t-arms burst out laughing, and crying,
'That's a' that ye ken, auld Davie! As though the Master of Albany would
let a bonnie lassie ware hersel' and her tocher on stone walls and dour
old nuns.'

'Has she wedded the Master of Albany, then?' asked Malcolm, concealing
his anxiety as best he might.

'That's as he pleases; and by my troth he took pains enow to get her!'

'What pains?'

'Why, once she slipped out of his very fingers; that time that he had
laid hands on her, and the hirpling doited brother of hers cam down with
a strange knight, put her into St. Abbs, and made off for England--so
they said. Some of the rogues would have it 'twas St. Andrew in bodily
shape, and that he tirled the young laird, as was only fit for a saint,
aff to heaven wi' him; for he was no more seen in these parts.'

'Nay, that couldna be,' put in another soldier. 'Sandy M'Kay took his
aith that he was in the English camp--more shame till him--an' was
stickit dead for meddling between King Harry's brother and his luve. It
sorted him weel, I say.'

'Aweel!' continued the first; 'gane is he, and sma' loss wi' him! An'
yon old beldame over at St. Abbs, she kens weel how to keep a lass wi' a
tocher--so what does the Master but sends a letter ower to our Prior,
bidding him send two trusty brethren, as though from the King, to conduct
her to Whitby?'

'Ha!' said Malcolm; 'but that's ower the Border.'

'Even so; but the Glenuskies are all English at heart, and it sicker
trained away the silly lassie.'

'And then?'--the other man-at-arms laughed.

'Why, at the first hostelry, ye can guess what sort of nuns were ready to
meet her! I promise ye she skirled, and ca'ed Heaven and earth to help;
but Brother Simon and Brother Ringan gave their word they'd see nae ill
dune to her, and she rade with them on each side of her, and us tall
fellows behind and before, till we cam to Doune.'

'And what became of her, the poor lassie, then?' inquired Malcolm,
steadying his voice with much effort.

'Ye maun ask the Master that,' said the soldier. 'I ken nae mair; I was
sent on anither little errand of the Earl of Fife into the Highlands, and
only cam back hither a week syne, to watch the Border.'

'Had it been St. Andrew that saved her before, he wad hae come again,'
pondered the lay-brother. 'He'd hardly hae given her up.'

'Weel, I heard the lassie cry on the Master to mind the aith he had made
the former time; an' though he tried to laugh