While many a merry lay and many a song
Cheer'd the rough road, we wish'd the rough road long;
The rough road then returning in a round,
Mark'd their impatient steps, for all was fairy ground.
DR. JOHNSON.
"It was about the year of redemption one thousand two hundred and
eighty-five years," began, the minstrel, "when King Alexander the Third
of Scotland lost his daughter Margaret, whose only child of the same
name, called the Maiden of Norway, (as her father was king of that
country,) became the heiress of this kingdom of Scotland, as well as of
her father's crown. An unhappy death was this for Alexander, who had no
nearer heirs left of his own body than this grandchild. She indeed
might claim his kingdom by birthright; but the difficulty of
establishing such a claim of inheritance must have been anticipated by
all who bestowed a thought upon the subject. The Scottish king,
therefore, endeavoured to make up for his loss by replacing his late
Queen, who was an English princess, sister of our Edward the First,
with Juletta, daughter of the Count de Dreux. The solemnities at the
nuptial ceremony, which took place in the town of Jedburgh, were very
great and remarkable, and particularly when, amidst the display of a
pageant which was exhibited on the occasion, a ghastly spectre made its
appearance in the form of a skeleton, as the King of Terrors is said to
be represented.--Your worship is free to laugh at this, if you think it
a proper subject for mirth; but men are alive who viewed it with their
own eyes, and the event showed too well of what misfortunes this
apparition was the singular prognostication."
"I have heard the story," said the knight; "but the monk who told it
me, suggested that the figure, though unhappily chosen, was perhaps
purposely introduced as a part of the pageant."
"I know not that," said the minstrel, dryly; "but there is no doubt
that shortly after this apparition King Alexander died, to the great
sorrow of his people. The Maid of Norway, his heiress, speedily
followed her grandfather to the grave, and our English king, Sir
Knight, raked up a claim of dependency and homage due, he said, by
Scotland, which neither the lawyers, nobles, priests, nor the very
minstrels of Scotland, had ever before heard of."
"Now, beshrew me," interrupted Sir Aymer de Valence, "this is beyond
bargain. I agreed to hear your tale with patience, but I did not pledge
myself that it should contain matter to the reproach of Edward the
First, of blessed memory; nor will I permit his name to be mentioned in
my hearing without the respect due his high rank and noble qualities."
"Nay," said the minstrel, "I am no highland bagpiper or genealogist, to
carry respect for my art so far as to quarrel with a man of worship who
stops me at the beginning of a pibroch. I am an Englishman, and wish
dearly well to my country; and, above all, I must speak the truth. But
I will avoid disputable topics. Your age, sir, though none of the
ripest, authorizes me to suppose you may have seen the battle of
Falkirk, and other onslaughts in which the competition of Bruce and
Baliol has been fiercely agitated, and you will permit me to say, that
if the Scottish have not had the right upon their side, they have at
least defended the wrong with the efforts of brave men and true."
"Of brave men I grant you," said the knight, "for I have seen no
cowards amongst them; but as for truth, they can best judge of it who
know how often they have sworn faith to England, and how repeatedly
they have broken their vow."
"I shall not stir the question," said the minstrel, "leaving it to your
worship to determine which has most falsehood--he who compels a weaker
person to take an unjust path, or he who, compelled by necessity, takes
the imposed oath without the intention of keeping his word."
"Nay, nay," said De Valence, "let us keep our opinions, for we are not
likely to force each other from the faith we have adopted on this
subject. But take my advice, and whilst thou travellest under an
English pennon, take heed that thou keepest off this conversation in
the hall and kitchen, where perhaps the soldier may be less tolerant
than the officer; and now, in a word, what is thy legend of this
Dangerous Castle?"
