"My father never yielded to James I., nor will I to James II., and his two cock lairds of Lothian, who pretend to govern Scotland. Nevertheless, we shall mount and go, were it but to flaunt our bravery at court."
Sir Malcolm Fleming, of Cumbernauld, an old and faithful friend of his father, urged him to mistrust Crichton and remain among his followers; but the desire to dazzle his enemies by the splendour of his retinue, and the arguments of his kinsman, the earl of Abercorn, outweighed all that the more faithful and wary could advance.
And herein lay a secret which death might reveal to him; but in life he would never discover.
James the Gross, earl of Abercorn, had loved, but in vain, the beautiful Maid of Galloway, who preferred her younger and more handsome cousin, Earl William; but James was the next heir to the latter, if he and Lord David died without children: thus avarice, ambition, and revenge spurred him on, and caused him to urge the immediate acceptance of the Chancellor's invitation, and his energetic advice, with the young earl's vain-glorious wish, bore down all the faithful Fleming could urge.
James Achanna was the villainous tool who worked for him in the dark; and herein was another secret; for Achanna had been a page to the father of the countess, and had loved her too.
This love had expanded suddenly, like a flower that blooms in a night under a tropical moon, and the coquette soon discovered it.
"You love me?" said she imperiously, reining up her horse, as they one day rode side by side near the loch of the Carlinwark.
"Yes," said the page, tremulously, and covered with confusion by the abruptness of the question.
"How old are you, James Achanna?"
"I am four-and-twenty, madam."