concerns the Douglas; and they who speak of what concerns the Douglas, do it at their peril.'
'Do you speak from fear of them, old man, or would you make a quarrel for them??I should have deemed your age might have cooled your blood.'
'Never, while there are empty-pated coxcombs at each corner to keep it warm.'
'The sight of thy gray hairs keeps mine cold,' said the boy, who had risen up and now sat down again.
'It is well for thee, or I had cooled it with this holly-rod,' replied the steward. 'I think thou be'st one of those swash-bucklers, who brawl in alehouses and taverns; and who, if words were pikes, and oaths were Andrew Ferraras, would soon place the religion of Babylon in the land once more, and the woman of Moab upon the throne.'
'Now, by Saint Bennet of Seyton,' said the youth, 'I will strike thee on the face, thou foul-mouthed old railing heretic!'
'Saint Bennet of Seyton,' echoed the steward; 'a proper warrant is Saint Bennet's, and for a proper nest of wolf-birds like the Seytons!?I will arrest thee as a traitor to King James and the good Regent.?Ho! John Auchtermuchty, raise aid against the King's traitor!'
So saying, he laid his hand on the youth's collar, and drew his sword. John Auchtermuchty looked in, but, seeing the naked weapon, ran faster out than he entered. Keltie, the landlord, stood by and helped neither party, only exclaiming, 'Gentlemen! gentlemen! for the love of Heaven!' and so forth. A struggle ensued, in which the young man, chafed at Dryfesdale's boldness, and unable, with the ease he expected, to extricate himself from the old man's determined grasp, drew his dagger, and with the speed of light, dealt him three wounds in the breast and body, the least of which was mortal. The old man sunk on the ground with a deep groan, and the host set up a piteous exclamation of surprise.
'Peace, ye brawling hound!' said the wounded steward; 'are dagger-stabs and dying men such rarities in Scotland, that you should cry as if the house were falling??Youth, I do not forgive thee, for there is nought betwixt us to forgive. Thou hast done what I have done to more than one?And I suffer what I have seen them suffer?it was all ordained to be thus and not otherwise. But if thou wouldst do me right, thou wilt send this packet safely to the hands of Sir William Douglas; and see that my memory suffer not, as if I would have loitered on mine errand for fear of my life.'
The youth, whose passion had subsided the instant he had done the deed, listened with sympathy and attention, when another person, muffled in his cloak, entered the apartment, and exclaimed?'Good God! Dryfesdale, and expiring!'
'Ay, and Dryfesdale would that he had been dead,' answered the wounded man, 'rather than that his ears had heard the words of the only Douglas that ever was false?but yet it is better as it is. Good my murderer, and the rest of you, stand back a little, and let me speak with this unhappy apostate.?Kneel down by me, Master George?You have heard that I failed in my attempt to take away that Moabitish stumbling-block and her retinue?I gave them that which I thought would have removed the temptation out of thy path?and this, though I had other reasons to show to thy mother and others, I did chiefly purpose for love of thee.'
'For the love of me, base poisoner!' answered Douglas, 'wouldst thou have committed so horrible, so unprovoked a murder, and mentioned my name with it?'
'And wherefore not, George of Douglas?' answered Dryfesdale. 'Breath is now scarce with me, but I would spend my last gasp on this argument. Hast thou not, despite the honour thou owest to thy parents, the faith that is due to thy religion, the truth that is due to thy king, been so carried away by the charms of this beautiful sorceress, that thou wouldst have helped her to escape from her prison-house, and lent her thine arm again to ascend the throne, which she had made a place of abomination??Nay, stir not from me?my hand, though fast stiffening, has yet force enough to hold thee?What dost thou aim at??to wed this witch of Scotland??I warrant thee, thou mayest succeed?her heart and hand have been oft won at a cheaper rate, than thou, fool that thou art, would think thyself happy to pay. But, should a servant of thy father's house have seen thee embrace the fate of the idiot Darnley, or of the villain Bothwell?the fate of the murdered fool, or of the living pirate?while an ounce of ratsbane would have saved thee?'
'Think on God, Dryfesdale,' said George Douglas, 'and leave the utterance of those horrors?Repent, if thou canst?if not, at least be silent.?Seyton, aid me to support this dying wretch, that he may compose himself to better thoughts, if it be possible.'
'Seyton!' answered the dying man; 'Seyton! Is it by a Seyton's hand that I fall at last??There is something of retribution in that?since the house had nigh lost a sister by my deed.' Fixing his fading eyes on the youth, he added, 'He hath her very features and presence!? Stoop down, youth, and let me see thee closer?I would know thee when we meet in yonder world, for homicides will herd together there, and I have been one.' He pulled Seyton's face, in spite of some resistance, closer to his own, looked at him fixedly, and added, 'Thou hast begun young?thy career will be the briefer?ay, thou wilt be met with, and that anon?a young plant never throve that was watered with an old man's blood.?Yet why blame I thee? Strange turns of fate,' he muttered, ceasing to address Seyton; 'I designed what I could not do, and he has done what he did not perchance design.?Wondrous, that our will should ever oppose itself to the strong and uncontrollable tide of destiny?that we should strive with the stream when we might drift with the current! My brain will serve me to question it no farther?I would Schoefferbach were here?yet why??I am on a course which the vessel can hold without a pilot.?Farewell, George of Douglas?I die true to thy father's house.' He fell into convulsions at these words, and shortly after expired.
Seyton and Douglas stood looking on the dying man, and when the scene was closed, the former was the first to speak. 'As I live, Douglas, I meant not this, and am sorry; but he laid hands on me, and compelled me to defend my freedom, as I best might, with my dagger. If he were ten times thy friend and follower, I can but say that I am sorry.'
'I blame thee not, Seyton,' said Douglas, 'though I lament the chance. There is an overruling destiny above us, though not in the sense in which it was viewed by that wretched man, who, beguiled by some foreign mystagogue, used the awful word as the ready apology for whatever he chose to do?we must examine the packet.'
They withdrew into an inner room, and remained deep in consultation, until they were disturbed by the entrance of Keltie, who, with an embarrassed countenance, asked Master George Douglas's pleasure respecting the disposal of the body. 'Your honour knows,' he added, 'that I make my bread by living men, not by dead corpses; and old Mr. Dryfesdale, who was but a sorry customer while he was alive, occupies my public room now that he is deceased, and can neither call for ale nor brandy.'
'Tie a stone round his neck,' said Seyton, 'and when the sun is down, have him to the Loch of Ore, heave him in, and let him alone for finding out the bottom.'
'Under your favour, sir,' said George Douglas, 'it shall not be so.?Keltie, thou art a true fellow to me, and
