The Master of Stair

CHAPTER PAGE I RONALD MACDONALD 3 II THE KISS 14 III JOCK O’BREADALBANE’S WIFE 24 IV DELIA FEATHERSTONEHAUGH 35 V THE FOLLY OF DELIA 47 VI HATE MEETS HATE 62 VII THE POISON OF T...

I THE RECKONING 309 II FOREBODINGS 318 III THE TRIUMPHS OF THE CAMPBELLS 329 IV THE LIE ACCOMPLISHED 335 V A WOMAN’S VICTORY 344 VI “THERE WAS NO MASSACRE IN GLENCOE” 364 EPILOG...

Some fifty men were making slow progress through the pass of Glenorchy, which lies in the heart of Invernesshire and so in the very depths of the wild Highlands. A thick white m...

A bright flame leaped up and showed the rude interior, the mud walls, the earth floor, the rough-hewn log seat and the figure of Helen Fraser taking off her dripping red coat.

Loch Awe lay vast and gloomy under the gray skies; it was twilight and the sky burnt gold and purple with the last of the setting sun behind Castle Kilchurn. Though it no longer...

The November evening was closing in; the room somber and gloomy at any time, was in darkness save for the fire over which a young man sat, writing on a paper that he held on his...

Delia Featherstonehaugh shut the door on Jerome Caryl and her brother and began mounting the stairs of the quiet little house. She could hear the low murmur of the men’s voices...

He sat in a small chamber contrived by a modern architect out of one of the Gothic halls of the old castle; it was well furnished and contained the luxuries (rare in the Highlan...

The three Macdonalds trudged in silence over the flat moors beyond Loch Awe. Behind them lay Kilchurn Castle, black against the vapors of Ben Cruachan, the mist-soaked standard...

It was a fine chamber with smooth polished cream-colored walls and long French windows, hung with flowered curtains of a dull pink; the furniture, black and a little heavy, caug...

It was drawing toward the evening of December twentieth, along the smooth high road to Carlisle three travelers were riding swiftly, their faces toward England. The wind blew co...

It was snowing fast over Romney Marsh; the whole wide, desolate fenland sweeping to the sea lay gray under the storm; it was near nightfall and almost dark; in the landscape one...

The sound of his own name seemed to sober the man; he sank down heavily into a chair, clutching his sword, his wild vacant eyes staring before him. Celia Hunt stood dumbly regar...

It stood in a dreary back street close to Westminster Abbey and was a resort well-known to Jacobites and almost unheard of by others; in the upper rooms was a printing-press tha...

Late that evening the Master of Stair entered his mansion in St. James’s Square and passed through the great empty house to the library at the back. This room was vast, handsome...

“They hav’na’ taken the oaths,” he said. “I’m no’ likely to be deceived. I have clear reports sent by Glenlyon—and certainly the Macdonalds couldna’ take the oaths without his k...

The afternoon service at Westminster Abbey had commenced; Delia Featherstonehaugh sat in the cloisters and listened to the lift of the singing. The place was yellow with the lat...

Mr. Caryl, he said, had been summoned by his grace of Berwick, but he expected his return shortly, and though he, Sir Perseus, actually had the papers Mr. Wedderburn was to carr...

Delia Featherstonehaugh came home through the quiet dark streets by the river with a heart so elate that she heeded nothing of the lateness of the hour, the bitter little wind t...

Viscount Stair listened with an amused smile to the heavy footsteps pacing about overhead; he drew himself closer over the fire and surveyed his lean fingers with eyes twinkling...

Delia heard the door closed behind her and lifted her eyes. It was a beautiful room, all carving and gilt with heavy hangings of stamped leather and embroidered satin; the chimn...

“You fool,” he said, “you are not in a position you can play with—you have three countries full of enemies and not one friend that I know of—except the King, and what could he d...

Jerome Caryl was informed that he was to be examined. It was the day after his arrest, he had been followed to his lodging, taken quietly and conveyed to the guard-house at Kens...

Delia Featherstonehaugh sat in her miserable little lodgings in Southwark and looked across the gaunt room at Jerome Caryl. He had told her how the cold clemency of the King had...

As Jerome Caryl turned up the stairs of the Duke of Berwick’s lodging, he was greeted by a hubbub of noise, above which rose the prolonged giggle of a man and the interchange of...

There was so much anxiety, and intensity in her face and words that Jerome Caryl was impressed; he might as well cross the river in her coach as not, he quietly assented.

The whole landscape, encompassed by vast and steep mountains, lay in a cold, leaden gray light, there was no human being in sight and the only living thing visible was the solit...

It was the very height of spring in Edinburgh; the middle of May, 1695; the warm sunny day was fading into dusk and the street lamps were lit and glittering yellow through the t...

The musicians were playing the delicate melody of a pavan in Lady Breadalbane’s ball-room, the air was heavy with the scent of the white and pink roses that decorated the walls...

She leaned against a mirror; her red hair fell over her bare white shoulders and purple dress; at her bosom drooped a cluster of crimson roses; with anxious eyes she looked at t...

It was toward the end of June; the commissioners had produced their report on the Glencoe affair, yielding to the public demand to behold their conclusions before the pleasure o...

Twilight was gathering as Lord Stair rode back into Edinburgh; the city lights glimmered through purple haze as the June evening deepened and above the castle that stood black a...

Along the oak settle which was drawn up close to the fire lay Delia with her head motionless on a pile of brilliant cushions and her hands slackly clasped on her bosom.