r under whose protection he came.

"I am Sir James Irving of Drum," he said, "and I stand here on behalf
of Sir Alexander Livingston, tutor and guardian of the King of Scots,
to invite your friendship and aid. The Lord Crichton, sometime
Chancellor of this realm, hath rebelled against the royal authority
and fortified him in Edinburgh Castle. So both Sir Alexander
Livingston and the most noble lady, the Queen Mother, desire the
assistance of the great power of the Earl of Douglas to suppress this
revolt."

Scarcely had these words been uttered when another knight stepped
forward out of the train which had followed the Earl of Avondale.

"I am here on behalf of the Chancellor of Scotland, who is no rebel
against any right authority, but who wishes only to bring this
distracted realm back into some assured peace, and to deliver the
young King out of the hands of flatterers and lechers. I have the
honour, therefore, of requesting on behalf of the Chancellor of
Scotland, Sir William Crichton, the true representative of royal
authority, the aid and alliance of my Lord of Douglas."

A smile of haughty contempt passed over the face of the Earl, and he
dismissed both heralds, uttering in the hearing of all those words
which afterwards became so famous over Scotland:

"Let dog eat dog! Wherefore should the lion care?"

CHAPTER XII

MISTRESS MAUD LINDESAY

The sports of the first day of the great wappenshaw were over. The
Lord James Douglas, second son of the Gross One, had won the single
tourneying by unhorsing all his opponents without even breaking a
lance. For the second time Sholto MacKim wore on his cap the golden
buckle of archery, and took his way happily homeward, much uplifted
that the somewhat fraudulent eyes of Mistress Maud Lindesay had smiled
upon him whilst the French lady was fastening it there.

The knightly part of the great muster had already gone back to their
tents and lodgings. The commonalty were mostly stringing away through
the vales and hill passes to their homes, no longer in ordered
companies, but in bands of two or three. Disputes and misunderstandings
arose here and there between men of different provinces. The Galloway
men called "Annandale thieves" at those border lads who came at the
summons of the hereditary Warden of the Marches. The borderers replied
by loud bleatings, which signified that they held the Galwegians of no
better understanding than their native sheep.

It was