continued, 'Ah! that fair chapel, with the
sweet chant of the choir, the green smooth-shaven quadrangle, the calm
cloister walk; there, there alone is rest. There, one ceases to be a prey
and a laughing-stock; there, one sees no more bloodshed and spulzie;
there, one need not be forced to treachery or violence. Oh, Uncle! my
very soul is sick for Coldingham. How many years will it be ere I can
myself bestow my sister on Patie, and hide my head in peace!'
Before his uncle had done more than answer, 'Nay, nay, Malcolm, these
are no words for the oe of Bruce; you are born to dare as well as to
suffer,' there was an approach of footsteps, and two young people
entered the hall; the first a girl, with a family likeness to Malcolm, but
tall, upright, beautiful, and with the rich colouring of perfect health, her
plaid still hanging in a loose swelling hood round her brilliant face and
dark hair, snooded with a crimson ribbon and diamond clasp; the other,
a knightly young man, of stately height and robust limbs, keen bright
blue eyes and amber hair and beard, moving with the ease and grace
that showed his training in the highest school of chivalry.
'Good Uncle,' cried the maiden in eager excitement, 'there is a guest
coming. He has just turned over the brae side, and can be coming
nowhere but here.'
'A guest!' cried both Malcolm and the elder knight, 'of what kind, Lily?'
'A knight--a knight in bright steel, and with three attendants,' said Lilias;
'one of Patrick's French comrades, say I, by the grace of his riding.'
'Not a message from the Regent, I trust,' sighed Malcolm. 'Patie, oh do
not lower the drawbridge, till we hear whether it be friend or foe.'
'Nay, Malcolm, 'tis well none save friends heard that,' said Patrick.
'When shall we make a brave man of you?'
'Nevertheless, Patie,' said the old gentleman, 'though I had rather the
caution had come from the eldest rather than the youngest head among
us, parley as much as may serve with honour and courtesy ere opening
the gate to the stranger. Hark, there is his bugle.'
A certain look of nervous terror passed over young Malcolm's face,
while his sister watched full of animation and curiosity, as one to
whom excitement of any kind could hardly come amiss, exclaiming, as
she looked from the window, 'Fear not, most prudent Malcolm; Father
Ninian is with him: Father Ninian must have invited him.'
'Strange,' muttered Patrick, 'that Father Ninian should be picking up
and bringing home stray wandering land-loupers;' and with an anxious
glance at Lilias, he went forward unwillingly to perform those duties of
hospitality which had become necessary, since the presence of the
castle chaplain was a voucher for the guest. The drawbridge had
already been lowered, and the new-comer was crossing it upon a
powerful black steed, guided by Father Ninian upon his rough
mountain pony, on which he had shortly before left the castle, to attend
at a Church festival held at Coldingham.
The chaplain was a wise, prudent, and much-respected man;
nevertheless, young Sir Patrick Drummond felt little esteem for his
prudence in displaying one at least of the treasures of the castle to the
knight on the black horse. The stranger was a very tall man, of robust
and stalwart make, apparently aged about seven or eight and twenty
years, clad in steel armour, enamelled so as to have a burnished blue
appearance; but the vizor of the helmet was raised, and the face beneath
it was a manly open face, thoroughly Scottish in its forms, but very
handsome, and with short dark auburn hair, and eyes of the same
peculiar tint, glancing with a light that once seen could never be
forgotten; and the bearing was such, that Patrick at once growled to
himself, 'One of our haughty loons, brimful of _outre cuidance_; and
yet how coolly he bears it off. If he looks to find us his humble servants,
he will find himself mistaken, I trow.'
'Sir Patrick,' said Father Ninian, who was by this time close to him, 'let
me present to you Sir James Stewart, a captive knight who is come to
collect his ransom. I fell in with him on the road, and as his road lay
with mine, I made bold to assure him of a welcome from your
honoured father and Lord Malcolm.'
Patrick's face cleared. It was no grace or beauty that he feared in any
stranger, but the sheer might and unright that their Regency enabled the
House of Albany to exercise over the orphans of the royal family,
whose head was absent; and a captive knight could be no mischievous
person. Still this might be only
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