fearful of being chidden.</p> + +<p>And even though knowing full well by bitter experi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>ence all her +naughtiness and hypocrisy, Sholto, gulping his heart well down into +his throat, could not do otherwise than forgive a thing so pretty and +so full of the innocent artifices which make mown hay of the hearts of +men.</p> + +<p>With a touch of his lips upon the hand of Margaret the Maid in token +of fealty, Sholto MacKim turned on his heel and went away towards the +fords of Thrieve, muttering to himself, "No, she does not mean it, I +do believe. But I have ever heard that of all women she who never +means it is the most dangerous."</p> + +<p>And this is a dict which no wise man can gainsay.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>A DAUNTING SUMMONS</h3> + + +<p>Not far before them had ridden the Earl and the Lady Sybilla. Behind +these two came the Marshal de Retz and the fat Lord of Avondale. They +were telling each other tales of the wars of La Pucelle, the latter +laughing and shaking shoulders, but at the end of every side-splitting +legend the Frenchman would glance over his shoulder at Maud Lindesay +and the little maiden Margaret.</p> + +<p>As Sholto passed them on his return he stood aside, poised at the +salute, looking meanwhile with awe on the great and notable French +soldier. Yet at the first glimpse of his unvisored face there fell +upon the young man a dislike so fierce and instinctive that he grasped +his bow and fumbled in his quiver for an arrow, in order to send it +through the unlaced joints of the Marshal's gorget, which for ease's +sake his squire had undone when they left the field.</p> + +<p>Sholto MacKim was at the fords waiting the chance of crossing and the +pleasure of the surly keeper of the bridge, Elson A'Cormack, who sat +in his wheelhouse, grunting curses on all who passed that way.</p> + +<p>"Foul feet, slow bellies, fushionless and slack ye are to run my +lord's errands! But quick enow to return home upon your trampling +clattering ruck of horses, and every rascal of you expecting to ride +over my bridge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> good pine planking instead of washing the dirt from +your hoofs in honest Dee water."</p> + +<p>The long files of horsemen threaded their way across the green plain +of the isle towards the open space in front of Thrieve Castle, the +points of their spears shining high in the air, and the shafts so +thick underneath that, seen from a distance, they made a network of +slender lines reticulated against the brightness of the sun.</p> + +<p>The great island strength of the Douglases was then in its highest +state of perfection as a fortress and of dignity as a residence. +Archibald the Grim, who built the keep, could not have foreseen the +wondrous beauty and strength to which Thrieve would attain under his +successors. This night of the wappenshaw the lofty grey walls were +hung with gaily coloured tapestries draped from the overhanging +gallery of wood which ran round the top of the castle. From the four +corners of the roof flew the banners of four provinces which owned the +sway of the mighty house,—Galloway, Annandale, Lanark, and the +Marches,—while from the centre, on a flagstaff taller than any, flew +their standard royal, for so it might be called, the heart and stars +of the Douglases' more than royal house.</p> + +<p>While the outer walls thus blazed with colour, the woods around gave +back the constant reverberation of cannon, as with hand guns and +artillery of weight the garrison greeted the return of the Earl and +his guests. The green castle island from end to end was planted thick +with tents and gay with pavilions of many hues and various design, +their walls covered with intricate devices, and each flying the +colours of its owner, while on poles without dangled shields and +harness of various<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> kinds, ready for the younger squires to clean and +oil for the use of their masters on the remaining days of the +tournament.</p> + +<p>Sholto waited at the bridge-head, impatient of the press, and eager to +be left alone with his own thoughts, that he might con over and over +the words and looks of his heart's idol, and suck all the sweet pain +he could out of her very hardheartedness. Suddenly tossed backwards +like a ball from lip to lip, according to the universal and, indeed, +obligatory custom of the time, there reached him the "passing of the +word." He heard his own name repeated over and over in fifty voices +and tones, waxing louder as the "word" neared him.</p> + +<p>"Sholto MacKim—Sholto MacKim, son of Malise, the armourer, wanted to +speak with the Earl. Sholto MacKim. Sholto—"</p> + +<p>A great nolt of a Moray Highlandman, with a mouth like a gash, shouted +it in his very ear.</p> + +<p>Surprised and somewhat anxious at heart, Sholto cast over in his mind +all the deeds, good and evil, which might procure him the honour of an +interview with Earl William Douglas, but could think of nothing except +his having involuntarily played the spy at the young lord's meeting +with the lady in the wood. It was therefore with some natural +trepidation that the young man obeyed the summons.</p> + +<p>"At any rate," he meditated with a slight return of complacency, as he +butted and shoved his way castle-wards, "he can scarcely mean to have +my head. For he was all day with my father at his elbow, and at the +worst I shall have another chance of seeing"—he did not call the +beloved by her Christian name even to him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>self, so he compromised by +adding somewhat lamely—"<i>her</i>."</p> + +<p>Thus Sholto, putting speed in his heels and swinging along over the +trampled sward with the easy tireless trot of a sleuthhound, threaded +his way among the groups of villein prickers and swearing men-at-arms +who cumbered the main approaches of the castle.</p> + +<p>He found the Earl walking swiftly up and down a little raised platform +which extended round three sides of Thrieve, outside the main +defences, but yet within the nether moat, the sluggish water of which +it over-looked on its inner side.</p> + +<p>Earl William was manifestly discomposed and excited by the events of +the day, and especially by the fact that the Lady Sybilla seemed +utterly unconscious of ever having set eyes upon him before, appearing +entirely oblivious of having received him in a pavilion of +rose-coloured silk under the shelter of a grove of tall pines. The +young lord instinctively recoiled from any communication with his +master armourer, whose grave and impassive face revealed nothing which +might be passing in his mind. Then the Earl's thoughts turned upon +Sholto, who had been the first to observe his beauteous companion of +the Carlinwark woods.</p> + +<p>Earl William was even younger than Sholto, but the cares and dignities +of a great position had rendered him far less boyish in manner and +carriage than the son of Malise MacKim.</p> + +<p>His head, now released from his helm, rose out from the richly +ornamented collar of his armour with the grace of a flower and the +strength of a tree rooted among rocks. He had already laid aside his +gorget, and when Sholto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> was announced, the Earl's ancient retainer, +old Landless Jock of Abernethy, was bringing him a cap of soft velvet +which he threw on the back of his head with an air of supreme +carelessness. Then he rose and walked up and down, carrying his armour +as if it had been a mere feather weight, whereas it was tilting +harness of double plate and designed only for wearing on horseback.</p> + +<p>Sholto marked in the young lord a boyish eagerness equal to his own. +Indeed, his impatient manner recalled his late feelings, as he had +stood on the bridge and desired to be left alone with his thoughts of +Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>Sholto stood still and quiet on the topmost step of the ascent from +the moat-bridge waiting for the Earl to signify his will.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>CAPTAIN OF THE EARL'S GUARD</h3> + + +<p>"Sholto MacKim," said the Earl of Douglas, abruptly, "saw you the lady +who arrived with the foreign ambassador?"</p> + +<p>"She is indeed wondrous fair to look on," answered Sholto, the whole +heart in him instantly wary, while outwardly he seemed more innocent +than before.</p> + +<p>"Have your eyes ever lighted on that lady before?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, my lord, of a surety no. In what manner should they, seeing that +I have never been in France in my life, nor indeed more than a score +of miles from this castle of Thrieve?"</p> + +<p>"Thou art a good lad, and also ready of wit, Master Sholto," said the +Earl, looking at the armourer's son musingly. "Clear of eye and true +of hand, so they tell me. Did you not win the arrow prize this day?"</p> + +<p>Lord William raised his eyes to where in the bonnet of the youth his +own golden badge of archery glistened.</p> + +<p>"And I also won the swording prize at the last wappenshaw on the moot +hill of Urr," said Sholto, taking courage, and being resolved that if +his fortune stood not now on tiptoe, it should not be on account of +any superfluity of modesty on his own part.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the Earl, "I remember. It was two golden hearts joined +together with an arrow and a star<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> in the midst—a fitting Douglas +emblem, by the bones of Saint Bride! Where hast thou left that badge +that thou dost not wear it along with the other?"</p> + +<p>Sholto blushed and muttered that he had forgotten it at home. He was +all of a breaking perspiration lest he should have to tell the Earl +that he had given it to Maud Lindesay, as indeed he meant to do +presently, along with the golden buckle of archery,—that is if the +dainty, mischievous-hearted maiden could be persuaded to accept +thereof.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the Earl, smiling, "I comprehend. There is some maid in the +question, and if I advance you to the command of my house-guard and +give you an officer's responsibility, you will of a surety be ever +desiring to go gadding to the greenwood—and around the loch of +Carlinwark are most truly dangerous glades."</p> + +<p>"Nay, indeed nay," cried Sholto, eagerly. "If it is my lord's will to +appoint me to his guard, by Saint Bride and all the other saints I +swear never to leave the island, unless it be sometimes of a Sunday +afternoon for an hour or two—just to see my mother."</p> + +<p>"Your mother!" quoth the Earl, laughing heartily. "So then my two +golden hearts are in your mother's keeping. Art a good lad, Sholto, +and as for guile it is simply not in thee!"</p> + +<p>Sholto looked modestly down upon the earth, as if conscious of his own +exceeding merits, but willing for the nonce to say nothing about them. +But the young Earl came over to him, and dealing him a sound buffet on +the back, cried: "Nay, lad, that lamb-like look I have seen tried on +mine uncle the Abbot of Sweetheart. Thy brother Laurence is in the way +of clerkly advance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>ment on account of that same sweetly innocent +regard, which he hath in even greater perfection. But I am a young +man, remember—and one youth flings not glamour easily into the eyes +of another. Sholto, neither you nor I are any better than we should +be, and if we are not so evil as some others, let us not set up as +overwhelmingly virtuous. For at twenty virtue is mostly but lack of +opportunity."</p> + +<p>Sholto blushed so becomingly at this accusation that if the Earl had +not seen the brothers locked in the death grip like crabs in a +fishwife's creel, even he might have been deceived.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless," continued the Earl, "in spite of your claims to +virtue, I am resolved to make you officer of my castle-guard—if not +in name, at least in fact. For old Landless Jock of Abernethy must +keep the name while he lives, and stand first when my steward pays out +the chuckling golden Lions at Whitsun and eke Lady Day. But you shall +have enough and be no longer a charge upon your father. Malise should +be a proud man, having both his sons provided for in one day."</p> + +<p>The Earl turned him about with his usual quick imperiousness. +"Malise," he cried, "Malise MacKim!"</p> + +<p>And again the "word" ran through the castle, escaped the gate, +circumnavigated the moat, and ran round the circle of the tents till +the shouts of "Malise, Malise," could have been heard almost at the +deserted fords of Lochar, where sundry varlets were watching for a +chance to search the deserted pavilions for anything left behind +therein by the knights and squires.</p> + +<p>Presently there was seen ascending to the moat platform the huge form +of the master armourer himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> He stood waiting his master's +pleasure, with a knife which he had been sharpening in his hand. It +was a curious weapon, long, thin, and narrow in the blade, which was +double-edged and ground fine as a razor on both sides.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Malise," said the Earl, "you have not taught your son amiss. He +threatens to turn out a most marvellous lad, for not only can he make +weapons, but he can excel the best of my men-at-arms in their use. +Have you any objection that he be attached to my guard?"</p> + +<p>The strong man smiled with his usual calm, and kept his humorous grey +eyes fixed shrewdly on the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Aye," he said, "it is indeed more fitting that Sholto, my son, should +ride behind my Lord of Douglas than stiff old Malise upon his Flanders +mare."</p> + +<p>The Earl blushed a little, for he remembered how the armourer had +offered to ride behind him after he had shod Black Darnaway at the +Carlinwark. He went on somewhat hastily.</p> + +<p>"I have resolved to make your son, Sholto, officer of the +castle-guard. It is perhaps over-responsible a post for so young a +man, yet I myself am younger and have heavier burdens to bear. Also +Landless Jock is growing old and stiff, and will not suffer to be +spoken to. For my father's sake I cannot be severe with him. He will +die in his charge if he will, but on Douglasdale and not at Thrieve. +So now I would have your son do my bidding without question, which is +more than his father ever did before him."</p> + +<p>"I can answer for Sholto," said Malise MacKim. "He is afraid of +nothing save perhaps the strength of his father's right arm. He is +cool enough in danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> Nothing daunts him except the flutter of a +farthingale. But then my lord knows well that is a fault most +commendable in this castle of Thrieve. Sholto will be an honest +captain of your house-carls, if you see to it that the steward locks +up his loaves of sugar and his most toothsome preserves."</p> + +<p>"Faith," cried the Earl, heartily, "I know not but what I would join +Master Sholto in a raid on these dainties myself."</p> + +<p>In this fashion was Sholto MacKim placed in command of the house-guard +of the castle of Thrieve.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE NIGHT ALARM</h3> + + +<p>At parting with his father, the young captain received many wise and +grave instructions, all of which he resolved to remember and profit +by—a resolution which he did not fail to keep for full five minutes.</p> + +<p>"Be douce in deportment," said his father, speaking quietly and yet +with a certain sternness of demeanour. "Think three times before you +give an order, but let no man think even once before obeying it. Set +him astraddle the wooden horse with a spear shaft at either foot to +teach him that a soldier's first duty is not to think. Keep your eyes +more on the alert for the approach of an enemy than for the ankles of +the women-folk at the turnings of the turret stairs."</p> + +<p>To these and many other maxims out of the incorporate wisdom of the +elders, Sholto promised most faithful attendance, and, for the time +being, he fully intended to keep his word. But no sooner was his +father gone, and he introduced to his new quarters and duties by David +Douglas, the Earl's younger brother, than he began to wonder which was +the window of Maud Lindesay's chamber and speculate on how soon he +would see her thereat.</p> + +<p>In the castle of Thrieve that night there was little sleeping room to +spare. The Earl and his brother lay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> wrapped in their plaids in one of +the round towers of the outer defences. In the castle hall the +retainers of the French ambassador slept side by side, or heads and +tails with the archers of the house-guard. Lights flickered on the +turnpike stair which led to the upper floors. The servitors had +cleared the great hall, and here on a dais, raised above the "marsh" +and sheltered by an arras curtain hastily arranged, James the Gross +slept on a soft French bed, which he had caused to be brought all the +way from his castle of Strathavon on the moors of Lanarkshire.</p> + +<p>In the Earl's chamber on the third floor was lodged the Marshal de +Retz. Next him ranged the apartment of the countess. Here also was the +Lady Sybilla at the end of the passage in the guest chamber which +looked to the north, and from the windows of which she could see the +broad river dividing itself about the castle island, and flowing as +calmly on as if the stern feudal pile had been a peaceful monastery +and the waving war banners no more than so many signs of holy cross.</p> + +<p>Above, in the low-roofed chambers, which gave upon the wooden balcony, +were the apartments of Maud Lindesay and her charge, little Margaret +Douglas, the Fair Maid of Galloway.</p> + +<p>Now the single postern stair of the castle was shut at the foot, where +it opened out upon the hall of the guard by a sparred iron gate, the +key of which was put into Sholto's charge. The night closed early upon +the castle-ful of wearied folk. The marshals of the camps caused the +lights to be put out at nine-of-the-clock in all the tents and +pavilions, but the lamps and candles burned longer in the castle +itself, where the Earl had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> giving a banquet to his guests, of +the best that his estates could afford. Nevertheless, it was yet long +before midnight when the cheep of the mouse in the wainscot, the +restless stir or muffled snore of a crowded sleeper in the guardroom, +was the only sound to be heard from dungeon to banner-staff of the +great castle.</p> + +<p>Sholto's heart throbbed tumultuous and insurgent within him. And small +is the wonder. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined such a fate +as this, to be actual captain of the Earl's own body-guard, even +though neither title nor emolument was yet wholly his; better still, +that he should dwell night and day within arm's reach almost of the +desire of his heart, flinty-bosomed and mischievous as she was—these +were heights of good fortune to which his imagination had never +climbed in its most daring ascents.</p> + +<p>No longer did he envy his brother's good fortune, as he had been +somewhat inclined to do earlier in the day, when he thought of +returning to wield the forehammer all alone in his father's smithy.</p> + +<p>The first night of Captain Sholto's responsibility in the castle of +Thrieve was destined to be a memorable one. To the youth himself it +would have appeared so in any case. Only a panelled door divided him +from the girl who, wayward and scornful as she had ever been to him, +yet kept his heart dangling at her waist-belt as truly as if it had +been the golden key of her armoire.</p> + +<p>The ancient Sir John of Abernethy, dubbed Landless Jock, would not be +separated from his masters, and slept with two sergeants of the guard +in the turret adjacent to that in which the brothers of Douglas, +William and David, lay in the first sleep of youth and an easy mind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sholto therefore found himself left with the undivided responsibility +for the safety of the castle and all who dwelt within it. He was also +the only man who, by reason of his charge and in virtue of his +master-key, was permitted to circulate freely through all the floors +and passages of the vast feudal pile.</p> + +<p>Sholto went out to the barred gate of the castle, where in a little +cubbyhole dark even at noonday, and black as Egypt now, the warder +slept with his hand upon his keys, and his head touching the lever of +the gear wherewith he drew the creaking portcullis up and rolled back +the iron doors which shut the keep off from the world of the wide +outer courtyard and the garrison which manned the turrets.</p> + +<p>The porter, Hugh MacCalmont, sat up on his elbow at Sholto's +salutation, only enough to see his visitor by the glint of the little +iron "cruisie" lamp hanging upon the wall. He knew him by the golden +chain of office which the Earl had given Sholto.</p> + +<p>"Captain of the guard," he muttered, "Lord, here's advancement indeed. +My lord might have remembered me that have served him faithfully these +thirty years, opening and shutting without mistake. He might have +named me captain of the guard, and not this limber Jack. But the young +love the young, and in truth 'tis natural. But what Landless Jock will +say when he comes to have this sprat set over him, I know not but I +can guess!"</p> + +<p>Satisfied that all was safe there, Sholto stepped gingerly over the +reclining forms of the first relief guard, who lay wrapped in their +cloaks, every man grasping his arms. Most of these were lying in the +dead sleep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> of tired men, whilst others restlessly moved about this +way and that, as if seeking an easier adaptation of their bones to the +corners of the blue whinstones and rough shell lime than had been +provided for when the castle was built by Archibald the Grim, Lord of +Thrieve and Galloway.</p> + +<p>Close by the last turn of the turret staircase yawned the iron-sparred +mouth of the dungeon, in which in its time many a notable prisoner had +been immured. It was closed with a huge grid of curved iron bars, each +as thick as a man's arm, cunningly held together by a gigantic +padlock, the key of which was nightly taken to the sleeping-room of +the Earl—whether, as was now the case, the cell stood empty, or +whether it contained an English lord waiting ransom or a rebellious +baron expectant of his morning summons to the dule tree of the Black +Douglas.</p> + +<p>Then taking the master-key from his belt, Sholto unlocked the sparred +gate leading from the <i>salle de garde</i> into the turret stair which was +the sole communication with the upper floors of the castle.</p> + +<p>Slowly, and with a step no louder than the beating of his own heart, +he went upwards, glancing in midway upon the banquet hall, where the +dim light from the postern without revealed a number of dark forms +wrapped in slumber lying on the dining-table and on the floor; +ascending yet higher he came to the floor where slept the Countess of +Douglas, the Lady Sybilla, and in the Earl's own chamber the Marshal +de Retz, ambassador of the King of France.</p> + +<p>Sholto stood a moment with his hand raised in a listening attitude, +before he ventured to ascend those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> narrower stairs which led to the +uppermost floor of all, on which were the chambers occupied by the +little Maid Margaret and her companion and gossip Mistress Maud +Lindesay.</p> + +<p>He told himself that it was his duty to see to the safety of the whole +castle; that he had special instructions to visit three times, during +the course of each night of duty, all the passages and corridors of +the fortress. But nevertheless it needed all his courage to enable +Sholto to perform the task which had been laid upon him. As he dragged +one foot after the other up the turret stairs, it seemed as if a +leaden clog had been attached to each pointed shoe.</p> + +<p>He had also a vague sense of being watched by presences invisible to +him, but malign in their nature. Again and again he caught himself +listening for footsteps which seemed to dog his own. He heard +mysterious whisperings that flouted his utmost vigilance, and mocking +laughter that lurked in unseen crevices and broke out so soon as he +had passed.</p> + +<p>Sholto set his hand firmly upon his sword handle and bit his lips, +lest even to himself he should own his uneasiness. It was not seemly +that the captain of the Douglas guard should be frightened by shadows.</p> + +<p>Passing the corridor which led towards the sleeping rooms of the maid +and her companion, he ascended to the roof of the castle, thrusting +aside the turret door and issuing upon the wide, open spaces with an +assured step. The cool breeze from the west restored him to himself in +a moment. The waning moon cast a pale light across the landscape, and +he could see the tents on the castle island glimmer greyish white +beneath him. Beyond that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> again was the shining confluence of the +sluggish river about the isle, and the dark line of the woods of +Balmaghie opposite. He had begun to meditate on the rapid changes of +circumstance which had overtaken him, when suddenly a shrill and +piercing shriek rang out, coming up through the castle beneath, again +and again repeated. It was like the cry of a child in the grip of +instant and deadly terror.</p> + +<p>Sholto's heart gave a great bound. That something untoward should +happen on this the first night of his charge was too disastrous. He +drew his sword and set in his lips the silver call which depended from +the chain of office the Earl had thrown about his neck when he made +him captain of his guard.</p> + +<p>His feet hardly touched the stone stairs as he flew downwards, and +wings were added to his haste by the sounds of fear which continued to +increase. In another moment he was upon the last step of the turnpike +and at the entrance of the corridor which led to the rooms of the +little Lady Margaret and Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>As Sholto came rushing down the steep descent from the roof he caught +sight of a dark and shaggy beast running on all fours just turning out +of the corridor, and taking the first step of the descent towards the +floor beneath. Without pausing to consider, Sholto lunged forward with +all his might, and his sword struck the fugitive quadruped behind the +shoulder. He had time to see in the pale bluish flicker of the +<i>cruisie</i> lamp that the beast he had wounded was of a dark colour, and +that its head seemed immensely too large for its body.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the thing did not fall, but ran on and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> vanished out of +Sholto's sight. The young man again set the silver call to his lips +and blew. The next moment he could hear the soldiers of the guard +clattering upward from their hall, and he himself ran along the +corridor towards the place whence the screams of terror seemed to +proceed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>SHOLTO CAPTURES A PRISONER OF DISTINCTION</h3> + + +<p>He found that the noise came from the chamber occupied by the little +Lady Margaret. When he arrived at the door it stood open to the wall. +The child was sitting up on her bed, clothed in the white garmentry of +the night. Bending over her, with her arms round the heaving shoulders +of the little girl, Sholto saw Maud Lindesay, clad in a dark, hooded +mantle thrown with the appearance of haste about her. The door of the +next chamber also stood wide, and from the coverlets cast on the floor +it was obvious that its occupant had left it hastily in order to fly +to her friend's assistance.</p> + +<p>At the sound of hasty footsteps Maud Lindesay turned about, and was +instantly stricken pale and astonished by the sight of the young man +with his sword bare. She cried aloud with a stern and defiant +countenance, "Sholto MacKim, what do you here?"</p> + +<p>And before he had time to answer, the little girl looked at him out of +her friend's arms and called out: "O Sholto, Sholto, I am so glad you +are come. I woke to find such a terrible thing looking at me out of +the night. It was shaped like a great wolf, but it was rough of hide, +and had upon it a head like a man's. I was so terrified that at first +I could not cry out. But when it came nearer, and gazed at me, then I +cried. Do not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> go away, Sholto. I am so glad, so glad that you are +here."</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay had again turned towards Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Hush," she said soothingly, "it was a dream. You were frighted by a +vision, by a nightmare, by a succubus of the night. There is no beast +within the castle."</p> + +<p>"But I saw it plainly," the maid cried. "It opened the door as if it +had hands—I saw it stand there by the bed and look at me—oh, so +terribly! I saw its teeth glisten and heard them snap together!"</p> + +<p>"Little one, be still, it was but a dream," said Sholto, untruthfully; +"nevertheless I will go and search the rest of the castle."</p> + +<p>And with these words he went along the corridor, finding the men whom +he had summoned by means of his captain's silver call clustered upon +the landing of the turret stair which communicated with the third +floor. As he glanced along the oak-panelled corridor, it seemed to +Sholto that he discerned a figure vanishing at the further end. +Instantly he resolved on searching, and summoning his men to follow, +he led the way down the passage, sword in hand. As he went he snatched +the lamp from its pin on the wall, and held it in his left high above +his head.</p> + +<p>At the further end of the corridor was the door of a little chamber, +and it seemed to Sholto that the shape he had seen must have +disappeared at this point.</p> + +<p>He knocked loudly on the door with the hilt of his sword, and cried, +"If any be within, open—in the name of the Earl!"</p> + +<p>No voice replied, and Sholto boldly set his foot against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> the lower +panelling, and drove the door back to the wall with a clang.</p> + +<p>Then at sight of a something dark, wrapped in a cloak, standing +motionless against the window, the young captain of the guard elevated +his lamp, and let the flicker of the light fall on the erect figure +and haughty face of a young man, who, with his hand on his hip, stood +considering the rude advance of his pursuers with a calm and +questioning gaze.</p> + +<p>It was the Earl of Douglas himself.</p> + +<p>Sholto stood petrified at sight of him, and for a long minute could in +no wise recover his self-control nor regain any use of his tongue.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Earl, haughtily, "whence this unseemly uproar? What +do you here, Sholto?"</p> + +<p>Then the spirit of his father came upon the young captain of the +guard. He knew that he had only done his duty in its strictness, and +he boldly answered the Earl: "Nay, my lord, were it not for courtesy, +I have more right to ask you that question. Your sister hath been +frighted, and at sound of her terror all we who were dispersed +throughout the castle rushed to the spot. As I came down the stairs +from the roof at speed, I saw something like to a great wolf about to +descend the turret before me. With my sword I struck at it, and to all +appearance wounded it. It vanished, and after searching the castle I +can find neither wolf nor dog. But I saw, as it seemed, a figure enter +this room, and upon opening it I find—the Earl of Douglas. That is +all I know, and I leave the matter in my lord's own hands."</p> + +<p>The haughty look gradually disappeared from the face of the Earl as +Sholto spoke.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> + +<p>Smilingly he dismissed the guard with a word, saying that he would +inquire into the cause of the disturbance in person, and then turned +to Sholto.</p> + +<p>"You are right," he said, "you have entirely done your duty and +justified my appointment."</p> + +<p>He paused, looked this way and that along the corridor, and continued:</p> + +<p>"It chanced that in the tower without I could not sleep, and feeling +uneasy concerning my guests, I entered the castle by the private door +and staircase which leads into the apartment corresponding to this on +the floor beneath. I was assuring myself that you were doing your duty +when, being disturbed by the sudden hubbub, and judging it needless +that the men-at-arms should know of my presence in the castle, I came +in hither till the matter should have blown over. And so, but for your +good conscience and the keenness of your vision, the matter would have +ended."</p> + +<p>Sholto bowed coldly.</p> + +<p>"But, my lord," he said, ignoring the Earl's explanation, "the matter +grows more mysterious than ever. Your sister, the little Lady +Margaret, hath been grievously frighted by an appearance like a great +beast which (so she affirms) opened the door of her chamber and looked +within."</p> + +<p>"She but dreamed," said the Earl, carelessly; "such visions come from +supping late."</p> + +<p>"But, with all respect, your lordship," continued Sholto, "I also saw +the appearance even as I ran down the stairs from the roof at the +noise of her crying."</p> + +<p>"You were startled—excited, and but thought you saw."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sholto reversed his sword, which he had held with the point towards +the ground while he was speaking with his lord the Earl.</p> + +<p>Holding the blade midway with much deference, he presented the hilt to +William Douglas.</p> + +<p>"Will you examine the point of this sword?" he said.</p> + +<p>The Earl came a step nearer to him and Sholto advanced the steel till +it was immediately beneath the lamp. There was blood upon the last +inch or so of the blade. The Earl suddenly became violently agitated.</p> + +<p>"This is indeed passing strange. There is no hound within the castle +nor has there been for years. Even the presence of a lap-dog will fret +my mother, so in my father's time they were every one removed to the +kennels at the further end of the isle of Thrieve, whence even their +howling cannot be heard. But let us proceed to the Lady Margaret, and +on our way examine the place where you saw the apparition."</p> + +<p>Sholto stood aside for the Earl to pass, but with a wave of his hand +the latter said courteously, "Nay, but do you lead the way, captain of +the guard."</p> + +<p>They passed the door of the chamber where lay the Lady Sybilla. The +niece of the ambassador must have been a heavy sleeper, for there was +no sound within. Opposite was the chamber of the Earl's mother. She +also appeared to be undisturbed, but the increasing deafness of the +Countess offered a complete explanation of her tranquillity.</p> + +<p>Next the two young men came to the door of the marshal's chamber. As +they were about to pass, it opened silently, and a man-servant with a +closely cropped obsequious head appeared within. He unclosed the door +no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> further than would permit of his exit, and then he shut it again +behind him, and stood holding the latch in his hand.</p> + +<p>"His Excellency, being overfatigued, hath need of a little strong +spirit," he said, with a curious gobbling movement of his throat as if +he himself had been either thirsty or in deadly and overmastering +fear.</p> + +<p>The Earl ordered Sholto to wake the cellarer and bid him bring the +ambassador of France that which he required. He himself would go +onward to his sister's chamber. Sholto somewhat sullenly obeyed, for +his heart was hot and angry within him. He thought that he began to +see clearly the motive of the Earl's presence in the castle. The youth +was himself so deeply and hopelessly in love with Mistress Maud +Lindesay that he could not understand any other of his sex being +insensible to the charm of her beauty and myriad winsome graces.</p> + +<p>As he went down the stairs he recalled a thousand circumstances to +mind which now seemed capable of but one explanation. It was evident +that the Earl William came to visit some one by means of the private +staircase under cloud of night. Nay, more, Maud Lindesay and he might +be already privately married, and the matter kept secret on account of +the pride of his family, who devised another match for him. For though +the daughter of a knight, Maud Lindesay was assuredly no fit mate for +the head of the more than regal house of Douglas. He remembered how on +Sundays and saints' days Earl William always rode to and from the kirk +with his sister on one side and Maud Lindesay on the other. That the +young Earl was by no means insensible to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> beauty, Sholto knew well, +and he remembered his words to his own father, when he had asked to be +allowed to accompany him on his Flanders mare, that such attendance +was not seemly when a man was going a-courting.</p> + +<p>As is always the case, he grew more and more confirmed in his ill +humour, so soon as the eye of jealousy began to view everything in the +light of prepossession.</p> + +<p>Sholto awaked the cellarer out of his crib, who, presently, with +snorts of disdain and much jangling of steel keys, drew half a tankard +from a keg of spirit in the cellar on the dungeon floor and handed it +grudgingly to the captain of the guard.</p> + +<p>"The Frenchman wants it, does he?" he growled. "Had the messenger been +old Landless Jock, I had known down whose Scottish throat it had gone, +but this one is surely too young for such tricks. See that you spill +it not by the way, Master Sholto," he called out after him, as that +youth betook himself up to the chamber of the ambassador of France.</p> + +<p>At the shut portal he paused and knocked. His hand was on the pin to +enter with the tankard as was the custom. But the door opened no more +than an inch or two, and the dark face of the cropped servitor +appeared in the crevice.</p> + +<p>"In a moment, sir," he said, and again vanished within, while a strong +animal odour disengaged itself almost like something tangible from the +chinks of the doorway.</p> + +<p>Sholto stood in astonishment with the <i>eau de vie</i> in his hand, till +presently the door was opened again very quickly. The form of the +servitor was seen, and with a swift edging motion he came out, drawing +the door be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>hind him as before. He held a bar of iron in his hand like +the fastening of a window, and a little breath of heat told the +smith's son that though black it was still warm from the fire.</p> + +<p>"Take this iron," he said abruptly, "and bring it to me fully heated. +I am finishing a little device which his Excellency needs for the +combat of the morrow."</p> + +<p>The captain of the guard was nettled at the man's tone. Also he +desired much to know what his master was doing on the floor above.</p> + +<p>"Heat it at your own nose, fellow," he said rudely; "I am captain of +the castle-guard, and must attend to my own business. Take the spirit +out of my hand if you do not want it thrown in your face."</p> + +<p>The swarthy, bullet-headed man glared at him with eyes like burning +coals, but Sholto cared no jot for his anger. Forthwith he turned his +back upon him, glad at heart to have found some one to quarrel with, +and hoping that the ambassador's squire might prove courageous and +challenge him to fight on the morrow.</p> + +<p>But the man only replied: "I am Henriet, servant of the marshal. I bid +you remember that I shall make you live to regret these words."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>THE LAMP IS BLOWN OUT</h3> + + +<p>The door of Margaret Douglas's chamber still stood open, and Sholto +found Earl William seated upon the foot of the bed, endeavouring by +every means in his power to distract his sister's attention from her +fears. Maud Lindesay, now more completely dressed than when he had +first seen her, sat on the other side of the little lady's couch. She +was laughing as he entered at some merry jest of the Earl's. And at +the sound of her tinkling mirth Sholto's heart sank within him. So +soon as she caught sight of the new captain of the guard the gladness +left her face, and she became grave and sober, like a gossip long +unconfessed when the holy father comes knocking at the door.</p> + +<p>At sight of her emotion Sholto resolved that if his fears should prove +to be well founded, he would resign his honourable office. For to +abide continually in the castle, and hourly observe Maud Lindesay's +love for another, was more than his philosophy could stand.</p> + +<p>In the meantime there was only his duty to be done. So he saluted the +Earl, and in a few words told him that which he had seen. But the soul +of William Douglas was utterly devoid of suspicion, both because he +held himself so great that none could touch him, and also because, +being high of spirit and open as the sky, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> read into the acts of +others his own straightforwardness and unsuspicion.</p> + +<p>The Earl rose smilingly, declaring to Margaret that to-morrow he would +hang every dog and puppy in Galloway on the dule tree of Thrieve, +whereupon the child began to plead for the life of this cur and that +other of her personal acquaintances with a tearful earnestness which +told of a sorely jangled mind.</p> + +<p>"Well, at least," cried Earl Douglas, "I will not have such brutes +prowling about my castle of Thrieve even in my sister's dreams. +Captain Sholto, do you station a man of your guard in the angle of the +staircase where it looks along each corridor. Pick out your prettiest +cross-bowmen, for it were not seemly that my guests should be +disturbed by the rude shots and villanous reek of the fusil."</p> + +<p>Sholto bowed stiffly and waited the further pleasure of his master. +Then the two young men went out without Maud Lindesay having uttered a +word, or manifested the least surprise at the advancement which had +befallen the heir of the master armourer of Carlinwark.</p> + +<p>As soon as the door had closed upon the two maidens, the Earl turned a +face suddenly grave and earnest on his young captain of the guard.</p> + +<p>"What think you," he said, "was this appearance real?"</p> + +<p>"Real enough to leave these upon the floor," answered Sholto, pointing +to sundry gouts and drops of blood upon the turret stairs.</p> + +<p>The Earl took the lamp from his hand and earnestly scrutinised each +step in a downward direction. The spots ran irregularly as if the +wounded beast had shaken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> his head from side to side as he ran. They +turned along towards the corridor where at the first alarm Sholto had +found the Earl, and in the very midst of it abruptly stopped. While +Sholto and William Douglas were examining the floor, they both looked +over their shoulders, uneasily conscious of a regard upon them, as if +some one, unseen himself, had been looking down from behind.</p> + +<p>"Do you place your men as I told you," said the Earl, abruptly, "and +bring me a truckle bed out of the guardroom. I shall remain in this +closet till morning. But do you keep a special lookout on the floor +above, that the repose of my sister and her friend be not again +disturbed."</p> + +<p>Sholto bowed without speech, and hastening down to the guardroom he +commanded two of his best bowmen to follow him with their apparatus, +while he himself snatched up the low truckle couch which custom +assigned to the captain of the guard should he desire to rest himself +during the night, and on which Landless Jock had always passed the +majority of his hours of duty. This he carried to the Earl, and +placing it in the angle he saw his youthful master stretch himself +upon it, wrapped in his cloak and with a naked sword ready to his +hand.</p> + +<p>"A good and undisturbed slumber to you, my lord," said Sholto, curtly, +as he went out.</p> + +<p>He saw that his two men were duly posted upon the lower landing of the +stair, and then betook himself to the upper floor where slept the +little Maid of Galloway.</p> + +<p>He walked slowly to the end of the passage scrutinising every recess +and closet door, every garde-robe and wall press from which it was +possible that the beast he had seen might have emerged. He was wholly +unsuccessful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> in discovering anything suspicious, and had almost +resolved to station himself at the turn of the staircase which led +down from the roof, when, looking back, at the sharp click of a latch, +he saw Maud Lindesay coming out of the chamber of the little Maid of +Galloway.</p> + +<p>Softly closing the door behind her, she paused a moment as if +undecided, and then more with her chin than with her finger she +beckoned him to approach.</p> + +<p>"She sleeps," said the girl, softly, "but so uncertainly and with so +many startings of terror, that I will not leave her alone. Will you +aid me to remove the mattress of my couch and lay it on the floor +beside her?"</p> + +<p>Sholto signified his willingness. His mind was more than ever +oppressed by the thought that the Earl of Douglas loved this girl, +whom he had found listening to his jests with such frank joyousness.</p> + +<p>Maud stayed him with one of the long looks out from under her +eyelashes. The dark violet orbs rested upon him a moment reproachfully +with a hurt expression in their depths, and were then dropped with a +sigh.</p> + +<p>"You are still angry with me," she said, a little wistfully, "and I +wanted to tell you how happy it made me—made us, I mean—when we +heard that you were to be captain of the castle-guard instead of that +grumbling old curmudgeon, Jock of Abernethy."</p> + +<p>The heart of Sholto was instantly melted, more by her looks than by +her words, though deep within him he had still an angry feeling that +he was being played with. All the same, and in spite of his resolves, +the eyeshot from under those dark and sweeping lashes did its usual +and deadly work.</p> + +<p>"I did not know that aught which might befall me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> could be anything to +Mistress Maud Lindesay," said Sholto, with the last shreds of dignity +in his voice.</p> + +<p>"I said not to me, but to <i>us</i>," she corrected, smiling; "but tell me +what think you of this appearance which has so startled our Margaret. +Was it ghost or goblin or dream of the night? We have never had either +witch or warlock about the house of Thrieve since the old Abbot Gawain +laid the ghost of Archibald the Grim with four-and-forty masses, said +without ever breaking his fast, down there in the castle chapel."</p> + +<p>"Nay, ask me not," answered Sholto, "I am little skilled in matters +spiritual. I should try sword point and arrowhead on such gentry, and +if these do them no harm, why then I think they will not distress me +much."</p> + +<p>But all the same he said nothing to the girl about the red blood on +his sword or the splashed gouts on the steps of the staircase.</p> + +<p>He followed Maud Lindesay into her chamber, and being arrived there, +lifted couch and all in his arms, with an ease born of long +apprenticeship to the forehammer. The girl regarded him with +admiration which she was careful not to dissemble.</p> + +<p>"You are very strong," she said. Then, after a pause, she added, +"Margaret and I like strong men."</p> + +<p>The heart of the youth was glad within him, thus to be called a man, +even though he kept saying over and over to himself: "She means it +not! She means it not! She loves the Earl! I know well she loves the +Earl!"</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay paused a moment before the chamber door of her little +charge, finger on lip, listening.</p> + +<p>"She sleeps—go quietly," she whispered, holding the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> door open for +him. He set down the bed where she showed him—by the side of the +small slumbering figure of the Maid of Galloway.</p> + +<p>Then he went softly to the door. The girl followed him. "You will not +be far away," she said doubtfully and with a perilous sort of +humility, "if this dreadful thing should come back again? I—that is +we, would feel safer if we knew that you—that any one strong and +brave was near at hand."</p> + +<p>Then the heart of Sholto broke out in quick anger.</p> + +<p>"Deceive me not," he cried, "I know well that the Earl loves you, and +that you love him in return."</p> + +<p>"Well, indeed, were it for my lord Earl if he loved as honest a +woman," said Maud Lindesay, pouting disdainfully. "But what is such a +matter, yea or nay, to you?"</p> + +<p>"It is all life and happiness to me," said Sholto, earnestly. "Ah, do +not go—stay a moment. I shall never sleep this night if you go +without giving me an answer."</p> + +<p>"Then," said the girl, "you will be the more in the line of your duty, +which allows not much sleep o' nights. You are but a silly, petulant +boy for all your fine captaincy. I wish it had been Landless Jock. He +would never have vexed me with foolish questions at such a time."</p> + +<p>"But I love you, and I demand an answer," cried Sholto, fuming. "Do +you love the Earl?"</p> + +<p>"What do you think yourself now?" she said, looking up at him with an +inimitable slyness, and pronouncing her words so as to imitate the +broad simplicity of countryside speech.</p> + +<p>Sholto vented a short gasp or inarticulate snort of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> anger, at which +Maud Lindesay started back with affected terror.</p> + +<p>"Do not fright a poor maid," she said. "Will you put me in the castle +dungeon if I do not answer? Tell me exactly what you want me to say, +and I will say it, most mighty captain."</p> + +<p>And she made him the prettiest little courtesy, turning at the same +time her eyes in mock humility on the ground.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Maud Lindesay," said Sholto, with a little conflicting sob in his +throat, ill becoming so noted a warrior as the captain of the +castle-guard of the Black Douglas, "if you knew how I loved you, you +would not treat me thus."</p> + +<p>The girl came nearer to him and laid a white and gentle hand on the +sleeve of his blue archer's coat.</p> + +<p>"Nay, lad," she said more soberly, lifting a finger to his face, +"surely you are no milksop to mind how a girl flouts you. Love the +Earl—say you? Well, is it not our duty to the bread we eat? Is he not +worthy? Is he not the head of our house?"</p> + +<p>"Cheat me not with words. The Earl loves you," said Sholto, lifting +his head haughtily out of her reach. (To have one's chin pushed this +way and that by a girl's forefinger, and as it were considered +critically from various points of view, may be pleasant, but it +interferes most seriously with dignity.)</p> + +<p>"He may, indeed," drolled the minx, "one can never tell. But he has +never said so. He is perhaps afraid, being born without the +self-conceit of some people—archers of the guard, fledgling captains, +and such-like gentrice."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you love him?" reiterated Sholto, determinedly.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you for that gold buckle," said Maud, calmly pointing +with her finger.</p> + +<p>Instantly Sholto pulled the cap from his head, undid the pin of the +archery prize, and thrust it into his wicked sweetheart's hands.</p> + +<p>She received it with a little cry of joy, then she pressed it to her +lips. Sholto, rejoicing at heart, moved a step nearer to her. But, in +spite of her arch delight, she was on the alert, for she retreated +deftly and featly within the chamber door of the Fair Maid of +Galloway. There was still more mirthful wickedness in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Love the Earl?—Of course I do. Indeed, I doat upon him," she said. +"How I shall love this buckle, just because his hand gave it to you!"</p> + +<p>And with that she shut to the door.</p> + +<p>Sholto, in act to advance, stood a moment poised on one foot like a +goose. Then with a heart blazing with anger, and one of the first +oaths that had ever passed his lips, he turned on his heel and strode +away.</p> + +<p>"I will never think of her again—I will never see her. I will go to +France and perish in battle. I will throw me in the castle pool. I +will—"</p> + +<p>So the poor lad retreated, muttering hot and angry words, all his +heart sore within him because of the cruelty of this girl.</p> + +<p>But he had not proceeded twenty steps along the corridor, when he +heard the door softly open and a low voice whispered, "Sholto! Sholto! +I want you, Sholto!"</p> + +<p>He bent his brows and strode manfully on as if he had not heard a +word.</p> + +<p>"Sholto!—dear Sholto! Do not go, I need you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p>Against his will he turned, and, seeing the head of Maud Lindesay, her +pouting lips and beckoning finger, he went sulkily back.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he said, with the stern curtness of a military commander, as +he stood before her.</p> + +<p>She held the iron lamp in her hand. The wick had fallen aside and was +now wasting itself in a broad, unequal yellow flame. The maid of +honour looked at it in perplexity, knitting her pretty brows in a mock +frown.</p> + +<p>"It burned me as I was ordering my hair," she said. "I cannot blow it +out. I dare not. Will you—will you blow it out for me, Captain +Sholto?"</p> + +<p>She spoke with a sweet childlike humility.</p> + +<p>And she held the lamp up so that the iron handle was almost touching +her soft cheek. There was a dancing challenge in her dark eyes and her +lips smiled dangerously red. She could not, of course, have known that +the light made her look so beautiful, or she would have been more +careful.</p> + +<p>Sholto stood still a moment, at wrestle with himself, trying to +conquer his dignity, and to retain his attitude of stern disapproval.</p> + +<p>But the girl swept her lashes up towards him, dropped them again dark +as night upon her cheek, and anon looked a second time at him.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," she said, more than ever like a child. "Forgive me, +and—the lamp is so hot."</p> + +<p>Now Sholto was young and inexperienced, but he was not quite a fool. +He stooped and blew out the light, and the next moment his lips rested +upon other lips which, as it had been unconsciously, resigned their +soft sweetness to his will.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then the door closed, and he heard the click of the lock as the bolts +were shot from within. The gallery ran round and round about him like +a clacking wheel. His heart beat tumultuously, and there was a strange +humming sound in his ears.</p> + +<p>The captain of the guard stumbled half distracted down the turret +stair.</p> + +<p>The old world had been destroyed in a moment and he was walking in a +new, where perpetual roses bloomed and the spring birds sang for +evermore. He knew not, this poor foolish Sholto, that he had much to +learn ere he should know all the tricks and stratagems of this most +naughty and prettily disdainful minx, Mistress Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>But for that night at least he thought he knew her heart and soul, +which made him just as happy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MORNING LIGHT</h3> + + +<p>In the morning Sholto MacKim had other views of it. Even when at last +he was relieved from duty he never closed an eye. The blowing out of +the lamp had turned his ideas and hopes all topsy-turvy. His heart +sang loud and turbulent within him. He had kissed other girls indeed +before at kirns and country dances. He laughed triumphantly within him +at the difference. They had run into corners and screamed and +struggled, and held up ineffectual hands. And when his lips did reach +their goal, it was generally upon the bridge of a nose or a tip of an +ear. He could not remember any especial pleasure accompanying the +rite.</p> + +<p>But this! The bolt of an arbalast could not have given him a more +instant or tremendous shock. His nerves still quivered responsive to +the tremulous yielding of the lips he had touched for a moment in the +dark of the doorway. He felt that never could he be the same man he +had been before. Deep in his heart he laughed at the thought.</p> + +<p>And then again, with a quick revulsion, the return wave came upon him. +"How, if she be as untouched as her beauty is fresh, has she learned +that skill in caressing?"</p> + +<p>He paused to think the matter over.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I remember my father saying that a wise man should always mistrust a +girl who kisses overwell."</p> + +<p>Then again his better self would reassert itself.</p> + +<p>"No," he would argue, tramping up and down the corridor, wheeling in +the short bounds of the turnpike head, and again returning upon his +own footsteps, "why should I belie her? She is as pure as the +air—only, of course, she is different to all others. She speaks +differently; her eyes are different, her hair, her hands—why should +she not be different also in this?"</p> + +<p>But when Maud Lindesay met Sholto in the morning, coming suddenly upon +him as he stood, with a pale face and dark rings of sleeplessness +about his eyes, as he looked meditatively out upon the broad river and +the blue smoke of the morning campfires, there was yet another +difference to be revealed to him. He had expected that, like others, +she would be confused and bashful meeting him thus in the daylight, +after—well, after the volcanic extinguishing of the lamp.</p> + +<p>But there she stood, dainty and calm under the morning sunshine, in +fresh clean gown of lace and varied whiteness, her face grave as a +benediction, her eyes deep and cool like the water of the castle well.</p> + +<p>Sholto started violently at sight of her, recovered himself, and +eagerly held out both his hands.</p> + +<p>"Maud," he said hoarsely, and then again, in a lower tone, "sweetest +Maud."</p> + +<p>But pretty Mistress Lindesay only gazed at him with a certain reserved +and grave surprise, looking him straight in the face and completely +ignoring his outstretched hands.</p> + +<p>"Captain Sholto," she said steadily and calmly, "the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> Lady Margaret +desires to see you and to thank you for your last night's care and +watchfulness. Will you do me the honour to follow me to her chamber?"</p> + +<p>There was no yielding softness about this maiden of the morning hours, +no conscious droop and a swift uplifting of penitent eyelids, no +lingering glances out of love-weighted eyes. A brisk and practical +little lady rather, her feet pattering most purposefully along the +flagged passages and skipping faster than even Sholto could follow +her. But at the top of the second stairs he was overquick for her. By +taking the narrow edges of the steps he reached the landing level with +his mistress.</p> + +<p>His desire was to put out his hand to circle her lithe waist, for +nothing is so certainly reproductive of its own species as a first +kiss. But he had reckoned without the lady's mutual intent and favour, +which in matters of this kind are proverbially important. Mistress +Maud eluded him, without appearing to do so, and stood farther off, +safely poised for flight, looking down at him with cold, reproachful +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Maud Lindesay, have you forgotten last night and the lamp?" he asked +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"What may you mean, Captain Sholto?" she said, with wonderment in her +tone, "Margaret and I never use lamps. Candles are so much safer, +especially at night."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>LA JOYEUSE BAITS HER HOOK</h3> + + +<p>On the morrow, the ambassador of France being confined to his room +with a slight quinsy caught from the marshy nature of the environment +of Thrieve, the Earl escorted the Lady Sybilla to the field of the +tourney, where, as Queen of Beauty, her presence could not be +dispensed with.</p> + +<p>The Maid Margaret, the Earl's sister, remained also in the castle, not +having yet recovered from her fright of the preceding evening.</p> + +<p>With her was Maud Lindesay and her mother—"the Auld Leddy," as she +was called throughout all the wide dominions of her son.</p> + +<p>In spite of his weariness Sholto led his archer guard in person to the +field of the tournament. For this day was the day of the High Sport, +and many lances would be splintered, and often would the commonalty +need to be scourged from the barriers.</p> + +<p>But ere he went Sholto summoned two of the staunchest fellows of his +company, Andro, called the Penman, and his brother John. Then, having +posted them at either end of the corridor in which were the chambers +occupied by the two girls, he laid a straight charge, and a heavy, +upon them.</p> + +<p>"On your heads be it if you fail, or let one soul pass,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> he said. +"Stand ready with your hands on the wheel of your cross-bows, and if +any man come hither, challenge him to stand, and bid him return the +way he came. But if any dog or thing running on four feet ascend or +descend the stair, make no sound, ask no question, cry no warning, but +whang the steel bolt through his ribs, in at one side and out at the +other."</p> + +<p>Then Andro the Penman and his brother John, being silent capable +fellows, said nothing, but spat on their hands, smiled at each other +well pleased, and made the wheels of their cross-bows sing a clear +whirring note.</p> + +<p>"I would not like to be that dog—" said Andro the Swarthy.</p> + +<p>"Whose foul carcase I pray God to send speedily," echoed John the +Blond.</p> + +<p>Sholto had hoped that whilst he was at the guard-setting, he might +have had occasion to see once more the tantalising mischief-maker whom +he yet loved with all his heart, in spite of, or perhaps because of, +the distraction to which she continually reduced his spirit by means +of her manifold and incalculable contrarieties.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, it was with an easier heart that Sholto wended his way +out of the castle yett, all arrayed in the new suit of armour his lord +had sent him. It was made of chain of the finest, composed of many +rings set alternately thick and thin, and the whole was flexible as +the deer leather which he wore underneath it. Over this a doublet of +blue silk carried the Lion of Galloway done in white upon it, and all +the cerulean of the ground was dotted over with the Douglas heart. +But, greatest joy of all, there was brought to him by command of the +Earl a suitable horse, not heavily armed like a charger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> for the tilt, +but light of foot, and answering easily to the hand. Blue and red were +the silken housings, fringed with long silver lace, through which +could be seen here and there as the wind blew the sheen of the glossy +skin. The buckles and bits were also of massive silver, and at sight +of them the cup of Sholto's happiness was full. For a space, as he +gazed upon his steed, he forgot even Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>Then when he was mounted and out upon the green, waiting for the +coming forth of his lord, what delight it was to feel the noble dark +grey answer to each touch of the rein, obeying his master's thought +more than the strength of his wrist or the prick of his heel.</p> + +<p>As he waited there, his predecessor in office, old Sir John of +Abernethy, Landless Jock as he was nicknamed, came out from the main +doorway. He carried a gleaming headpiece from which the blue feather +of the Douglas fell over his arm half-way to the ground. On its front +was a lion crest which ramped among golden <i>fleur-de-lys</i>. The old man +held it up for Sholto to take.</p> + +<p>"Hae," he said in a surly tone, "this is his lordship's new helmet +just brought as a present frae the Dauphin of France. So he has cast +off the well-tried one, and with it also the auld servant that hath +served him these many years."</p> + +<p>"Nay, Sir John," said Sholto, with courtesy, taking the helmet which +it was his duty as his master's esquire to carry before him on a +velvet-covered placque, "nay—well has the good servant deserved his +rest, and to take his ease. The young to the broil and the moil, the +old to the inglenook and the cup of wine beneath the shade."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah, lad, I envy ye not, think not that of puir Landless Jock," said +the mollified old man, sadly shaking his head; "I also have tried the +new office, the shining armour, and felt the words of command rise +proudly in the throat. I envy you not, though your advancement hath +been sudden—and well—for my own son John I had hoped, though indeed +the loon is paper backed and feckless. But now there remains for me +only to go to the Kirk of Saint Bride in Douglasdale, and there set me +down by my auld master's coffin till I die."</p> + +<p>At that moment there issued forth from the gateway the young Earl, +holding by the hand the Lady Sybilla. His mother, the Countess, came +to the door to see them ride away. The Queen of the Sports was in a +merry mood, and as she tripped down the steps she turned, and looking +over her shoulder she called to the Lady Douglas, "Fear not for your +son, I will take good care of him!"</p> + +<p>But the elder woman answered neither her smile nor yet her word, but +stood like a mother who sees a first-born son treading in places +perilous, yet dares not warn him, knowing well that she would drive +him to giddier and yet more dangerous heights.</p> + +<p>The pennons of the escort fluttered in the breeze as the men on +horseback tossed their lances high in the air, in salutation of their +lord. The archer guard stood ranked and ready, bows on their shoulders +and arrows in quiver. Horses neighed, armour clanked and sparkled, and +from the moat platform twenty silver trumpets blared a fanfare as the +Lady Sybilla, the arbiter of this day's chivalry, mounted her palfrey +with the help of Earl Douglas. She thanked him with a low word in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> his +ear, audible only to himself, as he set her in the saddle and bent to +kiss her hand.</p> + +<p>A right gallant pair were Douglas and Sybilla de Thouars as they rode +away, their heads close together, over the green sward and under the +tossing banners of the bridge. Sholto was behind them giving great +heed to the managing of his horse, and wondering in his heart if +indeed Maud Lindesay were looking down from her chamber window. As +they passed the drawbridge he turned him about in his saddle, as it +were, to see that his men rode all in good order. A little jet of +white fluttered quickly from the sparred wooden gallery which clung to +the grey walls of Thrieve, just outside the highest story. And the +young man's heart told him that this was the atonement of Mistress +Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>Earl Douglas was in his gayest humour on this second day of the great +tourneying. He had got rid of his most troublesome guests. His uncle +James of Avondale, his red cousin of Angus, the grave ill-assorted +figure of the Abbot of Dulce Cor, had all vanished. Only the young and +chivalrous remained,—his cousins, William and James, Hugh and +Archibald, good lances all and excellent fellows to boot. It was also +a most noble chance that the French ambassador was confined by the +quinsy, for it was certainly pleasant to ride out alone with that +beauteous head glancing so near his shoulder, to watch at will the sun +crimsoning yet more the red lips, sparkling in the eyes that were +bright as sunshine slanting through green leaves on a water-break, and +to mark as he fell a pace behind how every hair of that luxuriant coif +rippled golden and separate, like a halo of Florentine work about the +head of a saint.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla de Thouars was merry also, but with what a different +mirth to that of Mistress Maud Lindesay—at least so thought Captain +Sholto MacKim, with a conscious glow of pride in his own Scottish +sweetheart.</p> + +<p>True, Sholto was scarce a fair judge in that he loved one and did not +love the other. He owned to himself in a moment of unusual candour +that there might be something in that. But when the gay tones of the +lady's laughter floated back on the air, as his master and she rode +forward by the edge of Dee towards the Lochar Fords, the first fear +with which he had looked upon her in the greenwood returned upon the +captain of the guard.</p> + +<p>Earl William and the Lady Sybilla talked together that which no one +else could hear.</p> + +<p>"So after all you have not become a churchman and gone off to drone +masses with the monks of your good uncle?" she said, looking up at him +with one of her lingering, drawing glances.</p> + +<p>"Nay," Earl William answered; "surely one Douglas at the time is gift +enough to holy church. At least, I can choose my own way in that, +though in most things I am as straitly constrained as the King +himself."</p> + +<p>"Speaking of the King," she said, "my uncle the Marshal must perforce +ride to Edinburgh to deliver his credentials. Would it not be a most +mirthful jest to ride with equipage such as this to that mongrel +poverty-stricken Court, and let the poor little King and his starved +guardian see what true greatness and splendour mean?"</p> + +<p>"I have sworn never again to enter Edinburgh town," said the Earl, +slowly; "it was prophesied that there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> one of my race must meet a +black bull which shall trample the house of Douglas into ruins."</p> + +<p>"Of course, if the Earl of Douglas is afraid—" mused the lady. The +young man started as if he had been stung.</p> + +<p>"Madame," he said with a sudden chill hauteur, "you come from far and +do not know. No Douglas has ever been afraid throughout all their +generations."</p> + +<p>The lady turned upon him with a sweet and moving smile. She held out +her fair hand.</p> + +<p>"Pardon—nay, a thousand pardons. I knew not what I said. I am not +acquainted with your Scottish speech nor yet with your Scottish +customs. Do not be angry with me; I am a stranger, young, far from my +own people and my own land. Think me foolish for speaking thus freely +if you like, but not wilfully unkind."</p> + +<p>And when the Earl looked at her, there were tears glittering in her +beautiful eyes.</p> + +<p>"I <i>will</i> go to Edinburgh," he cried. "I am the Douglas. The Tutor and +the Chancellor are but as two straws in my hand, a longer and a +shorter. I fling them from me—thus!"</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla clapped her hands joyously and turned towards the +young man. "Will you indeed go with me?" she cried. "Will you truly? I +could kiss your hand, my Lord Douglas, you make me so glad."</p> + +<p>"Your kiss will keep," said the Earl, with a quiet passion quivering +in his voice.</p> + +<p>"Nay, I meant it not thus—not as you mean it. I knew not what I said. +But it will indeed change all things for me if you do but come. Then I +shall have some one to speak with—some one with whom to laugh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> at +their pitiful Court mummery, their fiasco of dignity. You are not like +these other beggarly Scots, my Lord Duke of Touraine."</p> + +<p>"They are brave men and loyal gentlemen," said the generous young +Earl. "They would die for me."</p> + +<p>"Nay, but so I declare would I," gaily cried the lady, glancing at his +handsome head with a quick admiring regard. "So would I—if I were a +man. Besides, there is so little worth living for in a country such as +this."</p> + +<p>The Earl was silent and she proceeded.</p> + +<p>"But how joyous we shall be at Edinburgh! Know you that at the Court +of Charles that was my name—La Joyeuse they called me. We will keep +solemn countenances, you and I, while we enter the presence of the +King. We will bow. We will make obeisances. Then, when all is over, we +will laugh together at the fatted calf of a Tutor, the cunning +Chancellor with his quirks of law, and the poor schoolboy scarce +breeched whom they call King of Scotland. But all the while I shall be +thinking of the true King of Scots—who alone shall ever be King to +me—"</p> + +<p>At this point La Joyeuse broke off short, as if her feelings were +hurrying her to say more than she had intended.</p> + +<p>"I did wrong to flout their messengers yesterday," said William +Douglas, his boyish heart misgiving him at dispraise of others; +"perhaps they meant me well. But I am naturally quick and easily +fretted, and the men annoyed me with their parchments royal, their +heralds-of-the-Lion, and the 'King of Scots' at every other word."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Who is the youth who rides at the head of your company?" said the +Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>"His name is Sholto MacKim, and it was but yesterday that I made him +captain of my guard," answered the Earl.</p> + +<p>"I like him not," said the Lady Sybilla; "he is full of ignorance and +obstinacy and pride. Besides which, I am sure he loves me not."</p> + +<p>"Save that last, I am not sure that a Douglas has a right to dislike +him for any such faults. Ignorance, obstinacy, and pride are, indeed, +good old Galloway virtues of the ancientest descent, and not to be +despised in the captain of an archer guard."</p> + +<p>"And pray, sir, what may be the ill qualities which, in Captain +Sholto, make up for these excellent Scottish virtues?" asked the lady, +disdainfully.</p> + +<p>"He is faithful—" began the Earl.</p> + +<p>"So is every dog!" interjected Sybilla de Thouars.</p> + +<p>The Earl laughed a little gay laugh.</p> + +<p>"There is one dog somewhere about the castle, licking an unhealed +sword-thrust, that wishes our Sholto had been a trifle less faithful."</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla sat silent in her saddle for a space; then, striking +abruptly into a new subject, she said, "Do you defend the lists +to-day?"</p> + +<p>"Nay," answered the Earl, "to-day it is my good fortune to sit by your +side and hold the truncheon while others meet in the shock. But the +knight who this day gains the prize, to-morrow must choose a side +against me and fight a <i>mêlée</i>."</p> + +<p>"Ah," cried the girl, "I would that my uncle were healed of his +quinsy. He loveth that sport. He says<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> that he is too old to defend +his shield all day against every comer, but in the <i>mêlée</i> he is still +as good a lance as when he rode by the side of the Maid over the +bridge of Orleans."</p> + +<p>"That is well thought of," cried the Earl; "he shall lead the Knights +of the Blue in my place."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my Lord Duke," cried the Lady Sybilla, "more than anything on +earth I desire to see you bear arms on the field of honour."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am no great lance," replied the Douglas, modestly; "I am yet +too young and light. As things go now, the butterfly cannot tilt +against the beef barrel when both are trussed into armour. But with +the bare sword I will fight all day and be hungry for more. Aye, or +rattle a merry rally with the quarter-staff like any common varlet. +But at both Sholto there is my master, and doth ofttimes swinge me +tightly for my soul's good."</p> + +<p>The lady went on quickly, as if avoiding any further mention of +Sholto's name.</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, to-morrow I must see you ride in the lists. My uncle +says that your father was a mighty lance when he rode at Amboise, on +the famous day of the Thirteen Victories."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but my father was twice the man that I am," said the Earl, who +had not taken his eyes from her face since she began to speak.</p> + +<p>"Great alike in love and war?" she queried, smiling.</p> + +<p>"So, at least, it is reported of him in Touraine," answered his son, +smiling back at her.</p> + +<p>"He loved and rode away, like all your race!" cried the girl, with a +strange sudden flicker of passion which died as suddenly. "But I think +it not of you, Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> William. I know you could be true—that is, where +you truly loved."</p> + +<p>And as she spoke she looked at him with a questioning eagerness in her +eyes which was almost pitiful.</p> + +<p>"I do love and I am loyal," said the young man, with a grave quiet +which became him well, and ought to have served him better with a +woman than many protestations.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>ANDRO THE PENMAN GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STEWARDSHIP</h3> + + +<p>In the fighting of that day James Douglas, the second son of the fat +Earl of Avondale, won the prize, worsting his elder brother William in +the final encounter. The victor was a nobly formed youth, of strength +and stature greater than those of his brother, but without William of +Avondale's haughty spirit and stern self-discipline.</p> + +<p>For James Douglas had the easy popular virtues which would drink with +any drawer or pricker at a tavern board, and made him ready to clap +his last gold Lion on the platter to pay for the draught—telling, as +like as not, the good gossip of the inn to keep the change, and (if +well favoured) give him a kiss therefor. The Douglas <i>cortège</i> rode +home amid the shoutings of the holiday makers who thronged all the +approaches to the ford in order to see the great nobles and their +trains ride by, and Sholto and his men had much trouble to keep these +spectators as far back as was decent and seemly.</p> + +<p>The Earl summoned his victorious cousins, William and James, to ride +with him and the tourney's Queen of Beauty. But William proved even +more silent than usual, and his dark face and upright carriage caused +him to sit his charger as if carved in iron. Jolly James, on the other +hand, attempted a jest or two which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> savoured rustically enough. +Nevertheless, he received the compliments of the Lady Sybilla on his +courage and address with the equanimity of a practised soldier. He was +already, indeed, the best knight in Scotland, even as he was twelve +years after when in the lists of Stirling he fought with the famous +Messire Lalain, the Burgundian champion.</p> + +<p>Earl William dropped behind to speak a moment with Sholto, and to give +him the orders which he was to convey to the provost of the games with +regard to the encounter of the morrow.</p> + +<p>La Joyeuse took the opportunity of addressing her nearer and more +silent companion.</p> + +<p>"You are, I think, the head of the other Douglas House," said the Lady +Sybilla, glancing up at the stern and unbending Master of Avondale.</p> + +<p>"There is but one house of Douglas, and but one head thereof," replied +Lord William, with a certain severity, and without looking at her. The +lady had the grace to blush, either with shame or with annoyance at +the rebuff.</p> + +<p>"Pardon," she said, "you must remember that I am a foreigner. I do not +understand your genealogies. I thought that even in France I had heard +of the Black Douglas and the Red."</p> + +<p>"The Red and the Black alike are the liegemen of William of Douglas, +whom Angus and Avondale both have the honour of serving," answered he, +still more uncompromisingly.</p> + +<p>"Aye," cried the jovial James, "cousin Will is the only chief, and +will make a rare lance when he hath eaten a score or two more bolls of +meal."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Earl William returned even as James was speaking.</p> + +<p>"What is that I hear about bolls of meal?" he said; "what wots this +fair damosel of our rude Scots measures for oats and bear? You talk +like the holder of a twenty-shilling land, James."</p> + +<p>"I was saying," answered James Douglas, "that you would be a proper +man of your lance when you had laid a score or two bolls of good +Galloway meal to your ribs. English beef and beer are excellent, and +drive a lance home into an unarmed foe; but it needs good Scots oats +at the back of the spear-haft to make the sparks fly when knight meets +with knight and iron rings on iron."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, cousin Jamie," said the Earl, "you have some right to your +porridge, for this day you have overturned well nigh a score of good +knights and come off unhurt and unashamed. Cousin William, how liked +you the whammel you got from James' lance in your final course?"</p> + +<p>"Not that ill," said the silent Master; "I am indeed better at taking +than at giving. James is a stouter lance than I shall ever be—"</p> + +<p>"Not so," cried jolly James. "Our Will never doth himself justice. He +is for ever reading Deyrolles and John Froissard in order to learn new +ways and tricks of fence, which he practises on the tilting ground, +instead of riding with a tight knee and the weight of his body behind +the shaft of ash. That is what drives the tree home, and so he gets +many a coup. Yet to fall, and to be up and at it again, is by far the +truer courage."</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla laughed, as it seemed, heartily, yet with some little +bitterness in the sound of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I declare you Douglases stick together like crabs in a basket. +Cousins in France do not often love each other so well. You are +fortunate in your relations, my Lord Duke."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, and that I am," cried the young man, joyously. "Here be my +cousins, William and James—Will ever ready to read me out of wise +books and advise me better than any clerk, Jamie aching to drive lance +through any man's midriff in my quarrel."</p> + +<p>"Lord, I would that I had the chance!" cried James. "Saint Bride! but +I would make a hole clean through him and out at the back, though my +elbuck should dinnle for a week after."</p> + +<p>So talking together, but with the lady riding more silent and somewhat +constrainedly in their midst, the three cousins of Douglas passed the +drawbridge and came again to the precincts of the noble towers of +Thrieve.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In an hour Sholto followed them, having ridden fast and furious across +the long broomy braes of Boreland, and wet the fringes of his +charger's silken coverture by vaingloriously swimming the Dee at the +castle pool instead of going round by the fords. This he did in the +hope that Maud Lindesay might see him. And so she did; for as he came +round by the outside of the moat, making his horse caracole and +thinking no little of himself, he heard a voice from an upper window +call out: "Sholto MacKim, Maudie says that you look like a draggled +crow. No, I will not be silent."</p> + +<p>Then the words were shut off as if a hand had been set over the mouth +which spoke. But presently the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> voice out of the unseen came again: +"And I hate you, Sholto MacKim. For we have had to keep in our chamber +this livelong day, because of the two men you have placed over us, as +if we had been prisoners in Black Archibald.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This very day I am +going to ask my brother to hang Black Andro and John his brother on +the dule tree of Carlinwark."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The pet name of the deepest dungeon of Castle Thrieve, +yet extant and plain to be seen by all.</p></div> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, and most properly," cried another voice, which made his +very heart flutter, "and set his new captain of the guard a-dangle in +the midst, decked out from head to foot in peacocks' feathers."</p> + +<p>Sholto was very angry, for like a boy he took not chaffing lightly, +and had neither the harshness of hide which can endure the rasping of +a woman's tongue, nor the quickness of speech to give her the counter +retort.</p> + +<p>So he cast the reins of his horse to a stable varlet and stamped +indoors, carrying his master's helmet to the armoury. Then still +without speech to any he brushed hastily up the stairs towards the +upper floor, which he had set Andro the Penman and his brother to +guard.</p> + +<p>At the turning of the staircase David Douglas, the Earl's brother, +stopped him. Sholto moved in salute and would have passed by.</p> + +<p>But David detained him with an impetuous hand.</p> + +<p>"What is this?" he said; "you have set two archers on the stairs who +have shot and almost killed the ambassador's two servants, Poitou the +man-at-arms, and Henriet the clerk, just because they wished to take +the air upon the roof. Nay, even when I would have visited my sister, +I was not permitted—'None passes here save <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>the Earl himself, till +our captain takes his orders off us!' That was the word they spoke. +Was ever the like done in the castle of Thrieve to a Master of Douglas +before?"</p> + + + +<p>"I am sorry, my Lord David," said Sholto, respectfully, "but there +were matters within the knowledge of the Earl which caused him to lay +this heavy charge upon me."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the lad, quickly relenting, "let us go and see Margaret +now. She must have been lonely all this fair day of summer."</p> + +<p>But Sholto smiled, well pleased, thinking of Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>"I would that I had a lifetime of such loneliness as Margaret's hath +been this day," he said to himself.</p> + +<p>At the turning of the stair they were stayed, for there, his foot +advanced, his bow ready to deliver its steel bolt at the clicking of a +trigger, stood Andro the Swarthy.</p> + +<p>From his stance he commanded the stair and could see along the +corridor as well.</p> + +<p>David Douglas caught his elbow on something which stood a few inches +out of the oaken panelling of the turnpike wall. He tried to pull it +out. It was the steel quarrel of a cross-bow wedged firmly into the +wood and masonry. He cried: "Whence came this? Have you been murdering +any other honest men?"</p> + +<p>The archer stood silent, glancing this way and that like a sentinel on +duty. The two young men went on up the stair.</p> + +<p>As their feet were approaching the sixth step, a sudden word came from +the Penman like a bolt from his bow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Halt!" he cried, and they heard the <i>gur-r-r-r</i> of his steel ratchet.</p> + +<p>Sholto smiled, for he knew the nature of the man.</p> + +<p>"It is I, your captain," he said. "You have done your duty well, Andro +the Penman. Now get down to your dinner. But first give an account of +your adventures."</p> + +<p>"Do you relieve us from our charge?" said the archer, with his bow +still at the ready.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," quoth Sholto.</p> + +<p>"Come, Jock, we are eased," cried Andro the Swarthy up the stair, and +he slid the steel bolt out of its grip with a little click; "faith, my +belly is toom as a last year's beef barrel."</p> + +<p>"Did any come hither to vex you?" asked Sholto.</p> + +<p>"Not to speak of," said the archer; "there were, indeed, two varlets +of the Frenchmen, and as they would not take a bidding to stand, I had +perforce to send a quarrel buzzing past their lugs into the wall. You +can see it there behind you."</p> + +<p>"Rascal," cried David Douglas, indignantly, "you do not say that first +of all you shot it through the arm of the poor clerk Henriet."</p> + +<p>"It is like enough," said Andro, coolly, "if his arm were in the way."</p> + +<p>Then came a voice down the stairs from above.</p> + +<p>"And the wretches would neither let any come to visit us nor yet +permit us to go into the hall that we might speak with our gossips."</p> + +<p>"How should we be responsible with our lives for the lasses if we had +let them gad about?" said Andro, preparing to salute and take himself +off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> + +<p>At this moment the little maid and her elder companion came forward +meekly and kneeled down before Sholto.</p> + +<p>"We are your humble prisoners," said Maud Lindesay, "and we know that +our offences against your highness are most heinous; but why should +you starve us to death? Burn us or hang us,—we will bear the extreme +penalty of the law gladly,—but torture is not for women. For dear +pity's sake, a bite of bread. We have had nothing to eat all day, +except two lace kerchiefs and a neck riband."</p> + +<p>"Lord of Heaven," cried Sholto, swinging on his heel and darting down +towards the kitchen, "what a fool unutterable I am!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE BAILIES OF DUMFRIES</h3> + + +<p>The combat of the third day was, by the will of the Earl, to be of a +peculiar kind. It was the custom at that time for the <i>mêlée</i> to be +fought between an equal number of knights in open lists, each being at +liberty to carry assistance to his friends as soon as he had disposed +of his own man. On this occasion, however, the fight was to be between +three knights with their several squires on the one side, and an equal +number of knights and squires on the other.</p> + +<p>As the combat of the previous day had decided, young James Douglas of +Avondale was to lead one party, being the successful tilter of the day +of single combat, while the Earl himself was to head the other.</p> + +<p>The chances of battle must be borne, and whatever happened in the +shock of fight was to be endured without complaint. But no blow was to +be struck at either knight or squire in any way disabled by wound.</p> + +<p>To Sholto's great and manifest joy the Earl, his master, chose the new +captain of his guard to support him in the fray, and told him to make +choice of the best battle-axe and sword he could find, as well as to +provide himself with the shield which most suited the strength of his +left arm.</p> + +<p>"By your permission I will ask my father," said Sholto.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He also fights on our side as the squire of Alan Fleming," said the +Earl; "if Laurence had not been a monk, he might have made a third +MacKim."</p> + +<p>Then was Sholto's heart high and uplifted within him, to think of the +victory he would achieve over his brother less than two days after +they had parted, and he hastened off to choose his arms under the +direction of his father.</p> + +<p>The party of James of Avondale consisted of his brother William and +young John Lauder, called Lauder of the Bass. These three had already +entered their pavilion to accoutre themselves for the combat when a +trumpet announced the arrival from the castle of the ambassador of +France, who, being recovered from his sickness, had come in haste to +see the fighting of the last and greatest day of the tourney.</p> + +<p>As soon as he heard the wager of battle the marshal cried: "I also +will strike a blow this day for the honour of France. My quinsy has +altogether left me, and my blood flows strong after the rest. I will +take part with James of Avondale."</p> + +<p>And, without waiting to be asked, he went off followed by his servant +Poitou towards the pavilion of the Avondale trio.</p> + +<p>Now as the Marshal de Retz was the chief guest, it was impossible for +James of Avondale to refuse his offer. But there was anger and +blasphemy in his heart, for he knew not what the Frenchman could do, +and though he had undoubtedly been a gallant knight in his day, yet in +these matters (as James Douglas whispered to his brother) a week's +steady practice is worth a lifetime of theory. Still there was nothing +for the brothers from Douglasdale but to make the best of their +bargain. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> person most deserving of pity, however, was the young +laird of the Bass, who, being thus dispossessed, went out to the back +of the lists and actually shed tears, being little more than a boy, +and none looking on to see him.</p> + +<p>Then he came back hastily, and besought James of Douglas to let him +fight as his squire, saying that as he had never taken up the +knighthood which had been bestowed on him by the Earl for his journey +to France, there could be nothing irregular in his fighting once more +as a simple esquire. And thus, after an appeal to the Earl himself, it +was arranged, much to John Lauder's content.</p> + +<p>For his third knight the Douglas had made choice of his cousin Hugh, +younger brother of his two opponents, and at that William and James of +Avondale shook their heads.</p> + +<p>"He pushes a good tree, our Hughie," said James. "If he comes at you, +Will, mind that trick of swerving that he hath. Aim at his right +gauntlet, and you will hit his shield."</p> + +<p>The conflict on the Boat Croft differed much from the chivalrous +encounters of an earlier time and a richer country. And of this more +anon.</p> + +<p>It chanced that on the borders of the crowd which that day begirt the +great enclosure of the lists two burgesses of Dumfries stood on +tiptoe,—to wit, Robert Semple, merchant dealing in cloth and wool, +and Ninian Halliburton, the brother of Barbara, wife of Malise MacKim, +master armourer, whose trade was only conditioned by the amount of +capital he could find to lay out and the probability he had of +disposing of his purchase within a reasonable time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> + +<p>It would give an entirely erroneous impression of the state of +Scotland in 1440 if the sayings and doings of the wise and shrewd +burghers of the towns of Scotland were left wholly without a +chronicler. The burghs of Scotland were at once the cradles and +strongholds of liberty. They were not subject to the great nobles. +They looked with jealousy on all encroachments on their liberties, and +had sharp swords wherewith to enforce their objection. They had been +endowed with privileges by the wise and politic kings of Scotland, +from William the Lion down to James the First, of late worthy memory. +For they were the best bulwark of the central authority against the +power of the great nobles of the provinces.</p> + +<p>Now Robert Semple and Ninian Halliburton were two worthy citizens of +Dumfries, men of respectability, well provided for by the success of +their trade and the saving nature of their wives. They had come +westward to the Thrieve for two purposes: to deliver a large +consignment of goods and gear, foreign provisions and fruits, to the +controller of the Earl's household, and to receive payment therefor, +partly in money and partly in the wool and cattle; hides and tallow, +which have been the staple products of Galloway throughout her +generations.</p> + +<p>Their further purposes and intents in venturing so far west of the +safe precincts of their burgh of Dumfries may be gathered from their +conversation hereinafter to be reported.</p> + +<p>Ninian Halliburton was a rosy-faced, clean-shaven man, with a habit of +constantly pursing out his lips and half closing his eyes, as if he +were sagely deciding on the advisability of some doubtful bargain. His +com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>panion, Robert Semple, had a similar look of shrewdness, but added +to it his face bore also the imprint of a sly and lurking humour not +unlike that of the master armourer himself. In time bygone he had kept +his terms at the college of Saint Andrews, where you may find on the +list of graduates the name of Robertus Semple, written by the +foundational hand of Bishop Henry Wardlaw himself. And upon his body, +as the Bailie of Dumfries would often feelingly recall, he bore the +memory, if not the marks, of the disciplining of Henry Ogilvy, Master +in Arts—a wholesome custom, too much neglected by the present regents +of the college, as he would add.</p> + +<p>"This is an excellent affair for us," said Ninian Halliburton, +standing with his hands folded placidly over his ample stomach, only +occasionally allowing them to wander in order to feel and approve the +pile of the brown velvet out of which the sober gown was constructed. +"A good thing for us, I say, that there are great lords like the Earl +of Douglas to keep up the expense of such days as this."</p> + +<p>"It were still better," answered his companion, dryly, "if the great +nobles would pay poor merchants according to their promises, instead +of threatening them with the dule tree if they so much as venture to +ask for their money. Neither you nor I, Bailie, can buy in the +lowlands of Holland without a goodly provision of the broad gold +pieces that are so hard to drag from the nobles of Scotland."</p> + +<p>The rosy-gilled Bailie of Dumfries looked up at his friend with a +quick expression of mingled hope and anxiety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Does the Earl o' Douglas owe you ony siller?" he asked in a hushed +whisper, "for if he does, I am willing to take over the debt—for a +consideration."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said Semple, "I only wish he did. The Douglases of the Black +were never ill debtors. They keep their hand in every man's meal ark, +but as they are easy in taking, they are also quick in paying."</p> + +<p>"Siller in hand is the greatest virtue of a buyer," said the Bailie, +with unction. "But, Robert Semple, though I was willing to oblige ye +as a friend by taking over your debt, I'll no deny that ye gied me a +fricht. For hae I no this day delivered to the bursar o' the castle o' +Thrieve sax bales o' pepper and three o' the best spice, besides much +cumin, alum, ginger, seat-well, almonds, rice, figs, raisins, and +other sic thing. Moreover, there is owing to me, for wine and vinegar, +mair than twa hunder pound. Was that no enough to gar me tak a 'dwam' +when ye spoke o' the great nobles no payin'!"</p> + +<p>"I would that all our outlying monies were as safe," said Semple; "but +here come the knights and squires forth from their tents. Tell me, +Ninian, which o' the lads are your sister's sons."</p> + +<p>"There is but one o' the esquires that is Barbara Halliburton's son," +answered the Bailie; "the ither is her ain man—and a great ram-stam, +unbiddable, unhallowed deevil he is—Guid forbid that I should say as +muckle to his face!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>WAGER OF BATTLE</h3> + + +<p>The knights had moved slowly out from their pavilions on either side, +and now stood waiting the order to charge. My Lord Maxwell sat by the +side of the Lady Sybilla, and held the truncheon, the casting down of +which was to part the combatants and end the fight. The three knights +on the southern or Earl's side were a singular contrast to their +opponents. Two of them, the Earl William and his cousin Hugh, were no +more than boys in years, though already old in military exercises; the +third, Alan Fleming of Cumbernauld, was a strong horseman and +excellent with his lance, though also slender of body and more +distinguished for dexterity than for power of arm. Yet he was destined +to lay a good lance in rest that day, and to come forth unshamed.</p> + +<p>The Avondale party were to the eye infinitely the stronger, that is +when knights only were considered. For James Douglas was little less +than a giant. His jolly person and frank manners seemed to fill all +the field with good humour, and from his station he cried challenges +to his cousin the Earl and defiances to his brother Hugh, with that +broad rollicking wit which endeared him to the commons, to whom +"Mickle Lord Jamie" had long been a popular hero.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Bid our Hugh there rin hame for his hippen clouts lest he make of +himself a shame," he cried; "'tis not fair that we should have to +fight with babes."</p> + +<p>"Mayhap he will be as David to your Goliath, thou great gomeril!" +replied the Earl with equal good humour, seeing his cousin Hugh blush +and fumble uncomfortably at his arms.</p> + +<p>Then to the lad himself he said: "Keep a light hand on your rein, a +good grip at the knee, and after the first shock we will ride round +them like swallows about so many bullocks."</p> + +<p>The other two Avondale knights, William Douglas and the Marshal de +Retz, were also large men, and the latter especially, clothed in black +armour and with the royal ermines of Brittany quartered on his shield, +looked a stern and commanding figure.</p> + +<p>The squires were well matched. These fought on foot, armed according +to custom with sword, axe, and dagger—though Sholto would much have +preferred to trust to his arrow skill even against the plate of the +knights.</p> + +<p>The trumpets blew their warning from the judge's gallery. The six +opposing knights laid their lances in rest. The squires leaned a +little forward as if about to run a race. Lord Maxwell raised his +truncheon. The trumpets sounded again, and as their stirring +<i>taran-tara</i> rang down the wide strath of Dee, the riders spurred +their horses into full career. It so chanced that, as they had stood, +James of Avondale was opposite the Earl, each being in the midst as +was their right as leaders. The Master of Avondale opposed his brother +Hugh, and the Marshal de Retz couched spear against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> young Alan +Fleming. In this order they started to ride their course. But at the +last moment, instead of riding straight for his man, the Frenchman +swerved to the left, and, raising his lance high in the air, he threw +it in the manner of his country straight at the visor bars of the +young Earl of Douglas. The spear of James of Avondale at the same time +taking him fair in the middle of his shield, the double assault caused +the young man to fall heavily from his saddle, so that the crash +sounded dully over the field.</p> + +<p>"Treachery! Treachery!—A foul false stroke! A knave's device!" cried +nine-tenths of those who were crowded about the barriers. "Stop the +fight! Kill the Frenchman!"</p> + +<p>"Not so," cried Lord Maxwell, "they were to fight as best they could, +and they must fight it to the end!"</p> + +<p>And this being a decision not to be gainsaid, the combat proceeded on +very unequal terms. Sholto, who had been eagerly on the stretch to +match himself with the squire of James of Avondale, the young knight +of the Bass, found himself suddenly astride of his lord's body and +defending himself against both the French ambassador and his squire +Poitou, who had simultaneously crossed over to the attack. For the +Marshal de Retz, if not in complete defiance of the written rule of +chivalry, at least against the spirit of gallantry and the rules of +the present tourney, would have thrust the Earl through with his spear +as he lay, crying at the same time, "À outrance! À outrance!" to +excuse the foulness of his deed.</p> + +<p>It was lucky for himself that he did not succeed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> for, undoubtedly, +the Douglases then on the field would have torn him to pieces for what +they not unnaturally considered his treachery. As it was, there +sounded a mighty roar of anger all about the barriers, and the crowd +pressed so fiercely and threateningly that it was as much as the +archers could do to keep them within reasonable bounds.</p> + +<p>"Saints' mercy!" puffed stout Ninian Halliburton, "let us get out of +this place. I am near bursen. Haud off there, varlet, ken ye not that +I am a Bailie of Dumfries? Keep your feet off the tail o' my brown +velvet gown. It cost nigh upon twenty silver shillings an ell!"</p> + +<p>"A Douglas! A Douglas! Treachery! Treachery!" yelled a wild Minnigaff +man, thrusting a naked brand high into the air within an inch of the +burgess's nose. That worthy citizen almost fell backwards in dismay, +and indeed must have done so but for the pressure of the crowd behind +him. He was, therefore, much against his will compelled to keep his +place in the front rank of the spectators.</p> + +<p>"Well done, young lad," cried the crowd, seeing Sholto ward and strike +at Poitou and his master, "God, but he is fechtin' like the black deil +himself!"</p> + +<p>"It will be as chancy for him," cried the wild Minnigaff hillman, "for +I will tear the harrigals oot o' Sholto MacKim if onything happen to +the Earl!"</p> + +<p>But the captain of the guard, light as a feather, had easily avoided +the thrust of the marshal's spear, taking it at an angle and turning +it aside with his shield. Then, springing up behind him, he pulled the +French knight down to the ground with the hook of his axe, by that +trick of attack which was the lesson taught once for all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> to the Scots +of the Lowlands upon the stricken field of the Red Harlaw.</p> + +<p>The marshal fell heavily and lay still, for he was a man of feeble +body, and the weight of his armour very great.</p> + +<p>"Slay him! Slay him!" yelled the people, still furious at what, not +without reason, they considered rank treachery.</p> + +<p>Sholto recovered himself, and reached his master only in time to find +Poitou bending over Earl Douglas with a dagger in his hand.</p> + +<p>With a wild yell he lashed out at the Breton squire, and Sholto's axe +striking fair on his steel cap, Poitou fell senseless across the body +of Douglas.</p> + +<p>"Well done, Sholto MacKim—well done, lad!" came from all the barrier, +and even Ninian Halliburton cried: "Ye shall hae a silken doublet for +that!" Then, recollecting himself, he added, "At little mair than cost +price!"</p> + +<p>"God in heeven, 'tis bonny fechtin!" cried the man from Minnigaff. +"Oh, if I could dirk the fause hound I wad dee happy!"</p> + +<p>And the hillman danced on the toes of the Bailie of Dumfries and shook +the barriers with his hand till he received a rap over the knuckles +from the handle of a partisan directed by the stout arms of Andro the +Penman.</p> + +<p>"Haud back there, heather-besom!" cried the archer, "gin ye want ever +again to taste 'braxy'!"</p> + +<p>Over the rest of the field the fortune of war had been somewhat +various. William of Douglas had unhorsed his brother Hugh at the first +shock, but immediately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> foregoing his advantage with the most +chivalrous courtesy, he leaped from his own horse and drew his sword.</p> + +<p>On the right Alan Fleming, being by the marshal's action suddenly +deprived of his opponent, had wheeled his charger and borne down +sideways upon James of Douglas, and that doughty champion, not having +fully recovered from the shock of his encounter with the Earl, and +being taken from an unexpected quarter, went down as much to his own +surprise as to that of the people at the barriers, who had looked upon +him as the strongest champion on the field.</p> + +<p>It was evident, therefore, that, in spite of the loss of their leader, +the Earl's party stood every chance to win the field. For not only was +Alan Fleming the only knight left on horseback, but Malise MacKim had +disposed of the laird of Stra'ven, squire to William of Avondale, +having by one mighty axe stroke beaten the Lanarkshire man down to his +knees.</p> + +<p>"A Douglas! A Douglas!" shouted the populace; "now let them have it!"</p> + +<p>And the adherents of the Earl were proceeding to carry out this +intent, when my Lord Maxwell unexpectedly put an end to the combat by +throwing down his truncheon and proclaiming a drawn battle.</p> + +<p>"False loon!" cried Sholto, shaking his axe at him in the extremity of +his anger, "we have beaten them fairly. Would that I could get at +thee! Come down and fight an encounter to the end. I will take any +Maxwell here in my shirt!"</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue!" commanded his father, briefly, "what else can ye +expect of a border man but broken faith?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p> + +<p>The archers of the guard rushed in, as was their duty, and separated +the remaining combatants. Hugh and his brother William fought it to +the last, the younger with all his vigour and with a fierce energy +born of his brother James's taunts, William with the calm courtesy and +forbearance of an old and assured knight towards one who has yet his +spurs to win.</p> + +<p>The stunned knights and squires were conveyed to their several +pavilions, where the Earl's apothecaries were at once in attendance. +William of Douglas was the first to revive, which he did almost as +soon as the laces of his helm had been undone and water dashed upon +his face. His head still sang, he declared, like a hive of bees, but +that was all.</p> + +<p>He bent with the anxiety of a generous enemy over the unconscious form +of the Marshal de Retz, from whom they were stripping his armour. At +the removal of the helmet, the strange parchment face with its +blue-black stubbly beard was seen to be more than usually pale and +drawn. The upper lip was retracted, and a set of long white teeth +gleamed like those of a wild beast.</p> + +<p>The apothecary was just commencing to strip off the leathern +under-doublet from the ambassador's body to search for a wound, when +Poitou, his squire, happened to open his eyes. He had been laid upon +the floor, as the most seriously wounded of the combatants, though +being the least in honour he fell to be attended last.</p> + +<p>Instantly he cried out a strange Breton word, unintelligible to all +present, and, leaping from the floor, he flung himself across the body +of his master, dashing aside the astonished apothecary, who had only +time to discern on the marshal's shoulder the scar of a recent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +cautery before Poitou had restored the leathern under-doublet to its +place.</p> + +<p>"Hands off! Do not touch my master. I alone can bring him to. Leave +the room, all of you."</p> + +<p>"Sirrah!" cried the Earl, sternly, striding towards him, "I will teach +you to speak humbly to more honourable men."</p> + +<p>"My lord," cried Poitou, instantly recalled to himself, "believe me, I +meant no ill. But true it is that I only can recover him. I have often +seen him taken thus. But I must be left alone. My master hath a +blemish upon him, and one great gentleman does not humiliate another +in the presence of underlings. My Lord Douglas, as you love honour, +bid all to leave me alone for a brief space."</p> + +<p>"Much cared he for honour, when he threw the lance at my master!" +growled Sholto. "Had I known, I would have driven my bill-point six +inches lower, and then would there have been a most satisfactory +blemish in the joining of his neck-bone."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>SHOLTO WINS KNIGHTHOOD</h3> + + +<p>The ambassador recovered quickly after he had been left with his +servant Poitou, according to the latter's request. The Lady Sybilla +manifested the most tender concern in the matter of the accident of +judgment which had been the means of diverting her kinsman from his +own opponent and bringing him into collision with the Earl Douglas.</p> + +<p>"Often have I striven with my lord that he should ride no more in the +lists," she said, "for since he received the lance-thrust in the eye +by the side of La Pucelle before the walls of Orleans, he sees no more +aright, but bears ever in the direction of the eye which sees and away +from that wherein he had his wound."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I knew not that the Marshal de Retz had been wounded in the +eye, or I should not have permitted him to ride in the tourney," +returned the Earl, gravely. "The fault was mine alone."</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla smiled upon him very sweetly and graciously.</p> + +<p>"You are great soldiers—you Douglases. Six knights are chosen from +the muster of half a kingdom to ride a <i>mêlée</i>. Four are Douglases, +and, moreover, cousins germain in blood."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, we might well have compassed the sword-play," said the Earl +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +William, "for in our twenty generations we never learned aught else. +Our arms are strong enough and our skulls thick enough, for even mine +uncle, the Abbot, hath his Latin by the ear. And one Semple, a plain +burgher of Dumfries, did best him at it—or at least would have shamed +him, but that he desired not to lose the custom of the Abbey."</p> + +<p>"When you come to France," replied the girl, smiling on him, "it will +indeed be stirring to see you ride a bout with young Messire Lalain, +the champion of Burgundy, or with that Miriadet of Dijon, whose arm is +like that of a giant and can fell an ox at a blow."</p> + +<p>"Truly," said the young Earl, modestly, "you do me overmuch honour. My +cousin James there, he is the champion among us, and alone could +easily have over-borne me to-day, without the aid of your uncle's +blind eye. Even William of Avondale is a better lance than I, and +young Hugh will be when his time comes."</p> + +<p>"Your squire fought a good fight," she went on, "though his +countenance does not commend itself to me, being full of all +self-sufficience."</p> + +<p>"Sholto—yes; he is his father's son and fought well. He is a MacKim, +and cannot do otherwise. He will make a good knight, and, by Saint +Bride, I will dub him one, ere this sun set, for his valiant laying on +of the axe this day."</p> + +<p>The great muster was now over. The tents which had been dotted thickly +athwart the castle island were already mostly struck, and the ground +was littered with miscellaneous débris, soon to be carried off in +trail carts with square wooden bodies set on boughs of trees, and +flung into the river, by the Earl's varlets and stablemen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p> + +<p>The multitudinous liegemen of the Douglas were by this time streaming +homewards along every mountain pass. Over the heather and through the +abounding morasses horse and foot took their way, no longer marching +in military order, as when they came, but each lance taking the route +which appeared the shortest to himself. North, east, and west +spear-heads glinted and armour flashed against the brown of the +heather and the green of the little vales, wherein the horses bent +their heads to pull at the meadow hay as their riders sought the +nearest way back again to their peel-towers and forty-shilling lands.</p> + +<p>It was at the great gate of Thrieve that the Earl called aloud for +Sholto. He had been speaking to his cousin William, a strong, silent +man, whose repute was highest for good counsel among all the branches +of the house of Douglas.</p> + +<p>Sholto came forward from the head of his archer guard with a haste +which betrayed his anxiety lest in some manner he had exceeded his +duty. The Earl bade him kneel down. A little behind, the young +Douglases of Avondale, William, James, and Hugh, sat their horses, +while the boy David, who had been left at home to keep the castle, +looked forth disconsolately from the window of the great hall. On the +steps stood the little Maid Margaret and her companion, Maud Lindesay, +who had come down to meet the returning train of riders. And, truth to +tell, that was what Sholto cared most about. He did not wish to be +disgraced before them all.</p> + +<p>So as he knelt with an anxious countenance before his lord, the Earl +took his cousin William's sword out of his hand, and, laying it on the +shoulder of Sholto MacKim,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> he said, "Great occasions bring forth good +men, and even one battle tries the temper of the sword. You, Sholto, +have been quickly tried, but thy father hath been long tempering you. +Three days agone you were but one of the archer guard, yesterday you +were made its captain, to-day I dub you knight for the strong courage +of the heart that is within, and the valiant service which this day +you did your lord. Rise, Sir Sholto!"</p> + +<p>But for all that he rose not immediately, for the head of the young +man whirled, and little drumming pulses beat in his temples. His heart +cried within him like the overword of a song, "Does she hear? Will she +care? Will this bring me nearer to her?" So that, in spite of his +lord's command, he continued to kneel, till lusty James of Avondale +came and caught him by the elbow. "Up, Sir Knight, and give grace and +good thank to your lord. Not your head but mine hath a right to be +muzzy with the coup I gat this day on the green meadow of the Boat +Croft."</p> + +<p>And practical William of Avondale whispered in his cousin's ear, "And +the lands for the youth that we spoke of."</p> + +<p>"Moreover," said the Earl, "that you may suitably support the +knighthood which your sword has won, I freely bestow on you the +forty-shilling lands of Aireland and Lincolns with Screel and Ben +Gairn, on condition that you and yours shall keep the watch-fires laid +ready for the lighting, and that in time you rear you sturdy yeomen to +bear in the Douglas train the banneret of MacKim of Aireland."</p> + +<p>Sholto stood before his generous lord trembling and speechless, while +James Douglas shook him by the elbow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> and encouraged him roughly, "Say +thy say, man; hast lost thy tongue?"</p> + +<p>But William Douglas nodded approval of the youth.</p> + +<p>"Nay," he said, "let alone, James! I like the lad the better that he +hath no ready tongue. 'Tis not the praters that fight as this youth +hath fought this day!"</p> + +<p>So all that Sholto found himself able to do, was no more than to kneel +on one knee and kiss his master's hand.</p> + +<p>"I am too young," he muttered. "I am not worthy."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said his master, "but you have fairly won your spurs. They made +me a knight when I was but two years of my age, and I cried all the +time for my nurse, your good mother, who, when she came, comforted me +with pap. Surely it was right that I should make a place for my +foster-brother within the goodly circle of the Douglas knights."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_04.jpg" width="400" height="595" alt=""I am too young," he muttered; "I am not worthy."" title=""I am too young," he muttered; "I am not worthy."" /> +<span class="caption">"I am too young," he muttered; "I am not worthy."</span> +</div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>THE SECOND FLOUTING OF MAUD LINDESAY</h3> + + +<p>Sholto MacKim stood on the lowest step of the ascent into the noble +gateway of Thrieve, hardly able to believe in his own good fortune. +But these were the days when no man awaked without having the +possibility of either a knighthood or the gallows tree to encourage +him to do his duty between dawn and dark.</p> + +<p>The lords of Douglas had gone within, and were now drinking the Cup of +Appetite as their armour was being unbraced by the servitors, and the +chafed limbs rubbed with oil and vinegar after the toils of the +tourney. But still Sholto stood where his master had left him, looking +at the green scum of duckweed which floated on the surface of the moat +of Thrieve, yet of a truth seeing nothing whatever, till a low voice +pierced the abstraction of his reverie.</p> + +<p>"Sir Sholto!" said Mistress Maud Lindesay, "I bid you a long good-by, +Sir Sholto MacKim! Say farewell to him, Margaret, as you hear me do!"</p> + +<p>"Good-by, kind Sir Sholto!" piped the childish voice of the Maid of +Galloway, as she made a little courtesy to Sholto MacKim in imitation +of her companion. "I know not where you are going, but Maudie bids me, +so I will!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And wherefore say you good-by to me?" cried Sholto, finding his words +at once in the wholesome atmosphere of raillery which everywhere +accompanied that quipsome damosel, Mistress Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>"Why, because we are humble folk, and must get our ways upstairs out +of the way of dignities. Permit me to kiss your glove, fair lord!" and +here she tripped down the steps and pretended to take his hand.</p> + +<p>"Hold off!" he cried, snatching it away angrily, for her tone vexed +and thwarted him.</p> + +<p>The girl affected a great terror, which merged immediately into a meek +affectation of resignation.</p> + +<p>"No—you are right—we are not worthy even to kiss your knightly +hand," she said, "but we will respectfully greet you." Here she swept +him a full reverence, and ran up the steps again before he could take +hold of her. Then, standing on the topmost step, and holding her +friend's hand in hers, she spoke to the Maid of Galloway in a tone +hushed and regretful, as one speaks of the dead.</p> + +<p>"No, Margaret," she said, "he will no more play with us. Hide-and-seek +about the stack-yard ricks at the Mains is over in the gloamings. Sir +Sholto cares no more for us. He has put away childish things. He will +not even blow out a lamp for us with his own honourable lips. No, he +will call his squire to do it!"</p> + +<p>Sholto looked the indignation he would not trust himself to speak.</p> + +<p>"He will dine with the Earl in hall, and quaff and stamp and shout +with the best when they drink the toasts. But he has become too great +a man to carry you and me any more over the stepping-stones at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +ford, or pull with us the ripe berries when the briars are drooping +purple on the braes of Keltonhill. Bid him good-by, Margaret, for he +was our kind friend once. And when he rides out to battle, perhaps, if +we are good and respectful, he may again wave us a hand and say: +'There are two lassies that once I kenned!'"</p> + +<p>At this inordinate flouting the patience of the new knight, growing +more and more angry at each word, came quickly to the breaking point; +for his nerves were jarred and jangled by the excitement of the day. +He gave vent to a short sharp cry, and started up the steps with the +intention of making Mistress Lindesay pay in some fashion for her +impertinence. But that active and gamesome maid was most entirely on +the alert. Indeed, she had been counting from the first upon provoking +such a movement. And so, with her nimble charge at her heels, Mistress +Lindesay was already at the inner port, and through the iron-barred +gate of the turret stair, before the youthful captain of the guard, +still cumbered with his armour, could reach the top of the outer +steps.</p> + +<p>As soon as Sholto saw that he was hopelessly distanced, he slackened +his gait, and, with a sober tread befitting a knight and officer of a +garrison, he walked along the passage which led to the chamber +allotted to the captain of the guard, from which that day Landless +Jock had removed his effects.</p> + +<p>The soldiers of the guard, who had heard of the honours which had so +swiftly come upon the young man, rose and respectfully saluted their +chief. And Sholto, though he had been silent when the sharp tongue of +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> mirth-loving maid tormented him, found speech readily enough now.</p> + +<p>"I thank you," he said, acknowledging their salutations. "We have +known each other before. Fortune and misfortune come to all, and it +will be your turns one day. But up or down, good or ill, we shall not +be the worse comrades for having kept the guard and sped the bolt +together."</p> + +<p>Then there came one behind him who stood at the door of his chamber, +as he was unhelming himself, and said: "My captain, there stand at the +turret stair the ladies Margaret and Maud with a message for you."</p> + +<p>"A message for me—what is it?" said Sholto, testily, being (and small +blame to him) a trifle ruffled in his temper.</p> + +<p>"Nay, sir," said the man, respectfully, "that I know not, but methinks +it comes from my lord."</p> + +<p>It will not do to say to what our gallant Sholto condemned all +tricksome queans and spiteful damosels in whose eyes dwelt mischief +brimming over, and whose tongues spoke softest words that yet stung +and rankled like fairy arrows dipped in gall and wormwood.</p> + +<p>But since the man stood there and repeated, "I judge the message to be +one from my lord," Sholto could do no less than hastily pull on his +doublet and again betake himself along the corridor to the foot of the +stair.</p> + +<p>When he arrived there he saw no one, and was about to depart again as +he had come, when the head of Maud Lindesay appeared round the upper +spiral looking more distractedly mischievous and bewitching than ever, +her head all rippling over with dark curls and her eyes fairly +scintillating light. She nodded to him and leaned a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> little farther +over, holding tightly to the baluster meanwhile.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Sholto, roughly, "what are my lord's commands for me, if, +indeed, he has charged you with any?"</p> + +<p>"He bids me say," replied Mistress Maud Lindesay, "that, since lamps +are dangerous things in maidens' chambers, he desires you to assist in +the trimming of the waxen tapers to-night—that is, if so menial a +service shame not your knighthood."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!" muttered Sholto, "my lord said naught of the sort."</p> + +<p>"Well then," said Maud Lindesay, smiling down upon him with an +expression innocent and sweet as that of an angel on a painted +ceiling, "you will be kind and come and help us all the same?"</p> + +<p>"That I will not!" said Sholto, stamping his foot like an ill-tempered +boy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you will—because Margaret asks you?"</p> + +<p><i>"I will not!"</i></p> + +<p>"Then because <i>I</i> ask you?"</p> + +<p>Spite of his best endeavours, Sholto could not take his eyes from the +girl's face, which seemed fairer and more desirable to him now than +ever. A quick sob of passion shook him, and he found words at last:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Maud Lindesay, why do you treat thus one who loves you with all +his heart?"</p> + +<p>The girl's face changed. The mischief died out of it, and something +vague and soft welled up in her eyes, making them mistily grey and +lustrous. But she only said: "Sholto, it is growing dark already! It +is time the tapers were trimmed!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then Sholto followed her up the stairs, and though I do not know, +there is some reason for thinking that he forgave her all her +wickedness in the sweet interspace between the gloaming and the mirk, +when the lamps were being lighted on earth, and in heaven the stars +were coming out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>THE DOGS AND THE WOLF HOLD COUNCIL</h3> + + +<p>It was a week or two after the date of the great wappenshaw and +tourneying at the Castle of Thrieve, that in the midmost golden haze +of a summer's afternoon four men sat talking together about a table in +a room of the royal palace of Stirling.</p> + +<p>No one of the four was any longer young, and one at least was +immoderately fat. This was James, Earl of Avondale, granduncle of the +present Earl of Douglas, and, save for young David, the Earl's +brother, nearest heir to the title and all the estates and honours +pertaining thereto, with the single exception of the Lordship of +Galloway.</p> + +<p>The other three were, first, Sir Alexander Livingston, the guardian of +the King's person, a handsome man with a curled beard, who was +supposed to stand high in the immediate favours of the Queen, and who +had long been tutor to his Majesty as well as guardian of his royal +person. Opposite to Livingston, and carefully avoiding his eye, sat a +man of thin and foxy aspect, whose smooth face, small shifty mouth, +and perilous triangular eyes marked him as one infinitely more +dangerous than either of the former—Sir William Crichton, the +Chancellor of the realm of Scotland.</p> + +<p>The fourth was speaking, and his aspect, strange and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> ofttimes +terrifying, is already familiar to us. But the pallid corpse-like +face, the blue-black beard, the wild-beast look, in the eyes of the +Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, were now more than +ever heightened in effect by the studied suavity of his demeanour and +the graciousness of language with which he was clothing what he had to +say.</p> + +<p>"I have brought you together after taking counsel with my good Lord of +Avondale. I am aware, most noble seigneurs, that there have been +differences between you in the past as to the conduct of the affairs +of this great kingdom; but I am obeying both the known wishes and the +express commands of my own King in endeavouring to bring you to an +agreement. You will not forget that the Dauphin of France is wedded to +the Scottish princess nearest the throne, and that therefore he is not +unconcerned in the welfare of this realm.</p> + +<p>"Now, messieurs, it cannot be hid from you that there is one +overriding and insistent peril which ought to put an end to all your +misunderstandings. There is a young man in this land, more powerful +than you or the King, or, indeed, all the powers legalised and +established within the bounds of Scotland.</p> + +<p>"Who is above the law, gentlemen? I name to you the Earl of Douglas. +Who hath a retinue ten times more magnificent than that with which the +King rides forth? The Earl of Douglas! Who possesses more than half +Scotland, and that part the fairest and richest? Who holds in his +hands all the strong castles, is joined by bond of service and manrent +with the most powerful nobles of the land? Who but the Earl of +Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Warden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> of the Marches, hereditary +Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom?"</p> + +<p>At this point the crafty eyes of Crichton the Chancellor were turned +full upon the speaker. His hand tugged nervously at his thin reddish +beard as if it had been combing the long goat's tuft which grew +beneath his smooth chin.</p> + +<p>"But did not you yourself come all the way from France to endue him +with the duchy of Touraine?" he said. "Doth that look like pulling him +down from his high seat?"</p> + +<p>The marshal moved a politic hand as if asking silence till he had +finished his explanation.</p> + +<p>"Pardon," he said; "permit me yet a moment, most High Chancellor—but +have you heard so little of the skill and craft of Louis, our most +notable Dauphin, that you know not how he ever embraces men with the +left arm whilst he pierces them with the dagger in his right?"</p> + +<p>The Chancellor nodded appreciation. It was a detail of statecraft well +known to him, and much practised by his house in all periods of their +history.</p> + +<p>"Now, my lords," the ambassador continued, "you are here all +three—the men who need most to end this tyranny—you, my Lord of +Avondale, will you deign to deliver your mind upon this matter?"</p> + +<p>The fat Earl hemmed and hawed, clearing his throat to gain time, and +knitting and unknitting his fingers over his stomach.</p> + +<p>"Being a near kinsman," he said at last, "it is not seemly that I +should say aught against the Earl of Douglas; but this I do +know—there will be no peace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> in Scotland till that young man and his +brother are both cut off."</p> + +<p>The Chancellor and de Retz exchanged glances. The anxiety of the +next-of-kin to the title of Earl of Douglas for the peace and +prosperity of the realm seemed to strike them both as exceedingly +natural in the circumstances.</p> + +<p>"And now, Sir Alexander, what say you?" asked the Sieur de Retz, +turning to the King's guardian, who had been caressing the curls of +his beard with his white and signeted hand.</p> + +<p>"I agree," he replied in a courtly tone, "that in the interests of the +King and of the noble lady whose care for her child hath led her to +such sacrifices, we ought to put a limit to the pride and insolence of +this youth!"</p> + +<p>The Chancellor bent over a parchment to hide a smile at the sacrifices +which the Queen Mother had made for her son.</p> + +<p>"It is indeed, doubtless," said Sir William Crichton, "a sacrifice +that the King and his mother should dwell so long within this Castle +of Stirling, exposed to every rude blast from off these barren +Grampians. Let her bring him to the mild and equable climate of +Edinburgh, which, as I am sure your Excellency must have observed, is +peculiarly suited to the rearing of such tender plants."</p> + +<p>He appealed to the Sieur de Retz.</p> + +<p>The marshal bowed and answered immediately, "Indeed, it reminds me of +the sunniest and most favoured parts of my native France."</p> + +<p>The tutor of the King looked somewhat uncomfortable at the suggestion +and shook his head. He had no idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> of putting the King of Scots +within the power of his arch enemy in the strong fortress of +Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>But the Frenchman broke in before the ill effects of the Chancellor's +speech had time to turn the mind of the King's guardian from the +present project against the Earl of Douglas.</p> + +<p>"But surely, gentlemen, it should not be difficult for two such +honourable men to unite in destroying this curse of the +commonweal—and afterwards to settle any differences which may in the +past have arisen between themselves."</p> + +<p>"Good," said the Chancellor, "you speak well. But how are we to bring +the Earl within our danger? Already I have sent him offers of +alliance, and so, I doubt not, hath my honourable friend the tutor of +the King. You know well what answer the proud chief of Douglas +returned."</p> + +<p>The lips of Sir Alexander Livingston moved. He seemed to be taking +some bitter and nauseous drug of the apothecary.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sir Alexander, I see you have not forgot. The words,'If dog eat +dog, what should the lion care?' made us every caitiff's scoff +throughout broad Scotland."</p> + +<p>"For that he shall yet suffer, if God give me speed," said the tutor, +for the answer had been repeated to the Queen, who, being English, +laughed at the wit of the reply.</p> + +<p>"I would that my boy should grow up such another as that Earl +Douglas," she had said.</p> + +<p>The tutor stroked his beard faster than ever, and there was in his +eyes the bitter look of a handsome man whose vanity is wounded in its +weakest place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But, after all, who is to cage the lion?" said the Chancellor, +pertinently.</p> + +<p>The marshal of France raised his hand from the table as if commanding +silence. His suave and courtier-like demeanour had changed into +something more natural to the man. There came the gaunt forward thrust +of a wolf on the trail into the set of his head. His long teeth +gleamed, and his eyelids closed down upon his eyes till these became +mere twinkling points.</p> + +<p>"I have that at hand which hath already tamed the lion," he said, "and +is able to lead him into the cage with cords of silk."</p> + +<p>He rose from the table, and, going to a curtain that concealed the +narrow door of an antechamber, he drew it aside, and there came forth, +clothed in a garment of gold and green, close-fitting and fine, +clasped about the waist with a twining belt of jewelled snakes, the +Lady Sybilla.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>THE LION TAMER</h3> + + +<p>On this summer afternoon the girl's beauty seemed more wondrous and +magical than ever. Her eyes were purple-black, like the berries of the +deadly nightshade seen in the twilight. Her face was pale, and the +scarlet of her lips lay like twin geranium petals on new-fallen snow.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz followed her with a certain grim and ghastly pride, as +he marked the sensation caused by her entrance.</p> + +<p>"This," he said, "is my lion tamer!"</p> + +<p>But the girl never looked at him, nor in any way responded to his +glances.</p> + +<p>"Sybilla," said de Retz, holding her with his eyes, "these gentlemen +are with us. They also are of the enemies of the house of +Douglas—speak freely that which is in your heart!"</p> + +<p>"My lords," said the Lady Sybilla, speaking in a level voice, and with +her eyes fixed on the leaf-shadowed square of grass, which alone could +be seen through the open window, "you have, I doubt not, each declared +your grievance against William, Earl of Douglas. I alone have none. He +is a gallant gentleman. France I have travelled, Spain also, and +Portugal, and have explored the utmost East,—wherever, indeed, my +Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> of Retz hath voyaged thither I have gone. But no braver or more +chivalrous youth than William Douglas have I found in any land. I have +no grievance against him, as I say, yet for that which hath been will +I deliver him into your hands."</p> + +<p>One of the men before her grew manifestly uneasy.</p> + +<p>"We did not come hither to listen to the praises of the Earl of +Douglas, even from lips so fair as yours!" sneered Crichton the +Chancellor, lifting his eyes one moment from the parchment before him +to the girl's face.</p> + +<p>"He is our enemy," said the tutor of the King, Alexander Livingston, +more generously, "but I will never deny that he is a gallant youth; +also of his person proper to look upon."</p> + +<p>And very complacently he smoothed down the lace ruffles which fell +from the neck of his silken doublet midway down its front.</p> + +<p>"The young man is a Douglas," said James the Gross, curtly; "if he +were of coward breed, we had not needed to come hither secretly!"</p> + +<p>"It needeth not four butchers to kill a sheep!" said de Retz. +"Concerning that, we agree. Proceed, my Lady Sybilla."</p> + +<p>The girl was now breathing more quickly, her bosom rising and falling +visibly beneath her light silken gown.</p> + +<p>"Yet because of those that have been of the house of Douglas before +him, shall I have no pity upon William, sixth Earl thereof! And +because of two dead Dukes of Touraine, will I deliver to you the third +Duke, into whose mouth hath hardly yet come the proper gust of living. +This is the tale I have heard a thousand times.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> There was in France, +it skills not where, a vale quiet as a summer Sabbath day. The vines +hung ripe-clustered in wide and pleasant vineyards. The olives rustled +grey on the slopes. The bell swung in the monastery tower. The cottage +in the dell was safe as the château on the hill. Then came the foreign +leader of a foreign army, and lo! in a day, there were a hundred dead +men in the valley, all honourable men slain in defence of their own +doors. The smoky flicker of flames broke through the roof in the +daylight. There was heard the crying of many women. And the man who +wrought this was an Earl of Douglas."</p> + +<p>The girl paused, and in a low whisper, intense as the breathing of the +sea, she said:</p> + +<p><i>"And for this will I deliver into your hands his grandson, William of +Douglas!"</i></p> + +<p>Then her voice came again to the ears of the four listeners, in a note +low and monotonous like the wind that goes about the house on autumn +evenings.</p> + +<p>"There was also one who, being but a child, had escaped from that +tumult and had found shelter in a white convent with the sisters +thereof, who taught her to pray, and be happy in the peace of the hour +that is exactly like the one before it. The shadow of the dial finger +upon the stone was not more peaceful than the holy round of her life.</p> + +<p>"Then came one who met her by the convent wall, met her under the +shade of the orchard trees, met her under cloud of night, till his +soul had power over hers. She followed him by camp and city, fearing +no man's scorn, feeling no woman's reproach, for love's sake and his. +Yet at the last he cast her away, like an empty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> husk, and sailed over +the seas to his own land. She lived to wed the Sieur de Thouars and to +become my mother."</p> + +<p><i>"And for this will I reckon with his son William, Duke of Touraine."</i></p> + +<p>She ceased, and de Retz began to speak.</p> + +<p>"By me this girl has been taught the deepest wisdom of the ancients. I +have delved deep in the lore of the ages that this maiden might be +fitted for her task. For I also, that am a marshal of France and of +kin to my Lord Duke of Brittany, have a score to settle with William, +Earl of Douglas, as hath also my master, Louis the Dauphin!"</p> + +<p>"It is enough," interjected Crichton the Chancellor, who had listened +to the recital of the Lady Sybilla with manifest impatience, "it is +the old story—the sins of the fathers are upon the children. And this +young man must suffer for those that went before him. They drank of +the full cup, and so he hath come now to the drains. It skills not why +we each desire to make an end of him. We are agreed on the fact. The +question is <i>how</i>."</p> + +<p>It was again the voice of de Retz which replied, the deep silence of +afternoon resting like a weight upon all about them.</p> + +<p>"If we write him a letter inviting him to the Castle of Edinburgh, he +will assuredly not come; but if we first entertain him with open +courtesy at one of your castles on the way, where you, most wise +Chancellor, must put yourself wholly in his hands, he will suspect +nothing. There, when all his suspicions are lulled, he will again meet +the Lady Sybilla; it will rest with her to bring him to Edinburgh."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Chancellor had been busily writing on the parchment before him +whilst de Retz was speaking. Presently he held up his hand and read +aloud that which he had written.</p> + +<p>"To the most noble William, Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine, +greeting! In the name of King James the Second, whom God preserve, and +in order that the realm may have peace, Sir William Crichton, +Chancellor of Scotland, and Sir Alexander Livingston, Governor of the +King's person, do invite and humbly intreat the Earl of Douglas to +come to the City of Edinburgh, with such following as shall seem good +to him, in order that he may be duly invested with the office of +Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, which office was his father's +before him. So shall the realm abide in peace and evil-doers be put +down, the peaceable prevented with power, and the Earl of Douglas +stand openly in the honourable place of his forebears."</p> + +<p>The Chancellor finished his reading and looked around for approbation. +James of Avondale was nodding gravely. de Retz, with a ghastly smile +on his face, seemed to be weighing the phrases. Livingston was +admiring, with a self-satisfied smile, the pinkish lights upon his +finger-nails, and the girl was gazing as before out of the window into +the green close wherein the leaves stirred and the shadows had begun +to swim lazily on the grass with the coming of the wind from off the +sea.</p> + +<p>"To this I would add as followeth," continued Crichton. "The +Chancellor of Scotland to William, Earl of Douglas, greeting and +homage! Sir William Crichton ventures to hope that the Earl of Douglas +will do him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> the great honour to come to his new Castle of Crichton, +there to be entertained as beseemeth his dignity, to the healing of +all ancient enmities, and also that they both may do honour to the +ambassador of the King of France ere he set sail again for his own +land."</p> + +<p>"It is indeed a worthy epistle," said James the Gross, who, being +sleepy, wished for an end to be made.</p> + +<p>"There is at least in it no lack of 'Chancellor of Scotland!'" sneered +Livingston, covertly.</p> + +<p>"Gently, gently, great sirs," interposed de Retz, as the Chancellor +looked up with anger in his eye; "have out your quarrels as you +will—after the snapping of the trap. Remember that this which we do +is a matter of life or death for all of us."</p> + +<p>"But the Douglases will wash us off the face of Scotland if we so much +as lay hand on the Earl," objected Livingston. "It might even affect +the safety of his Majesty's person!"</p> + +<p>James the Gross laughed a low laugh and looked at Crichton.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," he said; "but what if the gallant boy David go with his +brother? Whoever after that shall be next Earl of Douglas can easily +prevent that. Also Angus is for us, and my Lord Maxwell will move no +hand. There remains, therefore, only Galloway, and my son William will +answer for that. I myself am old and fat, and love not fighting, but +to tame the Douglases shall be my part, and assuredly not the least."</p> + +<p>All this while the Lady Sybilla had been standing motionless gazing +out of the window. de Retz now motioned her away with an almost +imperceptible signal of his hand, whereat Sir Alexander Livingston, +seeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> the girl about to leave the chamber of council, courteously +rose to usher her out. And with the very slightest acknowledgment of +his profound obeisance, Sybilla de Thouars went forth and left the +four men to their cabal of treachery and death.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>THE YOUNG LORDS RIDE AWAY</h3> + + +<p>This was the letter which, along with the Chancellor's invitations, +came to the hand of the Earl William as he rode forth to the +deer-hunting one morning from his Castle of Thrieve:</p> + +<p>"My lord, if it be not that you have wholly forgotten me and your +promise, this comes to inform you that my uncle and I purpose to abide +at the Castle of Crichton for ten days before finally departing forth +of this land. It is known to me that the Chancellor, moved thereto by +One who desires much to see you, hath invited the Earl of Douglas to +come thither with what retinue is best beseeming so great a lord.</p> + +<p>"But 'tis beyond hope that we should meet in this manner. My lord +hath, doubtless, ere this forgot all that was between us, and hath +already seen others fairer and more worthy of his courteous regard +than the Lady Sybilla. This is as well beseems a mighty lord, who +taketh up a cup full and setteth it down empty. But a woman hath +naught to do, save only to remember the things that have been, and to +think upon them. Grace be to you, my dear lord. And so for this time +and it may be for ever, fare you well!"</p> + +<p>When the Earl had read this letter from the Lady Sybilla, he turned +himself in his saddle without delay and said to his hunt-master:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Take back the hounds, we will not hunt the stag this day."</p> + +<p>The messenger stood respectfully before him waiting to take back an +answer.</p> + +<p>"Come you from the town of Edinburgh?" asked the Earl, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Nay," said the youth, "let it please your greatness, I am a servant +of my Lord of Crichton, and come from his new castle in the Lothians."</p> + +<p>"Doth the Chancellor abide there at this present?" asked the Earl.</p> + +<p>"He came two noons ago with but one attendant, and bade us make ready +for a great company who were to arrive there this very day. Then he +gave me these two letters and set my head on the safe delivery of +them."</p> + +<p>"Sholto," cried the young lord, "summon the guard and men-at-arms. +Take all that can be spared from the defence of the castle and make +ready to follow me. I ride immediately to visit the Chancellor of +Scotland at his castle in the Lothians."</p> + +<p>It was Sholto's duty to obey, but his heart sank within him, both at +the thought of the Earl thus venturing among his enemies, and also +because he must needs leave behind him Maud Lindesay, on whose wilful +and wayward beauty his heart was set.</p> + +<p>"My lord," he stammered, "permit me one word. Were it not better to +wait till a following of knights and gentlemen beseeming the Earl of +Douglas should be brought together to accompany you on so perilous a +journey?"</p> + +<p>"Do as I bid you, Sir Captain," was the Earl's short rejoinder; "you +have my orders."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O that the Abbot were here—" thought Sholto, as he moved heavily to +do his master's will; "he might reason with the Earl with some hope of +success."</p> + +<p>On his way to summon the guard Sholto met Maud Lindesay going out to +twine gowans with the Maid on the meadows about the Mains of Kelton. +For, as Margaret Douglas complained, "All ours on the isle were +trodden down by the men who came to the tourney, and they have not +grown up again."</p> + +<p>"Whither away so gloomy, Sir Knight?" cried Maud, all her winsome face +alight with pleasure in the bright day, and because of the excellent +joy of living.</p> + +<p>"On a most gloomy errand, indeed," said Sholto. "My lord rides with a +small company into the very stronghold of his enemy, and will hear no +word from any!"</p> + +<p>"And do you go with him?" cried Maud, her bright colour leaving her +face.</p> + +<p>"Not only I, but all that can be spared of the men-at-arms and of the +archer guard," answered Sholto.</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay turned about and took the little girl's hand.</p> + +<p>"Margaret," she said, "let us go to my lady. Perhaps she will be able +to keep my Lord William at home."</p> + +<p>So they went back to the chamber of my Lady of Douglas. Now the +Countess had never been of great influence with her son, even during +her husband's lifetime, and had certainly none with him since. Still +it was possible that William Douglas might, for a time at least, +listen to advice and delay his setting out till a suitable retinue +could be brought together to protect him. Maud and Margaret found the +Lady of Douglas busily em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>broidering a vestment of silk and gold for +the Abbot of Sweetheart. She laid aside her work and listened with +gentle patience to the hasty tale told by Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>"I will speak with William," she answered, with a certain hopelessness +in her voice, "but I know well he will go his own gait for aught that +his mother can say. He is his father's son, and the men of the house +of Douglas, they come and they go, recking no will but their own. And +even so will my son William."</p> + +<p>"But he is taking David with him also!" cried Margaret. "I met him +even now on the stair, wild in haste to put on his shirt of mail and +the sword with the golden hilt which the ambassador of France gave +him."</p> + +<p>A quick flush coloured the pale countenance of the Lady Countess.</p> + +<p>"Nay, but one is surely enough to meet the Chancellor. David shall not +go. He is but a lad and knows nothing of these things."</p> + +<p>For this boy was ever his mother's favourite, far more than either her +elder son or her little daughter, whom indeed she left entirely to the +care and companionship of Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>My Lady of Douglas went slowly downstairs. The Earl, with Sholto by +his side, was ordering the accoutrement of the mounted men-at-arms in +the courtyard.</p> + +<p>"William," she called, in a soft voice which would not have reached +him, busied as he was with his work, but that little Margaret raised +her childish treble and called out: "William, our mother desires to +speak with you. Do you not hear her?"</p> + +<p>The Earl turned about, and, seeing his mother, came quickly to her and +stood bareheaded before her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You are not going to run into danger, William?" she said, still +softly.</p> + +<p>"Nay, mother mine," he answered, smiling, "do not fear, I do but ride +to visit the Chancellor Crichton in his castle, and also to bid +farewell to the French ambassador, who abode here as our guest."</p> + +<p>A sudden light shone in upon the mind of Maud Lindesay.</p> + +<p>"'Tis all that French minx!" she whispered in Sholto's ear, "she hath +bewitched him. No one need try to stop him now."</p> + +<p>His mother went on, with an added anxiety in her voice.</p> + +<p>"But you will not take my little David with you? You will leave me one +son here to comfort me in my loneliness and old age?"</p> + +<p>The Earl seemed about to yield, being, indeed, careless whether David +went with him or no.</p> + +<p>"Mother," cried David, coming running forth from the castle, "you must +not persuade William to make me stay at home. I shall never be a man +if I am kept among women. There is Sholto MacKim, he is little older +than I, and already he hath won the archery prize and the sword-play, +and hath fought in a tourney and been knighted—while I have done +nothing except pull gowans with Maud Lindesay and play chuckie stones +with Margaret there."</p> + +<p>And at that moment Sholto wished that this fate had been his, and the +honours David's. He told himself that he would willingly have given up +his very knighthood that he might abide near that dainty form and +witching face. He tortured himself with the thought that Maud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> would +listen to others as she had listened to him; that she would practise +on others that heart-breaking slow droop and quick uplift of the +eyelashes which he knew so well. Who might not be at hand to aid her +to blow out her lamp when the guards were set of new in the corridors +of Thrieve?</p> + +<p>"Mother," the Earl answered, "David speaks good sense. He will never +make a man or a Douglas if he is to bide here within this warded isle. +He must venture forth into the world of men and women, and taste a +man's pleasures and chance a man's dangers like the rest."</p> + +<p>"But are you certain that you will bring him safe back again to me?" +said his mother, wistfully. "Remember, he is so young and eke so +reckless."</p> + +<p>"Nay," cried David, eagerly, "I am no younger than my cousin James was +when he fought the strongest man in Scotland, and I warrant I could +ride a course as well as Hughie Douglas of Avondale, though William +chose him for the tourney and left me to bite my thumbs at home."</p> + +<p>The lady sighed and looked at her sons, one of them but a youth and +the other no more than a boy.</p> + +<p>"Was there ever a Douglas yet who would take any advice but from his +own desire?" she said, looking down at them like a douce barn-door fowl +who by chance has reared a pair of eaglets. "Lads, ye are over strong +for your mother. But I will not sleep nor eat aright till I have my +David back again, and can see him riding his horse homeward through +the ford."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>ON THE CASTLE ROOF</h3> + + +<p>Maud Lindesay parted from Sholto upon the roof of the keep. She had +gone up thither to watch the cavalcade ride off where none could spy +upon her, and Sholto, noting the flutter of white by the battlements, +ran up thither also, pretending that he had forgotten something, +though he was indeed fully armed and ready to mount and ride.</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay was leaning over the battlements of the castle, and, +hearing a step behind her, she looked about with a start of apparent +surprise.</p> + +<p>The after dew of recent tears still glorified her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sholto," she cried, "I thought you were gone; I was watching for +you to ride away. I thought—"</p> + +<p>But Sholto, seeing her disorder, and having little time to waste, came +quickly forward and took her in his arms without apology or prelude, +as is (they say) wisest in such cases.</p> + +<p>"Maud," he said, his utterance quick and hoarse, "we go into the house +of our enemies. Thirty knights and no more accompany my lord, who +might have ridden out with three thousand in his train."</p> + +<p>"'Tis all that witch woman," cried the girl; "can you not advise him?"</p> + +<p>"The Earl of Douglas did not ask my advice," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> Sholto, a little +dryly, being eager to turn the conversation upon his own matters and +to his own advantage. "And, moreover, if he rides into danger for the +sake of love—why, I for one think the more of him for it."</p> + +<p>"But for such a creature," objected Maud Lindesay. "For any true maid +it were most right and proper! Where is there a noble lady in Scotland +who would not have been proud to listen to him? But he must needs run +after this mongrel French woman!"</p> + +<p>"Even Mistress Maud Lindesay would accept him, would she?" said +Sholto, somewhat bitterly, releasing her a little.</p> + +<p>"Maud Lindesay is no great lady, only the daughter of a poor baron of +the North, and much bound to my Lord Douglas by gratitude for that +which he hath done for her family. As you right well know, Maud +Lindesay is little better than a tiremaiden in the house of my lord."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said Sholto, "I crave your pardon. I meant it not. I am hasty +of words, and the time is short. Will you pardon me and bid me +farewell, for the horses are being led from stall, and I cannot keep +my lord waiting?"</p> + +<p>"You are glad to go," she said reproachfully; "you will forget us whom +you leave behind you here. Indeed, you care not even now, so that you +are free to wander over the world and taste new pleasures. That is to +be a man, indeed. Would that I had been born one!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, Maud," said Sholto, trying to draw the girl again near him, +because she kept him at arm's length by the unyielding strength of her +wrist, "none shall ever come near my heart save Maud Lindesay alone! I +would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> that I could ride away as sure of you as you are of Sholto +MacKim!"</p> + +<p>"Indeed," cried the girl, with some show of returning spirit, "to that +you have no claim. Never have I said that I loved you, nor indeed that +I thought about you at all."</p> + +<p>"It is true," answered Sholto, "and yet—I think you will remember me +when the lamps are blown out. God speed, belovedst, I hear the trumpet +blow, and the horses trampling."</p> + +<p>For out on the green before the castle the Earl's guard was mustering, +and Fergus MacCulloch, the Earl's trumpeter, blew an impatient blast. +It seemed to speak to this effect:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Hasten ye, hasten ye, come to the riding,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Hasten ye, hasten ye, lads of the Dee—</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Douglasdale come, come Galloway, Annandale,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i2"><i>Galloway blades are the best of the three!"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Sholto held out his arms at the first burst of the stirring sound, and +the girl, all her wayward pride falling from her in a moment, came +straight into them.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, my sweetheart," he said, stooping to kiss the lips that now +said him not nay, but which quivered pitifully as he touched them, +"God knows whether these eyes shall rest again on the desire of my +heart."</p> + +<p>Maud looked into his face steadily and searchingly.</p> + +<p>"You are sure you will not forget me, Sholto?" she said; "you will +love me as much to-morrow when you are far away, and think me as fair +as you do when you hold me thus in your arms upon the battlements of +Thrieve?"</p> + +<p>Before Sholto had time to answer, the trumpet rang<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> out again, with a +call more instant and imperious than before.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_05.jpg" width="400" height="591" alt=""But there cometh a night when every one of us watches the grey shallows to the east for those that shall return no +more!"" title="But there cometh a night when every one of us watches the grey shallows to the east for those that shall return no +more!"" /> +<span class="caption">"But there cometh a night when every one of us watches the grey shallows to the east for those that shall return no +more!"</span> +</div> + + + +<p>Sholto clasped her close to him as the second summons shrilled up into +the air.</p> + +<p>"God keep my little lass!" he said; "fear not, Maud, I have never +loved any but you!"</p> + +<p>He was gone. And through her tears Maud Lindesay watched him from the +top of the great square keep, as he rode off gallantly behind the Earl +and his brother.</p> + +<p>"In time past I have dreamed," she thought to herself, "that I loved +this one and that; but it was not at all like this. I cannot put him +out of my mind for a moment, even when I would!"</p> + +<p>As the brothers William and David Douglas crossed the rough bridge of +pine thrown over the narrows of the Dee, they looked back +simultaneously. Their mother stood on the green moat platform of +Thrieve, with their little sister Margaret holding up her train with a +pretty modesty. She waved not a hand, fluttered no kerchief of +farewell, only stood sadly watching the sons with whom she had +travailed, like one who watches the dear dead borne to their last +resting-place.</p> + +<p>"So," she communed, "even thus do the women of the Douglas House watch +their beloveds ride out of sight. And so for many times they return +through the ford at dawn or dusk. But there cometh a night when every +one of us watches the grey shallows to the east for those that shall +return no more!"</p> + +<p>"See, see!" cried the little Margaret, "look, dear mother, they have +taken off their caps, and even Sholto hath his steel bonnet in his +hand. They are bidding us farewell. I wish Maudie had been here to +see. I wonder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> where she has hidden herself. How surprised she will be +to find that they are gone!"</p> + +<p>It was a true word that the little Maid of Galloway spoke, for, +according to the pretty custom of the young Earl, the cavalcade had +halted ere they plunged into the woods of Kelton. The Douglas lads +took their bonnets in their hands. Their dark hair was stirred by the +breeze. Sholto also bared his head and looked towards the speck of +white which he could just discern on the summit of the frowning keep.</p> + +<p>"Shall ever her eyelashes rise and fall again for me, and shall I see +the smile waver alternately petulant and tender upon her lips?"</p> + +<p>This was his meditation. For, being a young man in love, these things +were more to him than matins and evensong, king or chancellor, heaven +or hell—as indeed it was right and wholesome that they should be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>CASTLE CRICHTON</h3> + + +<p>Crichton Castle was much more a defenced château and less a feudal +stronghold than Thrieve. It stood on a rising ground above the little +Water of Tyne, which flowed clear and swift beneath from the blind +"hopes" and bare valleys of the Moorfoot Hills. But the site was well +chosen both for pleasure and defence. The ground fell away on three +sides. Birch, alder, ash, girt it round and made pleasant summer +bowers everywhere.