“Yesterday,” he began, as soon as he had subdued the ardour of his frolicsome little steed to a steadier gait, varied only by an occasional curvet, “yesterday I was made to read in the Chronicles of the Kings of Scotland, and lo, it was the Douglas did this and the Douglas said that, till I cried out upon Master Kennedy, ’Enough of Douglases—­I am a Stewart.  Read me of the Stewarts.’  Then gave Master Kennedy a look as when he laughs in his sleeve, and shook his head.  ‘This book concerneth battles,’ said he, ’and not gear, plenishing, and tocher.  The Douglas won for King Robert his crown, the Stewart only married his daughter—­though that, if all tales be true, was the braver deed!’ Now that was no reverent speech to me that am a Stewart, nor yet very gallant to my great-grandmother, was it, Earl Douglas?”

“It was no fine courtier’s flattery, at any rate,” said the Douglas, his eyes wandering hither and thither across the cavalcade which they were now meeting, in search of the graceful figure and darkly splendid head of the girl he loved.

The Lady Sybilla was not there.

“They have secluded her,” he muttered, in sharp jealous anger; “’tis all her kinsman’s fault.  He hath the marks of a traitor and worse.  But they shall not spite nor flout the Douglas.”

So with a countenance grave and unresponsive he saluted Livingston the tutor, who came forth to meet him.  The Chancellor was expected immediately, for he had ridden in more rapidly by the hill way in order that he might welcome his notable guests to the metropolitan residence of the Kings of Scotland.

The Castle of Edinburgh was at that time in the fulness of its strength and power.  The first James had greatly enlarged and strengthened its works defensive.  He had added thirty feet to the height of David’s Tower, which now served as a watch-station over all the rock, and in his last days he had begun to build the great hall which the Chancellor had but recently finished.

It was here that presently the feast was set.  The banquet-hall ran the width of the keep, and the raised dais in the centre was large enough to seat the whole higher baronage of Scotland, among whom (as the Earl of Douglas thought with some scorn) neither of his entertainers, Crichton and Livingston, had any right to place themselves.

But the question where the Lady Sybilla was bestowed soon occupied the Douglas more than any thought of his own safety or of the loyalty of his entertainers.  Sybilla, however, was neither in the courtly cavalcade which met them at the entrance of the park, nor yet among the more numerous ladies who stood at the castle yett to welcome to Edinburgh the noble and handsome young lords of the South.

Douglas therefore concluded that de Retz, discovering some part of the love that was between them, or mayhap hearing of it from some spy or other at Crichton Castle, had secluded his sweetheart.  He loosened his hand on the rein to lay it on the sword-hilt, as he thought of this cruelty to a maid so pure and fair.