"He came two noons ago with but one attendant, and bade us make ready
for a great company who were to arrive there this very day. Then he
gave me these two letters and set my head on the safe delivery of
them."

"Sholto," cried the young lord, "summon the guard and men-at-arms.
Take all that can be spared from the defence of the castle and make
ready to follow me. I ride immediately to visit the Chancellor of
Scotland at his castle in the Lothians."

It was Sholto's duty to obey, but his heart sank within him, both at
the thought of the Earl thus venturing among his enemies, and also
because he must needs leave behind him Maud Lindesay, on whose wilful
and wayward beauty his heart was set.

"My lord," he stammered, "permit me one word. Were it not better to
wait till a following of knights and gentlemen beseeming the Earl of
Douglas should be brought together to accompany you on so perilous a
journey?"

"Do as I bid you, Sir Captain," was the Earl's short rejoinder; "you
have my orders."

"O that the Abbot were here--" thought Sholto, as he moved heavily to
do his master's will; "he might reason with the Earl with some hope of
success."

On his way to summon the guard Sholto met Maud Lindesay going out to
twine gowans with the Maid on the meadows about the Mains of Kelton.
For, as Margaret Douglas complained, "All ours on the isle were