"For that," replied Bertram, "methinks your worship is most likely to
have a better edition than I, who have not been in this country for
many years; but it is not for me to bandy opinions with your
knightship. I will even proceed with the tale as I have heard it. I
need not, I presume, inform your worship that the Lords of Douglas, who
founded this castle, are second to no lineage in Scotland in the
antiquity of their descent. Nay, they have themselves boasted that
their family is not to be seen or distinguished, like other great
houses, until it is found at once in a certain degree of eminence. 'You
may see us in the tree,' they say, 'you cannot discover us in the twig;
you may see us in the stream, you cannot trace us to the fountain.' In
a word, they deny that historians or genealogists can point out the
first mean man named Douglas, who originally elevated the family; and
true it is, that so far back as we have known this race, they have
always been renowned for valour and enterprise, accompanied with the
power which made that enterprise effectual."
"Enough," said the knight, "I have heard of the pride and power of that
great family, nor does it interest me in the least to deny or detract
from their bold claims to consideration in this respect."
"Without doubt you must also have heard, noble sir," replied the
minstrel, "many things of James, the present heir of the house of
Douglas?" "More than enough," answered the English knight; "he is known
to have been a stout supporter of that outlawed traitor, William
Wallace; and again, upon the first raising of the banner by this Robert
Bruce, who pretends to be King of Scotland, this young springald, James
Douglas, must needs start into rebellion anew. He plunders his uncle,
the Archbishop of St. Andrews, of a considerable sum of money, to fill
the Scottish Usurper's not over-burdened treasury, debauches the
servants of his relation, takes arms, and though repeatedly chastised
in the field, still keeps his vaunt, and threatens mischief to those,
who, in the name of his rightful sovereign, defend the Castle of
Douglasdale."
"It is your pleasure to say so, Sir Knight," replied Bertram; "yet I am
sure, were you a Scot, you would with patience hear me tell over what
has been said of this young man by those who have known him, and whose
account of his adventures shows how differently the same tale may be
told. These men talk of the present heir of this ancient family as
fully adequate to maintain and augment its reputation; ready, indeed,
to undergo every peril in the cause of Robert the Bruce, because the
Bruce is esteemed by him his lawful king; and sworn and devoted, with
such small strength as he can muster, to revenge himself on those
Southrons who have, for several years, as he thinks, unjustly,
possessed themselves of his father's abode."
"O," replied Sir Aymer de Valence, "we have heard much of his
achievements in this respect, and of his threats against our governor
and ourselves; yet we think it scarce likely that Sir John de Walton
will move from Douglasdale without the King's order, although this
James Douglas, a mere chicken, take upon himself to crack his voice by
crowing like a cock of the game."
"Sir," answered Bertram, "our acquaintance is but brief, and yet I feel
it has been so beneficial to me, that I trust there is no harm, in
hoping that James Douglas and you may never meet in bodily presence
till the state of the two countries shall admit of peace being between
you."
"Thou art obliging, friend," answered Sir Aymer, "and, I doubt not,
sincere; and truly thou seemest to have a wholesome sense of the
respect due to this young knight, when men talk of him in his native
valley of Douglas. For me, I am only poor Aymer of Valence, without an
acre of land, or much hope of acquiring any, unless I cut something
huge with my broadsword out of the middle of these hills. Only this,
good minstrel, if thou livest to tell my story, may I pray thee to use
thy scrupulous custom of searching out the verity, and whether I live
or die thou shalt not, I think, discover that thy late acquaintance of
a spring morning hath added more to the laurels of James of Douglas,
than any man's death must give to him by whose stronger arm, or more
lucky chance, it is his lot to fall."
"I nothing fear you, Sir Knight," said the minstrel, "for yours is that
happy brain, which, bold in youth as beseems a young knight, is in more
advanced life the happy source of prudent counsel, of which I would
not, by an early death, wish thy country to be deprived."
"Thou art so candid, then, as to wish Old England the benefit of good
advice" said Sir Aymer, "though thou leanest to the side of Scotland in
the controversy?"
"Assuredly, Sir Knight," said the minstrel, "since in wishing that
Scotland and England each knew their own true interest, I am bound to
wish them both alike well; and they should, I think, desire to live in
friendship together. Occupying each their own portion of the same
island, and living under the same laws, and being at peace with each
other, they might without fear, face the enmity of the whole world."
