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44 - Grey Man by S R Crockett · Grey Man

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty four, The Murder on the Beach. Marjorie Kennedy
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  Speaker 1: rang out the last words like a trumpet. Not even
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  Speaker 1: the Earl's herald could have been heard. Further, all men
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  Speaker 1: hear my tale before they judge. She went on. It
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  Speaker 1: was the morn before my father's death day. From my
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  Speaker 1: window in the house of Achendraine, I had seen this
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  Speaker 1: man and his father, with Thomas of Drummerky and Walter
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  Speaker 1: of Cloncaird, come and go all day with trappings and harness,
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  Speaker 1: because they knew that the time was nigh at hand
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  Speaker 1: for my father's riding to Edinburgh. It chanced that I
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  Speaker 1: was looking down through the bars of my prison house,
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  Speaker 1: for there was little else to do in the house
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  Speaker 1: of Achendraine. It was about eleven of the clock when
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  Speaker 1: I saw a young lad dusty from head to foot,
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  Speaker 1: venture a little way within the castle yet and stand
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  Speaker 1: as one that looks about him, not knowing where to turn.
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  Speaker 1: The court was void and silent, and the lad seemed distressed.
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  Speaker 1: But while he thus stood, James Muir and his father
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  Speaker 1: came down the turnpike stair and stepped, talking whisperingly together
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  Speaker 1: out into the flagged court. It was John Muir, the
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  Speaker 1: elder who first saw the lad and called him. I
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  Speaker 1: saw the boy put a letter into his hand, the
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  Speaker 1: which he opened carefully and read, passing it to his son,
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  Speaker 1: who read also. Then James Muir stepped back and called
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  Speaker 1: Thomas of Drummerky and Cloncird. They came, both of them,
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  Speaker 1: and the four bent their heads together over the writing.
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  Speaker 1: Then in a little John Muir closed the letter again
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  Speaker 1: as it had been, and gave it with certain charges
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  Speaker 1: to the boy. Saw you that letter or knew you
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  Speaker 1: aught of its contents? Asked the Earl John Nay, said,
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  Speaker 1: Marjory Kennedy. My window was too far from them, and
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  Speaker 1: they spoke low and with privity among themselves. Then was
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  Speaker 1: my time, my Lord Bailly of Carrick, said, I, may
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  Speaker 1: it please you. It was I Launcelot Kennedy of Kyriok,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes squire to Sir Thomas of Coulaine, who sent that letter.
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  Speaker 1: I sent it from Mabel by the hands of William Dalrymple,
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  Speaker 1: the lad whom the lady Marjory saw come within the castle.
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  Speaker 1: Yet of Achandraine, the Dominie stood forward, and it was I.
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  Speaker 1: Robert Muir, schoolmaster in the town of Mabel who wrote
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  Speaker 1: that letter. I wrote it as Launcelot Kennedy set me
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  Speaker 1: the words. For he is a man readier with the
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  Speaker 1: sword than the pen, though he hath some small skill
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  Speaker 1: even of that. But that day he was hot upon
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  Speaker 1: his game of gulf, which I hold to be but
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  Speaker 1: a foolish sport which rapidly obscures the census. So I,
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  Speaker 1: having as is mine office pen in hand, wrote the
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  Speaker 1: letter for him. Also I sent one William Dalrymple, called
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  Speaker 1: for a nickname Willie of the gleg Foot, with it
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  Speaker 1: to John Muir at his house of Auchendraine. I bear
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  Speaker 1: witness that after a space this boy came back with
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  Speaker 1: the story that he had found John Muir from home.
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  Speaker 1: But when we charged it upon him that the letter
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  Speaker 1: had been thumbed and opened, he grew confused and confessed
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  Speaker 1: that he had been compelled to bring back that message
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  Speaker 1: by the Muir himself, who had broken the seal, and
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  Speaker 1: give it it again to him, even as the Lady
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  Speaker 1: Margery has said. And what further proof do you offer
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  Speaker 1: of all? This? Asked the Earl, bending forward with eager
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  Speaker 1: to catch the Domini's words. The Dominie put his hand
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  Speaker 1: into the inner pocket of his coat, and pulled out,
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  Speaker 1: among various pipe reads and scraps of writing, a letter,
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  Speaker 1: which he kept carefully folded in a leathern case by itself.
