23.976
.............uFkRip.............
How long?
A day, maybe two.
They're gone, Rob, and the beasts sold.
There's a wee glen on the other side of Ben Duh.
lf l were tinkers with a two-day start,
l'd lie there and kill me some meat.
We'd not get there before dark.
Not stood here, we won't.
You can smell them through the meat.
Aye, if they fought as strong as they smelled,
we'd be in trouble.
They're there right enough, just like you said, Rob.
We can rush them when they're asleep.
10 of them to six of us.
Nine. One of them's a woman.
Half of them would be dead before they were awake.
How will we take them, Rob?
l'll talk to them in the morning.
l'm getting too old for this... lying wet arsed in the heather,
chasing other men's cattle.
Come away to the Americas with me.
They say there's fine acres for the clearing in Virginia.
Aye, and they'll likely be as hard as these to sleep on.
Why are you going in to talk to them?
l know one of them.
Up!
Get up, you bunch of ragged-arsed tinker cow thieves!
This is Robert Roy McGregor come to reclaim the 32 beasts
stolen from His Lordship James Graham,
..Marquis of Montrose.
Tam Sibbald.
Still at your thieving.
Throw down now, and l'll spare you, all but one.
There's a price to being a leader of men, Tam.
By God, McGregor, if there's any killing to be done,
you're the first.
Who do you think you are, acting the great chief?
And l know you're a bigger thief than any of us.
Aye, but if l had stolen His Lordship's cattle,
you would not have walked into my dreams so easy.
l can call the Gregorach and kill the half of ya,
or it can be between us and nothing more.
- Ha! - Think on it, man.
Would you not rather be dead after a good hump
.and a belly full of stolen beef
or have me march you back to Montrose
to shit yourself on the gallows a month hence?
Throw down! Now!
And you have my word no-one else will die!
Come, lads.
Any man with a blade in his hands,
cut him down.
Are ye men,
or what are ye?
He killed Tam, and you stand and live!
And him as much an outlaw as any of you!
No man among ya! Your mothers curse you!
You're spittle!
You're leavings!
Listen to me well, and remember this:
Or l'm going to remember you, every last one.
When next you think to steal cattle,
have a care they're not under my protection.
But if they are, you're not stealing from their owners.
You're stealing from me, Robert Roy McGregor.
No man who steals my beasts makes a profit.
lf you doubt me, ask Tam Sibbald.
What will you do with her?
Be on your way and tell no man you fared ill at our hands.
Go on.
Cut him down!
Go on.
Yeah!
Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the contest is Guthrie!
Montrose, come hotfoot from the court to the cockpit.
May l present Archibald Cunningham.
His Grace, the Duke of Argyll.
l am Your Grace's humble servant.
Another of your likely lads?
Archibald is sent me by his mother
in the hope that our climate might cool the fever in his blood.
So, Mr Cunningham,
what are these principal sins that distress your mother?
Dice? Drink?
Or are you a buggerer of boys?
lt is years, Your Grace, since l buggered a boy.
And in my own defence, l thought him a girl
at the moment of entry.
What say you, Guthrie,
that Archie could not tell arse from quim?
Many Englishmen have that same difficulty.
Oh, spoken as well as you fought.
Did you see Guthrie here at work, Mr Cunningham?
He has a fair hand with the cleaver.
You do not think much of our highland tools, then?
lf l had to kill an ox, a claymore would be my first choice, Your Grace.
You best use a musket
and save the beast a slow dying.
l would not need a musket for you, Guthrie.
Oh, splendid!
l'll wager 100 of what you like
on Guthrie and his cleaver.
At odds?
Now, come, James, you're a fox. What odds?
- Three? - Two.
English pounds.
There's more of a jingle to guineas.
- Ah, guineas it is. - Excellent, excellent.
A bumper of rhenish for my Lord Montrose
.and show Mr Cunningham what blades we have.
You honour me, sir, to serve me with your own hand.
l tell you, James,
l forget how much you dislike me until l'm in your presence.
So, what news at Court?
