The Grey Man

'I want none of Kate Allison's love-skilling at second hand,' said Nell, harking back like a pretty shrew on her former taunts. 'Since ye are so wise, unriddle me the manner of your saving from the cave of Sawny Bean, and I am content to yield me to your teaching in the mysteries.'

Yet even with this fair promise I could not, but desired her instead to continue her tale-telling.

'Well,' said she, 'Robert Harburgh it was who, next after me, took horse – and not far behind either. For he had but to disentangle the bridle from his arm, while I had to beguile another to lend me his horse.

'So, in a little, we were all after you, and we took the wood in the very place you entered. But naught could we find save the trail of you all confused among the trees. Then what a chasing hither and thither there followed. Even the King searched for you like any common man, and puffed and blew upon his purple cheeks like the Dominie on his pipes. And he that had been our companion, this same Dominie, went about everywhere, seeking and crying each time that he came near to me, "Reckless loon, reckless loon, well he deserves to be unbreeched and soundly paid for this hardiness."

'Then we utterly lost you, and I believe they would have given up the search. But I minded me of the dogs that James of Chapeldonnan keeps for his own purposes, which on my way to Ailsa I had seen his wife feed. So I told the Earl John of them, and he had James Bannatyne brought, and bade him bring them to set on the trail, promising him his life if the matter were brought to a good issue.

'And so Robert Harburgh and a few swords were sent to Chapeldonnan with James Bannatyne – with his life upon it if he played them false, and Robert Harburgh's sword near his ribs each time that he faltered or failed to remember. And the good wife, seeing her man in such deadly case, came back herself to plead with the King for him.

'So the Chapeldonnan pack was laid on the trail, and fine well-hungered bloodhounds they were. But so soon as I heard the first deep bay, when, with noses on the ground, they took the line of the shore, it went to my heart that since you were the last to enter the wood the dogs would first seize you. So I cried a word to Robert Harburgh, and we two that loved you spurred horses and sped on well-nigh level with the dogs.

'And through all the windings and wimplings of your path we followed till we came to the shore, where, together with the King's oaken staff which had been in your hand, we found the place all trampled with naked feet and stains of blood. So we traced you across the shore grass to the sand and over the sand into the sea, with a company of bare feet and many stains of blood.

'Then for a moment I knew not what to think. But Marjorie, my sister, cried out, "It is the vile wretches of Sawny Bean's band who have taken him to the Cave of Death!"

'Then I remembered that the entrance to the cavern was among the rocks, and yet because of the gladness that was in our hearts when we issued forth, I had taken no very great pains to mind the exact place. Nor was the Dominie aught the wiser. For he had been wholly intent on blowing upon his pipes. But Marjorie minded better than any of us the cleave in the rocks, and showed us to a nearness where the cave entrance was. But the tide had flowed in, and we had perforce to wait and calm our impatience as best we might till it went back again, ere we could follow into the cave mouth. But by this time it was dark, so that the men-at-arms had to find rosin torches and set them alight.

'Thus with the flambeaux blazing and the smoke wavering red overhead we took our way along the wet edge of the sea. But the tide had washed away all traces of blood and feet. Up and down the coast we wandered trying every covert. And yet for our lives we could not hit upon the right cave's entrance. The dogs ran yelping and nosing here and there, but for long nothing came of it.

'Then Earl John and the King himself threatened James Bannatyne to reveal the place. But he denied that he had any knowledge of the cave. And whether he spoke truth or no I cannot say. But his wife went to the King and holding his bridle rein, she said, "Well do I ken, your Majesty, that my man's life is forfeit, but he is my husband. And at least, so far as it concerns him and me, betwixt barn-door and bed-stock I can rule him as a wife should. Gin I persuade him to lead you to the spot, will ye on your word, give me my ain man's life?"

'So the King promised, though Earl John hung a little on the form of the words. Then went the goodwife of Chapeldonnan to her husband. And what she said to him I know not, for they spake privily and apart. But though at first he shook his head and denied, as I could see, that he had any knowledge of the Cave of Death, yet in a little while he took some other thought and ran forward to grip one of the dogs.

'Then went James Bannatyne on ahead, with all of us hotfoot after him, with the torches and the swords.'