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  Speaker 1: There is the thing itself. May it please your lordship
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  Speaker 1: to look upon it, said he calmly. And as soon
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  Speaker 1: as he had said that, the Earl rose eagerly to
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  Speaker 1: see the famous missive which had brought about all this turmoil.
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  Speaker 1: There was also a stir among the folk that were
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  Speaker 1: gathered about, for all strained their eyes as if they
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  Speaker 1: could see that which was going on and read the
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  Speaker 1: writing at that distance. It is a most notable proof,
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  Speaker 1: said the Earl, And so we receive it. But can
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  Speaker 1: you not produce the lad William Dalrymple. That can we not,
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  Speaker 1: said the lady Marjorie. But I and I alone can
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  Speaker 1: tell you all the story of his death, blacker even
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  Speaker 1: than the other, because done to a young lad, against
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  Speaker 1: whom even these cruel murderers could allege no quarrel. And
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  Speaker 1: again there could be heard the sound of men settling
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  Speaker 1: down to deep attention throughout all the crowd at the Justiciaire,
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  Speaker 1: And they even crowded in a little past the pennons,
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  Speaker 1: so that the heralds had to beat upon the ground
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  Speaker 1: with the butts of their halbards, as though to bruise
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  Speaker 1: their feet, before they could force them to give back.
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  Speaker 1: But James Muir abode stupid like and sullen before his judge,
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  Speaker 1: while his accuserstood not three feet from him and told
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  Speaker 1: her story. It was just when the bree of my
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  Speaker 1: father's death began to go abroad against the Auchen drains,
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  Speaker 1: so Marjory Kennedy again took up her tail. And when
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  Speaker 1: John Muir the Elder began to fear that the matter
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  Speaker 1: of the letter would be made manifest, that I again
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  Speaker 1: saw the little lad William Dalrymple. One night I observed
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  Speaker 1: James Muir leading him rudely by the neck into one
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  Speaker 1: of the barred cells which underlie the stables, and to
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  Speaker 1: that place with his own hands he carried food and
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  Speaker 1: water once every day thereafter. Then came to visit John
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  Speaker 1: Muir once Sir Robert Montgomery, the Laird of Skelmorley, and
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  Speaker 1: with him they sent the lad on pretext to be
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  Speaker 1: a page at his house of Lochranza, which he keeps
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  Speaker 1: for the King's hunting lodge on the Isle of Erin
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  Speaker 1: and what befell there I cannot tell. But it was
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  Speaker 1: not many weeks before William Dalrymple was back again, and
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  Speaker 1: this time they sent him, as he told me afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: to the lowlands of Holland, there to serve in the
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  Speaker 1: Lord Bucklook's regiment, which first as a trumpeter and after
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  Speaker 1: as a soldier he did. Nevertheless, being but young, he
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  Speaker 1: wearied easily of the stress and chance of foreign war,
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  Speaker 1: and so returned as before then, When in spite of
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  Speaker 1: all the boy came back and it was told to
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  Speaker 1: John Muir that William Dalrymple was again in his native town,
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  Speaker 1: he was neither to hold nor to bind. He neither
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  Speaker 1: rested nor slept till he had again brought the lad
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  Speaker 1: to his house, where he abode for some weeks, but
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  Speaker 1: not so closely shut up as before, so that it
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  Speaker 1: was often my chance to see him as he came
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  Speaker 1: and went about the court, and even to converse with him.
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  Speaker 1: But in a little while he vanished, and from that
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  Speaker 1: time I saw him no more. Now, the bitterness of
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  Speaker 1: my life, in my desire to bring to justice the
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  Speaker 1: murderers of my father, caused me at last to quick
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  Speaker 1: the house of Achandraine for now I held, as I thought,
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  Speaker 1: the strings which would draw mine enemies to their doom.
