The House of Whispers

by William Le Queux

  CHAPTER XIV

  CONCERNS THE CURSE OF THE CARDINAL

  Gabrielle and Walter were seated together under one of the big oaks atthe edge of the tennis-lawn at Connachan. With May Spencer and LadyMurie they had been playing; but his mother and the young girl had goneinto the house for tea, leaving the lovers alone.

  "What's the matter with you to-day, darling?" he had asked as soon asthey were out of hearing. "You don't seem yourself, somehow."

  She started quickly, and, pulling herself up, tried to smile, assuringhim that there was really nothing amiss.

  "I do wish you'd tell me what it is that's troubling you so," he said."Ever since I returned from abroad you've not been yourself. It's no usedenying it, you know."

  "I haven't felt well, perhaps. I think it must be the weather," sheassured him.

  But he, viewing the facts in the light of what he had noticed at theiralmost daily clandestine meetings, knew that she was concealingsomething from him.

  Before his departure on that journey to Japan she had always been sovery frank and open. Nowadays, however, she seemed to have entirelychanged. Her love for him was just the same--that he knew; it was herunusual manner, so full of fear and vague apprehension, which caused himso many hours of grave reflection.

  With her woman's cleverness, she succeeded in changing the topic ofconversation, and presently they rose to join his mother at thetea-table in the drawing-room.

  Half-an-hour later, while they were idling in the hall together, shesuddenly exclaimed, "Walter, you're great on Scottish history, so I wantsome information from you. I'm studying the legends and traditions ofour place, Glencardine. What do you happen to know about them?"

  "Well," he laughed, "there are dozens of weird tales about the oldcastle. I remember reading quite a lot of extraordinary stories in somebook or other about three years ago. I found it in the library here."

  "Oh! do tell me all about it," she urged instantly. "Weird legendsalways fascinate me. Of course I know just the outlines of its history.It's the tales told by the country-folk in which I'm so deeplyinterested."

  "You mean the apparition of the Lady in Green, and all that?"

  "Yes; and the Whispers."

  He started quickly at her words, and asked, "What do you know aboutthem, dear? I hope you haven't heard them?"

  She smiled, with a frantic effort at unconcern, saying, "And what harm,pray, would they have done me, even if I had?"

  "Well," he said, "they are only heard by those whose days are numbered;at least, so say the folk about here."

  "Of course, it's only a fable," she laughed. "The people of the Ochilsare so very superstitious."

  "I believe the fatal result of listening to those mysterious Whispershas been proved in more than one instance," remarked the young man quiteseriously. "For myself, I do not believe in any supernatural agency. Imerely tell you what the people hereabouts believe. Nobody from thisneighbourhood could ever be induced to visit your ruins on a moonlitnight."

  "That's just why I want to know the origin of the unexplainedphenomenon."

  "How can I tell you?"

  "But you know--I mean you've heard the legend, haven't you?"

  "Yes," was his reply. "The story of the Whispers of Glencardine is wellknown all through Perthshire. Hasn't your father ever told you?"

  "He refuses."

  "Because, no doubt, he fears that you might perhaps take it into yourhead to go there one night and try to listen for them," her lover said."Do not court misfortune, dearest. Take my advice, and give the place avery wide berth. There is, without a doubt, some uncanny agency there."

  The girl laughed outright. "I do declare, Walter, that you believe inthese foolish traditions," she said.

  "Well, I'm a Scot, you see, darling, and a little superstition isperhaps permissible, especially in connection with such a mystery as thestrange disappearance of Cardinal Setoun."

  "Then, tell me the real story as you know it," she urged. "I'm muchinterested. I only heard about the Whispers quite recently."

  "The historical facts, so far as I can recollect reading them in thebook in question," he said, "are to the effect that the Most ReverendJames Cardinal Setoun, Archbishop of St. Andrews, Chancellor of theKingdom, was in the middle of the sixteenth century directing all hisenergies towards consolidating the Romish power in Scotland, and nothesitating to resort to any crime which seemed likely to accomplish hispurpose. Many were the foul assassinations and terrible tortures uponinnocent persons performed at his orders. One person who fell into thehands of this infamous cleric was Margaret, the second daughter ofCharles, Lord Glencardine, a beautiful girl of nineteen. Because shewould not betray her lover, she was so cruelly tortured in theCardinal's palace that she expired, after suffering fearful agony, andher body was sent back to Glencardine with an insulting message to herfather, who at once swore to be avenged. The king had so far resignedthe conduct of the kingdom into the hands of his Eminence that nothingsave armed force could oppose him. Setoun knew that a union betweenHenry VIII. and James V. would be followed by the downfall of the papalpower in Scotland, and therefore he laid a skilful plot. Whilst advisingJames to resist the dictation of his uncle, he privately accused thoseof the Scottish nobles who had joined the Reformers of meditated treasonagainst His Majesty. This placed the king in a serious dilemma, for hecould not proceed against Henry without the assistance of those verynobles accused as traitors. The wily Cardinal had hoped that Jameswould, in self-defence, seek an alliance with France and Spain; but hewas mistaken. You know, of course, how the forces of the kingdom wereassembled and sent against the Duke of Norfolk. The invader was thusrepelled, and the Cardinal then endeavoured to organise a new expeditionunder Romish leaders. This also failing, his Eminence endeavoured todictate to the country through the Earl of Arran, the Governor ofScotland. By a clever ruse he pretended friendship with Erskine of Dun,and endeavoured to use him for his own ends. Curiously enough, overyonder"--and he pointed to a yellow parchment in a black ebony framehanging upon the panelled wall of the hall--"over there is one of theCardinal's letters to Erskine, which shows the infamous cleric's smooth,insinuating style when it suited his purpose. I'll go and get it for youto read."

