"Thou sayest truly," said Bothwell, in a tone of sadness, "I am not to be envied; but withhold thy pity, for I am not yet fallen so low as find commiseration acceptable from any man."
"But if thou art governor of the kingdom of Scotland, what brought thee into these seas?"
"Foul wind, or fatality—which you will."
"And wherefore hast thou sacked the villages, stormed the castles, plundered the ships of thine own countrymen, who have done thee no wrong, and also committed innumerable piracies on the subjects of his Danish majesty, with whom thy people are at peace?"
"Because of my sore extremity!"
"That will form but a lame excuse to King Frederick, at whose palace of Kiobenhafen the tidings of thine outrages were sent from his castle of Bergenhuis, whither I have an order to convey thee, dead or alive. Though a bold man and a bad one, thou hast fought as became a Scottish noble, and I can respect valour wherever I find it. I had resolved to chain thee neck and heels, like a villanous pirate; but trusting to thine honour, that thou wilt not attempt to compromise me by escaping, I will permit thee to retain thy sword, to be at liberty, and to receive all due courtesy, till thou art committed to the custody of the king's garrison at Bergen."
The Earl was led to a cabin, and there left to his own melancholy reflections, which were rendered a hundred degrees worse by the reaction consequent to such a day of stirring activity and wild excitement.
He heard the ripple of the water as the waves that had swallowed up his companions flowed past; he heard the straining of the timbers, the creaking of the decks and cordage, as the wind bellied the full spread canvass of the Biornen, and urged her up the fiord of Bergen; but his thoughts were far away in the land he had left behind him, in the island tower of that lonely lake, overlooked by steep hills and girdled by the guarding water, where Mary of Scotland mourned in crownless captivity the shame, the contumely, and the hopeless fate his wiles and ambition had brought upon her.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CASTELLANA.