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46 - Grey Man by S R Crockett · Grey Man

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  Speaker 1: Man by S. R. Crockatt, Chapter forty six, The Judgment
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  Speaker 1: of God. The court of the baron Bailey of Carrick
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  Speaker 1: broke up in confusion. It had been arranged that we
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  Speaker 1: should ride altogether to the north, even to Colain, where
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  Speaker 1: his Majesty might have due entertainment provided for him, nearer
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  Speaker 1: than at my lord's castle of Cassilis. Also it was
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  Speaker 1: upon this shore side road that he had left the
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  Speaker 1: Earl of Mar and the favored attendants with whom James
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  Speaker 1: the sixth ordinarily sallied forth to the hunting. Those of
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  Speaker 1: the Auchendrain and Barghiny party, who hated us, clamored that
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  Speaker 1: the Dominie and I should be left warded in the
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  Speaker 1: lockfast place of Gervan, where our enemies would have soon
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  Speaker 1: tained their will of us. But Robert Harberg moved my Lord,
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  Speaker 1: who went about dour and heartsick for the failure of
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  Speaker 1: his plans in the matter of themors, to have us
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  Speaker 1: brought on with purpose to lodge us within the ancient
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  Speaker 1: strengths of denure, so that as I rode hand tied
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  Speaker 1: at the tail of the King's retinue, I was yet
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  Speaker 1: near enough to have sight of Marjorie, and who rode
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  Speaker 1: before us, And this was some comfort to my heart.
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  Speaker 1: The way lay for miles along the sea shore, which
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  Speaker 1: is here sandy, with a broad belt of fine, hard beach,
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  Speaker 1: whereon the horses went daintily and well, while at our
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  Speaker 1: left elbows the sea murmured. The King and John Muir
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  Speaker 1: rode first, and his Majesty constantly broke into loud mirth
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  Speaker 1: at some witty saying of his companions. Level with them,
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  Speaker 1: but riding moodily apart was the Earl, while James Muir
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  Speaker 1: the younger, rode alone by himself behind these three. I
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  Speaker 1: groaned within me for the exaltation of our enemy, and
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  Speaker 1: at the short sightedness of anointed kings. Is there a
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  Speaker 1: God in heaven? I cried aloud. Thus to make no sign,
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  Speaker 1: while the devil is driving all things headlong to destruction
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  Speaker 1: according to his own devising, there was a god in
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  Speaker 1: heaven for quick as an echo that answers from the wood.
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  Speaker 1: There before us, upon the sands, just where the levels
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  Speaker 1: had been overflowed at the last tide, lay a thing
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  Speaker 1: which halted the advancing cavalcade, as suddenly as an army
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  Speaker 1: with banns. The men crowded about, and having any excitement,
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  Speaker 1: forgotten us their charges. We also were permitted to look,
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  Speaker 1: And this is what we saw. Thereupon the ribbed sea
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  Speaker 1: sand lay the dead body of the boy William Dalrymple.
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  Speaker 1: I knew him at a glance, for all that so
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  Speaker 1: much had come and gone since that day when I
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  Speaker 1: played at the Gulf Game upon the green of May Bowl.
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  Speaker 1: He lay with his arms stretched away from his sides,
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  Speaker 1: his face turned over, and one cheek dented deeply into
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  Speaker 1: the sand. It was a pitiful sight. Yet the lad
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  Speaker 1: was not greatly altered, wind tossed and wave borne, as
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  Speaker 1: he had been, and now brought to cross the path
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  Speaker 1: of the unjust at the very nick of time, by
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  Speaker 1: the manifest judgment and providence of God. What means this,
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  Speaker 1: said the King, some poor drowned sailor boy, let us avoid,
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  Speaker 1: for of all things he loved not gruesome sights nor
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  Speaker 1: the color of blood. But James Muir suddenly cried aloud
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  Speaker 1: at the vision, as if he had been stricken with pain.
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  Speaker 1: And as he did so, his father looked at him
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  Speaker 1: as though he would have slain him, so devilish was
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  Speaker 1: his glance of hate and contempt. But a woman who
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  Speaker 1: had come running hot foot after the party. Now rushed
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  Speaker 1: to the front. She gave a loud scream, ear piercing
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  Speaker 1: and frantic when she saw the tossed little body lying
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  Speaker 1: all abroad upon the sand. My Willie, my ain' son, Willie,
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  Speaker 1: she cried, for it was Meg Dalrymple. All her ignorant
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  Speaker 1: rudeness seemed to fade away in the presence of death.
