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52 - Grey Man by S R Crockett · Grey Man

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  Speaker 1: Sar Crockett, Chapter fifty two, The Homecoming. The snows of
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  Speaker 1: another winter had fallen, frozen and lain long ere. They
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  Speaker 1: were at last whisked away by the winds of a
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  Speaker 1: brisk and bitter march. It was now again the springtime
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  Speaker 1: upon the face of the earth, the time of the
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  Speaker 1: earliest singing of the Mavis, of the sweet piping of
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  Speaker 1: the blackbird on the tree. The grasses were green too
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  Speaker 1: over the unforgotten grave of our Marjorie. But we who
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  Speaker 1: loved her had won to a memory that was not
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  Speaker 1: now wholly sorrow. Especially we remembered the sweet and profitable
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  Speaker 1: end she had made, when, after many days of bitter winter,
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  Speaker 1: in her heart forgiveness and love that last unsealed her bosom.
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  Speaker 1: It had been a long winter for us, all because
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  Speaker 1: it behooved that I should go to London, there to
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  Speaker 1: be made one of His Majesty's new nights. For I
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  Speaker 1: had told all my tale to the King, being so
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  Speaker 1: charged by the Earl John yet said he keep ever
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  Speaker 1: your thumb upon the matter of the treasure of Chelwood,
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  Speaker 1: and I will keep mine right effectually upon Curry the
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  Speaker 1: ill conditioned a thief thereof and so he did and
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  Speaker 1: for the same Laird of Kelwood's sake. Chiefly he set
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  Speaker 1: to mending and patching our old tower of defense on
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  Speaker 1: craig Elza, in which he gave one Hamilton the charge
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  Speaker 1: of him as prisoner, together with John Dick the Traitor,
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  Speaker 1: and two or three more. It was a fine quiet place,
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  Speaker 1: said the Earl John, and would give such rascals time
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  Speaker 1: and opportunity for repentance, which added, he seems more than
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  Speaker 1: I am ever likely to get with all this throng
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  Speaker 1: of business on hand. For the Earl John was now
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  Speaker 1: wax and one of the greatest men in broad Scotland,
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  Speaker 1: and withal he had all the power worth considering in
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  Speaker 1: the Shire of Air, So that even the Crawfords, wanting
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  Speaker 1: now their ancient chief, and broken with bickerings among themselves,
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  Speaker 1: sent an embassy of peace and goodwill to him. It
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  Speaker 1: chanced that it came when the Earl was in a
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  Speaker 1: good humor. Ah John Crawford said, Casils tis a changed
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  Speaker 1: day since Bargany, and you chased us off Skeldon hoffs.
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  Speaker 1: It looks as if the sow had not been flitted
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  Speaker 1: so far after all. But ye shall have the peace
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  Speaker 1: ye ask for. We live under a gracious king who
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  Speaker 1: loves quietness as much as when he dwelt here in
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  Speaker 1: our kindly north, and he is now the better able
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  Speaker 1: to enforce it. Therefore look ye to it. I will
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  Speaker 1: maintain you, Crawfords, and your heritages of curse, which by
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  Speaker 1: my power as Bailey, I might legally declare forfeit. But
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  Speaker 1: I will tell you what you must do. In return.
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  Speaker 1: Ye shall render me place and precedence at kirk and Market.
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  Speaker 1: Ye shall build up your private door in Dalrymple Kirk,
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  Speaker 1: and ye shall abide from taking your places there till
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  Speaker 1: ye have seen me seated. To this dourly enough, the
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  Speaker 1: Crawfords perforce agreed, for indeed they could make no better
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  Speaker 1: of it. So great a man was our earl grown.
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  Speaker 1: But to me he was ever kind, and proved none
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  Speaker 1: so ill given when it liked him. For he said
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  Speaker 1: to build you the house of Pelgowen, and I will
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  Speaker 1: plenish it for you, and that not meanly. And you
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  Speaker 1: and my cousin Nell shall rear me ruth of lusty
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  Speaker 1: knaves to protect my southwestern marches and keep down the
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  Speaker 1: reavers of the Dungeon, which indeed, so far as I
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  Speaker 1: was concerned. I was right willing to promise. So it
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  Speaker 1: came about that the Earl would have it that our
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  Speaker 1: wedding must be held in the ancient strength of Casillus,
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  Speaker 1: which sits by the water side, not so far from
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  Speaker 1: the town of Ayr, and a bonny, well sheltered place.
