His doublet was sae trim and neat,
Wi' reid goud to the chin,
Ye wad hae sworn, had ye been there,
That a maiden stood within.
The tears they trickled to his chin,
And fell down on his knee;
O had he wist before he kissed,
That the boy was a fair ladye.
_Song of May Marley._
Who's she, this dame that comes in such a guise,
Such lace of import, and unwonted speech?
Tell me, Cornaro. For methinks I see
Some traits of hell about her.
_Trag. of The Prioress._
In this perilous situation were placed the two most beautiful ladies of
England and Scotland, at the close of that memorable year; and in this
situation stood the two chiefs with relation to those they valued
dearest in life; the one quite unconscious of the misery that awaited
him, but the other prepared to stand the severest of trials. Success had
for some time past made a show of favouring the Scots, but she had not
yet declared herself, and matters with them soon began to look worse. As
a commencement of their misfortunes, on that very night the battle took
place, the English received a supply of thirty horse-loads of
provisions, with assurances that Sir Thomas Musgrave, the governor of
Berwick, was setting out with a strong army to their succour.
The supply was received in this way. There was a bridge over the Teviot,
which communicated only with the castle, the north end of it being
within the draw-bridge, and that bridge the English kept possession of
all the time of the siege. It being of no avail to the Scots, they
contented themselves by keeping a guard at the convent of Maisondieu, to
prevent any communication between the fortress and the Border. But the
English barons to the eastward, whose castles lay contiguous to the
Tweed, taking advantage of the great flood, came with a strong body of
men, and attacking this post by surprise, they beat them, and, chasing
them a considerable way up the river, got the convoy along the bridge
into the castle.
This temporary relief raised the spirits of the English, or rather
cheered their prospects, for higher in inveterate opposition their
spirits could not be raised. On the day following, likewise, a flying
party of Sir Thomas Musgrave's horse made their appearance on the height
above Hume castle, and blew their horns, and tossed their banners abroad
on the wind, that the besieged might see them, and understand that their
friends were astir to make a diversion in their favour.
On the same day a new gibbet was erected on the top of the Bush-law,
with a shifting wooden battery, to protect the executioners; and all
within the castle feared that the stern and unyielding Douglas was going
to put his threat respecting the life of Sir Richard Musgrave into
execution. Therefore, to prevent their captain from seeing the scene,
and, if possible, his mind from recurring to it, they contrived to get a
council of war called, at which they intentionally argued and contended
about matters of importance, in order to detain him until the sufferings
of his brother were past.
The Bush-law, on which the Scots had a strong fortification, rises
abruptly over against the western tower of the castle of Roxburgh; they
were separated only by the moat, and, though at a great height, were so
near each other, that men could with ease converse across, and see
distinctly what was done. On the top of this battery was the new gibbet
erected, the more to gall the English by witnessing the death of their
friends.
At noon, the Scots, to the number of two hundred, came in procession up
from the city, with their prisoner dressed in his knightly robes; and,
as they went by, they flouted the English that looked on from the
walls,--but the latter answered them not, either good or bad. By a
circular rout to the westward they reached the height, where they
exposed the prisoner to the view of the garrison on a semicircular
platform, for a few minutes, until a herald made proclamation, that
unless the keys of the castle were instantly delivered at the
draw-bridge, the life of the noble prisoner was forfeited, and the
sentence would momently be put in execution; and then he concluded by
calling, in a louder voice, "Answer, Yes or no--once--twice." He paused
for the space of twenty seconds, and then repeated slowly, and
apparently with reluctance, "Once--twice--_thrice_,"--and the platform
folding down, the victim was launched into eternity.
The English returned no answer to the herald, as no command or order had
been given. In moody silence they stood till they witnessed the fatal
catastrophe, and then a loud groan, or rather growl of abhorrence and
vengeance, burst from the troops on the wall, which was answered by the
exulting shouts of the Scots. At that fatal moment Musgrave stepped on
the battlement, to witness the last dying throes of his loved brother.