What else but the succession?
Our poor Queen cannot find the time to die in peace.
l fear she may pass over and leave the matter unresolved.
Would that she had seen a child live to comfort the kingdom.
One might have hoped that a field so often ploughed
.might have yielded one good crop.
ln truth, l have seen healthier graveyards
.than that woman's womb.
Come on!
l am asked on what side Your Grace will declare himself.
Where Argyll goes, the path must be firm and broad.
And now all watch to see which way to jump.
One cannot go to the closet
but what some adherent to James is praising your pish.
l confess to a certain weariness in this whole issue
and look to Your Grace to give some lead.
All l could answer in honesty
was that it would be the one most inclined to his own benefit.
Damn it, man. You talk too much.
Can you not tend to your wager?
Argyll, my wager is well won.
Damn it, Guthrie!
ls it not enough that you're beaten but you must turn backstabber?
My factor will call upon Your Grace's factor.
Welcome back.
Well done, Rob, man.
Cut out another of the cattle.
lf the tinkers ate one, they could have eaten two.
Montrose will charge you, nonetheless.
l'm weary of seeing children hungry and old folk cold.
lt'll take more than a cow to fix that.
You'll be in the Americas, living off the fat,
so it won't worry ya.
- Have some broth, Rob. - No, Coll. l'm for home.
God bless you, Rob.
Rob just walks in among them, his sword still in its sheath
and says, "Get up, you bunch of ragged-arsed..."
Hello, Rob.
"Get up, you bunch of ragged-arsed cow thieves."
Rob up to him and says,
"Tell your crew to lay down and l'll only cut your throat,
else l'll call my men."
And we're all there. We are ready.
Get up, boy. Come on.
Go on. Get.
l dreamed a silkie came.
And what did he do to you, your silkie?
You wakened me before the best of it,
but he would have ravished me for certain.
How do you know you're awake, wife?
Mr Killearn.
l'm on my way.
Aye. Well on the way, l'd venture.
Let me be, Mr Killearn. You'll wake him.
Don't, Mr Killearn!
l'm sure the young master has you nicely greased, does he not?
Oh, Betty, you'd hardly feel me going in.
A wee whiff of quim in the morning,
Mr Cunningham, sir.
Just the thing to clear your head.
Mr Cunningham, l hope l'm not disturbing you.
Of course you're bloody well disturbing me.
Do you think l want to wake up
and find some great smelly Scotch man staring down at me?
What are you doing here?
l came to tell you that some local trades people
are pressing for payment on your debt.
You woke me for that?
A thousand apologies, Mr Cunningham,
but they've also writ to His Lordship.
Damn it, man.
l but recently earned His Lordship 200 guineas.
What are the complaints of a few tradesmen for such services?
This country does not agree with me.
l cannot wait to be out of the damnable place.
The sentiments of a great many of us, sir.
Would you like me to take away your chamber pot?
l know many a Scotsman would be glad of this on a cold morning.
lt's almost pure spirit,
and l'm no judge of a pint of pish.
Come back.
Come here!
l killed Tam Sibbald yesterday morning.
We played ball once at Creiff market.
l remember shouting, "Well done, Tam",
when he made a run.
And there he was, hung on the end of my dirk like meat.
Aye.
Well, likely it was necessary.
Aye, it was. Necessary enough to save worse.
But those tinkers weren't all born broken men, Mary.
Some of them had kin and clan.
They made me fear l might have come across
one of our own among them.
McGregors are not tinkers.
But a hard winter or two away, some of us...
What's gnawing on you, Robert?
l've made up my mind to borrow money from Montrose
to buy cattle at Creiff market and sell at Carlisle.
How much money?
€1,000.
Believe me, Mary, it will turn profit.
€6 in Creiff is €12 in Carlisle.
And l know cattle.
l can drive them faster and deliver them fatter
than any man in the kingdom.
Why would the Marquis of Montrose lend a McGregor €1,000?
For profit, what else?
lt's an investment as much as a loan.
So it's business partners you are now, you and the Marquis.
