Part 15 (1/2)

”This was King James the First. He was a bad king. He oppressed his people, and they determined to kill him. So they banded together and made a plot. They were going to kill him in a monastery where he stopped on a journey.

”He was going over a river just before he came to the monastery, and a woman, who pretended to be a prophetess, called out to him as he went by towards the bank of the river, and told him to beware, for if he crossed that river he would certainly be killed. The king was very superst.i.tious; so he sent one of his men back to ask the woman what she meant. The man came to him again very soon, and said that it was nothing but an old drunken woman raving, and that he must not mind her. So the king went on.

”He crossed the water, and went to the monastery. The conspirators were there before him. The leader of them was a man named Graham. He had three hundred Highlanders with him. They were all concealed in the neighborhood of the monastery. They were going to break into the king's room in the monastery, at night, and kill him. They found out the room where he was going to sleep, and they took off the bolts from the doors, so as to keep them from fastening them.

”The woman that had met the king on the way followed him to the monastery, and wanted to see the king. They told her she could not see him. She said she _must_ see him. They told her that at any rate she could not see him then--he was tired with his journey. She must go away, they said, and come the next day. So she went away; but she told them they would all be sorry for not letting her in.”

”Do you suppose she really knew,” asked Waldron, ”that they were going to kill the king?”

”I don't know,” said Rollo. ”At any rate, she seemed very much in earnest about warning him.”

”Well; go on with the story,” said Waldron.

”Why, the conspirators broke into the room that night just as the king was going to bed. He was sitting near the fire, in his gown and slippers, talking with the queen and the other ladies that were there, when, all at once, he heard a terrible noise at the doors of the monastery. It was the conspirators trying to get in.”

”Why did not they come right in,” asked Waldron, ”if the doors were not fastened?”

”Why, I suppose there were guards, or something, outside, that tried to prevent them. At any rate, the king heard a frightful noise, like clattering and jingling of armor, and of men trying to get in. He and the women who were there ran to the door and tried to fasten it; but the bolts and bars were gone. So the king told them to hold the door with all their strength, till he could find something to fasten it with. The king went to the window, and tried to tear off an iron stanchion there was there, but he could not. Then he saw a trap door in the floor, which led down to a kind of dark dungeon. So he took the tongs and pried up the door, and jumped down.

”By the time that he got down, and the door was shut over him, the conspirators came in, and began to look all about for him; but they could not find him. I suppose they did not see the trap door. Or, perhaps, the women had covered it over with something.”

”Well, and what did they do?” asked Waldron.

”Why, they were dreadfully angry because they could not find the king, and some of them were going to kill the queen; but the rest would not let them. But there was one of the women that got her arm broken.”

”How?” asked Waldron.

”She did it somehow or other holding the door. I suppose she got it wedged in some way. She was a countess.

”After a while,” continued Rollo, ”the men went away to look in some of the other rooms of the monastery, and see if they could not find the king there. As soon as they were gone the king wanted to get out of the dungeon. The women opened the trap door, but he could not reach up high enough to get out. So he told them to go and get some sheets and let them down, for ropes to pull him up by.

”They brought the sheets, and while they were letting them down, and trying to get the king out, one of the ladies fell down herself into the hole. So there were two to get up; and while the others were trying to get them up, the conspirators came in again.”

”Hoh!” said Waldron.

”One of them had a torch,” said Rollo, continuing his narrative. ”He brought the torch and held it down the trap door, and presently he caught sight of the king. So he called out to the other conspirators that he had found him, and they all came round the place, with their swords, and daggers, and knives in their hands.

”One of them let himself down into the dungeon. He had a great knife in his hand for a dagger. But the king seized him the instant he came down, got his knife away from him, and pinned him to the ground. The king was a very strong man. Immediately another man came down, and the king seized him, and held him down in the same way. Next Graham himself came with a sword. He stabbed the king with his sword, and so disabled him.

The king then began to beg for his life, and Graham did not seem to like to strike him again. But the other conspirators, who were looking down through the trap door, said if he did not do it they would kill _him_.

So at last he stabbed the king again, and killed him.”

When Rollo had finished the story he paused, expecting that Waldron would say something in relation to it.

”Is that all?” said Waldron, after waiting a moment. He spoke, however, in a very sleepy tone of voice.

”Yes,” said Rollo, ”that is all. Now tell me your story.”

Waldron began; but he seemed very sleepy, and he had advanced only a very little way before his words began to grow incoherent and faltering, and very soon Rollo perceived that he was going to sleep. Indeed, Rollo himself was beginning to feel sleepy, too; so he said,--

”No matter, Waldron. You can tell me your story to-morrow.”