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  Speaker 1: It is not like Coulayne, which stands blusteringly on the
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  Speaker 1: sea brink over frowning all. And because the Earl of
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  Speaker 1: Casillus said it, so it was bound to be. For
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  Speaker 1: he was our Nell's guardian. And besides, we that were
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  Speaker 1: to live under him were none the worse of keeping
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  Speaker 1: in with him. When I went to do my courting,
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  Speaker 1: as often as not I found Nell walking with him,
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  Speaker 1: and ofttimes floating him. And when I would have cautioned
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  Speaker 1: her tut she said he likes nothing better. If his
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  Speaker 1: own wife flouted him, he might stay better at home.
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  Speaker 1: Cousin Nell would say to him sometimes, Cousin John, ye
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  Speaker 1: think ye are such a great man. Yet a little
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  Speaker 1: musketball or a woman's finger long bodkin might let all
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  Speaker 1: thy greatness out. Ye should think, oftener on that what
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  Speaker 1: Nell said, he is it that the hour of thy
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  Speaker 1: marriage grows so near that thou must test thy preaching
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  Speaker 1: on me. Keep the proof of the pudding for thine
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  Speaker 1: own goodman, ah said she. Perchance my cousin, the noble Countess,
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  Speaker 1: has already given thee thy fill of it. Thou art
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  Speaker 1: a forward chit, said he, wringing her ear between his
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  Speaker 1: finger and thumb. I hope Lonce will swing thee tightly
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  Speaker 1: with a supple birch for thy often naughtiness. It was
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  Speaker 1: indeed a notable day when Nell and I were married.
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  Speaker 1: All the morning my heart was beating a fine tune
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  Speaker 1: lest something should happen. Ere I got my last carried
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  Speaker 1: off to our home. Alone, I rode from the cove
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  Speaker 1: of Kulaine to the house of Casilus. I started brave
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  Speaker 1: and early, and my good old horse, dom Nicholas, rode
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  Speaker 1: for once the right road and the ready the gait
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  Speaker 1: that I longed to go. I had a rare fine
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  Speaker 1: coat of blue silk upon me, belted about the waist
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  Speaker 1: with the King's belt and with the King's order of Knighthood,
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  Speaker 1: all a glitter upon my breast. Silver buttoned was my coat,
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  Speaker 1: And of solid silver too were the accouterments of dom Nicholas.
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  Speaker 1: I to the very stirrups and the broidery on his
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  Speaker 1: blue saddle cloth. I wore the Earl's Damascus sword, his
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  Speaker 1: first gift, swinging at my side. And as dom Nicholas
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  Speaker 1: and I went through may Bowl, watch ye if we
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  Speaker 1: kept not our heads up, for the lasses ran out
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  Speaker 1: in clouds to watch us go past. And what was
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  Speaker 1: even better, the lads sulked and turned their backs, saying
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  Speaker 1: that they would be shamed to lay a leg across
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  Speaker 1: a horse's back. Thus apparelled, for I knew well what
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  Speaker 1: they were thinking. Had I been trudging afoot in Haddon
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  Speaker 1: and they riding by all in silk with a gold
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  Speaker 1: hiked sword, that is just what I would have said.
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  Speaker 1: So the black envy, eating into their hearts and lowering
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  Speaker 1: on their brows, cheered me like old French wine on
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  Speaker 1: a cold day. I had not gone far across the
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  Speaker 1: bent when I spied a cavalcade before me. It was
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  Speaker 1: the men of Coolaine, whom I had so often led
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  Speaker 1: in battle, come to give me a right gaze. Sending
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  Speaker 1: off and at their head rode James. Now the air
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  Speaker 1: mirthful sandy, and mine own little Davy, dressed like a
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  Speaker 1: page boy in satin of blue and gold. They gave
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  Speaker 1: me boisterous welcome, and they that dared would have broken
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  Speaker 1: many jests of the time honored sort upon my head.
