18
KING JAMES AND THE ROBBERS,
'At least, Walter Colville,' said Arthur, 'save this stranger. He cannot have offended you. It was on my errand he came hither. I will go forth alone. Perhaps one victim may suffice.'
'Nay, brave youth,' said the stranger, 'we go together. Farewell, old man. You are a Scot, and yet have betrayed your guest. You are a Colville, and the first of the line that ever turned his back upon a Stuart at his utmost need.'
The tone and sentiment of these words had a powerful effect on Walter Colville. A momentary confusion rested on his countenance, and then, with a smile ill put on, he said, 'Come, come, sirs; I but joked wi' ye. Did you really think that Walter Colville would abandon to his enemy any who have bitten his bannock, and kissed his cup as you have done? Na, na, here you are safe while the auld wa's stand. Sit down. I'll go above and look out for the land-loupers.'
The old man left the place accordingly; and Arthur, seizing the opportunity, retired to one corner with Edith, where the nature of their conversation could be only guessed from the animated looks and gestures of the affectionate pair.
The stranger in the mean time strode up and down the place, regardless of the affrighted servants, singing to himself,
'O whar will I get a bonny boy,
That will win hose and shoon:
That will run to Lord Barnard's yett,
And bid his ladye come?'
'What say you, my little man,' he continued, addressing a boy of twelve or thirteen years, who sat before the fire, sharing, with a shaggy colley, the contents of an ample cog, altogether unheeding the agitation which reigned around him; 'will you run to Wemyss Castle with a message to Sir David?'
'I' the noo!' said the boy, looking up with an air expressive of his sense of the unparalleled oppression proposed in interrupting him during the sacred ceremony of supper.
The stranger laughed, and drawing from his bosom the purse we have so often spoke of, he displayed another Jacobus, and offered it to the boy. 'Na, I'll no gang for the yellow bawbee,' said the urchin; 'but if ye'll gie me the braw whittle I'll rin.' The stranger immediately put into his hand the dagger he had coveted, and, drawing him aside, conveyed to him in whispers the message he was to deliver.
Walter now re-entered, and informed them that he had reconnoitred the Egyptians, who, including women and children, seemed to amount to above a hundred.
