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 Castle; "and are not these the colours of the Covenant that float over its walls?"

"A stratagem―a mere trick," said Burley, "an insult over our disappointment, intended to aggravate and embitter our spirits."

He was interrupted by the arrival of one of Morton's followers sent to report to him the evacuation of the place, and its occupation by the insurgent forces. Burley was rather driven to fury than reconciled by the news of this success.

"I have watched," he said―"I have fought―I have plotted―I have striven for the reduction of this place―I have forborn to seek to head enterprises of higher command and of higher honour―I have narrowed their outgoings, and cut off the springs, and broken the staff of bread within their walls; and, when the men were about to yield themselves to my hand, that their sons might be bondsmen, and their daughters a laughing-stock to our whole camp, cometh this youth, without a