"If thy faith be so liberal," answered the Knight, "as becomes a good
man, thou must certainly pray, Sir Minstrel, for the success of England
in the war, by which alone these murderous hostilities of the northern
nation can end in a solid peace. The rebellions of this obstinate
country are but the struggles of the stag when he is mortally wounded;
the animal grows weaker and weaker with every struggle, till his
resistance is effectually tamed by the hand of death."
"Not so, Sir Knight," said the minstrel; "if my creed is well taught
me, we ought not so to pray. We may, without offence, intimate in our
prayers the end we wish to obtain; but it is not for us, poor mortals,
to point out to an all-seeing Providence the precise manner in which
our petitions are to be accomplished, or to wish the downfall of a
country to end its commotions, as the death-stab terminates the agonies
of the wounded stag. Whether I appeal to my heart or to my
understanding, the dictate would be to petition Heaven for what is just
and equal in the case; and if I should fear for thee, Sir Knight, in an
encounter with James of Douglas, it is only because he upholds, as I
conceive, the better side of the debate; and powers more earthly have
presaged to him success."
"Do you tell me so, Sir Minstrel," said De Valence in a threatening
tone, "knowing me and my office?"
"Your personal dignity and authority" said Bertram, "cannot change the
right into wrong, or avert what Providence has decreed to take place.
You know, I must presume, that the Douglas hath, by various devices,
already contrived to make himself master of this Castle of Douglas
three several times, and that Sir John de Walton, the present governor,
holds it with a garrison trebled in force, and under the assurance that
if, without surprise, he should keep it from the Scottish power for a
year and a day, he shall obtain the barony of Douglas, with its
extensive appendages, in free property for his reward; while, on the
other hand, if he shall suffer the fortress during this space to be
taken, either by guile or by open force, as has happened successively
to the holders of the Dangerous Castle, he will become liable to
dishonour as a knight, and to attainder as a subject; and the chiefs
who take share with him, and serve under him, will participate also in
his guilt and his punishment?"
"All this I know well" said Sir Aymer; "and I only wonder that, having
become public, the conditions have, nevertheless, been told with so
much accuracy; but what has this to do with the issue of the combat, if
the Douglas and I should chance to meet? I will not surely be disposed
to fight with less animation because I wear my fortune upon my sword,
or become coward because I fight for a portion of the Douglas's estate,
as well as for fame and for fatherland? And after all"--
"Hear me," said the minstrel; "an ancient gleeman has said, that in a
false quarrel there is no true valour, and the _los_ or praise won
therein, is, when balanced against honest fame, as valueless as a
wreath formed out of copper, compared to a chaplet of pure gold; but I
bid you not take me for thy warrant in this important question. Thou
well knowest how James of Thirlwall, the last English commander before
Sir John de Walton, was surprised, and the castle sacked with
circumstances of great inhumanity."
"Truly," said Sir Aymer, "I think that Scotland and England both have
heard of that onslaught, and of the disgusting proceedings of the
Scottish chieftain, when he caused transport into the wild forest gold,
silver, ammunition, and armour, and all things that could be easily
removed, and destroyed a large quantity of provisions in a manner
equally savage and unheard-of."
"Perhaps, Sir Knight," said Bertram, "you were yourself an eyewitness
of that transaction, which has been spoken of far and wide, and is
called the Douglas Larder?"
