The Black Douglas eBook

Samuel Rutherford Crockett
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 457 pages of information about The Black Douglas.

The Black Douglas eBook

Samuel Rutherford Crockett
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 457 pages of information about The Black Douglas.

Thus Sholto, putting speed in his heels and swinging along over the trampled sward with the easy tireless trot of a sleuthhound, threaded his way among the groups of villein prickers and swearing men-at-arms who cumbered the main approaches of the castle.

He found the Earl walking swiftly up and down a little raised platform which extended round three sides of Thrieve, outside the main defences, but yet within the nether moat, the sluggish water of which it over-looked on its inner side.

Earl William was manifestly discomposed and excited by the events of the day, and especially by the fact that the Lady Sybilla seemed utterly unconscious of ever having set eyes upon him before, appearing entirely oblivious of having received him in a pavilion of rose-coloured silk under the shelter of a grove of tall pines.  The young lord instinctively recoiled from any communication with his master armourer, whose grave and impassive face revealed nothing which might be passing in his mind.  Then the Earl’s thoughts turned upon Sholto, who had been the first to observe his beauteous companion of the Carlinwark woods.

Earl William was even younger than Sholto, but the cares and dignities of a great position had rendered him far less boyish in manner and carriage than the son of Malise MacKim.

His head, now released from his helm, rose out from the richly ornamented collar of his armour with the grace of a flower and the strength of a tree rooted among rocks.  He had already laid aside his gorget, and when Sholto was announced, the Earl’s ancient retainer, old Landless Jock of Abernethy, was bringing him a cap of soft velvet which he threw on the back of his head with an air of supreme carelessness.  Then he rose and walked up and down, carrying his armour as if it had been a mere feather weight, whereas it was tilting harness of double plate and designed only for wearing on horseback.

Sholto marked in the young lord a boyish eagerness equal to his own.  Indeed, his impatient manner recalled his late feelings, as he had stood on the bridge and desired to be left alone with his thoughts of Maud Lindesay.

Sholto stood still and quiet on the topmost step of the ascent from the moat-bridge waiting for the Earl to signify his will.

CHAPTER XIV

CAPTAIN OF THE EARL’S GUARD

“Sholto MacKim,” said the Earl of Douglas, abruptly, “saw you the lady who arrived with the foreign ambassador?”

“She is indeed wondrous fair to look on,” answered Sholto, the whole heart in him instantly wary, while outwardly he seemed more innocent than before.

“Have your eyes ever lighted on that lady before?”

“Nay, my lord, of a surety no.  In what manner should they, seeing that I have never been in France in my life, nor indeed more than a score of miles from this castle of Thrieve?”

“Thou art a good lad, and also ready of wit, Master Sholto,” said the Earl, looking at the armourer’s son musingly.  “Clear of eye and true of hand, so they tell me.  Did you not win the arrow prize this day?”

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The Black Douglas from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.