By some casualty, the day of the week and month happening to be
mentioned in the council hall, in the midst of his confused and
abstracted ideas, that brought to his remembrance the fate with which
his brother had been threatened. Still he had hopes that it would have
been postponed; for, as a drowning man will catch violently at floating
stubble, so had he trusted to the page's mediation. He had examined the
stripling on his return to the dungeon, but the imp proved froward and
incommunicative, attaching to himself an importance of which the captain
could not perceive the propriety; yet, though he had nothing to depend
on the tender mercies of Douglas, as indeed he had no right, he
nevertheless trusted to his policy for the saving of his brother alive;
knowing that, in his life, he held a bond round his heart which it was
not his interest to snap.
As he left the hall of council, which was in the great western tower,
and in the immediate vicinity of the scene then transacting, the murmurs
of the one host and the shouts of the other drew him to the battlement,
whence his eye momently embraced the heart-rending cause of the tumult.
He started, and contracted every muscle of his whole frame, shrinking
downward, and looking madly on each hand of him. He seemed in act to
make a spring over the wall; and the soldiers around him perceiving
this, and haply misjudging the intent of his motion, seized on him to
restrain him by main force. But scarcely did he seem to feel that he was
held; he stretched out his hands toward his brother, and uttered a loud
cry of furious despair, and then in a softer tone cried, "Oh! my
brother! my brother!--So you would not warn me, you dog?--Nor you?--Nor
you?--No, you are all combined against me. That was a sight to gratify
you, was it not? My curse on you, and all that have combined against the
life of that matchless youth!" and with that he struggled to shake them
from him. "My lord! my lord!" was all that the soldiers uttered, as they
restrained him.
At that instant Clavering rushed on the battlement. "Unhand the
captain!" cried he: "Dare you, for the lives that are not your own,
presume to lay violent restraint on him, and that in the full view of
your enemies?"
"I will have vengeance, Clavering!" cried Musgrave,--"ample and
uncontrolled vengeance! Where is the deceitful and impertinent stripling
that promised so solemnly to gain a reprieve for my brother, and
proffered the forfeit of his life if he failed?"
"In the dungeon, my lord, fast and secure."
"He is a favourite parasite of the Douglas; bring him forth that I may
see vengeance executed on him the first of them all. I will hang every
Scot in our custody; but go and bring him the first. It is a base
deceitful cub, and shall dangle opposite to that noble and now lifeless
form. It is a poor revenge indeed,--but I will sacrifice every Scot of
them. Why don't you go and bring the gilded moth, you kennel knaves?
Know you to whom you thus scruple obedience?"
Clavering was silent, and the soldiers durst not disobey, though they
obeyed with reluctance, knowing the advantages that the Scots possessed
over them, both in the numbers and rank of their prisoners. They went
into the vaults, and, without ceremony or intimation of their intent,
lifted the gaudy page in their arms, and carried him to the battlement
of the western tower, from whence, sans farther ceremony, he was
suspended from a beam's end.
Douglas could not believe the testimony of his own senses when he saw
what had occurred. Till that moment he never knew that his page was a
prisoner. Indeed, how could he conceive he was, when he had seen him in
his tent the day after the night engagement? His grief was of a cutting
and sharp kind, but went not to the heart; for though the boy had
maintained a sort of influence over him, even more than he could account
to himself for, yet still he was teasing and impertinent, and it was not
the sort of influence he desired.
"I wish it been our blessed Lady's will to have averted this," said he
to himself: "But the mischances of war often light upon those least
concerned in the event. Poor Colin! thy beauty, playfulness, and
flippancy of speech deserved a better guerdon. How shall I account to my
royal mistress for the cruel fate of her favourite?"
With all this partial regret, Douglas felt that, by the loss of this
officious page of the princess, he would be freed from the controul of
petticoat-government. He perceived that the princess lived in
concealment somewhere in the neighbourhood,--kept an eye over all his
actions and movements,--and, by this her agent, checked or upbraided him
according to her whimsical inexperience. Douglas was ambitious of having
the beautiful princess for his spouse,--of being son-in-law to his
sovereign,--and the first man in the realm; but he liked not to have his
counsels impeded, or his arms checked, by a froward and romantic girl,
however high her lineage or her endowments might soar. So that, upon the
whole, though he regretted the death of Colin Roy MacAlpin, he felt like
one released from a slight bondage. Alas, noble chief! little didst thou
know of the pang that was awaiting thee!
