were the apartments of Maud Lindesay and her charge, little Margaret
Douglas, the Fair Maid of Galloway.

Now the single postern stair of the castle was shut at the foot, where
it opened out upon the hall of the guard by a sparred iron gate, the
key of which was put into Sholto's charge. The night closed early upon
the castle-ful of wearied folk. The marshals of the camps caused the
lights to be put out at nine-of-the-clock in all the tents and
pavilions, but the lamps and candles burned longer in the castle
itself, where the Earl had been giving a banquet to his guests, of
the best that his estates could afford. Nevertheless, it was yet long
before midnight when the cheep of the mouse in the wainscot, the
restless stir or muffled snore of a crowded sleeper in the guardroom,
was the only sound to be heard from dungeon to banner-staff of the
great castle.

Sholto's heart throbbed tumultuous and insurgent within him. And small
is the wonder. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined such a fate
as this, to be actual captain of the Earl's own body-guard, even
though neither title nor emolument was yet wholly his; better still,
that he should dwell night and day within arm's reach almost of the
desire of his heart, flinty-bosomed and mischievous as she was--these
were heights of good fortune to which his imagination had never
climbed in its most daring ascents.

No longer did he envy his brother's good fortune, as he had been
somewhat inclined to do earlier in the day, when he thought of
returning to wield the forehammer all alone in his father's smithy.

The first night of Captain Sholto's responsibility in the castle of