THE KNIFE.
"Cunning is a crooked weapon; and nothing is more hurtful than when
cunning men pass for wise."--BACON.
The Earl of Ashkirk occupied an apartment immediately below that of
his sister; but one which was certainly of a very different aspect
and description.
After their capture, it was not until daylight broke that he
discovered he was only in the strong house of Redhall, scarcely a
hundred yards from his own gate, and not (as he had first supposed)
either in the towers of the castle or the Tolbooth of the city. In
the scuffle preceding his capture he had been so severely handled, as
to become insensible; thus, on sense returning, he found that, though
the infamous gag (the thought of which made his fierce blood boil
with wrath and shame) had been removed, as well as the cords which
had secured his hands, his mouth had been severely cut by the iron
tongue of the former, and his wrists wore swollen and livid by the
merciless application of the latter.
The capture of his sister by Redhall, and the certainty that she too
was confined in the same mansion among the trained minions and
obsequious vassals of this arch conspirator, sufficiently informed
him that his ancient enemy had some ulterior motive, which he could
not at that time fathom. Daring as he was, and courageous to a
fault, the first thoughts of the young earl were those of terror for
his sister, and some little concern for himself. He now saw and
regretted, unavailingly regretted, his rashness and folly, in
venturing within the walls of Edinburgh at such a time, when the
tidings of his recent raid on the borders were fresh in the minds of
the people; and still more did he deplore his second folly, in
continuing to abide there, as if in defiance of suspicion and of
fate: thus selfishly compromising the safety of his dearest friends
as well as his own.
"I must have been mad, and Vipont was worse than mad to permit me!
Let me sleep if I can," thought he, "fresh energies will come with
slumber; and I, who have escaped from English Norham, and from the
castle of Stirling, too, where once old Barncleugh had me fast in the
Douglas chamber, will surely find a passage from this house--or the
devil's in it!--and adieu my plans of vengeance for a time."
And thus, acting upon principle, the light-hearted young noble, whose
bold heart had never known either fear or despair, lay down on the
stone floor of his prison, closed his eyes, and courted sleep as if
nothing had happened; and sleep came; but his slumbers were a mere
nightmare, so full were they of hideous dreams, buffets, and combats;
and, more than once, he started with the certainty that he had heard
his sister's cry.
"Bah!" said he, "let me sleep. She is her mother's daughter, and
hath too much of Black Douglas and the devil in her, to endure insult
from such a poor hang-dog as Redhall! Besides, if he dared to----"
and he felt a gleam pass over his eyes in the dark, at the idea that
occurred to him.
At an early hour Lord Ashkirk awoke, and proceeded at once to the
examination of his prison. The walls and arched roof were of massive
and unplastered stone; the floor was paved; the window and the
chimney were grated; while the door, which he sounded with his hand,
seemed a mass as solid as could be formed of oak planks and iron
bolts.
"Ten devils!" thought he; "at Norham I had the tongue of a waist
buckle, and at Stirling a spur of steel; but here are neither buckle
nor spur, knife nor nail, to loosen a stone or saw a stanchel."
Between the trees he could see the rising sun gilding the top of
Arthur's Seat. The solitary window, which was little more than ten
inches square, was crossed by three bars built into the stone; he saw
with satisfaction that it was only about fifteen feet from the
ground, for his chamber was on the second vaulted story.
"Good!" said he; "this wall is not like the rock of Stirling; but
there I stole the cord of the flagstaff."
He heard all the bells of the city ringing for morning prayer: and
these sounds of life without made him feel, for the first time, some
anger and impatience at the vigorous restraint imposed upon him. An
hour after this, although he had not heard the approach of footsteps
(so thick and so closely-jointed were the walls that encompassed
him), the door of his vault was unlocked, and a sturdy fellow with a
Jethart axe, secured to his wrist by a thong, in case of accidents,
entered, bearing a pewter basin of water, a towel, &c., for the
performance of the morning ablutions. The moment he entered, a door
at the further end of the passage was closed and locked; thus
securing him, as well as the prisoner, of whose name and rank he
appeared ignorant; for with these the politic Redhall had acquainted
only his favourite, Birrel, and one or two more on whom he could
implicitly rely.
