time that was coming, my lady with her head
held high, and her eyes flaming, while the men stood apart and whispered
among themselves. For we all knew that, although the English had taken
themselves off, it was only for a time, and that they would return
without fail.

When the last horseman had disappeared among the belt of trees which lay
between us and the Lammermuirs, my lady turned round, her bonnie face
all soft and quivering.

"Will ye stand by me, my men?" she asked.

"That will we, till the death, my lady," answered they, and one after
another they knelt at her feet and kissed her hand, while, as for me, I
could but take her in my arms, as I had done oft-times when she was a
little child, and pray God to strengthen her noble heart.

Her emotion passed as quickly as it had come, however, and in a moment
she was herself again, laughing and merry as if it had all been a game
of play.

"Come down, Walter; come down, my men," she cried; "we must e'en hold a
council of war, and lay our plans; while old Andrew will keep watch for
us, and tell us when the black-faced knave is like to return."

And when we went downstairs into the great hall, and found that the
silly wenches had heard all that had passed, and were bemoaning
themselves for lost, and frightening little Mistress Marjory and
Mistress Jean well-nigh out of their senses, I warrant she did not spare
them, but called them a pack of chicken-hearted, thin-blooded baggages,
and threatened that if they did not hold their tongues, and turn to
their duties at once, she would send them packing, and then they would
be at the mercy of the English in good earnest.

After that we set to work and made such preparations as we could. We set
the wenches to draw water from the well, and to bake a good store of
bannocks to be ready in time of need, for the men must not be hungry
when they fought. Walter Brand and two of the strongest men-at-arms set
to work to strengthen the gates, by laying ponderous billets of wood
against them, and clasping these in their places by strong iron bars;
while the rest, led by old Andrew, went round the Castle, looking to the
loopholes, and the battlements, and examining the cross-bows and other
weapons.

Upstairs and downstairs went my lady, overlooking everything, thinking
of everything, as became a daughter of the great Randolph, while I sat
and kept the bairns, who, poor little lassies, were puzzled to know what
all the stir and di