alk with the
Laird of Supsorrow, she resolved to interview Miss Aline instantly.

Miss Aline also had her own reasons for being wearied of Hanover Lodge.
It "wasna' her ain country" and the "fremit folk (especially the
'flonkies') vexed her sair!" Thus from the first there was no question
of her letting Patsy go back alone.

"Fegs, no," she cried, "what do ye tak' me for? Lassie, do ye not ken
that I am here for the purpose o' lookin' after you--little as I have
been able to accomplish, with you as flichty as the Wemysses and as dour
as the Ferrises. It is the Lord's ain peety that ye werena' born
reasonable and wise like the Mintos--!"

"And your grandfather--" Patsy suggested, "him they call Hellfire
Minto--what was it he did to the poor man at Falkirk Tryst?"

"He wasna' a poor man--he was the chief o' a neibour clan and the twa
were at feud. It was that sent my granther doon to Galloway where there
are no clans nor ony spites that last for twenty generations. But no
matter for that. We are wasting time. Let us go and see the Princess.
What for should we steal away like a thief in the night--after all her
kindness, when we can get her God-speed by the asking?"

"She will try to stop us--tell her nothing!" cried Patsy, instantly
fearful lest she should be locked up, or by some machination prevented
from joining the _Good Intent_.

"And if ye please, Patsy Ferris, wha may it be that is in danger at the
Bothy o' Blairmore?"

"Why, Stair Garland, of course!"

"And wha else?"

"I suppose my Uncle Julian is," said Patsy, seeing Miss Aline's point,
"but he is not in real danger like Stair."

"Not perhaps if it comes to a trial, but suppose that the sodjers have
orders not to let it come to a trial--!"

"Oh, Miss Aline, do you mean that they would kill them on the spot?"

"Weel, lass, Stair and Mr. Julian will doubtless be defending
theirsel's, and what is to hinder a musket or so from going off behind
their backs? There will be a reward oot and Brown Bess is tricky at the
best of times. I am judgin' that the Princess will rather be for coming
with us than for standing in our road!"

Miss Aline judged well. The Princess was anxious that they should take
half-a-dozen of her retainers who had served in the wars, but Miss Aline
pointed out that their ignorance of the country and language would make
them only a danger. Finally, however, they agreed to take Heinrich Wolf,
called the Silent, a lean, keen-profiled m