MY LORD OF BARRA
"Help! Help! For God's sake, help!" again cried Kate. And the
lamentable cry was at once a prayer to God and an appeal to man.
Very pitiful her voice sounded, and she thought, "Oh, if Wat Gordon
were only here, I should not have been treated so!" Alas! it was the
more unfortunate for both that Wat at that moment stood on guard at the
city entrance of the camp of Amersfort.
But just as Haxo put his arm about her waist, a loud, clear voice
higher up the street cried with authority, "Hold, rascals, what would
you with the lady?"
"That is no business of yours!" instantly replied one of the men who
had come up last.
Kate looked up hopefully. She saw at the corner of the street a tall,
soldierly man clad in black velvet and wearing an orange cloak,
evidently an officer of the prince's household. He had his sword bare
in his hand, and seeing her manifest distress, he ran towards her
eagerly, his shoulder-ribbons waving as he came.
[Illustration: "THE GENTLEMAN INSTANTLY ATTACKED THEM FURIOUSLY"]
The fellows about her shrank back and drew their short sailors'
"whingers." But the gentleman instantly attacked them furiously with
his long sword, for Haxo and his companions had fled at the first sound
of Barra's voice, while the two who had arrived later were engaging
Kate's deliverer. Their short swords, however, were no match for the
officer's cavalry blade. The weapon of one presently clattered upon the
pavement while his comrade ran off down an alley, holding his side
as if he had been wounded.
Then, putting his left arm firmly about her, and holding his sword bare
in the other, Kate's rescuer urged her to mount quickly up the street.
"They may return," he said; "they may bring others with them, my lady,
in which case I might not be able to protect you, or even to serve you
otherwise than by dying for you, which very gladly I would do."
Now Kate desired much to walk by herself, finding the arm about her
waist discomposing, and having also the market-basket to carry; but
it seemed at the time a thing impossible to say to a man who had just
saved her life--or, at the least, had preserved her from the hands of
many cruel ruffians.
In this manner they reached in safety the wider spaces of the upper
streets, where Kate gladly saw the town's officers marching hither and
thither with their halberds ported and their pistols in their belts.
Then she disengaged herself deftly from her protector's circling arm.
"I thank you, sir," she said, very gratefully, "for your so great and
timely kindness to me. I shall never forget it; nor yet will my father,
whose name is Roger McGhie of Balmaghie, in the country of Scotland,
ever forget your gentle courtesy to his daughter in the land of her
exile."
The stranger doffed his bonnet and bowed low.
"I also am of your nation, fair mistress," said he. "In my own country
I am called Murdo, Lord of Barra and the Small Isles; but now it is
mine honor alone that is great, for I also am an exile for truth's
sake, and must serve a foreign master, as you see."
And he touched with a certain noble humility his orange cloak and the
prince's badge and motto that were upon it.
Kate bowed in turn, and her eyes expressed a warmer interest than she
had yet shown.
"My Lord of Barra," she said, "I have heard of you and of your
distinguished services and position. I am the more grateful to one so
noble for protecting a poor maid and an exile from insult."
"It is my privilege and my very great good fortune," said he, again
lifting his hat with more than ordinary deference. "Let us walk
together to your home; you lodge with your cousin of Earlstoun, do you
not?"
"Yes; but how may my Lord Barra know of that?" said Kate, in some
bewilderment.
Her companion smiled complacently.
"Though I be but an exile, yet, by the prince's special favor, I am set
in charge of the good behavior of this turbulent city, wherein it is my
duty to know everything. This morning it chanced that I was on a tour
of inspection in the worst and most dangerous parts, when it was my hap
to be able to render you a very slight service."
Barra called a porter and bade him carry Kate's basket and walk
behind them; but this that proud lass would not allow, whereupon the
provost-marshal dismissed the man with a movement of his hand. And so
in earnest talk the pair approached the entering in of the street of
Zaandpoort.
It so happened that Wat Gordon, released from his duty in the camp, had
hastened homeward as fast as he could, hoping that he might be in time
to help Kate with the preparation of the vegetables, and in especial
with the salad; for it had become his utmost pleasure to do for her the
most common and menial offices. As he arrived at the end of the street
he saw Kate coming towards him, apparently lost in friendly intercourse
with a tall officer of the prince's household. He stood transfixed.
Presently she paused at the door and, looking across, she saw him.
"Wat!" she cried, eagerly, "come hither!"
For she wished to tell him of her adventure.
But facing about and standing straight as an arrow, Walter Gordon
(being an exceedingly foolish person) saluted the officer in the orange
cloak and marched past as though he had not heard. Whereat Kate,
mightily offended at his rudeness, asked my Lord of Barra to do her
friend Mistress Maisie Gordon and herself the honor of entering their
poor rooms.
"For it is not needful that those who are of the same country and cause
should stand on punctilios."