Prolonging his toilet to the utmost extent, the earl scrutinized the
visage of his attendant, who was a strongly-built fellow, about
five-and-twenty years of age, with a rough red beard, and whiskers
that grew up to his high cheek bones, on each of which a bright red
spot was visible. He wore his bonnet drawn over his shaggy brows,
and his eyes, though of a pale grey, betokened a native sharpness
over which the earl saw at once he would be able to achieve very
little.
"Well, fellow," said he, "art thou appointed to attend me?"
"Ay, sir."
"Then what is thy name, for I must know it?"
"What would ye be the better of knowing?" he asked, cautiously.
"Very much; as we may see each other often; but, doubtless, thou art
ashamed of it."
"Ashamed o' my name? Deil choke sic impudence. No, faith! It is as
gude as your ain, and better, maybe. My name is Tam Trotter, and I
am forester up bye at Kinleith, where my father (God rest him!) was
forester before me, though folk did ca' him uncanny."
"Well, friend Tam, couldst get me a razor, in addition to this
splendid toilet apparatus? I have a fancy for shaving off my beard
this morning."
"Aha!" laughed Tam, with a knowing Scots wink, as he seated himself
on the table, with his Jedwood axe under his arm; "I can see as far
into a millstone as you, my quick gentleman; so keep on your beard,
it will be a warm ruff for you in the winter nights."
"Winter nights! What the devil dost thou tell me? Thy master cannot
think of keeping me here till the winter nights come on."
"No here, maybe, but out at Redhall. This morning I rode in with ten
braw fellows, with axe and spear, to take ye out there to the auld
tower; but lo! his lordship, our master, came home not an hour syne,
wi' his doublet drookit in bluid, and his body run through by----"
"By whom?--by whom?" cried the earl.
"The master of the king's ordnance, who (everybody says) is a fast
friend of the Lord Ashkirk; but, God's death! if ever the one or the
other come under my hands--if I can just get one canny cloure at
them--neither will ever need another!" and, setting his teeth, the
fellow assumed an aspect of ferocity, and hewed a large piece off the
table with his sharp-bladed axe.
"Friend Tam, thou seemest very savage and blood-thirsty," said the
earl, in his bantering tone; "but I must request thee to restrain thy
troublesome vivacity, and not so damage my furniture, the stock of
which is somewhat limited. Ha! ha! and so Vipont hath pinked thy
master?--and where?"
"Here--just in the shoulder; but it seems braw news for you," replied
Trotter, sulkily.
"The thrust is not near the heart, I hope?" said the earl, almost
leaping with joy; "not near his amiable heart--oh, do not say so--I
shall quite expire if thou tellest me that!"
"Devil take me, if I ken what to make o' you," said Tam, with a face
half comical and half angry; "for, by my faith, you are a queer
chield!"
"And thou art a good-hearted fellow?"
"My mother aye says sae, though she bangs me wi' the beetle, for
being fonder o' porridge than plowing in the morning."
"So his mother beats him?" muttered the earl; "good!--the fellow is a
mere simpleton."
"Is he?" rejoined Trotter, closing one eye, with his tongue in his
cheek, and kicking his iron heels together; "try me, and you will see
if I am sic a simpleton?"
"Excuse me, friend Trotter; by simpleton, I merely mean one who is
neither subtle nor abstruse--nor steeped in guilt, like the rascal,
thy master."
"The rascal, my master, hath _you_ nicely under his thumb, however,"
grinned Trotter; "and a civil tongue, sir, would be baith advisable
and becoming--a' things considered."
"Well, let us not quarrel. Thou seest this ring--'tis worth three
hundred gold crowns of James III.; and it will be thine, if thou
tellest me all thou knowest about the lady who was brought here last
night."
"Weel--give me the ring, sir."
"'Tis a carbuncle, my friend, that once gleamed on the hand of a
gallant earl."
"And it is mine, for all I ken--eh?" said Thomas, contemplating the
jewel on the top of one of his great fingers with a leer of
satisfaction; "the carbumple wad be a bonny die for Else' Gair; and
'tis mine, for a' I ken?"
"Yes--yes."
