A tale of sorrow, for your eyes may weep;
A tale of horror, for your flesh may tingle;
A tale of wonder, for the eyebrows arch,
And the flesh curdles if you read it rightly
OLD PLAY.
"Your honour must be informed, gentle Sir Aymer de Valence, that I have
heard this story told at a great distance from the land in which it
happened, by a sworn minstrel, the ancient friend and servant of the
house of Douglas, one of the best, it is said, who ever belonged to
that noble family. This minstrel, Hugo Hugonet by name, attended his
young master when on this fierce exploit, as was his wont.
"The castle was in total tumult; in one corner the war-men were busy
breaking up and destroying provisions; in another, they were slaying
men, horses, and cattle, and these actions were accompanied with
appropriate sounds. The cattle, particularly, had become sensible of
their impending fate, and with awkward resistance and piteous cries,
testified that reluctance with which these poor creatures look
instinctively on the shambles. The groans and screams of men,
undergoing, or about to undergo, the stroke of death, and the screeches
of the poor horses which were in mortal agony, formed a fearful chorus.
Hugonet was desirous to remove himself from such unpleasant sights and
sounds; but his master, the Douglas, had been a man of some reading,
and his old servant was anxious to secure a book of poetry, to which he
had been attached of old. This contained the Lays of an ancient
Scottish Bard, who, if an ordinary human creature while he was in this
life, cannot now perhaps be exactly termed such.
"He was, in short, that Thomas, distinguished by the name of the
Rhymer, and whose intimacy, it is said, became so great with the gifted
people, called the Faery folk, that he could, like them, foretell the
future deed before it came to pass, and united in his own person the
quality of bard and of soothsayer. But of late years he had vanished
almost entirely from this mortal scene; and although the time and
manner of his death were never publicly known, yet the general belief
was, that he was not severed from the land of the living, but removed
to the land of Faery, from whence he sometimes made excursions, and
concerned himself only about matters which were to come hereafter.
Hugonet was the more earnest to prevent the loss of the works of this
ancient bard, as many of his poems and predictions were said to be
preserved in the castle, and were supposed to contain much especially
connected with the old house of Douglas, as well as other families of
ancient descent, who had been subjects of this old man's prophecy; and
accordingly he determined to save this volume from destruction in the
general conflagration to which the building was about to be consigned
by the heir of its ancient proprietors. With this view he hurried up
into the little old vaulted room, called 'the Douglas's study,' in
which there might be some dozen old books written by the ancient
chaplains, in what the minstrels call _the letter black_. He
immediately discovered the celebrated lay, called Sir Tristrem, which
has been so often altered and abridged as to bear little resemblance to
the original. Hugonet, who well knew the value in which this poem was
held by the ancient lords of the castle, took the parchment volume from
the shelves of the library, and laid it upon a small desk adjacent to
the Baron's chair. Having made such preparation for putting it in
safety, he fell into a brief reverie, in which the decay of light, and
the preparations for the Douglas Larder, but especially the last sight
of objects which had been familiar to his eyes, now on the eve of
destruction, engaged him at that moment.
"The bard, therefore, was thinking within himself upon the uncommon
mixture of the mystical scholar and warrior in his old master, when, as
he bent his eyes upon the book of the ancient Rhymer, he was astonished
to observe it slowly removed from the desk on which it lay by an
invisible hand. The old man looked with horror at the spontaneous
motion of the book, for the safety of which he was interested, and had
the courage to approach a little nearer the table, in order to discover
by what means it had been withdrawn.
