And before he had time to answer, the little girl looked at him out of her friend’s arms and called out:  “O Sholto, Sholto, I am so glad you are come.  I woke to find such a terrible thing looking at me out of the night.  It was shaped like a great wolf, but it was rough of hide, and had upon it a head like a man’s.  I was so terrified that at first I could not cry out.  But when it came nearer, and gazed at me, then I cried.  Do not go away, Sholto.  I am so glad, so glad that you are here.”

Maud Lindesay had again turned towards Margaret.

“Hush,” she said soothingly, “it was a dream.  You were frighted by a vision, by a nightmare, by a succubus of the night.  There is no beast within the castle.”

“But I saw it plainly,” the maid cried.  “It opened the door as if it had hands—­I saw it stand there by the bed and look at me—­oh, so terribly!  I saw its teeth glisten and heard them snap together!”

“Little one, be still, it was but a dream,” said Sholto, untruthfully; “nevertheless I will go and search the rest of the castle.”

And with these words he went along the corridor, finding the men whom he had summoned by means of his captain’s silver call clustered upon the landing of the turret stair which communicated with the third floor.  As he glanced along the oak-panelled corridor, it seemed to Sholto that he discerned a figure vanishing at the further end.  Instantly he resolved on searching, and summoning his men to follow, he led the way down the passage, sword in hand.  As he went he snatched the lamp from its pin on the wall, and held it in his left high above his head.

At the further end of the corridor was the door of a little chamber, and it seemed to Sholto that the shape he had seen must have disappeared at this point.

He knocked loudly on the door with the hilt of his sword, and cried, “If any be within, open—­in the name of the Earl!”

No voice replied, and Sholto boldly set his foot against the lower panelling, and drove the door back to the wall with a clang.

Then at sight of a something dark, wrapped in a cloak, standing motionless against the window, the young captain of the guard elevated his lamp, and let the flicker of the light fall on the erect figure and haughty face of a young man, who, with his hand on his hip, stood considering the rude advance of his pursuers with a calm and questioning gaze.

It was the Earl of Douglas himself.

Sholto stood petrified at sight of him, and for a long minute could in no wise recover his self-control nor regain any use of his tongue.

“Well,” said the Earl, haughtily, “whence this unseemly uproar?  What do you here, Sholto?”