men-at-arms in France, or Sir Hugh Kennedy, or some other of our knights,
might take up my quarrel, for the sake of our common blood and country,
we Scots always backing each the other when abroad. Yet, on the other
hand, it was more probable that I might be swinging, with a flock of
crows pecking at my face, before any of my countrymen could speak a word
for me with the King.

It is true that they who would most eagerly have sought my life deemed me
already dead, drowned in the fosse, and so would make no search for me.
Yet, as soon as I went about my master's affairs, as needs I must, I
would be known and taken; and, as we say in our country proverb, "my
craig would ken the weight of my hurdies." {12} None the less, seeing
that the soldiers deemed me dead, I might readily escape at once from
Chinon, and take to the roads again, if but I could reach my master's
house unseen, and get rid of this foolish feminine gear of cap and
petticoat which now I wore to my great shame and discomfort.

But on this hand lay little hope; for, once on the road, I should be in a
worse jeopardy than ever before, as an apprentice fled from my master,
and, moreover, with blood on my hands. Moreover, I could ill brook the
thought of leaving Elliot, to whom my heart went forth in love, and of
missing my chance to strike a blow in the wars for the Maiden, and
against the English; of which reward I had the promise from my master.
Fortune, and fame, and love, if I were to gain what every young man most
desires, were only to be won by remaining at Chinon; but there, too, the
face of death was close to mine--as, indeed, death, or at least shame and
poverty, lay ambushed for me on all sides.

Here I sadly remembered how, with a light heart, I had left St. Andrews,
deeming that the story of my life was now about to begin, as it did for