THE BLACK BULL'S HEAD
The banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle, but lately out of artificers'
hands, was a noble oblong chamber reaching from side to side of the
south-looking keep, begun by James I. It was decorated in the French
manner with oak ceilings and panellings, all bossed and cornered with
massive silver-gilt mouldings.
Save in the ordering of the repast itself there was a marked absence
of ostentation. Only a soldier or two could be seen, mostly on guard
at the outer gates, and Sholto, who till now had been uneasy and
fearful for his master, became gradually more reassured when he saw
with what care every want of the Earl and his brother was attended to,
and if possible even forestalled.
The young King was in jubilant spirits, and could scarcely be
persuaded to let the brothers Douglas remain a moment alone. He was
resolved, he said, to have his bed brought into their chamber that he
might talk to them all night of tourneys and noble deeds of arms.
Never had he met with any whom he loved so much, and on their part the
young Lords of Douglas became boys again, in this atmosphere of frank
and boyish admiration.
It was a state banquet to which they sat down. That is, there was no
hungry crowd of hangers-on clustered below the salt. To each
gentleman was allotted a silver trenchard for his own use, instead of
one betwixt two as was the custom. The service was ordered in the
French manner, and there was manifest through all a quiet observance
and good taste which won upon the Earl of Douglas. Nevertheless, his
eyes still continued to range this way and that through the castle,
scanning each tower, glancing up at every balcony and archway, in
search of the Lady Sybilla.
In the banquet-hall the little King sat on his high chair in the
midst, with the brothers of Douglas one on either side of him. He
spoke loudly and confidently after the manner of a pampered boy of
high spirits.
"I will soon come and visit you in return at the Castle of Thrieve.
The Lady Sybilla hath told me how strong it is and how splendid are
the tourneys there, as grand, she swears, as those of France."
"The Lady Sybilla is peradventure gone to her own land?" ventured
Douglas, not wishing to ask a more direct question. He spoke freely,
however, on all other subjects with the King, laughing and talking
mostly with him, and finding little to say to the tutor Livingston or
the Chancellor, who, either from humility or from fear, had taken care
to interpose half a dozen knights between himself and his late guests.
"Nay," cried the young King, looking querulously at his tutor, "but,
indeed, I wot not what they have done with my pretty gossip, Sybilla;
I have not seen her for three weeks, save for a moment this morning.
And before she went away she promised to teach me to dance a coranto
in the French manner, and the trick of the handkerchief to hide a
dagger in the hand."
As the Earl listened to the boy's prattle, he became more and more
convinced that the Marshal de Retz, having in some way discovered
their affection for each other, had removed Sybilla out of his reach.
Her letter, indeed, showed clearly that she was in fear of
ill-treatment both for himself and for her.
The banquet passed with courtesies much more elaborate than was usual
in Scotland, but which indicated the great respect in which the
Douglases were held. Between each course a servant clad in the royal
colours presented a golden salver filled with clear water for the
guests to wash their hands. Through the interstices of the ceiling
strains of music filtered down from musicians hidden somewhere above,
which sounded curiously soothing and far away.
The Chancellor bowed and drank every few minutes to the health of the
Earl and his brother across the board, while the tutor sat smiling
upon all with the polish of a professional courtier. In his high seat
at the table end the little King chatted incessantly of the times when
he could do as he pleased, and when he and his cousin of Douglas would
ride together to battle and tourney, or feast together in hall.
"Be sure, then, I will not keep all these grey-beard sorners about
me," he said, lowering his voice cautiously; "I will only have young
gallant men like you and David there. But what comes here?"
There was a stir among the servitors at the upper end of the room.
Sholto, who stood behind his master's chair, heard the skirl of the
war-pipes approach nearer. It grew louder, more insistent, finally
almost oppressive. The doors at either end were filled with armed
men. They filed silently into the hall in dark armour, all carrying
shining Lochaber axes.
Douglas leaned back in his chair, and looked nonchalantly on like a
spectator of a pageant. He continued to talk to the King easily and
calmly, as if he were in his own Castle of Thrieve. But Sholto saw the
white and ghastly look on the face of the Chancellor, and noted his
hands nervously grip the table. He observed him also lean across and
confer with Livingston, who nodded like one that agrees that the
moment of action has come.
At the upper end of the hall were wide folding doors which till now
had been shut. These were opened swiftly, either half falling back to
the wall. And through the archway came two servitors in black habits,
carrying between them on a huge platter of silver a black bull's head,
ghastly and ominous even in death, with staring eyeballs and matted
frontlet of ensanguined hair.
"Treachery!" instantly cried Sholto, and ere the men could approach he
had drawn his sword and stood ready to do battle for his lord. For
throughout all Scotland a bull's head served at table is the symbol of
death.
The Earl did not move or speak. He watched the progress of the men in
black, who staggered under their heavy burden. David also had risen to
his feet with his hand on his sword, but William Douglas sat still.
Alarm, wonder, and anxiety chased each other across the face of the
young King.
"What is this, Chancellor--why is the room filled with armed men?" he
cried.
But Crichton had withdrawn himself behind the partisans of his
soldiers, and down the long table there was not a man but had risen
and bared his sword. Every eye was turned upon the young Earl. A score
of men-at-arms came forward to seize him.
