nd
arraigned, Sir Walter Stewart of Albany, for having feloniously, and of
malice aforethought, on the Eve of the Annunciation of our Lady, of the
year of grace 1421, set upon the said Malcolm and Lilias Stewart, Sir
David Drummond of the Braes, Tutor of Glenuskie, and divers other
persons, on the muir of Hetherfield; and having there cruelly and
maliciously wounded the said David of the Braes to the death; and of
having forcibly stolen and abducted the person of the said Lilias
Stewart--'

The crier was not permitted to proceed, for Walter Stewart broke forth,
passionately addressing the jurors. 'So this is all that can be found to
be laid against me. This is the way that matters of five years back are
raked up to vex the princes and nobles of Scotland. I am sorry for you,
lords and gentlemen, if this is the way that vexatious are to be stirred
up against those who have defended their country so long.'

'This is no answer to the accusation, Sir Walter,' said the Earl of Mar.

'Accusation, forsooth!' said Walter Stewart scornfully. 'Who dares to
bear witness, if I _did_ maintain my father's lawful authority over
peevish runaway wards of the Crown?'

'Sir Walter,' said the King, 'you would have done better to have waited
and heard the whole indictment ere answering one charge. But since you
demand who will dare to bear witness in this matter of the murder of Sir
David Drummond of the Braes, and of the seizure of the Lady Lilias, here
is one.'

So saying, and rising as he spoke, he held forth the reliquary that hung
from a chain round his neck, keeping his gleaming tawny eyes fixed
steadily straight upon Walter Stewart's face.

That face, as he first had stood up, expressed the utmost amazement, and
this gradually, under the lion glance, became more and more of dismay,
quailing, collapsing visibly under the passionless gravity of that look.
Even the tall form seemed to shrink, the eyes dilated, the brows drew
closer together, and the chest seemed to pant, as the relic was held
forth. There was a dead silence throughout the court as the King ceased
to speak; only he continued to bend that searching gaze upon his
prisoner.

'Was it you?--was it your own self, my lord?' he stammered forth at last,
in the tone of one stricken.

'Yea, Walter Stewart. To me it was, and on this holy relic, that you
made oath to abstain from all further spoil and violence until the King
should come again in peace. How that oath