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  Speaker 1: But on such a day a lover's had his helmeted
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  Speaker 1: alike against the hand of war and the strife of tongues.
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  Speaker 1: The Earl himself met us at Casilus. Yet, whereupon I
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  Speaker 1: dismounted and bent upon a knee, he raised me right
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  Speaker 1: courteously and led me within, conversing all the while as
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  Speaker 1: to an equal. Such are a pair of folk I
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  Speaker 1: never saw before in Carrick or in Kyle. And sweetest
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  Speaker 1: of all to me was to see my father, for
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  Speaker 1: my mother had bidden at home to welcome us when
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  Speaker 1: we should ride southward. And among the first that came
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  Speaker 1: to bid me good fortune were Robert Harberg and his wife. Now,
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  Speaker 1: so soon as the eyes of my ancient love crossed mind,
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  Speaker 1: I perceived well that there was yet wickedness lurking in them.
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  Speaker 1: And whensoever her husband was called away on some business
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  Speaker 1: of the earl's, I had proof of it, for Kate
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  Speaker 1: Allison came near to me, and setting her hand on
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  Speaker 1: the silver buttons of my coat, as though to pick
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  Speaker 1: a thread, she said so Launcelot, or should I say,
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  Speaker 1: Sir Launcelot, is it come to this? You see? There
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  Speaker 1: is none so disdainful? But in time their fall will come. Nay, Kate,
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  Speaker 1: I made answer, It was not I that was first disdainful.
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  Speaker 1: For do you mind who it was that told me
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  Speaker 1: certain truths in the Greaves house at Coolaine, Ah Lance,
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  Speaker 1: said Kate Allison own it now? Was not I a
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  Speaker 1: kind leech to bite one I loved so healthily, all
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  Speaker 1: for his good and for the cooling of his blood.
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  Speaker 1: Kate Allison said, I thou wast ever a minx, a
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  Speaker 1: teasing rogue of rogues. But thys Yin might have gone
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  Speaker 1: near to costing me my life. Go too, sir Wantwitch
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  Speaker 1: said she did not. I know all the time that
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  Speaker 1: thy love for me was no more than a boy's
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  Speaker 1: fondness for kissing comfits and to be made of by
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  Speaker 1: a bonnie lass. Why even then thou wast fonder of
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  Speaker 1: Nell's little finger than of my whole body. I knew
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  Speaker 1: that Kate spoke true, For indeed, it was many months
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  Speaker 1: since I had so much as thought upon her. But
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  Speaker 1: this I told her not. The Lord knows how seldom
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  Speaker 1: she had thought upon me. But when they meet together,
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  Speaker 1: old sweethearts take pleasure thus in dallying with the past,
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  Speaker 1: when all wounds had been healed and no heart's broken.
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  Speaker 1: But she saw my eyes wandering, as I guess every
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  Speaker 1: way about, and she must needs tease me concerning that also. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: she said, you will not see your poesy till she
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  Speaker 1: comes in to the minister, and you so e'in conhent
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  Speaker 1: ye for a little with an old married wife and
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  Speaker 1: the mother of a family. Ye shall have time and
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  Speaker 1: to spare with your bonnie bride, or all be done, Kate,
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  Speaker 1: I said, ye will be my friend as of yore. Aye,
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  Speaker 1: and hold my tongue, answered she quickly that you did
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  Speaker 1: not always, then said I, for there never was such
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  Speaker 1: an uncouth love making in the world as with your
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  Speaker 1: tell tale tongue ye made mine. I dared not lay
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  Speaker 1: my lips to a tender word, nor so much as
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  Speaker 1: seek a favor as it might be innocently betwixt man
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  Speaker 1: and maid. But it was that you said to Kate
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  Speaker 1: on such a knight, or think ye that I count
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  Speaker 1: so little on myself as to be content with Kate
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  Speaker 1: Allison's cast off sweet speeches and the pretty besm laughed,
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  Speaker 1: for though a married wife, she was not a whit sobered,
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  Speaker 1: as one might see by her eyes. It served you
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  Speaker 1: greatly right, said she. But do me some justice. Did
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  Speaker 1: you ever hear of my telling of the Knight of
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  Speaker 1: the fair at Maybel and of our home coming by
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  Speaker 1: the Woodland way? No, said I curtly, for indeed I
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  Speaker 1: liked not that memory specially well, and wondered that she did,
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  Speaker 1: said Kate Allison. Rail no more against women's tongues, for
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  Speaker 1: they are immovable yard measures, and let out no more
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  Speaker 1: than likes them. At this moment they called me from
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  Speaker 1: the great door, and Kate Allison waved me off with
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  Speaker 1: a gaze up and away, Sir Knight, which pleased me
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  Speaker 1: more from her than many a benedicetae from another. The
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  Speaker 1: Minister had come, they said, and was waiting for me.
