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45 - Grey Man by S R Crockett · Grey Man

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  Speaker 1: S. R. Crockett, Chapter forty five, The Man in the
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  Speaker 1: Wide breeches. She ceased suddenly after this long account of
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  Speaker 1: her adventuring, and the folk stood still in amazement, having
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  Speaker 1: held their breath while she told of the killing of
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  Speaker 1: young William Dalrymple and of the wraith. And then there
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  Speaker 1: arose a great cry from all the people, tear the
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  Speaker 1: murderer in pieces, kill him, kill him, so that Casillas
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  Speaker 1: had to summon men at arms to keep back that
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  Speaker 1: throng of furious folk, for the death of my master
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  Speaker 1: seemed to them but a little thing in venio compared
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  Speaker 1: to the killing of a lad like William Dalrymple. And
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  Speaker 1: this was because the people of Carrick had been used
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  Speaker 1: all their days to family feuds and the expiation of
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  Speaker 1: blood by blood. The Earl was about to call me
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  Speaker 1: up to give an account of my part in the affair,
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  Speaker 1: and I was preparing myself to make a good and
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  Speaker 1: creditable appearance, a thing which I have all my life
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  Speaker 1: studied to do, when there was heard a mighty crying
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  Speaker 1: in the rear of the bailey. Court men cried, he comes,
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  Speaker 1: he comes, as though it had been some great one,
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  Speaker 1: and everybody turned their heads to the no small annoyance
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  Speaker 1: of Earl John, who, when on his hill of justice,
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  Speaker 1: loved not that men should look in any other direction
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  Speaker 1: than his own. The ranks of the men at arms opened,
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  Speaker 1: and there strode into the square of trial, which was
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  Speaker 1: guarded by the pennons of blue and gold at the
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  Speaker 1: four corners. Who but John Muir of Achendraine, himself wearing
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  Speaker 1: the same cloak of gray and broad plumed hat which
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  Speaker 1: had been his wont when he went abroad upon dangerous quests.
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  Speaker 1: With him was another shorter man, whose face was for
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  Speaker 1: the time being almost hidden, for he had pulled the
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  Speaker 1: cloak he was wearing close about his mouth. He walked
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  Speaker 1: with an odd jolter or roll in his gait, and
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  Speaker 1: his breeches were exceedingly broad. In the basement, it was
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  Speaker 1: small wonder that we stood aghast at this sudden compeering
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  Speaker 1: of the arch criminal, whose misdeeds threw out all the countryside,
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  Speaker 1: had filled the cup of his wickedness to the brim.
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  Speaker 1: Seize him, cried the Earl, pointing directly at John Muir,
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  Speaker 1: and his Bailey's men took him roughly by the shoulders
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  Speaker 1: and set him beside his son. Then it was to
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  Speaker 1: be noticed, as the two stood together, that there was
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  Speaker 1: a great likeness between father and son. The elder man
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  Speaker 1: possessed the same features, without any evident differences in outline,
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  Speaker 1: but so informed was his face with intelligence and power,
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  Speaker 1: that what was simply dull, cruelty and loutishness in the
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  Speaker 1: one became the guile of statecraft in the other. Wherefore,
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  Speaker 1: my lord earle, cried John Muir of Achandrane, is this
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  Speaker 1: violence done to me and to the air of my house?
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  Speaker 1: I demand to know concerning what we are called in question?
