“Quick, Sir Archie!” he said, “let us get this thing out of the cart before any person happen to come along.”

The coffin was lifted from the cart, and carried some short distance into the wood.  A few vigorous kicks separated the planks which composed it.  These were taken and thrust separately among bushes at some little distance from each other.  Cluny then unrolled the bundle which he had brought from the cart, and handed to Archie a suit of clothes fitted for a farmer.  These Archie quickly put on, then he returned to the cart, which he mounted, and took the reins.  The others got up behind him and seated themselves on the straw in the bottom of the cart.  Then Archie gave the horse a smart cut with his whip, and the cart proceeded at a steady trot along the road to the west.

Chapter XXIV The Progress of the War

A mile or two after leaving Berwick the cart had left the main road running by the coast through Dunbar to Edinburgh, and had struck west by a country track.  But few houses were met with, as the whole of the country within many miles of the sea had been harried and devastated by the various English armies which had advanced from Berwick.  After proceeding for some miles they came to a point where the track they had been following terminated at a little hamlet among the hills.  Here they left the cart, making an arrangement with one of the villagers to drive it back on the morrow into Berwick.  They were now beyond all risk of pursuit, and need fear nothing further until they reached the great north roads running from Carlisle to Edinburgh and Stirling.  Cluny therefore resumed male attire.  They had no difficulty in purchasing a couple of swords from the peasants of the village, and armed with these they started with Marjory and the two women over the hills.  It was early autumn now; the weather was magnificent, and they made the distance in quiet stages, and crossing the Pentlands came down upon Aberfilly without meeting with a single danger or obstacle.

It needs not to describe the joy of Archie’s mother at his return.  The news spread like lightning among the tenantry, and in an hour after the wayfarers reached the castle men and women could be seen flocking over the hills at the top of their speed to express their delight and enthusiasm at their lord’s return.  By nightfall every tenant on the estate, save those prevented by age or illness, had assembled at the castle, and the rejoicings which had taken place at the marriage of their lord were but tame and quiet beside the boisterous enthusiasm which was now exhibited.

Although Marjory had at first been welcomed for the sake of her husband, the fact that she was a Kerr had excited a deep though hidden hostility to her in the minds both of those who had been her father’s vassals at Aberfilly, and the old retainers of the Forbeses at Glen Cairn.  The devotion and courage which she had shown in the defence of the castle and in the enterprise for the rescue of their lord swept away every vestige of this feeling, and henceforth Marjory ranked in their affections with Archie himself, and there was not a man upon the estate but felt that he could die for her if needs be.