'And you also, Nell,' said I,' 'were you lurking with the men-at-arms, and which had you, a sword or a torch?'

'I had both,' said Nell Kennedy, shortly. And went on with her tale as if she had been speaking of milking-stools.

'James Bannatyne took the dog into all the wide cave mouths and made him smell the walls and floor above the tide mark, talking to the brute all the time and encouraging him. But for a long time it was still in vain.

'At last the other dog which had been left to itself, bayed out suddenly from among the rocks, where it had found a dark and dismal archway with a wide pool of water in it, which we had passed time and again without suspicion. And at the entrance to this place we found the second hound, with tail erected, baying up the cave mouth from the edge of the pool.

'Then so soon as James Bannatyne brought in his well-taught dog, it began to smell hither and thither with erected ears and bristling hair. Presently it swam away into the darkness. And because the men hesitated to go after the beast, I took the water to show them the way.'

Hearing which, I had made my acknowledgments.

But Nell said, 'No, no; hear my tale first.'

'Then with me there came Robert Harburgh, and after him the Earl and all his company with their torches. The pool proved shallow, and after many turns and windings we came to a wide place – indeed, to the same beach with sand and dripping fingers of stone where we had first found ourselves. And here also we passed the remains of our boat, for it was to this point that we had rowed that night when we took refuge in the lion's den. The savages had broken most of it up for firewood, yet enough remained so that I knew it again.

'But ere the men-at-arms had time to gather behind us, a host of wild creatures armed with stones, knives, and sheath-whittles burst upon us, yelling like demons of the pit. Women also there were, some half clad and some wholly without cleading. And then and there was a fight such as you, Launce, love to tell about, but I have no skill in. For the men-at-arms shot, and we that had but swords struck, while the wild folk shouted and the savage women bit and tore with their nails till the cavern was full of confused noise and the red reek of burning torches. But ever as the slain rolled among our feet they gripped to pull us down, so that in the intervals of his fighting Robert Harburgh went hither and thither "making siccar," as he said, with a coup de grace for each poor clawing wretch.

'And in the narrow doorway through which you found the way, stood the chief himself, with his eyes fiery-red, and his hair about his face. He gripped a mighty axe in his hand, and with it he stood ready to cleave all that came against him. Even the men hesitated at his fearsome aspect. And it was small wonder. But I knew that there was no other way to the innermost cave, so I cried to them to overpass the rabble and drive forward at all hazards.

'How it came about I know not, but a moment after I found myself opposite to Sawny Bean himself and engaging him with your sword – just for all the world as if it had been in the armoire room of Culzean on a rainy day, and you again teaching me the fence of blade against Lochaber axe. But though I had not wholly forgotten my skill, doubtless the giant had soon made an end of me, for he struck fiercely every way. But sudden as the heathcat springs on the hill, the little Dominie leaped upon him and drove his sword into his heart. So that Sawny Bean fell with Dominie Mure upon his breast. Then because he was not able to pull out his sword again, being too close, the Dominie gripped his dagger and struck again and again, panting. And between each blow he cried out the name of a lass – "Mary Torrance! Mary Torrance!" he said.

'Then it was that the hounds over-leaped the two of them struggling there in the arch and sprang on, and after them came Robert Harburgh and I. We two first entered the murky place of death. The dogs were mouthing and gripping the Grey Man. But you lay naked upon the sand as it had been dead.'

This was the matter of Nell's tale, and I will now in turn take up mine own part in it, from the time at which the dogs gripped my remorseless enemy, and as it had been, the life went out from me.

CHAPTER XLVIII

THE FINDING OF THE TREASURE OF KELWOOD

When I came to myself the cave was filled with armed men and the confused clamour of voices. The torches spluttered and reeked, and I could feel that my naked body was covered with a woman's cloak wrapped well about me. Someone was binding up my head; and as she examined to see if all had been rightly done, I saw that it was Nell Kennedy. So I called her softly by her name.

But she bade me not try to rise; and looked again to my head to see that it had no serious wound.

Then came John the Earl and asked how I did. Whereupon, minding, as is my wont, to have old Time by the forelock, I spoke of his promise.