"I have said the room was already becoming dark, so as to render it
difficult to distinguish any person in the chair, though it now
appeared, on closer examination, that a kind of shadowy outline of a
human form was seated in it, but neither precise enough to convey its
exact figure to the mind, nor so detailed as to intimate distinctly its
mode of action. The Bard of Douglas, therefore, gazed upon the object
of his fear, as if he had looked upon something not mortal;
nevertheless, as he gazed more intently, he became more capable of
discovering the object which offered itself to his eyes, and they grew
by degrees more keen to penetrate what they witnessed. A tall thin
form, attired in, or rather shaded with, a long flowing dusky robe,
having a face and physiognomy so wild and overgrown with hair as to be
hardly human, were the only marked outlines of the phantom; and,
looking more attentively, Hugonet was still sensible of two other
forms, the outlines, it seemed, of a hart and a hind, which appeared
half to shelter themselves behind the person and under the robe of this
supernatural figure."
"A probable tale," said the knight, "for you, Sir Minstrel, a man of
sense as you seem to be, to recite so gravely! From what wise authority
have you had this tale, which, though it might pass well enough amid
clanging beakers, must be held quite apocryphal in the sober hours of
the morning?"
"By my minstrel word, Sir Knight," answered Bertram, "I am no
propagator of the fable, if it be one; Hugonet, the violer, when he had
retired into a cloister near the Lake of Pembelmere in Wales,
communicated the story to me as I now tell it. Therefore, as it was
upon the authority of an eyewitness, I apologize not for relating it to
you, since I could hardly discover a more direct source of knowledge."
"Be it so, Sir Minstrel," said the knight; "tell on thy tale, and may
thy legend escape criticism from others as well as from me."
"Hugonet, Sir Knight," answered Bertram, "was a holy man, and
maintained a fair character during his whole life, notwithstanding his
trade may be esteemed a light one. The vision spoke to him in an
antique language, like that formerly used in the kingdom of
Strath-Clyde, being a species of Scots or Gaelic, which few would have
comprehended.
"'You are a learned man,' said the apparition, 'and not unacquainted
with the dialects used in your country formerly, although they are now
out of date, and you are obliged to translate them into the vulgar
Saxon of Deira or Northumberland; but highly must an ancient British
bard prize one in this "remote term of time," who sets upon the poetry
of his native country a value which invites him to think of its
preservation at a moment of such terror as influences the present
evening.'
"'It is, indeed,' said Hugonet, 'a night of terror, that calls even the
dead from the grave, and makes them the ghastly and fearful companions
of the living--Who or what art thou, in God's name, who breakest the
bounds which divide them, and revisitest thus strangely the state thou
hast so long bid adieu to?'
"'I am,' replied the vision, 'that celebrated Thomas the Rhymer, by
some called Thomas of Erceldoun, or Thomas the True Speaker. Like other
sages, I am permitted at times to revisit the scenes of my former life,
nor am I incapable of removing the shadowy clouds and darkness which
overhang futurity; and know, thou afflicted man, that what thou now
seest in this woeful country, is not a general emblem of what shall
therein befall hereafter, but in proportion as the Douglasses are now
suffering the loss and destruction of their home for their loyalty to
the rightful heir of the Scottish kingdom, so hath Heaven appointed for
them a just reward; and as they have not spared to burn and destroy
their own house and that of their fathers in the Bruce's cause, so is
it the doom of Heaven, that as often as the walls of Douglas Castle
shall be burnt to the ground, they shall be again rebuilt still more
stately and more magnificent than before.'
"A cry was now heard like that of a multitude in the courtyard, joining
in a fierce shout of exultation; at the same time a broad and ruddy
glow seemed to burst from the beams and rafters, and sparks flew from
them as from the smith's stithy, while the element caught to its fuel,
and the conflagration broke its way through every aperture.
"'See ye that?' said the vision, casting his eye towards the windows
and disappearing--'Begone! The fated hour of removing this book is not
yet come, nor are thine the destined hands. But it will be safe where I
have placed it, and the time of its removal shall come.' The voice was
heard after the form had vanished, and the brain of Hugonet almost
turned round at the wild scene which he beheld; his utmost exertion was
scarcely sufficient to withdraw him from the terrible spot, and Douglas
Castle that night sunk into ashes and smoke, to arise, in no great
length of time, in a form stronger than ever." The minstrel stopt, and
his hearer, the English knight, remained silent for some minutes ere at
length he replied.