"I saw not the actual accomplishment of the deed," said De Valence;
"that is, I witnessed it not a-doing, but I beheld enough of the sad
relics to make the Douglas Larder never by me to be forgotten as a
record of horror and abomination. I would speak it truly, by the hand
of my father and by my honour as a knight! and I will leave it to thee
to judge whether it was a deed calculated to secure the smiles of
Heaven in favour of the actors. This is my edition of the story:--
"A large quantity of provisions had during two years or thereabouts
been collected from different points, and the Castle of Douglas, newly
repaired, and, as was thought, carefully guarded, was appointed as the
place where the said provisions were to be put in store for the service
of the King of England, or of the Lord Clifford, whichever should first
enter the Western Marches with an English army, and stand in need of
such a supply. This army was also to relieve our wants, I mean those of
my uncle the Earl of Pembroke, who for some time before had lain with a
considerable force in the town called Ayr, near the old Caledonian
Forest, and where we had hot wars with the insurgent Scots. Well, sir,
it happened, as in similar cases, that Thirlwall, though a bold and
active soldier, was surprised in the Castle of Douglas, about
Hallowmass, by this same worthy, young James Douglas. In no very good
humour was he, as you may suppose; for his father, called William the
Hardy, or William Longlegs, having refused, on any terms, to become
Anglicized, was made a lawful prisoner, and died as such, closely
confined in Berwick, or, as some say, in Newcastle. The news of his
father's death had put young Douglas into no small rage, and tended, I
think, to suggest what he did in his resentment. Embarrassed by the
quantity of provisions which he found in the castle, which, the English
being superior in the country, he had neither the means to remove, nor
the leisure to stay and consume, the fiend, as I think, inspired him
with a contrivance to render them unfit for human use. You shall judge
yourself whether it was likely to be suggested by a good or an evil
spirit.
"According to this device, the gold, silver, and other transportable
commodities being carried to secret places of safety, Douglas caused
the meat, the malt, and other corn or grain, to be brought down into
the castle cellar, where he emptied the contents of the sacks into one
loathsome heap, striking out the heads of the barrels and puncheons, so
as to let the mingled drink run through the heap of meal, grain, and so
forth. The bullocks provided for slaughter were in like manner knocked
on the head, and their blood suffered to drain into the mass of edible
substances; and lastly, the flesh of these oxen was buried in the same
mass, in which was also included the dead bodies of those in the
castle, who, receiving no quarter from the Douglas, paid dear enough
for having kept no better watch. This base and unworthy abuse of
provisions intended for the use of man, together with throwing into the
well of the castle carcasses of men and horses, and other filth for
polluting the same, has since that time been called the DOUGLAS LARDER."
"I pretend not, good Sir Aymer," said the minstrel, "to vindicate what
you justly reprove, nor can I conceive any mode of rendering provisions
arranged after the form of the Douglas Larder, proper for the use of
any Christian; yet this young gentleman might perhaps act under the
sting of natural resentment, rendering his singular exploit more
excusable than it may seem at first. Think, if your own noble father
had just died in a lingering captivity, his inheritance seized upon,
and occupied as a garrison by a foreign enemy, would not these things
stir you to a mode of resentment, which in cold blood, and judging of
it as the action of an enemy, your honour might hold in natural and
laudable abhorrence?--Would you pay respect to dead and senseless
objects, which no one could blame your appropriating to your own use,
or even scruple the refusal of quarter to prisoners, which is so often
practised even in wars which are otherwise termed fair and humane?"
"You press me close, minstrel," said Aymer de Valence. "I at least have
no great interest to excuse the Douglas in this matter, since its
consequences were, that I myself, and the rest of my uncle's host,
laboured with Clifford and his army to rebuild this same Dangerous
Castle; and feeling no stomach for the cheer that the Douglas had left
us, we suffered hard commons, though I acknowledge we did not hesitate
to adopt for our own use such sheep and oxen as the miserable Scots had
still left around their farm-houses; and I jest not, Sir Minstrel, when
I acknowledge in sad earnest, that we martial men ought to make our
petitions with peculiar penitence to Heaven for mercy, when we reflect
on the various miseries which the nature of our profession compels us
to inflict on each other."
"It seems to me," answered the minstrel, "that those who feel the
stings of their own conscience should be more lenient when they speak
of the offences of others; nor do I greatly rely on a sort of prophecy
which was delivered, as the men of this hill district say, to the young
Douglas, by a man who in the course of nature should have been long
since dead, promising him a course of success against the English for
having sacrificed his own castle to prevent their making it a garrison."
"We have time enough for the story," said Sir Aymer, "and methinks it
would suit a knight and a minstrel better than the grave converse we
have hitherto held, which would have beseemed--so God save me--the
mouths of two travelling friars."
"So be it," said the minstrel; "the rote or the viol easily changes its
time and varies its note."