As they were both anxious to come to the point at issue, after a few morsels of food and a draught of spiced ale, the grim earl spoke again: —
"I have read the king's letters – that anent the laird of Bombie, and that which invites me to a conference at Stirling, with a safe conduct to me and all my followers. By my faith, Sir Patrick, I think their number, in horse, foot, and archers, will be their best safe conduct. The first letter demands – "
"The release, the instant release of my kinsman, Sir Thomas MacLellan, of Bombie, and of that ilk, steward of Kirkcudbright, whom you unlawfully and most unworthily detain here a prisoner," said Gray, whom the cool and insolent bearing of Douglas exasperated beyond the point of prudence. "What if I refuse," asked the latter with an icy smile.
"That the king and council will consider."
"What if he be dead?"
"He is not dead," exclaimed Gray with growing excitement; "last night I heard his voice, for he addressed me as we entered the barbican."
"Ha!" said Douglas sharply, with a furious glance.
"But dead or alive, lord earl, in the king's name I demand his body!"
"That shall I grant you readily," replied Douglas grimly, as he blew on a silver whistle which lay on the table. The arras of the doorway was raised, and there reappeared the page, to whom the earl gave a ring, which he drew from his finger, and said, "Tell James Achanna to lead forth the laird of Bombie from the vault, and to obey my orders."
The page bowed and retired; and he observed, if Gray did not, the terribly sinister expression which at that moment filled the earl's eyes.
"You said lead forth, my lord; hence my kinsman lives, and I thank you," said Gray with more composure.
"Some men die between the night and morning, others between the morning and the night; – but now about this conference at Stirling: what boon does the king hold out as an inducement for a Douglas to risk so much as an acceptance of royal hospitality?"
"Boon, my lord?"
"By St. Bryde, I spoke plainly enough!"
"'Twas said the restoration to you of the office of Warden of the Marches towards England, the seat at the Privy Council, and the commission of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom."
"In short, all of which I was unjustly deprived, by Crichton's influence, during my absence in France and Italy," said the earl, removing the breast from a partridge.
Gray did not reply, for at that moment the castle bell was tolled slowly, and a strange foreboding seized him. "With the recollection of the Black Dinner of 1440 before me, by the Devil's mass! I would require some great boon to tempt me, assuredly," said the earl, with a laugh which had something diabolical in its sound.
"My lord, there will be the king's safe conduct."
"King's memories are precarious. Since the day of the bloody banquet at which my kinsman perished, I have been, as it were, a man of granite in a shirt of steel – immoveable, implacable – and feeling no sentiment but the longing for revenge!"
The earl, with a sparkling eye and a flushing cheek, spoke as feelingly as if he had not had a secret hand in the execution of his nephews, nor won anything by it.
"King James," he added, "has yet to learn what a ten years' hatred is!"
"Ten years?" reiterated Gray, as he thought of Murielle.
"Ten years – we are in the year 1450, and for the ten which have preceded it, my armour has scarcely ever been off," said the earl; "and even in my own hall the sword and dagger have never been from my side."
"For the same reason, my lord, you have kept other men's armour on, and others' weapons on the grindstone," replied Gray; "but endeavour to be as good and loyal as your fathers were, earl of Douglas – renounce your evil leagues, and bonds for rebellion, else you may find the king alike more wise and powerful than you imagine."
"I seek not advice from you, laird of Foulis," said Douglas, with proud disdain. "Within sound of the bells of Holyrood, or those of St. Giles, your king may be both powerful and wise; but on this side the Moat of Urr, I have my doubts of his power or wisdom."
"How, my lord?"
"He would scarcely be wise to venture into the wilds of Galloway, even with all the forces he and that fangless wolf, his chancellor, may collect; and never powerful enough to do so, with the hope of success." – "Daring words, when said of one who is king of all Scotland."
"But I am lord of all Galloway, and I shall uphold its ancient rights and laws in battle, as stoutly as Earl Archibald did in Parliament."
"An old story, my lord," said Gray, rising.
"True; in the days of Robert II.," added Douglas, rising also.
"In 1385," observed Gray, with a scarcely perceptible smile.
"I forget." – "Though you forget many things, my lord," said Gray, rashly and impetuously, "do not imagine that you or they are forgotten."
"Does this imply a threat, my cock-laird of the north country?" asked Douglas, with profound disdain.
"As you please – I am a plain soldier."
A ferocious expression darkened the earl's face; but Gray drew back a pace, and laid a hand significantly on his tabard.
"Sir Patrick Gray, I advise you to get your horse and begone!" thundered Douglas, starting to his feet. "Without there! Order Sir Patrick's horse to the barbican-gate!"
"But your answer to the king?" said Gray, tightening his waistbelt, and preparing for a sudden start.
"That I shall convey in person to Stirling."
"And my kinsman – "
"Dead or alive?" said Douglas, with a sullen glare in his eye. Alarmed by the expression of the earl's face, Gray said earnestly: —
"Lest you might not obey the king's commands, proud lord, or might scoff at my humble request, I bring you a mother's prayer for her son."
"A mother's?" said Douglas, pausing as they descended the staircase together.
"The prayer of my father's sister, Marion Gray, for her son's release." – "It comes too late," muttered the earl under his black moustache, as they issued into the sunny court-yard of Thrave.
CHAPTER XLIX
THE FATE OF MACLELLAN
Lift not the shroud! a speaking stain
Of blood upon its sable seen,
Tells how the spirit fled from plain,
For there the headsman's axe hath been.
"The king's demand shall be granted, but rather for your sake – come hither," said the earl.
There was a cruel banter in his manner, a bitter smile on his face, and Gray grew pale, and felt the blood rush back upon his heart with a terrible foreboding as they crossed the court-yard.
Then his eye at once detected something like a human form stretched at full length upon the ground, and covered by a sheet. About it there could be no doubt – it was so cold, white, angular, and fearfully rigid. Upon the breast was placed a platter filled with salt – a Scottish superstition as old as the days of Turpin – and close by lay an axe and bloodstained billet, about which the brown sparrows were hopping and twittering in the warm morning sunshine. With a choking sensation in his throat, Gray stepped resolutely forward.
"Remove this cloth," said the earl to some of his people who were near; and on their doing so, there was seen the body of a headless man – a body which Gray knew too well to be that of his friend and kinsman, for on the breast of the soiled and faded pourpoint was embroidered a gold scutcheon, with the three black chevrons of MacLellan.
"Sir Patrick, you have come a little too late," said the sneering earl; "here lies your father's sister's son; but, unfortunately, he wants the head, and a head is an awkward loss. The body, however, is completely at your service."
Grief and indignation almost choked Gray's utterance. He knelt down and kissed the cold right hand, which yet bore the mark of an iron fetter, and then turning to the earl, said, "My lord, you may now dispose of the body as you please; but the head – "