Keep that tongue for your boys, woman.
l didn't tell you my mind to be flayed for it.
You know l love the bones of you, Robert McGregor.
But you take too much to heart that cannot be helped.
lt must be helped.
All right,
but not today.
l got yous.
l got the two of yous!
Got the two of yous!
Move on.
Father,
will McGregors ever be kings again?
All men with honour are kings,
but not all kings have honour.
What is honour?
Honour is
what no man can give you
and none can take away.
Honour is a man's gift to himself.
Do women have it?
Women are the heart of honour,
and we cherish and protect it in them.
You must never mistreat a woman or malign a man,
nor stand by and see another do so.
How do you know if you have it?
Never worry on the getting of it.
lt grows in you and speaks to you.
All you need do is listen.
All right, lads, enough of the finer things.
You've animals to tend to and water to haul.
Your mother and me will be down directly.
Take the basket.
Come on! l'll race you down the hill.
Do you know how fine you are to me, Mary McGregor?
So fine.
ls that why you sent them away?
To tell me how fine l am?
Or did you want to make a silk purse
out of my sow's ear again?
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
What a wanton l'm wed to.
You know what the old wives say
about these standing stones?
No. What do the old wives say,... old wife?
Ow!
Ow. Come here.
What do they say?
So, what do they say?
They say the stones make men hard
and women fertile.
We've no need of them, you and me.
You know how fine you are to me, Robert McGregor?
This tailor in Glasgow to whom you owe €87
extended this credit because you were my guest?
Or as you prefer to frame it,
a member of my household.
l can assure Your Lordship
l have in no manner indebted him.
And now Killearn tells me
that you are saddling one of my serving wenches.
Damn it, sir! Your mother did not send you to me
to debauch innocent girls.
l regret that l have so offended Your Lordship.
By your leave, l will remove myself.
And to where,
might l ask?
You are penniless. You have no mount.
You know no-one.
To where would you remove yourself?
Have you some notion
of presenting yourself at the Duke of Argyll's door
and soliciting his patronage as his new champion?
l am Your Lordship's to command.
Remember your place, sir!
That's all l ask of any man.
What is next?
McGregor, My Lord.
You may go, Archibald.
You bear no arms?
l hadn't planned on demanding terms at sword point.
Robert McGregor of Craigrostan, My Lord.
So, McGregor...
l knew your father, an able man, if not a wise one.
Have you taken on his mantle?
As best l may, My Lord.
So, how many men are you master of?
Master of none, My Lord,
but some 200 souls live close by Craigrostan,
and they're in my care.
You are a profit and provider to them,
is that not so?
What l can, l do.
lt is no great matter compared to Your Lordship's work.
To know one's place, McGregor,
in the order of things is a great blessing.
What terms, Killearn?
A fifth, My Lord.
A fifth, you say?
What, is this man kin that you offer such kindly terms?
Am l not accustomed to a quarter on unsecured loans?
McGregor has 300 acres at Craigrostan, My Lord.
Ah. A man of property intent on growing richer.
Well, we have more in common than l would have suspected, McGregor.
€1,000 for 3 months, you say,
and these acres of yours as security?
And my oath.
Ah, yes.
Tell me, is there something in what Killearn says
that you might have driven off my cattle
and returned them with stories of tinkers caught and summarily executed?
l have, in my day, thieved cattle,
but none that were under my watch.
ls that what passes for honour
with a McGregor?
What passes for honour with me
is likely enough the same as with Your Lordship.
When my word is given,
it is good.
Well, you are to be congratulated
on such cheaply bought nobility.
Killearn will draw papers.
l will expect the terms to be met.
My thanks to Your Lordship.
Aye, but it's a fine, bold signature you have,
worthy of a chieftain himself.
Are you Rob Roy McGregor?
l am. And what's your name?
Davey Anderson.
Hello, Davey Anderson.
Hello.
Even the servant boys know who you are.
You've become a famous reiver and retriever in your own lifetime.
Business and profit.
And a soft winter.