'Here,' I said, 'is the murderer John Mure. Here is the gang of monsters, and now I will put you in the way of obtaining the Treasure of Kelwood, if you will fulfil the promise which you made to me.'

'What was that?' he said shortly. For though Earl John liked promising well enough, he was not so fond of performing if it cost him aught, as in this case it was like to do.

'My sweetheart here, my knighthood, and a suitable down-sitting of land,' said I, knowing that it was now or never with me.

Then he demurred a little, and hesitated, so that for a moment I thought all was lost.

'Your sweetheart you shall have,' he said at last, 'but the others are not in my gift – save a holding of land, perhaps, which I can let you for a trifling return when it falls vacant.'

And so rejoiced was I to think of getting my lass that I might have consented to this; but Nell was behind me, and upon pretence of arranging a knot of the bandage upon my forehead, she whispered in my ear, 'Threat him with telling the King about the treasure.'

So, knowing her wisdom, I obeyed her.

'Well then, Earl John,' said I, 'if that be so, and a knighthood and suitable heritages are not in your power to bestow, here at hand is the King. Give me leave to speak with him. He is fond of treasure, and I can put a brave one under his hand!'

'Hush!' said the Earl, looking about him with apprehension. For the King was yet in the place with Mar and Lennox, ordering the taking down and burying of the strange, white, narrow-shaped hams, and the other things that turned the gay, squeamish folk that came with him pale and sick only to look upon them.

'Hush!' he said again, 'above all things beware what you say to the King. Show the Kelwood treasure to myself alone, and you shall have Barrhill – ay, and all Minnochside from the Rowan-tree to the forks of Trool, and I will even speak to the King about the knighting!'

'Will your lordship please to declare it before witnesses,' said I, Nell prompting me as before, for my head was dazed; but hers was singularly clear.

So he called to him certain honourable men of his name, and promised faithfully. 'Are you content?' said he.

So I said, 'Nelly, show them the treasure. Here is the key!'

And she rose and took them to the box – which, by the blessing of God remained still where we had left it in the recess – and she fitted the key in the lock, and it turned without a sound. And there the Earl bathed his hands in the set jewels, the loose stones of price, and the coined, golden money, plashing them through his fingers with a sound like a spout of water, till for fear of the King, I advised him to close it again.

'It is worth the bargain,' said he, 'though I am sorry to have promised away fair Minnochside. I trow it was woman's wit that guided you in the asking, and not that thick-bandaged head-piece of thine, Launcelot Kennedy.'

But I answered not, knowing how to leave well alone when a man is pleased with himself. So the Earl placed Robert Harburgh to guard the chest, and to lie discreetly concerning it if any of the King's men should come near, saying that it was but some foulness appropriate to the den.

But none came asking, and thus was the Treasure of Kelwood conquest for ever to the family of Cassillis.

As for Sawny Bean's monstrous brood, is it not recorded how they were carried through the country to Edinburgh, and as how they went the folk flocked in from leagues away to see and execrate them. They were hurried straight to the sands of Leith, where, without process of trial or pleading, and in the manner prescribed for such fiends, they were executed out of hand as enemies to the human race in general.

Thus, mainly through my instrumentality, was the country rid of a monstrous foul blot such as no land since the flood has ever been cursed with. Though I deny not that Dominie Mure and Nell Kennedy helped well according to their possibles, yet the most part of the credit was rightly given to me, who had twice adventured my life within the Cave of Death – though, as I admit, on both occasions against my will.

* * * * *

Once more the City of Edinburgh swarmed with Kennedys, come thither to the great trial. There had not been so great a concurrence of Westland folk in Edinburgh, since the memorable day when young Gilbert of Bargany cleared the causeway of us of the house of Cassillis – for which afterwards we were one and all put to the horn, to our great and lasting honour, as hath been related.

At the West Port I met Patrick Rippett, he who had taunted Benane at the Maybole snowballing.

'Whither is your eye gone?' I asked him, for he had a black patch where his left eye should have been.

'A fause loon pyked it out and offered it me back on the end of his rapier!' said Patrick Rippett, with the utmost unconcern.