"It is true, minstrel," answered Sir Aymer, "that your tale is so far
undeniable, that this castle--three times burned down by the heir of
the house and of the barony--has hitherto been as often reared again by
Henry Lord Clifford, and other generals of the English, who endeavoured
on every occasion to build it up more artificially and more strongly
than it had formerly existed, since it occupies a position too
important to the safety of our Scottish border to permit our yielding
it up. This I myself have partly witnessed. But I cannot think, that
because the castle has been so destroyed, it is therefore decreed so to
be repaired in future, considering that such cruelties, as surely
cannot meet the approbation of Heaven, have attended the feats of the
Douglasses. But I see thou art determined to keep thine own faith, nor
can I blame thee, since the wonderful turns of fate which have attended
this fortress, are sufficient to warrant any one to watch for what seem
the peculiar indications of the will of Heaven; but thou mayst believe,
good minstrel, that the fault shall not be mine, if the young Douglas
shall have opportunity to exercise his cookery upon a second edition of
his family larder, or to profit by the predictions of Thomas the
Rhymer."
"I do not doubt due circumspection upon your own part and Sir John de
Walton's," said Bertram; "but there is no crime in my saying that
Heaven can accomplish its own purposes. I look upon Douglas Castle as
in some degree a fated place, and I long to see what changes time may
have made in it during the currency of twenty years. Above all, I
desire to secure, if possible, the volume of this Thomas of Erceldoun,
having in it such a fund of forgotten minstrelsy, and of prophecies
respecting the future fates of the British kingdom, both northern and
southern."
The knight made no answer, but rode a little space forward, keeping the
upper part of the ridge of the water, by which the road down the vale
seemed to be rather sharply conducted. It at length attained the summit
of an acclivity of considerable length. From this point, and behind a
conspicuous rock, which appeared to have been pushed aside, as it were,
like the scene of a theatre to admit a view of the under part of the
valley, the travellers beheld the extensive vale, parts of which have
been already shown in detail, but which, as the river became narrower,
was now entirely laid bare in its height and depth as far as it
extended, and displayed in its precincts, at a little distance from the
course of the stream, the towering and lordly castle to which it gave
the name. The mist which continued to encumber the valley with its
fleecy clouds, showed imperfectly the rude fortifications which served
to defend the small town of Douglas, which was strong enough to repel a
desultory attack, but not to withstand what was called in those days a
formal siege. The most striking feature was its church, an ancient
Gothic pile raised on an eminence in the centre of the town, and even
then extremely ruinous. To the left, and lying in the distance, might
be seen other towers and battlements; and divided from the town by a
piece of artificial water, which extended almost around it, arose the
Dangerous Castle of Douglas.
Sternly was it fortified, after the fashion of the middle ages, with
donjon and battlements; displaying, above others, the tall tower, which
bore the name of Lord Henry's, or the Clifford's Tower.
"Yonder is the castle," said Aymer de Valence, extending his arm with a
smile of triumph upon his brow; "thou mayst judge thyself, whether the
defences added to it under the Clifford are likely to render its next
capture a more easy deed than the last."
The minstrel barely shook his head, and quoted from the
Psalmist--"_Nisi Dominus custodiet_." Nor did he prosecute the
discourse, though De Valence answered eagerly, "My own edition of the
text is not very different from thine; but, methinks thou art more
spiritually-minded than can always be predicated of a wandering
minstrel."
"God knows," said Bertram, "that if I, or such as I, are forgetful of
the finger of Providence in accomplishing its purposes in this lower
world, we have heavier blame than that of other people, since we are
perpetually called upon, in the exercise of our fanciful profession, to
admire the turns of fate which bring good out of evil, and which render
those who think only of their own passions and purposes the executors
of the will of Heaven."