It will be recollected that, when the Lady Margaret first arrived in
the campin the character of Colin her own page, she lodged her maid
in the city of Roxburgh, disguised likewise as a boy. With her she
communicated every day, and contrived to forward such letters to the
Court as satisfied her royal mother with regard to the motives of her
absence,--though these letters were, like many others of the sex, any
thing but the direct truth. The king was at this period living in
retirement at his castle of Logie in Athol, on pretence of ill health.
The name of the maiden of honour thus disguised was Mary Kirkmichael,
the daughter of a knight in the shire of Fife. She was a lady of great
beauty, and elegant address,--shrewd, sly, and enterprising.
Two days after the rueful catastrophe above related, word was brought to
Douglas, while engaged in his pavilion, that a lady at the door begged
earnestly to see him. "Some petitioner for the life of a prisoner," said
he: "What other lady can have business with me? Tell her I have neither
leisure nor inclination at present to listen to the complaints and
petitions of women."
"I have told her so already," said the knight in waiting; "but she
refuses to go away till she speak with you in private; and says that she
has something to communicate that deeply concerns your welfare. She is
veiled; but seems a beautiful, accomplished, and courtly dame."
At these words the Douglas started to his feet. He had no doubt that it
was the princess, emerged from her concealment in the priory or convent,
and come to make inquiries after her favourite, and perhaps establish
some other mode of communication with himself. He laid his account with
complaints and upbraidings, and, upon the whole, boded no great good
from this domiciliary visit. However, he determined to receive his royal
mistress with some appearance of form; and, in a few seconds, at a given
word, squires, yeomen, and grooms, to the amount of seventy, were
arranged in due order, every one in his proper place; and up a lane
formed of these was the lady conducted to the captain, who received her
standing and uncovered; but, after exchanging courtesies with her, and
perceiving that it was not the princess, jealous of his dignity, he put
on his plumed bonnet, and waited with stately mien the developement of
her rank and errand.
It was Mary Kirkmichael.
"My noble lord," said she, "I have a word for your private ear, and
deeply doth it concern you and all this realm."
Douglas beckoned to his friends and attendants, who withdrew and left
him alone with the dame, who began thus with great earnestness of
manner: "My lord of Douglas, I have but one question to ask, and, if
satisfied with the answer, will not detain you a moment. What is become
of the page Colin that attended your hand of late?" Douglas hesitated,
deeming the lady to be some agent of the princess Margaret's. "Where is
he?" continued she, raising her voice, and advancing a step nearer to
the captain. "Tell me, as you would wish your soul to thrive. Is he
well? Is he safe?"
"He is sped on a long journey, lady, and you may not expect to meet him
again for a season."
"Sped on a long journey! Not see him again for a season! What does this
answer mean? Captain, on that youth's well-being hang the safety, the
nobility, and the honour of your house. Say but to me he is well, and
not exposed to any danger in the message on which he is gone."
"Of his well-being I have no doubt; and the message on which he is gone
is a safe one. He is under protection from all danger, commotion, or
strife."
"It is well you can say so, else wo would have fallen to your lot, to
mine, and to that of our nation."
"I know he was a page of court, and in the confidence of my sovereign
and adored Lady Margaret. But how could any misfortune attending a page
prove of such overwhelming import?"
"_Was_ a page of court, my lord? What do you infer by that _was_? Pray
what is he now? I entreat of you to be more explicit."
"The plain truth of the matter is shortly this: The boy fell into the
hands of our enemies that night of the late fierce engagement."
At this the lady uttered a scream; and Douglas, dreading she would fall
into hysterics, stretched out his arms to support her. "I pity you,
gentle maiden," said he, "for I perceive you two have been lovers."
She withdrew herself, shunning his profered support, and, looking him
wildly in the face, said in a passionate voice, "In the hands of the
English? O Douglas, haste to redeem him! Give up all the prisoners you
have for that page's ransom; and if these will not suffice, give up all
the lands of Douglas and Mar; and if all these are still judged
inadequate, give up yourself. But, by your fealty, your honour, your
nobility, I charge you, and, in the name of the Blessed Virgin, I
conjure you to lose no time in redeeming that youth."