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  Speaker 1: And as she lifted the poor, mishandled head that had
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  Speaker 1: been her son's, each of us felt that she grew
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  Speaker 1: akin to our own mother's, widowed and bereaved. For I
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  Speaker 1: think that which touches us most in the grief of
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  Speaker 1: a widow is not our feeling for our particular woman,
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  Speaker 1: but our obligation to the mother of all flesh. So
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  Speaker 1: when Meg Dalrymple lifted her son's head, it might have
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  Speaker 1: been a morning queen with a dead kingling upon her knee.
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  Speaker 1: My aind, my ain lad, She cried, see Lammy, but
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  Speaker 1: I loved ye. Ye were the widow's ay son flee
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  Speaker 1: he footed den in the mountain row mere glegg than
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  Speaker 1: the falcon that sits yonder on the king's wrist. Ye
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  Speaker 1: were the hope of thy mother's life, and they has
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  Speaker 1: slain ye killed my bonny ween that never did harm
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  Speaker 1: to nayman. She undid a kerchief from about the white
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  Speaker 1: swollen neck of her son kens any man that image
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  Speaker 1: and superscription, said she, pointing to an embroidered crest upon it.
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  Speaker 1: John Muir strode forward hastily. He had grown as pale
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  Speaker 1: as death. Give it me, I will pass it to
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  Speaker 1: his majesty, he said, holding out his hand for it.
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  Speaker 1: But the woman leaped up fiercely. Nah, she said. The
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  Speaker 1: butcher kens his knife, but he would only hide it
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  Speaker 1: in the day of trial. I will give it to
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  Speaker 1: my anne well kenned lord, And she put the napkin
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  Speaker 1: into the hands of the Earl of Casilus, who looked
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  Speaker 1: at it with the most minute attention. This kerchief, said
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  Speaker 1: the earl, gravely, as the crest and motto of John
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  Speaker 1: Muir of Achendrane. The King looked, staggered and bewildered. Let
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  Speaker 1: all dismount till we try further of this thing, he said,
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  Speaker 1: But John Muir would have had him go on, saying
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  Speaker 1: that it was yet more of the plot. But the
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  Speaker 1: king would not now hearken to him, for he was
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  Speaker 1: an obstinate man, and oftentime he would listen to no reason,
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  Speaker 1: though his ear was ever open enough to flattery. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: he thought himself to be the wisest man in all
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  Speaker 1: the islands and kingdoms of the world, wiser even than Solomon,
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  Speaker 1: the son of David. So his Majesty commanded his inclination
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  Speaker 1: and went up to the body. There was also a
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  Speaker 1: rope around the neck with a long end, which was
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  Speaker 1: embedded in the sand. With his own hand, the king
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  Speaker 1: drew this out. He held it up. Cans any man
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  Speaker 1: this length of rope, he asked, looking about. Now, one
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  Speaker 1: strand of sea cordage is like another, as two peas.
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  Speaker 1: But this was our Solomon's way of judging, to find
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  Speaker 1: out the insignificant and then pretend that it told him
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  Speaker 1: a mighty deal. Yet it so happened that there was
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  Speaker 1: a man there from out of the shore side of Gervan.
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  Speaker 1: He was a coast wise sailor, and he took the
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  Speaker 1: rope in his hand. This rope, he said, turning it
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  Speaker 1: about every way, is Irish maid and has been used
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  Speaker 1: to tie bundles of neat hides. And who, again asked
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  Speaker 1: the King shrewdly, as I do admit, who upon this
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  Speaker 1: coast trades with Ireland in the commodity of neat hides.
