Kings of Carrick

i58 THE KINGS OF CARRICK.
" No. Try again."
" Eescued ? "
" No. Try again."
" Try again ! Not I ; I give it up. Tell me — but first,
what of the Countess ? "
" Oh, the Countess was well and happy the last time I saw
her, sitting by the fireside with Lady Bargany, embroidering,
and listening to Lady Bargany telling of her old days, and of
her visits to this house."
"You surprise me more and more. What can have
happened ? "
" Well," replied the Master, " sit down — it's not a short
story. Short enough in telling, I dare say ; but perhaps not
so short in consideration of it. I hardly know what to make
of it myself."
" To make of what ? "
" Of Bargany sending me here to conclude a peace with
you."
" To conclude a what ? " gasped the Earl, hardly believing
his own ears.
" A treaty of peace."
" Explain yourself, Hew," said the Earl in a tone of
command.
Thus directly appealed to, the Master of Cassillis told the
story. Beginning with the hour when he found himself a
captive within the hostile walls of Bargany, he told how the
Lady Bargany, with her own hands, treated his wounds, and
ministered to his wants, and how carefully he had been nursed
into convalescence. To do him justice, he laid stress on Bar-
gany's kindness, and succeeded in awakening in the storm-
tossed mind of his brother, something like an approach to
reciprocal gratitude to his sworn foe by the Girvan water.
Then he narrated how Bargany had come to him one evening
and broached the subject of conciliation ; how he had scorn-
fully refused to be the bearer of any such message of mercy