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50 - Grey Man by S R Crockett · Grey Man

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  Speaker 1: By S. R. Crockett, Chapter fifty, The Last of the
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  Speaker 1: Gray Man. It was the mourn of the execution justice
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  Speaker 1: delayed for so long was that day to let fall
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  Speaker 1: its sword. We of the Cascillis colors mustered in the
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  Speaker 1: dead of night, for there was no force save the
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  Speaker 1: city Guard within the walls, and we had recently had
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  Speaker 1: overlay many proofs how little these men could do with
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  Speaker 1: the unruly commons of Edinburgh if it pleased them to
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  Speaker 1: be turbulent. So it had come to be rooted abroad
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  Speaker 1: that there was an intent to prevent the execution and
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  Speaker 1: deliver the murderers out of the hands of justice. But
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  Speaker 1: we were resolved that this should not be so, as
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  Speaker 1: was our bound in duty. We armed us to support
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  Speaker 1: the right and to keep the King's peace against all
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  Speaker 1: riotous lawbreakers. The Earl gave to me the command of
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  Speaker 1: one half of the band, reserving the other for himself,
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  Speaker 1: and already he called me Sir Launcelot, though I had
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  Speaker 1: not yet received the acknowledgment of knighthood from the King.
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  Speaker 1: At the first break of day it was to be done.
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  Speaker 1: Of this we had private notice from the turnkey of
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  Speaker 1: the tollbooth. I had worked earnestly upon my mother and Nell,
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  Speaker 1: that they should abide from the business, which was indeed
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  Speaker 1: not for womankind to see. Though I knew that there
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  Speaker 1: would be many there, ay even dames gentle of degree.
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  Speaker 1: But my father marched with me. Shall I put my
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  Speaker 1: harness off me? Said he? When there is a chance
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  Speaker 1: of a tumult and of the defeating of the solemn
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  Speaker 1: justice of Providence and of King James, God forbid, wife,
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  Speaker 1: help me on with my jack. So I placed my
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  Speaker 1: father in my own command, and I set him in
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  Speaker 1: the second rank, with Hugh of Carrymore beside him, and
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  Speaker 1: Robert Harberg in front of him, where I judged he
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  Speaker 1: would not come to any great harm. And we Kennedys
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  Speaker 1: had the King's private permission thus to come through the
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  Speaker 1: town under arms. When we arrived at the place, the
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  Speaker 1: tall scaffold had already been set up at the cross,
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  Speaker 1: and even ere we arrayed us first about it. Many
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  Speaker 1: a candle had begun to wink here and there in
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  Speaker 1: the tall windows of the high street. The Earl was
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  Speaker 1: to command a second stro guard from the prison port
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  Speaker 1: to the scaffold, lest the rabbles should try to overwhelm
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  Speaker 1: the city. Guard and the Marshal's men as they convoyed
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  Speaker 1: the prisoners to the place of execution. Thus we of
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  Speaker 1: the first band stood grimly to our arms a long
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  Speaker 1: time after the gloaming of the morning began. The hum
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  Speaker 1: of the folk gathering surrounded us. There was, however, little
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  Speaker 1: pleasance or laughing, as there is at an ordinary heading
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  Speaker 1: or hanging, and that did not betoken good. For when
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  Speaker 1: the populace is silent, it is plodding. This much I
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  Speaker 1: had learned in my long service, and afterwards as a
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  Speaker 1: knight at arms. Therefore I hold it the true wisdom
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  Speaker 1: to strike ear the many headed can bite. That at
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  Speaker 1: least is my thought of it. Slowly and slowly, three
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  Speaker 1: or four dark figures on the scaffold grew clearer to
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  Speaker 1: our eyes, till we could see the headsman and his
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  Speaker 1: assistants waiting patiently for their work to be brought to them.
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  Speaker 1: The chief of these was a mighty man of his arms.
