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Yet to me you admit in the very first words you speak that you are a Scot and saw me at the Castle of Thrieve." Even yet the old Laurence might have turned the corner. He had, as we know, graduated as a liar ready and expert. He had daily practised his art upon the Abbot. He had even, though more rarely, succeeded with his father.
Sholto stood by the door, erect as if on duty at Thrieve. "Come and sit with us," said the Earl William kindly to him, "we are no more master and servant, earl and esquire. We are but three youths that are to die together, and the axe's edge levels all. You, Sholto, are in some good chance to live the longest of the three by some half score of minutes.
And he had reached a mailed hand to the captain of the Douglas guard, and when Sholto would have bent his head upon it to kiss it, William of Avondale gripped his suddenly as one grasps a comrade's hand when the heart is touched, and so was gone. At the verge of the flowery pastures that ring the isle of Thrieve, Sholto met Maud Lindesay, wandering alone.
"Is David dead also?" said the Lady of Douglas. "He is dead," replied Malise. The lady tottered a little as she stood on the topmost step of the ascent to Thrieve. One or two of the torch-bearers ran to support her. But she commanded herself and waved them aside. "God He is the God," she said, looking upwards into the black night. "In one day He has made me a woman solitary and without children.
The young man sprang to his feet, and dashed one hand into the palm of the other. "This is ill tidings indeed!" he cried. "What does the Fat Flatterer at Castle Thrieve? If he comes to pay homage, it will be but a mockery. Neither he nor Angus had ever any good-will to my father, and they have none to me." "Ah, do not be angry, William," cried the little maid. "It will be beautiful.
Why did I not stick to it that I was an Irelander?" But, somehow, the answer seemed like an arrow from a bow shot at a venture, entering in between the joints of the marshal's armour. "Do you think so?" he said, with some startled anxiety, yet without surprise; "older than at Thrieve? I do not believe it. It is impossible. Why, I grow younger and younger every day.
"Aha!" she said, "I caught you that time in my trap. You know who it was in my dream, though I have never told you, nor so much as hinted. "And he asked if you had missed him, and you made a sign for me not to speak, just as you used to do at Castle Thrieve, and answered, 'No, not a little bit! Margaret and I were quite happy.
They had come westward to the Thrieve for two purposes: to deliver a large consignment of goods and gear, foreign provisions and fruits, to the controller of the Earl's household, and to receive payment therefor, partly in money and partly in the wool and cattle; hides and tallow, which have been the staple products of Galloway throughout her generations.
They were dry and full of merriment. Not a trace of tears was to be discerned in either of them. Then she gave another little skip, and, catching him by the arm, forced him to walk with her toward Castle Thrieve. "Of course you will marry me, silly! You could not help yourself, Sholto and it shall be when I like too.
Eager as Sholto was to accompany the searchers, and though he knew well that no foe was south of the Forth to assault such a strong place as Thrieve, he did not leave the castle till he had set all in order so far as he could. He appointed Andro the Penman and his brother John officers of the garrison during his absence.
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