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  Speaker 1: And by whom? Then, the Earl of Casillius answered him,
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  Speaker 1: John Muir of Achendrane, Know then that you are charged,
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  Speaker 1: along with this your son, with the bloody murder of
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  Speaker 1: Sir Thomas Kennedy of Coulaine, Tutor of Casilus, and also
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  Speaker 1: with the cruel death of William Dalrymple, the young lad
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  Speaker 1: who brought you the message to your own house of Achendraine,
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  Speaker 1: telling at what hour the tutor should pass the trysting
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  Speaker 1: place where he was by you and yours foully assaulted
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  Speaker 1: and slain. And who declares these things? Cried Muir boldly,
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  Speaker 1: with a bearing more like that of an innocent man
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  Speaker 1: than that of any criminal that ever I saw. The
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  Speaker 1: Earl bade us, who had accused them so justly to
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  Speaker 1: stand forth. Then John Muir eyed us with a grave
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  Speaker 1: and amused contempt. My son's false wife, whom sorrow has
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  Speaker 1: caused to dote concerning her father's death, her night raking
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  Speaker 1: Rantipole's sister and her paramour, a loutish land looping squire,
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  Speaker 1: the Dominie of Maybel, a crippled dick and piping merry
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  Speaker 1: andrew that traveled with them. These are the accusers of
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  Speaker 1: John Muir of Achendraine. They have seen, heard, noted what
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  Speaker 1: others have been ignorant of? Nay, Rather, is it not
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  Speaker 1: clear that they have collogued together, conspiring to bear false
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  Speaker 1: witness against me and mine for the sake of the frantic,
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  Speaker 1: splenetic madness of her, who is my son's fugitive wife,
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  Speaker 1: whose wrongs exist only in her own imaginings. You have
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  Speaker 1: forgotten me, said Robert Harburg, quietly, stepping forward. I know
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  Speaker 1: you well, said John Muir, and I would have remembered
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  Speaker 1: you had you been worth remembering. You are my Lord
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  Speaker 1: of Casilis's squire and erstwhile a gay cock sparrow ruffler,
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  Speaker 1: now married to the Grieve's daughter at Kulaine. Well said Harburg.
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  Speaker 1: And what of that? Can a man not be all
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  Speaker 1: that and yet tell the truth that I leave to
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  Speaker 1: one who is greater to judge, said John Muir. And
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  Speaker 1: I do judge, John Muir, cried the Earl, rising in
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  Speaker 1: his chair of state. I judge you to be a
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  Speaker 1: man rebel, and man sworn, a traitor, and a man slayer.
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  Speaker 1: For a score of years ye have keeped all this
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  Speaker 1: realm of carric in a turmoil. You and they that
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  Speaker 1: are partaken with you in your evil deeds. Loud swelling
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  Speaker 1: words are but win, my lord, Earl of Casilus, answered
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  Speaker 1: Muir of Achendraine, a dry smile of contempt coming over
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  Speaker 1: his features. Now I will show thee bold ill dure,
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  Speaker 1: said the Earl fiercely, whether I speak the words of
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  Speaker 1: a doubter d' or not. Forward men take him up
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  Speaker 1: and bind him. Methinks we have yet engines within the
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  Speaker 1: castle of denure that can make him declare the rights
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  Speaker 1: of this murderous treason. Then I rejoiced, not for the
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  Speaker 1: torture of our enemy, but because at last the Earl
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  Speaker 1: saw fully with our eyes, and would right us against
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  Speaker 1: the cruel oppressor of Marjory Kennedy, and for the murder
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  Speaker 1: of my gentle and courteous master. But ere the men
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  Speaker 1: could carry out the orders of the Earl. The broad
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  Speaker 1: breached man who had accompanied Auchandraine, and who had all
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  Speaker 1: the while stood still and watchful, dropped his plaid, which
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  Speaker 1: like a mask he had held beneath his eyes. He
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  Speaker 1: was a middle sized, fleshy man, with no great dignity
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  Speaker 1: of face, and with a weak mouth that dribbled perpetually
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  Speaker 1: at the side, as if the tongue were too large
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  Speaker 1: for it. He wore a slush doublet very full at
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  Speaker 1: the sleeves, baggy trunks, and a sword in a plain
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  Speaker 1: scabbard hanging at his side. I saw nothing very particular
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  Speaker 1: about the man, save the shambling inward bend of his knees.
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  Speaker 1: But it was with dumb amaze that the Earl looked
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  Speaker 1: at him, standing there, arrested in the act of pointing
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  Speaker 1: with his hand at John Muir. He stood with his
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  Speaker 1: jaw fallen and his eyes starting from his head. The King,
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  Speaker 1: The King, he muttered in astonishment, looking about like one
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  Speaker 1: distracted I Baron Bailey of Carrick, even your King, said
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  Speaker 1: the man in the wide trunk hozen, come to see
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  Speaker 1: how his sometime High Treasurer of Scotland executes just judgment
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  Speaker 1: in his own reality. The Earl came quickly to himself,
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  Speaker 1: and he and all the people took off their hats.