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  Speaker 1: He had a black mask upon his face, and was
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  Speaker 1: naked even to the waist. A leathern apron like a
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  Speaker 1: spiths was done about his loins, and he stood leaning
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  Speaker 1: his broad axe upon the block. The sun was just
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  Speaker 1: beginning to Redden the clouds in the east, when the
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  Speaker 1: door of the toll booth fell open with a loud noise.
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  Speaker 1: At the very same moment, the Rooks and Jackdaws arose
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  Speaker 1: in a perfect cloud from the pinnacles of Saint Giles,
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  Speaker 1: as well as from the whole city, And in a black,
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  Speaker 1: clanging cloud they drifted seaward, which was looked upon as
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  Speaker 1: a marble by them that watched for frights. For they said,
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  Speaker 1: these be John Muir's devils that have forsaken him. And indeed,
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  Speaker 1: whether there was aught in it or no certain is
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  Speaker 1: it that the birds came not back for many days,
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  Speaker 1: at least not to my seeing. But then I was
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  Speaker 1: much occupied with other matters. As the procession came out,
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  Speaker 1: the Earl, John and his men filed on either side
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  Speaker 1: in a triple line, with the axemen of the Guard
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  Speaker 1: marching close about the prisoners. John Muir walked first, in
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  Speaker 1: his gray cloak, but bareheaded, striding reverend and strong before all.
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  Speaker 1: Behind him came his son and hand in him, and
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  Speaker 1: with him, Oh, marvel of marvels was she that had
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  Speaker 1: been in name his wife, even Marjorie Kennedy. And as
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  Speaker 1: they came, the light grew clearer. There seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: almost a smile upon the Lady Marjorie's face, and James
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  Speaker 1: Muir listened intently as she spoke low and steadily to him.
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  Speaker 1: For Marjorie had in these days become, as it seemed,
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  Speaker 1: a woman removed from us, supported by no earthly food,
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  Speaker 1: where none touched her lips, her strength being upheld by
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  Speaker 1: some power from above. At least so I think she
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  Speaker 1: had received permission from the King to be with her
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  Speaker 1: husband in his last hours. I have fulfilled the Lord's justice,
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  Speaker 1: for my duty was laid upon me, she said, But
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  Speaker 1: I would not kill both body and soul. How she
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  Speaker 1: affected it, I know not, but certain it is that
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  Speaker 1: during the weeks of waiting she had won James Muir
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  Speaker 1: in some sort to contrition and prayer, And now with
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  Speaker 1: his hand in hers, they walked together along the short
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  Speaker 1: way to the scaffold foot but old John Muir strot
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  Speaker 1: scornfully before, heedful, neither of man nor woman. And I
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  Speaker 1: swear that I could not but in some measure admire
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  Speaker 1: at him, devil of cruelty as he was. They climbed
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  Speaker 1: the scaffold, John Muir calmly, as though he were leading
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  Speaker 1: a lady to a banquet table. But his son faltered
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  Speaker 1: and had fallen at the latter foot, save for the
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  Speaker 1: hand of Margery, who walked in white by his side,
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  Speaker 1: accompanying him faithfully to his end. I am his wife,
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  Speaker 1: she said, it was I who brought him to this.
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  Speaker 1: Ye will not twain me from him on this day
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  Speaker 1: of shame. Never have I owned James Muir as my
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  Speaker 1: husband before, but I own him now. These were her words,
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  Speaker 1: when the Captain of the Guard was instant with her
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  Speaker 1: to depart home. And I declare that the doomed man
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  Speaker 1: looked at her with something like a beast's dumb gratitude
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  Speaker 1: in his eyes, which, when you think on it, is
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  Speaker 1: a thing marvelous enough. And I ask not that it
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  Speaker 1: shall be believed. Yet I saw it, and will at
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  Speaker 1: any time uphold the truth of it with my sword
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  Speaker 1: if need be. At last, they stood upon the scaffold platform,
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  Speaker 1: and the headsman made ready. Then there sounded above the
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  Speaker 1: mingled roar of the multitude, the blowing of a trumpet,
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  Speaker 1: and the King's gay favorite, the Duke of Lennox, rode
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  Speaker 1: to the foot of the stage. He had a paper
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  Speaker 1: in his hand, a pardon a pardon, yelled the people.