'And what said ye to him?' I asked of Patrick, because he was not a man to take a jest (and such a jest) for nothing.

'Faith, I juist bartered him fair. I offered him his heart on the point of mine!' said Rippett, and so strolled away, ogling the snooded maids at the windows of the high lands as best he could, with the one wicked orb which was left to him.

I was walking with my father at the time. He had ridden the long way from Kirrieoch on a white pony, all to pleasure my mother.

'Ye maun gang and hear the laddie gie his evidence,' she bade him. 'They will fright him to deid else, amang thae Edinburgh men o' the law. They are no canny. So long as Launce gets striking at them with the steel I ken he is safe and sound. For his hand can e'en keep his head, as a Kennedy's ever should. But wha kens what they may do to my laddie when he stands afore the justicers, and the lawyer loons come at him wi' their quips and quandaries?'

'Faith then, good wife,' said my father, 'ye shall come too. And thou and I shall ride to Edinburgh like joes that are newly wed.'

And though at first she denied, yet at the last she consented, well-pleased enough – having a desire to purchase garmentry more suitable for the wife of a laird and the mother of one who was to be made a knight.

When my mother went out for the first time, she held up her hands and exclaimed at the noise and bustle of the High Street – the soldiers who were for ever marching to and fro in companies with drums and pipes, the lasses that went hither and thither with a shawl about their heads, and bandied compliments – and such compliments – with swashbucklers and rantipole 'prentice lads. 'The limmers, they need soundly skelping!' said my mother, 'for a' that they carry their heads so high, and their kirtles higher than their heads!'

'Surely scantly that!' said my father.

'But ay,' continued my mother, not heeding him in her press of speech, 'such hair-brained hempies wad be dookit in the Limmers' Dub on Saturday in every decent country, and set on the black stool of repentance ilka Sabbath day. I wonder what the King and the ministers o' Edinburgh can be thinkin' o'?'

There was, however, for most of us a long and weary waiting, ere in the town of Edinburgh the High Court of Justiciary was ripe for the hearing of the case against the Mures. But when at last the great day came the whole West Country was there.3

And though many a face was joyous as were ours, eke many were sad and lowering. For it is strange that such ill men should have some to love them, or at least so it was with John Mure the elder. And so there were in the city Mures by the score, fighting, black-avised MacKerrows, cankered Craufords, with all the disbanded Bargany discontents from the south of Carrick, Drummurchie's broken band from the hill-lands of Barr, together with many others. So that we kept our swords, as at our first visit to the town in the days of Gilbert Kennedy, free in their scabbards while we ruffled it along the pavement.

And I mind what my mother said, the first time she went down the plainstones with me. We met young Anthony Kennedy of Benane, and I perceived that it was his intent to take the wall of me. So I squared myself, and went a little before with my hand on my rapier hilt and my elbows wide, also cocking fiercely my bonnet over my eye – which assurance feared Anthony so greatly that he meekly took the pavement edge, and I went by with my mother on my arm, having, as I thought, come off very well in the matter.

But my mother stood stock still in amazement.

'Laddie, laddie, I kenned na what had taken ye – ye prinked and passaged for a' the world like our bantam cock at Kirrieoch, when he hears his neighbour at Kirriemore craw in the prime of the morn. Gin ye gang on that gait, ye will get your kame berried and scarted, my lad. So listen your auld mither, and walk mair humbly.'

At this I was somewhat shamed, and dropped behind like a little whipped messan; for my mother has a brisk tongue. My father said not a word, but there was a look of dry humorsomeness upon his face which I knew and feared more than my mother's clip-wit tongue.

CHAPTER XLIX

THE GREAT DAY OF TRIAL

At last, however, the trial was set, and we all summoned for our evidence. It was to be held in the High Court of Justiciary, and was a right solemn thing. A hot day in mid-summer it proved, with the narrow, overcrowded bounds of the town drowsed with heat, and yet eaten up with a plague of flies. The room of the trial was a large one, with a dais for the judges at the end, the boxes for the prisoners, and a tall stool with steps and a bar on which to rest the hands, for the witnesses.