So because of the pride of this stiff-necked Wat, my Lord of Barra
found footing in the street of Zaandpoort; for pride ofttimes breeds
more and worse things than many sins called deadlier.
* * * * *
Before Scarlett and Wat issued forth from the presence of the prince
on the day appointed for the interview, Wat had received a commission
in his own regiment, while Scarlett was nominated instructor to the
newly formed companies of exiles, called first Buchan's and afterwards
Egerton's Foot.
In addition to all this, Wat had not forgotten to represent to the
prince the case of his cousin Will, and had reminded him of the great
services he had rendered the cause in Scotland; to which William of
Orange had listened with seeming pleasure, but with regard to Will
Gordon's promotion in the corps of the Covenant he had made no promises.
It was, nevertheless, with a proud and happy heart that Wat returned
to his cousin's lodgings in the street of Zaandpoort. He had seen the
prince and found him well disposed. Even his enemy Barra had been able
to do nothing against him, and if their feet were already climbing the
lower rungs of the ladder of fortune, he felt that in some measure it
was owing to his courage and address.
All that day Wat's heart kept time to a new and unwonted tune. The
streets had never seemed so smiling, the faces of the children never so
mirthful. The commonwealth of things was manifestly in excellent repair
that afternoon in the city of Amersfort. Lochinvar hummed a jaunty
marching-stave as he strode towards the low door in Zaandpoort Street,
while his heart beat fast to think that in a moment more he would be
looking into those wondrous eyes whose kindness or cruelty had now
become to him as life or death.
As he went a little softly up the stairs, he heard above a noise of
cheerful converse. An unknown man's voice spoke high and clear among
the others. The lighter tones of women intermingled with it, pleasantly
responsive. For a moment those within did not in the instancy of
their discourse hear Wat's summons. At last Maisie opened the door,
astonished that any one should knock at inner chamber-port, and as Wat
entered he saw, sitting in his own accustomed place, his hat on the
table, his sword unslung for ease, his enemy the Lord of Barra. The
provost-marshal was talking easily and familiarly to Kate, who sat on
the low window-seat leaning a little forward, with interest written
clearly on every line of her face. She was nursing her knee between her
clasped palms with that quaint and subtle grace which had often gone
to Wat's heart. Her dark eyes rested, not upon his incoming, of which
she appeared to be for the moment unconscious, but upon the face of the
speaker.
Wat and Barra submitted (it could not be called more) to Maisie's
introduction--Wat with sullen blackness of countenance and the
slightest inclination of his head, Barra with smiling patience, as
though by the very irony of circumstances it had chanced to him to be
introduced to his stable-boy.
Kate rose and took Wat's hand a moment in kindly fashion, though with
eyes a little downcast, being not yet ready quite to forget his
rudeness upon the street. But immediately she went back to her seat in
order to listen to the conclusion of the story which Barra had been
relating. It concerned the loyalty of the Highland clans to their
chiefs, and as Barra told of their sacrifices, a genuine pleasure
lightened in his dark face, his eyes glittered, and a new life breathed
through his whole form. For pride in the loyalty of his clan was the
selfish man's one enthusiasm.
Maisie sat down with her sewing close to where Wat stood moping and
bending his brows, and, noting his brow of constraint and gloom, she
set herself lovingly to cheer him.
"We have had good news to-day," she said, smiling pleasantly at
him--"news that William does not know yet. See!" she added, handing
him a parchment from the table with heightened color, for she had been
married but six months, and her William was the pivot on which the
universe revolved.
It was a commission as captain in the Covenant regiment in favor of
William Gordon, called younger, of Earlstoun. Wat continued to look at
it in amazement. It was what he had asked for from William of Orange
that day without obtaining an answer.
"My Lord of Barra had it from the prince's own hand. He says that the
stadtholder has long marked the address of my husband, and hath only
delayed to reward it lest the short space he has been with the colors
should arouse the jealousy of his comrades."
A spark of fury burned up suddenly in Wat's eyes.
"Is the paper genuine, think you?" he asked, loudly enough for all to
hear.
Maisie looked up quickly, astonished, not so much at his words as by
the fierce, abrupt manner of his speech.
"Genuine!" she said, in astonishment. "Why, my Lord Barra brought it
himself. It is signed by his own hand and issued in the name of the
prince. Why do you ask if it be genuine?"
"I ask," cried Lochinvar, in the same fiercely offensive tone, "because
the only document which I have ever seen bearing that signature and
issued in the name of the prince was a forgery, and as such was
repudiated two days later by my Lord of Barra."
The words rang clearly and unmistakably through the room. Doubtless
Barra heard them, and Kate also, for a deep flush of annoyance mounted
slowly to her neck, touched with rose the ivory of her cheek, and faded
out again, leaving her with more than her former paleness. But Barra
never stopped a moment in the full, easy current of his narration.
