'Gilbert, Gilbert,' she whispered, searching above her with her hands
and opening her arms, 'clasp me closer. I cannot see thee, love, for
the mist. I cannot feel your hand.'
I bent my ear. I thought she was gone from us. But, as from an
infinite distance I heard the words come to me. They were the last,
spoken with great relief.
'The mist has gone by, dear love! The mist has quite gone by!'
And she lay still, smiling most sweetly.
*CHAPTER LII*
*HOME-COMING*
The snows of another winter had fallen, frozen, and lain long ere they
were at last whisked away by the winds of a brisk and bitter March. It
was now again the springtime upon the face of the earth--the time of the
earliest singing of the mavis, of the sweet piping of the blackbird on
the tree. The grasses were green, too, over the unforgotten grave of
our Marjorie. But we who loved her had won to a memory that was not now
wholly sorrow. Specially we remembered the sweet and profitable end she
had made, when after many days of bitter winter in her heart,
forgiveness and love at last unsealed her bosom.
It had been a long winter for us all, because it behoved that I should
go to London, there to be made one of His Majesty's new knights. For I
had told all my tale to the King, being so charged by the Earl John.
'Yet,' said he, 'keep ever your thumb upon the matter of the Treasure of
Kelwood. And I will keep mine right effectually upon Currie, the
ill-conditioned thief thereof.'
And so he did, and for the same Laird of Kelwood's sake chiefly, he set
to mending and patching our old tower of defence on Craig Ailsa, in
which he gave one Hamilton the charge of him as prisoner, together with
John Dick the traitor and two or three more.
'It was a fine, quiet place,' said the Earl John, 'and would give such
rascals time and opportunity for repentance--which,' added he, 'seems
more than I am ever likely to get with all this throng of business on
hand.'
For the Earl John was now waxen one of the greatest men in broad
Scotland, and withal he had all the power worth considering in the shire
of Ayr. So that even the Craufords, wanting now their ancient chief,
and broken with bickerings among themselves, sent an embassy of peace
and goodwill to him.
It chanced that it came when the Earl was in a good humour.
'Ah, John Crauford,' said Cassillis, ''tis a changed day since Bargany
and you chased us off Skeldon Haughs. It looks as if the sow had not
been flitted so far after all. But ye shall have the peace ye ask. For
we live under a gracious King who loves quietness as much as when he
dwelt here in our kindly North. And he is now the better able to
enforce it. Therefore, look ye to it. I will maintain you Craufords in
your heritages of Kerse--which by my power as Bailzie, I might legally
declare forfeit.
'But I will tell you what ye must do in return. Ye shall render me
place and precedence at kirk and market. Ye shall build up your private
door in Dalrymple Kirk, and ye shall abide from taking your places there
till ye have seen me seated.'
To this, dourly enough, the Craufords perforce agreed. For, indeed, they
could make no better of it, so great a man was our Earl grown.
But to me he was ever kind, and proved none so ill-given when it liked
him. For he said, 'Build you the house of Palgowan and I will plenish
it for you, and that not meanly. And you and my cousin Nell shall rear
me routh of lusty knaves to protect my south-western marches, and keep
down the reivers of the Dungeon!' Which, indeed (so far as I was
concerned), I was right willing to promise.
So it came about that the Earl would have it that our wedding must be
held in the ancient strength of Cassillis, which sits by the waterside
not so far from the town of Ayr. And a bonny, well-sheltered place it
is--not like Culzean, which stands blusteringly on the seabrink,
over-frowning all. And because the Earl of Cassillis said it, so it was
bound to be.
For he was our Nell's guardian, and besides we that were to live under
him, were none the worse of keeping in with him.
When I went to do my courting, as often as not I found Nell walking with
him, and ofttimes flouting him. And when I would have cautioned her,
'Tut,' she said, 'he likes nothing better. If his own wife flouted him,
he might stay better at home.'
'Cousin,' Nell would say to him sometimes, 'Cousin John, ye think ye are
such a great man, yet a little musket-ball, or a woman's finger-long
bodkin, might let all thy greatness out. Ye should think oftener on
that.
'What, Nell,' said he, 'is it that the hour of thy marriage grows so
near, that thou must test thy preaching on me. Keep the proof of the
pudding for thine own goodman.'
'Ah,' said she, 'perchance my cousin, the noble Countess, has already
given thee thy fill of it.'