</p> + +<p>The fox-faced Chancellor had spent much money on beautifying it, and +the kitchens and larders were reported to be the best equipped in +Scotland. On the green braes of Crichton, therefore, in due time the +young Douglases arrived with their sparse train of thirty riders. Sir +William Crichton had ridden out to meet them across the innumerable +little valleys which lie around Temple and Borthwick to the brow of +that great heathy tableland which runs back from the Moorfoots clear +to the Solway.</p> + +<p>With him were only the Marshal de Retz and his niece, the Lady +Sybilla.</p> + +<p>Not a single squire or man-at-arms accompanied these three, for, as +the Chancellor well judged, there was no way more likely effectually +to lull the suspicions of a gallant man like the Douglas than to +forestall him in generous confidence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p> + +<p>The three sat their horses and looked to the south for their guests at +that delightsome hour of the summer gloaming when the last bees are +reluctantly disengaging themselves from the dewy heather bells and the +circling beetles begin their booming curfew.</p> + +<p>"There they come!" cried de Retz, suddenly, pointing to a few specks +of light which danced and dimpled between them and the low horizon of +the south, against which, like a spacious armada, leaned a drift of +primrose sunset clouds.</p> + +<p>"There they come—I see them also!" said the Lady Sybilla, and +suddenly sighed heavily and without cause.</p> + +<p>"Where, and how many?" cried the Chancellor, in a shrill pipe usually +associated with the physically deformed, but which from him meant no +more than anxious discomposure.</p> + +<p>The marshal pointed with the steady hand of the practised commander to +the spot at which his keen eye had detected the cavalcade.</p> + +<p>"Yonder," he said, "where the pine tree stands up against the sky."</p> + +<p>"And how many? I cannot see them, my eyesight fails. I bid you tell me +how many," gasped the Chancellor.</p> + +<p>The ambassador looked long.</p> + +<p>"There are, as I think, no more than twenty or thirty riders."</p> + +<p>Instantly the Chancellor turned and held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"We have him," he muttered, withdrawing it again as soon as he saw +that the ambassador did not take it, being occupied gazing under his +palm at the approaching train of riders.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla sat silent and watched the company which rode towards +them—with what thoughts in her heart, who shall venture to guess? She +kept her head studiously averted from the Marshal de Retz, and once +when he touched her arm to call attention to something, she shuddered +and moved a little nearer to the Chancellor. Nevertheless, she obeyed +her companion implicitly and without question when he bade her ride +forward with them to receive the Chancellor's guests.</p> + +<p>Crichton took it on himself to rally the girl on her silence.</p> + +<p>"Of what may you be thinking so seriously?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Of thirty pieces of silver," she replied instantly.</p> + +<p>And at these words the marshal turned upon the girl a regard so black +and relentless that the Chancellor, happening to encounter it, shrank +back abashed, even as some devilkin caught in a fault might shrink +from the angry eyes of the Master of Evil.</p> + +<p>But the Lady Sybilla looked calmly at her kinsman.</p> + +<p>"Of what do you complain?" he asked her.</p> + +<p>"I complain of nothing," she made him answer. "I am that which I am, +and I am that which you have made me, my Lord of Retz. Fear not, I +will do my part."</p> + +<p>Right handsome looked the young Earl of Douglas, as with a flush of +expectation and pleasure on his face he rode up to the party of three +who had come out to meet him. He made his obeisance to Sybilla first, +with a look of supremest happiness in his eyes which many women would +have given their all to see there. As he came close he leaped from his +horse, and advancing to his lady he bent and kissed her hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My Lady Sybilla," he said, "I am as ever your loyal servant."</p> + +<p>The Chancellor and the ambassador had both dismounted, not to be +outdone in courtesy, and one after the other they greeted him with +what cordiality they could muster. The narrow, thin-bearded face of +the Chancellor and the pallid death-mask of de Retz, out of which +glittered orbs like no eyes of human being, furnished a singular +contrast to the uncovered head, crisp black curls, slight moustache, +and fresh olive complexion of the young Earl of Douglas.</p> + +<p>And as often as he was not looking at her, the eyes of the Lady +Sybilla rested on Lord Douglas with a strange expression in their +deeps. The colour in her cheek came and went. The vermeil of her lip +flushed and paled alternate, from the pink of the wild rose-leaf to +the red of its autumnal berry.</p> + +<p>But presently, at a glance from her kinsman, Sybilla de Thouars seemed +to recall herself with difficulty from a land of dreams, and with an +obvious effort began to talk to William Douglas.</p> + +<p>"Whom have you brought to see me?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Only a few men-at-arms, besides Sholto my squire, and my brother +David," he made answer. "I did not wait for more. But let me bring the +lad to you. Sholto you did not like when he was a plain archer of the +guard, and I fear that he will not have risen in your grace since I +dubbed him knight."</p> + +<p>David Douglas willingly obeyed the summons of his brother, and came +forward to kiss the hand of the Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>"Here, Sholto," cried his lord, "come hither, man. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> will do your +pride good to see a lady who avers that conceit hath eaten you up."</p> + +<p>Sholto came at the word and bowed before the French damosel as he was +commanded, meekly enough to all outward aspect. But in his heart he +was saying over and over to himself words that consoled him mightily: +"A murrain on her! The cozening madam, she will never be worth naming +on the same day as Maud Lindesay!"</p> + +<p>"Nay," cried the Lady Sybilla, laughing; "indeed, I said not that I +disliked this your squire. What woman thinks the worse of a lad of +mettle that he does not walk with his head between his feet. But 'tis +pity that there is no fair cruel maid to bind his heart in chains, and +make him fetch and carry to break his pride. He thinks overmuch of his +sword-play and arrow skill."</p> + +<p>"He must go to France for that humbling," said the Earl, gaily, "or +else mayhap some day a maid may come from France to break his heart +for him. The like hath been and may be again."</p> + +<p>"I would that I had known there were such gallant blades as you three, +my Lords of Douglas and their knight, sighing here in Scotland to have +your hearts broke for the good of your souls. I had then brought with +me a tierce of damsels fair as cruel, who had done it in the flashing +of a swallow's wing. But 'tis a contract too great for one poor maid."</p> + +<p>"Yet you yourself ventured all alone into this realm of forlorn and +desperate men," answered the Earl, scarcely recking what he said, nor +indeed caring so that her dark eyes should continue to rest on him +with the look he had seen in them at his first coming.</p> + +<p>"All alone—yes, much, much alone," she answered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> with a strange +glance about her. "My kinsman loves not womankind, and neither in his +castles nor yet in his company does he permit any of the sex long to +abide."</p> + +<p>The men now mounted again, and the three rode back in the midst of the +cavalcade of Douglas spears, the Chancellor talking as freely and +confidently to the Earl as if he had been his friend for years, while +the Earl of Douglas kept up the converse right willingly so long as, +looking past the Chancellor, his eyes could rest also upon the +delicately poised head and graceful form of the Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>And behind them a horse's length the Marshal de Retz rode, smiling in +the depths of his blue-black beard, and looking at them out of the +wicks of his triangular eyes.</p> + +<p>Presently the towers of the Castle of Crichton rose before them on its +green jutting spur. The Tyne Valley sank beneath into level meads and +rich pastures, while behind the Moorfoots spread brown and bare +without prominent peaks or distinguished glens, but nevertheless with +a certain large vagueness and solemnity peculiarly their own.</p> + +<p>The <i>fêtes</i> with which the Chancellor welcomed his guests were many +and splendid. But in one respect they differed from those which have +been described at Castle Thrieve. There was no military pomp of any +kind connected with them. The Chancellor studiously avoided all +pretence of any other distinction than that belonging to a plain man +whom circumstances have raised against his will to a position of +responsibility.</p> + +<p>The thirty spears of the Earl's guard, indeed, constituted the whole +military force within or about the Castle of Crichton.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am a lawyer, my lord, a plain lawyer," he said; "all Scots lawyers +are plain. And I must ask you to garrison my bit peel-tower of +Crichton in a manner more befitting your own greatness, and the honour +due to the ambassador of France, than a humble knight is able to do."</p> + +<p>So Sholto was put into command of the court and battlements of the +castle, and posted and changed guard as though he had been at Thrieve, +while the Chancellor bustled about, affecting more the style of a rich +and comfortable burgess than that of a feudal baron.</p> + +<p>"'Tis a snug bit hoose," he would say, dropping into the countryside +speech; "there's nocht fine within it from cellar to roof tree, save +only the provend and the jolly Malmsey. And though I be but a poor +eater myself, I love that my betters, who do me the honour of +sojourning within my gates, should have the wherewithal to be merry."</p> + +<p>And it was even as he said, for the tables were weighted with +delicacies such as were never seen upon the boards of Thrieve or +Castle Douglas.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>THE BOWER BY YON BURNSIDE</h3> + + +<p>And ever as he gazed at her the Earl of Douglas grew more and more in +love with the Lady Sybilla. There was no covert side through which a +burn plunged downward from the steep side of Moorfoot, but they +wandered it alone together. Early and late they might have been met, +he with his face turned upon her, and she looking straight forward +with the same inscrutable calm. And all who saw left them alone as +they took their way to gather flowers like children, or, as it might +be, stood still and silent like a pair of lovers under the evening +star. For in these summer days and nights bloomed untiringly the brief +passion-flower of William Douglas's life.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Sholto gritted his teeth in impotent rage, but had nothing +to do save change guard and keep a wary eye upon the Chancellor, who +went about rubbing his hands and glancing sidelong as the copses +closed behind the Earl of Douglas and the Lady Sybilla. As for the +ambassador of France, he was, as was usual with him, much occupied in +his own chamber with his servants Poitou and Henriet, and save when +dinner was served in hall appeared little at the festivities.</p> + +<p>Sholto wished at times for the presence of his father; but at others, +when he saw William Douglas and Sybilla<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> return with a light on their +faces, and their eyes large and vague, he bethought him of Maud +Lindesay, and was glad that, for a little at least, the sun of love +should shine upon his lord.</p> + +<p>It was in the gracious fulness of the early autumn, when the sheaves +were set up in many a park and little warded holt about the Moorfoot +braes, that William Douglas and Sybilla de Thouars stood together upon +a crest of hill, crowned with dwarf birch and thick foliaged alder—a +place in the retirement of whose sylvan bower they had already spent +many tranced hours.</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla sat down on a worn grey rock which thrust itself +through the green turf. William Douglas stood beside her pulling a +blade of bracken to pieces. The girl had been wearing a broad flat cap +of velvet, which in the coolness of the twilight she had removed and +now swung gently to and fro in her hand as she looked to the north, +where small as a toy and backed by the orange glow of sunset, the +Castle of Edinburgh could be seen black upon its wind-swept ridge. The +girl was speaking slowly and softly.</p> + +<p>"Nay, Earl Douglas," she said, "marriage must not be named to Sybilla +de Thouars, certainly never by an Earl of Douglas and Duke of +Touraine. He must wed for riches and fair provinces. His house is +regal already. He is better born than the King, more powerful also. +The daughter of a Breton squire, of a forlorn and deserted mother, the +kinswoman of Gilles de Retz of Machecoul and Champtocé, is not for +him."</p> + +<p>"A Douglas makes many sacrifices," said the young man with +earnestness; "but this is not demanded of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> him. Four generations of us +have wedded for power. It is surely time that one did so for love."</p> + +<p>The girl reached him her hand, saying softly: "Ah, William, would that +it had been so. Too late I begin to think on those things which might +have been, had Sybilla de Thouars been born under a more fortunate +star. As it is I can only go on—a terror to myself and a bane to +others."</p> + +<p>The young man, absorbed in his own thoughts, did not hear her words.</p> + +<p>"The world itself were little to give in order that in exchange I +might possess you," he answered.</p> + +<p>The girl laughed a strange laugh, and drew back her hand from his.</p> + +<p>"Possess me, well—but marry me—no. Honest men and honourable like +Earl Douglas do not wed with the niece of Gilles de Retz. I had +thought my heart within me to be as flint in the chalk, yet now I pray +you on my knees to leave me. Take your thirty lances and your young +brother and ride home. Then, safe in your island fortress of Thrieve, +blot out of your heart all memory that ever you found pleasure in a +creature so miserable as Sybilla de Thouars."</p> + +<p>"But," said the young Earl, passionately, "tell me why so, my lady. I +do not understand. What obstacle can there be? You tell me that you +love me, that you are not betrothed. Your kinsman is an honourable +man, a marshal and an ambassador of France, a cousin of the Duke of +Brittany, a reigning sovereign. Moreover, am not I the Douglas? I am +responsible to no man. William Douglas may wed whom he will—king's +daughter or beggar wench. Why should he not join with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> honourable +daughter of an honourable house, and the one woman he has ever loved?"</p> + +<p>The girl let her velvet cap fall on the ground, and sank her face +between her hands. Her whole body was shaken with emotion.</p> + +<p>"Go—go," she cried, starting to her feet and standing before him, +"call out your lances and ride home this night. Never look more upon +the face of such a thing as Sybilla de Thouars. I bid you! I warn you! +I command you! I thought I had been of stone, but now when I see you, +and hear your words, I cannot do that which is laid upon me to do."</p> + +<p>William of Douglas smiled.</p> + +<p>"I cannot go," he said simply, "I love you. Moreover, I will not go—I +am Earl of Douglas."</p> + +<p>The girl clasped her hands helplessly.</p> + +<p>"Not if I tell you that I have deceived you, led you on?" she said. +"Not if I swear that I am the slave of a power so terrible that there +are no words in any language to tell the least of the things I have +suffered?"</p> + +<p>The Earl shook his head. The girl suddenly stamped her foot in anger. +"Go—go, I tell you," she cried; "stay not a day in this accursed +place, wherein no true word is spoken and no loyal deed done, save +those which come forth from your own true heart."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said William Douglas, with his eyes on hers, "it is too late, +Sybil. I have kissed the red of your lips. Your head hath lain on my +breast. My whole soul is yours. I cannot now go back, even if I would. +The boy I have been, I can be no more for ever."</p> + +<p>The girl rose from the stone on which she had been sitting. There was +a new smile in her eyes. She held<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> out her hands to the youth who +stood so erect and proud before her. "Well, at the worst, William +Douglas," she said, "you may never live to wear a white head, but at +least you shall touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, +taste the fruitage and smell the blossoms thereof more than a hundred +greybeards. I had not thought that earth held anywhere such a man, or +that aught but blackness and darkness remained this side of hell for +one so desolate as I. I have bid you leave me. I have told you that +which, were it known, would cost me my life. But since you will not +go,—since you are strong enough to stand unblenching in the face of +doom,—you shall not lose all without a price."</p> + +<p>She opened her arms wide, and her eyes were glorious.</p> + +<p>"I love you," she said, her lips thrilling towards him, "I love you, +love you, as I never thought to love any man upon this earth."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<h3>THE GABERLUNZIE MAN</h3> + + +<p>The next morning the Chancellor came down early from his chamber, and +finding Earl Douglas already waiting in the courtyard, he rubbed his +hands and called out cheerfully: "We shall be more lonely to-day, but +perhaps even more gay. For there are many things men delight in which +even the fairest ladies care not for, fearing mayhap some invasion of +their dominions."</p> + +<p>"What mean you, my Lord Chancellor?" said the Douglas to his host, +eagerly scanning the upper windows meanwhile.</p> + +<p>"I mean," said the Chancellor, fawningly, "that his Excellency, the +ambassador of France, hath ridden away under cloud of night, and hath +taken his fair ward with him."</p> + +<p>The Earl turned pale and stood glowering at the obsequious Chancellor +as if unable to comprehend the purport of his words. At last he +commanded himself sufficiently to speak.</p> + +<p>"Was this resolution sudden, or did the Lady Sybilla know of it +yesternight?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, of a surety it was quite sudden," replied the Chancellor. "A +message arrived from the Queen Mother to the Marshal de Retz +requesting an immediate meeting on business of state, whereupon I +offered my Castle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> Edinburgh for the purpose as being more +convenient than Stirling. So I doubt not that they are all met there, +the young King being of the party. It is, indeed, a quaint falling +out, for of late, as you may have heard, the Tutor and the Queen have +scarce been of the number of my intimates."</p> + +<p>The Earl of Douglas appeared strangely disturbed. He paid no further +attention to his host, but strode to and fro in the courtyard with his +thumbs in his belt, in an attitude of the deepest meditation.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor watched him from under his eyebrows with alternate +apprehension and satisfaction, like a timid hunter who sees the lion +half in and half out of the snare.</p> + +<p>"I have a letter for you, my Lord Douglas," he said, after a long +pause.</p> + +<p>"Ah," cried Douglas, with obvious relief, "why did you not tell me so +at first. Pray give it me."</p> + +<p>"I knew not whether it might afford you pleasure or no," answered the +Chancellor.</p> + +<p>"Give it me!" cried Douglas, imperiously, as though he spoke to an +underling.</p> + +<p>Sir William Crichton drew a square parcel from beneath his long-furred +gown, and handed it to William Douglas, who, without stepping back, +instantly broke the seal.</p> + +<p>"Pshaw," cried he, contemptuously, "it is from the Queen Mother and +Alexander Livingston!"</p> + +<p>He thought it had been from another, and his disappointment was +written clear upon his face.</p> + +<p>"Even so," said the Chancellor, suavely; "it was delivered by the same +servant who brought the message<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> which called away the ambassador and +his companion."</p> + +<p>The Earl read it from beginning to end. After the customary greetings +and good wishes the letter ran as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The King greatly desires to see his noble cousin of Douglas +at the castle of Edinburgh, presently put at his Majesty's +disposal by the High Chancellor of Scotland. Here in this +place are now assembled all the men who desire the peace and +assured prosperity of the realm, saving the greatest of all, +my Lord and kinsman of Douglas. The King sends affectionate +greeting to his cousin, and desires that he also may come +thither, that the ambassador of France may carry back to his +master a favourable report of the unity and kindly +governance of the kingdom during his minority."</p></div> + +<p>The Chancellor watched the Earl as he read this letter. To one more +suspicious than William Douglas it would have been clear that he was +himself perfectly acquainted with the contents.</p> + +<p>"I am bidden meet the King at the Castle of Edinburgh," said Douglas; +"I will set out at once."</p> + +<p>"Nay, my lord," said Crichton, "not this day, at least. Stay and hunt +the stag on the braes of Borthwick. My huntsmen have marked down a +swift and noble buck. To-morrow to Edinburgh an you will!"</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Sir William," the Douglas answered, curtly enough; "but +the command is peremptory. I must ride to Edinburgh this very day."</p> + +<p>"I pray you remember that Edinburgh is a turbulent city and little +inclined to love your great house. Is it, think you, wise to go +thither with so small a retinue?"</p> + +<p>The Earl waved his hand carelessly.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid," he said; "besides, what harm can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> befall when I +lodge in the castle of the Lord Chancellor of Scotland?"</p> + +<p>Crichton bowed very low.</p> + +<p>"What harm, indeed?" he said; "I did but advise your lordship to +bethink himself. I am an old man, pray remember—fast growing feeble +and naturally inclined to overmuch caution. But the blood flows hot +through the veins of eighteen."</p> + +<p>Sholto, who knew nothing of these happenings, had just finished +exercising his men on the smooth green in front of the Castle of +Crichton, and had dismissed them, when a gaberlunzie or privileged +beggar, a long lank rascal with a mat of tangled hair, and clad in a +cast-off leathern suit which erstwhile some knight had worn under his +mail, leaped suddenly from the shelter of a hedge. Instinctively +Sholto laid his hand on his dagger.</p> + +<p>"Nay," snuffled the fellow, "I come peaceably. As you love your lord +hasten to give him this letter. And, above all, let not the Crichton +see you."</p> + +<p>He placed a small square scrap of parchment in Sholto's hand. It was +sealed in black wax with a serpent's head, and from the condition of +the outside had evidently been in places both greasy and grimy. Sholto +put it in his leathern pouch wherein he was used to keep the hone for +sharpening his arrows, and bestowed a silver groat upon the beggar.</p> + +<p>"Thy master's life is surely worth more than a groat," said the man.</p> + +<p>"I warrant you have been well enough paid already," said Sholto, "that +is, if this be not a deceit. But here is a shilling. On your head be +it, if you are playing with Sholto MacKim!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> + +<p>So saying the captain of the guard strode within. He had already +acquired the carriage and consequence of a veteran old in the wars.</p> + +<p>His master was still pacing up and down the courtyard, deep in +meditation. Sholto saluted the young Earl and asked permission to +speak a word with him.</p> + +<p>"Speak on, Sholto—well do you know that at all times you may say what +you will to me."</p> + +<p>"But this I desire to keep from prying eyes. My lord, there is a +letter in my wallet which was given me even now by a gaberlunzie man. +He declares that it concerns your life. I pray you take out my hone +stone as if to look at it, and with it the letter."</p> + +<p>The Earl nodded, as if Sholto had been making a report to him. Then he +went nearer and began to finger his squire's accoutrements, finally +opening his belt pouch and taking out the stone that was therein.</p> + +<p>"Where gat you this hone!" he said, holding it to the light; "it looks +not the right blue for a Water-of-Ayr stone."</p> + +<p>Sholto answered that it came from the Parton Hills, and, as the Earl +replaced it, he possessed himself of the square letter and thrust it +into the bosom of his doublet.</p> + +<p>As soon as William Douglas was alone, he broke the seal and tore open +the parchment. It was written in a delicate foreign script, the +characters fine and small:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My lord, do not, I beseech you, come to Edinburgh or think +of me more. Last night my Lord of Retz spied upon us and +this morning he hath carried me off. Wherever you are when +you receive this, turn instantly and ride with all speed to +one of your strong castles. As you love me, go! We can never +hope to see one another again. Forget an unfortunate girl +who can never forget you."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was no signature saving the impression of the joined serpents' +heads, which he remembered as the signet of the ring he had found and +given back to her on the day of the tournament.</p> + +<p>"I will never give her up. I must see her," cried the Earl of Douglas, +"and this very day. Aye, and though I were to die for it on the +morrow, see her I will!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> + +<h3>"EDINBURGH CASTLE, TOWER, AND TOWN"</h3> + + +<p>It was with an anxious heart that Sholto rode out behind his master +over the bald northerly slopes of the Moorfoots. For a long time David +Douglas kept close to his brother, so that the captain of the guard +could speak no private word. For, though he knew that nothing was to +be gained by remonstrance, Sholto was resolved that he would not let +his reckless master run unwarned into danger so deadly and certain.</p> + +<p>He rode up, therefore, and craved permission to speak to the Earl, +seizing an occasion when David had fallen a little behind.</p> + +<p>"Thou art a true son of Malise MacKim, whatever thy mother may aver," +cried the Earl. "I'll wager a gold angel thou art going to say +something shrewdly unpleasant. That great lurdain, thy father, never +asks permission to speak save when he has stilettos rankling where his +honest tongue should be."</p> + +<p>"My lord," said Sholto, "bear a word from one who loves you. Go not +into this town of Edinburgh. Or at least wait till you can ride +thither with three thousand lances as did your father, and his father +before him."</p> + +<p>The Earl laughed merrily and clapped his young knight on the +shoulder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Did you not tell me the same ere we came to the Castle of Crichton, +and lo! there we were ten days in the place and not a man-at-arms +within miles except your own Galloway varlets! Sholto, my lad, we +might have sacked the castle, rolled all the platters down the slopes +into the Tyne, and sent the cooks trundling after them, for all that +any one could have done to stop us. Yet here are we riding forth, +feathers in our bonnets, swords by our sides, panged full of the +Chancellor's good meat and drink, and at once, as soon as we are gone, +Sholto MacKim begins the same old discontented corbie's croak!"</p> + +<p>"But, my lord, 'tis a different matter yonder. The Castle of Edinburgh +is a strong place with many courts and doors—a hostile city round +about, not a solitary castle like Crichton. They may separate you from +us, and we may be able neither to save you nor yet to die with you, if +the worst comes to the worst."</p> + +<p>"I may inform you as well soon as syne, you waste your breath, +Sholto," said Earl Douglas, "and it ill becomes a young knight, let me +tell you, to be so chicken-hearted. The next time I will leave you at +home to hem linen for the bed-sheets. Malise is a licensed croaker, +but I thought better of you, Master Sholto MacKim!"</p> + +<p>The captain of the Earl's guard looked on the ground and his heart was +distressed within him. Yet, in spite of the raillery of the Douglas, +he resolved to make one more effort.</p> + +<p>"My lord," he said, "you know not the full hatred of these men against +your house. What other object save the destruction of the Douglas can +have drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> together foes so deadly as Crichton and Livingston? At +least, my lord, if you are set on risking your own life, send back one +of us with your brother David!"</p> + +<p>Then cried out David Douglas, who had joined them during the converse, +against so monstrous a proposal.</p> + +<p>"I will not go back in any case," said the lad; "William has the +earldom and the titles. I may at least be allowed part of the fun. +Sholto, if William dies without heirs and I become Earl, my first act +will be to hang you on the dule tree with a raven on either side, for +a slow-bellied knave and prophet of evil!"</p> + +<p>The Earl looked at his brother and seemed to hesitate.</p> + +<p>"There is something in what you say, Sholto."</p> + +<p>"My lord, if the blow fall, let not your line be wholly cut off. I +pray you let five good lads ride straight for Douglasdale with David +in the midst—"</p> + +<p>"Sholto," cried the boy, "I will not go back, nor be a palterer, all +because you are afraid for your own skin!"</p> + +<p>"My place is with my master," said Sholto, curtly, and the boy looked +ashamed for a moment; but he soon recovered himself and returned to +the charge.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, 'tis because you want to see Maud Lindesay that you are +so set on returning. I saw you kiss Maud's hand in the dark of the +stairs. Aha! Master Sholto, what say you now?"</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, David," cried his brother; "you might have seen him +kiss yet more pleasantly, and yet do no harm. But, after all, you and +I are Douglases and our star is in the zenith. We will fall together, +if fall we must. Not a word more about it. David, I will race you to +yonder dovecot for a golden lion."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Done with you!" cried his brother, joyously, and in an instant spurs +were into the flanks of their horses, and the young men flew +thundering over the green turf, riding swiftly into the golden haze +from which rose ever higher and higher the dark towers of the Castle +of Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>Past grey peel and wind-swept fortalice the young Lords of Douglas rode +that autumn day, gaily as to a wedding, on their way to place +themselves in the power of their house's enemies. The sea plain +pursued them, flecked green and purple on their right hand. Little +ships floated on the smooth surface of the firth, hardly larger in +size than the boats of fisher folk, yet ships withal which had +adventured into far seas and brought back rich produce into the barren +lands of the Scots.</p> + +<p>At last they entered the demesne of Holyrood, and saw the deer +crouching and basking about the copses or scampering over the broomy +knowes of the Nether Hill. As they came near to the Canongate Port, +they saw a gallant band gaily dressed coming forth to meet them, and +the Earl's eye brightened as it caught in the midst the glint of +ladies' attiring.</p> + +<p>"See, Sholto," he cried, "and repent! Yonder is not a single lance +shining, and you cannot turn your grumbling head but you will see nigh +two score, with a stout Douglas heart bumping under each."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Sholto, without joy or conviction, "but we are neither in +nor yet out of this weary town of Edinburgh!"</p> + +<p>As the cavalcade approached, there came a boy on a pony at speed +towards them. He carried a switch in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> his hand, and with it he urged +his little beast to still greater endeavours.</p> + +<p>"The King!" cried David, cheerfully. "I heard he was a sturdy brat +enough!"</p> + +<p>And in another moment the two young men of the dominant house were +taking off their bonnets to the boy who, in name at least, was their +sovereign and overlord.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" cried the lad, as he circled about them, reckless and +irresponsible as a sea-gull, "I am so glad, so very glad you have +come. I like you because you are so bold and young. I have none about +me like you. You will teach me to ride a tourney. I have been hearing +all about yours at Thrieve from the Lady Sybilla. I wish you had asked +me. But now we shall be friends, and I will come and stay long months +with you all together—that is, if my mother will let me."</p> + +<p>All this the young King shouted as he ranged alongside of the two +brothers, and rode with them towards the city.</p> + +<p>King James II. of Scotland was at this time an open-hearted boy, with +no evident mark of the treachery and jealous fury which afterwards +distinguished him as a man. The schooling of Livingston, his tutor, +had not yet perverted his mind (as it did too soon afterwards), and he +welcomed the young Douglases as the embodiment of all that was great +and knightly, noble and gallant, in his kingdom.</p> + +<p>"Yesterday," he began, as soon as he had subdued the ardour of his +frolicsome little steed to a steadier gait, varied only by an +occasional curvet, "yesterday I was made to read in the Chronicles of +the Kings of Scotland,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> and lo, it was the Douglas did this and the +Douglas said that, till I cried out upon Master Kennedy, 'Enough of +Douglases—I am a Stewart. Read me of the Stewarts.' Then gave Master +Kennedy a look as when he laughs in his sleeve, and shook his head. +'This book concerneth battles,' said he, 'and not gear, plenishing, +and tocher. The Douglas won for King Robert his crown, the Stewart +only married his daughter—though that, if all tales be true, was the +braver deed!' Now that was no reverent speech to me that am a Stewart, +nor yet very gallant to my great-grandmother, was it, Earl Douglas?"</p> + +<p>"It was no fine courtier's flattery, at any rate," said the Douglas, +his eyes wandering hither and thither across the cavalcade which they +were now meeting, in search of the graceful figure and darkly splendid +head of the girl he loved.</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla was not there.</p> + +<p>"They have secluded her," he muttered, in sharp jealous anger; "'tis +all her kinsman's fault. He hath the marks of a traitor and worse. But +they shall not spite nor flout the Douglas."</p> + +<p>So with a countenance grave and unresponsive he saluted Livingston the +tutor, who came forth to meet him. The Chancellor was expected +immediately, for he had ridden in more rapidly by the hill way in +order that he might welcome his notable guests to the metropolitan +residence of the Kings of Scotland.</p> + +<p>The Castle of Edinburgh was at that time in the fulness of its +strength and power. The first James had greatly enlarged and +strengthened its works defensive. He had added thirty feet to the +height of David's Tower, which now served as a watch-station over all +the rock,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> and in his last days he had begun to build the great hall +which the Chancellor had but recently finished.</p> + +<p>It was here that presently the feast was set. The banquet-hall ran the +width of the keep, and the raised dais in the centre was large enough +to seat the whole higher baronage of Scotland, among whom (as the Earl +of Douglas thought with some scorn) neither of his entertainers, +Crichton and Livingston, had any right to place themselves.</p> + +<p>But the question where the Lady Sybilla was bestowed soon occupied the +Douglas more than any thought of his own safety or of the loyalty of +his entertainers. Sybilla, however, was neither in the courtly +cavalcade which met them at the entrance of the park, nor yet among +the more numerous ladies who stood at the castle yett to welcome to +Edinburgh the noble and handsome young lords of the South.</p> + +<p>Douglas therefore concluded that de Retz, discovering some part of the +love that was between them, or mayhap hearing of it from some spy or +other at Crichton Castle, had secluded his sweetheart. He loosened his +hand on the rein to lay it on the sword-hilt, as he thought of this +cruelty to a maid so pure and fair.</p> + +<p>Sholto kept his company very close behind him as they rode up the +High-street, a gloomy defile of tall houses dotted from topmost window +to pavement with the heads of chattering goodwives, and the flutter of +household clothing hung out to dry.</p> + +<p>At the first defences of the castle Douglas called Sholto and said: +"Your fellows are to be lodged here on the Castle Hill. The Chancellor +hath sent word that there is no room in the castle itself. For the +tutor's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> men and King's men have already filled it to the brim."</p> + +<p>These tidings agonised Sholto more than ever.</p> + +<p>"My lord," he said, in a tortured whisper, "turn about your rein and +we will cut our way out even yet. Do you not see that the devils would +separate you from all who love you? And I shall be blamed for this in +Galloway. At least, let me accompany you with half a dozen men."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said the Earl, "such suspicion were a poor return for the +Chancellor's putting himself in our hands all the days we spent with +him at his Castle of Crichton. To your lodgings, Sholto, and give God +thanks if there be therein a pretty maid or a dame complaisant, +according to the wont of young squires and men-at-arms."</p> + +<p>In this fashion rode the Earl of Douglas to take his first dinner in +the Castle of Edinburgh. And Sholto MacKim went behind him, no man +saying him nay. For his master had eyes only for one face, and that he +could not see.</p> + +<p>"But I shall find her yet," he said over and over in his heart. It was +but a boyish heart, and simple, too; but all so brave and high that +the gallantest and greatest gentleman in the world had not one like to +it for loyalty and courage.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE BLACK BULL'S HEAD</h3> + + +<p>The banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle, but lately out of artificers' +hands, was a noble oblong chamber reaching from side to side of the +south-looking keep, begun by James I. It was decorated in the French +manner with oak ceilings and panellings, all bossed and cornered with +massive silver-gilt mouldings.</p> + +<p>Save in the ordering of the repast itself there was a marked absence +of ostentation. Only a soldier or two could be seen, mostly on guard +at the outer gates, and Sholto, who till now had been uneasy and +fearful for his master, became gradually more reassured when he saw +with what care every want of the Earl and his brother was attended to, +and if possible even forestalled.</p> + +<p>The young King was in jubilant spirits, and could scarcely be +persuaded to let the brothers Douglas remain a moment alone. He was +resolved, he said, to have his bed brought into their chamber that he +might talk to them all night of tourneys and noble deeds of arms. +Never had he met with any whom he loved so much, and on their part the +young Lords of Douglas became boys again, in this atmosphere of frank +and boyish admiration.</p> + +<p>It was a state banquet to which they sat down. That is, there was no +hungry crowd of hangers-on clustered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> below the salt. To each +gentleman was allotted a silver trenchard for his own use, instead of +one betwixt two as was the custom. The service was ordered in the +French manner, and there was manifest through all a quiet observance +and good taste which won upon the Earl of Douglas. Nevertheless, his +eyes still continued to range this way and that through the castle, +scanning each tower, glancing up at every balcony and archway, in +search of the Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>In the banquet-hall the little King sat on his high chair in the +midst, with the brothers of Douglas one on either side of him. He +spoke loudly and confidently after the manner of a pampered boy of +high spirits.</p> + +<p>"I will soon come and visit you in return at the Castle of Thrieve. +The Lady Sybilla hath told me how strong it is and how splendid are +the tourneys there, as grand, she swears, as those of France."</p> + +<p>"The Lady Sybilla is peradventure gone to her own land?" ventured +Douglas, not wishing to ask a more direct question. He spoke freely, +however, on all other subjects with the King, laughing and talking +mostly with him, and finding little to say to the tutor Livingston or +the Chancellor, who, either from humility or from fear, had taken care +to interpose half a dozen knights between himself and his late guests.</p> + +<p>"Nay," cried the young King, looking querulously at his tutor, "but, +indeed, I wot not what they have done with my pretty gossip, Sybilla; +I have not seen her for three weeks, save for a moment this morning. +And before she went away she promised to teach me to dance a coranto +in the French manner, and the trick of the handkerchief to hide a +dagger in the hand."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> + +<p>As the Earl listened to the boy's prattle, he became more and more +convinced that the Marshal de Retz, having in some way discovered +their affection for each other, had removed Sybilla out of his reach. +Her letter, indeed, showed clearly that she was in fear of +ill-treatment both for himself and for her.</p> + +<p>The banquet passed with courtesies much more elaborate than was usual +in Scotland, but which indicated the great respect in which the +Douglases were held. Between each course a servant clad in the royal +colours presented a golden salver filled with clear water for the +guests to wash their hands. Through the interstices of the ceiling +strains of music filtered down from musicians hidden somewhere above, +which sounded curiously soothing and far away.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor bowed and drank every few minutes to the health of the +Earl and his brother across the board, while the tutor sat smiling +upon all with the polish of a professional courtier. In his high seat +at the table end the little King chatted incessantly of the times when +he could do as he pleased, and when he and his cousin of Douglas would +ride together to battle and tourney, or feast together in hall.</p> + +<p>"Be sure, then, I will not keep all these grey-beard sorners about +me," he said, lowering his voice cautiously; "I will only have young +gallant men like you and David there. But what comes here?"</p> + +<p>There was a stir among the servitors at the upper end of the room. +Sholto, who stood behind his master's chair, heard the skirl of the +war-pipes approach nearer. It grew louder, more insistent, finally +almost oppressive. The doors at either end were filled with armed +men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> They filed silently into the hall in dark armour, all carrying +shining Lochaber axes.</p> + +<p>Douglas leaned back in his chair, and looked nonchalantly on like a +spectator of a pageant. He continued to talk to the King easily and +calmly, as if he were in his own Castle of Thrieve. But Sholto saw the +white and ghastly look on the face of the Chancellor, and noted his +hands nervously grip the table. He observed him also lean across and +confer with Livingston, who nodded like one that agrees that the +moment of action has come.</p> + +<p>At the upper end of the hall were wide folding doors which till now +had been shut. These were opened swiftly, either half falling back to +the wall. And through the archway came two servitors in black habits, +carrying between them on a huge platter of silver a black bull's head, +ghastly and ominous even in death, with staring eyeballs and matted +frontlet of ensanguined hair.</p> + +<p>"Treachery!" instantly cried Sholto, and ere the men could approach he +had drawn his sword and stood ready to do battle for his lord. For +throughout all Scotland a bull's head served at table is the symbol of +death.</p> + +<p>The Earl did not move or speak. He watched the progress of the men in +black, who staggered under their heavy burden. David also had risen to +his feet with his hand on his sword, but William Douglas sat still. +Alarm, wonder, and anxiety chased each other across the face of the +young King.</p> + +<p>"What is this, Chancellor—why is the room filled with armed men?" he +cried.</p> + +<p>But Crichton had withdrawn himself behind the partisans of his +soldiers, and down the long table there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> not a man but had risen +and bared his sword. Every eye was turned upon the young Earl. A score +of men-at-arms came forward to seize him.</p> + +<p>"Stand back on your lives!" cried Sholto, sweeping his blade about him +to keep a space clear about his youthful master.</p> + +<p>But still the Earl William sat calm and unmoved, though all others had +risen to their feet and held arms in their hands.</p> + +<p>"What means this mumming?" he said, high and clear. "If a mystery is +to be played, surely it were better to put it off till after dinner."</p> + +<p>Then through the open doorway came a voice piercing and reedy.</p> + +<p>"The play is played indeed, William of Douglas, and the lion is now +safe in the power of the dogs. How like you our kennel, most mighty +lion?"</p> + +<p>It was the voice of the Chancellor Crichton.</p> + +<p>The young King came running from his place and threw his arms about +the Earl's neck.</p> + +<p>"I am the King," he cried; "not one of you shall touch or hurt my +cousin Douglas!"</p> + +<p>"Stand back, James," said the tutor Livingston; "the Douglas is a +traitor, and you shall never reign while he rules. He and his brother +must be tried for treason. They have claimed the King's throne, and +usurped his authority."</p> + +<p>Sholto MacKim turned about. In all that threatening array of armed men +no friendly eye met his, and none of all he had trusted drew a blade +for the Douglas. Sholto stood calculating the chances. To die like a +man was easy, but how to die to some purpose seemed more diffi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>cult. +He saw the King with his arm about the neck of William Douglas, who +remained quietly in his place with a pale but assured countenance.</p> + +<p>It was Sholto's only chance. With his left hand he seized the young +King by the collar of his doublet, and set the point of his sword to +his back between the shoulder-blades.</p> + +<p>"Now," he cried, "let a man lay hand on my Lord Douglas and I will +slay the King!"</p> + +<p>At this there was great consternation, and but for fear of Sholto's +keeping his word half a score would have rushed forward to the +assistance of the boy. The scream of a woman from some concealed +portal showed that the Queen Mother was waiting to witness the +downfall of the mighty house which, as she had been taught, alone +threatened her boy's throne.</p> + +<p>Sholto's arm was already drawn back for the thrust, when the voice of +the Earl of Douglas was heard. He had risen to his feet, and now stood +easy and careless as ever, with his thumb in the blue silken sash +which girt his waist.</p> + +<p>"Sholto," he said calmly, "you forget your place. Let the King go +instantly, and ask his Majesty's pardon. Set your sword again in its +sheath. I am your lord. I dubbed you knight. Do as I command you."</p> + +<p>Most unwillingly Sholto did as he was bidden, and the King, instead of +withdrawing, placed himself still closer to William of Douglas.</p> + +<p>"And now," cried the Earl, facing the array of armed men who thronged +the banquet-hall, "what would ye with the Douglas? Do ye mean my +death, as by the Bull's Head here on the table ye would have me +believe?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> + +<p>"For black treason do we apprehend you, Earl of Douglas," creaked the +voice of the Chancellor, still speaking from behind his array of +men-at-arms, "and because you have set yourself above the King. But we +are no butchers, and trial shall ye have by your peers."</p> + +<p>"And who in this place are the peers of the Earl of Douglas?" said the +young man, haughtily.</p> + +<p>"I will not bandy words with you, my Lord Douglas. You are +overmastered. Yield yourself, therefore, as indeed you must without +remeed. Deliver your weapons and submit; 'tis our will."</p> + +<p>"My brave Chancellor," said the Earl William, still in a voice of +pleasant irony, "you have well chosen your time to shame yourself. We +are your invited guests, and the guests of the King of Scotland. We +are here unarmed, sitting at meat with you in your own house. We have +come hither unattended, trusting to the honour of these noble knights +and gentlemen. Therefore my brother and I have no swords to deliver. +But if, being honourable men, you stand, as is natural, upon a nice +punctilio, I can satisfy you."</p> + +<p>He turned again to Sholto MacKim.</p> + +<p>"Give me your sword," he said. "'Tis better I should render it than +you."</p> + +<p>With great unwillingness the captain of the guard of Thrieve did as he +was bidden. The Earl reversed it in his hand and held it by the point.</p> + +<p>"And now, my Lord Chancellor, I deliver you a Douglas sword, depending +upon the word of an honourable man and the invitation of the King of +Scotland."</p> + +<p>But even so the chancellor would not advance from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> behind the cover of +his soldiery, and the Earl looked around for some one to whom to +surrender.</p> + +<p>"Will you then appoint one of your knights to whom I may deliver this +weapon? Is there none who will dare to come near even the hilt of a +Douglas sword? Here then, Sholto, break it over your knee and cast it +upon the board as a witness against all treachery."</p> + +<p>Sholto did as he was told, breaking his sword and casting the pieces +upon the table in the place where the King of Scots had sat.</p> + +<p>"And now, my lords, I am ready," said the Earl, and his brother David +stood up beside him, looking as they faced the unbroken ring of their +foes the two noblest and gallantest youths in Scotland.</p> + +<p>At this the King caught Lord William by the hand, and, lifting up his +voice, wept aloud with the sudden breaking lamentation of a child.</p> + +<p>"My cousin, my dear cousin Douglas," he cried, "they shall not harm +you, I swear it on my faith as a King."</p> + +<p>At last an officer of the Chancellor's guard mustered courage to +approach the Earl of Douglas, and, saluting, he motioned him to +follow. This, with his head erect, and his usual easy grace, he did, +David walking abreast of him. And Sholto, with all his heart filled +with the deadly chill of hopelessness, followed them through the +sullen ranks of the traitors.</p> + +<p>And even as he went Earl Douglas looked about him every way that he +might see once more her for whose sake he had adventured within the +portals of death.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + +<h3>BETRAYED WITH A KISS</h3> + + +<p>The earl and his brother were incarcerated in the lower chamber of the +High Keep called David's Tower, which rose next in order eastward from +the banqueting-hall, following the line of the battlements.</p> + +<p>Beneath, the rock on which the castle was built fell away towards the +Nor' Loch in a precipice so steep that no descent was to be thought +of—and this indeed was the chief defence of the prison, for the +window of the chamber was large and opened easily according to the +French fashion.</p> + +<p>"I pray that you permit my young knight, Sir Sholto MacKim, to +accompany me," said the Earl to the officer who conducted them to +their prison-house.</p> + +<p>"I have no orders concerning him," said the man, gruffly, but +nevertheless permitted Sholto to enter after the Earl and his brother.</p> + +<p>The chamber was bare save for a <i>prie-dieu</i> in the angle of the wall, +at which the Douglas looked with a strange smile upon his face.</p> + +<p>"Right <i>à propos</i>," said he; "they have need of religion in this house +of traitors."</p> + +<p>David Douglas went to the window-seat of low stone, and bent his head +into his hands. He was but a boy and life was sweet to him, for he had +just begun to taste<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> the apple and to dream of the forbidden fruit. He +held his head down and was silent a space. Then suddenly he sobbed +aloud with a quick, gasping noise, startling enough in that still +place.</p> + +<p>"For God's dear sake, David laddie," said his brother, going over to +him, placing his hand upon his shoulder, "be silent. They will think +that we are afraid."</p> + +<p>The boy stilled himself instantly at the word, and looked up at his +brother with a pale sort of smile.</p> + +<p>"No, William, I am not afraid, and if indeed we must die I will not +disgrace you. Be never feared of that. Yet I thought on our mother's +loneliness. She will miss me sore, for she fleeched and pled with me +not to come, yet I would not listen to her."</p> + +<p>Sholto stood by the door, erect as if on duty at Thrieve.</p> + +<p>"Come and sit with us," said the Earl William kindly to him, "we are +no more master and servant, earl and esquire. We are but three youths +that are to die together, and the axe's edge levels all. You, Sholto, +are in some good chance to live the longest of the three by some half +score of minutes. I am glad I made you a knight on the field of +honour, Sir Sholto, for then they cannot hang you to a bough, like a +varlet caught stealing the King's venison."</p> + +<p>Sholto slowly came over to the window-seat and stood there +respectfully as before, with his arms straight at his side, feeling +more than anything else the lack of his sword-hilt to set his right +hand upon.</p> + +<p>"Nay, but do as I bid you," said the Earl, looking up at him; "sit +down, Sholto."</p> + +<p>And Sholto sat on the window-seat and looked forth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> upon the lights +leaping out one after another down among the crowded gables of the +town as this and that burgher lit lamp or lantern at the nearing of +the hour of supper.</p> + +<p>Far away over the shore-lands the narrow strip of the Forth showed +amethystine and mysterious, and farther out still the coast of Fife +lay in a sort of opaline haze.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said William Douglas, after a long pause, "what they have +done with our good lads. Had they been taken or perished we had surely +heard more noise, I warrant. Two score lads of Galloway would not give +up their arms without a tulzie for it."</p> + +<p>"They might induce them to leave them behind, when they went out to +take their pleasures among the maids of the Lawnmarket," said Sholto.</p> + +<p>"Not their swords," said the Earl, "it needed all your lord's commands +to make yours quit your side. I warrant these fellows will give an +excellent account of themselves."</p> + +<p>Presently the night fell darker, and a smurr of rain drifted over from +the edges of Pentland, mostly passing high above, but with lower +fringes that dragged, as it were, on the Castle Rock and the Hill of +Calton.</p> + +<p>The three young men were still silently looking out when suddenly from +the darkness underneath there came a low voice.</p> + +<p>"'Ware window!" it said, "stand back there above."</p> + +<p>To Sholto the words sounded curiously familiar, and almost without +thinking what he did, he seized the Earl and his brother and dragged +them away from the wide space of the lattice, which opened into the +summer's night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Ware window!" came again the cautious voice from far below. Sholto +heard the whistle and "spat" of an arrow against the wall without. It +must have fallen again, for the voice 'came a third time—"'Ware +window!"</p> + +<p>And on this occasion the archer was successful, guided doubtless by +the illumination of the lantern the guard had hung on a nail, and +whose flicker would outline the lattice faintly against the darkness +of the wall.</p> + +<p>An arrow entered with a soft hiss. It struck beyond them with a click, +and its iron point tinkled on the floor, the plaster of the opposite +wall not holding it.</p> + +<p>Sholto scrambled about the floor on hands and knees till he found it. +It was a common archer's arrow. A cord was fastened about it, and a +note stuck in the slit along with the feather.</p> + +<p>"It is my brother Laurence," whispered Sholto. "I warrant he is +beneath with a rope and a posse of stout fellows. We shall escape them +yet."</p> + +<p>But even as he raised the letter to read it by the faint blue flicker +of the lantern, there came a cry of pain from within the castle. It +was a woman's voice that cried, and at the sound of pleading speech in +some chamber above them, William Douglas started to his feet.</p> + +<p>The words were clear enough, but in a language not understood by +Sholto MacKim. They seemed intelligible enough, however, to the Earl.</p> + +<p>"I knew it," he cried; "the false hounds have imprisoned her also. It +is Sybilla's voice. God in heaven—they are torturing her!"</p> + +<p>He ran to the door and shook it vehemently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ho! Without there!" he cried imperiously, as if in his own Castle at +Thrieve.</p> + +<p>But no one paid any attention to his shouts, and presently the woman's +voice died down to a slow sobbing which was quite audible in the room +beneath, where the three young men listened.</p> + +<p>"What did she say?" asked David, presently, of his brother, who still +stood with his ear to the door.</p> + +<p>The Earl first made a gesture commanding silence, and then, hearing +nothing more, he came slowly over to the window. "It is the Lady +Sybilla," he said, in a voice which revealed his deep emotion. "She +said, in the French language, 'You shall not kill him. You shall not! +He trusted me and he shall not die.'"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Sholto, knowing that there was no time to lose, had been +drawing in the cord, which presently thickened into a rope stout +enough to support the weight of a light and active youth such as any +of the three young men imprisoned in David's Tower.</p> + +<p>But the sound of the woman's tears had thrown the Earl into an +excitement so extreme that he hammered on the great bolt-studded door +with his bare clenched hands, and cried aloud to the Chancellor and +Livingston, commanding them to open to him. His first calmness seemed +completely broken up.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Sholto, his whole soul bent on the cord which gave the +unseen Douglases a chance of saving the lives of their masters, had +drawn thirty yards of stout rope into the room. He fixed it by a +double knot, first to a ring which was let into the wall, and +afterwards to the massive handle of the door itself.</p> + +<p>"Now, my lord," he whispered, as he finished, "be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> pleased to go +first. Our lads are beneath, and in the shaking of a cow's tail we +shall be safe in the midst of them."</p> + +<p>The Earl held up his hand with the quick imperative motion he used to +command silence. The sound of the woman's voice came again from above, +now quick and high, like one who makes an agonised petition, and now +in tones lower that seemed broken with sobs and lamentations.</p> + +<p>At first William Douglas did not appear to comprehend the meaning of +Sholto's words, being so bent on his listening. But when the young +captain of the guard again reminded him that the time of their chances +for relief was quickly passing, and that the soldiers of the +Chancellor might come at any moment to lead them to their doom, the +Earl broke out upon him in sudden anger.</p> + +<p>"For what crawling thing do you take me, Sholto MacKim?" he cried; "I +will not leave this place till I know what they have done with her. +She trusted me, and shall I prove a recreant? I would have you know +that I am William, Earl of Douglas, and fear not the face of any +Crichton that ever breathed. Ho—there—without!" and again he shook +the door with ineffectual anger.</p> + +<p>His only answer was the sound of that beseeching woman's voice, and +the measured tread of the sentry, whose partisan they could see +flashing in the lamplight through the narrow barred wicket, as he +turned in front of their door.</p> + +<p>And it was now all in vain that Sholto pled with his master. To every +argument Lord Douglas replied, "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> cannot go—it consorts not with +mine honour to leave this castle so long as the Lady Sybilla is in +their hands."</p> + +<p>Sholto told him how they could now escape, and in a week would raise +the whole of the south, returning to the siege of the castle and the +destruction of the traitors Crichton and Livingston. But even to this +the Earl had his answer.</p> + +<p>"What—flee like a coward and leave this girl, who has loved and +trusted me, defenceless in their hands! You yourself have heard her +weeping. I tell you I cannot go—I will not go. Let David and you +escape! My place is here, and neither snivelling Crichton nor that +backstairs lap-dog Livingston shall say that they took the Earl of +Douglas, and that he fled from them under cloud of night."</p> + +<p>David Douglas had been standing by hopefully while Sholto tied the +rope to the rings. At his brother's words he sat down again. William +of Douglas turned about upon him.</p> + +<p>"Go, David, I bid you. Escape, and if aught happen to me, fail not to +make the traitors pay dearly for it."</p> + +<p>But David Douglas sat still and answered not. Then Sholto, desperate +of success with his master, approached David, and with gentle force +would have compelled him to the window. But, at the first touch of his +hand, the boy thrust him away, striking him fiercely upon the +shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Hands off!" he cried, "I also am a Douglas and no craven. I will +abide by my brother to the end."</p> + +<p>"No, my David," said the Earl, turning for a moment from the door +where he had been again listening, "you shall not stay! You are the +hope of our house. My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> mother would fret to death if aught happened to +you. This is not a matter which concerns you. Go, I bid you. On me it +lies, and if I must pay the reckoning, why at least only I drank the +wine."</p> + +<p>"I will not;" cried the boy; "I tell you I will bide where my brother +bides and his fate shall be mine."</p> + +<p>Then Sholto, well nigh frantic with apprehension and disappointment, +went to the window and leaned out, gripping the sill with his hands.</p> + +<p>"They will not leave the castle," he whispered as loud as he dared; +"the Earl will not escape while the Lady Sybilla remains a prisoner +within."</p> + +<p>"God in heaven!" cried a stern voice from below which made Sholto +start, "we shall be broken first and last upon that woman. Would to +God I had slain her with my hand! Tell the Earl that if he will not +come to those that wait for him underneath the tower, I, Malise +MacKim, will come and fetch him like a child in my arms, even as I did +from under the pine trees at Loch Roan."</p> + +<p>And as he spoke the strain of the rope and its swaying over the +window-sill proclaimed that the mighty form of the master armourer was +even then on the way upwards towards the dungeon of his chief.</p> + +<p>"Go back, I command you, Malise MacKim," he said, "go back instantly. +I have made up my mind. I will not escape from the Castle of Edinburgh +this night."</p> + +<p>But Malise answered not a word, only pulled more desperately on the +rope, till the sound of his labouring breath and grasping palms could +be heard from side to side of the chamber.</p> + +<p>The Earl leaned further out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Malise," he said, calm and clear, "you see this knife. I would not +have your blood on my hands. You have been a good and faithful servant +to our house. But, by the oath of a Douglas, if you come one foot +farther, I will cut the rope and you shall be dashed in pieces +beneath."</p> + +<p>The master armourer stopped—not with any fear of death upon him, but +lest a stroke of his master's dirk should destroy their well-arranged +mode of escape.</p> + +<p>"O Earl William, my dear lord, hear me," he said in a gasping voice, +still hanging perilously between earth and heaven. "If I have indeed +been a faithful servant, I beseech you come with me—for the sake of +the house of Douglas and of your mother, a widow and alone."</p> + +<p>"Go down, Malise MacKim," said the Earl, more gently; "I will speak +with you only at the rope's foot."</p> + +<p>So very unwillingly Malise went back.</p> + +<p>"Now," said the Earl, "hearken—this will I do and no other. I will +remain here and abide that which shall befall me, as is the will of +God. I am bound by a tie that I cannot break. What life is to another, +honour and his word must be to a Douglas. But I send your son Sholto +to you. I bid him ride fast to Galloway and bring all that are +faithful with speed here to Edinburgh. Go also into Douglasdale and +tell my cousin William of Avondale—and if he is too late to save, I +know well he will avenge me."</p> + +<p>"O William Douglas, if indeed ye will neither fleech nor drive, I pray +you for the sake of the great house to send your brother David, that +the Douglases of the Black be not cut off root and branch. Remember, +your mother is sore set on the lad."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I will not go," cried David, as he heard this; "by the saints I will +stand by my brother's shoulder, though I be but a boy! I will not go +so much as a step, and if by force ye stir me I will cry for the +guard!"</p> + +<p>By this time the young David was leaning half out of the window, and +almost shouting out his words down to the unseen Douglases beneath.</p> + +<p>"Go, Sholto," said the Earl, setting his hand on his squire's +shoulder. "You alone can ride to Galloway without drawing rein. Go +swiftly and bring back every true lad that can whang bow, or gar +sword-iron whistle. The Douglas must drie the Douglas weird. I would +have made you a great man, Sir Sholto, but if you get a new master, he +will surely do that which I had not time to perform."</p> + +<p>"Come, Sholto," said his father, "there is a horse at the outer port. +I fear the Crichton's men are warned. As it is we shall have to fight +for it."</p> + +<p>Sholto still hesitated, divided between obedience and grief.</p> + +<p>"Sholto MacKim," said the Earl, "if indeed you owe me aught of love or +service, go and do that thing which I have laid upon you. Bear a +courteous greeting from me to your sweetheart Maud, and a kiss to our +Maid Margaret. And now haste you and begone!"</p> + +<p>Sholto bent a moment on his knee and kissed the hand of his young +master. His voice was choked with sobs. The Earl patted him on the +shoulder. "Dinna greet, laddie," he said, in the kindly country speech +which comes so meltingly to all Galloway folk in times of distress, +gentle and simple alike, "dinna greet. If one Douglas fall in the +breach, there stands ever a better behind him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But never one like you, my lord, my lord!" said Sholto.</p> + +<p>The Earl raised him gently, led him to the window, and himself +steadied the rope by which his squire was to descend.</p> + +<p>"Go!" he said; "honour keeps the Douglas here, and his brother bides +with him—since not otherwise it may be. But the honour of obedience +sends Sholto MacKim to the work that is given him!"</p> + +<p>Then, after the captain of his guard had gone out into the dark and +disappeared down the rope, the Earl only waited till the tension +slackened before stooping and cutting the cord at the point of +juncture with the iron ring.</p> + +<p>"And now, Davie lad," he said, setting an arm about his brother's +neck, "there are but you and me for it, and I think a bit prayer would +not harm either of us."</p> + +<p>So the two young lads, being about to die, kneeled down together +before the cross of Him who was betrayed with a kiss.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> + +<h3>THE LION AT BAY</h3> + + +<p>The morning had broken broad and clear from the east when the door of +the prison-house was opened, and a seneschal appeared. He saluted the +brothers, and in a shaking voice summoned them to come forth and be +tried for offences of treason and rebellion against the King and his +ministers.</p> + +<p>William of Douglas waved a hand to him, but answered nothing to the +summons. He wasted no words upon one who merely did as he was bidden. +All night the brothers had sat looking out on the city humming +sleeplessly beneath them, till the light slowly dawned over the Forth +and away to the eastward Berwick Law stood dwarfed and clear. At first +they had sat apart, but as the hours stole on David came a little +nearer and his hand sought that of his brother, clasped it, and abode +as it had been contented. The elder brother returned the pressure.</p> + +<p>"David," he said, "if perish we must, at least you and I will show +them how Douglases can die."</p> + +<p>So when they rose to follow the seneschal who summoned them, as they +left the chamber of detention and the clanking guard fell in behind +them, Earl William put his hand affectionately on his young brother's +shoulder and kept it there. In this wise they came into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> great +hall wherein yester-even the banquet of treachery had been served. The +dais had been removed to the upper end of the room, and upon it in the +furred robes of judges of the realm, there sat on either side of the +empty throne Crichton the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston. +Behind were crowded groups of knights, pages, men-at-arms, and all the +hangers-on of a court. But of men of dignity and place only the +Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, was present.</p> + +<p>He sat alone on a high seat ranged crosswise upon the dais. The floor +in the centre of the hall was kept clear for the entrance of the +brothers of Douglas.</p> + +<p>Crichton and Livingston looked uneasily at each other as the feet of +the guard conducting the prisoners were heard in the corridor without, +and with a quick, apprehensive wave of his hand Crichton motioned the +armed men of his guard closer about him, and gave their leader +directions in a hushed voice behind his palm.</p> + +<p>The seneschal who had summoned them strode in first, and then after a +sufficient interval entered the young Lords of Douglas, William and +David his brother. The elder still kept one hand affectionately on the +shoulder of the younger. His other was set as usual in the silken belt +which he wore about his waist, and he walked carelessly, with a high +air and an easy step, like one that goes in expectantly to a pleasant +entertainment.</p> + +<p>But as soon as the brothers perceived in whose presence they were, an +air of pride came over their faces and stiffened their figures into +the sterner aspect of warriors who stand on the field of battle.</p> + +<p>Some three paces before the steps of the dais on which sat the +self-constituted judges was arranged a barrier of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> strong wooden posts +tipped with iron, and two soldiers with drawn swords were on guard at +either end.</p> + +<p>The Douglases stood silent, haughtily awaiting the first words of +accusation. And the face of young David was to the full as haughty and +contemptuous as that of Earl William himself.</p> + +<p>It was the Chancellor who spoke first, in his high rasping creak.</p> + +<p>"William, Earl of Douglas, and you David, called the Master of +Douglas," he began, "you are summoned hither by the King's authority +to answer for many crimes of treason against his royal person—for +rebellion also and the arming of forces against his authority—for +high speeches and studied contempt of those who represent his +sovereign Majesty in this realm, for treasonable alliances with rebel +lords, and above all for swearing allegiance to another monarch, even +to the King of France. What have you to say to these charges?"</p> + +<p>The Earl of Douglas swept his eyes across the dais from side to side +with a slow contempt which made the Chancellor writhe in his chair. +Then after a long pause he deigned to reply, but rather like a king +who grants a favour than like one accused before judges in whose hands +is the power of life and death.</p> + +<p>"I see," said he, "two knights before me on a high seat, one the +King's tutor, the other his purse-bearer. I have yet to learn who +constituted them judges of any cause whatsoever, still less of aught +that concerns William Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Earl of Douglas, +hereditary Lieutenant-Governor of the realm of Scotland."</p> + +<p>And he kept his eyes upon them with a straight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> forth-looking glance, +palpably embarrassing to the traitors on the dais.</p> + +<p>"Earl Douglas," said the Chancellor again, "pray remember that you are +not now in Castle Thrieve. Your six thousand horsemen wait not in the +courtyard out there. Learn to be more humble and answer to the things +whereof you are accused. Do you desire that witness should be +brought?"</p> + +<p>"Of what need are witnesses? I own no court or jurisdiction. I have +heard no accusations!" said the Earl William.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor motioned with his hand, whereupon Master Robert Berry, +a procurator of the city, advanced and read a long parchment which set +forth in phrase and detail of legality twenty accusations against the +Earl,—of treason, rebellion, and manifest oppression.</p> + +<p>When he had finished the Chancellor said, "And now, Earl Douglas, what +answer have you to these things?"</p> + +<p>"Does it matter at all what I answer?" asked the Earl, succinctly.</p> + +<p>"I do not bandy words with you," said the Chancellor; "I order you to +make your pleading, or stand within your danger."</p> + +<p>"And yet," said William Douglas, gravely, "words are all that you dare +bandy with me. Even if I honoured you by laying aside my dignities and +consented to break a lance with you, you would refuse to afford me +trial by battle, which is the right of every peer accused."</p> + +<p>"'Tis a barbarous custom," said the Chancellor; "we will try your case +upon its merit."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Earl laughed a little mocking laugh.</p> + +<p>"It will be somewhat safer," said he, "but haste you and get the sham +done with. I plead nothing. I do not even tell you that you lie. What +doth one expect of a gutter-dog but that it should void the garbage it +hath devoured? But I do ask you, Marshal de Retz, as a brave soldier +and the representative of an honourable King, what you have done with +the Lady Sybilla?"</p> + +<p>The Marshal de Retz smiled—a smile so chill, cruel, hard, that the +very soldiers on guard, seeing it, longed to slay him on the spot.</p> + +<p>"May I, in return, ask my Lord Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine +what is that to him?" he said, with sneering emphasis upon the titles.</p> + +<p>"It matters to me," replied William Douglas, boldly, "more than life, +and almost as much as honour. The Lady Sybilla did me the grace to +tell me that she loved me. And I in turn am bound to her in life and +death."</p> + +<p>The Chancellor and the tutor broke into laughter, but the marshal +continued to smile his terrible smile of determinate evil.</p> + +<p>"Listen," he said at last, "hear this, my Lord of Touraine; ever since +we came to this kingdom, and, indeed, long before we left the realm of +France, the Lady Sybilla intended nothing else than your deception and +destruction. Poor dupe, do you not yet understand? She it was that +cozened you with fair words. She it was that advised you to come +hither that we might hold you in our hands. For her sake you obeyed. +She was the willing bait of the trap your foes set for you. What think +you of the Lady Sybilla now?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p> + +<p>William of Douglas did not answer in words, but as the marshal ceased +speaking, he drew himself together like a lithe animal that sways this +way and that before springing. His right hand dropped softly from his +brother's shoulder upon the hilt of his own dagger.</p> + +<p>Then with one sudden bound he was over the barrier and upon the dais. +Almost his blade was at the marshal's throat, and but for the crossed +partisans of two guards who stood on either side of de Retz, he had died there and then by the dagger of William +Douglas. As it was, the youth was brought to a stand with his breast +pressed vainly against the steel points, and paused there crying out +in fury, "Liar and toad! Come out from behind these varlets that I may +slay thee with my hand."</p> + +<p>A score of men-at-arms approached from behind, and forced the young +man back to his place.</p> + +<p>"Bring in the Lady Sybilla," said the marshal, still smiling, while +the judges sat silent and afraid at the anger of one man.</p> + +<p>And even while the Earl stood panting after his outburst of furious +anger, they opened the door at the back of the dais and through it +there entered the Lady Sybilla. Instantly the eyes of William Douglas +fixed themselves upon her, but she did not raise hers nor look at him. +She stood at the farther side at the edge of the dais, her hands +joined in front of her, and her hair streamed down her back and fell +in waves over her white dress.</p> + +<p>An angel of light coming through the open door of heaven could not +have appeared more innocent and pure.</p> + +<p>The Marshal de Retz turned towards his sister-in-law,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> and, with his +eyes fixed upon hers and with the same pitiless chill in them, he said +in a low tone, "Look at me."</p> + +<p>The girl raised her eyes slowly, and, as it had been, reluctantly, and +in them, instead of the meek calm of an angel, there appeared the +terror and dismay of a lost soul that listens to its doom.</p> + +<p>"Sybilla," hissed rather than spoke de Retz, "is +it true that ever since by the lakeside of Carlinwark you met the Earl +of Douglas you have deceived him and sought his doom?"</p> + +<p>"I care not to hear the answer," said the young man, "even did I +believe that which you by your power may compel her to say. Unfaith in +another is not unfaith in me. I am bound to this lady in love and +honour—aye, even unto death, if that be her will!"</p> + +<p>"I have, indeed, deceived him!" replied the girl, slowly, the words +seeming to be forced from her one by one.</p> + +<p>"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal, turning upon the +young man, who stood still and motionless, never taking his eyes off +the slender figure in white.</p> + +<p>The marshal continued his pitiless questioning.</p> + +<p>"At Castle Thrieve you persuaded him to follow you to Crichton and +afterwards to Edinburgh, knowing well that you brought him to his +death."</p> + +<p>"It is true!" said the girl, with a voice like one speaking out of the +grave itself.</p> + +<p>"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal.</p> + +<p>"And at Castle Crichton you played the play to the end. With false +cozening words you deceived this young man. You led him on with love +on your lips<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> and hate in your heart. You kissed him with the Judas +kiss. You led his soul captive to death by the drawing of your eyes."</p> + +<p>In a voice that could hardly be heard the girl replied, her whole +figure fixed and turned to stone by the intensity of her tormentor's +gaze.</p> + +<p><i>"I did these things! I am accursed!"</i></p> + +<p>The ambassador turned with a fleering triumph.</p> + +<p>"You hear, William of Douglas," he said, "you hear what your true love +says!"</p> + +<p>Then it was that, with the calm air and steady voice of a great +gentleman, William Douglas answered, "I hear, but I do not believe."</p> + +<p>A spasm of joy passed over the countenance of the Lady Sybilla. She +half sprang towards her lover as if to clasp him in her arms.</p> + +<p>But in the midst, between intent and act, she restrained herself.</p> + +<p>"No, I am not worthy," she said. And again, and lower, like a +lamentation, "I am not worthy!"</p> + +<p>Then, while all watched eagerly, the marshal rose from his seat to his +full height.</p> + +<p>"Girl—look at me!" he cried in a loud and terrible voice. But Sybilla +did not seem to hear him.</p> + +<p>She was looking at the Earl, and her eyes were great and grey and +vague.</p> + +<p>"Listen, my true lord, and then hate me if you will," she said; +"listen, William of Douglas. Never before have I found in all the +world one man true to the core. I did not believe that such an one +lived. Hear this and then turn from me in loathing.</p> + +<p>"For the sake of this man's life, forfeit ten times<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> over" (she +pointed, as she spoke, at the marshal), "to whom, by the powers of +hell, my soul is bound, I came at the bidding of the King of France +and of this man, my master, to compass the destruction of the Earl of +Douglas. Our King's son desired his duchy, and promised to this man +pardon for his evil deeds. I came to satisfy them both. On my guilty +head be the punishment. It is true that I cozened and led you on. It +is true that at Castle Thrieve I deceived you, knowing well that which +would happen. I knew to what you would follow me, and for the sake of +the evil wrought by your fathers, I was glad. But afterwards at +Crichton, when, in the woods by the waterside, I told you that I loved +you, I did not lie. I did love you then. And by God's grace I do love +you now—yea, before all men I declare it. Once for a season of +glorious forgetting, all too brief, I was yours to love, now I am +yours to hate and to despise. I tried to save you, but though you had +my warning you would not go back or forget me. Now it is too late!"</p> + +<p>As she spoke over the face of William Douglas there had come a +glow—the red blood flooding up and routing the white determined +pallor of his cheek.</p> + +<p>"My lady," he answered her, gently, "be not grieved for a little thing +that is past. That you love me truly is enough. I ask for no more, +least of all for pity. I have not lived long. I have not had time +allotted me wherein to do great things, but for your sake I can die as +well as any! You have given me of your love, and of the flower +thereof. I am glad. That you have loved me was my crown of life. Now +it remains but to pay a little price soon paid, for a joy exceeding +great."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the Chancellor had had enough of this. He rose, and, stretching +forth his hand towards the barrier, he said: "William of Douglas, you +and your brother are condemned to instant death as enemies of the King +and his ministers. Soldiers, do your duty. Lead them forth to the +block!"</p> + +<p>And with these words he left the dais, followed by Sir Alexander +Livingston. The girl stood in the place whence she had spoken her last +words. Then, as the men-at-arms went shamefacedly to take the Earl by +the arm, she suddenly threw herself across the platform, leaped +lightly over the barrier, and fell into his arms.</p> + +<p>"William, once I would have betrayed you," she said, "but now I love +you. I will die with you—or by the great God I will live to avenge +you."</p> + +<p>"Hush, sweetheart," said William Douglas, touching her brow gently +with his lips, and putting her into the arms of an officer of the +court whom her uncle had sent to remove her. "Fear not for me! Death +is swift and easy. I expected nothing else. That you love me is +enough! Dear love, fare thee well!"</p> + +<p>But the girl heard him not. She had fainted in the arms that held her. +Yet the Marshal de Retz had still more for her to suffer. He stood +beside her and dashed water upon her till she awoke, that she might +see that which remained to be done.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was a scene dreary beyond all power of words to tell it, when into +the courtyard of the Castle of Edinburgh they brought the two noble +young men forth to die. The sun had long risen, but the first flush of +broad morning sunshine still lingered upon the low platform<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> on which +stood the block, and beside it the headsman sullenly waiting to do his +appointed work.</p> + +<p>The young Lords of Douglas came out looking brave and handsome as +bridegrooms on a day of betrothing. William had once more his hand on +David's shoulder, his other rested carelessly on his thigh as his +custom was. The brothers were bareheaded, and to the eyes of those who +looked on they seemed to be conversing together of light matters of +love and ladies' favours.</p> + +<p>High above upon a balcony, hung like an iron cage upon the castle +wall, appeared the Chancellor and the tutor. The young King was with +them, weeping and crying out, "Do nothing to my dear cousins—I +command you—I am the King!"</p> + +<p>But the tutor roughly bade him be still, telling him that he would +never reign if these young men lived, and presently another came there +and stood beside him. The Marshal de Retz it was, who, with a fiendish +smile upon his sleek parchment face, conducted the Lady Sybilla to see +the end. But it was a good end to see, and nobler far than most lives +that are lived to fourscore years.</p> + +<p>The brothers embraced as they came to the block, kneeled down, and +said a short prayer like Christians of a good house. So great was +their enemies' haste that they were not allowed even a priest to +shrive them, but they did what they could.</p> + +<p>The executioner motioned first to David. An attendant brought him the +heading cup of wine, which it was the custom to offer to those about +to die upon the scaffold.</p> + +<p>"Drink it not," said Earl William, "lest they say it was drugged."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p> + +<p>And David Douglas bowed his head upon the block, being only in the +fifteenth year of his age.</p> + +<p>"Farewell, brother," he said, "be not long after me. It is a darksome +road to travel so young."</p> + +<p>"Fear not, Davie lad," said William Douglas, tenderly, "I will +overtake you ere you be through the first gate."</p> + +<p>He turned a little aside that he might not see his brother die, and +even as he did so he saw the Lady Sybilla lean upon the balcony paler +than the dead.</p> + +<p>Then when it came to his turn they offered the Earl William also the +heading cup filled with the rich wine of Touraine, his own fair +province that he was never to see.</p> + +<p>He lifted the cup high in his right hand with a knightly and courtly +gesture. Looking towards the balcony whereon stood the Lady Sybilla, +he bowed to her.</p> + +<p>"I drink to you, my lady and my love," he cried, in a voice loud and +clear.</p> + +<p>Then, touching but the rim of the goblet with his lips, he poured out +the red wine upon the ground.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And thus passed the gallantest gentleman and truest lover in whom God +ever put heart of grace to live courteously and die greatly, keeping +his faith in his lady even against herself, and holding death itself +sweet because that in death she loved him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> + +<h3>THE RISING OF THE DOUGLASES</h3> + + +<p>It was upon the Earl's own charger, Black Darnaway, that Sholto rode +southward to raise to their chief's assistance the greatest and +compactest clan that ever, even in Scotland, had done the bidding of +one man.</p> + +<p>The young man's heart was high and hopeful within him. The King's +guardians dared not, so he told himself, let aught befall the puissant +Douglases in the Castle of Edinburgh, without trial and under cover of +the most courteous hospitality.</p> + +<p>"Try the Earl of Douglas!" so Sholto thought within him. He laughed at +the notion. "Why, Earl William could by a word bring a hundred +thousand men of Galloway and the Marches to make a fitting jury."</p> + +<p>So he meditated, his thoughts running fast and fiery to the beating of +Black Darnaway's feet as he climbed the heathery slopes which led +towards Douglasdale. Day was breaking as he rode down to the town of +Lanark yet asleep and smokeless in the caller airs of the morn. At the +gates of this frontier town he delivered his first summons of +feudality. For the burghers of Lanark were liegemen of the Douglases +of Douglasdale, and were (though not with much good-will) bound to +furnish service at call.</p> + +<p>Sholto had some difficulty in making himself heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> athwart the +ponderous wooden gates, bossed with leather and studded with iron. At +first he shouted angrily to the silences, but presently nearer and +nearer came a bellow as of a brazen bull, thunderous and far echoing.</p> + +<p>"Fower o' the clock and a braw, braw morning."</p> + +<p>It was Grice Elshioner, watchman of the town of Lanark, evidencing to +the magistrates and lieges thereof that he was earning his three +shillings in the week—a handsome wage in these hard times, and one +well able to provide belly-timber for himself and also for the wife +and weans who, dwelling in a close off the High-street, were called by +his name.</p> + +<p>Sholto thundered again upon the rugged portal.</p> + +<p>"Open there! Open, I say, in the name of the Earl of Douglas!"</p> + +<p>"Fower o' the morning! Lord, what's a' the steer? In the name o' the +Yerl o' Douglas! But wha kens that it isna the English? Na, na, Grice +Elshioner opens not to every night-raking loon that likes to cry the +name o' the Yerl o' Douglas ower oor toon wa'!"</p> + +<p>And Grice the valorous would have taken him off with a fresh, +sleep-dispelling bellow had it not been that he heard himself summoned +in a voice that brooked no delay.</p> + +<p>"Open, varlet of a watchman, or by Saint Bride I will have you +swinging in half an hour from the bars of your own portcullis. I who +speak am Sholto MacKim, captain of the Earl's guard. Every liegeman in +the town must arm, mount, and ride this instant to Edinburgh. I give +you fair warning. You hear my words, I will not enter your rascal +town. But if so much as one be wanting at the muster, I swear in the +name of my master that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> house shall be burned with fire and razed +to the ground, and his wife be a widow or ever the cock craw on +another Sabbath morn!"</p> + +<p>And without waiting for a reply Sholto laid the reins upon the neck of +Black Darnaway and rode on southward up Douglas Water to the home nest +of the lordly race.</p> + +<p>And behind him, with a wail in it, blared through the narrow streets +the stormy voice of Grice Elshioner, watchman of Lanark, "Wauken ye, +wauken ye, burgesses a'! The Douglas hath sent to bid ye mount and +ride."</p> + +<p>The <i>birr</i> of the war drum saluted Sholto's ears ere he had turned the +corner of the town parks. Then came the answering shouts of the +burghers who thrust inquiring and indignant heads out of gable windows +and turret speering-holes.</p> + +<p>"<i>Birr!</i>" continued the undaunted and insistent town drum.</p> + +<p>"Harness your backs! Fill your bellies, and stand ready! The Douglas +has need o' ye, lieges a'!" cried the sonorous voice of the watch. +Sholto smiled as he listened.</p> + +<p>"I have at least set them on the alert. They will join the Douglasdale +men as they pass by, or we will show them reason why. But they of +Lanark are ill-set town-ward men, and of no true leal heart, save an +it be to their own coffers. Yet will they march with us for fear of +the harrying hand and the burning roof tree."</p> + +<p>The sun rose fair on the battlements of Douglas Castle as Sholto rode +up to the level mead, whereon a little company of men was exercising. +He could hear the words of command cried gruffly in the broad Galloway +speech.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> Landless Jock was drilling his spearmen, and as the shining +triple line of points dropped to the "ready to receive," the old +knight and former captain of the Earl's guard came forward a little +way to welcome his successor with what grace was at his command.</p> + +<p>"Eh, siree, and what has brocht sic a braw young knight and grand +frequenter o' courts sae far as Douglas Castle? Could ye no even let +puir Landless Jock hae the tilt-yaird here to exercise his handfu' in, +and keep his auld banes a wee while frae the rust and the green +mould?"</p> + +<p>But even as the crusty old soldier spoke these words, the white +anxiety in Sholto's face struck through his half-humorous complaint, +and the words died on his lips in a perturbed "What is't—what is't +ava, laddie?"</p> + +<p>Sholto told him in the fewest words.</p> + +<p>"The Yerl and Dawvid in the power o' their hoose's enemies. Blessed +Saint Anthony, and here was I flighterin' and ragin' aboot my +naethings. Here, lads, blaw the horn and cry the slogan. Fetch the +horses frae the stall and stand ready in your war gear within ten +minutes by the knock. Aye, faith, will we raise Douglasdale! Gang your +ways to Gallowa'—there shall not a man bide at hame this day. Certes, +we wull that! Ca' in the by-gaun at Lanark—aye, lad, and, gin the +rascals are no willing or no ready, we will hang the provost and +magistrates at their ain door-cheeks to learn them to bide frae the +cried assembly o' their liege lord!"</p> + +<p>Sholto had done enough in Douglasdale. He turned north again on a yet +more important errand. It was forenoon full and broad when he halted +before the little town of Strathaven, upon which the Castle of +Avondale looks down. It seemed of the greatest moment that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +Avondale Douglases should know that which had befallen their cousin. +For no suspicion of treachery within the house and name of Douglas +itself touched with a shade of shadow the mind of Sholto MacKim.</p> + +<p>He thundered at the town-ward port of the castle (to which a steep +ascent led up from a narrow vennel), where presently the outer guard +soon crowded about him, listening to his story and already fingering +bowstring and examining rope-matches preparatory to the expected march +upon Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>"I have not time to waste, comrades; I would see my lords," said +Sholto. "I must see them instantly."</p> + +<p>And even as he spoke there on the steps before him appeared the dark, +handsome face and tall but slightly stooping figure of William Douglas +of Avondale. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, and his +serious thought-weighted brow bent upon the concourse about Sholto.</p> + +<p>With a push of his elbows this way and that, the young captain of the +Earl's guard opened a road through the press.</p> + +<p>In short, emphatic sentences he told his tale, and at the name of +prisonment and treachery to his cousins the countenance of William +Douglas grew stern and hard. His face twitched as if the news came +very near to him. He did not answer for a moment, but stood biting his +lips and glooming upon Sholto, as though the young man had been a +prisoner waiting sentence of pit or gallows for evil doing.</p> + +<p>"I must see James concerning this ill news," he said when Sholto had +finished telling him of the Black Bull's Head at the Chancellor's +banquet-table.</p> + +<p>He turned to go within.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My lord," said Sholto, "will you give me another horse, and let +Darnaway rest in your stables? I must instantly ride south again to +raise Galloway."</p> + +<p>"Order out all the horses which are ready caparisoned," commanded +William of Avondale, "and do you, Captain Sholto, take your choice of +them."</p> + +<p>He went within forthwith and there ensued a pause filled with the +snorting and prancing of steeds, as, mettlesome with oats and hay, +they issued from their stalls, or with the grass yet dewy about their +noses were led in from the field. Darnaway took his leave of Sholto +with a backward neigh of regret, as if to say he was not yet tired of +going on his master's service.</p> + +<p>Then presently on the terrace above appeared lazy Lord James, busily +buckling the straps of his body-armour and talking hotly the while +with his brother William.</p> + +<p>"I care not even whether our father—" he cried aloud ere, with a +restraining hand upon his wrist, his elder brother could succeed in +stopping him.</p> + +<p>"Hush, James," he said, "at least be mindful of those that stand +around."</p> + +<p>"I care not, I tell you, William," cried the headstrong youth, +squaring his shoulders as he was wont to do before a fight. "I tell +you that you and I are no traitors to our name, and who meddles with +our coz, Will of Thrieve, hath us to reckon with!"</p> + +<p>William of Avondale said nothing, but held out his hand with a slow, +determinate gesture. Said he, "An it were the father that begat us." +Whereat, with all the impetuousness of his race and nature, James +dashed his palm into that of his brother.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Whiles, William," he cried, "ye appear clerkish and overcautious, and +I break out and miscall ye for no Douglas, when ye will not spend your +siller like a man and are afraid of the honest pint stoup. But at the +heart's heart ye are aye a Douglas—and though the silly gaping +commons like ye not so well as they like me, ye are the best o' us, +for all that."</p> + +<p>So it came to pass that within the space of half an hour the Avondale +Douglases had sent men to the four airts, young Hugh Douglas himself +riding west, while James stirred the folk of Avondale and Strathavon, +and in all the courtyards and streets of the little feudal bourg there +began the hum and buzz of the war assembly.</p> + +<p>Lord William went with Sholto to see staunch Darnaway duly stabled, +and to approve the horse which was to bear the messenger to the south +without halt, now that his mission was accomplished in the west. When +they came out Sholto's riding harness had been transferred to a noble +grey steed large enough to carry even the burly James, let alone the +slim captain of the archer guard of Thrieve.</p> + +<p>In the court, ranked and ready, bridle to bridle were ranged the +knights and squires in waiting about the Castle of Avondale, while out +on a level green spot on the edge of the moor gathered the denser +array of the townfolk with spears and partisans.</p> + +<p>In an hour the Avondale Douglases were ready to ride to the assistance +of their cousins. Alas, that Earl William would take no advice, for +had these and others gone in with him to the fatal town, there would +have been no Black Bull's Head on the Chancellor's dinner table in the +banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> + +<h3>A STRANGE MEETING</h3> + + +<p>It was approaching the evening of the third day after riding forth +upon his mission when Sholto, sleepless yet quite unconscious of +weariness, approached the loch of Carlinwark and the cottage of Brawny +Kim. West and south he had raised the Douglas country as it had never +been raised before. And now behind him every armiger and squire, every +spearman and light-foot archer, was hasting Edinburgh-ward, eager to +be first to succour the young and headstrong chief of his great house.</p> + +<p>Sholto had ridden and cried the slogan as was his duty, without +allowing his mind to dwell over much upon whether all might not arrive +too late. And ever as he rode out of village or across the desolate +moors from castle to fortified farmhouse, it seemed that not he but +some other was upon this quest.</p> + +<p>Something sterner and harder stirred in his breast. Light-hearted +Sholto MacKim, the careless lad of the jousting day, the proud young +captain of the Earl's guard, was dead with all his vanity. And in his +place a man rode southward grim and determined, with vengeful angers +a-smoulder in his bosom,—hunger, thirst, love, the joy of living and +the fear of death all being swallowed up by deadly hatred of those who +had betrayed his master.</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay was doubtless within a few miles of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> Sholto, yet he +scarcely gave even his sweetheart a thought as he urged his weary grey +over the purple Parton moors towards the loch of Carlinwark and the +little hamlet nestling along its western side under the ancient thorn +trees of the Carlin's hill.</p> + +<p>He rode down over the green and empty Crossmichael braes on which the +broom pods were crackling in the afternoon sunshine, through hollows +where the corn lingered as though unwilling to have done with such a +scene of beauty, and find itself mewed in dusty barns, ground in +mills, or close pressed in thatched rick. He breasted the long smooth +rise and entered the woods which encircle the bright lakelet of +Carlinwark, the pearl of all southland Scottish lochs.</p> + +<p>With a strange sense of detachment he looked down upon the green sward +between him and his mother's gable end, upon which as a child he had +wandered from dawn to dusk. Then it was nearly as large as the world, +and the grass was most comfortable to bare feet. There were children +playing upon it now, even as there had been of old, among them his own +little sister Magdalen, whose hair was spun gold, and her eyes blue as +the forget-me-not on the marshes of the Isle Wood. The children were +dressed in white, five little girls in all, as for a festal day, and +their voices came upward to Sholto's ear through the arches of the +great beeches which studded the turf with pavilions of green shade, +tenderly as they had done to that of William Douglas in the +spring-time of the year.</p> + +<p>The minor note, the dying fall of the innocent voices, tugged at his +heartstrings. He could hear little Magdalen leading the chorus:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Margaret Douglas, fresh and fair,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>A bunch of roses she shall wear,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Gold and silver by her side,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>I know who's her bride."</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was at "Fair Maid" they were playing, the mystic dance of Southland +maidenhood, at whose vestal rites no male of any age was ever +permitted to be present. The words broke in upon the gloom which +oppressed Sholto's heart. Momentarily he forgot his master and saw +Maud Lindesay with the little Margaret Douglas of whom the children +sang, once again gathering the gowans on the brae sides of Thrieve or +perilously reaching out for purple irises athwart the ditches of the +Isle.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Take her by the lily-white hand,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>Lead her o'er the water;</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Give her kisses, one, two, three,</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i1"><i>For she's a lady's daughter."</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>As Sholto MacKim listened to the quaint and moving lullaby, suddenly +there came into the field of his vision that which stiffened him into +a statue of breathing marble.</p> + +<p>For without clatter of accoutrement or tramp of hoof, without +companion or attendant, a white palfrey had appeared through the green +arches of the woodlands. A girl was seated upon the saddle, swaying +with gentle movement to the motion of her steed. At the sight of her +figure as she came nearer a low cry of horror and amazement broke from +Sholto's lips.</p> + +<p>It was the Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>Yet he knew that he had left her behind him in Edinburgh, the siren +temptress of Earl Douglas, the woman who had led his master into the +power of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> enemy, she for whose sake he had refused the certainty +of freedom and life. Anger against this smiling enchantress suddenly +surged up in Sholto's heart.</p> + +<p>"Halt there—on your life!" he cried, and urged his wearied steed +forward. Like dry leaves before a winter wind, the children were +dispersed every way by the gust of his angry shout. But the maiden on +the palfrey either heeded not or did not hear.</p> + +<p>Whereupon Sholto rode furiously crosswise to intercept her. He would +learn what had befallen his master. At least he would avenge him upon +one—the chiefest and subtlest of his enemies. But not till he had +come within ten paces did the Lady Sybilla turn upon him the fulness +of her regard. Then he saw her face. It broke upon him sudden as the +sight of imminent hell to one sure of salvation. He had expected to +find there gratified ambition, sated lust, exultant pride, cruelest +vengeance. He saw instead as it had been the face of an angel cast out +of heaven, or perhaps, rather, of a martyr who has passed through the +torture chamber on her way to the place of burning.</p> + +<p>The sight stopped Sholto stricken and wavering. His anger fell from +him like a cloak shed when the sun shines in his strength.</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla's face showed of no earthly paleness. Marble white it +was, the eyes heavy with weeping, purple rings beneath accentuating +the horror that dwelt eternally in them. The lips that had been as the +bow of Apollo were parted as though they had been singing the dirge of +one beloved, and ever as she rode the tears ran down her cheeks and +fell on her white robe, and lower upon her palfrey's mane.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p> + +<p>She looked at Sholto when he came near, but not as one who sees or +recognises. Rather, as it were, dumb, drunken, besotted with grief, +looked forth the soul of the Lady Sybilla upon the captain of the +Douglas guard. She heeded not his angry shout, for another voice rang +in her ears, speaking the knightliest words ever uttered by a man +about to die. Sholto's sword was raised threateningly in his hand, but +Sybilla saw another blade gleam bright in the morning sun ere it fell +to rise again dimmed and red. Therefore she checked not her steed, nor +turned aside, till Sholto laid his fingers upon her bridle-rein and +leaped quickly to the ground, sword in hand, leaving his own beast to +wander where it would.</p> + +<p>"What do you here?" he cried. "Where is my master? What have they done +to him? I bid you tell me on your life!"</p> + +<p>Sholto's voice had no chivalrous courtesy in it now. The time for that +had gone by. He lowered his sword point and there was tense iron in +the muscles of his arm. He was ready to kill the temptress as he would +a beautiful viper.</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla looked upon him, but in a dazed fashion, like one who +rests between the turns of the rack. In a little while she appeared to +recognise him. She noted the sword in his hand, the death in his +eye—and for the first time since the scene in the courtyard of +Edinburgh Castle, she smiled.</p> + +<p>Then the fury in Sholto's heart broke suddenly forth.</p> + +<p>"Woman," he cried, "show me cause why I should not slay you. For, by +God, I will, if aught of harm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> hath overtaken my master. Speak, I bid +you, speak quickly, if you have any wish to live."</p> + +<p>But the Lady Sybilla continued to smile—the same dreadful, mocking +smile—and somehow Sholto, with his weapon bare and his arm nerved to +the thrust, felt himself grow weak and helpless under the stillness +and utter pitifulness of her look.</p> + +<p>"You would kill me—kill <i>me</i>, you say—" the words came low and +thrilling forth from lips which were as those of the dead whose chin +has not yet been bound about with a napkin, "ah, would that you could! +But you cannot. Steel will not slay, poison will not destroy, nor +water drown Sybilla de Thouars till her work be done!"</p> + +<p>Sholto escaped from the power of her eye.</p> + +<p>"My master—" he gasped, "my master—is he well? I pray you tell me."</p> + +<p>Was it a laugh he heard in answer? Rather a sound, not of human mirth +but as of a condemned spirit laughing deep underground. Then again the +low even voice replied out of the expressionless face.</p> + +<p>"Aye, your master is well."</p> + +<p>"Ah, thank God," burst forth Sholto, "he is alive."</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla moved her hand this way and that with the gesture of +a blind man groping.</p> + +<p>"Hush," she said, "I only said that he was well. And he is well. As I +am already in the place of torment, I know that there is a heaven for +those who die as William Douglas died."</p> + +<p>Sholto's cry rang sudden, loud, despairing.</p> + +<p>"Dead—dead—Earl William dead—my master dead!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p> + +<p>He dropped the palfrey's rein, which till now he had held. His sword +fell unheeded on the turf, and he flung himself down in an agony of +boyish grief. But from her white palfrey, sitting still where she was, +the maiden watched the paroxysms of his sorrow. She was dry eyed now, +and her face was like a mask cut in snow.</p> + +<p>Then as suddenly recalling himself, Sholto leaped from the ground, +snatched up his sword, and again passionately advanced upon the Lady +Sybilla.</p> + +<p>"You it was who betrayed him," he cried, pointing the blade at her +breast; "answer if it were not so!"</p> + +<p>"It is true I betrayed him," she answered calmly.</p> + +<p>"You whom he loved—God knows how unworthily—"</p> + +<p>"God knows," she said simply and calmly.</p> + +<p>"You betrayed him to his death. Why then should not I kill you?"</p> + +<p>Again she smiled upon him that disarming, hopeless, dreadful smile.</p> + +<p>"Because you cannot kill me. Because it were too crowning a mercy to +kill me. Because, for three inches of that blade in my heart, I would +bless you through the eternities. Because I must do the work that +remains—"</p> + +<p>"And that work is—?"</p> + +<p ><span style="margin-left:7em; "> +"Vengeance!!"</span> +</p> + +<p>Sholto was silent, trying to piece things together. He found it hard +to think. He was but a boy, and experience so strange as that of the +Lady Sybilla was outside him. Yet vaguely he felt that her emotion was +real, more real perhaps than his own instinct of crude slaying—the +desire of the wasp whose nest has been harried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> to sting the first +comer. This woman's hatred was something deadlier, surer, more +persistent.</p> + +<p>"Vengeance—" he said at last, scarce knowing what he said, "why +should you, who betrayed him, speak of avenging him?"</p> + +<p>"Because," said the Lady Sybilla, "I loved him as I never thought to +love man born of woman. Because when the fiends of the pit tie me limb +to limb, lip to lip, with Judas who sold his master with a kiss, when +they burn me in the seventh hell, I shall remember and rejoice that to +the last he loved me, believed in me, gloried in his love for me. And +God who has been cruel to me in all else, will yet do this thing for +me. He will not let William Douglas know that I deceived him or that +he trusted me in vain."</p> + +<p>"But the Vengeance that you spoke of—what of that?" said Sholto, +dwelling upon that which was uppermost in his own thought.</p> + +<p>"Aye," said the Lady Sybilla, "that alone can be compassed by me. For +I am bound by a chain, the snapping of which is my death. To him who, +in a far land, devised all these things, to the man who plotted the +fall of the Douglas house—to Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France, I am +bound. But—I shall not die—even you cannot kill me, till I have +brought that head that is so high to the hempen cord, and delivered +the foul fiend's body to the fires of both earth and hell."</p> + +<p>"And the Chancellor Crichton—the tutor Livingston—what of them?" +urged Sholto, like a Scot thinking of his native traitors.</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla waved a contemptuous hand.</p> + +<p>"These are but lesser rascals—they had been nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> without their +master and mine. You of the Douglas house must settle with them."</p> + +<p>"And why have you returned to this country of Galloway?" said Sholto. +"And why are you thus alone?"</p> + +<p>"I am here," said the Lady Sybilla, "because none can harm me with my +work undone. I travel alone because it suits my mood to be alone, +because my master bade me join him at your town of Kirkcudbright, +whence, this very night, he takes ship for his own country of +Brittany."</p> + +<p>"And why do you, if as you say you hate him so, continue to follow +him?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, you are simple," she said; "I follow him because it is my fate, +and who can escape his doom? Also, because, as I have said, my work is +not yet done."</p> + +<p>She relapsed into her former listless, forth-looking, unconscious +regard, gazing through him as if the young man had no existence. He +dropped the rein and the point of his sword with one movement. The +white palfrey started forward with the reins loose on its neck. And as +she went the eyes of the Lady Sybilla were fixed on the distant hills +which hid the sea.</p> + +<p>So, leaving Sholto standing by the lakeside with bowed head and abased +sword, the strange woman went her way to work out her appointed task.</p> + +<p>But ere the Lady Sybilla disappeared among the trees, she turned and +spoke once more.</p> + +<p>"I have but one counsel, Sir Knight. Think no more of your master. Let +the dead bury their dead. Ride to Thrieve and never once lose sight of +her whom you call your sweetheart, nor yet of her charge, Margaret +Douglas, the Maid of Galloway, till the snow falls and winter comes +upon the land."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MACKIMS COME TO THRIEVE</h3> + + +<p>Sholto MacKim stood watching awhile as the white palfrey disappeared +with its rider into the purple twilight of the woods which barred the +way to the Solway. Then with a violent effort of will he recalled +himself and looked about for his horse. The tired beast was gently +cropping the lush dewy herbage on the green slope which led downwards +to his native cottage. Sholto took the grey by the bridle and walked +towards his mother's door, pondering on the last words of the Lady +Sybilla. A voice at once strenuous and familiar broke upon his ear.</p> + +<p>"Shoo wi' you, impident randies that ye are, shoo! Saw I ever the like +aboot ony decent hoose? Thae hens will drive me oot o' my mind! +Sholto, lad, what's wrang? Is't your faither? Dinna tell me it's your +faither."</p> + +<p>"It is more bitter than that, mither mine."</p> + +<p>"No the Earl—surely no the Earl himsel'—the laddie that I hae +nursed—the laddie that was to Barbara Halliburton as her ain dear +son!"</p> + +<p>"Mother, it is the Earl and young David too. They are dead, betrayed +into the hands of their enemies, cruelly and treacherously slain!"</p> + +<p>Then the keening cry smote the air as Barbara MacKim sank on her knees +and lifted up her hands to heaven.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, the bonny laddies—the twa bonny, bonny laddies! Mair than my ain +bairns I loved them. When their ain mother wasna able for mortal +weakness to rear him, William Douglas drew his life frae me. What for, +Sholto, are ye standin' there to tell the tale? What for couldna ye +have died wi' him? Ae mither's milk slockened ye baith. The same arms +cradled ye. I bade ye keep your lord safe wi' your body and your soul. +And there ye daur to stand, skin-hale and bane unbroken, before your +mither. Get hence—ye are nae son o' Barbara MacKim. Let me never look +on your face again, gin ye bringna back the pride o' the warld, the +gladness o' the auld withered heart o' her ye ca' your mither!"</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Sholto, "my lord was not dead when I left him—he sent +me to raise the country to his rescue."</p> + +<p>"And what for then are ye standin' there clavering, and your lord in +danger among his foes?" cried his mother, angrily.</p> + +<p>"Dear mother, I have something more to tell ye—"</p> + +<p>"Aye, I ken, ye needna break the news. It is that Malise, my man, is +dead—that Laurence, wha ran frae the Abbey to gang wi' him to the +wars, is nae mair. Aweel they are worthily spent, since they died for +their chief! Ye say that ye were sent to raise the clan—then what +seek ye at the Carlinwark? To Thrieve, man, to Thrieve; as hard as ye +can ride! To Castle Thrieve!"</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Sholto, still more gently, "hearken but a moment. +Thirty thousand men are on their way to Edinburgh. Three days and +nights have I ridden without sleep. Douglasdale is awake. The Upper +Ward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> is already at the gates of the city. To a man, Galloway is on +the march. The border is aflame. But it is all too late already, I +have had news of the end. Before ever a man could reach within miles, +the fatal axe had fallen, and my lords, for whom each one of us would +gladly have died with smiles upon our faces, lay headless in the +courtyard of Edinburgh Castle."</p> + +<p>"And if the laddies were alive when ye rode awa', wha brocht the news +faster than my Sholto could ride—tell me that?"</p> + +<p>"I came not directly to Galloway, mother. First I raised the west from +Strathaven to Ayr. Thence I carried the news to Dumfries and along the +border side. But to-day I have seen the Lady Sybilla on her way to +take ship for France. From her I heard the news that all I had done +was too late."</p> + +<p>"That foreigneerin' randy! Wad ye believe the like o' her? Yon woman +that they named 'Queen o' Beauty' at the tournay by the Fords o' +Lochar!—Certes, I wadna believe her on oath, no if she swore on the +blessed banes o' Saint Andro himsel'. To the castle, man, or I'll kilt +my coats and be there afore you to shame ye!"</p> + +<p>"I go, mother," said Sholto, trying vainly to stem the torrent of +denunciation which poured upon him; "I came only to see that all was +well with you."</p> + +<p>"And what for should a' be weel wi' me? What can be ill wi' me, if it +be not to gang on leevin' when the noblest young men in the warld—the +lad that was suckled at my bosom, lies cauld in the clay. Awa wi' ye, +Sholto MacKim, and come na back till ye hae rowed every traitor in the +same bloody windin' sheet!"</p> + +<p>The foster mother of the Douglases sank on the ground<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> in the dusk, +leaning against the wall of her house. She held her face in her hands +and sobbed aloud, "O Willie, Willie Douglas, mair than ony o' my ain I +loed ye. Bonny were ye as a bairn. Bonny were ye as a laddie. Bonny +abune a' as a noble young man and the desire o' maidens' e'en. But +nane o' them a' loed ye like poor auld Barbara, that wad hae gien her +life to pleasure ye. And noo she canna even steek thae black, black +e'en, nor wind the corpse-claith aboot yon comely limbs—sae straight +and bonny as they were—I hae straiked and kissed sae oft and oft. O +wae's me—wae's me! What will I do withoot my bonny laddies!"</p> + +<p>It was with the sound of his mother's lament still in his ears that +Sholto rode sadly over the hill to Thrieve. The way is short and easy, +and it was not long before the captain of the guard looked down upon +the lights of the castle gleaming through the gathering gloom. But +instead of being, as was its wont, lighted from highest battlement to +flanking tower, only one or two lamps could be discerned shining out +of that vast cliff of masonry.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, lights were to be seen wandering this way and +that over the long Isle of Thrieve, following the outlines of its +winding shores, shining from the sterns of boats upon the pools of the +Dee water, weaving intricately among the broomy braes on either side +of the ford, and even streaming out across the water meadows of +Balmaghie.</p> + +<p>Sholto was so full of his own sorrow and the certain truth of the +terrible news he must bring home to the Lady of Douglas and those two +whom he loved, Maud Lindesay and her fair maid, that he paid little +heed to these wandering lanterns and distant flaring torches.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p> + +<p>He was pausing at the bridge head to wait the lowering of the +draw-chains, when out of the covert above him there dashed a desperate +horseman, who stayed neither for bridge nor ford, but rode straight at +the eastern castle pool where it was deepest. To the stirrup clung +another figure strange and terrible, seen in the uncertain light from +the gate-house and in the pale beams of the rising moon.</p> + +<p>The drawbridge clattered down, and sending his spurs home into the +flanks of his tired steed, in a moment more Sholto was hard on the +track of the first headlong horseman. Scarce a length separated them +as they reached the outer guard of the castle. Abreast they reined +their horses in the quadrangle, and in a moment Sholto had recognised +in the rider his brother Laurence, pale as death, and the figure that +had clung to the stirrup as the horse took the water, was his father, +Malise MacKim.</p> + +<p>Thus in one moment came the three MacKims to the door-step of Thrieve.</p> + +<p>The clatter and cry of their arrival brought a pour of torches from +every side of the isle and from within the castle keep.</p> + +<p>"Have you found them—where are they?" came from every side. But +Laurence seemed neither to hear nor see.</p> + +<p>"Where is my lady?" he cried in a hoarse man's voice; and again, +"Instantly I must see my lady."</p> + +<p>Sholto stood aside, for he knew that these two brought later tidings +than he. Presently he went over to his father, who was leaning panting +upon a stone post, and asked him what were the news. But Malise thrust +him back apparently without recognising him.</p> + +<p>"My lady," he gasped, "I would see my lady!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then through the torches clustered about the steps of the castle came +the tall, erect figure of the Earl's mother, the Countess of Douglas. +She stood with her head erect, looking down upon the MacKims and upon +the dropped heads and heaving shoulders of their horses. Above and +around the torches flared, and their reek blew thwartwise across the +strange scene.</p> + +<p>"I am here," she said, speaking clearly and naturally; "what would ye +with the Lady of Douglas?"</p> + +<p>Thrice Laurence essayed to speak, but his ready tongue availed him not +now. He caught at his horse's bridle to steady him and turned weakly +to his father.</p> + +<p>"Do you speak to my lady—I cannot!" he gasped.</p> + +<p>A terrible figure was Malise MacKim, the strong man of Galloway, as he +came forward. Stained with the black peat of the morasses, his armour +cast off piecemeal that he might run the easier, his under-apparel +torn almost from his great body, his hair matted with the blood which +still oozed from an unwashed wound above his brow.</p> + +<p>"My lady," he said hoarsely, his words whistling in his throat, "I +have strange things to tell. Can you bear to hear them?"</p> + +<p>"If you have found my daughter dead or dying, speak and fear not!"</p> + +<p>"I have things more terrible than the death of many daughters to tell +you!"</p> + +<p>"Speak and fear not—an it touch the lives of my sons, speak freely. +The mother of the Douglases has learned the Douglas lesson."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Malise, sinking his head upon his breast, "God help you, +lady, your two sons are dead!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Is David dead also?" said the Lady of Douglas.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," replied Malise.</p> + +<p>The lady tottered a little as she stood on the topmost step of the +ascent to Thrieve. One or two of the torch-bearers ran to support her. +But she commanded herself and waved them aside.</p> + +<p>"God—He is the God," she said, looking upwards into the black night. +"In one day He has made me a woman solitary and without children. Sons +and daughter He has taken from me. But He shall not break my heart. +No, not even He. Stand up, Malise MacKim, and tell me how these things +came to pass."</p> + +<p>And there in the blown reek of torches and the hush of the courtyard +of Thrieve Malise told all the tale of the Black Dinner and the fatal +morning, of the short shrift and the matchless death, while around him +strong men sobbed and lifted up right hands to swear the eternal +vengeance.</p> + +<p>But alone and erect as a banner staff stood the mother of the dead. +Her eyes were dry, her lips compressed, her nostrils a little +distended like those of a war-horse that sniffs the battle from afar. +Outside the castle wall the news spread swiftly, and somewhere in the +darkness a voice set up the Celtic keen.</p> + +<p>"Bid that woman hold her peace. I will hear the news and then we will +cry the slogan. Say on, Malise!"</p> + +<p>Then the smith told how his horse had broken down time and again, how +he had pressed on, running and resting, stripped almost naked that he +might keep up with his son, because that no ordinary charger could +long carry his great weight.</p> + +<p>Then when he had finished the Lady of Thrieve turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> to Sholto—"And +you, captain of the guard, what have you done, and wherefore left you +your master in his hour of need?"</p> + +<p>Then succinctly and to the point Sholto spoke, his father and Laurence +assenting and confirming as he told of the Earl's commission and of +how he had accomplished those things that were laid upon him.</p> + +<p>"It is well," said the lady, calmly, "and now I also will tell you +something that you do not know. My little daughter, whom ye call the +Fair Maid of Galloway, with her companion, Mistress Maud Lindesay, +went out more than twelve hours agone to the holt by the ford to +gather hazelnuts, and no eye of man or woman hath seen them since."</p> + +<p>And, even as she spoke, there passed a quick strange pang through the +heart of Sholto. He remembered the warning of the Lady Sybilla. Had he +once more come too late?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2> + +<h3>THE GIFT OF THE COUNTESS</h3> + + +<p>It was the Countess of Douglas who commanded that night in the Castle +of Thrieve. Sholto wished to start at once upon the search for the +lost maidens. But the lady forbade him.</p> + +<p>"There are a thousand searchers who during the night will do all that +you could do—and better. To-morrow we shall surely want you. You have +been three nights without sleep. Take your rest. I order you in your +master's name."</p> + +<p>And on the bare stone, outside Maud Lindesay's empty room, Sholto +threw himself down and slept as sleep the dead.</p> + +<p>But that night, save about the chamber where abode the mother of the +Douglases, the hum of life never ceased in the great Castle of +Thrieve. Whether my lady slept or not, God knows. At any rate the door +was closed and there was silence within.</p> + +<p>Sholto awoke smiling in the early dawn. He had been dreaming that he +and Maud Lindesay were walking on the shore together. It was a lonely +beach with great driftwood logs whereon they sat and rested ere they +took hands again and walked forth on their way. In his dream Maud was +kind, her teasing, disdainful mood quite gone. So Sholto awoke +smiling, but in a moment he wished that he had slept on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> + +<p>He lay a space, becoming conscious of a pain in his heart—the +overnight pain of a great disaster not yet realised. For a little he +knew not what it was. Then he saw himself lying at Maud's open door, +and he remembered—first the death of his masters, then the loss of +the little maid, and lastly that of Maud, his own winsome sweetheart +Maud. In another moment he had leaped to his feet, buckled his +sword-belt tighter, slung his cloak into a corner, and run downstairs.</p> + +<p>The house guard which had ridden to Crichton and Edinburgh had been +replaced from the younger yeomen of the Kelton and Balmaghie levies, +even as the Earl had arranged before his departure. But of these only +a score remained on duty. All who could be spared had gone to join the +march on Edinburgh, for Galloway was set on having vengeance on the +Chancellor and had sworn to lay the capital itself in ashes in revenge +for the Black Dinner of the castle banqueting-hall.</p> + +<p>The rest of the guard was out searching for the bonny maids of +Thrieve, as through all the countryside Margaret Douglas and Maud +Lindesay were named.</p> + +<p>Eager as Sholto was to accompany the searchers, and though he knew +well that no foe was south of the Forth to assault such a strong place +as Thrieve, he did not leave the castle till he had set all in order +so far as he could. He appointed Andro the Penman and his brother John +officers of the garrison during his absence.</p> + +<p>Then, having seen to his accoutrement and providing, for he did not +mean to return till he had found the maids, he went lastly to the +chamber door of the Lady of Douglas to ask her leave to depart.</p> + +<p>At the first knock he heard a foot come slowly across<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> the floor. It +was my lady, who opened the latch herself and stood before Sholto in +the habit she had worn when at the castle gateway Malise had told his +news. Her couch was unpressed. Her window stood open towards the +south. A candle still glimmered upon a little altar in an angle of the +wall. She had been kneeling all night before the image of the Virgin, +with her lips upon the feet of her who also was a woman, and who by +treachery had lost a son.</p> + +<p>"I would have your permission to depart, my Lady Countess," said +Sholto, bowing his head upon his breast that he might not intrude upon +her eyes of grief; "the castle is safe, and I can be well spared. By +God's grace I shall not return till I bring either the maids +themselves or settled news of them. Have I your leave to go?"</p> + +<p>The Lady of Douglas looked at him a moment without speech.</p> + +<p>"Surely you are not the same who rode away behind my son William. You +went out light and gay as David, my other young son. There is now a +look of Earl William himself in your face—his mother tells you so. +Well, you were suckled at the same breast as he. May a double portion +of his spirit rest on you! That lowering regard is the Douglas mark. +Follow on and turn not back till you find. Strike and cease not, till +all be avenged. I have now no son left to save or to strike. Go, +Sholto MacKim. He who is dead loved you and made you knight. I said at +the time that you were too young and would have dissuaded him. But +when did a Douglas listen to woman's advice—his mother's or his +wife's? Foster brother you are—brother you shall be. By this kiss I +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +make you even as my son."</p> + +<p>She bent and laid her lips on the young man's brow. They were hot as +iron uncooled from the smithy anvil.</p> + +<p>"Come with me," she added, and with a vehemence strangely at odds with +her calm of the night before, she took Sholto by the hand and drew him +after her into the room that had been Earl William's.</p> + +<p>From the bundle of keys at her side she took a small one of French +design. With this she unlocked a tall cabinet which stood in a corner. +She threw the folding doors open, and there in the recess hung a +wonderful suit of armour, of the sort called at that time "secret."</p> + +<p>"This," said the Lady of Douglas, "I had designed for my son. Ten +years was it in the making. His father trysted it from a cunning +artificer in Italy. All these years has it been perfecting for him. It +comes too late. His eyes shall never see it, nor his body wear it. But +I give it to you. No Avondale shall ever do it upon him. It will fit +you, for you and he were of a bigness. No sword can cut through these +links, were it steel of Damascus forged for a Sultan. No spear-thrust +can pierce it, though I leave you to avenge the bruise. Yet it will +lie soft as silk, concealed and unsuspected under the rags of a beggar +or the robes of a king. The cap will turn the edge of an axe, even +when swung by a giant's hand, yet it will fit into the lining of a +Spanish hat or velvet bonnet. This your present errand may prove more +dangerous than you imagine. Go and put it on."</p> + +<p>Sholto kneeled down and kissed the hand of his liege lady. Then when +he had risen she gave him down the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> armour piece by piece, dusting +each with her kerchief with a sort of reverent action, as one might +touch the face of the dead. In Sholto's hands it proved indeed light +almost as woven cloth of homespun from Dame Barbara's loom, and +flexible as the spun silk of Lyons which the great wear next their +bodies.</p> + +<p>With it there went an under-suit of finest and softest leather, that +the skin should not be chafed by the cunning links as they worked +smoothly over one another at each movement of the body within.</p> + +<p>Sholto buckled on his lady's gift with a swelling heart. It was his +dead master's armour. And as piece by piece fitted him as a glove fits +the hand, the spirit of William Douglas seemed to enter more and more +into the lad.</p> + +<p>Then Sholto covered this most valuable gift with his own clothing +which he had brought from the house of Carlinwark, and presently +emerged, a well-looking but still slim squire of decent family.</p> + +<p>Then the Countess belted on him the sword of price which went +therewith, a blade of matchless Toledan steel, but covered with a +plain scabbard of black pigskin.</p> + +<p>"Draw and thrust," commanded the lady, pointing at the rough stone of +the wall at the end of the passage.</p> + +<p>Sholto looked ruefully at the glittering blade which he held in his +hand, flashing blue from point to double guard.</p> + +<p>"Thrust and fear not," said the Countess of Douglas the second time.</p> + +<p>Sholto lunged out at the stone with all his might. Fire flew from the +smitten blue whinstone where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> point, with all the weight of his +young body behind it, impinged on the wall. A tingling shock of +acutest agony ran up the striker's wrist to the shoulder blade. The +sword dropped ringing on the pavement, and Sholto's arm fell numb and +useless to his side.</p> + +<p>"Lift the sword and look," commanded the Lady Douglas.</p> + +<p>Sholto did as he was bidden, with his left hand, and lo, the point +which had bent like a hoop was sharp and straight as if just from the +armourer's. "Can you strike with your left hand?" asked the lady.</p> + +<p>"As with my right," answered the son of Malise the Brawny.</p> + +<p>There was a bar at a window in the wall bending outward in shape like +the letter U.</p> + +<p>"Then strike a cutting stroke with your left hand."</p> + +<p>Sholto took the sword. It seemed to him short-sighted policy that in +the hour of his departure on a perilous quest he should disable +himself in both arms. But Sholto MacKim was not the youth to question +an order. He lifted the sword in his left hand, and with a strong +ungraceful motion struck with all his might.</p> + +<p>At first he thought that he had missed altogether. There was no +tingling in his arm, no jar when the blade should have encountered the +iron. But the Countess was examining the centre of the hoop.</p> + +<p>"I have missed," said Sholto.</p> + +<p>"Come hither and look," she said, without turning round.</p> + +<p>And when he looked, lo, the thick iron had been cut through almost +without bending. The sides of the break were fresh, bright, and true.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now look at the edge of your sword," she said.</p> + +<p>There was no slightest dint anywhere upon it, so that Sholto, +armourer's son as he was, turned about the blade to see if by any +chance he could have smitten with the reverse.</p> + +<p>Failing in this, he could only kneel to his lady and say, "This is a +great gift—I am not worthy."</p> + +<p>For in these times of peril jewels and lands were as nothing to the +value of such a suit of armour, which kings and princes might well +have made war to obtain.</p> + +<p>The faintest disembodied ghost of a smile passed over the face of the +Countess of Douglas.</p> + +<p>"It is the best I can do with it now," she said, "and at least no one +of the Avondales shall ever possess it."</p> + +<p>After the Lady Douglas had armed the young knight and sped him upon +his quest, Sholto departed over the bridge where the surly custodian +still grumbled at his horse's feet trampling his clean wooden +flooring. The young man rode a Spanish jennet of good stock, a plain +beast to look upon, neither likely to attract attention nor yet to +stir cupidity.</p> + +<p>His father and Laurence were already on their way. Sholto had arranged +that whether they found any trace of the lost ones or no, they were +all to meet on the third day at the little town of Kirkcudbright. For +Sholto, warned by the Lady Sybilla, even at this time had his idea, +which, because of the very horror of it, he had as yet communicated to +no one.</p> + +<p>It chanced that as the youth rode southward along the banks of the +Dee, glancing this way and that for traces of the missing maids, but +seeing only the grass trampled by hundreds of feet and the boats in +the stream<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> dragging every pool with grapnels and ropes, two horsemen +on rough ponies ambled along some distance in front of him. By their +robes of decent brown they seemed merchants on a journey, portly of +figure, and consequential of bearing.</p> + +<p>As Sholto rapidly made up to them, with his better horse and lighter +weight, he perceived that the travellers were those two admirable and +noteworthy magistrates of Dumfries, Robert Semple and his own uncle +Ninian Halliburton of the Vennel.</p> + +<p>Hearing the clatter of the jennet's hoofs, they turned about suddenly +with mighty serious countenances. For in such times when the wayfarer +heard steps behind him, whether of man or beast, it repaid him to give +immediate attention thereto.</p> + +<p>So at the sound of hoofs Ninian and his friend set their hands to +their thighs and looked over their shoulders more quickly than seemed +possible to men of their build.</p> + +<p>"Ha, nephew Sholto," cried Ninian, exceedingly relieved, "blithe am I +to see you, lad. You will tell us the truth of this ill news that has +upturned the auld province. By your gloomy face I see that the major +part is overtrue. The Earl is dead, and he awes me for twenty-four +peck of wheaten meal, forbye ten firlots of malt and other sundries, +whilk siller, if these hungry Avondale Douglases come into possession, +I am little likely ever to see. Surely I have more cause to mourn +him—a fine lad and free with his having. If ye gat not settlement +this day, why then ye gat it the neist, with never a word of drawback +nor craving for batement."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sholto told them briefly concerning the tragedy of Edinburgh. He had +no will for any waste of words, and as briefly thereafter of the loss +of the little maid and her companion.</p> + +<p>The Bailie of Dumfries lifted up his hands in consternation.</p> + +<p>"'Tis surely a plot o' thae Avondales. Stra'ven folk are never to +lippen to. And they hae made a clean sweep. No a Gallowa' Douglas +left, if they hae speerited awa' the bonny bit lass. Man, Robert, she +was heir general to the province, baith the Lordship o' Gallowa' and +the Earldom o' Wigton, for thae twa can gang to a lassie. But as soon +as the twa laddies were oot o' the road, Fat Jamie o' Avondale cam' +into the Yerldom o' Douglas and a' the Douglasdale estates, forbye the +Borders and the land in the Hielands. Wae's me for Ninian Halliburton, +merchant and indweller in Dumfries, he'll never see hilt or hair o' +his guid siller gin that wee lassie be lost. Man, Sholto, is't no an +awfu' peety?"</p> + +<p>During this lamentation, to which his nephew paid little attention, +looking only from side to side as they three rode among the willows by +the waterside, the other merchant, Robert Semple, had been pondering +deeply.</p> + +<p>"How could she be lost in this country of Galloway?" he said, "a land +where there are naught but Douglases and men bound body and soul to +the Douglas, from Solway even to the Back Shore o' Leswalt? 'Tis just +no possible—I'll wager that it is that Hieland gipsy Mistress +Lindesay that has some love ploy on hand, and has gane aff and aiblins +ta'en the lass wi' her for company."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p> + +<p>At these words Sholto twisted about in his saddle, as if a wasp had +stung him suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Master Semple," he said, "I would have you speak more carefully. +Mistress Lindesay is a baron's daughter and has no love ploys, as you +are pleased to call them."</p> + +<p>The two burgesses shook with jolly significant laughter, which angered +Sholto exceedingly.</p> + +<p>"Your mirth, sirs, I take leave to tell you, is most mightily ill +timed," he said, "and I shall consider myself well rid of your +company."</p> + +<p>He was riding away when his uncle set his hand upon the bridle of +Sholto's jennet.</p> + +<p>"Bide ye, wild laddie," he said, "there is nae service in gaun aff +like a fuff o' tow. My freend here meaned to speak nae ill o' the +lass. But at least I ken o' ae love ploy that Mistress Lindesay is +engaged in, or your birses wadna be so ready to stand on end, my bonny +man. But guid luck to ye. Ye hae the mair chance o' finding the flown +birdies, that ye maybes think mair o' the bonny norland quey than ye +think o' the bit Gallowa' calf. But God speed ye, I say, for gin ye +bringna back the wee lass that's heir to the braid lands o' Thrieve, +it's an ill chance Ninian Halliburton has ever to fill his loof wi' +the bonny gowden 'angels' that (next to high heeven) are a man's best +freends in an evil and adulterous generation."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL</h2> + +<h3>THE MISSION OF JAMES THE GROSS</h3> + + +<p>From all sides the Douglases were marching upon Edinburgh. After the +murder of the young lords the city gates had been closed by order of +the Chancellor. The castle was put into a thorough state of defence. +The camp of the Avondale Douglases, William and James, was already on +the Boroughmuir, and the affrighted citizens looked in terror upon the +thickening banners with the bloody Douglas heart upon them, and upon +the array of stalwart and determined men of the south. Curses both +loud and deep were hurled from the besiegers' lines at every head seen +above the walls, together with promises to burn Edinburgh, castle and +burgh alike, and to slocken the ashes with the blood of every living +thing within, all for the cause of the Black Dinner and the Bull's +Head set before the brothers of Douglas.</p> + +<p>But at midnoon of a glorious day in the late September, a man rode out +from the west port of the city, a fat man flaccid of body, pale and +tallowy of complexion. A couple of serving-men went behind him, with +the Douglas arms broidered on their coats. They looked no little +terrified, and shook upon their horses, as indeed well they might. +This little cavalcade rode directly out of the city gates towards the +pavilion of the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> Douglases of Avondale. As they went two running +footmen kept them company, one on either side of their leader, and as +that unwieldy horseman swayed this way and that in the saddle, first +one and then the other applied with his open palm the force requisite +to keep the rider erect upon his horse.</p> + +<p>It was the new Earl of Douglas, James the Gross, on his way to visit +the camp of his sons. As he approached the sentries who stood on guard +upon the broomy braes betwixt Merchiston and Bruntsfield, he was +challenged in a fierce southland shout by one of the Carsphairn levies +who knew him not.</p> + +<p>"Stand back there, fat loon, gin ye wantna a quarrel shot intil that +swagging tallow-bag ye ca' your wame!"</p> + +<p>"Out of my way, hill varlet!" cried the man on horseback.</p> + +<p>But the Carsphairn man stood with his cross-bow pointed straight at the +leader of the cavalcade, crying at the same time in a loud, +far-carrying voice over his shoulder, "Here awa', Anthon—here awa', +Bob! Come and help me to argue wi' this fat rogue."</p> + +<p>Several other hillmen came hurrying up, and the little company of +riders was brought to a standstill. Then ensued this colloquy.</p> + +<p>"Who are you that dare stop my way?" demanded the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Wha may ye be that comes shuggy-shooin' oot o' the bluidy city o' +Edinburgh intil oor camp," retorted him of Carsphairn, "sitting your +beast for all the warld like a lump o' potted-head whammelled oot o' a +bowl?"</p> + +<p>"I am the Earl of Douglas."</p> + +<p>"The Yerl o' Dooglas! Then a bonny hand they hae<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> made o' him in +Edinburgh. I heard they had only beheaded him."</p> + +<p>"I tell you I am Earl of Douglas. I bid you beware. Conduct me to the +tent of my sons!"</p> + +<p>At this point an aged man of some authority stood forward and gazed +intently at James the Gross, looking beneath his hand as at an +extensive prospect of which he wished to take in all the details.</p> + +<p>"Lads," he said, "hold your hands—it rins i' my head that this +craitur' may be Jamie, the fat Yerl o' Avondale. We'll let him gang by +in peace. His sons are decent lads."</p> + +<p>There came from the hillmen a chorus of "Avondale he may be—there's +nae sayin' what they can breed up there by Stra'ven. But we are weel +assured that he is nae richt Douglas. Na, nae Douglas like yon man was +ever cradled or buried in Gallowa'."</p> + +<p>At this moment Lord William Douglas, seeing the commotion on the +outposts, came down the brae through the broom. Upon seeing his father +he took the plumed bonnet from off his head, and, ordering the +Carsphairn men sharply to their places, he set his hand upon the +bridle of the gross Earl's horse. So with the two running footmen +still preserving some sort of equilibrium in his unsteady bulk, James +of Avondale was brought to the door of a tent from which floated the +banner of the Douglas house, blue with a bleeding heart upon it.</p> + +<p>At the entering in of the pavilion, all stained and trodden into the +soil by the feet of passers-by, lay the royal banner of the Stewarts, +so placed by headstrong James Douglas the younger, in contempt of +both tutor and Chancellor, who, being but cowards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> and murderers, had +usurped the power of the king within the realm.</p> + +<p>That sturdy youth came to the door of his pavilion half-dressed as he +had lain down, yawning and stretching reluctantly, for he had been on +duty all night perfecting the arrangements for besieging the town.</p> + +<p>"James—James," cried his father, catching sight of his favourite son +rubbing sleepily his mass of crisp hair, "what's this that I hear? +That you and William are in rebellion and are defying the power o' the +anointed king—?"</p> + +<p>At this moment the footman undid the girths of his horse, which, being +apparently well used to the operation, stood still with its feet +planted wide apart. Then they ran quickly round to the side towards +which the swaying bulk threatened to fall, the saddle slipped, and, +like a top-heavy forest tree, James the Gross subsided into the arms +of his attendants, who, straining and panting, presently set him on +his feet upon the blazoned royal foot-cloth at the threshold of the +pavilion.</p> + +<p>Almost he had fallen backwards when he saw the use to which his daring +sons had put the emblem of royal authority.</p> + +<p>"Guid save us a', laddies," he cried, staggering across the flag into +the tent, "ken ye what ye do? The royal banner o' the King o' +Scots—to mak' a floor-clout o'! Sirce, sirce, in three weeks I shall +be as childless as the Countess o' Douglas is this day."</p> + +<p>"That," said William Douglas, coldly, indicating with his finger the +trampled cloth, "is not the banner of Scotland, but only that of the +Seneschal Stewarts. The King of Scots is but a puling brat, and they +who usurp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> his name are murderous hounds whose necks I shall presently +stretch with the rogue's halter!"</p> + +<p>Young James Douglas had set an oaken folding chair for his father at +the upper end of the pavilion, and into this James the Gross fell +rather than seated himself.</p> + +<p>His sons William and James continued to stand before him, as was the +dutiful habit of the time. Their father recovered his breath before +beginning to speak.</p> + +<p>"What's this—what's this I hear?" he exclaimed testily, "is it true +that ye are in flat rebellion against the lawful authority of the +king? Laddies, laddies, ye maun come in wi' me to his excellence the +Chancellor and make instanter your obedience. Ye are young and for my +sake he will surely overlook this. I will speak with him."</p> + +<p>"Father," said William Douglas, with a cold firmness in his voice, "we +are here to punish the murderers of our cousins. We shall indeed enter +the guilty city, but it will be with fire and sword."</p> + +<p>"Aye," cried rollicking, headstrong James, "and we will roast the +Crichton on a spit and hang that smug traitor, Tutor Livingston, over +the walls of David's Tower, a bonny ferlie for his leman's wonder!"</p> + +<p>There came a cunning look into the small pig's eyes of James the +Gross.</p> + +<p>"Na, na, foolish laddies, thae things will ye no do. Mind ye not the +taunts and scorns that the Earl—the late Earl o' Douglas that is—put +upon us a'? Think on his pride and vainglory, whilk Scripture says +shall be brocht low. Think in especial how this righteous judgment +that has fallen on him and on his brother has cleared our way to the +Earldom."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p> + +<p>The choleric younger brother leaped forward with an oath on his lips, +but his calmer senior kept him back with his hand.</p> + +<p>"Silence, James!" he said; "I will answer our father. Sir, we have +heard what you say, but our minds are not changed. What cause to +associate yourself with traitors and mansworn you may have, we do not +know and we do not care."</p> + +<p>At his son's first words James the Gross rose with a sudden surprising +access of dignity remarkable in one of his figure.</p> + +<p>"I bid you remember," he said, speaking southland English, as he was +wont to do in moments of excitement, "I bid you remember, sirrah, that +I am the Earl of Douglas and Avondale, Justicer of Scotland—and your +father."</p> + +<p>William Douglas bowed, respectful but unmoved.</p> + +<p>"My lord," he said, "I forget nothing. I do not judge you. You are in +authority over our house. You shall do what you will with these forces +without there, so be you can convince them of your right. Black +murder, whether you knew and approved it or no, has made you Earl of +Douglas. But, sir, if you take part with my cousins' murderers now, or +screen them from our just vengeance and the vengeance of God, I tell +you that from this day you are a man without children. For in this +matter I speak not only for myself, but for all your sons!" He turned +to his brother.</p> + +<p>"James," he said, "call in the others." James went to the tent door +and called aloud.</p> + +<p>"Archibald, Hugh, and John, come hither quickly."</p> + +<p>A moment after three young men of noble build, little more than lads +indeed, but with the dark Douglas allure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> stamped plainly upon their +countenances, entered, bowed to their father, and stood silent with +their hands crossed upon the hilts of their swords.</p> + +<p>William Douglas went on with the same determinate and relentless calm.</p> + +<p>"My lord," he said, very respectfully, "here stand your five sons, all +soldiers and Douglases, waiting to hear your will. Murder has been +done upon the chief of our house by two men of cowardly heart and mean +consideration, Crichton and Livingston, instigated by the false +ambassador of the King of France. We have come hither to punish these +slayers of our kin, and we desire to know what you, our father, think +concerning the matter."</p> + +<p>James the Gross was still standing, steadying himself with his hand on +the arm of the oaken chair in which he had been sitting. He spoke with +some difficulty, which might proceed either from emotion or from the +plethoric habit of the man.</p> + +<p>"Have I for this brought children into the world," he said, "that they +should lift up their hands against the father that begat them? Ye know +that I have ever warned you against the pride and arrogance of your +cousins of Galloway."</p> + +<p>"You mean, of the late Earl of Douglas and the boy his brother," +answered William; "the pride of eighteen and fourteen is surely vastly +dangerous."</p> + +<p>"I mean those who have been tried and executed in Edinburgh by royal +authority for many well-grounded offences against the state," cried +the Earl, loudly.</p> + +<p>"Will you deign to condescend upon some of them?" said his son, as +quietly as before.</p> + +<p>"Your cousins' pride and ostentation of riches and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> retinue, being far +beyond those of the King, constituted in themselves an eminent danger +to the state. Nay, the turbulence of their followers has more than +once come before me in my judicial capacity as Justicer of the realm. +What more would you have?"</p> + +<p>"Were you, my lord, of those who condemned them to death?"</p> + +<p>"Not so, William; it had not been seemly in a near kinsman and the +heir to their dignities—that is, save and except Galloway, which by +ill chance goes in the female line, if we find not means to break that +unfortunate reservation. Your cousins were condemned by my Lords +Crichton and Livingston."</p> + +<p>"We never heard of either of them," said William, calmly.</p> + +<p>"In their judicial aspect they may be styled lords, as is the Scottish +custom," said James the Gross, "even as when I was laird of Balvany +and a sitter on the bed of justice, it was my right to be so +nominated."</p> + +<p>"Then our cousins were condemned with your approval, my Lord of +Douglas and Avondale?" persisted his son.</p> + +<p>James the Gross was visibly perturbed.</p> + +<p>"Approval, William, is not the word to use—not a word to use in the +circumstances. They were near kinsmen!"</p> + +<p>"But upon being consulted you did not openly disapprove—is it not so? +And you will not aid us to avenge our cousins' murder now?"</p> + +<p>"Hearken, William, it was not possible—I could not openly disapprove +when I also was in the Chancellor's hands, and I knew not but that he +might include me in the same condemnation. Besides, lads, think of the +mat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>ter calmly. There is no doubt that the thing happens most +conveniently, and the event falls out well for us. Our own barren +acres have many burdens upon them. What could I do? I have been a poor +man all my life, and after the removal of obstacles I saw my way to +become the richest man in Scotland. How could I openly object?"</p> + +<p>William Douglas bowed.</p> + +<p>"So—" he said, "that is what we desired to know! Have I your +permission to speak further?"</p> + +<p>His father nodded pleasantly, seating himself again as one that has +finished a troublesome business. He rubbed his hands together, and +smiled upon his sons.</p> + +<p>"Aye, speak gin ye like, William, but sit doon—sit doon, lads. We are +all of one family, and it falls out well for you as it does for me. +Let us all be pleasant and agreeable together!"</p> + +<p>"I thank you, my lord," said his son, "but we will not sit down. We +are no longer of one family. We may be your sons in the eye of the law +and in natural fact. But from this day no one of us will break bread, +speak word, hold intimacy or converse with you. So far as in us lies +we will renounce you as our father. We will not, because of the +commandment, rise in rebellion against you. You are Earl of Douglas, +and while you live must rule your own. But for me and my brothers we +will never be your children to honour, your sons to succour, nor your +liegemen to fight for you. We go to offer our services to our cousin +Margaret, the little Maid of Galloway. We will keep her province with +our swords as the last stronghold of the true Douglases of the Black. +I have spoken. Fare you well, my lord!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span></p> + +<p>During his son's speech the countenance of the newly made Earl of +Douglas grew white and mottled, tallowy white and dull red in turns +showing upon it, like the flesh of a drained ox. He rose unsteadily to +his feet, moving one hand deprecatingly before him, like a helpless +man unexpectedly stricken. His nether lip quivered, pendulous and +piteous, in the midst of his grey beard, and for a moment he strove in +vain with his utterance.</p> + +<p>His eyes fell abashed from the cold sternness of his eldest son's +glance, and he seemed to scan the countenances of the younger four for +any token of milder mood.</p> + +<p>"James," he said, "ye hear William. Surely ye do not hold with him? +Remember I am your father, and I was aye particular fond o' you, +Jamie. I mind when ye wad rin to sit astride my shoulder. And ye used +to like that fine!"</p> + +<p>There were tears in the eyes of the weak, cunning, treacherous-hearted +man. The lips of James Douglas quivered a little, and his voice failed +him, as he strove to answer his father. What he would have said none +knows, but ere he could voice a word, the eyes of his brother, stern +as the law given to Moses on the mount, were bent upon him. He +straightened himself up, and, with a look carefully averted from the +palsied man before him, he said, in a steady tone, "What my brother +William says, I say."</p> + +<p>His father looked at him again, as if still hoping against hope for +some kinder word. Then he turned to his younger sons.</p> + +<p>"Archie, Hugh, little Jockie, ye willna take part against your ain +faither?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We hold with our brothers!" said the three, speaking at once.</p> + +<p>At this moment there came running in at the door of the tent a lad of +ten—Henry, the youngest of the Avondale brothers. He stopped short in +the midst, glancing wonderingly from one to the other. His little +sword with which he had been playing dropped from his hand. James the +Gross looked at him.</p> + +<p>"Harry," he said, "thy brothers are a' for leavin' me. Will ye gang +wi' them, or bide wi' your faither?"</p> + +<p>"Father," said the boy, "I will go with you, if ye will let me help to +kill Livingston and the Chancellor!"</p> + +<p>"Come, laddie," said the Earl, "ye understand not these matters. I +will explain to you when we gang back to the braw things in Edinbra' +toon!"</p> + +<p>"No, no," cried the boy, stooping to pick up his sword, "I will bide +with my brothers, and help to kill the murderers of my cousins. What +William says, I say."</p> + +<p>Then the five young men went out and called for their horses, their +youngest brother following them. And as the flap of the tent fell, and +he was left alone, James the Gross sank his head between his soft, +moist palms, and sobbed aloud.</p> + +<p>For he was a weak, shifty, unstable man, loving approval, and a burden +to himself in soul and body when left to bear the consequences of his +acts.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my bairns," he cried over and over, "why was I born? I am not +sufficient for these things!"</p> + +<p>And even as he sobbed and mourned, the hoofs of his sons' horses rang +down the wind as they rode through the camp towards Galloway. And +little Henry rode betwixt William and James.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI</h2> + +<h3>THE WITHERED GARLAND</h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile Sholto fared onwards down the side of the sullen water of +Dee. The dwellers along the bank were all on the alert, and cried many +questions to him about the death of the Earl, most thinking him a +merchant travelling from Edinburgh to take ship at Kirkcudbright. +Sholto answered shortly but civilly, for the inquirers were mostly +decent folk well on in years, whose lads had gone to the levy, and who +naturally desired to know wherefore their sons had been summoned.</p> + +<p>In return he asked everywhere for news of any cavalcade which might +have passed that way, but neither from the country folk, nor yet from +hoof-marks upon the grassy banks, could he glean the least information +pertinent to the purpose of his quest.</p> + +<p>Not till he came within a few miles of the town did he meet with man +or woman who could give him any material assistance. It was by the +Fords of Tongland that he first met with one Tib MacLellan, who with +much volubility and some sagacity retailed fresh fish to the burghers +of Kirkcudbright and the whole countryside, giving a day to each +district so long as the supply of her staple did not fail.</p> + +<p>"Fair good day to ye, mistress!" said Sholto, taking off his bonnet to +the sonsy upstanding fishwife.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And to you, bonny lad," replied the complimented dame, dropping a +courtesy, "may the corbie never cry at ye nor ill-faured pie juik at +your left elbow. May candle creesh never fa' on ye, red fire burn ye, +nor water scald ye."</p> + +<p>Tib was reeling off her catalogue of blessings when Sholto cut her +short.</p> + +<p>"Can you tell me, good lady," he asked, in his most insinuating tones, +"if there has been any vessel cleared from the port during these last +weeks?"