"I do submit to what you say, Sir Minstrel," answered the knight, "and
it would be unlawful to express any doubt of the truths which you speak
so solemnly, any more than of your own belief in them. Let me add, sir,
that I think I have power enough in this garrison to bid you welcome,
and Sir John de Walton, I hope, will not refuse access to hall, castle,
or knight's bower, to a person of your profession, and by whose
conversation we shall, perhaps, profit somewhat. I cannot, however,
lead you to expect such indulgence for your son, considering the
present state of his health; but if I procure him the privilege to
remain at the convent of Saint Bride, he will be there unmolested and
in safety, until you have renewed your acquaintance with Douglas Dale
and its history, and are disposed to set forward on your journey."
"I embrace your honour's proposal the more willingly," said the
minstrel, "that I can recompense the Father Abbot."
"A main point with holy men or women," replied De Valence, "who, in
time of warfare, subsist by affording the visitors of their shrine the
means of maintenance in their cloisters for a passing season."
The party now approached the sentinels on guard at the castle, who were
closely and thickly stationed, and who respectfully admitted Sir Aymer
de Valence, as next in command under Sir John de Walton. Fabian--for so
was the young squire named who attended on De Valence--mentioned it as
his master's pleasure that the minstrel should also be admitted. An old
archer, however, looked hard at the minstrel as he followed Sir Aymer.
"It is not for us," said he, "or any of our degree, to oppose the
pleasure of Sir Aymer do Valence, nephew to the Earl of Pembroke, in
such a matter; and for us, Master Fabian, welcomes are you to make the
gleeman your companion both at bed and board, as well as your visitant,
a week or two at the Castle of Douglas; but your worship is well aware
of the strict order of watch laid upon us, and if Solomon, King of
Israel, were to come here as a travelling minstrel, by my faith I durst
not give him entrance, unless I had positive authority from Sir John de
Walton."
"Do you doubt, sirrah," said Aymer de Valence, who returned on hearing
an altercation betwixt Fabian and the archer--"do you doubt that I have
good authority to entertain a guest, or do you presume to contest it?"
"Heaven forbid!" said the old man, "that I should presume to place my
own desire in opposition to your worship, who has so lately and so
honourably acquired your spurs; but in this matter I must think what
will be the wish of Sir John de Walton, who is your governor, Sir
Knight, as well as mine; and so far I hold it worth while to detain
your guest until Sir John return from a ride to the outposts of the
castle; and this, I conceive, being my duty, will be no matter of
offence to your worship."
"Methinks," said the knight, "it is saucy in thee to suppose that my
commands can have any thing in them improper, or contradictory to those
of Sir John de Walton; thou mayst trust to me at least that thou shalt
come to no harm. Keep this man in the guard-room; let him not want good
cheer, and when Sir John de Walton returns, report him as a person
admitted by my invitation, and if any thing more be wanted to make out
your excuse, I shall not be reluctant in stating it to the governor."
The archer made a signal of obedience with the pike which he held in
his hand, and resumed the grave and solemn manner of a sentinel upon
his post. He first, however, ushered in the minstrel, and furnished him
with food and liquor, speaking at the same time to Fabian, who remained
behind. The smart young stripling had become very proud of late, in
consequence of obtaining the name of Sir Aymer's squire, and advancing
a step in chivalry, as Sir Aymer himself had, somewhat earlier than the
usual period, been advanced from squire to knight.