Douglas could scarcely contain his gravity at this rhapsody, weening it
the frantic remonstrance of a love-sick maid; but she, perceiving the
bent and tenor of his disposition, held up her hand as a check to his
ill-timed levity. "Unhappy chief!" exclaimed she, "Little art thou aware
what a gulf of misery and despair thou art suspended over, and that by a
single thread within reach of the flame, and liable every moment to
snap, and hurl thee into inevitable ruin. Know, and to thyself alone be
it known, that that page was no other than the princess of Scotland
herself; who, impelled by romantic affection, came in that disguise to
attend thee in all thy perils, undertaken for her sake. It was she
herself who seized her rival, and placed her in your hands, thus giving
you an advantage which force could not bestow. And from time to time has
she laid such injunctions on you, written and delivered by her own hand,
as she judged conducive to your honour or advantage. If you suffer that
inestimable lady to lye in durance, or one hair of her head to fall to
the ground, after so many marks of affection and concern for you, you
are unworthy of lady's esteem, of the titles you bear, or the honour of
knighthood."
When the lady first came out with the fatal secret, and mentioned the
princess's name, Douglas strode hastily across the floor of the
pavilion, as if he would have run out at the door, or rather fallen
against it; but the motion was involuntary; he stopped short, and again
turned round to the speaker, gazing on her as if only half comprehending
what she said. The truth of the assertion opened to him by degrees; and,
it may well be supposed, the intelligence acted upon his mind and frame
like a shock of electricity. He would fain have disbelieved it, had he
been able to lay hold of a plausible pretext to doubt it; but every
recollected circumstance coincided in the establishment of the unwelcome
fact. All that he could say to the lady, as he stood like a statue
gazing her in the face, was, "Who art thou?"
"I am Mary Kirkmichael of Balmedie," said she, "and I came with the
princess, disguised as her attendant. I am her friend and confidant, and
we held communication every day, till of late that my dear mistress
discontinued her visits. O captain, tell me if it is in your power to
save her!"
Douglas flung himself on a form in the corner of the tent, and hid his
face with his hand, and at the same time groaned as if every throb
would have burst his heart's casement. He had seen his royal, his
affectionate, and adored mistress swung from the enemy's battlements,
without one effort to save her, and without a tear wetting his cheek;
and his agony of mind became so extreme that he paid no more regard to
the lady, who was still standing over him, adding the bitterest censure
to lamentation. Yet he told her not of her mistress's melancholy
fate,--he could not tell her; but the ejaculatory words that he uttered
from time to time too plainly informed Mary Kirkmichael that the life of
her royal mistress was either in jeopardy or irretrievably lost.
The Douglas saw the lady no more, nor regarded her. He rushed from
the tent, and gave such orders as quite confounded his warriors,
one part being quite incompatible with another; and, in the confusion,
Mary glided quietly away from the scene without farther notice. All
the motions of Douglas, for two days subsequent to this piece of
information, were like those of a drunken man; he was enraged without
cause, and acted without consistency; but the only point towards which
all these jarring and discordant passions constantly turned was revenge
on the English--deadly and insatiable revenge. When he looked towards
the ramparts of the castle, his dark eye would change its colour, and
sink deeper under his brow, while his brown cheeks would appear as if
furrowed across, and his teeth ground and jarred against one another.
His counsels, however, were not, at this time, of a nature suited to
accomplish any thing material against his rivals. He meditated the most
deadly retaliation, but was prevented before he could put it in
practice.
On the following evening, when the disturbance of his mind had somewhat
subsided, and appeared to be settling into a sullen depression of
spirit, or rather a softened melancholy, he was accosted by a monk, who
had craved and obtained admittance--for a deference to all that these
people said or did was a leading feature of that age. Douglas scarcely
regarded him on his first entrance, and to his address only deigned to
answer by a slight motion of his head; for the monk's whole appearance
augured little beyond contempt. He was of a diminutive stature, had a
slight, starved make, and a weak treble voice. His conversation,
nevertheless, proved of that sort that soon drew the attention of the
chief.
"May the blessed Virgin, the mother of God, bless and shield you,
captain!"
"Humph!" returned the Douglas, noding his head.
