as a fortress and of dignity as a residence.
Archibald the Grim, who built the keep, could not have foreseen the
wondrous beauty and strength to which Thrieve would attain under his
successors. This night of the wappenshaw the lofty grey walls were
hung with gaily coloured tapestries draped from the overhanging
gallery of wood which ran round the top of the castle. From the four
corners of the roof flew the banners of four provinces which owned the
sway of the mighty house,--Galloway, Annandale, Lanark, and the
Marches,--while from the centre, on a flagstaff taller than any, flew
their standard royal, for so it might be called, the heart and stars
of the Douglases' more than royal house.

While the outer walls thus blazed with colour, the woods around gave
back the constant reverberation of cannon, as with hand guns and
artillery of weight the garrison greeted the return of the Earl and
his guests. The green castle island from end to end was planted thick
with tents and gay with pavilions of many hues and various design,
their walls covered with intricate devices, and each flying the
colours of its owner, while on poles without dangled shields and
harness of various kinds, ready for the younger squires to clean and
oil for the use of their masters on the remaining days of the
tournament.

Sholto waited at the bridge-head, impatient of the press, and eager to
be left alone with his own thoughts, that he might con over and over
the words and looks of his heart's idol, and suck all the sweet pain
he could out of her very hardheartedness. Suddenly tossed backwards
like a ball from lip to lip, according to the universal and, indeed,
obligatory custom of the time, there reached him the "passing of the
word." He heard his own name repeated over and over in fifty voices
and tones, waxing louder as the "word" neared him.

"Sholto MacKim--Sholto MacKim, son of Malise, the armourer, wanted to
speak with the Earl. Sholto MacKim. Sholto--"

A great nolt of a Moray Highlandman, with a mouth like a gash, shouted
it in his very ear.

Surprised and somewhat anxious at heart, Sholto cast over in his mind
all the deeds, good and evil, which might procure him the honour of an
interview with Earl William Douglas, but could think of nothing except
his having involuntarily played the spy at the young lord's meeting
with the lady in the wood. It was therefore with some natural
trepidation that the young man obeyed the summons.

"At any