"I tell thee, Fabian," said the old archer, (whose gravity, sagacity,
and skill in his vocation, while they gained him the confidence of all
in the castle, subjected him, as he himself said, occasionally to the
ridicule of the young coxcombs; and at the same time we may add,
rendered him somewhat pragmatic and punctilious towards those who stood
higher than himself in birth and rank;) "I tell thee, Fabian, thou wilt
do thy master, Sir Aymer, good service, if thou wilt give him a hint to
suffer an old archer, man-at-arms, or such like, to give him a fair and
civil answer respecting that which he commands; for undoubtedly it is
not in the first score of a man's years that he learns the various
proper forms of military service; and Sir John de Walton, a most
excellent commander no doubt, is one earnestly bent on pursuing the
strict line of his duty, and will be rigorously severe, as well,
believe me, with thy master as with a lesser person. Nay, he also
possesses that zeal for his duty which induces him to throw blame, if
there be the slightest ground for it, upon Aymer de Valence himself,
although his uncle, the Earl of Pembroke, was John de Walton's steady
patron, and laid the beginning of his good fortune; for all which, by
training up his nephew in the true discipline of the French wars, Sir
John has taken the best way of showing himself grateful to the eld
Earl."
"Be it as you will, old Gilbert Greenleaf," answered Fabian, "thou
knowest I never quarrel with thy sermonizing, and therefore give me
credit for submitting to many a lecture from Sir John de Walton and
thyself; but thou drivest this a little too far, if thou canst not let
a day pass without giving me a flogging. Credit me, Sir John de Walton
will not thank thee, if thou term him one too old to remember that he
himself had once some green sap in his veins. Ay, thus it is, the old
man will not forget that he has once been young, nor the young that he
must some day be old; and so the one changes his manners into the
lingering formality of advanced age, and the other remains like a
midsummer torrent swoln with rain, every drop of water in it noise,
froth, and overflow. There is a maxim for thee, Gilbert!--Heardest thou
ever better? hang it up amidst thy axioms of wisdom, and see if it will
not pass among them like fifteen to the dozen. It will serve to bring
thee off, man, when the wine-pot (thine only fault, good Gilbert) hath
brought thee on occasion into something of a scrape."
"Best keep it for thyself, good Sir Squire," said the old man;
"methinks it is more like to stand thyself one day in good stead. Who
ever heard of a knight, or of the wood of which a knight is made, and
that is a squire, being punished corporally like a poor old archer or
horseboy? Your worst fault will be mended by some of these witty
sayings, and your best service will scarce be rewarded more thankfully
than by giving thee the name of Fabian the Fabler, or some such witty
title."
Having unloosed his repartee to this extent, old Greenleaf resumed a
certain acidity of countenance, which may be said to characterise those
whose preferment hath become frozen under the influence of the slowness
of its progress, and who display a general spleen against such as have
obtained the advancement for which all are struggling, earlier, and, as
they suppose, with less merit than their own. From time to time the eye
of the old sentinel stole from the top of his pike, and with an air of
triumph rested upon the young man Fabian, as if to see how deeply the
wound had galled him, while at the same time he held himself on the
alert to perform whatever mechanical duty his post might require. Both
Fabian and his master were at the happy period of life when such
discontent as that of the grave archer affected them lightly, and, at
the very worst, was considered as the jest of an old man and a good
soldier; the more especially, as he was always willing to do the duty
of his companions, and was much trusted by Sir John de Walton, who,
though very much younger, had been bred up like Greenleaf in the wars
of Edward the First, and was tenacious in upholding strict discipline,
which, since the death of that great monarch, had been considerably
neglected by the young and warm-blooded valour of England.
Meantime it occurred to Sir Aymer de Valence, that though in displaying
the usual degree of hospitality shown, to such a man as Bertram, he had
merely done what was becoming his own rank, as one possessed of the
highest honours of chivalry--the self-styled minstrel might not in
reality be a man of that worth which he assumed. There was certainly
something in his conversation, at least more grave, if not more
austere, than was common to those of his calling; and when he
recollected many points of Sir John de Walton's minuteness, a doubt
arose in his mind, that the governor might not approve of his having
introduced into the castle a person of Bertram's character, who was
capable of making observations from which the garrison might afterwards
feel much danger and inconvenience. Secretly, therefore, he regretted
that he had not fairly intimated to the wandering minstrel, that his
reception, or that of any stranger, within the Dangerous Castle, was
not at present permitted by the circumstances of the times. In this
case, the express line of his duty would have been his vindication, and
instead, perhaps of discountenance and blame, he would have had praise
and honour from his superior.
