"For Dunblane?"
"Yes; and the constable of Dundee carried the royal pennon on a Lance."
"Damnation!"
"So say I—doubly," stammered Shaw.
"On what errand have they gone?"
"Men say variously," replied the Laird of Sauchie, opening and shutting his bloodshot eyes; "but I overheard that venerable foutre whom the courtiers call Duke of Montrose, tell his son—that fop the Lord Lindesay—that the king was gone to hear the sentence of excommunication fulminated against those who slew his father."
"That concerns thee, Master Hew."
"Sir Hew," sneered Shaw.
Borthwick winced, and smiled bitterly.
"He said, moreover, that James was to receive from the bishop's hand, an iron belt, to be worn for ever under his shirt, in memory of the day he drew his sword against his father."