The Patriot Read Free Page A

To unseat his Stanfield?"
    "I think not, my lord," Fletcher said. "At least, he seemed much surprised at my candidature. Angry when he heard of it, yes - but surprised."
    "Yet he was there, at Haddington? On the day for the depositing of papers. Not by chance, I swear! He is ever well-informed, is John Maitland - even down in London. He has spies everywhere. He could have learned of talk that Stanfield was to be opposed. But not hear that it was yourself, Andrew. And came to put a stop to it."
    "It could be. He is well-informed, yes. In more ways than one. He surprised me by naming me Hielant scum! Not many would have said that."
    "Ah, but he would know your grandsire, old Innerpeffer, know that he came from the North, to Saltoun." Andrew, a Lowland laird with a Lowland name, and with his mother a Bruce, was not in fact so far removed from the heather. His grandfather and namesake, Sir Andrew, a shrewd lawyer, had come south from Perthshire, anglicising his name from Mac-an-Leister, the Son of the Arrow-maker, to the equivalent Fletcher. But when he had in due course mounted to the Bench as a lord of session, he had taken his title not from his new estate of Saltoun in East Lothian - the man he bought it from was already Lord Saltoun - but from his ancestral home at Innerpeffray in Strathearn, where they were a sept of Mac-Gregor. Perhaps that is where his grandson heired his quick temper and high spirit.
    "I hope that you answered him suitably?" Johnnie said. "I could think of a few things to call John Maitland!"
    "No doubt. But I . . ."
    "Easy said, here in Beil House, boy," the old lord reproved. "But to his face you might be less bold. Lauderdale may look like a horse-couper and worse, but he has all the unlimited power, more's the pity. He has the King's ear, is one of the Cabal, Lord of the Bedchamber, Lord President of the Council as well as First Commissioner of the English Treasury as well as Secretary of State for Scotland. A man dangerous to meddle with."
    "That is almost exactly what he himself said to me," Andrew told them. "He said that I would learn that it did not pay to tangle with him. And to tell you that, my lord - when he saw your signature as my sponsor. He said that we would pay for it."
    "As we may, yes," Belhaven agreed gravely. "Yet we must do what has to be done. Someone must give a lead, make a start. If our land and nation is to be saved. Lauderdale's rule has to be opposed. Scotland must be stirred to action, to be true to itself, to reject the evil policies and corruption which are rending and destroying her. Before it is too late. I am an old done man, by with it. I will do what I can - but that is little now. But you -you are both young, all before you. All depends on you and such as you. Win this election, and you will have your chance, soon. John, here, will take my place. Then . . ."
    "But, my lord - what chance have I of winning the seat?" Fletcher demanded. "Young as I am, untried, against all Lauderdale's power and influence?"
    "A fair chance, lad - a fair chance. Or I would not be bringing down Maitland's wrath on my grey head by sponsoring you! He has many enemies, that man. Even amongst his own kind he is scarcely loved. And though few will defy him to his face, many will be glad to vote secretly against his candidate. And Stanfield, although an able man, is not popular. He is English, one of Cromwell's former colonels. He has
    made a fair member and has done much for Haddington and the shire. But few there love him either. He is arrogant. Forby, there are still some honest men left in the land, who will vote for the nation's sake, not because they are bribed."
    "All my friends are for you, Andrew," Johnnie assured. "They do not all have votes, to be sure. But . . ."
    "There's the rub. There are eighty-three voters in all. How many are in Lauderdale's pocket . . .?"
    Margaret Hamilton came, with the refreshment carried by a servant, and for a little they observed the courtesies. But