His first enquiry was, whether Macbriar and Kettledrummle had arrived,
agreeably to the summons which he had dispatched at midnight. Macbriar
had come, and Kettledrummle, though a heavy traveller, might, he was
informed, be instantly expected. Burley then dispatched a messenger to
Morton's quarters to summon him to an immediate council. The messenger
returned with news that he had left the place. Poundtext was next
summoned; but he thinking, as he said himself, that it was ill dealing
with fractious folk, had withdrawn to his own quiet manse, preferring a
dark ride, though he had been on horseback the whole preceding day, to a
renewal in the morning of a controversy with Burley, whose ferocity
overawed him when unsupported by the firmness of Morton. Burley's next
enquiries were directed after Lord Evandale; and great was his rage when
he learned that he had been conveyed away over night by a party of the
marksmen of Milnwood, under the immediate command of Henry Morton
himself.
"The villain!" exclaimed Burley, addressing himself to Macbriar; "the
base, mean-spirited traitor, to curry favour for himself with the
government, hath set at liberty the prisoner taken by my own right hand,
through means of whom, I have little doubt, the possession of the place
of strength which hath wrought us such trouble, might now have been in
our hands!"
"But is it not in our hands?" said Macbriar, looking up towards the Keep
of the Castle; "and are not these the colours of the Covenant that float
over its walls?"
"A stratagem--a mere trick," said Burley, "an insult over our
disappointment, intended to aggravate and embitter our spirits.
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