No kind of roads, and no kind of manners.
What we. Had. Expected. From. The Scots.
You will like England. For. Things are civil there.
Civil.
We burn witches there, and do not suffer them to traffic in the streets.
Did hell, for the Scotsman, have its own attendant Englishman, petulant and querulous, pricking with complaint?
‘I hope you are not sick. The discomforts of this mission have been difficult enough, but your sickness in the carriage would make the thing intolerable.’
Hew opened his eyes.
He was in a cart, and the cart had a high ceiling to it, domed and lined with cloth. There were curtains at the side, and a little light came through. Too little light. Enough. Above him sat the Englishman, on a bank of furs. He had furs wrapped around him, from which he looked out, sallow, sour and pinched.
Hew’s wits were blurred and shaken from the draught that he had drunk. Dizzily, he hazarded, ‘Is this how you supply your fill of foreign spies?’
‘Preferably, not. I am glad that you are with us. You are free to leave at any time. I should tell you though, that you are fugitive and will be killed on sight. Two of the king’s men died in the skirmish.’
Why?
‘Andrew Wood has some command of the renegades in Fife, but he has no control of them. Some are enterprising, more than we would like. In truth, the king’s men did not put up a fight. Most of them believed that they had been bewitched.’
Why?
‘It was all Andrew’s doing. He dared not take the chance of allowing you to testify. Nor, in truth, did I.’
Understanding cleared the muddle in Hew’s mind. ‘He could have had me killed.’
‘He could have done,’ Walsingham agreed. ‘For him, that would have been by far the simplest solution. I understand that he felt under some kind of obligation to a woman he calls Clare. I do not inquire into his domestic affairs.’
Meg. . . .
‘Your family are quite safe. They will, I regret, be troubled for a while, about your disappearance, but when some time has passed, you will be able to write to them. Once Colville is released, we will work towards a way to restore you both, to secure for you a pardon. Such things are sometimes possible. Until that time had come, you will work for us.’
‘I will never,’ Hew insisted, ‘work for you.’
‘As to that, we shall see. But I will point out that working for me need not, in any sense, conflict you in your principles. You need not betray your king. Indeed, you are not in a position to do so. You have never been at court, and at the present time may not return to Scotland.’
‘Aye?’ Hew questioned warily, conscious of the sense in that.
‘You might, perhaps, be sent into the Low Countries. You did good work there, with our friend Robert Lachlan.’
‘With your friend? Robert is not your friend,’ Hew protested. Lachlan was a man for hire who had gone with him to Ghent. Though Hew had first suspected him, the two men had grown close.
‘He is a man who sometimes has provided us with intelligence. I understand from Robert that he saved your life.’
‘Aye, from Spanish rebels.’
‘He has saved it once again. For if I had not had his report, you would not be of interest to us. You have met the prince of Orange, and impressed him. You have solved a riddle of a Flemish windmill, and shown yourself adept at working out such schemes. You keep your counsel close. And you have lately had instruction in the ancient languages, which shows you are adept in learning writing schemes. These things make you suitable for what we have in mind. We want a man that has a wit for ciphers.’
‘Ciphers?’ echoed Hew.
‘We will teach you how to write, and how to understand them. You, no doubt, will come up with some others of your own. Would that be so bad?’
And Hew, struggling up to sit up upon the bench, wondered if it would. Could it be so bad to be in England for a while, knowing in his heart that his friends were safe? He felt the stirring heartbeat of a rare excitement. ‘Have we far to go?’ he asked.
‘We have just begun.’
Historical Note
The Ruthven Raid
The ‘Ruthven raid’ took place in August 1582, when a group of Scottish noblemen, the ‘Lords Enterprisers’, led by William Ruthven, earl of Gowrie, detained the young King James VI against his will at Ruthven castle, and forced a change of government, removing Catholic influence at court. The king’s beloved favourite Esme Stuart, sixth sieur of Aubigny, earl and duke of Lennox, fled to France, where he died in May 1583 ‘of a disease contracted of displeasure’. His ally, James Stewart, earl of Arran, who had overthrown the king’s last Regent, Morton, was placed under house arrest. Gowrie’s interim regime, austere and ultra-Protestant, was approved by Andrew Melville and the Scottish Kirk, and by Queen Elizabeth of England, who supported it financially. Gowrie, as Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, was motivated partly by the profligate extravagance of James’ friends at court.
In June 1583, the 17-year-old King James broke free from his captors and escaped from Falkland Palace to St Andrews castle. He appointed a new Privy Council, with the earl of Arran once again its spokesman. Queen Elizabeth sent her first secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham as ambassador to James, ‘willing him to stay from any strict proceeding against the lords who were pricked at for the raid of Ruthven’ . . . ‘but he was of a sickly complexion, and was not able to endure riding post, therefore he was long by the way, being carried in a chariot’. Walsingham, his influence and power, were greatly underestimated by the Scots.
