Inter utramque viam, lethi discrimine parvo,
Ni teneant cursus.
VIRGIL, _Æneid III_.
Sæpe dolis, interit ista: Time!
C. WEIGELIUS, NORIMBERGÆ.
The fugitives had now proceeded upon a long and wearisome journey after
their departure from the cavern, which had so opportunely afforded
them shelter and protection. Lonely, depressed, and overpowered by
overwhelming grief, self-accusation, and great bodily exertion,
solitary stood the noble, but unhappy Bruce, on the desolate shores
of his native land; while close stationed by him stood his brave and
faithful preserver, his sturdy and affectionate foster-brother, the
intrepid, the honest, the disinterested Malcolm.
It was night,--an autumnal storm loudly raged, the clouds darkly were
drifted onward with increased rapidity through a perturbed sky; the
roaring waves of a tumultuous sea mounted upwards in alpine altitude
and curvature, as they dashed and foamed along; whose mournful, sullen
scream, responded not to mortal voice, although the sad measure seemed
to partake both of sorrow and of woe; if indeed that human suffering
and mortal woe could be supposed as associated with that treacherous
and tempestuous element.
In the distance distinctly were heard the report of various musket
shots, discharged by the hackbutteers,[15] but at intervals only they
were heard. Whether these explosions were intended as a military
tribute of a faithful clan over the body of a fallen chieftain, or
whether they were intended as an excitement to pursuit, (probably the
latter,) could not with any positive certainty be ascertained. However,
the continued clangor of pursuing cavalry, and the loud, incessant
tramping of foot soldiers, who had proceeded with precipitance over
crags and rocks, and still unwearied in their pursuit, were audibly
heard to approach. It was too evident that all this loud uproar and
wild halloo which had prevailed, arose from the violent voice and shout
of those who pertinaciously pursued, and who were still pressing upon
the flight of the unhappy fugitive.
[Footnote 15: Harquebuss, in the ancient statutes, is called also
Arquebuse, Haquebut, or Hagbut; it is a _hand-gun_, or a fire-arm
of a proper length to be borne in the arm. The word is formed of
the French _arquebuse_, and that from the Italian, _arcobusio_, or
_arco abuso_, of _arco_ a bow, and _busio_, a hole; on account of
the touch-hole in which the powder is put to prime it; and it is
likewise so called because it succeeded the bows of the ancients.
The _harquebuss_ is properly a fire-arm, of the ordinary length
of a musket or fowling-piece, cocked usually with a wheel. Its
length is forty calibers; and the weight of its ball one ounce
seven-eighths; its charge of powder as much.
There is also a larger kind, called _harquebuss a croc_, used in
war for the defence of places. The first time these instruments
were seen was in the imperial army of Bourbon, when Bonnivet was
driven out of the state of Milan. They are heavy and cumbersome.]
However, in another direction came on, yet with silent, cautious tread,
several faithful adherents, armed with dirk, targe, and claymore, who
advanced to the beach, not as blood-hounds to pursue, but as friends
to assist; not basely to track the steps of the noble fugitive, but
with might and with main to protect him, and cover his flight. This
faithful, small, but boldly determined clan, bore lanterns to assist
the projects which they had planned, which dimly flung a flickering
reddish light around.
This gallant band came on fully resolved to save their chieftain--to
rescue him from surrounding perils, or to die! Sir David looked wildly
and inquisitively at them; but by no interrogatory he dared to break
the more than mortal silence which seemed to seal their lips. No, he
shrunk back in despair, fearing to question them; he too justly dreaded
_that to be_, which he would have forfeited his own life _not to have
been_! Dread despair palsied his voice, and held him back from what he
fain would ask--"Was his brother among the dead or the living?" The
dreadful response that might be returned, made him forego his purpose.
He could not--would not--dared not to inquire; it was not to be
attempted; and his brain seemed maddened when he thought thereon. His
heart was chilled, and his blood slowly pulsated; his lip quivered, and
his tongue was silent. However with a silent, but inquisitive gaze and
gesture, he sought that fearful information which he dared not--could
not ask; these, however, were appeals that could be neither mistaken
nor misunderstood. He sought the fearful answer from the plaided clan,
whose tall and commanding figures, although dimly and indistinctly seen
beneath the pale moon-beams of a stormy sky, and whatever illumination
their lanterns afforded, yet observed the earnest appeal: and he is
answered as he sought it, in awful silence and impressive dumb show,
each of the clan slowly folding around him his plaid, and then one
and all in the same moment joining in united action of a mournful
and impressive motion of the head. When all rapidly dashing aside
their plaids, with fierce and impressive energy they point their
out-stretched hands to the foaming waves, intimating thereby that there
alone safety was to be found.
Now near, and still more near, too audibly are heard the renewed sounds
of advancing foes; the breeze wafting on the appalling and yelling
shouts of pursuit; and next followed the loud and deafening tramps
of the pursuers. No time--not a moment--was to be lost---- death or
immediate flight was the alternative!--Some bold, decisive act, was now
to be dared, and on the instant done!
