"And what is there inside the wall?" asked Mr. George.
"O, there are ever so many buildings," said Rollo-"great stone forts, and barracks, and bastions, rising up one above another, and watch towers on the angles of the walls. I can see one, two, three watch towers. I should like to be in one of them. I could look over the whole city, and all the country around.
"I can see some portholes, with guns pointing out,-and-O, and now I see a monstrous great gun, looking over this way, from one of the highest platforms. I believe it is a gun."
"I suppose it must be Mons Meg," said Mr. George.
"Mons Meg?" repeated Rollo. "I'll get a glass and see."
"Yes," said Mr. George. "There is a very famous old gun in Edinburgh Castle, named Mons Meg. I think it may be that."
"I can't see very plain," said Rollo, "the air is so thick with the rain; but it is a monstrous gun."
Just at this time the waiter came into the room to ask the party if they would have any thing to eat.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "we will. Go down with the waiter, boys, and see what there is, and order a good supper. I will come down in fifteen minutes."
So the boys went down, and in fifteen minutes Mr. George followed. He found the supper table ready in a corner of the coffee room, and Rollo sitting by it alone.
"Where is Waldron?" asked Mr. George.
"He's gone to the circulating library," said Rollo.
"The circulating library?" repeated Mr. George.
"He has gone to get a book about the history of Scotland," said Rollo. "We have been reading in the guide book about the castle, and Waldron says he wants to know something more about the kings, and the battles they fought."
"How does he know there is any circulating library?" asked Mr. George.
"He asked the waiter," said Rollo, "and the waiter told him where there was one. He said he would try to be back before the supper was ready, and that we must not wait for him if he did not come."
"He ought to have asked me if I was willing that he should go," said Mr. George.
In a few minutes Waldron came in with two pretty big books under his arm. They were covered with paper, in the manner usual with the books of circulating libraries. Waldron advanced to the supper table, and laid the books down upon it with an air of great satisfaction.
"Then you found a circulating library," said Mr. George.
"Yes, sir," said Waldron, "and I have got two volumes of the history of the great men of Scotland."
"What did you get two volumes for?" asked Mr. George.
"One for Rollo and one for me," said Waldron. "They are for us to read this evening, because it rains."
"Well," said Mr. George, after a moment's pause. "I am very glad to find that you take an interest in reading about Scotland; but you ought to have asked me, before you went away to get books from a circulating library."
Waldron paused a moment on hearing this remark, and his countenance assumed a very serious expression.
"So I ought," said he. "I did not think of that. And now, if you think I had better, I will go and carry them right back."
"No," said Mr. George, "I don't wish you to carry them back. But I should not have thought they would have intrusted such books to you-a perfect stranger-and a boy besides."
"I made a deposit," said Waldron.
Just at this time the waiter brought the supper to the table, and the party, being all hungry, set themselves to the work of eating it.
"You see," said Waldron, when they had nearly finished their supper, "I thought we should want something to do this evening; it rains, and we can't go out."
"What time in the evening do you suppose it is?" asked Mr. George.
"Why, it is not near dark yet," said Waldron.
"True," said Mr. George; "but it is almost ten o'clock."
"O Mr. George!" exclaimed Waldron.
"It is half past nine, at any rate," said Mr. George.
The boys were greatly surprised at hearing this. They were very slow in learning to keep in mind how late the sun goes down in the middle of June in these extreme northern latitudes.
However, on this occasion it was dark earlier than usual, on account of the clouds and the rain; and the waiter came to light the gas over the table where our party were at supper, before they finished their meal, although it was only a little more than half past nine. This made it very bright and cheerful in the corner, and Mr. George proposed that they should all stay there one hour. "I will write," said he, "and you may read in your books. We will stay here till half past ten, and then, after you have gone to bed, you can talk yourselves to sleep by telling each other what you have read about in your books."
This plan was carried into effect. Mr. George wrote, and the boys read, by the light of the gas for an hour. Then Mr. George put away his papers, and said it was time to go to bed. When the boys went to their bedroom they found two narrow beds in it, one in each corner of the room. Waldron took one of them, and Rollo the other. When both the boys were in bed they commenced conversation in respect to what they had been reading.
"Come, Waldron," said Rollo, "tell me what you have been reading about."
"No," said Waldron, "you must begin."
"Well," said Rollo, "I read about King James the First. There have been a good many King Jameses in Scotland."
"Yes," said Waldron, "six."
"This was King James the First. He was a bad king. He oppressed his people, and they determined to kill him. So they banded together and made a plot. They were going to kill him in a monastery where he stopped on a journey.
"He was going over a river just before he came to the monastery, and a woman, who pretended to be a prophetess, called out to him as he went by towards the bank of the river, and told him to beware, for if he crossed that river he would certainly be killed. The king was very superstitious; so he sent one of his men back to ask the woman what she meant. The man came to him again very soon, and said that it was nothing but an old drunken woman raving, and that he must not mind her. So the king went on.
"He crossed the water, and went to the monastery. The conspirators were there before him. The leader of them was a man named Graham. He had three hundred Highlanders with him. They were all concealed in the neighborhood of the monastery. They were going to break into the king's room in the monastery, at night, and kill him. They found out the room where he was going to sleep, and they took off the bolts from the doors, so as to keep them from fastening them.
"The woman that had met the king on the way followed him to the monastery, and wanted to see the king. They told her she could not see him. She said she must see him. They told her that at any rate she could not see him then-he was tired with his journey. She must go away, they said, and come the next day. So she went away; but she told them they would all be sorry for not letting her in."
"Do you suppose she really knew," asked Waldron, "that they were going to kill the king?"
"I don't know," said Rollo. "At any rate, she seemed very much in earnest about warning him."
"Well; go on with the story," said Waldron.
"Why, the conspirators broke into the room that night just as the king was going to bed. He was sitting near the fire, in his gown and slippers, talking with the queen and the other ladies that were there, when, all at once, he heard a terrible noise at the doors of the monastery. It was the conspirators trying to get in."
"Why did not they come right in," asked Waldron, "if the doors were not fastened?"
"Why, I suppose there were guards, or something, outside, that tried to prevent them. At any rate, the king heard a frightful noise, like clattering and jingling of armor, and of men trying to get in. He and the women who were there ran to the door and tried to fasten it; but the bolts and bars were gone. So the king told them to hold the door with all their strength, till he could find something to fasten it with. The king went to the window, and tried to tear off an iron stanchion there was there, but he could not. Then he saw a trap door in the floor, which led down to a kind of dark dungeon. So he took the tongs and pried up the door, and jumped down.