er on
the part of the robbers themselves." It was Elchies who spoke, cracking
filberts the while with his great yellow teeth that gave him so cruel a
look upon the bench.

"As a matter of fact," said the Chamberlain suddenly, "the man was shot
by a French pistol," and a hush fell on the table in expectation of
further details, but they were not forthcoming.

"Well, I'm astonished to hear it, and I hope you know where to lay hands
on the homicide," said the Duke.

"It's none of our affair--nowadays," said the Chamberlain. "And, forbye,
I'm only telling a carried tale after all. There may be no more in it
than the fancy of the Glen Fyne folk who told me of it."

The Duke looked at his Chamberlain, saw that the topic, so far as he
was concerned, was ended, and signalled to the Duchess. It was not the
custom of the time, but her Grace had introduced into her Highland court
the practice of withdrawing the ladies for some time after dinner, and
leaving the men to their birling of the wine, as they phrased it. Out
she swept at her husband's signal with her company--Lady Strachur, Lady
Charlotte, Mrs. Petullo, the Provost's wife, and three or four of no
greater importance to our story--and of all that were left behind,
perhaps there was none but her husband, who, oddly' enough (as people
thought) for a duke, loved her as if he were a boy courting still, to
reflect that the room was colder and less human wanting the presence
of her and her bright company. His Grace, who cared for the bottle
even less than did his Chamberlain, slid round the wine sun-wise for a
Highlander's notion of luck; the young advocates, who bleared somewhat
at the eyes when they forgot themselves, felt the menacing sleepiness
and glowing content of potations carried to the verge of indiscretion;
Kilkerran hummed, Petullo hawed, the Provost humbly ventured a
sculduddery tale, the Duke politely listening the while to some argument
of Elchies upon the right of any one who had been attacked by the
Macfarlanes to use arms against them.

"It's a well-allowed principle, your Grace," he maintained. "_Arma in
armatos sumere jura sinunt_--the possessor may use violence to maintain
his possession, but not to recover that of which he has been deprived."
He looked like a Barbary ape as his shrunk jaws masticated the kernels
he fed to his mouth with shaking claws: something deep and foxishly
cunning peered forth below his bristling red eyebrows. The Duke could
not