Friend & Foe (30 page)

It would never stop.

He was in Hell.

Dimly, through the blanket, he heard someone speak. A whining English voice, that came out with a long list of complaints, that rattled with the motion of the cart. The complaints were loud and querulous.

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 admiral, 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