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  Speaker 1: There are but myself and James Bannatine of Chapel Donan,
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  Speaker 1: replied the man honestly and promptly. And this is not
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  Speaker 1: your rope, said the King. Nay, said the man. I
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  Speaker 1: would not buy a pennyworth of Irish hemps so long
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  Speaker 1: as I could twine the hemp of Scotland. No, not
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  Speaker 1: even to hang an irishman would I do it. This
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  Speaker 1: is James Bannatine's rope, then said the King. Bring hither
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  Speaker 1: James of Chapel Donnan, and they brought him. He stood forth,
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  Speaker 1: much feared, indeed, but taking the matter direly like the
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  Speaker 1: barley ruffian he was. Nevertheless, when put to the question,
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  Speaker 1: he denied the rope, and that in spite of all
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  Speaker 1: threats of torture. Yet I could see that the King
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  Speaker 1: was greatly shaken in his opinion, and knew not what
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  Speaker 1: to think. For when John Muir drew near to touch
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  Speaker 1: his arm, and as before say somewhat in his private ear,
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  Speaker 1: the King drew hastily away and looked at Achandrane's hand
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  Speaker 1: as though there had been pollution upon it. So I
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  Speaker 1: knew that his opinion was wavering. Also, the poor body
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  Speaker 1: in the mother's arms daunted him. Suddenly he clapped his
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  Speaker 1: hands together and became exceedingly joyous and alert. I have it,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, the ordeal of touch. It is God's ordinary
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  Speaker 1: and manifest way of vindicating his justice. Here is the
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  Speaker 1: dead body of the slain. Here are all the accused
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  Speaker 1: and the accusers. Let it be equally done. Let all
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  Speaker 1: touch the body for the revealing of the secrets of
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  Speaker 1: the hearts of wicked men. Then John Muir laughed and scoffed,
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  Speaker 1: saying that it was but a fright, a foolish opinion,
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  Speaker 1: and old wive's fable. But for all his quirksome guile,
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  Speaker 1: he had gotten this time very mightily on the wrong
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  Speaker 1: side of the King, for his majesty was just mad
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  Speaker 1: with belief in such things as omens and miracles of
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  Speaker 1: God's providence. So the King shook him off and said,
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  Speaker 1: it is my royal will that all who are tainted
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  Speaker 1: with the matter shall immediately touch or be held guilty.
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  Speaker 1: And the saying comforted King James, being as it were
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  Speaker 1: easily pleased with his own words and plaques. So they
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  Speaker 1: brought us forward from among the crowd, bound as we were.
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  Speaker 1: And first of all I touched fearlessly the poor dead
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  Speaker 1: body of the lad Yet it was with some strange feeling,
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  Speaker 1: though I knew well that I was wholly innocent, But
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  Speaker 1: yet I could not forget that something untoward might happen.
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  Speaker 1: And then good bye to this fair world and all
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  Speaker 1: the pleasant stir of life within it. Then after me
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  Speaker 1: the Dominie touched, even Marjorie and Nell, doing it with
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  Speaker 1: set faces and strange eyes. It was now the turns
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  Speaker 1: of the real murderers, and my heart beat little and
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  Speaker 1: fast to see what should happen. Let Achandrane, the younger,
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  Speaker 1: touch first, being the most directly accused, cried the king.
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  Speaker 1: But James Muir seemed to flame out, suddenly distract like
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  Speaker 1: a madman being taken to Bethleem. He cried out, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: I will will not touch. I declare that I will
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  Speaker 1: not go near him, And when John Muir strove to
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  Speaker 1: persuade him to it, he struck at him fiercely with
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  Speaker 1: his open hand, leaving the stead of his fingers dead
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  Speaker 1: white upon his father's cheek. And when they took his
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  Speaker 1: arm and would have forced him to it, he threw
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  Speaker 1: himself down, headlong in the sand, foaming and crying, I
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  Speaker 1: will not touch for blood, I will not touch for blood.
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  Speaker 1: But in spite of his struggling, they carried him to
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  Speaker 1: where the body lay, and all men standing back, they
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  Speaker 1: thrust his bare hand sharply upon the neck where the
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  Speaker 1: rope had been. And it is true at scripture I
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  Speaker 1: that right declare, though I cannot explain it. Out from
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  Speaker 1: the open mouth of the lad there sprang a gout
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  Speaker 1: of black and oozy blood whereat. A great cry went up,
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  Speaker 1: and James Muir fell forward on the sand as one
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  Speaker 1: suddenly stricken dead. All crowded forward to see, crying with
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  Speaker 1: one voice, the judgment of God, the judgment of God.
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  Speaker 1: And I shouted too, for I had seen the vindication
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  Speaker 1: of justice upon them murderer. The blood of Abel had
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  Speaker 1: cried out of the waste sea sand. The mark of
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  Speaker 1: God was on the guilty. Then suddenly, in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of the push, I heard a stirring and a shouting.
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  Speaker 1: Stop him, Stop him, they cried. I looked about, and
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  Speaker 1: lo there, sitting erect upon his horse, and riding like
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  Speaker 1: fire among heather was John Muir. He had stolen away
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  Speaker 1: while all eyes were on the marvel. He had passed
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  Speaker 1: unregarded through the press, and now he rode for his
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  Speaker 1: life southward along the shore. I gave one mighty twist
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  Speaker 1: to the manacles on my wrists. And whether those that
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  Speaker 1: set them had been kindly, being of my own name
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  Speaker 1: and clan, or whether the GUIDs were weak, I cannot tell.
