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.