With these thoughts passing through his mind, some tacit apprehension.
arose of a rebuke on the part of his commanding-officer; for this
officer, notwithstanding his strictness, Sir Aymer loved as well as
feared. He went, therefore, towards the guard-room of the castle, under
the pretence of seeing that the rites of hospitality had been duly
observed towards his late travelling companion. The minstrel arose
respectfully, and from the manner in which he paid his compliments,
seemed, if he had not expected this call of enquiry, at least to be in
no degree surprised at it. Sir Aymer, on the other hand, assumed an air
something more distant than he had yet used towards Bertram, and in
reverting to his former invitation, he now so far qualified it as to
say, that the minstrel knew that he was only second in command, and
that effectual permission to enter the castle ought to be sanctioned by
Sir John de Walton.
There is a civil way of seeming to believe any apology which people are
disposed to receive in payment, without alleging suspicion of its
currency. The minstrel, therefore, tendered his thanks for the civility
which had so far been shown to him. "It was a mere wish of passing
curiosity," he said, "which, if not granted, could be attended with no
consequences either inconvenient or disagreeable to him. Thomas of
Erceldoun was, according to the Welsh triads, _one of the three bards
of Britain_, who never stained a spear with blood, or was guilty either
of taking or retaking castles and fortresses, and thus far not a person
likely, after death, to be suspected of such warlike feats. But I can
easily conceive why Sir John de Walton should have allowed the usual
rites of hospitality to fall into disuse, and why a man of public
character like myself ought not to desire food or lodging where it is
accounted so dangerous; and it can surprise no one why the governor did
not even invest his worthy young lieutenant with the power of
dispensing with so strict and unusual a rule."
These words, very coolly spoken, had something of the effect of
affronting the young knight, as insinuating, that he was not held
sufficiently trustworthy by Sir John de Walton, with whom he had lived
on terms of affection and familiarity, though the governor had attained
his thirtieth year and upwards, and his lieutenant did not yet write
himself one-and-twenty, the full age of chivalry having been in his
case particularly dispensed with, owing to a feat of early manhood. Ere
he had fully composed the angry thoughts which were chafing in his
mind, the sound of a hunting bugle was heard at the gate, and from the
sort of general stir which it spread through the garrison, it was plain
that the governor had returned from his ride. Every sentinel, seemingly
animated by his presence, shouldered his pike more uprightly, gave the
word of the post more sharply, and seemed more fully awake and
conscious of his duty. Sir John de Walton having alighted from his
horse, asked Greenleaf what had passed during his absence; the old
archer thought it his duty to say that a minstrel, who seemed like a
Scotchman, or wandering borderer, had been admitted into the castle,
while his son, a lad sick of the pestilence so much talked of, had been
left for a time at the Abbey of Saint Bride. This he said on Fabian's
information. The archer added, that the father was a man of tale and
song, who could keep the whole garrison amused, without giving them
leave to attend to their own business.
"We want no such devices to pass the time," answered the governor; "and
we would have been better satisfied if our lieutenant had been pleased
to find us other guests, and fitter for a direct and frank
communication, than one who, by his profession, is a detractor of God
and a deceiver of man."
"Yet," said the old soldier, who could hardly listen even to his
commander without indulging the humour of contradiction, "I have heard
your honour intimate that the trade of a minstrel, when it is justly
acted up to, is as worthy as even the degree of knighthood itself."
"Such it may have been in former days," answered the knight; "but in
modern minstrelsy, the duty of rendering the art an incentive to virtue
is forgotten, and it is well if the poetry which fired our fathers to
noble deeds, does not now push on their children to such as are base
and unworthy. But I will speak upon this to my friend Aymer, than whom
I do not know a more excellent, or a more high-spirited young man."