  The young man rose, and, taking it down, brought it to her. She saw thatthe parchment, about eight inches long by four wide, was covered withwriting in brown ink, half-faded, while attached was a formidable ovalred seal which bore a coat of arms surmounting the Cardinal's hat.

  With difficulty they made out this interesting letter to read asfollows:

  "RYCHT HONOURABLE AND TRAIST COUSING,--I commend me hartlie to you,nocht doutting bot my lord governour hes written specialye to you atthis tyme to keep the diet with his lordship in Edinburgh the first dayof November nixt to cum, quhilk I dout nocht bot ye will kepe, and Iknow perfitlie your guid will and mynd euer inclinit to serue my lordgovernour, and how ye are nocht onnely determinit to serue his lordship,at this tyme be yourself bot als your gret wais and solistatioun maidwith mony your gret freyndis to do the samin, quhilk I assuris you sallcum bayth to your hier honour and the vele of you and your houss andfreyndis, quhilk ye salbe sure I sall procure and fortyfie euir at mypower, as I have shewin in mair speciale my mynd heirintil to yourcousin of Brechin, Knycht: Praing your effectuously to kepe trist, andto be heir in Sanct Androwis at me this nixt Wedinsday, that we maydepairt all togydder by Thurisday nixt to cum, towart my lord governour,and bring your frendis and servandis with you accordantly, and as mylord governour hais speciale confidence in you at this tyme; and be surethe plesour I can do you salbe evir reddy at my power as knawis God,quha preserve you eternall.

  "At Sanct Androwis, the 25th day of October (1544). J. CARDINALL OFFSANCT ANDROWIS.

  "To the rycht honourable and our rycht traist cousing the lard of Dvn."

  "Most interesting!" declared the young girl, holding the frame in herhands.

  "It's doubly interesting, because it is believed that Erskine's brotherHenry, finding himself b
efooled by the crafty Cardinal, united with LordGlencardine to kill him and dispose of his body secretly, thus riddingScotland of one of her worst enemies," Walter went on. "For the pastfive years stories had been continually leaking out of Setoun's inhumancruelty, his unscrupulous, fiendish tortures inflicted upon all thosewho displeased him, and how certain persons who stood in his way haddied mysteriously or disappeared, no one knew whither. Hence it wasthat, at Erskine's suggestion, Wemyss of Strathblane went over toGlencardine, and with Charles, Lord Glencardine, conspired to invite theCardinal there, on pretence of taking counsel against the Protestants,but instead to take his life. The conspirators were, it is said, joinedby the Earl of Kintyre and by Mary, the sixteen-year-old daughter ofLord Charles, and sister of the poor girl so brutally done to death byhis Eminence. On several successive nights the best means of getting ridof Setoun were considered and discussed, and it is declared that theWhispers now heard sometimes at Glencardine are the secret deliberationsof those sworn to kill the infamous Cardinal. Mary, the daughter of thehouse, was allowed to decide in what manner her sister's death should beavenged, and at her suggestion it was resolved that the inhuman head ofthe Roman Church should, before his life was taken, be put to the samefiendish tortures as those to which her sister had been subjected in hispalace."

  "It is curious that after his crime the Cardinal should dare to visitGlencardine," Gabrielle remarked.

  "Not exactly. His lordship, pretending that he wished to be appointedGovernor of Scotland in the place of the Earl of Arran, had purposelymade his peace with Setoun, who on his part was only too anxious toagain resume friendly relations with so powerful a noble. Therefore,early in May, 1546, he went on a private visit, and almost unattended,to Glencardine, within the walls of which fortress he disappeared forever. What exactly occurred will never be known. All that the Commissionwho subsequently sat to try the conspirators were able to discover wasthat the Cardinal had been taken to the dungeon beneath the north tower,and there tortured horribly for several days, and afterwards burned atthe stake in the courtyard, the fire being ignited by Lord Glencardinehimself, and the dead Cardinal's ashes afterwards scattered to thewinds."

  "A terrible revenge!" exclaimed the girl with a shudder. "They wereveritable fiends in those days."

  "They were," he laughed, rehanging the frame upon the wall. "Somehistorians have, of course, declared that Setoun was murdered at MainsCastle, and others declare Cortachy to have been the scene of theassassination; but the truth that it occurred at Glencardine is provedby a quantity of the family papers which, when your father purchasedGlencardine, came into his possession. You ought to search throughthem."

  "I will. I had no idea dad possessed any of the Glencardine papers," shedeclared, much interested in that story of the past. "Perhaps from themI may be able to glean something further regarding the strange Whispersof Glencardine."

  "Make whatever searches you like, dearest," he said in all earnestness,"but never attempt to investigate the Whispers themselves." And as theywere alone, he took her little hand in his, and looking into her facewith eyes of love, pressed her to promise him never to disregard hiswarning.

  She told him nothing of her own weird experience. He was ignorant of thefact that she had actually heard the mysterious Whispers, and that, as aconsequence, a great evil already lay upon her.