"They might induce them to leave them behind, when they went out to
take their pleasures among the maids of the Lawnmarket," said Sholto.

"Not their swords," said the Earl, "it needed all your lord's commands
to make yours quit your side. I warrant these fellows will give an
excellent account of themselves."

Presently the night fell darker, and a smurr of rain drifted over from
the edges of Pentland, mostly passing high above, but with lower
fringes that dragged, as it were, on the Castle Rock and the Hill of
Calton.

The three young men were still silently looking out when suddenly from
the darkness underneath there came a low voice.

"'Ware window!" it said, "stand back there above."

To Sholto the words sounded curiously familiar, and almost without
thinking what he did, he seized the Earl and his brother and dragged
them away from the wide space of the lattice, which opened into the
summer's night.

"'Ware window!" came again the cautious voice from far below. Sholto
heard the whistle and "spat" of an arrow against the wall without. It
must have fallen again, for the voice 'came a third time--"'Ware
window!"

And on this occasion the archer was successful, guided doubtless by
the illumination of the lantern the guard had hung on a nail, and