THE ABBOT
Scott was quick to realize the mistake in 'The Monastery,' and promptly
redeemed his popularity by the bold stroke of writing a sequel. The
White Maiden was banished along with Sir Piercie, and in their place
came a train of new characters, well calculated to win the sympathetic
approval of the public. Mary Queen of Scots was the chief of these,
and the novelist's skilful portrayal of her character made a success of
'The Abbot.' Roland Graeme, who proved to be one of the best of
Scott's heroes, and Catherine Seyton, a young woman of charming
vivacity, added not a little to the popularity of the novel.
The scenery, at first, remains the same. The story opens at the Castle
of Avenel, of which Sir Halbert Glendinning is now the knight and Mary
Avenel the lady. Henry Warden is established there as chaplain. The
monks are still permitted to linger in the cloisters of St. Mary's, and
among them is Edward Glendinning, known as Father Ambrose, who, later,
becomes the abbot.
The beautiful abbey is pictured at the beginning of its decay. The
niches have been stripped of their sculptured images, on the inside as
well as the outside of the building. The tombs of warriors and of
princes have been demolished. The church is strewn with confused heaps
of broken stone, the remnants of beautifully {266} carved statues of
saints and angels, with lances and swords torn from above the tombs of
famous knights of earlier days, and sacred relics brought by pious
pilgrims. The disheartened monks are seen conducting their ceremonials
in the midst of all the rubbish, scarcely daring to clear it away. In
keeping with this picture of decay and ruin is the vivid presentation
of the invasion of the sacred abbey by the irreverent mob of
masqueraders in grotesque costumes, led by 'the venerable Father
Howleglas, the learned Monk of Misrule and the Right Reverend Abbot of
Unreason.'
The tale now leads to Edinburgh, where young Roland Graeme is struck
with surprise as he comes, for the first time, into the Canongate.
'The extreme height of the houses, and the variety of Gothic gables,
and battlements, and balconies' are still surprising. Graeme gets
involved in a street scrimmage, common enough in the Edinburgh of those
days, and, without knowing it, renders service to Lord Seyton, one of
the most faithful adherents of Queen Mary. A few minutes later he
catches sight of Catherine Seyton as that pretty damsel is about to
'dive under one of the arched passages which afforded an outlet to the
Canongate from the houses beneath.' Many of these arched passages may
still be seen in the Canongate. The house of Lord Seyton into which
Roland followed the maiden was about opposite Queensbury House, near
the eastern end of the street.
Holyrood Palace comes into the story as the place where Roland was
presented to the Regent Murray, an introduction into which Scott is
believed to have woven some recollections of his own presentation to
the Duke {267} of Wellington. Although the palace has stood for many
centuries and has been the abode of many kings, its real interest
centres about the fortunes of Mary Queen of Scots. Visitors are shown
the audience chamber in which the Queen received John Knox, and found
that the great Reformer, unlike other men, was proof against the
loveliness of her countenance, the charm of her manner, and the
softness of her speech. Knox found, too, that Mary was proof against
the bitterness of his arraignment and the violence of his denunciation.
Opening out of the audience chamber is Queen Mary's bedroom, where a
bed, said to be Mary's own, is carefully preserved, its dingy and
tattered hangings conveying little suggestion of the former richness of
the crimson damask, with its fringe and tassels of green. A narrow
door leads to a small dressing-closet, and another to the supper-room,
where Mary sat with David Rizzio and other friends on the fatal night
of February 13, 1565. Darnley, in a state of intoxication, burst into
the room with a party of brutal conspirators, put his arms around Mary
in seeming endearment, while the others dragged Rizzio into the
audience chamber and stabbed him to death with their daggers.
The introduction of Loch Leven Castle gives a new scene to the novel
and one of great beauty and interest. It was partly Scott's
association with the Blair Adam Club that led to the use of this scene
and the historical incident associated with it. A visit of Scott and
his life-long friends, William Clerk and Adam Ferguson, to the Right
Honourable William Adam, in 1816, led to the formation of the Blair
Adam Club, at the meetings of which Scott was a constant attendant for
fifteen years. {268} Mr. Adam, who held the distinguished office of
Lord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court in Scotland, was, says
Lockhart, 'the only man I ever knew that rivalled Sir Walter Scott in
uniform graciousness of bonhomie and gentleness of humour.' In a book
privately printed for the benefit of his own family and friends, the
judge says:--
The Castle of Loch Leven is seen at every turn from the northern side
of Blair Adam. This castle, renowned and attractive above all others
in my neighbourhood, became an object of much increased attention and a
theme of constant conversation, after the author of 'Waverley' had, by
his inimitable power of delineating character, by his creative poetic
fancy in representing scenes of varied interest, and by the splendour
of his romantic descriptions, infused a more diversified and a deeper
tone of feeling into the history of Queen Mary's captivity and escape.