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  Speaker 1: My heart gave a great leap and stood still. They
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  Speaker 1: never dare cried, I, lads, stand firm. If the King
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  Speaker 1: hath pardoned the murderers, shall we of the west, will
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  Speaker 1: ye follow me? Lads? And they whispered back, Aye, that
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  Speaker 1: we will. We will help you to do justice upon them.
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  Speaker 1: The mewers shall never leave this place alive, though we
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  Speaker 1: all die. Also, we shall not go back to Carrick
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  Speaker 1: shamed by these men's lives. So we arranged it if
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  Speaker 1: by any chance there should be news of a reprieve.
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  Speaker 1: For it was by singular good hap that we were
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  Speaker 1: the only company under arms in the city, save the
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  Speaker 1: few men of the town guard. But when Lennox made
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  Speaker 1: his way to the scaffold, we heard another way of it.
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  Speaker 1: I was almost underneath the staging upon the front, and
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  Speaker 1: heard that which was said almost every word the King
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  Speaker 1: to you traitors about to die. He read, His Majesty
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  Speaker 1: desires greatly to be informed of the certainty of these
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  Speaker 1: things whereof you have been accused, and for which you
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  Speaker 1: have been justly condemned. The murder of Sir Thomas Kennedy,
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  Speaker 1: the matter of the Bloody Dagger, thrown at the red House,
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  Speaker 1: the treasure of Chelwood, and its taking out of the
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  Speaker 1: change house on the red moss. His Majesty, the King
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  Speaker 1: offers life and his clemency in a perpetual exile upon
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  Speaker 1: some warded isle to the first of you, that will
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  Speaker 1: reveal the whole matter. The King's favorite ceased his reading
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  Speaker 1: and looked at the condemned men, and John Muir, in
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  Speaker 1: his plain gray cloak, which he had not yet laid aside,
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  Speaker 1: looked askance at Lennox, who shone like a butterfly in
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  Speaker 1: gay colors, being tricked out in the latest fitful extravagancies
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  Speaker 1: of fashion. We shall be grateful to his Majesty all
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  Speaker 1: our lives, said he sneeringly. But the Solomon of Scotland
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  Speaker 1: is so wise that he can easily certify himself of
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  Speaker 1: the truth of these things without our poor aid. But
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  Speaker 1: James Muir the younger, where he stood with his wife
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  Speaker 1: by his side, seemed a little struck with the message,
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  Speaker 1: and began to listen with interest. Read that again, he
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  Speaker 1: said to Lennox abruptly, and Lennox, prinking and preening him
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  Speaker 1: like a gay feathered Indian bird. In my lady's bower
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  Speaker 1: read the King's mandate over again. John Muir watched his
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  Speaker 1: son with the eye of a crouching wild cat. The
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  Speaker 1: younger man was about to utter something when his father
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  Speaker 1: said quickly to Lennox, I pray thee my lord duke,
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  Speaker 1: may I speak with you a moment apart. I am
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  Speaker 1: the first to accept the offer, And with that they
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  Speaker 1: came both of them to the side of the scaffold
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  Speaker 1: where I was on guard, leaving James Muir standing with
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  Speaker 1: drooping head by the block. Hark Ye, my lord, said
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  Speaker 1: Achandry and the elder. My master's terms are fair enough
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  Speaker 1: to be offered to a dying man on the scaffold.
