Kings of Carrick

SLAIN IN THE WOOD OF ST. LEONARD'S. 49
triumph in his voice, " your brother shall be avenged, and "
he added to himself, " my sworn friend swept out of my
path."
Cloncaird accepted the situation ; so did M' Alexander and
Wallace, to whom it was very much a matter of business ;
and nothing remained but to make the necessary arrange-
ments. What concerned them all equally was to do the deed
so that it should leave no trace behind it. Culzean must be
swept out of the way, as the avalanche sweeps the wayfarer
into the crevasse.
In Auchendrane they found a ready and a wary counsellor,
and ere the party broke up, the plot was complete, and its
details filled in to the last iota.
" Culzean," muttered Mure to himself, as the night wore
on and his guests retired to rest, " Culzean once brought me
before the Estates of the Realm of Scotland; within seven
days' time I shall usher him into a higher realm. He once
sought my overthrow — I shall accomplish his."
CHAPTER IV.
SLAIN IN THE WOOD OF ST. LEONARD'S.
It was on the morning of the eleventh May that Sir Thomas
Kennedy set out from Culzean on his visit to Edinburgh.
The old castle of Culzean stood — the old and modern com-
bined, stands — on the summit of a rock overlooking the Firth
of Clyde, about nine miles south of Ayr. It was a dwelling
meet for the times. Its surroundings were wild and pictur-
esque. In the dark days of winter, when storms rioted in the
North Channel and the big billows chased one another as they
tumbled across the narrow strip of sea separating the Scottish
from the Irish coasts, the spray dashed up to the windows,
and the seas rumbled in the caves and fretted themselves
sullenly to pieces on the rocks underneath. The sea-mews