Kings of Carrick

AUCHENDRANE PLOTS. 127
harder beset in its day, many a time. Not even Bargany
and all his friends would venture to attack us in this house ;
and if all we want is to be let alone, nothing is easier."
" Nothing, I grant you," replied the Earl, " if all we want
is to be let alone ; but there is no standing still for us. We
must prosecute this warfare to the bitter end, and attack on
all sides in turn. Stand still ! Never was there a time
when we could less afford to stand still than this."
" I did not mean that we should think of such a thing. It
would be to our everlasting shame to halt in this warfare for
one single hour ; and it would better befit us to prepare for
what must come, than to calculate even on the possibility of
failure."
" I do not calculate on any such thing," said the Earl,
" nothing is further distant from my mind ; but I wish to
look the opposition straight in the face, and then I shall
know the better how to meet it. We can talk of this anon ;
in the meantime, tell me all who are killed and wounded.
But first, was Cloncaird there with Bargany ?"
" Yes ; so was the Master of Stair."
" I thought as much," was the Earl's reply, " they are
never far away when Bargany is about."
Leaving the Master of Cassillis to tell his brother who
they were that had fallen, and who that had been wounded
in the fray, let us return to Newark. At Cassillis there was
lamentation over the slain ; at Newark, Mure and Kennedy
of Bargany were shaping the future.
CHAPTER X.
AUCHENDRANE PLOTS, AND BARGANY EXECUTES.
A watch was set round the House of Newark that night.
The Kennedys had disappeared; but stranger things had