'Thou art a forward chit,' said he, wringing her ear between his finger
and thumb. 'I hope Launce will swinge thee tightly with a supple birch
for thy often naughtiness.'
It was, indeed, a notable day when Nell and I were married. All the
morning my heart was beating a fine tune, lest something should happen
ere I got my lass carried off to our home. Alone I rode from the Cove
of Culzean to the house of Cassillis. I started brave and early, and my
good old horse, Dom Nicholas, rode for once the right road and the
ready, the gate that I longed to go. I had a rare fine coat of blue
silk upon me, belted about the waist with the King's belt, and with the
King's order of knighthood all a-glitter upon my breast.
Silver-buttoned was my coat, and of solid silver, too, were the
accoutrements of Dom Nicholas--ay, to the very stirrups and the broidery
on his blue saddle-cloth. I wore the Earl's Damascus sword, his first
gift, swinging at my side. And as Dom Nicholas and I went through
Maybole, wot ye, if we kept not our heads up. For the lasses ran out in
clouds to watch us go past, and what was even better, the lads sulked
and turned their backs, saying that they would be shamed to lay a leg
across a horse's back thus appareled. For I knew well what they were
thinking. Had I been trudging afoot in hodden, and they riding by all
in silk with a gold-hiked sword, that is just what I should have said.
So the black envy eating into their hearts and lowering on their brows
cheered me like old French wine on a cold day.
I had not gone far across the bent when I spied a cavalcade before me.
It was the men of Culzean, whom I had so often led in battle, come to
give me a right gay sending off. And at their head rode James (now the
heir), mirthful Sandy, and mine own little Davie, dressed like a
page-boy in satin of blue and gold.
They gave me boisterous welcome, and they that dared would have broken
many jests of the time-honoured sort upon my head. But on such a day a
lover's head is helmeted alike against the hand of war and the strife of
tongues.
The Earl himself met us at Cassillis Yett. Whereupon I dismounted and
bent upon a knee. He raised me right courteously and led me within,
conversing all the while as to an equal. Such a repair of folk I never
saw before in Carrick or in Kyle. And sweetest of all to me was to see
my father, for my mother had bidden at home to welcome us when we should
ride southward.
And among the first that came to bid me good fortune were Robert
Harburgh and his wife. Now so soon as the eyes of my ancient love
crossed mine, I perceived well that there was yet wickedness lurking in
them.
And whensoever her husband was called away on some business of the
Earl's I had proof of it. For Kate Allison came near to me, and,
setting her hand on the silver buttons of my coat, as though to pick a
thread, she said,--
'So, Launcelot--or, I should say, Sir Launcelot--is it come to this?
You see there is none so disdainful but in time their fall will come.'
'Nay, Kate,' I made answer, 'it was not I that was first disdainful, for
do you mind who it was that told me certain truths in the Grieve's house
at Culzean?'
'Ah Launce!' said Kate Allison, 'own it now. Was not I a kind leech, to
bite one I loved so healthily all for his good and for the cooling of
his blood?'
'Kate Allison,' said I, 'thou wast ever a minx, a teasing rogue of
rogues. But thy disdain might have gone near to costing me my life!'
'Go to, Sir Want-wit,' said she. 'Did not I know all the time that thy
love for me was no more than a boy's fondness for kissing comfits, and
to be made of by a bonny lass? Why, even then thou wast fonder of Nell's
little finger than of my whole body.'
I knew that Kate spoke true--for, indeed, it was many months since I had
so much as thought upon her. But this I told her not. The Lord knows
how seldom she had thought upon me. But when they meet together, old
sweethearts take pleasure thus in dallying with the past, when all
wounds have been healed and no hearts broken.
But she saw my eyes wandering, as I guess, every way about, and she must
needs tease me concerning that also.
'Nay,' she said, 'you will not see your posy, till she comes in to the
minister and you. So e'en content ye for a little with an old married
wife and the mother of a family. Ye shall have time and to spare with
your bonny bride or all be done.'
'Kate,' I said, 'ye will be my friend as of yore.'
'Ay, and hold my tongue,' answered she quickly.
'That you did not always, then,' said I, 'for there never was such an
uncouth love-making in the world, as with your tell-tale tongue ye made
mine. I dared not lay my lips to a tender word nor so much as seek a
favour, as it might be innocently betwixt man and maid, but it was "That
you said to Kate on such a night!" or "Think ye that I count so little
on myself as to be content with Kate Allison's cast-off sweet
speeches."'
