“Order out all the horses which are ready caparisoned,” commanded William of Avondale, “and do you, Captain Sholto, take your choice of them.”

He went within forthwith and there ensued a pause filled with the snorting and prancing of steeds, as, mettlesome with oats and hay, they issued from their stalls, or with the grass yet dewy about their noses were led in from the field.  Darnaway took his leave of Sholto with a backward neigh of regret, as if to say he was not yet tired of going on his master’s service.

Then presently on the terrace above appeared lazy Lord James, busily buckling the straps of his body-armour and talking hotly the while with his brother William.

“I care not even whether our father—­” he cried aloud ere, with a restraining hand upon his wrist, his elder brother could succeed in stopping him.

“Hush, James,” he said, “at least be mindful of those that stand around.”

“I care not, I tell you, William,” cried the headstrong youth, squaring his shoulders as he was wont to do before a fight.  “I tell you that you and I are no traitors to our name, and who meddles with our coz, Will of Thrieve, hath us to reckon with!”

William of Avondale said nothing, but held out his hand with a slow, determinate gesture.  Said he, “An it were the father that begat us.”  Whereat, with all the impetuousness of his race and nature, James dashed his palm into that of his brother.

“Whiles, William,” he cried, “ye appear clerkish and overcautious, and I break out and miscall ye for no Douglas, when ye will not spend your siller like a man and are afraid of the honest pint stoup.  But at the heart’s heart ye are aye a Douglas—­and though the silly gaping commons like ye not so well as they like me, ye are the best o’ us, for all that.”

So it came to pass that within the space of half an hour the Avondale Douglases had sent men to the four airts, young Hugh Douglas himself riding west, while James stirred the folk of Avondale and Strathavon, and in all the courtyards and streets of the little feudal bourg there began the hum and buzz of the war assembly.

Lord William went with Sholto to see staunch Darnaway duly stabled, and to approve the horse which was to bear the messenger to the south without halt, now that his mission was accomplished in the west.  When they came out Sholto’s riding harness had been transferred to a noble grey steed large enough to carry even the burly James, let alone the slim captain of the archer guard of Thrieve.

In the court, ranked and ready, bridle to bridle were ranged the knights and squires in waiting about the Castle of Avondale, while out on a level green spot on the edge of the moor gathered the denser array of the townfolk with spears and partisans.

In an hour the Avondale Douglases were ready to ride to the assistance of their cousins.  Alas, that Earl William would take no advice, for had these and others gone in with him to the fatal town, there would have been no Black Bull’s Head on the Chancellor’s dinner table in the banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle.