CHAPTER XVI
SHOLTO CAPTURES A PRISONER OF DISTINCTION
He found that the noise came from the chamber occupied by the littleLady Margaret. When he arrived at the door it stood open to the wall.The child was sitting up on her bed, clothed in the white garmentry ofthe night. Bending over her, with her arms round the heaving shouldersof the little girl, Sholto saw Maud Lindesay, clad in a dark, hoodedmantle thrown with the appearance of haste about her. The door of thenext chamber also stood wide, and from the coverlets cast on the floorit was obvious that its occupant had left it hastily in order to flyto her friend's assistance.
At the sound of hasty footsteps Maud Lindesay turned about, and wasinstantly stricken pale and astonished by the sight of the young manwith his sword bare. She cried aloud with a stern and defiantcountenance, "Sholto MacKim, what do you here?"
And before he had time to answer, the little girl looked at him out ofher friend's arms and called out: "O Sholto, Sholto, I am so glad youare come. I woke to find such a terrible thing looking at me out ofthe night. It was shaped like a great wolf, but it was rough of hide,and had upon it a head like a man's. I was so terrified that at firstI could not cry out. But when it came nearer, and gazed at me, then Icried. Do not go away, Sholto. I am so glad, so glad that you arehere."
Maud Lindesay had again turned towards Margaret.
"Hush," she said soothingly, "it was a dream. You were frighted by avision, by a nightmare, by a succubus of the night. There is no beastwithin the castle."
"But I saw it plainly," the maid cried. "It opened the door as if ithad hands--I saw it stand there by the bed and look at me--oh, soterribly! I saw its teeth glisten and heard them snap together!"
"Little one, be still, it was but a dream," said Sholto, untruthfully;"nevertheless I will go and search the rest of the castle."
And with these words he went along the corridor, finding the men whomhe had summoned by means of his captain's silver call clustered uponthe landing of the turret stair which communicated with the thirdfloor. As he glanced along the oak-panelled corridor, it seemed toSholto that he discerned a figure vanishing at the further end.Instantly he resolved on searching, and summoning his men to follow,he led the way down the passage, sword in hand. As he went he snatchedthe lamp from its pin on the wall, and held it in his left high abovehis head.
At the further end of the corridor was the door of a little chamber,and it seemed to Sholto that the shape he had seen must havedisappeared at this point.
He knocked loudly on the door with the hilt of his sword, and cried,"If any be within, open--in the name of the Earl!"
No voice replied, and Sholto boldly set his foot against the lowerpanelling, and drove the door back to the wall with a clang.
Then at sight of a something dark, wrapped in a cloak, standingmotionless against the window, the young captain of the guard elevatedhis lamp, and let the flicker of the light fall on the erect figureand haughty face of a young man, who, with his hand on his hip, stoodconsidering the rude advance of his pursuers with a calm andquestioning gaze.
It was the Earl of Douglas himself.
Sholto stood petrified at sight of him, and for a long minute could inno wise recover his self-control nor regain any use of his tongue.
"Well," said the Earl, haughtily, "whence this unseemly uproar? Whatdo you here, Sholto?"
Then the spirit of his father came upon the young captain of theguard. He knew that he had only done his duty in its strictness, andhe boldly answered the Earl: "Nay, my lord, were it not for courtesy,I have more right to ask you that question. Your sister hath beenfrighted, and at sound of her terror all we who were dispersedthroughout the castle rushed to the spot. As I came down the stairsfrom the roof at speed, I saw something like to a great wolf about todescend the turret before me. With my sword I struck at it, and to allappearance wounded it. It vanished, and after searching the castle Ican find neither wolf nor dog. But I saw, as it seemed, a figure enterthis room, and upon opening it I find--the Earl of Douglas. That isall I know, and I leave the matter in my lord's own hands."
The haughty look gradually disappeared from the face of the Earl asSholto spoke.
Smilingly he dismissed the guard with a word, saying that he wouldinquire into the cause of the disturbance in person, and then turnedto Sholto.
"You are right," he said, "you have entirely done your duty andjustified my appointment."
He paused, looked this way and that along the corridor, and continued:
"It chanced that in the tower without I could not sleep, and feelinguneasy concerning my guests, I entered the castle by the private doorand staircase which leads into the apartment corresponding to this onthe floor beneath. I was assuring myself that you were doing your dutywhen, being disturbed by the sudden hubbub, and judging it needlessthat the men-at-arms should know of my presence in the castle, I camein hither till the matter should have blown over. And so, but for yourgood conscience and the keenness of your vision, the matter would haveended."
Sholto bowed coldly.
"But, my lord," he said, ignoring the Earl's explanation, "the mattergrows more mysterious than ever. Your sister, the little LadyMargaret, hath been grievously frighted by an appearance like a greatbeast which (so she affirms) opened the door of her chamber and lookedwithin."
"She but dreamed," said the Earl, carelessly; "such visions come fromsupping late."
"But, with all respect, your lordship," continued Sholto, "I also sawthe appearance even as I ran down the stairs from the roof at thenoise of her crying."
