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Steam rose and trailed from the shrieking southward trains between the loch and the mountain, old and new were oddly met, for the château was the home of an ancient race, the Logans of Restalrig, ancestors of that last Laird with whom our story has to do. Their rich lands stretched far and wide; their huge dovecot stands, sturdy as a little pyramid, in a field to the north, towards the firth.
On the floor lies, broken, the gravestone of a Lady Restalrig who died in 1526. The whole edifice was not destroyed, but was patched up, in 1836, into a Presbyterian place of worship. This old village and kirk made up ‘Restalrig Town,’ a place occupied by the English during the siege of Leith in 1560.
But it was near the collieries; and within its blackened walls, and among its bleak fields and grimy trees, Lord Restalrig chose to live alone, with an old man and an old woman for his attendants. The woman had been his nurse; it was whispered in the district that she was also his illegal-aunt, or perhaps even, so to speak, his illegal stepmother.
For some thirty years before the date of which we are speaking, a Robert Logan had been laird of Restalrig, and of the estate of Flemington, in Berwickshire, where his residence was the house of Gunnisgreen, near Eyemouth, on the Berwickshire coast. In 1573, Kirkcaldy of Grange and Maitland of Lethington gallantly held the last strength of the captive Mary Stuart, the Castle of Edinburgh.
Besides, they would starve first, good girls would; or marry Lord Methusalem, or a beastly South African richard. 'Robert Logan of Restalrig, that should be' Merton spoke impressively 'you know me to be incapable of practices, however lucrative, which involve taint of crime. I do not prey upon the society which I propose to benefit. But where are the girls? 'Where are they not? Logan asked.
He may, surely he will, listen to your objections. 'Ye do not know the Logans. Merton concealed his smile. 'Camstairy deevils! It's in the blood. Never once has he asked me for a pound, never noticed me by word or letter. Faith, I wish all the world had been as considerate to auld Restalrig! For me to say a word, let be to make an offer, would just tie him faster to the lass.
Both might be reckoned staunch, in the old fashion, 'to the name, which Logan only bore by accident, his grandmother having wedded a kinless Logan who had no demonstrable connection with the house of Restalrig. Any mortal but the marquis would probably have brought Logan up as his heir, for the churlish peer had no nearer connection.
I drew doctors to witness that I was of sound and disponing mind, and I've since been thrice to kirk and market. Lord, how they stared to see auld Restalrig in his pew, that had not smelt appleringie these forty years. Merton noted these words, which he thought curious and obscure. 'Your case interests me deeply, he said, 'and shall receive my very best attention.
He thus incurred the enmity of his former allies in the English Court, and, as he had foreseen, he was ruined in Scotland his previous letters, hostile to Mary, being betrayed by his aforesaid cousin, Logan of Restalrig. On February 8, 1567, ended the lifelong tragedy of Mary Stuart. The woman whom Elizabeth vainly moved Amyas Paulet to murder was publicly decapitated at Fotheringay.
Merton looked closely into the face of the old marquis, whose eyes, dropping senile tears, showed no sign of recognition. Dr. Fogarty next adjusted a silken bandage, over a wad of cotton wool, which he placed on the eyes of the prisoner. Merton then took farewell of Dr. Fogarty supported the tottering steps of Lord Restalrig, and they led him to the gate.
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