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  Speaker 1: I went in and lo to my wonder Who should
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  Speaker 1: he be but Measter Robert Bruce, the sequest traded Minister
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  Speaker 1: of Edinburgh, with whom the King had at last wholly
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  Speaker 1: fallen out concerning the matter of the Gollery riot. The
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  Speaker 1: Earl smiled at my wonderment, Art thou astonished, He said,
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  Speaker 1: thus to see our ancient friend in carric thinkest thou
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  Speaker 1: that thy marriage will not stand truth? It will, for
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  Speaker 1: even King James will think twice, or he bids his
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  Speaker 1: bishop on frock, A man that bides with me in
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  Speaker 1: my defensed house of Casilus, Sir Launcelot, said Master Robert Bruce,
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  Speaker 1: bending to me with his ancient grace and most reverend dignity.
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  Speaker 1: This is the happiest hour with me since I quitted
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  Speaker 1: my high town upon the long Ridge. It is true
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  Speaker 1: that I wander like a restless ghost seeking abode. But
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  Speaker 1: as yet the King hath not bent me yea though
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  Speaker 1: thrice I have met him in dispute and conference. Then
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  Speaker 1: went the Earl out to bring in my knell, and
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  Speaker 1: I listened to the Minister of Edinburgh speaking, Yet on
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  Speaker 1: my life. I could not fix my mind on a
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  Speaker 1: word he said, for there was a jangling as of
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  Speaker 1: many bells in mine ears, and all the pulses of
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  Speaker 1: my life beat together. Then knew I have assured toy
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  Speaker 1: that none had power to touch my heart like Nell Kennedy,
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  Speaker 1: the last that would not need to change her name.
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  Speaker 1: At last the door opened and she entered. Leaning on
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  Speaker 1: the earl's arm, she came. There was a rim of
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  Speaker 1: gold about her hair, like a coronet, and Jona cascilis
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  Speaker 1: bent over me. As he gave her into my hand,
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  Speaker 1: take her, he said, I have set a coronet about
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  Speaker 1: her brows, for to day she is in haste to
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  Speaker 1: be wed, or I might have put a real one there.
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  Speaker 1: And what had Sir Launcelot done then, poor thing? And
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  Speaker 1: I think the cold tall Earl John was more than
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  Speaker 1: a little fond of our knell, concerning which I often
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  Speaker 1: rally her. Now so Nella and I were married, And
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  Speaker 1: as though he had known her and her teasing temper,
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  Speaker 1: Master Robert Bruce paused long on the promise to obey
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  Speaker 1: when he came to put the questions to her, and
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  Speaker 1: also upon the words obedient wife. Wherefore I have ever
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  Speaker 1: held him to be a man gifted above most. With
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  Speaker 1: the second sight, it was between the sweet hazel and
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  Speaker 1: the flowering may that we rode south, we two alone,
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  Speaker 1: For Robert Harberg had led a company of men with
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  Speaker 1: flower wreathed lances and of young maids on palfreys, as
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  Speaker 1: far as the crossing of the roads which come from Coolane,
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  Speaker 1: where there met us a party with a loving cup.