Characters
The following characters are based on real people:
James VI of Scotland b.1566
King of Scotland 1567–1625. King of England (as James l) 1603–25. Son of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, and Mary, Queen of Scots
Esme Stuart, sieur of Aubigny, earl and duke of Lennox
Court favourite of the young King James, and cousin to his father Darnley. French convert from Catholicism mistrusted by the Protestants
James Stewart, earl of Arran
Follower of Esme Stuart. Accused the Regent Morton of art and part slaughter of the king’s father Darnley. Captain of the royal guard
Robert Stewart, earl of March
Great uncle of James VI. Commendator of St Andrews cathedral priory; assisted James in his escape from Falkland
Robert Stewart, earl of Orkney
Illegitimate son of James V. Unpopular ruler of Orkney; political allegiances unclear
William Ruthven, earl of Gowrie
Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, leading instigator of the Ruthven raid
John Colville
Presbyterian minister who rose to power in the Scottish court and passed on secret information to the English. Supporter of the Ruthven raid; Master of Requests to the Privy Council
Francis Walsingham
Principal Secretary and spymaster to Queen Elizabeth l
Patrick Adamson
Archbishop of St Andrews; chancellor of the university of St Andrews
George Buchanan
Historian and humanist scholar. Tutor to King James Vl. Author of De Jure Regni apud Scotos – on the law of kingship among the Scots
Andrew Melville
Presbyterian scholar and reformer instrumental in the new foundation of the University of St Andrews and in the General Assembly. Principal of St Mary’s College. Uncle of James Melville, whose diaries inspired the Hew Cullan stories
Alison Peirson
Accused by Patrick Adamson of curing him of sickness by the use of witchcraft. Escaped from St Andrews castle in 1583. Recaptured and convicted in 1588. Alison’s ‘confession’ gives a detailed account of her trips to fairyland
Sir Andrew Wood of Largo
Sheriff and Coroner of Fife. Also, Comptroller of Scotland, in which capacity he settled the king’s personal debts, bringing his own family to the brink of ruin. Great grandson of the admira
l, the first Sir Andrew Wood, from whom he inherited his property and title. The Woods were staunch supporters of the Stewart kings, and their dealings in this story are not based in fact.
Elizabeth
his wife
Robert Wood
his brother, owner of the New Mill at St Andrews
With thanks to Dr Ian Drever of Dalkeith, for introducing me to his family name of Richan, which as a surname has apparently died out. According to George Black, The Surnames of Scotland, in early 20th century Kirkwall, Richan was ‘a very puzzling name . . . never found out of Orkney . . . yet the ch is not Norse when pronounced as in loch – as it is in this name’ which gives us a clue as to how the name should sound. The earl of Orkney, in 1574, had a William Richane on his staff.
Glossary of Old Scots words
Ain (one’s) own
Almery a cupboard
Aquavite whisky
Art and Part participation in (a crime)
Bairnlie childlike
Bangstrie bullying behaviour
Bannock a round, flat cake of oat or barley
Barnelike childish
Baxter a baker
Belly-blind blindfolded
Billie a close friend, comrade
Bisket hard biscuit or rusk
Blawn blown
Blether a bladder
Blockhouse a small fort or defensive building; one of two circular gun towers built on the south face of St Andrews castle, largely destroyed in 1547
Bluiter a beggar
Bluther to weep, blubber
Brave fine or elegant
Braw variant of brave, fine or elegant
Brigue to intrigue
Bruck rubbish, trash. An Orkney word
Bruit clamour, noise or rumour; to spread rumour
Bursar student who receives a ‘burse’ or bursary
Burse a purse; an endowment for support of a student or scholar
Butter saps bread fried in butter and dipped in sugar
Caich tennis
Caichpell a tennis court
Carcage a dead body
Cawk to smear with excrement
Chap to rap or knock
Cleng to clean out
Close an enclosure, court or courtyard next to a house
Clout (1) a cloth
(2) a small patch of land
Clubbit clumsy
Collop a slice of meat
Compear to appear before a court
Complice a partner, accomplice
Convicted convinced
Craw a crow
Crownar a coroner, district officer charged with maintaining certain rights of the Crown, such as keeping the king’s peace, serving writs on malefactors. Usually combined with the office of sheriff
Curator the legal guardian of a minor between the age of 14 and 21
Defiance a challenge or dare
Delicat a delicacy
Ding to strike or beat violently
Dissimil to cover up by pretence
Distracted deranged, disturbed in mind
Doubt to think
Douce sweet
Dow a dove
Draucht draught and draft, in all senses related to draw. Here:
(1) a plan or design
(2) an architectural plan
(3) a receptacle for excrement, channel for drawing off filth
Draucht-raker a cleaner of privies; nightsoilman
Dry stool a chamber pot set in a stool, a commode
Economus a college steward or bursar (in the modern sense); housekeeper
Elusion a delusion
Falland ill epilepsy
Falset falsehood
Fazart a coward
Fedity foulness, corruption, both physical and moral
Filthsum filthy
