Patsy   By: Samuel R. Crockett (1860-1914)

BY S. R. CROCKETT

AUTHOR OF "THE RAIDERS," "THE STICKIT MINISTER," "LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM," "ANNE OF THE BARRICADES," ETC.

SYNDICATE PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1913. Reprinted February, 1913; April, December, 1913.

[Illustration: "Yes, I," said Patsy.]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. HEIRESS AND HEIR

CHAPTER II. THE MAIDENS' COVE

CHAPTER III. THE BOTHY

CHAPTER IV. BY FORCE OF ARMS

CHAPTER V. PATSY'S CONFESSIONS

CHAPTER VI. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

CHAPTER VII. THE LADS IN THE HEATHER

CHAPTER VIII. THE BLACK PEARL OF CAIRN FERRIS

CHAPTER IX. HIS LIFE IN HIS HAND

CHAPTER X. THE WICKED LAYETH A SNARE

CHAPTER XI. THE TRAMPLING OF HORSE IN THE NIGHT

CHAPTER XII. PATSY'S RESCUE

CHAPTER XIII. PLOTS AND PRINCES

CHAPTER XIV. THE END OF AN OLD FEUD

CHAPTER XV. THE FECHTIN' FOOL

CHAPTER XVI. A RIDER COMES TO CASTLE RAINCY

CHAPTER XVII. PATSY HELD IN HONOUR

CHAPTER XVIII. UNCLE JULIAN'S PRINCESS

CHAPTER XIX. MISS ALINE TAKES COMMAND

CHAPTER XX. LOUIS RAINCY ENDURES HARDNESS

CHAPTER XXI. THE CAVE OF ADULLAM

CHAPTER XXII. WINTER AFTERNOON

CHAPTER XXIII. PATSY HAS GREATNESS THRUST UPON HER

CHAPTER XXIV. THE LOST FOLK'S ACRE

CHAPTER XXV. THE HIGH STILE

CHAPTER XXVI. THE GIBBET RING

CHAPTER XXVII. THE DUKES ... AND SUPSORROW

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE "GREEN DRAGON"

CHAPTER XXIX. ENEMY'S COUNTRY

CHAPTER XXX. A CREDIT TO THE "GREEN DRAGON"

CHAPTER XXXI. THE NIGHT LANDING

CHAPTER XXXII. ORDEAL BY FIRE

CHAPTER XXXIII. PATSY RAISES THE COUNTRY

CHAPTER XXXIV. THE PRISON BREAKERS

CHAPTER XXXV. THE PICTS' WAY IS THE WOMAN'S WAY

CHAPTER XXXVI. STIFF NECKED AND REBELLIOUS

CHAPTER XXXVII. A PICTISH HONEYMOON

CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE LAND OF ALWAYS AFTERNOON

CHAPTER XXXIX. REBEL GALLOWAY

CHAPTER XL. "WHY DO THEY LOVE YOU?"

CHAPTER XLI. THE BATTLE OF THE CAUSEWAY

CHAPTER I

HEIRESS AND HEIR

They stood high on the Abbey cliff edge an old man, eagle profiled, hawk beaked, cockatoo crested, with angry grey eyebrows running peakily upwards towards his temples at either side ... and a boy.

They were the Earl Raincy and his grandson Louis all the world knew them in that country of the Southern Albanach. For Leo Raincy was a great man, and the lad the heir of all he possessed.

For all or almost all they looked upon belonged to the Earl of Raincy. Even those blue hills bounding the meadow valleys to the north hid a fair half of his property, and he was sorry for that. Because he was a land miser, hoarding parishes and townships. He grudged the sea its fringe of foam, the three mile fishing limit, the very high and low mark between the tides which was not his, but belonged to the crown along which the common people had a right to pass, and where fisherfolk from the neighbouring villages might fish and dry their nets, when all ought to have been his.

The earl's dark eyes passed with carelessness over hundreds of farm towns, snug sheltered villages, mills with little threads of white wimpling away from the unheard constant clack of the wheel, barns, byres and stackyards all were his, but of these he took no heed.

Behind them Castle Raincy itself stood up finely from the plain of corn land and green park, an artificial lake in front, deep trees all about, patterned gardens, the fiery flash of hot house glass where the sun struck, and pinnacles high in air, above all the tall tower from which Margaret de Raincy had defied the English invader during the minority of James the Fifth. The earl's eyes passed all these over. He did not see them as aught to take pride in.