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  Speaker 1: But now at long and last we were one clear,
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  Speaker 1: And ever as we rode, we caught hands and laughed
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  Speaker 1: and loosed them again, all for gladness to be alone.
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  Speaker 1: And we looked in one another's eyes. And I brought
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  Speaker 1: ourselves and our horses to destruction by thus looking and overlooking,
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  Speaker 1: till I felt mine, old dom Nicholas, a horse that
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  Speaker 1: loves not philandering, grow rustive and sulky under my thigh,
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  Speaker 1: tossing his head up as one slighted for the unworthy.
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  Speaker 1: And ever as we went she charged it upon me
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  Speaker 1: that then, and then and at such another time, I
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  Speaker 1: loved her not, and ever I swore that I did.
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  Speaker 1: Thereafter being beaten on that point, she fell to declaring
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  Speaker 1: that she had loved me first and most, but I
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  Speaker 1: only reluctantly, And as it had been at second hand.
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  Speaker 1: Thus we made the miles and the hours go by,
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  Speaker 1: redding up all our past life, and planning our future,
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  Speaker 1: wondering the while if the stir and clangor of war
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  Speaker 1: had indeed passed away forever, For already there had come
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  Speaker 1: a new look upon the land. Whether it was the
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  Speaker 1: union of the crowns and the new English wealth which
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  Speaker 1: made money more plenty. I know not at any rate
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: certain it is that there had arrived a security to
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  Speaker 1: which we in the lands of Carrick had been strangers
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  Speaker 1: for many generations. Then it was that the farmer began
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  Speaker 1: to set his oxen to the plow in teams of
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  Speaker 1: a dozen or more, not fearing any longer that there
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  Speaker 1: might come a glint of steel harnessed riders over the hill,
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  Speaker 1: who should drive his cattle before them, and leave himself
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  Speaker 1: lying in the furrow, a welter in his blood. The
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  Speaker 1: wind blew sweet about us. It seemed that never had
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  Speaker 1: there been a spring like this one since the world began,
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  Speaker 1: never such delicatest airs as those that stirred the crisps
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  Speaker 1: about Nell's white neck when she bent it sideways. To
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  Speaker 1: hearken to my speeches, I declare that, were I not
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: an unlearned Scot who takes to his pen only when
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  Speaker 1: work for the sword waxes slack, I could praise my
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  Speaker 1: love in similitudes of Arabian birds and ferny sprays, as
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  Speaker 1: well as Uphi's delight, or even as in the gentle
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  Speaker 1: Sydney his Arcadia. But as it is, I waste time,
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  Speaker 1: for already I have spoke too long, and must haste
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  Speaker 1: me to the end, though this is a part of
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  Speaker 1: my life that I could love to linger on. For
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: what is pleasanter than sunshine, after storm and the bolts
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  Speaker 1: of ruin? I declare it was five years since I
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  Speaker 1: had had time to look at a robin. But there
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: seemed to be time for everything this fine may day.
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  Speaker 1: And ever as we went it seemed that we had
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  Speaker 1: been a long time alone, and that it would soon
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  Speaker 1: come time to be turning back again. Then to which
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  Speaker 1: soever of us the thought came that we were now
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  Speaker 1: on the long lane that has no turning, save that
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  Speaker 1: which turns in at the kirkyard loaning. There would also
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  Speaker 1: come the desire to touch and to look. And even
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  Speaker 1: thus did Nell Kennedy, often reaching her hand across to
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  Speaker 1: me from her gentle equal pacing steed. Then would she
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  Speaker 1: fell back on the things that had been and which
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  Speaker 1: now were passed away yesterday at such a time she
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  Speaker 1: would say, I thought that today would never come. And
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  Speaker 1: now whereupon with her eyes she would look the rest
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  Speaker 1: that I told her how that I had seen the Dominie.
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  Speaker 1: But Yester, even when she was sewing at the pearling
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  Speaker 1: of her bridal dress, and thinking of me, he had
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  Speaker 1: gone back with his pipes to the school by the
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  Speaker 1: kirk at Maybole. And what said he of our wedding?