The stormy clouds, which in rapid succession hitherto had thrown their
dark floating shadows over the disk of an autumnal moon, at this
instant favourably dispersed, and the "pale queen of night" burst forth
in pearly radiance, glancing her friendly beams upon a fishing bark
which lay at anchor beneath an indented shelve of rocks, close by to
where the fugitives stood; and at no remote distance a small cottage
stood close to the beach, to the owner of which, in all probability,
the boat belonged. This seemed most likely to be the fact, from their
observation of the fishing-nets, gear, and tackle, all elucidatory of
a fisherman's pursuits, which lay outspread upon the shore, clearly
designating the uncertain and perilous occupation of the lonely
proprietor of this humble dwelling. Upon this discovery the vassals
proposed to their chieftain to knock at the door of the cottage, and
awake the fisherman. But to this suggestion the generous Bruce would
not hearken; he would not endanger the life of a poor and innocent man,
probably the sole supporter of his family, in the dread and desperate
fortunes of a fugitive--and alas, more than too probably a fratricide!
Thus having impetuously and decisively spoken, David Bruce having flung
his purse into a broken aperture of the lattice window, sprung manfully
into the fishing bark, and the faithful Malcolm instantly sprang in
after his master. Next with fatal, feudal attachment, the vassals
advanced, and crowded into the boat, regardless of all remonstrance
and reproof, and seemingly insensible of the peril occasioned by thus
overloading the fishing skiff.
The storm had for the present abated; which cessation, however, was
but of temporary duration. The pursuers meanwhile advanced, with
loud and appalling screams, and formed their ranks in martial array
upon the beach, the war-pipes loudly pealing forth a pibroch; they
next proceeded, having piled their arms, to light their torches from
lanterns which, with due precaution, they had borne with them; and soon
their ignited torches were applied, which after some little delay,
occasioned by the moisture of the storm, the ignition took effect, when
brilliantly blazed forth, in crackling flames, the extended ridges
of furze, fern, bent-grass, &c., that crowned the lofty links which
girdled the undulating summits of the shore. The different plants had
been dried up by a summer sun, and parched and ripened by the autumnal
blast; and the ignition soon extended along the entire line of the
coast. The central part of the conflagration flamed in the distance
like to some lofty castle on fire, and flanked, as the deception
would represent, by two large towers, which were in effect two large
flaming masses of furze and other various shrubs, which, now with a
flaming--now with a flickering corruscation, actually seemed like two
bale-fires blazing on the headlands. The whole mass having become one
continued conflagration, assumed an awfully grand appearance; the ruddy
sky brilliantly flamed above, the waves returned the fiery flash below,
as the waves undulated to and fro. The fugitives but too distinctly saw
the weapons raised in their offence boldly brandishing on the shore,
and vengefully flashing forth their quivering gleams, accompanied
with loud, fierce, and appalling shouts of vengeance from the bold,
determined band, who occupied the shore.
Meanwhile these threatening tones of discord and defiance were
resolutely answered by a long continuous scream of triumph from the
fugitives, who fled from premeditated treachery, and whose parting
shouts were deeply chorussed by the symphony of their accompanying oars
that wafted them onward in safety.
Now verging toward the distant horizon, the retreating boat was
distinctly seen slowly cutting its watery course, overladen although
it might be with an extra weight of living cargo. Availing themselves
of the breeze, they raised their little sail, and soon expedited their
course, wafted onward by the wild and dreary blast.
The moon occasionally at intervals, as the stormy night-clouds cleared
away, streamed her radiance on the rippling bosom of the undulating
wave, which threw a brilliant line of light across the heaving billows;
and showed to those who might wish to observe the progress of the
fugitives, that in sooth they made but little way; which was not to be
wondered at, considering how incautiously crowded the boat had been
through the obstinacy of the too inconsiderate followers. Another
danger, superadded to the former, it but too fully appeared to the crew
arose from the frailty of the bark itself, that had soon to contend
with the approach, or rather with the return, of the tempest.
The impressive scene that we have attempted to describe, was, it must
be allowed, altogether out of the usual course of ordinary events,
and partook of a high and extraordinary degree of interest. To behold
a wild, desolate, and romantic shore, lined and occupied as it had
been, at such an hour, by a military band of pursuers, and illuminated
by the blazing fires, which broadly glanced on spear, axe, target,
and claymore; whose ruddy contrasting light served but to cause that
the dark impending rocks above, and the indented caverns below,
should appear more savage, and their dense darkness the more visible!
Meanwhile, to witness the dumb, but expressive gesticulation of the
heads and hands, and indignant and angry step, of the enraged vassals
on the beach, appearing to the distant beholder all of a deep, glaring,
fiery red, fierce as the impetuous motives which led them onward to the
bloody track. Rage, and all the varied manifestations of the fierce
passions of wrath and revenge, were but too visible, from the broad and
brilliant glare of light that flashed upon them. It was such a scene as
would have charmed the creative imagination of Michael Angelo to have
dwelt upon and portrayed, and might have even given additional sketches
of horror for his "Day of Judgment." And, oh! how would the poetic
pencil of the solitary Salvator Rosa have managed this scene!--how his
pencil would have sported with it, and his genius have rejoiced!--here
he might have conjured up and enlivened his landscape with a bold,
determined, band of pirates, soldiers, or banditti, surrounded by
dark and frowning precipices. For such was the wild and savage scene
so lately before the reader's eye. Rocks frowning in deep darkness,
indented with frequent hollow caverns below, the midnight retreat of
the otter and porpoise; while from the higher caverned cliffs above,
awakened and aroused from their quarry, sprung forth the osprey, the
vulture, and cormorant, all loudly screaming, and joining in one
continued dissonant chorus, deeming that the returning morn had arrived!