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  Speaker 1: So upon a night I had it set to escape.
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  Speaker 1: She that was my maid, helping me, with one other
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  Speaker 1: that was a body servant of Achandraine's and my tirewoman's lover.
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  Speaker 1: When I came out, I found a pony waiting for me,
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  Speaker 1: and it was my purpose to ride to the house
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  Speaker 1: of my kinsman, the Earl of Casillis. But as I journeyed,
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  Speaker 1: what was my great affrightmen to come upon a company
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  Speaker 1: of two who rode some little way before me. I
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  Speaker 1: could easily have turned bridle rein and ridden another way,
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  Speaker 1: but for something which came into my heart to make
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  Speaker 1: me follow on. For in a trice I recognized the
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  Speaker 1: riders to be John Muir and his son, the father
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  Speaker 1: being wrapped in his great cloak of gray, as is
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  Speaker 1: his custom, and by this I knew him. So I
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  Speaker 1: followed them, but not very near, And because my beast
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  Speaker 1: was a stable companion of their horses, he went after
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  Speaker 1: of his own accord, till by the first breaking touch
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  Speaker 1: of morn we came to a waste place upon the
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  Speaker 1: edge of the sea, where in a secret dell I
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  Speaker 1: dismounted and tied my pony to a broom bush, which
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  Speaker 1: shot out over a sandy hollow. Then, yet more secretly,
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  Speaker 1: I followed them across the sand hills and on the
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  Speaker 1: very edge on the lynx, where the turf ceases underfoot
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  Speaker 1: and there is only sand. John Muir and his son,
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  Speaker 1: this man before you, waited for a while. They stood,
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  Speaker 1: listening and talking low together, so that though I lay
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  Speaker 1: hidden behind a wind which overgrew a little turfy dell,
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  Speaker 1: I could neither hear what was said, Nor yet, by
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  Speaker 1: reason of the bareness of the sand, dared I to
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  Speaker 1: venture nearer them. But they waited not long before one
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  Speaker 1: came down to meet them over the turf, bringing a
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  Speaker 1: lad with him. Then immediately James Muir whistled a call,
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  Speaker 1: and the reply came back in like manner, You are late,
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  Speaker 1: James Bennettyne, I heard John Muir the elder, say, what
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  Speaker 1: has tagled you? My sea cloth is not so well
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  Speaker 1: accustomed to night plois as your cloak of gray, the
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  Speaker 1: man growled as he came along. Sullenly enough. Then the
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  Speaker 1: three men of them walked a little apart and came
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  Speaker 1: in their circuit very near to the hollow where I lay.
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  Speaker 1: While down on the shore, the young lad stood and yawned,
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  Speaker 1: with his hands in his pockets, like one that shivers
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  Speaker 1: and wishes he were back in bed. Nor had he,
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  Speaker 1: I am confident even then any thought of evil. But
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  Speaker 1: the talk of the three, as I heard it in snatches,
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  Speaker 1: was black and bitter. The darkest council was that of
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  Speaker 1: the man who stands here. For James Muir said, only
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  Speaker 1: the dead are no tail piots. And again we have
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  Speaker 1: had enough of this silly, endless hiding and seeking work.
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  Speaker 1: Let the earth hide him, or the sea keep him,
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  Speaker 1: and be done with it now. John Muir, the elder,
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  Speaker 1: and the man whom they called James Bannatyne seemed at
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  Speaker 1: the least inclined to discuss milder counsels. Bannatine was all
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  Speaker 1: for sending the lad over to Ireland, and John Muir
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  Speaker 1: listened as though he might be persuaded. Yet I knew
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  Speaker 1: his guile, for even when he stood with his back
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  Speaker 1: to his son, I saw him lift up his hand
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  Speaker 1: for a signal. And with that and no more, James
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  Speaker 1: Muir rushed at the poor lad and overbore him to
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  Speaker 1: the ground, And there upon the sands of the sea shore.
