CHAPTER XXXII
"EDINBURGH CASTLE, TOWER, AND TOWN"
It was with an anxious heart that Sholto rode out behind his masterover the bald northerly slopes of the Moorfoots. For a long time DavidDouglas kept close to his brother, so that the captain of the guardcould speak no private word. For, though he knew that nothing was tobe gained by remonstrance, Sholto was resolved that he would not lethis 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 saysomething shrewdly unpleasant. That great lurdain, thy father, neverasks permission to speak save when he has stilettos rankling where hishonest tongue should be."
"My lord," said Sholto, "bear a word from one who loves you. Go notinto this town of Edinburgh. Or at least wait till you can ridethither with three thousand lances as did your father, and his fatherbefore him."
The Earl laughed merrily and clapped his young knight on theshoulder.
"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-armswithin miles except your own Galloway varlets! Sholto, my lad, wemight have sacked the castle, rolled all the platters down the slopesinto the Tyne, and sent the cooks trundling after them, for all thatany one could have done to stop us. Yet here are we riding forth,feathers in our bonnets, swords by our sides, panged full of theChancellor'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 Edinburghis a strong place with many courts and doors--a hostile city roundabout, not a solitary castle like Crichton. They may separate you fromus, and we may be able neither to save you nor yet to die with you, ifthe 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 metell you, to be so chicken-hearted. The next time I will leave you athome 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 wasdistressed 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 againstyour house. What other object save the destruction of the Douglas canhave drawn together foes so deadly as Crichton and Livingston? Atleast, my lord, if you are set on risking your own life, send back oneof 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 theearldom 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 actwill be to hang you on the dule tree with a raven on either side, fora 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. Ipray you let five good lads ride straight for Douglasdale with Davidin the midst--"
"Sholto," cried the boy, "I will not go back, nor be a palterer, allbecause you are afraid for your own skin!"
"My place is with my master," said Sholto, curtly, and the boy lookedashamed for a moment; but he soon recovered himself and returned tothe charge.
"Well, then, 'tis because you want to see Maud Lindesay that you areso set on returning. I saw you kiss Maud's hand in the dark of thestairs. Aha! Master Sholto, what say you now?"
"Hold your tongue, David," cried his brother; "you might have seen himkiss yet more pleasantly, and yet do no harm. But, after all, you andI 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 toyonder dovecot for a golden lion."
"Done with you!" cried his brother, joyously, and in an instant spurswere into the flanks of their horses, and the young men flewthundering over the green turf, riding swiftly into the golden hazefrom which rose ever higher and higher the dark towers of the Castleof Edinburgh.
Past grey peel and wind-swept fortalice the young Lords of Douglas rodethat autumn day, gaily as to a wedding, on their way to placethemselves in the power of their house's enemies. The sea plainpursued them, flecked green and purple on their right hand. Littleships floated on the smooth surface of the firth, hardly larger insize than the boats of fisher folk, yet ships withal which hadadventured into far seas and brought back rich produce into the barrenlands of the Scots.
At last they entered the demesne of Holyrood, and saw the deercrouching and basking about the copses or scampering over the broomyknowes of the Nether Hill. As they came near to the Canongate Port,they saw a gallant band gaily dressed coming forth to meet them, andthe Earl's eye brightened as it caught in the midst the glint ofladies' attiring.
"See, Sholto," he cried, "and repent! Yonder is not a single lanceshining, and you cannot turn your grumbling head but you will see nightwo score, with a stout Douglas heart bumping under each."
"Ah," said Sholto, without joy or conviction, "but we are neither innor yet out of this weary town of Edinburgh!"
As the cavalcade approached, there came a boy on a pony at speedtowards them. He carried a switch in his hand, and with it he urgedhis little beast to still greater endeavours.
"The King!" cried David, cheerfully. "I heard he was a sturdy bratenough!"
And in another moment the two young men of the dominant house weretaking off their bonnets to the boy who, in name at least, was theirsovereign and overlord.