"May Saint Withold be your helmet and buckler in the day of battle--"
"Amen!" said the Douglas, interrupting him, and taking a searching look
of the tiny being that spoke, as if there were something in the tones of
his voice that struck him with emotion.
--"And withhold your weapon from the blood of the good," added the monk,
"from the breast of the professor of our holy religion, and dispose your
heart to peace and amity, that the land may have rest, and the humble
servants of the Cross protection. Why don't you say 'Amen' to this,
knight? Is your profession of Christianity a mere form? and are the
blessed tenets which it enjoins, strangers to thy turbulent bosom?"
"Humph!" said Douglas: "With reverence be it spoken, monk, but you holy
brethren have got a way of chattering about things that you do not
understand. Adhere to your books and your beads. I am a soldier, and
must stick by my profession, bearing arms for my king and country."
"I am a soldier too," rejoined the monk, "and bear arms and suffer in a
better cause. But enough of this. I have a strange message for you,
captain. You must know that, a few weeks ago, a beautiful youth came to
our monastery seeking supply of writing materials, which he could not
otherwise procure. He was a kind and ingenious youth. I supplied him,
for I loved him; and I have since seen him sundry times in my cell. But
last night, as I was sitting alone, a little before midnight--I am
afraid you will not believe me, captain, for the matter of my message
is so strange--I had gone over my breviary, and was sitting with the
cross pressed to my lips, when behold the youth entered. I arose to
receive him; but he beckoned me to keep away from his person, and glided
backward. I then recollected that he must be a spirit, else he could not
have got in; and, though I do not recollect all that he said, the
purport of his message was to the following effect:
"'Benjamin,' said he, 'arise and go to the captain of the Scottish army,
whom you will find in great perplexity of mind, and meditating schemes
of cruelty and retaliation, which would be disgraceful to himself and to
his country. But let him beware; for there be some at his hand that he
does not see; and if he dare in the slightest instance disobey the
injunctions which you shall from time to time lay on him, his sight
shall be withered by a visitant from another world, whose face he shall
too well recognize ever again to find rest under a consciousness of her
presence. Monk Benjamin, I was not what I seemed. A few days ago I was a
lady in the prime of youth and hope. I loved that captain, and was
betrothed to him. For his sake I ventured my life, and lost it without a
single effort on his part to save me. But his fate is in my hand, and I
will use the power. It is given to me to control or further his efforts
as I see meet,--to turn his sword in the day of battle,--or to redouble
the strength of his and his warriors' arms. My behests shall be made
known to him; and if he would avoid distraction of mind, as well as
utter ruin, let him tremble to disobey. In the first place, then, you
will find him pondering on a scheme for the recovery of my lifeless
body,--a scheme of madness which cannot and may not succeed; therefore,
charge him from me to desist. You will find him farther preparing an
embassy to my father and mother to inform them of the circumstances of
my death, and that not in the words of truth. But let him take care to
keep that a secret, as he would take care of his life and honour, for on
that depends his ultimate success. Tell him farther, from me, to revenge
my death, but not on the helpless beings that are already in his power;
to pursue with steady aim his primary object,--and his reward shall be
greater than he can conceive.'
"Strange as this story may appear, captain, it is strictly according to
truth. You yourself may judge whether it was a true or lying spirit that
spoke to me."
"Are you not some demon or spirit yourself," said the Douglas, "who know
such things as these? Tell me, are you a thing of flesh and blood, that
you can thus tell me the thoughts and purposes of my heart?"
"I am a being such as yourself," said the monk,--"a poor brother of the
Cistertian order, and of the cloister adjoining to this; and I only
speak what I was enjoined to speak, without knowing whether it is true
or false. I was threatened with trouble and dismay if I declined the
commission; and I advise you, captain, for your own peace of mind, to
attend to this warning."
Douglas promised that he would, at least for a time; and the monk,
taking his leave, left the earl in the utmost consternation. The monk's
tale was so simple and unmasked, there was no doubting the truth of
it,--for without such a communication it was impossible he could have
known the things he uttered; and the assurance that a disembodied being
should have such a power over him, though it somewhat staggered the
Douglas' faith, created an unwonted sensation within his breast--a
sensation of wonder and awe; for none of that age were exempt from the
sway of an overpowering superstition.