The Black Douglas

  CHAPTER XIII

  A DAUNTING SUMMONS

  Not far before them had ridden the Earl and the Lady Sybilla. Behindthese two came the Marshal de Retz and the fat Lord of Avondale. Theywere telling each other tales of the wars of La Pucelle, the latterlaughing and shaking shoulders, but at the end of every side-splittinglegend the Frenchman would glance over his shoulder at Maud Lindesayand the little maiden Margaret.

  As Sholto passed them on his return he stood aside, poised at thesalute, looking meanwhile with awe on the great and notable Frenchsoldier. Yet at the first glimpse of his unvisored face there fellupon the young man a dislike so fierce and instinctive that he graspedhis bow and fumbled in his quiver for an arrow, in order to send itthrough the unlaced joints of the Marshal's gorget, which for ease'ssake his squire had undone when they left the field.

  Sholto MacKim was at the fords waiting the chance of crossing and thepleasure of the surly keeper of the bridge, Elson A'Cormack, who satin his wheelhouse, grunting curses on all who passed that way.

  "Foul feet, slow bellies, fushionless and slack ye are to run mylord's errands! But quick enow to return home upon your tramplingclattering ruck of horses, and every rascal of you expecting to rideover my bridge of good pine planking instead of washing the dirt fromyour hoofs in honest Dee water."

  The long files of horsemen threaded their way across the green plainof the isle towards the open space in front of Thrieve Castle, thepoints of their spears shining high in the air, and the shafts sothick underneath that, seen from a distance, they made a network ofslender lines reticulated against the brightness of the sun.

  The great island strength of the Douglases was then in its higheststate of perfection as a fortress and of dignity as a residence.Archibald the Grim, who built the keep, could not have foreseen thewondrous beauty and strength to which Thrieve would attain under hissuccessors. This night of the wappenshaw the lofty grey walls werehung with gaily coloured tapestries draped from the overhanginggallery of wood which ran round the top of the castle. From the fourcorners of the roof flew the banners of four provinces which owned thesway of the mighty house,--Galloway, Annandale, Lanark, and theMarches,--while from the centre, on a flagstaff taller than any, flewtheir standard royal, for so it might be called, the heart and starsof the Douglases' more than royal house.

  While the outer walls thus blazed with colour, the woods around gaveback the constant reverberation of cannon, as with hand guns andartillery of weight the garrison greeted the return of the Earl andhis guests. The green castle island from end to end was planted thickwith tents and gay with pavilions of many hues and various design,their walls covered with intricate devices, and each flying thecolours of its owner, while on poles without dangled shields andharness of various kinds, ready for the younger squires to clean andoil for the use of their masters on the remaining days of thetournament.

  Sholto waited at the bridge-head, impatient of the press, and eager tobe left alone with his own thoughts, that he might con over and overthe words and looks of his heart's idol, and suck all the sweet painhe could out of her very hardheartedness. Suddenly tossed backwardslike a ball from lip to lip, according to the universal and, indeed,obligatory custom of the time, there reached him the "passing of theword." He heard his own name repeated over and over in fifty voicesand tones, waxing louder as the "word" neared him.

  "Sholto MacKim--Sholto MacKim, son of Malise, the armourer, wanted tospeak with the Earl. Sholto MacKim. Sholto--"

  A great nolt of a Moray Highlandman, with a mouth like a gash, shoutedit in his very ear.

  Surprised and somewhat anxious at heart, Sholto cast over in his mindall the deeds, good and evil, which might procure him the honour of aninterview with Earl William Douglas, but could think of nothing excepthis having involuntarily played the spy at the young lord's meetingwith the lady in the wood. It was therefore with some naturaltrepidation that the young man obeyed the summons.

  "At any rate," he meditated with a slight return of complacency, as hebutted and shoved his way castle-wards, "he can scarcely mean to havemy head. For he was all day with my father at his elbow, and at theworst I shall have another chance of seeing"--he did not call thebeloved by her Christian name even to himself, so he compromised byadding somewhat lamely--"_her_."

  Thus Sholto, putting speed in his heels and swinging along over thetrampled sward with the easy tireless trot of a sleuthhound, threadedhis way among the groups of villein prickers and swearing men-at-armswho cumbered the main approaches of the castle.

  He found the Earl walking swiftly up and down a little raised platformwhich extended round three sides of Thrieve, outside the maindefences, but yet within the nether moat, the sluggish water of whichit over-looked on its inner side.

  Earl William was manifestly discomposed and excited by the events ofthe day, and especially by the fact that the Lady Sybilla seemedutterly unconscious of ever having set eyes upon him before, appearingentirely oblivious of having received him in a pavilion ofrose-coloured silk under the shelter of a grove of tall pines. Theyoung lord instinctively recoiled from any communication with hismaster armourer, whose grave and impassive face revealed nothing whichmight be passing in his mind. Then the Earl's thoughts turned uponSholto, who had been the first to observe his beauteous companion ofthe Carlinwark woods.

  Earl William was even younger than Sholto, but the cares and dignitiesof a great position had rendered him far less boyish in manner andcarriage than the son of Malise MacKim.

  His head, now released from his helm, rose out from the richlyornamented collar of his armour with the grace of a flower and thestrength of a tree rooted among rocks. He had already laid aside hisgorget, and when Sholto was announced, the Earl's ancient retainer,old Landless Jock of Abernethy, was bringing him a cap of soft velvetwhich he threw on the back of his head with an air of supremecarelessness. Then he rose and walked up and down, carrying his armouras if it had been a mere feather weight, whereas it was tiltingharness of double plate and designed only for wearing on horseback.

  Sholto marked in the young lord a boyish eagerness equal to his own.Indeed, his impatient manner recalled his late feelings, as he hadstood on the bridge and desired to be left alone with his thoughts ofMaud Lindesay.

  Sholto stood still and quiet on the topmost step of the ascent fromthe moat-bridge waiting for the Earl to signify his will.