While discoursing with the archer in this manner, Sir John de Walton,
of a tall and handsome figure, advanced and stood within the ample arch
of the guard-room chimney, and was listened to in reverential silence
by trusty Gilbert, who filled up with nods and signs, as an attentive
auditor, the pauses in the conversation. The conduct of another hearer
of what passed was not equally respectful, but, from his position, he
escaped observation.
This third person was no other than the squire Fabian, who was
concealed from observation by his position behind the hob, or
projecting portion of the old-fashioned fireplace, and hid himself yet
more carefully when he heard the conversation between the governor and
the archer turn to the prejudice, as he thought, of his master. The
squire's employment at this time was the servile task of cleaning Sir
Aymer's arms, which was conveniently performed by heating, upon the
projection already specified, the pieces of steel armour for the usual
thin coating of varnish. He could not, therefore, if he should be
discovered, be considered as guilty of any thing insolent or
disrespectful. He was better screened from view, as a thick smoke arose
from a quantity of oak panelling, carved in many cases with the crest
and achievements of the Douglas family, which being the fuel nearest at
hand, lay smouldering in the chimney, and gathering to a blaze.
The governor, unconscious of this addition to his audience, pursued his
conversation, with Gilbert Greenleaf: "I need not tell you," he said,
"that I am interested in the speedy termination of this siege or
blockade, with which Douglas continues to threaten us; my own honour
and affections are engaged in keeping this Dangerous Castle safe in
England's behalf, but I am troubled at the admission of this stranger;
and young De Valence would have acted more strictly in the line of his
duty, if he had refused to this wanderer any communication with this
garrison without my permission."
"Pity it is," replied old Greenleaf, shaking his head, "that this
good-natured and gallant young knight is somewhat drawn aside by the
rash advices of his squire, the boy Fabian, who has bravery, but as
little steadiness in him as a bottle of fermented small beer."
"Now hang thee," thought Fabian to himself, "for an old relic of the
wars, stuffed full of conceit and warlike terms, like the soldier who,
to keep himself from the cold, has lapped himself so close in a
tattered ensign for a shelter, that his very outside may show nothing
but rags and blazonry."
"I would not think twice of the matter, were the party less dear to
me," said Sir John de Walton. "But I would fain be of use to this young
man, even although I should purchase his improvement in military
knowledge at the expense of giving him a little pain. Experience
should, as it were, be burnt in upon the mind of a young man, and not
merely impressed by marking the lines of his chart out for him with
chalk; I will remember the hint you, Greenleaf, have given, and take an
opportunity of severing these two young men; and though I most dearly
love the one, and am far from wishing ill to the other, yet at present,
as you well hint, the blind is leading the blind, and the young knight
has for his assistant and counsellor too young a squire, and that must
be amended."
"Marry! out upon thee, old palmer-worm!" said the page within himself;
"have I found thee in the very fact of maligning myself and my master,
as it is thy nature to do towards all the hopeful young buds of
chivalry? If it were not to dirty the arms of an _eleve_ of chivalry,
by measuring them with one of thy rank, I might honour thee with a
knightly invitation to the field, while the scandal which thou hast
spoken is still foul upon thy tongue; as it is, thou shalt not carry
one kind of language publicly in the castle, and another before the
governor, upon the footing of having served with him under the banner
of Longshanks. I will carry to my master this tale of thine evil
intentions; and when we have concerted together, it shall appear
whether the youthful spirits of the garrison or the grey beards are
most likely to be the hope and protection, of this same Castle of
Douglas."
It is enough to say that Fabian pursued his purpose, in carrying to his
master, and in no very good humour, the report of what had passed
between Sir John de Walton and the old soldier. He succeeded in
representing the whole as a formal offence intended to Sir Aymer de
Valence; while all that the governor did to remove the suspicions
entertained by the young knight, could not in any respect bring him to
take a kindly view of the feelings of his commander towards him. He
retained the impression which he had formed from Fabian's recital of
what he had heard, and did not think he was doing Sir John de Walton
any injustice, in supposing him desirous to engross the greatest share
of the fame acquired in the defence of the castle, and thrusting back
his companions, who might reasonably pretend to a fair portion of it.