Are you Rob Roy McGregor?
l am.
l'm Will Guthrie.
You heard of me?
No, l have not.
Well, l've heard of you.
lndeed.
And what have you heard, Mr Guthrie?
l heard you backstabbed Tam Sibbald.
Were you and Tam kin?
Near enough.
l shagged his sister.
Likely so did Tam.
You want the wind let out of your bladder?
What's your business with me, Guthrie?
Business best done outside.
We have no quarrel.
That can be remedied.
The first cut?
Aye.
Well done.
Some other time
when we're both sober.
Tam Sibbald has a longer reach dead than he ever did living.
l'm away home.
Keep the pony and stick to Killearn till you have the note.
l'll see you back in Craigrostan.
l'm to wait here till the note is signed.
Aye. We are the obedient one.
Fetch and carry at command.
Why has a smart young lad like you
attached himself to a bunch of tinkers?
l would have thought you more fit
.to serve a man like my master, the Marquis of Montrose.
l do not serve Robert McGregor.
l'm his friend
and count myself fortunate to claim it.
My God, what a crew you Highlanders are.
With your airs and honours,
come begging €1,000 as if you were doing the lender a favour.
Sheep shaggers, the lot of ya.
Baa!
My mother could come no nearer
than three candidates for my paternity.
The Earl of Rutland.
Now, there's a name for a whore master.
A secretary to the Spanish Ambassador
whose name she hazarded as Ferdinando
and some young buck she never saw
who raised her skirts at the masked ball.
He ravished her?!
l would put it no higher than surprised.
Archie, take me with you.
Wherever.
Whatever.
Take me away with you.
l am away, Betty,
and God help me, this is where l've landed.
You think me a gentleman
because l have linen and can manage a lisp.
l am but a bastard abroad,
seeking my fortune and the favours of great men,
as big a whore as my mother ever was.
l'm pregnant by you, Archie.
Well.
When it asks for its father's name,
at least you'll have it to give.
Mr Cunningham, it's me... Killearn.
A word with you.
Don't let him see me.
You are a carbuncle on this arse of a country.
And if you ever inform against me to His Lordship again,
l'll squeeze the pus out of you
with my bare hands.
My, Archie,
but you have a rare contempt in you.
l gave you no leave to call me familiar.
Could l pay for the privilege?
At a fair price.
What are you gibbering about?
Money, Archie. Money. What else?
How much money?
Let's talk inside over a dram.
lt's chill on the stairs.
Say what you have to say.
l am engaged within.
Ah, you've Betty on her back.
How much money?
€1,000.
What does €1,000 look like?
Will we have enough ponies to carry it?
Not coin. A note of credit
drawn on His Lordship.
- What interest, Rob? - One fifth.
And he gets €200 profit for three months?
Aye. That's the price of cash,
and we must plan the matter to the last penny.
When Alan returns, he'll take three of you,
and you'll go to Creiff.
There you'll bargain with the drovers
and have the herd assembled when l come with our kit for the drive.
How big a herd?
300. Maybe more.
And whatever we can acquire along the way.
No harm if a dozen or more stick.
We'll drive them into Carlisle like an army.
So, let's have all hands to it.
We'll stay warm this winter, within and without.
To celebrate, we'll hold a gathering
and drink to our success!
Right, McKinness.
That's two shillings still owing.
- Next. - Colqhoun.
Colqhoun, what have you got? A rabbit?
You're still a week behind, Colqhoun.
Must l wait all day for my note, Killearn?
Patience, McGregor's man.
Your turn is marked.
Take you that goat to the pen.
Come, young Davey Wilson.
What have you got for me? Another rabbit.
- Does nobody have any money? - No, sir. Only a rabbit.
Dreaming of the New World, were we?
l hear tell in the New World
they have tribes of noble savages
with paint on their faces
and skins on their backs.
You'll be well at home among them.
Enough of this tripe. Have you the note?
His Lordship is to Edinburgh for the Assize,
then to London direct.
Great doings at the Court.
And he's away without signing the note.