Many little allusions to localities on the estate of Blair Adam and
references to the virtues and manners of its occupants, were woven into
the story, which, while they escape the attention of the casual reader,
did not fail to please the genial owner.
The castle stands on an island in Loch Leven, a pretty sheet of water,
about three or four miles long, on the western border of which lies the
town of Kinross. Two sturdy fishermen rowed us out to the island where
we found the ruin of a square building. The tower is in good repair,
but the remaining walls are quite ruinous. In one corner the room
where Queen Mary was imprisoned was pointed out by the guides. It is
very small, but has windows overlooking the lake, and there is room on
the island for a pleasant garden. Except for {269} the loss of her
liberty, Queen Mary might have found the castle a pleasant abode.
Loch Leven Castle was the property of Sir William Douglas, whose wife
was the mother of the Earl of Murray, the illegitimate son of James V.
The Lady Douglas could be supposed to have little sympathy for the
legitimate daughter of the king to whom she pretended to have been
married. In placing Mary in the hands of such a custodian, the lords
who opposed her felt reasonably secure.
Scott gives a wonderfully dramatic picture of the visit of Lord
Lindsay, Lord Ruthven, and Sir Robert Melville to the castle, and the
method by which they extorted Mary's signature to deeds abdicating the
throne in favour of her infant son and creating the Earl of Murray
regent, and although the scene is purely fictitious, the facts of
history are not distorted. Roland Graeme is represented as unsheathing
his sword and discovering a hidden parchment rolled around the blade.
It proved to be a secret message from Lord Seyton, advising Mary to
yield to the necessity of the situation. The incident is based upon
the fact that Sir Robert Melville was sent to accompany the ruffianly
Lindsay, and his no less harsh associate Ruthven, to prevent violence
to the Queen, and to carry, concealed in the scabbard of his sword, a
message from her friends advising submission and carrying the assurance
that deeds signed under such compulsion would not be legally binding
when she regained her liberty.
The escape of the Queen is told in substantial accordance with the
facts, though with a variation of details which the license of the
novelist would easily permit. {270} George Douglas, a younger brother
of the lord of Loch Leven, was much impressed by the beauty of the
Queen, and captivated by her pleasant manners and fair promises. He
devised a plan of escape, but this was discovered and George was
expelled from the castle by his brother. Another attempt was more
successful. An inmate of the castle, called 'the Little Douglas,' had
also felt a sympathy for the Queen. He was a lad of seventeen or
eighteen and really played the part which Scott assigned to Roland
Graeme. He stole the keys and set the prisoner at liberty in the
night. Placing her in a boat, he paused long enough to lock the iron
gates of the tower from the outside so that pursuit would be
impossible, then, throwing the keys into the lake, rowed his passenger
ashore. George Douglas, Lord Seyton, and other friends were waiting to
receive her and conveyed her in triumph to Hamilton.
An army of six thousand men was quickly assembled, the plan being to
place the Queen safely in the fortress of Dumbarton, and then give
battle to the Regent Murray. The latter was too quick for the allies,
however. He was then at Glasgow and marched at once, though with an
inferior force, to intercept the advancing army. They met at Langside,
now a suburb of Glasgow, and after a fierce struggle the Queen's forces
were scattered. Mary herself continued her flight, until she reached
the Abbey of Dundrennan, in the County of Kirkcudbright, where she
spent her last night in Scotland.
[Illustration: CATHCART CASTLE]
The novelist represents Queen Mary as viewing the battle from the
Castle of Crookston, and the unfortunate lady dramatically exclaims,
'O, I must forget much ere I can look with steady eyes on these
well-known {271} scenes! I must forget the days which I spent here as
the bride of the lost--the murdered'--Here Mary Fleming interrupts to
explain to the Abbot that in this castle 'the Queen held her first
court after she was married to Darnley.'
Mary could not have witnessed the battle of Langside from Crookston,
unless, indeed, she had had, in the language of Sam Weller, instead of
eyes, 'a pair o' patent double million magnifyin' gas microscopes of
hextra power,' for Langside is at least four miles away and the contour
of the country would make such a view impossible. She really watched
it from a knoll near the old Castle of Cathcart, which has since been
known as Court Knowe. Scott admitted the error, but did not much
regret it, as Crookston seemed the place best suited to the dramatic
requirements of the tale, because of Mary's former association with the
castle. Here again the facts are against him. Crookston was the
property of the Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, but Darnley himself
never lived there, except possibly as a boy, before he went to France
at the age of sixteen. It seems to be certain to those who have
investigated the facts that after his return he had no opportunity of
going there and that he and Queen Mary could not have visited the place
together, either before or after their marriage.
Nevertheless, Scott was wise to let the incident remain as he wrote it,
for 'The Abbot' is not a work of history, but a romance.
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