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  Speaker 1: I will take them, but on condition that my son
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  Speaker 1: be executed before I reveal the secret. For there are
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  Speaker 1: but two of us left, and we have been close
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  Speaker 1: to one another all our lives. I would not therefore
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  Speaker 1: have my son think that I, being an old man,
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of a year or two longer life,
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  Speaker 1: would reveal these matters for which he has already suffered
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  Speaker 1: the torture of the extreme question with so great constancy,
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  Speaker 1: both in the King's inquest chamber and before the lords
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  Speaker 1: of secret council. That is easily arranged, said Loes, dusting
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  Speaker 1: at his doublet I have but to give the word
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  Speaker 1: to the executioner, and he will do his duty first
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  Speaker 1: upon your son. Then he will halt till you have
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  Speaker 1: accepted the King's mercy and given pledge in earnest of
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  Speaker 1: full revelations concerning these hidden and mysterious matters. This was
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  Speaker 1: Lennox's customary manner of speaking, as he had learned it
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  Speaker 1: in the English court, with womanish conceits, in a flood
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  Speaker 1: of words and gestures. And as he spoke he smiled
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  Speaker 1: upon John Muir, as though the old gray man in
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  Speaker 1: the cloak and Reverend Beard had been some young and
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  Speaker 1: easy virtue dame of the court. And so taken up
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  Speaker 1: with himself was he that he did not observe the
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  Speaker 1: basilis look which the arch conspirator turned upon him. Lennox
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  Speaker 1: held up his hand to the executioner in the King's name,
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  Speaker 1: he cried to the man in the mask, do thine
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  Speaker 1: office upon the younger first and speedily. These are not
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  Speaker 1: my orders, quoth he in the mask. Curtly, Lennox flashed
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  Speaker 1: a little ebben staff with a golden crown set upon
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  Speaker 1: the summit before his eyes wouldst thou argie bargie with me,
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  Speaker 1: he said, Then right soon anothers shall take thy bishopric,
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  Speaker 1: and as thou dost, others shall shepherd thee to Hades
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  Speaker 1: whereat Margery, robed in her clear, shining white, took the
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  Speaker 1: hand of James Muir, the man that was about to die. Husband,
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  Speaker 1: said she, calmly, I have asked pardon for THEE from God?
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  Speaker 1: Do thou also ask it? Now? Ere swift death take thee?
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  Speaker 1: Ask it both from God and man. For she had
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  Speaker 1: been his ministrant angel in the prison, and her own
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  Speaker 1: heart being changed vengeance in the drinking, not seeming so
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  Speaker 1: sweet a cup as it had appeared in the mixing.
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  Speaker 1: She had also won the sullen, mechanic heart of him, who,
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  Speaker 1: according to the law of the land, had been so
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  Speaker 1: long her husband. She had showed him the way to
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  Speaker 1: a certain sum of faith, penitence and hope, which perchance
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  Speaker 1: he snatched at, not so much for themselves, but as
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  Speaker 1: the best things which were left to him. James, one,
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  Speaker 1: thou forth on thy way, fear not thou shalt not
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  Speaker 1: be long alone, she said to him, And staggering a little,
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  Speaker 1: he moved across the scaffold. He would have fallen, but
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  Speaker 1: that Marjorie set his hand upon her shoulder and put
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  Speaker 1: her arm about him. So he came forward, stumbling like
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  Speaker 1: a man in sore sickness, as doubtless he was. I
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  Speaker 1: am a sinful man, he said, so that some at
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  Speaker 1: least could hear him. Pray for me. Good people, keep
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  Speaker 1: your hands from blood, as I have not kept mine.
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  Speaker 1: And Marjorie, though thou didst never love me, love me now,
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  Speaker 1: and bide with me till I die, fear not, she said,
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  Speaker 1: I will stand beside THEE, and not only hear I
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  Speaker 1: have a message that I shall write soon, be called
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  Speaker 1: to journey with THEE, further, meeting THEE somewhere by the
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  Speaker 1: way that thou must go, and calling him again, sweet
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  Speaker 1: brother and James. She laid down his neck upon the block,
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  Speaker 1: and with one blow the headsman featly did his office.
