Free By Loch and by Lin by Sorche Nic Leodhas Page B

Noth, “or I’ll open them up with my own key!” Then he raised his foot and gave a great kick that knocked a hole three full yards wide through the stones of the city wall.
    In through the gap the champions went, and down by Drury Lane. They came down by the Lunnon town hall, and there stood young Lang Johnnie Mor, beside the gibbet tree.
    Young Johnnie cried out, “You’ve come in good time, Auld Johnnie, my uncle, and Jock o’ Noth, and you’re unco welcome here. Come, loosen the knot and throw off the rope, and set me free from the gibbet tree.”
    â€œNay, not so fast,” Auld Johnnie said. “Why have they sentenced you to die? Is it murder you have done, or theft or robbery? If it’s for a grievous crime you’ve been judged, it’s not for us to set you free.”
    â€œOch, nay!” said young Johnnie. “For no great crime have they set me here to die. I have done no murder nor theft nor robbery. It’s all because I’ve fallen in love with the fairest lady in Lunnon town, and that is no crime at all that I can see.”
    â€œWhy did you let the soldiers take you and bind you?” asked Jock o’ Noth. “And you with your good broadsword that you brought here from Scotland. I never saw a Scotsman in all my life but could free himself, as long as he had his sword in his hand.”
    â€œI had no sword in my hand,” said Lang Johnnie Mor. “And if I had, I should have gone free. The de’il fly away with the king’s sly rogues who put in my ale the poppy-seed oil that stole my senses away from me. But when they had me helpless and bound it took four of their stoutest men to carry my good sword away.”
    â€œBring back the sword!” said Jock o’ Noth to the king’s men who were standing by. “Bring back the sword and give it back into the hand of Lang Johnnie Mor. I’ve one as good, if not better, of my own.” And he drew his sword that all might see. “Bring back his sword and quickly, or you must answer to me, for I have sworn a black Scotsman’s oath that if you delay, five thousand Englishmen will die by this sword of mine today.”
    The soldiers took Johnnie’s shackles away, and they took the rope from around his neck and set him free. And four of the stoutest of the king’s men fetched young Johnnie’s sword, and put it back in his hand again.
    â€œNow show me the lady,” said Jock o’ Noth. “Young Johnnie’s true love, I must see.”
    â€œIt’s the king’s own daughter that’s young Johnnie’s love,” they said. “And she’s locked in a room in the castle tower, and the king, her father, keeps the key.”
    Then to the king’s palace went Lang Johnnie Mor, Auld Johnnie, and Jock o’ Noth, all three. Through the palace door they strode and showed themselves before the king.
    â€œOh, where is your daughter?” roared Jock o’ Noth. “That bonnie young lady I must see, for me and Auld Johnnie here have come to see her wed Lang Johnnie Mor, all the way from the foot of Benachie!”
    â€œOh, take my daughter!” cried the king, and his knee-caps rattled together with fear. “Take my daughter! You’re welcome to her, for all of me. I never thought they bred such men at the foot of Benachie!”
    â€œOch, if I had known,” said Jock o’ Noth, “that you’d wonder so much at my size, I’d have brought along another man who’s at least three times as big as me. Likewise if I thought the size of me would give you such a fright, I’d have brought Sir John of Erskine Park, for he has a height of thirty feet and three.”
    â€œLet me get hold of the wee little lad who fetched you here!” cried the king. “I’ll pay him well for the errand he ran, for I’ll hang him with my own hands!”
    â€œDo so!” Auld Johnnie said, and a hot fire