“Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye!
Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye;
The Black Douglas shall not get ye!”
“Do not be so sure of that,” said a husky voice close beside her, and
a mail-gloved hand fell solidly upon her shoulder. She was dreadfully
frightened, for she knew from the appearance of the man he must be the
Black Douglas.
The Scots came leaping over the walls. The garrison was merrymaking
below, and, almost before the disarmed revellers had any warning, the
Black Douglas was in the midst of them. The old stronghold was taken,
and many of the garrison were put to the sword; but the Black Douglas
spared the woman and the child, who probably never afterwards felt
quite so sure about the little ditty:--
“Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye;
The Black Douglas shall not get ye!”
Douglas had caused his picked men to approach the castle by walking on
their hands and knees, with long black cloaks thrown over their bodies,
and their ladders and weapons concealed under their cloaks. The men
thus presented very nearly the appearance of a herd of cattle in the
deep shadows, and completely deceived the sentinel, who was probably
thinking more of the music and dancing below, than of the watchful
enemy who had been haunting the gloomy woods of Jedburgh.
The Black Douglas fought with King Robert Bruce at Bannockburn. One
lovely June day, in the far-gone year of 1329, King Robert lay dying.
He called Douglas to his bedside, and told him that it had been one of
the dearest wishes of his heart to go to the Holy Land, and recover
Jerusalem from the Infidels; but since he could not go, he wished him
to embalm his heart after his death, and carry it to the Holy City, and
deposit it in the Holy Sepulchre.
Douglas had the heart of Bruce embalmed and enclosed in a silver case,
and wore it on a silver chain about his neck. He set out for Jerusalem,
but resolved first to visit Spain and engage in the war waged against
the Moorish king of Granada. He fell in Andalusia, in battle. Just
before his death he threw the silver casket into the thickest of the
fight, exclaiming, “Heart of Bruce, I follow thee or die!”
His dead body was found beside the casket, and the heart of Bruce was
brought back to Scotland and deposited in the ivy-clad Abbey of Melrose.
Douglas was a real hero, and few things more engaging than his exploits
were ever told under the holly and mistletoe, or in the warm Christmas
light of the old Scottish Yule-logs.--SIR WALTER SCOTT.