So it came about that the prison
gates swung back for Christie's Will, the halter no longer threatened
his neck, and Lord Traquair acquired a follower who to repay his debt of
gratitude would stick at nothing.
Some little time later it chanced that a great lawsuit fell to be
decided in the Court of Session. In this lawsuit Lord Traquair was
deeply concerned. A verdict in his favour was of vital importance to
him, but he very well knew that the opinion of the presiding judge was
likely to be unfavourable to his claim, and that should Lord Durie
preside, the case in that event would almost certainly go against him.
Could that judge, however, by any means be quietly spirited away from
Edinburgh before the date fixed for the trial, with almost equal
certainty he might count on a favourable verdict. In this predicament
Lord Traquair turned his thoughts to Christie's Will; if anyone could
aid him it must be the bold Borderer.
"'Bethink how ye sware, by the salt and the bread,
By the lightning, the wind, and the rain,
That if ever of Christie's Will I had need,
He would pay me my service again.'"
And Lord Traquair did not plead in vain. It was a little thing to do,
Will thought, for one who had saved him from the gallows tree.
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