The best l can do for you is coin.
This was not agreed.
Agreed or no, there's €1,000 here.
Take it or leave it, it makes no difference to me,
nor to His Grace.
Aye, it's a terrible shock,
the sight of such a fortune within reach, is it not?
lt's just as well you have the trust of the McGregor
or l'd be hard pressed to sign it over to you.
Angus.
A great gathering, Rob.
Oh. That Alasdair Roy is a fierce dancer.
The last time l saw you in such a lather,
- you were flat on your back. - Ooh!
Do not affront me afore these folk.
Rob, do you know why Calvinists are against shagging standing up?
No, Coll. l do not.
They fear it might lead to dancing.
Stay back,
or by God, l'll shoot you dead.
For a moment there, l thought you might take the road to Greenock
with your €1,000.
Killing is not so easy as it seems.
La.
He sat out there all day, pondering on this.
- You gave him coin. - He insisted upon it.
When l told him His Grace hadn't signed the note,
he said you must have it,
or the beasts could not be bought at the best price.
l'm hard put to see you hand over such a sum
to one who couldn't bear the debt.
He was your man,
present at your signing of the terms,
ordered by you to wait.
For a note, not a bag of guineas!
lt was not all guineas.
These farmers pay in small coin, l assure you.
He signed for this bag of coin?
lndeed.
He did.
Almost as bold a hand as yourself.
There best be no skulduggery here, Killearn.
Alan McDonald stands under my protection.
Well, that's a great comfort to us all, l must say,
what with €1,000 at risk.
Now, listen. We must search for Alan.
l fear he's come to mischief hereabouts.
l say we look in Greenock.
lt comes quickly to your mind that he has robbed us.
He spoke of the Americas often enough.
And he walked to Greenock from Buchlyvie
and sent his pony home without him?
€1,000 would be enough to buy him 10 ponies.
Alan McDonald did not betray me.
Now to it and find his trace.
Come on! To it!
Go to Greenock, then
since you have that stink in your nose.
But, brother,
bad enough that it might be so without you wishing it.
Rob.
Well, what news?
The ship sailed the day before l got there,
and McDonald's name
was not on the harbourmaster's list.
But he wouldn't have likely used his own name
and him run off with... 1,000...
Aye.
Your Lordship,
the Duke of Argyll this way comes.
John, you look like a man who means to play hard.
Do not presume to speak above your station, sir!
l will have my rank from you!
Your Grace.
l have word from Court that you're saying l'm a Jacobite,
as one who would rise for the Stuart should he land here to claim the throne.
Great men such as yourself
draw rumours as shite draws flies.
You are the shite, Montrose,
and the flies upon it!
For all the flowers in your great gardens,
l know you in my nose.
Keep your stink off my name,
or by God, l will clip you as close as one of your gelded trees,
and this carrion you keep will not come between us!
What pride to use a fellow peer in public so!
Damn his pride!
Forgive me.
Damn His Grace's pride.
Why is it so beyond your belief
that he might have yielded to the sight of all that money?
Unguarded, unasked, but there
a lifetime's wages in a bag.
Because l know him. l know him more than half his life.
But was he ever handed €1,000 before?
He was handed a hundred times more.
He was given trust, and he repaid in kind.
Why do you not believe me?
All right, Rob.
He did not steal from you.
But he has gone, the money's gone,
and Montrose will not care if you believe one thing or the other.
- That's another matter. - No. That's the only matter now.
For all our sakes, Robert, you must take off your high hat,
and make what terms you can.
Else our home is lost and ourselves His Lordship's tenants.
Ah, here comes the bold Highlander.
No arse in his breeks
but too proud to tug his forelock.
No doubt the rogue seeks to blame his servant
for l hear there is no word of the man.
l see you're back in favour with your tailor, Archibald.
He must be a happy man.
So, McGregor, how is it with you?
As it was, My Lord.
There is still no word of McDonald or Your Lordship's money.
What are we to do, then?
lf Your Lordship would contract with me for another sum,
l would turn over all profit and so repay my debt.
l have but lost €1,000. You ask me to risk another?