"Hurrah!" cried the lad, as he circled about them, reckless andirresponsible as a sea-gull, "I am so glad, so very glad you havecome. I like you because you are so bold and young. I have none aboutme like you. You will teach me to ride a tourney. I have been hearingall about yours at Thrieve from the Lady Sybilla. I wish you had askedme. But now we shall be friends, and I will come and stay long monthswith you all together--that is, if my mother will let me."
All this the young King shouted as he ranged alongside of the twobrothers, and rode with them towards the city.
King James II. of Scotland was at this time an open-hearted boy, withno evident mark of the treachery and jealous fury which afterwardsdistinguished him as a man. The schooling of Livingston, his tutor,had not yet perverted his mind (as it did too soon afterwards), and hewelcomed the young Douglases as the embodiment of all that was greatand knightly, noble and gallant, in his kingdom.
"Yesterday," he began, as soon as he had subdued the ardour of hisfrolicsome little steed to a steadier gait, varied only by anoccasional curvet, "yesterday I was made to read in the Chronicles ofthe Kings of Scotland, and lo, it was the Douglas did this and theDouglas said that, till I cried out upon Master Kennedy, 'Enough ofDouglases--I am a Stewart. Read me of the Stewarts.' Then gave MasterKennedy 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 Stewartonly married his daughter--though that, if all tales be true, was thebraver 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 theywere now meeting, in search of the graceful figure and darkly splendidhead of the girl he loved.
The Lady Sybilla was not there.
"They have secluded her," he muttered, in sharp jealous anger; "'tisall her kinsman's fault. He hath the marks of a traitor and worse. Butthey shall not spite nor flout the
Douglas."
So with a countenance grave and unresponsive he saluted Livingston thetutor, who came forth to meet him. The Chancellor was expectedimmediately, for he had ridden in more rapidly by the hill way inorder that he might welcome his notable guests to the metropolitanresidence of the Kings of Scotland.
The Castle of Edinburgh was at that time in the fulness of itsstrength and power. The first James had greatly enlarged andstrengthened its works defensive. He had added thirty feet to theheight of David's Tower, which now served as a watch-station over allthe rock, and in his last days he had begun to build the great hallwhich the Chancellor had but recently finished.
It was here that presently the feast was set. The banquet-hall ran thewidth of the keep, and the raised dais in the centre was large enoughto seat the whole higher baronage of Scotland, among whom (as the Earlof 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 theDouglas more than any thought of his own safety or of the loyalty ofhis entertainers. Sybilla, however, was neither in the courtlycavalcade which met them at the entrance of the park, nor yet amongthe more numerous ladies who stood at the castle yett to welcome toEdinburgh the noble and handsome young lords of the South.
Douglas therefore concluded that de Retz, discovering some part of thelove that was between them, or mayhap hearing of it from some spy orother at Crichton Castle, had secluded his sweetheart. He loosened hishand on the rein to lay it on the sword-hilt, as he thought of thiscruelty to a maid so pure and fair.
Sholto kept his company very close behind him as they rode up theHigh-street, a gloomy defile of tall houses dotted from topmost windowto pavement with the heads of chattering goodwives, and the flutter ofhousehold 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 Chancellorhath sent word that there is no room in the castle itself. For thetutor'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 andwe will cut our way out even yet. Do you not see that the devils wouldseparate you from all who love you? And I shall be blamed for this inGalloway. At least, let me accompany you with half a dozen men."
"Nay," said the Earl, "such suspicion were a poor return for theChancellor's putting himself in our hands all the days we spent withhim at his Castle of Crichton. To your lodgings, Sholto, and give Godthanks 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 inthe Castle of Edinburgh. And Sholto MacKim went behind him, no mansaying him nay. For his master had eyes only for one face, and that hecould not see.
"But I shall find her yet," he said over and over in his heart. It wasbut a boyish heart, and simple, too; but all so brave and high thatthe gallantest and greatest gentleman in the world had not one like toit for loyalty and courage.