Fleume phlegm
Flux excessive discharge from the bowels
Flyting railing or scolding; a battle in words
Fosse a ditch built for defence
Fou full [of drink] = drunk, intoxicated
Foulsum loathsome
Fra/frae/fae from
Fremmit foreign, strange
Fruel weak, feeble
Fu full
Fuillie excrement, manure
Fummill to fumble
Futeman a footman as attendant, or as an infantry soldier
Futless useless, footless
Gang to go
General Assembly Supreme Court of the Church of Scotland following the Reformation of the kirk in 1560, marking the beginning of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland; in 1583 meeting twice a year in Edinburgh
Gerslouper a grasshopper
Gingiber ginger
Girdle a griddle; a circular round plate for baking cakes or bannocks
Gong a latrine
Gong-fermer/gong-scourer a cleaner of latrines
Gooseturd a shade of yellowish green
Gowk to stare
Granks and granes moans and groans
Greit to shed tears
Grening yearning or longing
Guid neighbours good neighbours: name given to the fairy folk, intended through flattery to guard against malevolence
Haar sea mist common on the east coast of Scotland
Hale whole; sound in body, healthy
Haly holy
Hammermen members of the metal workers’ craft
Haud to hold
Haven a harbour
Heckleback a stickleback
Heugh a hill
Incarnatene flesh-or crimson-coloured
Jak a soldier’s sleeveless jerkin, padded or plated
Jakes a latrine
Jayne an instrument of torture
Jolie at the goose an early version of the board game, Goose
Joukerie trickery; underhand dealing
Juglar a magician or sorcerer who works by sleight of hand (here, punning on jugular)
Jummil a muddle or confusion
Keek to peek, glance
Keeker a peeping Tom
Kendal green wool cloth from the town of Kendal; a particular shade of green
Kenning knowing; knowledge
Kernels ‘kirnels of the thie’: the groin
Kichin a kitchen; an allowance of cooked food, such as meat or fish, that supplements a staple such as bread
Kirk a church; here, especially, the Reformed Church of Scotland
Kirtle a simple woman’s dress of skirt and bodice, worn on its own or underneath a gown
Kist a large chest or box
Kittill fickle, sensitive or difficult to handle
Knotless futile, pointless, groundless
Laic a layman
Laich house ‘low house’: a cellar
Laird a lord; the Lord
Latton a kind of yellow brass hammered into plate; a thin sheet made of this
Laureate a graduate
Laver a basin for washing
Lettrin (1) a lectern or book rest
(2) a small, lockable writing desk
Libber a sorcerer
Lidder cowardly
Limmar a villain or rogue
Loun a lout or rogue
Loup/lowp to leap, jump, spring at
Lour to lie low, lurk
Lourd heavy
Louse-leech a doctor, physician [from Gaelic lus, ‘herb’]
Lubbard a lout
Lug an ear
Lum a chimney
Ly-by an onlooker, bystander
Magistrands students in their fourth and final year of study for the degree of MA
Man/maun must
Manchet the finest wheat bread
Manna/maunna must not
Master of Requests Scottish officer of state whose role includes receiving petitions from subjects of the Crown and presenting them for consideration by the Privy Council
Matrix a womb
Mauchtless feeble, weak
Mellit dealt, had intercourse with
Midding-sted a midden
Mindit d
isposed, inclined
Miniard effeminate
Minnie child’s name for mother
Mow to joke, engage in banter
Muckle great big
Muckle mair much more
Muff a covering of fur; pubic hair; vagina
Murther murder
Nacket a stripling, youngster
Nether lower
Nether (vb) to abase, humiliate
Nether hose stockings
New foundation reform of the universities following the Reformation of the kirk
Norish Norse, of the Norn language
Norn variety of Norse language native to Orkney, now extinct
Notar a notary; here, more generally, a scribe or clerk
O’ergrowin overgrown
Overstraught overstretched
Paddock a frog or toad (a shell paddock is a tortoise)
Pantons velvet slippers
Pedagogy place of instruction; name given to the teaching body of St Andrews University, at its earliest date; name given to the College of St John
Pellock a pellet
Pend an arched roof or vault
Petuous compassionate
Physick medicine
Piked spiked or pointed
Piker a petty thief
Pistolett a small firearm; former name for pistol
Placard a sheet of paper printed or written on one side, for public display; a poster or handbill
Placket an apron or an underskirt; a slit or an opening in a woman’s dress to give access to a pocket or for sexual intercourse; by extension, the vagina
Plaister a medicinal plaster; ointment spread on muslin and tied to the body
Plat (1) a plan
(2) a dish or plate
Pluck a mouthful
Port a gateway or entrance, especially to a town
Posset a drink of hot milk curdled with wine
Pothecar an apothecary
Potingar an apothecary
Pottle a pot or vessel, and its contents
Privily secretly, privately
Privy (adj) intimate; private; secret
(noun) a latrine
Privy Council the board of advisors to the king, with economic, administrative and judicial powers
Quail to grow weak
Quair a quire; a measure of paper
Quelp a whelp
Quent crafty, cunning; queer
Quhimper to whimper
Quhingar a dagger or short sword
Raker a cleaner or scavenger; a clearer of cesspools
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