THE BROOCH OF LINDISFARNE

By JESSIE A. GAUGHAN

Author of "The Plucking of the Lily"

CHAPTER XXVI

WHAT THE MESSAGE WAS

WHILE James MacDonald was riding to Dunyvaig, the coronach arose wild and swelling in Mulindry glen, for the message that had come to the chief had spread like fire among his men. The whole strath was roused. Children, so small as not to understand their cause of grief, mingled their shrill cries with those of their mourning mothers. Men, goaded to fury, rushed to the huts of the MacLean prisoners sword in hand, and death shrieks mingled with the wailing.

Sir Lauchlan and Hector MacLean, confined by themselves, heard the sudden uproar with amazement, and guessed in part its meaning.

"Hector, we are trapped!" the father cried. "They are slaying our men like sheep at the shambles!"

Hearing a rush for their door, the MacLeans seized the chairs on which they had been sitting, and held them ready as some sort of protection against assault; and so fiercely determined did they look that the MacDonalds paused in the doorway, no man wishing to be the first to court death or disablement from the heavy chairs swung by the long arms of the tall sons of Mull.

The MacLeans, standing on guard, beheld in the firelight faces disfigured by fury, and listened to bitter reproaches and curses loud and deep. Then they heard MacKay of the Rhinns ordering the MacDonalds aside, and Sir Angus strode through the press into the hut.

At once there began an altercation between the chiefs, at which a whole crowd of MacDonald clansmen were an outside audience.

"Mean you our deaths by the hands of your rabble?' cried Sir Lauchlan. "Even MacLean's prisoners in Duart are safe from assassination!

He could not have uttered words more ill-advised.

"Safe in Duart!" Sir Angus roared, and his words came thick and fast, stumbling one over another, so great was his passion. "Coll and those with him hang stark and dead from your castle walls! Call you that safety? What think you MacDonald will do for his lost brother?"

"What? Coll dead! How, MacDonald?" Sir Lauchlan was so taken by surprise as not to be able to say more.

"Yes, dead, MacLean! He whom you took as hostage is slain by your kinsman, Allen, who writes to me that for my slight on his clan he has done this deed. Oh, but he shall rue it!" He shall, Sir Angus! Not for love of me has he done this. I charged him hold Coll with all honour. Him will I hang from Duart battlements. Keep Hector here. I will exact full vengeance for your brother."

"

MacDonald takes not his revenge by the hand of another," said Sir Angus, coldly. "Fear not; my arm is long enough to strike Allen MacLean, even should he screen himself behind the very Benmore of Mull. But think not to deceive me. Hold you the chief of Clan Donald a child to be easily played with? Allen dared not have taken the risk without your orders. And you will I strike first. Prepare to die, MacLean, for to-morrow you look your last on the land you covet!" And to not another word would Sir Angus listen, but from the door threw back a taunt.

"Fear not assassination! You may sleep safe. MacKay will guard you."

A few hours later Sir Angus MacDonald stood with his back to the burned-out fire in the half light of early morning, confronting those who had ridden through the night from Dunyvaig. From one to another he glanced with the pride of his race in his eyes, and he looked what he felt towards MacLean, fierce and unrelenting. He had received them at first with surprise, then, on learning the reason of their coming, with wrathful disapproval.

Now he was surveying his son with proud contempt.

Since when have you numbered women among your followers, James? The cause of him for whom you plead is no just one, else women's appeals for pity were not needed to bolster it. I wonder that you did not bring the friar with you also. As for you, Madam," turning to his mother, "you had been better employed teaching these foolish lassies that men brock no interference with their plans, than in aiding and abetting them in this folly."

Angus, my son," said Lady Agnes, "you will not do what we have heard?"

But MacDonald, seeming not to hear her, said with bitterness, "All against me? First there was James, who must needs side with his father's foe, and talk of honour and the King's Council. Now there are my daughters and my mother. What of you, MacKay?" this to the lieutenant who at his chief's command had become a reluctant witness of the scene, "Will you, too, join the women's standard ?"

MacKay felt rather than saw the mute appeal in the ladies' eyes, and the pain of his previous trial was renewed for him in all its intensity. But, steeling his heart, he turned to his chief with, "Clan Donald's interests are mine, and my chief's will is law to me!"

Right, MacKay!" cried Sir Angus. “MacLean has good friends, but he has stronger enemies. I tell you, mother, I will do what I have said, and MacLean shall die. His life I consider as little as that of the snake which I crush in my path. And if I think fit, his son shall fall with him."

At these words, Ella MacDonald, loosening her convulsive grasp of her sister's hand, rushed wildly forward with a sound between a sob and a scream, to sink at her father's feet and clutch his knees in terror.

"Oh, father, father! in pity unsay those cruel words. See it is Ella, your own child, who pleads, not for her lover only, but for Lauchlan MacLean."