"Stand back on your lives!" cried Sholto, sweeping his blade about him
to keep a space clear about his youthful master.
But still the Earl William sat calm and unmoved, though all others had
risen to their feet and held arms in their hands.
"What means this mumming?" he said, high and clear. "If a mystery is
to be played, surely it were better to put it off till after dinner."
Then through the open doorway came a voice piercing and reedy.
"The play is played indeed, William of Douglas, and the lion is now
safe in the power of the dogs. How like you our kennel, most mighty
lion?"
It was the voice of the Chancellor Crichton.
The young King came running from his place and threw his arms about
the Earl's neck.
"I am the King," he cried; "not one of you shall touch or hurt my
cousin Douglas!"
"Stand back, James," said the tutor Livingston; "the Douglas is a
traitor, and you shall never reign while he rules. He and his brother
must be tried for treason. They have claimed the King's throne, and
usurped his authority."
Sholto MacKim turned about. In all that threatening array of armed men
no friendly eye met his, and none of all he had trusted drew a blade
for the Douglas. Sholto stood calculating the chances. To die like a
man was easy, but how to die to some purpose seemed more difficult.
He saw the King with his arm about the neck of William Douglas, who
remained quietly in his place with a pale but assured countenance.
It was Sholto's only chance. With his left hand he seized the young
King by the collar of his doublet, and set the point of his sword to
his back between the shoulder-blades.
"Now," he cried, "let a man lay hand on my Lord Douglas and I will
slay the King!"
At this there was great consternation, and but for fear of Sholto's
keeping his word half a score would have rushed forward to the
assistance of the boy. The scream of a woman from some concealed
portal showed that the Queen Mother was waiting to witness the
downfall of the mighty house which, as she had been taught, alone
threatened her boy's throne.
Sholto's arm was already drawn back for the thrust, when the voice of
the Earl of Douglas was heard. He had risen to his feet, and now stood
easy and careless as ever, with his thumb in the blue silken sash
which girt his waist.
"Sholto," he said calmly, "you forget your place. Let the King go
instantly, and ask his Majesty's pardon. Set your sword again in its
sheath. I am your lord. I dubbed you knight. Do as I command you."
Most unwillingly Sholto did as he was bidden, and the King, instead of
withdrawing, placed himself still closer to William of Douglas.
"And now," cried the Earl, facing the array of armed men who thronged
the banquet-hall, "what would ye with the Douglas? Do ye mean my
death, as by the Bull's Head here on the table ye would have me
believe?"
"For black treason do we apprehend you, Earl of Douglas," creaked the
voice of the Chancellor, still speaking from behind his array of
men-at-arms, "and because you have set yourself above the King. But we
are no butchers, and trial shall ye have by your peers."
"And who in this place are the peers of the Earl of Douglas?" said the
young man, haughtily.
"I will not bandy words with you, my Lord Douglas. You are
overmastered. Yield yourself, therefore, as indeed you must without
remeed. Deliver your weapons and submit; 'tis our will."
"My brave Chancellor," said the Earl William, still in a voice of
pleasant irony, "you have well chosen your time to shame yourself. We
are your invited guests, and the guests of the King of Scotland. We
are here unarmed, sitting at meat with you in your own house. We have
come hither unattended, trusting to the honour of these noble knights
and gentlemen. Therefore my brother and I have no swords to deliver.
But if, being honourable men, you stand, as is natural, upon a nice
punctilio, I can satisfy you."
He turned again to Sholto MacKim.
"Give me your sword," he said. "'Tis better I should render it than
you."
With great unwillingness the captain of the guard of Thrieve did as he
was bidden. The Earl reversed it in his hand and held it by the point.
"And now, my Lord Chancellor, I deliver you a Douglas sword, depending
upon the word of an honourable man and the invitation of the King of
Scotland."
But even so the chancellor would not advance from behind the cover of
his soldiery, and the Earl looked around for some one to whom to
surrender.
"Will you then appoint one of your knights to whom I may deliver this
weapon? Is there none who will dare to come near even the hilt of a
Douglas sword? Here then, Sholto, break it over your knee and cast it
upon the board as a witness against all treachery."
Sholto did as he was told, breaking his sword and casting the pieces
upon the table in the place where the King of Scots had sat.
"And now, my lords, I am ready," said the Earl, and his brother David
stood up beside him, looking as they faced the unbroken ring of their
foes the two noblest and gallantest youths in Scotland.
At this the King caught Lord William by the hand, and, lifting up his
voice, wept aloud with the sudden breaking lamentation of a child.
"My cousin, my dear cousin Douglas," he cried, "they shall not harm
you, I swear it on my faith as a King."
At last an officer of the Chancellor's guard mustered courage to
approach the Earl of Douglas, and, saluting, he motioned him to
follow. This, with his head erect, and his usual easy grace, he did,
David walking abreast of him. And Sholto, with all his heart filled
with the deadly chill of hopelessness, followed them through the
sullen ranks of the traitors.
And even as he went Earl Douglas looked about him every way that he
might see once more her for whose sake he had adventured within the
portals of death.