</p> + +<p>"'Deed, sir, that I should ken, for is no my ain sister marriet on +Jock Wabster, wha's cousin by marriage twice removed is the bailie +officer o' the port? So I can advise ye that there was a boat frae the +Isle o' Man wi' herrin's for the great houses, though never a fin o' +them like the halesome fish I carry here in my creel. Wad ye like to +see them, to buy a dozen for the bonny lass that's waiting for ye? +That were a present to recommend ye, indeed—far mair than your gaudy +flowers, fule ballads, and sic like trash!"</p> + +<p>"You cannot remember any other ship of larger size than the Manx +fishing-boat?" continued Sholto.</p> + +<p>"Weel, no to ca' cleared frae the port," Tib went on, "but there was a +pair o' uncanny-looking foreign ships that lay oot there by the +Manxman's Lake for eight days, and the nicht afore yestreen they gaed +oot with the tide. They were saying aboot the foreshore that they gaed +west to some other port to tak' on board the French monzie that cam' +to the Thrieve at the great tournaying! But I kenna what wad tak' him +awa' to the Fleet or the Ferry Toon o' Cree, and leave a' the +pleasures o' Kirkcudbright ahint him. Forbye sic herrin's as are +supplied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> by me, Tib MacLellan, at less than cost price—as I houp +your honour will no forget, when in the course o' natur' and the +providence o' God you and her comes to hae a family atween ye."</p> + +<p>Sholto promised that he would not forget when the time alluded to +arrived. Then, turning his jennet off the direct road to Kirkcudbright +town, and betaking him through the Ardendee fords, he made all speed +towards a little port upon the water of Fleet, at the point where that +fair moorland stream winds lazily through the water-meadows for a mile +or two, after its brawling passage down from the hills of heather and +before it commits itself to the mother sea.</p> + +<p>But it was not until he had long crossed it and reached the lonely +Cassencary shore that Sholto found his first trace of the lost +maidens. For as he rode along the cliffs his keen eye noted a +well-marked trail through the heather approaching the shore at right +angles to his own line of march. The tracks, still perfectly evident +in the grassy places, showed that as many as twenty horses had passed +that way within the last two or three days. He stood awhile examining +the marks, and then, leading his beast slowly by the bridle, he +continued to follow them westward till they became confused and lost +near a little jetty erected by the lairds of Cree and Cassencary for +convenience of traffic with Cumberland and the Isle of Man. Here on +the very edge of the foreshore, blown by some chance wind behind a +stone and wonderfully preserved there, Sholto found a child's chain of +woodbine entwined with daisies and autumnal pheasant's eye. He took it +up and examined it. Some of the flowers were not yet withered. The +inter-weav<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>ing was done after a fashion he had taught the little Maid +of Galloway himself, one happy day when he had walked on air with the +glamour of Maud Lindesay's smiles uplifting his heart. For that +tricksome grace had asked him to teach her also, and he remembered the +lingering touch of her fingers ere she could compass the quaint device +of the pheasant's eye peeping out from the midst of each white +festoon.</p> + +<p>Then a deep despair settled down on Sholto's spirit. He knew that Maud +Lindesay and the fair Maid of Galloway had undoubtedly fallen into the +power of the terrible Marshal de Retz, Sieur of Machecoul, ambassador +of the King of France, and also many things else which need not in +this place be put on record.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII</h2> + +<h3>ASTARTE THE SHE-WOLF</h3> + + +<p>In a dark wainscoted room overlooking that branch of the Seine which +divides the northern part of Paris from the Isle of the City, Gilles +de Retz, lately Chamberlain of the King of France, sat writing. The +hotel had recently been redecorated after the sojourn of the English. +Wooden pavements had again been placed in the rooms where the +barbarians had strewed their rushes and trampled upon their rotting +fishbones. Noble furniture from the lathes of Poitiers, decorated with +the royal ermines of Brittany, stood about the many alcoves. The table +itself whereon the famous soldier wrote was closed in with drawers and +shelves which descended to the floor and seemed to surround the +occupant like a cell.</p> + +<p>Before de Retz stood a curious inkstand, made by some cunning jeweller +out of the upper half of a human skull of small size, cut across at +the eye-holes, inverted, and set in silver with a rim of large rubies. +This was filled with ink of a startling vermilion colour.</p> + +<p>The document which Gilles de Retz was busy transcribing upon sheets of +noble vellum in this strange ink was of an equally mysterious +character. The upper part had the appearance of a charter engrossed by +the hand of some deft legal scribe, but the words which followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> were +as startling as the vehicle by means of which they were made to stand +out from the vellum.</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><b>"Unto Barran-Sathanas; Lord most glorious and puissant in hell +beneath and in the earth above, I, his unworthy servitor Gilles de +Retz, make my vows, hereby forever renouncing God, Christ, and the +Blessed Saints."</b></p> + +<p>To this appalling introduction succeeded many lines of close and +delicate script, interspersed with curious cabalistic signs, in which +that of the cross reversed could frequently be detected. Gilles de +Retz wrote rapidly, rising only at intervals to throw a fresh log of +wood across the vast iron dogs on either side of the wide fireplace, +as the rain from the northwest beat more and more fiercely upon the +small glazed panes of the window and howled among the innumerable +gargoyles and twisted roof-stacks of the Hotel de Pornic.</p> + +<p>Within the chamber itself, in the intervals of the storm, a low +continuous growling made itself evident. At first it was disregarded +by the writer, but presently, by its sheer pertinacity, the sound so +irritated him that he rose from his seat, and, striding to a narrow +door covered with a heavy curtain, he threw it wide open to the wall. +Then through the black oblong so made, a huge and shaggy she-wolf +slouched slowly into the room.</p> + +<p>The marshal kicked the brute impatiently with his slippered foot as +she entered, and, strange to relate, the wolf slunk past him with the +cowed air of a dog conscious of having deserved punishment.</p> + +<p>"Astarte, vilest beast," he cried, "have I not a thousand times warned +you to be silent and wait outside when I am at work within my +chamber?"</p> + +<p>The she-wolf eyed her master as he went back towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> his table. Then, +seeing him lift his pen, with a sigh of content she dropped down upon +the warm hearthstone, lying with her haunches towards the blazing logs +and her bristling head couched upon her paws. Her yellow shining eyes +blinked sleepily and approvingly at him, while with her tongue she +rasped the soft pads of her feet one by one, biting away the fur from +between the toes with her long and gleaming teeth. Presently Astarte +appeared to doze off. Her eyes were shut, her attitude relaxed. But so +soon as ever her master moved even an inch to consult a marked list of +dates which hung on a hook beside him, or leaned over to dip a quill +in his scarlet ink, the flashing yellow eye and the gleam of white +teeth underneath told that Astarte was awake and intently watching +every movement of the worker.</p> + +<p>Through the heavy boom of the storm without, the thresh of the rain +upon the lattice casement, and the irregular whipping gusts which +shook the house, the soft wheeze of the engrossing quill could be +heard, the crackle of the burning logs and the heavy regular breathing +of the couchant she-wolf being the only other sounds audible within +the apartment.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz wrote on, smiling to himself as he added line after +line to his manuscript. His beard shone with a truculent blue-black +lustre. For the moment the aged look had quite gone out of his face. +His cheek appeared flushed with the hues of youth and reinvigorated +hope, yet withal of a youth without innocence or charm. Rather it +seemed as if fresh blood had been injected into the veins of some aged +demon, moribund and cruel, giving, instead of health or grace, only a +new lease of cruelty and lust.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p> + +<p>Presently another door opened, the main entrance of the apartment this +time, not the small private portal through which Astarte the wolf had +been admitted. A girl came in, thrusting aside the curtain, and, for +the space of a moment, holding it outstretched with an arm gowned in +pure white before dropping it with a rustle of heavy silken fabric +upon the ground.</p> + +<p>The Marshal de Retz wrote on without appearing to be conscious of any +new presence in his private chamber. The girl stood regarding him, +with eyes that blazed with an intent so deadly and a hate so +all-possessing that the yellow treachery in those of Astarte the +she-wolf appeared kind and affectionate by contrast.</p> + +<p>At the girl's entrance that shaggy beast had raised herself upon her +fore paws, and presently she gave vent to a low growl, half of +distrust and half of warning, which at once reached the ears of the +busy worker.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz looked up quickly, and, catching sight of the Lady +Sybilla, with a sweep of his hand he thrust his manuscript into an +open drawer of the escritoire.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Sybilla," he said, leaning back in his chair with an air of easy +familiarity, "you are more sparing of your visits to me than of yore. +To what do I owe the pleasure and honour of this one?"</p> + +<p>The girl eyed him long before answering. She stood statue-still by the +curtain at the entrance of the apartment, ignoring the chair which the +marshal had offered her with a bow and a courteous wave of his hand.</p> + +<p>"I have come," she made answer at last, in the deep even tones which +she had used before the council of the traitors at Stirling, "to +demand from you, Messire Gilles de Retz, what you mean to do with the +little Margaret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> Douglas and her companion, whom you wickedly +kidnapped from their own country and have brought with you in your +train to France?"</p> + +<p>"I have satisfaction in informing you," replied the marshal, suavely, +"that it is my purpose to dispose of both these agreeable young ladies +entirely according to my own pleasure."</p> + +<p>The girl caught at her breast with her hand, as if to stay a sudden +spasm of pain.</p> + +<p>"Not at Tiffauges—" she gasped, "not at Champtocé?"</p> + +<p>The marshal leaned back, enjoying her terror, as one tastes in slow +sips a rare brand of wine. He found the flavour of her fears +delicious.</p> + +<p>"No, Sybilla," he replied at last, "neither at Champtocé nor yet at +Tiffauges—for the present, that is, unless some of your Scottish +friends come over to rescue them out of my hands."</p> + +<p>"How, then, do you intend to dispose of them?" she urged.</p> + +<p>"I shall send them to your puking sister and her child, hiding their +heads and sewing their samplers at Machecoul. What more can you ask? +Surely the young and fair are safe in such worthy society, even if +they may chance to find it a little dull."</p> + +<p>"How can I believe him, or know that for once he will forego his +purposes of hell?" Sybilla murmured, half to herself.</p> + +<p>The Marshal de Retz smiled, if indeed the contraction of muscles which +revealed a line of white teeth can be called by that name. In the +sense in which Astarte would have smiled upon a defenceless sheepfold, +so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> Gilles de Retz might have been said to smile at his visitor.</p> + +<p>"You may believe me, sweet Lady Sybilla," said the marshal, "because +there is one vice which it is needless for me to practise in your +presence, that of uncandour. I give you my word that unless your +friends come worrying me from the land of Scots, the maids shall not +die. Perhaps it were better to warn any visitors that even at +Machecoul we are accustomed to deal with such cases. Is it not so, +Astarte?"</p> + +<p>At the sound of her name the huge wolf rose slowly, and, walking to +her master's knee, she nosed upon him like a favourite hound.</p> + +<p>"And if your intent be not that which causes fear to haunt the +precincts of your palaces like a night-devouring beast, and makes your +name an execration throughout Brittany and the Vendée, why have you +carried the little child and the other pretty fool forth from their +country? Was it not enough that you should slay the brothers? +Wherefore was it necessary utterly to cut off the race of the +Douglases?"</p> + +<p>"Sybilla, dear sister of my sainted Catherine," purred the marshal, +"it is your privilege that you should speak freely. When it is +pleasing to me I may even answer you. It pleases me now, listen—you +know of my devotion to science. You are not ignorant at what cost, at +what vast sacrifices, I have in secret pushed my researches beyond the +very confines of knowledge. The powers of the underworlds are +revealing themselves to me, and to me alone. Evil and good alike shall +be mine. I alone will pluck the blossom of fire, and tear from hell +and hell's master their cherished mystery."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p> + +<p>He paused as if mentally to recount his triumphs, and then continued.</p> + +<p>"But at the moment of success I am crossed by a prejudice. The +ignorant people clamour against my life—<i>canaille</i>! I regard them +not. But nevertheless their foolish prejudices reach other ears. +Hearken!"</p> + +<p>And like a showman he beckoned Sybilla to the window. A low roar of +human voices, fitful yet sustained, made itself distinctly audible +above the shriller hooting of the tempest.</p> + +<p>"Open the window!" he commanded, standing behind the curtain.</p> + +<p>The girl unhasped the brazen hook and looked out. Beneath her a little +crowd of poor people had collected about a woman who was beating with +bleeding hands upon the shut door of the Hotel de Pornic.</p> + +<p>"Justice! justice!" cried the woman, her hands clasped and her long +black hair streaming down her shoulders, "give me my child, my little +Pierre. Yester-eve he was enticed into the monster's den by his +servant Poitou, and I shall never see him more! Give me my boy, +murderer! Restore me my son!"</p> + +<p>And the answering roar of the people's voices rose through the open +window to the ears of the marshal. "Give the woman her son, Gilles de +Retz!"</p> + +<p>At that moment the woman caught sight of Sybilla. Instantly she +changed her tone from entreaty to fierce denunciation.</p> + +<p>"Behold the witch, friends, let us tear her to pieces. She is kept +young and beautiful by drinking the blood of children. Throw thyself +down, Jezebel, that the dogs may eat thee in the streets."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></p> + +<p>And a shout went up from the populace as Sybilla shut to the window, +shuddering at the horrors which surrounded her.</p> + +<p>The Marshal de Retz had not moved, watching her face without regarding +the noise outside. Now he went back to his chair, and bending his +slender white fingers together, he looked up at her.</p> + +<p>Presently he struck a silver bell by his side three times, and the +mellow sound pervaded the house.</p> + +<p>Poitou appeared instantly at the inner door through which the she-wolf +had entered.</p> + +<p>"How does it go?" asked the marshal, with his usual careless easy +grace.</p> + +<p>"Not well," said Poitou, shaking his head; "that is, rightly up to a +point, and then—all wrong!"</p> + +<p>For the first time the countenance of the marshal appeared troubled.</p> + +<p>"And I was sure of success this time. We must try them younger. It is +all so near, yet, strangely it escapes us. Well, Poitou, I shall come +in a little when I have finished with this lady. Tell De Sillé to +expect me."</p> + +<p>Poitou bowed respectfully and was withdrawing, too well trained to +smile or even lift his eyes to where Sybilla stood by the window.</p> + +<p>His master appeared to recollect himself.</p> + +<p>"A moment, Poitou—there are some troublesome people of the city +rabble at the door. Bid the guard turn out, and thrust them away. Tell +them to strike not too gently with the flats of their swords and the +butts of their spears."</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz listened for some time after the disappearance of his +familiar. Presently the low droning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> note of popular execration +changed into sharper exclamations of hatred, mingled with cries of +pain.</p> + +<p>Then the marshal smiled, and rubbed his hands lightly one over the +other.</p> + +<p>"That's my good lads," he said; "hear the rattle of the spear-hilts +upon the paving-stones? They are bringing the butts into close +acquaintance with certain very ill-shod feet. Ah, now they are gone!"</p> + +<p>The marshal took a long breath and went on, half to himself and half +to Sybilla.</p> + +<p>"But I own it is all most inconvenient," he said, thoughtfully. "Here +in Paris, in King Charles's country, it does not so greatly matter. +For the affair in Scotland has set me right with the King and in +especial with the Dauphin. By the death of the Douglases I have given +back the duchy of Touraine to the kings of France after three +generations. I have therefore well earned the right to be allowed to +seek knowledge in mine own way."</p> + +<p>"The service of the devil is a poor way to knowledge," said the girl.</p> + +<p>"Ah, there it is," said the marshal, raising his hand with gentle +deprecation, "even you, who are so highly privileged, are not wholly +superior to vulgar prejudice. I keep a college of priests for the +service of God and the Virgin. They have done me but little good. +Surely therefore I may be allowed a little service of That Other, who +has afforded me such exquisite pleasure and aided me so much. The +Master of Evil knows all things, and he can help whom he will to the +secrets of wealth, of power, and of eternal youth."</p> + +<p>"Have you gained any of these by the aid of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> Master whom you +serve?" asked the Lady Sybilla, with great quiet in her voice.</p> + +<p>"Nay, not yet," cried the marshal, moved for the first time, "not +yet—perhaps because I have sought too eagerly and hotly. But I am now +at least within sight of the wondrous goal. See," he added, with +genuine excitement labouring in his voice, "see—I am still a young +man, yet though I, Gilles de Retz, was born to the princeliest fortune +in France, and by marriage added another, they have both been spent +well nigh to the last stiver in learning the hidden secrets of the +universe. I am still a young man, I say, but look at my whitening +hair, count the deep wrinkles on my forehead, consider my withered +cheek. Have I not tasted all agonies, renounced all delights, and cast +aside all scruples that I might win back my youth, and with it the +knowledge of good and evil?"</p> + +<p>Sybilla went to the door and stood again by the curtain.</p> + +<p>"Then you swear by your own God that you will let no evil befall the +Scottish maids?" she said.</p> + +<p>"I have told you already—let that suffice!" he replied with sudden +coldness; "you know that, like the Master whom I serve, I can keep my +word. I will not harm them, so long as their Scottish kinsfolk come +not hither meddling with my purposes. I have enough of meddlers in +France without adding outlanders thereto! I cannot keep a new and +permanent danger at grass within my gates."</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla passed through the portal by which she had entered, +without adieu or leave-taking of any kind. Gilles de Retz rose as soon +as the curtain had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> fallen, and shook himself with a yawn, like one +who has got through a troublesome necessary duty. Then he walked to +the window and looked out. The woman had come back and was kneeling +before the Hotel de Pornic.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_06.jpg" width="400" height="618" alt="A bright light as of a furnace burnt up before him, and the heat was overpowering as it rushed like a ruddy tide-race against his face." title="A bright light as of a furnace burnt up before him, and the heat was overpowering as it rushed like a ruddy tide-race against his face." /> +<span class="caption">A bright light as of a furnace burnt up before him, and the heat was overpowering as it rushed like a ruddy tide-race against his face.</span> +</div> + + +<p>At sight of him she cried with sudden shrillness, "My lord, my great +lord, give me back my child—my little Pierre. He is my heart's heart. +My lord, he never did you any harm in all his innocent life!"</p> + +<p>The Marshal de Retz shut the window with a shrug of protest against +the vulgarity of prejudice. He did not notice four men in the garb of +pilgrims who stood in the dark of a doorway opposite.</p> + +<p>"This is both unnecessary and excessively discomposing," he muttered; +"I fear Poitou has not been judicious enough in his selections."</p> + +<p>He turned towards the private door, and as he did so Astarte the +she-wolf rose and silently followed him with her head drooped forward. +He went along a dark passage and pushed open a little iron door. A +bright light as of a furnace burnt up before him, and the heat was +overpowering as it rushed like a ruddy tide-race against his face.</p> + +<p>"Well, Poitou, does it go better?" he said cheerfully, "or must we try +them of the other sex and somewhat younger, as I at first proposed?"</p> + +<p>He let the door slip back, and the action of a powerful spring shut +out Astarte. Whereat she sat down on her haunches in the dark of the +passage, and showed her gleaming teeth in a grin, as, with cocked +ears, she listened to the sounds from within the secret laboratory of +the Marshal de Retz.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII</h2> + +<h3>MALISE FETCHES A CLOUT</h3> + + +<p>The four men whom the Messire Gilles, by good fortune, failed to see +standing in the doorway opposite the Hotel de Pornic were attired in +the habit of pilgrims to the shrine of Saint James of Compostella. +Upon their heads they wore broad corded hats of brown. Long brown +robes covered them from head to foot. Their heads were tonsured, and +as they went along they fumbled at their beads and gave their +benediction to the people that passed by, whether they returned them +an alms or not. This they did by spreading abroad the fingers of both +hands and inclining their heads, at the same time muttering to +themselves in a tongue which, if not Latin, was at least equally +unknown to the good folk of Paris.</p> + +<p>"It is the house," said the tallest of the four, "stand well back +within the shade!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, Sholto, what need?" grumbled another, a very thickset palmer he; +"if the maids be within, let us burst the gates, and go and take them +out!"</p> + +<p>"Be silent, Malise," put in the third pilgrim, whose dress of richer +stuff than that of his companions, added to an air of natural command, +betrayed the man of superior rank, "remember, great jolterhead, that +we are not at the gates of Edinburgh with all the south country at our +backs."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span></p> + +<p>The fourth, a slender youth and fresh of countenance, stood somewhat +behind the first three, without speaking, and wore an air of profound +meditation and abstraction.</p> + +<p>It is not difficult to identify three out of the four. Sholto's quest +for his sweetheart was a thing fixed and settled. That his father and +his brother Laurence should accompany him was also to be expected. But +the other and more richly attired was somewhat less easy to be +certified. The Lord James of Douglas it was, who spoke French with the +idiomatic use and easy accentuation of a native, albeit of those +central provinces which had longest owned the sway of the King of +France. The brothers MacKim also spoke the language of the country +after a fashion. For many Frenchmen had come over to Galloway in the +trains of the first two Dukes of Touraine, so that the Gallic speech +was a common accomplishment among the youths who sighed to adventure +where so many poor Scots had won fortune, in the armies of the Kings +of France.</p> + +<p>Indeed, throughout the centuries Paris cannot be other than Paris. And +Paris was more than ever Paris in the reign of Charles the Seventh. +Her populace, gay, fickle, brave, had just cast off the yoke of the +English, and were now venting their freedom from stern Saxon policing +according to their own fashion. Not the King of France, but the Lord +of Misrule held the sceptre in the capital.</p> + +<p>It was not long therefore before a band of rufflers swung round a +corner arm-in-arm, taking the whole breadth of the narrow causeway +with them as they came. It chanced that their leader espied the four +Scots stand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>ing in the wide doorway of the house opposite the Hotel de +Pornic.</p> + +<p>"Hey, game lads," he cried, in that roistering shriek which then +passed for dashing hardihood among the youth of Paris, "here be some +holy men, pilgrims to the shrine of Saint Denis, I warrant. I, too, am +a clerk of a sort, for Henriet tonsured me on Wednesday sennight. Let +us see if these men of good works carry any of the deceitful vanities +of earth about with them in their purses. Sometimes such are not ill +lined!"</p> + +<p>The youths accepted the proposal of their leader with alacrity.</p> + +<p>"Let us have the blessing of the holy palmers," they cried, "and eke +the contents of their pockets!"</p> + +<p>So with a gay shout, and in an evil hour for themselves, they bore +down upon the four Scots.</p> + +<p>"Good four evangelists," cried the youth who had spoken first—a tall, +ill-favoured, and sallow young man in a cloak of blue lined with +scarlet, swaggering it with long strides before the others, "tell us +which of you four is Messire Matthew. For, being a tax-gatherer, he +will assuredly have money of his own, and besides, since the sad death +of your worthy friend Judas, he must have succeeded him as your +treasurer."</p> + +<p>"This is the keeper of our humble store, noble sir," answered the Lord +James Douglas, quietly, indicating the giant Malise with his left +hand, "but spare him and us, I pray you courteously!"</p> + +<p>"Ha, so," mocked the tall youth, turning to Malise, "then the +gentleman of the receipt of custom hath grown strangely about the +chest since he went a-wandering from Galilee!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p> + +<p>And he reached forward his hand to pull away the cloak which hung +round the great frame of the master armourer.</p> + +<p>Malise MacKim understood nothing of his words or of his intent, but +without looking at his tormentor or any of the company, he asked of +James Douglas, in a voice like the first distant mutterings of a +thunder-storm, "Shall I clout him?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, be patient, Malise, I bid you. This is an ill town in which to +get rid of a quarrel once begun. Be patient!" commanded James Douglas +under his breath.</p> + +<p>"We are clerks ourselves," the swarthy youth went on, "and we have +come to the conclusion that such holy palmers as you be, men from +Burgundy or the Midi, as I guess by your speech, Spaniards by your +cloaks and this good tax-gatherer's beard, ought long ago to have +taken the vows of poverty. If not, you shall take them now. For, most +worthy evangelistic four, be it known unto you that I am Saint Peter +and can loose or bind. So turn out your money-bags. Draw your blades, +limber lads!"</p> + +<p>Whereupon his companions with one accord drew their swords and +advanced upon the Scots. These stood still without moving as if they +had been taken wholly unarmed.</p> + +<p>"Shall I clout them now?" rumbled Malise the second time, with an +anxious desire in his voice.</p> + +<p>"Bide a wee yet," whispered the Lord James; "we will try the soft +answer once more, and if that fail, why then, old Samson, you may +clout your fill."</p> + +<p>"<i>His</i> fill!" corrected Malise, grimly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your pardon, good gentlemen," said James of Douglas aloud to the +spokesman, "we are poor men and travel with nothing but the merest +necessities—of which surely you would not rob us."</p> + +<p>"Nay, holy St. Luke," mocked the swarthy one, "not rob. That is an +evil word—rather we would relieve you of temptation for your own +souls' good. You are come for your sins to Paris. You know that the +love of money is the root of all evil. So in giving to us who are +clerks of Paris you will not lose your ducats, but only contribute of +your abundance to Holy Mother Church. I am a clerk, see—I do not +deceive you! I will both shrive and absolve you in return for the +filthy lucre!"</p> + +<p>And, commanding one of his rabble to hold a torch close to his head, +he uncovered and showed a tonsured crown.</p> + +<p>"And if we refuse?" said Lord James, quietly.</p> + +<p>"Then, good Doctor Luke," answered the youth, "we are ten to four—and +it would be our sad duty to send you all to heaven and then ease your +pockets, lest, being dead, some unsanctified passer-by might be +tempted to steal your money."</p> + +<p>"Surely I may clout him now?" came again like the nearer growl of a +lion from Malise the smith.</p> + +<p>Seeing the four men apparently intimidated and without means of +defence, the ten youths advanced boldly, some with swords in their +right hands and torches in their left, the rest with swords and +daggers both. The Scots stood silent and firm. Not a weapon showed +from beneath a cloak.</p> + +<p>"Down on your knees!" cried the leader of the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> roisterers, and +with his left hand he thrust a blazing torch into the grey beard of +Malise.</p> + +<p>There was a quick snort of anger. Then, with a burst of relief and +pleasure, came the words, "By God, I'll clout him now!" The sound of a +mighty buffet succeeded, something cracked like a broken egg, and the +clever-tongued young clerk went down on the paving-stones with a +clatter, as his torch extinguished itself in the gutter and his sword +flew ringing across the street.</p> + +<p>"Come on, lads—they have struck the first blow. We are safe from the +law. Kill them every one!" cried his companions, advancing to the +attack with a confidence born of numbers and the consciousness of +fighting on their own ground.</p> + +<p>But ere they reached the four men who had waited so quietly, the Scots +had gathered their cloaks about their left arms in the fashion of +shields, and a blade, long and stout, gleamed in every right hand. +Still no armour was to be seen, and, though somewhat disconcerted, the +assailants were by no means dismayed.</p> + +<p>"Come on—let us revenge De Sillé!" they cried.</p> + +<p>"Lord, Lord, this is gaun to be a sair waste o' guid steel," grumbled +Malise; "would that I had in my fist a stieve oaken staff out of +Halmyre wood. Then I could crack their puir bit windlestaes o' swords, +without doing them muckle hurt! Laddies, laddies, be warned and gang +decently hame to your mithers before a worse thing befall. James, ye +hae their ill-contrived lingo, tell them to gang awa' peaceably to +their naked beds!"</p> + +<p>For, having vented his anger in the first buffet, Malise was now +somewhat remorseful. There was no honour in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> such fighting. But all +unwarned the youthful roisterers of Paris advanced. This was a nightly +business with them, and indeed on such street robberies of strangers +and shopkeepers the means of continuing their carousings depended.</p> + +<p>It chanced that at the first brunt of the attack Sholto, who was at +the other end of the line from his father, had to meet three opponents +at once. He kept them at bay for a minute by the quickness of his +defence, but being compelled to give back he was parrying a couple of +their blades in front, when the third got in a thrust beneath his arm. +It was as if the hostile sword had stricken a stone wall. The flimsy +and treacherous blade went to flinders, and the would-be robber was +left staring at the guard suddenly grown light in his hand.</p> + +<p>With a quick backward step, Sholto slashed his last assailant across +the upper arm, effectually disabling him. Then, catching his heel in a +rut, he fell backward, and it would have gone ill with him but for the +action of his father. The brawny one was profoundly disgusted at +having to waste his strength and science upon such a rabble, and now, +at the moment of his son's fall, he suddenly dropped his sword and +seized a couple of torches which had fallen upon the pavement. With +these primitive weapons he fell like a whirlwind upon the foe, taking +them unexpectedly in flank. A sweep of his mighty arms right and left +sent two of the assailants down, one with the whole side of his face +scarified from brow to jaw, and the other with his mouth at once +widened by the blow and hermetically closed by the blazing tar.</p> + +<p>Next, Sholto's pair of assailants received each a mighty buffet and +went down with cracked sconces. The rest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> seeing this revolving and +decimating fire-mill rushing upon them as Malise waved the torches +round his head, turned tail and fled incontinently into the narrow +alleys which radiated in all directions from the Hotel de Pornic.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV</h2> + +<h3>LAURENCE TAKES NEW SERVICE</h3> + + +<p>"Look to them well, Malise," said the Lord James; "'twas you who did +the skull-cracking at any rate. See if your leechcraft can tell us if +any of these young rogues are likely to die. I would not have their +deaths on my conscience if I can avoid it."</p> + +<p>First picking up and sheathing his sword, then bidding Sholto hold a +torch, Malise turned the youths over on their backs. Four of them +grunted and complained of the flare of the light in their eyes, like +men imperfectly roused from sleep.</p> + +<p>"Thae loons will be round in half an hour," said Malise, confidently. +"But they will hae richt sair heads the morn, I'se warrant, and some +o' them may be marked aboot the chafts for a Sabbath or twa!"</p> + +<p>But the swarthy youth whom the others called De Sillé, he who had been +spokesman and who had fallen first, was more seriously injured. He had +worn a thin steel cap on his head, which had been cracked by the +buffet he had received from the mighty fist of the master armourer. +The broken pieces had made a wound in the skull, from which blood +flowed freely. And in the uncertain light of the torch Malise could +not make any prolonged examination.</p> + +<p>"Let us tak' the callant up to the tap o' the hoose,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> he said at +last; "we can put him in the far ben garret till we see if he is gaun +to turn up his braw silver-taed shoon."</p> + +<p>Without waiting for any permission or dissent, the smith of Carlinwark +tucked his late opponent under his arm as easily as an ordinary man +might carry a puppy. Then, sheathing their swords, the other three +Scots made haste to leave the place, for the gleaming of lanthorns +could already be seen down the street, which might either mark the +advent of the city watch or the return of the enemy with +reinforcements.</p> + +<p>It was to a towering house with barred windows and great doors that +the four Scots retreated. Entering cautiously by a side portal, Malise +led the way with his burden. This mansion had been the town residence +of the first Duke of Touraine, Archibald the Tineman. It had been +occupied by the English for military purposes during their tenancy of +the city, and now that they were gone, it had escaped by its very +dilapidation the fate of the other possessions of the house of Douglas +in France.</p> + +<p>James Douglas had obtained the keys from Gervais Bonpoint, the trusty +agent of the Avondales in Paris, who also attended to the foreign +concerns of most others of the Scottish nobility. So the four men had +taken possession, none saying them nay, and, indeed, in the disordered +state of the government, but few being aware of their presence.</p> + +<p>Upon an old bedstead hastily covered with plaids, Malise proceeded to +make his prisoner comfortable. Then, having washed the wound and +carefully examined it by candlelight, he pronounced his verdict:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The young cheat-the-wuddie will do yet, and live to swing by the lang +cord about his craig!"</p> + +<p>Which, when interpreted in the vulgar, conveyed at once an expectation +of a life to be presently prolonged to the swarthy de Sillé, but after +a time to be cut suddenly short by the hangman.</p> + +<p>Every day James Douglas and Sholto haunted the precincts of the Hotel +de Pornic and made certain that its terrible master had not departed. +Malise wished to leave Paris and proceed at once to the de Retz country, there to attempt in succession the marshal's great +castles of Machecoul, Tiffauges, and Champtocé, in some one of which +he was sure that the stolen maids must be immured.</p> + +<p>But James Douglas and Sholto earnestly dissuaded him from the +adventure. How did they know (they reminded him) in which to look? +They were all fortresses of large extent, well garrisoned, and it was +as likely as not that they might spend their whole time fruitlessly +upon one, without gaining either knowledge or advantage.</p> + +<p>Besides, they argued it was not likely that any harm would befall the +maids so long as their captor remained in Paris—that is, none which +had not already overtaken them on their journey as prisoners on board +the marshal's ships.</p> + +<p>So the Hotel de Pornic and its inhabitants remained under the strict +espionage of Sholto and Lord James, while up in the garret in the Rue +des Ursulines Laurence nursed his brother clerk and Malise sat +gloomily polishing and repolishing the weapons and secret armour of +the party.</p> + +<p>It was the evening of the third day before the "clout"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> showed signs +of healing. Its recipient had been conscious on the second day, but, +finding himself a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, he had been +naturally enough inclined to be a little sulky and suspicious. But the +bright carelessness of Laurence, who dashed at any speech in idiomatic +but ungrammatical outlander's French, gradually won upon him. As also +the fact that Laurence was clerk-learned and could sing and play upon +the viol with surprising skill for one so young.</p> + +<p>The prisoner never tired of watching the sunny curls upon the brow of +Laurence MacKim, as he wandered about trying the benches, the chairs, +and even the floor in a hundred attitudes in search of a comfortable +position.</p> + +<p>"Ah," the sallow youth said at last, one afternoon as he lay on his +pallet, "you should be one of the choristers of my master's chapel. +You can sing like an angel!"</p> + +<p>"Well," laughed Laurence in reply, "I would be indeed content, if he +be a good master, and if in his house it snoweth wherewithal to eat +and drink. But tell me what unfortunate may have the masterage of so +profitless a servant as yourself?"</p> + +<p>"I am the poor gentleman Gilles de Sillé of the household of the +Marshal de Retz!" answered the swarthy youth, readily.</p> + +<p>"De Silly indeed to bide with such a master!" quoth Laurence, with his +usual prompt heedlessness of consequences.</p> + +<p>The sallow youth with his bandaged head did not understand the poor +jest, but, taking offence at the tone, he instantly reared himself on +his elbow and darted a look at Laurence from under brows so lowering +and searching that Laurence fell back in mock terror.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nay," he cried, shaking at the knees and letting his hands swing +ludicrously by his sides, "do not affright a poor clerk! If you look +at me like that I will call the cook from yonder eating-stall to +protect me with his basting-ladle. I wot if he fetches you one on the +other side of your cracked sconce, you will never take service again +with the Marshal de Retz."</p> + +<p>"What know you of my master?" reiterated Gilles de Sillé, glowering at +his mercurial jailer, without heeding his persiflage.</p> + +<p>"Why, nothing at all," said Laurence, truthfully, "except that while +we stood listening to the singing of the choir within his hotel, a +poor woman came crying for her son, whom (so she declared) the marshal +had kidnapped. Whereat came forth the guard from within, and thrust +her away. Then arrived you and your varlets and got your heads broken +for your impudence. That is all I know or want to know of your +master."</p> + +<p>Gilles de Sillé lay back on his pallet with a sigh, still, however, +continuing to watch the lad's countenance.</p> + +<p>"You should indeed take service with the marshal. He is the most +lavish and generous master alive. He thinks no more of giving a +handful of gold pieces to a youth with whom he is taken than of +throwing a crust to a beggar at his gate. He owns the finest province +in all the west from side to side. He has castles well nigh a dozen, +finer and stronger than any in France. He has a college of priests, +and the service at his oratory is more nobly intoned than that in the +private chapel of the Holy Father himself. When he goes in procession +he has a thurifer carried before him by the Pope's special permission. +And I tell you, you are just the lad to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> his fancy. That I can +see at a glance. I warrant you, Master Laurence, if you will come with +me, the marshal will make your fortune."</p> + +<p>"Did the other young fellow make his fortune?" said Laurence. Gilles +de Sillé glared as if he could have slain him.</p> + +<p>"What other?" he growled, truculently.</p> + +<p>"Why, the son of the poor woman who cried beneath your kind master's +window the night before yestreen'."</p> + +<p>The lank swarthy youth ground his teeth.</p> + +<p>"'Tis ill speaking against dignities," he replied presently, with a +certain sullen pride. "I daresay the young fellow took service with +the marshal to escape from home, and is in hiding at Tiffauges, or +mayhap Machecoul itself. Or he may well have been listening at some +lattice of the Hotel de Pornic itself to the idiot clamour of his +mother and of the ignorant rabble of Paris!"</p> + +<p>"Your master loves the society of the young?" queried Laurence, +mending carefully a string of his viol and keeping the end of the +catgut in his mouth as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"He doats on all young people," answered Gilles de Sillé, eagerly, the +flicker of a smile running about his mouth like wild-fire over a swamp. +"Why, when a youth of parts once takes service with my master, he +never leaves it for any other, not even the King's!"</p> + +<p>Which in its way was a true enough statement.</p> + +<p>"Well," quoth Master Laurence, when he had tied his string and +finished cocking his viol and twingle-twangling it to his +satisfaction, "you speak well. And I am not sure but what I may think +of it. I am tired both of working for my father without pay, and of +singing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> psalms in a monastery to please my lord Abbot. Moreover, in +this city of Paris I have to tell every jack with a halbert that I am +not the son of the King of England, and then after all as like as not +he marches me to the bilboes!"</p> + +<p>"Of what nativity are you?" asked de Sillé.</p> + +<p>"Och, I'm all of a rank Irelander, and my name is Laurence O'Halloran, +at your service," quoth the rogue, without a blush. For among other +accomplishments which he had learned at the Abbey of Dulce Cor, was +that of lying with the serene countenance of an angel. Indeed, as we +have seen, he had the rudiments of the art in him before setting out +from the tourneying field at Glenlochar on his way to holy orders.</p> + +<p>"Then you will come with me to-morrow?" said Gilles, smiling.</p> + +<p>Laurence listened to make sure that neither his father nor Sholto was +approaching the garret.</p> + +<p>"I will go with you on two conditions," he said: "you shall not +mention my purpose to the others, and when we escape, I must put a +bandage over your eyes till we are half a dozen streets away."</p> + +<p>"Why, done with you—after all you are a right gamesome cock, my +Irelander," cried Gilles, whom the conditions pleased even better than +Laurence's promise to accompany him.</p> + +<p>Then, lending the prisoner his viol wherewith to amuse himself and +locking the door, Laurence made an excuse to go to the kitchen, where +he laughed low to himself, chuckling in his joy as he deftly handled +the saucepans.</p> + +<p>"Aha, Master Sholto, you are the captain of the guard and a knight, +forsooth, and I am but poor clerk Laurence—as you have ofttimes +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +reminded me. But I will show you a shift worth two of watching outside +the door of the marshal's hotel for tidings of the maids. I will go +where the marshal goes, and see all he sees. And then, when the time +comes, why, I will rescue them single-handed and thereafter make up my +mind which of them I shall marry, whether Sholto's sweetheart or the +Fair Maid of Galloway herself."</p> + +<p>Thus headlong Laurence communed with himself, not knowing what he said +nor to what terrible adventure he was committing himself.</p> + +<p>But Gilles de Sillé of the house of the Marshal de Retz, being left to +himself in the half darkness of the garret, took up the viol and sang +a curious air like that with which the charmer wiles his snakes to +him, and at the end of every verse, he also laughed low to himself.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV</h2> + +<h3>THE BOASTING OF GILLES DE SILLÉ</h3> + + +<p>But, as fate would have it, it was not in the Hotel de Pornic nor yet +in the city of Paris that Laurence O'Halloran was destined to enter +the service of the most mighty Marshal de Retz.</p> + +<p>Not till three days after his converse with the prisoner did Laurence +find an opportunity of escaping from the house in the street of the +Ursulines. Sholto and his father meantime kept their watch upon the +mansion of the enemy, turn and turn about; but without discovering +anything pertinent to their purpose, or giving Laurence a chance to +get clear off with Gilles de Sillé. The Lord James had also frequently +adventured forth, as he declared, in order to spy out the land, though +it is somewhat sad to relate that this espionage conducted itself in +regions which gave more opportunities for investigating the peculiar +delights of Paris than of discovering the whereabouts of Maud Lindesay +and his cousin, the Fair Maid of Galloway.</p> + +<p>The head of Gilles de Sillé was still swathed in bandages when, with +an additional swaddling of disguise across his eyes, he and Laurence, +that truant scion of the house of O'Halloran, stole out into the +night. A frosty chill had descended with the darkness, and a pale, +dank mist from the marshes of the Seine made the pair shiver as arm in +arm they ventured carefully forth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span></p> + +<p>Laurence was doing a foolish, even a wicked, thing in thus, without +warning, deserting his companions. But he was just at the age when it +is the habit of youth to deceive themselves with the thought that a +shred of good intent covers a world of heedless folly.</p> + +<p>The fugitives found the Hotel de Pornic practically deserted. They +approached it cautiously from the back, lest they should run into the +arms of any of the numerous enemies of its terrible lord, who, though +not abhorred in Paris as in most other places which he favoured with +his visits, had yet little love spent upon him even there.</p> + +<p>The custodian in the stone cell by the gate came yawning out to the +bars at the sound of Gilles de Sillé's knocking, and after a growl of +disfavour admitted the youth and his companion.</p> + +<p>"What, gone—my master gone!" cried Gilles, striking his hand on his +thigh with an astounded air, "impossible!"</p> + +<p>"It was, indeed, a thing particularly unthoughtful and discourteous of +my Lord de Retz, Marshal of France and Chamberlain of the King, to +undertake a journey without consulting you," replied the man, who +considered irony his strong point, but feebly concealing his pleasure +at the favourite's discomfiture; "we all know upon what terms your +honourable self is with my lord. But you must not blame him, for he +waited whole twenty-four hours for news of you. It was reported that +you were set upon by four giants, and that your bones, crushed like a +filbert, had been discovered in the horse pond at the back of the +Convent of the Virgins of Complaisance."</p> + +<p>Gilles de Sillé looked as if he could very well have murdered the +speaker on the spot. His favour with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> lord was evidently not a +thing of repute in his master's household. So much was clear to +Laurence, who, for the first time, began to have fears as to his own +reception, having such an unpopular person as voucher and introducer.</p> + +<p>"If you do not keep a civil tongue in your head, sirrah Labord,"—the +youth hissed the words through his clenched teeth,—"I will have your +throat cut."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I am too old," said the man, boldly; "besides, this is Paris, and +I have been twenty years concierge to his Grace the Duke of Orleans. I +and my wife have his secrets even as you, most noble Sire de Sillé, +possess those of my new master. You, or he either, by God's grace, +will think twice before cutting my throat. Moreover, you will be good +enough at this point to state your business or get to bed. For I am +off to mine. I serve my master, but I am not compelled to spend the +night parleying with his lacqueys."</p> + +<p>Now the concierges of Paris are very free and independent personages, +and their tongues are accustomed to wag freely and to some purpose in +their heads.</p> + +<p>"Whither has my master gone?" asked de Sillé, curbing his wrath in +order to get an answer.</p> + +<p>"He <i>said</i> that he went to Tiffauges. Whether that be true, you have +better means of knowing than I."</p> + +<p>The swarthy youth turned to Laurence.</p> + +<p>"How much money have you, Master O'Halloran? I have spent all of mine, +and this city swine will not lend me a single sou for my expenses. We +must to the stables and follow the Sieur de Retz forthwith to +Brittany."</p> + +<p>"I have ten golden angels which the prior of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> convent gave me at +my departure," said Laurence, with some pride.</p> + +<p>His companion nodded approvingly.</p> + +<p>"So much will see us through—that is, with care. Give them here to +me," he added after a moment's thought; "I will pay them out with more +economy, being of the country through which we pass."</p> + +<p>But Laurence, though sufficiently headlong and reckless, had not been +born a Scot for naught.</p> + +<p>"Wait till there is necessity," he replied cautiously, "and the angels +shall not be lacking. Till then they are quite safe with me. For +security I carry them in a secret place ill to be gotten at hastily."</p> + +<p>Gilles de Sillé turned away with some movement of impatience, yet +without saying another word upon the subject.</p> + +<p>"To the stables," he said; then turning to the concierge he added, "I +suppose we can have horses to ride after my lord?"</p> + +<p>"So far as I am concerned," growled Labord, "you can have all the +horses you want—and break your necks off each one of them if you +will. It will save some good hemp and hangman's hire. Such devil's +dogs as you two be bear your dooms ready written on your faces."</p> + +<p>And this saying nettled our Laurence, who prided himself no little on +an allure blonde and gallant.</p> + +<p>But Gilles de Sillé cared no whit for the servitor's sneers, so long +as they got horses between their knees and escaped out of Paris that +night. In an hour they were ready to start, and Laurence had expended +one of his gold angels on the provend for the journey, which his +companion and he stored in their saddle-bags.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span></p> + +<p>And in this manner, like an idle lad who for mischief puts body and +soul in peril, went forth Laurence MacKim to take up service with the +redoubtable Messire Gilles de Laval, Sieur de Retz, High Chamberlain +of Charles the Seventh, Marshal of France, and lately +companion-in-arms of the martyred Maid of Orleans.</p> + +<p>Now, before he went forth from the street of the Ursulines, he had +laid a sealed letter on the bed of his brother, which ran thus: "Ha, +Sir Sholto MacKim, while you stand about in the rain and shiver under +your cloak, I am off to find out the mystery. When I have done all +without assistance from the wise Sir Sholto, I will return. But not +before. Fare your knightship well."</p> + +<p>Laurence and Gilles de Sillé rode out of Paris by the Versailles road, +and the latter insisted on silence till they had passed the forest of +St. Cyr, which was at that time exceedingly dangerous for horsemen not +travelling in large companies. Once they were fairly on the road to +Chartres, however, and clear of the valley of the Seine and its +tangled boscage of trees, Gilles relaxed sufficiently to break a +bottle of wine to the success of their journey and to the new service +and duty upon which Laurence was to enter at the end of it.</p> + +<p>Having proposed this toast, he handed the bumper first to Laurence, +who, barely tasting the excellent Poitevin vintage, handed the +leathern bottle back to de Sillé. That sallow youth immediately, +without giving his companion a second chance, proceeded to quaff the +entire contents of the pigskin.</p> + +<p>Then as the stiff brew penetrated downwards, it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> not long before +the favourite of the marshal began to wax full of vanity and swelling +words.</p> + +<p>"I tell you what it is," he said, "there would be trembling in the +heart of a very great man when the nine cravens returned without me. +For I am no shaveling ignoramus, but a gentleman of birth; aye, and +one who, though poor, is a near cousin of the marshal himself. I +warrant the rascals who ran away would smart right soundly for leaving +me behind. For Gilles de Sillé is no simpleton. He knows more than is +written down in the catechism of Holy Church. None can touch my favour +with my lord, no matter what they testify against me. For me I have +only to ask and have. That is why I take such pride in bringing you to +my Lord of Retz. I know that he will give you a post about his person, +and if you are not a simple fool you may go very far. For my master is +a friend of the King and, what is better, of Louis the Dauphin. He gat +the King back a whole province—a dukedom so they say, from the hands +of some Scots fool that had it off his grandfather for deeds done in +the ancient wars. And in return the King will protect my master +against all his enemies. Do I not speak the truth?"</p> + +<p>Laurence hoped that he did, but liked not the veiled hints and +insinuations of some surprising secret in the life of the marshal, +possessed by his dear cousin and well-beloved servant Gilles de Sillé.</p> + +<p>With an ever loosening tongue the favourite went on:</p> + +<p>"A great soldier is our master—none greater, not even Dunois himself. +Why, he rode into Orleans at the right hand of the Maid. None in all +the army was so great with her as he. I tell you, Charles himself +liked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> it not, and that was the beginning of all the bother of talk +about my lord—ignorant gabble of the countryside I call it. Lord, if +they only knew what I know, then, indeed—but enough. Marshal Gilles +is a mighty scholar as well, and hath Henriet the clerk—a weak, +bleating ass that will some day blab if my master permit me not to +slice his gizzard in time—he hath him up to read aloud Latin by the +mile, all out of the books called Suetonius and Tacitus—such +high-flavoured tales and full of—well, of things such as my master +loves."</p> + +<p>So ran Gilles de Sillé on as the miles fled back behind their horses' +heels and the towers of Chartres rose grey and solemn through the +morning mists before the travellers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI</h2> + +<h3>THE COUNTRY OF THE DREAD</h3> + + +<p>The three remaining Scottish palmers were riding due west into a +sunset which hung like a broad red girdle over the Atlantic. All the +sky above their heads was blue grey and lucent. But along the horizon, +as it seemed for the space of two handbreadths, there was suspended +this bandolier of flaming scarlet.</p> + +<p>The adventurers were not weary of their quest. They were only sick at +heart with the fruitlessness of it.</p> + +<p>First upon leaving Paris they had gone on to the Castle of Champtocé, +and from beneath had surveyed the noble range of battlements crowning +the heights above the broad, poplar-guarded levels of the Loire. The +Chateau de Thouars also they had seen, a small white-gabled house, +most like a Scottish baron's tower, which the Marshal de Retz +possessed in virtue of his neglected wife Katherine. In it her sister +the Lady Sybilla had been born. Solitary and tenantless, save for a +couple of guards and their uncovenanted womenkind, it looked down on +its green island meadows, while on the horizon hung the smoke of the +wood fires lit at morn and eve by the good wives of Nantes.</p> + +<p>To that place the three had next journeyed and had there beheld the +great Hotel de Suze, set like an enemy's fortress in the midst of the +turbulent city, over against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> the Castle of the King. But the Hotel, +though held like a place of arms, was untenanted by the marshal, his +retinue, or the lost Scottish maids.</p> + +<p>Next they found the strong Castle of Tiffauges, above the green and +rippling waters of the Sevres, void also as the others. No light +gleamed out of that window of sinister repute, high up in the +cliff-like wall, from which strange shapes were reported to look forth +even at deep midnoon.</p> + +<p>North, south, and east the three had ridden through the country of +Retz. There remained but Machecoul, more remote and also darker in +repute than any of the other dwelling-places of Gilles de Retz. As +they rode westward towards it, they became day by day more conscious +of the darkening down of the atmosphere of fear and suspicion, which, +murky and lowering, overhung all that fair land of southern Brittany.</p> + +<p>The vast pine forests from which rose the lonely towers of this the +marshal's most remote castle could now be seen, serrated darkly +against the broad belt of the sky. The sombre blackness of their +spreading branches, the yet blacker darkness where the gaps between +their red trunks showed a way into the wood, increased the gloom of +the weary travellers. Yet they rode on, Sholto eagerly, Malise grimly, +and the Lord James with the dogged resignation of a good knight who +may be depended on to see an adventure through, however irksome it may +be proving.</p> + +<p>James of Avondale thought within himself that the others had greater +interests in the quest than he—the younger MacKim having at stake the +honour of his sweetheart Maud, the elder the life of his young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +mistress, the last of the Galloway house of Douglas.</p> + +<p>Yet it was with that jolly heart of his beating strong and loyal under +his brown palmer's coat, that James Douglas rode towards Machecoul, +only whistling low to himself and wishing that something would happen +to break the monotony of their journey.</p> + +<p>Nor had he long to wait. For just as the sun was setting they rode all +three of them abreast into the little hamlet of Saint Philbert, and +saw the sullen waters of the Étang de Grande Lieu spread marshy and +brackish as far as the eye could reach, edged by peat bogs and +overhung perilously by gloomy pines nodding over pools blacker than +scrivener's ink.</p> + +<p>As the three Scots looked into the stockaded entrance of the village, +they could see the children playing on the long, irregular street, and +the elder folk sitting about their doors in the evening light.</p> + +<p>But as soon as the clatter of horses' hoofs was heard, borne from far +down the aisles of the forest, there arose a sudden clamour and a +crying. From each little sparred enclosure rushed forth a woman who +snatched a baby here and there and drove a herd of children before her +indoors, glancing around and behind her as she did so with the anxious +look of a motherly barn-door fowl when the hawk hangs poised in the +windless sky.</p> + +<p>By the time the three men had entered the gate and ridden up the +village street, all was silent and dark. The windows were shut, the +doors were barred, and the village had become a street of living +tombs.</p> + +<p>"What means this?" said the Lord James; "the people are surely afraid +of us."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Tis doubtless but their wonted welcome to their lord, the Sieur de +Retz. He seems to be popular wherever he goes," said Malise, grimly; +"but let us dismount and see if we can get stabling for our beasts. +Did they not tell us there was not another house for miles betwixt +here and Machecoul?"</p> + +<p>So without waiting for dissent or counter opinion, the master armourer +went directly up to the door of the most respectable-appearing house +in the village, one which stood a little back from the road and was +surrounded by a wall. Here he dismounted and knocked loudly with his +sword-hilt upon the outer gate. The noise reverberated up and down the +street, and was tossed back in undiminished volume from the green wall +of pines which hemmed in the village.</p> + +<p>But there was no answer, and Malise grew rapidly weary of his own +clamour.</p> + +<p>"Hold my bridle," he said curtly to Sholto, and with a single push of +his shoulders he broke the wooden bar, and the two halves of the outer +gate fell apart before him. A great, smooth-haired yellow dog of the +country rushed furiously at the intruders, but Malise, who was as +dexterous as he was powerful, received him with so sound a buffet on +the head that he paused bewildered, shaking his ears, whereat Malise +picked him up, tucked him under his arm, and with thumbs about his +windpipe effectually choked his barking. Then releasing him, Malise +took no further notice of this valorous enemy, and the poor, loyal, +baffled beast, conscious of defeat, crept shamefacedly away to hide +his disgrace among the faggots.</p> + +<p>But Malise was growing indignant and therefore dangerous and ill to +cross.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Never did I see such mannerless folk," he growled; "they will not +even give a stranger a word or a bite for his beast."</p> + +<p>Then he called to his companions, "Come hither and speak to these +cravens ere I burst their inner doors as well."</p> + +<p>At this by no means empty threat came the Lord James and spoke aloud +in his cheery voice to those within the silent house: "Good people, we +are no robbers, but poor travellers and strangers. Be not afraid. All +we want is that you should tell us which house is the inn that we may +receive refreshment for ourselves and our horses."</p> + +<p>Then there came a voice from behind the door: "There is no inn nearer +than Pornic. We are poor people and cannot support one. We pray your +highness to depart in peace."</p> + +<p>"But, good sir," answered James Douglas, "that we cannot do. Our +steeds are foot weary with a long day's journey. Give us the shelter +of your barns and a bundle of fodder and we will be content. We have +food and drink with us. Open, and be not afraid."</p> + +<p>"Of what country are you? Are you of the household of the Sieur de +Retz?"</p> + +<p>"Nay," cried James again, "we are pilgrims returning to our own city +of Albi in the Tarn country. We know nothing of any Sieur de Retz. +Look forth from a window and satisfy yourself."</p> + +<p>"Then if there be treachery in your hearts, beware," said the +tremulous voice again; "for I have four young men here by me whose +powder guns are even now ready to fire from all the windows if you +mean harm."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span></p> + +<p>A white face looked out for a moment from the casement, and as quickly +ducked within. Then the voice continued its bleating.</p> + +<p>"My lords, I will open the door. But forgive the fears of a poor old +man in a wide, empty house."</p> + +<p>The door opened and a curious figure appeared within. It was a man +apparently decrepit and trembling, who in one hand carried a lantern +and in the other a staff over which he bent with many wheezings of +exhausted breath.</p> + +<p>"What would you with a poor old man?" he said.</p> + +<p>"We would have shelter and fodder, if it please you to give them to us +for the sake of God's grace."</p> + +<p>The old man trembled so vehemently that he was in danger of shaking +out the rushlight which flickered dismally in his wooden lantern.</p> + +<p>"I am a poor, poor man," he quavered; "I have naught in the world save +some barley meal and a little water."</p> + +<p>"That will do famously," said James Douglas; "we are hungry men, and +will pay well for all you give us."</p> + +<p>The countenance of the cripple instantly changed. He looked up at the +speaker with an alert expression.</p> + +<p>"Pay," he said, "pay—did you not say you would pay? Why, I thought +you were gentlefolks! Now, by that I know that you are none, but of +the commonalty like myself."</p> + +<p>James Douglas took a gold angel out of his belt and threw it to him. +The cripple collapsed upon the top of the piece of money and groped +vainly for it with eager, outspread fingers in the dust of the yard.</p> + +<p>"I cannot find it, good gentleman," he piped, shrill as an east wind; +"alas, what shall I do? Poor Cæsar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> cannot find it. It was not a piece +of gold;—do tell me that it was not a piece of gold; to lose a piece +of gold, that were ruin indeed."</p> + +<p>Sholto picked up the lantern which had slipped from his trembling +hand. The tallow was beginning to gutter out as it lay on its side, +and a moment's search showed him the gold glittering on some farmyard +rubbish. With a little shrill cry like a frightened bird the old man +fell upon it, as it had been with claws.</p> + +<p>"Bite upon it and see if the gold be good," said Sholto, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Alas," cried the cripple, "I have but one tooth. But I know the coin. +It is of the right mintage and greasiness. O lovely gold! Beautiful +gentlemen, bide where you are and I will be back with you in a +moment."</p> + +<p>And the old man limped away with astonishing quickness to hide his +acquisition, lest, mayhap, his guests should repent them and retract +their liberality.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII</h2> + +<h3>CÆSAR MARTIN'S WIFE</h3> + + +<p>Presently he returned and conducted them to a decent stable, where +they saw their beasts bestowed and well provided with bedding and +forage for the night. Then the old cripple, more than ever bent upon +his stick, but nevertheless chuckling to himself all the way, preceded +them into the house.</p> + +<p>"Ah, she is clever," he muttered; "she thinks her demon tells her +everything. But even La Meffraye will not know where I have hidden +that beautiful gold."</p> + +<p>So he sniggered senilely to himself between his fits of coughing.</p> + +<p>It was a low, wide room of strange aspect into which the old man +conducted his guests. The floor was of hard-beaten earth, but cleanly +kept and firm to the feet. The fireplace, with a hearth round it of +built stone, was placed in the midst, and from the rafters depended +many chains and hooks. A wooden settle ran half round the hearthstone +on the side farthest from the draught of the door. The weary three sat +down and stretched their limbs. The fire had burnt low, and Sholto, +reaching to a faggot heap by the side wall, began to toss on boughs of +green birch in handfuls, till the lovely white flame arose and the sap +spat and hissed in explosive puffs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>"Birk when 'tis green</i><br /> +</span> +<span class="i0"><i>Makes a fire for a king!"</i><br /> +</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Malise hummed the old Scots lines, and the cripple coming in at that +moment raised a shrill bark of protest.</p> + +<p>"My good wood, my fuel that cost me so many sore backs—be careful, +young sir. Faggots of birch are dear in this country of Machecoul. My +lord is of those who give nothing for naught."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we shall surely pay for what we use," cried careless James; "let +us eat, and warm our toes, and therewith have somewhat less of thy +prating, old dotard. It can be shrewdly cold in this westerly country +of yours."</p> + +<p>"Pay," cried the old man, holding up his clawed hands; "do you mean +<i>more</i> pay—more besides the beautiful gold angel? Here—"</p> + +<p>He ran out and presently returned with armful after armful of faggots, +while his guests laughed to find his mood so changed.</p> + +<p>"Here," he cried, running to and fro like a fretful hen, "take it all, +and when that is done, this also, and this. Nay, I will stay up all +night to carry more from the forest of Machecoul."</p> + +<p>"And you who were so afraid to open to three honest men, would you +venture to bring faggots by night from yon dark wood?"</p> + +<p>"Nay," said the old man, cunningly, "I meant not from the forest, but +from my neighbours' woodpiles. Yet for lovely gold I would even +venture to go thither—that is, if I had my image of the Blessed +Mother about my neck and the moon shone very bright."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now haste thee with the barley brew," said Lord James, "for my +stomach is as deep as a well and as empty as the purse of a younger +son."</p> + +<p>The strange cripple emitted another bird-like cachinnation, resembling +the sound which is made by the wooden cogwheels wherewithal boys +fright the crows from the cornfields when the August sun is yellowing +the land.</p> + +<p>"Poor old Cæsar Martin can show you something better than that," he +cried, as he hirpled out (for so Malise described it afterwards) and +presently returned dragging a great iron pot with a strength which +seemed incredible in so ramshackle a body.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha!" he said, "here is fragrant stew; smell it. Is it not good? +In ten minutes it will be so hot and toothsome that you will scarce +have patience to wait till it be decently cool in the platters. This +is not common Angevin stew, but Bas Breton—which is a far better +thing."</p> + +<p>Malise rose, and, relieving the old man, with one finger swung the pot +to a crook that hung over the cheerful blaze of the birchwood.</p> + +<p>The old cripple Cæsar Martin now mounted on a stool and stirred the +mess with a long stick, at the end of which was a steel fork of two +prongs. And as he stirred he talked:</p> + +<p>"God bless you, say I, brave gentlemen and good pilgrims. Surely it +was a wind noble and fortunate that blew you hither to taste my broth. +There be fine pigeons here, fat and young. There be leverets juicy and +tender as a maid untried. There—what think you of that?" (he held +each ingredient up on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> prong as he spoke). "And here be larks, +partridge stuffed with sage, ripe chestnuts from La Valery, and +whisper it not to any of the marshal's men, a fawn from the park of a +month old, dressed like a kid so that none may know."</p> + +<p>"I suppose that so much providing is for your four sons?" said Sholto.</p> + +<p>The cripple laughed again his feeble, fleering laugh.</p> + +<p>"I have no sons, honest sir," he said; "it was but a weakling's policy +to tell you so, lest there should have been evil in your hearts. But I +have a wife and that is enough. You may have heard of her. She is +called La Meffraye."</p> + +<p>As he spoke his face took on an access of white terror, even as it had +done when he looked out of the window.</p> + +<p>"La Meffraye is she well named," he repeated the appellation with a +harsh croak as of a night-hawk screaming. "God forfend that she should +come home to-night and find you here!"</p> + +<p>"Why, good sir," smiled James Douglas, "if that be the manner in which +you speak of your housewife, faith, I am right glad to have remained a +bachelor."</p> + +<p>Cæsar the cripple looked about him and lowered his voice.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" he quavered, breathing hard so that his words whistled between +his toothless gums, "you do not know my wife. I tell you, she is the +familiar of the marshal himself."</p> + +<p>"Then," cried James Douglas, slapping his thigh, "she is young and +pretty, of a surety. I know what these soldiers are familiar with. I +would that she would come home and partake with us now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nay," said the old man, without taking offence, "you mistake, kind +sir, I meant familiar in witchcraft, in devilry—not (as it were) in +levity and cozenage."</p> + +<p>The fragrant stew was now ready to be dished in great platters of +wood, and the guests fell to keenly, each being provided with a wooden +spoon. The meat they cut with their daggers, but the most part was, +however, tender enough to come apart in their fingers, which, as all +know, better preserves the savour.</p> + +<p>At first the cripple denied having any wine, but another gold angel +from the Lord James induced him to draw a leathern bottle from some +secret hoard, and decant it into a pitcher for them. It was resinous +and Spanish, but, as Malise said, "It made warm the way it went down." +And after all with wine that is always the principal thing.</p> + +<p>As the feast proceeded old Cæsar Martin told the three Scots why the +long street of the village had been cleared of children so quickly at +the first sound of their horses' feet.</p> + +<p>"And in truth if you had not come across the moor, but along the +beaten track from the Chateau of Machecoul, you would never have +caught so much as a glimpse of any child or mother in all Saint +Philbert."</p> + +<p>At this point he beckoned Sholto, Malise, and the Lord James to come +nearer to him, and standing with his back to the fire and their three +heads very close, he related the terrible tale of the Dread that for +eight years had stalked grim and gaunt through the westlands of +France, La Vendée, and Bas Bretagne. In all La Vendée there was not a +village that had not lost a child. In many a hamlet about the shores +of the sunny Loire was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> there scarce a house from which one had not +vanished. They were seen playing in the greenwood, the eye was lifted, +and lo! they were not. A boy went to the well. An hour after his +pitcher stood beside it filled to the brim. But he himself was never +more seen by holt or heath. A little maid, sweet and innocent, looked +over the churchyard wall; she spied something that pleased her. She +climbed over to get it—and was not.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I could tell you of a thousand such if I had time," shrilled the +thin treble of the cripple in their eager ears, "if I dared—if I only +dared!"</p> + +<p>"Dared," said Malise; "why man—what is the matter with you? None +could hear you but we three men."</p> + +<p>"My wife—my wife," he quavered; "I bid you be silent, or at least +speak not so loud. La Meffraye she is called—she can hear all things. +See—"</p> + +<p>He made a sudden movement and bared his right arm. It was withered to +the shoulder and of a dark purple colour approaching black.</p> + +<p>"La Meffraye did that," he gasped; "she blasted it because I would not +do the evil she wished."</p> + +<p>"Then why do you not kill her?" said Malise, whose methods were not +subtle. "If she were mine, I would throttle her, and give her body to +the hounds."</p> + +<p>"Hush, I bid you be silent for dear God's sake in whom I believe," +again came the voice of the cripple. "You do not know what you say. La +Meffraye cannot die. Perhaps she will vanish away in a blast of the +fire of hell—one day when God is very strong and angry. But she +cannot die. She only leads others to death. She dies not herself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You are kind, gentlemen," he went on after a pause, finding them +continue silent; "I will show you all. Pray the saint for me at his +shrine that I may die and go to purgatory. Or (if it were to a +different one) even to hell—that I might escape for ever from La +Meffraye."</p> + +<p>His hand fumbled a moment at the closely buttoned collar of his blue +blouse. Then he succeeded in undoing it and showed his neck. From chin +to bosom it was a mass of ghastly bites, some partially healed, more +of them recent and yet raw, while the skin, so far as the three Scots +could observe it, was covered with a hieroglyphic of scratches, claw +marks, and, as it seemed, the bites of some fierce wild beast.</p> + +<p>"Great Master of Heaven!" cried James Douglas. "What hell hound hath +done this to you?"</p> + +<p>"The wife of my bosom," quoth very grimly Cæsar the cripple.</p> + +<p>"A good evening to you, gentlemen all," said a soft and winning voice +from the doorway.</p> + +<p>At the sound the old man staggered, reeled, and would have swayed into +the fire had not Sholto seized him and dragged him out upon the floor. +All rose to their feet.</p> + +<p>In the doorway of the cottage stood an old woman, small, smiling, +delicate of feature. She looked benignly upon them and continued to +smile. Her hair and her eyes were her most noticeable features. The +former was abundant and hung loosely about the woman's brow and over +her shoulders in wisps of a curious greenish white, the colour almost +of mouldy cheese, while, under shaggy white eyebrows, her large eyes +shone piercing and green<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> as emerald stones on the hand of some dusky +monarch of the Orient.</p> + +<p>The old woman it was who spoke first, before any of the men could +recover from their surprise.</p> + +<p>"My husband," she said, still calmly smiling upon them, "my poor +husband has doubtless been telling you his foolish tales. The saints +have permitted him to become demented. It is a great trial to a poor +woman like me, but the will of heaven be done!"</p> + +<p>The three Scots stood silent and transfixed, for it was an age of +belief. But the cripple lay back on the settle where Sholto had placed +him, his lips white and gluey. And as he lay he muttered audibly, "La +Meffraye! La Meffraye! Oh, what will become of poor Cæsar Martin this +night!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MERCY OF LA MEFFRAYE</h3> + + +<p>It was a strange night that which the three Scots spent in the little +house standing back from the street of Saint Philbert on the gloomy +edges of the forest of Machecoul. The hostess, indeed, was unweariedly +kind and brought forth from her store many dainties for their +delectation. She talked with touching affection of her poor husband, +afflicted with these strange fits of wolfish mania, in the paroxysms +of which he was wont to tear himself and grovel in the dust like a +beast.</p> + +<p>This she told them over and over as she moved about setting before +them provend from secret stores of her own, obviously unknown or +perhaps forbidden to Cæsar Martin.</p> + +<p>Wild bee honey from the woods she placed before them and white wheaten +bread, such as could not be got nearer than Paris, with wine of some +rarer vintage than that out of the cripple's resinous pigskin. These +and much else La Meffraye pressed upon them till she had completely +won over the Lord James, and even Malise, easy natured like most very +strong men, was taken by the sympathetic conversation and gracious +kindliness of the wife of poor afflicted Cæsar Martin of Saint +Philbert. Only Sholto kept his suspicion edged and pointed, and +resolved that he would not sleep that night, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> watch till the dawn +the things which might befall in the house on the forest's border.</p> + +<p>Yet it was conspicuously to Sholto that La Meffraye directed most of +her blandishments.</p> + +<p>Her ruddy face, so bright that it seemed almost as if wholly covered +with a birthmark, gleamed with absolute good nature as she looked at +him. She threw off the black veil which half concealed her strange +coiffure of green toadstool-coloured hair. She placed her choicest +morsels before the young captain of the Douglas guard.</p> + +<p>"'Tis hard," she said, touching him confidentially on the shoulder, +"hard to dwell here in this country wherein so many deeds of blood are +wrought, alone with a poor imbecile like my husband. None cares to +help me with aught, all being too busy with their own affairs. It +falls on me to till the fields, which, scanty as they are, are more +than my feeble strength can compass unaided. Alone I must prune and +water the vines, bring in the firewood, and go out and in by night and +day to earn a scanty living for this afflicted one and myself. You +will hear, perchance, mischief laid to my charge in this village of +evil speakers and lazy folk. They hate me because I am no gadabout to +spend time abusing my neighbours at the village well. But the children +love me, and that is no ill sign. Their young hearts are open to love +a poor lone old woman. What cares La Meffraye for the sneers of the +ignorant and prejudiced so long as the children run to her gladly and +search her pockets for the good things she never forgets to bring them +from her kitchen?"</p> + +<p>So the old woman, talking all the time, bustled here and there, +setting sweet cakes baked with honey, confi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>tures and bairns' goodies, +figs, almonds, and cheese before her guests. But through all her +blandishments Sholto watched her and had his eyes warily upon what +should befall her husband, who could be seen lying apparently either +asleep or unconscious upon the bed in an inner room.</p> + +<p>"You do not speak like the folk of the south," she said to the Lord +James. "Neither are you Northmen nor of the Midi. From what country +may you come?" The question dropped casually as to fill up the time.</p> + +<p>"We are poor Scots who have lived under the protection of your good +King Charles, the seventh of that name, and having been restored to +our possessions after the turning out of the English, we are making a +pilgrimage in order to visit our friends and also to lay our thanks +upon the altar of the blessed Saint Andrew in his own town in +Scotland."</p> + +<p>The old woman listened, approvingly nodding her head as the Lord James +reeled off this new and original narrative. But at the mention of the +land of the Scots La Meffraye pricked her ears.</p> + +<p>"Scots," she said meditatively; "that will surely interest my lord, +who hath but recently returned from that country, whither they say he +hath been upon a very confidential embassy from the King."</p> + +<p>It was the Lord James who asked the next question.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard whether any of our nation returned with him from our +country? We would gladly meet with any such, that we might hear again +the tongue of our nativity, which is ever sweet in a strange land—and +also, if it might be, take back tidings of them to their folk in +Scotland."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nay," answered La Meffraye, standing before them with her eyes +shrewdly fixed upon the face of the speaker, "I have heard of none +such. Yet it may well be, for the marshal is very fond of the society +of the young, even as I am myself. He has many boy singers in his +choir, maidens also for his religious processions. Indeed, never do I +visit Machecoul without finding a pretty boy or a stripling girl +passing so innocently in and out of his study, that it is a pleasure +to behold."</p> + +<p>"Is his lordship even now at Machecoul?" asked James Douglas, bluntly. +The Lord James prided himself upon his tact, but when he set out to +manifest it, Sholto groaned inwardly. He was never certain from one +moment to another what the reckless young Lord might do or say next.</p> + +<p>"I do not even know whether the marshal is now at Machecoul. The rich +and great, they come and go, and we poor folk understand it no more +than the passing of the wind or the flight of the birds. But let us +get to our couches. The morn will soon be here, and it must not find +our bodies unrested or our eyes unrefreshed."</p> + +<p>La Meffraye showed her guests where to make their beds in the outer +room of the cottage, which they did by moving the bench back and +stretching themselves with their heads to the wall and their feet to +the fire. Sholto lay on the side furthest from the entrance of the +room to which La Meffraye had retired with her husband. Malise was on +the other side, and Lord James lay in the midst, as befitted his rank.</p> + +<p>These last were instantly asleep, being tired with their journey and +heavy with the meal of which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> had partaken. But every sense in +Sholto's body was keenly awake. A vague inexpressible fear possessed +him. He lay watching the red unequal glow thrown upwards from the +embers, and through the wide opening in the roof he could discern the +twinkling of a star.</p> + +<p>Within the chamber of La Meffraye there was silence. Sholto could not +even hear the heavy breathing of Cæsar Martin. The silence was +complete.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, from far away, there came up the howling of a wolf. It was +not an uncommon sound in the forests of France, or even in those of +his own country, yet somehow Sholto listened with a growing dread. +Nearer and nearer it came, till it seemed to reverberate immediately +beneath the eaves of the dwelling of Cæsar the cripple.</p> + +<p>The flicker of the embers died slowly out. Malise lay without a sound, +his head couched on his hand. Lord James began to groan and move +uneasily, like one in the grip of nightmare. Sholto listened yet more +acutely. Outside the house he could hear the soft pad-pad of wild +animals. Their pelts seemed almost to brush against the wooden walls +behind his head with a rustle like that of corded silk. Sholto felt +nervously for his sword and cleared it instinctively of the coverture +in which he was wrapped. Expectation tingled in his cheeks and palms. +The silence grew more and more oppressive. He could hear nothing but +that soft brushing and the galloping pads outside, as of something +that went round and round the house, weaving a coil of terror and +death about the doomed inmates.</p> + +<p>Suddenly from the adjoining chamber a cry burst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> forth, so shrill and +terrible that not only Sholto but Malise also leaped to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Mercy—mercy! Have mercy, La Meffraye!" it wailed.</p> + +<p>Sholto rushed across the floor, striding the body of James Douglas in +his haste. He dashed the door of the inner chamber open and was just +in time to see something dark and lithe dart through the window and +disappear into the indigo gloom without. From the bed there came a +series of gasping moans, as from a man at the point of death.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake bring a light!" cried Sholto, "there is black murder +done here."</p> + +<p>His father ran to the hearth, and, seizing a birchen brand, the end of +which was still red, he blew upon it with care and success so that it +burst into a white brilliant flame that lighted all the house. Then +he, too, entered the room where Sholto, with his sword ready in his +hand, was standing over the gasping, dying thing on the bed.</p> + +<p>When Malise thrust forward his torch, lo! there, extended on the couch +to which they had carried him two hours before, lay the yet twitching +body of Cæsar the cripple with his throat well nigh bitten away.</p> + +<p>But La Meffraye was nowhere to be seen.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id="CHAPTER_XLIX"></a>CHAPTER XLIX</h2> + +<h3>THE BATTLE WITH THE WERE-WOLVES</h3> + + +<p>"Let us get out of this hellish place," cried James Douglas so soon as +he had seen with his eyes that which lay within the bedchamber of the +witch woman, and made certain that it was all over with Cæsar Martin.</p> + +<p>So the three men issued out into the gloom of the night, and made +their way to the stable wherein they had disposed their horses so +carefully the night before.</p> + +<p>The door lay on the ground smashed and broken. It had been driven to +kindling wood from within. Its inner surface was dinted and riven by +the iron shoes of the frightened steeds, but the horses themselves +were nowhere to be found. They had broken their halters and vanished. +The three Scots were left in the heart of the enemy's country without +means of escape save upon their own feet.</p> + +<p>But the horror which lay behind them in the house of La Meffraye drove +them on.</p> + +<p>Almost without knowing whither they went, they turned their faces +towards the west, in the direction in which lay Machecoul, the castle +of the dread Lord of all the Pays de Retz. Malise, as was his custom, +walked in front, Sholto and the Lord James Douglas a step behind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span></p> + +<p>A chill wind from the sea blew through the forest. The pines bent +soughing towards the adventurers. The night grew denser and blacker +about them, as with the wan waters of the marismas on one side and the +sombre arches of the forest on the other, they advanced sword in hand, +praying that that which should happen might happen quickly.</p> + +<p>But as they went the woods about them grew clamorous with horrid +noises. All the evil beasts of the world seemed abroad that night in +the forests of Machecoul. Presently they issued forth into a more open +space. The greyish dark of the turf beneath their feet spread further +off. The black blank wall of the pines retreated and they found +themselves suddenly with the stars twinkling infinitely chill and +remote above them.</p> + +<p>They were now, however, no more alone, for round them circled and +echoed the crying of many packs of wolves. In the forest of Machecoul +the guardian demons of its lord had been let loose, and throughout all +its borders poor peasant folk shivered in their beds, or crouched +behind the weak defences of their twice barred doors. For they knew +that the full pack never hunted in the Pays de Retz without bringing +death to some wanderer found defenceless within the borders of that +region of dread.</p> + +<p>"Let us stop here," said Sholto; "if these howling demons attack us, +we are at least in somewhat better case to meet them and fight it out +till the morning than in the dense darkness of the woods."</p> + +<p>In the centre of the open glade in which they found themselves, they +stumbled against the trunk of a huge pine which had been blasted by +lightning. It still stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> erect with its withered branches stretching +bare and angular away from the sea. About this the three Scots posted +themselves, their backs to the corrugations of the rotting stump, and +their swords ready in their hands to deal out death to whatever should +attack them.</p> + +<p>Well might Malise declare the powers of evil were abroad that night. +At times the three men seemed wholly ringed with devilish cries. Yells +and howls as of triumphant fiends were borne to their ears upon the +western wind. The noises approached nearer, and presently out of the +dark of the woods shadowy forms glided, and again Sholto heard the +soft pad-pad of many feet. Gleaming eyes glared upon them as the +wolves trotted out and sat down in a wide circle to wait for the full +muster of the pack before rushing their prey.</p> + +<p>Sholto knew well how those in the service of Satan were able to change +themselves into the semblance of wolves, and he never doubted for a +moment that he and his friends were face to face with the direct +manifestations of the nether pit. Nevertheless Sholto MacKim was by +nature of a stout heart, and he resolved that if he had to die, it +would be as well to die as became a captain of the Douglas guard.</p> + +<p>The blue leme of summer lightning momentarily lit up the western sky. +The men could see the great gaunt pack wolves sitting upon their +haunches or moving restlessly to and fro across each other, while from +the denser woods behind rose the howling of fresh levies, hastening to +the assistance of the first. Sholto noted in especial one gigantic +she-wolf, which appeared at every point of the circle and seemed to +muster and encourage the pack to the attack.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_07.jpg" width="400" height="545" alt="All the wild beasts appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman." title="All the wild beasts appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman." /> +<span class="caption">All the wild beasts appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman.</span> +</div> + +<p>The wild-fire flickered behind the jet black silhouettes of the dense +trees so that their tops stood out against the pale sky as if carved +in ebony. Then the night shut down darker than before. As the +soundless lightning wavered and brightened, the shadows of the wolves +appeared simultaneously to start forward and then retreat, while the +noise of their howling carried with it some diabolic suggestion of +discordant human voices.</p> + +<p> +"<i>La Meffraye! La Meffraye! Meffraye!</i>"<br /> +</p> + +<p>So to the excited minds of the three Scots the wolf legions seemed to +be crying with one voice as they came nearer. All the wild beasts of +the wood appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman.</p> + +<p>The strain of the situation first told upon the Lord James Douglas. +"Great Saints!" he cried, "let us attack them and die sword in hand. I +cannot endure much more of this."</p> + +<p>"Stand still where you are. It is our only chance," commanded Sholto, +as abruptly as if James Douglas had been a doubtful soldier of his +company.</p> + +<p>"It were better to find a tree that we could climb," growled Malise +with a practical suggestiveness, which, however, came too late. For +they dared not move out of the open space, and the great trunk of the +blasted pine rose behind them bare of branches almost to the top.</p> + +<p>"Your daggers in your left hands, they are upon us!" cried Sholto, +who, standing with his face to the west, had a lower horizon and more +light than the others. The three men had cast their palmers' cloaks +from their shoulders and now stood leaning a little forward, +breath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>ing hard as they waited the assault of foes whom they believed +to be frankly diabolic and instinct with all the powers of hell. This +required greater courage than storming many fortifications.</p> + +<p>Almost as he spoke Sholto became aware that a fierce rush of shaggy +beasts was crossing the scanty grass towards him. He saw a vision of +red mouths, gleaming teeth, and hairy breasts, into the leaping chaos +of which he plunged and replunged his sword till his arm ached. Mostly +the stricken died snapping and tearing at each other; but ever and +anon one stronger than the rest would overleap the barrier of dead and +dying wolves that grew up in front of the three men, and Sholto would +feel the teeth click clean and hard upon the mail of his arm or thigh +before he could stoop to despatch the brute with the dirk which he +grasped in his left hand.</p> + +<p>The rush upon Sholto's side fortunately did not last long, but while +it continued the battle was strange and silent and grim—this notable +fight of man and beast. As the youth at last cleared his front of a +hairy monster that had sprung at his throat, he found himself +sufficiently free to look round the trunk of the blasted pine that he +might see how it fared with his companions.</p> + +<p>At first he could see nothing clearly, for the same strange and weird +conditions continued to permeate the earth and air.</p> + +<p>For a moment all would be dark and then flash on continuous flash +would follow, the wild-fire running about the tree-tops and glinting +up through the recesses of the woods as if the heavens themselves were +instinct with diabolic light.</p> + +<p>As he looked, Sholto saw his father, a gigantic figure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> standing black +and militant against the brightest of it. His hand grasped a huge wolf +by the heels, and he swung the beast about his head as easily as he +was wont to handle the forehammer at home. With his living weapon +Malise had swept a space about him clear, and the beasts seemed to +have fallen back in terror before such a strange enemy.</p> + +<p>But what of the Lord James? Overleaping the pile of dead and dying +wolves which his sword and dagger had made, and from which savage +heads still bit and snarled up at him as he went, Sholto ran round to +seek the young Lord of Avondale. At the first flash after leaving the +tree trunk he was nowhere to be seen, but a second revealed him lying +on the ground, with four shaggy beasts bending over him and tearing +fiercely at his gorget and breast-armour. With a loud shout Sholto was +among them. He passed his sword through and through the largest, and +in its fall the wounded monster turned and bit savagely at the fore +leg of a companion. The bone cracked as a rotten branch snaps +underfoot, and in another moment the two animals were rolling over and +over, locked together in the death grapple.</p> + +<p>Once, twice, and thrice Sholto struck right and left. The rest of the +beasts, seemingly astonished by the sudden flank attack, turned and +fled. Then, pushing off a huge wounded brute which lay gasping out its +life in red jets upon the breast of the fallen man, he dragged James +Douglas back to the tree which had been their fortress and propped him +up against the trunk.</p> + +<p>At the same moment a long wailing cry from the forest called the +wolves off. They retreated suddenly, disappearing apparently by magic +into the depths of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> forest, leaving their dead in quivering heaps +all about the little bare glade where the unequal fight had been +fought.</p> + +<p>Malise the Brawny flung down the wolf whose head had served him with +such deadly effect as a weapon against his brethren. The beast had +long been dead, with a skull smashed in and a neck dislocated by the +sweeping blows it had dealt its kin.</p> + +<p>"Sholto! My Lord James!" cried Malise, coming up to them hastily. "How +fares it with you?"</p> + +<p>"We are both here," answered his son. "Come and help me with the Lord +James. He has fallen faint with the stress of his armour."</p> + +<p>After the disappearance of the wolves the unearthly brilliance of the +wild-fire gradually diminished, and now it flickered paler and less +frequently.</p> + +<p>But another hail from Sholto revealed to Malise the whereabouts of his +companions, and presently he also was on his knees beside the young +Lord of Avondale.</p> + +<p>Sholto gave him into the strong arms of Malise and stood erect to +listen for any renewal of the attack. The wise smith, whose skill as a +leech was proverbial, carefully felt James Douglas all over in the +darkness, and took advantage of every flicker of summer lightning to +examine him as well as his armour would permit.</p> + +<p>"Help me to loosen his gorget and ease him of his body mail," said +Malise, at last. "He has gotten a bite or two, but nothing that +appears serious. I think he has but fainted from pressure."</p> + +<p>Sholto bent down and with his dagger cut string by string the stout +leathern twists which secured the knight's mail. And as he did so his +father widened it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> out with his powerful fingers to ease the weight +upon the young man's chest.</p> + +<p>Presently, with a long sigh, James Douglas opened his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Where are the wolves?" he said, with a grimace of disgust. Sholto +told him how all that were left alive had, for the present at least, +disappeared.</p> + +<p>"Ugh, the filthy brutes!" said Lord James. "I fought till the stench +of their hot breaths seemed to stifle me. I felt my head run round +like a dog in a fit, and down I went. What happened after that?"</p> + +<p>"This," said Malise, sententiously, pointing to the heaps of dead +wolves which were becoming more apparent as the night ebbed and the +blue flame rose and fell like a fluttering pulse along the horizon.</p> + +<p>"Then to one or the other of you I owe my life," said Lord James +Douglas, reaching a hand to both.</p> + +<p>"Sholto dragged you from under half a dozen of the devils," said +Malise.</p> + +<p>"My father it was who brought you to," said Sholto.</p> + +<p>"I thank you both with all my heart—for this as for all the rest. I +know not, indeed, where to begin," said James Douglas, gratefully. +"Give me your hands. I can stand upright now."</p> + +<p>So saying, and being assisted by Malise, he rose to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Will they come again?" he asked, as with an intense disgust he +surveyed the battle-field in the intermittent light from over the +marshes.</p> + +<p>"Listen," said Malise.</p> + +<p>The low howling of the wolves had retreated farther,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> but seemed to +retain more and more of its strange human character.</p> + +<p>"<i>La Meffraye! La Meff—raye!</i>" they seemed to wail, with a curious +swelling upon the last syllable.</p> + +<p>"I hear only the yelling of the infernal brutes," said the Lord James; +"they seem to be calling on their patron saint—the woman whom we saw +in the house of the poor cripple. I am sure I saw her going to and fro +among the devils and encouraging them to the assault."</p> + +<p>"'Tis black work at the best," answered Malise; "these are no common +wolves who would dare to attack armed men—demons of the nethermost +pit rather, driven on by their hellish hunt-mistress. There will be +many dead warlocks to-morrow throughout the lands of France."</p> + +<p>"Stand to your arms," cried Sholto, from the other side of the tree. +And indeed the howling seemed suddenly to grow nearer and louder. The +noise circled about them, and they could again perceive dusky forms +which glided to and fro in the faint light among the arches of the +forest.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the turmoil Malise took off his bonnet and stood +reverently at prayer.</p> + +<p>"Aid us, Thy true men," he cried in a loud and solemn voice, "against +all the powers of evil. In the name of God—Amen!"</p> + +<p>The howling stopped and there fell a silence. Lord James would have +spoken.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said Malise, yet more solemnly.</p> + +<p>And far off, like an echo from another world, thin and sweet and +silver clear, a cock crew.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span></p> + +<p>The blue leaping flame of the wild-fire abruptly ceased. The dawn +arose red and broad in the east. The piles of dead beasts shone out +black on the grey plain of the forest glade, and on the topmost bough +of a pine tree a thrush began to sing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L"></a>CHAPTER L</h2> + +<h3>THE ALTAR OF IRON</h3> + + +<p>And now what of Master Laurence, lately clerk in the Abbey of Dulce +Cor, presently in service with the great Lord of Retz, Messire Gilles +de Laval, Marshal and Chamberlain of the King of France?</p> + +<p>Laurence had been a month at Machecoul and had not yet worn out his +welcome. He was sunning himself with certain young clerks and +choristers of the marshal's privy chapel of the Holy Innocents. +Suddenly Clerk Henriet appeared under the arches at the upper end of +the pretty cloisters, in the aisles of which the youths were seated. +Henriet regarded them silently for a moment, looking with special +approval upon the blonde curls and pink cheeks of the young Scottish +lad.</p> + +<p>Machecoul was a vast feudal castle with one great central square tower +and many smaller ones about it. The circuit of its walls enclosed +gardens and pleasaunces, and included within its limits the new and +beautiful chapel which has been recently finished by that good +Catholic and ardent religionary, the Marshal de Retz.</p> + +<p>As yet, Laurence had been able to learn nothing of the maids, not even +whether they were alive or dead, whether at Machecoul or elsewhere. At +the first mention of maidens being brought from Scotland to the +castle, or seen about its courts, a dead silence fell upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +company of priests and singers in the marshal's chapel. It was the +same when Laurence spoke of the business privately to any of his new +acquaintances.</p> + +<p>No matter how briskly the conversation had been prospering hitherto, +if, at Holy Mass or jovial supper board, Laurence so much as breathed +a question concerning the subject next his heart, an instant blight +passed over the gaiety of his companions. Fear momently wiped every +other expression from their faces, and they answered with lame +evasion, or more often not at all.</p> + +<p>The shadow of the Lord of Machecoul lay heavy upon them.</p> + +<p>Clerk Henriet stood awhile watching the lads and listening to their +talk behind the carved lattice of Caen stone, with its lace-like +tracery of buds and flowers, through which the natural roses pushed +their way, and over which the clematis tangled its twining stems.</p> + +<p>"Stand up and prove on my body that I am a rank Irelander," Laurence +was saying defiantly to the world at large, with his fists up and his +head thrown back. "Saint Christopher, but I will take the lot of you +with one hand tied behind me. Stand up and I will teach you how to +sing 'Miserable sinners are we all!' to a new and unkenned tune."</p> + +<p>"'Tis easy for you to boast, Irelander," retorted Blaise Renouf, the +son of the lay choir-master, who had been brought specially from Rome +to teach the choir-boys of the marshal's chapel the latest fashions in +holy song. "We will either fight you with swords or not at all. We do +not fight with our bare knuckles, being civilised. And that indeed +proves that you are no true lover of the French, but an English dog of +unknightly birth."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span></p> + +<p>This retort still further irritated the hot-headed son of Malise.</p> + +<p>"I will fight you or any galley slave of a French frog with the sword, +or spit you upon the rapier. I will cleave you with the axe, transfix +you with the arrow, or blow you to the pit with the devil's sulphur. I +will fight any of you or all of you with any weapons from a +battering-ram to a toothpick—and God assist the better man. And there +you have Laurence O'Halloran, at your service!"</p> + +<p>"You are a loud-crowing young cock for a newcomer," said Henriet, the +confidential clerk of the marshal, suddenly appearing in the doorway; +"you are desired to follow me to my lord's chamber immediately. There +we will see if you will flap your wings so boldly."</p> + +<p>Laurence could not help noticing the blank alarm which this +announcement caused among the youth with whom he had been playing the +ancient game of brag.</p> + +<p>It was Blaise Renouf who first recovered. He looked across the little +rose-grown space of the cloister to see that Henriet had turned his +back, and then came quickly up to Laurence MacKim.</p> + +<p>"Listen to me," he said; "you are a game lad enough, but you do not +know where you are going, nor yet what may happen to you there. We +will fight you if you come back safe, but meantime you are one of +ourselves, and we of the choir have sworn to stand by one another. Can +you keep a pea in your mouth without swallowing it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course I can," said Laurence, wondering what was to come +next. "I can keep a dozen and shoot them through a bore of alder tree +at a penny without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> missing once, which I wot is more than any +Frenchman ever—"</p> + +<p>"Well, then," whispered the lad Renouf, breaking in on his boast with +a white countenance, "hearken well to me. When you enter the chamber +of the marshal, put this in your mouth. And if nothing happens keep it +there, but be careful neither to swallow it nor yet to bite upon it. +But if it should chance that either Henriet or Poitou or Gilles de +Sillé seize hold of your arms, bite hard upon the pellet till you feel +a bitter taste and then swallow. That is all. You are indeed a cock +whose comb wants cutting, and if all be well, we will incise it for +your soul's good. But in the meanwhile you are of our company and +fellowship. So for God's sake and your own do as you are bid. Fare you +well."</p> + +<p>As he followed Clerk Henriet, Laurence looked at the round pellet in +his hand. It was white, soft like ripe fruit, of an elastic +consistency, and of the largeness of a pea.</p> + +<p>As Laurence ascended the stairs, he heard the practice of the choir +beginning in the chapel. Precentor Renouf, the father of Blaise, had +summoned the youths from the cloisters with a long mellow whistle upon +his Italian pitch-pipe, running up and down the scale and ending with +a flourished "A-a-men."</p> + +<p>The open windows and the pierced stone railing of the great staircase +of Machecoul brought up the sound of that sweet singing from the +chapel to the ear of the adventurous Scot as through a funnel. They +were beginning the practice for the Christmas services, though the +time was not yet near.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Unto God be the glory</i><br /></span> +<span class="i6"><i>In the Highest;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Peace be on the earth,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i6"><i>On the earth,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Unto men who have good-will.</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>So they chanted in their white robes in the Chapel of the Holy +Innocents in the Castle of Machecoul near by the Atlantic shore.</p> + +<p>The chamber of Gilles de Retz testified to the extraordinary +advancement of that great man in knowledge which has been claimed as +peculiar to much later centuries. The window casements were so +arranged that in a moment the place could either be made as dark as +midnight or flooded with bright light. The walls were always freshly +whitewashed, and the lime was constantly renewed. The stone floor was +stained a deep brick red, and that, too, would often be applied +freshly during the night. At a time when the very word "sanitation" +was unknown, Gilles had properly constructed conduits leading from an +adjoining apartment to the castle ditch. The chimney was wide as a +peasant's whole house, and the vast fireplace could hold on its iron +dogs an entire waggon-load of faggots. Indeed, that amount was +regularly consumed every day when the marshal deigned to abide at +Machecoul for his health and in pursuance of his wonderful studies +into the deep things of the universe.</p> + +<p>"Bide here a moment," said Clerk Henriet, bending his body in a +writhing contortion to listen to what might be going on inside the +chamber; "I dare not take you in till I see whether my lord be in good +case to receive you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span></p> + +<p>So at the stair-head, by a window lattice which looked towards the +chapel, Laurence stood and waited. At first he kept quite still and +listened with pleasure to the distant singing of the boys. He could +even hear Precentor Renouf occasionally stop and rebuke them for +inattention or singing out of tune.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>My soul is like a watered garden,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And I shall not sorrow any more at all!</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>So he hummed as he listened, and beat the time on the ledge with his +fingers. He felt singularly content. Now he was on the eve of +penetrating the mystery. At last he would discover where the missing +maidens were concealed.</p> + +<p>But soon he began to look about him, growing, like the boy he was, +quickly weary of inaction. His eye fell upon a strange door with +curious marks burnt upon its panels apparently by hot irons. There +were circles complete and circles that stopped half-way, together with +letters of some unknown language arranged mostly in triangles.</p> + +<p>This door fixed the lad's attention with a certain curious +fascination. He longed to touch it and see whether it opened, but for +the moment he was too much afraid of his guide's return to summon him +into the presence of the marshal.</p> + +<p>He listened intently. Surely he heard a low sound, like the wind in a +distant keyhole—or, as it might be (and it seemed more like it), the +moaning of a child in pain, it knows not why.</p> + +<p>The heart of the youth gave a sudden leap. It came to him that he had +hit upon the hiding-place of Margaret<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> Douglas, the heiress of the +great province of Galloway. His fortune was made.</p> + +<p>With a trembling hand he moved a step towards the door of white wood +with the curious burned marks upon it. He stood a moment listening, +half for the returning footsteps of Clerk Henriet, and half to the +low, persistent whimper behind the panels. Suddenly he felt his right +foot wet, for, as was the fashion, he wore only a velvet shoe pointed +at the toe. He looked down, and lo! from under the door trickled a +thin stream of red.</p> + +<p>Laurence drew his foot away, with a quick catching sob of the breath. +But his hand was already on the door, and at a touch it appeared to +open almost of its own accord. He found himself looking from the dusk +of the outer whitewashed passage into a high, vaulted chapel, wherein +many dim lights glimmered. At the end there was a great altar of iron +standing square and solemn upon the platform on which it was set up, +and behind it, cut indistinctly against a greenish glow of light, and +imagined rather than clearly defined, the vast statue of a man with a +curiously high shaped head. Laurence could not distinguish any +features, so deep was the gloom, but the whole figure seemed to be +bending slightly forward, as if gloating upon that which was laid upon +the altar. But what struck Laurence with a sense of awe and terror was +the fact that as the greenish light behind waxed and waned, he could +see shadowy horns which projected from either side of the forehead, +and lower, short ears, pricked and shaggy like those of a he-goat.</p> + +<p>Nearer the door, where he stood in the densest gloom, something moved +to and fro, and as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness Laurence +could see that it was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> bent figure of a woman. He could not +distinguish her face, but it was certainly a woman of great age and +bodily weakness, whose tangled hair hung down her back, and who halted +curiously upon one foot as she walked. She was bending over a low +couch, whereon lay a little shrouded figure, from which proceeded the +low whimpering sound which he had heard from without. But even at that +moment, as he waited trembling at the door, the moaning ceased, and +there ensued a long silence, in which Laurence could clearly +distinguish the beating of his own heart. It sounded loud in his ears +as a drum that beats the alarm in the streets of a city.</p> + +<p>The figure of the woman bent low to the couch, and, after a pause, +with a satisfied air she threw a white cloth over the shrouded form +which lay upon it. Then, without looking towards the door where +Laurence stood, she went to the great iron altar at the upper end of +the weird chapel and threw something on the red embers which glowed +upon it.</p> + +<p>"<i>Barran—most mighty Barran-Sathanas, accept this offering, and +reveal thyself to my master!</i>" she said in a voice like a chant.</p> + +<p>A greenish smoke of stifling odour rose and filled all the place, and +through it the huge horned figure above the altar seemed to turn its +head and look at the boy.</p> + +<p>Laurence could scarcely repress a cry of terror. He set his hand to +the door, and lo! as it had opened, so it appeared to shut of itself. +He sank almost fainting against the cold iron bars of the window which +looked out upon the courtyard below. The wind blew in upon him sweet +and cool, and with it there came again the sound of the singing of the +choir. They were practising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> the song of the Holy Innocents, which, by +command of the marshal himself, Precentor Renouf had set to excellent +and accordant music of his own invention.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>A voice was heard in Ramah,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i10"><i>In Ramah,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Lamentations and bitter weeping,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Rachel weeping for her children,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Refused to be comforted:</i><br /></span> +<span class="i10"><i>For her children,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Because they were not.</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Obviously there was some mistake or lack of attention on the part of +the choir, for the last line had to be repeated three times.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Because they were not.</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI"></a>CHAPTER LI</h2> + +<h3>THE MARSHAL'S CHAMBER</h3> + + +<p>There came a low voice in Laurence MacKim's ear, chill and sinister: +"You do well to look out upon the fair world. None knoweth when we may +have to leave it. Yonder is a star. Look well at it. They say God made +it. Perhaps He takes more interest in it than in the concerns of this +other world He hath made."</p> + +<p>The son of Malise MacKim gripped himself, as it were, with both hands, +and turned a face pale as marble to look into the grim countenance +which hid the soul of the Lord of Machecoul.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz appeared to peruse each feature of the boy's person as +if he read in a book. Yet even as Laurence gave back glance for +glance, and with the memory of what he had seen yet fresh upon him, a +strange courage began to glow in the heart of the young Scot. There +came a kind of contempt, too, into his breast, as though he had it in +him to be a man in despite of the devil and all his works.</p> + +<p>The marshal continued his scrutiny, and Laurence returned his gaze +with interest.</p> + +<p>"Well, boy," said the marshal, smiling as if not ill pleased at his +boldness, "what do you think of me?"</p> + +<p>"I think, sir," said Laurence, simply, "that you have grown older +since I saw you in the lists at Thrieve."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span></p> + +<p>It seemed to Laurence that the words were given him. And all the time +he was saying to himself: "Now I have done it. For this he will surely +put me to death. He cannot help himself. Why did I not stick to it +that I was an Irelander?"</p> + +<p>But, somehow, the answer seemed like an arrow from a bow shot at a +venture, entering in between the joints of the marshal's armour.</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" he said, with some startled anxiety, yet without +surprise; "older than at Thrieve? I do not believe it. It is +impossible. Why, I grow younger and younger every day. It has been +promised me that I should."</p> + +<p>And setting his elbow on the sill of the window, Gilles de Retz looked +thoughtfully out upon the cool dusk of the rose garden. Then all at +once it came to him what was implied in that unlucky speech of +Laurence's. The grim intensity returned to his eyes as he erected +himself and bent his brows, white with premature age, upon the boy, +who confronted him with the fearlessness born of youth and ignorance.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said, "this is interesting; you have changed your nation. You +were an Irishman to De Sillé in Paris, to the clerk Henriet, and to +the choir at Machecoul. Yet to me you admit in the very first words +you speak that you are a Scot and saw me at the Castle of Thrieve."</p> + +<p>Even yet the old Laurence might have turned the corner. He had, as we +know, graduated as a liar ready and expert. He had daily practised his +art upon the Abbot. He had even, though more rarely, succeeded with +his father. But now in the day of his necessity the power and wit had +departed from him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span></p> + +<p>To the lord of the Castle of Machecoul Laurence simply could not lie. +Ringed as he was by evil, his spirit became strong for good, and he +testified like one in the place of final judgment, when the earthly +lendings of word and phrase and covering excuse must all be cast aside +and the soul stand forth naked and nakedly answer that which is +required.</p> + +<p>"I am a Scot," said Laurence, briefly, and without explanation.</p> + +<p>"Come with me into my chamber," said the marshal, and turned to +precede him thither.</p> + +<p>And without word of complaint or backward glance, the lad followed the +great lord to the chamber, into which so many had gone before him of +the young and beautiful of the earth, and whence so few had come out +alive.</p> + +<p>As he passed the threshold, Laurence put into his mouth the elastic +pellet which had been given him by Blaise Renouf, the choir-master's +son.</p> + +<p>The marshal threw himself upon a chair, reclining with a wearied air +upon the hands which were clasped behind his head. In the action of +throwing himself back one could see that Gilles de Retz was a young +and not an old man, though ordinarily his vitality had been worn to +the quick, and both in appearance and movement he was already +prematurely aged.</p> + +<p>"What is your name?"</p> + +<p>The question came with military directness from the lips of the +marshal of France.</p> + +<p>"Laurence MacKim," said the lad, with equal directness.</p> + +<p>"For what purpose did you come to the Castle of Machecoul?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I came," said Laurence, coolly, "to take service with you, my lord. +And because I was tired of monk rule, and getting only the husks of +life, tired too of sitting dumb and watching others eat the kernel."</p> + +<p>"Ha!" cried Gilles de Retz, "I am with you there. There is, after all, +some harmony between our immortal parts. For my part, I would have all +of life,—husk, kernel, stalk,—aye, and the root that grows amid the +dung."</p> + +<p>He paused a moment, looking at Laurence with the air of a connoisseur.</p> + +<p>"Come hither, lad," he said, with a soft and friendly accent; "sit on +this seat with your back to the window. Turn your head so that the +lamp shines aright upon your face. You are not so handsome as was +reported, but that there is something wondrously taking about your +countenance, I do admit. There—sit so, and fear nothing."</p> + +<p>Laurence sat down with the bad grace of a manly youth who is admired +for what he privately despises, and wishes himself well quit of. But, +notwithstanding this, there was something so insinuating and pleasant +about the marshal's manner that the lad almost thought he must have +dreamed the incident of the burned door and the sacrifice upon the +iron altar.</p> + +<p>"You came hither to search for Margaret of Douglas," said the marshal, +suddenly bending forward as if to take him by surprise.</p> + +<p>Laurence, wholly taken aback, answered neither yea nor nay, but held +his peace.</p> + +<p>Then Gilles de Retz nodded sagely, with a quiet satisfaction in his +own prevision, which to one less bold and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> reckless than the young +clerk of Dulce Cor would have proved disconcerting. Then he propounded +his next question:</p> + +<p>"How many came hither with you?"</p> + +<p>"One," said Laurence, promptly; "I came here alone with your servant +De Sillé."</p> + +<p>The marshal smiled.</p> + +<p>"Good—we will try some other method with you," he said; "but be +advised and speak. None hath ever hidden aught from Gilles de Retz."</p> + +<p>"Then, my lord," said Laurence, "there is the less reason for you to +put me to the question."</p> + +<p>"I can expound dark speeches," said the marshal, "and I also know my +way through the subtleties of lying tongues. Hope not to lie to me. +How many were they that came to France with you?"</p> + +<p>"I will not tell you," said the son of Malise.</p> + +<p>The marshal smiled again and nodded his head repeatedly with a certain +gustful appreciation.</p> + +<p>"You would make a good soldier. It is a pity that I have gone out of +the business. Yet I have only (as it were) descended from wholesale to +particular, from the gross to the detail."</p> + +<p>Laurence, who felt that the true policy was to be sparing of his +words, made no answer.</p> + +<p>"You say that you are a clerk. Can you read Latin?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Laurence, "and write it too."</p> + +<p>"Read this, then," said the marshal, and handed him a book.</p> + +<p>Laurence had been well instructed in the humanities by Father Colin of +Saint Michael's Kirk by the side of Dee water, and he read the words, +which record the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> cruelties of the Emperor Caligula with exactness and +decorum.</p> + +<p>"You read not ill," said his auditor; "you have been well taught, +though you have a vile foreign accent and know not the shades of +meaning that lie in the allusions.</p> + +<p>"You say that you came to Machecoul with desire to serve me," the +marshal continued after a pause for thought. "In what manner did you +think you could serve, and why went you not into the house of some +other lord?"</p> + +<p>"As to service," said Laurence, "I came because I was invited by your +henchman de Sillé. And as to what I can do, I profess that I can sing, +having been well taught by a master, the best in my country. I can +play upon the viol and eke upon the organ. I am fairly good at fence, +and excellent as any at singlestick. I can faithfully carry a message +and loyally serve those who trust me. I would have some money to +spend, which I have never had. I wish to live a life worth living, +wherein is pleasure and pain, the lack of sameness, and the joy of +things new. And if that may not be—why, I am ready to die, that I may +make proof whether there be anything better beyond."</p> + +<p>"A most philosophic creed," cried the marshal. "Well, there is one +thing in which I can prove, if indeed you lie not. Sing!"</p> + +<p>Then Laurence stood up and sang, even as the choir had done, the +lamentation of Rachel according to the setting of the Roman precentor.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>A voice was heard in Ramah!</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And as he sang, the Lord of Retz took up the strain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> and, with true +accord and feeling, accompanied him to the end.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_08.jpg" width="400" height="575" alt="The prisoners of the White Tower." title="The prisoners of the White Tower." /> +<span class="caption">The prisoners of the White Tower.</span> +</div> + + + +<p>"Brava!" cried Gilles de Retz when Laurence had finished; "that is +truly well sung indeed! You shall sing it alone in my chapel next +feast day of the Holy Innocents."</p> + +<p>He paused as if to consider his words.</p> + +<p>"And now for this time go. But remember that this Castle of Machecoul +is straiter than any prison cell, and better guarded than a fortress. +It is surrounded with constant watchers, secret, invisible, +implacable. Whoso tries to escape, dies. You are a bold lad, and, as I +think, fear not much death for yourself. But come hither, and I will +show you something which will chain you here."</p> + +<p>With a kind of solicitous familiarity the Marshal de Retz took the lad +by the arm and drew him to another window on the further side of the +keep.</p> + +<p>"Look forth and tell me what you see," he said.</p> + +<p>Laurence set his head out of the window. He looked upon an intricate +mass of building, composing the western wing of the castle, and it was +some moments before he could distinguish what the Sieur de Retz wished +him to see. Then, as his eyes took in the details, he saw on the flat +roof of a square tower beneath him two maidens seated, and when he +looked closer—lo! they were Margaret Douglas and, beside her, his +brother's sweetheart Maud Lindesay. These two were sitting hand in +hand, as was their wont, and the head of the child was bowed almost to +her friend's knee. Maud's arm was about Margaret's neck, and her +fingers caressed the childish tangle of hair. Presently the elder +lifted the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> younger upon her knee and hushed her like a mother who +puts a tired child to sleep.</p> + +<p>Immediately behind this group, in the shadow of a buttress, Laurence +saw a tall man, masked, clad in a black suit, and with a drawn sword +in his hand.</p> + +<p>The marshal looked out over the lad's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"The day you are missed from the Castle of Machecoul, or the day that +the rest of your company arrives here, that sword shall fall, but in a +more terrible fashion than I can tell you! That sentinel can neither +hear nor speak, but he has his orders and will obey them. I bid you +good night. Go to your singing in the choir. It is time for the +chanting of vespers in the chapel of the Holy Innocents."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LII" id="CHAPTER_LII"></a>CHAPTER LII</h2> + +<h3>THE JESTING OF LA MEFFRAYE</h3> + + +<p>It was in the White Tower of Machecoul that the Scottish maidens were +held at the mercy of the Lord of Retz. At their first arrival in the +country they had been taken to the quiet Chateau of Pouzauges, the +birthplace of Poitou, the marshal's most cruel and remorseless +confidant. Here, as the marshal had very truly informed the Lady +Sybilla, they had been under the care of—or, rather, fellow-prisoners +with—the neglected wife of Gilles de Retz, and at Pouzauges they had +spent some days of comparative peace and security in the society of +her daughter.</p> + +<p>But at the first breath of the coming of the three strangers to the +district they had been seized and securely conveyed to Machecoul +itself—there to be interned behind the vast walls and triple bastions +of that fortress prison.</p> + +<p>"I wonder, Maudie," said Margaret Douglas, as they sat on the flat +roof of the White Tower of Machecoul and looked over the battlements +upon the green pine glades and wide seaward Landes, "I wonder whether +we shall ever again see the water of Dee and our mother—and Sholto +MacKim."</p> + +<p>It is to be feared that the last part of the problem exceeded in +interest all others in the eyes of Maud Lindesay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It seems as if we never could again behold any one we loved or wished +to see—here in this horrible place," sighed Maud Lindesay. "If ever I +get back to the dear land and see Solway side, I will be a different +girl."</p> + +<p>"But, Maud," said the little maid, reproachfully, "you were always +good and kind. It is not well done of you to speak against yourself in +that fashion."</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay shook her pretty head mournfully.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Margaret, you will know some day," she said. "I have been +wicked,—not in things one has to confess to Father Gawain, +but,—well, in making people like me, and give me things, and come to +see me, and then afterwards flouting them for it and sending them +away."</p> + +<p>It was not a lucid description, but it sufficed.</p> + +<p>"Ah, but," said Margaret Douglas, "I think not these things to be +wicked. I hope that some day I shall do just the same, though, of +course, I shall not be as beautiful as you, Maudie; no, never! I asked +Sholto MacKim if I would, and he said, 'Of course not!' in a deep +voice. It was not pretty of him, was it, Maud?"</p> + +<p>"I think it was very prettily said of him," answered Maud Lindesay, +with the first flicker of a smile on her face. Her conscience was +quite at ease about Sholto. He was different. Whatever pain she had +caused him, she meant to make up to him with usury thereto. The others +she had exercised no more for her own amusement than for their own +souls' good.</p> + +<p>"My brother William must indeed be very angry with us, that he hath +never sent to find us and bring us home," went on the little girl. "It +is three months since we met that horrible old woman in the woods +above Thrieve Island, and believed her when she told us that the Earl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +had instant need of us—and that Sholto MacKim was with him."</p> + +<p>"None saw us taken away. Margaret," said the elder, "and perhaps, who +knows, they may never have found any of the pieces of flower garlands +I threw down before they put us in the boats from the beach of +Cassencary."</p> + +<p>But the eyes of the little Maid of Galloway were now fixed upon +something in the green courtyard below.</p> + +<p>"Maud, Maud, come hither quickly!" she whispered; "if yonder be not +Laurence MacKim talking to the singing lads and dressed like +them—why, then, I do not know Laurie MacKim!"</p> + +<p>Maud came quickly now. Her face and neck blushed suddenly crimson with +the springing of hope in her heart.</p> + +<p>She looked down, and there, far below them indeed, but yet distinct +enough, they saw Laurence daring Blaise Renouf to single combat and +vaunting his Irish prowess, as we have already seen him do. Maud +Lindesay caught her companion's hand as she looked.</p> + +<p>"They have found us," she whispered; "at least, they are seeking for +us. If Laurence is here, I warrant Sholto cannot be very far away. Oh, +Margaret, am I looking very ill? Will he think I am as—(she paused +for a word)—as comely as he thought me before in Scotland? Or have I +grown old and ugly with being shut up so long?"</p> + +<p>But the Maid of Galloway heard her not. She was pondering on the +meaning of Laurence's presence in the Castle of Machecoul.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps William hath sent Laurence to spy us out, and is even now +coming from his French duchy with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> army. He is a far greater man +than the marshal, and will make him give us up as soon as he finds out +where we are. Shall I call down to Laurie to let him know that we are +here?"</p> + +<p>Maud put her hand hastily over her companion's mouth.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" she said, "we must not appear to know him, or they will surely +kill him—and perhaps the others, too. If Laurence is here, I wot well +that help is not far away. Let us be patient and abide. Come back from +the wall and sit by me as if nothing, had happened."</p> + +<p>But all the same she kept her own place in a spot where she could +command the pleasaunce below, and looked longingly yet fearfully to +see Sholto follow his brother across the green sward.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Sweet and fair is the air of the evening," purred behind them a low +voice—that of the woman who was called La Meffraye. "It brings the +colour to the cheeks of the young. But I am old and wise, and I would +advise that two maids so fair should not look down on the sports of +the youths, lest they hear and see more than is fitting for such +innocent eyes."</p> + +<p>The girls turned away without looking at their custodian, who stood +leaning upon her little hand crutch and smiling upon them her terrible +soft smile.</p> + +<p>"Ah," she said, "proud, are you? 'Tis an ill place to bring pride to, +this Castle of Machecoul. You will not deign to speak a word to a poor +old woman now. But the day is not far distant when I shall have my +pretty spitfire clinging about these old trembling knees,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> and +beseeching me whom you despise, as a woman either to save you or kill +you—you will not care which. <i>As a woman!</i> Ha! ha! How long is it +since La Meffraye was a woman? Was she ever rocked in a cradle? Did +she play about any cottage door and fashion daisy chains, as I have +seen you do, my pretties, long ere you came to Machecoul or even heard +of the Sieur de Retz? Hath La Meffraye ever lain in any man's +bosom—save as the tigress crouches upon her prey?"</p> + +<p>She paused and smiled still more bitterly and malevolently than before +upon the two maidens.</p> + +<p>"Did you chance to be awake yester-even?" she went on. "Aye, I know +well that you were awake. La Meffraye saw right carefully to that. And +you heard the crying that rang out of yonder high window, from which +the light streamed all through the night. Wait, wait, my pretties, +till it is your turn to be sent for up thither, when the shining knife +is sharpened and the red fire kindled. You will not despise La +Meffraye when that day comes. You will grovel and weep, and then will +La Meffraye spurn you with her foot, till the noise of your crying be +borne out over the forest, and for very gladness the wolves howl in +the darkness."</p> + +<p>The little Maid of Galloway was moved to answer, and her lips +quivered. But Maud Lindesay sat pale and motionless, looking towards +the north, from which she hoped for help to come.</p> + +<p>"Our brother, the Earl of Douglas, will bring an army from his dukedom +of Touraine, and sweep you and your castle from the face of the earth, +if your master dares to lay so much as a finger upon us."</p> + +<p>La Meffraye laughed a low, cackling laugh, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> the act showed the +four long eye-teeth which were the sole remaining dental equipment of +her mouth.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Great Barran—" she chuckled, "listen to the pretty fool! Our +brother will do this—our brother will do that. <i>Our</i> brother will +lick the country of Retz as clean as a dog licks a platter. Know you +not, silly fool, that both your brothers are long since dead and under +sod in the castle of your city of Edinburgh. I tell you my master set +his little finger upon them and crushed them like flies on a summer +chamber wall!"</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay rose to her feet as La Meffraye spoke these words.</p> + +<p>"It is not true," she cried; "you lie to us as you have done from the +first. The Earl of Douglas is not dead!"</p> + +<p>It was now little Margaret who showed the spirit of her race, and put +out her hand to clasp that of her elder comrade.</p> + +<p>"Do not let her even know that she has power to hurt us with her +words," she whispered low to Maud Lindesay. Then she spoke aloud:</p> + +<p>"If that which you say be true and my brothers are dead—there are yet +Douglases. Our cousins will deliver us."</p> + +<p>"Your cousins have entered into your possessions," jeered the hag; "it +is indeed a likely thing that they will desire your return to Scotland +in order to rob them of that which is their own."</p> + +<p>"We are not afraid," said the little maid, stoutly; "there are many in +the land of the Scots who would gladly die to help us."</p> + +<p>"Aye, that is it. They shall die—all die. Three of them died +yester-even, torn to pieces by my lord's wolves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> Fine, swift, +four-footed guardians of the Castle of Machecoul—La Meffraye's +friends! And one young cock below there of the same gang hath gone +even now to my lord's chamber. He hath mounted the stairs he will +never descend."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Maid of Galloway, "even so—we are not afraid. We can +die, as died our friends."</p> + +<p>"Die—die!" cried the hag, sharply, angered at the child's +persistence. "'Tis easy to talk. To snuff a candle out is to die. +Poof, 'tis done! But the young and beautiful like you, my dearies, do +not so die at Machecoul. No; rather as a dying candle flickers +out—falls low, and rises again, so they die. As wine oozes drop by +drop from the needle-punctured wine-skin—so shall you die, weeping, +beseeching, drained to the white like a dripping calf in the shambles, +yet at the same time reddened and shamed with the shame deadly and +unnameable. Then La Meffraye, whom now you disdain to answer with a +look, will wash her hands in your life's blood and laugh as your tears +fall slowly upon the latchet of her shoon!"</p> + +<p>But a new voice broke in upon the railing of the hideous woman fiend.</p> + +<p>"<i>Out, foul hag! Get you to your own place!</i>" it said, with an accent +strong and commanding.</p> + +<p>And the affrighted and heart-sick girls turned them about to see the +Lady Sybilla stand fair and pale at the head of the turret stair which +opened out upon the roof of the White Tower.</p> + +<p>At this interruption the eyes of La Meffraye seemed to burn with a +fresher fury, and the green light in them shone as shines an emerald +stone held up to the sun.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span></p> + +<p>The hag cowered, however, before the outstretched index finger of +Sybilla de Thouars.</p> + +<p>"Ah, fair lady," she whimpered, "be not angry—and tell not my lord, I +beseech you. I did but jest."</p> + +<p>"<i>Hence!</i>" the finger was still outstretched, and, in obedience to the +threatening gesture, the hag shrank away. But as she passed through +the portal down the steps of the turret, she flung back certain words +with a defiant fleer.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you are young, my lady, and for the present—for the present your +power is greater than mine. But wait! Your beauty will wither and grow +old. Your power will depart from you. But La Meffraye can never grow +older, and when once the secret is discovered, and my lord is young +again, La Meffraye is the one who with him shall bloom with immortal +youth, while you, proud lady, lie cold in the belly of the worm."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"It is true—all too true," said Sybilla de Thouars, sadly, "they are +dead. The young, the noble were—and are no more. I who speak saw them +die. And that so greatly, that even in death their lives cease not. +Their glory shall flow on so that the young brook shall become a +river, and the river become a sea."</p> + +<p>Then in few words and quiet, she told them all the heavy tale.</p> + +<p>But when the maids made as though they would cleave to her for the +sympathy that was in her words and because of her tears, she set the +palms of her hands against their breasts and cried, "Come not near one +whom not all the fires of purgatory can purify—one who, like +Iscariot, hath contracted herself outside the mercy of God and of our +Lord Christ!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span></p> + +<p>But all the more they clave to her, overpassing her protestations and +clasping her, so that, being deeply moved, she sat down on the steps +of a corner turret which rose from the greater, and wept there, with +the weeping wherewith women are wont to ease the heart.</p> + +<p>Then went Maud Lindesay to her and set her hand about her neck, and +kissed her, saying: "Do not be sorry any more. Confess to the minister +of God. I also have sinned and been sorry. Yet after came forgiveness +and the unbound heart."</p> + +<p>Then the Lady Sybilla ceased quickly and looked up, as it had been, +smiling. Yet she was not smiling as maidens are wont to smile.</p> + +<p>"Pretty innocent," she said, "you mean well, but you know not what the +word 'sin' means to such as I. Confess—absolve! Not even the Holy One +and the Just could give me that. I tell you I have eaten of the apple +of the knowledge of good and evil—yes, the very core I have eaten. I +have the taste of innocent blood upon my lips. I have seen the axe +fall, the axe which I put into the headsman's hands. I am condemned, +and that justly. But one of you shall live to taste sweet love, and +the crown of life, and to feel the innocent lips of children at her +breasts. And the other—but enough. Farewell. Fear not. God, who has +been cruel in all else, has given your lives to Sybilla de Thouars, +ere in His own time He strike that guilty one with His thunderbolt."</p> + +<p>And as she went within, the eyes of the maids followed her; but the +masked man with the naked sword never so much as turned his head, +gazing straight forward over the battlements of the White Tower into +the lilac mist which hung above the Atlantic.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIII" id="CHAPTER_LIII"></a>CHAPTER LIII</h2> + +<h3>SYBILLA'S VENGEANCE</h3> + + +<p>There stands a solitary rock at the base of which is a cave, on the +seashore of La Vendée. Behind stretch the marshes, and the place is +shut in and desolate. Birds cry there. The bittern booms in the +thickets of grey willow and wet-shot alder. The herons nest upon the +pine trees near by, till the stale scent of them comes down the wind +from far. Ospreys fish in the waters of the shallow lake behind, and +the scales of their prey flash in the sun of morning as they rise +dripping from the dive.</p> + +<p>In this place Sholto, Malise, and the Lord James Douglas were +presently abiding.</p> + +<p>It was but a tiny cell, originally formed by two portions of marly +rock fallen together in some ancient convulsion or dropped upon each +other from a floating iceberg. In some former age the cleft had been a +lair of wild beasts, or the couch of some hairy savage hammering flint +arrowheads for the chase, and drawing with a sharp point upon polished +bone the yet hairier mammoth he hunted. But this solitary lodging in +the wilderness had been enlarged in more recent times, till now the +interior was about eight feet square and of the height of a man of +stature when he stands erect.</p> + +<p>The hearts of the three present cave-dwellers were sick and sad, and +of them all the bitterest was the heart of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> Sholto MacKim. It seemed +to his eager lover's spirit, as he climbed to the top of the sand +dunes and gazed towards the massive towers of Machecoul rising above +the green woodlands, that hitherto they had but wandered and done +nothing. The sorcerer had prevented them about with his evil. They had +lost Laurence utterly, and for the rest they had not even touched the +outer defences of their arch enemy.</p> + +<p>Thrice they had tried to enter the castle. The first time they had +taken by force two waggons of fuel from certain men who went towards +Machecoul, leaving the woodmen behind in the forest, bound and +helpless. But at the first gate of the outer hall the marshal's guard +had stopped them, and demanded that they should wait till the cars +were unloaded and brought back to them. So, having received the money, +the Scots returned as they went to the men whom they had left in the +forest.</p> + +<p>After this repulse they had gone round and round the vast walls of +Machecoul seeking a place vulnerable, but finding none. The ramparts +rose as it had been to heaven, and the flanking towers were crowded +night and day with men on the watch. Round the walls for the space of +a bow-shot every way there ran a green space fair and open to the +view, but in reality full of pitfalls and secret engines. From the +battlements began the arrow hail, so soon as any attempted to approach +the castle along any other way than the thrice-defended road to the +main gate.</p> + +<p>The wolves howled in the forests by night, and more than once came so +near that one of the three men had to take it in turns to keep watch +in the cave's mouth. But for a reason not clear to them at the time +they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> not again attacked by the marshal's wild allies of the +wood.</p> + +<p>The third time they had tried to enter the castle in their pilgrim's +garb, and the outer picket courteously received them. But when they +were come to the inner curtain, one Robin Romulart, the officer of the +guard, a stout fellow, suddenly called to his men to bind and gag +them—in which enterprise, but for the great strength of Malise, they +might have succeeded. For the outer gates had been shut with a clang, +and they could hear the soldiers of the garrison hasting from all +sides in answer to Robin's summons.</p> + +<p>But Malise snatched up the bar wherewith the winding cogs of the gate +were turned, and, having broken more than one man's head with it, he +forced the massive doors apart by main force, so that they were able +all unharmed to withdraw themselves into the shelter of the woods. So +near capture had they been, however, that over and over again they +heard the shouting of the parties who scoured the woods in search of +them.</p> + +<p>It was the worst feature of their situation that the Marshal de Retz +certainly knew of their presence in his territories, and that he would +be easily able to guess their errand and take measures to prevent it +succeeding.</p> + +<p>Their last and most fatal failure had happened several days before, +and the first eager burst of the search for them had passed. But the +Scots knew that the enemy was thoroughly alarmed, and that it behoved +them to abide very closely within their hiding-place.</p> + +<p>The Lord James took worst of all with the uncertainty and confinement. +Any restraint was unsuited to his jovial temper and open-air life. But +for the present, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> least, and till they could gain some further +information as to the whereabouts of the maidens, it was obvious that +they could do no better than remain in their seaside shelter.</p> + +<p>Their latest plan was to abide in the cave till the marshal set out +again upon one of his frequent journeys. Then it would be +comparatively easy to ascertain by an ambush whether he was taking the +captives with him, or if he had left them behind. If the maids were of +his travelling company, the three rescuers would be guided by +circumstances and the strength of the escort, as to whether or not +they should venture to make an attack.</p> + +<p>But if by any unhoped-for chance Margaret and Maud were left behind at +Machecoul, it would at least be a more feasible enterprise to attack +the fortress during the absence of its master and his men.</p> + +<p>Alone among the three Scots Malise faced their predicament with some +philosophy. Sholto ate his heart out with uncertainty as to the fate +of his sweetheart. The Lord James chafed at the compulsory confinement +and at the consistent ill success which had pursued them. But Malise, +unwearied of limb and ironic of mood as ever, fished upon the tidal +flats for brown-spotted flounders and at the rocky points for white +fish, often remaining at his task till far into the night. He +constructed snares with a mechanical ingenuity in advance of his age. +And what was worth more to the company than any material help, he kept +up the spirits of Sholto and of Lord James Douglas both by his brave +heart and merry speech, and still more by constantly finding them +something to do.</p> + +<p>At the hour of even, one day after they had been a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> fortnight in the +country of Retz, the three Scots were sitting moodily on a little +hillock which concealed the entrance to their cave. The forest lay +behind them, an impenetrable wall of dense undergrowth crowned along +the distant horizon by the solemn domes of green stone pines. It +circumvented them on all sides, save only in front, where, through +several beaker-shaped breaks in the high sand dunes they could catch a +glimpse of the sea. The Atlantic appeared to fill these clefts half +full, like Venice goblets out of which the purple wine has been +partially drained. To right and left the pines grew scantier, so that +the rays of the sunset shone red as molten metal upon their stems and +made a network of alternate gold and black behind them.</p> + +<p>The three sat thus a long time without speech, only looking up from +their tasks to let their eyes rest wistfully for a moment upon the +deep and changeful amethyst of the sea, and then with a light sigh +going back to the cleaning of their armoury or the shaping of a long +bow.</p> + +<p>It chanced that for several minutes no sound was heard except those +connected with their labour, the low whistle with which the Lord James +accompanied his polishing, the <i>wisp-wisp</i> of Malise's arms as he +sewed the double thread back and forth through a rent in his leathern +jack, and the rasp of Sholto's file as he carved out the finials of +the bow, the notched grooves wherein the string was to lie so easily +and yet so firmly.</p> + +<p>Thus they continued to work, absorbed, each of them in the sadness of +his own thought, till suddenly a shadow seemed to strike between them +and the red light of the western sky. They looked up, and before them, +as it were ascending out of the very glow of sunset, they saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> a woman +on a white palfrey approaching them by the way of the sea.</p> + +<p>So suddenly did she appear that the Lord James uttered a low cry of +wonder, while Malise the practical reached for his sword. But Sholto +had seen this vision twice already, and knew their visitor for the +Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>"Hold there!" he said in an undertone. "Remember it is as I said. This +woman, though we have no cause to love her, is now our only hope. Her +words brought us here. They were true words, and I believe that she +comes as a friend. I will stake my life on it."</p> + +<p>"Or if she comes as an enemy we are no worse off," grumbled sceptical +Malise. "We can at least encourage the woman and then hold her as an +hostage."</p> + +<p>The three Scots were standing to receive their guest when the Lady +Sybilla rode up. Her face had lost none of the pale sadness which +marked it when Sholto last saw her, and though the look of utter agony +had passed away, the despair of a soul in pain had only become more +deeply printed upon it.</p> + +<p>The girl having acknowledged their salutations with a stately and +well-accustomed motion of the head, reached a hand for Sholto to lift +her from her palfrey.</p> + +<p>Then, still without spoken word, she silently seated herself on the +grey-lichened rock rudely shaped into the semblance of a chair, on +which Malise had been sitting at his mending. The strange maiden +looked long at the blue sea deepening in the notches of the sand dunes +beneath them. The three men stood before her waiting for her to speak. +Each of them knew that lives, dearer and more precious than their own, +hung upon what she might have to say.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p> + +<p>At last she spoke, in a voice low as the wind when it blows its +lightest among the trees:</p> + +<p>"You have small cause to trust me or to count me your friend," she +said; "but we have that which binds closer than friendship—a common +enemy and a common cause of hatred. It were better, therefore, that we +should understand one another. I have never lost sight of you since +you came to this fatal land of Retz. I have been near you when you +knew it not. To accomplish this I have deceived the man who is my +taskmaster, swearing to him that in the witch crystal I have seen you +depart. And I shall yet deceive him in more deadly fashion."</p> + +<p>Sholto could restrain himself no longer.</p> + +<p>"Enough," he said roughly; "tell us whether the maidens are alive, and +if they are abiding in this Castle of Machecoul."</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla did not remove her eyes from the red west.</p> + +<p>"Thus far they are safe," she said, in the same calm monotone. "This +very hour I have come from the White Tower, in which they are +confined. But he whom I serve swears by an oath that if you or other +rescuers are heard of again in this country, he will destroy them +both."</p> + +<p>She shuddered as she spoke with a strong revulsion of feeling.</p> + +<p>"Therefore, be careful with a great carefulness. Give up all thought +of rescuing them directly. Remember what you have been able to +accomplish, and that your slightest actions will bring upon those you +love a fate of which you little dream."</p> + +<p>"After what we remember of Crichton Castle, how can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> we trust you, +lady?" said Malise, sternly. "Do you now speak the truth with your +mouth?"</p> + +<p>"You have indeed small cause to think so," she answered without taking +offence. "Yet, having no choice, you must e'en trust me."</p> + +<p>She turned sharply upon Sholto with a strip of paper in her +outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"I think, young sir, that you have some reason to know from whom that +comes."</p> + +<p>Sholto grasped at the writing with a new and wonderful hope in his +heart. He knew instinctively before he touched it that none but Maud +Lindesay could have written that script—small, clear, and distinct as +a motto cut on a gem.</p> + +<p>"<i>To our friends in France and Scotland,</i>" so it ran. "<i>We are still +safe this eve of the Blessed Saint Michael. Trust her who brings this +letter. She is our saviour and our only hope in a dark and evil place. +She is sorry for that which by her aid hath been done. As you hope for +forgiveness, forgive her. And for God's dear sake, do immediately the +thing she bids you. This comes from Margaret de Douglas and Maud +Lindesay. It is written by the hand of M. L.</i>"</p> + +<p>The wax at the bottom was sealed in double with the boar's head of +Lindesay and the heart of Margaret of Douglas.</p> + +<p>Sholto, having read the missive silently, passed it to the Lord James +that he might prove the seals, for it was his only learning to be +skilled in heraldry.</p> + +<p>"It is true," he said; "I myself gave the little maid that ring. See, +it hath a piece broken from the peak of the device."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My lady," said Sholto, "that which you bring is more than enough. We +kiss your hand and we will sacredly do all your bidding, were it unto +the death or the trial by fire."</p> + +<p>Then, as was the custom to do to ladies whom knights would honour, the +Lord James and Sholto kneeled down and kissed the hand of Sybilla de +Thouars. But Malise, not being a knight, took it only and settled it +upon his great grizzled head, where it rested for a moment, lightly as +upon some grey and ancient tower lies a flake of snow before it melts.</p> + +<p>"I thank you for your overmuch courtesy," the girl said, casting her +eyes on the ground with a new-born shyness most like that of a modest +maid; "I thank you, indeed. You do me honour far above my desert. +Still, after all, we work for one end. You have, it is true, the +nobler motive,—the lives of those you love; but I the deadlier,—the +death of one I hate! Hearken!"</p> + +<p>She paused as if to gather strength for that which she had to reveal, +and then, reaching her hands out, she motioned the three men to gather +more closely about her, as if the blue Atlantic waves or the red boles +of the pine trees might carry the matter.</p> + +<p>"Listen," she said, "the end comes fast—faster than any know, save I, +to whom for my sins the gift of second sight hath been given. I who +speak to you am of Brittany and of the House of De Thouars. To one of +us in each generation descends this abhorred gift of second sight. And +I, because as a child it was my lot to meet one wholly given over to +evil, have seen more and clearer than all that have gone before me. +But now I do foresee the end of the wickedest and most devilish soul +ever prisoned within the body of man."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span></p> + +<p>As she spoke the heads of the three Scots bent lower and closer to +catch every word, for the voice of the Lady Sybilla was more like the +cooing of a mating turtle as it answers its comrade than that of a +woman betrayed, denouncing vengeance and death upon him whom her soul +hated.</p> + +<p>"Be of good heart, then, and depart as I shall bid you. None can help +or hinder here at Machecoul but I alone. Be sure that at the worst the +unnameable shall not happen to the maids. For in me there is the power +to slay the evil-doer. But slay I will not unless it be to keep the +lives of the maids. Because I desire for Gilles de Retz a fate +greater, more terrible, more befitting iniquity such as the world hath +never heard spoken of since it arose from the abyss.</p> + +<p>"And this is it given to me to bring upon him whom my soul hateth," +she went on. "I have seen the hempen cord by which he shall hang. I +have seen the fire through which his soul shall pass to its own place. +Through me this fate shall come upon him suddenly in one night."</p> + +<p>Her face lighted up with an inner glow, and shone translucent in the +darkening of the day and the dusk of the trees, as if the fair veil of +flesh wavered and changed about the vengeful soul within.</p> + +<p>"And now," she went on after a pause, "I bid you, gentlemen of the +house of Douglas, to depart to John, Duke of Brittany, and having +found him to lay this paper before him. It contains the number and the +names of those who have died in the castles of de Retz. It shows in +what hidden places the bones of these slaughtered innocents may be +found. Clamour in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> ear for justice in the name of the King of +France, and if he will not hear, then in the name of the folk of +Brittany. And if still because of his kinship he will not listen, go +to the Bishop of Nantes, who hates Gilles de Retz. Better than any he +knows how to stir the people, and he will send with you trusty men to +cause the country to rise in rebellion. Then they will overturn all +the castles of de Retz, and the hidden things shall come to light. +This do, and for this time depart from Machecoul, and entrust me (as +indeed you must) with the honour and lives of those you love. I will +keep them with mine own until destruction pass upon him who is outcast +from God, and whom now his own fiend from hell hath deserted."