The mother of mischief, says a Scottish proverb, is no bigger than a
midge's wing. [Footnote: i.e. Gnat's wing] In this matter of quarrel,
neither the young man nor the older knight had afforded each other any
just cause of offence. De Walton was a strict observer of military
discipline, in which he had been educated from his extreme youth, and
by which he was almost as completely ruled as by his natural
disposition; and his present situation added force to his original
education.
Common report had even exaggerated the military skill, the love of
adventure, and the great variety of enterprise, ascribed to James, the
young Lord of Douglas. He had, in the eyes of this Southern garrison,
the faculties of a fiend, rather than those of a mere mortal; for if
the English soldiers cursed the tedium of the perpetual watch and ward
upon the Dangerous Castle, which admitted of no relaxation from the
severity of extreme duty, they agreed that a tall form was sure to
appear to them with a battle-axe in his hand, and entering into
conversation in the most insinuating manner, never failed, with an
ingenuity and eloquence equal to that of a fallen spirit, to recommend
to the discontented sentinel some mode in which, by giving his
assistance to betray the English, he might set himself at liberty. The
variety of these devices, and the frequency of their recurrence, kept
Sir John de Walton's anxiety so perpetually upon the stretch, that he
at no time thought himself exactly out of the Black Douglas's reach,
any more than the good Christian supposes himself out of reach of the
wiles of the Devil; while every new temptation, instead of confirming
his hope, seems to announce that the immediate retreat of the Evil One
will be followed by some new attack yet more cunningly devised. Under
this general state of anxiety and apprehension, the temper of the
governor changed somewhat for the worse, and they who loved him best,
regretted most that he became addicted to complain of the want of
diligence on the part of those, who, neither invested with
responsibility like his, nor animated by the hope of such splendid
rewards, did not entertain the same degree of watchful and incessant
suspicion as himself. The soldiers muttered that the vigilance of their
governor was marked with severity; the officers and men of rank, of
whom there were several, as the castle was a renowned school of arms,
and there was a certain merit attained even by serving within its
walls, complained, at the same time, that Sir John de Walton no longer
made parties for hunting, for hawking, or for any purpose which might
soften the rigours of warfare, and suffered nothing to go forward but
the precise discipline of the castle. On the other hand, it may be
usually granted that the castle is well kept where the governor is a
disciplinarian; and where feuds and personal quarrels are found in the
garrison, the young men are usually more in fault than those whose
greater experience has convinced them of the necessity of using the
strictest precautions.
A generous mind--and such was Sir John de Walton's--is often in this
way changed and corrupted by the habit of over-vigilance, and pushed
beyond its natural limits of candour. Neither was Sir Aymer de Valence
free from a similar change; suspicion, though from a different cause,
seemed also to threaten to bias his open and noble disposition, in
those qualities which had hitherto been proper to him. It was in vain
that Sir John de Walton studiously sought opportunities to give his
younger friend indulgences, which at times were as far extended as the
duty of the garrison permitted. The blow was struck; the alarm had been
given to a proud and fiery temper on both sides; and while De Valence
entertained an opinion that he was unjustly suspected by a friend, who
was in several respects bound to him, De Walton, on the other hand, was
led to conceive that a young man, of whom he took a charge as
affectionate as if he had been a son of his own, and who owed to his
lessons what he knew of warfare, and what success he had obtained in
life, had taken offence at trifles, and considered himself ill-treated
on very inadequate grounds. The seeds of disagreement, thus sown
between them, failed not, like the tares sown by the Enemy among the
wheat, to pass from one class of the garrison to another; the soldiers,
though without any better reason than merely to pass the time, took
different sides between their governor and his young lieutenant; and so
the ball of contention being once thrown up between them, never lacked
some arm or other to keep it in motion.