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  Speaker 1: This James Muir set his knee on the Baroney's breast,
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  Speaker 1: and with bloody hands, choked and worried him till there
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  Speaker 1: was no life left in the lad. And his father
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  Speaker 1: also went and held the lad when he fought his
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  Speaker 1: white reverend beard, waggling in the wind, till at last
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  Speaker 1: the baron lay still. But James Bennettyne stood by and
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  Speaker 1: clasped his hands as the boy tossed and struggled for
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  Speaker 1: his dear young life, for I think he was now
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  Speaker 1: mainly sorry that he had brought the lad to his death.
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  Speaker 1: Then I could stand the vileness no longer without protest.
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  Speaker 1: So I, Margery Kennedy, even though I well knew that
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  Speaker 1: they would certainly do the like to me, rose from
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  Speaker 1: my hiding place in the sand hollow, and cried, murderers,
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  Speaker 1: cease from your cruel work. God will come and judge you.
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  Speaker 1: Whereat John Muir came hastily to where I stood and
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  Speaker 1: gripped me. You have seen all, he said, then you
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  Speaker 1: must die. Let us see if God will come and
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  Speaker 1: help you. So I defied them to do their worst
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  Speaker 1: with me, for madness had come upon me at the
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  Speaker 1: sight of the monstrous cruelty to an innocent bairn, and
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  Speaker 1: for the time I cared not what should become of myself.
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  Speaker 1: Then I called to James Bennettine, requiring of him to
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  Speaker 1: declare if he too were a murderer like the other fiends,
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  Speaker 1: and to call upon him to protect the innocent. We
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  Speaker 1: will settle all that in the one payment, Mistress, said
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  Speaker 1: John Muir to me. So by force I was compelled
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  Speaker 1: to abide with them, John Muir the Elder, taking me
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  Speaker 1: cruelly by the arm, while he sent the others to
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  Speaker 1: cast into the sea the dead body of the lad.
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  Speaker 1: But even so oft as they threw him in, so
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  Speaker 1: often the waves cast him out again upon the shore.
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  Speaker 1: And that though there was a strong wind off the land,
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  Speaker 1: which blew the tops from the waves and drave the
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  Speaker 1: sand in hissing streams into the sea. So when for
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  Speaker 1: the third time the boy had been tumbled upon the beach,
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  Speaker 1: John Muir bade Bannatine bring his boat, saying that they
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  Speaker 1: would cast the loon afloat out in the deeps of
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  Speaker 1: the bay, so that the euderly wind might drive him
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  Speaker 1: to the coast of Ireland. After that they would return
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  Speaker 1: betimes to attend to other matters, by which I took
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  Speaker 1: him to mean that they would do that for me,
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  Speaker 1: which I had so lately seen them do for the
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  Speaker 1: young boy. And indeed I looked for no other mercy
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  Speaker 1: at their brutal hands. So in a little space James
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  Speaker 1: Bannatine brought his boat, and with hard endeavor they launched
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  Speaker 1: her and compelled me to accompany them. There was a
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  Speaker 1: strong wind from the east, and we were soon blown
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  Speaker 1: far out into the wild sea. There they cast the
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  Speaker 1: body of the lad overboard and turned to make again
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  Speaker 1: for the shore. But though they all took oars and
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  Speaker 1: labored in rowing SAME's Bannatine taking twain, they could make
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  Speaker 1: nothing of it, but were rather worse than they had
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  Speaker 1: been before they started. So they began to be afraid,
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  Speaker 1: and I was right glad thereat, for I looked that
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  Speaker 1: the doom of the toice guilty murderers should speedily come,
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  Speaker 1: and so the pain of this trial and my witnessing
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  Speaker 1: might have been spared. Now. The merrors were the most
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  Speaker 1: fearful of the quick risen storm, being as it were
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  Speaker 1: inland Bred. It was all that James Bannatine could get
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  Speaker 1: them to do to sit still, you will wreck us
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  Speaker 1: all and send us red hand before our maker, with
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  Speaker 1: the lad's body not cold in the water, and his
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  Speaker 1: spirit there to meet us at the judgment seat, said he.