</p> + +<p>Then, having sworn to do her bidding, the three Scots conducted the +Lady Sybilla with honour and observance to her white palfrey, and like +a spirit she vanished into the sea mists which had sifted up from the +west, going back to the drear Castle of Machecoul, but bearing with +her the burden of her revenge.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIV" id="CHAPTER_LIV"></a>CHAPTER LIV</h2> + +<h3>THE CROSS UNDER THE APRON</h3> + + +<p>The face of Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz, had shone all day with an +unholy lustre like that of iron in which the red heat yet struggles +with the black. In the Castle of Machecoul his familiars went about, +wearing expressions upon their countenances in which disgust and +expectation were mingled with an overwhelming fear of the terrible +baron.</p> + +<p>The usual signs of approaching high saturnalia at Machecoul had not +been wanting.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning La Meffraye had been seen hovering like an +unclean bird of prey about the playing grounds of the village children +at Saint Benoit on the edges of the forest. At nine the frightened +villagers heard the howl of a day-hunting wolf, and one Louis Verger, +a woodman who was cutting bark for the tanneries in the valley, saw a +huge grey wolf rush out and seize his little son, Jean, a boy of five +years old, who came bringing his father's breakfast. With a great cry +he hurried back to alarm the village, but when men gathered with +scythes and rude weapons of the chase, the beast's track was lost in +the depth of the forest.</p> + +<p>Little Jean Verger of Saint Benoit was never seen again, unless it +were he who, half hidden under the long black cloak of La Meffraye, +was brought at noon by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> private postern of the baron into the +Castle of Machecoul.</p> + +<p>So the men of Saint Benoit went not back to their work, but abode +together all that day, sullen anger burning in their hearts. And one +calling himself the servant of the Bishop of Nantes went about among +them, and his words were as knives, sharp and bitter beyond belief. +And ever as he spoke the men turned them about till they faced +Machecoul. Their lips moved like those of a Moslemite who says his +prayers towards Mecca. And the words they uttered were indeed prayers +of solemnest import.</p> + +<p>With his usual devotion at such seasons, Gilles de Retz had attended +service thrice that day in his Chapel of the Holy Innocents. His +behaviour had been marked by intense devoutness. An excessive +tenderness of conscience had characterised his confessions to Père +Blouyn, his spiritual director-in-ordinary. He confessed as his most +flagrant sin that his thoughts were overmuch set on the vanities of +the world, and that he had even sometimes been tempted of the devil to +question the right of Holy Church herself to settle all questions +according to the will of her priests and prelates.</p> + +<p>Whereupon Père Blouyn, with suave correctness of judgment, had pointed +out wherein his master erred; but also cautioned him against that +undue tenderness of conscience natural to one with his exalted +position and high views of duty and life. Finally the marshal had +received absolution.</p> + +<p>In the late afternoon the Lord of Retz commanded the fire to be laid +ready for lighting in his chamber aloft in the keep of Machecoul, and +set himself down to listen to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> the singing of the choir, which, under +the guidance of Precentor Renouf, rehearsed for him the sweetest hymns +recently written for the choir of the Holy Father at Rome. For there +the marshal's choir-master had been trained, and with its leader he +still kept up a correspondence upon kindred interests.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz, as he sat under the late blooming roses in the +afternoon sunshine of the autumn of western France, appeared to the +casual eye one of the most noble seigneurs and the most enlightened in +the world. He affected a costume already semiecclesiastic as a token +of his ultimate intention to enter holy orders. It seemed indeed as if +the great soldier who had ridden into Orleans with Dunois and the Maid +had begun to lay aside his earthly glories and seek the heavenly.</p> + +<p>There, upon a chair set within the cloisters, in a place which the +sunshine touched most lovingly and where it lingered longest, he sat, +nodding his head to the sound of the sweet singing, and bowing low at +each mention of the name of Jesus (as the custom is)—a still, +meditative, almost saintly man. Upon the lap of his furred robe (for, +after all, it was a sunshine with a certain shrewd wintriness in it) +lay an illuminated copy of the Holy Gospels; and sometimes as he +listened to the choir-boys singing, he glanced therein, and read of +the little children to whom belongs the kingdom. Upon occasion he +lifted the book also, and looked with pleasure at the pictured cherubs +who cheered the way of the Master Jerusalemwards with strewn palm +leaves and shouted hosannas.</p> + +<p>And ever sweeter and sweeter fell the music upon his ear, till +suddenly, like the silence after a thunderclap, the organ ceased to +roll, the choir was silent, and out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> the quiet rose a single +voice—that of Laurence the Scot singing in a tenor of infinite +sweetness the words of blessing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Suffer the little children to come unto Me,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And forbid them not;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And as the boy's voice welled out, clear and thrilling as the song of +an upward pulsing lark, the tears ran down the face of Gilles de Retz.</p> + +<p>God knows why. Perhaps it was some glint of his own innocent +childhood—some half-dimmed memory of his happily dead mother. +Perhaps—but enough. Gilles de Laval de Retz went up the turret stair +to find Poitou and Gilles de Sillé on guard on either side the portals +which closed his chamber.</p> + +<p>"Is all ready?" he asked, though the tears were scarcely dry on his +cheeks.</p> + +<p>They bowed before him to the ground.</p> + +<p>"All is ready, lord and master," they said as with one voice.</p> + +<p>"And Prelati?"</p> + +<p>"He is in waiting."</p> + +<p>"And La Meffraye," he went on, "has she arrived?"</p> + +<p>"La Meffraye has arrived," they said; "all goes fortunately."</p> + +<p>"Good!" said Gilles de Retz, and shedding his furred monkish cloak +carelessly from off his shoulders, he went within.</p> + +<p>Poitou and Gilles de Sillé both reached to catch the mantle ere it +fell. As they did so their hands met and touched. And at the meeting +of each other's flesh they started and drew apart. Their eyes +encountered fur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span>tively and were instantly withdrawn. Then, having hung +up the cloak, with pallid countenances and lips white and tremulous, +they slowly followed the marshal within.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Sybilla de Thouars, as you are in my power, so I bid you work my +will!"</p> + +<p>It was the deep, stern voice of the Marshal de Retz which spoke. The +Lady Sybilla lay back in a great chair with her eyes closed, breathing +slowly and gently through her parted lips. Messire Gilles stood before +her with his hands joined palm to palm and his white fingertips almost +touching the girl's brow.</p> + +<p>"Work my will and tell me what you see!"</p> + +<p>Her hands were clasped under a light silken apron which she wore +descending from her neck and caught in a loose loop behind her gown. +The fingers were firmly netted one over the other and clutched between +them was a golden crucifix.</p> + +<p>The girl was praying, as one prays who dares not speak.</p> + +<p>"O God, who didst hang on this cross—keep now my soul. Condemn it +afterwards, but help me to keep it this night. Deliver me—oh, deliver +from the power of this man. Help me to lie. By Thy Son's blood, help +me to lie well this night."</p> + +<p>"Where are the three men from the land of the Scots? Tell me what you +see. Tell me all," the marshal commanded, still standing before her in +the same posture.</p> + +<p>Then the voice of the Lady Sybilla began to speak, low and even, and +with that strange halt at the end of the sentences. The Lord of Retz +nodded, well pleased when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> he heard the sound. It was the voice of the +seeress. Oftentimes he had heard it before, and it had never deceived +him.</p> + +<p>"I see a boat on a stormy sea," she said; "there are three men in it. +One is great of stature and very strong. The others are young men. +They are trying to furl the sail. A gust strikes them. The boat heels +and goes over. I see them struggling in the pit of waters. There are +cliffs white and crumbling above them. They are calling for help as +they cling to the boat. Now there is but one of them left. I see him +trying to climb up the slippery rocks. He falls back each time. He is +weary with much buffeting. The waves break about him and suck him +under. Now I do not see the men any more, but I can hear the broken +mast of the boat knocking hollow and dull against the rocks. Some few +shreds of the sail are wrapped about it. But the three men are gone."</p> + +<p>She ceased suddenly. Her lips stopped their curiously detached +utterance.</p> + +<p>But under her breath and deep in her soul Sybilla de Thouars was still +praying as before. And this which follows was her prayer:</p> + +<p>"O God, his devil is surely departed from him. I thank thee, God of +truth, for helping me to lie."</p> + +<p>"It is well," said Gilles de Retz, standing erect with + +a satisfied air. "All is well. The three Scots who sought my life are +gone to their destruction. Now, Sybilla de Thouars, I bid you look +upon John, Duke of Brittany. Tell me what he does and says."</p> + +<p>The level, impassive, detached voice began again. The hands clasped +the cross of gold more closely under the silk apron.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I see a room done about with silver scallop shells and white-painted +ermines. I see a fair, cunning-faced, soft man. Behind him stands one +tall, spare, haggard—"</p> + +<p>"Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Brittany—one that hates me," said +de Retz, grimly between his teeth. "I will meet my fingers about his +dog's throat yet. What of him?"</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla, without a quiver of her shut eyelids took up the +cue.</p> + +<p>"He hath his finger on a parchment. He strives to point out something +to the fair-haired man, but that other shakes his head and will not +agree—"</p> + +<p>The marshal suddenly grew intent, and even excited.</p> + +<p>"Look closer, Sybilla—look closer. Can you not read that which is +written on the parchment? I bid you, by all my power, to read it."</p> + +<p>Then the countenance of the Lady Sybilla was altered. Striving and +blank failure were alternately expressed upon it.</p> + +<p>"I cannot! Oh, I cannot!" she cried.</p> + +<p>"By my power, I bid you. By that which I will make you suffer if you +fail me, I command you!" cried Gilles de Retz, bending himself towards +her and pressing his fingers against her brow so that the points +dented her skin.</p> + +<p>The tears sprang from underneath the dark lashes which lay so +tremulously upon her white cheek.</p> + +<p>"You make me do it! It hurts! I cannot!" she said in the pitiful voice +of a child.</p> + +<p>"Read—or suffer the shame!" cried Gilles de Retz.</p> + +<p>"I will—oh, I will! Be not angry," she answered pleadingly.</p> + +<p>And underneath the silk the hands were grasped with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> a grip like that +of a vice upon the golden cross she had borrowed from the little Maid +of Galloway.</p> + +<p>"Read me that which is written on the paper," said the marshal.</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla began to speak in a voice so low that Gilles de Retz +had to incline his ear very close to her lips to listen.</p> + +<p>"Accusation against the great lord and most noble seigneur, Gilles de +Laval de Retz, Sire de—"</p> + +<p>"That is it—go on after the titles," said the eager voice of the +marshal.</p> + +<p>"Accused of having molested the messengers of his suzerain, the +supreme Duke John of Brittany, accused of ill intent against the +State; accused of quartering the arms-royal upon his shield; called to +answer for these offences in the city of Nantes—and that is all."</p> + +<p>She ended abruptly, like one who is tired and desires no more than to +sleep.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz drew a long sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>"All is hid," he said; "these things are less than nothing. What does +the Duke?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot look again, I am weary," she said.</p> + +<p>"Look again!" thundered her taskmaster.</p> + +<p>"I see the fair-haired man take the parchment from the hand of the +dark, stern man—"</p> + +<p>"With whom I will reckon!"</p> + +<p>"He tries to tear it in two, but cannot. He throws it angrily in the +fire."</p> + +<p>"My enemies are destroyed," said Gilles de Retz, "I thank thee, great +Barran-Sathanas. Thou hast indeed done that which thou didst promise. +Henceforth I am thy servant and thy slave."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span></p> + +<p>So saying, he took a glass of water from the table and dashed it on +the face of the Lady Sybilla.</p> + +<p>"Awake," he said, "you have done well. Go now and repose that you may +again be ready when I have need of you."</p> + +<p>A flicker of conscious life appeared under the purple-veined eyelids +of the Lady Sybilla. Her long, dark lashes quivered, tried to rise, +and again lay still.</p> + +<p>The marshal took the illuminated copy of the Evangelists from the +table and fanned her with the thin parchment leaves.</p> + +<p>"Awake!" he cried harshly and sternly.</p> + +<p>The eyes of the girl slowly opened their pupils dark and dilated. She +carried her hand to her head, but wearily, as if even that slight +movement pained her. The golden cross swung unseen under the silken +folds of her apron.</p> + +<p>"I am so tired—so tired," the girl murmured to herself as Gilles de +Retz assisted her to rise. Then hastily handing her over to Poitou, he +bade him conduct her to her own chamber.</p> + +<p>But as she went through the door of the marshal's laboratory she +looked upon the floor and smiled almost joyously.</p> + +<p>"His devil has indeed departed from him," she murmured to herself. "I +thank the God of Righteousness who this night hath enabled me to +baffle him with a woman's poor wit, and to lie to him that he may be +led quick to destruction, and fall himself into the pit which he hath +prepared for the feet of the innocent."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LV" id="CHAPTER_LV"></a>CHAPTER LV</h2> + +<h3>THE RED MILK</h3> + + +<p>Darkly and swiftly the autumn night descended upon Machecoul. In the +streets of the little feudal bourg there were few passers-by, and such +as there were clutched their cloaks tighter round them and scurried +on. Or if they raised their heads, it was only to take a hasty, +fearful glance at the vast bulk of the castle looming imminent above +them.</p> + +<p>From a window high in the central keep a red light streamed out, and +when the clouds flew low, strange dilated shadows were wont to be cast +upon the rolling vapour. Sometimes smoke, acrid and heavy, bellied +forth, and anon wild cries of pain and agony floated down to silence +the footfalls of the home-returning rustics and chill the hearts of +burghers trembling in their beds.</p> + +<p>But none dared to question in public the doings of the great and +puissant lord of all the country of Retz. It fared not well with him +who even looked too much at the things which were done.</p> + +<p>The night was yet darker up aloft in the Castle of Machecoul itself. +In the sacristy good Father Blouyn, with an air of resigned +reluctance, was handing over to an emissary of his master the moulds +in which the tall altar candles for the Chapel of the Holy Innocents +were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> usually cast and compacted. And as Clerk Henriet went out with +the moulds he took a long look through a private spy-hole at the lads +of the choir who were sitting in the hall apportioned to their use. +They were supposed to be busy with their lessons, and, indeed, a few +were poring over their books with some show of studious absorption. +But for the most part they were playing at cards and dominos, or, in +the absence of the master, sticking intimate pins and throwing about +indiscriminate ink, according to the immemorial use of the choir-boy.</p> + +<p>Clerk Henriet counted them twice over and in especial looked carefully +to see what did the young Scots lad, who had so mysteriously escaped +from the dread room of his master. Laurence MacKim played X's and O's +upon a board with Blaise Renouf, the precentor's son, and at some +hitch in the game he incontinently clouted the Frenchman upon the ear. +Whereupon ensued trouble and the spilling of much ink.</p> + +<p>Henriet, perfectly satisfied, took up the heavy moulds and made his +way to his lord's chamber, where many things were used for purposes +other than those for which they had been intended.</p> + +<p>Upon the back of his departure came in the Precentor Renouf, who laid +his baton conjointly and freely about the ears of his son and those of +Laurence MacKim.</p> + +<p>"Get to your beds both of you, and that supperless, for uproar and +conduct ill becoming two youths who worship God all day in his +sanctuary, and are maintained at grievous expense by our most devout +and worthy lord, Messire Gilles of Laval and Retz, Seigneur and Lord!"</p> + +<p>Laurence, who had of set purpose provoked the quarrel, was slinking +away, when the "Psalta" (as the choir-master is called in lower +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span> +Brittany) ordered them to sleep in separate rooms for the better +keeping of the peace.</p> + +<p>"And do you, Master Laurence, perform your vigil of the night upon the +pavement of the chapel. For you are the most rebellious and +troublesome of all—indeed, past bearing. Go! Not a word, sirrah!"</p> + +<p>So, much rejoiced in heart that matters had thus fallen out, Laurence +MacKim betook himself to the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, and was +duly locked in by the irate precentor.</p> + +<p>For, upon various occasions, he had watched the Lord of Retz descend +into the chapel by a private staircase which opened out in an angle +behind the altar. He had also seen Poitou, his confidential +body-servant, lock it after him with a small key of a yellow colour +which he took from his fork pocket.</p> + +<p>Now Master Laurence, as may have already been observed, was (like most +of the youthful unordained clergy) little troubled, at least in minor +matters, with scruples about such slight distinctions as those which +divide <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>. He found no difficulty therefore in +abstracting this key when Poitou was engaged in attending his master +from the chapel, in which service it was his duty to pass the stalls +with open lattice ends of carven work in which sat the elder +choir-boys. Having secured the key, Laurence hid it instantly beneath +the leaden saint on his cap, refastening the long pin which kept our +Lady of Luz in her place through the fretwork of the little brazen +key.</p> + +<p>Presently he saw Poitou come back and look carefully here and there +upon the floor, but after a while,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> not finding anything, he went out +again to search elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The idea had come to Laurence that at the head of the stairway from +the chapel was the prison chamber of Maud Lindesay and her ward, the +little Maid Margaret of Galloway.</p> + +<p>He told himself at least that this was his main object, and doubtless +he had the matter in his mind. But a far stronger motive was his +curiosity and the magic influence of the mysterious and the unknown +upon the heart of youth.</p> + +<p>More than to deliver Margaret of Galloway, Laurence longed to look +again upon the iron altar and to know the truth concerning the strange +sacrifices which were consummated there. And he yearned to see again +that rough-eared image graven after the fashion of a man.</p> + +<p>And the reason was not far to seek.</p> + +<p>For if even the worship of the High God, according to the practice of +the most enlightened nations, grounds itself upon blood and sacrifice, +what wonder if, in the worship of the lords of Hell, the blood of the +innocent is an oblation well pleasing and desirable.</p> + +<p>Rooted and ineradicable is the desire in man's heart to know good and +evil—but particularly evil. And so now Laurence desired to see the +sacrifice laid between the horns of the altar and the image above lean +over as if to gloat upon the sweet savour of its burning.</p> + +<p>Long and carefully Laurence listened before he ventured forth. The +Chapel of the Innocents was dark and silent. Only a reflection of the +red light which burned in the keep struck through the clerestory upon +the great cross which swung above the altar. This, being dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>persed +like a halo about the sign of Christ's redemption, rendered the corner +where was placed the door into the secret stairway light enough to +enable the youth to insert therein Poitou's key. The wards were turned +with well-accustomed smoothness.</p> + +<p>Carefully shutting the door behind him so that if any one chanced to +enter the chapel nothing would be observed, Laurence set his feet upon +the steps and began his adventure of supreme peril.</p> + +<p>It was a narrow staircase, only wide enough indeed for one to ascend +or descend at once. And the heart of Laurence sank within him at the +thought of meeting the dread Lord of Machecoul face to face in its +strait, black spirals.</p> + +<p>He accomplished the ascent, however, without incident, and, passing +through another low arch, found himself at the end of the passage over +against the door with the curious burned hieroglyphics imprinted upon +it. There was no light in the corridor, and Laurence eagerly set his +hand to the latch. It opened as before and admitted him at a touch.</p> + +<p>The temple-like hall was silent and dim. Only an occasional thrill as +if of an earthquake passed across it, waving the heavy hangings and +bringing a hot breath of some strange heady perfume to the nostrils. +Laurence, with a beating heart, ensconced himself in a hidden nook +behind the door. The niche was covered by a curtain and furnished with +a grooved slab of marble placed there for some purpose he could not +fathom.</p> + +<p>Yet it was by no means wholly dark. A light shone into the Chapel of +Evil from the opposite side, and through it he could discern shadows +cast upon the floors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> and striding gigantic across the roof, as unseen +personages passed the light which streamed into the dusky temple.</p> + +<p>In the gloomiest part of the background, hinted rather than seen, he +could make out the vast dark figure dominating the iron altar.</p> + +<p>Then Laurence remembered that the chamber of the marshal lay on the +other side—the room with the immense fireplace which he had once +entered and from which he had barely escaped with his life.</p> + +<p>Little by little Laurence raised himself upon the grooved slab until, +standing erect, he could see some small part of the whitewashed, +red-floored chamber he remembered so well—only a strip, however, +extending from the door through which he looked to the great fireplace +whereon the heaped wood had already been kindled.</p> + +<p>At first all was confused. Laurence saw Henriet and Poitou going +hastily here and there, as servitors do who prepare for a great +function. Then came a pause, heavy with doom. On the back of this he +heard or seemed to hear the frightened pleading of a child, the short, +sharp commands of a soldier's voice, a sound as of a blow stricken, +and then again a whimpering hush. Laurence leaned against the wall +with his face in his hands. He dared not look within. Then he lifted +his head, and lo! in the gloom it seemed as if the huge image had +turned towards him, and in a pleased, confidential way were nodding +approval of his presence.</p> + +<p>He heard the voice of the Marshal de Retz again—this time kindly, and +even affectionate. Some one was not to be frightened. Some one was to +take a draught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> from the goblet and fear nothing. They would not hurt +him. They had but played with him.</p> + +<p>Again Henriet and Poitou passed and repassed, and once Gilles de Sillé +flashed across the interspace handing a broad-edged gleaming knife +swiftly and surreptitiously to some one unseen.</p> + +<p>Then came a short, sharp cry of agony, a gurgling moan, and black, +blank, unutterable horror shut down on Laurence's spirit.</p> + +<p>He sank down on his face behind the door and covered his eyes and ears +with his hands. So he lay for a space without motion, almost without +sense, upon the naked grooves of the marble slab. When he came to +himself, a dusky light was diffused through the chapel. As he looked +he saw La Meffraye come to the door and set her face within, like some +bird of night, hideous and foul. Then she returned and Gilles de Sillé +and Clerk Henriet came into the chapel bearing between them a great +golden cup, filled (as it seemed by the care with which they carried +it) to the very brim with some precious liquid.</p> + +<p>To them, all clad in a priest's robe of flame-coloured velvet, +succeeded the Lord of Retz himself. He held in his hand like a +service-book the great manuscript written in red, which he had been +transcribing at Sybilla's entrance, and as he walked he chanted, with +a strange intonation, words that thrilled the very soul of the young +man listening.</p> + +<p>And yet, as Laurence looked forth from his hiding-place, it appeared +that the black statue nodded once more to him as one who would say, +"Take note and remember what thou seest; for one day thy testimony +shall be needful."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span></p> + +<p>These were the words he heard in the chanting monotone:</p> + +<p>"O great and mighty Barran-Sathanas—my only lord and master, whom +with all due observance I do worship, look mercifully upon this the +sacrifice of innocent blood; let it be grateful to thee—to whom all +evil is as the breath of life!</p> + +<p>"Hear us, O Barran-Sathanas! Thou hast been deaf in past days, because +we served thee not without drawback or withholding, without sparing +and without remorse. Because we hesitated to give thee the best, the +delicatest, the most pitiful. But now take this innocentest innocence. +Behold I, Gilles de Retz, make to thee the matchless sacrifice of the +Red Milk thou lovest.</p> + +<p>"The Red Milk I pour for thee. The Red Milk I bring thee. The Red Milk +I drink to thee—that thou mayest be pleased to restore vital energy +and new youth to my veins, to make me strong as a young man in his +strength, and wiser than the wisdom of age. Hear me, O great master of +all the evil of the universe, thou equal and coadjutor of the Master +of Good, hear and manifest thy so mighty power. Hear me and answer, O +Barran-Sathanas!"</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz took the cup from the hands of the servitors. He seemed +so weak with his crying that he could hardly hold it between his +trembling palms.</p> + +<p>He lifted his head and again cried aloud:</p> + +<p>"See, I am weak, my Satan—see how I tremble. Strength is departed +from me. Youth is dead. Help thy faithful servant, aid him to lift up +this precious oblation to thee!"</p> + +<p>And as the great dusky image seemed to lean over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> him, with a hoarse +cry Gilles de Retz raised the cup and held it high above his head. As +he did so a beam, sudden as lightning, fell upon it, and with a quick, +instinctive horror, Laurence saw that it was filled to the brim with +blood fresh and red.</p> + +<p>The marshal's voice strengthened.</p> + +<p>"It is coming! It is coming! Barran manifests himself! O great lord, +to thee I drain this draught!" cried Gilles de Retz. "The Red Milk, +the precious milk of innocence, to thee I drink it!"</p> + +<p>And he set the cup to his lips and drank deep and long.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"It comes. It fills me. I am strong. O Barran, give me yet more +strength. My limbs revive. My pulse beats. I am young as when I rode +with Dunois. Barran, thou art indeed mightier than God. I will give +thee yet more and more. I swear it. I have kept the best wine till the +last—the death vintage of a great house. The wine of beauty and +brightness—I have kept it for thee. Halt not to make me stronger! +Help me—Barran, help—I fail—!"</p> + +<p>His voice had risen higher and higher till it was well nigh a scream +of agony. Strangely too, in spite of the fictitious youth that glowed +in his veins and coloured his cheek, it sounded like a senile shriek.</p> + +<p>But all suddenly, at the very height of his exaltation, the cup from +which he had drunk slipped from his hand and rolled upon the +tesselated pavement of the temple, staining it in gouts and vivid +blotches of crimson.</p> + +<p>"Hasten, ere I lose the power—I feel it checked. Poitou, De Sillé, +Henriet, go bring hither from the White<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> Tower the Scottish maids. +Run, dogs—or you die! Quick, Henriet! Good De Sillé, quick! Fail not +your master now! It ebbs, it weakens—and it was so near completion. +Stay, O Barran, till I finish the sacrifice, and here at thy feet +offer up to thee the richest, and the fairest, and the noblest! Bring +hither the maidens! I tell you, bring them quickly!"</p> + +<p>And the terrible Lord of Retz, exhausted with his own fury, cast +himself at the feet of the gigantic image, which, bending over him, +seemed with the same grimace sardonically to mock alike his exaltation +and his downfall.</p> + +<p>But Laurence heard no more. For sense and feeling had wholly departed +from him, and he lay as one dead behind the door of the temple of +Barran-Sathanas, Lord of Evil, in the thrice-abhorrent Castle of +Machecoul.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVI" id="CHAPTER_LVI"></a>CHAPTER LVI</h2> + +<h3>THE SHADOW BEHIND THE THRONE</h3> + + +<p>Within the grim walls of Black Angers Duke John of Brittany and +reigning sovereign of western France was holding his court. The city +and fortress did not properly, of right and parchment holding, +appertain to him. But he had occupied it during the recent troubles +with the English, and his loving cousin and nominal suzerain Charles +the Seventh of France had not yet been strong enough to make him +render it up again.</p> + +<p>The Duke sat in the central tower of the fortress of Black Angers, +that which looks between the high flanking turrets of the mighty +enceinte of walls. He wriggled discontentedly in his chair and +grumbled under his breath.</p> + +<p>At his shoulder, tall, gaunt, angular, with lantern jaws and a mouth +like a wolf trap, deep-set eyes that flamed under bushy eyebrows, +stood Pierre de l'Hopital, the true master of Brittany.</p> + +<p>"I tell you I will go to the tennis-courts—the three Scots must wait +audience till to-morrow. What errand can they have with me—some +rascals whom Charles will not pay now that his job is done? They come +to take service doubtless. A beggarly lot are all such out-land +varlets, but brave—yes, excellent soldiers are the Scots, so long as +they are well fed, that is."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nay, my Lord Duke," said Pierre de l'Hopital, standing up tall and +sombre, his long black gown accentuating the peculiarities of his +figure. "It were almost necessary to see these men now and hear what +they have to say. I myself have seen them and judge it to be so."</p> + +<p>John of Brittany threw down the little sceptre, fashioned in imitation +of that made for the King of France, with which he had been toying. +The action was that of a pettish child.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he cried, "if you have decided, there remains nothing for me but +to obey!"</p> + +<p>"I thank your Excellency for your gracious readiness to grant the men +an interview," said Pierre de l'Hopital, having regard to the +essential matter and disregarding the unessential manner.</p> + +<p>Duke John sat glooming and kicking his feet to and fro on the raised +dais, while behind his chair, impassive as the Grand Inquisitor +himself, Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Brittany, lifted a hand to +an unseen servitor; and in a few moments the three Scots were ushered +into the ducal presence.</p> + +<p>The Lord James in virtue of his quality stood a little in front, not +by his own will or desire, but because Sholto and his father had so +placed themselves that the young noble should have his own rightful +precedence. For as to these things all Scots are careful by nature.</p> + +<p>Duke John continued to keep his eyes averted from the men who sought +his presence. He teased a little lop-eared spaniel, and nipped it till +it yelped. But the President of Brittany never took his eyes off the +strangers, examining them with a bold, keen, remorseless glance, in +which, however, there was neither evil nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> the tolerance of it. Not a +man to make himself greatly beloved, this Pierre de l'Hopital.</p> + +<p>And little he cared whether or no. In Brittany men did his will. That +was enough.</p> + +<p>James Douglas was nettled at the inattention of the Duke. He was of +that large and sanguine nature which is at once easily touched by any +discourtesy and very quick to resent it.</p> + +<p>"My Lord of Brittany," he began in a loud clear voice, and in his +usual immaculate French, "I claim your attention for a little. I come +to lay before you that which touches your kin and kingdom."</p> + +<p>Duke John continued to play with the lap-dog, and in addition he +formed his mouth to whistle. But he never whistled.</p> + +<p>"His Grace of Brittany will now give you his undivided attention," +said the President from behind, without moving a muscle either of his +body or of his face, save those necessary to propel the words from his +vocal cords.</p> + +<p>The brow of Duke John flushed with anger, but he did not disobey. He +raised his head and gazed straight at the three men, fixing his eyes, +however, with a studied discourtesy upon Sholto instead of upon their +natural leader and spokesman.</p> + +<p>Behind his chair Pierre de l'Hopital let his deep inscrutable eye +droop once upon his master, and his spare and sinewy wrists twitched +as he held his arms by his side. He seemed upon the point of dealing +ducal dignity a box on the ear both sound and improving.</p> + +<p>"I am the Lord James of Douglas and Avondale," said the leader of the +Scots with grave dignity, "and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> I had three years ago the honour of +breaking a lance with you in the tilt-yard of Poitiers, when in that +town your Grace met with the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy."</p> + +<p>At this John of Brittany looked up quickly.</p> + +<p>"I do not remember you," he said, "and I never forget faces. Even +Pierre will grant me that."</p> + +<p>"Your Grace may possibly remember, then, the dint in your shoulder +that you got from the point of a spear, caused by the breaking of the +links of your shoulder-piece."</p> + +<p>A light kindled in the Duke's eyes.</p> + +<p>"What," he cried, "you are the young Scot who fought so well and kept +his shield up day by day over the door of a common sergeant's tent, +having no pavilion of his own, till it was all over dints like an +alehouse tankard?"</p> + +<p>"As were also the knights who dinted it," grimly commented Pierre de +l'Hopital.</p> + +<p>The Lord James of Avondale bowed.</p> + +<p>"I am that knight," he said quietly and with gravity.</p> + +<p>"But," cried the Duke, "I knew not then that you were of Douglas. That +is a great name in Poitiers, and had we known your race and quality we +had not been so ready with our shield-rapping."</p> + +<p>"At that time," said James Douglas, "I had not the right to add 'of +Douglas' to my titles. But during this year my father hath succeeded +to the Earldom and estates."</p> + +<p>"What—then is your father Duke of Touraine?" cried the Duke of +Brittany, much astonished.</p> + +<p>"Nay, my lord," said James Douglas, with some little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> bitterness. "The +King of France hath caused that to revert to himself by the success +which attended a certain mission executed for him in Scotland by his +Chamberlain, the Marshal de Retz, concerning whom we have come from +far to speak with you."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my cousin Gilles!" cried Duke John. "He is not a beauty to look +at, but he is a brave man, our Gilles. I heard he had gone to +Scotland. I wonder if he contrived to make himself as popular in your +land as he has done in ours."</p> + +<p>With a certain grave severity to which Pierre de l'Hopital nodded +approval, the Lord James replied: "At the instigation of the King of +France and Louis the Dauphin he succeeded in murdering my two cousins +William and David of Douglas, and in carrying over hither with him to +his own country their only sister, the little Countess of +Galloway—thus rooting out the greatest house in Scotland to the hurt +of the whole realm."</p> + +<p>"But to your profit, my Lord James of Avondale," commented the hollow +voice of Pierre de l'Hopital, speaking over his master's head.</p> + +<p>The face of James Douglas flushed quickly.</p> + +<p>"No, messire," he answered with a swift heat. "Not to my profit—to my +infinite loss. For I loved my cousin. I honoured him, and for his sake +would have fought to the death. For his sake have I renounced my own +father that begat me. And for his sake I stand here to ask for justice +to the little maiden, the last of his race, to whom by right belongs +the fairest province of his dominions. No, messire, you are wrong. In +all this have I had no profit but only infinite hurt."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span></p> + +<p>Pierre de l'Hopital bowed low. There was a pleased look on his face +that almost amounted to a smile.</p> + +<p>"I crave your pardon, my lord," he said; "that is well said indeed, +and he is a gentleman who speaks it."</p> + +<p>"Aye, it is indeed well said, and he had you shrewdly on the hip that +time, Pierre," cried Duke John. "I wish he could teach me thus +cleverly to answer you when you croak."</p> + +<p>"If you had as good a cause, my lord," said the President of Brittany +to the Duke, "it were not difficult to answer me as sharply. But we +are keeping these gentlemen from declaring the purpose of their +journey hither."</p> + +<p>The Lord James waited for no further invitation.</p> + +<p>"I come," he said boldly, holding a parchment in his hand, the same he +had received from the Lady Sybilla, "to denounce Gilles de Retz and to +accuse him of many cruel and unrighteous acts such as have never been +done in any kingdom. I accuse him of the murder of over four hundred +children of all ages and both sexes in circumstances of unparalleled +barbarity. I am ready to lead you to the places where lie their +bodies, some of them burned and their ashes cast into the ditch, +others charred and thrown into unused towers. I have here names, +instances, evidence enough to taint and condemn a hundred monsters +such as Gilles de Retz."</p> + +<p>"Ah, give me the paper," came the raucous voice of the President of +Brittany, as he reached a bony hand over his master's shoulder to +seize it.</p> + +<p>The Lord James advanced, and giving it to him said, "Messire, I would +have you know that a copy of this is already in the hands of a trusty +person in each of the towns and villages which are named here, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> +from which children have been led to cruel death by him whom I have +accused, Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France."</p> + +<p>The President of Brittany nodded as he almost snatched the paper in +his eagerness to peruse it.</p> + +<p>"The point is cleverly taken," he said, "as justly indeed as if you +knew my Lord of Brittany as well as, for instance, I know him."</p> + +<p>The Duke was obviously discomfited. He shuffled his feet more than +ever on the dais and combed his straggling fair beard with soft, +white, tapering fingers.</p> + +<p>"This is wild and wholly absurd," he said, without however looking at +James Douglas; "our cousin Gilles is in ill odour with the commonalty. +He is a philosopher and makes smells with bottles. But there is +neither harm nor witchcraft in it. He is only trying to discover the +elixir of life. So the silly folk think him a wizard. I know him +better. He is a brave soldier and my good cousin. I will not have him +molested."</p> + +<p>"My lord speaks of kinship," grated the voice of Pierre de l'Hopital. +"Here are the names of four hundred fathers and mothers who have also +a claim to be heard on that subject, and whose voices, if I judge +right, are being heard at this moment around the Castles of Machecoul, +Tiffauges, Champtocé, and Pouzages. I wot there is now a crowd of a +thousand men pouring through the passages of the Hotel de Suze in your +Grace's own ducal city of Nantes. And if there goes a bruit abroad, +that your Highness is protecting this monster whom the people hate, +and the evidences of whose horrid cruelty are by this time in their +hands—well, your Grace knows the Bretons as well as I. They will +make <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> one end of Gilles de Retz and of his cousin John, Duke of +Brittany."</p> + +<p>"Think you so—think you so truly, Pierre?" cried the unhappy reigning +prince; "I would not screen him if this be true. But the King—what of +the King? They say he hath promised him support with arms and men for +recovering to him and to Louis the Dauphin the Duchy of Touraine."</p> + +<p>"And think you, my lord, that the Dauphin will keep his promise, if we +show him good cause why he should fare better by breaking it?" +suggested Pierre de l'Hopital, with the grim irony which had become +habitual to him.</p> + +<p>John of Brittany paused irresolute.</p> + +<p>"Besides which," continued James Douglas, "I may add that this paper +is already in the hands of the Cardinal Bishop of Nantes, and if your +Grace will not move in the matter, his Eminence has promised to see +justice done."</p> + +<p>"The hireling—the popular mouther after favour! I know him," cried +Duke John, angrily. "What accursed demon sent you to him? In this, as +in other matters, he will strive to oust me from the hearts of the +folk of Brittany. He will be the people's advocate and will gain great +honour from this trial, will he? We shall see. Ho! guards there! Turn +out. Summon those that are asleep. Let the full muster be called. I +will lead you to Machecoul myself. And these gentlemen shall march +with us. But by Heaven and the bones of Saint Anne of Auray, if in one +jot they shall fail to substantiate against Gilles de Retz those +things which they have testified, they shall die by the rack, and by +the cord, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> by disembowelling, and by fire. So swear I, Duke John +of Brittany."</p> + +<p>"It is good," said James Douglas. And "It is good," accorded also +Malise and Sholto MacKim.</p> + +<p>"But before any dies in Brittany, Gilles de Retz or another, <i>I</i> will +judge the case," commented Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Justice +and Grand Councillor of the reigning sovereign.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVII" id="CHAPTER_LVII"></a>CHAPTER LVII</h2> + +<h3>THE TOWER OF DEATH</h3> + + + +<p>Throughout La Vendée and all the country of Retz had run a terrible +rumour. "The Marshal de Retz is the murderer of our children. He has a +thousand bodies in the vaults of his castles. The Duke of Brittany has +given orders that they shall be searched. His soldiers are forsaking +him. The names of the dead have been written in black and white, and +are in the hands of the headmen of the villages. Hasten—it is the +hour of vengeance! Let us overwhelm him! Rise up and let us seek our +lost ones, even if we find no more than their bones!"</p> + +<p>And terrible as had been the gathering of the were-wolves in the dark +forests around Machecoul upon the night of the fight by the hollow +tree, far more threatening and terrible was the uprising of the angry +commons.</p> + +<p>In whole villages there was not a man left, and mothers too marched in +that muster armed with choppers and kitchen knives, wild eyed and +angry hearted as lionesses robbed of their cubs. From the deep glens +and deeper woods of the country of Retz they poured. They disgorged +from the caves of the earth whither the greed and rapacity of their +terrible lord had driven them.</p> + +<p>Schoolmasters were there with the elder of their pu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span>pils. For many of +the vanished children had disappeared on their way to school, and +these men were in danger of losing both their credit and occupation.</p> + +<p>Towards Tiffauges, Champtocé, Machecoul, the angry populace, long +repressed, surged tumultuously, and with them, much wondering at their +orders, went the soldiers of the Duke.</p> + +<p>But it is with the columns that concentrated upon Machecoul that we +have chiefly to do. Our three Scots accompanied these, and here, too, +marched John of Brittany himself with his Councillor Pierre de +l'Hopital by his side.</p> + +<p>Night fell as they journeyed on, ever joined by fresh contingents from +all the country round. In the van pressed forward the folk of Saint +Philbert, warm from the utter destruction of the house of the witch +woman, La Meffraye, so that not one stone was left upon another. +Guided by these the Duke and his party made their way easily through +the forest, even in the darkness of the night. And as they passed +hamlet or cottage ever and anon some frenzied mother would rush upon +them and fall on her knees before the Duke, praying him to look well +for her darling, and bringing mayhap some pitiful shred of clothing or +lock of hair by which the searchers might identify the lost innocent.</p> + +<p>As they went forward the soldiers pricked on ahead, and caused the +people to fall to the rear, lest any foreknowledge of their purpose +might reach the wizard and warn him to escape.</p> + +<p>The woods of Machecoul were dark and silent that night. Not the howl +of a questing wolf was heard. Truly the marshal's demons had forsaken +him, or may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span>hap they were all busy at that last carnival in the keep +of the Castle of Machecoul.</p> + +<p>As the storming party approached nearer, and while yet they were +several miles distant, they became aware of a great red light that +gleamed forth above them. They could not see whence it came, but the +peasants of Saint Philbert with affrighted glances told how it +beaconed only after the disappearance of some little one from their +homes, what strange cries were heard ringing out from that lofty +tower, and how for days after the smoke of a great burning would hang +about the gloomy turrets of devil-haunted Machecoul.</p> + +<p>Fiercer and ever fiercer shone the red glare, and the faces of the +soldiers were lit up so that Pierre de l'Hopital ordered them to keep +to the more gloomy arcades of the forest.</p> + +<p>Then by midnight the cordon was drawn so closely that none might pass +in or out. And behind the soldiery the common folk lay crouched, anger +in their hearts, and their eyes turned towards the open windows in the +keep of Machecoul, from which flared the red light of bale.</p> + +<p>Then, covering their lanterns, the three Scots, with Duke John, Pierre +de l'Hopital, and a score of officers, stole silently towards the +tower by which the Lady Sybilla had promised that an entrance should +be gained to the Castle of Machecoul.</p> + +<p>It was situated at the western corner towards the south, and was +joined to its fellows at the corresponding angles of the fortress by +galleried walls of great height. Ten feet above the ground was a +little door of embossed iron, but ordinarily no steps led to it when +the castle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> was in a state of defence. Yet when Sholto adventured into +the angle of the wall, he stumbled upon a ladder that leaned against +the little landing-ledge, above which was the entrance denoted on the +plan.</p> + +<p>Sholto ascended first, being the lightest and most agile of all. As he +had expected, he found the door unlocked and a narrow passage leading +within the tower. He lay a moment and listened, and then, being +certain there was a light and the sounds of labour within, he crawled +back to the ladder head, and whispered to the Lord James an order for +total silence.</p> + +<p>Whereupon, Sholto holding the ladder at the top, Duke John and his +Councillor mounted like shadows, and with Malise and James Douglas to +guard them they were presently crouched in the passage with the door +shut behind them, and the officers keeping watch at the foot of the +tower without.</p> + +<p>These five listened to the sounds of busy picks within the tower. They +could hear the ring of iron on stones and the panting of men engaged +in severe toil.</p> + +<p>"The marshal is preparing for flight," whispered the Duke, exultantly. +"He is interring his treasures. He has been warned. But we will be +overspeedy for him."</p> + +<p>And he chuckled in his satisfaction so loudly that Malise, using no +ceremony with Duke or varlet at such a season, put his hand over his +mouth.</p> + +<p>Then one by one they crawled along the narrow passage on their hands +and knees, and presently from a little balcony, plastered like a +swallow's nest on the inner wall of the tower, they found themselves +looking down upon a strange scene.</p> + +<p>A flight of steps led slantwise to the bottom, and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> the foot of the +tower, stripped to the waist, they beheld two men busily filling great +sacks with a curious cargo.</p> + +<p>The turret had never been finished. It contained nothing whatever +except the staircase. So far as Sholto could see there was not even a +window anywhere. The door by which they had entered and another which +evidently led into the interior of the castle were its only outlets. +The earth at the bottom had remained as it had been left by the +builders, who surely must have thought that no madder architectural +freak was ever planned than this shut tower of the Castle of Machecoul +with its blank walls and sordid accoutrement.</p> + +<p>But most strange of all, the original earth had been covered to the +depth of a foot or more with dark objects, the true significance of +which did not appear from the distance of the little gallery where the +party of five had stationed themselves.</p> + +<p>The two men at work below had brought torches with them, which were +fastened to the walls by iron spikes. The smoke from these hung in +heavy masses about the tower, still further diminishing the clearness +with which the watchers aloft could observe what went on below.</p> + +<p>One of the workmen was tall and spare, with the forward thrust of head +and neck seen in vultures and other unclean birds. The other, who held +the sacks while his companion shovelled, was on the contrary stout and +short, of a notably jovial, rubicund countenance, in habit like the +hostler of an inn, or perhaps a well-to-do carrier upon the roads.</p> + +<p>The two worked without speaking, as if the task were distasteful. When +one sack was full, both would seize their picks and dig furiously at +the floor of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> tower. Then when they had enough loosened, they +would fall to shovelling the curiously shaped objects into the sacks +again.</p> + +<p>As Sholto looked down he heard a hissing whisper at his ear.</p> + +<p>"These be Blanchet the sorcerer and Robin Romulart. But last week they +took notice of my little Jean and praised him for a noble boy."</p> + +<p>Sholto turned round, and there at his elbow, having followed them in +spite of all orders and precautions, he discerned the woodman Louis +Verger, whose little son had been carried off by the grey she-wolf.</p> + +<p>Sholto motioned him back, and at a sign from the Duke, his father and +he began to descend. So silently did they make their way down the +stone steps, and so intent were the men upon their work, that in a +minute after leaving the little gallery Malise stood behind the taller +and Sholto stole like a shadow along the wall nearer to the little +rotund man who had been called Robin Romulart.</p> + +<p>The Duke held up his hand. Sholto and Malise each took their man about +the throat with their left arms and pulled them backward, at the same +time covering their mouths with their right hands. Blanchet never +moved in the strong arms of Malise. But Robin, whose rotund figure +concealed his great muscular development, might have escaped from +Sholto had not the woodman Verger flung himself at the little man's +throat and brought him to the ground. Then the Duke and the others +descended, and as they did so they became conscious of a choking +mephitic vapour which clung dank and heavy to the lower courses of the +tower.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a wild cry made all shiver. It came from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> Louis Verger, who +had sprung upon something that lay tossed aside in a corner.</p> + +<p>"Silence, man—on your life! Silence!" hissed Pierre de l'Hopital. +"Whatever you have found, think only of revenge and help us to it!"</p> + +<p>"I have found him. He is dead! The fiends! The fiends!" sobbed Louis +Verger, covering a small partially charred object with the curtmantle +of which he had rapidly divested himself for the purpose.</p> + +<p>Then it came upon those who stood on the floor of the tower that they +were in the marshal's main charnel-house. These vague forms, mostly +charred like half-burned wood, these scraps of white bone, these +little crushed skulls, were all that remained of the innocent children +who, in the freshness of their youth and beauty, had been seduced into +the fatal Castle of Machecoul.</p> + +<p>And what wonder that an appalling terror sat on the heart and mastered +the soul of Sholto MacKim. For how did he know that he was not +treading under foot at each step the calcined fragments of the fair +body of Maud Lindesay?</p> + +<p>Twenty sacks had been filled ready for transport, and as many more lay +folded and empty in a heap in a corner. The marshal, uneasy perhaps as +to the suspicions against him, and anxious to remove evidence from the +precincts of his castle, had ordered this Tower of Death to be +cleared. But truly his devil had once more forsaken him. The order had +been given a day too late.</p> + +<p>"God's grace, I stifle. Let us get out of this, and seize the +murderer," quoth Duke John, making his way towards the door.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Wait a moment," said Pierre de l'Hopital, "we must consider. We +cannot let the commons see this or they will sack the castle from +foundation to roof tree, and slay the innocent with the guilty. We +must seize and hold for fair trial all who are found within. <i>And I, +Pierre de l'Hopital, will try them!</i>"</p> + +<p>"What then do you propose?" said the Duke, getting as near the door as +possible.</p> + +<p>"Let us bring in hither the officers and what soldiers you can +trust—that is not my business," answered the President. "Then we will +go through the castle, and after we have secured the prisoners and +made sure of sufficient pieces of justificative evidence, of which we +have infinite supply in these sacks, we may e'en permit the people to +work their will."</p> + +<p>As it was Sholto who had first entered, so it was Sholto who first +left the Tower of Death. He it was also who, at the head of a strong +band, surprised the marshal's sleepy inner guard, and helped to bind +them with his own hands. It was Sholto who, at the foot of the stairs +of the great keep, stood listening that he might know the right moment +to lead the besiegers upward.</p> + +<p>But even as he stood thus, down the stairway there came pealing a +terrible cry, the shriek of a woman in the final agony, shrill, +desperate, unavailing.</p> + +<p>And at the sound Sholto flew up the stone steps in the direction of +the cry, not knowing what he did, save that he went to kill.</p> + +<p>And scarce a foot behind him followed the woodman, Louis Verger, and +as they fled upward the red gloom grew brighter till they seemed to be +rushing headlong into a furnace mouth.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LVIII" id="CHAPTER_LVIII"></a>CHAPTER LVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE WHITE TOWER OF MACHECOUL</h3> + + +<p>So at the command of the Marshal de Retz they sent to bring forth +Margaret of Douglas and Maud Lindesay out of the White Tower, where +they had been abiding. Margaret had gone to bed, and, as was her +custom, Maud Lindesay sat awhile by her side. For so far as they could +they kept to the good and kindly traditions of Castle Thrieve. It +seemed somehow to bring them nearer home in that horrible place where +they were doomed to abide.</p> + +<p>"Give me your hand, Maud, and tell on," said little Margaret, nestling +closer to her friend, and laying her head against her arm as she +leaned on the low bedstead beside her.</p> + +<p>Margaret was gowned in a white linen night-rail, made long ago for the +marshal's daughter, little Marie de Retz, in the brighter days before +the setting up of the iron altar. Catherine, his deserted wife, had +been kind to the girls at Pouzages, and had given to both of them such +articles of garmenture as they were sorely in need of.</p> + +<p>"Tell on—haste you," commanded little Margaret, with the +imperiousness of loving childhood, nestling yet closer as she spoke. +"It helps me to forget. I can almost think when you are speaking that +we are again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> at Thrieve, and that if we looked out at the window we +should see the Dee running by and Screet and Ben Gairn—and hear +Sholto MacKim drilling his men out in the courtyard. Why, Maudie, what +is the matter? I did not mean to make you cry. But it is all so sweet +to think upon in this place. Oh, Maudie, Maudie, what would you give +to hear a whaup whistle?"</p> + +<p>Then drawing herself into a sitting posture, with her hands about +Maud's neck, she took a kerchief from under the pillow and dried her +friend's tears, murmuring the while, "Ah, do not cry, Maud, my vision +will yet come true, and you shall indeed see Ben Gairn and +Thrieve—and everything. I was dreaming about it last night. Shall I +tell you about it, sweet Maud?"</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay did not reply, not having recovered power over her +voice. So the little Maid of Galloway went on unbidden.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I dreamed a glad dream yester-even. Shall I tell it you all and +all? I will—though you can tell stories far better than I.</p> + +<p>"Methought that I and you—I mean, dear Maud, you and I, were sitting +together in the gloaming at the door of a little house up on the edges +of the moorland, where the heather is prettiest, and reddest, and +longest. And we were happy. We were waiting for some one. I shall not +tell you who, Maudie, but if you are good, and stop crying, you can +guess. And there was a ring on your finger, Maud. No, not like the old +ones—not a pretty ring like those in your box, yet you loved it more +than them all, and never stopped turning it about between your finger +and thumb.</p> + +<p>"They had let me come up to stay with you, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> men who had +accompanied me were drinking in the clachan. As we sat I seemed to +hear their loud chorus, sounding up from the change-house.</p> + +<p>"And you listened and said: 'I wish he would come. He is very long. It +is always long when he is away.' But you never said who it was that +was long away. And I shall not tell you, though I know. Perhaps it was +old Jock Lacklands, who used to be captain of the guard, and perhaps +grouting Peter, from the gate-house by the ford. But somehow I do not +think so. Ah, that is better! Now do not cry again. But listen, else I +will not tell you any more, but go off to sleep instead.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you do not want to hear the rest. Yet—it was such a pretty +dream, and of good omen.</p> + +<p>"You <i>do</i> want to hear? Well, then, be good!</p> + +<p>"As we sat there we could hear the bumblebees scurrying home, and +every now and then one of the big boom-beetles would sail whirring +past us. We could hear the sheep crying below in the little green +meadows so lonesomely, and the snipe bleating an answer away up in the +sky above their heads, and you said, '<i>It is all so empty, wanting +him!</i>'</p> + +<p>"Then the maids brought in the cows, and milked them standing at the +gable end, and we could smell the smell of their breath, sweet like +the scent of the flowers they had been eating all day long. Then, +after a while, they were driven out of the yard again, and went in a +string, one after the other, back to their pastures, doucely and +sedately, just like folk going to holy kirk on Sabbath days when it is +summer time in Galloway.</p> + +<p>"Then you said, 'I am weary of waiting for him!' And I answered, +'Why,—he has not been gone more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> than a day. Sometimes I do not see +him for weeks, and <i>I</i> never fret like that!'</p> + +<p>"Then you answered (it has all come so clear into my mind), 'Some day +you will know, little one!' And you patted me on the head, and went to +the house end to look into the sunset. You looked many minutes under +your hand, and when you came back you said, as if you had never said +it before, 'He is long a-coming! I wonder what can be keeping him.'</p> + +<p>"Then the maidens told us that the supper was ready to put on the +table, whereat you scolded them, telling them that it was too early, +and that they must keep it hot against their master's coming. And to +me you said, 'You are not hungry, are you?' And I answered, 'No,' +though I was indeed very hungry—(in my dream, that is). Then you said +again, sighing: 'It is strange that he should not come home! I cannot +eat till he comes! Perhaps he has fallen into a ditch, or some eagle +may have pecked out his eyes!'</p> + +<p>"Then all the while it grew darker, and still no one came. Whereat you +cried a little softly, and said: 'He might have come—I know right +well he could have been here by this time if he had tried. But he does +not love me any more.' And you were patting the ground with your foot +as you used to do when—well, when he went away from Thrieve without +coming out upon the leads to say 'Good-night.' Then, all at once, +there was a noise of quick feet brushing eagerly through the heather, +and some one (no, not Landless Jock) leaped the wall and caught +me—<i>me</i>—in his arms."</p> + +<p>"No, it was not you whom he caught in his arms!" cried Maud Lindesay, +indignantly, and then stopped,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> abashed at her own folly. But the +little maid laughed merrily.</p> + +<p>"Aha!" she said, "<i>I</i> caught you that time in my trap. You know who it +was in my dream, though I have never told you, nor so much as hinted.</p> + +<p>"And he asked if you had missed him, and you made a sign for me not to +speak, just as you used to do at Castle Thrieve, and answered, 'No, +not a little bit! Margaret and I were quite happy. We hoped you would +not come back at all this night, for then we could have slept +together.'"</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay drew a long, soft breath, and looked out of the window +of the White Tower into the dark.</p> + +<p>"That is a sweet dream," she murmured. "Ah, would that it were true, +and that Sholto—!"</p> + +<p>She broke off short again, for the maid clapped her hands gleefully. +"You said it! You said it!" she cried. "You called him Sholto. Now I +know; and I am so glad, for he is nearly as good to play with as you. +And I shall not mind him a bit."</p> + +<p>Little Margaret stopped short in her turn, seeing something in her +friend's face.</p> + +<p>"Why are you suddenly grown so sad, Maudie?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"It came upon me, dear Margaret," said Maud, "how that we are but two +helpless maids in a dreadful place without a friend. Let us say a +prayer to God to keep us!"</p> + +<p>Then Margaret Douglas turned and knelt with her face to the pillow and +her small hands clasped in front of her.</p> + +<p>"Give me your silver cross," she said, "I lent the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span> little gold one +that was William's to the Lady Sybilla, and she hath not returned it +me again."</p> + +<p>Maud gave her the cross and she took it and held it in the palm of her +hand looking long at it. Then she repeated one by one the children's +orisons she had been taught, and after that she made a little prayer +of her own. This is the prayer.</p> + +<p>"Lord of mercy, be good to two maids who are lonely and weak, and shut +up in this place of evil men. Keep our lives and our souls, and also +our bodies from harm. Make us not afraid of the dark or of the devil. +For Thou art the stronger. And do not forget to be near us this night, +for we have no other friend and sorely do we need one to love and +deliver us. Amen."</p> + +<p>It was true. More bitterly than any two in the whole world, these +maidens needed a friend at that moment. For scarcely had the childish +accents been lost in the night silence, when the outer door of the +White Tower was thrown open to the wall, and on the steps of the +turret stair they heard the noise of men coming upwards to their +prison-room.</p> + +<p>But first, though the inner door of their chamber was locked within, +the bolts glided back apparently of their own accord. It opened, and +the hideous face of La Meffraye looked in upon them with a cackle of +fiendish laughter.</p> + +<p>"Come, sweet maidens," she cried gleefully, as the frightened girls +clasped each other closer upon the bed, "come away. The Marshal de +Retz calls for you. He hath need of your beauty to grace his feast. +The lights of the banquet burn in his hall. See the fire of burning +shine out upon the night. The very trees are red with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> it. The skies +are red. All is red. Come—up—make yourselves fair for the eyes of +the great lord to behold!"</p> + +<p>Then behind La Meffraye entered Gilles de Sillé and Poitou, the +marshal's servants.</p> + +<p>"Make ready in haste—you are both to go instantly before my lord, who +abides your coming!" said Gilles de Sillé. "Poitou and I will abide +without the door, and La Meffraye here shall be your tirewoman and see +that you have that which you need. But hasten, for my lord is instant +and cannot be kept waiting!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>So they brought the Scottish maidens down from the White Tower into +the night. They walked hand in hand. Their steps did not falter, and, +as they went, they prayed to God to keep them from the dangers of the +place. Astarte, the she-wolf, who must have kept guard beneath, +stalked before them, and behind them they seemed to hear the hobbling +crutch and cackling laughter of La Meffraye.</p> + +<p>Across the wide courtyard of Machecoul they went. It also was filled +with the reflection of the red tide of light which ebbed and flowed, +waxing and waning above. Saving for that window the whole castle was +wrapped in gloom and silence, and if there were any awake within the +precincts they knew better than to spy upon the midnight doings of +their dread lord.</p> + +<p>The little party passed up the great staircase of the keep and +presently halted before the inscribed wooden door by which Laurence +had entered the Temple of Evil.</p> + +<p>As Gilles de Sillé opened it for the maids to precede him, the skirt +of Maud Lindesay's robe, blown back by the draught of the chamber, +fluttered against the cheek<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> of Laurence MacKim as he lay on his face +in the niche of the wall. At the light touch he came to himself, and +looked about with a strange and instant change in all the affections +and movements of his heart.</p> + +<p>With the coming in of the maidens, fear seemed utterly to forsake him. +A clarity of purpose, an alertness of brain, a strength of heart +unknown before, took the place of the trembling bath of horror in +which he had swooned away.</p> + +<p>It was like the sudden appearance of two white angels walking fearless +and unscathed through the grim dominions of the Lords of Hell.</p> + +<p>Incarnate Good had somehow entered the house of the Demon, though it +was in the slender periphery of two maidens' bodies, and evil, strong +and resistless before, seemed in the moment to lose half its power.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_09.jpg" width="400" height="588" alt="It was like the sudden appearance of two white angels walking fearless and unscathed through the grim dominions of the Lords of Hell." title="It was like the sudden appearance of two white angels walking fearless and unscathed through the grim dominions of the Lords of Hell." /> +<span class="caption">It was like the sudden appearance of two white angels walking fearless and unscathed through the grim dominions of the Lords of Hell.</span> +</div> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LIX" id="CHAPTER_LIX"></a>CHAPTER LIX</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST SACRIFICE TO BARRAN-SATHANAS</h3> + + +<p>And as Laurence MacKim, crouched in the dim obscurity of the curtained +doorway, looked forth, this is what he saw.</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay and Margaret Douglas advanced into the centre of the +temple where was a slab of white marble let into the floor. As if by +instinct the two maids stopped upon it, standing hand in hand before +the iron altar and the vast shadowy image which gloomed above and +appeared to reach forward in act to clutch them. After the first check +in his hideous incantations, Gilles de Retz had returned to his own +chamber, in which, after his entrance, the light gleamed brighter and +more fiercely red than ever. As the maidens stood on the marble square +La Meffraye went to the door and called certain words within, +conveying some message which Laurence could not hear.</p> + +<p>Then with an assured carriage and haughty stride came forth the +marshal, his grey hair and blue-black beard in strong contrast with +his haggard corpse-pale face, from which the momentary glow of youth +half-restored had already faded, as fades a footprint upon wet sand.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Sillé and Poitou bowed silently before him as men who have +done their commission, and who retire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> to await further orders. But La +Meffraye, once more apparent, stood her ground.</p> + +<p>"Here are the dainty maids from the far land; no beggars' brats are +they. No strays and pickings from the streets. No, nor yet silly +village innocents who follow La Meffraye from the play-fields through +the woodlands to the Paradise of our Lord Gilles! Hasten not the joy! +Let these pearls of youth and beauteousness die indeed, but let them +die slowly and deliciously. And in the last blood of an ancient race +let our master bathe and find the new life he seeks. Hear us, O +Barran-Sathanas, and grant our prayer!"</p> + +<p>Then La Meffraye approached the maids and would have touched the dress +of the little Margaret, as if to order it more daintily for the +pleasing of her master's eye. But Maud Lindesay thrust her aside like +an unclean thing.</p> + +<p>Whereat La Meffraye laughed till her rusty black cloak quivered and +rustled from hood to hem.</p> + +<p>"Ah, my proud lady," she croaked, "in a little, in a very little, you +too will be calling upon La Meffraye to save you, to pity you. But I, +La Meffraye, will gloat over each drop of blood that distils from your +fair neck. Aha, you shall change your tone when at the white +throat-apple which your sweetheart would have loved to kiss, you feel +the bite of the sharp slow knife. Then you will not thrust aside La +Meffraye. Then you shall cry and none shall pity. Then she will spurn +you from her knees."</p> + +<p>"Out!" said Gilles de Retz, briefly, and like some inferior imping +devilkin before the great Master of Evil, La Meffraye retreated +hobbling to the doorway of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> marshal's chamber, where she crouched +nodding and chuckling, mumbling inaudible words, and mingling them +ever with her dry cackling laughter.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz stopped at the corner of the platform and looked long +at Maud and Margaret where they stood on the great central square of +marble. It was the Maid who spoke first.</p> + +<p>"Dear Messire," she said sweetly and almost confidently, "you have a +little girl of your own. I know, for I have played with her. I love +her. Therefore you will not hurt us. I am sure you will not hurt us. +You are going to send us back in a ship to our own country, because it +is lonely here where Maud and I know no one!"</p> + +<p>The marshal smiled upon her his inhuman inscrutable smile. He leaned +against a pillar of strangely twisted design, and contemplated the two +victims at his ease.</p> + +<p>"Life is sweet to you, is it not?" he said at last; "you are truly +happy, being young, and so have no need to be made young again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I am very old," cried the Maid, gaining some confidence from +the quiet of his voice, "I am nearly eight years old. And our Maudie +here, she is—oh, a dreadful age! She is very, very old!"</p> + +<p>"You would not like to die?" suggested Gilles de Retz, with a certain +soft insinuation.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Margaret Douglas, "I am going to live long and +long—till every one in the world loves me. I am going to help every +one to get what he most desires. And you know I can, for I shall be +very rich. And if what they say is true, and I am Princess of +Galloway, I shall marry and be a very great lady. But I shall never +marry any one who is not a Douglas."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span></p> + +<p>The marshal nodded.</p> + +<p>"I do not think that you shall marry any one who is not a Douglas!" he +said, with a certain grave and not discourteous irony in his tones.</p> + +<p>"Yes," the little Maid went on. She had lost all fear in the very act +of speech. "Yes, and Maud, she is going to marry Sholto—and they will +be very happy, for they love each other so. I know it, for she told me +to-night just before you sent for us to come to your feast. That was +kind of you to remember us, though it was past bed-time. But now, good +marshal, you will send us back, will you not? Now, look kind to-night. +You will be glad afterwards that you were good to two maids who never +harmed you, but are ready to love you if you prove kind to them."</p> + +<p>"Hush, Margaret," said Maud Lindesay. "It is useless to speak such +words to such a man."</p> + +<p>The Marshal de Retz turned sharply to her.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said, with a curious bite in his speech, "then, my young +lady, you would not love me, even if I were to let you go!"</p> + +<p>"I should hate and abominate you for ever and ever, even if you helped +me into Paradise!" quoth Maud Lindesay, giving him defiance in a full +eye-volley.</p> + +<p>"So," he said calmly, "I am indeed likely to help you into Paradise +this very night. That is, unless Saint Peter of the Keys makes up his +mind that so outspoken and tricksome a maid had best take a few +thousand years of purgatory—as it were on her way upwards, <i>en +passant</i>."</p> + +<p>A sudden lowering passion at this point altered his countenance.</p> + +<p>"No," he thundered, standing up erect from the pillar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span> against which +he had been leaning, and his whole voice and bearing changing past +description, "it is enough—listen! I will be brief with you. I have +brought both of you here that you may die. I cannot expect of you that +you will understand or appreciate my motives, which are indeed above +the knowledge of children. This is a temple to a Great God, and he +demands the sacrifice of the noblest and most innocent blood. I do you +the honour to believe that it is here to my hand. Also, your deaths +will cause a number of people both in Scotland and elsewhere to sit +easier in their seats. Lastly, I had sworn that you should die if your +friends from Scotland came to trouble me. They have come, and Gilles +de Retz keeps his word—as doth the Master whom he serveth!"</p> + +<p>He bowed in the direction of the vast shadowy figure, which to +Laurence's eye appeared to turn towards his niche with a leer, as if +to say, "Listen to him. What a fool he is!"</p> + +<p>The maids stood silent, not comprehending aught save that they were to +die. Then suddenly Gilles de Retz cried out in his loudest military +tones—"Henriet, Poitou, De Sillé, bind these maidens upon the iron +altar, that Barran-Sathanas may feed his eyes on their beauty and +rejoice!"</p> + +<p>And as they stood motionless upon the square of white marble, the +servitors came forward and led them to the great altar of iron. They +lifted the maidens up and laid their bodies crosswise upon the vast +grid, the bars of which were as thick as a man's arm, arranging them +so that their heads hung without support over the bar next the shadowy +image.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span></p> + +<p>As they bound them rudely hand and foot, the long and beautiful hair +of Maud Lindesay escaped from its fastenings and fell down till it +reached the bath of red porphyry which extended underneath the whole +length of the altar of iron.</p> + +<p>Then through all the Temple of Evil there ensued sudden silence. Not a +sob or a moan escaped from the doomed maidens, and the feet of the +assistants fell silent and soft as the paws of wild beasts upon the +ebon floor.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz waited till his acolytes had retired to their appointed +places, where they stood like carven statues watching what should +happen. Then slowly and deliberately he ascended to the broad platform +from which the iron altar rose, and stood with his arms folded over +his flame-coloured robe, looking gloatingly down, upon his innocent +victims. Maud Lindesay was the nearer to him, and her unbound hair +fell back and touched the peak of his pointed shoe of crimson Cordovan +leather.</p> + +<p>With a quick movement he caught up a handful of its rich luxuriance +and allowed it to run through his fingers like sand again and yet +again, with apparent delight in the sensation.</p> + +<p>Even as he did so the dim figure of the horned demon above appeared to +lean forward as if to touch him, and with a rushing noise the great +hour-glass set upon a pedestal at the foot of the image turned itself +completely over. Gilles with a startled air turned also, and seeing +what it was he laughed a strange hollow laugh.</p> + +<p>"It is indeed the hour, the hour of doom, fair maids," he said, +looking down upon them as deferentially as if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span> he had been paying his +court in the great hall of Thrieve, "but it shall not pass without +taking with it your souls to another, and I trust a higher, sphere!"</p> + +<p>He paused, but no complaint or appeal reached his cruel and inexorable +ear. The certain graciousness of Providence to those in extreme peril +seemed to have blunted the edge of fear in the innocent victims. They +lay still and apparently without consciousness upon the iron altar. +The red glow played upon their faces, shining through from the inner +chamber, and the figure of the marshal stood out black against it.</p> + +<p>On the floor lay the goblet from which he had drunk the Red Milk.</p> + +<p>"Give me the knife!" he cried, sudden as a trumpet that is blown.</p> + +<p>And reaching a withered hand within the marshal's chamber as if to +detach something from the wall, La Meffraye hobbled quickly across the +altar platform, bearing in her hand a shining weapon of steel, broad +of blade and curved at the point. She placed the ebony handle in the +marshal's hand, who weighed it lovingly in his grasp.</p> + +<p>Then for the first time since the men had bound her, the sweet +childish eyes of little Margaret were unclosed and looked up at Gilles +de Retz with the touching wonder of helplessness and innocence.</p> + +<p>At that moment the image appeared to Laurence to beckon to him out of +the gloom. A quick and nervous resolve ran through his veins. His +muscles became like steel within his flesh. He rose to his feet, and, +without pause for thought, rushed across the chapel from the niche +where he had been hidden.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Murderer! Fiend! I will kill you!" he cried, and with his dagger bare +in his hand he would have thrown himself upon the marshal. But swifter +than the rush of the young man in his strength there came another from +the door of the inner chamber.</p> + +<p>With a deep-throated roar of wholly bestial fury, Astarte the she-wolf +sprang upon Laurence, and, though he sank his dagger twice to the hilt +in her hairy chest, she over-bore him and they fell to the ground with +her teeth gripping his shoulder. Laurence felt the hot life-blood of +the beast spurt forth and mingle with his own. Then a flood of +swirling waters seemed to bear him suddenly away into the unknown.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When Laurence MacKim came to himself he emerged into a chill world in +which he felt somehow infinitely lonely and forsaken. Next he grew +slowly conscious that his feet and arms were bound tightly with cords +that cut painfully into the flesh. Then he realised that he, too, had +taken his place beside the maids upon the altar of iron. Strangely +enough he did not feel afraid nor even wish himself elsewhere. He only +wondered what would happen next.</p> + +<p>He opened his eyes and lo! they looked directly into the leering +countenance of the monstrous image. Yet there seemed something +curiously encouraging and even beneficent about the aspect of the +demon. But so often as Gilles de Retz passed the triple array of his +victims with his back to the image, the regard of the sculptured devil +followed him, grim and mocking.</p> + +<p>Words of angry altercation came to the ears of Laurence MacKim.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I tell you," cried the voice of Gilles de Retz, "I will not spare +them. Well nigh had I succeeded. Almost I was young again. I was +tasting the first sweetness of knowledge wide as that of the gods. I +felt the new life stirring within me. But I had not enough of the +blood of innocence, which is the only worthy libation to +Barran-Sathanas, who alone can bestow youth and life."</p> + +<p>Then the Lady Sybilla answered him. "I pray you, Gilles de Retz, as +you hope for mercy, slay not these maidens and this youth. Take me, +and bind me, instead, for the sacrifice of death. I have wrought +enough of evil! Take of my blood and work out your purpose. Let me +give you the libation you desire. Gilles de Retz, if ever I have aided +you, grant me this boon now. I beseech you, let these innocents go, +and bind me upon the altar in their places."</p> + +<p>Long and loud laughed Gilles de Retz, a hard, evil, and relentless +laugh.</p> + +<p>"Sybilla de Thouars an innocent maiden's sacrifice! Barran-Sathanas +himself laughs at the jest. He would have no pleasure in your death. +Soul and body you are his already. He desires only the blood and +suffering of the innocent—of those on whom he has never set his mark. +Nay, these three shall surely die, and in that bath of porphyry +hollowed out under his altar I will lave me from head to foot in the +Red Milk of innocence. I have no more need of you, Sybilla mine. You +have done your work, and for your reward you can now depart to your +own place. Out of my way, I say. Henriet, Poitou, quick! Remove this +woman from before the altar!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then, struggling strongly in their hands, the servitors carried the +Lady Sybilla to the farther end of the chapel, where they abode on +either side, holding her fast. And as the last grains of sand began to +swirl towards their fall and a little whirlpool to form funnel-wise in +the midst of the hour-glass, the butcher was left alone with his +victims upon the platform of the iron altar.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz turned towards the image, and, lifting up his hand +solemnly, he cried in a great voice, "O Barran-Sathanas, be pleased to +behold this innocent blood spilled slowly in thine honour. As the red +fount flows and the red fire burns, restore my youth and make me +strong. Faithfully will I serve thee and thee alone, renouncing all +other. O Barran-Sathanas, great and only Lord, receive my sacrifice. +It is the hour!"</p> + +<p>And so saying he laid hold of Maud Lindesay by the hair, and raised +the curved knife on high.</p> + +<p>Then from the end of the chapel to which the Lady Sybilla had been +taken there came a sound. With a great despairing effort she burst +from her captors' hands and ran forward. She knelt down on the marble +slab whereon the maids had stood at their first entering, and as she +knelt she held aloft a golden crucifix.</p> + +<p>"If there be a God in heaven, let him manifest himself now!" she +cried, "by the virtue of this cross of His son Jesus Christ, I call +upon Him!"</p> + +<p>Then suddenly all the place was filled with a mighty rushing noise. +The last grains ran low in the hour-glass. It shifted in its stand and +turned over. A tremor like that of an earthquake shook all the castle +to its foundations. The solid keep itself rocked like a vessel in a +stormy sea. The great image overturned, and by its fall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> Gilles de +Retz was stricken senseless to the earth. The next moment, like +flood-gates burst by a mighty tide, the doors of the temple were +opened with a clang, and through them a crowd of armed men came +rushing in with triumphant shouts and angry cries of vengeance.</p> + +<p>Sholto was far ahead of the others, and, as if led by the unerring +instinct of love, he ran to the altar whereon his love lay white as +death, but without a mark upon her fair body.</p> + +<p>It was the work of a moment to cut their cords and chafe the numbed +wrists and ankles. James Douglas took the little Margaret. Sholto had +his sweetheart in his arms, while Laurence recovered quickly enough to +aid his father in securing Gilles de Retz and his servants. La +Meffraye they took not, for she lay dead within the inner chamber, +where yet burned the great fire which was used to consume the bodies +of the demon's victims. Two gaping wounds were found in her breast, in +the same place in which the dagger of Laurence MacKim had smitten the +she-wolf as she sprang upon him. But Astarte, woman witch or +were-wolf, was never seen again, neither by starlight, moonlight, nor +yet in the eye of day. Truly of Gilles de Retz was it said, "His demon +hath deserted him."</p> + +<p>Beneath in the courts and quadrangles, swarming through the towers and +clambering perilously on the roofs, surged the press of the furious +populace. It was all that Duke John and his officers could do to keep +the prisoners in ward, and to prevent them from being torn limb from +limb (as had perhaps been fittest), and tossed alive into the flaming +funeral pyre of Castle Machecoul,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span> which, lighted by a hundred hands, +presently began to flame like a volcano to the skies.</p> + +<p>For the hour that comes to every evil-doer had come to Gilles de Retz. +And in that hour, as it shall ever be, the devil in whom he trusted +had forsaken him.</p> + +<p>But the Lady Sybilla stood on the garden tower that in happier days +had been her pleasaunce, and beheld. And as she watched she kissed the +golden crucifix of the child Margaret. And her heart rejoiced because +the lives of the innocent as well as the death of the guilty had been +given her for her portion.</p> + +<p>"And now, O Lord, I am ready to pay the price!" she said.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LX" id="CHAPTER_LX"></a>CHAPTER LX</h2> + +<h3>HIS DEMON HATH DESERTED HIM</h3> + + +<p>The soldiers of the Duke of Brittany stood with bared swords and +deadly pikes around the Marshal de Retz and those of his servants who +had been taken—that is to say, round Poitou, Clerk Henriet, Blanquet, +and Robin Romulart. About them surged ever more fiercely the angry +populace, drunk with the hot wine of destruction, having been filled +with inconceivable fury by that which they had seen in the round tower +wherein stood the filled bags of little charred remains.</p> + +<p>"Tear the wolves into gobbets! Kill them! Burn them! Send them quick +to Hell!" So ran the cry.</p> + +<p>And twice and thrice the villagers of the Pays de Retz charged +desperately as men who fight for their lives.</p> + +<p>"Stand to it, men!" cried Pierre de l'Hopital. "Gilles de Retz shall +have fair trial!</p> + +<p>"<i>But I shall try him!</i>" he added, under his breath.</p> + +<p>Never was seen such a sight as the procession which conducted Gilles +de Retz to the city of Nantes. The Duke had sent for his whole band of +soldiers, and these, in ordered companies, marched in front and rear. +A triple file guarded the prisoners, and even their levelled pikes +could scarce beat back the furious rushes of the populace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was like a civil war, for the assailants struck fiercely at the +soldiers—as if in protecting him, they became accessory to the crimes +of the hated marshal.</p> + +<p>"<i>Barbe Bleu! Barbe Bleu!</i>" they cried. "Slay <i>Barbe Bleu</i>! Make his +beard blood-red. He hath dipped it often in the life-blood of our +children. Now we will redden it with his own!"</p> + +<p>So ran the tumult, surging and gathering and scattering. And ever the +pikes of the guard flashed, and the ordered files shouldered a path +through the press.</p> + +<p>"Make way there!" cried the provost marshals. "Make way for the +prisoners of the Duke!"</p> + +<p>And as they entered the city, from behind and before, from all the +windows and roofs, rose the hoarse grunting roar of the hatred and +cursing of a whole people.</p> + +<p>But the object of all this rested calm and unmoved, and his cruel grey +eye had no expression in it save a certain tolerant and amused +contempt.</p> + +<p>"Bah!" he muttered. "Would that I had slain ten millions of you! It is +my only regret that I had not the time. It is almost unworthy to die +for a few score children!"</p> + +<p>During the journey to Nantes, Gilles de Retz kept the grand reserve +with which, when he came to himself, he had treated those who had +captured him. To the Duke only would he condescend to reply, and to +him he rather spoke as an equal unjustly treated than as a guilty +prisoner and suppliant.</p> + +<p>"For this, Sire of Brittany," he said, "must you answer to your +overlord, the King of France, whose minister and marshal I am!"</p> + +<p>The Duke would have made some feeble reply, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span> Pierre de l'Hopital +cut across the conversation with that stern irony which characterised +him.</p> + +<p>"My lord," he said, "remember that before you were made Marshal of +France you were born a subject of the Duke of Brittany! And as such +you shall be judged."</p> + +<p>"I decline to stand at your tribunal!" said the marshal, haughtily.</p> + +<p>"<i>Soit!</i>" said the President, indifferently, "but all the same you +shall be tried!"</p> + +<p>Duke John, knowing well that while his court was being held in the +capital city of his province, and especially during the trial of +Gilles de Retz, Nantes was no place for young maidens who had suffered +like Maud Lindesay and Margaret Douglas, sent them under escort to the +Castle of Angers.</p> + +<p>Sholto MacKim and his father were allowed to accompany them, that they +might not be without some of their own country to speak with during +their sojourn in France. The Lord James, however, elected to abide +with the court. For there were many ladies there, and, having nobility +of address and desiring to perfect himself in the niceties of +fashionable speech (which changed daily), he had great pleasure in +their society, and rode in the lists by the side of the Loire with +even more than his former gallantry and success.</p> + +<p>For, as he said, he needed some compensation for the long abstinence +enforced upon him by his habit of holy palmer. And right amply did he +make himself amends, and was accounted by dames fair and free the +lightsomest and properest Scot who had ever come into the land of +France.</p> + +<p>With him Laurence remained, both because his father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span> was still angry +with him on account of his desertion of them in Paris, and also +because having been so long in the Castle of Machecoul, there were +important matters concerning which in the forthcoming trial he alone +could give evidence.</p> + +<p>Pierre de l'Hopital would have detained the Lady Sybilla as a possible +accomplice of the Sieur de Retz, but by the intercession of the +Scottish maidens, as well as by the sworn evidence of Sholto and the +Lord James, testifying that wholly by her means Gilles de Retz had +finally been caught red-handed, she was permitted to depart whither +she would.</p> + +<p>"I will go to my sister," she said to Sholto, who came to know how he +could serve her. "It matters little. My work is nearly done!"</p> + +<p>So, riding as was her custom all alone upon a white palfrey, she +passed out of their sight towards the south.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the city of Nantes the rumour of the taking of Gilles de Retz had +spread like wild-fire, and as the cavalcade rode through the streets, +the windows rained down curses and the citizens hooted up from the +sidewalks. But the marshal kept his haughty and disdainful regard, +appearing like a noble nature who perforce companies for the nonce +with meaner men. He sat his favourite charger like a true companion of +Dunois and De Richemont, and, as more than one remarked, on this +occasion he looked like the royal prince and the Duke of Brittany the +prisoner.</p> + +<p>So in the New Tower of the Castle of Nantes, Gilles de Retz was placed +to wait his trial. There is no need to give a long account of it. The +documents have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span> printed in plain letter, and all the world knows +how Clerk Henriet faltered under the stern questioning of Pierre de +l'Hopital, and how finally he declared fully all these iniquities +without parallel in which he had borne so cruel a part.</p> + +<p>Poitou, more faithful to his master, held out till the threat of +torture and the appeals of his friend Henriet broke him down. But the +attitude and bearing of the chief culprit deserve that the historian +should not wholly pass them over.</p> + +<p>Even in his first haughty and contemptuous silence, Gilles de Retz was +shifting his ground, and with a cool unheated intelligence orienting +himself to new conditions. It soon became evident to his mind that the +powers of Evil in which he trusted, and to whose service he had +consecrated his life and fortune, had befooled and betrayed him.</p> + +<p>Well—even so would he fool them—if, by the grace of God, there were +yet any merit or hope in the service of Good. The priests said so. The +Scripture said so, and they might be right after all. At least, the +thing was worth trying.</p> + +<p>For a cold and calculating brain lay behind the worst excesses of the +terrible Lord de Retz. The religion of the Cross might not be of much +final use—still, it was all that remained, and Gilles de Retz +determined to avail himself of it. So once more he apostasised from +Barran-Sathanas to Jehovah.</p> + +<p>With an effrontery almost too stupendous for belief, he arrayed +himself in the white robes of a Carmelite novice and spent his prison +days in singing litanies and in private confession with his religious +adviser.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the great day of the trial at last arrived, the marshal, who had +expected on the bench the weak kindly countenance of Duke John, was +called upon to confront the indomitable judicial rectitude of Pierre +de l'Hopital, President and Grand-Seneschal of Brittany.</p> + +<p>Gilles de Retz appeared at his trial dressed in white of the richest +materials and with all his military decorations upon him. But his +judge, habited in stern and simple black, was not in the least +intimidated.</p> + +<p>Then came the great surprise. After the evidence of Henriet and Poitou +had been read to him, the marshal was asked to plead. To the surprise +of all, the accused claimed benefit of clergy.</p> + +<p>"I have been a great sinner," he said, "I have indeed deserved a +thousand deaths. But now I am a man of God. I have confessed. I have +received absolution for all my sins. God has forgiven me, and my soul +is cleansed!"</p> + +<p>"Good!" answered Pierre de l'Hopital, "I have nothing to do with your +soul. I must leave that, as you very pertinently remark, to God. But I +am here to try your body, and if found guilty to condemn that body to +suffer the penalties by law provided according to the statutes of +Brittany."</p> + +<p>Then Clerk Henriet was brought in to testify more fully of the crimes +beyond parallel in the history of mankind.</p> + +<p>The court had been hung round with black, and the only object which +appeared prominent was a beautiful ivory crucifix with a noble figure +of the Redeemer of Men carved upon it. This was suspended, according +to the custom, over the head of the President of the Tribunal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span></p> + +<p>Henriet had not proceeded far with his terrible relation of well nigh +inconceivable crimes when he stopped.</p> + +<p>"I cannot go on," he said, in a broken appealing voice; "I cannot tell +what I have to tell with That Figure looking down upon me!"</p> + +<p>So, with the whole Court standing up in reverence, the image of the +Most Pitiful was solemnly veiled from sight, that such deeds of +darkness might not be so much as named in that holy and gracious +presence.</p> + +<p>And during the ceremony Friar Gilles of the order of the Carmelites +stood up more reverently than any, for now, seeing that no better +might be, he had definitely renounced Barran-Sathanas and cast in his +lot with God Almighty.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"The sentence of this court is that you, Gilles de Laval, Lord of +Retz, Marshal of France, and you, Poitou and Henriet, be carried to +the meadow of La Biesse at nine of the clock on the morning of +to-morrow, and that you be there hanged and burned till you be dead. +And to God the Just One be the glory!"</p> + +<p>The voice of Pierre de l'Hopital rang out through the silence of the +hall of judgment.</p> + +<p>"Amen!" said Friar Gilles, devoutly crossing himself.</p> + +<p>And so in due course on the meadow of La Biesse, by the side of the +blue Loire, the evil soul of Gilles de Retz went to its own place with +all the paraphernalia of repentance and in the full odour of a +somewhat hectic sanctity.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The day after the burning, a little company of riders left the city of +Angers, journeying westward along the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span> Loire. It consisted of the +maidens Margaret Douglas and Maud Lindesay, with Sholto MacKim and a +dozen horsemen belonging to his Grace of Brittany. It had been +arranged that they were to be joined, upon an eminence above the river +on the right bank, by the Lord James, Malise, and Laurence, with the +escort which was to accompany them to the port of Saint Nazaire. There +(as was necessary in order to escape the troublesome navigation of the +swift and treacherous upper reaches) they would find vessels ready to +set sail for Scotland.</p> + +<p>As the little cloud of riders left behind them the black towers of +Angers, they passed through woodland glades wherein, in spite of the +lateness of the season, the birds were singing. The air was mild and +delightsome. At last, leaving the river, they struck away inland, +having the frowning towers of Champtocé on their left as they rode. +Presently they came to a forest, wherein in days before the great +cruelty, Gilles de Retz had often hunted the wolf and the wild boar.</p> + +<p>Here the woodland paths were covered deep with fallen leaves, and the +naked branches spoke of the desolation of a dead year.</p> + +<p>As the maids rode forward first of their company and talked, as was +natural, of that which had taken place the day before at Nantes, they +became aware of the Lady Sybilla riding towards them on her palfrey of +white. She would have passed them without speech, with her head +downcast and her eyes fixed upon the dank ground with its covering +drift of dead autumnal leaves.</p> + +<p>But Margaret, grateful for that which the Lady Sybilla had done for +them at Machecoul, spurred her steed and rode thwartwise to intercept +her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Sybilla," she said, "you will come with us to Scotland. I have many +castles there, and, they tell me, a princessdom of mine own. We shall +all be happy together and forget these ill times. Maud and I can never +repay that which you have done for us."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I pray you come with us," said Maud, a little more slowly, "we +will be your sisters, and the ill times shall not come again."</p> + +<p>The Lady Sybilla smiled a sad subtle smile and shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I thank you. I thank you more than you know. It eases my heart that +you should forgive a woman such as I for all the evil she has brought +you and yours. But I am now no fit companion for you or any. I am +become but a wandering shape, speaking to one who cannot answer, and +seeking him whom I can never find."</p> + +<p>The little Maid, being but a child, mistook her meaning.</p> + +<p>"No, no," she cried, "your life is not done. If the one whom you love +hath left you unkindly—well, bide awhile, and when the first smart is +passed, we will marry you to some braver and more handsome knight. +There are many such in Scotland. I pray you come with Maud and me even +as we wish you. Why, there would not be three like us in all the land. +I wager we will set kings by the ears between us. Though, as for me, I +can only marry a Douglas!"</p> + +<p>The smile of the Lady Sybilla grew ever sadder and ever sweeter.</p> + +<p>"The man whom I loved, and who loved me, I betrayed to the death. +There is no forgiveness for such as I in this life. Perhaps there may +be in the next.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span> At least, <i>he</i> forgave me, and that is enough. He +believed in me against myself, and I will wait. Till then I go hither +and thither and none shall hinder me or molest—for upon Sybilla de +Thouars God hath set the seal of Cain!"</p> + +<p>Margaret Douglas flicked her steed impatiently, causing the spirited +little beast to curvet.</p> + +<p>"I think it is very ill-done of you not to come to Scotland with us," +she said petulantly, "when we would have been so good to you!"</p> + +<p>"Too good, too kind," said the Lady Sybilla, very gently; "such +kindness is not for such as I am. But if I may, while I live I will +keep the golden cross you lent me—the crucifix your brother gave to +you on your birthday!"</p> + +<p>"Keep it—it is yours! I do not want it!" cried Margaret, glad to have +found some way of evidencing her gratitude.</p> + +<p>"I thank you," said Sybilla de Thouars; "some day I may come to +Scotland. And if I do, you shall come out from Thrieve and meet me by +the white thorns of the Carlinwark at the hour when the little +children sing!"</p> + +<p>And so, without other farewell, she turned and rode slowly away down +the avenues of fallen leaves, till the folding woodlands hid her from +the sight of those two who watched her with tear-blurred eyes and +hearts strangely stirred with pity for the fate of her whom they had +once hated with such good cause.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LXI" id="CHAPTER_LXI"></a>CHAPTER LXI</h2> + +<h3>LEAP YEAR IN GALLOWAY</h3> + + +<p>Morning dawned fair over the wide strath of Dee. Cairnsmuir and Ben +Gairn stood out south and north like blue, round-shouldered sentinels. +Castle Thrieve rose grey in the midst of the water-meadows, massive +and sombre in the early sunrise.</p> + +<p>Andro the Penman and his brother John, with the taciturnity natural to +early risers, were silently hoisting the flag which denoted the +presence of the noble young chatelaine of the great fortress.</p> + +<p>Sholto also was early astir, for the affairs of the castle and of the +host were in his hand, and there was much business to be despatched +that morning. The young Avondale Douglases were riding away from +Thrieve, for word had come that James the Gross, seventh Earl of +Douglas, was surely at death's door.</p> + +<p>"Besides," said William Douglas, "wherefore should we stay—our work +is done. No one will molest our cousin in her heritages now! We five +have stood about her while there was need. But for the present Sir +Sholto and his men can keep count and reckoning with any from the +back-shore of Leswalt to Berwick bound."</p> + +<p>"Aye, indeed," cried James Douglas, "we will go till the time come +when the suitors gather, like corbies about a dead lamb!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That is not a savoury comparison," cried Margaret of Douglas, now +grown older, and already giving more than a mere promise of that +wondrous beauty which afterwards made her celebrated in all lands, +"but after all, you, cousin James, have some right to make it. For, +but for you and our good Sholto there, this little ewe lamb would have +been carrion indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Good-by!" cried James of Avondale. "Haste thee and grow up, sweet +coz. Then will I come back with the rest of the corbies and take my +chance of the feast. I will keep myself for that day."</p> + +<p>But William Douglas sat square and silent on his charger.</p> + +<p>The Maid of Galloway waved her hand gaily to the younger of the +knights.</p> + +<p>"You shall have your chance with the rest," she cried; "but you will +not care about me then. Very likely I may have to fleech and cozen +with you like a sweetie-wife at a fair before either of you will marry +me. And you know I have sworn on the bones of Saint Bride to marry +none but a Douglas of the Douglases!"</p> + +<p>Then William Douglas saluted without a word, and turning his +bridle-rein rode away with his face steadfastly set to the north. But +James ever cried back farewells and jovial words long after he was out +of hearing. And even on the heights of Keltonmuir he still fluttered a +gay kerchief in his left hand.</p> + +<p>Then Margaret Douglas went back within the gates, where her eyes fell +upon Maud Lindesay, coming through the castle yard to meet her. For +that morning she had not wished to encounter Sholto—at least not +among so many. The two maidens walked on together, and which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span> was the +fairer, the black or the nut-brown, none could say who beheld them.</p> + +<p>After a while Margaret Douglas sighed.</p> + +<p>"I wonder which of them I like the best," she said.</p> + +<p>Maud laughed a merry, scornful laugh in which was a world of superior +knowledge.</p> + +<p>"You do not like either of them very much yet, or you would have no +difficulty about the matter!" said this wise woman.</p> + +<p>"Well, I wonder which of them loves me best," she went on; "James +tells me of it a hundred times every day and all day. But William says +nothing. He only looks at me often, as if he disapproved of me. I am +over light for him, I trow. He thinks not of me."</p> + +<p>Then after a pause she said, again with her finger on her lip, "I +wonder which of them would do most for my sake?"</p> + +<p>"I know!" said Maud Lindesay, promptly.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>With the young Avondales there had ridden forth Malise and his son +Laurence on their way to the Abbey of Dulce Cor. Sholto went also with +them to convoy them to the fords of Urr.</p> + +<p>For Laurence was to be a clerk after all.</p> + +<p>And this is the way he explained it.</p> + +<p>"The Abbot cannot live long, and there is no Douglas to succeed him. +Then your little Maid will make me Abbot, if that Maud of yours does +her duty."</p> + +<p>"She is not my Maud yet," sighed Sholto. For, as they say in Scotland, +the lady had proved "driech to draw up."</p> + +<p>"But she will be in good time," urged Laurence, "and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span> she must +persuade the Lady Margaret of my many and surprising virtues."</p> + +<p>"The Lady Margaret hath doubtless seen these for herself. Were you not +bound beside her on the iron altar?" said Sholto.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I dirked the old witch-woman, or so they say. And that was +no clerkly action!" objected his brother.</p> + +<p>"Fear not," said Sholto, "you have all of her favour you need without +working by means of another's petticoat. But how about marrying? You +cannot wed or woo if you are a clerk. You did not use to be so unfond +of a lass in the gloamings along the sweet strand called the Walk of +Lovers—you know where!"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw," cried Laurence, "I never yet saw the lass I liked better than +myself. And I never expect to see one that I shall like better than +the fat revenues of the Abbacy of Dulce Cor!"</p> + +<p>He paused a moment as if roguishly considering some point.</p> + +<p>"Besides," he went on, "wed I may not, but woo—that is another +matter! I have never yet heard that an Abbot—"</p> + +<p>"Good-day!" cried Sholto, suddenly, at this point, "I will not stay to +hear you blaspheme!"</p> + +<p>And leaving his father and Laurence to ride westward he turned him +back towards Thrieve.</p> + +<p>"I will surely return to-morrow," cried Malise; "I must first see this +gay bird safely in mew. Aye, and bid the Abbot William clip his wings +too!"</p> + +<p>So in the gay morning sunshine and with the reflection of the lift +glinting dark blue from tarn and lakelet, Sholto MacKim rode towards +the Castle of Thrieve.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span> He bethought him on all that was bygone. The +Avondales were gone, James the Gross might die any moment—might even +now be dead and William Douglas be Earl in his place!</p> + +<p>He thought over William of Avondale's last words to himself, spoken +with deep solemnity and in all the dignity of a great spirit.</p> + +<p>"Sholto, you and yours have brought to justice the chief betrayer. The +time is at hand when, having the power, I will settle with Crichton +and Livingston, the lesser villains. And in that count and reckoning +you must be my right-hand man. Keep your Countess, the sweet young +Margaret, safe for my sake. She is very precious to me—indeed, beyond +my life. And for this time fare you well!"</p> + +<p>And he had reached a mailed hand to the captain of the Douglas guard, +and when Sholto would have bent his head upon it to kiss it, William +of Avondale gripped his suddenly as one grasps a comrade's hand when +the heart is touched, and so was gone.</p> + +<p>At the verge of the flowery pastures that ring the isle of Thrieve, +Sholto met Maud Lindesay, wandering alone. At sight of her he leaped +from his horse, and, without salutation of spoken speech, walked by +her side.</p> + +<p>"How came you here alone?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Maud made her little pouting movement of the lips, and kicked +viciously at a tuft of grass.</p> + +<p>"I forgot," she said hypocritically, "I ought to have asked leave of +that noble knight the Captain of Thrieve. We poor maids must not +breathe without his permission—no, nor even walk out to meet him when +we are lonesome."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span></p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay lifted her eyes suddenly and shot at Sholto a glance so +disabling, that, alarmed for the consequences, she veiled her eyes +again circumspectly by dropping her long lashes upon her cheek.</p> + +<p>"Did you really come out to meet me, Maud?" cried Sholto, all the life +flooding back into his cheeks, "in this do you speak truth and no +mockery?"</p> + +<p>"I only said that we maidens were so much in fear of our Castle +Governor, that we must not walk out even to meet him!"</p> + +<p>At this Sholto let his horse go where it would, and, as they were +passing at the time through a coppice of hazel, he caught his saucy +sweetheart quickly by the wrist.</p> + +<p>"Mistress Maud, you shall not play with me!" he said; "you will tell +me plainly—do you love me or do you not?"</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay puckered her pretty face as if she had been about to +cry.</p> + +<p>"You hurt my arm!" she said plaintively, looking up at him with the +long pathetic gaze of a gentle helpless animal undeservedly put in +pain.</p> + +<p>Sholto perforce released the pressure on her arm. She instantly put +both hands behind her.</p> + +<p>"You did not hurt me at all—hear you that, Master Sholto," she cried, +"and I do not love you—not that much, Sir Noble Bully!"</p> + +<p>And she snapped her finger and thumb like a flash beneath his nose.</p> + +<p>"Not that much!" she repeated viciously, and did it again. Sholto +turned away sternly.</p> + +<p>"You are nothing but a silly girl, and not worthy that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span> any true man +should either love or marry you!" he said, walking off in the +direction of the castle.</p> + +<p>Maud Lindesay looked after him a moment as if not believing her eyes +and ears. Then, so soon as she made sure that he was indeed not coming +back, she tripped quickly after him. He was taking long strides, and +it required a series of small hops and skips to keep up with him.</p> + +<p>"Not really, Sholto?" she said beseechingly, almost running beside him +now. He walked so fast.</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam, really!" said that young knight, still more sternly.</p> + +<p>She took a little run to get a step in front of him, so that she might +advantageously look up into his face.</p> + +<p>"Then you will not marry me, Sholto?"</p> + +<p>Her hands were clasped with the sweetest petitionary grace.</p> + +<p>"<i>No!</i>"</p> + +<p>The monosyllable escaped from his lips with a snort like a puff of +steam from under the lid of a boiling pot.</p> + +<p>"Not even if I ask you very nicely, Sholto?"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>The negative came again, apparently fiercer than before, almost like +an explosion indeed. But still there was a hollow sound about it +somewhere.</p> + +<p>At this the girl stopped suddenly and, drawing a little lace kerchief +from her bosom, she sank her head into it in apparent abandonment of +grief.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what shall I do?" she wailed, "Sholto says he will not marry me, +and I have asked him so sweetly. What shall I do? What shall I do? I +will e'en go and drown me in the Dee water!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span></p> + +<p>And with her kerchief still held to her eyes—or at least (to be +wholly accurate) to one of them—the despised maiden ran towards the +river bank. She did not run very fast, but still she ran.</p> + +<p>Now this was more than Sholto had bargained for, and he in turn +pursued her light-foot, swifter than he had ever run in his life. He +overtook her just as she reached the little ascent of the rocks by the +river margin.</p> + +<p>His hand fell upon her shoulder and he turned her round. She was still +shaking with sobs—or something.</p> + +<p>"I will—I will, I <i>will</i> drown myself!" she cried, her kerchief +closer to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I will marry you—I will do anything. I love you, Maud!"</p> + +<p>"You do not—you cannot!" she cried, pushing him fiercely away, "you +said you would not! That I was not fit to marry."</p> + +<p>"I did not mean it—I lied! I did not know what I said! I will do +whatever you bid me!" Sholto was grovelling now.</p> + +<p>"Then you will marry me—if I do not drown myself?"</p> + +<p>She spoke with a sort of relenting, delicious and tentative.</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes! When you will—to-morrow—now!"</p> + +<p>She dropped the kerchief and the laughing eyes of naughty Maud +Lindesay looked suddenly out upon Sholto like sunshine in a dark +place. They were dry and full of merriment. Not a trace of tears was +to be discerned in either of them.</p> + +<p>Then she gave another little skip, and, catching him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> by the arm, +forced him to walk with her toward Castle Thrieve.</p> + +<p>"Of course you will marry me, silly! You could not help yourself, +Sholto—and it shall be when I like too. But now that you have been so +stern and crusty with me, I am not sure that I will not take Landless +Jock after all!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>This is the end, and yet not the end. For still, say the country folk, +when the leaves are greenest by the lakeside, when the white thorn is +whitest and the sun drops most gloriously behind the purpling hills of +the west, when the children sing like mavises on the clachan greens, +you may chance to spy under the Three Thorns of Carlinwark a lady +fairer than mortal eye hath seen. She will be sitting gracefully on a +white palfrey and hearkening to the bairns singing by the watersides. +And the tears fall down her cheeks as she listens, in the place where +in the spring-time of the year young William Douglas first met the Lady +Sybilla.</p> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Douglas, by S. R. 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R. Crockett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Black Douglas + +Author: S. R. Crockett + +Illustrator: Frank Richards + +Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17733] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK DOUGLAS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: "AND AT THE LAST HE ... SAILED OVER THE SEAS TO HIS OWN + LAND." _Frontispiece_] + + + The Black Douglas + + + + By + + S.R. Crockett + + Author of "The Raiders," "The Stickit Minister," etc. + + + + New York + Doubleday & McClure Co. + 1899 + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1899, + + By S.R. CROCKETT. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I + +The Black Douglas rides Home. + +CHAPTER II + +My Fair Lady + +CHAPTER III + +Two riding together + +CHAPTER IV + +The Rose-red Pavilion + +CHAPTER V + +The Witch Woman + +CHAPTER VI + +The Prisoning of Malise the Smith + +CHAPTER VII + +The Douglas Muster + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Crossing of the Ford + +CHAPTER IX + +Laurence sings a Hymn + +CHAPTER X + +The Braes of Balmaghie + +CHAPTER XI + +The Ambassador of France + +CHAPTER XII + +Mistress Maud Lindesay + +CHAPTER XIII + +A Daunting Summons + +CHAPTER XIV + +Captain of the Earl's Guard + +CHAPTER XV + +The Night Alarm + +CHAPTER XVI + +Sholto captures a Prisoner of Distinction + +CHAPTER XVII + +The Lamp is blown out + +CHAPTER XVIII + +The Morning Light + +CHAPTER XIX + +La Joyeuse baits her Hook + +CHAPTER XX + +Andro the Penman gives an Account of his Stewardship. + +CHAPTER XXI + +The Bailies of Dumfries + +CHAPTER XXII + +Wager of Battle + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Sholto wins Knighthood + +CHAPTER XXIV + +The Second Flouting of Maud Lindesay + +CHAPTER XXV + +The Dogs and the Wolf hold Council + +CHAPTER XXVI + +The Lion Tamer + +CHAPTER XXVII + +The Young Lords ride away + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +On the Castle Roof + +CHAPTER XXIX + +Castle Crichton + +CHAPTER XXX + +The Bower by yon Burnside + +CHAPTER XXXI + +The Gaberlunzie Man + +CHAPTER XXXII + +"Edinburgh Castle, Tower, and Town" + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +The Black Bull's Head + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +Betrayed with a Kiss + +CHAPTER XXXV + +The Lion at Bay + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +The Rising of the Douglases + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A Strange Meeting + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +The MacKims come to Thrieve + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +The Gift of the Countess. + +CHAPTER XL + +The Mission of James the Gross + +CHAPTER XLI + +The Withered Garland + +CHAPTER XLII + +Astarte the She-wolf + +CHAPTER XLIII + +Malise fetches a Clout + +CHAPTER XLIV + +Laurence takes New Service + +CHAPTER XLV + +The Boasting of Gilles de Sille + +CHAPTER XLVI + +The Country of the Dread + +CHAPTER XLVII + +Caesar Martin's Wife + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +The Mercy of La Meffraye + +CHAPTER XLIX + +The Battle with the Were-wolves + +CHAPTER L + +The Altar of Iron + +CHAPTER LI + +The Marshal's Chamber + +CHAPTER LII + +The Jesting of La Meffraye + +CHAPTER LIII + +Sybilla's Vengeance + +CHAPTER LIV + +The Cross under the Apron + +CHAPTER LV + +The Red Milk + +CHAPTER LVI + +The Shadow behind the Throne + +CHAPTER LVII + +The Tower of Death + +CHAPTER LVIII + +The White Tower of Machecoul + +CHAPTER LIX + +The Last Sacrifice to Barran-Sathanas + +CHAPTER LX + +His Demon hath deserted him + +CHAPTER LXI + +Leap Year in Galloway + + + + +THE BLACK DOUGLAS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE BLACK DOUGLAS RIDES HOME + + +Merry fell the eve of Whitsunday of the year 1439, in the fairest and +heartsomest spot in all the Scottish southland. The twined May-pole +had not yet been taken down from the house of Brawny Kim, master +armourer and foster father to William, sixth Earl of Douglas and Lord +of Galloway. + +Malise Kim, who by the common voice was well named "The Brawny," sat +in his wicker chair before his door, overlooking the island-studded, +fairy-like loch of Carlinwark. In the smithy across the green +bare-trodden road, two of his elder sons were still hammering at some +armour of choice. But it was a ploy of their own, which they desired +to finish that they might go trig and point-device to the Earl's +weapon-showing to-morrow on the braes of Balmaghie. Sholto and +Laurence were the names of the two who clanged the ringing steel and +blew the smooth-handled bellows of tough tanned hide, that wheezed and +puffed as the fire roared up deep and red before sinking to the right +welding-heat in a little flame round the buckle-tache of the girdle +brace they were working on. + +And as they hammered they talked together in alternate snatches and +silences?--Sholto, the elder, meanwhile keeping an eye on his father. +For their converse was not meant to reach the ear of the grave, strong +man who sat so still in the wicker chair with the afternoon sun +shining in his face. + +"Hark ye, Laurence," said Sholto, returning from a visit to the door +of the smithy, the upper part of which was open. "No longer will I be +a hammerer of iron and a blower of fires for my father. I am going to +be a soldier of fortune, and so I will tell him--" + +"When wilt thou tell him?" laughed his brother, tauntingly. "I wager +my purple velvet doublet slashed with gold which I bought with mine +own money last Rood Fair that you will not go across and tell him now. +Will you take the dare?" + +"The purple velvet--you mean it?" said Sholto, eagerly. "Mind, if you +refuse, and will not give it up after promising, I will nick that +lying throat of yours with my gullie knife!" + +And with that Sholto threw down his pincers and hammer, and valorously +pushed open the lower door of the smithy. He looked with bold, dark +blue eye at his father, and strode slowly across the grimy door-step. +Brawny Kim had not moved for an hour. His great hands lay in his lap, +and his eyes looked at the purple ridges of Screel, across the +beautiful loch of Carlinwark, which sparkled and dimpled restlessly +among its isles like a wilful beauty bridling under the gaze of a +score of gallants. + +But, even as he went, Sholto's step slowed, and lost its braggart +strut and confidence. Behind him Laurence chuckled and laughed, +smiting his thigh in his mocking glee. + +"The purple velvet, mind you, Sholto! How well it will become you, +coft from Rob Halliburton, our mother's own brother, seamed with red +gold and lined with yellow satin and cramosie. Well indeed will it set +you when Maud Lindesay, the maid who came from the north for company +to the Earl's sister, looks forth from the canopy upon you as you +stand in the archers' rank on the morrow's morn." + +Sholto squared his shoulders, and with a little backward hitch of his +elbow which meant "Wait till I come back, and I will pay you for this +flouting," he strode determinedly across the green space towards his +father. + +The master armourer of Earl Douglas did not lift his eyes till his son +had half crossed the road. Then, even as if a rank of spearmen at the +word of command had lifted their glittering points to the "ready," +Sholto MacKim stopped dead where he was, with a sort of gasp in his +throat, like one who finds his defenceless body breast high against +the line of hostile steel. + +"The purple velvet!" came the cautious whisper from behind. But the +taunt was powerless now. + +The smith held his son a moment with his eyes. + +"Well?" came in the deep low voice, more like the lowest tones of an +organ than the speech of a man. + +Sholto stood fixed, then half turning on his heel he began to walk +towards the corner of the dwelling-house, over which a gay streamer of +the early creeping convolvulus danced and swung in the stirring of the +light breeze. + +"You wish speech with me?" said his father, in the same level and +thrilling undertone. + +"No," said Sholto, hesitant in spite of himself, "but I thought--that +is I desired--saw you my sister Magdalen pass this way? I have +somewhat to give her." + +"Ah, so," said Brawny Kim, without moving, "a steel breastplate, +belike. Thou hast the brace-buckle in thy hand. Doth the little +Magdalen go with you to the weapon-show to-morrow?" + +"No, father," said Sholto, stammering, "but I was uneasy for the +child. It is full an hour since I heard her voice." + +"Then," said his father, "finish your work, put out the fire, and go +seek your sister." + +Sholto brought his hands together and made the little inclination of +the head which was a sign of filial respect. Then, solemn as if he had +been in his place in the ordered line of the Earl's first levy of +archer men, he turned him about and went back to the smithy. + +Laurence lay all abroad on the heap of charcoal of which the +armourer's welding fire was made. He was fairly expiring with +laughter, and when his brother angrily kicked him in the ribs, he only +waggled an ineffectual hand and feebly crowed in his throat like a +cock, in his efforts to stifle the sounds of mirth. + +"Get up, fool," hissed his angry brother; "help me with this accursed +hammer-striking, or I will make an end of such a giggling lout as you. +Here, hold up." + +And seizing his younger brother by the collar of his blue working +blouse, he dragged him upon his feet. + +"Now, by the saints," said Sholto, "if you cast your gibes upon me, +by Saint Andrew I will break every bone in your idiot's body." + +"The purple velvet--oh, the purple velvet!" gasped Laurence, as soon +as he could recover speech, "and the eyes of Maud Lindesay!" + +"That will teach you to think rather of the eyes of Laurence MacKim!" +cried Sholto, and without more ado he hit his brother with his +clinched knuckles a fair blow on the bridge of his nose. + +The next moment the two youths were grappling together like wild cats, +striking, kicking, and biting with no thought except of who should +have the best of the battle. They rolled on the floor, now tussling +among the crackling faggots, anon pitching soft as one body on the +peat dust in the corner, again knocking over a bench and bringing down +the tools thereon to the floor with a jingle which might have been +heard far out on the loch. They were still clawing and cuffing each +other in blind rage, when a hand, heavy and remorseless, was laid upon +each. Sholto found himself being dabbled in the great tempering +cauldron which stood by his father's forge. Laurence heard his own +teeth rattle as he was shaken sideways till his joints waggled like +those of a puppet at Keltonhill Fair. Then it was his turn to be +doused in the water. Next their heads were soundly knocked together, +and finally, like a pair of arrows sent right and left, Laurence sped +forth at the window in the gable end and found himself in the midst of +a gooseberry bush, whilst Sholto, flying out of the door, fell +sprawling on all fours almost under the feet of a horse on which a +young man sat, smilingly watching the scene. + +Brawny Kim scattered the embers of the fire on the forge-hearth, and +threw the breastplate and girdle-brace at which the boys had been +working into a corner of the smithy. Then he turned to lock the door +with the massive key, which stood so far out from the upper leaf that +to it the horses waiting their turns to be shod were ordinarily +tethered. + +As he did so he caught sight of the young man sitting silent on the +black charger. Instantly a change passed over his face. With one +motion of his hand he swept the broad blue bonnet from his brow, and +bowed the grizzled head which had worn it low upon his breast. Thus +for the breathing of a breath the master armourer stood, and then, +replacing his bonnet, he looked up again at the young knight on +horseback. + +"My lord," he said, after a long pause, in which he waited for the +youth to speak, "this is not well--you ride unattended and unarmed." + +"Ah, Malise," laughed the young Earl, "a Douglas has few privileges if +he may not sometimes on a summer eve lay aside his heavy prisonment of +armour and don such a suit as this! What think you, eh? Is it not a +valiant apparel, as might almost beseem one who rode a-courting?" + +The mighty master-smith looked at the young man with eyes in which +reverence, rebuke, and admiration strove together. + +"But," he said, wagging his head with a grave humorousness, "your +lordship needs not to ride a-courting. You are to be married to a +great dame who will bring you wealth, alliance, and the dower of +provinces." + +The young man shrugged his shoulders, and swung lightly off his +charger, which turned to look at him as he stood and patted its neck. + +"Know you not, Malise," he said, "that the Earl of Douglas must needs +marry provinces and the Lord of Galloway wed riches? But what is there +in that to prevent Will Douglas going courting at eighteen years of +his age as a young man ought. But have no fear, I come not hither +seeking the favour of any, save of that lily flower of yours, the only +true May-blossom that blooms on the Three Thorns of Carlinwark. I +would look upon the angel smile on the face of your little daughter +Magdalen. An she be here, I would toss her arm-high for a kiss of her +mouth, which I would rather touch than that of lady or leman. For I do +ever profess myself her vassal and slave. Where have you hidden her, +Malise? Declare it or perish!" + +The smith lifted up his voice till it struck on the walls of his +cottage and echoed like thunder along the shores of the lake. + +"Dame Barbara," he cried, and again, getting no answer, "ho, Dame +Barbara, I say!" + +Then at the second hallo, a shrill and somewhat peevish voice +proceeded from within the house opposite. + +"Aye, coming, can you not hear, great nolt! 'Deed and 'deed 'tis a +pretty pass when a woman with the cares of an household must come +running light-toe and clatter-heel to every call of such a lazy lout. +Husband, indeed--not house-band but house-bond, I wot--house-torment, +house-thorn, house-cross--" + +A sonsy, well-favoured, middle-aged head, strangely at variance with +the words which came from it, peeped out, and instantly the scolding +brattle was stilled. Back went the head into the dark of the house as +if shot from a bombard. + +Malise MacKim indulged in a low hoarse chuckle as he caught the words: +"Eh, 'tis my Lord William! Save us, and me wanting my Ryssil gown that +cost me ten silver shillings the ell, and no even so muckle as my +white peaked cap upon my head." + +Her husband glanced at the young Earl to see if he appreciated the +savour of the jest. Then he looked away, turning the enjoyment over +and over under his own tongue, and muttering: "Ah, well, 'tis not his +fault. No man hath a sense of humour before he is forty years of his +age--and, for that matter, 'tis all the riper at fifty." + +The young man's eyes were looking this way and that, up and down the +smooth pathway which skirted like a green selvage the shores of the +loch. + +"Malise," he said, as if he had already forgotten his late eager quest +for the little Magdalen, "Darnaway here has a shoe loose, and +to-morrow I ride to levy, and may also joust a bout in the tilt-yard +of the afternoon. I would not ask you to work in Whitsuntide, but that +there cometh my Lord Fleming and Alan Lauder of the Bass, bringing +with them an embassy from France--and I hear there may be fair ladies +in their company." + +"Ah!" quoth Malise, grimly, "so I have heard it said concerning the +embassies of Charles, King of France!" + +But the young man only smiled, and dusted off one or two flecks of +foam which had blown backwards from his horse's bit upon the rich +crimson doublet of finest velvet, which, cinctured closely at the +waist, fell half-way to his knees in heavy double pleats sewn with +gold. A hunting horn of black and gold was suspended about his neck by +a bandolier of dark leather, subtiley embroidered with bosses of gold. +Laced boots of soft black hide, drawn together on the outside from +ankle to mid-calf with a golden cord, met the scarlet "chausses" which +covered his thighs and outlined the figure of him who was the noblest +youth and the most gallant in all the realm of Scotland. + +Earl William wore no sword. Only a little gold-handled poignard with a +lady's finger ring set upon the point of the hilt was at his side, and +he stood resting easily his hand upon it as he talked, drawing it an +inch from its sheath and snicking it back again nonchalantly, with a +sound like the clicking of a well-oiled lock. + +"Clink the strokes strongly and featly, Malise, for to-morrow, when the +Black Douglas rides upon Black Darnaway under the eyes of--well--of +the ladies whom the ambassadors are bringing to greet me, there must +be no stumbling and no mistakes. Or on the head of Malise MacKim the +matter shall be, and let that wight remember that the Douglas does not +keep a dule tree up there by the Gallows Slock for nothing." + +The mighty smith was by this time examining the hoofs of the Earl's +charger one by one with such instinctive delicacy of touch that +Darnaway felt the kindly intent, and, bending his neck about, blew and +snuffled into the armourer's tangled mat of crisp grey hair. + +"Up there!" exclaimed MacKim, as the warm breath tickled his neck, and +at the burst of sound the steed shifted and clattered upon the +hard-beaten floor of the smithy, tossing his head till the bridle +chains rang again. + +"Eh, my Lord William," an altered voice came from the door-step, where +Dame Barbara MacKim, now clothed and in her right mind, stood louting +low before the young Earl, "but this is a blythe and calamitatious day +for this poor bit bigging o' the Carlinwark--to think that your honour +should visit his servants! Will you no come ben and sit doon in the +house-place? 'Tis far from fitting for your feet to pass thereupon. +But gin ye will so highly favour--" + +"Nay, I thank you, good Dame Barbara," said the Earl, very courteously +taking off the close-fitting black cap with the red feather in it +which was upon his head. "I must bide but a moment for your husband to +set right certain nails in the hoofs of Darnaway here, to ready me for +the morrow. Do you come to see the sport? So buxom a dame as the +mistress of Carlinwark should not be absent to encourage the lads to +do their best at the sword-play and the rivalry of the butts." + +And as the dame came forth courtesying and bowing her delighted +thanks, Earl William, setting a forefinger under her triple chin, +stooped and kissed her in his gayest and most debonair manner. + +"Eh, only to think on't," cried the dame, clapping her hands together +as she did at mass, "that I, Barbara MacKim, that am marriet to a +donnert auld carle like Malise there, should hae the privileege o' a +salute frae the bonny mou' o' Yerl William--(Thank ye kindly, my +lord!)--and be inveeted to the weepen-shawing to sit amang the leddies +and view the sport. Malise, my man, caa' ye no that an honour, a +privileege? Is that no owing to me being the sister--on my faither's +side--o' Ninian Halliburton, merchant and indweller in Dumfries?" + +"Nay, nay, good dame," laughed the Earl, "'tis all for the sake of +your own very sufficient charms! I trust that your good man here is +not jealous, for beauty, you well do ken, ever sends the wits of a +Douglas woolgathering. Nevertheless, let us have a draught of your +home-brewed ale, for kissing is but dry work, after all, and little do +I think of it save" (he set his cap on his head with a gallant wave of +his hand) "in the case of a lady so fair and tempting as Dame Barbara +MacKim!" + +At this the dame cast up her hands and her eyes again. "Eh, what will +Marget Ahanny o' the Shankfit say noo--this frae the Yerl William. Eh, +sirce, this is better than an Abbot's absolution. I declare 'tis mair +sustainin' than a' the consolations o' religion. Malise, do you hear, +great dour cuif that ye are, what says my lord? And you to think so +little of your married wife as ye do! Think shame, you being what ye +are, and me the ain sister to that master o' merchandise and Bailie o' +Dumfries, Maister Ninian Halliburton o' the Vennel!" + +And with that she vanished into the black oblong of the door opposite +the smithy. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MY FAIR LADY + + +The strong man of Carlinwark made no long job of the horseshoeing. +For, as he hammered and filed, he marked the eye of the young Earl +restlessly straying this way and that along the green riverside paths, +and his fingers nervously tapping the ashen casing of the smithy +window-sill. Malise MacKim smiled to himself, for he had not served a +Douglas for thirty years without knowing by these signs that there was +the swing of a kirtle in the case somewhere. + +Presently the last nail was made firm, and Black Darnaway was led, +passaging and tossing his bridle reins, out upon the green sward. +Malise stood at his head till the Douglas swung himself into the +saddle with a motion light as the first upward flight of a bird. + +He put his hand into a pocket in the lining of his "soubreveste" and +took out a golden "Lion" of the King's recent mintage. He spun it in +the air off his thumb and then looked at it somewhat contemptuously as +he caught it. + +"I think you and I, Master-Armourer, could send out a better coinage +than that with the old Groat press over there at Thrieve!" he said. + +Malise smiled his quiet smile. + +"If the Earl of Douglas deigns to make me the master of his mint, I +promise him plenty of good, sound, broad pieces of a noble +design--that is, till Chancellor Crichton hangs me for coining in the +Grassmarket of Edinburgh." + +"That would he never, with the Douglas lances to prick you a way out +and the Douglas gold to buy the good-will of traitorous judges!" + +Half unconsciously the Earl sighed as he looked at the fair lake +growing rosy in the light of the sunset. His boyish face was +overspread with care, and for the moment seemed all too young to have +inherited so great a burden. But the next moment he was himself again. + +"I know, Malise," he said, "that I cannot offer you gold in return for +your admirable handicraft. But 'tis nigh to Keltonhill Fair, do you +divide this gold Lion betwixt those two brave boys of yours. Faith, +right glad was I to be Earl of Douglas and not a son of his master +armourer when I saw you disciplining for their souls' good Messires +Sholto and Laurence there!" + +The smith smiled grimly. + +"They are good enough lads, Sholto and Laurence both, but they will be +for ever gnarring and grappling at each other like messan dogs round a +kirk door." + +"They will not make the worse soldiers for that, Malise. I pray you +forgive them for my sake." + +The master armourer took the hand of his young lord on which he was +about to draw a riding glove of Spanish leather. Very reverently he +kissed the signet ring upon it. + +"My dear lord," he said, "I can refuse naught to any of your great and +gracious house, and least of all to you, the light and pleasure of +it--aye, and the light of a surly old man's heart, more even than the +duty he owes to his own married wife! Oh, be careful, my lord, for you +are the desire of many hearts and the hope of all this land." + +He hesitated a moment, and then added with a kind of curious +bashfulness-- + +"But I am concerned about ye this nicht, William Douglas--I fear that +ye could not--would not permit me--" + +"Could not permit what--out with it, old grumble-pate?" + +"That I should saddle my Flanders mare and ride after you. Malise +MacKim would not be in the way even if ye went a-trysting. He kens +brawly, in such a case, when to turn his head and look upon the hills +and the woods and the bonny sleeping waters." + +The Earl laughed and shook his head. + +"Na, na, Malise," he said, "were I indeed on such a quest the sight of +your grey pow would fright a fair lady, and the mere trampling of that +club-footed she-elephant of yours put to flight every sentiment of +love. Remember the Douglas badge is a naked heart. Can I ride +a-courting, therefore, with all my fighting tail behind me as though I +besought an alliance with the King of England's daughter?" + +Silently and sadly the strong man watched the young Earl ride away to +the south along that fair lochside. He stood muttering to himself and +looking long under his hand after his lord. The rider bowed his head +as he passed under the rich blazonry of the white May-blossom, which, +like creamy lace, covered the Three Thorns of Carlinwark, now deeply +stained with rose colour from the clouds of sunset. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM OF DOUGLAS REINED UP DARNAWAY UNDERNEATH +THE WHISPERING FOLIAGE OF A GREAT BEECH.] + +"Aye, aye," he said, "the Douglas badge is indeed a heart--but it is a +bleeding heart. God avert the omen, and keep this young man safe--for +though many love him, there be more that would rejoice at his fall." + +The rider on Black Darnaway rode right into the saffron eye of the +sunset. On his left hand Carlinwark and its many islets burned rich +with spring-green foliage, all splashed with the golden sunset light. +Darnaway's well-shod hoofs sent the diamond drops flying, as, with +obvious pleasure, he trampled through the shallows. Ben Gairn and +Screel, boldly ridged against the southern horizon, stood out in dark +amethyst against the glowing sky of even, but the young rider never so +much as turned his head to look at them. + +Presently, however, he emerged from among the noble lakeside trees +upon a more open space. Broom and whin blossom clustered yellow and +orange beneath him, garrisoning with their green spears and golden +banners every knoll and scaur. But there were broad spaces of turf +here and there on which the conies fed, or fought terrible battles for +the meek ear-twitching does, "spat-spatting" at each other with their +fore paws and springing into the air in their mating fury. + +William of Douglas reined up Darnaway underneath the whispering +foliage of a great beech, for all at unawares he had come upon a sight +that interested him more than the noble prospect of the May sunset. + +In the centre of the golden glade, and with all their faces mistily +glorified by the evening light, he saw a group of little girls, +singing and dancing as they performed some quaint and graceful +pageant of childhood. + +Their young voices came up to him with a wistful, dying fall, and the +slow, graceful movement of the rhythmic dance seemed to affect the +young man strangely. Involuntarily he lifted his close-fitting +feathered cap from his head, and allowed the cool airs to blow against +his brow. + + _"See the robbers passing by, passing by, passing by, + See the robbers passing by, + My fair lady!"_ + +The ancient words came up clearly and distinctly to him, and softened +his heart with the indefinable and exquisite pathos of the refrain +whenever it is sung by the sweet voices of children. + +"These are surely but cottars' bairns," he said, smiling a little at +his own intensity of feeling, "but they sing like little angels. I +daresay my sweetheart Magdalen is amongst them." + +And he sat still listening, patting Black Darnaway meanwhile on the +neck. + + _"What did the robbers do to you, do to you, do to you, + What did the robbers do to you, + My fair lady?"_ + +The first two lines rang out bold and clear. Then again the +wistfulness of the refrain played upon his heart as if it had been an +instrument of strings, till the tears came into his eyes at the +wondrous sorrow and yearning with which one voice, the sweetest and +purest of all, replied, singing quite alone: + + _"They broke my lock and stole my gold, stole my gold, stole my gold, + Broke my lock and stole my gold, + My fair lady!"_ + +The tears brimmed over in the eyes of William Douglas, and a deep +foreboding of the mysteries of fate fell upon his heart and abode +there heavy as doom. + +He turned his head as though he felt a presence near him, and lo! +sudden and silent as the appearing of a phantom, another horse was +alongside of Black Darnaway, and upon a white palfrey a maiden dressed +also in white sat, smiling upon the young man, fair to look upon as an +angel from heaven. + +Earl William's lips parted, but he was too surprised to speak. +Nevertheless, he moved his hand to his head in instinctive salutation; +but, finding his bonnet already off, he could only stare at the vision +which had so suddenly sprung out of the ground. + +The lady slowly waved her hand in the direction of the children, whose +young voices still rang clear as cloister bells tolling out the +Angelus, and whose white dresses waved in the light wind as they +danced back and forth with a slow and graceful motion. + +"You hear, Earl William," she said, in a low, thrilling voice, +speaking with a foreign accent, "you hear? You are a good Christian, +doubtless, and you have heard from your uncle, the Abbot, how praise +is made perfect 'out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.' Hark to +them; they sing of their own destinies--and it may be also of yours +and mine." + +And so fascinated and moved at heart at once by her beauty and by her +strange words, the Douglas listened. + + _"What did the robbers do to you, do to you, do to you, + What did the robbers do to you, + My fair lady?"_ + +The lady on the delicately pacing palfrey turned the darkness of her +eyes from the white-robed choristers to the face of the young man. +Then, with an impetuous motion of her hand, she urged him to listen +for the next words, which swept over Earl William's heart with a +cadence of unutterable pain and inexplicable melancholy. + + _"They broke my lock and stole my gold, stole my gold, stole my gold, + Broke my lock and stole my gold, + My fair lady!"_ + +He turned upon his companion with a quick energy, as if he were afraid +of losing himself again. + +"Who are you, lady, and what do you here?" + +The girl (for in years she was little more) smiled and reined her +steed a little back from him with an air at once prettily petulant and +teasing. + +"Is that spoken as William Douglas or as the Justicer of Galloway--a +country where, as I understand, there is no trial by jury?" + +The light of a radiant smile passed from her lips into his soul. + +"It is spoken as a man speaks to a woman beautiful and queenly," he +said, not removing his eyes from her face. + +"I fear I may have startled you," she said, without continuing the +subject. "Even as I came I saw you were wrapped in meditation, and my +palfrey going lightly made no sound on the grass and leaves." + +Her voice was so sweet and low that William Douglas, listening to it, +wished that she would speak on for ever. + +"The hour grows late," he said, remembering himself. "You must have +far to ride. Let me be your escort homewards if you have none worthier +than I." + +"Alas," she answered, smiling yet more subtly, "I have no home near +by. My home is very far and over many turbulent seas. I have but a +maiden's pavilion in which to rest my head. Yet since I and my company +must needs travel through your domains, Earl William, I trust you will +not be so cruel as to forbid us?" + +"Yes,"--he was smiling now in turn, and catching somewhat of the gay +spirit of the lady,--"as overlord of all this province I do forbid you +to pass through these lands of Galloway without first visiting me in +my house of Thrieve!" + +The lady clapped her hands and laughed, letting her palfrey pace +onwards through the woodland glades bridle free, while Black Darnaway, +compelled by his master's hand, followed, tossing his head indignantly +because it had been turned from the direction of his nightly stable on +the Castle Isle. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +TWO RIDING TOGETHER + + +"Joyous," she cried, as they went, "Oh, most joyous would it be to see +the noble castle and to have all the famous two thousand knights to +make love to me at once! To capture two thousand hearts at one sweep +of the net! What would Margaret of France herself say to that?" + +"Is there no single heart sufficient to satisfy you, fair maid?" said +the young man, in a low voice; "none loyal enough nor large enough for +you that you desire so many?" + +"And what would I do with one if it were in my hands," she said +wistfully; "that is, if it were a worthy heart and one worth the +taking. Ever since I was a child I have always broken my toys when I +tired of them." + +The voices of the singing children on the green came more faintly to +their ears, but the words were still clear to be understood. + + _"Off to prison you must go, you must go, you must go, + Off to prison you must go, + My fair lady!"_ + +"You hear? It is my fate!" she said. + +"Nay," answered the Earl, passionately, still looking in her eyes. +"Mine, mine--not yours! Gladly I would go to prison or to death for +the love of one so fair!" + +"My lord, my lord," she laughed, with a tolerant protest in her voice, +"you keep up the credit of your house right nobly. How goes the +distich? My mother taught it me upon the bridge of Avignon, where also +as here in Scotland the children dance and sing." + + "First in the love of Woman, + First in the field of fight, + First in the death that men must die, + Such is the Douglas' right!" + +"Here and now," he said, still looking at her, "'tis only the first I +crave." + +"Earl William, positively you must come to Court!" she shrilled into +sudden tinkling laughter; "there be ladies there more worthy of your +ardour than a poor errant maiden such as I." + +"A Court," cried Earl William, scornfully, "to the Seneschal's court! +Nay, truly. Could a Stewart ever keep his faith or pay his debts? +Never, since the first of them licked his way into a lady's favour." + +"Oh," she answered lightly, "I meant not the Court of Stirling nor yet +the Chancellor's Castle of Edinburgh. I meant the only great +Court--the Court of France, the Court of Charles the Seventh, the +Court which already owns the sway of its rarest ornament, your own +Scottish Princess Margaret." + +"Thither I cannot go unless the King of France grants me my father's +rights and estates!" he said, with a certain sternness in his tone. + +"Let me look at your hand," she answered, with a gentle inclination +of her fair head, from which the lace that had shrouded it now +streamed back in the cool wind of evening. + +Stopping Darnaway, the young Earl gave the girl his hand, and the +white palfrey came to rest close beneath the shoulder of the black war +charger. + +"To-morrow," she said, looking at his palm, "to-morrow you will be +Duke of Touraine. I promise it to you by my power of divination. Does +that satisfy you?" + +"I fear you are a witch, or else a being compound of rarer elements +than mere flesh and blood," said the Earl. + +"Is that a spirit's hand," she said, laughing lightly and giving her +own rosy fingers into his, "or could even the Justicer of Galloway +find it in his heart to burn these as part of the body of a witch?" + +She shuddered and pretended to gaze piteously up at him from under the +long lashes which hardly raised themselves from her cheek. + +"Spirit-slender, spirit-white they are," he replied, "and as for being +the fingers of a witch--doubtless you are a witch indeed. But I will +not burn so fair things as these, save as it might be with the +fervours of my lips." + +And he stooped and pressed kiss after kiss upon her hand. + +Gently she withdrew her fingers from his grasp and rode further apart, +yet not without one backward glance of perfectest witchery. + +"I doubt you have been overmuch at Court already," she said. "I did +not well to ask you to go thither." + +"Why must I not go thither?" he asked. + +"Because I shall be there," she replied softly, courting him yet again +with her eyes. + +As they rode on together through the rich twilight dusk, the young man +observed her narrowly as often as he could. + +Her skin was fair with a dazzling clearness, which even the gathering +gloom only caused to shine with a more perfect brilliance, as if a +halo of light dwelt permanently beneath its surface. Faint responsive +roses bloomed on either cheek and, as it seemed, cast a shadow of +their colour down her graceful neck. Dark eyes shone above, fresh and +dewy with love and youth, and smiled out with all ancientest +witcheries and allurements in their depths. Her lithe, slender body +was simply clad in a fair white cloth of some foreign fabric, and her +waist, of perfectest symmetry, was cinctured by a broad ring of solid +silver, which, to the young man, looked so slender that he could have +clasped it about with both his hands. + +So they rode on, through the woods mostly, until they reached a region +which to the Earl appeared unfamiliar. The glades were greener and +denser. The trees seemed more primeval, the foliage thicker overhead, +the interspaces of the golden evening sky darker and less frequent. + +"In what place may your company be assembled?" he asked. "Strange it +is that I know not this spot. Yet I should recognise each tree by +conning it, and of every rivulet in Galloway I should be able to tell +the name. Yet with shame do I confess that I know not where I am." + +"Ah," said the girl, her face growing luminous through the gloom, "you +called me a witch, and now you shall see. I wave my hands, so--and you +are no more in Galloway. You are in the land of faery. I blow you a +kiss, so--and lo! you are no more William, sixth Earl of Douglas and +proximate Duke of Touraine, but you are even as True Thomas, the +Beloved of the Queen of the Fairies, and the slave of her spell!" + +"I am indeed well content to be Thomas Rhymer," he answered, +submitting himself to the wooing glamour of her eyes, "so be that you +are the Lady of the milk-white hind!" + +"A courtier indeed," she laughed; "you need not to seek your answer. +You make a poor girl afraid. But see, yonder are the lights of my +pavilion. Will it please you to alight and enter? The supper will be +spread, and though you must not expect any to entertain you, save only +this your poor Queen Mab" (here she made him a little bow), "yet I +think you will not be ill content. They do not say that Thomas of +Ercildoune had any cause for complaint. Do you know," she continued, a +fresh gaiety striking into her voice, "it was in this very wood that +he was lost." + +But William Douglas sat silent with the wonder of what he saw. Their +horses had all at once come out on a hilltop. The sequestered boskage +of the trees had gradually thinned, finally dwarfing into a green +drift of fern and birchen foliage which rose no higher than Black +Darnaway's chest, and through which his rider's laced boots brushed +till the Spanish leather of their gold-embossed frontlets was all +jetted with gouts of dew. + +Before him swept horizonwards a great upward drift of solemn pine +trees, the like of which for size he had never seen in all his domain. +Or so, at least, it seemed in that hour of mystery and glamour. For +behind them the evening sky had dulled to a deep and solemn wash of +blood red, across which lay one lonely bar of black cloud, solid as +spilled ink on a monkish page. But under the trees themselves, blazing +with lamps and breathing odours of all grace and daintiness, stood a +lighted pavilion of rose-coloured silk, anchored to the ground with +ropes of sendal of the richest crimson hue. + +"Let your horse go free, or tether him to a pine; in either case he +will not wander far," said the girl. "I fear my fellows have gone off +to lay in provisions. We have taken a day or two more on the way than +we had counted on, so that to-night's feast makes an end of our store. +But still there is enough for two. I bid you welcome, Earl William, to +a wanderer's tent. There is much that I would say to you." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE ROSE-RED PAVILION + + +As the young Earl paused a moment without to tether Black Darnaway to +a fallen trunk of a pine, a chill and melancholy wind seemed to rise +suddenly and toss the branches dark against the sky. Then it flew off +moaning like a lost spirit, till he could hear the sound of its +passage far down the valley. An owl hooted and a swart raven +disengaged himself from the coppice about the door of the pavilion, +and fluttered away with a croak of disdainful anger. Black Darnaway +turned his head and whinnied anxiously after his master. + +But William Douglas, though little more than a boy if men's ages are +to be counted by years, was yet a true child of Archibald the Grim, +and he passed through the mysterious encampment to the door of the +lighted pavilion with a carriage at once firm and assured. He could +faintly discern other tents and pavilions set further off, with +pennons and bannerets, which the passing gust had blown flapping from +the poles, but which now hung slackly about their staves. + +"I would give a hundred golden St. Andrews," he muttered, "if I could +make out the scutcheon. It looks most like a black dragon couchant on +a red field, which is not a Scottish bearing. The lady is French, +doubtless, and passes through from Ireland to visit the Chancellor's +Court at Edinburgh." + +The Black Douglas paused a moment at the tent-flap, which, being of +silken fabric lined with heavier material, hung straight and heavy to +the ground. + +"Come in, my lord," cried the low and thrilling voice of his companion +from within. "With both hands I bid you welcome to my poor abode. A +traveller must not be particular, and I have only those condiments +with me which my men have brought from shipboard, knowing how poor was +the provision of your land. See, do you not already repent your +promise to sup with me?" + +She pointed to the table on which sparkled cut glass of Venice and +rich wreathed ware of goldsmiths' work. On these were set out oranges +and rare fruits of the Orient, such as the young man had never seen in +his own bleak and barren land. + +But the Douglas did no more than glance at the luxury of the +providing. A vision fairer and more beautiful claimed his eyes. For +even as he paused in amazement, the lady herself stood before him, +transformed and, as it seemed, glorified. In the interval she had +taken off the cloak which, while on horseback, she had worn falling +from her shoulders. A thin robe of white silk broidered with gold at +once clothed and revealed her graceful and gracious figure, even as a +glove covers but does not conceal the hand upon which it is drawn. +Whether by intent or accident, the collar had been permitted to fall +aside at the neck and showed the dazzling whiteness of the skin +beneath, but at the bosom it was secured by a button set with black +pearls which constituted the lady's only ornament. + +Her arms also were bare, and showed in the lamplight whiter than milk. +She had removed the silver belt, and was tying a red silken scarf +about her waist in a manner which revealed a swift grace and lithe +sinuosity of movement, making her beauty appear yet more wonderful and +more desirable to the young man's eyes. + +On either side the pavilion were placed folding couches of rosy silk, +and in the corner, draped with rich blue hangings, glimmered the +lady's bed, its fair white linen half revealed. Two embroidered +pillows were at the foot, and on a little table beside it a crystal +ball on a black platter. + +No crucifix or _prie-dieu_, such as in those days was in every lady's +bower, could be discerned anywhere about the pavilion. + +So soon as the tent-flap had fallen with a soft rustle behind him, the +Earl William abandoned himself to the strange enchantment of his +surroundings. He did not stop to ask himself how it was possible that +such dainty providings had been brought into the midst of his wide, +wild realm of Galloway. Nor yet why this errant damsel should in the +darksome night-time find herself alone on this hilltop with the tents +of her retinue standing empty and silent about. The present sufficed +him. The soft radiance of dark eyes fell upon him, and all the +quick-running, inconsiderate Douglas blood rushed and sang in his +veins, responsive to that subtle shining. + +He was with a fair woman, and she not unwilling to be kind. That was +ever enough for all the race of the Black Douglas. What the Red +Douglas loved is another matter. Their ambitions were more reputable, +but greatly less generous. + +"My lord," said the lady, giving him her hand, "will you lead me to +the table? I cannot offer you the refreshment of any elaborate +toilet, but here, at least, is wheaten bread to eat and wine of a good +vintage to drink." + +"You yourself scarce need such earthly sustenance," he answered +gallantly, "for your eyes have stolen the radiance of the stars, and +'tis evident that the night dews visit your cheek only as they do the +roses--to render them more fresh and fair." + +"My lord flatters well for one so young;" she smiled as she seated +herself and motioned him to sit close beside her. "How comes it that +in this wild place you have learned to speak so chivalrously?" + +"When one answers beauty the words are somehow given," he said, "and, +moreover, I have not dwelt in grey Galloway all my days." + +"You speak French?" she queried in that tongue. + +"Ah," she said when he answered, "the divine language. I knew you were +perfect." And so for a long while the young man sat spellbound, +watching the smiles coming and going upon her red and flower-like +lips, and listening to the fast-running ripple of her foreign talk. It +was pleasure enough to hearken without reply. + +It seemed no common food of mortal men that was set before William +Douglas, served with the sweep of white arms and the bend of delicate +fingers upon the chalice stem. He did not care to eat, but again and +again he set the wine cup down empty, for the vintage was new to him, +and brought with it a haunting aroma, instinct with strange hopes and +vivid with unknown joys. + +The pavilion, with its cords of sendal and its silver hanging lamps, +spun round about him. The fair woman herself seemed to dissolve and +reunite before his eyes. She had let down the full-fed river of her +hair, and it flowed in the Venetian fashion over her white shoulders, +sparkling with an inner fire--each fine silken thread, as it glittered +separate from its fellows, twining like a golden snake. + +And the ripple of her laughter played upon the young man's heart +carelessly as a lute is touched by the hands of its mistress. +Something of the primitive glamour of the night and the stars clung to +this woman. It seemed a thing impossible that she should be less pure +than the air and the waters, than the dewy grass beneath and the sky +cool overhead. He knew not that the devil sat from the first day of +creation on Eden wall, that human sin is all but as eternal as human +good, and that passion rises out of its own ashes like the phoenix +bird of fable and stands again all beautiful before us, a creature of +fire and dew. + +Presently the lady rose to her feet, and gave the Earl her hand to +lead her to a couch. + +"Set a footstool by me," she bade him, "I desire to talk to you." + +"You know not my name," she said, after a pause that was like a +caress, "though I know yours. But then the sun in mid-heaven cannot be +hidden, though nameless bide the thousand stars. Shall I tell you +mine? It is a secret; nevertheless, I will tell you if such be your +desire." + +"I care not whether you tell me or no," he answered, looking up into +her face from the low seat at her feet. "Birth cannot add to your +beauty, nor sparse quarterings detract from your charm. I have enough +of both, good lack! And little good they are like to do me." + +"Shall I tell you now," she went on, "or will you wait till you convoy +me to Edinburgh?" + +"To Edinburgh!" cried the young man, greatly astonished. "I have no +purpose of journeying to that town of mine enemies. I have been +counselled oft by those who love me to remain in mine own country. My +horoscope bids me refrain. Not for a thousand commands of King or +Chancellor will I go to that dark and bloody town, wherein they say +lies waiting the curse of my house." + +"But you will go to please a woman?" she said, and leaned nearer to +him, looking deep into his eyes. + +For a moment William Douglas wavered. For a moment he resisted. But +the dark, steadfast orbs thrilled him to the soul, and his own heart +rose insurgent against his reason. + +"I will come if you ask me," he said. "You are more beautiful than I +had dreamed any woman could be." + +"I do ask you!" she continued, without removing her eyes from his +face. + +"Then I will surely come!" he replied. + +She set her hand beneath his chin and bent smilingly and lightly to +kiss him, but with an imprisoned passionate cry the young man suddenly +clasped her in his arms. Yet even as he did so, his eyes fell upon two +figures, which, silent and motionless, stood by the open door of the +pavilion. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE WITCH WOMAN + + +One of these was Malise the Smith, towering like a giant. His hands +rested on the hilt of a mighty sword, whose blade sparkled in the +lamplight as if the master armourer had drawn it that moment from the +midst of his charcoal fire. + +A little in front of Malise there stood another figure, less imposing +in physical proportions, but infinitely more striking in dignity and +apparel. This second was a man of tall and spare frame, of a +countenance grave and severe, yet with a certain kindly power latent +in him also. He was dressed in the white robe of a Cistercian, with +the black scapulary of the order. On his head was the mitre, and in +his hand the staff of the abbot of a great establishment which he +wears when he goes visiting his subsidiary houses. More remarkable +than all was the monk's likeness to the young man who now stood before +him with an expression of indignant surprise on his face, which slowly +merged into anger as he understood why these two men were there. + +He recognised his uncle the Abbot William Douglas, the head of the +great Abbey of Dulce Cor upon Solway side. + +This was he who, being the son and heir of the brother of the first +Duke of Touraine, had in the flower of his age suddenly renounced his +domains of Nithsdale that he might take holy orders, and who had ever +since been renowned throughout all Scotland for high sanctity and a +multitude of good works. + +The pair stood looking towards the lady and William Douglas without +speech, a kind of grim patience upon their faces. + +It was the Earl who was the first to speak. + +"What seek you here so late, my lord Abbot?" he said, with all the +haughtiness of the unquestioned head of his mighty house. + +"Nay, what seeks the Earl William here alone so late?" answered the +Abbot, with equal directness. + +The two men stood fronting each other. Malise leaned upon his +two-handed sword and gazed upon the ground. + +"I have come," the Abbot went on, after vainly waiting for the young +Earl to offer an explanation, "as your kinsman, tutor, and councillor, +to warn you against this foreign witch woman. What seeks she here in +this land of Galloway but to do you hurt? Have we not heard her with +our own ears persuade you to accompany her to Edinburgh, which is a +city filled with the power and deadly intent of your enemies?" + +Earl William bowed ironically to his uncle, and his eye glittered as +it fell upon Malise MacKim. + +"I thank you, Uncle," he said. "I am deeply indebted for your so great +interest in me. I thank you too, Malise, for bringing about this +timely interference. I will pay my debts one day. In the meantime your +duty is done. Depart, both of you, I command you!" + +Outside the thunder began to growl in the distance. An extraordinary +feeling of oppression had slowly filled the air. The lamps, swinging +on the pavilion roof tree, flickered and flared, alternately rising +and sinking like the life in the eyes of a dying man. + +All the while the lady sat still on the couch, with an expression of +amused contempt on her face. But now she rose to her feet. + +"And I also ask, in the name of the King of France, by what right do +you intrude within the precincts of a lady's bower. I bid you to leave +me!" + +She pointed imperiously with her white finger to the black, oblong +doorway, from which Malise's rude hand had dragged the covering flap +to the ground. + +But the churchman and his guide stood their ground. + +Suddenly the Abbot reached a hand and took the sword on which the +master armourer leaned. With its point he drew a wide circle upon the +rich carpets which formed the floor of the pavilion. + +"William Douglas," he said, "I command you to come within this circle, +whilst in the right of my holy office I exorcise that demon there who +hath so nearly beguiled you to your ruin." + +The lady laughed a rich ringing laugh. + +"These are indeed high heroics for so plain and poor an occasion. I +need not to utter a word of explanation. I am a lady travelling +peaceably under escort of an ambassador of France, through a Christian +country. By chance, I met the Earl Douglas, and invited him to sup +with me. What concern, spiritual or temporal, may that be of yours, +most reverend Abbot? Who made you my lord Earl's keeper?" + +"Woman or demon from the pit!" said the Abbot, sternly, "think not to +deceive William Douglas, the aged, as you have cast the glamour over +William Douglas, the boy. The lust of the flesh abideth no more for +ever in this frail tabernacle. I bid thee, let the lad go, for he is +dear to me as mine own soul. Let him go, I say, ere I curse thee with +the curse of God the Almighty!" + +The lady continued to smile, standing meantime slender and fair before +them, her bosom heaving a little with emotion, and her hair rippling +in red gold confusion down her back. + +"Certainly, my lord Earl came not upon compulsion. He is free to +return with you, if he yet be under tutors and governors, or afraid of +the master's stripes. Go, Earl William, I made a mistake; I thought +you had been a man. But since I was wrong I bid you get back to the +monk's chapter house, to clerkly copies and childish toys." + +Then black and sullen anger glared from the eyes of the Douglas. + +"Get hence," he cried. "Hence, both of you--you, Uncle William, ere I +forget your holy office and your kinsmanship; you, Malise, that I may +settle with to-morrow ere the sun sets. I swear it by my word as a +Douglas. I will never forgive either of you for this night's work!" + +The fair white hand was laid upon his wrist. + +"Nay," said the lady, "do not quarrel with those you love for my poor +sake. I am indeed little worth the trouble. Go back with them in +peace, and forget her who but sat by your side an hour neither doing +you harm nor thinking it." + +"Nay," he cried, "that will I not. I will show them that I am old +enough to choose my company for myself. Who is my uncle that he +should dictate to me that am an earl of Douglas and a peer of France, +or my servant that he should come forth to spy upon his master?" + +"Then," she whispered, smiling, "you will indeed abide with me?" + +He gave her his hand. + +"I will abide with you till death! Body and soul, I am yours alone!" + +"By the holy cross of our Lord, that shall you not!" cried Malise; +"not though you hang me high as Haman for this ere the morrow's morn!" + +And with these words he sprang forward and caught his master by the +wrist. With one strong pull of his mighty arm he dragged him within +the circle which the Abbot had marked out with the sword's point. + +The lady seemed to change colour. For at that moment a gust of wind +caused the lamps to flicker, and the outlines of her white-robed +figure appeared to waver like an image cast in water. + +"I adjure and command you, in the name of God the One and Omnipotent, +to depart to your own place, spirit or devil or whatever you may be!" + +The voice of the Abbot rose high above the roaring of the bursting +storm without. The lady seemed to reach an arm across the circle as if +even yet to take hold of the young man. The Abbot thrust forward his +crucifix. + +And then the bolt of God fell. The whole pavilion was illuminated with +a flash of light so intense and white that it appeared to blind and +burn up all about. The lady was seen no more. The silken covering +blazed up. Malise plunged outward into the darkness of the storm, +carrying his young master lightly as a child in his arms, while the +Abbot kept his feet behind him like a boat in a ship's wake. The +thunder roared overhead like the sea bellowing in a cave's mouth, and +the great pines bent their heads away from the mighty wind, straining +and creaking and lashing each other in their blind fury. + +Malise and the Abbot seemed to hear about them the plunging of +riderless horses as they stumbled downwards through the night, their +path lit by lightning flashes, green and lilac and keenest blue, and +bearing between them the senseless form of William Earl of Douglas. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PRISONING OF MALISE THE SMITH + + +[Now these things, material to the life and history of William, sixth +Earl of Douglas, are not written from hearsay, but were chronicled +within his lifetime by one who saw them and had part therein, though +the part was but a boy's one. His manuscript has come down to us and +lies before the transcriber. Sholto MacKim, the son of Malise the +Smith, testifies to these things in his own clerkly script. He adds +particularly that his brother Laurence, being at the time but a boy, +had little knowledge of many of the actual facts, and is not to be +believed if at any time he should controvert anything which he +(Sholto) has written. So far, however, as the present collector and +editor can find out, Laurence MacKim appears to have been entirely +silent on the subject, at least with his pen, so that his brother's +caveat was superfluous.] + + * * * * * + +The instant Lord William entered his own castle of Thrieve over the +drawbridge, and without even returning the salutations of his guard, +he turned about to the two men who had so masterfully compelled his +return. + +"Ho, guard, there!" he cried, "seize me this instant the Abbot of the +New Abbey and Malise MacKim." + +And so much surprised but wholly obedient, twenty archers of the +Earl's guard, commanded by old John of Abernethy, called Landless +Jock, fell in at back and front. + +Malise, the master armourer, stood silent, taking the matter with his +usual phlegm, but the Abbot was voluble. + +"William," he said, holding out his hands with an appealing gesture, +"I have laboured with you, striven with, prayed for you. To-night I +came forth through the storm, though an old man, to deliver you from +the manifest snares of the devil--" + +But the Earl interrupted his recital without compunction. + +"Set Malise MacKim in the inner dungeon," he cried. "Thrust his feet +into the great stocks, and let my lord Abbot be warded safely in the +castle chapel. He is little likely to be disturbed there at his +devotions." + +"Aye, my lord, it shall be done!" said Landless Jock, shaking his +head, however, with gloomy foreboding, as the haughty young Earl in +his wet and torn disarray flashed past him without further notice of +the two men whom the might of his bare word had committed to prison. +The Earl sprang up the narrow turret stairs, passing as he did so +through the vaulted hall of the men-at-arms, where more than a hundred +stout archers and spearmen sat carousing and singing, even at that +advanced hour of the night, while as many more lay about the corridors +or on the wooden shelves which they used for sleeping upon, and which +folded back against the wall during the day. At the first glimpse of +their young master, every man left awake among them struggled to his +feet, and stood stiffly propped, drunk or sober according to his +condition, with his eyes turned towards the door which gave upon the +turnpike stair. But with a slight wave of his hand the Earl passed on +to his own apartment. + +Here he found his faithful body-servant, Rene le Blesois, stretched +across the threshold. The staunch Frenchman rose mechanically at the +noise of his master's footsteps, and, though still soundly asleep, +stood with the latch of the door in his hand, and the other held +stiffly to his brow in salutation. + +Left to his own devices, Lord William Douglas would doubtless have +cast himself, wet as he was, upon his bed had not Le Blesois, +observing his lord's plight even in his own sleep-dulled condition, +entered the chamber after his master and, without question or speech, +silently begun to relieve him of his wet hunting dress. A loose +chamber gown of rich red cloth, lined with silk and furred with +"cristy" grey, hung over the back of an oaken chair, and into this the +young Earl flung himself in black and sullen anger. + +Le Blesois, still without a word spoken, left the room with the wet +clothes over his arm. As he did so a small object rolled from some +fold or crevice of the doublet, where it had been safely lodged till +displaced by the loosening of the belt, or the removing of the +banderole of his master's hunting horn. + +Le Blesois turned at the tinkling sound, and would have stopped to +lift it up after the manner of a careful servitor. But the eye of his +lord was upon the fallen object, and with an abrupt wave of his hand +towards the door, and the single word "Go!" the Earl dismissed his +body-servant from the room. + +Then rising hastily from his chair, he took the trinket in his hand +and carried it to the well-trimmed lamp which stood in a niche that +held a golden crucifix. + +The Lord Douglas saw lying in his palm a ring of singular design. The +main portion was formed of the twisting bodies of a pair of snakes, +the jewel work being very cunningly interlaced and perfectly finished. +Their eyes were set with rubies, and between their open mouths they +carried an opal, shaped like a heart. The stone was translucent and +faintly luminous like a moonstone, but held in its heart one fleck of +ruby red, in appearance like a drop of blood. By some curious trick of +light, in whatever position the ring was held, this drop still +appeared to be on the point of detaching itself and falling to the +ground. + +Earl William examined it in the flicker of the lamp. He turned it +every way, narrowly searching inside the golden band for a posy, but +not a word of any language could he find engraved upon it. + +"I saw the ring upon her hand--I am certain I saw it on her hand!" He +said these words over and over to himself. "It is then no dream that I +have dreamed." + +There came a low knocking at the door, a rustling and a whispering +without. Instantly the Earl thrust the ring upon his own finger with +the opal turned inward, and, with the dark anger mark of his race +strongly dinted upon his fair young brow, he faced the unseen +intruder. + +"Who is there?" he cried loudly and imperiously. + +The door opened with a rasping of the iron latch, and a little girlish +figure clothed from head to foot in a white night veil danced in. She +clapped her hands at sight of him. + +"You are come back," she cried; "and you have so fine a gown on too. +But Maud Lindesay says it is very wrong to be out of doors so late, +even if you are Earl of Douglas, and a great man now. Will you never +play at 'Catch-as-catch-can' with David and me any more?" + +"Margaret," said the young Earl, "what do you away from your chamber +at all? Our mother will miss you, and I do not want her here to-night. +Go back at once!" + +But the little wilful maiden, catching her skirts in her hands at +either side and raising them a little way from the ground, began to +dance a dainty _pas seul_, ending with a flashing whirl and a low bow +in the direction of her audience. + +At this William Douglas could not choose but smile, and soon threw +himself down on the bed, setting his clasped hands behind his head, +and contenting himself with looking at his little sister. + +Though at this time but eight years of age, Margaret of Douglas was +possessed of such extraordinary vitality and character that she seemed +more like eleven. She had the clear-cut, handsome Douglas face, the +pale olive skin, the flashing dark eyes, and the crisp, blue-black +hair of her brother. A lithe grace and quickness, like those of a +beautiful wild animal, were characteristic of every movement. + +"Our mother hath been anxious about you, brother mine," said the +little girl, tiring suddenly of her dance, and leaping upon the other +end of the couch on which her brother was reclining. Establishing +herself opposite him, she pulled the coverlet up about her so that +presently only her face could be seen peeping out from under the +silken folds. + +"Oh, I was so cold, but I am warmer now," she cried. "And if Maid +Betsy A'hannay comes to take me away, I want you to stretch out your +hand like this, and say: 'Seneschal, remove that besom to the deep +dungeon beneath the castle moat,' as we used to do in our plays before +you became a great man. Then I could stay very long and talk to you +all through the night, for Maud Lindesay sleeps so sound that nothing +can awake her." + +Gradually the anger passed out of the face of William Douglas as he +listened to his sister's prattle, like the vapours from the surface of +a hill tarn when the sun rises in his strength. He even thought with +some self-reproach of his treatment of Malise and of his uncle the +Abbot. But a glance at the ring on his finger, and the thought of what +might have been his good fortune at that moment but for their +interference, again hardened his resolution to adamant within his +breast. + +His sister's voice, clear and high in its childish treble, recalled +him to himself. + +"Oh, William, and there is such news; I forgot, because I have been so +overbusied with arranging my new puppet's house that Malise made for +me. But scarcely were you gone away on Black Darnaway ere a messenger +came from our granduncle James at Avondale that he and my cousins Will +and James arrive to-morrow at the Thrieve with a company to attend the +wappenshaw." + +The young man sprang to his feet, and dashed one hand into the palm of +the other. + +"This is ill tidings indeed!" he cried. "What does the Fat Flatterer +at Castle Thrieve? If he comes to pay homage, it will be but a +mockery. Neither he nor Angus had ever any good-will to my father, and +they have none to me." + +"Ah, do not be angry, William," cried the little maid. "It will be +beautiful. They will come at a fitting time. For to-morrow is the +great levy of the weapon-showing, and our cousins will see you in your +pride. And they will see me, too, in my best green sarcenet, riding on +a white palfrey at your side as you promised." + +"A weapon-showing is not a place for little girls," said the Earl, +mollified in spite of himself, casting himself down again on the +couch, and playing with the serpent ring on his finger. + +"Ah, now," cried his sister, her quick eyes dancing everywhere at +once, "you are not attending to a single word I say. I know by your +voice that you are not. That is a pretty ring you have. Did a lady +give it to you? Was it our Maudie? I think it must have been our Maud. +She has many beautiful things, but mostly it is the young men who wish +to give her such things. She never sends any of them back, but keeps +them in a box, and says that it is good to spoil the Egyptians. And +sometimes when I am tired she will tell me the history of each, and +whether he was dark or fair. Or make it all up just as good when she +forgets. But, oh, William, if I were a lady I should fall in love with +nobody but you. For you are so handsome--yes, nearly as handsome as I +am myself--(she passed her hands lightly through her curls as she +spoke). And you know I shall marry no one but a Douglas--only you must +not ask me to wed my cousin William of Avondale, for he is so stern +and solemn; besides, he has always a book in his pocket, and wishes me +to learn somewhat out of it as if I were a monk. A Douglas should not +be a monk, he should be a soldier." + +So she lay snugly on the bed and prattled on to her brother, who, +buried in his thoughts and occupied with his ring, let the hours slip +on till at the open door of the Earl's chamber there appeared the most +bewitching face in the world, as many in that castle and elsewhere +were ready to prove at the sword's point. The little girl caught sight +of it with a shrill cry of pleasure, instantly checked and hushed, +however, at the thought of her mother. + +"O Maudie," she cried, "come hither into William's room. He has such a +beautiful ring that a lady gave him. I am sure a lady gave it him. Was +it you, Maud Lindesay? You are a sly puss not to tell me if it was. +William, it is wicked and provoking of you not to tell me who gave you +that ring. If it had been some one you were not ashamed of, you would +be proud of the gift and confess. Whisper to me who it was. I will not +tell any one, not even Maudie." + +Her brother had risen to his feet with a quick movement, girding his +red gown about him as he rose. + +"Mistress Maud," he said respectfully, "I fear I have given you +anxiety by detaining your charge so late. But she is a wilful madam, +as you have doubtless good cause to know, and ill to advise." + +"She is a Douglas," smiled the fair girl, who stood at the chamber +door refusing his invitation to enter, with a flash of the eye and a +quick shake of the head which betokened no small share of the same +qualities; "is not that enough to excuse her for being wayward and +headstrong?" + +Earl William wasted no more words of entreaty upon his sister, but +seized her in his arms, and pulling the coverlet in which she had +huddled herself up with her pert chin on her knees, more closely about +her, he strode along the passage with her in his arms till he stopped +at an open door leading into a large chamber which looked to the +south. + +"There," he said, smiling at the girl who had followed behind him, "I +will lock her in with you and take the key, that I may make sure of +two such uncertain charges." + +But the girl had deftly extracted the key even as she passed in after +him, and as the bolts shot from within she cried: "I thank you right +courteously, Lord William, but mine apothecary, fearing that the air +of this isle of Thrieve might not agree with me, bade me ever to sleep +with the key of the door under my pillow. Against fevers and quinsies, +cold iron is a sovereign specific." + +And for all his wounded heart, Earl William smiled at the girl's +sauciness as he went slowly back to his chamber, taking, in spite of +his earldom, pains to pass his mother's door on tiptoe. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DOUGLAS MUSTER + + +The day of the great weapon-showing broke fair and clear after the +storm of the night. The windows of heaven had had all their panes +cleaned, and even after it was daylight the brighter stars +appeared--only, however, to wink out again when the sun arose and +shone on the wet fields, coming forth rejoicing like a bridegroom from +his chamber. + +And equally bright and strong came forth the young Earl, every trace +of the anger and disappointment of the night having been removed from +his face, if not from his mind, by the recreative and potent sleep of +youth and health. + +In the hall he called for Sir John of Abernethy, nicknamed Landless +Jock. + +"Conduct my uncle the Abbot from the chapel where he has been all +night at his devotions, to his chamber, and furnish him with what he +may require, and bring up Malise the Smith from the dungeon. Let him +come into my presence in the upper hall." + +William Douglas went into a large oak-ceiled chamber, wide and high, +running across the castle from side to side, and with windows that +looked every way over the broad and fertile strath of Dee. + +Presently, with a trampling of mailed feet and the double rattle which +denoted the grounding of a pair of steel-hilted partisans, Malise was +brought to the door by two soldiers of the Earl's outer guard. + +The huge bulk of Brawny Kim filled up the doorway almost completely, +and he stood watching the Douglas with an unmoved gravity which, in +the dry wrinkles about his eyes, almost amounted to humorous +appreciation of the situation. + +Yet it was Malise who spoke first. For at his appearance the Earl had +turned his back upon his retainer, and now stood at the window that +looks towards the north, from which he could see, over the broad and +placid stretches of the river, the men putting up the pavilions and +striking spears into the ground to mark out the spaces for the tourney +of the next day. + +"A fair good morrow to you, my lord," said the smith. "Grievous as my +sin has been, and just as is your resentment, give me leave to say +that I have suffered more than my deserts from the ill-made chains and +uncouth manacles wherewith they confined me in the black dungeon down +there. I trow they must have been the workmanship of Ninian Lamont the +Highlandman, who dares to call himself house-smith of Thrieve. I am +ready to die if it be your will, my lord; but if you are well advised +you will hang Ninian beside me with a bracelet of his own rascal +handiwork about his neck. Then shall justice be satisfied, and Malise +MacKim will die happy." + +The Earl turned and looked at his ancient friend. The wrinkles about +the brow were deeply ironical now, and the grey eyes of the master +armourer twinkled with appreciation of his jest. + +"Malise," cried his master, warningly, "do not play at cat's cradle +with the Douglas. You might tempt me to that I should afterwards be +sorry for. A man once dead comes not to life again, whatever monks +prate. But tell me, how knew you whither I had gone yester-even? For, +indeed, I knew not myself when I set out. And in any event, was it a +thing well done for my foster father to spy upon me the son who was +also his lord?" + +The anger was mostly gone now out of the frank young face of the Earl, +and only humiliation and resentment, with a touch of boyish curiosity, +remained. + +"Indeed," answered the smith, "I watched you not save under my hand as +you rode away upon Black Darnaway, and then I turned me to the seat by +the wall to listen to the cavillings of Dame Barbara, the humming of +the bees, and the other comfortable and composing sounds of nature." + +"How then did you come to follow me in the undesirable company of my +uncle the Abbot?" + +"For that you are in the debt of my son Sholto, who, seeing a lady +wait for you in the greenwood, climbed a tree, and there from amongst +the branches he was witness of your encounter." + +"So--" said the Douglas, grimly, "it is to Master Sholto that I am +indebted somewhat." + +"Aye," said his father, "do not forget him. For he is a good lad and a +bold, as indeed he proved to the hilt yestreen." + +"In what consisted his boldness?" asked the Earl. + +"In that he dared come home to me with a cock-and-bull story of a +witch lady, who appeared suddenly where none had been a moment before, +and who had immediately enchanted my lord Earl. Well nigh did I twist +his neck, but he stuck to it. Then came riding by my lord Abbot on his +way to Thrieve, and I judged that the matter, as one of witchcraft, +was more his affair than mine." + +"Now hearken," cried the Earl, in quick, high tones of anger, "let +there be no more of such folly, or on your life be it. The lady whom +you insulted was travelling with her company through Galloway from +France. She invited me to sup with her, and dared me to adventure to +Edinburgh in her company. Answer me, wherein was the witchcraft of +that, saving the witchery natural to all fair women?" + +"Did she not prophesy to you that to-day you would be Duke of +Touraine, and receive the ambassadors of the King of France?" + +"Well," said the Earl, "where is your wit that you give ear to such +babblings? Did she not come from that country, as I tell you, and who +should hear the latest news more readily than she?" + +The smith looked a little nonplussed, but stuck to it stoutly that +none but a witch woman would ride alone at nightfall upon a Galloway +moor, or unless by enchantment set up a pavilion of silk and strange +devices under the pines of Loch Roan. + +"Well," said Earl William, feeling his advantage and making the most +of it, "I see that in all my little love affairs I must needs take my +master armourer with me to decide whether or no the lady be a witch. +He shall resolve for me all spiritual questions with his forehammer. +Malise MacKim a witch pricker! Ha--this is a change indeed. Malise the +Smith will make the censor of his lord's love affairs, after what +certain comrades of his have told me of his own ancient love-makings. +Will he deign to come to the weapon-showing to-day, and instead of +examining the swords and halberts, the French arbalasts and German +fusils, demit that part of his office to Ninian the Highlandman, and +go peering into ladies' eyes for sorceries and scanning their lips for +such signs of the devil as lurk in the dimples of their chins? In this +he will find much employment and that of a congenial sort." + +Malise was vanquished, less by the sarcasm of the Earl than by the +fear that perhaps the Highlandman might indeed have his place of +honour as chief military expert by his master's right hand at the +examination of weapons that day on the green holms of Balmaghie. + +"I may have been overhasty, my lord," he said hesitatingly, "but still +do I think that the woman was far from canny." + +The Earl laughed and, turning him about by the shoulders, gave him a +push down the stair, crying, "Oh, Malise, Malise, have you lived so +long in the world without finding out that a beautiful woman is always +uncanny!" + +The levy that day of clansmen owning fealty to the Douglas was no +hasty or local one. It was not, indeed, a "rising of the countryside," +such as took place when the English were reported to be over the +border, when the beacon fires were thrown west from Criffel to Screel, +from Screel to Cairnharrow, and then tossed northward by the three +Cairnsmuirs and topmost Merrick far over the uplands of Kyle, till +from the sullen brow of Brown Carrick the bale fire set the town drum +of Ayr beating its alarming note. Still this muster was a day on +which every Douglas vassal must ride in mail with all his spears +behind him--or bide at home and take the consequences. + +All the night from distant parishes and outlying valleys horsemen had +been riding, clothed in complete panoply of mail. These were the +knights, barons, freeholders, who owned allegiance to the house of +Douglas. Each lord was followed by his appointed tail of esquires and +men-at-arms; behind these dense clusters of heavily armed spearmen +marched steadily along the easiest paths by the waterside and over the +lower hill passes. Light running footmen slung their swords over their +backs by leathern bandoliers and pricked it briskly southwards over +the bent so brown. Archers there were from the border towards the +Solway side--lithe men, accustomed to spring from tussock to tuft of +shaking grass, whose long strides and odd spasmodic side leapings +betrayed even on the plain and unyielding pasture lands the place of +their amphibious nativity. + +"The Jack herons of Lochar," these were named by the men of Galloway. +But there was no jeering to their faces, for not one of those +Maxwells, Sims, Patersons, and Dicksons would have thought twice of +leaping behind a tree stump to wing a cloth-yard shaft into a +scoffer's ribs at thirty yards, taking his chance of the dule tree and +the hempen cord thereafter for the honour of Lochar. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CROSSING OF THE FORD + + +It was still early morning of the great day, when Sholto and Laurence +MacKim, leaving their mother in the kitchen, and their young sister +Magdalen trying a yet prettier knot to her kerchief, took their way by +the fords of Glen Lochar to an eminence then denominated plainly the +Whinny Knowe, the same which afterwards gained and has kept to this +day the more fatal designation of Knock Cannon. The lads were dressed +as became the sons of so prosperous a craftsman (and master armourer +to boot) as Malise MacKim of the Carlinwark. + +Laurence, the younger, wore his archer's jack over the suit of purple +velvet, high boots of yellow leather, and, withal, a dainty cap set +far back on his head, from which sprouted the wing of a blackcock in +as close imitation as Master Laurence dared compass of the Earl +Douglas himself. His bow was slung at his back all ready for the +inspection. A sash of orange silk was twisted about his slim waist, +and in this he would set his thumb knowingly, and stare boldly as +often as the pair of brothers overtook a pretty girl. For Master +Laurence loved beauty, and thought not lightly of his own. + +Sholto, though, as we shall soon see, despised not love, had eyes more +for the knights and men-at-arms, and considered that his heaven would +be fully attained as soon as he should ride one of those great +prancing horses, and carry a lance with the pennon of the Douglas upon +it. + +Meanwhile he wore the steel cap of the home guard, the ringed neck +mail, the close-fitting doublet of blue dotted over with red Douglas +hearts and having the white cross of St. Andrew transversely upon it. +About his waist was a peaked brace of shining plate armour, damascened +in gold by Malise himself, and filling out his almost girlish waist to +manlier proportions. From this depended a row of tags of soft leather. +Close chain-mail covered his legs, to which at the knees were added +caps of triple plate. A sheaf of arrows in a blue and gold quiver on +his right side, a sword of metal on his left, and a short Scottish bow +in his hand completed the attire of a fully equipped and efficient +archer of the Earl's guard. + +The lads were soon at the fords of Lochar, where in the dry summers +the stones show all the way across--one in the midst being named the +Black Douglas, noted as the place where, as tradition affirms, +Archibald the Grim used to pause in crossing the ford to look at his +new fortress of Thrieve, rising on its impregnable island above the +rich water meadows. + +Now neither Sholto nor Laurence wished to wet their leg array before +the work and pageant of the day began. This was the desire of +Laurence, because of the maids who would assemble on the Boreland +Braes, and of Sholto inasmuch as he hoped to win the prize for the +best accoutrement and the most point-device attiring among all the +archers of the Earl's guard. The young men had asked crusty Simon +Conchie, the boatman at the Ferry Croft, to set them over, offering +him a groat for his pains. But he was far too busy to pay any +attention to mere silver coin on such an occasion, only pausing long +enough to cry to them that they must e'en cross at the fords, as many +of their betters would do that day. + +There was nothing for it, therefore, but either to strip to the waist +or to wait the chances of the traffic. Both Sholto and Laurence were +exceedingly loath to take the former course. They had not, however, +long to hesitate, for a train of sumpter mules, belonging to the Lord +Herries of Terregles, whose father had been with Archibald the Tineman +in France, came up laden with the choicest products of the border +country which he designed to offer as part of the "Service-Kane" to +his overlord, the Earl of Douglas. + +Now mules are all of them snorting, ill-conditioned brutes, and are +ever ready to run away upon the least excuse, or even without any. So +as soon as those of Lord Herries' train caught the glint of Sholto's +blue baldric and shining steel girdle-brace appearing suddenly from +behind a knoll, they incontinently bolted every way with noses to the +ground, scattering packs and brandishing heels like young colts turned +out to grass. It chanced that one of the largest mules made directly +towards the fords of Lochar, and the youths, catching the flying +bridle at either side, applied a sort of brake which sufficiently +slowed the beast's movements to enable such agile skipjacks as Sholto +and Laurence to mount. But as they were concerned more with their +leaping from the ground than with what was already upon the animal's +back, their heads met with a crash in the midst, in which collision +the superior weight of the younger had very naturally the better of +the encounter. + +Sholto dropped instantly back to the ground. He was somewhat stunned +by the blow, but the sight of his brother triumphantly splashing +through the shallows aroused him. He arose, and seizing the first +stone that came to hand hurled it after Laurence, swearing fraternally +that he would smite him in the brisket with a dirk as soon as he +caught him for that dastard blow. The first stone flew wide, though +the splash caused the mule to shy into deeper water, to the damping of +his rider's legs. But the second, being better aimed, took the animal +fairly on the rump, and, fetching up on a fly-galled spot, frightened +it with bumping bags and loud squeals into the woods of Glen Lochar, +which come down close to the fords on every side. Here presently +Laurence found himself, like Absalom, caught in the branches of a +beech, and left hanging between heaven and earth. A rider in complete +plate of black mail caught him down, still holding on to his bow, and, +placing him across the saddle, brought down the flat of his gauntleted +hand upon a spot of the lad's person which, being uncovered by mail, +responded with a resounding smack. Then, amid the boisterous laughter +of the men-at-arms, he let Laurence slip to the ground. + +But the younger son of Brawny Kim, master armourer of Carlinwark, was +not the lad to take such an insult meekly, even from a man-at-arms +riding on horseback. He threw his bow into the nearest thicket, and +seizing the most convenient ammunition, which chanced to be in great +plenty that day upon the braes of Balmaghie, pursued his insulter +along the glade with such excellent aim and good effect that the +black unadorned armour of the horseman showed disks of defilement all +over, like a tree trunk covered with toadstool growths. + +"Shoot down the intolerable young rascal! Shall he thus beard my Lord +Maxwell?" cried a voice from the troop which witnessed the chase. And +more than one bow was bent, and several hand-fusils levelled from the +company which followed behind. + +But the injured knight threw up his visor. + +"Hold, there!" he cried, "the boy is right. It was I who insulted him, +and he did right to be revenged, though the rogue's aim is more to be +admired than his choice of weapons. Come hither, lad. Tell me who thou +art, and what is thy father's quality?" + +"I am Laurence MacKim, an archer of my lord's guard, and the younger +son of Malise MacKim, master armourer to the Douglas." + +Laurence, being still angry, rang out his titles as if they had been +inscribed in the book of the Lion-King-at-Arms. + +"Saints save us," cried the knight in swart armour, "all that!" + +Then, seeing the boy ready to answer back still more fiercely, he +continued with a courteous wave of the hand. + +"I humbly ask your pardon, Master Laurence. I am glad the son of +Brawny Kim hath no small part of his father's spirit. Will you take +service and be my esquire, as becomes well a lad of parts who desires +to win his way to a knighthood?" + +The heart of Laurence MacKim beat quickly--a horse to ride--an +esquire--perhaps if he had luck and much fighting, a knighthood. +Nevertheless, he answered with a bold straight look out of his black +eyes. + +"I am an archer of my lord Douglas' outer guard. I can have no +promotion save from him or those of his house--not even from the King +himself." + +"Well said!" cried the knight; "small wonder that the Douglas is the +greatest man in Scotland. I will speak to the Earl William this day +concerning you." + +Lord Maxwell rode on at the head of his company with a courteous +salutation, which not a few behind him who had heard the colloquy +imitated. Laurence stood there with his heart working like yeast +within him, and his colour coming and going to think what he had been +offered and what he had refused. + +"God's truth," he said to himself, "I might have been a great man if I +had chosen, while Sholto, that old sober sides, was left lagging +behind." + +Then he looked about for his bow and went swaggering along as if he +were already Sir Laurence and the leader of an army. + +But Nemesis was upon him, and that in the fashion which his pride +would feel the most. + +"Take that, beast of a Laurence!" cried a voice behind him. + +And the lad received a jolt from behind which loosened his teeth in +their sockets and discomposed the dignified stride with which in +imagination he was commanding the armies of the Douglas. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LAURENCE SINGS A HYMN + + +Laurence turned and beheld his brother. In another instant the two +young men had clinched and were rolling on the ground, wrestling and +striking according to their ability. Sholto might easily have had the +best of the fray, but for the temper aroused by Laurence's recent +degradation, for the elder brother was taller by an inch, and of a +frame of body more lithe and supple. Moreover, the accuracy of Sholto +MacKim's shape and the severe training of the smithy had not left a +superfluous ounce of flesh on him anywhere. + +In a minute the brothers had become the centre of a riotous, laughing +throng of varlets--archers seeking their corps, and young squires sent +by their lords to find out the exact positions allotted to each +contingent by the provost of the camp. For as the wappenshaw was to be +of three days' duration in all its nobler parts, a wilderness of tents +had already begun to arise under the scattered white thorns of the +great Boreland Croft which stretched up from the river. + +These laughed and jested after their kind, encouraging the youths to +fight it out, and naming Laurence the brock or badger from his +stoutness, and the slim Sholto the whitterick or, as one might say, +weasel. + +"At him, Whitterick--grip him! Grip him! Now you have him at the +pinch! Well pulled, Brock! 'Tis a certainty for Brock--good Brock! +Well done--well done! Ah, would you? Hands off that dagger! Let +fisticuffs settle it! The Whitterick hath it--the Whitterick!" + +And thus ran the comment. Sholto being cumbered with his armour, +Laurence might in time have gotten the upper grip. But at this moment +a diversion occurred which completely altered the character of the +conflict. A stout, reddish young man came up, holding in his hand a +staff painted with twining stripes of white and red, which showed him +to be the marshal of that part of the camp which pertained to the Earl +of Angus. He looked on for a moment from the skirts of the crowd, and +then elbowed his way self-importantly into the centre, till he stood +immediately above Laurence and Sholto. + +"What means this hubbub, I say? Quit your hold there and come with me; +my Lord of Angus will settle this dispute." + +He had come up just when the young men were in the final grips, when +Sholto had at last gotten his will of his brother's head, and was, as +the saying is, giving him "Dutch spice" in no very knightly fashion. + +The Angus marshal, seeing this, seized Sholto by the collar of his +mailed shirt, and drawing him suddenly back, caused him to lose hold +of his brother, who as quickly rose to his feet. The red man began to +beat Sholto about the headpiece right heartily with his staff, which +exercise made a great ringing noise, though naturally, the skull cap +being the work of Malise MacKim, little harm ensued to the head +enclosed therein. + +But Master Laurence was instantly on fire. + +"Here, Foxy-face," he cried, "let my brother a-be! What business is it +of yours if two gentlemen have a difference? Go back to your Angus +kernes and ragged craw-bogle Highland folk!" + +Meanwhile Sholto had recovered from his surprise, and the crowd of +varlets was melting apace, thinking the Angus marshal some one of +consequence. But the brothers MacKim were not the lads to take beating +with a stick meekly, and the provost, who indeed had nothing to do +with the Galloway part of the encampment, had far better have confined +his officiousness to his own quarters. + +"Take him on the right, Sholto," cried Laurence, "and I will have at +him from this side." The Red Angus drew his sword and threatened +forthwith to slay the lads if they came near him. But with a spring +like that of a grey Grimalkin of the woods, Sholto leapt within his +guard ere he had time to draw back his arm for thrust or parry, and at +the same moment Laurence, snatching the red and white staff out of his +hand, dealt him so sturdy a clout between the shoulders that, though +he was of weight equal to both of his opponents taken together, he was +knocked breathless at the first blow and went down beneath the impetus +of Sholto's attack. + +Laurence coolly disengaged his brother, and began to thrash the Angus +man with his own staff upon all exposed parts, till the dry wood +broke. Then he threw the pieces at his head, and the two brothers went +off arm in arm to find a woody covert in which to repair damages +against the weapon-showing, and the inspection of their lord and his +keen-eyed master armourer. + +As soon as they had discovered such a sequestered holt, Laurence, who +had frequent experience of such rough-and-tumble encounters, stripped +off his doublet of purple velvet, and, turning the sleeve inside out, +he showed his brother that it was lined with a rough-surfaced felt +cloth almost of the nature of teasle. This being rubbed briskly upon +any dusty garment or fouled armour proved most excellent for restoring +its pristine gloss and beauty. The young men, being as it were born to +the trade and knowing that their armament must meet their father's +inexorable eye, as he passed along their lines with the Earl, rubbed +and polished their best, and when after half an hour's sharp work each +examined the other, not a speck or stain was left to tell of the +various casual incidents of the morning. Two bright, fresh-coloured +youths emerged from their thicket, immaculately clad, and with +countenances of such cherubic innocence, that my lord the Abbot +William of the great Cistercian Abbey of Dulce Cor, looking upon them +as with bare bowed heads they knelt reverently on one knee to ask his +blessing, said to his train, "They look for all the world like young +angels! It is a shame and a sin that two such fair innocents should be +compelled to join in aught ruder than the chanting of psalms in holy +service." + +Whereat one of his company, who had been witness to their treatment of +the Angus provost and also of Laurence's encounter with the knight of +the black armour, was seized incontinently with a fit of coughing +which almost choked him. + +"Bless you, my sons," said the Abbot, "I will speak to my nephew, the +Earl, concerning you. Your faces plead for you. Evil cannot dwell in +such fair bodies. What are your names?" + +The younger knelt with his fingers joined and his eyes meekly on the +grass, while Sholto, who had risen, stood quietly by with his steel +cap in his hand. + +"Laurence MacKim," answered the younger, modestly, without venturing +to raise his eyes from the ground, "and this is my brother Sholto." + +"Can you sing, pretty boy?" said the Abbot to Laurence. + +"We have never been taught," answered downright Sholto. But his +brother, feeling that he was losing chances, broke in: + +"I can sing, if it please your holiness." + +"And what can you sing, sweet lad?" asked the Abbot, smiling with +expectation and setting his hand to his best ear to assist his +increasing deafness. + +"Shut your fool's mouth!" said Sholto under his breath to his brother. + +"Shut your own! 'Tis ugly as a rat-trap at any rate!" responded +Laurence in the same key. Then aloud to the Abbot he said, "An it +please you, sir, I can sing 'O Mary Quean!'" + +The Abbot smiled, well pleased. + +"Ah, exceeding proper, a song to the honour of the Queen of Heaven (he +devoutly crossed himself at the name),--I knew that I could not be +mistaken in you." + +"Your pardon, most reverend," interjected Sholto, anxiously, "please +you to excuse my brother; his voice hath just broken and he cannot +sing at present." Then, under his breath, he added, "Laurie MacKim, +you God-forgotten fool, if you sing that song you will get us both +stripped in a thrice and whipped on the bare back for insolence to the +Earl's uncle!" + +"Go to," said his brother, "I _will_ sing. The old cook is monstrous +deaf at any rate." + +"Sing," said the Abbot, "I would hear you gladly. So fair a face must +be accompanied by the pipe of a nightingale. Besides, we sorely need a +tenor for the choir at Sweetheart." + +So, encouraged in this fashion, the daring Laurence began: + + _"Nae priests aboot me shall be seen + To mumble prayers baith morn and e'en, + I'll swap them a' for Mary Quean! + I'll bid nae mess for me be sung, + Dies ille, dies irae, + Nor clanking bells for me be rung, + Sic semper solet fieri! + I'll gang my ways to Mary Quean."_ + +"Ah, very good, very good, truly," said the Abbot, thrusting his hand +into his pouch beneath his gown, "here are two gold nobles for thee, +sweet lad, and another for your brother, whose countenance methinks is +somewhat less sweet. You have sung well to the praise of our Lady! +What did you say your name was? Of a surety, we must have you at +Sweetheart. And you have the Latin, too, as I heard in the hymn. It is +a thing most marvellous. Verily, the very unction of grace must have +visited you in your cradle!" + +Laurence held down his head with all his native modesty, but the more +open Sholto grew red in the face, hearing behind him the tittering and +shoulder-shaking of the priests and lay servants in the Abbot's train, +and being sure that they would inform their master as soon as he +passed on concerning the true import of Master Laurence's song. He was +muttering in a rapid recitative, "Oh, wait--wait, Laurie MacKim, till +I get you on the Carlinwark shore. A sore back and a stiff skinful of +bones shalt thou have, and not an inch of hide on thee that is not +black and blue. Amen!" he added, stopping his maledictions quickly, +for at that moment the Abbot came somewhat abruptly to the end of his +speech. + +The great churchman rode away on his fair white mule, with a smile and +a backward wave of his hand. + +"I will speak to my nephew concerning you this very day, my child," he +cried. + +And the countenance of that most gentle youth kept its sweet innocence +and angelic grace to the last, but that of Sholto was more dark and +frowning than ever. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE BRAES OF BALMAGHIE + + +By ten of the clock the braes of Balmaghie were a sight most glorious +to look upon. Well nigh twelve thousand men were gathered there, of +whom five thousand were well-mounted knights and fully equipped +men-at-arms, every man of them ready and willing to couch a lance or +ride a charge. + +The line of the tents which had been set up extended from opposite the +Castle island of Thrieve to the kirk hill of Balmaghie. Every knight's +following was strictly kept within its own pale, or fence of green +wands set basket-wise, pointed and thrust into the earth like the +spring traps of those who catch mowdiewarts. Many also were the +quarrels and bickerings of the squires who had been sent forward to +choose and arrange the several encampments. Nor were rough and tumble +fights such as we have seen the MacKims indulging in, thought +derogatory to the dignity of any, save belted knights only. + +Each camp displayed the device of its own lord, but higher than all, +from the top of every mound and broomy hillock floated the banner of +the overlord. This was the lion of Galloway, white on a ground of +blue, and beneath it, but on the same staff, a pennon whereon was the +bleeding heart of the Douglas family. + +The lists were set up on the level meadow that is called the Boat +Croft. At either end a pavilion had been erected, and the jousting +green was strongly fenced in, with a rising tier of seats for the +ladies along one side, and a throne in the midst for the Douglas +himself, as high and as nobly upholstered as if the King of Scots had +been presiding in person. + +At ten by the great sun-dial of Thrieve, the Earl, armed in complete +armour of rare work, damascened with gold, and bearing in his hand the +truncheon of commander, rode first through the fords of Lochar, and +immediately after him came his brother David, a tall handsome boy of +fourteen, whose olive skin and highbred beauty attested his Douglas +birth. + +Next rode the Earl of Angus, a red, foxy-featured man, with mean and +shifty eyes. He sat his horse awkwardly, perpetually hunching his +shoulders forward as if he feared to fall over his beast's head. And +saving among his own company, no man did him any honour, which caused +him to grin with wicked sidelong smiles of hate and envy. + +Then amid the shouting of the people there appeared, on a milk-white +palfrey, Margaret, the Earl's only sister, already famous over all +Scotland as "The Fair Maid of Galloway." With her rode one who, in the +esteem of most who saw the pair that day, was a yet rarer flower, even +Maud Lindesay, who had come out of the bleak North to keep the lonely +little maid company. For Margaret of Douglas was yet no more than a +child, but Maud Lindesay was nineteen years of age and in the first +perfect bloom of her beauty. + +Behind these two came the whole array of the knights and barons who +owned allegiance to the Douglas,--Herons and Maxwells, Ardwell +Macullochs, Gordons from the Glen of Kells, with Agnews and MacDowalls +from the Shireside. But above all, and outnumbering all, there were +the lesser chiefs of the mighty name--Douglases of the North, the +future Moray and Ormond among them, the noble young sons of James the +Gross of Avondale, who rode nearest their cousin, the head of the +clan. Then came Douglases of the Border, Douglases of the Hermitage, +of Renfrew, of Douglasdale. Every third man in that great company +which splashed and caracoled through the fords of Lochar, was a +William, a James, or an Archibald Douglas. The King himself could not +have raised in all Scotland such a following, and it is small wonder +if the heart of the young man expanded within him. + +Presently, soon after the arrival of the cavalcade, the great +wappenshaw was set in array, and forming up company by company the +long double line extended as far as the eye could reach from north to +south along the side of the broad and sluggish-moving river. + +Sholto, who in virtue of his courage and good marksmanship had been +placed over the archer company which waited on the right of the ford, +fell in immediately behind the _cortege_ of the Earl. He was first man +of all to have his equipment examined, and his weapons obtained, as +they deserved, the commendation of his liege lord, and the grim +unwilling approval of Malise, the master armourer, whose unerring eye +could not detect so much as a speck on the shirt of mail, or a grain +of rust on the waist brace of shining steel. + +Then the Earl rode down the lines, and Sholto, remembering the +encounter amidst the dust of the roadway, breathed more freely when he +saw his father's back. + +And surely that day the heart of the Douglas must have beat proud and +high within him, for there they stood, company behind ordered company, +the men on whom he could count to the death. And truly the lad of +eighteen, who in Scotland was greater than the King, looked upon their +steadfast thousands with a swelling heart. + +The Abbot had made particular inquiries where Laurence was stationed, +which was in the archer company of the Laird of Kelton. Most of the +monkish band had been made too happy by the deception practised on +their Abbot concerning "Mary Quean," and were too desirous to have +such a rogue to play his pranks in the dull abbey, to tell any tales +on Laurence MacKim. But one, Berguet, a Belgian priest who had begged +his way to Scotland, and whose nature was that of the spy and +sycophant, approached and volunteered the information to the Abbot +that this lad to whom he was desirous of showing favour, was a ribald +and hypocritical youth. + +"Eh, what?" said the Abbot, "a bodle for thy ill-set tongue, false +loon, dost think I did not hear him sing his fair and seemly orisons? +I tell thee, rude out-land jabberer, that I am a Douglas, and have ears +better than those of any Frenchman that ever breathed. For this thou +shalt kneel six nights on the cold stone of the holy chapel house, and +say of paternosters ten thousand and of misereres thou shall sing +three hundred. And this shall chance to teach thee to be scanter with +thy foul breath when thou speakest to the Abbot of the Foundation of +Devorgill concerning better men than thyself." + +The Belgian priest gasped and fell back, and none other was found to +say aught against Master Laurence, which, considering the ten thousand +paternosters and the three hundred misereres, was not unnatural. + +As the Earl passed along the line he was annoyed by the iterated +requests of his uncle to be informed when they should come to the +company of the Laird of Kelton. And the good Abbot, being like all +deaf men apt to speak a little loud, did not improve matters by +constantly making remarks behind his hand, upon the appearance or +character (as known to him) of the various dependents of the Douglas +House who had come out to show their loyalty and exhibit their +preparedness for battle. + +As thus it was. The young Earl would come in his inspection to a +company of Solway-side men--stiff-jointed fishers of salmon nets out +of the parishes of Rerrick or Borgue--or, as it might be, rough colts +from the rock scarps of Colvend, scramblers after wild birds' nests on +perilous heuchs, and poachers on the deer preserves of Cloak Moss, as +often as they had a chance. Then the Earl, having zealously commended +the particular Barnbacle or Munches who led them, all would be peace +and concord, till out of the crowd behind would issue the growling +comment of his uncle, the Abbot of Dulce Cor. + +"A close-fisted old thief! The saints pity him not! He will surely fry +in Hell! Last Shrovetide did he not drive off five of our best milch +cows, and hath steadfastly refused to restore them? _Anathema +maranatha_ to his vile body and condemned be his huckstering soul!" + +Needless to add, every word of this comment and addition was heard by +the person most concerned. + +Or it might be, "Henry A'milligan--his mother's son, God wot. And his +father's, too, doubtless--if only one could know who his father was. +The devil dwell in his fat belly! _Exorciso te_--" + +So it went on till the temper of the young lord of Galloway was +strained almost to the breaking point, for he wished not to cause a +disturbance among so great a company and on a day of such renown. + +At last they came to the muster of the clean-run limber lads of +Kelton, artificers mostly, and stated retainers of the castle and its +various adjacent bourgs of Carlinwark, Rhonehouse, Gelston, and Mains +of Thrieve. + +Some one at this point took the Abbot by the elbow and shouted in his +ear that this was the company he desired to see. Then he rode forward +to the left hand of his nephew, as Malise and he passed slowly down +the line examining the weapons. + +"Laurence MacKim, I would see Laurence MacKim!" cried the Abbot, +holding up his hand as if in the chapel of his monastery. The Earl +stopped, and Malise turned right about on his heel in great +astonishment. + +"What wants old marrowbones with our Laurie?" he muttered; "surely he +cannot have gotten into mischief with the lasses already. But I +kenna--I kenna. When I was sixteen I can mind--I can mind. And the +loon may well be his father's own son." + +And Malise, the man of brawn, watched out of his quiet grey eyes the +face of the Abbot William, wondering what was to come next. + +Laurence stood forth at a word of command from the Earl. He saluted, +and then dropped the point of his sword meekly upon the ground. His +white-and-rose cherub's face expressed the utmost goodness and +innocence. + +"Dear kinsman," said the Abbot to his nephew, "I have a request to +prefer which I hope you will grant, though it deprive you of one +retainer. This sweet youth is not fit company for rude soldiers and +ill-bred rufflers of the camp. His mind is already on higher things. +He hath good clerkly Latin also, being skilled in the humanities, as I +have heard proven with mine own ears. His grace of language and +deportment is manifest, and he can sing the sweetest and most +spiritual songs in praise of Mary and the saints. I would have him in +our choir at Sweetheart Abbey, where we have much need both of a voice +such as his, and also of a youth whose sanctity and innocence cannot +fail to leaven with the grace of the spirit the neophytes of our +college, and the consideration of whom may even bring repentance into +older and more hardened hearts." + +Malise MacKim could not believe his ears as he listened to the Abbot's +rounded periods. But all the same his grey eyes twinkled, his mouth +slowly drew itself together into the shape of an O, from which issued +a long low whistle, perfectly audible to all about him except the +Abbot. "Lord have mercy on the innocence and cloistered quiet of the +neophytes if they get our Laurie for an example!" muttered Malise to +himself as he turned away. + +Even the young Earl smiled, perhaps remembering the last time he had +seen the youth beside him, clutching and tearing like a wild cat at +his brother's throat in the smithy of Carlinwark. + +"You desire the life of a clerk?" said Lord William pleasantly to +Laurence. He would gladly have purchased his uncle's silence at even +greater price. + +"If your lordship pleases," said Laurence, meekly, adding to himself, +"it cannot be such hard work as hammering at the forge, and if I like +it not, why then I can always run away." + +"You think you have a call to become a holy clerk?" + +"I feel it here," quoth Master Laurence, hypocritically, indicating +correctly, however, the organ whose wants have made clerks of so +many--that is, the stomach. + +Earl William smiled yet more broadly, but anxious to be gone he said: +"Mine Uncle, here is the lad's father, Malise MacKim, my master +armourer and right good servant. Ask him concerning his son." + +"'Tis all up a rotten tree now," muttered Laurence to himself; "my +father will reveal all." + +Malise MacKim smiled grimly, but with a salutation to the dignitary of +the church and near relative of his chief, he said: "Truly, I had +never thought of this my son as worthy to be a holy clerk. But I will +not stand in the way of his advancement nor thwart your favour. Take +him for a year on trial, and if you can make a monk of him, do so and +welcome. I recommend a leathern strap, well hardened in the fire, for +the purpose of encouraging him to make a beginning in the holy life." + +"He shall indeed have penance if he need it. For the good of the soul +must the body suffer!" said Abbot William, sententiously. + +"Saints' bones and cracklings," muttered Laurence, "this is none so +cheerful! But I can always run away if the strap grows overlimber, and +then let them catch me if they can. Sholto will help me." + +"Fall out!" commanded the Earl, sharply, "and join yourself to the +company of the Abbot William. Come, Malise, we lose our time." + +Thus was one of our heroes brought into the way of becoming a learned +and holy clerk. But all those who knew him best agreed that he had a +far road to travel. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE + + +The Earl had almost arrived at the pavilion erected at the southern +end of the jousting meadow, when a gust of cheering borne along the +lines announced the arrival of a belated company. The young man +glanced northward with intent to discover, by their pennons, who his +visitors might be. But the distance was too great, and identification +was made more difficult by the swarming of the populace round the +newcomers. So, being unable to make the matter out, Earl William +despatched his brother David to bring him word of their quality. + +Presently, however, and before David Douglas' return, shouts of +"Avondale, Avondale!" from the men of Lanarkshire informed the young +Earl of the name of one at least of those who had arrived. A frown so +quick and angry darkened his brow that it showed the consideration in +which the Douglas held his granduncle James the Gross, Earl of +Avondale. + +"I hope, at least," he said in a low voice to Malise, who stood half a +step behind him, "that my cousins Will and James have come with him. +They are good metal for a tourney, and worth breaking a lance with." + +By this time the banners of the visitors were discernible crossing the +fords of Lochar, while high advanced above all private pennons two +standards could be seen, the banner royal of Scotland, and close +beside the rampant lion the white lilies of France. + +"Saint Bride!" cried the Earl, "have they brought the King of Scots to +visit me? His Majesty had been better at his horn-book, or playing +ball in the tennis court of Stirling." + +Then came David back, riding swiftly on his fine dark chestnut, which, +being free from the mantle wherein the horses of knights were swathed, +and having its mane and tail left long, made a gallant show as the lad +threw it almost on its haunches in his boyish pride of horsemanship. + +"William," said David Douglas, "a word in your ear, brother. The whole +tribe are here,--fat Jamie and all his clan." + +The brothers conferred a little apart, for in those troubled times men +learned caution early, and though the Douglas was the greatest lord in +Scotland, yet, surrounded by meaner men as he was, it behoved him to +be jealous and careful of his life and honour. + +Earl Douglas came out of the sparred enclosure of the tilt-ring in +order to receive his guests. + +First, as an escort to the ambassador royal of France and Scotland who +came behind, rode the Earl of Avondale and his five sons, noble young +men, and most unlikely to have sprung from such a stock. James the +Gross rode a broad Clydesdale mare, a short, soft unwieldy man, +sitting squat on the saddle like a toad astride a roof, and glancing +slily sideways out of the pursy recesses of his eyes. + +Behind him came his eldest son William, a man of a true Douglas +countenance, quick, high, and stern. Then followed James, whose lithe +body and wonderful dexterity in arms were already winning him repute +as one of the bravest knights in all Christendom in every military and +manly exercise. + +Behind the Avondale Douglases rode two men abreast, with a lady on a +palfrey between them. + +The first to take the eye, both by his stature and his remarkable +appearance, rode upon a charger covered from head to tail in the +gorgeous red-and-gold diamonded trappings pertaining to a marshal of +France. He was in complete armour, and wore his visor down. A long +blue feather floated from his helmet, falling almost upon the flank of +his horse; a truncheon of gold and black was at his side. A pace +behind him the lilies of France were displayed, floating out languidly +from a black and white banner staff held in the hands of a young +squire. + +The knight behind whom the banner royal of Scotland fluttered was a +man of different mould. His spare frame seemed buried in the suit of +armour that he wore somewhat awkwardly. His pale ascetic countenance +looked more in place in a monkish cloister than on a knightly tilting +ground, and he glanced this way and that with the swift and furtive +suspicion of one who, while setting one trap, fears to be taken in +another. + +But the lady who rode on a white palfrey between these two took all +men's regard, even in the presence of a marshal of France and a herald +extraordinary of the King of Scots. + +The Earl Douglas, having let his eyes once rest upon her, could not +again remove them, being, as it were, fixed by the very greatness of +the wonder which he saw. + +It was the lady of the pavilion underneath the pines, the lady of the +evening light and of the midnight storm. + +She was no longer clothed in simple white, but arrayed like a king's +daughter. On her head was a high-peaked coiffure, from which there +flowed down a graceful cloud of finest lace. This, even as the Earl +looked at her, she caught at with a bewitching gesture, and brought +down over her shoulder with her gloved hand. A close-fitting robe of +palest blue outlined the perfections of her body. A single +fleur-de-lys in gold was embroidered on the breast of her white +bodice, and the same device appeared again and again on the white +housing of her palfrey. + +She sat in the saddle, gently smiling, and looking down with a +sweetness which was either the perfection of finished coquetry or the +expression of the finest natural modesty. + +Strangely enough, the first thought which came to the Earl Douglas +after his surprise was one in which triumph was blended with mirth. + +"What will the Abbot and Malise think of this?" he said, half aloud. +And he turned him about in order to look upon the face of his master +armourer. + +He found Malise MacKim ashen-pale and drawn of countenance, his mouth +open and squared with wonder. His jaw was fallen slack, and his hands +gripped one upon the other like those of a suppliant praying to the +saints. + +The Earl smiled, and bidding Malise unlace his helmet in compliment to +his guests, he stood presently bareheaded before them, his head +appearing above the blackness of his armour, bright as a flower with +youth and instinct with all the fiery beauty of his race. + +It was James the Gross who came forward to act as herald. "My +well-beloved nephew," he began in somewhat whining tones, "I bring you +two royal embassies, one from the King of France and the other from +the King of Scotland. I have the honour to present to you the Marshal +Gilles de Retz, ambassador of the most Christian King, Charles the +Seventh, who will presently deliver his master's message to you." + +The marshal, who till now had kept his visor down, slowly raised it, +and revealed a face which, being once seen, could never afterwards be +banished from the memory. + +It was a large grey-white countenance, with high cheek-bones and +colourless lips, which were continually working one upon the other. +Black eyes were set close together under heavy brows, and a long thin +nose curved between them like the beak of an unclean bird. + +"Earl William," said the marshal, "I give you greeting in the name of +our common liege lord, Charles, King of France, and also in that of +his son, the Dauphin Louis. I bring you also a further token of their +good-will, in that I hail you heir to the great estates and dignities +of your father and grandfather, sometime Dukes of Touraine and vassals +premier of the King of France." + +The young man bowed, but in spite of the interest of his message, the +marshal caught his eyes resting upon the face of the lady who rode +beside him. + +"To this I add that which, save for the message of the King, my +master, ought fitly to have come first. I present you to this fair +lady, my sister-in-law, the Damosel Sybilla de Thouars, maid of honour +to your high princess Margaret of Scotland, who of late hath expanded +into a yet fairer flower under the sun of our land of France." + +The Earl dismounted and threw the reins of his horse to Malise, whose +face wore an expression of bitterest disappointment and instinctive +hatred. Then he went to the side of the Lady Sybilla, and taking her +hand he bowed his head over it, touching the glove to his lips with +every token of respect. Still bareheaded, he took the reins of her +palfrey and led her to the stand reserved for the Queen of Beauty. + +Here the Earl invited her to dismount and occupy the central seat. + +"Till your arrival it lacked an occupant, saving my little sister; but +to-day the gods have been good to the house of Douglas, and for the +first time since the death of my father I see it filled." + +Smilingly the lady consented, and with a wave of his hand the Earl +William invited the Marshal de Retz to take the place on the other +side of the Lady Sybilla. + +Then turning haughtily to the herald of the King of Scots, who had +been standing alone, he said:-- + +"And now, sir, what would you with the Earl Douglas?" + +The ascetic, monkish man found his words with little loss of time, +showing, however, no resentment for Earl William's neglect of any +reverence to the banner under whose protection he came. + +"I am Sir James Irving of Drum," he said, "and I stand here on behalf +of Sir Alexander Livingston, tutor and guardian of the King of Scots, +to invite your friendship and aid. The Lord Crichton, sometime +Chancellor of this realm, hath rebelled against the royal authority +and fortified him in Edinburgh Castle. So both Sir Alexander +Livingston and the most noble lady, the Queen Mother, desire the +assistance of the great power of the Earl of Douglas to suppress this +revolt." + +Scarcely had these words been uttered when another knight stepped +forward out of the train which had followed the Earl of Avondale. + +"I am here on behalf of the Chancellor of Scotland, who is no rebel +against any right authority, but who wishes only to bring this +distracted realm back into some assured peace, and to deliver the +young King out of the hands of flatterers and lechers. I have the +honour, therefore, of requesting on behalf of the Chancellor of +Scotland, Sir William Crichton, the true representative of royal +authority, the aid and alliance of my Lord of Douglas." + +A smile of haughty contempt passed over the face of the Earl, and he +dismissed both heralds, uttering in the hearing of all those words +which afterwards became so famous over Scotland: + +"Let dog eat dog! Wherefore should the lion care?" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MISTRESS MAUD LINDESAY + + +The sports of the first day of the great wappenshaw were over. The +Lord James Douglas, second son of the Gross One, had won the single +tourneying by unhorsing all his opponents without even breaking a +lance. For the second time Sholto MacKim wore on his cap the golden +buckle of archery, and took his way happily homeward, much uplifted +that the somewhat fraudulent eyes of Mistress Maud Lindesay had smiled +upon him whilst the French lady was fastening it there. + +The knightly part of the great muster had already gone back to their +tents and lodgings. The commonalty were mostly stringing away through +the vales and hill passes to their homes, no longer in ordered +companies, but in bands of two or three. Disputes and misunderstandings +arose here and there between men of different provinces. The Galloway +men called "Annandale thieves" at those border lads who came at the +summons of the hereditary Warden of the Marches. The borderers replied +by loud bleatings, which signified that they held the Galwegians of no +better understanding than their native sheep. + +It was a strange and varied company which rode home to Thrieve to +receive the hospitality of the young Earl of Douglas and Duke of +Touraine. The castle itself, being no more than a military fortress, +containing in addition to the soldiers' quarters only the apartments +designed for the family (and scant enough even of those) could not, of +course, accommodate so great a company. + +But as was the custom at all great houses, though more in England and +France than in poverty-stricken Scotland, the Earl of Douglas had in +store an abundant supply of tents, some of them woven of arras and +ornamented with cloth of gold, others of humbler but equally +serviceable material. + +His mother, the Countess of Douglas, who knew nothing of the +occurrences of the night of the great storm, nor guessed at the +suspicions of witchcraft and diablerie which made a hell of the breast +of Malise, the master armourer, received her son's guests with +distinguished courtesy. Malise himself had gone to find the Abbot, so +soon as ever he set eyes on the companion of the Marshal de Retz, that +they might consult together--only, however, to discover that the +gentle churchman had quitted the field immediately after he had +obtained the consent of his nephew to the possession of the new +chorister, to whom he had taken so sudden and violent a fancy. + +The hoofs of the whole cavalcade were erelong sounding hollow and dull +upon the wooden bridge, which the Earl's father had erected from the +left bank to the southernmost corner of the Isle of Thrieve, a bridge +which a single charge of powder, or even a few strokes of a wood-man's +axe, had been sufficient to remove and disable, but which nevertheless +enabled the castle-dwellers to avoid the extreme inconvenience of +passing through the ford at all states of the river. + +Sholto MacKim, throwing all the consciousness of a shining success +into the stiffness of the neck which upheld the slight additional +weight of the Earl's gold buckle in his cap, found himself, not wholly +by accident, in the neighbourhood of his heart's beloved, Maud +Lindesay. For, like a valiant seneschal, she had kept her place all +day close beside the Fair Maid of Galloway. + +And now the little girl was more than ever eager to keep near to her +friend, for the ambassador of the King of France had bent one look +upon her, so strange and searching that Margaret, though not naturally +timid, had cried aloud involuntarily and clasped her friend's hand +with a grasp which she refused to loosen, till Sholto had promised to +walk by the side of her pony and allow her to net her trembling +fingers into the thick of his clustering curls. + +For the armourer's son was, in those simple days, an ancient ally and +playmate of the little noble damsel, and he dreamed, and not without +some excuse, that in an age when every man's strong arm and brave +heart constituted his fortune, the time might come when he might even +himself to Maud Lindesay, baron's daughter though she were. For both +his father and himself were already high in favour with their master +the Earl, who could create knighthoods and dispose lordships as easily +as (and much more effectually and finally than) the King himself. + +The emissaries of the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston did not +accompany the others back to the castle after the short and haughty +answer which they had received, but with their followers returned the +way they had come to their several headquarters, giving, as was +natural between foes so bitter, a wide berth to each other on their +northward journeys to Edinburgh and Stirling. + +"What think you of this day's doings, Mistress Lindesay?" asked Sholto +as he swung along beside the train with little Margaret Douglas's hand +still clutching the thick curls at the back of his neck. + +The maid of honour tossed her shapely head, and, with a little pretty +upward curl of the lip, exclaimed: "'Twas as stupid a tourney as ever +I saw. There was not a single handsome knight nor yet one beautiful +lady on the field this day." + +"What of James of Avondale when knights are being judged?" said +Sholto, with a kind of gloomy satisfaction, boyish and characteristic; +"he at least looked often enough in your direction to prove that he +did not agree with you about the lack of the beautiful lady." + +At this Maud Lindesay elevated her pretty nostrils yet further into +the air. "James of Avondale, indeed--" she said, "he is not to be +compared either for dignity or strength with the Earl himself, nor yet +with many others whom I know of lesser estate." + +"Sholto MacKim," cried the clear piping voice of the little Margaret, +"how in the world am I to keep hold of your hair if you shake and jerk +your head about like that? If you do not keep still I will send for +that pretty boy over there in the scarlet vest, or ask my cousin James +to ride with me. And he will, too, I know--for he likes bravely to be +beside my dear, sweet Maud Lindesay." + +After this Sholto held his head erect and forth-looking, as if he had +been under the inspection of the Earl and were doubtful of his weapons +passing muster. + +There came a subtle and roguish smile into the eyes of Mistress Maud +Lindesay as she observed the stiffening of Sholto's bearing. + +"Who were those others of humbler estate?" he queried, sending his +words straight out of his lips like pellets from a pop-gun, being in +fear lest he should unsettle the hand of the small tyrant upon his +hair. + +"Your brother Laurence for one," replied the minx, for no other +purpose than to see the flush of disappointment tinge his brow with +sudden red. + +"I wish my brother Laurence were in--" he began. But the girl +interrupted him. + +"Hush," she said, holding up her finger, "do not swear, especially at +a son of the holy church. Ha, ha! A fit clerk and a reverend will they +make of Laurence MacKim! I have heard of your ploys and ongoings, both +of you. Think not I am to be taken in by your meekness and pretence of +dutiful service. You go athwart the country making love to poor +maidens, and then, when you have won their hearts, you leave them +lamenting." + +And she affected to heave a deep sigh. + +"Ah, Maudie," said the little girl, reproachfully, "now you are being +bad. I know it by your voice. Do not be unkind to my Sholto, for his +hair is so pleasant to touch. I wish you could feel it. And, besides, +when you are wicked to him, you make him jerk, and if he does it often +I shall have to send him away." + +The Maid of Galloway was indeed entirely correct. For Maud Lindesay, +accustomed all her life to the homage of many men, and having been +brought up in a great castle in an age when chivalrous respect to +women had not yet given place to the licence of the Revival of +Letters, practised irritation like a fine art. She was brimful of the +superfluity of naughtiness, yet withal as innocent and playful as a +kitten. + +But Sholto, both from a feeling that he belonged to an inferior rank, +and also being exceedingly conscious of his youth, chose to be +bitterly offended. + +"You mistake me greatly, Mistress Lindesay," he said in an uneven +schoolboy's voice, to which he tried in vain to add a touch of worldly +coldness; "I do not make love to every girl I meet, nor yet do I love +them and leave them as you say. You have been most gravely +misinformed." + +"Nay," tripped the maid of honour, with arch quickness of reply, "I +said not that you were naturally equipped for such amorous quests. I +meant to designate your brother Laurence. 'Tis pity he is to be a +clerk. Though one day doubtless he will make a very proper and +consolatory father confessor--" + +Sholto walked on in silence, his eyes fixed before him, and in such +high dudgeon that he pretended to be unconscious of what the girl had +been saying. Then the little Margaret began to prattle in her pretty +way, and the youth answered "yes" and "no" sulkily and at random, his +thoughts being alternately on the doing of some great deed to make his +mistress repent her cruelty, and on a leap into the castle pool, in +whose unsunned deeps he might find oblivion from all the flouts of +hard-hearted beauty. + +Maud kept her eyes upon him, a smile of satisfaction on her lips so +long as he was not looking at her. She liked to play her fish as +satisfactorily as she could before grassing it at her feet. + +"Besides, it will do him good," she said to herself. "He hath lately +won the gold badge of archery, and, like all men, is apt to think +overmuch of himself at such times. Moreover, I can always make it up +to him after--if I like, that is." + +But as often as Sholto dropped a little behind, keeping pace with Maid +Margaret's slower palfrey so that Maud was sure he looked at her, the +pretty coquette cast down her eyes in affected humility and sorrow. +Whereupon immediately Sholto felt his resentment begin to melt like +snow off a dike top when the sun of April is shining. + +But neither of them uttered another word till they reached the +drawbridge which crossed the nether moat and conducted to the noble +gateway of Thrieve. Then, at the foot of the stairway to the hall, +Sholto, having swung the little maid from her pony, after a moment of +sullen hesitation went across to assist Mistress Maud Lindesay out of +her saddle. + +As he lifted the girl down his heart thundered tumultuously in his +breast, for he had never so touched her before. Her lashes rested +modestly on her cheek--long, black, and upcurled a little at the ends. +As her foot touched the ground, she raised them a moment, and looked +at him with one swift flash of violet eyes made darker by the +seclusion from which she had released them. Then in another moment she +had dropped them again, detaching them from his with a mighty +affectation of confusion. + +"Please, Sholto, I am sorry. I did not mean it." She spoke like a +child that is sorry for a fault and is fearful of being chidden. + +And even though knowing full well by bitter experience all her +naughtiness and hypocrisy, Sholto, gulping his heart well down into +his throat, could not do otherwise than forgive a thing so pretty and +so full of the innocent artifices which make mown hay of the hearts of +men. + +With a touch of his lips upon the hand of Margaret the Maid in token +of fealty, Sholto MacKim turned on his heel and went away towards the +fords of Thrieve, muttering to himself, "No, she does not mean it, I +do believe. But I have ever heard that of all women she who never +means it is the most dangerous." + +And this is a dict which no wise man can gainsay. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A DAUNTING SUMMONS + + +Not far before them had ridden the Earl and the Lady Sybilla. Behind +these two came the Marshal de Retz and the fat Lord of Avondale. They +were telling each other tales of the wars of La Pucelle, the latter +laughing and shaking shoulders, but at the end of every side-splitting +legend the Frenchman would glance over his shoulder at Maud Lindesay +and the little maiden Margaret. + +As Sholto passed them on his return he stood aside, poised at the +salute, looking meanwhile with awe on the great and notable French +soldier. Yet at the first glimpse of his unvisored face there fell +upon the young man a dislike so fierce and instinctive that he grasped +his bow and fumbled in his quiver for an arrow, in order to send it +through the unlaced joints of the Marshal's gorget, which for ease's +sake his squire had undone when they left the field. + +Sholto MacKim was at the fords waiting the chance of crossing and the +pleasure of the surly keeper of the bridge, Elson A'Cormack, who sat +in his wheelhouse, grunting curses on all who passed that way. + +"Foul feet, slow bellies, fushionless and slack ye are to run my +lord's errands! But quick enow to return home upon your trampling +clattering ruck of horses, and every rascal of you expecting to ride +over my bridge of good pine planking instead of washing the dirt from +your hoofs in honest Dee water." + +The long files of horsemen threaded their way across the green plain +of the isle towards the open space in front of Thrieve Castle, the +points of their spears shining high in the air, and the shafts so +thick underneath that, seen from a distance, they made a network of +slender lines reticulated against the brightness of the sun. + +The great island strength of the Douglases was then in its highest +state of perfection as a fortress and of dignity as a residence. +Archibald the Grim, who built the keep, could not have foreseen the +wondrous beauty and strength to which Thrieve would attain under his +successors. This night of the wappenshaw the lofty grey walls were +hung with gaily coloured tapestries draped from the overhanging +gallery of wood which ran round the top of the castle. From the four +corners of the roof flew the banners of four provinces which owned the +sway of the mighty house,--Galloway, Annandale, Lanark, and the +Marches,--while from the centre, on a flagstaff taller than any, flew +their standard royal, for so it might be called, the heart and stars +of the Douglases' more than royal house. + +While the outer walls thus blazed with colour, the woods around gave +back the constant reverberation of cannon, as with hand guns and +artillery of weight the garrison greeted the return of the Earl and +his guests. The green castle island from end to end was planted thick +with tents and gay with pavilions of many hues and various design, +their walls covered with intricate devices, and each flying the +colours of its owner, while on poles without dangled shields and +harness of various kinds, ready for the younger squires to clean and +oil for the use of their masters on the remaining days of the +tournament. + +Sholto waited at the bridge-head, impatient of the press, and eager to +be left alone with his own thoughts, that he might con over and over +the words and looks of his heart's idol, and suck all the sweet pain +he could out of her very hardheartedness. Suddenly tossed backwards +like a ball from lip to lip, according to the universal and, indeed, +obligatory custom of the time, there reached him the "passing of the +word." He heard his own name repeated over and over in fifty voices +and tones, waxing louder as the "word" neared him. + +"Sholto MacKim--Sholto MacKim, son of Malise, the armourer, wanted to +speak with the Earl. Sholto MacKim. Sholto--" + +A great nolt of a Moray Highlandman, with a mouth like a gash, shouted +it in his very ear. + +Surprised and somewhat anxious at heart, Sholto cast over in his mind +all the deeds, good and evil, which might procure him the honour of an +interview with Earl William Douglas, but could think of nothing except +his having involuntarily played the spy at the young lord's meeting +with the lady in the wood. It was therefore with some natural +trepidation that the young man obeyed the summons. + +"At any rate," he meditated with a slight return of complacency, as he +butted and shoved his way castle-wards, "he can scarcely mean to have +my head. For he was all day with my father at his elbow, and at the +worst I shall have another chance of seeing"--he did not call the +beloved by her Christian name even to himself, so he compromised by +adding somewhat lamely--"_her_." + +Thus Sholto, putting speed in his heels and swinging along over the +trampled sward with the easy tireless trot of a sleuthhound, threaded +his way among the groups of villein prickers and swearing men-at-arms +who cumbered the main approaches of the castle. + +He found the Earl walking swiftly up and down a little raised platform +which extended round three sides of Thrieve, outside the main +defences, but yet within the nether moat, the sluggish water of which +it over-looked on its inner side. + +Earl William was manifestly discomposed and excited by the events of +the day, and especially by the fact that the Lady Sybilla seemed +utterly unconscious of ever having set eyes upon him before, appearing +entirely oblivious of having received him in a pavilion of +rose-coloured silk under the shelter of a grove of tall pines. The +young lord instinctively recoiled from any communication with his +master armourer, whose grave and impassive face revealed nothing which +might be passing in his mind. Then the Earl's thoughts turned upon +Sholto, who had been the first to observe his beauteous companion of +the Carlinwark woods. + +Earl William was even younger than Sholto, but the cares and dignities +of a great position had rendered him far less boyish in manner and +carriage than the son of Malise MacKim. + +His head, now released from his helm, rose out from the richly +ornamented collar of his armour with the grace of a flower and the +strength of a tree rooted among rocks. He had already laid aside his +gorget, and when Sholto was announced, the Earl's ancient retainer, +old Landless Jock of Abernethy, was bringing him a cap of soft velvet +which he threw on the back of his head with an air of supreme +carelessness. Then he rose and walked up and down, carrying his armour +as if it had been a mere feather weight, whereas it was tilting +harness of double plate and designed only for wearing on horseback. + +Sholto marked in the young lord a boyish eagerness equal to his own. +Indeed, his impatient manner recalled his late feelings, as he had +stood on the bridge and desired to be left alone with his thoughts of +Maud Lindesay. + +Sholto stood still and quiet on the topmost step of the ascent from +the moat-bridge waiting for the Earl to signify his will. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CAPTAIN OF THE EARL'S GUARD + + +"Sholto MacKim," said the Earl of Douglas, abruptly, "saw you the lady +who arrived with the foreign ambassador?" + +"She is indeed wondrous fair to look on," answered Sholto, the whole +heart in him instantly wary, while outwardly he seemed more innocent +than before. + +"Have your eyes ever lighted on that lady before?" + +"Nay, my lord, of a surety no. In what manner should they, seeing that +I have never been in France in my life, nor indeed more than a score +of miles from this castle of Thrieve?" + +"Thou art a good lad, and also ready of wit, Master Sholto," said the +Earl, looking at the armourer's son musingly. "Clear of eye and true +of hand, so they tell me. Did you not win the arrow prize this day?" + +Lord William raised his eyes to where in the bonnet of the youth his +own golden badge of archery glistened. + +"And I also won the swording prize at the last wappenshaw on the moot +hill of Urr," said Sholto, taking courage, and being resolved that if +his fortune stood not now on tiptoe, it should not be on account of +any superfluity of modesty on his own part. + +"Ah," said the Earl, "I remember. It was two golden hearts joined +together with an arrow and a star in the midst--a fitting Douglas +emblem, by the bones of Saint Bride! Where hast thou left that badge +that thou dost not wear it along with the other?" + +Sholto blushed and muttered that he had forgotten it at home. He was +all of a breaking perspiration lest he should have to tell the Earl +that he had given it to Maud Lindesay, as indeed he meant to do +presently, along with the golden buckle of archery,--that is if the +dainty, mischievous-hearted maiden could be persuaded to accept +thereof. + +"Ah," said the Earl, smiling, "I comprehend. There is some maid in the +question, and if I advance you to the command of my house-guard and +give you an officer's responsibility, you will of a surety be ever +desiring to go gadding to the greenwood--and around the loch of +Carlinwark are most truly dangerous glades." + +"Nay, indeed nay," cried Sholto, eagerly. "If it is my lord's will to +appoint me to his guard, by Saint Bride and all the other saints I +swear never to leave the island, unless it be sometimes of a Sunday +afternoon for an hour or two--just to see my mother." + +"Your mother!" quoth the Earl, laughing heartily. "So then my two +golden hearts are in your mother's keeping. Art a good lad, Sholto, +and as for guile it is simply not in thee!" + +Sholto looked modestly down upon the earth, as if conscious of his own +exceeding merits, but willing for the nonce to say nothing about them. +But the young Earl came over to him, and dealing him a sound buffet on +the back, cried: "Nay, lad, that lamb-like look I have seen tried on +mine uncle the Abbot of Sweetheart. Thy brother Laurence is in the way +of clerkly advancement on account of that same sweetly innocent +regard, which he hath in even greater perfection. But I am a young +man, remember--and one youth flings not glamour easily into the eyes +of another. Sholto, neither you nor I are any better than we should +be, and if we are not so evil as some others, let us not set up as +overwhelmingly virtuous. For at twenty virtue is mostly but lack of +opportunity." + +Sholto blushed so becomingly at this accusation that if the Earl had +not seen the brothers locked in the death grip like crabs in a +fishwife's creel, even he might have been deceived. + +"Nevertheless," continued the Earl, "in spite of your claims to +virtue, I am resolved to make you officer of my castle-guard--if not +in name, at least in fact. For old Landless Jock of Abernethy must +keep the name while he lives, and stand first when my steward pays out +the chuckling golden Lions at Whitsun and eke Lady Day. But you shall +have enough and be no longer a charge upon your father. Malise should +be a proud man, having both his sons provided for in one day." + +The Earl turned him about with his usual quick imperiousness. +"Malise," he cried, "Malise MacKim!" + +And again the "word" ran through the castle, escaped the gate, +circumnavigated the moat, and ran round the circle of the tents till +the shouts of "Malise, Malise," could have been heard almost at the +deserted fords of Lochar, where sundry varlets were watching for a +chance to search the deserted pavilions for anything left behind +therein by the knights and squires. + +Presently there was seen ascending to the moat platform the huge form +of the master armourer himself. He stood waiting his master's +pleasure, with a knife which he had been sharpening in his hand. It +was a curious weapon, long, thin, and narrow in the blade, which was +double-edged and ground fine as a razor on both sides. + +"Ah, Malise," said the Earl, "you have not taught your son amiss. He +threatens to turn out a most marvellous lad, for not only can he make +weapons, but he can excel the best of my men-at-arms in their use. +Have you any objection that he be attached to my guard?" + +The strong man smiled with his usual calm, and kept his humorous grey +eyes fixed shrewdly on the Earl. + +"Aye," he said, "it is indeed more fitting that Sholto, my son, should +ride behind my Lord of Douglas than stiff old Malise upon his Flanders +mare." + +The Earl blushed a little, for he remembered how the armourer had +offered to ride behind him after he had shod Black Darnaway at the +Carlinwark. He went on somewhat hastily. + +"I have resolved to make your son, Sholto, officer of the +castle-guard. It is perhaps over-responsible a post for so young a +man, yet I myself am younger and have heavier burdens to bear. Also +Landless Jock is growing old and stiff, and will not suffer to be +spoken to. For my father's sake I cannot be severe with him. He will +die in his charge if he will, but on Douglasdale and not at Thrieve. +So now I would have your son do my bidding without question, which is +more than his father ever did before him." + +"I can answer for Sholto," said Malise MacKim. "He is afraid of +nothing save perhaps the strength of his father's right arm. He is +cool enough in danger. Nothing daunts him except the flutter of a +farthingale. But then my lord knows well that is a fault most +commendable in this castle of Thrieve. Sholto will be an honest +captain of your house-carls, if you see to it that the steward locks +up his loaves of sugar and his most toothsome preserves." + +"Faith," cried the Earl, heartily, "I know not but what I would join +Master Sholto in a raid on these dainties myself." + +In this fashion was Sholto MacKim placed in command of the house-guard +of the castle of Thrieve. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE NIGHT ALARM + + +At parting with his father, the young captain received many wise and +grave instructions, all of which he resolved to remember and profit +by--a resolution which he did not fail to keep for full five minutes. + +"Be douce in deportment," said his father, speaking quietly and yet +with a certain sternness of demeanour. "Think three times before you +give an order, but let no man think even once before obeying it. Set +him astraddle the wooden horse with a spear shaft at either foot to +teach him that a soldier's first duty is not to think. Keep your eyes +more on the alert for the approach of an enemy than for the ankles of +the women-folk at the turnings of the turret stairs." + +To these and many other maxims out of the incorporate wisdom of the +elders, Sholto promised most faithful attendance, and, for the time +being, he fully intended to keep his word. But no sooner was his +father gone, and he introduced to his new quarters and duties by David +Douglas, the Earl's younger brother, than he began to wonder which was +the window of Maud Lindesay's chamber and speculate on how soon he +would see her thereat. + +In the castle of Thrieve that night there was little sleeping room to +spare. The Earl and his brother lay wrapped in their plaids in one of +the round towers of the outer defences. In the castle hall the +retainers of the French ambassador slept side by side, or heads and +tails with the archers of the house-guard. Lights flickered on the +turnpike stair which led to the upper floors. The servitors had +cleared the great hall, and here on a dais, raised above the "marsh" +and sheltered by an arras curtain hastily arranged, James the Gross +slept on a soft French bed, which he had caused to be brought all the +way from his castle of Strathavon on the moors of Lanarkshire. + +In the Earl's chamber on the third floor was lodged the Marshal de +Retz. Next him ranged the apartment of the countess. Here also was the +Lady Sybilla at the end of the passage in the guest chamber which +looked to the north, and from the windows of which she could see the +broad river dividing itself about the castle island, and flowing as +calmly on as if the stern feudal pile had been a peaceful monastery +and the waving war banners no more than so many signs of holy cross. + +Above, in the low-roofed chambers, which gave upon the wooden balcony, +were the apartments of Maud Lindesay and her charge, little Margaret +Douglas, the Fair Maid of Galloway. + +Now the single postern stair of the castle was shut at the foot, where +it opened out upon the hall of the guard by a sparred iron gate, the +key of which was put into Sholto's charge. The night closed early upon +the castle-ful of wearied folk. The marshals of the camps caused the +lights to be put out at nine-of-the-clock in all the tents and +pavilions, but the lamps and candles burned longer in the castle +itself, where the Earl had been giving a banquet to his guests, of +the best that his estates could afford. Nevertheless, it was yet long +before midnight when the cheep of the mouse in the wainscot, the +restless stir or muffled snore of a crowded sleeper in the guardroom, +was the only sound to be heard from dungeon to banner-staff of the +great castle. + +Sholto's heart throbbed tumultuous and insurgent within him. And small +is the wonder. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined such a fate +as this, to be actual captain of the Earl's own body-guard, even +though neither title nor emolument was yet wholly his; better still, +that he should dwell night and day within arm's reach almost of the +desire of his heart, flinty-bosomed and mischievous as she was--these +were heights of good fortune to which his imagination had never +climbed in its most daring ascents. + +No longer did he envy his brother's good fortune, as he had been +somewhat inclined to do earlier in the day, when he thought of +returning to wield the forehammer all alone in his father's smithy. + +The first night of Captain Sholto's responsibility in the castle of +Thrieve was destined to be a memorable one. To the youth himself it +would have appeared so in any case. Only a panelled door divided him +from the girl who, wayward and scornful as she had ever been to him, +yet kept his heart dangling at her waist-belt as truly as if it had +been the golden key of her armoire. + +The ancient Sir John of Abernethy, dubbed Landless Jock, would not be +separated from his masters, and slept with two sergeants of the guard +in the turret adjacent to that in which the brothers of Douglas, +William and David, lay in the first sleep of youth and an easy mind. + +Sholto therefore found himself left with the undivided responsibility +for the safety of the castle and all who dwelt within it. He was also +the only man who, by reason of his charge and in virtue of his +master-key, was permitted to circulate freely through all the floors +and passages of the vast feudal pile. + +Sholto went out to the barred gate of the castle, where in a little +cubbyhole dark even at noonday, and black as Egypt now, the warder +slept with his hand upon his keys, and his head touching the lever of +the gear wherewith he drew the creaking portcullis up and rolled back +the iron doors which shut the keep off from the world of the wide +outer courtyard and the garrison which manned the turrets. + +The porter, Hugh MacCalmont, sat up on his elbow at Sholto's +salutation, only enough to see his visitor by the glint of the little +iron "cruisie" lamp hanging upon the wall. He knew him by the golden +chain of office which the Earl had given Sholto. + +"Captain of the guard," he muttered, "Lord, here's advancement indeed. +My lord might have remembered me that have served him faithfully these +thirty years, opening and shutting without mistake. He might have +named me captain of the guard, and not this limber Jack. But the young +love the young, and in truth 'tis natural. But what Landless Jock will +say when he comes to have this sprat set over him, I know not but I +can guess!" + +Satisfied that all was safe there, Sholto stepped gingerly over the +reclining forms of the first relief guard, who lay wrapped in their +cloaks, every man grasping his arms. Most of these were lying in the +dead sleep of tired men, whilst others restlessly moved about this +way and that, as if seeking an easier adaptation of their bones to the +corners of the blue whinstones and rough shell lime than had been +provided for when the castle was built by Archibald the Grim, Lord of +Thrieve and Galloway. + +Close by the last turn of the turret staircase yawned the iron-sparred +mouth of the dungeon, in which in its time many a notable prisoner had +been immured. It was closed with a huge grid of curved iron bars, each +as thick as a man's arm, cunningly held together by a gigantic +padlock, the key of which was nightly taken to the sleeping-room of +the Earl--whether, as was now the case, the cell stood empty, or +whether it contained an English lord waiting ransom or a rebellious +baron expectant of his morning summons to the dule tree of the Black +Douglas. + +Then taking the master-key from his belt, Sholto unlocked the sparred +gate leading from the _salle de garde_ into the turret stair which was +the sole communication with the upper floors of the castle. + +Slowly, and with a step no louder than the beating of his own heart, +he went upwards, glancing in midway upon the banquet hall, where the +dim light from the postern without revealed a number of dark forms +wrapped in slumber lying on the dining-table and on the floor; +ascending yet higher he came to the floor where slept the Countess of +Douglas, the Lady Sybilla, and in the Earl's own chamber the Marshal +de Retz, ambassador of the King of France. + +Sholto stood a moment with his hand raised in a listening attitude, +before he ventured to ascend those narrower stairs which led to the +uppermost floor of all, on which were the chambers occupied by the +little Maid Margaret and her companion and gossip Mistress Maud +Lindesay. + +He told himself that it was his duty to see to the safety of the whole +castle; that he had special instructions to visit three times, during +the course of each night of duty, all the passages and corridors of +the fortress. But nevertheless it needed all his courage to enable +Sholto to perform the task which had been laid upon him. As he dragged +one foot after the other up the turret stairs, it seemed as if a +leaden clog had been attached to each pointed shoe. + +He had also a vague sense of being watched by presences invisible to +him, but malign in their nature. Again and again he caught himself +listening for footsteps which seemed to dog his own. He heard +mysterious whisperings that flouted his utmost vigilance, and mocking +laughter that lurked in unseen crevices and broke out so soon as he +had passed. + +Sholto set his hand firmly upon his sword handle and bit his lips, +lest even to himself he should own his uneasiness. It was not seemly +that the captain of the Douglas guard should be frightened by shadows. + +Passing the corridor which led towards the sleeping rooms of the maid +and her companion, he ascended to the roof of the castle, thrusting +aside the turret door and issuing upon the wide, open spaces with an +assured step. The cool breeze from the west restored him to himself in +a moment. The waning moon cast a pale light across the landscape, and +he could see the tents on the castle island glimmer greyish white +beneath him. Beyond that again was the shining confluence of the +sluggish river about the isle, and the dark line of the woods of +Balmaghie opposite. He had begun to meditate on the rapid changes of +circumstance which had overtaken him, when suddenly a shrill and +piercing shriek rang out, coming up through the castle beneath, again +and again repeated. It was like the cry of a child in the grip of +instant and deadly terror. + +Sholto's heart gave a great bound. That something untoward should +happen on this the first night of his charge was too disastrous. He +drew his sword and set in his lips the silver call which depended from +the chain of office the Earl had thrown about his neck when he made +him captain of his guard. + +His feet hardly touched the stone stairs as he flew downwards, and +wings were added to his haste by the sounds of fear which continued to +increase. In another moment he was upon the last step of the turnpike +and at the entrance of the corridor which led to the rooms of the +little Lady Margaret and Maud Lindesay. + +As Sholto came rushing down the steep descent from the roof he caught +sight of a dark and shaggy beast running on all fours just turning out +of the corridor, and taking the first step of the descent towards the +floor beneath. Without pausing to consider, Sholto lunged forward with +all his might, and his sword struck the fugitive quadruped behind the +shoulder. He had time to see in the pale bluish flicker of the +_cruisie_ lamp that the beast he had wounded was of a dark colour, and +that its head seemed immensely too large for its body. + +Nevertheless, the thing did not fall, but ran on and vanished out of +Sholto's sight. The young man again set the silver call to his lips +and blew. The next moment he could hear the soldiers of the guard +clattering upward from their hall, and he himself ran along the +corridor towards the place whence the screams of terror seemed to +proceed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SHOLTO CAPTURES A PRISONER OF DISTINCTION + + +He found that the noise came from the chamber occupied by the little +Lady Margaret. When he arrived at the door it stood open to the wall. +The child was sitting up on her bed, clothed in the white garmentry of +the night. Bending over her, with her arms round the heaving shoulders +of the little girl, Sholto saw Maud Lindesay, clad in a dark, hooded +mantle thrown with the appearance of haste about her. The door of the +next chamber also stood wide, and from the coverlets cast on the floor +it was obvious that its occupant had left it hastily in order to fly +to her friend's assistance. + +At the sound of hasty footsteps Maud Lindesay turned about, and was +instantly stricken pale and astonished by the sight of the young man +with his sword bare. She cried aloud with a stern and defiant +countenance, "Sholto MacKim, what do you here?" + +And before he had time to answer, the little girl looked at him out of +her friend's arms and called out: "O Sholto, Sholto, I am so glad you +are come. I woke to find such a terrible thing looking at me out of +the night. It was shaped like a great wolf, but it was rough of hide, +and had upon it a head like a man's. I was so terrified that at first +I could not cry out. But when it came nearer, and gazed at me, then I +cried. Do not go away, Sholto. I am so glad, so glad that you are +here." + +Maud Lindesay had again turned towards Margaret. + +"Hush," she said soothingly, "it was a dream. You were frighted by a +vision, by a nightmare, by a succubus of the night. There is no beast +within the castle." + +"But I saw it plainly," the maid cried. "It opened the door as if it +had hands--I saw it stand there by the bed and look at me--oh, so +terribly! I saw its teeth glisten and heard them snap together!" + +"Little one, be still, it was but a dream," said Sholto, untruthfully; +"nevertheless I will go and search the rest of the castle." + +And with these words he went along the corridor, finding the men whom +he had summoned by means of his captain's silver call clustered upon +the landing of the turret stair which communicated with the third +floor. As he glanced along the oak-panelled corridor, it seemed to +Sholto that he discerned a figure vanishing at the further end. +Instantly he resolved on searching, and summoning his men to follow, +he led the way down the passage, sword in hand. As he went he snatched +the lamp from its pin on the wall, and held it in his left high above +his head. + +At the further end of the corridor was the door of a little chamber, +and it seemed to Sholto that the shape he had seen must have +disappeared at this point. + +He knocked loudly on the door with the hilt of his sword, and cried, +"If any be within, open--in the name of the Earl!" + +No voice replied, and Sholto boldly set his foot against the lower +panelling, and drove the door back to the wall with a clang. + +Then at sight of a something dark, wrapped in a cloak, standing +motionless against the window, the young captain of the guard elevated +his lamp, and let the flicker of the light fall on the erect figure +and haughty face of a young man, who, with his hand on his hip, stood +considering the rude advance of his pursuers with a calm and +questioning gaze. + +It was the Earl of Douglas himself. + +Sholto stood petrified at sight of him, and for a long minute could in +no wise recover his self-control nor regain any use of his tongue. + +"Well," said the Earl, haughtily, "whence this unseemly uproar? What +do you here, Sholto?" + +Then the spirit of his father came upon the young captain of the +guard. He knew that he had only done his duty in its strictness, and +he boldly answered the Earl: "Nay, my lord, were it not for courtesy, +I have more right to ask you that question. Your sister hath been +frighted, and at sound of her terror all we who were dispersed +throughout the castle rushed to the spot. As I came down the stairs +from the roof at speed, I saw something like to a great wolf about to +descend the turret before me. With my sword I struck at it, and to all +appearance wounded it. It vanished, and after searching the castle I +can find neither wolf nor dog. But I saw, as it seemed, a figure enter +this room, and upon opening it I find--the Earl of Douglas. That is +all I know, and I leave the matter in my lord's own hands." + +The haughty look gradually disappeared from the face of the Earl as +Sholto spoke. + +Smilingly he dismissed the guard with a word, saying that he would +inquire into the cause of the disturbance in person, and then turned +to Sholto. + +"You are right," he said, "you have entirely done your duty and +justified my appointment." + +He paused, looked this way and that along the corridor, and continued: + +"It chanced that in the tower without I could not sleep, and feeling +uneasy concerning my guests, I entered the castle by the private door +and staircase which leads into the apartment corresponding to this on +the floor beneath. I was assuring myself that you were doing your duty +when, being disturbed by the sudden hubbub, and judging it needless +that the men-at-arms should know of my presence in the castle, I came +in hither till the matter should have blown over. And so, but for your +good conscience and the keenness of your vision, the matter would have +ended." + +Sholto bowed coldly. + +"But, my lord," he said, ignoring the Earl's explanation, "the matter +grows more mysterious than ever. Your sister, the little Lady +Margaret, hath been grievously frighted by an appearance like a great +beast which (so she affirms) opened the door of her chamber and looked +within." + +"She but dreamed," said the Earl, carelessly; "such visions come from +supping late." + +"But, with all respect, your lordship," continued Sholto, "I also saw +the appearance even as I ran down the stairs from the roof at the +noise of her crying." + +"You were startled--excited, and but thought you saw." + +Sholto reversed his sword, which he had held with the point towards +the ground while he was speaking with his lord the Earl. + +Holding the blade midway with much deference, he presented the hilt to +William Douglas. + +"Will you examine the point of this sword?" he said. + +The Earl came a step nearer to him and Sholto advanced the steel till +it was immediately beneath the lamp. There was blood upon the last +inch or so of the blade. The Earl suddenly became violently agitated. + +"This is indeed passing strange. There is no hound within the castle +nor has there been for years. Even the presence of a lap-dog will fret +my mother, so in my father's time they were every one removed to the +kennels at the further end of the isle of Thrieve, whence even their +howling cannot be heard. But let us proceed to the Lady Margaret, and +on our way examine the place where you saw the apparition." + +Sholto stood aside for the Earl to pass, but with a wave of his hand +the latter said courteously, "Nay, but do you lead the way, captain of +the guard." + +They passed the door of the chamber where lay the Lady Sybilla. The +niece of the ambassador must have been a heavy sleeper, for there was +no sound within. Opposite was the chamber of the Earl's mother. She +also appeared to be undisturbed, but the increasing deafness of the +Countess offered a complete explanation of her tranquillity. + +Next the two young men came to the door of the marshal's chamber. As +they were about to pass, it opened silently, and a man-servant with a +closely cropped obsequious head appeared within. He unclosed the door +no further than would permit of his exit, and then he shut it again +behind him, and stood holding the latch in his hand. + +"His Excellency, being overfatigued, hath need of a little strong +spirit," he said, with a curious gobbling movement of his throat as if +he himself had been either thirsty or in deadly and overmastering +fear. + +The Earl ordered Sholto to wake the cellarer and bid him bring the +ambassador of France that which he required. He himself would go +onward to his sister's chamber. Sholto somewhat sullenly obeyed, for +his heart was hot and angry within him. He thought that he began to +see clearly the motive of the Earl's presence in the castle. The youth +was himself so deeply and hopelessly in love with Mistress Maud +Lindesay that he could not understand any other of his sex being +insensible to the charm of her beauty and myriad winsome graces. + +As he went down the stairs he recalled a thousand circumstances to +mind which now seemed capable of but one explanation. It was evident +that the Earl William came to visit some one by means of the private +staircase under cloud of night. Nay, more, Maud Lindesay and he might +be already privately married, and the matter kept secret on account of +the pride of his family, who devised another match for him. For though +the daughter of a knight, Maud Lindesay was assuredly no fit mate for +the head of the more than regal house of Douglas. He remembered how on +Sundays and saints' days Earl William always rode to and from the kirk +with his sister on one side and Maud Lindesay on the other. That the +young Earl was by no means insensible to beauty, Sholto knew well, +and he remembered his words to his own father, when he had asked to be +allowed to accompany him on his Flanders mare, that such attendance +was not seemly when a man was going a-courting. + +As is always the case, he grew more and more confirmed in his ill +humour, so soon as the eye of jealousy began to view everything in the +light of prepossession. + +Sholto awaked the cellarer out of his crib, who, presently, with +snorts of disdain and much jangling of steel keys, drew half a tankard +from a keg of spirit in the cellar on the dungeon floor and handed it +grudgingly to the captain of the guard. + +"The Frenchman wants it, does he?" he growled. "Had the messenger been +old Landless Jock, I had known down whose Scottish throat it had gone, +but this one is surely too young for such tricks. See that you spill +it not by the way, Master Sholto," he called out after him, as that +youth betook himself up to the chamber of the ambassador of France. + +At the shut portal he paused and knocked. His hand was on the pin to +enter with the tankard as was the custom. But the door opened no more +than an inch or two, and the dark face of the cropped servitor +appeared in the crevice. + +"In a moment, sir," he said, and again vanished within, while a strong +animal odour disengaged itself almost like something tangible from the +chinks of the doorway. + +Sholto stood in astonishment with the _eau de vie_ in his hand, till +presently the door was opened again very quickly. The form of the +servitor was seen, and with a swift edging motion he came out, drawing +the door behind him as before. He held a bar of iron in his hand like +the fastening of a window, and a little breath of heat told the +smith's son that though black it was still warm from the fire. + +"Take this iron," he said abruptly, "and bring it to me fully heated. +I am finishing a little device which his Excellency needs for the +combat of the morrow." + +The captain of the guard was nettled at the man's tone. Also he +desired much to know what his master was doing on the floor above. + +"Heat it at your own nose, fellow," he said rudely; "I am captain of +the castle-guard, and must attend to my own business. Take the spirit +out of my hand if you do not want it thrown in your face." + +The swarthy, bullet-headed man glared at him with eyes like burning +coals, but Sholto cared no jot for his anger. Forthwith he turned his +back upon him, glad at heart to have found some one to quarrel with, +and hoping that the ambassador's squire might prove courageous and +challenge him to fight on the morrow. + +But the man only replied: "I am Henriet, servant of the marshal. I bid +you remember that I shall make you live to regret these words." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE LAMP IS BLOWN OUT + + +The door of Margaret Douglas's chamber still stood open, and Sholto +found Earl William seated upon the foot of the bed, endeavouring by +every means in his power to distract his sister's attention from her +fears. Maud Lindesay, now more completely dressed than when he had +first seen her, sat on the other side of the little lady's couch. She +was laughing as he entered at some merry jest of the Earl's. And at +the sound of her tinkling mirth Sholto's heart sank within him. So +soon as she caught sight of the new captain of the guard the gladness +left her face, and she became grave and sober, like a gossip long +unconfessed when the holy father comes knocking at the door. + +At sight of her emotion Sholto resolved that if his fears should prove +to be well founded, he would resign his honourable office. For to +abide continually in the castle, and hourly observe Maud Lindesay's +love for another, was more than his philosophy could stand. + +In the meantime there was only his duty to be done. So he saluted the +Earl, and in a few words told him that which he had seen. But the soul +of William Douglas was utterly devoid of suspicion, both because he +held himself so great that none could touch him, and also because, +being high of spirit and open as the sky, he read into the acts of +others his own straightforwardness and unsuspicion. + +The Earl rose smilingly, declaring to Margaret that to-morrow he would +hang every dog and puppy in Galloway on the dule tree of Thrieve, +whereupon the child began to plead for the life of this cur and that +other of her personal acquaintances with a tearful earnestness which +told of a sorely jangled mind. + +"Well, at least," cried Earl Douglas, "I will not have such brutes +prowling about my castle of Thrieve even in my sister's dreams. +Captain Sholto, do you station a man of your guard in the angle of the +staircase where it looks along each corridor. Pick out your prettiest +cross-bowmen, for it were not seemly that my guests should be +disturbed by the rude shots and villanous reek of the fusil." + +Sholto bowed stiffly and waited the further pleasure of his master. +Then the two young men went out without Maud Lindesay having uttered a +word, or manifested the least surprise at the advancement which had +befallen the heir of the master armourer of Carlinwark. + +As soon as the door had closed upon the two maidens, the Earl turned a +face suddenly grave and earnest on his young captain of the guard. + +"What think you," he said, "was this appearance real?" + +"Real enough to leave these upon the floor," answered Sholto, pointing +to sundry gouts and drops of blood upon the turret stairs. + +The Earl took the lamp from his hand and earnestly scrutinised each +step in a downward direction. The spots ran irregularly as if the +wounded beast had shaken his head from side to side as he ran. They +turned along towards the corridor where at the first alarm Sholto had +found the Earl, and in the very midst of it abruptly stopped. While +Sholto and William Douglas were examining the floor, they both looked +over their shoulders, uneasily conscious of a regard upon them, as if +some one, unseen himself, had been looking down from behind. + +"Do you place your men as I told you," said the Earl, abruptly, "and +bring me a truckle bed out of the guardroom. I shall remain in this +closet till morning. But do you keep a special lookout on the floor +above, that the repose of my sister and her friend be not again +disturbed." + +Sholto bowed without speech, and hastening down to the guardroom he +commanded two of his best bowmen to follow him with their apparatus, +while he himself snatched up the low truckle couch which custom +assigned to the captain of the guard should he desire to rest himself +during the night, and on which Landless Jock had always passed the +majority of his hours of duty. This he carried to the Earl, and +placing it in the angle he saw his youthful master stretch himself +upon it, wrapped in his cloak and with a naked sword ready to his +hand. + +"A good and undisturbed slumber to you, my lord," said Sholto, curtly, +as he went out. + +He saw that his two men were duly posted upon the lower landing of the +stair, and then betook himself to the upper floor where slept the +little Maid of Galloway. + +He walked slowly to the end of the passage scrutinising every recess +and closet door, every garde-robe and wall press from which it was +possible that the beast he had seen might have emerged. He was wholly +unsuccessful in discovering anything suspicious, and had almost +resolved to station himself at the turn of the staircase which led +down from the roof, when, looking back, at the sharp click of a latch, +he saw Maud Lindesay coming out of the chamber of the little Maid of +Galloway. + +Softly closing the door behind her, she paused a moment as if +undecided, and then more with her chin than with her finger she +beckoned him to approach. + +"She sleeps," said the girl, softly, "but so uncertainly and with so +many startings of terror, that I will not leave her alone. Will you +aid me to remove the mattress of my couch and lay it on the floor +beside her?" + +Sholto signified his willingness. His mind was more than ever +oppressed by the thought that the Earl of Douglas loved this girl, +whom he had found listening to his jests with such frank joyousness. + +Maud stayed him with one of the long looks out from under her +eyelashes. The dark violet orbs rested upon him a moment reproachfully +with a hurt expression in their depths, and were then dropped with a +sigh. + +"You are still angry with me," she said, a little wistfully, "and I +wanted to tell you how happy it made me--made us, I mean--when we +heard that you were to be captain of the castle-guard instead of that +grumbling old curmudgeon, Jock of Abernethy." + +The heart of Sholto was instantly melted, more by her looks than by +her words, though deep within him he had still an angry feeling that +he was being played with. All the same, and in spite of his resolves, +the eyeshot from under those dark and sweeping lashes did its usual +and deadly work. + +"I did not know that aught which might befall me could be anything to +Mistress Maud Lindesay," said Sholto, with the last shreds of dignity +in his voice. + +"I said not to me, but to _us_," she corrected, smiling; "but tell me +what think you of this appearance which has so startled our Margaret. +Was it ghost or goblin or dream of the night? We have never had either +witch or warlock about the house of Thrieve since the old Abbot Gawain +laid the ghost of Archibald the Grim with four-and-forty masses, said +without ever breaking his fast, down there in the castle chapel." + +"Nay, ask me not," answered Sholto, "I am little skilled in matters +spiritual. I should try sword point and arrowhead on such gentry, and +if these do them no harm, why then I think they will not distress me +much." + +But all the same he said nothing to the girl about the red blood on +his sword or the splashed gouts on the steps of the staircase. + +He followed Maud Lindesay into her chamber, and being arrived there, +lifted couch and all in his arms, with an ease born of long +apprenticeship to the forehammer. The girl regarded him with +admiration which she was careful not to dissemble. + +"You are very strong," she said. Then, after a pause, she added, +"Margaret and I like strong men." + +The heart of the youth was glad within him, thus to be called a man, +even though he kept saying over and over to himself: "She means it +not! She means it not! She loves the Earl! I know well she loves the +Earl!" + +Maud Lindesay paused a moment before the chamber door of her little +charge, finger on lip, listening. + +"She sleeps--go quietly," she whispered, holding the door open for +him. He set down the bed where she showed him--by the side of the +small slumbering figure of the Maid of Galloway. + +Then he went softly to the door. The girl followed him. "You will not +be far away," she said doubtfully and with a perilous sort of +humility, "if this dreadful thing should come back again? I--that is +we, would feel safer if we knew that you--that any one strong and +brave was near at hand." + +Then the heart of Sholto broke out in quick anger. + +"Deceive me not," he cried, "I know well that the Earl loves you, and +that you love him in return." + +"Well, indeed, were it for my lord Earl if he loved as honest a +woman," said Maud Lindesay, pouting disdainfully. "But what is such a +matter, yea or nay, to you?" + +"It is all life and happiness to me," said Sholto, earnestly. "Ah, do +not go--stay a moment. I shall never sleep this night if you go +without giving me an answer." + +"Then," said the girl, "you will be the more in the line of your duty, +which allows not much sleep o' nights. You are but a silly, petulant +boy for all your fine captaincy. I wish it had been Landless Jock. He +would never have vexed me with foolish questions at such a time." + +"But I love you, and I demand an answer," cried Sholto, fuming. "Do +you love the Earl?" + +"What do you think yourself now?" she said, looking up at him with an +inimitable slyness, and pronouncing her words so as to imitate the +broad simplicity of countryside speech. + +Sholto vented a short gasp or inarticulate snort of anger, at which +Maud Lindesay started back with affected terror. + +"Do not fright a poor maid," she said. "Will you put me in the castle +dungeon if I do not answer? Tell me exactly what you want me to say, +and I will say it, most mighty captain." + +And she made him the prettiest little courtesy, turning at the same +time her eyes in mock humility on the ground. + +"Oh, Maud Lindesay," said Sholto, with a little conflicting sob in his +throat, ill becoming so noted a warrior as the captain of the +castle-guard of the Black Douglas, "if you knew how I loved you, you +would not treat me thus." + +The girl came nearer to him and laid a white and gentle hand on the +sleeve of his blue archer's coat. + +"Nay, lad," she said more soberly, lifting a finger to his face, +"surely you are no milksop to mind how a girl flouts you. Love the +Earl--say you? Well, is it not our duty to the bread we eat? Is he not +worthy? Is he not the head of our house?" + +"Cheat me not with words. The Earl loves you," said Sholto, lifting +his head haughtily out of her reach. (To have one's chin pushed this +way and that by a girl's forefinger, and as it were considered +critically from various points of view, may be pleasant, but it +interferes most seriously with dignity.) + +"He may, indeed," drolled the minx, "one can never tell. But he has +never said so. He is perhaps afraid, being born without the +self-conceit of some people--archers of the guard, fledgling captains, +and such-like gentrice." + +"Do you love him?" reiterated Sholto, determinedly. + +"I will tell you for that gold buckle," said Maud, calmly pointing +with her finger. + +Instantly Sholto pulled the cap from his head, undid the pin of the +archery prize, and thrust it into his wicked sweetheart's hands. + +She received it with a little cry of joy, then she pressed it to her +lips. Sholto, rejoicing at heart, moved a step nearer to her. But, in +spite of her arch delight, she was on the alert, for she retreated +deftly and featly within the chamber door of the Fair Maid of +Galloway. There was still more mirthful wickedness in her eyes. + +"Love the Earl?--Of course I do. Indeed, I doat upon him," she said. +"How I shall love this buckle, just because his hand gave it to you!" + +And with that she shut to the door. + +Sholto, in act to advance, stood a moment poised on one foot like a +goose. Then with a heart blazing with anger, and one of the first +oaths that had ever passed his lips, he turned on his heel and strode +away. + +"I will never think of her again--I will never see her. I will go to +France and perish in battle. I will throw me in the castle pool. I +will--" + +So the poor lad retreated, muttering hot and angry words, all his +heart sore within him because of the cruelty of this girl. + +But he had not proceeded twenty steps along the corridor, when he +heard the door softly open and a low voice whispered, "Sholto! Sholto! +I want you, Sholto!" + +He bent his brows and strode manfully on as if he had not heard a +word. + +"Sholto!--dear Sholto! Do not go, I need you." + +Against his will he turned, and, seeing the head of Maud Lindesay, her +pouting lips and beckoning finger, he went sulkily back. + +"Well?" he said, with the stern curtness of a military commander, as +he stood before her. + +She held the iron lamp in her hand. The wick had fallen aside and was +now wasting itself in a broad, unequal yellow flame. The maid of +honour looked at it in perplexity, knitting her pretty brows in a mock +frown. + +"It burned me as I was ordering my hair," she said. "I cannot blow it +out. I dare not. Will you--will you blow it out for me, Captain +Sholto?" + +She spoke with a sweet childlike humility. + +And she held the lamp up so that the iron handle was almost touching +her soft cheek. There was a dancing challenge in her dark eyes and her +lips smiled dangerously red. She could not, of course, have known that +the light made her look so beautiful, or she would have been more +careful. + +Sholto stood still a moment, at wrestle with himself, trying to +conquer his dignity, and to retain his attitude of stern disapproval. + +But the girl swept her lashes up towards him, dropped them again dark +as night upon her cheek, and anon looked a second time at him. + +"I am sorry," she said, more than ever like a child. "Forgive me, +and--the lamp is so hot." + +Now Sholto was young and inexperienced, but he was not quite a fool. +He stooped and blew out the light, and the next moment his lips rested +upon other lips which, as it had been unconsciously, resigned their +soft sweetness to his will. + +Then the door closed, and he heard the click of the lock as the bolts +were shot from within. The gallery ran round and round about him like +a clacking wheel. His heart beat tumultuously, and there was a strange +humming sound in his ears. + +The captain of the guard stumbled half distracted down the turret +stair. + +The old world had been destroyed in a moment and he was walking in a +new, where perpetual roses bloomed and the spring birds sang for +evermore. He knew not, this poor foolish Sholto, that he had much to +learn ere he should know all the tricks and stratagems of this most +naughty and prettily disdainful minx, Mistress Maud Lindesay. + +But for that night at least he thought he knew her heart and soul, +which made him just as happy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE MORNING LIGHT + + +In the morning Sholto MacKim had other views of it. Even when at last +he was relieved from duty he never closed an eye. The blowing out of +the lamp had turned his ideas and hopes all topsy-turvy. His heart +sang loud and turbulent within him. He had kissed other girls indeed +before at kirns and country dances. He laughed triumphantly within him +at the difference. They had run into corners and screamed and +struggled, and held up ineffectual hands. And when his lips did reach +their goal, it was generally upon the bridge of a nose or a tip of an +ear. He could not remember any especial pleasure accompanying the +rite. + +But this! The bolt of an arbalast could not have given him a more +instant or tremendous shock. His nerves still quivered responsive to +the tremulous yielding of the lips he had touched for a moment in the +dark of the doorway. He felt that never could he be the same man he +had been before. Deep in his heart he laughed at the thought. + +And then again, with a quick revulsion, the return wave came upon him. +"How, if she be as untouched as her beauty is fresh, has she learned +that skill in caressing?" + +He paused to think the matter over. + +"I remember my father saying that a wise man should always mistrust a +girl who kisses overwell." + +Then again his better self would reassert itself. + +"No," he would argue, tramping up and down the corridor, wheeling in +the short bounds of the turnpike head, and again returning upon his +own footsteps, "why should I belie her? She is as pure as the +air--only, of course, she is different to all others. She speaks +differently; her eyes are different, her hair, her hands--why should +she not be different also in this?" + +But when Maud Lindesay met Sholto in the morning, coming suddenly upon +him as he stood, with a pale face and dark rings of sleeplessness +about his eyes, as he looked meditatively out upon the broad river and +the blue smoke of the morning campfires, there was yet another +difference to be revealed to him. He had expected that, like others, +she would be confused and bashful meeting him thus in the daylight, +after--well, after the volcanic extinguishing of the lamp. + +But there she stood, dainty and calm under the morning sunshine, in +fresh clean gown of lace and varied whiteness, her face grave as a +benediction, her eyes deep and cool like the water of the castle well. + +Sholto started violently at sight of her, recovered himself, and +eagerly held out both his hands. + +"Maud," he said hoarsely, and then again, in a lower tone, "sweetest +Maud." + +But pretty Mistress Lindesay only gazed at him with a certain reserved +and grave surprise, looking him straight in the face and completely +ignoring his outstretched hands. + +"Captain Sholto," she said steadily and calmly, "the Lady Margaret +desires to see you and to thank you for your last night's care and +watchfulness. Will you do me the honour to follow me to her chamber?" + +There was no yielding softness about this maiden of the morning hours, +no conscious droop and a swift uplifting of penitent eyelids, no +lingering glances out of love-weighted eyes. A brisk and practical +little lady rather, her feet pattering most purposefully along the +flagged passages and skipping faster than even Sholto could follow +her. But at the top of the second stairs he was overquick for her. By +taking the narrow edges of the steps he reached the landing level with +his mistress. + +His desire was to put out his hand to circle her lithe waist, for +nothing is so certainly reproductive of its own species as a first +kiss. But he had reckoned without the lady's mutual intent and favour, +which in matters of this kind are proverbially important. Mistress +Maud eluded him, without appearing to do so, and stood farther off, +safely poised for flight, looking down at him with cold, reproachful +eyes. + +"Maud Lindesay, have you forgotten last night and the lamp?" he asked +indignantly. + +"What may you mean, Captain Sholto?" she said, with wonderment in her +tone, "Margaret and I never use lamps. Candles are so much safer, +especially at night." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +LA JOYEUSE BAITS HER HOOK + + +On the morrow, the ambassador of France being confined to his room +with a slight quinsy caught from the marshy nature of the environment +of Thrieve, the Earl escorted the Lady Sybilla to the field of the +tourney, where, as Queen of Beauty, her presence could not be +dispensed with. + +The Maid Margaret, the Earl's sister, remained also in the castle, not +having yet recovered from her fright of the preceding evening. + +With her was Maud Lindesay and her mother--"the Auld Leddy," as she +was called throughout all the wide dominions of her son. + +In spite of his weariness Sholto led his archer guard in person to the +field of the tournament. For this day was the day of the High Sport, +and many lances would be splintered, and often would the commonalty +need to be scourged from the barriers. + +But ere he went Sholto summoned two of the staunchest fellows of his +company, Andro, called the Penman, and his brother John. Then, having +posted them at either end of the corridor in which were the chambers +occupied by the two girls, he laid a straight charge, and a heavy, +upon them. + +"On your heads be it if you fail, or let one soul pass," he said. +"Stand ready with your hands on the wheel of your cross-bows, and if +any man come hither, challenge him to stand, and bid him return the +way he came. But if any dog or thing running on four feet ascend or +descend the stair, make no sound, ask no question, cry no warning, but +whang the steel bolt through his ribs, in at one side and out at the +other." + +Then Andro the Penman and his brother John, being silent capable +fellows, said nothing, but spat on their hands, smiled at each other +well pleased, and made the wheels of their cross-bows sing a clear +whirring note. + +"I would not like to be that dog--" said Andro the Swarthy. + +"Whose foul carcase I pray God to send speedily," echoed John the +Blond. + +Sholto had hoped that whilst he was at the guard-setting, he might +have had occasion to see once more the tantalising mischief-maker whom +he yet loved with all his heart, in spite of, or perhaps because of, +the distraction to which she continually reduced his spirit by means +of her manifold and incalculable contrarieties. + +Nevertheless, it was with an easier heart that Sholto wended his way +out of the castle yett, all arrayed in the new suit of armour his lord +had sent him. It was made of chain of the finest, composed of many +rings set alternately thick and thin, and the whole was flexible as +the deer leather which he wore underneath it. Over this a doublet of +blue silk carried the Lion of Galloway done in white upon it, and all +the cerulean of the ground was dotted over with the Douglas heart. +But, greatest joy of all, there was brought to him by command of the +Earl a suitable horse, not heavily armed like a charger for the tilt, +but light of foot, and answering easily to the hand. Blue and red were +the silken housings, fringed with long silver lace, through which +could be seen here and there as the wind blew the sheen of the glossy +skin. The buckles and bits were also of massive silver, and at sight +of them the cup of Sholto's happiness was full. For a space, as he +gazed upon his steed, he forgot even Maud Lindesay. + +Then when he was mounted and out upon the green, waiting for the +coming forth of his lord, what delight it was to feel the noble dark +grey answer to each touch of the rein, obeying his master's thought +more than the strength of his wrist or the prick of his heel. + +As he waited there, his predecessor in office, old Sir John of +Abernethy, Landless Jock as he was nicknamed, came out from the main +doorway. He carried a gleaming headpiece from which the blue feather +of the Douglas fell over his arm half-way to the ground. On its front +was a lion crest which ramped among golden _fleur-de-lys_. The old man +held it up for Sholto to take. + +"Hae," he said in a surly tone, "this is his lordship's new helmet +just brought as a present frae the Dauphin of France. So he has cast +off the well-tried one, and with it also the auld servant that hath +served him these many years." + +"Nay, Sir John," said Sholto, with courtesy, taking the helmet which +it was his duty as his master's esquire to carry before him on a +velvet-covered placque, "nay--well has the good servant deserved his +rest, and to take his ease. The young to the broil and the moil, the +old to the inglenook and the cup of wine beneath the shade." + +"Ah, lad, I envy ye not, think not that of puir Landless Jock," said +the mollified old man, sadly shaking his head; "I also have tried the +new office, the shining armour, and felt the words of command rise +proudly in the throat. I envy you not, though your advancement hath +been sudden--and well--for my own son John I had hoped, though indeed +the loon is paper backed and feckless. But now there remains for me +only to go to the Kirk of Saint Bride in Douglasdale, and there set me +down by my auld master's coffin till I die." + +At that moment there issued forth from the gateway the young Earl, +holding by the hand the Lady Sybilla. His mother, the Countess, came +to the door to see them ride away. The Queen of the Sports was in a +merry mood, and as she tripped down the steps she turned, and looking +over her shoulder she called to the Lady Douglas, "Fear not for your +son, I will take good care of him!" + +But the elder woman answered neither her smile nor yet her word, but +stood like a mother who sees a first-born son treading in places +perilous, yet dares not warn him, knowing well that she would drive +him to giddier and yet more dangerous heights. + +The pennons of the escort fluttered in the breeze as the men on +horseback tossed their lances high in the air, in salutation of their +lord. The archer guard stood ranked and ready, bows on their shoulders +and arrows in quiver. Horses neighed, armour clanked and sparkled, and +from the moat platform twenty silver trumpets blared a fanfare as the +Lady Sybilla, the arbiter of this day's chivalry, mounted her palfrey +with the help of Earl Douglas. She thanked him with a low word in his +ear, audible only to himself, as he set her in the saddle and bent to +kiss her hand. + +A right gallant pair were Douglas and Sybilla de Thouars as they rode +away, their heads close together, over the green sward and under the +tossing banners of the bridge. Sholto was behind them giving great +heed to the managing of his horse, and wondering in his heart if +indeed Maud Lindesay were looking down from her chamber window. As +they passed the drawbridge he turned him about in his saddle, as it +were, to see that his men rode all in good order. A little jet of +white fluttered quickly from the sparred wooden gallery which clung to +the grey walls of Thrieve, just outside the highest story. And the +young man's heart told him that this was the atonement of Mistress +Maud Lindesay. + +Earl Douglas was in his gayest humour on this second day of the great +tourneying. He had got rid of his most troublesome guests. His uncle +James of Avondale, his red cousin of Angus, the grave ill-assorted +figure of the Abbot of Dulce Cor, had all vanished. Only the young and +chivalrous remained,--his cousins, William and James, Hugh and +Archibald, good lances all and excellent fellows to boot. It was also +a most noble chance that the French ambassador was confined by the +quinsy, for it was certainly pleasant to ride out alone with that +beauteous head glancing so near his shoulder, to watch at will the sun +crimsoning yet more the red lips, sparkling in the eyes that were +bright as sunshine slanting through green leaves on a water-break, and +to mark as he fell a pace behind how every hair of that luxuriant coif +rippled golden and separate, like a halo of Florentine work about the +head of a saint. + +The Lady Sybilla de Thouars was merry also, but with what a different +mirth to that of Mistress Maud Lindesay--at least so thought Captain +Sholto MacKim, with a conscious glow of pride in his own Scottish +sweetheart. + +True, Sholto was scarce a fair judge in that he loved one and did not +love the other. He owned to himself in a moment of unusual candour +that there might be something in that. But when the gay tones of the +lady's laughter floated back on the air, as his master and she rode +forward by the edge of Dee towards the Lochar Fords, the first fear +with which he had looked upon her in the greenwood returned upon the +captain of the guard. + +Earl William and the Lady Sybilla talked together that which no one +else could hear. + +"So after all you have not become a churchman and gone off to drone +masses with the monks of your good uncle?" she said, looking up at him +with one of her lingering, drawing glances. + +"Nay," Earl William answered; "surely one Douglas at the time is gift +enough to holy church. At least, I can choose my own way in that, +though in most things I am as straitly constrained as the King +himself." + +"Speaking of the King," she said, "my uncle the Marshal must perforce +ride to Edinburgh to deliver his credentials. Would it not be a most +mirthful jest to ride with equipage such as this to that mongrel +poverty-stricken Court, and let the poor little King and his starved +guardian see what true greatness and splendour mean?" + +"I have sworn never again to enter Edinburgh town," said the Earl, +slowly; "it was prophesied that there one of my race must meet a +black bull which shall trample the house of Douglas into ruins." + +"Of course, if the Earl of Douglas is afraid--" mused the lady. The +young man started as if he had been stung. + +"Madame," he said with a sudden chill hauteur, "you come from far and +do not know. No Douglas has ever been afraid throughout all their +generations." + +The lady turned upon him with a sweet and moving smile. She held out +her fair hand. + +"Pardon--nay, a thousand pardons. I knew not what I said. I am not +acquainted with your Scottish speech nor yet with your Scottish +customs. Do not be angry with me; I am a stranger, young, far from my +own people and my own land. Think me foolish for speaking thus freely +if you like, but not wilfully unkind." + +And when the Earl looked at her, there were tears glittering in her +beautiful eyes. + +"I _will_ go to Edinburgh," he cried. "I am the Douglas. The Tutor and +the Chancellor are but as two straws in my hand, a longer and a +shorter. I fling them from me--thus!" + +The Lady Sybilla clapped her hands joyously and turned towards the +young man. "Will you indeed go with me?" she cried. "Will you truly? I +could kiss your hand, my Lord Douglas, you make me so glad." + +"Your kiss will keep," said the Earl, with a quiet passion quivering +in his voice. + +"Nay, I meant it not thus--not as you mean it. I knew not what I said. +But it will indeed change all things for me if you do but come. Then I +shall have some one to speak with--some one with whom to laugh at +their pitiful Court mummery, their fiasco of dignity. You are not like +these other beggarly Scots, my Lord Duke of Touraine." + +"They are brave men and loyal gentlemen," said the generous young +Earl. "They would die for me." + +"Nay, but so I declare would I," gaily cried the lady, glancing at his +handsome head with a quick admiring regard. "So would I--if I were a +man. Besides, there is so little worth living for in a country such as +this." + +The Earl was silent and she proceeded. + +"But how joyous we shall be at Edinburgh! Know you that at the Court +of Charles that was my name--La Joyeuse they called me. We will keep +solemn countenances, you and I, while we enter the presence of the +King. We will bow. We will make obeisances. Then, when all is over, we +will laugh together at the fatted calf of a Tutor, the cunning +Chancellor with his quirks of law, and the poor schoolboy scarce +breeched whom they call King of Scotland. But all the while I shall be +thinking of the true King of Scots--who alone shall ever be King to +me--" + +At this point La Joyeuse broke off short, as if her feelings were +hurrying her to say more than she had intended. + +"I did wrong to flout their messengers yesterday," said William +Douglas, his boyish heart misgiving him at dispraise of others; +"perhaps they meant me well. But I am naturally quick and easily +fretted, and the men annoyed me with their parchments royal, their +heralds-of-the-Lion, and the 'King of Scots' at every other word." + +"Who is the youth who rides at the head of your company?" said the +Lady Sybilla. + +"His name is Sholto MacKim, and it was but yesterday that I made him +captain of my guard," answered the Earl. + +"I like him not," said the Lady Sybilla; "he is full of ignorance and +obstinacy and pride. Besides which, I am sure he loves me not." + +"Save that last, I am not sure that a Douglas has a right to dislike +him for any such faults. Ignorance, obstinacy, and pride are, indeed, +good old Galloway virtues of the ancientest descent, and not to be +despised in the captain of an archer guard." + +"And pray, sir, what may be the ill qualities which, in Captain +Sholto, make up for these excellent Scottish virtues?" asked the lady, +disdainfully. + +"He is faithful--" began the Earl. + +"So is every dog!" interjected Sybilla de Thouars. + +The Earl laughed a little gay laugh. + +"There is one dog somewhere about the castle, licking an unhealed +sword-thrust, that wishes our Sholto had been a trifle less faithful." + +The Lady Sybilla sat silent in her saddle for a space; then, striking +abruptly into a new subject, she said, "Do you defend the lists +to-day?" + +"Nay," answered the Earl, "to-day it is my good fortune to sit by your +side and hold the truncheon while others meet in the shock. But the +knight who this day gains the prize, to-morrow must choose a side +against me and fight a _melee_." + +"Ah," cried the girl, "I would that my uncle were healed of his +quinsy. He loveth that sport. He says that he is too old to defend +his shield all day against every comer, but in the _melee_ he is still +as good a lance as when he rode by the side of the Maid over the +bridge of Orleans." + +"That is well thought of," cried the Earl; "he shall lead the Knights +of the Blue in my place." + +"Nay, my Lord Duke," cried the Lady Sybilla, "more than anything on +earth I desire to see you bear arms on the field of honour." + +"Oh, I am no great lance," replied the Douglas, modestly; "I am yet +too young and light. As things go now, the butterfly cannot tilt +against the beef barrel when both are trussed into armour. But with +the bare sword I will fight all day and be hungry for more. Aye, or +rattle a merry rally with the quarter-staff like any common varlet. +But at both Sholto there is my master, and doth ofttimes swinge me +tightly for my soul's good." + +The lady went on quickly, as if avoiding any further mention of +Sholto's name. + +"Nevertheless, to-morrow I must see you ride in the lists. My uncle +says that your father was a mighty lance when he rode at Amboise, on +the famous day of the Thirteen Victories." + +"Ah, but my father was twice the man that I am," said the Earl, who +had not taken his eyes from her face since she began to speak. + +"Great alike in love and war?" she queried, smiling. + +"So, at least, it is reported of him in Touraine," answered his son, +smiling back at her. + +"He loved and rode away, like all your race!" cried the girl, with a +strange sudden flicker of passion which died as suddenly. "But I think +it not of you, Lord William. I know you could be true--that is, where +you truly loved." + +And as she spoke she looked at him with a questioning eagerness in her +eyes which was almost pitiful. + +"I do love and I am loyal," said the young man, with a grave quiet +which became him well, and ought to have served him better with a +woman than many protestations. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ANDRO THE PENMAN GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF HIS STEWARDSHIP + + +In the fighting of that day James Douglas, the second son of the fat +Earl of Avondale, won the prize, worsting his elder brother William in +the final encounter. The victor was a nobly formed youth, of strength +and stature greater than those of his brother, but without William of +Avondale's haughty spirit and stern self-discipline. + +For James Douglas had the easy popular virtues which would drink with +any drawer or pricker at a tavern board, and made him ready to clap +his last gold Lion on the platter to pay for the draught--telling, as +like as not, the good gossip of the inn to keep the change, and (if +well favoured) give him a kiss therefor. The Douglas _cortege_ rode +home amid the shoutings of the holiday makers who thronged all the +approaches to the ford in order to see the great nobles and their +trains ride by, and Sholto and his men had much trouble to keep these +spectators as far back as was decent and seemly. + +The Earl summoned his victorious cousins, William and James, to ride +with him and the tourney's Queen of Beauty. But William proved even +more silent than usual, and his dark face and upright carriage caused +him to sit his charger as if carved in iron. Jolly James, on the other +hand, attempted a jest or two which savoured rustically enough. +Nevertheless, he received the compliments of the Lady Sybilla on his +courage and address with the equanimity of a practised soldier. He was +already, indeed, the best knight in Scotland, even as he was twelve +years after when in the lists of Stirling he fought with the famous +Messire Lalain, the Burgundian champion. + +Earl William dropped behind to speak a moment with Sholto, and to give +him the orders which he was to convey to the provost of the games with +regard to the encounter of the morrow. + +La Joyeuse took the opportunity of addressing her nearer and more +silent companion. + +"You are, I think, the head of the other Douglas House," said the Lady +Sybilla, glancing up at the stern and unbending Master of Avondale. + +"There is but one house of Douglas, and but one head thereof," replied +Lord William, with a certain severity, and without looking at her. The +lady had the grace to blush, either with shame or with annoyance at +the rebuff. + +"Pardon," she said, "you must remember that I am a foreigner. I do not +understand your genealogies. I thought that even in France I had heard +of the Black Douglas and the Red." + +"The Red and the Black alike are the liegemen of William of Douglas, +whom Angus and Avondale both have the honour of serving," answered he, +still more uncompromisingly. + +"Aye," cried the jovial James, "cousin Will is the only chief, and +will make a rare lance when he hath eaten a score or two more bolls of +meal." + +The Earl William returned even as James was speaking. + +"What is that I hear about bolls of meal?" he said; "what wots this +fair damosel of our rude Scots measures for oats and bear? You talk +like the holder of a twenty-shilling land, James." + +"I was saying," answered James Douglas, "that you would be a proper +man of your lance when you had laid a score or two bolls of good +Galloway meal to your ribs. English beef and beer are excellent, and +drive a lance home into an unarmed foe; but it needs good Scots oats +at the back of the spear-haft to make the sparks fly when knight meets +with knight and iron rings on iron." + +"Indeed, cousin Jamie," said the Earl, "you have some right to your +porridge, for this day you have overturned well nigh a score of good +knights and come off unhurt and unashamed. Cousin William, how liked +you the whammel you got from James' lance in your final course?" + +"Not that ill," said the silent Master; "I am indeed better at taking +than at giving. James is a stouter lance than I shall ever be--" + +"Not so," cried jolly James. "Our Will never doth himself justice. He +is for ever reading Deyrolles and John Froissard in order to learn new +ways and tricks of fence, which he practises on the tilting ground, +instead of riding with a tight knee and the weight of his body behind +the shaft of ash. That is what drives the tree home, and so he gets +many a coup. Yet to fall, and to be up and at it again, is by far the +truer courage." + +The Lady Sybilla laughed, as it seemed, heartily, yet with some little +bitterness in the sound of it. + +"I declare you Douglases stick together like crabs in a basket. +Cousins in France do not often love each other so well. You are +fortunate in your relations, my Lord Duke." + +"Indeed, and that I am," cried the young man, joyously. "Here be my +cousins, William and James--Will ever ready to read me out of wise +books and advise me better than any clerk, Jamie aching to drive lance +through any man's midriff in my quarrel." + +"Lord, I would that I had the chance!" cried James. "Saint Bride! but +I would make a hole clean through him and out at the back, though my +elbuck should dinnle for a week after." + +So talking together, but with the lady riding more silent and somewhat +constrainedly in their midst, the three cousins of Douglas passed the +drawbridge and came again to the precincts of the noble towers of +Thrieve. + + * * * * * + +In an hour Sholto followed them, having ridden fast and furious across +the long broomy braes of Boreland, and wet the fringes of his +charger's silken coverture by vaingloriously swimming the Dee at the +castle pool instead of going round by the fords. This he did in the +hope that Maud Lindesay might see him. And so she did; for as he came +round by the outside of the moat, making his horse caracole and +thinking no little of himself, he heard a voice from an upper window +call out: "Sholto MacKim, Maudie says that you look like a draggled +crow. No, I will not be silent." + +Then the words were shut off as if a hand had been set over the mouth +which spoke. But presently the voice out of the unseen came again: +"And I hate you, Sholto MacKim. For we have had to keep in our chamber +this livelong day, because of the two men you have placed over us, as +if we had been prisoners in Black Archibald.