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  Speaker 1: At all events, my hands were free, and so, with
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  Speaker 1: never a weapon in my possession, I leaped on a horse,
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  Speaker 1: the same indeed which the king had been riding, and
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  Speaker 1: set it to gallop after the man whose death was
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  Speaker 1: my life. It was the maddest, foolishest venture. For doubtless
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  Speaker 1: my enemy was well armed, but I seemed to see
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  Speaker 1: my love and all the endowment of grace and favor
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  Speaker 1: I was to receive, with her vanishing away with every
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  Speaker 1: stride of John Muir's horse. Besides, there was a king
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  Speaker 1: and an earl looking on. So upon the King's horse
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  Speaker 1: I settled down to a long chase. I was already
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  Speaker 1: far forward. Ear behind me I heard the clatter of
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  Speaker 1: mounting men, the crying to rest of horses, to stand still,
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  Speaker 1: and the other accompaniments of a cavalcade leaping hastily into
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  Speaker 1: the saddle. But when I looked at John Muir upon
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  Speaker 1: his fleet steed, and saw that I upon the King's horse,
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  Speaker 1: but scarcely held my own, I knew that the stopping
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  Speaker 1: of the murderer must be work of mine, if it
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  Speaker 1: were to be done at all. So I resolved to
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  Speaker 1: chance it, in spite of whatever armory of weapons he
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  Speaker 1: might carry. But first I cleared my feet of the
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  Speaker 1: great stirrups which the King used, so that if it
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  Speaker 1: came to the bitter pinch and I was stricken with
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  Speaker 1: a bullet or pierced with steel, I should not be
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  Speaker 1: dragged helpless along the ground with my foot in the iron,
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  Speaker 1: as once or twice I had seen happen in battle.
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  Speaker 1: And that, though uneasily memorable, is I can bear witness
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  Speaker 1: not a bonny sight. My charger stretched away, as though
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  Speaker 1: he had been a beagle, running conyes of the down
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  Speaker 1: into their holes. But John Muir's horse went every whit
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  Speaker 1: as fast. I saw well that he made for the
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  Speaker 1: deep trackless spaces of killock and wood. The oak trees
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  Speaker 1: that grew along its edge stretched out their arms to
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  Speaker 1: hide him. The Birkenshaw waved all its green boughs with
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  Speaker 1: a promise of security. I shortened my grip upon the stout,
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  Speaker 1: golden crowned staff which the king carried at the pommel
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  Speaker 1: of his saddle. Yet, as John Muir drave madly towards
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  Speaker 1: the wood, and sometimes looked over his shoulder to see
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  Speaker 1: how I came on, I was overjoyed to notice a
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  Speaker 1: wide ditch before him, which he must needs over leap,
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  Speaker 1: And at that business, if at no other, I thought
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  Speaker 1: to beat him, being slim and of half his weight,
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  Speaker 1: So I kept my horse to the right upon better ground,
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  Speaker 1: though it took me a little out of the straight
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  Speaker 1: course for the wood. His horse at the first refused
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  Speaker 1: the leap, and I counted upon him as mine. But
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  Speaker 1: I counted too soon, for he went down the bank
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  Speaker 1: side a short way to an easier place, where there
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  Speaker 1: was a landward man's bridge of trees and sods. Here
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  Speaker 1: he easily walked his horse across, and having mounted the bank,
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  Speaker 1: he waved his hand at me and set off again
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  Speaker 1: toward the wood. But now while he had an uneven
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  Speaker 1: country to overpass, I had only the green fields, rich
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  Speaker 1: in old pasture and undulating, like the waves of an
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  Speaker 1: oily tide when the sea is deep and there is
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  Speaker 1: no break of the water. He was at the very
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  Speaker 1: edge of the wood when I came upon his flank.
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  Speaker 1: Then I gave a loud shout as I set my
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  Speaker 1: horse to his speed and circled about to head him off.
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  Speaker 1: But John Muir, though an old man, only settled himself
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  Speaker 1: firmer in his saddle, and with his sword in his hand,
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  Speaker 1: rolled soldierly and straight at the wood, as though I
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  Speaker 1: had not been in front of him at all. It
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  Speaker 1: was wisely enough done, for his heavier beast took mine
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  Speaker 1: upon the shoulder and almost rolled me in the dust.