And the pretty besom laughed. For though a married wife, she was not a
whit sobered, as one might see by her eyes.
'It served you greatly right,' said she, 'but do me some justice. Did
you ever hear of my telling of the night of the fair at Maybole, and of
our home-coming by the woodland way?'
'No,' said I, curtly. For indeed I liked not that memory specially
well, and wondered that she did.
'Then,' said Kate Allison, 'rail no more against woman's tongues. For
they are moveable yard measures, and let out no more than likes them.'
At this moment they called to me from the great door, and Kate Allison
waved me off with a gay 'Up and away, Sir Knight!'--which pleased me
more from her than many a _Benedicite_ from another.
The minister had come, they said, and was waiting for me. I went in,
and lo! to my wonder, who should he be but Maister Robert Bruce, the
sequestrated minister of Edinburgh, with whom the King had at last
wholly fallen out concerning the matter of the Gowrie riot.
The Earl smiled at my wonderment.
'Art thou astonished,' he said, 'thus to see our ancient friend in
Carrick? Thinkest thou that thy marriage will not stand? Truth it
will, for even King James will think twice, or he bids his bishop
unfrock a man that bides with me in my defenced house of Cassillis.'
'Sir Launcelot,' said Maister Robert Bruce, bending to me with his
ancient grace and most reverend dignity, 'this is the happiest hour with
me since I quitted my high town upon the Long Ridge. It is true that I
wander like a restless ghost seeking abode; but as yet the King hath not
bent me--yea, though thrice I have met him in dispute and conference.'
Then went the Earl out to bring in my Nell, and I listened to the
minister of Edinburgh speaking. Yet, on my life I could not fix my mind
on a word he said, for there was a jangling as of many bells in mine
ears, and all the pulses of my life beat together. Then knew I of a
surety that none had power to touch my heart like Nell Kennedy, the lass
that would not need to change her name.
At last the door opened and she entered--leaning on the Earl's arm she
came. There was a rim of gold about her hair like a coronet. And John
of Cassillis bent over to me, as he gave her into my hand. 'Take her,'
he said, 'I have set a coronet about her brows for to-day. She is in
haste to be wed, or I might have put a real one there. And what had Sir
Launcelot done then, poor thing?'
And I think the cold, tall Earl John was more than a little fond of our
Nell, concerning which I often rally her now.
So Nell and I were married. And as though he had known her and her
teasing temper, Maister Robert Bruce paused long on the promise to
'obey' when he came to put the questions to her, and also upon the words
'obedient wife.' Wherefore I have ever held him to be a man gifted
above most with the second sight.
It was between the sweet hazel and the flowering May that we rode
south--we two alone. For Robert Harburgh had led a company of men with
flower-wreathed lances and of young maids on palfreys as far as the
crossing of the roads which come from Culzean, where there met us a
party with the loving cup.
But now at long and last we were won clear, and ever as we rode we
caught hands and laughed and loosed them again--all for gladness to be
alone. And we looked in one another's eyes, and nigh brought ourselves
and our horses to destruction by thus looking and overlooking. Till I
felt mine old Dom Nicholas, a horse that loves not philandering, grow
restive and sulky under my thigh, tossing his head up as one slighted
for the unworthy. And ever as we went she charged it upon me that then
and then, and at such another time, I loved her not. And ever I swore
that I did. Thereafter, being beaten on that point, she fell to
declaring that she had loved me first and most--but I only reluctantly
and, as it had been, at second-hand.
Thus we made the miles and the hours go by, redding up all our past life
and planning our future, wondering the while if the stir and clangour of
war had indeed passed away for ever. For already there had come a new
look upon the land. Whether it was the union of the crowns and the new
English wealth which made money more plenty, I know not, at any rate
certain it is that there had arrived a security to which we in the lands
of Carrick had been strangers for many generations.
Then it was that the farmer began to set his oxen to the plough in teams
of a dozen or more, not fearing any longer that there might come a glint
of steel-harnessed riders over the hill, who should drive his cattle
before them and leave himself lying in the furrow a-welter in his blood.
The wind blew sweet about us. It seemed that never had there been a
spring like this one since the world began, never such delicatest airs
as those that stirred the crisps about Nell's white neck when she bent
it sideways to hearken to my speeches. I declare that were I not an
unlearned Scot, who takes to his pen only when work for the sword waxes
slack, I could praise my love in similitudes of Arabian birds and ferny
sprays, as well as Euphues' Delight or even as in the gentle Sydney his
Arcadia.
