Part 31 (1/2)

(”Dagon you! Then ca' awa' standing.”)

”My liege, thou hast saved me from the wretch Cathro.”

”May I always be near to defend thee in time of danger, my pretty chick.”

(”Tommy, you promised not to call me by those silly names.”)

(”They slip out, I tell you. That was aye the way wi' the Stuarts.”)

(”Well, you must say 'Lady Grizel.') Good, my prince, how can I thank thee?”

”By being my wife. (Not a word of this to Elspeth.)”

”Nay, I summoned thee here to tell thee that can never be. The Grizels of Grizel are of ancient lineage, but they mate not with monarchs. My sire, the nunnery gates will soon close on me forever.”

”Then at least say thou lovest me.”

”Alas, I love thee not.”

(”What haver is this? I telled you to say 'Charles, would that I loved thee less.'”)

(”And I told you I would not.”)

(”Well, then, where are we now?”)

(”We miss out all that about my wearing your portrait next my heart, and put in the rich apparel bit, the same as last week.”)

(”Oh! Then I go on?) Bethink thee, fair jade--”

(”Lady.”)

”Bethink thee, fair lady, Stuart is not so poor but that, if thou come with him to his lowly lair, he can deck thee with rich apparel and ribbons rare.”

”I spurn thy gifts, unhappy man, but if there are holes in--”

(”Miss that common bit out. I canna thole it.”)

(”I like it.) If there are holes in the garments of thy loyal followers, I will come and mend them, and have a needle and thread in my pocket.

(Tommy, there is another b.u.t.ton off your s.h.i.+rt! Have you got the b.u.t.ton?”)

”(It's down my breeks.) So be it, proud girl, come!”

It was Grizel who made masks out of tin rags, picked up where tinkers had pa.s.sed the night, and musical instruments out of broken reeds that smelled of caddis and Jacobite head-gear out of weaver's night-caps; and she kept the lair so clean and tidy as to raise a fear that intruders might mistake its character. Elspeth had to mind the pot, which Aaron Latta never missed, and Corp was supposed to light the fire by striking sparks from his knife, a trick which Tommy considered so easy that he refused to show how it was done. Many strange sauces were boiled in that pot, a sort of potato-turnip pudding often coming out even when not expected, but there was an occasional rabbit that had been bowled over by Corp's unerring hand, and once Tommy shot a--a haunch of venison, having first, with Corp's help, howked it out of Ronny-On's swine, then suspended head downward, and open like a book at the page of contents, steaming, dripping, a tub beneath, boys with bladders in the distance.

When they had supped they gathered round the fire, Grizel knitting a shawl for they knew whom, but the name was never mentioned, and Tommy told the story of his life at the French court, and how he fought in the '45 and afterward hid in caves, and so did he shudder, as he described the cold of his bracken beds, and so glowed his face, for it was all real to him, that Grizel let the wool drop on her knee, and Corp whispered to Elspeth, ”Dinna be fleid for him; I'se uphaud he found a wy.” Those quiet evenings were not the least pleasant spent in the Den.

But sometimes they were interrupted by a fierce endeavor to carry the lair, when boys from Cathro's climbed to it up each other's backs, the rope, of course, having been pulled into safety at the first sound, and then that end of the Den rang with shouts, and deeds of valor on both sides were as common as pine needles, and once Tommy and Corp were only saved from captors who had them down, by Grizel rus.h.i.+ng into the midst of things with two flaring torches, and another time bold Birkie, most daring of the storming party, was seized with two others and made to walk the plank. The plank had been part of a gate, and was suspended over the bank of the Silent Pool, so that, as you approached the farther end, down you went. It was not a Jacobite method, but Tommy feared that rows of bodies, hanging from the trees still standing in the Den, might attract attention.

CHAPTER XXIII