excited some
pity; Murdoch had erred rather negatively than positively; and Alexander,
ruffian as he was, had been bred to nothing better. Each had deserved
the utmost penalty of the law again and again, and yet there did seem
more scope for mercy in their case than in that of Walter.

But the King was inexorable. He set Malcolm aside as he had set others.

'I know what you would say, lad. Lennox is old, and Alexander is young,
and Albany is a fool; and Walter has injured you, so you are bound to
speak for him. Take it all as said. But these are the men who have been
foremost in making our country a desert! Did I pardon them, with what
face could I ever make any man suffer for crime? And, in the state of
this land, ruth to the guilty high would be treason to the sackless low.'

So Stirling saw the unprecedented sight of three generations suffering
for their crimes upon the same scaffold--the white-haired Lennox, the
Duke of Albany in the prime of life, Walter in the flush and strength of
early manhood, Alexander in the bloom of youth. They all met their fate
undauntedly; for if Murdoch's heart in any measure failed him, he was
afraid to give way in presence of the proud bold Walter, who maintained
an iron rigidity of demeanour with the wild fortitude of a Red Indian at
the stake, and in like manner could by no means comprehend that King
James acted from any motive save malice, for having been so long kept out
of his kingdom. 'It was his turn now,' said poor Murdoch, even when most
desirous of bringing himself to die in a state of Christian forgiveness;
nor could any power on earth show any of the criminals that the King
acted in the eternal interests of right and justice.

Thus it was with the whole country; and when the four majestic-looking
men stood bare-headed on the scaffold, in view even of their own fair
towers of Doune, and one by one bowed their heads on the block, perverse
Scottish nature broke out into pity for their fate, and wrath against the
King, who could thus turn against his own blood, and disgrace the royal
lineage.

On that same day Malcolm received Esclairmonde's token, there being at
present full peace with England, and set forth on her summons. He met
her at Pontefract, where she was residing with the Dowager Queen Joan of
Navarre, Alice of Salisbury having been summoned to return to her husband
in France.

There then it was that Malcolm and Esclairmonde, in presence of the
chapla