“But never one like you, my lord, my lord!” said Sholto.

The Earl raised him gently, led him to the window, and himself steadied the rope by which his squire was to descend.

“Go!” he said; “honour keeps the Douglas here, and his brother bides with him—­since not otherwise it may be.  But the honour of obedience sends Sholto MacKim to the work that is given him!”

Then, after the captain of his guard had gone out into the dark and disappeared down the rope, the Earl only waited till the tension slackened before stooping and cutting the cord at the point of juncture with the iron ring.

“And now, Davie lad,” he said, setting an arm about his brother’s neck, “there are but you and me for it, and I think a bit prayer would not harm either of us.”

So the two young lads, being about to die, kneeled down together before the cross of Him who was betrayed with a kiss.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE LION AT BAY

The morning had broken broad and clear from the east when the door of the prison-house was opened, and a seneschal appeared.  He saluted the brothers, and in a shaking voice summoned them to come forth and be tried for offences of treason and rebellion against the King and his ministers.

William of Douglas waved a hand to him, but answered nothing to the summons.  He wasted no words upon one who merely did as he was bidden.  All night the brothers had sat looking out on the city humming sleeplessly beneath them, till the light slowly dawned over the Forth and away to the eastward Berwick Law stood dwarfed and clear.  At first they had sat apart, but as the hours stole on David came a little nearer and his hand sought that of his brother, clasped it, and abode as it had been contented.  The elder brother returned the pressure.

“David,” he said, “if perish we must, at least you and I will show them how Douglases can die.”

So when they rose to follow the seneschal who summoned them, as they left the chamber of detention and the clanking guard fell in behind them, Earl William put his hand affectionately on his young brother’s shoulder and kept it there.  In this wise they came into the great hall wherein yester-even the banquet of treachery had been served.  The dais had been removed to the upper end of the room, and upon it in the furred robes of judges of the realm, there sat on either side of the empty throne Crichton the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston.  Behind were crowded groups of knights, pages, men-at-arms, and all the hangers-on of a court.  But of men of dignity and place only the Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, was present.

He sat alone on a high seat ranged crosswise upon the dais.  The floor in the centre of the hall was kept clear for the entrance of the brothers of Douglas.

Crichton and Livingston looked uneasily at each other as the feet of the guard conducting the prisoners were heard in the corridor without, and with a quick, apprehensive wave of his hand Crichton motioned the armed men of his guard closer about him, and gave their leader directions in a hushed voice behind his palm.