'I am John Kennedy of Kirrieoch on Minnochside, and I came to Ballantrae to bury the corpse of my sister's man, Hew Grier, merchant and indweller there, that was this day laid in the earth.'
So, right quietly and calmly, my father spoke among them all.
'But what seek you in my burned Castle of Ardstinchar and alone with these dead men?' asked the young Bargany.
With a quietness that came of the hills my father told the chieftain his plain tale, and his words were not words that any man could gainsay.
Then Bargany answered him without consulting the others, as none but a great chief does whose lightest word is life or death.
'Ye are here within my danger, and had I been even as your folk of Cassillis, ye should have died the death; but because ye stopped devil's work and, it may be, kept away a curse from us for the burning of the Holy Book, ye shall not die in my house. Take your life and your son's life, as a gift from Gilbert Kennedy of Bargany.'
My father bowed his head and thanked his house's enemy.
'Bring a horse,' cried the Laird, and immediately they set my father on a beast, and me in the saddle before him. 'Put the Bible for a keepsake in your winnock sole, turn out the steed on Minnochside, and come no more to Ballantrae in time of feud, lest a worse thing befall you!' So said he, and waved us away, as I thought grandly.
Some of the men that had sworn enmity murmured behind him.
'Silence!' he cried, 'am not I Lord of Bargany? Shall I not do as I will? Take your life, Kirrieoch. And whenever a Bargany rides by your door, ye shall give him bite and sup for the favour that was this night shown you in the courtyard of Ardstinchar.'