He continued to let fall his sentences with precisely the same cool,
untroubled deliberation, fingering meanwhile the prince's signet-ring,
which he habitually wore on his hand. Kate almost involuntarily moved a
little nearer to him and fixed her eyes the more earnestly on his face,
because she felt that Wat's words were a deliberate insult intended for
her deliverer of the preceding day.
Wat on his part pushed his chair noisily back from the table, and
rapped nervously and defiantly with his knuckles on the board.
"There is not a man in my wild western isles," Barra's voice was heard
going on, evenly and calmly, "who would not die for his chief, giving
his life as readily as a platter of drammoch--not a poor unlearned
cotter who would not send his family to the death to save the honor of
the clan from the least stain, or the life of the chief from any shadow
of danger. The true clansman can do anything for his chief--"
"Except tell the truth," burst in Walter Gordon, fiercely.
Barra paused a moment and looked calmly at the interrupter. Then,
turning a little more squarely to Kate and his hostess, he continued
his speech without betraying the least annoyance.
"He will do anything for his chief which does not involve the loss of
his honor and his standing in the clan."
"Does this your noble Highland honor include treachery, spying, and
butchery?" cried Wat, now speaking directly to his enemy.
"It includes good manners in a lady's presence, sir," said Barra,
calmly.
"Do these your clansmen of honor and courtesy wear butchers' knifes in
their belts, and go by the name of Haxo the Bull, the Calf, and the
Killer?"
Barra spread his hands abroad with a French gesture of helplessness
which was natural to him, and which expressed his inability to
comprehend the vagaries and fancies of a person clearly out of his
mind. Then, without betraying the least annoyance, he turned suavely to
Kate, and began to tell her of the new ambassadors from Austria who,
with a great retinue, had that day arrived at the court of the Prince
of Orange.
Wat rose with his hand on his sword. "Cousin Maisie," he said, "I am
not a man of politic tricks nor specious concealments. I give you fair
warning that I know this man. I tell him to his face that I denounce
him for a traitor, a conspirator, a murderer. I find Murdo of Barra a
guest in this house, and I do what I can to protect those I love from
so deadly an acquaintance--the very shadow of whose name is death."
"Protect! You forget, Cousin Walter," returned Maisie, indignantly,
standing up very white and determined--"you forget that I have a
husband who is entirely able to protect me. And you forget also that
this is his house, not yours. Moreover, if you cannot suffer to meet
my friends here as one guest meets another, it is entirely within your
right to go where you will only meet with those of whom you are pleased
to approve."
Here Walter snatched suddenly at the bonnet which had been lying on the
floor: but the indignant little lady of the house in Zaandpoort Street
had not yet said all her say.
"And, moreover," she said, "so long as I am mistress of a hovel,
neither you nor any other shall intrude your brawls and quarrels upon
those whom I choose to invite to my house."
"You choose between us, then?" cried Wat, holding his head high, his
face as colorless as a sheet of paper.
"If you desire to put it so--yes. I choose between a man of courtesy
and a silly, hectoring boy. I choose, cousin mine, not to give you the
right to select my guests for me."
Wat turned to Kate. The blood had now ebbed from his lips, and left
them gray. His eyes seemed in a short tale of moments to have sunk deep
into his face.
"And you?" he said, more calmly than before, looking at the maid of his
love.
The girl trembled like a leaf on an autumn gossamer; nevertheless, she
answered firmly enough: "I am but a guest in this house, but so long as
I abide here the friends of my hostess are my friends!"
Wat Gordon bowed low with stateliest courtesy, first to his cousin
Maisie, then to Kate McGhie, and lastly to his rival.
"I shall have the honor of sending you a communication in the morning,"
he said, looking the councillor of the prince between the eyes.
Barra sat still on his chair, looking Wat over with the same calmly
amused contempt he had shown throughout. "Ah," he replied, nodding his
head, "perhaps it might be as well to let the--the application come in
the usual way--through my chamberlain."
And he was still smiling as Wat Gordon strode down the stairs with
anger burning coldly white on his face, and all hell raging in his
heart.
Barra turned to Kate to continue his story, but her place was vacant.
The girl had inexplicably vanished from the room before Wat's foot had
even passed the threshold. She lay now on the little white bed in her
own room, her whole frame shaken with sobs, and the hot, bitter tears
raining down on the pillow.
Then, for the first time, she knew in her own heart that she was face
to face with great unreasoning love, which could neither be banished
nor disowned.
"Oh, why," she sobbed, "was he so foolish and wicked? Why did Maisie
grow of a sudden so hard and cruel to him? Why must things turn out
thus deadly wrong, when they might just as easily have gone right?"
She buried her face in the pillow, and whispered her conclusion to the
fine linen of its coverture upon which her tears were falling.
"Yet I love him--yes, I love him more than ever for it!" she said, and
sank her head deeper, as if to hide her love from her own most secret
sight.