upon him whilst the French lady was fastening it there.

The knightly part of the great muster had already gone back to their
tents and lodgings. The commonalty were mostly stringing away through
the vales and hill passes to their homes, no longer in ordered
companies, but in bands of two or three. Disputes and misunderstandings
arose here and there between men of different provinces. The Galloway
men called "Annandale thieves" at those border lads who came at the
summons of the hereditary Warden of the Marches. The borderers replied
by loud bleatings, which signified that they held the Galwegians of no
better understanding than their native sheep.

It was a strange and varied company which rode home to Thrieve to
receive the hospitality of the young Earl of Douglas and Duke of
Touraine. The castle itself, being no more than a military fortress,
containing in addition to the soldiers' quarters only the apartments
designed for the family (and scant enough even of those) could not, of
course, accommodate so great a company.

But as was the custom at all great houses, though more in England and
France than in poverty-stricken Scotland, the Earl of Douglas had in
store an abundant supply of tents, some of them woven of arras and
ornamented with cloth of gold, others of humbler but equally
serviceable material.

His mother, the Countess of Douglas, who knew nothing of the
occurrences of the night of the great storm, nor guessed at the
suspicions of witchcraft and diablerie which made a hell of the breast
of Malise, the master armourer, received her son's guests with
distinguished courtesy. Malise himself had gone to find the Abbot, so