His horse’s hoofs had no sooner touched the sod of the meadow than he dismounted, and giving the rein to his esquire, advanced to meet his brother-in-law. The Wolfe of Badenoch leaped from his saddle, and moving one step forward, stood to receive him. Sir Patrick Hepborne and the five Stewarts having also dismounted, were at his back.
“Brother,” said the Wolfe, after their first salutations were over, “this is Sir Patrick Hepborne.”
“Sir Patrick,” said the Earl graciously, “I rejoice to see thee here; welcome to thy country, and to these my domains; I regret to understand that I must cast away all hope of seeing thine honoured father upon this occasion, and I yet more grieve at the cause of his present unfitness for mixing in sports in which he was wont to shine as a bright star. Nevoys,” continued he, saluting Sir Alexander Stewart and his brothers, “I rejoice to behold ye thus waxing so stout; an ye thrive thus, even the very youngest of ye will soon be well able to bear a shock. What sayest thou, Duncan, my boy? Your pardon, Sir Patrick, for a moment, but I must speak a little aside here with my brother, the noble Earl of Buchan; I shall be entirely at thy command anon.”
The two Earls retired a few paces to one side, and Moray’s face assuming an air of great seriousness, he began to talk in an under tone to the Wolfe of Badenoch, whose brow, as he listened, gathered clouds and storms, which went on blackening and [[255]]ruffling it, until at length he burst out into one of his ungovernable furies.
“Ha! by the beard of my grandfather, and dost thou think that I care the value of a cross-bow bolt for the split-crowned magpie?” cried he. “Excommunicate me! and what harm, I pr’ythee, will his excommunication do me? But, by’r Lady, he shall suffer for it. He has already had a small spice of what the Wolfe of Badenoch can do when he is roused, and, by all the fiends, he shall know more on’t ere long.”
“Talk not so loud and vehemently, I beseech thee, brother,” said the Earl of Moray; “publish not the matter thus.”
“Nay, but I will tell it,” roared out the Wolfe; “I will publish the insolence of this scoundrel Bishop to the whole world. What think ye,” continued he, turning round to his sons and Sir Patrick—“what think ye of the consummate impudence of the rascally Alexander Barr? He hath dared to void his impotent curse on the Earl of Buchan and Ross—on the son of the King of Scotland—on the Wolfe of Badenoch. My brother here, the Earl of Moray, hath just had an especial messenger from the croaking carrion, to tell him the news of my excommunication; but the red fiend catch me, an I do not make him rue that he ever told the tale beyond his own crowing rookery. Ha! let us to the Castle, brother—let us to my sister Margery, I say. Depardieux, but thou shalt see that the hypocritical knave’s anathema shall be but as seasoning to my food. Trust me, I shall not eat or drink one tithe the less of thy good cheer for it.”
“Most noble Earl of Buchan, and my most excellent brother,” said the Earl of Moray, with a hesitating and perplexed air, “it erketh me sore—it giveth me, as thou mayest readily believe, extreme grief—to be compelled to tell thee that I cannot with propriety receive thee at present among the nobles who now house them within my walls, nor would the heralds admit of thy presence at the ensuing tournament, whilst thou liggest under the bann of the Holy Church, even were I bold enough to risk for thee the Church’s displeasure against me and mine. Let me, then, I pray thee, have weight with thee so far as to persuade thee to ride straightway to Elgin, to make thy peace with the Bishop. Much as I have on my hands at the present time, verily I will not scruple to haste thither with thee, if thou dost think that I mought in any manner of way further an accommodation, so that this dread reproach may be forthwith removed from off thee. We can then return together speedily, ere yet the matter shall have been bruited abroad (for, so far as I am [[256]]concerned, it is as yet a secret); and thou shalt then, much to my joy and honour, take thy due and proper place by the side of thy brother Robert, Earl of Fife and Menteith, at the head of mine illustrious guests, and——”
“Ha! what!” cried the Wolfe of Badenoch in a fury; “thinkest thou that I will hie me straight, to lout myself low, and to lick the dust before the feet of that lorel Bishop, who hath had the surquedrie to dare thus to insult me? By my trusty burly-brand, I shall take other means of settling accounts between us. But methinks he is right hasty in his traffic. No sooner have I settled one score with him, than he runs me up another in the twinkling of an eye. But, by all the furies, he shall find that I shall pay him off roundly, and score him up double on my side. And so, brother, thou dost think that I carry such leprous contamination about my person, as may altogether unfit me for the purity of thy virtuous house? Gramercy for thy courtesy! But by the Rood, I do believe that something else lurketh under all these pretences. Thou hast seen my dotard father the King lately; thou hast held council with him I ween; and, I trow, my interests have not been furthered by the advices thou hast whispered in the Royal ear. I still lack the best cantle of my Lieutenantship in lacking Moray Land, and a bird hath whistled me that John Dunbar, Earl of Moray, hath not been backward in urging the monarch to refuse it to me. If this be so, Brother Earl——”
“I swear by my knighthood,” cried the Earl of Moray earnestly interrupting him, and speaking at once with calmness and firmness—“I swear by my knighthood, that whoso hath told thee this, hath told thee a black falsehood; and I gage mine honour to throw the lie in his teeth, and to defy him to mortal debate, should it so please thee to yield me his name.”