[1] This very day I am +going to ask my brother to hang Black Andro and John his brother on +the dule tree of Carlinwark." + +[Footnote 1: The pet name of the deepest dungeon of Castle Thrieve, +yet extant and plain to be seen by all.] + +"Yes, indeed, and most properly," cried another voice, which made his +very heart flutter, "and set his new captain of the guard a-dangle in +the midst, decked out from head to foot in peacocks' feathers." + +Sholto was very angry, for like a boy he took not chaffing lightly, +and had neither the harshness of hide which can endure the rasping of +a woman's tongue, nor the quickness of speech to give her the counter +retort. + +So he cast the reins of his horse to a stable varlet and stamped +indoors, carrying his master's helmet to the armoury. Then still +without speech to any he brushed hastily up the stairs towards the +upper floor, which he had set Andro the Penman and his brother to +guard. + +At the turning of the staircase David Douglas, the Earl's brother, +stopped him. Sholto moved in salute and would have passed by. + +But David detained him with an impetuous hand. + +"What is this?" he said; "you have set two archers on the stairs who +have shot and almost killed the ambassador's two servants, Poitou the +man-at-arms, and Henriet the clerk, just because they wished to take +the air upon the roof. Nay, even when I would have visited my sister, +I was not permitted--'None passes here save the Earl himself, till +our captain takes his orders off us!' That was the word they spoke. +Was ever the like done in the castle of Thrieve to a Master of Douglas +before?" + +"I am sorry, my Lord David," said Sholto, respectfully, "but there +were matters within the knowledge of the Earl which caused him to lay +this heavy charge upon me." + +"Well," said the lad, quickly relenting, "let us go and see Margaret +now. She must have been lonely all this fair day of summer." + +But Sholto smiled, well pleased, thinking of Maud Lindesay. + +"I would that I had a lifetime of such loneliness as Margaret's hath +been this day," he said to himself. + +At the turning of the stair they were stayed, for there, his foot +advanced, his bow ready to deliver its steel bolt at the clicking of a +trigger, stood Andro the Swarthy. + +From his stance he commanded the stair and could see along the +corridor as well. + +David Douglas caught his elbow on something which stood a few inches +out of the oaken panelling of the turnpike wall. He tried to pull it +out. It was the steel quarrel of a cross-bow wedged firmly into the +wood and masonry. He cried: "Whence came this? Have you been murdering +any other honest men?" + +The archer stood silent, glancing this way and that like a sentinel on +duty. The two young men went on up the stair. + +As their feet were approaching the sixth step, a sudden word came from +the Penman like a bolt from his bow. + +"Halt!" he cried, and they heard the _gur-r-r-r_ of his steel ratchet. + +Sholto smiled, for he knew the nature of the man. + +"It is I, your captain," he said. "You have done your duty well, Andro +the Penman. Now get down to your dinner. But first give an account of +your adventures." + +"Do you relieve us from our charge?" said the archer, with his bow +still at the ready. + +"Certainly," quoth Sholto. + +"Come, Jock, we are eased," cried Andro the Swarthy up the stair, and +he slid the steel bolt out of its grip with a little click; "faith, my +belly is toom as a last year's beef barrel." + +"Did any come hither to vex you?" asked Sholto. + +"Not to speak of," said the archer; "there were, indeed, two varlets +of the Frenchmen, and as they would not take a bidding to stand, I had +perforce to send a quarrel buzzing past their lugs into the wall. You +can see it there behind you." + +"Rascal," cried David Douglas, indignantly, "you do not say that first +of all you shot it through the arm of the poor clerk Henriet." + +"It is like enough," said Andro, coolly, "if his arm were in the way." + +Then came a voice down the stairs from above. + +"And the wretches would neither let any come to visit us nor yet +permit us to go into the hall that we might speak with our gossips." + +"How should we be responsible with our lives for the lasses if we had +let them gad about?" said Andro, preparing to salute and take himself +off. + +At this moment the little maid and her elder companion came forward +meekly and kneeled down before Sholto. + +"We are your humble prisoners," said Maud Lindesay, "and we know that +our offences against your highness are most heinous; but why should +you starve us to death? Burn us or hang us,--we will bear the extreme +penalty of the law gladly,--but torture is not for women. For dear +pity's sake, a bite of bread. We have had nothing to eat all day, +except two lace kerchiefs and a neck riband." + +"Lord of Heaven," cried Sholto, swinging on his heel and darting down +towards the kitchen, "what a fool unutterable I am!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BAILIES OF DUMFRIES + + +The combat of the third day was, by the will of the Earl, to be of a +peculiar kind. It was the custom at that time for the _melee_ to be +fought between an equal number of knights in open lists, each being at +liberty to carry assistance to his friends as soon as he had disposed +of his own man. On this occasion, however, the fight was to be between +three knights with their several squires on the one side, and an equal +number of knights and squires on the other. + +As the combat of the previous day had decided, young James Douglas of +Avondale was to lead one party, being the successful tilter of the day +of single combat, while the Earl himself was to head the other. + +The chances of battle must be borne, and whatever happened in the +shock of fight was to be endured without complaint. But no blow was to +be struck at either knight or squire in any way disabled by wound. + +To Sholto's great and manifest joy the Earl, his master, chose the new +captain of his guard to support him in the fray, and told him to make +choice of the best battle-axe and sword he could find, as well as to +provide himself with the shield which most suited the strength of his +left arm. + +"By your permission I will ask my father," said Sholto. + +"He also fights on our side as the squire of Alan Fleming," said the +Earl; "if Laurence had not been a monk, he might have made a third +MacKim." + +Then was Sholto's heart high and uplifted within him, to think of the +victory he would achieve over his brother less than two days after +they had parted, and he hastened off to choose his arms under the +direction of his father. + +The party of James of Avondale consisted of his brother William and +young John Lauder, called Lauder of the Bass. These three had already +entered their pavilion to accoutre themselves for the combat when a +trumpet announced the arrival from the castle of the ambassador of +France, who, being recovered from his sickness, had come in haste to +see the fighting of the last and greatest day of the tourney. + +As soon as he heard the wager of battle the marshal cried: "I also +will strike a blow this day for the honour of France. My quinsy has +altogether left me, and my blood flows strong after the rest. I will +take part with James of Avondale." + +And, without waiting to be asked, he went off followed by his servant +Poitou towards the pavilion of the Avondale trio. + +Now as the Marshal de Retz was the chief guest, it was impossible for +James of Avondale to refuse his offer. But there was anger and +blasphemy in his heart, for he knew not what the Frenchman could do, +and though he had undoubtedly been a gallant knight in his day, yet in +these matters (as James Douglas whispered to his brother) a week's +steady practice is worth a lifetime of theory. Still there was nothing +for the brothers from Douglasdale but to make the best of their +bargain. The person most deserving of pity, however, was the young +laird of the Bass, who, being thus dispossessed, went out to the back +of the lists and actually shed tears, being little more than a boy, +and none looking on to see him. + +Then he came back hastily, and besought James of Douglas to let him +fight as his squire, saying that as he had never taken up the +knighthood which had been bestowed on him by the Earl for his journey +to France, there could be nothing irregular in his fighting once more +as a simple esquire. And thus, after an appeal to the Earl himself, it +was arranged, much to John Lauder's content. + +For his third knight the Douglas had made choice of his cousin Hugh, +younger brother of his two opponents, and at that William and James of +Avondale shook their heads. + +"He pushes a good tree, our Hughie," said James. "If he comes at you, +Will, mind that trick of swerving that he hath. Aim at his right +gauntlet, and you will hit his shield." + +The conflict on the Boat Croft differed much from the chivalrous +encounters of an earlier time and a richer country. And of this more +anon. + +It chanced that on the borders of the crowd which that day begirt the +great enclosure of the lists two burgesses of Dumfries stood on +tiptoe,--to wit, Robert Semple, merchant dealing in cloth and wool, +and Ninian Halliburton, the brother of Barbara, wife of Malise MacKim, +master armourer, whose trade was only conditioned by the amount of +capital he could find to lay out and the probability he had of +disposing of his purchase within a reasonable time. + +It would give an entirely erroneous impression of the state of +Scotland in 1440 if the sayings and doings of the wise and shrewd +burghers of the towns of Scotland were left wholly without a +chronicler. The burghs of Scotland were at once the cradles and +strongholds of liberty. They were not subject to the great nobles. +They looked with jealousy on all encroachments on their liberties, and +had sharp swords wherewith to enforce their objection. They had been +endowed with privileges by the wise and politic kings of Scotland, +from William the Lion down to James the First, of late worthy memory. +For they were the best bulwark of the central authority against the +power of the great nobles of the provinces. + +Now Robert Semple and Ninian Halliburton were two worthy citizens of +Dumfries, men of respectability, well provided for by the success of +their trade and the saving nature of their wives. They had come +westward to the Thrieve for two purposes: to deliver a large +consignment of goods and gear, foreign provisions and fruits, to the +controller of the Earl's household, and to receive payment therefor, +partly in money and partly in the wool and cattle; hides and tallow, +which have been the staple products of Galloway throughout her +generations. + +Their further purposes and intents in venturing so far west of the +safe precincts of their burgh of Dumfries may be gathered from their +conversation hereinafter to be reported. + +Ninian Halliburton was a rosy-faced, clean-shaven man, with a habit of +constantly pursing out his lips and half closing his eyes, as if he +were sagely deciding on the advisability of some doubtful bargain. His +companion, Robert Semple, had a similar look of shrewdness, but added +to it his face bore also the imprint of a sly and lurking humour not +unlike that of the master armourer himself. In time bygone he had kept +his terms at the college of Saint Andrews, where you may find on the +list of graduates the name of Robertus Semple, written by the +foundational hand of Bishop Henry Wardlaw himself. And upon his body, +as the Bailie of Dumfries would often feelingly recall, he bore the +memory, if not the marks, of the disciplining of Henry Ogilvy, Master +in Arts--a wholesome custom, too much neglected by the present regents +of the college, as he would add. + +"This is an excellent affair for us," said Ninian Halliburton, +standing with his hands folded placidly over his ample stomach, only +occasionally allowing them to wander in order to feel and approve the +pile of the brown velvet out of which the sober gown was constructed. +"A good thing for us, I say, that there are great lords like the Earl +of Douglas to keep up the expense of such days as this." + +"It were still better," answered his companion, dryly, "if the great +nobles would pay poor merchants according to their promises, instead +of threatening them with the dule tree if they so much as venture to +ask for their money. Neither you nor I, Bailie, can buy in the +lowlands of Holland without a goodly provision of the broad gold +pieces that are so hard to drag from the nobles of Scotland." + +The rosy-gilled Bailie of Dumfries looked up at his friend with a +quick expression of mingled hope and anxiety. + +"Does the Earl o' Douglas owe you ony siller?" he asked in a hushed +whisper, "for if he does, I am willing to take over the debt--for a +consideration." + +"Nay," said Semple, "I only wish he did. The Douglases of the Black +were never ill debtors. They keep their hand in every man's meal ark, +but as they are easy in taking, they are also quick in paying." + +"Siller in hand is the greatest virtue of a buyer," said the Bailie, +with unction. "But, Robert Semple, though I was willing to oblige ye +as a friend by taking over your debt, I'll no deny that ye gied me a +fricht. For hae I no this day delivered to the bursar o' the castle o' +Thrieve sax bales o' pepper and three o' the best spice, besides much +cumin, alum, ginger, seat-well, almonds, rice, figs, raisins, and +other sic thing. Moreover, there is owing to me, for wine and vinegar, +mair than twa hunder pound. Was that no enough to gar me tak a 'dwam' +when ye spoke o' the great nobles no payin'!" + +"I would that all our outlying monies were as safe," said Semple; "but +here come the knights and squires forth from their tents. Tell me, +Ninian, which o' the lads are your sister's sons." + +"There is but one o' the esquires that is Barbara Halliburton's son," +answered the Bailie; "the ither is her ain man--and a great ram-stam, +unbiddable, unhallowed deevil he is--Guid forbid that I should say as +muckle to his face!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +WAGER OF BATTLE + + +The knights had moved slowly out from their pavilions on either side, +and now stood waiting the order to charge. My Lord Maxwell sat by the +side of the Lady Sybilla, and held the truncheon, the casting down of +which was to part the combatants and end the fight. The three knights +on the southern or Earl's side were a singular contrast to their +opponents. Two of them, the Earl William and his cousin Hugh, were no +more than boys in years, though already old in military exercises; the +third, Alan Fleming of Cumbernauld, was a strong horseman and +excellent with his lance, though also slender of body and more +distinguished for dexterity than for power of arm. Yet he was destined +to lay a good lance in rest that day, and to come forth unshamed. + +The Avondale party were to the eye infinitely the stronger, that is +when knights only were considered. For James Douglas was little less +than a giant. His jolly person and frank manners seemed to fill all +the field with good humour, and from his station he cried challenges +to his cousin the Earl and defiances to his brother Hugh, with that +broad rollicking wit which endeared him to the commons, to whom +"Mickle Lord Jamie" had long been a popular hero. + +"Bid our Hugh there rin hame for his hippen clouts lest he make of +himself a shame," he cried; "'tis not fair that we should have to +fight with babes." + +"Mayhap he will be as David to your Goliath, thou great gomeril!" +replied the Earl with equal good humour, seeing his cousin Hugh blush +and fumble uncomfortably at his arms. + +Then to the lad himself he said: "Keep a light hand on your rein, a +good grip at the knee, and after the first shock we will ride round +them like swallows about so many bullocks." + +The other two Avondale knights, William Douglas and the Marshal de +Retz, were also large men, and the latter especially, clothed in black +armour and with the royal ermines of Brittany quartered on his shield, +looked a stern and commanding figure. + +The squires were well matched. These fought on foot, armed according +to custom with sword, axe, and dagger--though Sholto would much have +preferred to trust to his arrow skill even against the plate of the +knights. + +The trumpets blew their warning from the judge's gallery. The six +opposing knights laid their lances in rest. The squires leaned a +little forward as if about to run a race. Lord Maxwell raised his +truncheon. The trumpets sounded again, and as their stirring +_taran-tara_ rang down the wide strath of Dee, the riders spurred +their horses into full career. It so chanced that, as they had stood, +James of Avondale was opposite the Earl, each being in the midst as +was their right as leaders. The Master of Avondale opposed his brother +Hugh, and the Marshal de Retz couched spear against young Alan +Fleming. In this order they started to ride their course. But at the +last moment, instead of riding straight for his man, the Frenchman +swerved to the left, and, raising his lance high in the air, he threw +it in the manner of his country straight at the visor bars of the +young Earl of Douglas. The spear of James of Avondale at the same time +taking him fair in the middle of his shield, the double assault caused +the young man to fall heavily from his saddle, so that the crash +sounded dully over the field. + +"Treachery! Treachery!--A foul false stroke! A knave's device!" cried +nine-tenths of those who were crowded about the barriers. "Stop the +fight! Kill the Frenchman!" + +"Not so," cried Lord Maxwell, "they were to fight as best they could, +and they must fight it to the end!" + +And this being a decision not to be gainsaid, the combat proceeded on +very unequal terms. Sholto, who had been eagerly on the stretch to +match himself with the squire of James of Avondale, the young knight +of the Bass, found himself suddenly astride of his lord's body and +defending himself against both the French ambassador and his squire +Poitou, who had simultaneously crossed over to the attack. For the +Marshal de Retz, if not in complete defiance of the written rule of +chivalry, at least against the spirit of gallantry and the rules of +the present tourney, would have thrust the Earl through with his spear +as he lay, crying at the same time, "A outrance! A outrance!" to +excuse the foulness of his deed. + +It was lucky for himself that he did not succeed, for, undoubtedly, +the Douglases then on the field would have torn him to pieces for what +they not unnaturally considered his treachery. As it was, there +sounded a mighty roar of anger all about the barriers, and the crowd +pressed so fiercely and threateningly that it was as much as the +archers could do to keep them within reasonable bounds. + +"Saints' mercy!" puffed stout Ninian Halliburton, "let us get out of +this place. I am near bursen. Haud off there, varlet, ken ye not that +I am a Bailie of Dumfries? Keep your feet off the tail o' my brown +velvet gown. It cost nigh upon twenty silver shillings an ell!" + +"A Douglas! A Douglas! Treachery! Treachery!" yelled a wild Minnigaff +man, thrusting a naked brand high into the air within an inch of the +burgess's nose. That worthy citizen almost fell backwards in dismay, +and indeed must have done so but for the pressure of the crowd behind +him. He was, therefore, much against his will compelled to keep his +place in the front rank of the spectators. + +"Well done, young lad," cried the crowd, seeing Sholto ward and strike +at Poitou and his master, "God, but he is fechtin' like the black deil +himself!" + +"It will be as chancy for him," cried the wild Minnigaff hillman, "for +I will tear the harrigals oot o' Sholto MacKim if onything happen to +the Earl!" + +But the captain of the guard, light as a feather, had easily avoided +the thrust of the marshal's spear, taking it at an angle and turning +it aside with his shield. Then, springing up behind him, he pulled the +French knight down to the ground with the hook of his axe, by that +trick of attack which was the lesson taught once for all to the Scots +of the Lowlands upon the stricken field of the Red Harlaw. + +The marshal fell heavily and lay still, for he was a man of feeble +body, and the weight of his armour very great. + +"Slay him! Slay him!" yelled the people, still furious at what, not +without reason, they considered rank treachery. + +Sholto recovered himself, and reached his master only in time to find +Poitou bending over Earl Douglas with a dagger in his hand. + +With a wild yell he lashed out at the Breton squire, and Sholto's axe +striking fair on his steel cap, Poitou fell senseless across the body +of Douglas. + +"Well done, Sholto MacKim--well done, lad!" came from all the barrier, +and even Ninian Halliburton cried: "Ye shall hae a silken doublet for +that!" Then, recollecting himself, he added, "At little mair than cost +price!" + +"God in heeven, 'tis bonny fechtin!" cried the man from Minnigaff. +"Oh, if I could dirk the fause hound I wad dee happy!" + +And the hillman danced on the toes of the Bailie of Dumfries and shook +the barriers with his hand till he received a rap over the knuckles +from the handle of a partisan directed by the stout arms of Andro the +Penman. + +"Haud back there, heather-besom!" cried the archer, "gin ye want ever +again to taste 'braxy'!" + +Over the rest of the field the fortune of war had been somewhat +various. William of Douglas had unhorsed his brother Hugh at the first +shock, but immediately foregoing his advantage with the most +chivalrous courtesy, he leaped from his own horse and drew his sword. + +On the right Alan Fleming, being by the marshal's action suddenly +deprived of his opponent, had wheeled his charger and borne down +sideways upon James of Douglas, and that doughty champion, not having +fully recovered from the shock of his encounter with the Earl, and +being taken from an unexpected quarter, went down as much to his own +surprise as to that of the people at the barriers, who had looked upon +him as the strongest champion on the field. + +It was evident, therefore, that, in spite of the loss of their leader, +the Earl's party stood every chance to win the field. For not only was +Alan Fleming the only knight left on horseback, but Malise MacKim had +disposed of the laird of Stra'ven, squire to William of Avondale, +having by one mighty axe stroke beaten the Lanarkshire man down to his +knees. + +"A Douglas! A Douglas!" shouted the populace; "now let them have it!" + +And the adherents of the Earl were proceeding to carry out this +intent, when my Lord Maxwell unexpectedly put an end to the combat by +throwing down his truncheon and proclaiming a drawn battle. + +"False loon!" cried Sholto, shaking his axe at him in the extremity of +his anger, "we have beaten them fairly. Would that I could get at +thee! Come down and fight an encounter to the end. I will take any +Maxwell here in my shirt!" + +"Hold your tongue!" commanded his father, briefly, "what else can ye +expect of a border man but broken faith?" + +The archers of the guard rushed in, as was their duty, and separated +the remaining combatants. Hugh and his brother William fought it to +the last, the younger with all his vigour and with a fierce energy +born of his brother James's taunts, William with the calm courtesy and +forbearance of an old and assured knight towards one who has yet his +spurs to win. + +The stunned knights and squires were conveyed to their several +pavilions, where the Earl's apothecaries were at once in attendance. +William of Douglas was the first to revive, which he did almost as +soon as the laces of his helm had been undone and water dashed upon +his face. His head still sang, he declared, like a hive of bees, but +that was all. + +He bent with the anxiety of a generous enemy over the unconscious form +of the Marshal de Retz, from whom they were stripping his armour. At +the removal of the helmet, the strange parchment face with its +blue-black stubbly beard was seen to be more than usually pale and +drawn. The upper lip was retracted, and a set of long white teeth +gleamed like those of a wild beast. + +The apothecary was just commencing to strip off the leathern +under-doublet from the ambassador's body to search for a wound, when +Poitou, his squire, happened to open his eyes. He had been laid upon +the floor, as the most seriously wounded of the combatants, though +being the least in honour he fell to be attended last. + +Instantly he cried out a strange Breton word, unintelligible to all +present, and, leaping from the floor, he flung himself across the body +of his master, dashing aside the astonished apothecary, who had only +time to discern on the marshal's shoulder the scar of a recent +cautery before Poitou had restored the leathern under-doublet to its +place. + +"Hands off! Do not touch my master. I alone can bring him to. Leave +the room, all of you." + +"Sirrah!" cried the Earl, sternly, striding towards him, "I will teach +you to speak humbly to more honourable men." + +"My lord," cried Poitou, instantly recalled to himself, "believe me, I +meant no ill. But true it is that I only can recover him. I have often +seen him taken thus. But I must be left alone. My master hath a +blemish upon him, and one great gentleman does not humiliate another +in the presence of underlings. My Lord Douglas, as you love honour, +bid all to leave me alone for a brief space." + +"Much cared he for honour, when he threw the lance at my master!" +growled Sholto. "Had I known, I would have driven my bill-point six +inches lower, and then would there have been a most satisfactory +blemish in the joining of his neck-bone." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SHOLTO WINS KNIGHTHOOD + + +The ambassador recovered quickly after he had been left with his +servant Poitou, according to the latter's request. The Lady Sybilla +manifested the most tender concern in the matter of the accident of +judgment which had been the means of diverting her kinsman from his +own opponent and bringing him into collision with the Earl Douglas. + +"Often have I striven with my lord that he should ride no more in the +lists," she said, "for since he received the lance-thrust in the eye +by the side of La Pucelle before the walls of Orleans, he sees no more +aright, but bears ever in the direction of the eye which sees and away +from that wherein he had his wound." + +"Indeed, I knew not that the Marshal de Retz had been wounded in the +eye, or I should not have permitted him to ride in the tourney," +returned the Earl, gravely. "The fault was mine alone." + +The Lady Sybilla smiled upon him very sweetly and graciously. + +"You are great soldiers--you Douglases. Six knights are chosen from +the muster of half a kingdom to ride a _melee_. Four are Douglases, +and, moreover, cousins germain in blood." + +"Indeed, we might well have compassed the sword-play," said the Earl +William, "for in our twenty generations we never learned aught else. +Our arms are strong enough and our skulls thick enough, for even mine +uncle, the Abbot, hath his Latin by the ear. And one Semple, a plain +burgher of Dumfries, did best him at it--or at least would have shamed +him, but that he desired not to lose the custom of the Abbey." + +"When you come to France," replied the girl, smiling on him, "it will +indeed be stirring to see you ride a bout with young Messire Lalain, +the champion of Burgundy, or with that Miriadet of Dijon, whose arm is +like that of a giant and can fell an ox at a blow." + +"Truly," said the young Earl, modestly, "you do me overmuch honour. My +cousin James there, he is the champion among us, and alone could +easily have over-borne me to-day, without the aid of your uncle's +blind eye. Even William of Avondale is a better lance than I, and +young Hugh will be when his time comes." + +"Your squire fought a good fight," she went on, "though his +countenance does not commend itself to me, being full of all +self-sufficience." + +"Sholto--yes; he is his father's son and fought well. He is a MacKim, +and cannot do otherwise. He will make a good knight, and, by Saint +Bride, I will dub him one, ere this sun set, for his valiant laying on +of the axe this day." + +The great muster was now over. The tents which had been dotted thickly +athwart the castle island were already mostly struck, and the ground +was littered with miscellaneous debris, soon to be carried off in +trail carts with square wooden bodies set on boughs of trees, and +flung into the river, by the Earl's varlets and stablemen. + +The multitudinous liegemen of the Douglas were by this time streaming +homewards along every mountain pass. Over the heather and through the +abounding morasses horse and foot took their way, no longer marching +in military order, as when they came, but each lance taking the route +which appeared the shortest to himself. North, east, and west +spear-heads glinted and armour flashed against the brown of the +heather and the green of the little vales, wherein the horses bent +their heads to pull at the meadow hay as their riders sought the +nearest way back again to their peel-towers and forty-shilling lands. + +It was at the great gate of Thrieve that the Earl called aloud for +Sholto. He had been speaking to his cousin William, a strong, silent +man, whose repute was highest for good counsel among all the branches +of the house of Douglas. + +Sholto came forward from the head of his archer guard with a haste +which betrayed his anxiety lest in some manner he had exceeded his +duty. The Earl bade him kneel down. A little behind, the young +Douglases of Avondale, William, James, and Hugh, sat their horses, +while the boy David, who had been left at home to keep the castle, +looked forth disconsolately from the window of the great hall. On the +steps stood the little Maid Margaret and her companion, Maud Lindesay, +who had come down to meet the returning train of riders. And, truth to +tell, that was what Sholto cared most about. He did not wish to be +disgraced before them all. + +So as he knelt with an anxious countenance before his lord, the Earl +took his cousin William's sword out of his hand, and, laying it on the +shoulder of Sholto MacKim, he said, "Great occasions bring forth good +men, and even one battle tries the temper of the sword. You, Sholto, +have been quickly tried, but thy father hath been long tempering you. +Three days agone you were but one of the archer guard, yesterday you +were made its captain, to-day I dub you knight for the strong courage +of the heart that is within, and the valiant service which this day +you did your lord. Rise, Sir Sholto!" + +But for all that he rose not immediately, for the head of the young +man whirled, and little drumming pulses beat in his temples. His heart +cried within him like the overword of a song, "Does she hear? Will she +care? Will this bring me nearer to her?" So that, in spite of his +lord's command, he continued to kneel, till lusty James of Avondale +came and caught him by the elbow. "Up, Sir Knight, and give grace and +good thank to your lord. Not your head but mine hath a right to be +muzzy with the coup I gat this day on the green meadow of the Boat +Croft." + +And practical William of Avondale whispered in his cousin's ear, "And +the lands for the youth that we spoke of." + +"Moreover," said the Earl, "that you may suitably support the +knighthood which your sword has won, I freely bestow on you the +forty-shilling lands of Aireland and Lincolns with Screel and Ben +Gairn, on condition that you and yours shall keep the watch-fires laid +ready for the lighting, and that in time you rear you sturdy yeomen to +bear in the Douglas train the banneret of MacKim of Aireland." + +Sholto stood before his generous lord trembling and speechless, while +James Douglas shook him by the elbow and encouraged him roughly, "Say +thy say, man; hast lost thy tongue?" + +But William Douglas nodded approval of the youth. + +"Nay," he said, "let alone, James! I like the lad the better that he +hath no ready tongue. 'Tis not the praters that fight as this youth +hath fought this day!" + +So all that Sholto found himself able to do, was no more than to kneel +on one knee and kiss his master's hand. + +"I am too young," he muttered. "I am not worthy." + +"Nay," said his master, "but you have fairly won your spurs. They made +me a knight when I was but two years of my age, and I cried all the +time for my nurse, your good mother, who, when she came, comforted me +with pap. Surely it was right that I should make a place for my +foster-brother within the goodly circle of the Douglas knights." + +[Illustration: "I AM TOO YOUNG," HE MUTTERED; "I AM NOT WORTHY."] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SECOND FLOUTING OF MAUD LINDESAY + + +Sholto MacKim stood on the lowest step of the ascent into the noble +gateway of Thrieve, hardly able to believe in his own good fortune. +But these were the days when no man awaked without having the +possibility of either a knighthood or the gallows tree to encourage +him to do his duty between dawn and dark. + +The lords of Douglas had gone within, and were now drinking the Cup of +Appetite as their armour was being unbraced by the servitors, and the +chafed limbs rubbed with oil and vinegar after the toils of the +tourney. But still Sholto stood where his master had left him, looking +at the green scum of duckweed which floated on the surface of the moat +of Thrieve, yet of a truth seeing nothing whatever, till a low voice +pierced the abstraction of his reverie. + +"Sir Sholto!" said Mistress Maud Lindesay, "I bid you a long good-by, +Sir Sholto MacKim! Say farewell to him, Margaret, as you hear me do!" + +"Good-by, kind Sir Sholto!" piped the childish voice of the Maid of +Galloway, as she made a little courtesy to Sholto MacKim in imitation +of her companion. "I know not where you are going, but Maudie bids me, +so I will!" + +"And wherefore say you good-by to me?" cried Sholto, finding his words +at once in the wholesome atmosphere of raillery which everywhere +accompanied that quipsome damosel, Mistress Maud Lindesay. + +"Why, because we are humble folk, and must get our ways upstairs out +of the way of dignities. Permit me to kiss your glove, fair lord!" and +here she tripped down the steps and pretended to take his hand. + +"Hold off!" he cried, snatching it away angrily, for her tone vexed +and thwarted him. + +The girl affected a great terror, which merged immediately into a meek +affectation of resignation. + +"No--you are right--we are not worthy even to kiss your knightly +hand," she said, "but we will respectfully greet you." Here she swept +him a full reverence, and ran up the steps again before he could take +hold of her. Then, standing on the topmost step, and holding her +friend's hand in hers, she spoke to the Maid of Galloway in a tone +hushed and regretful, as one speaks of the dead. + +"No, Margaret," she said, "he will no more play with us. Hide-and-seek +about the stack-yard ricks at the Mains is over in the gloamings. Sir +Sholto cares no more for us. He has put away childish things. He will +not even blow out a lamp for us with his own honourable lips. No, he +will call his squire to do it!" + +Sholto looked the indignation he would not trust himself to speak. + +"He will dine with the Earl in hall, and quaff and stamp and shout +with the best when they drink the toasts. But he has become too great +a man to carry you and me any more over the stepping-stones at the +ford, or pull with us the ripe berries when the briars are drooping +purple on the braes of Keltonhill. Bid him good-by, Margaret, for he +was our kind friend once. And when he rides out to battle, perhaps, if +we are good and respectful, he may again wave us a hand and say: +'There are two lassies that once I kenned!'" + +At this inordinate flouting the patience of the new knight, growing +more and more angry at each word, came quickly to the breaking point; +for his nerves were jarred and jangled by the excitement of the day. +He gave vent to a short sharp cry, and started up the steps with the +intention of making Mistress Lindesay pay in some fashion for her +impertinence. But that active and gamesome maid was most entirely on +the alert. Indeed, she had been counting from the first upon provoking +such a movement. And so, with her nimble charge at her heels, Mistress +Lindesay was already at the inner port, and through the iron-barred +gate of the turret stair, before the youthful captain of the guard, +still cumbered with his armour, could reach the top of the outer +steps. + +As soon as Sholto saw that he was hopelessly distanced, he slackened +his gait, and, with a sober tread befitting a knight and officer of a +garrison, he walked along the passage which led to the chamber +allotted to the captain of the guard, from which that day Landless +Jock had removed his effects. + +The soldiers of the guard, who had heard of the honours which had so +swiftly come upon the young man, rose and respectfully saluted their +chief. And Sholto, though he had been silent when the sharp tongue of +the mirth-loving maid tormented him, found speech readily enough now. + +"I thank you," he said, acknowledging their salutations. "We have +known each other before. Fortune and misfortune come to all, and it +will be your turns one day. But up or down, good or ill, we shall not +be the worse comrades for having kept the guard and sped the bolt +together." + +Then there came one behind him who stood at the door of his chamber, +as he was unhelming himself, and said: "My captain, there stand at the +turret stair the ladies Margaret and Maud with a message for you." + +"A message for me--what is it?" said Sholto, testily, being (and small +blame to him) a trifle ruffled in his temper. + +"Nay, sir," said the man, respectfully, "that I know not, but methinks +it comes from my lord." + +It will not do to say to what our gallant Sholto condemned all +tricksome queans and spiteful damosels in whose eyes dwelt mischief +brimming over, and whose tongues spoke softest words that yet stung +and rankled like fairy arrows dipped in gall and wormwood. + +But since the man stood there and repeated, "I judge the message to be +one from my lord," Sholto could do no less than hastily pull on his +doublet and again betake himself along the corridor to the foot of the +stair. + +When he arrived there he saw no one, and was about to depart again as +he had come, when the head of Maud Lindesay appeared round the upper +spiral looking more distractedly mischievous and bewitching than ever, +her head all rippling over with dark curls and her eyes fairly +scintillating light. She nodded to him and leaned a little farther +over, holding tightly to the baluster meanwhile. + +"Well," said Sholto, roughly, "what are my lord's commands for me, if, +indeed, he has charged you with any?" + +"He bids me say," replied Mistress Maud Lindesay, "that, since lamps +are dangerous things in maidens' chambers, he desires you to assist in +the trimming of the waxen tapers to-night--that is, if so menial a +service shame not your knighthood." + +"Pshaw!" muttered Sholto, "my lord said naught of the sort." + +"Well then," said Maud Lindesay, smiling down upon him with an +expression innocent and sweet as that of an angel on a painted +ceiling, "you will be kind and come and help us all the same?" + +"That I will not!" said Sholto, stamping his foot like an ill-tempered +boy. + +"Yes, you will--because Margaret asks you?" + +_"I will not!"_ + +"Then because _I_ ask you?" + +Spite of his best endeavours, Sholto could not take his eyes from the +girl's face, which seemed fairer and more desirable to him now than +ever. A quick sob of passion shook him, and he found words at last: + +"Oh, Maud Lindesay, why do you treat thus one who loves you with all +his heart?" + +The girl's face changed. The mischief died out of it, and something +vague and soft welled up in her eyes, making them mistily grey and +lustrous. But she only said: "Sholto, it is growing dark already! It +is time the tapers were trimmed!" + +Then Sholto followed her up the stairs, and though I do not know, +there is some reason for thinking that he forgave her all her +wickedness in the sweet interspace between the gloaming and the mirk, +when the lamps were being lighted on earth, and in heaven the stars +were coming out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE DOGS AND THE WOLF HOLD COUNCIL + + +It was a week or two after the date of the great wappenshaw and +tourneying at the Castle of Thrieve, that in the midmost golden haze +of a summer's afternoon four men sat talking together about a table in +a room of the royal palace of Stirling. + +No one of the four was any longer young, and one at least was +immoderately fat. This was James, Earl of Avondale, granduncle of the +present Earl of Douglas, and, save for young David, the Earl's +brother, nearest heir to the title and all the estates and honours +pertaining thereto, with the single exception of the Lordship of +Galloway. + +The other three were, first, Sir Alexander Livingston, the guardian of +the King's person, a handsome man with a curled beard, who was +supposed to stand high in the immediate favours of the Queen, and who +had long been tutor to his Majesty as well as guardian of his royal +person. Opposite to Livingston, and carefully avoiding his eye, sat a +man of thin and foxy aspect, whose smooth face, small shifty mouth, +and perilous triangular eyes marked him as one infinitely more +dangerous than either of the former--Sir William Crichton, the +Chancellor of the realm of Scotland. + +The fourth was speaking, and his aspect, strange and ofttimes +terrifying, is already familiar to us. But the pallid corpse-like +face, the blue-black beard, the wild-beast look, in the eyes of the +Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, were now more than +ever heightened in effect by the studied suavity of his demeanour and +the graciousness of language with which he was clothing what he had to +say. + +"I have brought you together after taking counsel with my good Lord of +Avondale. I am aware, most noble seigneurs, that there have been +differences between you in the past as to the conduct of the affairs +of this great kingdom; but I am obeying both the known wishes and the +express commands of my own King in endeavouring to bring you to an +agreement. You will not forget that the Dauphin of France is wedded to +the Scottish princess nearest the throne, and that therefore he is not +unconcerned in the welfare of this realm. + +"Now, messieurs, it cannot be hid from you that there is one +overriding and insistent peril which ought to put an end to all your +misunderstandings. There is a young man in this land, more powerful +than you or the King, or, indeed, all the powers legalised and +established within the bounds of Scotland. + +"Who is above the law, gentlemen? I name to you the Earl of Douglas. +Who hath a retinue ten times more magnificent than that with which the +King rides forth? The Earl of Douglas! Who possesses more than half +Scotland, and that part the fairest and richest? Who holds in his +hands all the strong castles, is joined by bond of service and manrent +with the most powerful nobles of the land? Who but the Earl of +Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Warden of the Marches, hereditary +Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom?" + +At this point the crafty eyes of Crichton the Chancellor were turned +full upon the speaker. His hand tugged nervously at his thin reddish +beard as if it had been combing the long goat's tuft which grew +beneath his smooth chin. + +"But did not you yourself come all the way from France to endue him +with the duchy of Touraine?" he said. "Doth that look like pulling him +down from his high seat?" + +The marshal moved a politic hand as if asking silence till he had +finished his explanation. + +"Pardon," he said; "permit me yet a moment, most High Chancellor--but +have you heard so little of the skill and craft of Louis, our most +notable Dauphin, that you know not how he ever embraces men with the +left arm whilst he pierces them with the dagger in his right?" + +The Chancellor nodded appreciation. It was a detail of statecraft well +known to him, and much practised by his house in all periods of their +history. + +"Now, my lords," the ambassador continued, "you are here all +three--the men who need most to end this tyranny--you, my Lord of +Avondale, will you deign to deliver your mind upon this matter?" + +The fat Earl hemmed and hawed, clearing his throat to gain time, and +knitting and unknitting his fingers over his stomach. + +"Being a near kinsman," he said at last, "it is not seemly that I +should say aught against the Earl of Douglas; but this I do +know--there will be no peace in Scotland till that young man and his +brother are both cut off." + +The Chancellor and de Retz exchanged glances. The anxiety of the +next-of-kin to the title of Earl of Douglas for the peace and +prosperity of the realm seemed to strike them both as exceedingly +natural in the circumstances. + +"And now, Sir Alexander, what say you?" asked the Sieur de Retz, +turning to the King's guardian, who had been caressing the curls of +his beard with his white and signeted hand. + +"I agree," he replied in a courtly tone, "that in the interests of the +King and of the noble lady whose care for her child hath led her to +such sacrifices, we ought to put a limit to the pride and insolence of +this youth!" + +The Chancellor bent over a parchment to hide a smile at the sacrifices +which the Queen Mother had made for her son. + +"It is indeed, doubtless," said Sir William Crichton, "a sacrifice +that the King and his mother should dwell so long within this Castle +of Stirling, exposed to every rude blast from off these barren +Grampians. Let her bring him to the mild and equable climate of +Edinburgh, which, as I am sure your Excellency must have observed, is +peculiarly suited to the rearing of such tender plants." + +He appealed to the Sieur de Retz. + +The marshal bowed and answered immediately, "Indeed, it reminds me of +the sunniest and most favoured parts of my native France." + +The tutor of the King looked somewhat uncomfortable at the suggestion +and shook his head. He had no idea of putting the King of Scots +within the power of his arch enemy in the strong fortress of +Edinburgh. + +But the Frenchman broke in before the ill effects of the Chancellor's +speech had time to turn the mind of the King's guardian from the +present project against the Earl of Douglas. + +"But surely, gentlemen, it should not be difficult for two such +honourable men to unite in destroying this curse of the +commonweal--and afterwards to settle any differences which may in the +past have arisen between themselves." + +"Good," said the Chancellor, "you speak well. But how are we to bring +the Earl within our danger? Already I have sent him offers of +alliance, and so, I doubt not, hath my honourable friend the tutor of +the King. You know well what answer the proud chief of Douglas +returned." + +The lips of Sir Alexander Livingston moved. He seemed to be taking +some bitter and nauseous drug of the apothecary. + +"Yes, Sir Alexander, I see you have not forgot. The words,'If dog eat +dog, what should the lion care?' made us every caitiff's scoff +throughout broad Scotland." + +"For that he shall yet suffer, if God give me speed," said the tutor, +for the answer had been repeated to the Queen, who, being English, +laughed at the wit of the reply. + +"I would that my boy should grow up such another as that Earl +Douglas," she had said. + +The tutor stroked his beard faster than ever, and there was in his +eyes the bitter look of a handsome man whose vanity is wounded in its +weakest place. + +"But, after all, who is to cage the lion?" said the Chancellor, +pertinently. + +The marshal of France raised his hand from the table as if commanding +silence. His suave and courtier-like demeanour had changed into +something more natural to the man. There came the gaunt forward thrust +of a wolf on the trail into the set of his head. His long teeth +gleamed, and his eyelids closed down upon his eyes till these became +mere twinkling points. + +"I have that at hand which hath already tamed the lion," he said, "and +is able to lead him into the cage with cords of silk." + +He rose from the table, and, going to a curtain that concealed the +narrow door of an antechamber, he drew it aside, and there came forth, +clothed in a garment of gold and green, close-fitting and fine, +clasped about the waist with a twining belt of jewelled snakes, the +Lady Sybilla. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE LION TAMER + + +On this summer afternoon the girl's beauty seemed more wondrous and +magical than ever. Her eyes were purple-black, like the berries of the +deadly nightshade seen in the twilight. Her face was pale, and the +scarlet of her lips lay like twin geranium petals on new-fallen snow. + +Gilles de Retz followed her with a certain grim and ghastly pride, as +he marked the sensation caused by her entrance. + +"This," he said, "is my lion tamer!" + +But the girl never looked at him, nor in any way responded to his +glances. + +"Sybilla," said de Retz, holding her with his eyes, "these gentlemen +are with us. They also are of the enemies of the house of +Douglas--speak freely that which is in your heart!" + +"My lords," said the Lady Sybilla, speaking in a level voice, and with +her eyes fixed on the leaf-shadowed square of grass, which alone could +be seen through the open window, "you have, I doubt not, each declared +your grievance against William, Earl of Douglas. I alone have none. He +is a gallant gentleman. France I have travelled, Spain also, and +Portugal, and have explored the utmost East,--wherever, indeed, my +Lord of Retz hath voyaged thither I have gone. But no braver or more +chivalrous youth than William Douglas have I found in any land. I have +no grievance against him, as I say, yet for that which hath been will +I deliver him into your hands." + +One of the men before her grew manifestly uneasy. + +"We did not come hither to listen to the praises of the Earl of +Douglas, even from lips so fair as yours!" sneered Crichton the +Chancellor, lifting his eyes one moment from the parchment before him +to the girl's face. + +"He is our enemy," said the tutor of the King, Alexander Livingston, +more generously, "but I will never deny that he is a gallant youth; +also of his person proper to look upon." + +And very complacently he smoothed down the lace ruffles which fell +from the neck of his silken doublet midway down its front. + +"The young man is a Douglas," said James the Gross, curtly; "if he +were of coward breed, we had not needed to come hither secretly!" + +"It needeth not four butchers to kill a sheep!" said de Retz. +"Concerning that, we agree. Proceed, my Lady Sybilla." + +The girl was now breathing more quickly, her bosom rising and falling +visibly beneath her light silken gown. + +"Yet because of those that have been of the house of Douglas before +him, shall I have no pity upon William, sixth Earl thereof! And +because of two dead Dukes of Touraine, will I deliver to you the third +Duke, into whose mouth hath hardly yet come the proper gust of living. +This is the tale I have heard a thousand times. There was in France, +it skills not where, a vale quiet as a summer Sabbath day. The vines +hung ripe-clustered in wide and pleasant vineyards. The olives rustled +grey on the slopes. The bell swung in the monastery tower. The cottage +in the dell was safe as the chateau on the hill. Then came the foreign +leader of a foreign army, and lo! in a day, there were a hundred dead +men in the valley, all honourable men slain in defence of their own +doors. The smoky flicker of flames broke through the roof in the +daylight. There was heard the crying of many women. And the man who +wrought this was an Earl of Douglas." + +The girl paused, and in a low whisper, intense as the breathing of the +sea, she said: + +_"And for this will I deliver into your hands his grandson, William of +Douglas!"_ + +Then her voice came again to the ears of the four listeners, in a note +low and monotonous like the wind that goes about the house on autumn +evenings. + +"There was also one who, being but a child, had escaped from that +tumult and had found shelter in a white convent with the sisters +thereof, who taught her to pray, and be happy in the peace of the hour +that is exactly like the one before it. The shadow of the dial finger +upon the stone was not more peaceful than the holy round of her life. + +"Then came one who met her by the convent wall, met her under the +shade of the orchard trees, met her under cloud of night, till his +soul had power over hers. She followed him by camp and city, fearing +no man's scorn, feeling no woman's reproach, for love's sake and his. +Yet at the last he cast her away, like an empty husk, and sailed over +the seas to his own land. She lived to wed the Sieur de Thouars and to +become my mother." + +_"And for this will I reckon with his son William, Duke of Touraine."_ + +She ceased, and de Retz began to speak. + +"By me this girl has been taught the deepest wisdom of the ancients. I +have delved deep in the lore of the ages that this maiden might be +fitted for her task. For I also, that am a marshal of France and of +kin to my Lord Duke of Brittany, have a score to settle with William, +Earl of Douglas, as hath also my master, Louis the Dauphin!" + +"It is enough," interjected Crichton the Chancellor, who had listened +to the recital of the Lady Sybilla with manifest impatience, "it is +the old story--the sins of the fathers are upon the children. And this +young man must suffer for those that went before him. They drank of +the full cup, and so he hath come now to the drains. It skills not why +we each desire to make an end of him. We are agreed on the fact. The +question is _how_." + +It was again the voice of de Retz which replied, the deep silence of +afternoon resting like a weight upon all about them. + +"If we write him a letter inviting him to the Castle of Edinburgh, he +will assuredly not come; but if we first entertain him with open +courtesy at one of your castles on the way, where you, most wise +Chancellor, must put yourself wholly in his hands, he will suspect +nothing. There, when all his suspicions are lulled, he will again meet +the Lady Sybilla; it will rest with her to bring him to Edinburgh." + +The Chancellor had been busily writing on the parchment before him +whilst de Retz was speaking. Presently he held up his hand and read +aloud that which he had written. + +"To the most noble William, Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine, +greeting! In the name of King James the Second, whom God preserve, and +in order that the realm may have peace, Sir William Crichton, +Chancellor of Scotland, and Sir Alexander Livingston, Governor of the +King's person, do invite and humbly intreat the Earl of Douglas to +come to the City of Edinburgh, with such following as shall seem good +to him, in order that he may be duly invested with the office of +Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, which office was his father's +before him. So shall the realm abide in peace and evil-doers be put +down, the peaceable prevented with power, and the Earl of Douglas +stand openly in the honourable place of his forebears." + +The Chancellor finished his reading and looked around for approbation. +James of Avondale was nodding gravely. de Retz, with a ghastly smile +on his face, seemed to be weighing the phrases. Livingston was +admiring, with a self-satisfied smile, the pinkish lights upon his +finger-nails, and the girl was gazing as before out of the window into +the green close wherein the leaves stirred and the shadows had begun +to swim lazily on the grass with the coming of the wind from off the +sea. + +"To this I would add as followeth," continued Crichton. "The +Chancellor of Scotland to William, Earl of Douglas, greeting and +homage! Sir William Crichton ventures to hope that the Earl of Douglas +will do him the great honour to come to his new Castle of Crichton, +there to be entertained as beseemeth his dignity, to the healing of +all ancient enmities, and also that they both may do honour to the +ambassador of the King of France ere he set sail again for his own +land." + +"It is indeed a worthy epistle," said James the Gross, who, being +sleepy, wished for an end to be made. + +"There is at least in it no lack of 'Chancellor of Scotland!'" sneered +Livingston, covertly. + +"Gently, gently, great sirs," interposed de Retz, as the Chancellor +looked up with anger in his eye; "have out your quarrels as you +will--after the snapping of the trap. Remember that this which we do +is a matter of life or death for all of us." + +"But the Douglases will wash us off the face of Scotland if we so much +as lay hand on the Earl," objected Livingston. "It might even affect +the safety of his Majesty's person!" + +James the Gross laughed a low laugh and looked at Crichton. + +"Perhaps," he said; "but what if the gallant boy David go with his +brother? Whoever after that shall be next Earl of Douglas can easily +prevent that. Also Angus is for us, and my Lord Maxwell will move no +hand. There remains, therefore, only Galloway, and my son William will +answer for that. I myself am old and fat, and love not fighting, but +to tame the Douglases shall be my part, and assuredly not the least." + +All this while the Lady Sybilla had been standing motionless gazing +out of the window. de Retz now motioned her away with an almost +imperceptible signal of his hand, whereat Sir Alexander Livingston, +seeing the girl about to leave the chamber of council, courteously +rose to usher her out. And with the very slightest acknowledgment of +his profound obeisance, Sybilla de Thouars went forth and left the +four men to their cabal of treachery and death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE YOUNG LORDS RIDE AWAY + + +This was the letter which, along with the Chancellor's invitations, +came to the hand of the Earl William as he rode forth to the +deer-hunting one morning from his Castle of Thrieve: + +"My lord, if it be not that you have wholly forgotten me and your +promise, this comes to inform you that my uncle and I purpose to abide +at the Castle of Crichton for ten days before finally departing forth +of this land. It is known to me that the Chancellor, moved thereto by +One who desires much to see you, hath invited the Earl of Douglas to +come thither with what retinue is best beseeming so great a lord. + +"But 'tis beyond hope that we should meet in this manner. My lord +hath, doubtless, ere this forgot all that was between us, and hath +already seen others fairer and more worthy of his courteous regard +than the Lady Sybilla. This is as well beseems a mighty lord, who +taketh up a cup full and setteth it down empty. But a woman hath +naught to do, save only to remember the things that have been, and to +think upon them. Grace be to you, my dear lord. And so for this time +and it may be for ever, fare you well!" + +When the Earl had read this letter from the Lady Sybilla, he turned +himself in his saddle without delay and said to his hunt-master: + +"Take back the hounds, we will not hunt the stag this day." + +The messenger stood respectfully before him waiting to take back an +answer. + +"Come you from the town of Edinburgh?" asked the Earl, quickly. + +"Nay," said the youth, "let it please your greatness, I am a servant +of my Lord of Crichton, and come from his new castle in the Lothians." + +"Doth the Chancellor abide there at this present?" asked the Earl. + +"He came two noons ago with but one attendant, and bade us make ready +for a great company who were to arrive there this very day. Then he +gave me these two letters and set my head on the safe delivery of +them." + +"Sholto," cried the young lord, "summon the guard and men-at-arms. +Take all that can be spared from the defence of the castle and make +ready to follow me. I ride immediately to visit the Chancellor of +Scotland at his castle in the Lothians." + +It was Sholto's duty to obey, but his heart sank within him, both at +the thought of the Earl thus venturing among his enemies, and also +because he must needs leave behind him Maud Lindesay, on whose wilful +and wayward beauty his heart was set. + +"My lord," he stammered, "permit me one word. Were it not better to +wait till a following of knights and gentlemen beseeming the Earl of +Douglas should be brought together to accompany you on so perilous a +journey?" + +"Do as I bid you, Sir Captain," was the Earl's short rejoinder; "you +have my orders." + +"O that the Abbot were here--" thought Sholto, as he moved heavily to +do his master's will; "he might reason with the Earl with some hope of +success." + +On his way to summon the guard Sholto met Maud Lindesay going out to +twine gowans with the Maid on the meadows about the Mains of Kelton. +For, as Margaret Douglas complained, "All ours on the isle were +trodden down by the men who came to the tourney, and they have not +grown up again." + +"Whither away so gloomy, Sir Knight?" cried Maud, all her winsome face +alight with pleasure in the bright day, and because of the excellent +joy of living. + +"On a most gloomy errand, indeed," said Sholto. "My lord rides with a +small company into the very stronghold of his enemy, and will hear no +word from any!" + +"And do you go with him?" cried Maud, her bright colour leaving her +face. + +"Not only I, but all that can be spared of the men-at-arms and of the +archer guard," answered Sholto. + +Maud Lindesay turned about and took the little girl's hand. + +"Margaret," she said, "let us go to my lady. Perhaps she will be able +to keep my Lord William at home." + +So they went back to the chamber of my Lady of Douglas. Now the +Countess had never been of great influence with her son, even during +her husband's lifetime, and had certainly none with him since. Still +it was possible that William Douglas might, for a time at least, +listen to advice and delay his setting out till a suitable retinue +could be brought together to protect him. Maud and Margaret found the +Lady of Douglas busily embroidering a vestment of silk and gold for +the Abbot of Sweetheart. She laid aside her work and listened with +gentle patience to the hasty tale told by Maud Lindesay. + +"I will speak with William," she answered, with a certain hopelessness +in her voice, "but I know well he will go his own gait for aught that +his mother can say. He is his father's son, and the men of the house +of Douglas, they come and they go, recking no will but their own. And +even so will my son William." + +"But he is taking David with him also!" cried Margaret. "I met him +even now on the stair, wild in haste to put on his shirt of mail and +the sword with the golden hilt which the ambassador of France gave +him." + +A quick flush coloured the pale countenance of the Lady Countess. + +"Nay, but one is surely enough to meet the Chancellor. David shall not +go. He is but a lad and knows nothing of these things." + +For this boy was ever his mother's favourite, far more than either her +elder son or her little daughter, whom indeed she left entirely to the +care and companionship of Maud Lindesay. + +My Lady of Douglas went slowly downstairs. The Earl, with Sholto by +his side, was ordering the accoutrement of the mounted men-at-arms in +the courtyard. + +"William," she called, in a soft voice which would not have reached +him, busied as he was with his work, but that little Margaret raised +her childish treble and called out: "William, our mother desires to +speak with you. Do you not hear her?" + +The Earl turned about, and, seeing his mother, came quickly to her and +stood bareheaded before her. + +"You are not going to run into danger, William?" she said, still +softly. + +"Nay, mother mine," he answered, smiling, "do not fear, I do but ride +to visit the Chancellor Crichton in his castle, and also to bid +farewell to the French ambassador, who abode here as our guest." + +A sudden light shone in upon the mind of Maud Lindesay. + +"'Tis all that French minx!" she whispered in Sholto's ear, "she hath +bewitched him. No one need try to stop him now." + +His mother went on, with an added anxiety in her voice. + +"But you will not take my little David with you? You will leave me one +son here to comfort me in my loneliness and old age?" + +The Earl seemed about to yield, being, indeed, careless whether David +went with him or no. + +"Mother," cried David, coming running forth from the castle, "you must +not persuade William to make me stay at home. I shall never be a man +if I am kept among women. There is Sholto MacKim, he is little older +than I, and already he hath won the archery prize and the sword-play, +and hath fought in a tourney and been knighted--while I have done +nothing except pull gowans with Maud Lindesay and play chuckie stones +with Margaret there." + +And at that moment Sholto wished that this fate had been his, and the +honours David's. He told himself that he would willingly have given up +his very knighthood that he might abide near that dainty form and +witching face. He tortured himself with the thought that Maud would +listen to others as she had listened to him; that she would practise +on others that heart-breaking slow droop and quick uplift of the +eyelashes which he knew so well. Who might not be at hand to aid her +to blow out her lamp when the guards were set of new in the corridors +of Thrieve? + +"Mother," the Earl answered, "David speaks good sense. He will never +make a man or a Douglas if he is to bide here within this warded isle. +He must venture forth into the world of men and women, and taste a +man's pleasures and chance a man's dangers like the rest." + +"But are you certain that you will bring him safe back again to me?" +said his mother, wistfully. "Remember, he is so young and eke so +reckless." + +"Nay," cried David, eagerly, "I am no younger than my cousin James was +when he fought the strongest man in Scotland, and I warrant I could +ride a course as well as Hughie Douglas of Avondale, though William +chose him for the tourney and left me to bite my thumbs at home." + +The lady sighed and looked at her sons, one of them but a youth and +the other no more than a boy. + +"Was there ever a Douglas yet who would take any advice but from his +own desire?" she said, looking down at them like a douce barn-door fowl +who by chance has reared a pair of eaglets. "Lads, ye are over strong +for your mother. But I will not sleep nor eat aright till I have my +David back again, and can see him riding his horse homeward through +the ford." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ON THE CASTLE ROOF + + +Maud Lindesay parted from Sholto upon the roof of the keep. She had +gone up thither to watch the cavalcade ride off where none could spy +upon her, and Sholto, noting the flutter of white by the battlements, +ran up thither also, pretending that he had forgotten something, +though he was indeed fully armed and ready to mount and ride. + +Maud Lindesay was leaning over the battlements of the castle, and, +hearing a step behind her, she looked about with a start of apparent +surprise. + +The after dew of recent tears still glorified her eyes. + +"Oh, Sholto," she cried, "I thought you were gone; I was watching for +you to ride away. I thought--" + +But Sholto, seeing her disorder, and having little time to waste, came +quickly forward and took her in his arms without apology or prelude, +as is (they say) wisest in such cases. + +"Maud," he said, his utterance quick and hoarse, "we go into the house +of our enemies. Thirty knights and no more accompany my lord, who +might have ridden out with three thousand in his train." + +"'Tis all that witch woman," cried the girl; "can you not advise him?" + +"The Earl of Douglas did not ask my advice," said Sholto, a little +dryly, being eager to turn the conversation upon his own matters and +to his own advantage. "And, moreover, if he rides into danger for the +sake of love--why, I for one think the more of him for it." + +"But for such a creature," objected Maud Lindesay. "For any true maid +it were most right and proper! Where is there a noble lady in Scotland +who would not have been proud to listen to him? But he must needs run +after this mongrel French woman!" + +"Even Mistress Maud Lindesay would accept him, would she?" said +Sholto, somewhat bitterly, releasing her a little. + +"Maud Lindesay is no great lady, only the daughter of a poor baron of +the North, and much bound to my Lord Douglas by gratitude for that +which he hath done for her family. As you right well know, Maud +Lindesay is little better than a tiremaiden in the house of my lord." + +"Nay," said Sholto, "I crave your pardon. I meant it not. I am hasty +of words, and the time is short. Will you pardon me and bid me +farewell, for the horses are being led from stall, and I cannot keep +my lord waiting?" + +"You are glad to go," she said reproachfully; "you will forget us whom +you leave behind you here. Indeed, you care not even now, so that you +are free to wander over the world and taste new pleasures. That is to +be a man, indeed. Would that I had been born one!" + +"Nay, Maud," said Sholto, trying to draw the girl again near him, +because she kept him at arm's length by the unyielding strength of her +wrist, "none shall ever come near my heart save Maud Lindesay alone! I +would that I could ride away as sure of you as you are of Sholto +MacKim!" + +"Indeed," cried the girl, with some show of returning spirit, "to that +you have no claim. Never have I said that I loved you, nor indeed that +I thought about you at all." + +"It is true," answered Sholto, "and yet--I think you will remember me +when the lamps are blown out. God speed, belovedst, I hear the trumpet +blow, and the horses trampling." + +For out on the green before the castle the Earl's guard was mustering, +and Fergus MacCulloch, the Earl's trumpeter, blew an impatient blast. +It seemed to speak to this effect: + + _"Hasten ye, hasten ye, come to the riding, + Hasten ye, hasten ye, lads of the Dee-- + Douglasdale come, come Galloway, Annandale, + Galloway blades are the best of the three!"_ + +Sholto held out his arms at the first burst of the stirring sound, and +the girl, all her wayward pride falling from her in a moment, came +straight into them. + +"Good-by, my sweetheart," he said, stooping to kiss the lips that now +said him not nay, but which quivered pitifully as he touched them, +"God knows whether these eyes shall rest again on the desire of my +heart." + +Maud looked into his face steadily and searchingly. + +"You are sure you will not forget me, Sholto?" she said; "you will +love me as much to-morrow when you are far away, and think me as fair +as you do when you hold me thus in your arms upon the battlements of +Thrieve?" + +Before Sholto had time to answer, the trumpet rang out again, with a +call more instant and imperious than before. + +[Illustration: "BUT THERE COMETH A NIGHT WHEN EVERY ONE OF US WATCHES +THE GREY SHALLOWS TO THE EAST FOR THOSE THAT SHALL RETURN NO MORE!"] + +Sholto clasped her close to him as the second summons shrilled up into +the air. + +"God keep my little lass!" he said; "fear not, Maud, I have never +loved any but you!" + +He was gone. And through her tears Maud Lindesay watched him from the +top of the great square keep, as he rode off gallantly behind the Earl +and his brother. + +"In time past I have dreamed," she thought to herself, "that I loved +this one and that; but it was not at all like this. I cannot put him +out of my mind for a moment, even when I would!" + +As the brothers William and David Douglas crossed the rough bridge of +pine thrown over the narrows of the Dee, they looked back +simultaneously. Their mother stood on the green moat platform of +Thrieve, with their little sister Margaret holding up her train with a +pretty modesty. She waved not a hand, fluttered no kerchief of +farewell, only stood sadly watching the sons with whom she had +travailed, like one who watches the dear dead borne to their last +resting-place. + +"So," she communed, "even thus do the women of the Douglas House watch +their beloveds ride out of sight. And so for many times they return +through the ford at dawn or dusk. But there cometh a night when every +one of us watches the grey shallows to the east for those that shall +return no more!" + +"See, see!" cried the little Margaret, "look, dear mother, they have +taken off their caps, and even Sholto hath his steel bonnet in his +hand. They are bidding us farewell. I wish Maudie had been here to +see. I wonder where she has hidden herself. How surprised she will be +to find that they are gone!" + +It was a true word that the little Maid of Galloway spoke, for, +according to the pretty custom of the young Earl, the cavalcade had +halted ere they plunged into the woods of Kelton. The Douglas lads +took their bonnets in their hands. Their dark hair was stirred by the +breeze. Sholto also bared his head and looked towards the speck of +white which he could just discern on the summit of the frowning keep. + +"Shall ever her eyelashes rise and fall again for me, and shall I see +the smile waver alternately petulant and tender upon her lips?" + +This was his meditation. For, being a young man in love, these things +were more to him than matins and evensong, king or chancellor, heaven +or hell--as indeed it was right and wholesome that they should be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +CASTLE CRICHTON + + +Crichton Castle was much more a defenced chateau and less a feudal +stronghold than Thrieve. It stood on a rising ground above the little +Water of Tyne, which flowed clear and swift beneath from the blind +"hopes" and bare valleys of the Moorfoot Hills. But the site was well +chosen both for pleasure and defence. The ground fell away on three +sides. Birch, alder, ash, girt it round and made pleasant summer +bowers everywhere. + +The fox-faced Chancellor had spent much money on beautifying it, and +the kitchens and larders were reported to be the best equipped in +Scotland. On the green braes of Crichton, therefore, in due time the +young Douglases arrived with their sparse train of thirty riders. Sir +William Crichton had ridden out to meet them across the innumerable +little valleys which lie around Temple and Borthwick to the brow of +that great heathy tableland which runs back from the Moorfoots clear +to the Solway. + +With him were only the Marshal de Retz and his niece, the Lady +Sybilla. + +Not a single squire or man-at-arms accompanied these three, for, as +the Chancellor well judged, there was no way more likely effectually +to lull the suspicions of a gallant man like the Douglas than to +forestall him in generous confidence. + +The three sat their horses and looked to the south for their guests at +that delightsome hour of the summer gloaming when the last bees are +reluctantly disengaging themselves from the dewy heather bells and the +circling beetles begin their booming curfew. + +"There they come!" cried de Retz, suddenly, pointing to a few specks +of light which danced and dimpled between them and the low horizon of +the south, against which, like a spacious armada, leaned a drift of +primrose sunset clouds. + +"There they come--I see them also!" said the Lady Sybilla, and +suddenly sighed heavily and without cause. + +"Where, and how many?" cried the Chancellor, in a shrill pipe usually +associated with the physically deformed, but which from him meant no +more than anxious discomposure. + +The marshal pointed with the steady hand of the practised commander to +the spot at which his keen eye had detected the cavalcade. + +"Yonder," he said, "where the pine tree stands up against the sky." + +"And how many? I cannot see them, my eyesight fails. I bid you tell me +how many," gasped the Chancellor. + +The ambassador looked long. + +"There are, as I think, no more than twenty or thirty riders." + +Instantly the Chancellor turned and held out his hand. + +"We have him," he muttered, withdrawing it again as soon as he saw +that the ambassador did not take it, being occupied gazing under his +palm at the approaching train of riders. + +The Lady Sybilla sat silent and watched the company which rode towards +them--with what thoughts in her heart, who shall venture to guess? She +kept her head studiously averted from the Marshal de Retz, and once +when he touched her arm to call attention to something, she shuddered +and moved a little nearer to the Chancellor. Nevertheless, she obeyed +her companion implicitly and without question when he bade her ride +forward with them to receive the Chancellor's guests. + +Crichton took it on himself to rally the girl on her silence. + +"Of what may you be thinking so seriously?" he said. + +"Of thirty pieces of silver," she replied instantly. + +And at these words the marshal turned upon the girl a regard so black +and relentless that the Chancellor, happening to encounter it, shrank +back abashed, even as some devilkin caught in a fault might shrink +from the angry eyes of the Master of Evil. + +But the Lady Sybilla looked calmly at her kinsman. + +"Of what do you complain?" he asked her. + +"I complain of nothing," she made him answer. "I am that which I am, +and I am that which you have made me, my Lord of Retz. Fear not, I +will do my part." + +Right handsome looked the young Earl of Douglas, as with a flush of +expectation and pleasure on his face he rode up to the party of three +who had come out to meet him. He made his obeisance to Sybilla first, +with a look of supremest happiness in his eyes which many women would +have given their all to see there. As he came close he leaped from his +horse, and advancing to his lady he bent and kissed her hand. + +"My Lady Sybilla," he said, "I am as ever your loyal servant." + +The Chancellor and the ambassador had both dismounted, not to be +outdone in courtesy, and one after the other they greeted him with +what cordiality they could muster. The narrow, thin-bearded face of +the Chancellor and the pallid death-mask of de Retz, out of which +glittered orbs like no eyes of human being, furnished a singular +contrast to the uncovered head, crisp black curls, slight moustache, +and fresh olive complexion of the young Earl of Douglas. + +And as often as he was not looking at her, the eyes of the Lady +Sybilla rested on Lord Douglas with a strange expression in their +deeps. The colour in her cheek came and went. The vermeil of her lip +flushed and paled alternate, from the pink of the wild rose-leaf to +the red of its autumnal berry. + +But presently, at a glance from her kinsman, Sybilla de Thouars seemed +to recall herself with difficulty from a land of dreams, and with an +obvious effort began to talk to William Douglas. + +"Whom have you brought to see me?" she said. + +"Only a few men-at-arms, besides Sholto my squire, and my brother +David," he made answer. "I did not wait for more. But let me bring the +lad to you. Sholto you did not like when he was a plain archer of the +guard, and I fear that he will not have risen in your grace since I +dubbed him knight." + +David Douglas willingly obeyed the summons of his brother, and came +forward to kiss the hand of the Lady Sybilla. + +"Here, Sholto," cried his lord, "come hither, man. It will do your +pride good to see a lady who avers that conceit hath eaten you up." + +Sholto came at the word and bowed before the French damosel as he was +commanded, meekly enough to all outward aspect. But in his heart he +was saying over and over to himself words that consoled him mightily: +"A murrain on her! The cozening madam, she will never be worth naming +on the same day as Maud Lindesay!" + +"Nay," cried the Lady Sybilla, laughing; "indeed, I said not that I +disliked this your squire. What woman thinks the worse of a lad of +mettle that he does not walk with his head between his feet. But 'tis +pity that there is no fair cruel maid to bind his heart in chains, and +make him fetch and carry to break his pride. He thinks overmuch of his +sword-play and arrow skill." + +"He must go to France for that humbling," said the Earl, gaily, "or +else mayhap some day a maid may come from France to break his heart +for him. The like hath been and may be again." + +"I would that I had known there were such gallant blades as you three, +my Lords of Douglas and their knight, sighing here in Scotland to have +your hearts broke for the good of your souls. I had then brought with +me a tierce of damsels fair as cruel, who had done it in the flashing +of a swallow's wing. But 'tis a contract too great for one poor maid." + +"Yet you yourself ventured all alone into this realm of forlorn and +desperate men," answered the Earl, scarcely recking what he said, nor +indeed caring so that her dark eyes should continue to rest on him +with the look he had seen in them at his first coming. + +"All alone--yes, much, much alone," she answered with a strange +glance about her. "My kinsman loves not womankind, and neither in his +castles nor yet in his company does he permit any of the sex long to +abide." + +The men now mounted again, and the three rode back in the midst of the +cavalcade of Douglas spears, the Chancellor talking as freely and +confidently to the Earl as if he had been his friend for years, while +the Earl of Douglas kept up the converse right willingly so long as, +looking past the Chancellor, his eyes could rest also upon the +delicately poised head and graceful form of the Lady Sybilla. + +And behind them a horse's length the Marshal de Retz rode, smiling in +the depths of his blue-black beard, and looking at them out of the +wicks of his triangular eyes. + +Presently the towers of the Castle of Crichton rose before them on its +green jutting spur. The Tyne Valley sank beneath into level meads and +rich pastures, while behind the Moorfoots spread brown and bare +without prominent peaks or distinguished glens, but nevertheless with +a certain large vagueness and solemnity peculiarly their own. + +The _fetes_ with which the Chancellor welcomed his guests were many +and splendid. But in one respect they differed from those which have +been described at Castle Thrieve. There was no military pomp of any +kind connected with them. The Chancellor studiously avoided all +pretence of any other distinction than that belonging to a plain man +whom circumstances have raised against his will to a position of +responsibility. + +The thirty spears of the Earl's guard, indeed, constituted the whole +military force within or about the Castle of Crichton. + +"I am a lawyer, my lord, a plain lawyer," he said; "all Scots lawyers +are plain. And I must ask you to garrison my bit peel-tower of +Crichton in a manner more befitting your own greatness, and the honour +due to the ambassador of France, than a humble knight is able to do." + +So Sholto was put into command of the court and battlements of the +castle, and posted and changed guard as though he had been at Thrieve, +while the Chancellor bustled about, affecting more the style of a rich +and comfortable burgess than that of a feudal baron. + +"'Tis a snug bit hoose," he would say, dropping into the countryside +speech; "there's nocht fine within it from cellar to roof tree, save +only the provend and the jolly Malmsey. And though I be but a poor +eater myself, I love that my betters, who do me the honour of +sojourning within my gates, should have the wherewithal to be merry." + +And it was even as he said, for the tables were weighted with +delicacies such as were never seen upon the boards of Thrieve or +Castle Douglas. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE BOWER BY YON BURNSIDE + + +And ever as he gazed at her the Earl of Douglas grew more and more in +love with the Lady Sybilla. There was no covert side through which a +burn plunged downward from the steep side of Moorfoot, but they +wandered it alone together. Early and late they might have been met, +he with his face turned upon her, and she looking straight forward +with the same inscrutable calm. And all who saw left them alone as +they took their way to gather flowers like children, or, as it might +be, stood still and silent like a pair of lovers under the evening +star. For in these summer days and nights bloomed untiringly the brief +passion-flower of William Douglas's life. + +Meanwhile Sholto gritted his teeth in impotent rage, but had nothing +to do save change guard and keep a wary eye upon the Chancellor, who +went about rubbing his hands and glancing sidelong as the copses +closed behind the Earl of Douglas and the Lady Sybilla. As for the +ambassador of France, he was, as was usual with him, much occupied in +his own chamber with his servants Poitou and Henriet, and save when +dinner was served in hall appeared little at the festivities. + +Sholto wished at times for the presence of his father; but at others, +when he saw William Douglas and Sybilla return with a light on their +faces, and their eyes large and vague, he bethought him of Maud +Lindesay, and was glad that, for a little at least, the sun of love +should shine upon his lord. + +It was in the gracious fulness of the early autumn, when the sheaves +were set up in many a park and little warded holt about the Moorfoot +braes, that William Douglas and Sybilla de Thouars stood together upon +a crest of hill, crowned with dwarf birch and thick foliaged alder--a +place in the retirement of whose sylvan bower they had already spent +many tranced hours. + +The Lady Sybilla sat down on a worn grey rock which thrust itself +through the green turf. William Douglas stood beside her pulling a +blade of bracken to pieces. The girl had been wearing a broad flat cap +of velvet, which in the coolness of the twilight she had removed and +now swung gently to and fro in her hand as she looked to the north, +where small as a toy and backed by the orange glow of sunset, the +Castle of Edinburgh could be seen black upon its wind-swept ridge. The +girl was speaking slowly and softly. + +"Nay, Earl Douglas," she said, "marriage must not be named to Sybilla +de Thouars, certainly never by an Earl of Douglas and Duke of +Touraine. He must wed for riches and fair provinces. His house is +regal already. He is better born than the King, more powerful also. +The daughter of a Breton squire, of a forlorn and deserted mother, the +kinswoman of Gilles de Retz of Machecoul and Champtoce, is not for +him." + +"A Douglas makes many sacrifices," said the young man with +earnestness; "but this is not demanded of him. Four generations of us +have wedded for power. It is surely time that one did so for love." + +The girl reached him her hand, saying softly: "Ah, William, would that +it had been so. Too late I begin to think on those things which might +have been, had Sybilla de Thouars been born under a more fortunate +star. As it is I can only go on--a terror to myself and a bane to +others." + +The young man, absorbed in his own thoughts, did not hear her words. + +"The world itself were little to give in order that in exchange I +might possess you," he answered. + +The girl laughed a strange laugh, and drew back her hand from his. + +"Possess me, well--but marry me--no. Honest men and honourable like +Earl Douglas do not wed with the niece of Gilles de Retz. I had +thought my heart within me to be as flint in the chalk, yet now I pray +you on my knees to leave me. Take your thirty lances and your young +brother and ride home. Then, safe in your island fortress of Thrieve, +blot out of your heart all memory that ever you found pleasure in a +creature so miserable as Sybilla de Thouars." + +"But," said the young Earl, passionately, "tell me why so, my lady. I +do not understand. What obstacle can there be? You tell me that you +love me, that you are not betrothed. Your kinsman is an honourable +man, a marshal and an ambassador of France, a cousin of the Duke of +Brittany, a reigning sovereign. Moreover, am not I the Douglas? I am +responsible to no man. William Douglas may wed whom he will--king's +daughter or beggar wench. Why should he not join with the honourable +daughter of an honourable house, and the one woman he has ever loved?" + +The girl let her velvet cap fall on the ground, and sank her face +between her hands. Her whole body was shaken with emotion. + +"Go--go," she cried, starting to her feet and standing before him, +"call out your lances and ride home this night. Never look more upon +the face of such a thing as Sybilla de Thouars. I bid you! I warn you! +I command you! I thought I had been of stone, but now when I see you, +and hear your words, I cannot do that which is laid upon me to do." + +William of Douglas smiled. + +"I cannot go," he said simply, "I love you. Moreover, I will not go--I +am Earl of Douglas." + +The girl clasped her hands helplessly. + +"Not if I tell you that I have deceived you, led you on?" she said. +"Not if I swear that I am the slave of a power so terrible that there +are no words in any language to tell the least of the things I have +suffered?" + +The Earl shook his head. The girl suddenly stamped her foot in anger. +"Go--go, I tell you," she cried; "stay not a day in this accursed +place, wherein no true word is spoken and no loyal deed done, save +those which come forth from your own true heart." + +"Nay," said William Douglas, with his eyes on hers, "it is too late, +Sybil. I have kissed the red of your lips. Your head hath lain on my +breast. My whole soul is yours. I cannot now go back, even if I would. +The boy I have been, I can be no more for ever." + +The girl rose from the stone on which she had been sitting. There was +a new smile in her eyes. She held out her hands to the youth who +stood so erect and proud before her. "Well, at the worst, William +Douglas," she said, "you may never live to wear a white head, but at +least you shall touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, +taste the fruitage and smell the blossoms thereof more than a hundred +greybeards. I had not thought that earth held anywhere such a man, or +that aught but blackness and darkness remained this side of hell for +one so desolate as I. I have bid you leave me. I have told you that +which, were it known, would cost me my life. But since you will not +go,--since you are strong enough to stand unblenching in the face of +doom,--you shall not lose all without a price." + +She opened her arms wide, and her eyes were glorious. + +"I love you," she said, her lips thrilling towards him, "I love you, +love you, as I never thought to love any man upon this earth." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE GABERLUNZIE MAN + + +The next morning the Chancellor came down early from his chamber, and +finding Earl Douglas already waiting in the courtyard, he rubbed his +hands and called out cheerfully: "We shall be more lonely to-day, but +perhaps even more gay. For there are many things men delight in which +even the fairest ladies care not for, fearing mayhap some invasion of +their dominions." + +"What mean you, my Lord Chancellor?" said the Douglas to his host, +eagerly scanning the upper windows meanwhile. + +"I mean," said the Chancellor, fawningly, "that his Excellency, the +ambassador of France, hath ridden away under cloud of night, and hath +taken his fair ward with him." + +The Earl turned pale and stood glowering at the obsequious Chancellor +as if unable to comprehend the purport of his words. At last he +commanded himself sufficiently to speak. + +"Was this resolution sudden, or did the Lady Sybilla know of it +yesternight?" + +"Nay, of a surety it was quite sudden," replied the Chancellor. "A +message arrived from the Queen Mother to the Marshal de Retz +requesting an immediate meeting on business of state, whereupon I +offered my Castle of Edinburgh for the purpose as being more +convenient than Stirling. So I doubt not that they are all met there, +the young King being of the party. It is, indeed, a quaint falling +out, for of late, as you may have heard, the Tutor and the Queen have +scarce been of the number of my intimates." + +The Earl of Douglas appeared strangely disturbed. He paid no further +attention to his host, but strode to and fro in the courtyard with his +thumbs in his belt, in an attitude of the deepest meditation. + +The Chancellor watched him from under his eyebrows with alternate +apprehension and satisfaction, like a timid hunter who sees the lion +half in and half out of the snare. + +"I have a letter for you, my Lord Douglas," he said, after a long +pause. + +"Ah," cried Douglas, with obvious relief, "why did you not tell me so +at first. Pray give it me." + +"I knew not whether it might afford you pleasure or no," answered the +Chancellor. + +"Give it me!" cried Douglas, imperiously, as though he spoke to an +underling. + +Sir William Crichton drew a square parcel from beneath his long-furred +gown, and handed it to William Douglas, who, without stepping back, +instantly broke the seal. + +"Pshaw," cried he, contemptuously, "it is from the Queen Mother and +Alexander Livingston!" + +He thought it had been from another, and his disappointment was +written clear upon his face. + +"Even so," said the Chancellor, suavely; "it was delivered by the same +servant who brought the message which called away the ambassador and +his companion." + +The Earl read it from beginning to end. After the customary greetings +and good wishes the letter ran as follows: + + "The King greatly desires to see his noble cousin of Douglas + at the castle of Edinburgh, presently put at his Majesty's + disposal by the High Chancellor of Scotland. Here in this + place are now assembled all the men who desire the peace and + assured prosperity of the realm, saving the greatest of all, + my Lord and kinsman of Douglas. The King sends affectionate + greeting to his cousin, and desires that he also may come + thither, that the ambassador of France may carry back to his + master a favourable report of the unity and kindly + governance of the kingdom during his minority." + +The Chancellor watched the Earl as he read this letter. To one more +suspicious than William Douglas it would have been clear that he was +himself perfectly acquainted with the contents. + +"I am bidden meet the King at the Castle of Edinburgh," said Douglas; +"I will set out at once." + +"Nay, my lord," said Crichton, "not this day, at least. Stay and hunt +the stag on the braes of Borthwick. My huntsmen have marked down a +swift and noble buck. To-morrow to Edinburgh an you will!" + +"I thank you, Sir William," the Douglas answered, curtly enough; "but +the command is peremptory. I must ride to Edinburgh this very day." + +"I pray you remember that Edinburgh is a turbulent city and little +inclined to love your great house. Is it, think you, wise to go +thither with so small a retinue?" + +The Earl waved his hand carelessly. + +"I am not afraid," he said; "besides, what harm can befall when I +lodge in the castle of the Lord Chancellor of Scotland?" + +Crichton bowed very low. + +"What harm, indeed?" he said; "I did but advise your lordship to +bethink himself. I am an old man, pray remember--fast growing feeble +and naturally inclined to overmuch caution. But the blood flows hot +through the veins of eighteen." + +Sholto, who knew nothing of these happenings, had just finished +exercising his men on the smooth green in front of the Castle of +Crichton, and had dismissed them, when a gaberlunzie or privileged +beggar, a long lank rascal with a mat of tangled hair, and clad in a +cast-off leathern suit which erstwhile some knight had worn under his +mail, leaped suddenly from the shelter of a hedge. Instinctively +Sholto laid his hand on his dagger. + +"Nay," snuffled the fellow, "I come peaceably. As you love your lord +hasten to give him this letter. And, above all, let not the Crichton +see you." + +He placed a small square scrap of parchment in Sholto's hand. It was +sealed in black wax with a serpent's head, and from the condition of +the outside had evidently been in places both greasy and grimy. Sholto +put it in his leathern pouch wherein he was used to keep the hone for +sharpening his arrows, and bestowed a silver groat upon the beggar. + +"Thy master's life is surely worth more than a groat," said the man. + +"I warrant you have been well enough paid already," said Sholto, "that +is, if this be not a deceit. But here is a shilling. On your head be +it, if you are playing with Sholto MacKim!" + +So saying the captain of the guard strode within. He had already +acquired the carriage and consequence of a veteran old in the wars. + +His master was still pacing up and down the courtyard, deep in +meditation. Sholto saluted the young Earl and asked permission to +speak a word with him. + +"Speak on, Sholto--well do you know that at all times you may say what +you will to me." + +"But this I desire to keep from prying eyes. My lord, there is a +letter in my wallet which was given me even now by a gaberlunzie man. +He declares that it concerns your life. I pray you take out my hone +stone as if to look at it, and with it the letter." + +The Earl nodded, as if Sholto had been making a report to him. Then he +went nearer and began to finger his squire's accoutrements, finally +opening his belt pouch and taking out the stone that was therein. + +"Where gat you this hone!" he said, holding it to the light; "it looks +not the right blue for a Water-of-Ayr stone." + +Sholto answered that it came from the Parton Hills, and, as the Earl +replaced it, he possessed himself of the square letter and thrust it +into the bosom of his doublet. + +As soon as William Douglas was alone, he broke the seal and tore open +the parchment. It was written in a delicate foreign script, the +characters fine and small: + + "My lord, do not, I beseech you, come to Edinburgh or think + of me more. Last night my Lord of Retz spied upon us and + this morning he hath carried me off. Wherever you are when + you receive this, turn instantly and ride with all speed to + one of your strong castles. As you love me, go! We can never + hope to see one another again. Forget an unfortunate girl + who can never forget you." + +There was no signature saving the impression of the joined serpents' +heads, which he remembered as the signet of the ring he had found and +given back to her on the day of the tournament. + +"I will never give her up. I must see her," cried the Earl of Douglas, +"and this very day. Aye, and though I were to die for it on the +morrow, see her I will!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +"EDINBURGH CASTLE, TOWER, AND TOWN" + + +It was with an anxious heart that Sholto rode out behind his master +over the bald northerly slopes of the Moorfoots. For a long time David +Douglas kept close to his brother, so that the captain of the guard +could speak no private word. For, though he knew that nothing was to +be gained by remonstrance, Sholto was resolved that he would not let +his reckless master run unwarned into danger so deadly and certain. + +He rode up, therefore, and craved permission to speak to the Earl, +seizing an occasion when David had fallen a little behind. + +"Thou art a true son of Malise MacKim, whatever thy mother may aver," +cried the Earl. "I'll wager a gold angel thou art going to say +something shrewdly unpleasant. That great lurdain, thy father, never +asks permission to speak save when he has stilettos rankling where his +honest tongue should be." + +"My lord," said Sholto, "bear a word from one who loves you. Go not +into this town of Edinburgh. Or at least wait till you can ride +thither with three thousand lances as did your father, and his father +before him." + +The Earl laughed merrily and clapped his young knight on the +shoulder. + +"Did you not tell me the same ere we came to the Castle of Crichton, +and lo! there we were ten days in the place and not a man-at-arms +within miles except your own Galloway varlets! Sholto, my lad, we +might have sacked the castle, rolled all the platters down the slopes +into the Tyne, and sent the cooks trundling after them, for all that +any one could have done to stop us. Yet here are we riding forth, +feathers in our bonnets, swords by our sides, panged full of the +Chancellor's good meat and drink, and at once, as soon as we are gone, +Sholto MacKim begins the same old discontented corbie's croak!" + +"But, my lord, 'tis a different matter yonder. The Castle of Edinburgh +is a strong place with many courts and doors--a hostile city round +about, not a solitary castle like Crichton. They may separate you from +us, and we may be able neither to save you nor yet to die with you, if +the worst comes to the worst." + +"I may inform you as well soon as syne, you waste your breath, +Sholto," said Earl Douglas, "and it ill becomes a young knight, let me +tell you, to be so chicken-hearted. The next time I will leave you at +home to hem linen for the bed-sheets. Malise is a licensed croaker, +but I thought better of you, Master Sholto MacKim!" + +The captain of the Earl's guard looked on the ground and his heart was +distressed within him. Yet, in spite of the raillery of the Douglas, +he resolved to make one more effort. + +"My lord," he said, "you know not the full hatred of these men against +your house. What other object save the destruction of the Douglas can +have drawn together foes so deadly as Crichton and Livingston? At +least, my lord, if you are set on risking your own life, send back one +of us with your brother David!" + +Then cried out David Douglas, who had joined them during the converse, +against so monstrous a proposal. + +"I will not go back in any case," said the lad; "William has the +earldom and the titles. I may at least be allowed part of the fun. +Sholto, if William dies without heirs and I become Earl, my first act +will be to hang you on the dule tree with a raven on either side, for +a slow-bellied knave and prophet of evil!" + +The Earl looked at his brother and seemed to hesitate. + +"There is something in what you say, Sholto." + +"My lord, if the blow fall, let not your line be wholly cut off. I +pray you let five good lads ride straight for Douglasdale with David +in the midst--" + +"Sholto," cried the boy, "I will not go back, nor be a palterer, all +because you are afraid for your own skin!" + +"My place is with my master," said Sholto, curtly, and the boy looked +ashamed for a moment; but he soon recovered himself and returned to +the charge. + +"Well, then, 'tis because you want to see Maud Lindesay that you are +so set on returning. I saw you kiss Maud's hand in the dark of the +stairs. Aha! Master Sholto, what say you now?" + +"Hold your tongue, David," cried his brother; "you might have seen him +kiss yet more pleasantly, and yet do no harm. But, after all, you and +I are Douglases and our star is in the zenith. We will fall together, +if fall we must. Not a word more about it. David, I will race you to +yonder dovecot for a golden lion." + +"Done with you!" cried his brother, joyously, and in an instant spurs +were into the flanks of their horses, and the young men flew +thundering over the green turf, riding swiftly into the golden haze +from which rose ever higher and higher the dark towers of the Castle +of Edinburgh. + +Past grey peel and wind-swept fortalice the young Lords of Douglas rode +that autumn day, gaily as to a wedding, on their way to place +themselves in the power of their house's enemies. The sea plain +pursued them, flecked green and purple on their right hand. Little +ships floated on the smooth surface of the firth, hardly larger in +size than the boats of fisher folk, yet ships withal which had +adventured into far seas and brought back rich produce into the barren +lands of the Scots. + +At last they entered the demesne of Holyrood, and saw the deer +crouching and basking about the copses or scampering over the broomy +knowes of the Nether Hill. As they came near to the Canongate Port, +they saw a gallant band gaily dressed coming forth to meet them, and +the Earl's eye brightened as it caught in the midst the glint of +ladies' attiring. + +"See, Sholto," he cried, "and repent! Yonder is not a single lance +shining, and you cannot turn your grumbling head but you will see nigh +two score, with a stout Douglas heart bumping under each." + +"Ah," said Sholto, without joy or conviction, "but we are neither in +nor yet out of this weary town of Edinburgh!" + +As the cavalcade approached, there came a boy on a pony at speed +towards them. He carried a switch in his hand, and with it he urged +his little beast to still greater endeavours. + +"The King!" cried David, cheerfully. "I heard he was a sturdy brat +enough!" + +And in another moment the two young men of the dominant house were +taking off their bonnets to the boy who, in name at least, was their +sovereign and overlord. + +"Hurrah!" cried the lad, as he circled about them, reckless and +irresponsible as a sea-gull, "I am so glad, so very glad you have +come. I like you because you are so bold and young. I have none about +me like you. You will teach me to ride a tourney. I have been hearing +all about yours at Thrieve from the Lady Sybilla. I wish you had asked +me. But now we shall be friends, and I will come and stay long months +with you all together--that is, if my mother will let me." + +All this the young King shouted as he ranged alongside of the two +brothers, and rode with them towards the city. + +King James II. of Scotland was at this time an open-hearted boy, with +no evident mark of the treachery and jealous fury which afterwards +distinguished him as a man. The schooling of Livingston, his tutor, +had not yet perverted his mind (as it did too soon afterwards), and he +welcomed the young Douglases as the embodiment of all that was great +and knightly, noble and gallant, in his kingdom. + +"Yesterday," he began, as soon as he had subdued the ardour of his +frolicsome little steed to a steadier gait, varied only by an +occasional curvet, "yesterday I was made to read in the Chronicles of +the Kings of Scotland, and lo, it was the Douglas did this and the +Douglas said that, till I cried out upon Master Kennedy, 'Enough of +Douglases--I am a Stewart. Read me of the Stewarts.' Then gave Master +Kennedy a look as when he laughs in his sleeve, and shook his head. +'This book concerneth battles,' said he, 'and not gear, plenishing, +and tocher. The Douglas won for King Robert his crown, the Stewart +only married his daughter--though that, if all tales be true, was the +braver deed!' Now that was no reverent speech to me that am a Stewart, +nor yet very gallant to my great-grandmother, was it, Earl Douglas?" + +"It was no fine courtier's flattery, at any rate," said the Douglas, +his eyes wandering hither and thither across the cavalcade which they +were now meeting, in search of the graceful figure and darkly splendid +head of the girl he loved. + +The Lady Sybilla was not there. + +"They have secluded her," he muttered, in sharp jealous anger; "'tis +all her kinsman's fault. He hath the marks of a traitor and worse. But +they shall not spite nor flout the Douglas." + +So with a countenance grave and unresponsive he saluted Livingston the +tutor, who came forth to meet him. The Chancellor was expected +immediately, for he had ridden in more rapidly by the hill way in +order that he might welcome his notable guests to the metropolitan +residence of the Kings of Scotland. + +The Castle of Edinburgh was at that time in the fulness of its +strength and power. The first James had greatly enlarged and +strengthened its works defensive. He had added thirty feet to the +height of David's Tower, which now served as a watch-station over all +the rock, and in his last days he had begun to build the great hall +which the Chancellor had but recently finished. + +It was here that presently the feast was set. The banquet-hall ran the +width of the keep, and the raised dais in the centre was large enough +to seat the whole higher baronage of Scotland, among whom (as the Earl +of Douglas thought with some scorn) neither of his entertainers, +Crichton and Livingston, had any right to place themselves. + +But the question where the Lady Sybilla was bestowed soon occupied the +Douglas more than any thought of his own safety or of the loyalty of +his entertainers. Sybilla, however, was neither in the courtly +cavalcade which met them at the entrance of the park, nor yet among +the more numerous ladies who stood at the castle yett to welcome to +Edinburgh the noble and handsome young lords of the South. + +Douglas therefore concluded that de Retz, discovering some part of the +love that was between them, or mayhap hearing of it from some spy or +other at Crichton Castle, had secluded his sweetheart. He loosened his +hand on the rein to lay it on the sword-hilt, as he thought of this +cruelty to a maid so pure and fair. + +Sholto kept his company very close behind him as they rode up the +High-street, a gloomy defile of tall houses dotted from topmost window +to pavement with the heads of chattering goodwives, and the flutter of +household clothing hung out to dry. + +At the first defences of the castle Douglas called Sholto and said: +"Your fellows are to be lodged here on the Castle Hill. The Chancellor +hath sent word that there is no room in the castle itself. For the +tutor's men and King's men have already filled it to the brim." + +These tidings agonised Sholto more than ever. + +"My lord," he said, in a tortured whisper, "turn about your rein and +we will cut our way out even yet. Do you not see that the devils would +separate you from all who love you? And I shall be blamed for this in +Galloway. At least, let me accompany you with half a dozen men." + +"Nay," said the Earl, "such suspicion were a poor return for the +Chancellor's putting himself in our hands all the days we spent with +him at his Castle of Crichton. To your lodgings, Sholto, and give God +thanks if there be therein a pretty maid or a dame complaisant, +according to the wont of young squires and men-at-arms." + +In this fashion rode the Earl of Douglas to take his first dinner in +the Castle of Edinburgh. And Sholto MacKim went behind him, no man +saying him nay. For his master had eyes only for one face, and that he +could not see. + +"But I shall find her yet," he said over and over in his heart. It was +but a boyish heart, and simple, too; but all so brave and high that +the gallantest and greatest gentleman in the world had not one like to +it for loyalty and courage. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE BLACK BULL'S HEAD + + +The banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle, but lately out of artificers' +hands, was a noble oblong chamber reaching from side to side of the +south-looking keep, begun by James I. It was decorated in the French +manner with oak ceilings and panellings, all bossed and cornered with +massive silver-gilt mouldings. + +Save in the ordering of the repast itself there was a marked absence +of ostentation. Only a soldier or two could be seen, mostly on guard +at the outer gates, and Sholto, who till now had been uneasy and +fearful for his master, became gradually more reassured when he saw +with what care every want of the Earl and his brother was attended to, +and if possible even forestalled. + +The young King was in jubilant spirits, and could scarcely be +persuaded to let the brothers Douglas remain a moment alone. He was +resolved, he said, to have his bed brought into their chamber that he +might talk to them all night of tourneys and noble deeds of arms. +Never had he met with any whom he loved so much, and on their part the +young Lords of Douglas became boys again, in this atmosphere of frank +and boyish admiration. + +It was a state banquet to which they sat down. That is, there was no +hungry crowd of hangers-on clustered below the salt. To each +gentleman was allotted a silver trenchard for his own use, instead of +one betwixt two as was the custom. The service was ordered in the +French manner, and there was manifest through all a quiet observance +and good taste which won upon the Earl of Douglas. Nevertheless, his +eyes still continued to range this way and that through the castle, +scanning each tower, glancing up at every balcony and archway, in +search of the Lady Sybilla. + +In the banquet-hall the little King sat on his high chair in the +midst, with the brothers of Douglas one on either side of him. He +spoke loudly and confidently after the manner of a pampered boy of +high spirits. + +"I will soon come and visit you in return at the Castle of Thrieve. +The Lady Sybilla hath told me how strong it is and how splendid are +the tourneys there, as grand, she swears, as those of France." + +"The Lady Sybilla is peradventure gone to her own land?" ventured +Douglas, not wishing to ask a more direct question. He spoke freely, +however, on all other subjects with the King, laughing and talking +mostly with him, and finding little to say to the tutor Livingston or +the Chancellor, who, either from humility or from fear, had taken care +to interpose half a dozen knights between himself and his late guests. + +"Nay," cried the young King, looking querulously at his tutor, "but, +indeed, I wot not what they have done with my pretty gossip, Sybilla; +I have not seen her for three weeks, save for a moment this morning. +And before she went away she promised to teach me to dance a coranto +in the French manner, and the trick of the handkerchief to hide a +dagger in the hand." + +As the Earl listened to the boy's prattle, he became more and more +convinced that the Marshal de Retz, having in some way discovered +their affection for each other, had removed Sybilla out of his reach. +Her letter, indeed, showed clearly that she was in fear of +ill-treatment both for himself and for her. + +The banquet passed with courtesies much more elaborate than was usual +in Scotland, but which indicated the great respect in which the +Douglases were held. Between each course a servant clad in the royal +colours presented a golden salver filled with clear water for the +guests to wash their hands. Through the interstices of the ceiling +strains of music filtered down from musicians hidden somewhere above, +which sounded curiously soothing and far away. + +The Chancellor bowed and drank every few minutes to the health of the +Earl and his brother across the board, while the tutor sat smiling +upon all with the polish of a professional courtier. In his high seat +at the table end the little King chatted incessantly of the times when +he could do as he pleased, and when he and his cousin of Douglas would +ride together to battle and tourney, or feast together in hall. + +"Be sure, then, I will not keep all these grey-beard sorners about +me," he said, lowering his voice cautiously; "I will only have young +gallant men like you and David there. But what comes here?" + +There was a stir among the servitors at the upper end of the room. +Sholto, who stood behind his master's chair, heard the skirl of the +war-pipes approach nearer. It grew louder, more insistent, finally +almost oppressive. The doors at either end were filled with armed +men. They filed silently into the hall in dark armour, all carrying +shining Lochaber axes. + +Douglas leaned back in his chair, and looked nonchalantly on like a +spectator of a pageant. He continued to talk to the King easily and +calmly, as if he were in his own Castle of Thrieve. But Sholto saw the +white and ghastly look on the face of the Chancellor, and noted his +hands nervously grip the table. He observed him also lean across and +confer with Livingston, who nodded like one that agrees that the +moment of action has come. + +At the upper end of the hall were wide folding doors which till now +had been shut. These were opened swiftly, either half falling back to +the wall. And through the archway came two servitors in black habits, +carrying between them on a huge platter of silver a black bull's head, +ghastly and ominous even in death, with staring eyeballs and matted +frontlet of ensanguined hair. + +"Treachery!" instantly cried Sholto, and ere the men could approach he +had drawn his sword and stood ready to do battle for his lord. For +throughout all Scotland a bull's head served at table is the symbol of +death. + +The Earl did not move or speak. He watched the progress of the men in +black, who staggered under their heavy burden. David also had risen to +his feet with his hand on his sword, but William Douglas sat still. +Alarm, wonder, and anxiety chased each other across the face of the +young King. + +"What is this, Chancellor--why is the room filled with armed men?" he +cried. + +But Crichton had withdrawn himself behind the partisans of his +soldiers, and down the long table there was not a man but had risen +and bared his sword. Every eye was turned upon the young Earl. A score +of men-at-arms came forward to seize him. + +"Stand back on your lives!" cried Sholto, sweeping his blade about him +to keep a space clear about his youthful master. + +But still the Earl William sat calm and unmoved, though all others had +risen to their feet and held arms in their hands. + +"What means this mumming?" he said, high and clear. "If a mystery is +to be played, surely it were better to put it off till after dinner." + +Then through the open doorway came a voice piercing and reedy. + +"The play is played indeed, William of Douglas, and the lion is now +safe in the power of the dogs. How like you our kennel, most mighty +lion?" + +It was the voice of the Chancellor Crichton. + +The young King came running from his place and threw his arms about +the Earl's neck. + +"I am the King," he cried; "not one of you shall touch or hurt my +cousin Douglas!" + +"Stand back, James," said the tutor Livingston; "the Douglas is a +traitor, and you shall never reign while he rules. He and his brother +must be tried for treason. They have claimed the King's throne, and +usurped his authority." + +Sholto MacKim turned about. In all that threatening array of armed men +no friendly eye met his, and none of all he had trusted drew a blade +for the Douglas. Sholto stood calculating the chances. To die like a +man was easy, but how to die to some purpose seemed more difficult. +He saw the King with his arm about the neck of William Douglas, who +remained quietly in his place with a pale but assured countenance. + +It was Sholto's only chance. With his left hand he seized the young +King by the collar of his doublet, and set the point of his sword to +his back between the shoulder-blades. + +"Now," he cried, "let a man lay hand on my Lord Douglas and I will +slay the King!" + +At this there was great consternation, and but for fear of Sholto's +keeping his word half a score would have rushed forward to the +assistance of the boy. The scream of a woman from some concealed +portal showed that the Queen Mother was waiting to witness the +downfall of the mighty house which, as she had been taught, alone +threatened her boy's throne. + +Sholto's arm was already drawn back for the thrust, when the voice of +the Earl of Douglas was heard. He had risen to his feet, and now stood +easy and careless as ever, with his thumb in the blue silken sash +which girt his waist. + +"Sholto," he said calmly, "you forget your place. Let the King go +instantly, and ask his Majesty's pardon. Set your sword again in its +sheath. I am your lord. I dubbed you knight. Do as I command you." + +Most unwillingly Sholto did as he was bidden, and the King, instead of +withdrawing, placed himself still closer to William of Douglas. + +"And now," cried the Earl, facing the array of armed men who thronged +the banquet-hall, "what would ye with the Douglas? Do ye mean my +death, as by the Bull's Head here on the table ye would have me +believe?" + +"For black treason do we apprehend you, Earl of Douglas," creaked the +voice of the Chancellor, still speaking from behind his array of +men-at-arms, "and because you have set yourself above the King. But we +are no butchers, and trial shall ye have by your peers." + +"And who in this place are the peers of the Earl of Douglas?" said the +young man, haughtily. + +"I will not bandy words with you, my Lord Douglas. You are +overmastered. Yield yourself, therefore, as indeed you must without +remeed. Deliver your weapons and submit; 'tis our will." + +"My brave Chancellor," said the Earl William, still in a voice of +pleasant irony, "you have well chosen your time to shame yourself. We +are your invited guests, and the guests of the King of Scotland. We +are here unarmed, sitting at meat with you in your own house. We have +come hither unattended, trusting to the honour of these noble knights +and gentlemen. Therefore my brother and I have no swords to deliver. +But if, being honourable men, you stand, as is natural, upon a nice +punctilio, I can satisfy you." + +He turned again to Sholto MacKim. + +"Give me your sword," he said. "'Tis better I should render it than +you." + +With great unwillingness the captain of the guard of Thrieve did as he +was bidden. The Earl reversed it in his hand and held it by the point. + +"And now, my Lord Chancellor, I deliver you a Douglas sword, depending +upon the word of an honourable man and the invitation of the King of +Scotland." + +But even so the chancellor would not advance from behind the cover of +his soldiery, and the Earl looked around for some one to whom to +surrender. + +"Will you then appoint one of your knights to whom I may deliver this +weapon? Is there none who will dare to come near even the hilt of a +Douglas sword? Here then, Sholto, break it over your knee and cast it +upon the board as a witness against all treachery." + +Sholto did as he was told, breaking his sword and casting the pieces +upon the table in the place where the King of Scots had sat. + +"And now, my lords, I am ready," said the Earl, and his brother David +stood up beside him, looking as they faced the unbroken ring of their +foes the two noblest and gallantest youths in Scotland. + +At this the King caught Lord William by the hand, and, lifting up his +voice, wept aloud with the sudden breaking lamentation of a child. + +"My cousin, my dear cousin Douglas," he cried, "they shall not harm +you, I swear it on my faith as a King." + +At last an officer of the Chancellor's guard mustered courage to +approach the Earl of Douglas, and, saluting, he motioned him to +follow. This, with his head erect, and his usual easy grace, he did, +David walking abreast of him. And Sholto, with all his heart filled +with the deadly chill of hopelessness, followed them through the +sullen ranks of the traitors. + +And even as he went Earl Douglas looked about him every way that he +might see once more her for whose sake he had adventured within the +portals of death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +BETRAYED WITH A KISS + + +The earl and his brother were incarcerated in the lower chamber of the +High Keep called David's Tower, which rose next in order eastward from +the banqueting-hall, following the line of the battlements. + +Beneath, the rock on which the castle was built fell away towards the +Nor' Loch in a precipice so steep that no descent was to be thought +of--and this indeed was the chief defence of the prison, for the +window of the chamber was large and opened easily according to the +French fashion. + +"I pray that you permit my young knight, Sir Sholto MacKim, to +accompany me," said the Earl to the officer who conducted them to +their prison-house. + +"I have no orders concerning him," said the man, gruffly, but +nevertheless permitted Sholto to enter after the Earl and his brother. + +The chamber was bare save for a _prie-dieu_ in the angle of the wall, +at which the Douglas looked with a strange smile upon his face. + +"Right _a propos_," said he; "they have need of religion in this house +of traitors." + +David Douglas went to the window-seat of low stone, and bent his head +into his hands. He was but a boy and life was sweet to him, for he had +just begun to taste the apple and to dream of the forbidden fruit. He +held his head down and was silent a space. Then suddenly he sobbed +aloud with a quick, gasping noise, startling enough in that still +place. + +"For God's dear sake, David laddie," said his brother, going over to +him, placing his hand upon his shoulder, "be silent. They will think +that we are afraid." + +The boy stilled himself instantly at the word, and looked up at his +brother with a pale sort of smile. + +"No, William, I am not afraid, and if indeed we must die I will not +disgrace you. Be never feared of that. Yet I thought on our mother's +loneliness. She will miss me sore, for she fleeched and pled with me +not to come, yet I would not listen to her." + +Sholto stood by the door, erect as if on duty at Thrieve. + +"Come and sit with us," said the Earl William kindly to him, "we are +no more master and servant, earl and esquire. We are but three youths +that are to die together, and the axe's edge levels all. You, Sholto, +are in some good chance to live the longest of the three by some half +score of minutes. I am glad I made you a knight on the field of +honour, Sir Sholto, for then they cannot hang you to a bough, like a +varlet caught stealing the King's venison." + +Sholto slowly came over to the window-seat and stood there +respectfully as before, with his arms straight at his side, feeling +more than anything else the lack of his sword-hilt to set his right +hand upon. + +"Nay, but do as I bid you," said the Earl, looking up at him; "sit +down, Sholto." + +And Sholto sat on the window-seat and looked forth upon the lights +leaping out one after another down among the crowded gables of the +town as this and that burgher lit lamp or lantern at the nearing of +the hour of supper. + +Far away over the shore-lands the narrow strip of the Forth showed +amethystine and mysterious, and farther out still the coast of Fife +lay in a sort of opaline haze. + +"I wonder," said William Douglas, after a long pause, "what they have +done with our good lads. Had they been taken or perished we had surely +heard more noise, I warrant. Two score lads of Galloway would not give +up their arms without a tulzie for it." + +"They might induce them to leave them behind, when they went out to +take their pleasures among the maids of the Lawnmarket," said Sholto. + +"Not their swords," said the Earl, "it needed all your lord's commands +to make yours quit your side. I warrant these fellows will give an +excellent account of themselves." + +Presently the night fell darker, and a smurr of rain drifted over from +the edges of Pentland, mostly passing high above, but with lower +fringes that dragged, as it were, on the Castle Rock and the Hill of +Calton. + +The three young men were still silently looking out when suddenly from +the darkness underneath there came a low voice. + +"'Ware window!" it said, "stand back there above." + +To Sholto the words sounded curiously familiar, and almost without +thinking what he did, he seized the Earl and his brother and dragged +them away from the wide space of the lattice, which opened into the +summer's night. + +"'Ware window!" came again the cautious voice from far below. Sholto +heard the whistle and "spat" of an arrow against the wall without. It +must have fallen again, for the voice 'came a third time--"'Ware +window!" + +And on this occasion the archer was successful, guided doubtless by +the illumination of the lantern the guard had hung on a nail, and +whose flicker would outline the lattice faintly against the darkness +of the wall. + +An arrow entered with a soft hiss. It struck beyond them with a click, +and its iron point tinkled on the floor, the plaster of the opposite +wall not holding it. + +Sholto scrambled about the floor on hands and knees till he found it. +It was a common archer's arrow. A cord was fastened about it, and a +note stuck in the slit along with the feather. + +"It is my brother Laurence," whispered Sholto. "I warrant he is +beneath with a rope and a posse of stout fellows. We shall escape them +yet." + +But even as he raised the letter to read it by the faint blue flicker +of the lantern, there came a cry of pain from within the castle. It +was a woman's voice that cried, and at the sound of pleading speech in +some chamber above them, William Douglas started to his feet. + +The words were clear enough, but in a language not understood by +Sholto MacKim. They seemed intelligible enough, however, to the Earl. + +"I knew it," he cried; "the false hounds have imprisoned her also. It +is Sybilla's voice. God in heaven--they are torturing her!" + +He ran to the door and shook it vehemently. + +"Ho! Without there!" he cried imperiously, as if in his own Castle at +Thrieve. + +But no one paid any attention to his shouts, and presently the woman's +voice died down to a slow sobbing which was quite audible in the room +beneath, where the three young men listened. + +"What did she say?" asked David, presently, of his brother, who still +stood with his ear to the door. + +The Earl first made a gesture commanding silence, and then, hearing +nothing more, he came slowly over to the window. "It is the Lady +Sybilla," he said, in a voice which revealed his deep emotion. "She +said, in the French language, 'You shall not kill him. You shall not! +He trusted me and he shall not die.'" + +Meanwhile Sholto, knowing that there was no time to lose, had been +drawing in the cord, which presently thickened into a rope stout +enough to support the weight of a light and active youth such as any +of the three young men imprisoned in David's Tower. + +But the sound of the woman's tears had thrown the Earl into an +excitement so extreme that he hammered on the great bolt-studded door +with his bare clenched hands, and cried aloud to the Chancellor and +Livingston, commanding them to open to him. His first calmness seemed +completely broken up. + +Meanwhile Sholto, his whole soul bent on the cord which gave the +unseen Douglases a chance of saving the lives of their masters, had +drawn thirty yards of stout rope into the room. He fixed it by a +double knot, first to a ring which was let into the wall, and +afterwards to the massive handle of the door itself. + +"Now, my lord," he whispered, as he finished, "be pleased to go +first. Our lads are beneath, and in the shaking of a cow's tail we +shall be safe in the midst of them." + +The Earl held up his hand with the quick imperative motion he used to +command silence. The sound of the woman's voice came again from above, +now quick and high, like one who makes an agonised petition, and now +in tones lower that seemed broken with sobs and lamentations. + +At first William Douglas did not appear to comprehend the meaning of +Sholto's words, being so bent on his listening. But when the young +captain of the guard again reminded him that the time of their chances +for relief was quickly passing, and that the soldiers of the +Chancellor might come at any moment to lead them to their doom, the +Earl broke out upon him in sudden anger. + +"For what crawling thing do you take me, Sholto MacKim?" he cried; "I +will not leave this place till I know what they have done with her. +She trusted me, and shall I prove a recreant? I would have you know +that I am William, Earl of Douglas, and fear not the face of any +Crichton that ever breathed. Ho--there--without!" and again he shook +the door with ineffectual anger. + +His only answer was the sound of that beseeching woman's voice, and +the measured tread of the sentry, whose partisan they could see +flashing in the lamplight through the narrow barred wicket, as he +turned in front of their door. + +And it was now all in vain that Sholto pled with his master. To every +argument Lord Douglas replied, "I cannot go--it consorts not with +mine honour to leave this castle so long as the Lady Sybilla is in +their hands." + +Sholto told him how they could now escape, and in a week would raise +the whole of the south, returning to the siege of the castle and the +destruction of the traitors Crichton and Livingston. But even to this +the Earl had his answer. + +"What--flee like a coward and leave this girl, who has loved and +trusted me, defenceless in their hands! You yourself have heard her +weeping. I tell you I cannot go--I will not go. Let David and you +escape! My place is here, and neither snivelling Crichton nor that +backstairs lap-dog Livingston shall say that they took the Earl of +Douglas, and that he fled from them under cloud of night." + +David Douglas had been standing by hopefully while Sholto tied the +rope to the rings. At his brother's words he sat down again. William +of Douglas turned about upon him. + +"Go, David, I bid you. Escape, and if aught happen to me, fail not to +make the traitors pay dearly for it." + +But David Douglas sat still and answered not. Then Sholto, desperate +of success with his master, approached David, and with gentle force +would have compelled him to the window. But, at the first touch of his +hand, the boy thrust him away, striking him fiercely upon the +shoulder. + +"Hands off!" he cried, "I also am a Douglas and no craven. I will +abide by my brother to the end." + +"No, my David," said the Earl, turning for a moment from the door +where he had been again listening, "you shall not stay! You are the +hope of our house. My mother would fret to death if aught happened to +you. This is not a matter which concerns you. Go, I bid you. On me it +lies, and if I must pay the reckoning, why at least only I drank the +wine." + +"I will not;" cried the boy; "I tell you I will bide where my brother +bides and his fate shall be mine." + +Then Sholto, well nigh frantic with apprehension and disappointment, +went to the window and leaned out, gripping the sill with his hands. + +"They will not leave the castle," he whispered as loud as he dared; +"the Earl will not escape while the Lady Sybilla remains a prisoner +within." + +"God in heaven!" cried a stern voice from below which made Sholto +start, "we shall be broken first and last upon that woman. Would to +God I had slain her with my hand! Tell the Earl that if he will not +come to those that wait for him underneath the tower, I, Malise +MacKim, will come and fetch him like a child in my arms, even as I did +from under the pine trees at Loch Roan." + +And as he spoke the strain of the rope and its swaying over the +window-sill proclaimed that the mighty form of the master armourer was +even then on the way upwards towards the dungeon of his chief. + +"Go back, I command you, Malise MacKim," he said, "go back instantly. +I have made up my mind. I will not escape from the Castle of Edinburgh +this night." + +But Malise answered not a word, only pulled more desperately on the +rope, till the sound of his labouring breath and grasping palms could +be heard from side to side of the chamber. + +The Earl leaned further out. + +"Malise," he said, calm and clear, "you see this knife. I would not +have your blood on my hands. You have been a good and faithful servant +to our house. But, by the oath of a Douglas, if you come one foot +farther, I will cut the rope and you shall be dashed in pieces +beneath." + +The master armourer stopped--not with any fear of death upon him, but +lest a stroke of his master's dirk should destroy their well-arranged +mode of escape. + +"O Earl William, my dear lord, hear me," he said in a gasping voice, +still hanging perilously between earth and heaven. "If I have indeed +been a faithful servant, I beseech you come with me--for the sake of +the house of Douglas and of your mother, a widow and alone." + +"Go down, Malise MacKim," said the Earl, more gently; "I will speak +with you only at the rope's foot." + +So very unwillingly Malise went back. + +"Now," said the Earl, "hearken--this will I do and no other. I will +remain here and abide that which shall befall me, as is the will of +God. I am bound by a tie that I cannot break. What life is to another, +honour and his word must be to a Douglas. But I send your son Sholto +to you. I bid him ride fast to Galloway and bring all that are +faithful with speed here to Edinburgh. Go also into Douglasdale and +tell my cousin William of Avondale--and if he is too late to save, I +know well he will avenge me." + +"O William Douglas, if indeed ye will neither fleech nor drive, I pray +you for the sake of the great house to send your brother David, that +the Douglases of the Black be not cut off root and branch. Remember, +your mother is sore set on the lad." + +"I will not go," cried David, as he heard this; "by the saints I will +stand by my brother's shoulder, though I be but a boy! I will not go +so much as a step, and if by force ye stir me I will cry for the +guard!" + +By this time the young David was leaning half out of the window, and +almost shouting out his words down to the unseen Douglases beneath. + +"Go, Sholto," said the Earl, setting his hand on his squire's +shoulder. "You alone can ride to Galloway without drawing rein. Go +swiftly and bring back every true lad that can whang bow, or gar +sword-iron whistle. The Douglas must drie the Douglas weird. I would +have made you a great man, Sir Sholto, but if you get a new master, he +will surely do that which I had not time to perform." + +"Come, Sholto," said his father, "there is a horse at the outer port. +I fear the Crichton's men are warned. As it is we shall have to fight +for it." + +Sholto still hesitated, divided between obedience and grief. + +"Sholto MacKim," said the Earl, "if indeed you owe me aught of love or +service, go and do that thing which I have laid upon you. Bear a +courteous greeting from me to your sweetheart Maud, and a kiss to our +Maid Margaret. And now haste you and begone!" + +Sholto bent a moment on his knee and kissed the hand of his young +master. His voice was choked with sobs. The Earl patted him on the +shoulder. "Dinna greet, laddie," he said, in the kindly country speech +which comes so meltingly to all Galloway folk in times of distress, +gentle and simple alike, "dinna greet. If one Douglas fall in the +breach, there stands ever a better behind him." + +"But never one like you, my lord, my lord!" said Sholto. + +The Earl raised him gently, led him to the window, and himself +steadied the rope by which his squire was to descend. + +"Go!" he said; "honour keeps the Douglas here, and his brother bides +with him--since not otherwise it may be. But the honour of obedience +sends Sholto MacKim to the work that is given him!" + +Then, after the captain of his guard had gone out into the dark and +disappeared down the rope, the Earl only waited till the tension +slackened before stooping and cutting the cord at the point of +juncture with the iron ring. + +"And now, Davie lad," he said, setting an arm about his brother's +neck, "there are but you and me for it, and I think a bit prayer would +not harm either of us." + +So the two young lads, being about to die, kneeled down together +before the cross of Him who was betrayed with a kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE LION AT BAY + + +The morning had broken broad and clear from the east when the door of +the prison-house was opened, and a seneschal appeared. He saluted the +brothers, and in a shaking voice summoned them to come forth and be +tried for offences of treason and rebellion against the King and his +ministers. + +William of Douglas waved a hand to him, but answered nothing to the +summons. He wasted no words upon one who merely did as he was bidden. +All night the brothers had sat looking out on the city humming +sleeplessly beneath them, till the light slowly dawned over the Forth +and away to the eastward Berwick Law stood dwarfed and clear. At first +they had sat apart, but as the hours stole on David came a little +nearer and his hand sought that of his brother, clasped it, and abode +as it had been contented. The elder brother returned the pressure. + +"David," he said, "if perish we must, at least you and I will show +them how Douglases can die." + +So when they rose to follow the seneschal who summoned them, as they +left the chamber of detention and the clanking guard fell in behind +them, Earl William put his hand affectionately on his young brother's +shoulder and kept it there. In this wise they came into the great +hall wherein yester-even the banquet of treachery had been served. The +dais had been removed to the upper end of the room, and upon it in the +furred robes of judges of the realm, there sat on either side of the +empty throne Crichton the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston. +Behind were crowded groups of knights, pages, men-at-arms, and all the +hangers-on of a court. But of men of dignity and place only the +Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, was present. + +He sat alone on a high seat ranged crosswise upon the dais. The floor +in the centre of the hall was kept clear for the entrance of the +brothers of Douglas. + +Crichton and Livingston looked uneasily at each other as the feet of +the guard conducting the prisoners were heard in the corridor without, +and with a quick, apprehensive wave of his hand Crichton motioned the +armed men of his guard closer about him, and gave their leader +directions in a hushed voice behind his palm. + +The seneschal who had summoned them strode in first, and then after a +sufficient interval entered the young Lords of Douglas, William and +David his brother. The elder still kept one hand affectionately on the +shoulder of the younger. His other was set as usual in the silken belt +which he wore about his waist, and he walked carelessly, with a high +air and an easy step, like one that goes in expectantly to a pleasant +entertainment. + +But as soon as the brothers perceived in whose presence they were, an +air of pride came over their faces and stiffened their figures into +the sterner aspect of warriors who stand on the field of battle. + +Some three paces before the steps of the dais on which sat the +self-constituted judges was arranged a barrier of strong wooden posts +tipped with iron, and two soldiers with drawn swords were on guard at +either end. + +The Douglases stood silent, haughtily awaiting the first words of +accusation. And the face of young David was to the full as haughty and +contemptuous as that of Earl William himself. + +It was the Chancellor who spoke first, in his high rasping creak. + +"William, Earl of Douglas, and you David, called the Master of +Douglas," he began, "you are summoned hither by the King's authority +to answer for many crimes of treason against his royal person--for +rebellion also and the arming of forces against his authority--for +high speeches and studied contempt of those who represent his +sovereign Majesty in this realm, for treasonable alliances with rebel +lords, and above all for swearing allegiance to another monarch, even +to the King of France. What have you to say to these charges?" + +The Earl of Douglas swept his eyes across the dais from side to side +with a slow contempt which made the Chancellor writhe in his chair. +Then after a long pause he deigned to reply, but rather like a king +who grants a favour than like one accused before judges in whose hands +is the power of life and death. + +"I see," said he, "two knights before me on a high seat, one the +King's tutor, the other his purse-bearer. I have yet to learn who +constituted them judges of any cause whatsoever, still less of aught +that concerns William Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Earl of Douglas, +hereditary Lieutenant-Governor of the realm of Scotland." + +And he kept his eyes upon them with a straight forth-looking glance, +palpably embarrassing to the traitors on the dais. + +"Earl Douglas," said the Chancellor again, "pray remember that you are +not now in Castle Thrieve. Your six thousand horsemen wait not in the +courtyard out there. Learn to be more humble and answer to the things +whereof you are accused. Do you desire that witness should be +brought?" + +"Of what need are witnesses? I own no court or jurisdiction. I have +heard no accusations!" said the Earl William. + +The Chancellor motioned with his hand, whereupon Master Robert Berry, +a procurator of the city, advanced and read a long parchment which set +forth in phrase and detail of legality twenty accusations against the +Earl,--of treason, rebellion, and manifest oppression. + +When he had finished the Chancellor said, "And now, Earl Douglas, what +answer have you to these things?" + +"Does it matter at all what I answer?" asked the Earl, succinctly. + +"I do not bandy words with you," said the Chancellor; "I order you to +make your pleading, or stand within your danger." + +"And yet," said William Douglas, gravely, "words are all that you dare +bandy with me. Even if I honoured you by laying aside my dignities and +consented to break a lance with you, you would refuse to afford me +trial by battle, which is the right of every peer accused." + +"'Tis a barbarous custom," said the Chancellor; "we will try your case +upon its merit." + +The Earl laughed a little mocking laugh. + +"It will be somewhat safer," said he, "but haste you and get the sham +done with. I plead nothing. I do not even tell you that you lie. What +doth one expect of a gutter-dog but that it should void the garbage it +hath devoured? But I do ask you, Marshal de Retz, as a brave soldier +and the representative of an honourable King, what you have done with +the Lady Sybilla?" + +The Marshal de Retz smiled--a smile so chill, cruel, hard, that the +very soldiers on guard, seeing it, longed to slay him on the spot. + +"May I, in return, ask my Lord Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine +what is that to him?" he said, with sneering emphasis upon the titles. + +"It matters to me," replied William Douglas, boldly, "more than life, +and almost as much as honour. The Lady Sybilla did me the grace to +tell me that she loved me. And I in turn am bound to her in life and +death." + +The Chancellor and the tutor broke into laughter, but the marshal +continued to smile his terrible smile of determinate evil. + +"Listen," he said at last, "hear this, my Lord of Touraine; ever since +we came to this kingdom, and, indeed, long before we left the realm of +France, the Lady Sybilla intended nothing else than your deception and +destruction. Poor dupe, do you not yet understand? She it was that +cozened you with fair words. She it was that advised you to come +hither that we might hold you in our hands. For her sake you obeyed. +She was the willing bait of the trap your foes set for you. What think +you of the Lady Sybilla now?" + +William of Douglas did not answer in words, but as the marshal ceased +speaking, he drew himself together like a lithe animal that sways this +way and that before springing. His right hand dropped softly from his +brother's shoulder upon the hilt of his own dagger. + +Then with one sudden bound he was over the barrier and upon the dais. +Almost his blade was at the marshal's throat, and but for the crossed +partisans of two guards who stood on either side of de Retz, he had died +there and then by the dagger of William Douglas. As it was, the youth +was brought to a stand with his breast pressed vainly against the steel +points, and paused there crying out in fury, "Liar and toad! Come out +from behind these varlets that I may slay thee with my hand." + +A score of men-at-arms approached from behind, and forced the young +man back to his place. + +"Bring in the Lady Sybilla," said the marshal, still smiling, while +the judges sat silent and afraid at the anger of one man. + +And even while the Earl stood panting after his outburst of furious +anger, they opened the door at the back of the dais and through it +there entered the Lady Sybilla. Instantly the eyes of William Douglas +fixed themselves upon her, but she did not raise hers nor look at him. +She stood at the farther side at the edge of the dais, her hands +joined in front of her, and her hair streamed down her back and fell +in waves over her white dress. + +An angel of light coming through the open door of heaven could not +have appeared more innocent and pure. + +The Marshal de Retz turned towards his sister-in-law, and, with his +eyes fixed upon hers and with the same pitiless chill in them, he said +in a low tone, "Look at me." + +The girl raised her eyes slowly, and, as it had been, reluctantly, and +in them, instead of the meek calm of an angel, there appeared the +terror and dismay of a lost soul that listens to its doom. + +"Sybilla," hissed rather than spoke de Retz, "is +it true that ever since by the lakeside of Carlinwark you met the Earl +of Douglas you have deceived him and sought his doom?" + +"I care not to hear the answer," said the young man, "even did I +believe that which you by your power may compel her to say. Unfaith in +another is not unfaith in me. I am bound to this lady in love and +honour--aye, even unto death, if that be her will!" + +"I have, indeed, deceived him!" replied the girl, slowly, the words +seeming to be forced from her one by one. + +"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal, turning upon the +young man, who stood still and motionless, never taking his eyes off +the slender figure in white. + +The marshal continued his pitiless questioning. + +"At Castle Thrieve you persuaded him to follow you to Crichton and +afterwards to Edinburgh, knowing well that you brought him to his +death." + +"It is true!" said the girl, with a voice like one speaking out of the +grave itself. + +"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal. + +"And at Castle Crichton you played the play to the end. With false +cozening words you deceived this young man. You led him on with love +on your lips and hate in your heart. You kissed him with the Judas +kiss. You led his soul captive to death by the drawing of your eyes." + +In a voice that could hardly be heard the girl replied, her whole +figure fixed and turned to stone by the intensity of her tormentor's +gaze. + +_"I did these things! I am accursed!"_ + +The ambassador turned with a fleering triumph. + +"You hear, William of Douglas," he said, "you hear what your true love +says!" + +Then it was that, with the calm air and steady voice of a great +gentleman, William Douglas answered, "I hear, but I do not believe." + +A spasm of joy passed over the countenance of the Lady Sybilla. She +half sprang towards her lover as if to clasp him in her arms. + +But in the midst, between intent and act, she restrained herself. + +"No, I am not worthy," she said. And again, and lower, like a +lamentation, "I am not worthy!" + +Then, while all watched eagerly, the marshal rose from his seat to his +full height. + +"Girl--look at me!" he cried in a loud and terrible voice. But Sybilla +did not seem to hear him. + +She was looking at the Earl, and her eyes were great and grey and +vague. + +"Listen, my true lord, and then hate me if you will," she said; +"listen, William of Douglas. Never before have I found in all the +world one man true to the core. I did not believe that such an one +lived. Hear this and then turn from me in loathing. + +"For the sake of this man's life, forfeit ten times over" (she +pointed, as she spoke, at the marshal), "to whom, by the powers of +hell, my soul is bound, I came at the bidding of the King of France +and of this man, my master, to compass the destruction of the Earl of +Douglas. Our King's son desired his duchy, and promised to this man +pardon for his evil deeds. I came to satisfy them both. On my guilty +head be the punishment. It is true that I cozened and led you on. It +is true that at Castle Thrieve I deceived you, knowing well that which +would happen. I knew to what you would follow me, and for the sake of +the evil wrought by your fathers, I was glad. But afterwards at +Crichton, when, in the woods by the waterside, I told you that I loved +you, I did not lie. I did love you then. And by God's grace I do love +you now--yea, before all men I declare it. Once for a season of +glorious forgetting, all too brief, I was yours to love, now I am +yours to hate and to despise. I tried to save you, but though you had +my warning you would not go back or forget me. Now it is too late!" + +As she spoke over the face of William Douglas there had come a +glow--the red blood flooding up and routing the white determined +pallor of his cheek. + +"My lady," he answered her, gently, "be not grieved for a little thing +that is past. That you love me truly is enough. I ask for no more, +least of all for pity. I have not lived long. I have not had time +allotted me wherein to do great things, but for your sake I can die as +well as any! You have given me of your love, and of the flower +thereof. I am glad. That you have loved me was my crown of life. Now +it remains but to pay a little price soon paid, for a joy exceeding +great." + +But the Chancellor had had enough of this. He rose, and, stretching +forth his hand towards the barrier, he said: "William of Douglas, you +and your brother are condemned to instant death as enemies of the King +and his ministers. Soldiers, do your duty. Lead them forth to the +block!" + +And with these words he left the dais, followed by Sir Alexander +Livingston. The girl stood in the place whence she had spoken her last +words. Then, as the men-at-arms went shamefacedly to take the Earl by +the arm, she suddenly threw herself across the platform, leaped +lightly over the barrier, and fell into his arms. + +"William, once I would have betrayed you," she said, "but now I love +you. I will die with you--or by the great God I will live to avenge +you." + +"Hush, sweetheart," said William Douglas, touching her brow gently +with his lips, and putting her into the arms of an officer of the +court whom her uncle had sent to remove her. "Fear not for me! Death +is swift and easy. I expected nothing else. That you love me is +enough! Dear love, fare thee well!" + +But the girl heard him not. She had fainted in the arms that held her. +Yet the Marshal de Retz had still more for her to suffer. He stood +beside her and dashed water upon her till she awoke, that she might +see that which remained to be done. + + * * * * * + +It was a scene dreary beyond all power of words to tell it, when into +the courtyard of the Castle of Edinburgh they brought the two noble +young men forth to die. The sun had long risen, but the first flush of +broad morning sunshine still lingered upon the low platform on which +stood the block, and beside it the headsman sullenly waiting to do his +appointed work. + +The young Lords of Douglas came out looking brave and handsome as +bridegrooms on a day of betrothing. William had once more his hand on +David's shoulder, his other rested carelessly on his thigh as his +custom was. The brothers were bareheaded, and to the eyes of those who +looked on they seemed to be conversing together of light matters of +love and ladies' favours. + +High above upon a balcony, hung like an iron cage upon the castle +wall, appeared the Chancellor and the tutor. The young King was with +them, weeping and crying out, "Do nothing to my dear cousins--I +command you--I am the King!" + +But the tutor roughly bade him be still, telling him that he would +never reign if these young men lived, and presently another came there +and stood beside him. The Marshal de Retz it was, who, with a fiendish +smile upon his sleek parchment face, conducted the Lady Sybilla to see +the end. But it was a good end to see, and nobler far than most lives +that are lived to fourscore years. + +The brothers embraced as they came to the block, kneeled down, and +said a short prayer like Christians of a good house. So great was +their enemies' haste that they were not allowed even a priest to +shrive them, but they did what they could. + +The executioner motioned first to David. An attendant brought him the +heading cup of wine, which it was the custom to offer to those about +to die upon the scaffold. + +"Drink it not," said Earl William, "lest they say it was drugged." + +And David Douglas bowed his head upon the block, being only in the +fifteenth year of his age. + +"Farewell, brother," he said, "be not long after me. It is a darksome +road to travel so young." + +"Fear not, Davie lad," said William Douglas, tenderly, "I will +overtake you ere you be through the first gate." + +He turned a little aside that he might not see his brother die, and +even as he did so he saw the Lady Sybilla lean upon the balcony paler +than the dead. + +Then when it came to his turn they offered the Earl William also the +heading cup filled with the rich wine of Touraine, his own fair +province that he was never to see. + +He lifted the cup high in his right hand with a knightly and courtly +gesture. Looking towards the balcony whereon stood the Lady Sybilla, +he bowed to her. + +"I drink to you, my lady and my love," he cried, in a voice loud and +clear. + +Then, touching but the rim of the goblet with his lips, he poured out +the red wine upon the ground. + + * * * * * + +And thus passed the gallantest gentleman and truest lover in whom God +ever put heart of grace to live courteously and die greatly, keeping +his faith in his lady even against herself, and holding death itself +sweet because that in death she loved him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE RISING OF THE DOUGLASES + + +It was upon the Earl's own charger, Black Darnaway, that Sholto rode +southward to raise to their chief's assistance the greatest and +compactest clan that ever, even in Scotland, had done the bidding of +one man. + +The young man's heart was high and hopeful within him. The King's +guardians dared not, so he told himself, let aught befall the puissant +Douglases in the Castle of Edinburgh, without trial and under cover of +the most courteous hospitality. + +"Try the Earl of Douglas!" so Sholto thought within him. He laughed at +the notion. "Why, Earl William could by a word bring a hundred +thousand men of Galloway and the Marches to make a fitting jury." + +So he meditated, his thoughts running fast and fiery to the beating of +Black Darnaway's feet as he climbed the heathery slopes which led +towards Douglasdale. Day was breaking as he rode down to the town of +Lanark yet asleep and smokeless in the caller airs of the morn. At the +gates of this frontier town he delivered his first summons of +feudality. For the burghers of Lanark were liegemen of the Douglases +of Douglasdale, and were (though not with much good-will) bound to +furnish service at call. + +Sholto had some difficulty in making himself heard athwart the +ponderous wooden gates, bossed with leather and studded with iron. At +first he shouted angrily to the silences, but presently nearer and +nearer came a bellow as of a brazen bull, thunderous and far echoing. + +"Fower o' the clock and a braw, braw morning." + +It was Grice Elshioner, watchman of the town of Lanark, evidencing to +the magistrates and lieges thereof that he was earning his three +shillings in the week--a handsome wage in these hard times, and one +well able to provide belly-timber for himself and also for the wife +and weans who, dwelling in a close off the High-street, were called by +his name. + +Sholto thundered again upon the rugged portal. + +"Open there! Open, I say, in the name of the Earl of Douglas!" + +"Fower o' the morning! Lord, what's a' the steer? In the name o' the +Yerl o' Douglas! But wha kens that it isna the English? Na, na, Grice +Elshioner opens not to every night-raking loon that likes to cry the +name o' the Yerl o' Douglas ower oor toon wa'!" + +And Grice the valorous would have taken him off with a fresh, +sleep-dispelling bellow had it not been that he heard himself summoned +in a voice that brooked no delay. + +"Open, varlet of a watchman, or by Saint Bride I will have you +swinging in half an hour from the bars of your own portcullis. I who +speak am Sholto MacKim, captain of the Earl's guard. Every liegeman in +the town must arm, mount, and ride this instant to Edinburgh. I give +you fair warning. You hear my words, I will not enter your rascal +town. But if so much as one be wanting at the muster, I swear in the +name of my master that his house shall be burned with fire and razed +to the ground, and his wife be a widow or ever the cock craw on +another Sabbath morn!" + +And without waiting for a reply Sholto laid the reins upon the neck of +Black Darnaway and rode on southward up Douglas Water to the home nest +of the lordly race. + +And behind him, with a wail in it, blared through the narrow streets +the stormy voice of Grice Elshioner, watchman of Lanark, "Wauken ye, +wauken ye, burgesses a'! The Douglas hath sent to bid ye mount and +ride." + +The _birr_ of the war drum saluted Sholto's ears ere he had turned the +corner of the town parks. Then came the answering shouts of the +burghers who thrust inquiring and indignant heads out of gable windows +and turret speering-holes. + +"_Birr!