James Achanna was the villainous tool who worked for him in the dark; and herein was another secret; for Achanna had been a page to the father of the countess, and had loved her too. This love had expanded suddenly, like a flower that blooms in a night under a tropical moon, and the coquette soon discovered it. "You love me?" said she imperiously, reining up her horse, as they one day rode side by side near the loch of the Carlinwark. "Yes," said the page, tremulously, and covered with confusion by the abruptness of the question. "How old are you, James Achanna?" "I am four-and-twenty, madam." "You are but a boy," said she, laughing. "I am six years _your_ senior," he replied, gathering courage. "And you think me beautiful?" "Oh, madam!" "At your age boys think all women beautiful. But, my presuming page, you must cease with this folly and learn to know your place, or it may be changed to one more exalted;" and she pointed with her riding-switch to a stone corbel called the gallows-knob above the gate of Thrave. The cheek of Achanna grew deadly pale; he ceased the "folly;" but from thenceforth thought only of revenge, and afterwards entered readily into the scheme by which the Douglases were lured to Edinburgh. Thus, summoning Sir Alan Lauder, his Master of the Horse, the young earl, with all the impetuosity of a pampered boy, ordered his train to be assembled, and set forth for the capital. Achanna preceded him on the spur, and reached Edinburgh a day or two before him. The reader will now begin to perceive why those _four_ coffins were conveyed by him, under cloud of night, into the vaults of David's Tower; and why a black bull's head, the ancient symbol of sudden death and slaughter among the Celtic Scots, was concealed by the King's master-butcher in the cabinet of the Chancellor. CHAPTER III. THE ENTRANCE. So many and so good Of the Douglases have been; Of one surname in Scotland Never yet were seen.--OLD RHYME. Mounted on fine horses, the bridles and saddles of which were covered by elaborate steel and silver bosses, Sir Patrick Gray, Captain of the King's Guard, with his cousin and Lieutenant, Sir Thomas MacLellan, of Bombie, fully armed and equipped, rode down the steep path from the castle, and, traversing the town, proceeded towards the street by which the earl of Douglas and his train were expected to enter. For small bonnets of fine blue Flemish cloth, they had relinquished their heavy bascinets, with their large plumes and velvet tippets, which were borne behind them by pages. The Captain of the Guard was preceded by a mounted esquire, Andrew Gray, of Balgarno, bearing his banner _gules_, a lion rampant, within a border engrailed.