THE PRISONING OF MALISE THE SMITH [Now these things, material to the life and history of William, sixth Earl of Douglas, are not written from hearsay, but were chronicled within his lifetime by one who saw them and had part therein, though the part was but a boy's one.

His manuscript has come down to us and lies before the transcriber.

Sholto MacKim, the son of Malise the Smith, testifies to these things in his own clerkly script.

He adds particularly that his brother Laurence, being at the time but a boy, had little knowledge of many of the actual facts, and is not to be believed if at any time he should controvert anything which he (Sholto) has written.

So far, however, as the present collector and editor can find out, Laurence MacKim appears to have been entirely silent on the subject, at least with his pen, so that his brother's caveat was superfluous.] * * * * * The instant Lord William entered his own castle of Thrieve over the drawbridge, and without even returning the salutations of his guard, he turned about to the two men who had so masterfully compelled his return.
"Ho, guard, there!" he cried, "seize me this instant the Abbot of the New Abbey and Malise MacKim." And so much surprised but wholly obedient, twenty archers of the Earl's guard, commanded by old John of Abernethy, called Landless Jock, fell in at back and front.
Malise, the master armourer, stood silent, taking the matter with his usual phlegm, but the Abbot was voluble.
"William," he said, holding out his hands with an appealing gesture, "I have laboured with you, striven with, prayed for you.