_" continued the undaunted and insistent town drum. + +"Harness your backs! Fill your bellies, and stand ready! The Douglas +has need o' ye, lieges a'!" cried the sonorous voice of the watch. +Sholto smiled as he listened. + +"I have at least set them on the alert. They will join the Douglasdale +men as they pass by, or we will show them reason why. But they of +Lanark are ill-set town-ward men, and of no true leal heart, save an +it be to their own coffers. Yet will they march with us for fear of +the harrying hand and the burning roof tree." + +The sun rose fair on the battlements of Douglas Castle as Sholto rode +up to the level mead, whereon a little company of men was exercising. +He could hear the words of command cried gruffly in the broad Galloway +speech. Landless Jock was drilling his spearmen, and as the shining +triple line of points dropped to the "ready to receive," the old +knight and former captain of the Earl's guard came forward a little +way to welcome his successor with what grace was at his command. + +"Eh, siree, and what has brocht sic a braw young knight and grand +frequenter o' courts sae far as Douglas Castle? Could ye no even let +puir Landless Jock hae the tilt-yaird here to exercise his handfu' in, +and keep his auld banes a wee while frae the rust and the green +mould?" + +But even as the crusty old soldier spoke these words, the white +anxiety in Sholto's face struck through his half-humorous complaint, +and the words died on his lips in a perturbed "What is't--what is't +ava, laddie?" + +Sholto told him in the fewest words. + +"The Yerl and Dawvid in the power o' their hoose's enemies. Blessed +Saint Anthony, and here was I flighterin' and ragin' aboot my +naethings. Here, lads, blaw the horn and cry the slogan. Fetch the +horses frae the stall and stand ready in your war gear within ten +minutes by the knock. Aye, faith, will we raise Douglasdale! Gang your +ways to Gallowa'--there shall not a man bide at hame this day. Certes, +we wull that! Ca' in the by-gaun at Lanark--aye, lad, and, gin the +rascals are no willing or no ready, we will hang the provost and +magistrates at their ain door-cheeks to learn them to bide frae the +cried assembly o' their liege lord!" + +Sholto had done enough in Douglasdale. He turned north again on a yet +more important errand. It was forenoon full and broad when he halted +before the little town of Strathaven, upon which the Castle of +Avondale looks down. It seemed of the greatest moment that the +Avondale Douglases should know that which had befallen their cousin. +For no suspicion of treachery within the house and name of Douglas +itself touched with a shade of shadow the mind of Sholto MacKim. + +He thundered at the town-ward port of the castle (to which a steep +ascent led up from a narrow vennel), where presently the outer guard +soon crowded about him, listening to his story and already fingering +bowstring and examining rope-matches preparatory to the expected march +upon Edinburgh. + +"I have not time to waste, comrades; I would see my lords," said +Sholto. "I must see them instantly." + +And even as he spoke there on the steps before him appeared the dark, +handsome face and tall but slightly stooping figure of William Douglas +of Avondale. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, and his +serious thought-weighted brow bent upon the concourse about Sholto. + +With a push of his elbows this way and that, the young captain of the +Earl's guard opened a road through the press. + +In short, emphatic sentences he told his tale, and at the name of +prisonment and treachery to his cousins the countenance of William +Douglas grew stern and hard. His face twitched as if the news came +very near to him. He did not answer for a moment, but stood biting his +lips and glooming upon Sholto, as though the young man had been a +prisoner waiting sentence of pit or gallows for evil doing. + +"I must see James concerning this ill news," he said when Sholto had +finished telling him of the Black Bull's Head at the Chancellor's +banquet-table. + +He turned to go within. + +"My lord," said Sholto, "will you give me another horse, and let +Darnaway rest in your stables? I must instantly ride south again to +raise Galloway." + +"Order out all the horses which are ready caparisoned," commanded +William of Avondale, "and do you, Captain Sholto, take your choice of +them." + +He went within forthwith and there ensued a pause filled with the +snorting and prancing of steeds, as, mettlesome with oats and hay, +they issued from their stalls, or with the grass yet dewy about their +noses were led in from the field. Darnaway took his leave of Sholto +with a backward neigh of regret, as if to say he was not yet tired of +going on his master's service. + +Then presently on the terrace above appeared lazy Lord James, busily +buckling the straps of his body-armour and talking hotly the while +with his brother William. + +"I care not even whether our father--" he cried aloud ere, with a +restraining hand upon his wrist, his elder brother could succeed in +stopping him. + +"Hush, James," he said, "at least be mindful of those that stand +around." + +"I care not, I tell you, William," cried the headstrong youth, +squaring his shoulders as he was wont to do before a fight. "I tell +you that you and I are no traitors to our name, and who meddles with +our coz, Will of Thrieve, hath us to reckon with!" + +William of Avondale said nothing, but held out his hand with a slow, +determinate gesture. Said he, "An it were the father that begat us." +Whereat, with all the impetuousness of his race and nature, James +dashed his palm into that of his brother. + +"Whiles, William," he cried, "ye appear clerkish and overcautious, and +I break out and miscall ye for no Douglas, when ye will not spend your +siller like a man and are afraid of the honest pint stoup. But at the +heart's heart ye are aye a Douglas--and though the silly gaping +commons like ye not so well as they like me, ye are the best o' us, +for all that." + +So it came to pass that within the space of half an hour the Avondale +Douglases had sent men to the four airts, young Hugh Douglas himself +riding west, while James stirred the folk of Avondale and Strathavon, +and in all the courtyards and streets of the little feudal bourg there +began the hum and buzz of the war assembly. + +Lord William went with Sholto to see staunch Darnaway duly stabled, +and to approve the horse which was to bear the messenger to the south +without halt, now that his mission was accomplished in the west. When +they came out Sholto's riding harness had been transferred to a noble +grey steed large enough to carry even the burly James, let alone the +slim captain of the archer guard of Thrieve. + +In the court, ranked and ready, bridle to bridle were ranged the +knights and squires in waiting about the Castle of Avondale, while out +on a level green spot on the edge of the moor gathered the denser +array of the townfolk with spears and partisans. + +In an hour the Avondale Douglases were ready to ride to the assistance +of their cousins. Alas, that Earl William would take no advice, for +had these and others gone in with him to the fatal town, there would +have been no Black Bull's Head on the Chancellor's dinner table in the +banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A STRANGE MEETING + + +It was approaching the evening of the third day after riding forth +upon his mission when Sholto, sleepless yet quite unconscious of +weariness, approached the loch of Carlinwark and the cottage of Brawny +Kim. West and south he had raised the Douglas country as it had never +been raised before. And now behind him every armiger and squire, every +spearman and light-foot archer, was hasting Edinburgh-ward, eager to +be first to succour the young and headstrong chief of his great house. + +Sholto had ridden and cried the slogan as was his duty, without +allowing his mind to dwell over much upon whether all might not arrive +too late. And ever as he rode out of village or across the desolate +moors from castle to fortified farmhouse, it seemed that not he but +some other was upon this quest. + +Something sterner and harder stirred in his breast. Light-hearted +Sholto MacKim, the careless lad of the jousting day, the proud young +captain of the Earl's guard, was dead with all his vanity. And in his +place a man rode southward grim and determined, with vengeful angers +a-smoulder in his bosom,--hunger, thirst, love, the joy of living and +the fear of death all being swallowed up by deadly hatred of those who +had betrayed his master. + +Maud Lindesay was doubtless within a few miles of Sholto, yet he +scarcely gave even his sweetheart a thought as he urged his weary grey +over the purple Parton moors towards the loch of Carlinwark and the +little hamlet nestling along its western side under the ancient thorn +trees of the Carlin's hill. + +He rode down over the green and empty Crossmichael braes on which the +broom pods were crackling in the afternoon sunshine, through hollows +where the corn lingered as though unwilling to have done with such a +scene of beauty, and find itself mewed in dusty barns, ground in +mills, or close pressed in thatched rick. He breasted the long smooth +rise and entered the woods which encircle the bright lakelet of +Carlinwark, the pearl of all southland Scottish lochs. + +With a strange sense of detachment he looked down upon the green sward +between him and his mother's gable end, upon which as a child he had +wandered from dawn to dusk. Then it was nearly as large as the world, +and the grass was most comfortable to bare feet. There were children +playing upon it now, even as there had been of old, among them his own +little sister Magdalen, whose hair was spun gold, and her eyes blue as +the forget-me-not on the marshes of the Isle Wood. The children were +dressed in white, five little girls in all, as for a festal day, and +their voices came upward to Sholto's ear through the arches of the +great beeches which studded the turf with pavilions of green shade, +tenderly as they had done to that of William Douglas in the +spring-time of the year. + +The minor note, the dying fall of the innocent voices, tugged at his +heartstrings. He could hear little Magdalen leading the chorus: + + _"Margaret Douglas, fresh and fair, + A bunch of roses she shall wear, + Gold and silver by her side, + I know who's her bride."_ + +It was at "Fair Maid" they were playing, the mystic dance of Southland +maidenhood, at whose vestal rites no male of any age was ever +permitted to be present. The words broke in upon the gloom which +oppressed Sholto's heart. Momentarily he forgot his master and saw +Maud Lindesay with the little Margaret Douglas of whom the children +sang, once again gathering the gowans on the brae sides of Thrieve or +perilously reaching out for purple irises athwart the ditches of the +Isle. + + _"Take her by the lily-white hand, + Lead her o'er the water; + Give her kisses, one, two, three, + For she's a lady's daughter."_ + +As Sholto MacKim listened to the quaint and moving lullaby, suddenly +there came into the field of his vision that which stiffened him into +a statue of breathing marble. + +For without clatter of accoutrement or tramp of hoof, without +companion or attendant, a white palfrey had appeared through the green +arches of the woodlands. A girl was seated upon the saddle, swaying +with gentle movement to the motion of her steed. At the sight of her +figure as she came nearer a low cry of horror and amazement broke from +Sholto's lips. + +It was the Lady Sybilla. + +Yet he knew that he had left her behind him in Edinburgh, the siren +temptress of Earl Douglas, the woman who had led his master into the +power of the enemy, she for whose sake he had refused the certainty +of freedom and life. Anger against this smiling enchantress suddenly +surged up in Sholto's heart. + +"Halt there--on your life!" he cried, and urged his wearied steed +forward. Like dry leaves before a winter wind, the children were +dispersed every way by the gust of his angry shout. But the maiden on +the palfrey either heeded not or did not hear. + +Whereupon Sholto rode furiously crosswise to intercept her. He would +learn what had befallen his master. At least he would avenge him upon +one--the chiefest and subtlest of his enemies. But not till he had +come within ten paces did the Lady Sybilla turn upon him the fulness +of her regard. Then he saw her face. It broke upon him sudden as the +sight of imminent hell to one sure of salvation. He had expected to +find there gratified ambition, sated lust, exultant pride, cruelest +vengeance. He saw instead as it had been the face of an angel cast out +of heaven, or perhaps, rather, of a martyr who has passed through the +torture chamber on her way to the place of burning. + +The sight stopped Sholto stricken and wavering. His anger fell from +him like a cloak shed when the sun shines in his strength. + +The Lady Sybilla's face showed of no earthly paleness. Marble white it +was, the eyes heavy with weeping, purple rings beneath accentuating +the horror that dwelt eternally in them. The lips that had been as the +bow of Apollo were parted as though they had been singing the dirge of +one beloved, and ever as she rode the tears ran down her cheeks and +fell on her white robe, and lower upon her palfrey's mane. + +She looked at Sholto when he came near, but not as one who sees or +recognises. Rather, as it were, dumb, drunken, besotted with grief, +looked forth the soul of the Lady Sybilla upon the captain of the +Douglas guard. She heeded not his angry shout, for another voice rang +in her ears, speaking the knightliest words ever uttered by a man +about to die. Sholto's sword was raised threateningly in his hand, but +Sybilla saw another blade gleam bright in the morning sun ere it fell +to rise again dimmed and red. Therefore she checked not her steed, nor +turned aside, till Sholto laid his fingers upon her bridle-rein and +leaped quickly to the ground, sword in hand, leaving his own beast to +wander where it would. + +"What do you here?" he cried. "Where is my master? What have they done +to him? I bid you tell me on your life!" + +Sholto's voice had no chivalrous courtesy in it now. The time for that +had gone by. He lowered his sword point and there was tense iron in +the muscles of his arm. He was ready to kill the temptress as he would +a beautiful viper. + +The Lady Sybilla looked upon him, but in a dazed fashion, like one who +rests between the turns of the rack. In a little while she appeared to +recognise him. She noted the sword in his hand, the death in his +eye--and for the first time since the scene in the courtyard of +Edinburgh Castle, she smiled. + +Then the fury in Sholto's heart broke suddenly forth. + +"Woman," he cried, "show me cause why I should not slay you. For, by +God, I will, if aught of harm hath overtaken my master. Speak, I bid +you, speak quickly, if you have any wish to live." + +But the Lady Sybilla continued to smile--the same dreadful, mocking +smile--and somehow Sholto, with his weapon bare and his arm nerved to +the thrust, felt himself grow weak and helpless under the stillness +and utter pitifulness of her look. + +"You would kill me--kill _me_, you say--" the words came low and +thrilling forth from lips which were as those of the dead whose chin +has not yet been bound about with a napkin, "ah, would that you could! +But you cannot. Steel will not slay, poison will not destroy, nor +water drown Sybilla de Thouars till her work be done!" + +Sholto escaped from the power of her eye. + +"My master--" he gasped, "my master--is he well? I pray you tell me." + +Was it a laugh he heard in answer? Rather a sound, not of human mirth +but as of a condemned spirit laughing deep underground. Then again the +low even voice replied out of the expressionless face. + +"Aye, your master is well." + +"Ah, thank God," burst forth Sholto, "he is alive." + +The Lady Sybilla moved her hand this way and that with the gesture of +a blind man groping. + +"Hush," she said, "I only said that he was well. And he is well. As I +am already in the place of torment, I know that there is a heaven for +those who die as William Douglas died." + +Sholto's cry rang sudden, loud, despairing. + +"Dead--dead--Earl William dead--my master dead!" + +He dropped the palfrey's rein, which till now he had held. His sword +fell unheeded on the turf, and he flung himself down in an agony of +boyish grief. But from her white palfrey, sitting still where she was, +the maiden watched the paroxysms of his sorrow. She was dry eyed now, +and her face was like a mask cut in snow. + +Then as suddenly recalling himself, Sholto leaped from the ground, +snatched up his sword, and again passionately advanced upon the Lady +Sybilla. + +"You it was who betrayed him," he cried, pointing the blade at her +breast; "answer if it were not so!" + +"It is true I betrayed him," she answered calmly. + +"You whom he loved--God knows how unworthily--" + +"God knows," she said simply and calmly. + +"You betrayed him to his death. Why then should not I kill you?" + +Again she smiled upon him that disarming, hopeless, dreadful smile. + +"Because you cannot kill me. Because it were too crowning a mercy to +kill me. Because, for three inches of that blade in my heart, I would +bless you through the eternities. Because I must do the work that +remains--" + +"And that work is--?" + +"Vengeance!!" + +Sholto was silent, trying to piece things together. He found it hard +to think. He was but a boy, and experience so strange as that of the +Lady Sybilla was outside him. Yet vaguely he felt that her emotion was +real, more real perhaps than his own instinct of crude slaying--the +desire of the wasp whose nest has been harried to sting the first +comer. This woman's hatred was something deadlier, surer, more +persistent. + +"Vengeance--" he said at last, scarce knowing what he said, "why +should you, who betrayed him, speak of avenging him?" + +"Because," said the Lady Sybilla, "I loved him as I never thought to +love man born of woman. Because when the fiends of the pit tie me limb +to limb, lip to lip, with Judas who sold his master with a kiss, when +they burn me in the seventh hell, I shall remember and rejoice that to +the last he loved me, believed in me, gloried in his love for me. And +God who has been cruel to me in all else, will yet do this thing for +me. He will not let William Douglas know that I deceived him or that +he trusted me in vain." + +"But the Vengeance that you spoke of--what of that?" said Sholto, +dwelling upon that which was uppermost in his own thought. + +"Aye," said the Lady Sybilla, "that alone can be compassed by me. For +I am bound by a chain, the snapping of which is my death. To him who, +in a far land, devised all these things, to the man who plotted the +fall of the Douglas house--to Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France, I am +bound. But--I shall not die--even you cannot kill me, till I have +brought that head that is so high to the hempen cord, and delivered +the foul fiend's body to the fires of both earth and hell." + +"And the Chancellor Crichton--the tutor Livingston--what of them?" +urged Sholto, like a Scot thinking of his native traitors. + +The Lady Sybilla waved a contemptuous hand. + +"These are but lesser rascals--they had been nothing without their +master and mine. You of the Douglas house must settle with them." + +"And why have you returned to this country of Galloway?" said Sholto. +"And why are you thus alone?" + +"I am here," said the Lady Sybilla, "because none can harm me with my +work undone. I travel alone because it suits my mood to be alone, +because my master bade me join him at your town of Kirkcudbright, +whence, this very night, he takes ship for his own country of +Brittany." + +"And why do you, if as you say you hate him so, continue to follow +him?" + +"Ah, you are simple," she said; "I follow him because it is my fate, +and who can escape his doom? Also, because, as I have said, my work is +not yet done." + +She relapsed into her former listless, forth-looking, unconscious +regard, gazing through him as if the young man had no existence. He +dropped the rein and the point of his sword with one movement. The +white palfrey started forward with the reins loose on its neck. And as +she went the eyes of the Lady Sybilla were fixed on the distant hills +which hid the sea. + +So, leaving Sholto standing by the lakeside with bowed head and abased +sword, the strange woman went her way to work out her appointed task. + +But ere the Lady Sybilla disappeared among the trees, she turned and +spoke once more. + +"I have but one counsel, Sir Knight. Think no more of your master. Let +the dead bury their dead. Ride to Thrieve and never once lose sight of +her whom you call your sweetheart, nor yet of her charge, Margaret +Douglas, the Maid of Galloway, till the snow falls and winter comes +upon the land." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE MACKIMS COME TO THRIEVE + + +Sholto MacKim stood watching awhile as the white palfrey disappeared +with its rider into the purple twilight of the woods which barred the +way to the Solway. Then with a violent effort of will he recalled +himself and looked about for his horse. The tired beast was gently +cropping the lush dewy herbage on the green slope which led downwards +to his native cottage. Sholto took the grey by the bridle and walked +towards his mother's door, pondering on the last words of the Lady +Sybilla. A voice at once strenuous and familiar broke upon his ear. + +"Shoo wi' you, impident randies that ye are, shoo! Saw I ever the like +aboot ony decent hoose? Thae hens will drive me oot o' my mind! +Sholto, lad, what's wrang? Is't your faither? Dinna tell me it's your +faither." + +"It is more bitter than that, mither mine." + +"No the Earl--surely no the Earl himsel'--the laddie that I hae +nursed--the laddie that was to Barbara Halliburton as her ain dear +son!" + +"Mother, it is the Earl and young David too. They are dead, betrayed +into the hands of their enemies, cruelly and treacherously slain!" + +Then the keening cry smote the air as Barbara MacKim sank on her knees +and lifted up her hands to heaven. + +"Oh, the bonny laddies--the twa bonny, bonny laddies! Mair than my ain +bairns I loved them. When their ain mother wasna able for mortal +weakness to rear him, William Douglas drew his life frae me. What for, +Sholto, are ye standin' there to tell the tale? What for couldna ye +have died wi' him? Ae mither's milk slockened ye baith. The same arms +cradled ye. I bade ye keep your lord safe wi' your body and your soul. +And there ye daur to stand, skin-hale and bane unbroken, before your +mither. Get hence--ye are nae son o' Barbara MacKim. Let me never look +on your face again, gin ye bringna back the pride o' the warld, the +gladness o' the auld withered heart o' her ye ca' your mither!" + +"Mother," said Sholto, "my lord was not dead when I left him--he sent +me to raise the country to his rescue." + +"And what for then are ye standin' there clavering, and your lord in +danger among his foes?" cried his mother, angrily. + +"Dear mother, I have something more to tell ye--" + +"Aye, I ken, ye needna break the news. It is that Malise, my man, is +dead--that Laurence, wha ran frae the Abbey to gang wi' him to the +wars, is nae mair. Aweel they are worthily spent, since they died for +their chief! Ye say that ye were sent to raise the clan--then what +seek ye at the Carlinwark? To Thrieve, man, to Thrieve; as hard as ye +can ride! To Castle Thrieve!" + +"Mother," said Sholto, still more gently, "hearken but a moment. +Thirty thousand men are on their way to Edinburgh. Three days and +nights have I ridden without sleep. Douglasdale is awake. The Upper +Ward is already at the gates of the city. To a man, Galloway is on +the march. The border is aflame. But it is all too late already, I +have had news of the end. Before ever a man could reach within miles, +the fatal axe had fallen, and my lords, for whom each one of us would +gladly have died with smiles upon our faces, lay headless in the +courtyard of Edinburgh Castle." + +"And if the laddies were alive when ye rode awa', wha brocht the news +faster than my Sholto could ride--tell me that?" + +"I came not directly to Galloway, mother. First I raised the west from +Strathaven to Ayr. Thence I carried the news to Dumfries and along the +border side. But to-day I have seen the Lady Sybilla on her way to +take ship for France. From her I heard the news that all I had done +was too late." + +"That foreigneerin' randy! Wad ye believe the like o' her? Yon woman +that they named 'Queen o' Beauty' at the tournay by the Fords o' +Lochar!--Certes, I wadna believe her on oath, no if she swore on the +blessed banes o' Saint Andro himsel'. To the castle, man, or I'll kilt +my coats and be there afore you to shame ye!" + +"I go, mother," said Sholto, trying vainly to stem the torrent of +denunciation which poured upon him; "I came only to see that all was +well with you." + +"And what for should a' be weel wi' me? What can be ill wi' me, if it +be not to gang on leevin' when the noblest young men in the warld--the +lad that was suckled at my bosom, lies cauld in the clay. Awa wi' ye, +Sholto MacKim, and come na back till ye hae rowed every traitor in the +same bloody windin' sheet!" + +The foster mother of the Douglases sank on the ground in the dusk, +leaning against the wall of her house. She held her face in her hands +and sobbed aloud, "O Willie, Willie Douglas, mair than ony o' my ain I +loed ye. Bonny were ye as a bairn. Bonny were ye as a laddie. Bonny +abune a' as a noble young man and the desire o' maidens' e'en. But +nane o' them a' loed ye like poor auld Barbara, that wad hae gien her +life to pleasure ye. And noo she canna even steek thae black, black +e'en, nor wind the corpse-claith aboot yon comely limbs--sae straight +and bonny as they were--I hae straiked and kissed sae oft and oft. O +wae's me--wae's me! What will I do withoot my bonny laddies!" + +It was with the sound of his mother's lament still in his ears that +Sholto rode sadly over the hill to Thrieve. The way is short and easy, +and it was not long before the captain of the guard looked down upon +the lights of the castle gleaming through the gathering gloom. But +instead of being, as was its wont, lighted from highest battlement to +flanking tower, only one or two lamps could be discerned shining out +of that vast cliff of masonry. + +But, on the other hand, lights were to be seen wandering this way and +that over the long Isle of Thrieve, following the outlines of its +winding shores, shining from the sterns of boats upon the pools of the +Dee water, weaving intricately among the broomy braes on either side +of the ford, and even streaming out across the water meadows of +Balmaghie. + +Sholto was so full of his own sorrow and the certain truth of the +terrible news he must bring home to the Lady of Douglas and those two +whom he loved, Maud Lindesay and her fair maid, that he paid little +heed to these wandering lanterns and distant flaring torches. + +He was pausing at the bridge head to wait the lowering of the +draw-chains, when out of the covert above him there dashed a desperate +horseman, who stayed neither for bridge nor ford, but rode straight at +the eastern castle pool where it was deepest. To the stirrup clung +another figure strange and terrible, seen in the uncertain light from +the gate-house and in the pale beams of the rising moon. + +The drawbridge clattered down, and sending his spurs home into the +flanks of his tired steed, in a moment more Sholto was hard on the +track of the first headlong horseman. Scarce a length separated them +as they reached the outer guard of the castle. Abreast they reined +their horses in the quadrangle, and in a moment Sholto had recognised +in the rider his brother Laurence, pale as death, and the figure that +had clung to the stirrup as the horse took the water, was his father, +Malise MacKim. + +Thus in one moment came the three MacKims to the door-step of Thrieve. + +The clatter and cry of their arrival brought a pour of torches from +every side of the isle and from within the castle keep. + +"Have you found them--where are they?" came from every side. But +Laurence seemed neither to hear nor see. + +"Where is my lady?" he cried in a hoarse man's voice; and again, +"Instantly I must see my lady." + +Sholto stood aside, for he knew that these two brought later tidings +than he. Presently he went over to his father, who was leaning panting +upon a stone post, and asked him what were the news. But Malise thrust +him back apparently without recognising him. + +"My lady," he gasped, "I would see my lady!" + +Then through the torches clustered about the steps of the castle came +the tall, erect figure of the Earl's mother, the Countess of Douglas. +She stood with her head erect, looking down upon the MacKims and upon +the dropped heads and heaving shoulders of their horses. Above and +around the torches flared, and their reek blew thwartwise across the +strange scene. + +"I am here," she said, speaking clearly and naturally; "what would ye +with the Lady of Douglas?" + +Thrice Laurence essayed to speak, but his ready tongue availed him not +now. He caught at his horse's bridle to steady him and turned weakly +to his father. + +"Do you speak to my lady--I cannot!" he gasped. + +A terrible figure was Malise MacKim, the strong man of Galloway, as he +came forward. Stained with the black peat of the morasses, his armour +cast off piecemeal that he might run the easier, his under-apparel +torn almost from his great body, his hair matted with the blood which +still oozed from an unwashed wound above his brow. + +"My lady," he said hoarsely, his words whistling in his throat, "I +have strange things to tell. Can you bear to hear them?" + +"If you have found my daughter dead or dying, speak and fear not!" + +"I have things more terrible than the death of many daughters to tell +you!" + +"Speak and fear not--an it touch the lives of my sons, speak freely. +The mother of the Douglases has learned the Douglas lesson." + +"Then," said Malise, sinking his head upon his breast, "God help you, +lady, your two sons are dead!" + +"Is David dead also?" said the Lady of Douglas. + +"He is dead," replied Malise. + +The lady tottered a little as she stood on the topmost step of the +ascent to Thrieve. One or two of the torch-bearers ran to support her. +But she commanded herself and waved them aside. + +"God--He is the God," she said, looking upwards into the black night. +"In one day He has made me a woman solitary and without children. Sons +and daughter He has taken from me. But He shall not break my heart. +No, not even He. Stand up, Malise MacKim, and tell me how these things +came to pass." + +And there in the blown reek of torches and the hush of the courtyard +of Thrieve Malise told all the tale of the Black Dinner and the fatal +morning, of the short shrift and the matchless death, while around him +strong men sobbed and lifted up right hands to swear the eternal +vengeance. + +But alone and erect as a banner staff stood the mother of the dead. +Her eyes were dry, her lips compressed, her nostrils a little +distended like those of a war-horse that sniffs the battle from afar. +Outside the castle wall the news spread swiftly, and somewhere in the +darkness a voice set up the Celtic keen. + +"Bid that woman hold her peace. I will hear the news and then we will +cry the slogan. Say on, Malise!" + +Then the smith told how his horse had broken down time and again, how +he had pressed on, running and resting, stripped almost naked that he +might keep up with his son, because that no ordinary charger could +long carry his great weight. + +Then when he had finished the Lady of Thrieve turned to Sholto--"And +you, captain of the guard, what have you done, and wherefore left you +your master in his hour of need?" + +Then succinctly and to the point Sholto spoke, his father and Laurence +assenting and confirming as he told of the Earl's commission and of +how he had accomplished those things that were laid upon him. + +"It is well," said the lady, calmly, "and now I also will tell you +something that you do not know. My little daughter, whom ye call the +Fair Maid of Galloway, with her companion, Mistress Maud Lindesay, +went out more than twelve hours agone to the holt by the ford to +gather hazelnuts, and no eye of man or woman hath seen them since." + +And, even as she spoke, there passed a quick strange pang through the +heart of Sholto. He remembered the warning of the Lady Sybilla. Had he +once more come too late? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +THE GIFT OF THE COUNTESS + + +It was the Countess of Douglas who commanded that night in the Castle +of Thrieve. Sholto wished to start at once upon the search for the +lost maidens. But the lady forbade him. + +"There are a thousand searchers who during the night will do all that +you could do--and better. To-morrow we shall surely want you. You have +been three nights without sleep. Take your rest. I order you in your +master's name." + +And on the bare stone, outside Maud Lindesay's empty room, Sholto +threw himself down and slept as sleep the dead. + +But that night, save about the chamber where abode the mother of the +Douglases, the hum of life never ceased in the great Castle of +Thrieve. Whether my lady slept or not, God knows. At any rate the door +was closed and there was silence within. + +Sholto awoke smiling in the early dawn. He had been dreaming that he +and Maud Lindesay were walking on the shore together. It was a lonely +beach with great driftwood logs whereon they sat and rested ere they +took hands again and walked forth on their way. In his dream Maud was +kind, her teasing, disdainful mood quite gone. So Sholto awoke +smiling, but in a moment he wished that he had slept on. + +He lay a space, becoming conscious of a pain in his heart--the +overnight pain of a great disaster not yet realised. For a little he +knew not what it was. Then he saw himself lying at Maud's open door, +and he remembered--first the death of his masters, then the loss of +the little maid, and lastly that of Maud, his own winsome sweetheart +Maud. In another moment he had leaped to his feet, buckled his +sword-belt tighter, slung his cloak into a corner, and run downstairs. + +The house guard which had ridden to Crichton and Edinburgh had been +replaced from the younger yeomen of the Kelton and Balmaghie levies, +even as the Earl had arranged before his departure. But of these only +a score remained on duty. All who could be spared had gone to join the +march on Edinburgh, for Galloway was set on having vengeance on the +Chancellor and had sworn to lay the capital itself in ashes in revenge +for the Black Dinner of the castle banqueting-hall. + +The rest of the guard was out searching for the bonny maids of +Thrieve, as through all the countryside Margaret Douglas and Maud +Lindesay were named. + +Eager as Sholto was to accompany the searchers, and though he knew +well that no foe was south of the Forth to assault such a strong place +as Thrieve, he did not leave the castle till he had set all in order +so far as he could. He appointed Andro the Penman and his brother John +officers of the garrison during his absence. + +Then, having seen to his accoutrement and providing, for he did not +mean to return till he had found the maids, he went lastly to the +chamber door of the Lady of Douglas to ask her leave to depart. + +At the first knock he heard a foot come slowly across the floor. It +was my lady, who opened the latch herself and stood before Sholto in +the habit she had worn when at the castle gateway Malise had told his +news. Her couch was unpressed. Her window stood open towards the +south. A candle still glimmered upon a little altar in an angle of the +wall. She had been kneeling all night before the image of the Virgin, +with her lips upon the feet of her who also was a woman, and who by +treachery had lost a son. + +"I would have your permission to depart, my Lady Countess," said +Sholto, bowing his head upon his breast that he might not intrude upon +her eyes of grief; "the castle is safe, and I can be well spared. By +God's grace I shall not return till I bring either the maids +themselves or settled news of them. Have I your leave to go?" + +The Lady of Douglas looked at him a moment without speech. + +"Surely you are not the same who rode away behind my son William. You +went out light and gay as David, my other young son. There is now a +look of Earl William himself in your face--his mother tells you so. +Well, you were suckled at the same breast as he. May a double portion +of his spirit rest on you! That lowering regard is the Douglas mark. +Follow on and turn not back till you find. Strike and cease not, till +all be avenged. I have now no son left to save or to strike. Go, +Sholto MacKim. He who is dead loved you and made you knight. I said at +the time that you were too young and would have dissuaded him. But +when did a Douglas listen to woman's advice--his mother's or his +wife's? Foster brother you are--brother you shall be. By this kiss I +make you even as my son." + +She bent and laid her lips on the young man's brow. They were hot as +iron uncooled from the smithy anvil. + +"Come with me," she added, and with a vehemence strangely at odds with +her calm of the night before, she took Sholto by the hand and drew him +after her into the room that had been Earl William's. + +From the bundle of keys at her side she took a small one of French +design. With this she unlocked a tall cabinet which stood in a corner. +She threw the folding doors open, and there in the recess hung a +wonderful suit of armour, of the sort called at that time "secret." + +"This," said the Lady of Douglas, "I had designed for my son. Ten +years was it in the making. His father trysted it from a cunning +artificer in Italy. All these years has it been perfecting for him. It +comes too late. His eyes shall never see it, nor his body wear it. But +I give it to you. No Avondale shall ever do it upon him. It will fit +you, for you and he were of a bigness. No sword can cut through these +links, were it steel of Damascus forged for a Sultan. No spear-thrust +can pierce it, though I leave you to avenge the bruise. Yet it will +lie soft as silk, concealed and unsuspected under the rags of a beggar +or the robes of a king. The cap will turn the edge of an axe, even +when swung by a giant's hand, yet it will fit into the lining of a +Spanish hat or velvet bonnet. This your present errand may prove more +dangerous than you imagine. Go and put it on." + +Sholto kneeled down and kissed the hand of his liege lady. Then when +he had risen she gave him down the armour piece by piece, dusting +each with her kerchief with a sort of reverent action, as one might +touch the face of the dead. In Sholto's hands it proved indeed light +almost as woven cloth of homespun from Dame Barbara's loom, and +flexible as the spun silk of Lyons which the great wear next their +bodies. + +With it there went an under-suit of finest and softest leather, that +the skin should not be chafed by the cunning links as they worked +smoothly over one another at each movement of the body within. + +Sholto buckled on his lady's gift with a swelling heart. It was his +dead master's armour. And as piece by piece fitted him as a glove fits +the hand, the spirit of William Douglas seemed to enter more and more +into the lad. + +Then Sholto covered this most valuable gift with his own clothing +which he had brought from the house of Carlinwark, and presently +emerged, a well-looking but still slim squire of decent family. + +Then the Countess belted on him the sword of price which went +therewith, a blade of matchless Toledan steel, but covered with a +plain scabbard of black pigskin. + +"Draw and thrust," commanded the lady, pointing at the rough stone of +the wall at the end of the passage. + +Sholto looked ruefully at the glittering blade which he held in his +hand, flashing blue from point to double guard. + +"Thrust and fear not," said the Countess of Douglas the second time. + +Sholto lunged out at the stone with all his might. Fire flew from the +smitten blue whinstone where the point, with all the weight of his +young body behind it, impinged on the wall. A tingling shock of +acutest agony ran up the striker's wrist to the shoulder blade. The +sword dropped ringing on the pavement, and Sholto's arm fell numb and +useless to his side. + +"Lift the sword and look," commanded the Lady Douglas. + +Sholto did as he was bidden, with his left hand, and lo, the point +which had bent like a hoop was sharp and straight as if just from the +armourer's. "Can you strike with your left hand?" asked the lady. + +"As with my right," answered the son of Malise the Brawny. + +There was a bar at a window in the wall bending outward in shape like +the letter U. + +"Then strike a cutting stroke with your left hand." + +Sholto took the sword. It seemed to him short-sighted policy that in +the hour of his departure on a perilous quest he should disable +himself in both arms. But Sholto MacKim was not the youth to question +an order. He lifted the sword in his left hand, and with a strong +ungraceful motion struck with all his might. + +At first he thought that he had missed altogether. There was no +tingling in his arm, no jar when the blade should have encountered the +iron. But the Countess was examining the centre of the hoop. + +"I have missed," said Sholto. + +"Come hither and look," she said, without turning round. + +And when he looked, lo, the thick iron had been cut through almost +without bending. The sides of the break were fresh, bright, and true. + +"Now look at the edge of your sword," she said. + +There was no slightest dint anywhere upon it, so that Sholto, +armourer's son as he was, turned about the blade to see if by any +chance he could have smitten with the reverse. + +Failing in this, he could only kneel to his lady and say, "This is a +great gift--I am not worthy." + +For in these times of peril jewels and lands were as nothing to the +value of such a suit of armour, which kings and princes might well +have made war to obtain. + +The faintest disembodied ghost of a smile passed over the face of the +Countess of Douglas. + +"It is the best I can do with it now," she said, "and at least no one +of the Avondales shall ever possess it." + +After the Lady Douglas had armed the young knight and sped him upon +his quest, Sholto departed over the bridge where the surly custodian +still grumbled at his horse's feet trampling his clean wooden +flooring. The young man rode a Spanish jennet of good stock, a plain +beast to look upon, neither likely to attract attention nor yet to +stir cupidity. + +His father and Laurence were already on their way. Sholto had arranged +that whether they found any trace of the lost ones or no, they were +all to meet on the third day at the little town of Kirkcudbright. For +Sholto, warned by the Lady Sybilla, even at this time had his idea, +which, because of the very horror of it, he had as yet communicated to +no one. + +It chanced that as the youth rode southward along the banks of the +Dee, glancing this way and that for traces of the missing maids, but +seeing only the grass trampled by hundreds of feet and the boats in +the stream dragging every pool with grapnels and ropes, two horsemen +on rough ponies ambled along some distance in front of him. By their +robes of decent brown they seemed merchants on a journey, portly of +figure, and consequential of bearing. + +As Sholto rapidly made up to them, with his better horse and lighter +weight, he perceived that the travellers were those two admirable and +noteworthy magistrates of Dumfries, Robert Semple and his own uncle +Ninian Halliburton of the Vennel. + +Hearing the clatter of the jennet's hoofs, they turned about suddenly +with mighty serious countenances. For in such times when the wayfarer +heard steps behind him, whether of man or beast, it repaid him to give +immediate attention thereto. + +So at the sound of hoofs Ninian and his friend set their hands to +their thighs and looked over their shoulders more quickly than seemed +possible to men of their build. + +"Ha, nephew Sholto," cried Ninian, exceedingly relieved, "blithe am I +to see you, lad. You will tell us the truth of this ill news that has +upturned the auld province. By your gloomy face I see that the major +part is overtrue. The Earl is dead, and he awes me for twenty-four +peck of wheaten meal, forbye ten firlots of malt and other sundries, +whilk siller, if these hungry Avondale Douglases come into possession, +I am little likely ever to see. Surely I have more cause to mourn +him--a fine lad and free with his having. If ye gat not settlement +this day, why then ye gat it the neist, with never a word of drawback +nor craving for batement." + +Sholto told them briefly concerning the tragedy of Edinburgh. He had +no will for any waste of words, and as briefly thereafter of the loss +of the little maid and her companion. + +The Bailie of Dumfries lifted up his hands in consternation. + +"'Tis surely a plot o' thae Avondales. Stra'ven folk are never to +lippen to. And they hae made a clean sweep. No a Gallowa' Douglas +left, if they hae speerited awa' the bonny bit lass. Man, Robert, she +was heir general to the province, baith the Lordship o' Gallowa' and +the Earldom o' Wigton, for thae twa can gang to a lassie. But as soon +as the twa laddies were oot o' the road, Fat Jamie o' Avondale cam' +into the Yerldom o' Douglas and a' the Douglasdale estates, forbye the +Borders and the land in the Hielands. Wae's me for Ninian Halliburton, +merchant and indweller in Dumfries, he'll never see hilt or hair o' +his guid siller gin that wee lassie be lost. Man, Sholto, is't no an +awfu' peety?" + +During this lamentation, to which his nephew paid little attention, +looking only from side to side as they three rode among the willows by +the waterside, the other merchant, Robert Semple, had been pondering +deeply. + +"How could she be lost in this country of Galloway?" he said, "a land +where there are naught but Douglases and men bound body and soul to +the Douglas, from Solway even to the Back Shore o' Leswalt? 'Tis just +no possible--I'll wager that it is that Hieland gipsy Mistress +Lindesay that has some love ploy on hand, and has gane aff and aiblins +ta'en the lass wi' her for company." + +At these words Sholto twisted about in his saddle, as if a wasp had +stung him suddenly. + +"Master Semple," he said, "I would have you speak more carefully. +Mistress Lindesay is a baron's daughter and has no love ploys, as you +are pleased to call them." + +The two burgesses shook with jolly significant laughter, which angered +Sholto exceedingly. + +"Your mirth, sirs, I take leave to tell you, is most mightily ill +timed," he said, "and I shall consider myself well rid of your +company." + +He was riding away when his uncle set his hand upon the bridle of +Sholto's jennet. + +"Bide ye, wild laddie," he said, "there is nae service in gaun aff +like a fuff o' tow. My freend here meaned to speak nae ill o' the +lass. But at least I ken o' ae love ploy that Mistress Lindesay is +engaged in, or your birses wadna be so ready to stand on end, my bonny +man. But guid luck to ye. Ye hae the mair chance o' finding the flown +birdies, that ye maybes think mair o' the bonny norland quey than ye +think o' the bit Gallowa' calf. But God speed ye, I say, for gin ye +bringna back the wee lass that's heir to the braid lands o' Thrieve, +it's an ill chance Ninian Halliburton has ever to fill his loof wi' +the bonny gowden 'angels' that (next to high heeven) are a man's best +freends in an evil and adulterous generation." + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +THE MISSION OF JAMES THE GROSS + + +From all sides the Douglases were marching upon Edinburgh. After the +murder of the young lords the city gates had been closed by order of +the Chancellor. The castle was put into a thorough state of defence. +The camp of the Avondale Douglases, William and James, was already on +the Boroughmuir, and the affrighted citizens looked in terror upon the +thickening banners with the bloody Douglas heart upon them, and upon +the array of stalwart and determined men of the south. Curses both +loud and deep were hurled from the besiegers' lines at every head seen +above the walls, together with promises to burn Edinburgh, castle and +burgh alike, and to slocken the ashes with the blood of every living +thing within, all for the cause of the Black Dinner and the Bull's +Head set before the brothers of Douglas. + +But at midnoon of a glorious day in the late September, a man rode out +from the west port of the city, a fat man flaccid of body, pale and +tallowy of complexion. A couple of serving-men went behind him, with +the Douglas arms broidered on their coats. They looked no little +terrified, and shook upon their horses, as indeed well they might. +This little cavalcade rode directly out of the city gates towards the +pavilion of the young Douglases of Avondale. As they went two running +footmen kept them company, one on either side of their leader, and as +that unwieldy horseman swayed this way and that in the saddle, first +one and then the other applied with his open palm the force requisite +to keep the rider erect upon his horse. + +It was the new Earl of Douglas, James the Gross, on his way to visit +the camp of his sons. As he approached the sentries who stood on guard +upon the broomy braes betwixt Merchiston and Bruntsfield, he was +challenged in a fierce southland shout by one of the Carsphairn levies +who knew him not. + +"Stand back there, fat loon, gin ye wantna a quarrel shot intil that +swagging tallow-bag ye ca' your wame!" + +"Out of my way, hill varlet!" cried the man on horseback. + +But the Carsphairn man stood with his cross-bow pointed straight at the +leader of the cavalcade, crying at the same time in a loud, +far-carrying voice over his shoulder, "Here awa', Anthon--here awa', +Bob! Come and help me to argue wi' this fat rogue." + +Several other hillmen came hurrying up, and the little company of +riders was brought to a standstill. Then ensued this colloquy. + +"Who are you that dare stop my way?" demanded the Earl. + +"Wha may ye be that comes shuggy-shooin' oot o' the bluidy city o' +Edinburgh intil oor camp," retorted him of Carsphairn, "sitting your +beast for all the warld like a lump o' potted-head whammelled oot o' a +bowl?" + +"I am the Earl of Douglas." + +"The Yerl o' Dooglas! Then a bonny hand they hae made o' him in +Edinburgh. I heard they had only beheaded him." + +"I tell you I am Earl of Douglas. I bid you beware. Conduct me to the +tent of my sons!" + +At this point an aged man of some authority stood forward and gazed +intently at James the Gross, looking beneath his hand as at an +extensive prospect of which he wished to take in all the details. + +"Lads," he said, "hold your hands--it rins i' my head that this +craitur' may be Jamie, the fat Yerl o' Avondale. We'll let him gang by +in peace. His sons are decent lads." + +There came from the hillmen a chorus of "Avondale he may be--there's +nae sayin' what they can breed up there by Stra'ven. But we are weel +assured that he is nae richt Douglas. Na, nae Douglas like yon man was +ever cradled or buried in Gallowa'." + +At this moment Lord William Douglas, seeing the commotion on the +outposts, came down the brae through the broom. Upon seeing his father +he took the plumed bonnet from off his head, and, ordering the +Carsphairn men sharply to their places, he set his hand upon the +bridle of the gross Earl's horse. So with the two running footmen +still preserving some sort of equilibrium in his unsteady bulk, James +of Avondale was brought to the door of a tent from which floated the +banner of the Douglas house, blue with a bleeding heart upon it. + +At the entering in of the pavilion, all stained and trodden into the +soil by the feet of passers-by, lay the royal banner of the Stewarts, +so placed by headstrong James Douglas the younger, in contempt of +both tutor and Chancellor, who, being but cowards and murderers, had +usurped the power of the king within the realm. + +That sturdy youth came to the door of his pavilion half-dressed as he +had lain down, yawning and stretching reluctantly, for he had been on +duty all night perfecting the arrangements for besieging the town. + +"James--James," cried his father, catching sight of his favourite son +rubbing sleepily his mass of crisp hair, "what's this that I hear? +That you and William are in rebellion and are defying the power o' the +anointed king--?" + +At this moment the footman undid the girths of his horse, which, being +apparently well used to the operation, stood still with its feet +planted wide apart. Then they ran quickly round to the side towards +which the swaying bulk threatened to fall, the saddle slipped, and, +like a top-heavy forest tree, James the Gross subsided into the arms +of his attendants, who, straining and panting, presently set him on +his feet upon the blazoned royal foot-cloth at the threshold of the +pavilion. + +Almost he had fallen backwards when he saw the use to which his daring +sons had put the emblem of royal authority. + +"Guid save us a', laddies," he cried, staggering across the flag into +the tent, "ken ye what ye do? The royal banner o' the King o' +Scots--to mak' a floor-clout o'! Sirce, sirce, in three weeks I shall +be as childless as the Countess o' Douglas is this day." + +"That," said William Douglas, coldly, indicating with his finger the +trampled cloth, "is not the banner of Scotland, but only that of the +Seneschal Stewarts. The King of Scots is but a puling brat, and they +who usurp his name are murderous hounds whose necks I shall presently +stretch with the rogue's halter!" + +Young James Douglas had set an oaken folding chair for his father at +the upper end of the pavilion, and into this James the Gross fell +rather than seated himself. + +His sons William and James continued to stand before him, as was the +dutiful habit of the time. Their father recovered his breath before +beginning to speak. + +"What's this--what's this I hear?" he exclaimed testily, "is it true +that ye are in flat rebellion against the lawful authority of the +king? Laddies, laddies, ye maun come in wi' me to his excellence the +Chancellor and make instanter your obedience. Ye are young and for my +sake he will surely overlook this. I will speak with him." + +"Father," said William Douglas, with a cold firmness in his voice, "we +are here to punish the murderers of our cousins. We shall indeed enter +the guilty city, but it will be with fire and sword." + +"Aye," cried rollicking, headstrong James, "and we will roast the +Crichton on a spit and hang that smug traitor, Tutor Livingston, over +the walls of David's Tower, a bonny ferlie for his leman's wonder!" + +There came a cunning look into the small pig's eyes of James the +Gross. + +"Na, na, foolish laddies, thae things will ye no do. Mind ye not the +taunts and scorns that the Earl--the late Earl o' Douglas that is--put +upon us a'? Think on his pride and vainglory, whilk Scripture says +shall be brocht low. Think in especial how this righteous judgment +that has fallen on him and on his brother has cleared our way to the +Earldom." + +The choleric younger brother leaped forward with an oath on his lips, +but his calmer senior kept him back with his hand. + +"Silence, James!" he said; "I will answer our father. Sir, we have +heard what you say, but our minds are not changed. What cause to +associate yourself with traitors and mansworn you may have, we do not +know and we do not care." + +At his son's first words James the Gross rose with a sudden surprising +access of dignity remarkable in one of his figure. + +"I bid you remember," he said, speaking southland English, as he was +wont to do in moments of excitement, "I bid you remember, sirrah, that +I am the Earl of Douglas and Avondale, Justicer of Scotland--and your +father." + +William Douglas bowed, respectful but unmoved. + +"My lord," he said, "I forget nothing. I do not judge you. You are in +authority over our house. You shall do what you will with these forces +without there, so be you can convince them of your right. Black +murder, whether you knew and approved it or no, has made you Earl of +Douglas. But, sir, if you take part with my cousins' murderers now, or +screen them from our just vengeance and the vengeance of God, I tell +you that from this day you are a man without children. For in this +matter I speak not only for myself, but for all your sons!" He turned +to his brother. + +"James," he said, "call in the others." James went to the tent door +and called aloud. + +"Archibald, Hugh, and John, come hither quickly." + +A moment after three young men of noble build, little more than lads +indeed, but with the dark Douglas allure stamped plainly upon their +countenances, entered, bowed to their father, and stood silent with +their hands crossed upon the hilts of their swords. + +William Douglas went on with the same determinate and relentless calm. + +"My lord," he said, very respectfully, "here stand your five sons, all +soldiers and Douglases, waiting to hear your will. Murder has been +done upon the chief of our house by two men of cowardly heart and mean +consideration, Crichton and Livingston, instigated by the false +ambassador of the King of France. We have come hither to punish these +slayers of our kin, and we desire to know what you, our father, think +concerning the matter." + +James the Gross was still standing, steadying himself with his hand on +the arm of the oaken chair in which he had been sitting. He spoke with +some difficulty, which might proceed either from emotion or from the +plethoric habit of the man. + +"Have I for this brought children into the world," he said, "that they +should lift up their hands against the father that begat them? Ye know +that I have ever warned you against the pride and arrogance of your +cousins of Galloway." + +"You mean, of the late Earl of Douglas and the boy his brother," +answered William; "the pride of eighteen and fourteen is surely vastly +dangerous." + +"I mean those who have been tried and executed in Edinburgh by royal +authority for many well-grounded offences against the state," cried +the Earl, loudly. + +"Will you deign to condescend upon some of them?" said his son, as +quietly as before. + +"Your cousins' pride and ostentation of riches and retinue, being far +beyond those of the King, constituted in themselves an eminent danger +to the state. Nay, the turbulence of their followers has more than +once come before me in my judicial capacity as Justicer of the realm. +What more would you have?" + +"Were you, my lord, of those who condemned them to death?" + +"Not so, William; it had not been seemly in a near kinsman and the +heir to their dignities--that is, save and except Galloway, which by +ill chance goes in the female line, if we find not means to break that +unfortunate reservation. Your cousins were condemned by my Lords +Crichton and Livingston." + +"We never heard of either of them," said William, calmly. + +"In their judicial aspect they may be styled lords, as is the Scottish +custom," said James the Gross, "even as when I was laird of Balvany +and a sitter on the bed of justice, it was my right to be so +nominated." + +"Then our cousins were condemned with your approval, my Lord of +Douglas and Avondale?" persisted his son. + +James the Gross was visibly perturbed. + +"Approval, William, is not the word to use--not a word to use in the +circumstances. They were near kinsmen!" + +"But upon being consulted you did not openly disapprove--is it not so? +And you will not aid us to avenge our cousins' murder now?" + +"Hearken, William, it was not possible--I could not openly disapprove +when I also was in the Chancellor's hands, and I knew not but that he +might include me in the same condemnation. Besides, lads, think of the +matter calmly. There is no doubt that the thing happens most +conveniently, and the event falls out well for us. Our own barren +acres have many burdens upon them. What could I do? I have been a poor +man all my life, and after the removal of obstacles I saw my way to +become the richest man in Scotland. How could I openly object?" + +William Douglas bowed. + +"So--" he said, "that is what we desired to know! Have I your +permission to speak further?" + +His father nodded pleasantly, seating himself again as one that has +finished a troublesome business. He rubbed his hands together, and +smiled upon his sons. + +"Aye, speak gin ye like, William, but sit doon--sit doon, lads. We are +all of one family, and it falls out well for you as it does for me. +Let us all be pleasant and agreeable together!" + +"I thank you, my lord," said his son, "but we will not sit down. We +are no longer of one family. We may be your sons in the eye of the law +and in natural fact. But from this day no one of us will break bread, +speak word, hold intimacy or converse with you. So far as in us lies +we will renounce you as our father. We will not, because of the +commandment, rise in rebellion against you. You are Earl of Douglas, +and while you live must rule your own. But for me and my brothers we +will never be your children to honour, your sons to succour, nor your +liegemen to fight for you. We go to offer our services to our cousin +Margaret, the little Maid of Galloway. We will keep her province with +our swords as the last stronghold of the true Douglases of the Black. +I have spoken. Fare you well, my lord!" + +During his son's speech the countenance of the newly made Earl of +Douglas grew white and mottled, tallowy white and dull red in turns +showing upon it, like the flesh of a drained ox. He rose unsteadily to +his feet, moving one hand deprecatingly before him, like a helpless +man unexpectedly stricken. His nether lip quivered, pendulous and +piteous, in the midst of his grey beard, and for a moment he strove in +vain with his utterance. + +His eyes fell abashed from the cold sternness of his eldest son's +glance, and he seemed to scan the countenances of the younger four for +any token of milder mood. + +"James," he said, "ye hear William. Surely ye do not hold with him? +Remember I am your father, and I was aye particular fond o' you, +Jamie. I mind when ye wad rin to sit astride my shoulder. And ye used +to like that fine!" + +There were tears in the eyes of the weak, cunning, treacherous-hearted +man. The lips of James Douglas quivered a little, and his voice failed +him, as he strove to answer his father. What he would have said none +knows, but ere he could voice a word, the eyes of his brother, stern +as the law given to Moses on the mount, were bent upon him. He +straightened himself up, and, with a look carefully averted from the +palsied man before him, he said, in a steady tone, "What my brother +William says, I say." + +His father looked at him again, as if still hoping against hope for +some kinder word. Then he turned to his younger sons. + +"Archie, Hugh, little Jockie, ye willna take part against your ain +faither?" + +"We hold with our brothers!" said the three, speaking at once. + +At this moment there came running in at the door of the tent a lad of +ten--Henry, the youngest of the Avondale brothers. He stopped short in +the midst, glancing wonderingly from one to the other. His little +sword with which he had been playing dropped from his hand. James the +Gross looked at him. + +"Harry," he said, "thy brothers are a' for leavin' me. Will ye gang +wi' them, or bide wi' your faither?" + +"Father," said the boy, "I will go with you, if ye will let me help to +kill Livingston and the Chancellor!" + +"Come, laddie," said the Earl, "ye understand not these matters. I +will explain to you when we gang back to the braw things in Edinbra' +toon!" + +"No, no," cried the boy, stooping to pick up his sword, "I will bide +with my brothers, and help to kill the murderers of my cousins. What +William says, I say." + +Then the five young men went out and called for their horses, their +youngest brother following them. And as the flap of the tent fell, and +he was left alone, James the Gross sank his head between his soft, +moist palms, and sobbed aloud. + +For he was a weak, shifty, unstable man, loving approval, and a burden +to himself in soul and body when left to bear the consequences of his +acts. + +"Oh, my bairns," he cried over and over, "why was I born? I am not +sufficient for these things!" + +And even as he sobbed and mourned, the hoofs of his sons' horses rang +down the wind as they rode through the camp towards Galloway. And +little Henry rode betwixt William and James. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +THE WITHERED GARLAND + + +Meanwhile Sholto fared onwards down the side of the sullen water of +Dee. The dwellers along the bank were all on the alert, and cried many +questions to him about the death of the Earl, most thinking him a +merchant travelling from Edinburgh to take ship at Kirkcudbright. +Sholto answered shortly but civilly, for the inquirers were mostly +decent folk well on in years, whose lads had gone to the levy, and who +naturally desired to know wherefore their sons had been summoned. + +In return he asked everywhere for news of any cavalcade which might +have passed that way, but neither from the country folk, nor yet from +hoof-marks upon the grassy banks, could he glean the least information +pertinent to the purpose of his quest. + +Not till he came within a few miles of the town did he meet with man +or woman who could give him any material assistance. It was by the +Fords of Tongland that he first met with one Tib MacLellan, who with +much volubility and some sagacity retailed fresh fish to the burghers +of Kirkcudbright and the whole countryside, giving a day to each +district so long as the supply of her staple did not fail. + +"Fair good day to ye, mistress!" said Sholto, taking off his bonnet to +the sonsy upstanding fishwife. + +"And to you, bonny lad," replied the complimented dame, dropping a +courtesy, "may the corbie never cry at ye nor ill-faured pie juik at +your left elbow. May candle creesh never fa' on ye, red fire burn ye, +nor water scald ye." + +Tib was reeling off her catalogue of blessings when Sholto cut her +short. + +"Can you tell me, good lady," he asked, in his most insinuating tones, +"if there has been any vessel cleared from the port during these last +weeks?" + +"'Deed, sir, that I should ken, for is no my ain sister marriet on +Jock Wabster, wha's cousin by marriage twice removed is the bailie +officer o' the port? So I can advise ye that there was a boat frae the +Isle o' Man wi' herrin's for the great houses, though never a fin o' +them like the halesome fish I carry here in my creel. Wad ye like to +see them, to buy a dozen for the bonny lass that's waiting for ye? +That were a present to recommend ye, indeed--far mair than your gaudy +flowers, fule ballads, and sic like trash!" + +"You cannot remember any other ship of larger size than the Manx +fishing-boat?" continued Sholto. + +"Weel, no to ca' cleared frae the port," Tib went on, "but there was a +pair o' uncanny-looking foreign ships that lay oot there by the +Manxman's Lake for eight days, and the nicht afore yestreen they gaed +oot with the tide. They were saying aboot the foreshore that they gaed +west to some other port to tak' on board the French monzie that cam' +to the Thrieve at the great tournaying! But I kenna what wad tak' him +awa' to the Fleet or the Ferry Toon o' Cree, and leave a' the +pleasures o' Kirkcudbright ahint him. Forbye sic herrin's as are +supplied by me, Tib MacLellan, at less than cost price--as I houp +your honour will no forget, when in the course o' natur' and the +providence o' God you and her comes to hae a family atween ye." + +Sholto promised that he would not forget when the time alluded to +arrived. Then, turning his jennet off the direct road to Kirkcudbright +town, and betaking him through the Ardendee fords, he made all speed +towards a little port upon the water of Fleet, at the point where that +fair moorland stream winds lazily through the water-meadows for a mile +or two, after its brawling passage down from the hills of heather and +before it commits itself to the mother sea. + +But it was not until he had long crossed it and reached the lonely +Cassencary shore that Sholto found his first trace of the lost +maidens. For as he rode along the cliffs his keen eye noted a +well-marked trail through the heather approaching the shore at right +angles to his own line of march. The tracks, still perfectly evident +in the grassy places, showed that as many as twenty horses had passed +that way within the last two or three days. He stood awhile examining +the marks, and then, leading his beast slowly by the bridle, he +continued to follow them westward till they became confused and lost +near a little jetty erected by the lairds of Cree and Cassencary for +convenience of traffic with Cumberland and the Isle of Man. Here on +the very edge of the foreshore, blown by some chance wind behind a +stone and wonderfully preserved there, Sholto found a child's chain of +woodbine entwined with daisies and autumnal pheasant's eye. He took it +up and examined it. Some of the flowers were not yet withered. The +inter-weaving was done after a fashion he had taught the little Maid +of Galloway himself, one happy day when he had walked on air with the +glamour of Maud Lindesay's smiles uplifting his heart. For that +tricksome grace had asked him to teach her also, and he remembered the +lingering touch of her fingers ere she could compass the quaint device +of the pheasant's eye peeping out from the midst of each white +festoon. + +Then a deep despair settled down on Sholto's spirit. He knew that Maud +Lindesay and the fair Maid of Galloway had undoubtedly fallen into the +power of the terrible Marshal de Retz, Sieur of Machecoul, ambassador +of the King of France, and also many things else which need not in +this place be put on record. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +ASTARTE THE SHE-WOLF + + +In a dark wainscoted room overlooking that branch of the Seine which +divides the northern part of Paris from the Isle of the City, Gilles +de Retz, lately Chamberlain of the King of France, sat writing. The +hotel had recently been redecorated after the sojourn of the English. +Wooden pavements had again been placed in the rooms where the +barbarians had strewed their rushes and trampled upon their rotting +fishbones. Noble furniture from the lathes of Poitiers, decorated with +the royal ermines of Brittany, stood about the many alcoves. The table +itself whereon the famous soldier wrote was closed in with drawers and +shelves which descended to the floor and seemed to surround the +occupant like a cell. + +Before de Retz stood a curious inkstand, made by some cunning jeweller +out of the upper half of a human skull of small size, cut across at +the eye-holes, inverted, and set in silver with a rim of large rubies. +This was filled with ink of a startling vermilion colour. + +The document which Gilles de Retz was busy transcribing upon sheets of +noble vellum in this strange ink was of an equally mysterious +character. The upper part had the appearance of a charter engrossed by +the hand of some deft legal scribe, but the words which followed were +as startling as the vehicle by means of which they were made to stand +out from the vellum. + +"Unto Barran-Sathanas; Lord most glorious and puissant in hell +beneath and in the earth above, I, his unworthy servitor Gilles de +Retz, make my vows, hereby forever renouncing God, Christ, and the +Blessed Saints." + +To this appalling introduction succeeded many lines of close and +delicate script, interspersed with curious cabalistic signs, in which +that of the cross reversed could frequently be detected. Gilles de +Retz wrote rapidly, rising only at intervals to throw a fresh log of +wood across the vast iron dogs on either side of the wide fireplace, +as the rain from the northwest beat more and more fiercely upon the +small glazed panes of the window and howled among the innumerable +gargoyles and twisted roof-stacks of the Hotel de Pornic. + +Within the chamber itself, in the intervals of the storm, a low +continuous growling made itself evident. At first it was disregarded +by the writer, but presently, by its sheer pertinacity, the sound so +irritated him that he rose from his seat, and, striding to a narrow +door covered with a heavy curtain, he threw it wide open to the wall. +Then through the black oblong so made, a huge and shaggy she-wolf +slouched slowly into the room. + +The marshal kicked the brute impatiently with his slippered foot as +she entered, and, strange to relate, the wolf slunk past him with the +cowed air of a dog conscious of having deserved punishment. + +"Astarte, vilest beast," he cried, "have I not a thousand times warned +you to be silent and wait outside when I am at work within my +chamber?" + +The she-wolf eyed her master as he went back towards his table. Then, +seeing him lift his pen, with a sigh of content she dropped down upon +the warm hearthstone, lying with her haunches towards the blazing logs +and her bristling head couched upon her paws. Her yellow shining eyes +blinked sleepily and approvingly at him, while with her tongue she +rasped the soft pads of her feet one by one, biting away the fur from +between the toes with her long and gleaming teeth. Presently Astarte +appeared to doze off. Her eyes were shut, her attitude relaxed. But so +soon as ever her master moved even an inch to consult a marked list of +dates which hung on a hook beside him, or leaned over to dip a quill +in his scarlet ink, the flashing yellow eye and the gleam of white +teeth underneath told that Astarte was awake and intently watching +every movement of the worker. + +Through the heavy boom of the storm without, the thresh of the rain +upon the lattice casement, and the irregular whipping gusts which +shook the house, the soft wheeze of the engrossing quill could be +heard, the crackle of the burning logs and the heavy regular breathing +of the couchant she-wolf being the only other sounds audible within +the apartment. + +Gilles de Retz wrote on, smiling to himself as he added line after +line to his manuscript. His beard shone with a truculent blue-black +lustre. For the moment the aged look had quite gone out of his face. +His cheek appeared flushed with the hues of youth and reinvigorated +hope, yet withal of a youth without innocence or charm. Rather it +seemed as if fresh blood had been injected into the veins of some aged +demon, moribund and cruel, giving, instead of health or grace, only a +new lease of cruelty and lust. + +Presently another door opened, the main entrance of the apartment this +time, not the small private portal through which Astarte the wolf had +been admitted. A girl came in, thrusting aside the curtain, and, for +the space of a moment, holding it outstretched with an arm gowned in +pure white before dropping it with a rustle of heavy silken fabric +upon the ground. + +The Marshal de Retz wrote on without appearing to be conscious of any +new presence in his private chamber. The girl stood regarding him, +with eyes that blazed with an intent so deadly and a hate so +all-possessing that the yellow treachery in those of Astarte the +she-wolf appeared kind and affectionate by contrast. + +At the girl's entrance that shaggy beast had raised herself upon her +fore paws, and presently she gave vent to a low growl, half of +distrust and half of warning, which at once reached the ears of the +busy worker. + +Gilles de Retz looked up quickly, and, catching sight of the Lady +Sybilla, with a sweep of his hand he thrust his manuscript into an +open drawer of the escritoire. + +"Ah, Sybilla," he said, leaning back in his chair with an air of easy +familiarity, "you are more sparing of your visits to me than of yore. +To what do I owe the pleasure and honour of this one?" + +The girl eyed him long before answering. She stood statue-still by the +curtain at the entrance of the apartment, ignoring the chair which the +marshal had offered her with a bow and a courteous wave of his hand. + +"I have come," she made answer at last, in the deep even tones which +she had used before the council of the traitors at Stirling, "to +demand from you, Messire Gilles de Retz, what you mean to do with the +little Margaret Douglas and her companion, whom you wickedly +kidnapped from their own country and have brought with you in your +train to France?" + +"I have satisfaction in informing you," replied the marshal, suavely, +"that it is my purpose to dispose of both these agreeable young ladies +entirely according to my own pleasure." + +The girl caught at her breast with her hand, as if to stay a sudden +spasm of pain. + +"Not at Tiffauges--" she gasped, "not at Champtoce?" + +The marshal leaned back, enjoying her terror, as one tastes in slow +sips a rare brand of wine. He found the flavour of her fears +delicious. + +"No, Sybilla," he replied at last, "neither at Champtoce nor yet at +Tiffauges--for the present, that is, unless some of your Scottish +friends come over to rescue them out of my hands." + +"How, then, do you intend to dispose of them?" she urged. + +"I shall send them to your puking sister and her child, hiding their +heads and sewing their samplers at Machecoul. What more can you ask? +Surely the young and fair are safe in such worthy society, even if +they may chance to find it a little dull." + +"How can I believe him, or know that for once he will forego his +purposes of hell?" Sybilla murmured, half to herself. + +The Marshal de Retz smiled, if indeed the contraction of muscles which +revealed a line of white teeth can be called by that name. In the +sense in which Astarte would have smiled upon a defenceless sheepfold, +so Gilles de Retz might have been said to smile at his visitor. + +"You may believe me, sweet Lady Sybilla," said the marshal, "because +there is one vice which it is needless for me to practise in your +presence, that of uncandour. I give you my word that unless your +friends come worrying me from the land of Scots, the maids shall not +die. Perhaps it were better to warn any visitors that even at +Machecoul we are accustomed to deal with such cases. Is it not so, +Astarte?" + +At the sound of her name the huge wolf rose slowly, and, walking to +her master's knee, she nosed upon him like a favourite hound. + +"And if your intent be not that which causes fear to haunt the +precincts of your palaces like a night-devouring beast, and makes your +name an execration throughout Brittany and the Vendee, why have you +carried the little child and the other pretty fool forth from their +country? Was it not enough that you should slay the brothers? +Wherefore was it necessary utterly to cut off the race of the +Douglases?" + +"Sybilla, dear sister of my sainted Catherine," purred the marshal, +"it is your privilege that you should speak freely. When it is +pleasing to me I may even answer you. It pleases me now, listen--you +know of my devotion to science. You are not ignorant at what cost, at +what vast sacrifices, I have in secret pushed my researches beyond the +very confines of knowledge. The powers of the underworlds are +revealing themselves to me, and to me alone. Evil and good alike shall +be mine. I alone will pluck the blossom of fire, and tear from hell +and hell's master their cherished mystery." + +He paused as if mentally to recount his triumphs, and then continued. + +"But at the moment of success I am crossed by a prejudice. The +ignorant people clamour against my life--_canaille_! I regard them +not. But nevertheless their foolish prejudices reach other ears. +Hearken!" + +And like a showman he beckoned Sybilla to the window. A low roar of +human voices, fitful yet sustained, made itself distinctly audible +above the shriller hooting of the tempest. + +"Open the window!" he commanded, standing behind the curtain. + +The girl unhasped the brazen hook and looked out. Beneath her a little +crowd of poor people had collected about a woman who was beating with +bleeding hands upon the shut door of the Hotel de Pornic. + +"Justice! justice!" cried the woman, her hands clasped and her long +black hair streaming down her shoulders, "give me my child, my little +Pierre. Yester-eve he was enticed into the monster's den by his +servant Poitou, and I shall never see him more! Give me my boy, +murderer! Restore me my son!" + +And the answering roar of the people's voices rose through the open +window to the ears of the marshal. "Give the woman her son, Gilles de +Retz!" + +At that moment the woman caught sight of Sybilla. Instantly she +changed her tone from entreaty to fierce denunciation. + +"Behold the witch, friends, let us tear her to pieces. She is kept +young and beautiful by drinking the blood of children. Throw thyself +down, Jezebel, that the dogs may eat thee in the streets." + +And a shout went up from the populace as Sybilla shut to the window, +shuddering at the horrors which surrounded her. + +The Marshal de Retz had not moved, watching her face without regarding +the noise outside. Now he went back to his chair, and bending his +slender white fingers together, he looked up at her. + +Presently he struck a silver bell by his side three times, and the +mellow sound pervaded the house. + +Poitou appeared instantly at the inner door through which the she-wolf +had entered. + +"How does it go?" asked the marshal, with his usual careless easy +grace. + +"Not well," said Poitou, shaking his head; "that is, rightly up to a +point, and then--all wrong!" + +For the first time the countenance of the marshal appeared troubled. + +"And I was sure of success this time. We must try them younger. It is +all so near, yet, strangely it escapes us. Well, Poitou, I shall come +in a little when I have finished with this lady. Tell De Sille to +expect me." + +Poitou bowed respectfully and was withdrawing, too well trained to +smile or even lift his eyes to where Sybilla stood by the window. + +His master appeared to recollect himself. + +"A moment, Poitou--there are some troublesome people of the city +rabble at the door. Bid the guard turn out, and thrust them away. Tell +them to strike not too gently with the flats of their swords and the +butts of their spears." + +Gilles de Retz listened for some time after the disappearance of his +familiar. Presently the low droning note of popular execration +changed into sharper exclamations of hatred, mingled with cries of +pain. + +Then the marshal smiled, and rubbed his hands lightly one over the +other. + +"That's my good lads," he said; "hear the rattle of the spear-hilts +upon the paving-stones? They are bringing the butts into close +acquaintance with certain very ill-shod feet. Ah, now they are gone!" + +The marshal took a long breath and went on, half to himself and half +to Sybilla. + +"But I own it is all most inconvenient," he said, thoughtfully. "Here +in Paris, in King Charles's country, it does not so greatly matter. +For the affair in Scotland has set me right with the King and in +especial with the Dauphin. By the death of the Douglases I have given +back the duchy of Touraine to the kings of France after three +generations. I have therefore well earned the right to be allowed to +seek knowledge in mine own way." + +"The service of the devil is a poor way to knowledge," said the girl. + +"Ah, there it is," said the marshal, raising his hand with gentle +deprecation, "even you, who are so highly privileged, are not wholly +superior to vulgar prejudice. I keep a college of priests for the +service of God and the Virgin. They have done me but little good. +Surely therefore I may be allowed a little service of That Other, who +has afforded me such exquisite pleasure and aided me so much. The +Master of Evil knows all things, and he can help whom he will to the +secrets of wealth, of power, and of eternal youth." + +"Have you gained any of these by the aid of that Master whom you +serve?" asked the Lady Sybilla, with great quiet in her voice. + +"Nay, not yet," cried the marshal, moved for the first time, "not +yet--perhaps because I have sought too eagerly and hotly. But I am now +at least within sight of the wondrous goal. See," he added, with +genuine excitement labouring in his voice, "see--I am still a young +man, yet though I, Gilles de Retz, was born to the princeliest fortune +in France, and by marriage added another, they have both been spent +well nigh to the last stiver in learning the hidden secrets of the +universe. I am still a young man, I say, but look at my whitening +hair, count the deep wrinkles on my forehead, consider my withered +cheek. Have I not tasted all agonies, renounced all delights, and cast +aside all scruples that I might win back my youth, and with it the +knowledge of good and evil?" + +Sybilla went to the door and stood again by the curtain. + +"Then you swear by your own God that you will let no evil befall the +Scottish maids?" she said. + +"I have told you already--let that suffice!" he replied with sudden +coldness; "you know that, like the Master whom I serve, I can keep my +word. I will not harm them, so long as their Scottish kinsfolk come +not hither meddling with my purposes. I have enough of meddlers in +France without adding outlanders thereto! I cannot keep a new and +permanent danger at grass within my gates." + +The Lady Sybilla passed through the portal by which she had entered, +without adieu or leave-taking of any kind. Gilles de Retz rose as soon +as the curtain had fallen, and shook himself with a yawn, like one +who has got through a troublesome necessary duty. Then he walked to +the window and looked out. The woman had come back and was kneeling +before the Hotel de Pornic. + +[Illustration: A BRIGHT LIGHT AS OF A FURNACE BURNT UP BEFORE HIM, AND +THE HEAT WAS OVERPOWERING AS IT RUSHED LIKE A RUDDY TIDE-RACE AGAINST +HIS FACE.] + +At sight of him she cried with sudden shrillness, "My lord, my great +lord, give me back my child--my little Pierre. He is my heart's heart. +My lord, he never did you any harm in all his innocent life!" + +The Marshal de Retz shut the window with a shrug of protest against +the vulgarity of prejudice. He did not notice four men in the garb of +pilgrims who stood in the dark of a doorway opposite. + +"This is both unnecessary and excessively discomposing," he muttered; +"I fear Poitou has not been judicious enough in his selections." + +He turned towards the private door, and as he did so Astarte the +she-wolf rose and silently followed him with her head drooped forward. +He went along a dark passage and pushed open a little iron door. A +bright light as of a furnace burnt up before him, and the heat was +overpowering as it rushed like a ruddy tide-race against his face. + +"Well, Poitou, does it go better?" he said cheerfully, "or must we try +them of the other sex and somewhat younger, as I at first proposed?" + +He let the door slip back, and the action of a powerful spring shut +out Astarte. Whereat she sat down on her haunches in the dark of the +passage, and showed her gleaming teeth in a grin, as, with cocked +ears, she listened to the sounds from within the secret laboratory of +the Marshal de Retz. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +MALISE FETCHES A CLOUT + + +The four men whom the Messire Gilles, by good fortune, failed to see +standing in the doorway opposite the Hotel de Pornic were attired in +the habit of pilgrims to the shrine of Saint James of Compostella. +Upon their heads they wore broad corded hats of brown. Long brown +robes covered them from head to foot. Their heads were tonsured, and +as they went along they fumbled at their beads and gave their +benediction to the people that passed by, whether they returned them +an alms or not. This they did by spreading abroad the fingers of both +hands and inclining their heads, at the same time muttering to +themselves in a tongue which, if not Latin, was at least equally +unknown to the good folk of Paris. + +"It is the house," said the tallest of the four, "stand well back +within the shade!" + +"Nay, Sholto, what need?" grumbled another, a very thickset palmer he; +"if the maids be within, let us burst the gates, and go and take them +out!" + +"Be silent, Malise," put in the third pilgrim, whose dress of richer +stuff than that of his companions, added to an air of natural command, +betrayed the man of superior rank, "remember, great jolterhead, that +we are not at the gates of Edinburgh with all the south country at our +backs." + +The fourth, a slender youth and fresh of countenance, stood somewhat +behind the first three, without speaking, and wore an air of profound +meditation and abstraction. + +It is not difficult to identify three out of the four. Sholto's quest +for his sweetheart was a thing fixed and settled. That his father and +his brother Laurence should accompany him was also to be expected. But +the other and more richly attired was somewhat less easy to be +certified. The Lord James of Douglas it was, who spoke French with the +idiomatic use and easy accentuation of a native, albeit of those +central provinces which had longest owned the sway of the King of +France. The brothers MacKim also spoke the language of the country +after a fashion. For many Frenchmen had come over to Galloway in the +trains of the first two Dukes of Touraine, so that the Gallic speech +was a common accomplishment among the youths who sighed to adventure +where so many poor Scots had won fortune, in the armies of the Kings +of France. + +Indeed, throughout the centuries Paris cannot be other than Paris. And +Paris was more than ever Paris in the reign of Charles the Seventh. +Her populace, gay, fickle, brave, had just cast off the yoke of the +English, and were now venting their freedom from stern Saxon policing +according to their own fashion. Not the King of France, but the Lord +of Misrule held the sceptre in the capital. + +It was not long therefore before a band of rufflers swung round a +corner arm-in-arm, taking the whole breadth of the narrow causeway +with them as they came. It chanced that their leader espied the four +Scots standing in the wide doorway of the house opposite the Hotel de +Pornic. + +"Hey, game lads," he cried, in that roistering shriek which then +passed for dashing hardihood among the youth of Paris, "here be some +holy men, pilgrims to the shrine of Saint Denis, I warrant. I, too, am +a clerk of a sort, for Henriet tonsured me on Wednesday sennight. Let +us see if these men of good works carry any of the deceitful vanities +of earth about with them in their purses. Sometimes such are not ill +lined!" + +The youths accepted the proposal of their leader with alacrity. + +"Let us have the blessing of the holy palmers," they cried, "and eke +the contents of their pockets!" + +So with a gay shout, and in an evil hour for themselves, they bore +down upon the four Scots. + +"Good four evangelists," cried the youth who had spoken first--a tall, +ill-favoured, and sallow young man in a cloak of blue lined with +scarlet, swaggering it with long strides before the others, "tell us +which of you four is Messire Matthew. For, being a tax-gatherer, he +will assuredly have money of his own, and besides, since the sad death +of your worthy friend Judas, he must have succeeded him as your +treasurer." + +"This is the keeper of our humble store, noble sir," answered the Lord +James Douglas, quietly, indicating the giant Malise with his left +hand, "but spare him and us, I pray you courteously!" + +"Ha, so," mocked the tall youth, turning to Malise, "then the +gentleman of the receipt of custom hath grown strangely about the +chest since he went a-wandering from Galilee!" + +And he reached forward his hand to pull away the cloak which hung +round the great frame of the master armourer. + +Malise MacKim understood nothing of his words or of his intent, but +without looking at his tormentor or any of the company, he asked of +James Douglas, in a voice like the first distant mutterings of a +thunder-storm, "Shall I clout him?" + +"Nay, be patient, Malise, I bid you. This is an ill town in which to +get rid of a quarrel once begun. Be patient!" commanded James Douglas +under his breath. + +"We are clerks ourselves," the swarthy youth went on, "and we have +come to the conclusion that such holy palmers as you be, men from +Burgundy or the Midi, as I guess by your speech, Spaniards by your +cloaks and this good tax-gatherer's beard, ought long ago to have +taken the vows of poverty. If not, you shall take them now. For, most +worthy evangelistic four, be it known unto you that I am Saint Peter +and can loose or bind. So turn out your money-bags. Draw your blades, +limber lads!" + +Whereupon his companions with one accord drew their swords and +advanced upon the Scots. These stood still without moving as if they +had been taken wholly unarmed. + +"Shall I clout them now?" rumbled Malise the second time, with an +anxious desire in his voice. + +"Bide a wee yet," whispered the Lord James; "we will try the soft +answer once more, and if that fail, why then, old Samson, you may +clout your fill." + +"_His_ fill!" corrected Malise, grimly. + +"Your pardon, good gentlemen," said James of Douglas aloud to the +spokesman, "we are poor men and travel with nothing but the merest +necessities--of which surely you would not rob us." + +"Nay, holy St. Luke," mocked the swarthy one, "not rob. That is an +evil word--rather we would relieve you of temptation for your own +souls' good. You are come for your sins to Paris. You know that the +love of money is the root of all evil. So in giving to us who are +clerks of Paris you will not lose your ducats, but only contribute of +your abundance to Holy Mother Church. I am a clerk, see--I do not +deceive you! I will both shrive and absolve you in return for the +filthy lucre!" + +And, commanding one of his rabble to hold a torch close to his head, +he uncovered and showed a tonsured crown. + +"And if we refuse?" said Lord James, quietly. + +"Then, good Doctor Luke," answered the youth, "we are ten to four--and +it would be our sad duty to send you all to heaven and then ease your +pockets, lest, being dead, some unsanctified passer-by might be +tempted to steal your money." + +"Surely I may clout him now?" came again like the nearer growl of a +lion from Malise the smith. + +Seeing the four men apparently intimidated and without means of +defence, the ten youths advanced boldly, some with swords in their +right hands and torches in their left, the rest with swords and +daggers both. The Scots stood silent and firm. Not a weapon showed +from beneath a cloak. + +"Down on your knees!" cried the leader of the young roisterers, and +with his left hand he thrust a blazing torch into the grey beard of +Malise. + +There was a quick snort of anger. Then, with a burst of relief and +pleasure, came the words, "By God, I'll clout him now!" The sound of a +mighty buffet succeeded, something cracked like a broken egg, and the +clever-tongued young clerk went down on the paving-stones with a +clatter, as his torch extinguished itself in the gutter and his sword +flew ringing across the street. + +"Come on, lads--they have struck the first blow. We are safe from the +law. Kill them every one!" cried his companions, advancing to the +attack with a confidence born of numbers and the consciousness of +fighting on their own ground. + +But ere they reached the four men who had waited so quietly, the Scots +had gathered their cloaks about their left arms in the fashion of +shields, and a blade, long and stout, gleamed in every right hand. +Still no armour was to be seen, and, though somewhat disconcerted, the +assailants were by no means dismayed. + +"Come on--let us revenge De Sille!" they cried. + +"Lord, Lord, this is gaun to be a sair waste o' guid steel," grumbled +Malise; "would that I had in my fist a stieve oaken staff out of +Halmyre wood. Then I could crack their puir bit windlestaes o' swords, +without doing them muckle hurt! Laddies, laddies, be warned and gang +decently hame to your mithers before a worse thing befall. James, ye +hae their ill-contrived lingo, tell them to gang awa' peaceably to +their naked beds!" + +For, having vented his anger in the first buffet, Malise was now +somewhat remorseful. There was no honour in such fighting. But all +unwarned the youthful roisterers of Paris advanced. This was a nightly +business with them, and indeed on such street robberies of strangers +and shopkeepers the means of continuing their carousings depended. + +It chanced that at the first brunt of the attack Sholto, who was at +the other end of the line from his father, had to meet three opponents +at once. He kept them at bay for a minute by the quickness of his +defence, but being compelled to give back he was parrying a couple of +their blades in front, when the third got in a thrust beneath his arm. +It was as if the hostile sword had stricken a stone wall. The flimsy +and treacherous blade went to flinders, and the would-be robber was +left staring at the guard suddenly grown light in his hand. + +With a quick backward step, Sholto slashed his last assailant across +the upper arm, effectually disabling him. Then, catching his heel in a +rut, he fell backward, and it would have gone ill with him but for the +action of his father. The brawny one was profoundly disgusted at +having to waste his strength and science upon such a rabble, and now, +at the moment of his son's fall, he suddenly dropped his sword and +seized a couple of torches which had fallen upon the pavement. With +these primitive weapons he fell like a whirlwind upon the foe, taking +them unexpectedly in flank. A sweep of his mighty arms right and left +sent two of the assailants down, one with the whole side of his face +scarified from brow to jaw, and the other with his mouth at once +widened by the blow and hermetically closed by the blazing tar. + +Next, Sholto's pair of assailants received each a mighty buffet and +went down with cracked sconces. The rest, seeing this revolving and +decimating fire-mill rushing upon them as Malise waved the torches +round his head, turned tail and fled incontinently into the narrow +alleys which radiated in all directions from the Hotel de Pornic. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +LAURENCE TAKES NEW SERVICE + + +"Look to them well, Malise," said the Lord James; "'twas you who did +the skull-cracking at any rate. See if your leechcraft can tell us if +any of these young rogues are likely to die. I would not have their +deaths on my conscience if I can avoid it." + +First picking up and sheathing his sword, then bidding Sholto hold a +torch, Malise turned the youths over on their backs. Four of them +grunted and complained of the flare of the light in their eyes, like +men imperfectly roused from sleep. + +"Thae loons will be round in half an hour," said Malise, confidently. +"But they will hae richt sair heads the morn, I'se warrant, and some +o' them may be marked aboot the chafts for a Sabbath or twa!" + +But the swarthy youth whom the others called De Sille, he who had been +spokesman and who had fallen first, was more seriously injured. He had +worn a thin steel cap on his head, which had been cracked by the +buffet he had received from the mighty fist of the master armourer. +The broken pieces had made a wound in the skull, from which blood +flowed freely. And in the uncertain light of the torch Malise could +not make any prolonged examination. + +"Let us tak' the callant up to the tap o' the hoose," he said at +last; "we can put him in the far ben garret till we see if he is gaun +to turn up his braw silver-taed shoon." + +Without waiting for any permission or dissent, the smith of Carlinwark +tucked his late opponent under his arm as easily as an ordinary man +might carry a puppy. Then, sheathing their swords, the other three +Scots made haste to leave the place, for the gleaming of lanthorns +could already be seen down the street, which might either mark the +advent of the city watch or the return of the enemy with +reinforcements. + +It was to a towering house with barred windows and great doors that +the four Scots retreated. Entering cautiously by a side portal, Malise +led the way with his burden. This mansion had been the town residence +of the first Duke of Touraine, Archibald the Tineman. It had been +occupied by the English for military purposes during their tenancy of +the city, and now that they were gone, it had escaped by its very +dilapidation the fate of the other possessions of the house of Douglas +in France. + +James Douglas had obtained the keys from Gervais Bonpoint, the trusty +agent of the Avondales in Paris, who also attended to the foreign +concerns of most others of the Scottish nobility. So the four men had +taken possession, none saying them nay, and, indeed, in the disordered +state of the government, but few being aware of their presence. + +Upon an old bedstead hastily covered with plaids, Malise proceeded to +make his prisoner comfortable. Then, having washed the wound and +carefully examined it by candlelight, he pronounced his verdict: + +"The young cheat-the-wuddie will do yet, and live to swing by the lang +cord about his craig!" + +Which, when interpreted in the vulgar, conveyed at once an expectation +of a life to be presently prolonged to the swarthy de Sille, but after +a time to be cut suddenly short by the hangman. + +Every day James Douglas and Sholto haunted the precincts of the Hotel +de Pornic and made certain that its terrible master had not departed. +Malise wished to leave Paris and proceed at once to the De +Retz country, there to attempt in succession the marshal's great +castles of Machecoul, Tiffauges, and Champtoce, in some one of which +he was sure that the stolen maids must be immured. + +But James Douglas and Sholto earnestly dissuaded him from the +adventure. How did they know (they reminded him) in which to look? +They were all fortresses of large extent, well garrisoned, and it was +as likely as not that they might spend their whole time fruitlessly +upon one, without gaining either knowledge or advantage. + +Besides, they argued it was not likely that any harm would befall the +maids so long as their captor remained in Paris--that is, none which +had not already overtaken them on their journey as prisoners on board +the marshal's ships. + +So the Hotel de Pornic and its inhabitants remained under the strict +espionage of Sholto and Lord James, while up in the garret in the Rue +des Ursulines Laurence nursed his brother clerk and Malise sat +gloomily polishing and repolishing the weapons and secret armour of +the party. + +It was the evening of the third day before the "clout" showed signs +of healing. Its recipient had been conscious on the second day, but, +finding himself a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, he had been +naturally enough inclined to be a little sulky and suspicious. But the +bright carelessness of Laurence, who dashed at any speech in idiomatic +but ungrammatical outlander's French, gradually won upon him. As also +the fact that Laurence was clerk-learned and could sing and play upon +the viol with surprising skill for one so young. + +The prisoner never tired of watching the sunny curls upon the brow of +Laurence MacKim, as he wandered about trying the benches, the chairs, +and even the floor in a hundred attitudes in search of a comfortable +position. + +"Ah," the sallow youth said at last, one afternoon as he lay on his +pallet, "you should be one of the choristers of my master's chapel. +You can sing like an angel!" + +"Well," laughed Laurence in reply, "I would be indeed content, if he +be a good master, and if in his house it snoweth wherewithal to eat +and drink. But tell me what unfortunate may have the masterage of so +profitless a servant as yourself?" + +"I am the poor gentleman Gilles de Sille of the household of the +Marshal de Retz!" answered the swarthy youth, readily. + +"De Silly indeed to bide with such a master!" quoth Laurence, with his +usual prompt heedlessness of consequences. + +The sallow youth with his bandaged head did not understand the poor +jest, but, taking offence at the tone, he instantly reared himself on +his elbow and darted a look at Laurence from under brows so lowering +and searching that Laurence fell back in mock terror. + +"Nay," he cried, shaking at the knees and letting his hands swing +ludicrously by his sides, "do not affright a poor clerk! If you look +at me like that I will call the cook from yonder eating-stall to +protect me with his basting-ladle. I wot if he fetches you one on the +other side of your cracked sconce, you will never take service again +with the Marshal de Retz." + +"What know you of my master?" reiterated Gilles de Sille, glowering at +his mercurial jailer, without heeding his persiflage. + +"Why, nothing at all," said Laurence, truthfully, "except that while +we stood listening to the singing of the choir within his hotel, a +poor woman came crying for her son, whom (so she declared) the marshal +had kidnapped. Whereat came forth the guard from within, and thrust +her away. Then arrived you and your varlets and got your heads broken +for your impudence. That is all I know or want to know of your +master." + +Gilles de Sille lay back on his pallet with a sigh, still, however, +continuing to watch the lad's countenance. + +"You should indeed take service with the marshal. He is the most +lavish and generous master alive. He thinks no more of giving a +handful of gold pieces to a youth with whom he is taken than of +throwing a crust to a beggar at his gate. He owns the finest province +in all the west from side to side. He has castles well nigh a dozen, +finer and stronger than any in France. He has a college of priests, +and the service at his oratory is more nobly intoned than that in the +private chapel of the Holy Father himself. When he goes in procession +he has a thurifer carried before him by the Pope's special permission. +And I tell you, you are just the lad to take his fancy. That I can +see at a glance. I warrant you, Master Laurence, if you will come with +me, the marshal will make your fortune." + +"Did the other young fellow make his fortune?" said Laurence. Gilles +de Sille glared as if he could have slain him. + +"What other?" he growled, truculently. + +"Why, the son of the poor woman who cried beneath your kind master's +window the night before yestreen'." + +The lank swarthy youth ground his teeth. + +"'Tis ill speaking against dignities," he replied presently, with a +certain sullen pride. "I daresay the young fellow took service with +the marshal to escape from home, and is in hiding at Tiffauges, or +mayhap Machecoul itself. Or he may well have been listening at some +lattice of the Hotel de Pornic itself to the idiot clamour of his +mother and of the ignorant rabble of Paris!" + +"Your master loves the society of the young?" queried Laurence, +mending carefully a string of his viol and keeping the end of the +catgut in his mouth as he spoke. + +"He doats on all young people," answered Gilles de Sille, eagerly, the +flicker of a smile running about his mouth like wild-fire over a swamp. +"Why, when a youth of parts once takes service with my master, he +never leaves it for any other, not even the King's!" + +Which in its way was a true enough statement. + +"Well," quoth Master Laurence, when he had tied his string and +finished cocking his viol and twingle-twangling it to his +satisfaction, "you speak well. And I am not sure but what I may think +of it. I am tired both of working for my father without pay, and of +singing psalms in a monastery to please my lord Abbot. Moreover, in +this city of Paris I have to tell every jack with a halbert that I am +not the son of the King of England, and then after all as like as not +he marches me to the bilboes!" + +"Of what nativity are you?" asked de Sille. + +"Och, I'm all of a rank Irelander, and my name is Laurence O'Halloran, +at your service," quoth the rogue, without a blush. For among other +accomplishments which he had learned at the Abbey of Dulce Cor, was +that of lying with the serene countenance of an angel. Indeed, as we +have seen, he had the rudiments of the art in him before setting out +from the tourneying field at Glenlochar on his way to holy orders. + +"Then you will come with me to-morrow?" said Gilles, smiling. + +Laurence listened to make sure that neither his father nor Sholto was +approaching the garret. + +"I will go with you on two conditions," he said: "you shall not +mention my purpose to the others, and when we escape, I must put a +bandage over your eyes till we are half a dozen streets away." + +"Why, done with you--after all you are a right gamesome cock, my +Irelander," cried Gilles, whom the conditions pleased even better than +Laurence's promise to accompany him. + +Then, lending the prisoner his viol wherewith to amuse himself and +locking the door, Laurence made an excuse to go to the kitchen, where +he laughed low to himself, chuckling in his joy as he deftly handled +the saucepans. + +"Aha, Master Sholto, you are the captain of the guard and a knight, +forsooth, and I am but poor clerk Laurence--as you have ofttimes +reminded me. But I will show you a shift worth two of watching outside +the door of the marshal's hotel for tidings of the maids. I will go +where the marshal goes, and see all he sees. And then, when the time +comes, why, I will rescue them single-handed and thereafter make up my +mind which of them I shall marry, whether Sholto's sweetheart or the +Fair Maid of Galloway herself." + +Thus headlong Laurence communed with himself, not knowing what he said +nor to what terrible adventure he was committing himself. + +But Gilles de Sille of the house of the Marshal de Retz, being left to +himself in the half darkness of the garret, took up the viol and sang +a curious air like that with which the charmer wiles his snakes to +him, and at the end of every verse, he also laughed low to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +THE BOASTING OF GILLES DE SILLE + + +But, as fate would have it, it was not in the Hotel de Pornic nor yet +in the city of Paris that Laurence O'Halloran was destined to enter +the service of the most mighty Marshal de Retz. + +Not till three days after his converse with the prisoner did Laurence +find an opportunity of escaping from the house in the street of the +Ursulines. Sholto and his father meantime kept their watch upon the +mansion of the enemy, turn and turn about; but without discovering +anything pertinent to their purpose, or giving Laurence a chance to +get clear off with Gilles de Sille. The Lord James had also frequently +adventured forth, as he declared, in order to spy out the land, though +it is somewhat sad to relate that this espionage conducted itself in +regions which gave more opportunities for investigating the peculiar +delights of Paris than of discovering the whereabouts of Maud Lindesay +and his cousin, the Fair Maid of Galloway. + +The head of Gilles de Sille was still swathed in bandages when, with +an additional swaddling of disguise across his eyes, he and Laurence, +that truant scion of the house of O'Halloran, stole out into the +night. A frosty chill had descended with the darkness, and a pale, +dank mist from the marshes of the Seine made the pair shiver as arm in +arm they ventured carefully forth. + +Laurence was doing a foolish, even a wicked, thing in thus, without +warning, deserting his companions. But he was just at the age when it +is the habit of youth to deceive themselves with the thought that a +shred of good intent covers a world of heedless folly. + +The fugitives found the Hotel de Pornic practically deserted. They +approached it cautiously from the back, lest they should run into the +arms of any of the numerous enemies of its terrible lord, who, though +not abhorred in Paris as in most other places which he favoured with +his visits, had yet little love spent upon him even there. + +The custodian in the stone cell by the gate came yawning out to the +bars at the sound of Gilles de Sille's knocking, and after a growl of +disfavour admitted the youth and his companion. + +"What, gone--my master gone!" cried Gilles, striking his hand on his +thigh with an astounded air, "impossible!" + +"It was, indeed, a thing particularly unthoughtful and discourteous of +my Lord de Retz, Marshal of France and Chamberlain of the King, to +undertake a journey without consulting you," replied the man, who +considered irony his strong point, but feebly concealing his pleasure +at the favourite's discomfiture; "we all know upon what terms your +honourable self is with my lord. But you must not blame him, for he +waited whole twenty-four hours for news of you. It was reported that +you were set upon by four giants, and that your bones, crushed like a +filbert, had been discovered in the horse pond at the back of the +Convent of the Virgins of Complaisance." + +Gilles de Sille looked as if he could very well have murdered the +speaker on the spot. His favour with his lord was evidently not a +thing of repute in his master's household. So much was clear to +Laurence, who, for the first time, began to have fears as to his own +reception, having such an unpopular person as voucher and introducer. + +"If you do not keep a civil tongue in your head, sirrah Labord,"--the +youth hissed the words through his clenched teeth,--"I will have your +throat cut." + +"Ah, I am too old," said the man, boldly; "besides, this is Paris, and +I have been twenty years concierge to his Grace the Duke of Orleans. I +and my wife have his secrets even as you, most noble Sire de Sille, +possess those of my new master. You, or he either, by God's grace, +will think twice before cutting my throat. Moreover, you will be good +enough at this point to state your business or get to bed. For I am +off to mine. I serve my master, but I am not compelled to spend the +night parleying with his lacqueys." + +Now the concierges of Paris are very free and independent personages, +and their tongues are accustomed to wag freely and to some purpose in +their heads. + +"Whither has my master gone?" asked de Sille, curbing his wrath in +order to get an answer. + +"He _said_ that he went to Tiffauges. Whether that be true, you have +better means of knowing than I." + +The swarthy youth turned to Laurence. + +"How much money have you, Master O'Halloran? I have spent all of mine, +and this city swine will not lend me a single sou for my expenses. We +must to the stables and follow the Sieur de Retz forthwith to +Brittany." + +"I have ten golden angels which the prior of the convent gave me at +my departure," said Laurence, with some pride. + +His companion nodded approvingly. + +"So much will see us through--that is, with care. Give them here to +me," he added after a moment's thought; "I will pay them out with more +economy, being of the country through which we pass." + +But Laurence, though sufficiently headlong and reckless, had not been +born a Scot for naught. + +"Wait till there is necessity," he replied cautiously, "and the angels +shall not be lacking. Till then they are quite safe with me. For +security I carry them in a secret place ill to be gotten at hastily." + +Gilles de Sille turned away with some movement of impatience, yet +without saying another word upon the subject. + +"To the stables," he said; then turning to the concierge he added, "I +suppose we can have horses to ride after my lord?" + +"So far as I am concerned," growled Labord, "you can have all the +horses you want--and break your necks off each one of them if you +will. It will save some good hemp and hangman's hire. Such devil's +dogs as you two be bear your dooms ready written on your faces." + +And this saying nettled our Laurence, who prided himself no little on +an allure blonde and gallant. + +But Gilles de Sille cared no whit for the servitor's sneers, so long +as they got horses between their knees and escaped out of Paris that +night. In an hour they were ready to start, and Laurence had expended +one of his gold angels on the provend for the journey, which his +companion and he stored in their saddle-bags. + +And in this manner, like an idle lad who for mischief puts body and soul +in peril, went forth Laurence MacKim to take up service with the +redoubtable Messire Gilles de Laval, Sieur de Retz, High Chamberlain of +Charles the Seventh, Marshal of France, and lately companion-in-arms of +the martyred Maid of Orleans. + +Now, before he went forth from the street of the Ursulines, he had +laid a sealed letter on the bed of his brother, which ran thus: "Ha, +Sir Sholto MacKim, while you stand about in the rain and shiver under +your cloak, I am off to find out the mystery. When I have done all +without assistance from the wise Sir Sholto, I will return. But not +before. Fare your knightship well." + +Laurence and Gilles de Sille rode out of Paris by the Versailles road, +and the latter insisted on silence till they had passed the forest of +St. Cyr, which was at that time exceedingly dangerous for horsemen not +travelling in large companies. Once they were fairly on the road to +Chartres, however, and clear of the valley of the Seine and its +tangled boscage of trees, Gilles relaxed sufficiently to break a +bottle of wine to the success of their journey and to the new service +and duty upon which Laurence was to enter at the end of it. + +Having proposed this toast, he handed the bumper first to Laurence, +who, barely tasting the excellent Poitevin vintage, handed the +leathern bottle back to de Sille. That sallow youth immediately, +without giving his companion a second chance, proceeded to quaff the +entire contents of the pigskin. + +Then as the stiff brew penetrated downwards, it was not long before +the favourite of the marshal began to wax full of vanity and swelling +words. + +"I tell you what it is," he said, "there would be trembling in the +heart of a very great man when the nine cravens returned without me. +For I am no shaveling ignoramus, but a gentleman of birth; aye, and +one who, though poor, is a near cousin of the marshal himself. I +warrant the rascals who ran away would smart right soundly for leaving +me behind. For Gilles de Sille is no simpleton. He knows more than is +written down in the catechism of Holy Church. None can touch my favour +with my lord, no matter what they testify against me. For me I have +only to ask and have. That is why I take such pride in bringing you to +my Lord of Retz. I know that he will give you a post about his person, +and if you are not a simple fool you may go very far. For my master is +a friend of the King and, what is better, of Louis the Dauphin. He gat +the King back a whole province--a dukedom so they say, from the hands +of some Scots fool that had it off his grandfather for deeds done in +the ancient wars. And in return the King will protect my master +against all his enemies. Do I not speak the truth?" + +Laurence hoped that he did, but liked not the veiled hints and +insinuations of some surprising secret in the life of the marshal, +possessed by his dear cousin and well-beloved servant Gilles de Sille. + +With an ever loosening tongue the favourite went on: + +"A great soldier is our master--none greater, not even Dunois himself. +Why, he rode into Orleans at the right hand of the Maid. None in all +the army was so great with her as he. I tell you, Charles himself +liked it not, and that was the beginning of all the bother of talk +about my lord--ignorant gabble of the countryside I call it. Lord, if +they only knew what I know, then, indeed--but enough. Marshal Gilles +is a mighty scholar as well, and hath Henriet the clerk--a weak, +bleating ass that will some day blab if my master permit me not to +slice his gizzard in time--he hath him up to read aloud Latin by the +mile, all out of the books called Suetonius and Tacitus--such +high-flavoured tales and full of--well, of things such as my master +loves." + +So ran Gilles de Sille on as the miles fled back behind their horses' +heels and the towers of Chartres rose grey and solemn through the +morning mists before the travellers. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +THE COUNTRY OF THE DREAD + + +The three remaining Scottish palmers were riding due west into a +sunset which hung like a broad red girdle over the Atlantic. All the +sky above their heads was blue grey and lucent. But along the horizon, +as it seemed for the space of two handbreadths, there was suspended +this bandolier of flaming scarlet. + +The adventurers were not weary of their quest. They were only sick at +heart with the fruitlessness of it. + +First upon leaving Paris they had gone on to the Castle of Champtoce, +and from beneath had surveyed the noble range of battlements crowning +the heights above the broad, poplar-guarded levels of the Loire. The +Chateau de Thouars also they had seen, a small white-gabled house, +most like a Scottish baron's tower, which the Marshal de Retz +possessed in virtue of his neglected wife Katherine. In it her sister +the Lady Sybilla had been born. Solitary and tenantless, save for a +couple of guards and their uncovenanted womenkind, it looked down on +its green island meadows, while on the horizon hung the smoke of the +wood fires lit at morn and eve by the good wives of Nantes. + +To that place the three had next journeyed and had there beheld the +great Hotel de Suze, set like an enemy's fortress in the midst of the +turbulent city, over against the Castle of the King. But the Hotel, +though held like a place of arms, was untenanted by the marshal, his +retinue, or the lost Scottish maids. + +Next they found the strong Castle of Tiffauges, above the green and +rippling waters of the Sevres, void also as the others. No light +gleamed out of that window of sinister repute, high up in the +cliff-like wall, from which strange shapes were reported to look forth +even at deep midnoon. + +North, south, and east the three had ridden through the country of +Retz. There remained but Machecoul, more remote and also darker in +repute than any of the other dwelling-places of Gilles de Retz. As +they rode westward towards it, they became day by day more conscious +of the darkening down of the atmosphere of fear and suspicion, which, +murky and lowering, overhung all that fair land of southern Brittany. + +The vast pine forests from which rose the lonely towers of this the +marshal's most remote castle could now be seen, serrated darkly +against the broad belt of the sky. The sombre blackness of their +spreading branches, the yet blacker darkness where the gaps between +their red trunks showed a way into the wood, increased the gloom of +the weary travellers. Yet they rode on, Sholto eagerly, Malise grimly, +and the Lord James with the dogged resignation of a good knight who +may be depended on to see an adventure through, however irksome it may +be proving. + +James of Avondale thought within himself that the others had greater +interests in the quest than he--the younger MacKim having at stake the +honour of his sweetheart Maud, the elder the life of his young +mistress, the last of the Galloway house of Douglas. + +Yet it was with that jolly heart of his beating strong and loyal under +his brown palmer's coat, that James Douglas rode towards Machecoul, +only whistling low to himself and wishing that something would happen +to break the monotony of their journey. + +Nor had he long to wait. For just as the sun was setting they rode all +three of them abreast into the little hamlet of Saint Philbert, and +saw the sullen waters of the Etang de Grande Lieu spread marshy and +brackish as far as the eye could reach, edged by peat bogs and +overhung perilously by gloomy pines nodding over pools blacker than +scrivener's ink. + +As the three Scots looked into the stockaded entrance of the village, +they could see the children playing on the long, irregular street, and +the elder folk sitting about their doors in the evening light. + +But as soon as the clatter of horses' hoofs was heard, borne from far +down the aisles of the forest, there arose a sudden clamour and a +crying. From each little sparred enclosure rushed forth a woman who +snatched a baby here and there and drove a herd of children before her +indoors, glancing around and behind her as she did so with the anxious +look of a motherly barn-door fowl when the hawk hangs poised in the +windless sky. + +By the time the three men had entered the gate and ridden up the +village street, all was silent and dark. The windows were shut, the +doors were barred, and the village had become a street of living +tombs. + +"What means this?" said the Lord James; "the people are surely afraid +of us." + +"'Tis doubtless but their wonted welcome to their lord, the Sieur de +Retz. He seems to be popular wherever he goes," said Malise, grimly; +"but let us dismount and see if we can get stabling for our beasts. +Did they not tell us there was not another house for miles betwixt +here and Machecoul?" + +So without waiting for dissent or counter opinion, the master armourer +went directly up to the door of the most respectable-appearing house +in the village, one which stood a little back from the road and was +surrounded by a wall. Here he dismounted and knocked loudly with his +sword-hilt upon the outer gate. The noise reverberated up and down the +street, and was tossed back in undiminished volume from the green wall +of pines which hemmed in the village. + +But there was no answer, and Malise grew rapidly weary of his own +clamour. + +"Hold my bridle," he said curtly to Sholto, and with a single push of +his shoulders he broke the wooden bar, and the two halves of the outer +gate fell apart before him. A great, smooth-haired yellow dog of the +country rushed furiously at the intruders, but Malise, who was as +dexterous as he was powerful, received him with so sound a buffet on +the head that he paused bewildered, shaking his ears, whereat Malise +picked him up, tucked him under his arm, and with thumbs about his +windpipe effectually choked his barking. Then releasing him, Malise +took no further notice of this valorous enemy, and the poor, loyal, +baffled beast, conscious of defeat, crept shamefacedly away to hide +his disgrace among the faggots. + +But Malise was growing indignant and therefore dangerous and ill to +cross. + +"Never did I see such mannerless folk," he growled; "they will not +even give a stranger a word or a bite for his beast." + +Then he called to his companions, "Come hither and speak to these +cravens ere I burst their inner doors as well." + +At this by no means empty threat came the Lord James and spoke aloud +in his cheery voice to those within the silent house: "Good people, we +are no robbers, but poor travellers and strangers. Be not afraid. All +we want is that you should tell us which house is the inn that we may +receive refreshment for ourselves and our horses." + +Then there came a voice from behind the door: "There is no inn nearer +than Pornic. We are poor people and cannot support one. We pray your +highness to depart in peace." + +"But, good sir," answered James Douglas, "that we cannot do. Our +steeds are foot weary with a long day's journey. Give us the shelter +of your barns and a bundle of fodder and we will be content. We have +food and drink with us. Open, and be not afraid." + +"Of what country are you? Are you of the household of the Sieur de +Retz?" + +"Nay," cried James again, "we are pilgrims returning to our own city +of Albi in the Tarn country. We know nothing of any Sieur de Retz. +Look forth from a window and satisfy yourself." + +"Then if there be treachery in your hearts, beware," said the +tremulous voice again; "for I have four young men here by me whose +powder guns are even now ready to fire from all the windows if you +mean harm." + +A white face looked out for a moment from the casement, and as quickly +ducked within. Then the voice continued its bleating. + +"My lords, I will open the door. But forgive the fears of a poor old +man in a wide, empty house." + +The door opened and a curious figure appeared within. It was a man +apparently decrepit and trembling, who in one hand carried a lantern +and in the other a staff over which he bent with many wheezings of +exhausted breath. + +"What would you with a poor old man?" he said. + +"We would have shelter and fodder, if it please you to give them to us +for the sake of God's grace." + +The old man trembled so vehemently that he was in danger of shaking +out the rushlight which flickered dismally in his wooden lantern. + +"I am a poor, poor man," he quavered; "I have naught in the world save +some barley meal and a little water." + +"That will do famously," said James Douglas; "we are hungry men, and +will pay well for all you give us." + +The countenance of the cripple instantly changed. He looked up at the +speaker with an alert expression. + +"Pay," he said, "pay--did you not say you would pay? Why, I thought +you were gentlefolks! Now, by that I know that you are none, but of +the commonalty like myself." + +James Douglas took a gold angel out of his belt and threw it to him. +The cripple collapsed upon the top of the piece of money and groped +vainly for it with eager, outspread fingers in the dust of the yard. + +"I cannot find it, good gentleman," he piped, shrill as an east wind; +"alas, what shall I do? Poor Caesar cannot find it. It was not a piece +of gold;--do tell me that it was not a piece of gold; to lose a piece +of gold, that were ruin indeed." + +Sholto picked up the lantern which had slipped from his trembling +hand. The tallow was beginning to gutter out as it lay on its side, +and a moment's search showed him the gold glittering on some farmyard +rubbish. With a little shrill cry like a frightened bird the old man +fell upon it, as it had been with claws. + +"Bite upon it and see if the gold be good," said Sholto, smiling. + +"Alas," cried the cripple, "I have but one tooth. But I know the coin. +It is of the right mintage and greasiness. O lovely gold! Beautiful +gentlemen, bide where you are and I will be back with you in a +moment." + +And the old man limped away with astonishing quickness to hide his +acquisition, lest, mayhap, his guests should repent them and retract +their liberality. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +CAESAR MARTIN'S WIFE + + +Presently he returned and conducted them to a decent stable, where +they saw their beasts bestowed and well provided with bedding and +forage for the night. Then the old cripple, more than ever bent upon +his stick, but nevertheless chuckling to himself all the way, preceded +them into the house. + +"Ah, she is clever," he muttered; "she thinks her demon tells her +everything. But even La Meffraye will not know where I have hidden +that beautiful gold." + +So he sniggered senilely to himself between his fits of coughing. + +It was a low, wide room of strange aspect into which the old man +conducted his guests. The floor was of hard-beaten earth, but cleanly +kept and firm to the feet. The fireplace, with a hearth round it of +built stone, was placed in the midst, and from the rafters depended +many chains and hooks. A wooden settle ran half round the hearthstone +on the side farthest from the draught of the door. The weary three sat +down and stretched their limbs. The fire had burnt low, and Sholto, +reaching to a faggot heap by the side wall, began to toss on boughs of +green birch in handfuls, till the lovely white flame arose and the sap +spat and hissed in explosive puffs. + + _"Birk when 'tis green + Makes a fire for a king!"_ + +Malise hummed the old Scots lines, and the cripple coming in at that +moment raised a shrill bark of protest. + +"My good wood, my fuel that cost me so many sore backs--be careful, +young sir. Faggots of birch are dear in this country of Machecoul. My +lord is of those who give nothing for naught." + +"Oh, we shall surely pay for what we use," cried careless James; "let +us eat, and warm our toes, and therewith have somewhat less of thy +prating, old dotard. It can be shrewdly cold in this westerly country +of yours." + +"Pay," cried the old man, holding up his clawed hands; "do you mean +_more_ pay--more besides the beautiful gold angel? Here--" + +He ran out and presently returned with armful after armful of faggots, +while his guests laughed to find his mood so changed. + +"Here," he cried, running to and fro like a fretful hen, "take it all, +and when that is done, this also, and this. Nay, I will stay up all +night to carry more from the forest of Machecoul." + +"And you who were so afraid to open to three honest men, would you +venture to bring faggots by night from yon dark wood?" + +"Nay," said the old man, cunningly, "I meant not from the forest, but +from my neighbours' woodpiles. Yet for lovely gold I would even +venture to go thither--that is, if I had my image of the Blessed +Mother about my neck and the moon shone very bright." + +"Now haste thee with the barley brew," said Lord James, "for my +stomach is as deep as a well and as empty as the purse of a younger +son." + +The strange cripple emitted another bird-like cachinnation, resembling +the sound which is made by the wooden cogwheels wherewithal boys +fright the crows from the cornfields when the August sun is yellowing +the land. + +"Poor old Caesar Martin can show you something better than that," he +cried, as he hirpled out (for so Malise described it afterwards) and +presently returned dragging a great iron pot with a strength which +seemed incredible in so ramshackle a body. + +"Ha! ha!" he said, "here is fragrant stew; smell it. Is it not good? +In ten minutes it will be so hot and toothsome that you will scarce +have patience to wait till it be decently cool in the platters. This +is not common Angevin stew, but Bas Breton--which is a far better +thing." + +Malise rose, and, relieving the old man, with one finger swung the pot +to a crook that hung over the cheerful blaze of the birchwood. + +The old cripple Caesar Martin now mounted on a stool and stirred the +mess with a long stick, at the end of which was a steel fork of two +prongs. And as he stirred he talked: + +"God bless you, say I, brave gentlemen and good pilgrims. Surely it +was a wind noble and fortunate that blew you hither to taste my broth. +There be fine pigeons here, fat and young. There be leverets juicy and +tender as a maid untried. There--what think you of that?" (he held +each ingredient up on a prong as he spoke). "And here be larks, +partridge stuffed with sage, ripe chestnuts from La Valery, and +whisper it not to any of the marshal's men, a fawn from the park of a +month old, dressed like a kid so that none may know." + +"I suppose that so much providing is for your four sons?" said Sholto. + +The cripple laughed again his feeble, fleering laugh. + +"I have no sons, honest sir," he said; "it was but a weakling's policy +to tell you so, lest there should have been evil in your hearts. But I +have a wife and that is enough. You may have heard of her. She is +called La Meffraye." + +As he spoke his face took on an access of white terror, even as it had +done when he looked out of the window. + +"La Meffraye is she well named," he repeated the appellation with a +harsh croak as of a night-hawk screaming. "God forfend that she should +come home to-night and find you here!" + +"Why, good sir," smiled James Douglas, "if that be the manner in which +you speak of your housewife, faith, I am right glad to have remained a +bachelor." + +Caesar the cripple looked about him and lowered his voice. + +"Hush!" he quavered, breathing hard so that his words whistled between +his toothless gums, "you do not know my wife. I tell you, she is the +familiar of the marshal himself." + +"Then," cried James Douglas, slapping his thigh, "she is young and +pretty, of a surety. I know what these soldiers are familiar with. I +would that she would come home and partake with us now." + +"Nay," said the old man, without taking offence, "you mistake, kind +sir, I meant familiar in witchcraft, in devilry--not (as it were) in +levity and cozenage." + +The fragrant stew was now ready to be dished in great platters of +wood, and the guests fell to keenly, each being provided with a wooden +spoon. The meat they cut with their daggers, but the most part was, +however, tender enough to come apart in their fingers, which, as all +know, better preserves the savour. + +At first the cripple denied having any wine, but another gold angel +from the Lord James induced him to draw a leathern bottle from some +secret hoard, and decant it into a pitcher for them. It was resinous +and Spanish, but, as Malise said, "It made warm the way it went down." +And after all with wine that is always the principal thing. + +As the feast proceeded old Caesar Martin told the three Scots why the +long street of the village had been cleared of children so quickly at +the first sound of their horses' feet. + +"And in truth if you had not come across the moor, but along the +beaten track from the Chateau of Machecoul, you would never have +caught so much as a glimpse of any child or mother in all Saint +Philbert." + +At this point he beckoned Sholto, Malise, and the Lord James to come +nearer to him, and standing with his back to the fire and their three +heads very close, he related the terrible tale of the Dread that for +eight years had stalked grim and gaunt through the westlands of +France, La Vendee, and Bas Bretagne. In all La Vendee there was not a +village that had not lost a child. In many a hamlet about the shores +of the sunny Loire was there scarce a house from which one had not +vanished. They were seen playing in the greenwood, the eye was lifted, +and lo! they were not. A boy went to the well. An hour after his +pitcher stood beside it filled to the brim. But he himself was never +more seen by holt or heath. A little maid, sweet and innocent, looked +over the churchyard wall; she spied something that pleased her. She +climbed over to get it--and was not. + +"Oh, I could tell you of a thousand such if I had time," shrilled the +thin treble of the cripple in their eager ears, "if I dared--if I only +dared!" + +"Dared," said Malise; "why man--what is the matter with you? None +could hear you but we three men." + +"My wife--my wife," he quavered; "I bid you be silent, or at least +speak not so loud. La Meffraye she is called--she can hear all things. +See--" + +He made a sudden movement and bared his right arm. It was withered to +the shoulder and of a dark purple colour approaching black. + +"La Meffraye did that," he gasped; "she blasted it because I would not +do the evil she wished." + +"Then why do you not kill her?" said Malise, whose methods were not +subtle. "If she were mine, I would throttle her, and give her body to +the hounds." + +"Hush, I bid you be silent for dear God's sake in whom I believe," +again came the voice of the cripple. "You do not know what you say. La +Meffraye cannot die. Perhaps she will vanish away in a blast of the +fire of hell--one day when God is very strong and angry. But she +cannot die. She only leads others to death. She dies not herself." + +"You are kind, gentlemen," he went on after a pause, finding them +continue silent; "I will show you all. Pray the saint for me at his +shrine that I may die and go to purgatory. Or (if it were to a +different one) even to hell--that I might escape for ever from La +Meffraye." + +His hand fumbled a moment at the closely buttoned collar of his blue +blouse. Then he succeeded in undoing it and showed his neck. From chin +to bosom it was a mass of ghastly bites, some partially healed, more +of them recent and yet raw, while the skin, so far as the three Scots +could observe it, was covered with a hieroglyphic of scratches, claw +marks, and, as it seemed, the bites of some fierce wild beast. + +"Great Master of Heaven!" cried James Douglas. "What hell hound hath +done this to you?" + +"The wife of my bosom," quoth very grimly Caesar the cripple. + +"A good evening to you, gentlemen all," said a soft and winning voice +from the doorway. + +At the sound the old man staggered, reeled, and would have swayed into +the fire had not Sholto seized him and dragged him out upon the floor. +All rose to their feet. + +In the doorway of the cottage stood an old woman, small, smiling, +delicate of feature. She looked benignly upon them and continued to +smile. Her hair and her eyes were her most noticeable features. The +former was abundant and hung loosely about the woman's brow and over +her shoulders in wisps of a curious greenish white, the colour almost +of mouldy cheese, while, under shaggy white eyebrows, her large eyes +shone piercing and green as emerald stones on the hand of some dusky +monarch of the Orient. + +The old woman it was who spoke first, before any of the men could +recover from their surprise. + +"My husband," she said, still calmly smiling upon them, "my poor +husband has doubtless been telling you his foolish tales. The saints +have permitted him to become demented. It is a great trial to a poor +woman like me, but the will of heaven be done!" + +The three Scots stood silent and transfixed, for it was an age of +belief. But the cripple lay back on the settle where Sholto had placed +him, his lips white and gluey. And as he lay he muttered audibly, "La +Meffraye! La Meffraye! Oh, what will become of poor Caesar Martin this +night!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +THE MERCY OF LA MEFFRAYE + + +It was a strange night that which the three Scots spent in the little +house standing back from the street of Saint Philbert on the gloomy +edges of the forest of Machecoul. The hostess, indeed, was unweariedly +kind and brought forth from her store many dainties for their +delectation. She talked with touching affection of her poor husband, +afflicted with these strange fits of wolfish mania, in the paroxysms +of which he was wont to tear himself and grovel in the dust like a +beast. + +This she told them over and over as she moved about setting before +them provend from secret stores of her own, obviously unknown or +perhaps forbidden to Caesar Martin. + +Wild bee honey from the woods she placed before them and white wheaten +bread, such as could not be got nearer than Paris, with wine of some +rarer vintage than that out of the cripple's resinous pigskin. These +and much else La Meffraye pressed upon them till she had completely +won over the Lord James, and even Malise, easy natured like most very +strong men, was taken by the sympathetic conversation and gracious +kindliness of the wife of poor afflicted Caesar Martin of Saint +Philbert. Only Sholto kept his suspicion edged and pointed, and +resolved that he would not sleep that night, but watch till the dawn +the things which might befall in the house on the forest's border. + +Yet it was conspicuously to Sholto that La Meffraye directed most of +her blandishments. + +Her ruddy face, so bright that it seemed almost as if wholly covered +with a birthmark, gleamed with absolute good nature as she looked at +him. She threw off the black veil which half concealed her strange +coiffure of green toadstool-coloured hair. She placed her choicest +morsels before the young captain of the Douglas guard. + +"'Tis hard," she said, touching him confidentially on the shoulder, +"hard to dwell here in this country wherein so many deeds of blood are +wrought, alone with a poor imbecile like my husband. None cares to +help me with aught, all being too busy with their own affairs. It +falls on me to till the fields, which, scanty as they are, are more +than my feeble strength can compass unaided. Alone I must prune and +water the vines, bring in the firewood, and go out and in by night and +day to earn a scanty living for this afflicted one and myself. You +will hear, perchance, mischief laid to my charge in this village of +evil speakers and lazy folk. They hate me because I am no gadabout to +spend time abusing my neighbours at the village well. But the children +love me, and that is no ill sign. Their young hearts are open to love +a poor lone old woman. What cares La Meffraye for the sneers of the +ignorant and prejudiced so long as the children run to her gladly and +search her pockets for the good things she never forgets to bring them +from her kitchen?" + +So the old woman, talking all the time, bustled here and there, +setting sweet cakes baked with honey, confitures and bairns' goodies, +figs, almonds, and cheese before her guests. But through all her +blandishments Sholto watched her and had his eyes warily upon what +should befall her husband, who could be seen lying apparently either +asleep or unconscious upon the bed in an inner room. + +"You do not speak like the folk of the south," she said to the Lord +James. "Neither are you Northmen nor of the Midi. From what country +may you come?" The question dropped casually as to fill up the time. + +"We are poor Scots who have lived under the protection of your good +King Charles, the seventh of that name, and having been restored to +our possessions after the turning out of the English, we are making a +pilgrimage in order to visit our friends and also to lay our thanks +upon the altar of the blessed Saint Andrew in his own town in +Scotland." + +The old woman listened, approvingly nodding her head as the Lord James +reeled off this new and original narrative. But at the mention of the +land of the Scots La Meffraye pricked her ears. + +"Scots," she said meditatively; "that will surely interest my lord, +who hath but recently returned from that country, whither they say he +hath been upon a very confidential embassy from the King." + +It was the Lord James who asked the next question. + +"Have you heard whether any of our nation returned with him from our +country? We would gladly meet with any such, that we might hear again +the tongue of our nativity, which is ever sweet in a strange land--and +also, if it might be, take back tidings of them to their folk in +Scotland." + +"Nay," answered La Meffraye, standing before them with her eyes +shrewdly fixed upon the face of the speaker, "I have heard of none +such. Yet it may well be, for the marshal is very fond of the society +of the young, even as I am myself. He has many boy singers in his +choir, maidens also for his religious processions. Indeed, never do I +visit Machecoul without finding a pretty boy or a stripling girl +passing so innocently in and out of his study, that it is a pleasure +to behold." + +"Is his lordship even now at Machecoul?" asked James Douglas, bluntly. +The Lord James prided himself upon his tact, but when he set out to +manifest it, Sholto groaned inwardly. He was never certain from one +moment to another what the reckless young Lord might do or say next. + +"I do not even know whether the marshal is now at Machecoul. The rich +and great, they come and go, and we poor folk understand it no more +than the passing of the wind or the flight of the birds. But let us +get to our couches. The morn will soon be here, and it must not find +our bodies unrested or our eyes unrefreshed." + +La Meffraye showed her guests where to make their beds in the outer +room of the cottage, which they did by moving the bench back and +stretching themselves with their heads to the wall and their feet to +the fire. Sholto lay on the side furthest from the entrance of the +room to which La Meffraye had retired with her husband. Malise was on +the other side, and Lord James lay in the midst, as befitted his rank. + +These last were instantly asleep, being tired with their journey and +heavy with the meal of which they had partaken. But every sense in +Sholto's body was keenly awake. A vague inexpressible fear possessed +him. He lay watching the red unequal glow thrown upwards from the +embers, and through the wide opening in the roof he could discern the +twinkling of a star. + +Within the chamber of La Meffraye there was silence. Sholto could not +even hear the heavy breathing of Caesar Martin. The silence was +complete. + +Suddenly, from far away, there came up the howling of a wolf. It was +not an uncommon sound in the forests of France, or even in those of +his own country, yet somehow Sholto listened with a growing dread. +Nearer and nearer it came, till it seemed to reverberate immediately +beneath the eaves of the dwelling of Caesar the cripple. + +The flicker of the embers died slowly out. Malise lay without a sound, +his head couched on his hand. Lord James began to groan and move +uneasily, like one in the grip of nightmare. Sholto listened yet more +acutely. Outside the house he could hear the soft pad-pad of wild +animals. Their pelts seemed almost to brush against the wooden walls +behind his head with a rustle like that of corded silk. Sholto felt +nervously for his sword and cleared it instinctively of the coverture +in which he was wrapped. Expectation tingled in his cheeks and palms. +The silence grew more and more oppressive. He could hear nothing but +that soft brushing and the galloping pads outside, as of something +that went round and round the house, weaving a coil of terror and +death about the doomed inmates. + +Suddenly from the adjoining chamber a cry burst forth, so shrill and +terrible that not only Sholto but Malise also leaped to his feet. + +"Mercy--mercy! Have mercy, La Meffraye!" it wailed. + +Sholto rushed across the floor, striding the body of James Douglas in +his haste. He dashed the door of the inner chamber open and was just +in time to see something dark and lithe dart through the window and +disappear into the indigo gloom without. From the bed there came a +series of gasping moans, as from a man at the point of death. + +"For God's sake bring a light!" cried Sholto, "there is black murder +done here." + +His father ran to the hearth, and, seizing a birchen brand, the end of +which was still red, he blew upon it with care and success so that it +burst into a white brilliant flame that lighted all the house. Then +he, too, entered the room where Sholto, with his sword ready in his +hand, was standing over the gasping, dying thing on the bed. + +When Malise thrust forward his torch, lo! there, extended on the couch +to which they had carried him two hours before, lay the yet twitching +body of Caesar the cripple with his throat well nigh bitten away. + +But La Meffraye was nowhere to be seen. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +THE BATTLE WITH THE WERE-WOLVES + + +"Let us get out of this hellish place," cried James Douglas so soon as +he had seen with his eyes that which lay within the bedchamber of the +witch woman, and made certain that it was all over with Caesar Martin. + +So the three men issued out into the gloom of the night, and made +their way to the stable wherein they had disposed their horses so +carefully the night before. + +The door lay on the ground smashed and broken. It had been driven to +kindling wood from within. Its inner surface was dinted and riven by +the iron shoes of the frightened steeds, but the horses themselves +were nowhere to be found. They had broken their halters and vanished. +The three Scots were left in the heart of the enemy's country without +means of escape save upon their own feet. + +But the horror which lay behind them in the house of La Meffraye drove +them on. + +Almost without knowing whither they went, they turned their faces +towards the west, in the direction in which lay Machecoul, the castle +of the dread Lord of all the Pays de Retz. Malise, as was his custom, +walked in front, Sholto and the Lord James Douglas a step behind. + +A chill wind from the sea blew through the forest. The pines bent +soughing towards the adventurers. The night grew denser and blacker +about them, as with the wan waters of the marismas on one side and the +sombre arches of the forest on the other, they advanced sword in hand, +praying that that which should happen might happen quickly. + +But as they went the woods about them grew clamorous with horrid +noises. All the evil beasts of the world seemed abroad that night in +the forests of Machecoul. Presently they issued forth into a more open +space. The greyish dark of the turf beneath their feet spread further +off. The black blank wall of the pines retreated and they found +themselves suddenly with the stars twinkling infinitely chill and +remote above them. + +They were now, however, no more alone, for round them circled and +echoed the crying of many packs of wolves. In the forest of Machecoul +the guardian demons of its lord had been let loose, and throughout all +its borders poor peasant folk shivered in their beds, or crouched +behind the weak defences of their twice barred doors. For they knew +that the full pack never hunted in the Pays de Retz without bringing +death to some wanderer found defenceless within the borders of that +region of dread. + +"Let us stop here," said Sholto; "if these howling demons attack us, +we are at least in somewhat better case to meet them and fight it out +till the morning than in the dense darkness of the woods." + +In the centre of the open glade in which they found themselves, they +stumbled against the trunk of a huge pine which had been blasted by +lightning. It still stood erect with its withered branches stretching +bare and angular away from the sea. About this the three Scots posted +themselves, their backs to the corrugations of the rotting stump, and +their swords ready in their hands to deal out death to whatever should +attack them. + +Well might Malise declare the powers of evil were abroad that night. +At times the three men seemed wholly ringed with devilish cries. Yells +and howls as of triumphant fiends were borne to their ears upon the +western wind. The noises approached nearer, and presently out of the +dark of the woods shadowy forms glided, and again Sholto heard the +soft pad-pad of many feet. Gleaming eyes glared upon them as the +wolves trotted out and sat down in a wide circle to wait for the full +muster of the pack before rushing their prey. + +Sholto knew well how those in the service of Satan were able to change +themselves into the semblance of wolves, and he never doubted for a +moment that he and his friends were face to face with the direct +manifestations of the nether pit. Nevertheless Sholto MacKim was by +nature of a stout heart, and he resolved that if he had to die, it +would be as well to die as became a captain of the Douglas guard. + +The blue leme of summer lightning momentarily lit up the western sky. +The men could see the great gaunt pack wolves sitting upon their +haunches or moving restlessly to and fro across each other, while from +the denser woods behind rose the howling of fresh levies, hastening to +the assistance of the first. Sholto noted in especial one gigantic +she-wolf, which appeared at every point of the circle and seemed to +muster and encourage the pack to the attack. + +[Illustration: ALL THE WILD BEASTS APPEARED TO BE OBEYING THE SUMMONS +OF THE WITCH WOMAN.] + +The wild-fire flickered behind the jet black silhouettes of the dense +trees so that their tops stood out against the pale sky as if carved +in ebony. Then the night shut down darker than before. As the +soundless lightning wavered and brightened, the shadows of the wolves +appeared simultaneously to start forward and then retreat, while the +noise of their howling carried with it some diabolic suggestion of +discordant human voices. + +"_La Meffraye! La Meffraye! Meffraye!_" + +So to the excited minds of the three Scots the wolf legions seemed to +be crying with one voice as they came nearer. All the wild beasts of +the wood appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman. + +The strain of the situation first told upon the Lord James Douglas. +"Great Saints!" he cried, "let us attack them and die sword in hand. I +cannot endure much more of this." + +"Stand still where you are. It is our only chance," commanded Sholto, +as abruptly as if James Douglas had been a doubtful soldier of his +company. + +"It were better to find a tree that we could climb," growled Malise +with a practical suggestiveness, which, however, came too late. For +they dared not move out of the open space, and the great trunk of the +blasted pine rose behind them bare of branches almost to the top. + +"Your daggers in your left hands, they are upon us!" cried Sholto, +who, standing with his face to the west, had a lower horizon and more +light than the others. The three men had cast their palmers' cloaks +from their shoulders and now stood leaning a little forward, +breathing hard as they waited the assault of foes whom they believed +to be frankly diabolic and instinct with all the powers of hell. This +required greater courage than storming many fortifications. + +Almost as he spoke Sholto became aware that a fierce rush of shaggy +beasts was crossing the scanty grass towards him. He saw a vision of +red mouths, gleaming teeth, and hairy breasts, into the leaping chaos +of which he plunged and replunged his sword till his arm ached. Mostly +the stricken died snapping and tearing at each other; but ever and +anon one stronger than the rest would overleap the barrier of dead and +dying wolves that grew up in front of the three men, and Sholto would +feel the teeth click clean and hard upon the mail of his arm or thigh +before he could stoop to despatch the brute with the dirk which he +grasped in his left hand. + +The rush upon Sholto's side fortunately did not last long, but while +it continued the battle was strange and silent and grim--this notable +fight of man and beast. As the youth at last cleared his front of a +hairy monster that had sprung at his throat, he found himself +sufficiently free to look round the trunk of the blasted pine that he +might see how it fared with his companions. + +At first he could see nothing clearly, for the same strange and weird +conditions continued to permeate the earth and air. + +For a moment all would be dark and then flash on continuous flash +would follow, the wild-fire running about the tree-tops and glinting +up through the recesses of the woods as if the heavens themselves were +instinct with diabolic light. + +As he looked, Sholto saw his father, a gigantic figure standing black +and militant against the brightest of it. His hand grasped a huge wolf +by the heels, and he swung the beast about his head as easily as he +was wont to handle the forehammer at home. With his living weapon +Malise had swept a space about him clear, and the beasts seemed to +have fallen back in terror before such a strange enemy. + +But what of the Lord James? Overleaping the pile of dead and dying +wolves which his sword and dagger had made, and from which savage +heads still bit and snarled up at him as he went, Sholto ran round to +seek the young Lord of Avondale. At the first flash after leaving the +tree trunk he was nowhere to be seen, but a second revealed him lying +on the ground, with four shaggy beasts bending over him and tearing +fiercely at his gorget and breast-armour. With a loud shout Sholto was +among them. He passed his sword through and through the largest, and +in its fall the wounded monster turned and bit savagely at the fore +leg of a companion. The bone cracked as a rotten branch snaps +underfoot, and in another moment the two animals were rolling over and +over, locked together in the death grapple. + +Once, twice, and thrice Sholto struck right and left. The rest of the +beasts, seemingly astonished by the sudden flank attack, turned and +fled. Then, pushing off a huge wounded brute which lay gasping out its +life in red jets upon the breast of the fallen man, he dragged James +Douglas back to the tree which had been their fortress and propped him +up against the trunk. + +At the same moment a long wailing cry from the forest called the +wolves off. They retreated suddenly, disappearing apparently by magic +into the depths of the forest, leaving their dead in quivering heaps +all about the little bare glade where the unequal fight had been +fought. + +Malise the Brawny flung down the wolf whose head had served him with +such deadly effect as a weapon against his brethren. The beast had +long been dead, with a skull smashed in and a neck dislocated by the +sweeping blows it had dealt its kin. + +"Sholto! My Lord James!" cried Malise, coming up to them hastily. "How +fares it with you?" + +"We are both here," answered his son. "Come and help me with the Lord +James. He has fallen faint with the stress of his armour." + +After the disappearance of the wolves the unearthly brilliance of the +wild-fire gradually diminished, and now it flickered paler and less +frequently. + +But another hail from Sholto revealed to Malise the whereabouts of his +companions, and presently he also was on his knees beside the young +Lord of Avondale. + +Sholto gave him into the strong arms of Malise and stood erect to +listen for any renewal of the attack. The wise smith, whose skill as a +leech was proverbial, carefully felt James Douglas all over in the +darkness, and took advantage of every flicker of summer lightning to +examine him as well as his armour would permit. + +"Help me to loosen his gorget and ease him of his body mail," said +Malise, at last. "He has gotten a bite or two, but nothing that +appears serious. I think he has but fainted from pressure." + +Sholto bent down and with his dagger cut string by string the stout +leathern twists which secured the knight's mail. And as he did so his +father widened it out with his powerful fingers to ease the weight +upon the young man's chest. + +Presently, with a long sigh, James Douglas opened his eyes. + +"Where are the wolves?" he said, with a grimace of disgust. Sholto +told him how all that were left alive had, for the present at least, +disappeared. + +"Ugh, the filthy brutes!" said Lord James. "I fought till the stench +of their hot breaths seemed to stifle me. I felt my head run round +like a dog in a fit, and down I went. What happened after that?" + +"This," said Malise, sententiously, pointing to the heaps of dead +wolves which were becoming more apparent as the night ebbed and the +blue flame rose and fell like a fluttering pulse along the horizon. + +"Then to one or the other of you I owe my life," said Lord James +Douglas, reaching a hand to both. + +"Sholto dragged you from under half a dozen of the devils," said +Malise. + +"My father it was who brought you to," said Sholto. + +"I thank you both with all my heart--for this as for all the rest. I +know not, indeed, where to begin," said James Douglas, gratefully. +"Give me your hands. I can stand upright now." + +So saying, and being assisted by Malise, he rose to his feet. + +"Will they come again?" he asked, as with an intense disgust he +surveyed the battle-field in the intermittent light from over the +marshes. + +"Listen," said Malise. + +The low howling of the wolves had retreated farther, but seemed to +retain more and more of its strange human character. + +"_La Meffraye! La Meff--raye!