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  Speaker 1: And with that John Muir rose in his place, and
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  Speaker 1: in despite of the swaying and plunging of the ship
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  Speaker 1: into which the water came lashing, he cried out, the wraith,
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  Speaker 1: the wraith, it is following us. We are doomed. And lo,
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  Speaker 1: when I looked, I saw that which chilled me more
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  Speaker 1: than the whistling tempest. And if it feared me to
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  Speaker 1: the soul judge, ye, what it must have been to
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  Speaker 1: the guilty men, whose hands were yet red with the
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  Speaker 1: blood of the innocent. For there not thirty yards behind
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  Speaker 1: the boat, and following strongly in our wake as a
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  Speaker 1: stark swimmer might do, now tumbling and leaping in the
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  Speaker 1: wash of the seas, and now lunging forward like a boat,
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  Speaker 1: that is toad, was the murdered boy himself. And thus
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  Speaker 1: he followed with a smile on his face, or what
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  Speaker 1: looked like it in the uncertain light of the morning.
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  Speaker 1: So with that the men who rowed fell on their
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  Speaker 1: faces and could not look any more, though the Prodigy
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  Speaker 1: followed us a good while. Only John Muir sat wrapped
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  Speaker 1: in his gray cloak, steering the boat, and I sat
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  Speaker 1: beside him. Little by little we came to the land,
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  Speaker 1: but as it had been sideways, having been driven by
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  Speaker 1: the wind, to the other side of the wide bay.
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  Speaker 1: There we disembarked, and the mewers kept me close all
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  Speaker 1: that day in a place of strength on the sea shore,
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  Speaker 1: till it was night. They plied me to promise silence,
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  Speaker 1: for they believed that I would keep my word if
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  Speaker 1: once I pledged it, they offered me all that they
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  Speaker 1: had of honor or place in the country. There was
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  Speaker 1: nothing they said that was not within the power of
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  Speaker 1: their compassing, for since the death of Gilbert or Bargany,
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  Speaker 1: the king needed someone in Carrick strong enough to count
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  Speaker 1: spears with the Earl of Cassilis. But very steadfastly I
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  Speaker 1: withstood them, declaring that I should certainly reveal all their
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  Speaker 1: murder and treachery, both in the manner of the death
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  Speaker 1: of my father and in that which I had seen
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  Speaker 1: done upon the sands, to the young lad William Dalrymple. So, finally,
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  Speaker 1: seeing that they could prevail nothing, they went out and
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  Speaker 1: kept silent watch by the door till the even. Then,
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  Speaker 1: as soon as it was dark, they opened the lock
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  Speaker 1: and bade me come forth. In this I did, knowing
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  Speaker 1: for a certainty that my last hour was come. Yet
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  Speaker 1: my life had not been so pleasant to me as
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  Speaker 1: to be very greatly precious. So I followed them with
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  Speaker 1: no very ill will, nor yet greatly concerned. Then on
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  Speaker 1: the craggy top they gave me, for the sake of
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  Speaker 1: their house and good name, as they said, one more
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  Speaker 1: chance to swear silence. This I would not accept. And they,
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  Speaker 1: being startled with the approach of a boat upon the water,
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  Speaker 1: which steered towards our light, pinioned my arms and, thrusting
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  Speaker 1: something into my mouth, forthwith threw me over the cliff
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  Speaker 1: into the sea. And as to the mode of my
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  Speaker 1: rescuing and standing here before the Earl, my cousin, young
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  Speaker 1: Launcelot Kennedy, my father's squire, can tell, and also my
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  Speaker 1: sister and Robert Muir of Maybol end of chapter forty
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  Speaker 1: four