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  Speaker 1: Asked my dear why I was instant with him to
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  Speaker 1: come and bye to Paalgowain. I made answer, Shall I
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  Speaker 1: tell thee what he said? Ay? Tell it me? Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: quoth she blithely, stopping a moment on a high lying
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  Speaker 1: Moorish summit, with her hand above her eyes, and looking
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  Speaker 1: to the spear of the merrick towards which we rode. Well.
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  Speaker 1: Then he said that those that were but newlywed had
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  Speaker 1: no use for carbon negro heads wherein to put the
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  Speaker 1: ashes of their loves. He is none so ugly as that,
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  Speaker 1: said Nell, with I think a look at me, which
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  Speaker 1: I took for a certain complaisance. It pleased me to see.
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  Speaker 1: Then I told her how the Dominie had added that
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  Speaker 1: it was not yet time for men of his profession
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  Speaker 1: to come about the house of a newly wedded knight,
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  Speaker 1: but that if prosperity should come to Palgowin and the
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  Speaker 1: din of Baron's voices, we might ask him again in
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  Speaker 1: ten years or somewhat less, Oh, said Nell shortly, and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: rode a little further off. Yet I flattered myself that
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I had said the thing pretty well, for it was
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: not at all in these terms that the Dominie put
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: his offer. Indeed, I was in a quandary, how most
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: discreetly to deliver his message. So in the long twilight
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: of May we came riding down Minnock Water. For with
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the sun setting, we had fallen silent, and we looked
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: no more so frankly at each other. But with one accord,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: we turned our eyes across the water to watch for
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the light of my mother's candle in the little window.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: She heard us as we came, and there lo before
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: I knew it, she was at Nellie's saddle leather, helping
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: her to dismount, and the tears were running steadily down
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: her face. I think she minded the day when she
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: too had come home a bride to the little house
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: of Kyrioc among the hills. Oh my bairn, my bairn,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: was what she said, Come awa Ben, And it was
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: to knell that she said it me she minded no
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: more than a cock sparrow under the eaves. Then came
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Hugh of Kirrymore out to take the horses but I went,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: as is my customed, to the stable with dom Nicholas,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: for he never slept well otherwise. And when I came
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: in again, I found that my mother had nell already
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: seated by the fireside, for it is chill among the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: uplands in May. The peats were burning fine, and on
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the white board there was a supper set fit for
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: a prince and princess. But all the time my mother
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: never minded me at all, save to rage on me
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: for bringing the last so far and so fast. But
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: mother said, I remember that if I had not made
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: some haste, all your fine supper would have been wasted.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: And indeed it came not far from being that, as
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: it was, for we could eat a little. The finest
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: of Murelin fair seemed somehow or other to stick by
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the way, tasting strangely dry and sapless. And after we
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: had done, we drew apart and looked at the red ashes,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: while my mother rattled on about the simple concerns of
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the sheep and the calves, which mountain bread folk vastly
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: loved both to speak of and to hear about. Presently,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: she leaned over me and took down the burnt bible
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: out of the wall. Omriy here launch, she said, read
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: you the chapter this night, ere ye steep, it becomes
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: a man wetted, and the head of a family besides
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: your father, is from home. I declare I would sooner
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: have charged upon the level spears, but I had no choice,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: with my mother speaking as she did when I was
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a boy, and my Knell sitting there crossing her pretty
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: ankles by the fireside. So I manned to read a portion.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: It was about Jonathan clamoring up a rock, and a
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: good soldier he was. But the prayer fairly beat me. However,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: ere we rose from our knees, we said the Lord's prayer,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: all of us together. So to rest we went, without
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: other word being spoken. And through the little window of
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the room in which I was born Nell and I
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: could hear ere we went to sleep the bridle of
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the burn, hurrying down through the peace of the hills,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: past our own new house of Palgowan, and so on
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: towards the silence of the uttermost sea. End of chapter
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: fifty two, End of The Gray Man by S. R.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Crockett