The fishing bark having been found no longer sea-worthy, the fugitives
were compelled to seek the shore; in which act the boat heaved against
a rock, but it did no material injury to the bark. Strange to say,
however, the shock awakened within the little cabin (if cabin it could
be called) of the stern, an inmate, that until that moment the trusty
followers did not know, nor even suspect, that such an individual
they had on board. This fellow was a tall, athletic figure, whether
fisherman or smuggler was doubtful, who must have been, consequently,
hitherto profoundly asleep, deeply fatigued, it was supposed, by having
been out all the previous night at sea, either fishing or plundering,
possibly occupied in one or other--probably in both of these perilous
pursuits.
This desperate and daring mariner, rapidly bouncing on deck, said, or
rather screamed forth, with denouncing haste and rage: "Ye a' maun
perish, a' are tint! and ken ye weel a Johnstone had his revenge!"
Then, with face and the fury of a maniac, and a horrific laugh, he
instantly sprang into the waves, plunging like a water-fowl; he sunk,
but soon arose again. Malcolm was prepared for this, having previously
seized a carabine from one of the Bruce's followers; and soon as the
ruffian again arose, Malcolm took determined aim, his carabine exploded
its contents, having duly hit the destined mark. The victim of his just
revenge loudly screamed, plunged, floundered, and sunk,--but he rose no
more!
The crew of the fishing boat meanwhile, or those who acted in that
capacity, had timely and providentially discovered and frustrated the
treacherous fate which seemed so certainly to await them, and which was
so darkly hinted at by this desperate partisan of the Johnstone clan.
The pumps were set instantly and incessantly at work, while the leak
was timeously stopped, and every precaution adopted to insure and make
"surety doubly sure."
It would appear that this desperate follower of the Johnstones had
somehow discovered, or overheard, from the followers of the Bruce,
the fatal scene that had taken place at Turnberry Castle, the tragical
compotation, the bloody fray, between the Maxwells and the Johnstones,
and of the fatal death of Sir Robert Bruce. And hence, therefore, it
was concluded, that he had come to the desperate determination of
destroying, by one daring, decisive act, the number of the enemies of
his clan who occupied the bark; and with this fixed resolution, it
would appear he had sprung a leak, thinking thereby at once to send so
many souls to a watery grave. In which base and treacherous attempt he
had been nearly too successful, but for the prompt and active aid that
was given by all hands on board; and it was with great difficulty that
with unabated effort and energy they ultimately happily succeeded in
accomplishing their safety.
The boat was not far distant from the shore, when several of Bruce's
followers, at length made sensible of their impropriety and obstinacy
in overloading the vessel, which caused such as could best swim soon to
spring from the bark, and swim for the shore, having had previously
affixed a cable to the prow, which they succeeded in safely towing the
extreme end of the rope, and landing it on the beach, where "with a
long and a strong pull, and a pull altogether," they hauled the leaky
and fragile bark to shore, and landed their noble chieftain in perfect
safety.
Upon debarking they fortunately encountered some of David's followers,
who were in anxious search of him, and had long been on the look out,
expecting his approach. They met him with his horse ready caparisoned
for a journey, his arms and accoutrements all duly arranged; besides a
horse with a small valise, containing clothes and linen, and holsters
containing long barrelled pistols, according to the fashion of the age,
&c. &c. From these attendants Bruce obtained information that "The
William Wallace" was about to sail from the port of Ayr. Sir David and
Malcolm, promptly mounting their gallant steeds, proceeded in full
gallop for the port of Ayr.
The pursuers had retired from the beach, and immediately all around the
point of debarkation it was pitchy darkness, save that in the distant
horizon the flickering blaze of the late conflagration about to expire,
flashed a ruddy tinge upon the passing clouds. Long since the voice of
vengeance had died on the ear, and the loud tramping of the pursuer was
heard no more in the breeze.
Bruce determined, while in his flight to Ayr, upon changing his name,
and assumed that of Colonel Davidson, Brandenburgh Hussars.
The travellers having proceeded with the utmost speed, soon reached
the port of Ayr before curfew-time, but much overpowered by mental
feelings, and overcome by great bodily exertion.
The perilous result and shipwreck of the ill-fated "William Wallace of
Ayr," has been already fully detailed in the first chapter of the first
volume of this work, which doubtless is still fresh in the reader's
recollection.
But it is full time to return to Tyrconnel Castle, and revisit the
noble inmates, overcome by grief and dismay at the sudden, unexpected,
and unaccountable departure of the noble, generous, but unhappy Bruce.
To fulfil which intent we proceed onward to the next chapter.