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 _mêlée_. 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."]