My Lord, the money was stolen from me and from you.
l am no part of your incompetence.
You signed a paper.
And l will honour it.
Oh, ply me not with your honour, man.
Let us keep these matters simple.
You are indebted to me. On that we are agreed?
We are, My Lord.
Know you the Duke of Argyll?
By his repute alone.
My report is that Argyll is a Jacobite
and would declare for James Stuart should he seek to reclaim the throne.
These are intelligences unknown to me, My Lord.
They are known to you now.
l'm uncertain of Your Lordship's meaning.
Oh, damn it, man!
You and your clan are Jacobites
bred to the bone.
Argyll is nothing to you.
l want your word against him.
Give it, and we will come to some reckoning on what you owe me.
l can be of no assistance to Your Lordship
in this matter of the Duke of Argyll.
You owe me.
l owe you money. Nothing more.
What you have asked is as below me as it should be beneath Your Lordship.
You misspeak yourself, McGregor.
lt is the Marquis of Montrose who has misspoke himself
to ask my perjury against his enemies.
Leave the blade be, sir!
This is not your quarrel.
You do not hear me, McGregor.
l did not ask if or whether.
Your land is forfeit to me against your debt.
Until that is settled, l will have you lodged in the tolbooth.
Take him into custody, Archibald.
You have my commission on it!
My father spent two years in that jail
for no cause but the will of great men like you.
- l will not go there, sir. - Call out the watch!
Call nothing, or l'll cut his throat!
You are damned, McGregor.
Damned to hell.
Come, Your Lordship.
Leave the devil some work.
You've done enough for one day.
Call out the watch!
Yes, sir.
Call out the watch! Call out the watch!
You have slept your last peaceful night, McGregor.
You and yours.
What is John Campbell, Duke of Argyll, to us
that you must defend him against Montrose?
l did not defend him.
l refused to bear false witness against him.
Gregor, send men to the passes and set watches.
And the lochside?
They'll not likely come by the shore, but watch all ways.
Listen, lads. l have to go to the hills for a time.
You stay by your mother and be her help, you hear?
Let Argyll know that you are persecuted for his sake.
l'm persecuted for no man's sake but my own, Mary.
What?
Would you have me lie against my conscience to suit Montrose?
No! To suit me and Duncan and Ranald,
to stay home with your wife and children
instead of taking to the hills like a fox.
Out!
Out! Out! Out! Out!
He'll be with you soon enough!
Take the boys and go to Morag's.
She'll make a place.
And let Montrose's troopers foul my house.
No harm will come to you. Montrose's quarrel is with me.
And you revel in it.
The great man against all.
And likely you'll slip down in the night
when the mood takes you.
Or will you just find yourself a sheep to comfort you?
lf l do, it will be one that doesn't bleat so bitter.
No trouble between them and you.
Give no cause.
This is between me and Montrose,
and likely when he's broke a few horses, he'll quieten down.
Watch Alasdair. Put him where he can do no harm.
Keep up the watch for McDonald.
Ach, Rob, he's long gone.
Aye, but is he over the seas or under them?
And, Coll, ask Morag to go down to Mary.
She's sore at me for this business.
That Montrose is a stoat of a man.
Heaven protect us from his like.
When the King comes across the water again,
we'll see him hung.
Your Lordship will not regret leaving this matter in my hands.
l have some knowledge of how best to bring such rogues to heel.
Broken but not dead, Archibald. That is all l ask.
Broken but not dead.
lt has a ring to it.
Your health.
Goodbye!
lnstead of spying them out, we should lay for them
and cut them down as they come through the passes.
Aye, a wee war with Montrose would suit us fine.
Listen, Alasdair Roy.
Keep your watch, give warning, and stay your hand,
or you'll answer to me.
Damn that McDonald has brought this on us.
l never trusted the man.
Always at Rob's arse like a collie dog.
Morag had a dream on him. Saw him drowned.
Maybe his ship sank
and him loaded down with the theft.