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No, no, it's merely a case of every man to his own trade. And as a matter of fact I was left just as bamboozled as you were. For who could this mysterious man be? Of the people inside the house, I had struck out Miss Farmond, Bisset, Lady Cromarty, and all the female servants. Only Sir Malcolm was left. I wired for him to come up and was able to score him out too.
"Or I was thinking maybe, sir, it was when her ladyship heard of the engagement." "Ah!" exclaimed Ned, stopping suddenly again, "that's possible. When did she hear?" Bisset shook his head. "That beats me again, sir. Her own maid likely has been telling her things the time we've not been seeing her." "Did the maid or did you know about the engagement?"
Lady Catherine Bisset came with her two little nieces to call upon us, and Fanny won little Lady Mary-Rose's heart, partly by means of some Madeira and Portuguese figures from the chimney-piece, which she ranged on the table for her amusement, and partly by a whiz-gig, which Fanny plays to admiration. And what is a whiz-gig? If you do not know, you must wait till I send you one.
It was now that he added another motto to the arms of the Frasers, and struck out the quarterings of the Bisset family, which had been made a plea for his adversary. The ancient Frasers, or Frizells, had for their motto "Je suis prest," to which this honour to their house now added the words, "Sine sanguine victor," denoting that he had come peaceably to the estate.
'For my part I dread nothing but the thought of being devoured by some of the crocodiles which, men say, are hatched in the waters of the Nile. 'Nevertheless, mark my words, said Bisset, more gravely than it was his wont to speak. 'At present the Frenchmen believe that, because they have plied their swords with some effect, that henceforth the Saracens will fly before their scabbards.
Though the toughest of men, he shivered a little and drew up a wicker chair close in front of the fire. "It's incredible!" he murmured, and as he stared at the flames this thought seemed to haunt him all the time. Bisset laid the table and another hour passed.
'By the mass, I have heard priests say so, replied Bisset, after a pause, during which he eyed the boy with evident surprise; 'and mayhap, continued he, 'in the days of Peter the Hermit, and Godfrey of Bouillon, such was the case.
'By the Holy Cross, said Walter, gravely, 'I cannot pretend to make light of the business; and yet I am not without hope; for a Templar, and Bisset, the stout knight whom I now serve, have come from the good King Louis as ambassadors to the caliph, and they will not fail you.
'Nevertheless, were I you, and of your years, argued Bisset; 'I should little relish the notion of being killed; for, as the Saracens say, when man dies there is no hope of his living again; because, as they add truly, man is not a water-melon; when once in the ground he cannot grow again.
The man whom I saw before me might be he, or some one belonging to his family. Being armed for defence, I less scrupled at meeting with any thing in the shape of man. I therefore called. The figure stopped and answered me without surliness or anger. The voice was unlike that of Bisset, but this person's information I believed would be of some service.
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