_" they seemed to wail, with a curious +swelling upon the last syllable. + +"I hear only the yelling of the infernal brutes," said the Lord James; +"they seem to be calling on their patron saint--the woman whom we saw +in the house of the poor cripple. I am sure I saw her going to and fro +among the devils and encouraging them to the assault." + +"'Tis black work at the best," answered Malise; "these are no common +wolves who would dare to attack armed men--demons of the nethermost +pit rather, driven on by their hellish hunt-mistress. There will be +many dead warlocks to-morrow throughout the lands of France." + +"Stand to your arms," cried Sholto, from the other side of the tree. +And indeed the howling seemed suddenly to grow nearer and louder. The +noise circled about them, and they could again perceive dusky forms +which glided to and fro in the faint light among the arches of the +forest. + +In the midst of the turmoil Malise took off his bonnet and stood +reverently at prayer. + +"Aid us, Thy true men," he cried in a loud and solemn voice, "against +all the powers of evil. In the name of God--Amen!" + +The howling stopped and there fell a silence. Lord James would have +spoken. + +"Hush!" said Malise, yet more solemnly. + +And far off, like an echo from another world, thin and sweet and +silver clear, a cock crew. + +The blue leaping flame of the wild-fire abruptly ceased. The dawn +arose red and broad in the east. The piles of dead beasts shone out +black on the grey plain of the forest glade, and on the topmost bough +of a pine tree a thrush began to sing. + + + + +CHAPTER L + +THE ALTAR OF IRON + + +And now what of Master Laurence, lately clerk in the Abbey of Dulce +Cor, presently in service with the great Lord of Retz, Messire Gilles +de Laval, Marshal and Chamberlain of the King of France? + +Laurence had been a month at Machecoul and had not yet worn out his +welcome. He was sunning himself with certain young clerks and +choristers of the marshal's privy chapel of the Holy Innocents. +Suddenly Clerk Henriet appeared under the arches at the upper end of +the pretty cloisters, in the aisles of which the youths were seated. +Henriet regarded them silently for a moment, looking with special +approval upon the blonde curls and pink cheeks of the young Scottish +lad. + +Machecoul was a vast feudal castle with one great central square tower +and many smaller ones about it. The circuit of its walls enclosed +gardens and pleasaunces, and included within its limits the new and +beautiful chapel which has been recently finished by that good +Catholic and ardent religionary, the Marshal de Retz. + +As yet, Laurence had been able to learn nothing of the maids, not even +whether they were alive or dead, whether at Machecoul or elsewhere. At +the first mention of maidens being brought from Scotland to the +castle, or seen about its courts, a dead silence fell upon the +company of priests and singers in the marshal's chapel. It was the +same when Laurence spoke of the business privately to any of his new +acquaintances. + +No matter how briskly the conversation had been prospering hitherto, +if, at Holy Mass or jovial supper board, Laurence so much as breathed +a question concerning the subject next his heart, an instant blight +passed over the gaiety of his companions. Fear momently wiped every +other expression from their faces, and they answered with lame +evasion, or more often not at all. + +The shadow of the Lord of Machecoul lay heavy upon them. + +Clerk Henriet stood awhile watching the lads and listening to their +talk behind the carved lattice of Caen stone, with its lace-like +tracery of buds and flowers, through which the natural roses pushed +their way, and over which the clematis tangled its twining stems. + +"Stand up and prove on my body that I am a rank Irelander," Laurence +was saying defiantly to the world at large, with his fists up and his +head thrown back. "Saint Christopher, but I will take the lot of you +with one hand tied behind me. Stand up and I will teach you how to +sing 'Miserable sinners are we all!' to a new and unkenned tune." + +"'Tis easy for you to boast, Irelander," retorted Blaise Renouf, the +son of the lay choir-master, who had been brought specially from Rome +to teach the choir-boys of the marshal's chapel the latest fashions in +holy song. "We will either fight you with swords or not at all. We do +not fight with our bare knuckles, being civilised. And that indeed +proves that you are no true lover of the French, but an English dog of +unknightly birth." + +This retort still further irritated the hot-headed son of Malise. + +"I will fight you or any galley slave of a French frog with the sword, +or spit you upon the rapier. I will cleave you with the axe, transfix +you with the arrow, or blow you to the pit with the devil's sulphur. I +will fight any of you or all of you with any weapons from a +battering-ram to a toothpick--and God assist the better man. And there +you have Laurence O'Halloran, at your service!" + +"You are a loud-crowing young cock for a newcomer," said Henriet, the +confidential clerk of the marshal, suddenly appearing in the doorway; +"you are desired to follow me to my lord's chamber immediately. There +we will see if you will flap your wings so boldly." + +Laurence could not help noticing the blank alarm which this +announcement caused among the youth with whom he had been playing the +ancient game of brag. + +It was Blaise Renouf who first recovered. He looked across the little +rose-grown space of the cloister to see that Henriet had turned his +back, and then came quickly up to Laurence MacKim. + +"Listen to me," he said; "you are a game lad enough, but you do not +know where you are going, nor yet what may happen to you there. We +will fight you if you come back safe, but meantime you are one of +ourselves, and we of the choir have sworn to stand by one another. Can +you keep a pea in your mouth without swallowing it?" + +"Why, of course I can," said Laurence, wondering what was to come +next. "I can keep a dozen and shoot them through a bore of alder tree +at a penny without missing once, which I wot is more than any +Frenchman ever--" + +"Well, then," whispered the lad Renouf, breaking in on his boast with +a white countenance, "hearken well to me. When you enter the chamber +of the marshal, put this in your mouth. And if nothing happens keep it +there, but be careful neither to swallow it nor yet to bite upon it. +But if it should chance that either Henriet or Poitou or Gilles de +Sille seize hold of your arms, bite hard upon the pellet till you feel +a bitter taste and then swallow. That is all. You are indeed a cock +whose comb wants cutting, and if all be well, we will incise it for +your soul's good. But in the meanwhile you are of our company and +fellowship. So for God's sake and your own do as you are bid. Fare you +well." + +As he followed Clerk Henriet, Laurence looked at the round pellet in +his hand. It was white, soft like ripe fruit, of an elastic +consistency, and of the largeness of a pea. + +As Laurence ascended the stairs, he heard the practice of the choir +beginning in the chapel. Precentor Renouf, the father of Blaise, had +summoned the youths from the cloisters with a long mellow whistle upon +his Italian pitch-pipe, running up and down the scale and ending with +a flourished "A-a-men." + +The open windows and the pierced stone railing of the great staircase +of Machecoul brought up the sound of that sweet singing from the +chapel to the ear of the adventurous Scot as through a funnel. They +were beginning the practice for the Christmas services, though the +time was not yet near. + + "_Unto God be the glory + In the Highest; + Peace be on the earth, + On the earth, + Unto men who have good-will._" + +So they chanted in their white robes in the Chapel of the Holy +Innocents in the Castle of Machecoul near by the Atlantic shore. + +The chamber of Gilles de Retz testified to the extraordinary +advancement of that great man in knowledge which has been claimed as +peculiar to much later centuries. The window casements were so +arranged that in a moment the place could either be made as dark as +midnight or flooded with bright light. The walls were always freshly +whitewashed, and the lime was constantly renewed. The stone floor was +stained a deep brick red, and that, too, would often be applied +freshly during the night. At a time when the very word "sanitation" +was unknown, Gilles had properly constructed conduits leading from an +adjoining apartment to the castle ditch. The chimney was wide as a +peasant's whole house, and the vast fireplace could hold on its iron +dogs an entire waggon-load of faggots. Indeed, that amount was +regularly consumed every day when the marshal deigned to abide at +Machecoul for his health and in pursuance of his wonderful studies +into the deep things of the universe. + +"Bide here a moment," said Clerk Henriet, bending his body in a +writhing contortion to listen to what might be going on inside the +chamber; "I dare not take you in till I see whether my lord be in good +case to receive you." + +So at the stair-head, by a window lattice which looked towards the +chapel, Laurence stood and waited. At first he kept quite still and +listened with pleasure to the distant singing of the boys. He could +even hear Precentor Renouf occasionally stop and rebuke them for +inattention or singing out of tune. + + "_My soul is like a watered garden, + And I shall not sorrow any more at all!_" + +So he hummed as he listened, and beat the time on the ledge with his +fingers. He felt singularly content. Now he was on the eve of +penetrating the mystery. At last he would discover where the missing +maidens were concealed. + +But soon he began to look about him, growing, like the boy he was, +quickly weary of inaction. His eye fell upon a strange door with +curious marks burnt upon its panels apparently by hot irons. There +were circles complete and circles that stopped half-way, together with +letters of some unknown language arranged mostly in triangles. + +This door fixed the lad's attention with a certain curious +fascination. He longed to touch it and see whether it opened, but for +the moment he was too much afraid of his guide's return to summon him +into the presence of the marshal. + +He listened intently. Surely he heard a low sound, like the wind in a +distant keyhole--or, as it might be (and it seemed more like it), the +moaning of a child in pain, it knows not why. + +The heart of the youth gave a sudden leap. It came to him that he had +hit upon the hiding-place of Margaret Douglas, the heiress of the +great province of Galloway. His fortune was made. + +With a trembling hand he moved a step towards the door of white wood +with the curious burned marks upon it. He stood a moment listening, +half for the returning footsteps of Clerk Henriet, and half to the +low, persistent whimper behind the panels. Suddenly he felt his right +foot wet, for, as was the fashion, he wore only a velvet shoe pointed +at the toe. He looked down, and lo! from under the door trickled a +thin stream of red. + +Laurence drew his foot away, with a quick catching sob of the breath. +But his hand was already on the door, and at a touch it appeared to +open almost of its own accord. He found himself looking from the dusk +of the outer whitewashed passage into a high, vaulted chapel, wherein +many dim lights glimmered. At the end there was a great altar of iron +standing square and solemn upon the platform on which it was set up, +and behind it, cut indistinctly against a greenish glow of light, and +imagined rather than clearly defined, the vast statue of a man with a +curiously high shaped head. Laurence could not distinguish any +features, so deep was the gloom, but the whole figure seemed to be +bending slightly forward, as if gloating upon that which was laid upon +the altar. But what struck Laurence with a sense of awe and terror was +the fact that as the greenish light behind waxed and waned, he could +see shadowy horns which projected from either side of the forehead, +and lower, short ears, pricked and shaggy like those of a he-goat. + +Nearer the door, where he stood in the densest gloom, something moved +to and fro, and as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness Laurence +could see that it was the bent figure of a woman. He could not +distinguish her face, but it was certainly a woman of great age and +bodily weakness, whose tangled hair hung down her back, and who halted +curiously upon one foot as she walked. She was bending over a low +couch, whereon lay a little shrouded figure, from which proceeded the +low whimpering sound which he had heard from without. But even at that +moment, as he waited trembling at the door, the moaning ceased, and +there ensued a long silence, in which Laurence could clearly +distinguish the beating of his own heart. It sounded loud in his ears +as a drum that beats the alarm in the streets of a city. + +The figure of the woman bent low to the couch, and, after a pause, +with a satisfied air she threw a white cloth over the shrouded form +which lay upon it. Then, without looking towards the door where +Laurence stood, she went to the great iron altar at the upper end of +the weird chapel and threw something on the red embers which glowed +upon it. + +"_Barran--most mighty Barran-Sathanas, accept this offering, and +reveal thyself to my master!_" she said in a voice like a chant. + +A greenish smoke of stifling odour rose and filled all the place, and +through it the huge horned figure above the altar seemed to turn its +head and look at the boy. + +Laurence could scarcely repress a cry of terror. He set his hand to +the door, and lo! as it had opened, so it appeared to shut of itself. +He sank almost fainting against the cold iron bars of the window which +looked out upon the courtyard below. The wind blew in upon him sweet +and cool, and with it there came again the sound of the singing of the +choir. They were practising the song of the Holy Innocents, which, by +command of the marshal himself, Precentor Renouf had set to excellent +and accordant music of his own invention. + + "_A voice was heard in Ramah, + In Ramah, + Lamentations and bitter weeping, + Rachel weeping for her children, + Refused to be comforted: + For her children, + Because they were not._" + +Obviously there was some mistake or lack of attention on the part of +the choir, for the last line had to be repeated three times. + + "_Because they were not._" + + + + +CHAPTER LI + +THE MARSHAL'S CHAMBER + + +There came a low voice in Laurence MacKim's ear, chill and sinister: +"You do well to look out upon the fair world. None knoweth when we may +have to leave it. Yonder is a star. Look well at it. They say God made +it. Perhaps He takes more interest in it than in the concerns of this +other world He hath made." + +The son of Malise MacKim gripped himself, as it were, with both hands, +and turned a face pale as marble to look into the grim countenance +which hid the soul of the Lord of Machecoul. + +Gilles de Retz appeared to peruse each feature of the boy's person as +if he read in a book. Yet even as Laurence gave back glance for +glance, and with the memory of what he had seen yet fresh upon him, a +strange courage began to glow in the heart of the young Scot. There +came a kind of contempt, too, into his breast, as though he had it in +him to be a man in despite of the devil and all his works. + +The marshal continued his scrutiny, and Laurence returned his gaze +with interest. + +"Well, boy," said the marshal, smiling as if not ill pleased at his +boldness, "what do you think of me?" + +"I think, sir," said Laurence, simply, "that you have grown older +since I saw you in the lists at Thrieve." + +It seemed to Laurence that the words were given him. And all the time +he was saying to himself: "Now I have done it. For this he will surely +put me to death. He cannot help himself. Why did I not stick to it +that I was an Irelander?" + +But, somehow, the answer seemed like an arrow from a bow shot at a +venture, entering in between the joints of the marshal's armour. + +"Do you think so?" he said, with some startled anxiety, yet without +surprise; "older than at Thrieve? I do not believe it. It is +impossible. Why, I grow younger and younger every day. It has been +promised me that I should." + +And setting his elbow on the sill of the window, Gilles de Retz looked +thoughtfully out upon the cool dusk of the rose garden. Then all at +once it came to him what was implied in that unlucky speech of +Laurence's. The grim intensity returned to his eyes as he erected +himself and bent his brows, white with premature age, upon the boy, +who confronted him with the fearlessness born of youth and ignorance. + +"Ah," he said, "this is interesting; you have changed your nation. You +were an Irishman to De Sille in Paris, to the clerk Henriet, and to +the choir at Machecoul. Yet to me you admit in the very first words +you speak that you are a Scot and saw me at the Castle of Thrieve." + +Even yet the old Laurence might have turned the corner. He had, as we +know, graduated as a liar ready and expert. He had daily practised his +art upon the Abbot. He had even, though more rarely, succeeded with +his father. But now in the day of his necessity the power and wit had +departed from him. + +To the lord of the Castle of Machecoul Laurence simply could not lie. +Ringed as he was by evil, his spirit became strong for good, and he +testified like one in the place of final judgment, when the earthly +lendings of word and phrase and covering excuse must all be cast aside +and the soul stand forth naked and nakedly answer that which is +required. + +"I am a Scot," said Laurence, briefly, and without explanation. + +"Come with me into my chamber," said the marshal, and turned to +precede him thither. + +And without word of complaint or backward glance, the lad followed the +great lord to the chamber, into which so many had gone before him of +the young and beautiful of the earth, and whence so few had come out +alive. + +As he passed the threshold, Laurence put into his mouth the elastic +pellet which had been given him by Blaise Renouf, the choir-master's +son. + +The marshal threw himself upon a chair, reclining with a wearied air +upon the hands which were clasped behind his head. In the action of +throwing himself back one could see that Gilles de Retz was a young +and not an old man, though ordinarily his vitality had been worn to +the quick, and both in appearance and movement he was already +prematurely aged. + +"What is your name?" + +The question came with military directness from the lips of the +marshal of France. + +"Laurence MacKim," said the lad, with equal directness. + +"For what purpose did you come to the Castle of Machecoul?" + +"I came," said Laurence, coolly, "to take service with you, my lord. +And because I was tired of monk rule, and getting only the husks of +life, tired too of sitting dumb and watching others eat the kernel." + +"Ha!" cried Gilles de Retz, "I am with you there. There is, after all, +some harmony between our immortal parts. For my part, I would have all +of life,--husk, kernel, stalk,--aye, and the root that grows amid the +dung." + +He paused a moment, looking at Laurence with the air of a connoisseur. + +"Come hither, lad," he said, with a soft and friendly accent; "sit on +this seat with your back to the window. Turn your head so that the +lamp shines aright upon your face. You are not so handsome as was +reported, but that there is something wondrously taking about your +countenance, I do admit. There--sit so, and fear nothing." + +Laurence sat down with the bad grace of a manly youth who is admired +for what he privately despises, and wishes himself well quit of. But, +notwithstanding this, there was something so insinuating and pleasant +about the marshal's manner that the lad almost thought he must have +dreamed the incident of the burned door and the sacrifice upon the +iron altar. + +"You came hither to search for Margaret of Douglas," said the marshal, +suddenly bending forward as if to take him by surprise. + +Laurence, wholly taken aback, answered neither yea nor nay, but held +his peace. + +Then Gilles de Retz nodded sagely, with a quiet satisfaction in his +own prevision, which to one less bold and reckless than the young +clerk of Dulce Cor would have proved disconcerting. Then he propounded +his next question: + +"How many came hither with you?" + +"One," said Laurence, promptly; "I came here alone with your servant +De Sille." + +The marshal smiled. + +"Good--we will try some other method with you," he said; "but be +advised and speak. None hath ever hidden aught from Gilles de Retz." + +"Then, my lord," said Laurence, "there is the less reason for you to +put me to the question." + +"I can expound dark speeches," said the marshal, "and I also know my +way through the subtleties of lying tongues. Hope not to lie to me. +How many were they that came to France with you?" + +"I will not tell you," said the son of Malise. + +The marshal smiled again and nodded his head repeatedly with a certain +gustful appreciation. + +"You would make a good soldier. It is a pity that I have gone out of +the business. Yet I have only (as it were) descended from wholesale to +particular, from the gross to the detail." + +Laurence, who felt that the true policy was to be sparing of his +words, made no answer. + +"You say that you are a clerk. Can you read Latin?" + +"Yes," said Laurence, "and write it too." + +"Read this, then," said the marshal, and handed him a book. + +Laurence had been well instructed in the humanities by Father Colin of +Saint Michael's Kirk by the side of Dee water, and he read the words, +which record the cruelties of the Emperor Caligula with exactness and +decorum. + +"You read not ill," said his auditor; "you have been well taught, +though you have a vile foreign accent and know not the shades of +meaning that lie in the allusions. + +"You say that you came to Machecoul with desire to serve me," the +marshal continued after a pause for thought. "In what manner did you +think you could serve, and why went you not into the house of some +other lord?" + +"As to service," said Laurence, "I came because I was invited by your +henchman de Sille. And as to what I can do, I profess that I can sing, +having been well taught by a master, the best in my country. I can +play upon the viol and eke upon the organ. I am fairly good at fence, +and excellent as any at singlestick. I can faithfully carry a message +and loyally serve those who trust me. I would have some money to +spend, which I have never had. I wish to live a life worth living, +wherein is pleasure and pain, the lack of sameness, and the joy of +things new. And if that may not be--why, I am ready to die, that I may +make proof whether there be anything better beyond." + +"A most philosophic creed," cried the marshal. "Well, there is one +thing in which I can prove, if indeed you lie not. Sing!" + +Then Laurence stood up and sang, even as the choir had done, the +lamentation of Rachel according to the setting of the Roman precentor. + + "_A voice was heard in Ramah!_" + +And as he sang, the Lord of Retz took up the strain, and, with true +accord and feeling, accompanied him to the end. + +[Illustration: THE PRISONERS OF THE WHITE TOWER.] + +"Brava!" cried Gilles de Retz when Laurence had finished; "that is +truly well sung indeed! You shall sing it alone in my chapel next +feast day of the Holy Innocents." + +He paused as if to consider his words. + +"And now for this time go. But remember that this Castle of Machecoul +is straiter than any prison cell, and better guarded than a fortress. +It is surrounded with constant watchers, secret, invisible, +implacable. Whoso tries to escape, dies. You are a bold lad, and, as I +think, fear not much death for yourself. But come hither, and I will +show you something which will chain you here." + +With a kind of solicitous familiarity the Marshal de Retz took the lad +by the arm and drew him to another window on the further side of the +keep. + +"Look forth and tell me what you see," he said. + +Laurence set his head out of the window. He looked upon an intricate +mass of building, composing the western wing of the castle, and it was +some moments before he could distinguish what the Sieur de Retz wished +him to see. Then, as his eyes took in the details, he saw on the flat +roof of a square tower beneath him two maidens seated, and when he +looked closer--lo! they were Margaret Douglas and, beside her, his +brother's sweetheart Maud Lindesay. These two were sitting hand in +hand, as was their wont, and the head of the child was bowed almost to +her friend's knee. Maud's arm was about Margaret's neck, and her +fingers caressed the childish tangle of hair. Presently the elder +lifted the younger upon her knee and hushed her like a mother who +puts a tired child to sleep. + +Immediately behind this group, in the shadow of a buttress, Laurence +saw a tall man, masked, clad in a black suit, and with a drawn sword +in his hand. + +The marshal looked out over the lad's shoulder. + +"The day you are missed from the Castle of Machecoul, or the day that +the rest of your company arrives here, that sword shall fall, but in a +more terrible fashion than I can tell you! That sentinel can neither +hear nor speak, but he has his orders and will obey them. I bid you +good night. Go to your singing in the choir. It is time for the +chanting of vespers in the chapel of the Holy Innocents." + + + + +CHAPTER LII + +THE JESTING OF LA MEFFRAYE + + +It was in the White Tower of Machecoul that the Scottish maidens were +held at the mercy of the Lord of Retz. At their first arrival in the +country they had been taken to the quiet Chateau of Pouzauges, the +birthplace of Poitou, the marshal's most cruel and remorseless +confidant. Here, as the marshal had very truly informed the Lady +Sybilla, they had been under the care of--or, rather, fellow-prisoners +with--the neglected wife of Gilles de Retz, and at Pouzauges they had +spent some days of comparative peace and security in the society of +her daughter. + +But at the first breath of the coming of the three strangers to the +district they had been seized and securely conveyed to Machecoul +itself--there to be interned behind the vast walls and triple bastions +of that fortress prison. + +"I wonder, Maudie," said Margaret Douglas, as they sat on the flat +roof of the White Tower of Machecoul and looked over the battlements +upon the green pine glades and wide seaward Landes, "I wonder whether +we shall ever again see the water of Dee and our mother--and Sholto +MacKim." + +It is to be feared that the last part of the problem exceeded in +interest all others in the eyes of Maud Lindesay. + +"It seems as if we never could again behold any one we loved or wished +to see--here in this horrible place," sighed Maud Lindesay. "If ever I +get back to the dear land and see Solway side, I will be a different +girl." + +"But, Maud," said the little maid, reproachfully, "you were always +good and kind. It is not well done of you to speak against yourself in +that fashion." + +Maud Lindesay shook her pretty head mournfully. + +"Ah, Margaret, you will know some day," she said. "I have been +wicked,--not in things one has to confess to Father Gawain, +but,--well, in making people like me, and give me things, and come to +see me, and then afterwards flouting them for it and sending them +away." + +It was not a lucid description, but it sufficed. + +"Ah, but," said Margaret Douglas, "I think not these things to be +wicked. I hope that some day I shall do just the same, though, of +course, I shall not be as beautiful as you, Maudie; no, never! I asked +Sholto MacKim if I would, and he said, 'Of course not!' in a deep +voice. It was not pretty of him, was it, Maud?" + +"I think it was very prettily said of him," answered Maud Lindesay, +with the first flicker of a smile on her face. Her conscience was +quite at ease about Sholto. He was different. Whatever pain she had +caused him, she meant to make up to him with usury thereto. The others +she had exercised no more for her own amusement than for their own +souls' good. + +"My brother William must indeed be very angry with us, that he hath +never sent to find us and bring us home," went on the little girl. "It +is three months since we met that horrible old woman in the woods +above Thrieve Island, and believed her when she told us that the Earl +had instant need of us--and that Sholto MacKim was with him." + +"None saw us taken away. Margaret," said the elder, "and perhaps, who +knows, they may never have found any of the pieces of flower garlands +I threw down before they put us in the boats from the beach of +Cassencary." + +But the eyes of the little Maid of Galloway were now fixed upon +something in the green courtyard below. + +"Maud, Maud, come hither quickly!" she whispered; "if yonder be not +Laurence MacKim talking to the singing lads and dressed like +them--why, then, I do not know Laurie MacKim!" + +Maud came quickly now. Her face and neck blushed suddenly crimson with +the springing of hope in her heart. + +She looked down, and there, far below them indeed, but yet distinct +enough, they saw Laurence daring Blaise Renouf to single combat and +vaunting his Irish prowess, as we have already seen him do. Maud +Lindesay caught her companion's hand as she looked. + +"They have found us," she whispered; "at least, they are seeking for +us. If Laurence is here, I warrant Sholto cannot be very far away. Oh, +Margaret, am I looking very ill? Will he think I am as--(she paused +for a word)--as comely as he thought me before in Scotland? Or have I +grown old and ugly with being shut up so long?" + +But the Maid of Galloway heard her not. She was pondering on the +meaning of Laurence's presence in the Castle of Machecoul. + +"Perhaps William hath sent Laurence to spy us out, and is even now +coming from his French duchy with an army. He is a far greater man +than the marshal, and will make him give us up as soon as he finds out +where we are. Shall I call down to Laurie to let him know that we are +here?" + +Maud put her hand hastily over her companion's mouth. + +"Hush!" she said, "we must not appear to know him, or they will surely +kill him--and perhaps the others, too. If Laurence is here, I wot well +that help is not far away. Let us be patient and abide. Come back from +the wall and sit by me as if nothing, had happened." + +But all the same she kept her own place in a spot where she could +command the pleasaunce below, and looked longingly yet fearfully to +see Sholto follow his brother across the green sward. + + * * * * * + +"Sweet and fair is the air of the evening," purred behind them a low +voice--that of the woman who was called La Meffraye. "It brings the +colour to the cheeks of the young. But I am old and wise, and I would +advise that two maids so fair should not look down on the sports of +the youths, lest they hear and see more than is fitting for such +innocent eyes." + +The girls turned away without looking at their custodian, who stood +leaning upon her little hand crutch and smiling upon them her terrible +soft smile. + +"Ah," she said, "proud, are you? 'Tis an ill place to bring pride to, +this Castle of Machecoul. You will not deign to speak a word to a poor +old woman now. But the day is not far distant when I shall have my +pretty spitfire clinging about these old trembling knees, and +beseeching me whom you despise, as a woman either to save you or kill +you--you will not care which. _As a woman!_ Ha! ha! How long is it +since La Meffraye was a woman? Was she ever rocked in a cradle? Did +she play about any cottage door and fashion daisy chains, as I have +seen you do, my pretties, long ere you came to Machecoul or even heard +of the Sieur de Retz? Hath La Meffraye ever lain in any man's +bosom--save as the tigress crouches upon her prey?" + +She paused and smiled still more bitterly and malevolently than before +upon the two maidens. + +"Did you chance to be awake yester-even?" she went on. "Aye, I know +well that you were awake. La Meffraye saw right carefully to that. And +you heard the crying that rang out of yonder high window, from which +the light streamed all through the night. Wait, wait, my pretties, +till it is your turn to be sent for up thither, when the shining knife +is sharpened and the red fire kindled. You will not despise La +Meffraye when that day comes. You will grovel and weep, and then will +La Meffraye spurn you with her foot, till the noise of your crying be +borne out over the forest, and for very gladness the wolves howl in +the darkness." + +The little Maid of Galloway was moved to answer, and her lips +quivered. But Maud Lindesay sat pale and motionless, looking towards +the north, from which she hoped for help to come. + +"Our brother, the Earl of Douglas, will bring an army from his dukedom +of Touraine, and sweep you and your castle from the face of the earth, +if your master dares to lay so much as a finger upon us." + +La Meffraye laughed a low, cackling laugh, and in the act showed the +four long eye-teeth which were the sole remaining dental equipment of +her mouth. + +"Oh, Great Barran--" she chuckled, "listen to the pretty fool! Our +brother will do this--our brother will do that. _Our_ brother will +lick the country of Retz as clean as a dog licks a platter. Know you +not, silly fool, that both your brothers are long since dead and under +sod in the castle of your city of Edinburgh. I tell you my master set +his little finger upon them and crushed them like flies on a summer +chamber wall!" + +Maud Lindesay rose to her feet as La Meffraye spoke these words. + +"It is not true," she cried; "you lie to us as you have done from the +first. The Earl of Douglas is not dead!" + +It was now little Margaret who showed the spirit of her race, and put +out her hand to clasp that of her elder comrade. + +"Do not let her even know that she has power to hurt us with her +words," she whispered low to Maud Lindesay. Then she spoke aloud: + +"If that which you say be true and my brothers are dead--there are yet +Douglases. Our cousins will deliver us." + +"Your cousins have entered into your possessions," jeered the hag; "it +is indeed a likely thing that they will desire your return to Scotland +in order to rob them of that which is their own." + +"We are not afraid," said the little maid, stoutly; "there are many in +the land of the Scots who would gladly die to help us." + +"Aye, that is it. They shall die--all die. Three of them died +yester-even, torn to pieces by my lord's wolves. Fine, swift, +four-footed guardians of the Castle of Machecoul--La Meffraye's +friends! And one young cock below there of the same gang hath gone +even now to my lord's chamber. He hath mounted the stairs he will +never descend." + +"Well," said the Maid of Galloway, "even so--we are not afraid. We can +die, as died our friends." + +"Die--die!" cried the hag, sharply, angered at the child's +persistence. "'Tis easy to talk. To snuff a candle out is to die. +Poof, 'tis done! But the young and beautiful like you, my dearies, do +not so die at Machecoul. No; rather as a dying candle flickers +out--falls low, and rises again, so they die. As wine oozes drop by +drop from the needle-punctured wine-skin--so shall you die, weeping, +beseeching, drained to the white like a dripping calf in the shambles, +yet at the same time reddened and shamed with the shame deadly and +unnameable. Then La Meffraye, whom now you disdain to answer with a +look, will wash her hands in your life's blood and laugh as your tears +fall slowly upon the latchet of her shoon!" + +But a new voice broke in upon the railing of the hideous woman fiend. + +"_Out, foul hag! Get you to your own place!_" it said, with an accent +strong and commanding. + +And the affrighted and heart-sick girls turned them about to see the +Lady Sybilla stand fair and pale at the head of the turret stair which +opened out upon the roof of the White Tower. + +At this interruption the eyes of La Meffraye seemed to burn with a +fresher fury, and the green light in them shone as shines an emerald +stone held up to the sun. + +The hag cowered, however, before the outstretched index finger of +Sybilla de Thouars. + +"Ah, fair lady," she whimpered, "be not angry--and tell not my lord, I +beseech you. I did but jest." + +"_Hence!_" the finger was still outstretched, and, in obedience to the +threatening gesture, the hag shrank away. But as she passed through +the portal down the steps of the turret, she flung back certain words +with a defiant fleer. + +"Ah, you are young, my lady, and for the present--for the present your +power is greater than mine. But wait! Your beauty will wither and grow +old. Your power will depart from you. But La Meffraye can never grow +older, and when once the secret is discovered, and my lord is young +again, La Meffraye is the one who with him shall bloom with immortal +youth, while you, proud lady, lie cold in the belly of the worm." + + * * * * * + +"It is true--all too true," said Sybilla de Thouars, sadly, "they are +dead. The young, the noble were--and are no more. I who speak saw them +die. And that so greatly, that even in death their lives cease not. +Their glory shall flow on so that the young brook shall become a +river, and the river become a sea." + +Then in few words and quiet, she told them all the heavy tale. + +But when the maids made as though they would cleave to her for the +sympathy that was in her words and because of her tears, she set the +palms of her hands against their breasts and cried, "Come not near one +whom not all the fires of purgatory can purify--one who, like +Iscariot, hath contracted herself outside the mercy of God and of our +Lord Christ!" + +But all the more they clave to her, overpassing her protestations and +clasping her, so that, being deeply moved, she sat down on the steps +of a corner turret which rose from the greater, and wept there, with +the weeping wherewith women are wont to ease the heart. + +Then went Maud Lindesay to her and set her hand about her neck, and +kissed her, saying: "Do not be sorry any more. Confess to the minister +of God. I also have sinned and been sorry. Yet after came forgiveness +and the unbound heart." + +Then the Lady Sybilla ceased quickly and looked up, as it had been, +smiling. Yet she was not smiling as maidens are wont to smile. + +"Pretty innocent," she said, "you mean well, but you know not what the +word 'sin' means to such as I. Confess--absolve! Not even the Holy One +and the Just could give me that. I tell you I have eaten of the apple +of the knowledge of good and evil--yes, the very core I have eaten. I +have the taste of innocent blood upon my lips. I have seen the axe +fall, the axe which I put into the headsman's hands. I am condemned, +and that justly. But one of you shall live to taste sweet love, and +the crown of life, and to feel the innocent lips of children at her +breasts. And the other--but enough. Farewell. Fear not. God, who has +been cruel in all else, has given your lives to Sybilla de Thouars, +ere in His own time He strike that guilty one with His thunderbolt." + +And as she went within, the eyes of the maids followed her; but the +masked man with the naked sword never so much as turned his head, +gazing straight forward over the battlements of the White Tower into +the lilac mist which hung above the Atlantic. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII + +SYBILLA'S VENGEANCE + + +There stands a solitary rock at the base of which is a cave, on the +seashore of La Vendee. Behind stretch the marshes, and the place is +shut in and desolate. Birds cry there. The bittern booms in the +thickets of grey willow and wet-shot alder. The herons nest upon the +pine trees near by, till the stale scent of them comes down the wind +from far. Ospreys fish in the waters of the shallow lake behind, and +the scales of their prey flash in the sun of morning as they rise +dripping from the dive. + +In this place Sholto, Malise, and the Lord James Douglas were +presently abiding. + +It was but a tiny cell, originally formed by two portions of marly +rock fallen together in some ancient convulsion or dropped upon each +other from a floating iceberg. In some former age the cleft had been a +lair of wild beasts, or the couch of some hairy savage hammering flint +arrowheads for the chase, and drawing with a sharp point upon polished +bone the yet hairier mammoth he hunted. But this solitary lodging in +the wilderness had been enlarged in more recent times, till now the +interior was about eight feet square and of the height of a man of +stature when he stands erect. + +The hearts of the three present cave-dwellers were sick and sad, and +of them all the bitterest was the heart of Sholto MacKim. It seemed +to his eager lover's spirit, as he climbed to the top of the sand +dunes and gazed towards the massive towers of Machecoul rising above +the green woodlands, that hitherto they had but wandered and done +nothing. The sorcerer had prevented them about with his evil. They had +lost Laurence utterly, and for the rest they had not even touched the +outer defences of their arch enemy. + +Thrice they had tried to enter the castle. The first time they had +taken by force two waggons of fuel from certain men who went towards +Machecoul, leaving the woodmen behind in the forest, bound and +helpless. But at the first gate of the outer hall the marshal's guard +had stopped them, and demanded that they should wait till the cars +were unloaded and brought back to them. So, having received the money, +the Scots returned as they went to the men whom they had left in the +forest. + +After this repulse they had gone round and round the vast walls of +Machecoul seeking a place vulnerable, but finding none. The ramparts +rose as it had been to heaven, and the flanking towers were crowded +night and day with men on the watch. Round the walls for the space of +a bow-shot every way there ran a green space fair and open to the +view, but in reality full of pitfalls and secret engines. From the +battlements began the arrow hail, so soon as any attempted to approach +the castle along any other way than the thrice-defended road to the +main gate. + +The wolves howled in the forests by night, and more than once came so +near that one of the three men had to take it in turns to keep watch +in the cave's mouth. But for a reason not clear to them at the time +they were not again attacked by the marshal's wild allies of the +wood. + +The third time they had tried to enter the castle in their pilgrim's +garb, and the outer picket courteously received them. But when they +were come to the inner curtain, one Robin Romulart, the officer of the +guard, a stout fellow, suddenly called to his men to bind and gag +them--in which enterprise, but for the great strength of Malise, they +might have succeeded. For the outer gates had been shut with a clang, +and they could hear the soldiers of the garrison hasting from all +sides in answer to Robin's summons. + +But Malise snatched up the bar wherewith the winding cogs of the gate +were turned, and, having broken more than one man's head with it, he +forced the massive doors apart by main force, so that they were able +all unharmed to withdraw themselves into the shelter of the woods. So +near capture had they been, however, that over and over again they +heard the shouting of the parties who scoured the woods in search of +them. + +It was the worst feature of their situation that the Marshal de Retz +certainly knew of their presence in his territories, and that he would +be easily able to guess their errand and take measures to prevent it +succeeding. + +Their last and most fatal failure had happened several days before, +and the first eager burst of the search for them had passed. But the +Scots knew that the enemy was thoroughly alarmed, and that it behoved +them to abide very closely within their hiding-place. + +The Lord James took worst of all with the uncertainty and confinement. +Any restraint was unsuited to his jovial temper and open-air life. But +for the present, at least, and till they could gain some further +information as to the whereabouts of the maidens, it was obvious that +they could do no better than remain in their seaside shelter. + +Their latest plan was to abide in the cave till the marshal set out +again upon one of his frequent journeys. Then it would be +comparatively easy to ascertain by an ambush whether he was taking the +captives with him, or if he had left them behind. If the maids were of +his travelling company, the three rescuers would be guided by +circumstances and the strength of the escort, as to whether or not +they should venture to make an attack. + +But if by any unhoped-for chance Margaret and Maud were left behind at +Machecoul, it would at least be a more feasible enterprise to attack +the fortress during the absence of its master and his men. + +Alone among the three Scots Malise faced their predicament with some +philosophy. Sholto ate his heart out with uncertainty as to the fate +of his sweetheart. The Lord James chafed at the compulsory confinement +and at the consistent ill success which had pursued them. But Malise, +unwearied of limb and ironic of mood as ever, fished upon the tidal +flats for brown-spotted flounders and at the rocky points for white +fish, often remaining at his task till far into the night. He +constructed snares with a mechanical ingenuity in advance of his age. +And what was worth more to the company than any material help, he kept +up the spirits of Sholto and of Lord James Douglas both by his brave +heart and merry speech, and still more by constantly finding them +something to do. + +At the hour of even, one day after they had been a fortnight in the +country of Retz, the three Scots were sitting moodily on a little +hillock which concealed the entrance to their cave. The forest lay +behind them, an impenetrable wall of dense undergrowth crowned along +the distant horizon by the solemn domes of green stone pines. It +circumvented them on all sides, save only in front, where, through +several beaker-shaped breaks in the high sand dunes they could catch a +glimpse of the sea. The Atlantic appeared to fill these clefts half +full, like Venice goblets out of which the purple wine has been +partially drained. To right and left the pines grew scantier, so that +the rays of the sunset shone red as molten metal upon their stems and +made a network of alternate gold and black behind them. + +The three sat thus a long time without speech, only looking up from +their tasks to let their eyes rest wistfully for a moment upon the +deep and changeful amethyst of the sea, and then with a light sigh +going back to the cleaning of their armoury or the shaping of a long +bow. + +It chanced that for several minutes no sound was heard except those +connected with their labour, the low whistle with which the Lord James +accompanied his polishing, the _wisp-wisp_ of Malise's arms as he +sewed the double thread back and forth through a rent in his leathern +jack, and the rasp of Sholto's file as he carved out the finials of +the bow, the notched grooves wherein the string was to lie so easily +and yet so firmly. + +Thus they continued to work, absorbed, each of them in the sadness of +his own thought, till suddenly a shadow seemed to strike between them +and the red light of the western sky. They looked up, and before them, +as it were ascending out of the very glow of sunset, they saw a woman +on a white palfrey approaching them by the way of the sea. + +So suddenly did she appear that the Lord James uttered a low cry of +wonder, while Malise the practical reached for his sword. But Sholto +had seen this vision twice already, and knew their visitor for the +Lady Sybilla. + +"Hold there!" he said in an undertone. "Remember it is as I said. This +woman, though we have no cause to love her, is now our only hope. Her +words brought us here. They were true words, and I believe that she +comes as a friend. I will stake my life on it." + +"Or if she comes as an enemy we are no worse off," grumbled sceptical +Malise. "We can at least encourage the woman and then hold her as an +hostage." + +The three Scots were standing to receive their guest when the Lady +Sybilla rode up. Her face had lost none of the pale sadness which +marked it when Sholto last saw her, and though the look of utter agony +had passed away, the despair of a soul in pain had only become more +deeply printed upon it. + +The girl having acknowledged their salutations with a stately and +well-accustomed motion of the head, reached a hand for Sholto to lift +her from her palfrey. + +Then, still without spoken word, she silently seated herself on the +grey-lichened rock rudely shaped into the semblance of a chair, on +which Malise had been sitting at his mending. The strange maiden +looked long at the blue sea deepening in the notches of the sand dunes +beneath them. The three men stood before her waiting for her to speak. +Each of them knew that lives, dearer and more precious than their own, +hung upon what she might have to say. + +At last she spoke, in a voice low as the wind when it blows its +lightest among the trees: + +"You have small cause to trust me or to count me your friend," she +said; "but we have that which binds closer than friendship--a common +enemy and a common cause of hatred. It were better, therefore, that we +should understand one another. I have never lost sight of you since +you came to this fatal land of Retz. I have been near you when you +knew it not. To accomplish this I have deceived the man who is my +taskmaster, swearing to him that in the witch crystal I have seen you +depart. And I shall yet deceive him in more deadly fashion." + +Sholto could restrain himself no longer. + +"Enough," he said roughly; "tell us whether the maidens are alive, and +if they are abiding in this Castle of Machecoul." + +The Lady Sybilla did not remove her eyes from the red west. + +"Thus far they are safe," she said, in the same calm monotone. "This +very hour I have come from the White Tower, in which they are +confined. But he whom I serve swears by an oath that if you or other +rescuers are heard of again in this country, he will destroy them +both." + +She shuddered as she spoke with a strong revulsion of feeling. + +"Therefore, be careful with a great carefulness. Give up all thought +of rescuing them directly. Remember what you have been able to +accomplish, and that your slightest actions will bring upon those you +love a fate of which you little dream." + +"After what we remember of Crichton Castle, how can we trust you, +lady?" said Malise, sternly. "Do you now speak the truth with your +mouth?" + +"You have indeed small cause to think so," she answered without taking +offence. "Yet, having no choice, you must e'en trust me." + +She turned sharply upon Sholto with a strip of paper in her +outstretched hand. + +"I think, young sir, that you have some reason to know from whom that +comes." + +Sholto grasped at the writing with a new and wonderful hope in his +heart. He knew instinctively before he touched it that none but Maud +Lindesay could have written that script--small, clear, and distinct as +a motto cut on a gem. + +"_To our friends in France and Scotland,_" so it ran. "_We are still +safe this eve of the Blessed Saint Michael. Trust her who brings this +letter. She is our saviour and our only hope in a dark and evil place. +She is sorry for that which by her aid hath been done. As you hope for +forgiveness, forgive her. And for God's dear sake, do immediately the +thing she bids you. This comes from Margaret de Douglas and Maud +Lindesay. It is written by the hand of M. L._" + +The wax at the bottom was sealed in double with the boar's head of +Lindesay and the heart of Margaret of Douglas. + +Sholto, having read the missive silently, passed it to the Lord James +that he might prove the seals, for it was his only learning to be +skilled in heraldry. + +"It is true," he said; "I myself gave the little maid that ring. See, +it hath a piece broken from the peak of the device." + +"My lady," said Sholto, "that which you bring is more than enough. We +kiss your hand and we will sacredly do all your bidding, were it unto +the death or the trial by fire." + +Then, as was the custom to do to ladies whom knights would honour, the +Lord James and Sholto kneeled down and kissed the hand of Sybilla de +Thouars. But Malise, not being a knight, took it only and settled it +upon his great grizzled head, where it rested for a moment, lightly as +upon some grey and ancient tower lies a flake of snow before it melts. + +"I thank you for your overmuch courtesy," the girl said, casting her +eyes on the ground with a new-born shyness most like that of a modest +maid; "I thank you, indeed. You do me honour far above my desert. +Still, after all, we work for one end. You have, it is true, the +nobler motive,--the lives of those you love; but I the deadlier,--the +death of one I hate! Hearken!" + +She paused as if to gather strength for that which she had to reveal, +and then, reaching her hands out, she motioned the three men to gather +more closely about her, as if the blue Atlantic waves or the red boles +of the pine trees might carry the matter. + +"Listen," she said, "the end comes fast--faster than any know, save I, +to whom for my sins the gift of second sight hath been given. I who +speak to you am of Brittany and of the House of De Thouars. To one of +us in each generation descends this abhorred gift of second sight. And +I, because as a child it was my lot to meet one wholly given over to +evil, have seen more and clearer than all that have gone before me. +But now I do foresee the end of the wickedest and most devilish soul +ever prisoned within the body of man." + +As she spoke the heads of the three Scots bent lower and closer to +catch every word, for the voice of the Lady Sybilla was more like the +cooing of a mating turtle as it answers its comrade than that of a +woman betrayed, denouncing vengeance and death upon him whom her soul +hated. + +"Be of good heart, then, and depart as I shall bid you. None can help +or hinder here at Machecoul but I alone. Be sure that at the worst the +unnameable shall not happen to the maids. For in me there is the power +to slay the evil-doer. But slay I will not unless it be to keep the +lives of the maids. Because I desire for Gilles de Retz a fate +greater, more terrible, more befitting iniquity such as the world hath +never heard spoken of since it arose from the abyss. + +"And this is it given to me to bring upon him whom my soul hateth," +she went on. "I have seen the hempen cord by which he shall hang. I +have seen the fire through which his soul shall pass to its own place. +Through me this fate shall come upon him suddenly in one night." + +Her face lighted up with an inner glow, and shone translucent in the +darkening of the day and the dusk of the trees, as if the fair veil of +flesh wavered and changed about the vengeful soul within. + +"And now," she went on after a pause, "I bid you, gentlemen of the +house of Douglas, to depart to John, Duke of Brittany, and having +found him to lay this paper before him. It contains the number and the +names of those who have died in the castles of de Retz. It shows in +what hidden places the bones of these slaughtered innocents may be +found. Clamour in his ear for justice in the name of the King of +France, and if he will not hear, then in the name of the folk of +Brittany. And if still because of his kinship he will not listen, go +to the Bishop of Nantes, who hates Gilles de Retz. Better than any he +knows how to stir the people, and he will send with you trusty men to +cause the country to rise in rebellion. Then they will overturn all +the castles of de Retz, and the hidden things shall come to light. +This do, and for this time depart from Machecoul, and entrust me (as +indeed you must) with the honour and lives of those you love. I will +keep them with mine own until destruction pass upon him who is outcast +from God, and whom now his own fiend from hell hath deserted." + +Then, having sworn to do her bidding, the three Scots conducted the +Lady Sybilla with honour and observance to her white palfrey, and like +a spirit she vanished into the sea mists which had sifted up from the +west, going back to the drear Castle of Machecoul, but bearing with +her the burden of her revenge. + + + + +CHAPTER LIV + +THE CROSS UNDER THE APRON + + +The face of Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz, had shone all day with an +unholy lustre like that of iron in which the red heat yet struggles +with the black. In the Castle of Machecoul his familiars went about, +wearing expressions upon their countenances in which disgust and +expectation were mingled with an overwhelming fear of the terrible +baron. + +The usual signs of approaching high saturnalia at Machecoul had not +been wanting. + +Early in the morning La Meffraye had been seen hovering like an +unclean bird of prey about the playing grounds of the village children +at Saint Benoit on the edges of the forest. At nine the frightened +villagers heard the howl of a day-hunting wolf, and one Louis Verger, +a woodman who was cutting bark for the tanneries in the valley, saw a +huge grey wolf rush out and seize his little son, Jean, a boy of five +years old, who came bringing his father's breakfast. With a great cry +he hurried back to alarm the village, but when men gathered with +scythes and rude weapons of the chase, the beast's track was lost in +the depth of the forest. + +Little Jean Verger of Saint Benoit was never seen again, unless it +were he who, half hidden under the long black cloak of La Meffraye, +was brought at noon by the private postern of the baron into the +Castle of Machecoul. + +So the men of Saint Benoit went not back to their work, but abode +together all that day, sullen anger burning in their hearts. And one +calling himself the servant of the Bishop of Nantes went about among +them, and his words were as knives, sharp and bitter beyond belief. +And ever as he spoke the men turned them about till they faced +Machecoul. Their lips moved like those of a Moslemite who says his +prayers towards Mecca. And the words they uttered were indeed prayers +of solemnest import. + +With his usual devotion at such seasons, Gilles de Retz had attended +service thrice that day in his Chapel of the Holy Innocents. His +behaviour had been marked by intense devoutness. An excessive +tenderness of conscience had characterised his confessions to Pere +Blouyn, his spiritual director-in-ordinary. He confessed as his most +flagrant sin that his thoughts were overmuch set on the vanities of +the world, and that he had even sometimes been tempted of the devil to +question the right of Holy Church herself to settle all questions +according to the will of her priests and prelates. + +Whereupon Pere Blouyn, with suave correctness of judgment, had pointed +out wherein his master erred; but also cautioned him against that +undue tenderness of conscience natural to one with his exalted +position and high views of duty and life. Finally the marshal had +received absolution. + +In the late afternoon the Lord of Retz commanded the fire to be laid +ready for lighting in his chamber aloft in the keep of Machecoul, and +set himself down to listen to the singing of the choir, which, under +the guidance of Precentor Renouf, rehearsed for him the sweetest hymns +recently written for the choir of the Holy Father at Rome. For there +the marshal's choir-master had been trained, and with its leader he +still kept up a correspondence upon kindred interests. + +Gilles de Retz, as he sat under the late blooming roses in the +afternoon sunshine of the autumn of western France, appeared to the +casual eye one of the most noble seigneurs and the most enlightened in +the world. He affected a costume already semiecclesiastic as a token +of his ultimate intention to enter holy orders. It seemed indeed as if +the great soldier who had ridden into Orleans with Dunois and the Maid +had begun to lay aside his earthly glories and seek the heavenly. + +There, upon a chair set within the cloisters, in a place which the +sunshine touched most lovingly and where it lingered longest, he sat, +nodding his head to the sound of the sweet singing, and bowing low at +each mention of the name of Jesus (as the custom is)--a still, +meditative, almost saintly man. Upon the lap of his furred robe (for, +after all, it was a sunshine with a certain shrewd wintriness in it) +lay an illuminated copy of the Holy Gospels; and sometimes as he +listened to the choir-boys singing, he glanced therein, and read of +the little children to whom belongs the kingdom. Upon occasion he +lifted the book also, and looked with pleasure at the pictured cherubs +who cheered the way of the Master Jerusalemwards with strewn palm +leaves and shouted hosannas. + +And ever sweeter and sweeter fell the music upon his ear, till +suddenly, like the silence after a thunderclap, the organ ceased to +roll, the choir was silent, and out of the quiet rose a single +voice--that of Laurence the Scot singing in a tenor of infinite +sweetness the words of blessing: + + "_Suffer the little children to come unto Me, + And forbid them not; + For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven._" + +And as the boy's voice welled out, clear and thrilling as the song of +an upward pulsing lark, the tears ran down the face of Gilles de Retz. + +God knows why. Perhaps it was some glint of his own innocent +childhood--some half-dimmed memory of his happily dead mother. +Perhaps--but enough. Gilles de Laval de Retz went up the turret stair +to find Poitou and Gilles de Sille on guard on either side the portals +which closed his chamber. + +"Is all ready?" he asked, though the tears were scarcely dry on his +cheeks. + +They bowed before him to the ground. + +"All is ready, lord and master," they said as with one voice. + +"And Prelati?" + +"He is in waiting." + +"And La Meffraye," he went on, "has she arrived?" + +"La Meffraye has arrived," they said; "all goes fortunately." + +"Good!" said Gilles de Retz, and shedding his furred monkish cloak +carelessly from off his shoulders, he went within. + +Poitou and Gilles de Sille both reached to catch the mantle ere it +fell. As they did so their hands met and touched. And at the meeting +of each other's flesh they started and drew apart. Their eyes +encountered furtively and were instantly withdrawn. Then, having hung +up the cloak, with pallid countenances and lips white and tremulous, +they slowly followed the marshal within. + + * * * * * + +"Sybilla de Thouars, as you are in my power, so I bid you work my +will!" + +It was the deep, stern voice of the Marshal de Retz which spoke. The +Lady Sybilla lay back in a great chair with her eyes closed, breathing +slowly and gently through her parted lips. Messire Gilles stood before +her with his hands joined palm to palm and his white fingertips almost +touching the girl's brow. + +"Work my will and tell me what you see!" + +Her hands were clasped under a light silken apron which she wore +descending from her neck and caught in a loose loop behind her gown. +The fingers were firmly netted one over the other and clutched between +them was a golden crucifix. + +The girl was praying, as one prays who dares not speak. + +"O God, who didst hang on this cross--keep now my soul. Condemn it +afterwards, but help me to keep it this night. Deliver me--oh, deliver +from the power of this man. Help me to lie. By Thy Son's blood, help +me to lie well this night." + +"Where are the three men from the land of the Scots? Tell me what you +see. Tell me all," the marshal commanded, still standing before her in +the same posture. + +Then the voice of the Lady Sybilla began to speak, low and even, and +with that strange halt at the end of the sentences. The Lord of Retz +nodded, well pleased when he heard the sound. It was the voice of the +seeress. Oftentimes he had heard it before, and it had never deceived +him. + +"I see a boat on a stormy sea," she said; "there are three men in it. +One is great of stature and very strong. The others are young men. +They are trying to furl the sail. A gust strikes them. The boat heels +and goes over. I see them struggling in the pit of waters. There are +cliffs white and crumbling above them. They are calling for help as +they cling to the boat. Now there is but one of them left. I see him +trying to climb up the slippery rocks. He falls back each time. He is +weary with much buffeting. The waves break about him and suck him +under. Now I do not see the men any more, but I can hear the broken +mast of the boat knocking hollow and dull against the rocks. Some few +shreds of the sail are wrapped about it. But the three men are gone." + +She ceased suddenly. Her lips stopped their curiously detached +utterance. + +But under her breath and deep in her soul Sybilla de Thouars was still +praying as before. And this which follows was her prayer: + +"O God, his devil is surely departed from him. I thank thee, God of +truth, for helping me to lie." + +"It is well," said Gilles de Retz, standing erect with +a satisfied air. "All is well. The three Scots who sought my life are +gone to their destruction. Now, Sybilla de Thouars, I bid you look +upon John, Duke of Brittany. Tell me what he does and says." + +The level, impassive, detached voice began again. The hands clasped +the cross of gold more closely under the silk apron. + +"I see a room done about with silver scallop shells and white-painted +ermines. I see a fair, cunning-faced, soft man. Behind him stands one +tall, spare, haggard--" + +"Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Brittany--one that hates me," said +de Retz, grimly between his teeth. "I will meet my fingers about his +dog's throat yet. What of him?" + +The Lady Sybilla, without a quiver of her shut eyelids took up the +cue. + +"He hath his finger on a parchment. He strives to point out something +to the fair-haired man, but that other shakes his head and will not +agree--" + +The marshal suddenly grew intent, and even excited. + +"Look closer, Sybilla--look closer. Can you not read that which is +written on the parchment? I bid you, by all my power, to read it." + +Then the countenance of the Lady Sybilla was altered. Striving and +blank failure were alternately expressed upon it. + +"I cannot! Oh, I cannot!" she cried. + +"By my power, I bid you. By that which I will make you suffer if you +fail me, I command you!" cried Gilles de Retz, bending himself towards +her and pressing his fingers against her brow so that the points +dented her skin. + +The tears sprang from underneath the dark lashes which lay so +tremulously upon her white cheek. + +"You make me do it! It hurts! I cannot!" she said in the pitiful voice +of a child. + +"Read--or suffer the shame!" cried Gilles de Retz. + +"I will--oh, I will! Be not angry," she answered pleadingly. + +And underneath the silk the hands were grasped with a grip like that +of a vice upon the golden cross she had borrowed from the little Maid +of Galloway. + +"Read me that which is written on the paper," said the marshal. + +The Lady Sybilla began to speak in a voice so low that Gilles de Retz +had to incline his ear very close to her lips to listen. + +"Accusation against the great lord and most noble seigneur, Gilles de +Laval de Retz, Sire de--" + +"That is it--go on after the titles," said the eager voice of the +marshal. + +"Accused of having molested the messengers of his suzerain, the +supreme Duke John of Brittany, accused of ill intent against the +State; accused of quartering the arms-royal upon his shield; called to +answer for these offences in the city of Nantes--and that is all." + +She ended abruptly, like one who is tired and desires no more than to +sleep. + +Gilles de Retz drew a long sigh of relief. + +"All is hid," he said; "these things are less than nothing. What does +the Duke?" + +"I cannot look again, I am weary," she said. + +"Look again!" thundered her taskmaster. + +"I see the fair-haired man take the parchment from the hand of the +dark, stern man--" + +"With whom I will reckon!" + +"He tries to tear it in two, but cannot. He throws it angrily in the +fire." + +"My enemies are destroyed," said Gilles de Retz, "I thank thee, great +Barran-Sathanas. Thou hast indeed done that which thou didst promise. +Henceforth I am thy servant and thy slave." + +So saying, he took a glass of water from the table and dashed it on +the face of the Lady Sybilla. + +"Awake," he said, "you have done well. Go now and repose that you may +again be ready when I have need of you." + +A flicker of conscious life appeared under the purple-veined eyelids +of the Lady Sybilla. Her long, dark lashes quivered, tried to rise, +and again lay still. + +The marshal took the illuminated copy of the Evangelists from the +table and fanned her with the thin parchment leaves. + +"Awake!" he cried harshly and sternly. + +The eyes of the girl slowly opened their pupils dark and dilated. She +carried her hand to her head, but wearily, as if even that slight +movement pained her. The golden cross swung unseen under the silken +folds of her apron. + +"I am so tired--so tired," the girl murmured to herself as Gilles de +Retz assisted her to rise. Then hastily handing her over to Poitou, he +bade him conduct her to her own chamber. + +But as she went through the door of the marshal's laboratory she +looked upon the floor and smiled almost joyously. + +"His devil has indeed departed from him," she murmured to herself. "I +thank the God of Righteousness who this night hath enabled me to +baffle him with a woman's poor wit, and to lie to him that he may be +led quick to destruction, and fall himself into the pit which he hath +prepared for the feet of the innocent." + + + + +CHAPTER LV + +THE RED MILK + + +Darkly and swiftly the autumn night descended upon Machecoul. In the +streets of the little feudal bourg there were few passers-by, and such +as there were clutched their cloaks tighter round them and scurried +on. Or if they raised their heads, it was only to take a hasty, +fearful glance at the vast bulk of the castle looming imminent above +them. + +From a window high in the central keep a red light streamed out, and +when the clouds flew low, strange dilated shadows were wont to be cast +upon the rolling vapour. Sometimes smoke, acrid and heavy, bellied +forth, and anon wild cries of pain and agony floated down to silence +the footfalls of the home-returning rustics and chill the hearts of +burghers trembling in their beds. + +But none dared to question in public the doings of the great and +puissant lord of all the country of Retz. It fared not well with him +who even looked too much at the things which were done. + +The night was yet darker up aloft in the Castle of Machecoul itself. +In the sacristy good Father Blouyn, with an air of resigned +reluctance, was handing over to an emissary of his master the moulds +in which the tall altar candles for the Chapel of the Holy Innocents +were usually cast and compacted. And as Clerk Henriet went out with +the moulds he took a long look through a private spy-hole at the lads +of the choir who were sitting in the hall apportioned to their use. +They were supposed to be busy with their lessons, and, indeed, a few +were poring over their books with some show of studious absorption. +But for the most part they were playing at cards and dominos, or, in +the absence of the master, sticking intimate pins and throwing about +indiscriminate ink, according to the immemorial use of the choir-boy. + +Clerk Henriet counted them twice over and in especial looked carefully +to see what did the young Scots lad, who had so mysteriously escaped +from the dread room of his master. Laurence MacKim played X's and O's +upon a board with Blaise Renouf, the precentor's son, and at some +hitch in the game he incontinently clouted the Frenchman upon the ear. +Whereupon ensued trouble and the spilling of much ink. + +Henriet, perfectly satisfied, took up the heavy moulds and made his +way to his lord's chamber, where many things were used for purposes +other than those for which they had been intended. + +Upon the back of his departure came in the Precentor Renouf, who laid +his baton conjointly and freely about the ears of his son and those of +Laurence MacKim. + +"Get to your beds both of you, and that supperless, for uproar and +conduct ill becoming two youths who worship God all day in his +sanctuary, and are maintained at grievous expense by our most devout +and worthy lord, Messire Gilles of Laval and Retz, Seigneur and Lord!" + +Laurence, who had of set purpose provoked the quarrel, was slinking +away, when the "Psalta" (as the choir-master is called in lower +Brittany) ordered them to sleep in separate rooms for the better +keeping of the peace. + +"And do you, Master Laurence, perform your vigil of the night upon the +pavement of the chapel. For you are the most rebellious and +troublesome of all--indeed, past bearing. Go! Not a word, sirrah!" + +So, much rejoiced in heart that matters had thus fallen out, Laurence +MacKim betook himself to the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, and was +duly locked in by the irate precentor. + +For, upon various occasions, he had watched the Lord of Retz descend +into the chapel by a private staircase which opened out in an angle +behind the altar. He had also seen Poitou, his confidential +body-servant, lock it after him with a small key of a yellow colour +which he took from his fork pocket. + +Now Master Laurence, as may have already been observed, was (like most +of the youthful unordained clergy) little troubled, at least in minor +matters, with scruples about such slight distinctions as those which +divide _meum_ and _tuum_. He found no difficulty therefore in +abstracting this key when Poitou was engaged in attending his master +from the chapel, in which service it was his duty to pass the stalls +with open lattice ends of carven work in which sat the elder +choir-boys. Having secured the key, Laurence hid it instantly beneath +the leaden saint on his cap, refastening the long pin which kept our +Lady of Luz in her place through the fretwork of the little brazen +key. + +Presently he saw Poitou come back and look carefully here and there +upon the floor, but after a while, not finding anything, he went out +again to search elsewhere. + +The idea had come to Laurence that at the head of the stairway from +the chapel was the prison chamber of Maud Lindesay and her ward, the +little Maid Margaret of Galloway. + +He told himself at least that this was his main object, and doubtless +he had the matter in his mind. But a far stronger motive was his +curiosity and the magic influence of the mysterious and the unknown +upon the heart of youth. + +More than to deliver Margaret of Galloway, Laurence longed to look +again upon the iron altar and to know the truth concerning the strange +sacrifices which were consummated there. And he yearned to see again +that rough-eared image graven after the fashion of a man. + +And the reason was not far to seek. + +For if even the worship of the High God, according to the practice of +the most enlightened nations, grounds itself upon blood and sacrifice, +what wonder if, in the worship of the lords of Hell, the blood of the +innocent is an oblation well pleasing and desirable. + +Rooted and ineradicable is the desire in man's heart to know good and +evil--but particularly evil. And so now Laurence desired to see the +sacrifice laid between the horns of the altar and the image above lean +over as if to gloat upon the sweet savour of its burning. + +Long and carefully Laurence listened before he ventured forth. The +Chapel of the Innocents was dark and silent. Only a reflection of the +red light which burned in the keep struck through the clerestory upon +the great cross which swung above the altar. This, being dispersed +like a halo about the sign of Christ's redemption, rendered the corner +where was placed the door into the secret stairway light enough to +enable the youth to insert therein Poitou's key. The wards were turned +with well-accustomed smoothness. + +Carefully shutting the door behind him so that if any one chanced to +enter the chapel nothing would be observed, Laurence set his feet upon +the steps and began his adventure of supreme peril. + +It was a narrow staircase, only wide enough indeed for one to ascend +or descend at once. And the heart of Laurence sank within him at the +thought of meeting the dread Lord of Machecoul face to face in its +strait, black spirals. + +He accomplished the ascent, however, without incident, and, passing +through another low arch, found himself at the end of the passage over +against the door with the curious burned hieroglyphics imprinted upon +it. There was no light in the corridor, and Laurence eagerly set his +hand to the latch. It opened as before and admitted him at a touch. + +The temple-like hall was silent and dim. Only an occasional thrill as +if of an earthquake passed across it, waving the heavy hangings and +bringing a hot breath of some strange heady perfume to the nostrils. +Laurence, with a beating heart, ensconced himself in a hidden nook +behind the door. The niche was covered by a curtain and furnished with +a grooved slab of marble placed there for some purpose he could not +fathom. + +Yet it was by no means wholly dark. A light shone into the Chapel of +Evil from the opposite side, and through it he could discern shadows +cast upon the floors and striding gigantic across the roof, as unseen +personages passed the light which streamed into the dusky temple. + +In the gloomiest part of the background, hinted rather than seen, he +could make out the vast dark figure dominating the iron altar. + +Then Laurence remembered that the chamber of the marshal lay on the +other side--the room with the immense fireplace which he had once +entered and from which he had barely escaped with his life. + +Little by little Laurence raised himself upon the grooved slab until, +standing erect, he could see some small part of the whitewashed, +red-floored chamber he remembered so well--only a strip, however, +extending from the door through which he looked to the great fireplace +whereon the heaped wood had already been kindled. + +At first all was confused. Laurence saw Henriet and Poitou going +hastily here and there, as servitors do who prepare for a great +function. Then came a pause, heavy with doom. On the back of this he +heard or seemed to hear the frightened pleading of a child, the short, +sharp commands of a soldier's voice, a sound as of a blow stricken, +and then again a whimpering hush. Laurence leaned against the wall +with his face in his hands. He dared not look within. Then he lifted +his head, and lo! in the gloom it seemed as if the huge image had +turned towards him, and in a pleased, confidential way were nodding +approval of his presence. + +He heard the voice of the Marshal de Retz again--this time kindly, and +even affectionate. Some one was not to be frightened. Some one was to +take a draught from the goblet and fear nothing. They would not hurt +him. They had but played with him. + +Again Henriet and Poitou passed and repassed, and once Gilles de Sille +flashed across the interspace handing a broad-edged gleaming knife +swiftly and surreptitiously to some one unseen. + +Then came a short, sharp cry of agony, a gurgling moan, and black, +blank, unutterable horror shut down on Laurence's spirit. + +He sank down on his face behind the door and covered his eyes and ears +with his hands. So he lay for a space without motion, almost without +sense, upon the naked grooves of the marble slab. When he came to +himself, a dusky light was diffused through the chapel. As he looked +he saw La Meffraye come to the door and set her face within, like some +bird of night, hideous and foul. Then she returned and Gilles de Sille +and Clerk Henriet came into the chapel bearing between them a great +golden cup, filled (as it seemed by the care with which they carried +it) to the very brim with some precious liquid. + +To them, all clad in a priest's robe of flame-coloured velvet, +succeeded the Lord of Retz himself. He held in his hand like a +service-book the great manuscript written in red, which he had been +transcribing at Sybilla's entrance, and as he walked he chanted, with +a strange intonation, words that thrilled the very soul of the young +man listening. + +And yet, as Laurence looked forth from his hiding-place, it appeared +that the black statue nodded once more to him as one who would say, +"Take note and remember what thou seest; for one day thy testimony +shall be needful." + +These were the words he heard in the chanting monotone: + +"O great and mighty Barran-Sathanas--my only lord and master, whom +with all due observance I do worship, look mercifully upon this the +sacrifice of innocent blood; let it be grateful to thee--to whom all +evil is as the breath of life! + +"Hear us, O Barran-Sathanas! Thou hast been deaf in past days, because +we served thee not without drawback or withholding, without sparing +and without remorse. Because we hesitated to give thee the best, the +delicatest, the most pitiful. But now take this innocentest innocence. +Behold I, Gilles de Retz, make to thee the matchless sacrifice of the +Red Milk thou lovest. + +"The Red Milk I pour for thee. The Red Milk I bring thee. The Red Milk +I drink to thee--that thou mayest be pleased to restore vital energy +and new youth to my veins, to make me strong as a young man in his +strength, and wiser than the wisdom of age. Hear me, O great master of +all the evil of the universe, thou equal and coadjutor of the Master +of Good, hear and manifest thy so mighty power. Hear me and answer, O +Barran-Sathanas!" + +Gilles de Retz took the cup from the hands of the servitors. He seemed +so weak with his crying that he could hardly hold it between his +trembling palms. + +He lifted his head and again cried aloud: + +"See, I am weak, my Satan--see how I tremble. Strength is departed +from me. Youth is dead. Help thy faithful servant, aid him to lift up +this precious oblation to thee!" + +And as the great dusky image seemed to lean over him, with a hoarse +cry Gilles de Retz raised the cup and held it high above his head. As +he did so a beam, sudden as lightning, fell upon it, and with a quick, +instinctive horror, Laurence saw that it was filled to the brim with +blood fresh and red. + +The marshal's voice strengthened. + +"It is coming! It is coming! Barran manifests himself! O great lord, +to thee I drain this draught!" cried Gilles de Retz. "The Red Milk, +the precious milk of innocence, to thee I drink it!" + +And he set the cup to his lips and drank deep and long. + + * * * * * + +"It comes. It fills me. I am strong. O Barran, give me yet more +strength. My limbs revive. My pulse beats. I am young as when I rode +with Dunois. Barran, thou art indeed mightier than God. I will give +thee yet more and more. I swear it. I have kept the best wine till the +last--the death vintage of a great house. The wine of beauty and +brightness--I have kept it for thee. Halt not to make me stronger! +Help me--Barran, help--I fail--!" + +His voice had risen higher and higher till it was well nigh a scream +of agony. Strangely too, in spite of the fictitious youth that glowed +in his veins and coloured his cheek, it sounded like a senile shriek. + +But all suddenly, at the very height of his exaltation, the cup from +which he had drunk slipped from his hand and rolled upon the +tesselated pavement of the temple, staining it in gouts and vivid +blotches of crimson. + +"Hasten, ere I lose the power--I feel it checked. Poitou, De Sille, +Henriet, go bring hither from the White Tower the Scottish maids. +Run, dogs--or you die! Quick, Henriet! Good De Sille, quick! Fail not +your master now! It ebbs, it weakens--and it was so near completion. +Stay, O Barran, till I finish the sacrifice, and here at thy feet +offer up to thee the richest, and the fairest, and the noblest! Bring +hither the maidens! I tell you, bring them quickly!" + +And the terrible Lord of Retz, exhausted with his own fury, cast +himself at the feet of the gigantic image, which, bending over him, +seemed with the same grimace sardonically to mock alike his exaltation +and his downfall. + +But Laurence heard no more. For sense and feeling had wholly departed +from him, and he lay as one dead behind the door of the temple of +Barran-Sathanas, Lord of Evil, in the thrice-abhorrent Castle of +Machecoul. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI + +THE SHADOW BEHIND THE THRONE + + +Within the grim walls of Black Angers Duke John of Brittany and +reigning sovereign of western France was holding his court. The city +and fortress did not properly, of right and parchment holding, +appertain to him. But he had occupied it during the recent troubles +with the English, and his loving cousin and nominal suzerain Charles +the Seventh of France had not yet been strong enough to make him +render it up again. + +The Duke sat in the central tower of the fortress of Black Angers, +that which looks between the high flanking turrets of the mighty +enceinte of walls. He wriggled discontentedly in his chair and +grumbled under his breath. + +At his shoulder, tall, gaunt, angular, with lantern jaws and a mouth +like a wolf trap, deep-set eyes that flamed under bushy eyebrows, +stood Pierre de l'Hopital, the true master of Brittany. + +"I tell you I will go to the tennis-courts--the three Scots must wait +audience till to-morrow. What errand can they have with me--some +rascals whom Charles will not pay now that his job is done? They come +to take service doubtless. A beggarly lot are all such out-land +varlets, but brave--yes, excellent soldiers are the Scots, so long as +they are well fed, that is." + +"Nay, my Lord Duke," said Pierre de l'Hopital, standing up tall and +sombre, his long black gown accentuating the peculiarities of his +figure. "It were almost necessary to see these men now and hear what +they have to say. I myself have seen them and judge it to be so." + +John of Brittany threw down the little sceptre, fashioned in imitation +of that made for the King of France, with which he had been toying. +The action was that of a pettish child. + +"Oh," he cried, "if you have decided, there remains nothing for me but +to obey!" + +"I thank your Excellency for your gracious readiness to grant the men +an interview," said Pierre de l'Hopital, having regard to the +essential matter and disregarding the unessential manner. + +Duke John sat glooming and kicking his feet to and fro on the raised +dais, while behind his chair, impassive as the Grand Inquisitor +himself, Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Brittany, lifted a hand to +an unseen servitor; and in a few moments the three Scots were ushered +into the ducal presence. + +The Lord James in virtue of his quality stood a little in front, not +by his own will or desire, but because Sholto and his father had so +placed themselves that the young noble should have his own rightful +precedence. For as to these things all Scots are careful by nature. + +Duke John continued to keep his eyes averted from the men who sought +his presence. He teased a little lop-eared spaniel, and nipped it till +it yelped. But the President of Brittany never took his eyes off the +strangers, examining them with a bold, keen, remorseless glance, in +which, however, there was neither evil nor the tolerance of it. Not a +man to make himself greatly beloved, this Pierre de l'Hopital. + +And little he cared whether or no. In Brittany men did his will. That +was enough. + +James Douglas was nettled at the inattention of the Duke. He was of +that large and sanguine nature which is at once easily touched by any +discourtesy and very quick to resent it. + +"My Lord of Brittany," he began in a loud clear voice, and in his +usual immaculate French, "I claim your attention for a little. I come +to lay before you that which touches your kin and kingdom." + +Duke John continued to play with the lap-dog, and in addition he +formed his mouth to whistle. But he never whistled. + +"His Grace of Brittany will now give you his undivided attention," +said the President from behind, without moving a muscle either of his +body or of his face, save those necessary to propel the words from his +vocal cords. + +The brow of Duke John flushed with anger, but he did not disobey. He +raised his head and gazed straight at the three men, fixing his eyes, +however, with a studied discourtesy upon Sholto instead of upon their +natural leader and spokesman. + +Behind his chair Pierre de l'Hopital let his deep inscrutable eye +droop once upon his master, and his spare and sinewy wrists twitched +as he held his arms by his side. He seemed upon the point of dealing +ducal dignity a box on the ear both sound and improving. + +"I am the Lord James of Douglas and Avondale," said the leader of the +Scots with grave dignity, "and I had three years ago the honour of +breaking a lance with you in the tilt-yard of Poitiers, when in that +town your Grace met with the King of France and the Duke of Burgundy." + +At this John of Brittany looked up quickly. + +"I do not remember you," he said, "and I never forget faces. Even +Pierre will grant me that." + +"Your Grace may possibly remember, then, the dint in your shoulder +that you got from the point of a spear, caused by the breaking of the +links of your shoulder-piece." + +A light kindled in the Duke's eyes. + +"What," he cried, "you are the young Scot who fought so well and kept +his shield up day by day over the door of a common sergeant's tent, +having no pavilion of his own, till it was all over dints like an +alehouse tankard?" + +"As were also the knights who dinted it," grimly commented Pierre de +l'Hopital. + +The Lord James of Avondale bowed. + +"I am that knight," he said quietly and with gravity. + +"But," cried the Duke, "I knew not then that you were of Douglas. That +is a great name in Poitiers, and had we known your race and quality we +had not been so ready with our shield-rapping." + +"At that time," said James Douglas, "I had not the right to add 'of +Douglas' to my titles. But during this year my father hath succeeded +to the Earldom and estates." + +"What--then is your father Duke of Touraine?" cried the Duke of +Brittany, much astonished. + +"Nay, my lord," said James Douglas, with some little bitterness. "The +King of France hath caused that to revert to himself by the success +which attended a certain mission executed for him in Scotland by his +Chamberlain, the Marshal de Retz, concerning whom we have come from +far to speak with you." + +"Ah, my cousin Gilles!" cried Duke John. "He is not a beauty to look +at, but he is a brave man, our Gilles. I heard he had gone to +Scotland. I wonder if he contrived to make himself as popular in your +land as he has done in ours." + +With a certain grave severity to which Pierre de l'Hopital nodded +approval, the Lord James replied: "At the instigation of the King of +France and Louis the Dauphin he succeeded in murdering my two cousins +William and David of Douglas, and in carrying over hither with him to +his own country their only sister, the little Countess of +Galloway--thus rooting out the greatest house in Scotland to the hurt +of the whole realm." + +"But to your profit, my Lord James of Avondale," commented the hollow +voice of Pierre de l'Hopital, speaking over his master's head. + +The face of James Douglas flushed quickly. + +"No, messire," he answered with a swift heat. "Not to my profit--to my +infinite loss. For I loved my cousin. I honoured him, and for his sake +would have fought to the death. For his sake have I renounced my own +father that begat me. And for his sake I stand here to ask for justice +to the little maiden, the last of his race, to whom by right belongs +the fairest province of his dominions. No, messire, you are wrong. In +all this have I had no profit but only infinite hurt." + +Pierre de l'Hopital bowed low. There was a pleased look on his face +that almost amounted to a smile. + +"I crave your pardon, my lord," he said; "that is well said indeed, +and he is a gentleman who speaks it." + +"Aye, it is indeed well said, and he had you shrewdly on the hip that +time, Pierre," cried Duke John. "I wish he could teach me thus +cleverly to answer you when you croak." + +"If you had as good a cause, my lord," said the President of Brittany +to the Duke, "it were not difficult to answer me as sharply. But we +are keeping these gentlemen from declaring the purpose of their +journey hither." + +The Lord James waited for no further invitation. + +"I come," he said boldly, holding a parchment in his hand, the same he +had received from the Lady Sybilla, "to denounce Gilles de Retz and to +accuse him of many cruel and unrighteous acts such as have never been +done in any kingdom. I accuse him of the murder of over four hundred +children of all ages and both sexes in circumstances of unparalleled +barbarity. I am ready to lead you to the places where lie their +bodies, some of them burned and their ashes cast into the ditch, +others charred and thrown into unused towers. I have here names, +instances, evidence enough to taint and condemn a hundred monsters +such as Gilles de Retz." + +"Ah, give me the paper," came the raucous voice of the President of +Brittany, as he reached a bony hand over his master's shoulder to +seize it. + +The Lord James advanced, and giving it to him said, "Messire, I would +have you know that a copy of this is already in the hands of a trusty +person in each of the towns and villages which are named here, and +from which children have been led to cruel death by him whom I have +accused, Gilles de Retz, Marshal of France." + +The President of Brittany nodded as he almost snatched the paper in +his eagerness to peruse it. + +"The point is cleverly taken," he said, "as justly indeed as if you +knew my Lord of Brittany as well as, for instance, I know him." + +The Duke was obviously discomfited. He shuffled his feet more than +ever on the dais and combed his straggling fair beard with soft, +white, tapering fingers. + +"This is wild and wholly absurd," he said, without however looking at +James Douglas; "our cousin Gilles is in ill odour with the commonalty. +He is a philosopher and makes smells with bottles. But there is +neither harm nor witchcraft in it. He is only trying to discover the +elixir of life. So the silly folk think him a wizard. I know him +better. He is a brave soldier and my good cousin. I will not have him +molested." + +"My lord speaks of kinship," grated the voice of Pierre de l'Hopital. +"Here are the names of four hundred fathers and mothers who have also +a claim to be heard on that subject, and whose voices, if I judge +right, are being heard at this moment around the Castles of Machecoul, +Tiffauges, Champtoce, and Pouzages. I wot there is now a crowd of a +thousand men pouring through the passages of the Hotel de Suze in your +Grace's own ducal city of Nantes. And if there goes a bruit abroad, +that your Highness is protecting this monster whom the people hate, +and the evidences of whose horrid cruelty are by this time in their +hands--well, your Grace knows the Bretons as well as I. They will +make one end of Gilles de Retz and of his cousin John, Duke of +Brittany." + +"Think you so--think you so truly, Pierre?" cried the unhappy reigning +prince; "I would not screen him if this be true. But the King--what of +the King? They say he hath promised him support with arms and men for +recovering to him and to Louis the Dauphin the Duchy of Touraine." + +"And think you, my lord, that the Dauphin will keep his promise, if we +show him good cause why he should fare better by breaking it?" +suggested Pierre de l'Hopital, with the grim irony which had become +habitual to him. + +John of Brittany paused irresolute. + +"Besides which," continued James Douglas, "I may add that this paper +is already in the hands of the Cardinal Bishop of Nantes, and if your +Grace will not move in the matter, his Eminence has promised to see +justice done." + +"The hireling--the popular mouther after favour! I know him," cried +Duke John, angrily. "What accursed demon sent you to him? In this, as +in other matters, he will strive to oust me from the hearts of the +folk of Brittany. He will be the people's advocate and will gain great +honour from this trial, will he? We shall see. Ho! guards there! Turn +out. Summon those that are asleep. Let the full muster be called. I +will lead you to Machecoul myself. And these gentlemen shall march +with us. But by Heaven and the bones of Saint Anne of Auray, if in one +jot they shall fail to substantiate against Gilles de Retz those +things which they have testified, they shall die by the rack, and by +the cord, and by disembowelling, and by fire. So swear I, Duke John +of Brittany." + +"It is good," said James Douglas. And "It is good," accorded also +Malise and Sholto MacKim. + +"But before any dies in Brittany, Gilles de Retz or another, _I_ will +judge the case," commented Pierre de l'Hopital, President of Justice +and Grand Councillor of the reigning sovereign. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII + +THE TOWER OF DEATH + + +Throughout La Vendee and all the country of Retz had run a terrible +rumour. "The Marshal de Retz is the murderer of our children. He has a +thousand bodies in the vaults of his castles. The Duke of Brittany has +given orders that they shall be searched. His soldiers are forsaking +him. The names of the dead have been written in black and white, and +are in the hands of the headmen of the villages. Hasten--it is the +hour of vengeance! Let us overwhelm him! Rise up and let us seek our +lost ones, even if we find no more than their bones!" + +And terrible as had been the gathering of the were-wolves in the dark +forests around Machecoul upon the night of the fight by the hollow +tree, far more threatening and terrible was the uprising of the angry +commons. + +In whole villages there was not a man left, and mothers too marched in +that muster armed with choppers and kitchen knives, wild eyed and +angry hearted as lionesses robbed of their cubs. From the deep glens +and deeper woods of the country of Retz they poured. They disgorged +from the caves of the earth whither the greed and rapacity of their +terrible lord had driven them. + +Schoolmasters were there with the elder of their pupils. For many of +the vanished children had disappeared on their way to school, and +these men were in danger of losing both their credit and occupation. + +Towards Tiffauges, Champtoce, Machecoul, the angry populace, long +repressed, surged tumultuously, and with them, much wondering at their +orders, went the soldiers of the Duke. + +But it is with the columns that concentrated upon Machecoul that we +have chiefly to do. Our three Scots accompanied these, and here, too, +marched John of Brittany himself with his Councillor Pierre de +l'Hopital by his side. + +Night fell as they journeyed on, ever joined by fresh contingents from +all the country round. In the van pressed forward the folk of Saint +Philbert, warm from the utter destruction of the house of the witch +woman, La Meffraye, so that not one stone was left upon another. +Guided by these the Duke and his party made their way easily through +the forest, even in the darkness of the night. And as they passed +hamlet or cottage ever and anon some frenzied mother would rush upon +them and fall on her knees before the Duke, praying him to look well +for her darling, and bringing mayhap some pitiful shred of clothing or +lock of hair by which the searchers might identify the lost innocent. + +As they went forward the soldiers pricked on ahead, and caused the +people to fall to the rear, lest any foreknowledge of their purpose +might reach the wizard and warn him to escape. + +The woods of Machecoul were dark and silent that night. Not the howl +of a questing wolf was heard. Truly the marshal's demons had forsaken +him, or mayhap they were all busy at that last carnival in the keep +of the Castle of Machecoul. + +As the storming party approached nearer, and while yet they were +several miles distant, they became aware of a great red light that +gleamed forth above them. They could not see whence it came, but the +peasants of Saint Philbert with affrighted glances told how it +beaconed only after the disappearance of some little one from their +homes, what strange cries were heard ringing out from that lofty +tower, and how for days after the smoke of a great burning would hang +about the gloomy turrets of devil-haunted Machecoul. + +Fiercer and ever fiercer shone the red glare, and the faces of the +soldiers were lit up so that Pierre de l'Hopital ordered them to keep +to the more gloomy arcades of the forest. + +Then by midnight the cordon was drawn so closely that none might pass +in or out. And behind the soldiery the common folk lay crouched, anger +in their hearts, and their eyes turned towards the open windows in the +keep of Machecoul, from which flared the red light of bale. + +Then, covering their lanterns, the three Scots, with Duke John, Pierre +de l'Hopital, and a score of officers, stole silently towards the +tower by which the Lady Sybilla had promised that an entrance should +be gained to the Castle of Machecoul. + +It was situated at the western corner towards the south, and was +joined to its fellows at the corresponding angles of the fortress by +galleried walls of great height. Ten feet above the ground was a +little door of embossed iron, but ordinarily no steps led to it when +the castle was in a state of defence. Yet when Sholto adventured into +the angle of the wall, he stumbled upon a ladder that leaned against +the little landing-ledge, above which was the entrance denoted on the +plan. + +Sholto ascended first, being the lightest and most agile of all. As he +had expected, he found the door unlocked and a narrow passage leading +within the tower. He lay a moment and listened, and then, being +certain there was a light and the sounds of labour within, he crawled +back to the ladder head, and whispered to the Lord James an order for +total silence. + +Whereupon, Sholto holding the ladder at the top, Duke John and his +Councillor mounted like shadows, and with Malise and James Douglas to +guard them they were presently crouched in the passage with the door +shut behind them, and the officers keeping watch at the foot of the +tower without. + +These five listened to the sounds of busy picks within the tower. They +could hear the ring of iron on stones and the panting of men engaged +in severe toil. + +"The marshal is preparing for flight," whispered the Duke, exultantly. +"He is interring his treasures. He has been warned. But we will be +overspeedy for him." + +And he chuckled in his satisfaction so loudly that Malise, using no +ceremony with Duke or varlet at such a season, put his hand over his +mouth. + +Then one by one they crawled along the narrow passage on their hands +and knees, and presently from a little balcony, plastered like a +swallow's nest on the inner wall of the tower, they found themselves +looking down upon a strange scene. + +A flight of steps led slantwise to the bottom, and at the foot of the +tower, stripped to the waist, they beheld two men busily filling great +sacks with a curious cargo. + +The turret had never been finished. It contained nothing whatever +except the staircase. So far as Sholto could see there was not even a +window anywhere. The door by which they had entered and another which +evidently led into the interior of the castle were its only outlets. +The earth at the bottom had remained as it had been left by the +builders, who surely must have thought that no madder architectural +freak was ever planned than this shut tower of the Castle of Machecoul +with its blank walls and sordid accoutrement. + +But most strange of all, the original earth had been covered to the +depth of a foot or more with dark objects, the true significance of +which did not appear from the distance of the little gallery where the +party of five had stationed themselves. + +The two men at work below had brought torches with them, which were +fastened to the walls by iron spikes. The smoke from these hung in +heavy masses about the tower, still further diminishing the clearness +with which the watchers aloft could observe what went on below. + +One of the workmen was tall and spare, with the forward thrust of head +and neck seen in vultures and other unclean birds. The other, who held +the sacks while his companion shovelled, was on the contrary stout and +short, of a notably jovial, rubicund countenance, in habit like the +hostler of an inn, or perhaps a well-to-do carrier upon the roads. + +The two worked without speaking, as if the task were distasteful. When +one sack was full, both would seize their picks and dig furiously at +the floor of the tower. Then when they had enough loosened, they +would fall to shovelling the curiously shaped objects into the sacks +again. + +As Sholto looked down he heard a hissing whisper at his ear. + +"These be Blanchet the sorcerer and Robin Romulart. But last week they +took notice of my little Jean and praised him for a noble boy." + +Sholto turned round, and there at his elbow, having followed them in +spite of all orders and precautions, he discerned the woodman Louis +Verger, whose little son had been carried off by the grey she-wolf. + +Sholto motioned him back, and at a sign from the Duke, his father and +he began to descend. So silently did they make their way down the +stone steps, and so intent were the men upon their work, that in a +minute after leaving the little gallery Malise stood behind the taller +and Sholto stole like a shadow along the wall nearer to the little +rotund man who had been called Robin Romulart. + +The Duke held up his hand. Sholto and Malise each took their man about +the throat with their left arms and pulled them backward, at the same +time covering their mouths with their right hands. Blanchet never +moved in the strong arms of Malise. But Robin, whose rotund figure +concealed his great muscular development, might have escaped from +Sholto had not the woodman Verger flung himself at the little man's +throat and brought him to the ground. Then the Duke and the others +descended, and as they did so they became conscious of a choking +mephitic vapour which clung dank and heavy to the lower courses of the +tower. + +Suddenly a wild cry made all shiver. It came from Louis Verger, who +had sprung upon something that lay tossed aside in a corner. + +"Silence, man--on your life! Silence!" hissed Pierre de l'Hopital. +"Whatever you have found, think only of revenge and help us to it!" + +"I have found him. He is dead! The fiends! The fiends!" sobbed Louis +Verger, covering a small partially charred object with the curtmantle +of which he had rapidly divested himself for the purpose. + +Then it came upon those who stood on the floor of the tower that they +were in the marshal's main charnel-house. These vague forms, mostly +charred like half-burned wood, these scraps of white bone, these +little crushed skulls, were all that remained of the innocent children +who, in the freshness of their youth and beauty, had been seduced into +the fatal Castle of Machecoul. + +And what wonder that an appalling terror sat on the heart and mastered +the soul of Sholto MacKim. For how did he know that he was not +treading under foot at each step the calcined fragments of the fair +body of Maud Lindesay? + +Twenty sacks had been filled ready for transport, and as many more lay +folded and empty in a heap in a corner. The marshal, uneasy perhaps as +to the suspicions against him, and anxious to remove evidence from the +precincts of his castle, had ordered this Tower of Death to be +cleared. But truly his devil had once more forsaken him. The order had +been given a day too late. + +"God's grace, I stifle. Let us get out of this, and seize the +murderer," quoth Duke John, making his way towards the door. + +"Wait a moment," said Pierre de l'Hopital, "we must consider. We +cannot let the commons see this or they will sack the castle from +foundation to roof tree, and slay the innocent with the guilty. We +must seize and hold for fair trial all who are found within. _And I, +Pierre de l'Hopital, will try them!_" + +"What then do you propose?" said the Duke, getting as near the door as +possible. + +"Let us bring in hither the officers and what soldiers you can +trust--that is not my business," answered the President. "Then we will +go through the castle, and after we have secured the prisoners and +made sure of sufficient pieces of justificative evidence, of which we +have infinite supply in these sacks, we may e'en permit the people to +work their will." + +As it was Sholto who had first entered, so it was Sholto who first +left the Tower of Death. He it was also who, at the head of a strong +band, surprised the marshal's sleepy inner guard, and helped to bind +them with his own hands. It was Sholto who, at the foot of the stairs +of the great keep, stood listening that he might know the right moment +to lead the besiegers upward. + +But even as he stood thus, down the stairway there came pealing a +terrible cry, the shriek of a woman in the final agony, shrill, +desperate, unavailing. + +And at the sound Sholto flew up the stone steps in the direction of +the cry, not knowing what he did, save that he went to kill. + +And scarce a foot behind him followed the woodman, Louis Verger, and +as they fled upward the red gloom grew brighter till they seemed to be +rushing headlong into a furnace mouth. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII + +THE WHITE TOWER OF MACHECOUL + + +So at the command of the Marshal de Retz they sent to bring forth +Margaret of Douglas and Maud Lindesay out of the White Tower, where +they had been abiding. Margaret had gone to bed, and, as was her +custom, Maud Lindesay sat awhile by her side. For so far as they could +they kept to the good and kindly traditions of Castle Thrieve. It +seemed somehow to bring them nearer home in that horrible place where +they were doomed to abide. + +"Give me your hand, Maud, and tell on," said little Margaret, nestling +closer to her friend, and laying her head against her arm as she +leaned on the low bedstead beside her. + +Margaret was gowned in a white linen night-rail, made long ago for the +marshal's daughter, little Marie de Retz, in the brighter days before +the setting up of the iron altar. Catherine, his deserted wife, had +been kind to the girls at Pouzages, and had given to both of them such +articles of garmenture as they were sorely in need of. + +"Tell on--haste you," commanded little Margaret, with the +imperiousness of loving childhood, nestling yet closer as she spoke. +"It helps me to forget. I can almost think when you are speaking that +we are again at Thrieve, and that if we looked out at the window we +should see the Dee running by and Screet and Ben Gairn--and hear +Sholto MacKim drilling his men out in the courtyard. Why, Maudie, what +is the matter? I did not mean to make you cry. But it is all so sweet +to think upon in this place. Oh, Maudie, Maudie, what would you give +to hear a whaup whistle?" + +Then drawing herself into a sitting posture, with her hands about +Maud's neck, she took a kerchief from under the pillow and dried her +friend's tears, murmuring the while, "Ah, do not cry, Maud, my vision +will yet come true, and you shall indeed see Ben Gairn and +Thrieve--and everything. I was dreaming about it last night. Shall I +tell you about it, sweet Maud?" + +Maud Lindesay did not reply, not having recovered power over her +voice. So the little Maid of Galloway went on unbidden. + +"Yes, I dreamed a glad dream yester-even. Shall I tell it you all and +all? I will--though you can tell stories far better than I. + +"Methought that I and you--I mean, dear Maud, you and I, were sitting +together in the gloaming at the door of a little house up on the edges +of the moorland, where the heather is prettiest, and reddest, and +longest. And we were happy. We were waiting for some one. I shall not +tell you who, Maudie, but if you are good, and stop crying, you can +guess. And there was a ring on your finger, Maud. No, not like the old +ones--not a pretty ring like those in your box, yet you loved it more +than them all, and never stopped turning it about between your finger +and thumb. + +"They had let me come up to stay with you, and the men who had +accompanied me were drinking in the clachan. As we sat I seemed to +hear their loud chorus, sounding up from the change-house. + +"And you listened and said: 'I wish he would come. He is very long. It +is always long when he is away.' But you never said who it was that +was long away. And I shall not tell you, though I know. Perhaps it was +old Jock Lacklands, who used to be captain of the guard, and perhaps +grouting Peter, from the gate-house by the ford. But somehow I do not +think so. Ah, that is better! Now do not cry again. But listen, else I +will not tell you any more, but go off to sleep instead. + +"Perhaps you do not want to hear the rest. Yet--it was such a pretty +dream, and of good omen. + +"You _do_ want to hear? Well, then, be good! + +"As we sat there we could hear the bumblebees scurrying home, and +every now and then one of the big boom-beetles would sail whirring +past us. We could hear the sheep crying below in the little green +meadows so lonesomely, and the snipe bleating an answer away up in the +sky above their heads, and you said, '_It is all so empty, wanting +him!_' + +"Then the maids brought in the cows, and milked them standing at the +gable end, and we could smell the smell of their breath, sweet like +the scent of the flowers they had been eating all day long. Then, +after a while, they were driven out of the yard again, and went in a +string, one after the other, back to their pastures, doucely and +sedately, just like folk going to holy kirk on Sabbath days when it is +summer time in Galloway. + +"Then you said, 'I am weary of waiting for him!' And I answered, +'Why,--he has not been gone more than a day. Sometimes I do not see +him for weeks, and _I_ never fret like that!' + +"Then you answered (it has all come so clear into my mind), 'Some day +you will know, little one!' And you patted me on the head, and went to +the house end to look into the sunset. You looked many minutes under +your hand, and when you came back you said, as if you had never said +it before, 'He is long a-coming! I wonder what can be keeping him.' + +"Then the maidens told us that the supper was ready to put on the +table, whereat you scolded them, telling them that it was too early, +and that they must keep it hot against their master's coming. And to +me you said, 'You are not hungry, are you?' And I answered, 'No,' +though I was indeed very hungry--(in my dream, that is). Then you said +again, sighing: 'It is strange that he should not come home! I cannot +eat till he comes! Perhaps he has fallen into a ditch, or some eagle +may have pecked out his eyes!' + +"Then all the while it grew darker, and still no one came. Whereat you +cried a little softly, and said: 'He might have come--I know right +well he could have been here by this time if he had tried. But he does +not love me any more.' And you were patting the ground with your foot +as you used to do when--well, when he went away from Thrieve without +coming out upon the leads to say 'Good-night.' Then, all at once, +there was a noise of quick feet brushing eagerly through the heather, +and some one (no, not Landless Jock) leaped the wall and caught +me--_me_--in his arms." + +"No, it was not you whom he caught in his arms!" cried Maud Lindesay, +indignantly, and then stopped, abashed at her own folly. But the +little maid laughed merrily. + +"Aha!" she said, "_I_ caught you that time in my trap. You know who it +was in my dream, though I have never told you, nor so much as hinted. + +"And he asked if you had missed him, and you made a sign for me not to +speak, just as you used to do at Castle Thrieve, and answered, 'No, +not a little bit! Margaret and I were quite happy. We hoped you would +not come back at all this night, for then we could have slept +together.'" + +Maud Lindesay drew a long, soft breath, and looked out of the window +of the White Tower into the dark. + +"That is a sweet dream," she murmured. "Ah, would that it were true, +and that Sholto--!" + +She broke off short again, for the maid clapped her hands gleefully. +"You said it! You said it!" she cried. "You called him Sholto. Now I +know; and I am so glad, for he is nearly as good to play with as you. +And I shall not mind him a bit." + +Little Margaret stopped short in her turn, seeing something in her +friend's face. + +"Why are you suddenly grown so sad, Maudie?" she asked. + +"It came upon me, dear Margaret," said Maud, "how that we are but two +helpless maids in a dreadful place without a friend. Let us say a +prayer to God to keep us!" + +Then Margaret Douglas turned and knelt with her face to the pillow and +her small hands clasped in front of her. + +"Give me your silver cross," she said, "I lent the little gold one +that was William's to the Lady Sybilla, and she hath not returned it +me again." + +Maud gave her the cross and she took it and held it in the palm of her +hand looking long at it. Then she repeated one by one the children's +orisons she had been taught, and after that she made a little prayer +of her own. This is the prayer. + +"Lord of mercy, be good to two maids who are lonely and weak, and shut +up in this place of evil men. Keep our lives and our souls, and also +our bodies from harm. Make us not afraid of the dark or of the devil. +For Thou art the stronger. And do not forget to be near us this night, +for we have no other friend and sorely do we need one to love and +deliver us. Amen." + +It was true. More bitterly than any two in the whole world, these +maidens needed a friend at that moment. For scarcely had the childish +accents been lost in the night silence, when the outer door of the +White Tower was thrown open to the wall, and on the steps of the +turret stair they heard the noise of men coming upwards to their +prison-room. + +But first, though the inner door of their chamber was locked within, +the bolts glided back apparently of their own accord. It opened, and +the hideous face of La Meffraye looked in upon them with a cackle of +fiendish laughter. + +"Come, sweet maidens," she cried gleefully, as the frightened girls +clasped each other closer upon the bed, "come away. The Marshal de +Retz calls for you. He hath need of your beauty to grace his feast. +The lights of the banquet burn in his hall. See the fire of burning +shine out upon the night. The very trees are red with it. The skies +are red. All is red. Come--up--make yourselves fair for the eyes of +the great lord to behold!" + +Then behind La Meffraye entered Gilles de Sille and Poitou, the +marshal's servants. + +"Make ready in haste--you are both to go instantly before my lord, who +abides your coming!" said Gilles de Sille. "Poitou and I will abide +without the door, and La Meffraye here shall be your tirewoman and see +that you have that which you need. But hasten, for my lord is instant +and cannot be kept waiting!" + + * * * * * + +So they brought the Scottish maidens down from the White Tower into +the night. They walked hand in hand. Their steps did not falter, and, +as they went, they prayed to God to keep them from the dangers of the +place. Astarte, the she-wolf, who must have kept guard beneath, +stalked before them, and behind them they seemed to hear the hobbling +crutch and cackling laughter of La Meffraye. + +Across the wide courtyard of Machecoul they went. It also was filled +with the reflection of the red tide of light which ebbed and flowed, +waxing and waning above. Saving for that window the whole castle was +wrapped in gloom and silence, and if there were any awake within the +precincts they knew better than to spy upon the midnight doings of +their dread lord. + +The little party passed up the great staircase of the keep and +presently halted before the inscribed wooden door by which Laurence +had entered the Temple of Evil. + +As Gilles de Sille opened it for the maids to precede him, the skirt +of Maud Lindesay's robe, blown back by the draught of the chamber, +fluttered against the cheek of Laurence MacKim as he lay on his face +in the niche of the wall. At the light touch he came to himself, and +looked about with a strange and instant change in all the affections +and movements of his heart. + +With the coming in of the maidens, fear seemed utterly to forsake him. +A clarity of purpose, an alertness of brain, a strength of heart +unknown before, took the place of the trembling bath of horror in +which he had swooned away. + +It was like the sudden appearance of two white angels walking fearless +and unscathed through the grim dominions of the Lords of Hell. + +Incarnate Good had somehow entered the house of the Demon, though it +was in the slender periphery of two maidens' bodies, and evil, strong +and resistless before, seemed in the moment to lose half its power. + +[Illustration: IT WAS LIKE THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF TWO WHITE ANGELS +WALKING FEARLESS AND UNSCATHED THROUGH THE GRIM DOMINIONS OF THE LORDS +OF HELL.] + + + + +CHAPTER LIX + +THE LAST SACRIFICE TO BARRAN-SATHANAS + + +And as Laurence MacKim, crouched in the dim obscurity of the curtained +doorway, looked forth, this is what he saw. + +Maud Lindesay and Margaret Douglas advanced into the centre of the +temple where was a slab of white marble let into the floor. As if by +instinct the two maids stopped upon it, standing hand in hand before +the iron altar and the vast shadowy image which gloomed above and +appeared to reach forward in act to clutch them. After the first check +in his hideous incantations, Gilles de Retz had returned to his own +chamber, in which, after his entrance, the light gleamed brighter and +more fiercely red than ever. As the maidens stood on the marble square +La Meffraye went to the door and called certain words within, +conveying some message which Laurence could not hear. + +Then with an assured carriage and haughty stride came forth the +marshal, his grey hair and blue-black beard in strong contrast with +his haggard corpse-pale face, from which the momentary glow of youth +half-restored had already faded, as fades a footprint upon wet sand. + +Gilles de Sille and Poitou bowed silently before him as men who have +done their commission, and who retire to await further orders. But La +Meffraye, once more apparent, stood her ground. + +"Here are the dainty maids from the far land; no beggars' brats are +they. No strays and pickings from the streets. No, nor yet silly +village innocents who follow La Meffraye from the play-fields through +the woodlands to the Paradise of our Lord Gilles! Hasten not the joy! +Let these pearls of youth and beauteousness die indeed, but let them +die slowly and deliciously. And in the last blood of an ancient race +let our master bathe and find the new life he seeks. Hear us, O +Barran-Sathanas, and grant our prayer!" + +Then La Meffraye approached the maids and would have touched the dress +of the little Margaret, as if to order it more daintily for the +pleasing of her master's eye. But Maud Lindesay thrust her aside like +an unclean thing. + +Whereat La Meffraye laughed till her rusty black cloak quivered and +rustled from hood to hem. + +"Ah, my proud lady," she croaked, "in a little, in a very little, you +too will be calling upon La Meffraye to save you, to pity you. But I, +La Meffraye, will gloat over each drop of blood that distils from your +fair neck. Aha, you shall change your tone when at the white +throat-apple which your sweetheart would have loved to kiss, you feel +the bite of the sharp slow knife. Then you will not thrust aside La +Meffraye. Then you shall cry and none shall pity. Then she will spurn +you from her knees." + +"Out!" said Gilles de Retz, briefly, and like some inferior imping +devilkin before the great Master of Evil, La Meffraye retreated +hobbling to the doorway of the marshal's chamber, where she crouched +nodding and chuckling, mumbling inaudible words, and mingling them +ever with her dry cackling laughter. + +Gilles de Retz stopped at the corner of the platform and looked long +at Maud and Margaret where they stood on the great central square of +marble. It was the Maid who spoke first. + +"Dear Messire," she said sweetly and almost confidently, "you have a +little girl of your own. I know, for I have played with her. I love +her. Therefore you will not hurt us. I am sure you will not hurt us. +You are going to send us back in a ship to our own country, because it +is lonely here where Maud and I know no one!" + +The marshal smiled upon her his inhuman inscrutable smile. He leaned +against a pillar of strangely twisted design, and contemplated the two +victims at his ease. + +"Life is sweet to you, is it not?" he said at last; "you are truly +happy, being young, and so have no need to be made young again." + +"Oh, but I am very old," cried the Maid, gaining some confidence from +the quiet of his voice, "I am nearly eight years old. And our Maudie +here, she is--oh, a dreadful age! She is very, very old!" + +"You would not like to die?" suggested Gilles de Retz, with a certain +soft insinuation. + +"Oh, no," said Margaret Douglas, "I am going to live long and +long--till every one in the world loves me. I am going to help every +one to get what he most desires. And you know I can, for I shall be +very rich. And if what they say is true, and I am Princess of +Galloway, I shall marry and be a very great lady. But I shall never +marry any one who is not a Douglas." + +The marshal nodded. + +"I do not think that you shall marry any one who is not a Douglas!" he +said, with a certain grave and not discourteous irony in his tones. + +"Yes," the little Maid went on. She had lost all fear in the very act +of speech. "Yes, and Maud, she is going to marry Sholto--and they will +be very happy, for they love each other so. I know it, for she told me +to-night just before you sent for us to come to your feast. That was +kind of you to remember us, though it was past bed-time. But now, good +marshal, you will send us back, will you not? Now, look kind to-night. +You will be glad afterwards that you were good to two maids who never +harmed you, but are ready to love you if you prove kind to them." + +"Hush, Margaret," said Maud Lindesay. "It is useless to speak such +words to such a man." + +The Marshal de Retz turned sharply to her. + +"Ah," he said, with a curious bite in his speech, "then, my young +lady, you would not love me, even if I were to let you go!" + +"I should hate and abominate you for ever and ever, even if you helped +me into Paradise!" quoth Maud Lindesay, giving him defiance in a full +eye-volley. + +"So," he said calmly, "I am indeed likely to help you into Paradise +this very night. That is, unless Saint Peter of the Keys makes up his +mind that so outspoken and tricksome a maid had best take a few +thousand years of purgatory--as it were on her way upwards, _en +passant_." + +A sudden lowering passion at this point altered his countenance. + +"No," he thundered, standing up erect from the pillar against which +he had been leaning, and his whole voice and bearing changing past +description, "it is enough--listen! I will be brief with you. I have +brought both of you here that you may die. I cannot expect of you that +you will understand or appreciate my motives, which are indeed above +the knowledge of children. This is a temple to a Great God, and he +demands the sacrifice of the noblest and most innocent blood. I do you +the honour to believe that it is here to my hand. Also, your deaths +will cause a number of people both in Scotland and elsewhere to sit +easier in their seats. Lastly, I had sworn that you should die if your +friends from Scotland came to trouble me. They have come, and Gilles +de Retz keeps his word--as doth the Master whom he serveth!" + +He bowed in the direction of the vast shadowy figure, which to +Laurence's eye appeared to turn towards his niche with a leer, as if +to say, "Listen to him. What a fool he is!" + +The maids stood silent, not comprehending aught save that they were to +die. Then suddenly Gilles de Retz cried out in his loudest military +tones--"Henriet, Poitou, De Sille, bind these maidens upon the iron +altar, that Barran-Sathanas may feed his eyes on their beauty and +rejoice!" + +And as they stood motionless upon the square of white marble, the +servitors came forward and led them to the great altar of iron. They +lifted the maidens up and laid their bodies crosswise upon the vast +grid, the bars of which were as thick as a man's arm, arranging them +so that their heads hung without support over the bar next the shadowy +image. + +As they bound them rudely hand and foot, the long and beautiful hair +of Maud Lindesay escaped from its fastenings and fell down till it +reached the bath of red porphyry which extended underneath the whole +length of the altar of iron. + +Then through all the Temple of Evil there ensued sudden silence. Not a +sob or a moan escaped from the doomed maidens, and the feet of the +assistants fell silent and soft as the paws of wild beasts upon the +ebon floor. + +Gilles de Retz waited till his acolytes had retired to their appointed +places, where they stood like carven statues watching what should +happen. Then slowly and deliberately he ascended to the broad platform +from which the iron altar rose, and stood with his arms folded over +his flame-coloured robe, looking gloatingly down, upon his innocent +victims. Maud Lindesay was the nearer to him, and her unbound hair +fell back and touched the peak of his pointed shoe of crimson Cordovan +leather. + +With a quick movement he caught up a handful of its rich luxuriance +and allowed it to run through his fingers like sand again and yet +again, with apparent delight in the sensation. + +Even as he did so the dim figure of the horned demon above appeared to +lean forward as if to touch him, and with a rushing noise the great +hour-glass set upon a pedestal at the foot of the image turned itself +completely over. Gilles with a startled air turned also, and seeing +what it was he laughed a strange hollow laugh. + +"It is indeed the hour, the hour of doom, fair maids," he said, +looking down upon them as deferentially as if he had been paying his +court in the great hall of Thrieve, "but it shall not pass without +taking with it your souls to another, and I trust a higher, sphere!" + +He paused, but no complaint or appeal reached his cruel and inexorable +ear. The certain graciousness of Providence to those in extreme peril +seemed to have blunted the edge of fear in the innocent victims. They +lay still and apparently without consciousness upon the iron altar. +The red glow played upon their faces, shining through from the inner +chamber, and the figure of the marshal stood out black against it. + +On the floor lay the goblet from which he had drunk the Red Milk. + +"Give me the knife!" he cried, sudden as a trumpet that is blown. + +And reaching a withered hand within the marshal's chamber as if to +detach something from the wall, La Meffraye hobbled quickly across the +altar platform, bearing in her hand a shining weapon of steel, broad +of blade and curved at the point. She placed the ebony handle in the +marshal's hand, who weighed it lovingly in his grasp. + +Then for the first time since the men had bound her, the sweet +childish eyes of little Margaret were unclosed and looked up at Gilles +de Retz with the touching wonder of helplessness and innocence. + +At that moment the image appeared to Laurence to beckon to him out of +the gloom. A quick and nervous resolve ran through his veins. His +muscles became like steel within his flesh. He rose to his feet, and, +without pause for thought, rushed across the chapel from the niche +where he had been hidden. + +"Murderer! Fiend! I will kill you!" he cried, and with his dagger bare +in his hand he would have thrown himself upon the marshal. But swifter +than the rush of the young man in his strength there came another from +the door of the inner chamber. + +With a deep-throated roar of wholly bestial fury, Astarte the she-wolf +sprang upon Laurence, and, though he sank his dagger twice to the hilt +in her hairy chest, she over-bore him and they fell to the ground with +her teeth gripping his shoulder. Laurence felt the hot life-blood of +the beast spurt forth and mingle with his own. Then a flood of +swirling waters seemed to bear him suddenly away into the unknown. + + * * * * * + +When Laurence MacKim came to himself he emerged into a chill world in +which he felt somehow infinitely lonely and forsaken. Next he grew +slowly conscious that his feet and arms were bound tightly with cords +that cut painfully into the flesh. Then he realised that he, too, had +taken his place beside the maids upon the altar of iron. Strangely +enough he did not feel afraid nor even wish himself elsewhere. He only +wondered what would happen next. + +He opened his eyes and lo! they looked directly into the leering +countenance of the monstrous image. Yet there seemed something +curiously encouraging and even beneficent about the aspect of the +demon. But so often as Gilles de Retz passed the triple array of his +victims with his back to the image, the regard of the sculptured devil +followed him, grim and mocking. + +Words of angry altercation came to the ears of Laurence MacKim. + +"I tell you," cried the voice of Gilles de Retz, "I will not spare +them. Well nigh had I succeeded. Almost I was young again. I was +tasting the first sweetness of knowledge wide as that of the gods. I +felt the new life stirring within me. But I had not enough of the +blood of innocence, which is the only worthy libation to +Barran-Sathanas, who alone can bestow youth and life." + +Then the Lady Sybilla answered him. "I pray you, Gilles de Retz, as +you hope for mercy, slay not these maidens and this youth. Take me, +and bind me, instead, for the sacrifice of death. I have wrought +enough of evil! Take of my blood and work out your purpose. Let me +give you the libation you desire. Gilles de Retz, if ever I have aided +you, grant me this boon now. I beseech you, let these innocents go, +and bind me upon the altar in their places." + +Long and loud laughed Gilles de Retz, a hard, evil, and relentless +laugh. + +"Sybilla de Thouars an innocent maiden's sacrifice! Barran-Sathanas +himself laughs at the jest. He would have no pleasure in your death. +Soul and body you are his already. He desires only the blood and +suffering of the innocent--of those on whom he has never set his mark. +Nay, these three shall surely die, and in that bath of porphyry +hollowed out under his altar I will lave me from head to foot in the +Red Milk of innocence. I have no more need of you, Sybilla mine. You +have done your work, and for your reward you can now depart to your +own place. Out of my way, I say. Henriet, Poitou, quick! Remove this +woman from before the altar!" + +Then, struggling strongly in their hands, the servitors carried the +Lady Sybilla to the farther end of the chapel, where they abode on +either side, holding her fast. And as the last grains of sand began to +swirl towards their fall and a little whirlpool to form funnel-wise in +the midst of the hour-glass, the butcher was left alone with his +victims upon the platform of the iron altar. + +Gilles de Retz turned towards the image, and, lifting up his hand +solemnly, he cried in a great voice, "O Barran-Sathanas, be pleased to +behold this innocent blood spilled slowly in thine honour. As the red +fount flows and the red fire burns, restore my youth and make me +strong. Faithfully will I serve thee and thee alone, renouncing all +other. O Barran-Sathanas, great and only Lord, receive my sacrifice. +It is the hour!" + +And so saying he laid hold of Maud Lindesay by the hair, and raised +the curved knife on high. + +Then from the end of the chapel to which the Lady Sybilla had been +taken there came a sound. With a great despairing effort she burst +from her captors' hands and ran forward. She knelt down on the marble +slab whereon the maids had stood at their first entering, and as she +knelt she held aloft a golden crucifix. + +"If there be a God in heaven, let him manifest himself now!" she +cried, "by the virtue of this cross of His son Jesus Christ, I call +upon Him!" + +Then suddenly all the place was filled with a mighty rushing noise. +The last grains ran low in the hour-glass. It shifted in its stand and +turned over. A tremor like that of an earthquake shook all the castle +to its foundations. The solid keep itself rocked like a vessel in a +stormy sea. The great image overturned, and by its fall Gilles de +Retz was stricken senseless to the earth. The next moment, like +flood-gates burst by a mighty tide, the doors of the temple were +opened with a clang, and through them a crowd of armed men came +rushing in with triumphant shouts and angry cries of vengeance. + +Sholto was far ahead of the others, and, as if led by the unerring +instinct of love, he ran to the altar whereon his love lay white as +death, but without a mark upon her fair body. + +It was the work of a moment to cut their cords and chafe the numbed +wrists and ankles. James Douglas took the little Margaret. Sholto had +his sweetheart in his arms, while Laurence recovered quickly enough to +aid his father in securing Gilles de Retz and his servants. La +Meffraye they took not, for she lay dead within the inner chamber, +where yet burned the great fire which was used to consume the bodies +of the demon's victims. Two gaping wounds were found in her breast, in +the same place in which the dagger of Laurence MacKim had smitten the +she-wolf as she sprang upon him. But Astarte, woman witch or +were-wolf, was never seen again, neither by starlight, moonlight, nor +yet in the eye of day. Truly of Gilles de Retz was it said, "His demon +hath deserted him." + +Beneath in the courts and quadrangles, swarming through the towers and +clambering perilously on the roofs, surged the press of the furious +populace. It was all that Duke John and his officers could do to keep +the prisoners in ward, and to prevent them from being torn limb from +limb (as had perhaps been fittest), and tossed alive into the flaming +funeral pyre of Castle Machecoul, which, lighted by a hundred hands, +presently began to flame like a volcano to the skies. + +For the hour that comes to every evil-doer had come to Gilles de Retz. +And in that hour, as it shall ever be, the devil in whom he trusted +had forsaken him. + +But the Lady Sybilla stood on the garden tower that in happier days +had been her pleasaunce, and beheld. And as she watched she kissed the +golden crucifix of the child Margaret. And her heart rejoiced because +the lives of the innocent as well as the death of the guilty had been +given her for her portion. + +"And now, O Lord, I am ready to pay the price!" she said. + + + + +CHAPTER LX + +HIS DEMON HATH DESERTED HIM + + +The soldiers of the Duke of Brittany stood with bared swords and +deadly pikes around the Marshal de Retz and those of his servants who +had been taken--that is to say, round Poitou, Clerk Henriet, Blanquet, +and Robin Romulart. About them surged ever more fiercely the angry +populace, drunk with the hot wine of destruction, having been filled +with inconceivable fury by that which they had seen in the round tower +wherein stood the filled bags of little charred remains. + +"Tear the wolves into gobbets! Kill them! Burn them! Send them quick +to Hell!" So ran the cry. + +And twice and thrice the villagers of the Pays de Retz charged +desperately as men who fight for their lives. + +"Stand to it, men!" cried Pierre de l'Hopital. "Gilles de Retz shall +have fair trial! + +"_But I shall try him!_" he added, under his breath. + +Never was seen such a sight as the procession which conducted Gilles +de Retz to the city of Nantes. The Duke had sent for his whole band of +soldiers, and these, in ordered companies, marched in front and rear. +A triple file guarded the prisoners, and even their levelled pikes +could scarce beat back the furious rushes of the populace. + +It was like a civil war, for the assailants struck fiercely at the +soldiers--as if in protecting him, they became accessory to the crimes +of the hated marshal. + +"_Barbe Bleu! Barbe Bleu!_" they cried. "Slay _Barbe Bleu_! Make his +beard blood-red. He hath dipped it often in the life-blood of our +children. Now we will redden it with his own!" + +So ran the tumult, surging and gathering and scattering. And ever the +pikes of the guard flashed, and the ordered files shouldered a path +through the press. + +"Make way there!" cried the provost marshals. "Make way for the +prisoners of the Duke!" + +And as they entered the city, from behind and before, from all the +windows and roofs, rose the hoarse grunting roar of the hatred and +cursing of a whole people. + +But the object of all this rested calm and unmoved, and his cruel grey +eye had no expression in it save a certain tolerant and amused +contempt. + +"Bah!" he muttered. "Would that I had slain ten millions of you! It is +my only regret that I had not the time. It is almost unworthy to die +for a few score children!" + +During the journey to Nantes, Gilles de Retz kept the grand reserve +with which, when he came to himself, he had treated those who had +captured him. To the Duke only would he condescend to reply, and to +him he rather spoke as an equal unjustly treated than as a guilty +prisoner and suppliant. + +"For this, Sire of Brittany," he said, "must you answer to your +overlord, the King of France, whose minister and marshal I am!" + +The Duke would have made some feeble reply, but Pierre de l'Hopital +cut across the conversation with that stern irony which characterised +him. + +"My lord," he said, "remember that before you were made Marshal of +France you were born a subject of the Duke of Brittany! And as such +you shall be judged." + +"I decline to stand at your tribunal!" said the marshal, haughtily. + +"_Soit!_" said the President, indifferently, "but all the same you +shall be tried!" + +Duke John, knowing well that while his court was being held in the +capital city of his province, and especially during the trial of +Gilles de Retz, Nantes was no place for young maidens who had suffered +like Maud Lindesay and Margaret Douglas, sent them under escort to the +Castle of Angers. + +Sholto MacKim and his father were allowed to accompany them, that they +might not be without some of their own country to speak with during +their sojourn in France. The Lord James, however, elected to abide +with the court. For there were many ladies there, and, having nobility +of address and desiring to perfect himself in the niceties of +fashionable speech (which changed daily), he had great pleasure in +their society, and rode in the lists by the side of the Loire with +even more than his former gallantry and success. + +For, as he said, he needed some compensation for the long abstinence +enforced upon him by his habit of holy palmer. And right amply did he +make himself amends, and was accounted by dames fair and free the +lightsomest and properest Scot who had ever come into the land of +France. + +With him Laurence remained, both because his father was still angry +with him on account of his desertion of them in Paris, and also +because having been so long in the Castle of Machecoul, there were +important matters concerning which in the forthcoming trial he alone +could give evidence. + +Pierre de l'Hopital would have detained the Lady Sybilla as a possible +accomplice of the Sieur de Retz, but by the intercession of the +Scottish maidens, as well as by the sworn evidence of Sholto and the +Lord James, testifying that wholly by her means Gilles de Retz had +finally been caught red-handed, she was permitted to depart whither +she would. + +"I will go to my sister," she said to Sholto, who came to know how he +could serve her. "It matters little. My work is nearly done!" + +So, riding as was her custom all alone upon a white palfrey, she +passed out of their sight towards the south. + + * * * * * + +In the city of Nantes the rumour of the taking of Gilles de Retz had +spread like wild-fire, and as the cavalcade rode through the streets, +the windows rained down curses and the citizens hooted up from the +sidewalks. But the marshal kept his haughty and disdainful regard, +appearing like a noble nature who perforce companies for the nonce +with meaner men. He sat his favourite charger like a true companion of +Dunois and De Richemont, and, as more than one remarked, on this +occasion he looked like the royal prince and the Duke of Brittany the +prisoner. + +So in the New Tower of the Castle of Nantes, Gilles de Retz was placed +to wait his trial. There is no need to give a long account of it. The +documents have been printed in plain letter, and all the world knows +how Clerk Henriet faltered under the stern questioning of Pierre de +l'Hopital, and how finally he declared fully all these iniquities +without parallel in which he had borne so cruel a part. + +Poitou, more faithful to his master, held out till the threat of +torture and the appeals of his friend Henriet broke him down. But the +attitude and bearing of the chief culprit deserve that the historian +should not wholly pass them over. + +Even in his first haughty and contemptuous silence, Gilles de Retz was +shifting his ground, and with a cool unheated intelligence orienting +himself to new conditions. It soon became evident to his mind that the +powers of Evil in which he trusted, and to whose service he had +consecrated his life and fortune, had befooled and betrayed him. + +Well--even so would he fool them--if, by the grace of God, there were +yet any merit or hope in the service of Good. The priests said so. The +Scripture said so, and they might be right after all. At least, the +thing was worth trying. + +For a cold and calculating brain lay behind the worst excesses of the +terrible Lord de Retz. The religion of the Cross might not be of much +final use--still, it was all that remained, and Gilles de Retz +determined to avail himself of it. So once more he apostasised from +Barran-Sathanas to Jehovah. + +With an effrontery almost too stupendous for belief, he arrayed +himself in the white robes of a Carmelite novice and spent his prison +days in singing litanies and in private confession with his religious +adviser. + +When the great day of the trial at last arrived, the marshal, who had +expected on the bench the weak kindly countenance of Duke John, was +called upon to confront the indomitable judicial rectitude of Pierre +de l'Hopital, President and Grand-Seneschal of Brittany. + +Gilles de Retz appeared at his trial dressed in white of the richest +materials and with all his military decorations upon him. But his +judge, habited in stern and simple black, was not in the least +intimidated. + +Then came the great surprise. After the evidence of Henriet and Poitou +had been read to him, the marshal was asked to plead. To the surprise +of all, the accused claimed benefit of clergy. + +"I have been a great sinner," he said, "I have indeed deserved a +thousand deaths. But now I am a man of God. I have confessed. I have +received absolution for all my sins. God has forgiven me, and my soul +is cleansed!" + +"Good!" answered Pierre de l'Hopital, "I have nothing to do with your +soul. I must leave that, as you very pertinently remark, to God. But I +am here to try your body, and if found guilty to condemn that body to +suffer the penalties by law provided according to the statutes of +Brittany." + +Then Clerk Henriet was brought in to testify more fully of the crimes +beyond parallel in the history of mankind. + +The court had been hung round with black, and the only object which +appeared prominent was a beautiful ivory crucifix with a noble figure +of the Redeemer of Men carved upon it. This was suspended, according +to the custom, over the head of the President of the Tribunal. + +Henriet had not proceeded far with his terrible relation of well nigh +inconceivable crimes when he stopped. + +"I cannot go on," he said, in a broken appealing voice; "I cannot tell +what I have to tell with That Figure looking down upon me!" + +So, with the whole Court standing up in reverence, the image of the +Most Pitiful was solemnly veiled from sight, that such deeds of +darkness might not be so much as named in that holy and gracious +presence. + +And during the ceremony Friar Gilles of the order of the Carmelites +stood up more reverently than any, for now, seeing that no better +might be, he had definitely renounced Barran-Sathanas and cast in his +lot with God Almighty. + + * * * * * + +"The sentence of this court is that you, Gilles de Laval, Lord of +Retz, Marshal of France, and you, Poitou and Henriet, be carried to +the meadow of La Biesse at nine of the clock on the morning of +to-morrow, and that you be there hanged and burned till you be dead. +And to God the Just One be the glory!" + +The voice of Pierre de l'Hopital rang out through the silence of the +hall of judgment. + +"Amen!" said Friar Gilles, devoutly crossing himself. + +And so in due course on the meadow of La Biesse, by the side of the +blue Loire, the evil soul of Gilles de Retz went to its own place with +all the paraphernalia of repentance and in the full odour of a +somewhat hectic sanctity. + + * * * * * + +The day after the burning, a little company of riders left the city of +Angers, journeying westward along the Loire. It consisted of the +maidens Margaret Douglas and Maud Lindesay, with Sholto MacKim and a +dozen horsemen belonging to his Grace of Brittany. It had been +arranged that they were to be joined, upon an eminence above the river +on the right bank, by the Lord James, Malise, and Laurence, with the +escort which was to accompany them to the port of Saint Nazaire. There +(as was necessary in order to escape the troublesome navigation of the +swift and treacherous upper reaches) they would find vessels ready to +set sail for Scotland. + +As the little cloud of riders left behind them the black towers of +Angers, they passed through woodland glades wherein, in spite of the +lateness of the season, the birds were singing. The air was mild and +delightsome. At last, leaving the river, they struck away inland, +having the frowning towers of Champtoce on their left as they rode. +Presently they came to a forest, wherein in days before the great +cruelty, Gilles de Retz had often hunted the wolf and the wild boar. + +Here the woodland paths were covered deep with fallen leaves, and the +naked branches spoke of the desolation of a dead year. + +As the maids rode forward first of their company and talked, as was +natural, of that which had taken place the day before at Nantes, they +became aware of the Lady Sybilla riding towards them on her palfrey of +white. She would have passed them without speech, with her head +downcast and her eyes fixed upon the dank ground with its covering +drift of dead autumnal leaves. + +But Margaret, grateful for that which the Lady Sybilla had done for +them at Machecoul, spurred her steed and rode thwartwise to intercept +her. + +"Sybilla," she said, "you will come with us to Scotland. I have many +castles there, and, they tell me, a princessdom of mine own. We shall +all be happy together and forget these ill times. Maud and I can never +repay that which you have done for us." + +"Yes, I pray you come with us," said Maud, a little more slowly, "we +will be your sisters, and the ill times shall not come again." + +The Lady Sybilla smiled a sad subtle smile and shook her head. + +"I thank you. I thank you more than you know. It eases my heart that +you should forgive a woman such as I for all the evil she has brought +you and yours. But I am now no fit companion for you or any. I am +become but a wandering shape, speaking to one who cannot answer, and +seeking him whom I can never find." + +The little Maid, being but a child, mistook her meaning. + +"No, no," she cried, "your life is not done. If the one whom you love +hath left you unkindly--well, bide awhile, and when the first smart is +passed, we will marry you to some braver and more handsome knight. +There are many such in Scotland. I pray you come with Maud and me even +as we wish you. Why, there would not be three like us in all the land. +I wager we will set kings by the ears between us. Though, as for me, I +can only marry a Douglas!" + +The smile of the Lady Sybilla grew ever sadder and ever sweeter. + +"The man whom I loved, and who loved me, I betrayed to the death. +There is no forgiveness for such as I in this life. Perhaps there may +be in the next. At least, _he_ forgave me, and that is enough. He +believed in me against myself, and I will wait. Till then I go hither +and thither and none shall hinder me or molest--for upon Sybilla de +Thouars God hath set the seal of Cain!" + +Margaret Douglas flicked her steed impatiently, causing the spirited +little beast to curvet. + +"I think it is very ill-done of you not to come to Scotland with us," +she said petulantly, "when we would have been so good to you!" + +"Too good, too kind," said the Lady Sybilla, very gently; "such +kindness is not for such as I am. But if I may, while I live I will +keep the golden cross you lent me--the crucifix your brother gave to +you on your birthday!" + +"Keep it--it is yours! I do not want it!" cried Margaret, glad to have +found some way of evidencing her gratitude. + +"I thank you," said Sybilla de Thouars; "some day I may come to +Scotland. And if I do, you shall come out from Thrieve and meet me by +the white thorns of the Carlinwark at the hour when the little +children sing!" + +And so, without other farewell, she turned and rode slowly away down +the avenues of fallen leaves, till the folding woodlands hid her from +the sight of those two who watched her with tear-blurred eyes and +hearts strangely stirred with pity for the fate of her whom they had +once hated with such good cause. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI + +LEAP YEAR IN GALLOWAY + + +Morning dawned fair over the wide strath of Dee. Cairnsmuir and Ben +Gairn stood out south and north like blue, round-shouldered sentinels. +Castle Thrieve rose grey in the midst of the water-meadows, massive +and sombre in the early sunrise. + +Andro the Penman and his brother John, with the taciturnity natural to +early risers, were silently hoisting the flag which denoted the +presence of the noble young chatelaine of the great fortress. + +Sholto also was early astir, for the affairs of the castle and of the +host were in his hand, and there was much business to be despatched +that morning. The young Avondale Douglases were riding away from +Thrieve, for word had come that James the Gross, seventh Earl of +Douglas, was surely at death's door. + +"Besides," said William Douglas, "wherefore should we stay--our work +is done. No one will molest our cousin in her heritages now! We five +have stood about her while there was need. But for the present Sir +Sholto and his men can keep count and reckoning with any from the +back-shore of Leswalt to Berwick bound." + +"Aye, indeed," cried James Douglas, "we will go till the time come +when the suitors gather, like corbies about a dead lamb!" + +"That is not a savoury comparison," cried Margaret of Douglas, now +grown older, and already giving more than a mere promise of that +wondrous beauty which afterwards made her celebrated in all lands, +"but after all, you, cousin James, have some right to make it. For, +but for you and our good Sholto there, this little ewe lamb would have +been carrion indeed!" + +"Good-by!" cried James of Avondale. "Haste thee and grow up, sweet +coz. Then will I come back with the rest of the corbies and take my +chance of the feast. I will keep myself for that day." + +But William Douglas sat square and silent on his charger. + +The Maid of Galloway waved her hand gaily to the younger of the +knights. + +"You shall have your chance with the rest," she cried; "but you will +not care about me then. Very likely I may have to fleech and cozen +with you like a sweetie-wife at a fair before either of you will marry +me. And you know I have sworn on the bones of Saint Bride to marry +none but a Douglas of the Douglases!" + +Then William Douglas saluted without a word, and turning his +bridle-rein rode away with his face steadfastly set to the north. But +James ever cried back farewells and jovial words long after he was out +of hearing. And even on the heights of Keltonmuir he still fluttered a +gay kerchief in his left hand. + +Then Margaret Douglas went back within the gates, where her eyes fell +upon Maud Lindesay, coming through the castle yard to meet her. For +that morning she had not wished to encounter Sholto--at least not +among so many. The two maidens walked on together, and which was the +fairer, the black or the nut-brown, none could say who beheld them. + +After a while Margaret Douglas sighed. + +"I wonder which of them I like the best," she said. + +Maud laughed a merry, scornful laugh in which was a world of superior +knowledge. + +"You do not like either of them very much yet, or you would have no +difficulty about the matter!" said this wise woman. + +"Well, I wonder which of them loves me best," she went on; "James +tells me of it a hundred times every day and all day. But William says +nothing. He only looks at me often, as if he disapproved of me. I am +over light for him, I trow. He thinks not of me." + +Then after a pause she said, again with her finger on her lip, "I +wonder which of them would do most for my sake?" + +"I know!" said Maud Lindesay, promptly. + + * * * * * + +With the young Avondales there had ridden forth Malise and his son +Laurence on their way to the Abbey of Dulce Cor. Sholto went also with +them to convoy them to the fords of Urr. + +For Laurence was to be a clerk after all. + +And this is the way he explained it. + +"The Abbot cannot live long, and there is no Douglas to succeed him. +Then your little Maid will make me Abbot, if that Maud of yours does +her duty." + +"She is not my Maud yet," sighed Sholto. For, as they say in Scotland, +the lady had proved "driech to draw up." + +"But she will be in good time," urged Laurence, "and she must +persuade the Lady Margaret of my many and surprising virtues." + +"The Lady Margaret hath doubtless seen these for herself. Were you not +bound beside her on the iron altar?" said Sholto. + +"Yes, but I dirked the old witch-woman, or so they say. And that was +no clerkly action!" objected his brother. + +"Fear not," said Sholto, "you have all of her favour you need without +working by means of another's petticoat. But how about marrying? You +cannot wed or woo if you are a clerk. You did not use to be so unfond +of a lass in the gloamings along the sweet strand called the Walk of +Lovers--you know where!" + +"Pshaw," cried Laurence, "I never yet saw the lass I liked better than +myself. And I never expect to see one that I shall like better than +the fat revenues of the Abbacy of Dulce Cor!" + +He paused a moment as if roguishly considering some point. + +"Besides," he went on, "wed I may not, but woo--that is another +matter! I have never yet heard that an Abbot--" + +"Good-day!" cried Sholto, suddenly, at this point, "I will not stay to +hear you blaspheme!" + +And leaving his father and Laurence to ride westward he turned him +back towards Thrieve. + +"I will surely return to-morrow," cried Malise; "I must first see this +gay bird safely in mew. Aye, and bid the Abbot William clip his wings +too!" + +So in the gay morning sunshine and with the reflection of the lift +glinting dark blue from tarn and lakelet, Sholto MacKim rode towards +the Castle of Thrieve. He bethought him on all that was bygone. The +Avondales were gone, James the Gross might die any moment--might even +now be dead and William Douglas be Earl in his place! + +He thought over William of Avondale's last words to himself, spoken +with deep solemnity and in all the dignity of a great spirit. + +"Sholto, you and yours have brought to justice the chief betrayer. The +time is at hand when, having the power, I will settle with Crichton +and Livingston, the lesser villains. And in that count and reckoning +you must be my right-hand man. Keep your Countess, the sweet young +Margaret, safe for my sake. She is very precious to me--indeed, beyond +my life. And for this time fare you well!" + +And he had reached a mailed hand to the captain of the Douglas guard, +and when Sholto would have bent his head upon it to kiss it, William +of Avondale gripped his suddenly as one grasps a comrade's hand when +the heart is touched, and so was gone. + +At the verge of the flowery pastures that ring the isle of Thrieve, +Sholto met Maud Lindesay, wandering alone. At sight of her he leaped +from his horse, and, without salutation of spoken speech, walked by +her side. + +"How came you here alone?" he asked. + +Maud made her little pouting movement of the lips, and kicked +viciously at a tuft of grass. + +"I forgot," she said hypocritically, "I ought to have asked leave of +that noble knight the Captain of Thrieve. We poor maids must not +breathe without his permission--no, nor even walk out to meet him when +we are lonesome." + +Maud Lindesay lifted her eyes suddenly and shot at Sholto a glance so +disabling, that, alarmed for the consequences, she veiled her eyes +again circumspectly by dropping her long lashes upon her cheek. + +"Did you really come out to meet me, Maud?" cried Sholto, all the life +flooding back into his cheeks, "in this do you speak truth and no +mockery?" + +"I only said that we maidens were so much in fear of our Castle +Governor, that we must not walk out even to meet him!" + +At this Sholto let his horse go where it would, and, as they were +passing at the time through a coppice of hazel, he caught his saucy +sweetheart quickly by the wrist. + +"Mistress Maud, you shall not play with me!" he said; "you will tell +me plainly--do you love me or do you not?" + +Maud Lindesay puckered her pretty face as if she had been about to +cry. + +"You hurt my arm!" she said plaintively, looking up at him with the +long pathetic gaze of a gentle helpless animal undeservedly put in +pain. + +Sholto perforce released the pressure on her arm. She instantly put +both hands behind her. + +"You did not hurt me at all--hear you that, Master Sholto," she cried, +"and I do not love you--not that much, Sir Noble Bully!" + +And she snapped her finger and thumb like a flash beneath his nose. + +"Not that much!" she repeated viciously, and did it again. Sholto +turned away sternly. + +"You are nothing but a silly girl, and not worthy that any true man +should either love or marry you!" he said, walking off in the +direction of the castle. + +Maud Lindesay looked after him a moment as if not believing her eyes +and ears. Then, so soon as she made sure that he was indeed not coming +back, she tripped quickly after him. He was taking long strides, and +it required a series of small hops and skips to keep up with him. + +"Not really, Sholto?" she said beseechingly, almost running beside him +now. He walked so fast. + +"Yes, madam, really!" said that young knight, still more sternly. + +She took a little run to get a step in front of him, so that she might +advantageously look up into his face. + +"Then you will not marry me, Sholto?" + +Her hands were clasped with the sweetest petitionary grace. + +"_No!_" + +The monosyllable escaped from his lips with a snort like a puff of +steam from under the lid of a boiling pot. + +"Not even if I ask you very nicely, Sholto?" + +"No!" + +The negative came again, apparently fiercer than before, almost like +an explosion indeed. But still there was a hollow sound about it +somewhere. + +At this the girl stopped suddenly and, drawing a little lace kerchief +from her bosom, she sank her head into it in apparent abandonment of +grief. + +"Oh, what shall I do?" she wailed, "Sholto says he will not marry me, +and I have asked him so sweetly. What shall I do? What shall I do? I +will e'en go and drown me in the Dee water!" + +And with her kerchief still held to her eyes--or at least (to be +wholly accurate) to one of them--the despised maiden ran towards the +river bank. She did not run very fast, but still she ran. + +Now this was more than Sholto had bargained for, and he in turn +pursued her light-foot, swifter than he had ever run in his life. He +overtook her just as she reached the little ascent of the rocks by the +river margin. + +His hand fell upon her shoulder and he turned her round. She was still +shaking with sobs--or something. + +"I will--I will, I _will_ drown myself!" she cried, her kerchief +closer to her eyes. + +"I will marry you--I will do anything. I love you, Maud!" + +"You do not--you cannot!" she cried, pushing him fiercely away, "you +said you would not! That I was not fit to marry." + +"I did not mean it--I lied! I did not know what I said! I will do +whatever you bid me!" Sholto was grovelling now. + +"Then you will marry me--if I do not drown myself?" + +She spoke with a sort of relenting, delicious and tentative. + +"Yes--yes! When you will--to-morrow--now!" + +She dropped the kerchief and the laughing eyes of naughty Maud +Lindesay looked suddenly out upon Sholto like sunshine in a dark +place. They were dry and full of merriment. Not a trace of tears was +to be discerned in either of them. + +Then she gave another little skip, and, catching him by the arm, +forced him to walk with her toward Castle Thrieve. + +"Of course you will marry me, silly! You could not help yourself, +Sholto--and it shall be when I like too. But now that you have been so +stern and crusty with me, I am not sure that I will not take Landless +Jock after all!" + + * * * * * + +This is the end, and yet not the end. For still, say the country folk, +when the leaves are greenest by the lakeside, when the white thorn is +whitest and the sun drops most gloriously behind the purpling hills of +the west, when the children sing like mavises on the clachan greens, +you may chance to spy under the Three Thorns of Carlinwark a lady +fairer than mortal eye hath seen. She will be sitting gracefully on a +white palfrey and hearkening to the bairns singing by the watersides. +And the tears fall down her cheeks as she listens, in the place where +in the spring-time of the year young William Douglas first met the Lady +Sybilla. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Douglas, by S. R. 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