Her upturned face, from which the hood of her riding cloak had fallen back, gleamed marble white in the faint light. Her fair hair disordered by her journey, lay about her shoulders. At that moment she was so like her dead mother that Sir Angus wavered, involuntarily averting his gaze; and the girl, quick to perceive the faintest sign of softening, renewed her entreaties with greater vehemence.

But Sir Angus, perhaps from shame at his momentary irresolution, spoke pitilessly:

"Think you I can be so lightly swayed? This much I will tell you. I shall not slay the youth, Hector. For him I have other designs; but his father is doomed. I say it, and Angus MacDonald goes not back of his word!"

"Have you no pity, father; no mercy, no justice? Will nothing move you?

"What mercy had they on Coll? As for justice, a life for a life is sound justice. Cease your pleading. You may need it all

if you marry young MacLean. The men of his clan make good lovers, I grant you, but there are tales enough to prove them sorry husbands.

Ella was now sobbing unrestrainedly, as she cowered at his feet; and Lady Agnes, her heart hot at the spectacle, burst out; You are cruel, Angus! How can you speak so to your child? Remember that Lauchlan MacLean is your brother-inlaw."

"But Coll was my best loved brother. And, mother, he was even nearer to you than to me. Think of him, your youngest and your favourite son, hanging dead and dishonoured, a sport for the men of Mull, and you will long for revenge against his murderers!"

"Yes, Angus, against Allen MacLean. Had you him a prisoner, I would not seek to stay your hand. But Lauchlan is guiltless of Coll's blood."

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So says he too, but I know better. I grant you, Lauchlan's was not the hand to noose the rope or fix the ladder ; but, think you, dare MacKay or even James slay hostages of mine without my orders? I were a baby did such subterfuge deceive me. I scarce expected my mother to side with the murderer of her son. Is it for Ella's sake? Then know that I heed not a girl's tears. It is no more to me to watch a woman weep than to see a hen go barefoot."

"I need no living child of mine to teach me my duty to my dear dead Coll." The mother spoke with mournful dignity. "It is because I have lost one son that I am more anxious for my eldest born. Angus, it is for your own safety that I take MacLean's part against you. My heart tells me you will come to evil over this. Hear me; often have I pleaded and you have listened."

"Never when the injury was deep. And when I did listen and showed mercy, has the result always justified the clemency? Think, for example, on that cowardly Queen's messenger in Rathlin, that got off at your prayer, and on what followed from his complaints."

"Worse might have befallen had you killed him. I fear greatly for you if you do this awful deed you meditate."

"Mother, give me not the trouble of refusing you. Press me no further for MacLean."

So far, Muriel had taken no part in the discussion, but had stood motionless, her dark piercing eyes fixed upon her father as if she would read his very soul. Only for a moment had she

removed her gaze, and that was when he challenged his lieutenant's loyalty. Now she intervened calmly.

"Take heed for yourself, father, and for James. How will gratified vengeance comfort you when you are chief of a broken clan? Will James thank you if your rashness deprives him of Islay?" And though Hugh MacKay stared at the wall behind her, he caught every turn of her lips, every flash of her proud, earnest eyes.

Ella was the rugged chieftain's favourite daughter, but there was so much that was akin to his own strong and daring nature in Muriel, that more than once he had secretly taken her advice while affecting to despise it. In this case, however, he had no thought of doing so, and he glared at her so long and fiercely that she wavered and avoided his look.

""Twould seem as though these MacLeans have cast spells on both my daughters," he said at length. "Since Ella is betrothed to the son, you, I take it, Muriel, aspire to Sir Lauchlan?"

"Shame on you, Angus! shame!" cried Lady Agnes. "How can you say such things, before your officer?

Not a word said Muriel, but the colour of her cheek deepened with a resentful flush.

"Why take exception to my officer?" demanded MacDonald. MacKay is as honourable a name as MacLean. In truth, I would sooner see my daughter wed MacKay than take MacLean, chief though he is. What are the MacLeans but upstart vassals of our clan?"

At these words Hugh MacKay's heart bounded with a wild joy; but he repressed the hope, if hope it was, that rose within him, for what would his chief's answer be did he ask in sober earnest for the Lady Muriel, even did she deign to care for him. No! the chief's words were mere idle comparison.

Then said Lady Agnes: "Have pity on that poor girl at your feet. Think not that you can spoil her life and happiness and escape remorse."

Mother," questioned Sir Angus, with greater heat than he had yet displayed, "who is nearer to you, your son Coll or my daughter?"

"Oh, Angus! The living is nearer both to you and me, and to the living is our first love and duty. What avails your sorrow and your rage wasted over the dead, the unheeding dead, when they may wreck a life? Hear me, my son, listen!" for she saw he was losing all patience, "If to you the dead seem to