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  Speaker 1: But Marjorie stood still and received the poor head in
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  Speaker 1: a decent napkin. After the masked man had held it up.
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  Speaker 1: John Muir looked at her and at her son all
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  Speaker 1: the time, and an evil and contemptuous light shone in
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  Speaker 1: his eyes. Madam, He said, it had done no harm.
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  Speaker 1: Had you begun your care and attendance somewhat earlier, ye
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  Speaker 1: might have made a decent preacher out of James. He
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  Speaker 1: was never muckle worth for aught else. Then Lennox came
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  Speaker 1: forward again with his paper. Now, John Mure, he said,
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  Speaker 1: we have done according to your desire. Ye will now,
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  Speaker 1: I doubt not having seen the end and reward of
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  Speaker 1: iniquity in the person of your son except his majesties,
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  Speaker 1: so marvelous clemency, and be content to reveal all the matter.
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  Speaker 1: He came a little near to the old man, airily
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  Speaker 1: whisking his paper with his forefinger. John Muir waved him
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  Speaker 1: aside with one hand and held his nose with the other. Pah,
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  Speaker 1: get apart from me, sivet cat, he cried, think ye
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  Speaker 1: that I will have any dealings with you or with
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  Speaker 1: your dullered fool master king baggy breeches. I saw that
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  Speaker 1: YE might, perchance, where I first turned to dead clay
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  Speaker 1: and lappard blood, chance to get something out of James.
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  Speaker 1: There I saw him look somewhat too eagerly on your reprieve,
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  Speaker 1: for much belated domesticity had turned him soft. So I
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  Speaker 1: played with you, and now WoT ye, well, ye shall
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  Speaker 1: know nothing from me that your precious Solomon of Asses
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  Speaker 1: cannot divine for himself. He took off his cloak of
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  Speaker 1: gray and lace collar, bearing his neck for the dead stroke. Stay,
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  Speaker 1: he said to Lennox, since your wise king is so curious,
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  Speaker 1: here is a history of divers matters that may interest
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  Speaker 1: your master. It may do him some good. The new
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  Speaker 1: Minister of Edinburgh, a soft spoken, king fearing man, came
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  Speaker 1: near John Muir looked at him. Of what religion art
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  Speaker 1: thou he asked, ay, verily of the King's religion. Were
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  Speaker 1: my time not so circumscribed, I would have at thee
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  Speaker 1: with texts thou time serving rogue, Aye, and would swing
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  Speaker 1: thee with them soundly too. In what religion dost thou die,
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  Speaker 1: said the minister, For it was a customary question in
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  Speaker 1: those days when men were forced to live and die
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  Speaker 1: on the borderland of many creeds. John Muir smiled as
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  Speaker 1: he bent his head to the block of the ancientest persuasion,
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  Speaker 1: said he, for I am ready to believe in any
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  Speaker 1: well disposed God whom I may chance to meet in
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  Speaker 1: my pilgriming, But in none will I believe till I
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  Speaker 1: do meet him. Nevertheless, do thou, like a wise silly bishop,
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  Speaker 1: stick to the King and thy printed book, which saying
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  Speaker 1: was remembered when the minister was afterward made a bishop
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  Speaker 1: by the King's favor. With these words, John Muir threw
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  Speaker 1: out his hands with a sharp jerk, for that was
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  Speaker 1: the customary signal. The broad axe rose and fell, flashing
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  Speaker 1: in the sun a moment and ere crashed dully upon
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  Speaker 1: the block. The westland men gave a shout, and the
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  Speaker 1: heathen spirit of John Muir of Auchen Draine, carrying such
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  Speaker 1: a load of sin and blood shedding as never soul
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  Speaker 1: did before or since, fared forth alone to its own place.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter fifty