"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.