gory Ashburn" was the name he
read.

Ashen grew his cheeks as his eyes fastened upon that name, whilst the
hand, to which no peril ever brought a tremor, shook now like an aspen.
Feverishly he spread the letter on his knee, and with a glance, from
dull that it had been, grown of a sudden fierce and cruel, he read the
contents.

DEAR KENNETH,

Again I write in the hope that I may prevail upon you to quit Scotland
and your attachment to a king, whose fortunes prosper not, nor can
prosper. Cynthia is pining, and if you tarry longer from Castle Marleigh
she must perforce think you but a laggard lover. Than this I have no
more powerful argument wherewith to draw you from Perth to Sheringham,
but this I think should prevail where others have failed me. We await
you then, and whilst we wait we daily drink your health. Cynthia
commends herself to your memory as doth my brother, and soon we hope to
welcome you at Castle Marleigh. Believe, my dear Kenneth, that whilst I
am, I am yours in affection.

GREGORY ASHBURN

Twice Crispin read the letter through. Then with set teeth and straining
eyes he sat lost in thought.

Here indeed was a strange chance! This boy whom he had met at Perth,
and enrolled in his company, was a friend of Ashburn's--the lover of
Cynthia. Who might this Cynthia be?

Long and deep were his ponderings upon the unfathomable ways of
Fate--for Fate he now believed was here at work to help him, revealing
herself by means of this sign even at the very moment when he decried
his luck. In memory he reviewed his meeting with the lad in the yard
of Perth Castle a fortnight ago. Something in the boy's bearing, in his
air, had caught Crispin's eye. He had looked him over, then approached,
and bluntly asked his name and on what business he was come there. The
youth had answered him civilly enough that he was Kenneth Stewart
of Bailienochy, and that he was come to offer his sword to the King.
Thereupon he had interested himself in the lad's behalf and had gained
him a lieutenancy in his own company. Why he was attracted to a youth
on whom never before had he set eyes was a matter that puzzled him not
a little. Now he held, he thought, the explanation of it. It was the way
of Fate.

This boy was sent into his life by a Heaven that at last showed
compassion for the deep wrongs he had suffered; sent him as a key
wherewith, should the need occur, to open him the gate