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  Speaker 1: He stepped down and made his obeisance to the King,
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  Speaker 1: bending humbly upon his knee. Then he ushered the King
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  Speaker 1: to the throne whereon he himself had been sitting, and
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  Speaker 1: took a lower seat beside Adam Boyd of Penkill, his
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  Speaker 1: assessor in ordinary. The King rose to speak, my Lord,
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  Speaker 1: Earl and gentlemen of Carrick, he said, with dignity enough,
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  Speaker 1: but with a thick and rolling accent, as if his
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  Speaker 1: tongue had been indeeds too big. I know this case
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  Speaker 1: to the bottom. I am fully persuaded of the innocence
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  Speaker 1: of our trusty councilor John Muir of Achendraine, who is
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  Speaker 1: besides of the fraternity of learned men, and one that
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  Speaker 1: hath a history of this realm in script ready for
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  Speaker 1: the printers, wherein he does full justice both to myself
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  Speaker 1: and to my noble predecessors. He hath as I should
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  Speaker 1: nominate it an exactness of expression and a perspecuity of
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  Speaker 1: argument that have never been matched in the land. I
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  Speaker 1: propose shortly to make him my historiographer royal. Also, I
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  Speaker 1: the King, do know him to be a man well
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  Speaker 1: affected to the right ecclesiastical ruling of this kingdom, and
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  Speaker 1: minded to help me with the due ordering of it.
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  Speaker 1: The King puffed and blew after his speech, and we
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  Speaker 1: and all that were there stood silent, For to most
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  Speaker 1: of us he might as well have spoken in the Hebrew,
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  Speaker 1: of which he boasted himself so great a master. Then
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  Speaker 1: he went on, I have left my Lord mar and
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  Speaker 1: my retinue some way in the rear, for we go
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  Speaker 1: to hunt the deer in whatever forest the good will
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  Speaker 1: of our loyal subjects may put at her disposal. You
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  Speaker 1: are right welcome, my liege, said the Earl John, starting
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  Speaker 1: up and standing bareheaded, to my hunting lodges, and retinue
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  Speaker 1: both in the forest of Buchan and also at my
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  Speaker 1: house of Casilis. The King bent towards him royally, for
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  Speaker 1: James the sixth had manners when he liked to show them,
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  Speaker 1: which in truth was not always I thank you trustee
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  Speaker 1: counselor said, he is nobly and generously done, qualities which
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  Speaker 1: also marked your all too brief tenure of the office
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  Speaker 1: of High Treasurer of Scotland. But for the judging of
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  Speaker 1: this our worthy subject, I proposed to take that, upon
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  Speaker 1: myself being wholly persuaded of his innocence, And as for
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  Speaker 1: those that have falsely accused him, Let the men underlie
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  Speaker 1: my will in the prison most convenient, and the women
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  Speaker 1: be warded meantime in their own house and castle, till
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  Speaker 1: I cause to be known my whole pleasure in the matter.
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  Speaker 1: We stood aghast and knew not what to say. So
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  Speaker 1: completely had Auchandraine turned our flank with the king. Not
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  Speaker 1: a word had we found to allege when the officers
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  Speaker 1: of the court, to whom the charge was given came
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  Speaker 1: to put the iron rings on our wrists and march
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  Speaker 1: us off. Even as we had hoped and expected to
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  Speaker 1: see Achandraine and his son taken, and as the Dominie
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  Speaker 1: and I were hailed away, we could see Achandraine bending
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  Speaker 1: suavely over the King's high seat, and his majesty inclining
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  Speaker 1: to him and talking privately back and forth with many
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  Speaker 1: becks and uncouth graces, such as he had used in
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  Speaker 1: his adoration rest to the Earl and his people. He
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  Speaker 1: is the very devil himself, said the Dominie, meaning Achandraine,
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  Speaker 1: and not the king. He hath not halted to cousin,
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  Speaker 1: the greatest man in this realm, with his lying tongue.
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  Speaker 1: But I said nothing, for what had I to say?
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  Speaker 1: I had seen lands, honors, love, and consideration vanish at
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  Speaker 1: a stroke end of chapter forty five.