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  Speaker 1: He came upon me, not front to front, as a
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  Speaker 1: rider meets his foe in the lists, but as it were,
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  Speaker 1: stemmed aside, like two boats that meet upon converging tacks.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I managed to avoid him, being light and supple,
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  Speaker 1: though he leaned far over and struck savagely at me
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  Speaker 1: as he passed again at the third shock, he had
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  Speaker 1: almost overridden me and made me die the death. But
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  Speaker 1: I had not practiced horsemanship and the art of fighting
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  Speaker 1: the saddle so long for nothing. Indeed, on all the
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  Speaker 1: seaboard of air. There was no one that could compare
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  Speaker 1: with me in these things. Therefore it was easy for me,
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  Speaker 1: by dint of my quickness and skill, to swerve off
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  Speaker 1: to the right and receive the sword stroke in my cloak,
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  Speaker 1: which I carried twisted about my left arm. Then, keeping
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  Speaker 1: still between the wood and John Muir, I met him,
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  Speaker 1: this time face to face, with my eyes watching the
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  Speaker 1: direction of his eye and the crook of his elbow,
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  Speaker 1: that I might know where he meant to strike. For
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  Speaker 1: a good sworder knows the enemy's intent, and his blade
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  Speaker 1: meets it. Long ear thought can pass into action. So
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  Speaker 1: it was no second sight which told me that he
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  Speaker 1: meant to slash across the thigh. When he came and
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  Speaker 1: nigh me, I knew it, or ever, his blade was raised,
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  Speaker 1: so that when he struck I was ready for him,
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  Speaker 1: and measured his sword, proving my distance as it had
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  Speaker 1: been upon parade. And as the blade whistled by me,
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  Speaker 1: I judged that it was my turn and struck him
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  Speaker 1: with all the force I could muster, a crashing blow
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  Speaker 1: upon the face with the heavy butt of the King's stave,
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  Speaker 1: which stunned and unsettled him, so that he pitched forward
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  Speaker 1: upon his horse, yet not so as to lose his seat. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: owing to the swing of my arm, the stroke fell
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  Speaker 1: also partly upon his horse's back, which affrighted the beast
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  Speaker 1: and set him harder than ever to the running, so
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  Speaker 1: that I was past ere. I knew it, and the
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  Speaker 1: wood was won. But I was not thirty yards behind him,
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  Speaker 1: and looked to make the capture. Ear we reached the
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  Speaker 1: further side, and but for a foul trick, I should
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  Speaker 1: have done it. It so happens that there is a
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  Speaker 1: little hill in the woods of Killochan, and I, seeing
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  Speaker 1: that John Muir was riding about one side, took round
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  Speaker 1: the other, thinking that I had the shorter line of it.
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  Speaker 1: But he, as soon as he saw me make round
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  Speaker 1: the corner, turned his horse into its own hoofmarks, and
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  Speaker 1: sped away back again as it had been, to meet
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  Speaker 1: them that pursued, but at the same time bearing enough
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  Speaker 1: to the south to clear them easily, so that when
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  Speaker 1: I came round the hill, I saw no quarry, and
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  Speaker 1: only heard the bows crashing in his wake. Nevertheless, without
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  Speaker 1: the loss of a moment, I took the line of
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  Speaker 1: his retreat as I thought, yet not so correctly, But
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  Speaker 1: that when I issued forth from the wood, I saw
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  Speaker 1: him nigh half a mile in front. Again he waved
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  Speaker 1: a contumelia's hand, which made me so fiercely angry that
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  Speaker 1: I tightened my waist belt and vowed to go no
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  Speaker 1: more to sunny Kulaye if I took not back the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: head and hands of John Muir at my saddle bow.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So with set and determined brow, I rode ever forward.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: It was the cast of the die for me, for
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Nell herself, our life together, and our green pastures and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: lavender scented napery cupboards were all to come out of
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the catching of this enemy of our house. It is
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: small wonder, therefore, that I I was passing keen upon
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the matter. Yet in spite of my endeavors, I gained
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: but little, and it was already graying to the twilight
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: when I came to a place by the seashore, waste
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: and solitary, where there were but few houses about. I
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: had seen John Muir ride in thitherwards, and so I
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: followed him full tilt, reckless of danger, being weary heart
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: with the ill fortune of my riding and quest. But
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: as I entered the narrows of the pass, a stone
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: flew from an ambuscade. I felt a hot, stunning blow
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: upon the head, and with the pain I remember laying
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: hold of my horse's mane and gripping tight with the
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: hand on which a broken manacle still jangled. Something warm
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: flowed over my brow, and suddenly I saw everything red,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: as though I had been looking through the stained glass
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: of some ancient kirk. Red flowers, red grass, red sand,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and red sea. That was all I saw, and I
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: do not remember even falling to the ground. End of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Chapter forty six.