But as it is I waste time, for already I have spoke too long, and must
haste me to the end. Though this is a part of my life that I could love
to linger on. For what is pleasanter than sunshine after storm and the
bolts of ruin.
I declare it was five years since I had had time to look at a robin.
But there seemed to be time for everything this fine May day.
And ever as we went, it seemed that we had been a long time alone, and
that it would soon come time to be turning back again. Then to which
soever of us the thought came, that we were now on the long lane that
has no turning (save that which turns in at the kirkyaird loaning),
there would also come the desire to touch and to look. And even thus
did Nell Kennedy often, reaching her hand across to me from her gentle,
equal-pacing steed.
Then would she fall back on the things that had been, and which now were
passed away.
'Yesterday, at such a time,' she would say, 'I thought that to-day would
never come. And now--'
Whereupon with her eyes she would look the rest.
Then I told her how that I had seen the Dominie but yestereven, when she
was sewing at the pearling of her bridal dress and thinking of me. He
had gone back with his pipes to the school by the kirk at Maybole.
'And what said he of our wedding?' asked my dear.
'Why I was instant with him to come and bide at Palgowan,' I made
answer. 'Shall I tell thee what he said?'
'Ay, tell it me, indeed!' quoth she, blithely, stopping a moment on a
high-lying moorish summit, with her hand above her eyes and looking to
the Spear of the Merrick towards which we rode.
'Well, then, he said that those that were but newly wed had no use for
carven negro-heads, wherein to put the ashes of their loves.'
'He is none so ugly as that!' said Nell--with, I think, a look at me
which I took for a certain complaisance it pleased me to see.
Then I told her how the Dominie had added that it was not yet time for
men of his profession to come about the house of a newly-wedded knight.
But that if prosperity should come to Palgowan and the din of bairns'
voices, we might ask him again in ten years or somewhat less.
'Oh,' said Nell, shortly, and rode a little further off. Yet I flattered
myself that I had said the thing pretty well. For it was not at all in
these terms that the Dominie had put his offer. Indeed, I was in a
quandary how most discreetly to deliver his message.
So, in the long twilight of May, we came riding down Minnoch Water.
For, with the sun-setting, we had fallen silent, and we looked no more
so frankly at each other. But with one accord we turned our eyes across
the water to watch for the light of my mother's candle in the little
window.
She heard us as we came; and there, lo! before I knew it, she was at
Nelly's saddle leather, helping her to dismount, and the tears were
running steadily down her face. I think she minded the day when she,
too, had come home a bride to the little house of Kirrieoch among the
hills.
'Oh, my bairn--my bairn,' was what she said, 'come awa' ben!'
And it was to Nell that she said it. Me she minded no more than a
cock-sparrow under the eaves. Then came Hugh of Kirriemore out to take
the horses. But I went, as is my custom, to the stable with Dom
Nicholas, for he never slept well otherwise. And when I came in again I
found that my mother had Nell already seated by the fireside, for it is
chill among the uplands in May. The peats were burning fine, and on the
white board there was a supper set fit for a prince and princess.
But all the time my mother never minded me at all, save to rage on me
for bringing the lass so far and so fast.
'But, mother,' said I, 'remember that if I had not made some haste, all
your fine supper would have been wasted.'
And indeed it came not far from being that as it was, for we could eat
but little. The finest of muirland fare seemed somehow or other to
stick by the way, tasting strangely dry and sapless. And after we had
done we drew apart and looked at the red ashes, while my mother rattled
on about the simple concerns of the sheep and the calves, which
mountain-bred folk vastly love both to speak of and to hear about.
Presently she leaned over me and took down the burnt Bible out of the
wall aumry.
'Here, Launce,' she said, 'read you the chapter this night ere ye sleep.
It becomes a man wedded and the head of a family. Besides, your father
is from home.'
I declare I would sooner have charged upon the level spears. But I had
no choice with my mother, speaking as she did when I was a boy, and my
Nell sitting there crossing her pretty ankles by the fireside. So I
manned to read a portion. It was about Jonathan clambering up a rock
(and a good soldier he was). But the prayer fairly beat me. However,
ere we rose from our knees we said the Lord's prayer all of us together.
So to rest we went, without other word spoken. And through the little
window of the room in which I was born, Nell and I could hear, ere we
went to sleep, the brattle of the burn hurrying down through the peace
of the hills, past our own new house of Palgowan and so on toward the
silence of the outermost sea.