And in the long, dark, low, oak-panelled room what a crush of people! For the report of the monstrous dealing of the Mures and the strangeness of their crimes, had caused a mighty coil in the town of Edinburgh and in the country round about. So that all the time of the trial there was a constant hum about the doors – now a continuous murmur that forced its way within, and now a louder roar as the doors were opened and shut by the officers of the court. Also, in order to show themselves busybodies, these pot-bellied stripe-jackets went and came every minute or two, pushing right and left with their halberts, which the poor folk had very peaceably to abide as best they might.

But the disposition of the rabble of the city was a marvel to me. For being stirred up by the Bargany folk and by the Earl of Dunbar, Mure's well-wisher, it was singularly unfriendly to us. So that we were almost feared that the criminals might, after all, be let off by the overawing of the assize that sat upon the case. But finally, as it happened, those who were chosen assize-men were mostly landward gentlemen of stout hearts and no subjection to the clamour of the vulgar – such, indeed, as should ever be placed upon the hearing of justice, not mere bodies of the Luckenbooths, who, if they give the verdict against the popular voice, are liable to have their shops and stalls plundered. And James Scrymgeour of Dudhope, a good man, was made the chancellor of the jury.

There were many of the great Lords of Session on the bench. For a case so important and notable had not been tried for years, and the Lords of Secret Council appointed my Lord President himself to be in the chief place in his robes, as well as five other justices in his company, that the dittay might be heard with all equal mind and with great motion of solemnity.

It was eleven by the clock when the judges were ushered in, Sir John Fenton of Fentonbarns, Lord President, coming first and sitting in the midst.

Then the crier of the court shouted, 'Way for His Majesty – for King James the Sext make way!'

And all the people rose up while King James was coming in. He sat upon the bench with the justices indeed, but a little way apart, as having by law no share in their deliberations. Nevertheless he was all the time writing and passing pieces of white paper to them, whereat they bowed very courteously back to him. But whether they took any notice of their import I know not.

Then the prisoners were brought in. John Mure the elder, with his grey hair and commanding presence, looked out of from beneath his eyebrows like a lion ignominiously beset. James Mure the younger came after his father, a heavy, loutish, ignorant man, but somewhat paled with his bloody handling at the instance of the Lords of Secret Council. Also in accordance with the promise of Earl John in the matter of the finding of the cave, James Bannatyne of Chapeldonnan was not set up for trial along with them, which was a wonder to many and an outcry to some of the evilly affected.

Then the court being set, the dittay was read solemnly by a very fair-spoken and courteous gentleman, Thomas Hamilton of Byres, the King's advocate. He spoke in a soft voice as if he were courting a lady. And whenever he addressed a word to the prisoners, it was as if he had been their dearest friend, and grieved that they should thus stand in jeopardy of their lives.

Yet, or so it seemed to me, John Mure was ever his match, and answered him without a moment's hesitancy.

Then, after the advocate's opening, the evidence was led. They called upon me first to arise. And I declare that my knees trembled and shook as they never did before the shock of battle. So that only the sight of Nell's pale face and my mother holding her hand, at all gave me any shred of courage. But, nevertheless, I went, with my tall, blue-banded hat in hand and my Damascus sword by my side, to the stance. And there I told all that I had seen – first of the murder at the Chapel of St Leonards, with the matter of the Grey Man who sat his horse a little way apart among the sandhills. Yet could I not declare on mine oath that I knew of a certainty that this man was the accused John Mure of Auchendrayne. Though as between man and man I was wholly assured of it.

I told also of the sending of the letter and of the confusion of the lad upon his return from the house of Auchendrayne, and of all the other matter which came under my observation, even as I have detailed them in this history, but more briefly. Then a tall, thin, leathery man, Sir John Russell the name of him, advocate for the Mures, stood up and tried to shake me in my averments. But he could not – no, nor any other man. For I wasted no thought on what I ought to say, but out with the plain truth. So that he could not break down the impregnable wall of the thing that was, neither make me say that which was not.

Then there came one after the other the Dominie, Meg Dalrymple, Robert Harburgh, and lastly my own Nell. But they had little more to tell than I had told at the first, till the herald of the court cried out for Marjorie Mure, or Kennedy, called in the pleas the younger lady of Auchendrayne.