’Are there no churches in your part of the country,’ I asked him, ’for I perceive by your habit you are not a hereaway man?’ ’There are indeed kirks there, but I cannot bide to be hampered and taken in a snare within walls, in the present unsettled state of the country. A peaceable man does well to worship in the open. What sense is there in being shut weaponless in a kirk, and shot at through the windows, as happened not long ago?’ I asked how that could be. ’Have you not heard how in the north country the Craufords beset the Kennedies in Dalrymple Kirk, taking them at an advantage without their weapons of war—so that a Kennedy now goes no oftener to kirk than the twenty-ninth of February comes into the calender.’ ’How strange it befalls in a small world,’ said I, laughing, ’for I am a Kennedy, and I ride to visit the Craufords of Kerse.’ Then he looked at me more closely than ever. ’My name,’ he said courteously, ’is John Mure of Auchendrayne.’ So I told him my name and style, and also the knight’s name to whom I was squire, for after his giving me his own I could not do less. ’You have been in Edinburgh lately?’ he said. ’And I doubt not, by your looks, bore yourself well in the sad broil in the High Street. Indeed, I think that I heard as much. Though being a man of good age, and one that is of quiet ways, I neither make nor mell with such tulzies, which are for young, lusty folk at any rate.’ After a little riding in silence and thought, he asked me if I had ever spoken to Gilbert Kennedy of Bargany, and it was with a loath heart that I answered ’No.’ Then he spoke long of him and his noble prowess, comparing him to the Earl of Cassillis, to his great advantage—which I grant it was easy enough to do. But since I could not wear a man’s signet ring on my finger and deny him even by my silence, I spoke up for my colours. And that is good enough religion, as I read it. ’I am Cassillis man,’ said I, with my hand on my sword, ’and I care not who knows it.’ ’Hush you, young sir,’ replied the Laird of Auchendrayne, soothingly, ’mind that you are now in an enemy’s country. I warrant that Currie of Kelwood has travelled this road not so long before you.’ ’I am not one who cares whether folk know my opinions,’ I cried. ’See, I wear them on my collar. And I have on my finger a double safe-conduct.’ Whereupon I let him see the rings, drawing off my gauntlet that I might show him the signets. Then he redoubled his respect and rode nearer to me, which made me glad that I had showed him the seals with their crests. ’You are young to ride so far alone on such great folk’s business,’ he said softly. ’Even I, that am old and sober, am not so trusted.’ ’Laird Auchendrayne,’ I replied to him, ’you do jest with me because of my youth. For you yourself are of the great ones, their kinsman and equal at muster and council-board, and but lately, in the Earl’s absence, Bailzie of Carrick!’