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Reaching higher, the sunburnt, freckled face was lifted up, and Eleanor's heart gave a great throb of hope. Was it not the wild boy, Ringan Raefoot? She could not turn away her head, she durst not even utter a word to those within, lest it should be a mere fancy, or a lad from the country bird's-nesting.
'In good time, with the saints' blessing, replied Brother Benigne soothingly, 'but healing must come first. We must have you to our poor house yonder, where you will be well tended. George was lifted to the pony's back, and supported in the saddle by Ringan and one of the brethren.
'What ladies? the Scottish princesses? asked one of the friars; for they had been at Nanci, and knew who had been assembled there; besides that, the Scot was known enough all over France for the nationality of Ringan and his master to have been perceived at once. George understood this, and answered vehemently, 'I must follow them and save them!
I saw that we had left the main flanks of the range behind us, and were now fairly on a cape which jutted out beyond the other ridges. It behoved us now to go warily, and where the thickets grew thin we moved like hunters, in every hollow and crack that could shelter a man. Ringan led, and led well, for he had not stalked the red deer on the braes of Breadalbane for nothing.
Thus, he had just fired a shot which clipped away one of the curls from the Sheriff's wig, when a gasp, and the sound of a heavy fall on the floor behind him, caused the old man hastily to look round. Curiosity had overcome her caution; the girl had ventured from her shelter, and, standing behind Ringan, had been trying to see, past the edge of the window, how things were going outside.
This was a base observe; for naturally I was of a fresh complexion, but my long illness, and the close air of the prison, had made me pale. After some more impertinences of that sort, he then said, "Ringan Gilhaize, you were at the battle of Bothwell-brigg." "I was not," said I. "You do not mean to say so, surely?" "I have said it," was my answer.
I got to my feet and staggered out to clear my head in the air, and found the smiling face of Ringan. "Good-morning, Andrew," he cried, as I sat down beside him. "Have you slept well?" I rubbed my eyes and took long draughts of the morning breeze. "Are you a warlock, Mr. Campbell, that you can spirit folk about the country at your pleasure? I have slept sound, but my dreams have been bad."
It was here, too, that the incident befell which gave rise to the ballad written by Mr. James Telfer early in last century. Ringan had ever been known as well for his rigid ideas of faith and honour as for his great strength and undaunted courage, and these qualities had brought him greatly into the esteem and friendship of his landlord, one of the earliest of the Marquesses of Lothian.
We overtook them presently, and Shalah became our guide. Not that more guiding was needed than Ringan or I could have given, for the lift of the ground gave us our direction, and there was the sound of a falling stream. To an upland-bred man mist is little of a hindrance, unless on a featureless moor. Ever as we jogged upward the air grew colder.
The Rappahannock men were in high feather, convinced that they had borne the brunt of the invasion. 'Twas no business of mine to enlighten them, the more since of the three who knew the full peril, Shalah was gone and Ringan was dead. My tale should be for the ear of Lawrence and the Governor, and for none else. The peace of mind of Virginia should not be broken by me.
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