"You were startled--excited, and but thought you saw."
Sholto reversed his sword, which he had held with the point towardsthe ground while he was speaking with his lord the Earl.
Holding the blade midway with much deference, he presented the hilt toWilliam Douglas.
"Will you examine the point of this sword?" he said.
The Earl came a step nearer to him and Sholto advanced the steel tillit was immediately beneath the lamp. There was blood upon the lastinch or so of the blade. The Earl suddenly became violently agitated.
"This is indeed passing strange. There is no hound within the castlenor has there been for years. Even the presence of a lap-dog will fretmy mother, so in my father's time they were every one removed to thekennels at the further end of the isle of Thrieve, whence even theirhowling cannot be heard. But let us proceed to the Lady Margaret, andon our way examine the place where you saw the apparition."
Sholto stood aside for the Earl to pass, but with a wave of his handthe latter said courteously, "Nay, but do you lead the way, captain ofthe guard."
They passed the door of the chamber where lay the Lady Sybilla. Theniece of the ambassador must have been a heavy sleeper, for there wasno sound within. Opposite was the chamber of the Earl's mother. Shealso appeared to be undisturbed, but the increasing deafness of theCountess offered a complete explanation of her tranquillity.
Next the two young men came to the door of the marshal's chamber. Asthey were about to pass, it opened silently, and a man-servant with aclosely cropped obsequious head appeared within. He unclosed the doorno further than would permit of his exit, and then he shut it againbehind him, and stood holding the latch in his hand.
"His Excellency, being overfatigued, hath need of a little strongspirit," he said, with a curious gobbling movement of his throat as ifhe himself had been either thirsty or in deadly and overmasteringfear.
The Earl ordered Sholto to wake the cellarer and bid him bring theambassador of France that which he required. He himself would goonward to his sister's chamber. Sholto somewhat sullenly obeyed, forhis heart was hot and angry within him. He thought that he began tosee clearly the motive of the Earl's presence in the castle. The youthwas himself so deeply and hopelessly in love with Mistress MaudLindesay that he could not understand any other of his sex beinginsensible to the charm of her beauty and myriad winsome graces.
As he went down the stairs he recalled a thousand
circumstances tomind which now seemed capable of but one explanation. It was evidentthat the Earl William came to visit some one by means of the privatestaircase under cloud of night. Nay, more, Maud Lindesay and he mightbe already privately married, and the matter kept secret on account ofthe pride of his family, who devised another match for him. For thoughthe daughter of a knight, Maud Lindesay was assuredly no fit mate forthe head of the more than regal house of Douglas. He remembered how onSundays and saints' days Earl William always rode to and from the kirkwith his sister on one side and Maud Lindesay on the other. That theyoung Earl was by no means insensible to beauty, Sholto knew well,and he remembered his words to his own father, when he had asked to beallowed to accompany him on his Flanders mare, that such attendancewas not seemly when a man was going a-courting.
As is always the case, he grew more and more confirmed in his illhumour, so soon as the eye of jealousy began to view everything in thelight of prepossession.
Sholto awaked the cellarer out of his crib, who, presently, withsnorts of disdain and much jangling of steel keys, drew half a tankardfrom a keg of spirit in the cellar on the dungeon floor and handed itgrudgingly to the captain of the guard.
"The Frenchman wants it, does he?" he growled. "Had the messenger beenold Landless Jock, I had known down whose Scottish throat it had gone,but this one is surely too young for such tricks. See that you spillit not by the way, Master Sholto," he called out after him, as thatyouth betook himself up to the chamber of the ambassador of France.
At the shut portal he paused and knocked. His hand was on the pin toenter with the tankard as was the custom. But the door opened no morethan an inch or two, and the dark face of the cropped servitorappeared in the crevice.
"In a moment, sir," he said, and again vanished within, while a stronganimal odour disengaged itself almost like something tangible from thechinks of the doorway.
Sholto stood in astonishment with the _eau de vie_ in his hand, tillpresently the door was opened again very quickly. The form of theservitor was seen, and with a swift edging motion he came out, drawingthe door behind him as before. He held a bar of iron in his hand likethe fastening of a window, and a little breath of heat told thesmith's son that though black it was still warm from the fire.
"Take this iron," he said abruptly, "and bring it to me fully heated.I am finishing a little device which his Excellency needs for thecombat of the morrow."
The captain of the guard was nettled at the man's tone. Also hedesired much to know what his master was doing on the floor above.
"Heat it at your own nose, fellow," he said rudely; "I am captain ofthe castle-guard, and must attend to my own business. Take the spiritout of my hand if you do not want it thrown in your face."
The swarthy, bullet-headed man glared at him with eyes like burningcoals, but Sholto cared no jot for his anger. Forthwith he turned hisback upon him, glad at heart to have found some one to quarrel with,and hoping that the ambassador's squire might prove courageous andchallenge him to fight on the morrow.
But the man only replied: "I am Henriet, servant of the marshal. I bidyou remember that I shall make you live to regret these words."