"Then a' I ken just amounts to nothing," said Tam, with a laugh; "so
I might cheat you if I chose; but, though a puir chield (and a
simpleton too), I would despise mysel' if I took your ring--so tak'
it back, sir----"
"Nay, nay, fellow, I cannot accept it again."
"Weel, it may lie there on the table, for I winna touch it. Men
would say, if I took it, that I had betrayed my master."
"True," said the earl, as he replaced the jewel; "but I will be in
thy debt three hundred Scottish crowns. And now let me have
breakfast; for no vexation was ever so great that it deprived me of
my appetite."
Cold beef, bread, cheese, eggs, fish, and spiced ale formed a repast
which greatly comforted the earl, who saw with regret, however, how
scrupulously the single knife that was allowed him was watched and
removed by the careful Trotter. But the moment this meal was over,
and his attendant had withdrawn, he recommenced a most minute
examination of his prison, and was gradually forced to acknowledge,
with a sigh of bitterness, that though neither so strong as Norham,
nor so loftily situated as Stirling, its capabilities for escape were
very limited indeed.
Several days passed monotonously away.
The earl became horribly impatient; he had shaken every window-bar
for the hundredth time; and for the hundredth time also, with the
heel of his boot, had sounded every slab of the pavement, and every
stone of the walls, but all were solid as a mass of rock.
"Friend Thomas," said he, half banteringly and half savagely, on the
thirteenth day of his confinement, "how long does that prince of
villains, thy master, mean to keep me here?"
"As long as he pleases, I suppose."
"A vague term, that--most unpleasantly so. I should like much to
have been a little consulted in the matter; but as he omitted this
politeness, I mean to escape on the first opportunity, and without
formality."
"Escape?" reiterated Trotter, with a grin.
"The walls----"
"Are six feet thick, and the window hath three bars, ilk ane like the
shaft of my Jethart staff."
"Yes; but some day I may pull out the stones of the wall, or saw
through the bars of the window. Have you never heard of such things?"
"Ay have I, when a man had saws or files, or hammers, but never when
he had only his bare hands and nails."
"I will steal a knife from you."
"Will you?" said Trotter, with his knowing wink.
"Thou shalt see; and once through the window, I will drop----"
"Into the draw-well! Ha! ha! my bauld buckie, the draw-well, forty
feet deep, is just below it."
"What? Just under my window?"
"Eight doon, as a plummet would sink."
"Ah, the devil! What a judicious villain thy master is!"
"You see, sir, that unless you could change yoursel' into a spider or
a bumbee, here you maun just bide," replied Tam, with a loud laugh,
which galled the earl to the soul; but seeing the futility of anger
or hauteur, he controlled his rising temper, and said, in his usual
manner--
"Well, let me have dinner; for assuredly I am weary of having nothing
to look forward to, but from breakfast to dinner, at mid-day; from
dinner to supper, at even; and from supper to bed--and so on. I
assure you, friend Trotter, it would tire even a Carthusian."
"And tiresome I find it, too! Cocksnails! I would gie my very lugs
to be again kicking my heels owre Currie Brig, or Kinleith Craig, for
I am wearied o' holding watch and ward here, like the javellour of a
tolbooth or the warder of a tower."
As Trotter returned with the dinner upon a broad wooden tray, which
usually held the platters, covers, and one small knife, the earl
contrived to place his chair in such a manner, that the attendant was
tripped by it, and stumbled forward, by which the manchet, or small
loaf (in those days the invariable substitute for potatoes), slipped
from the tray, and fell upon the floor. While Trotter, after
depositing the tray, stooped to pick up the manchet, the earl, like
lightning, possessed himself of the knife, and thrust it up his
sleeve.
"Look again, friend Trotter," said he, removing the first cover,
"thou hast dropped the knife, I think?"
"Have I?" said Trotter, searching all round the table. "Surely no!"
"You must have done so, for I vow 'tis not here."
"I could have sworn it was on the trencherboard when I brought it
in," said the fellow, gaping with alarm.
"If you think so, look again."
"By St. Giles! there is nae knife here!"
"Then quick, call for another, or these dainty pullets will be cold
as pebble stones."
Trotter turned to call for another knife; and the moment he did so,
the earl stepped back, and concealed that which he had secured in a
nook of the chimney, which had been discovered during a previous
inspection.
A second knife was brought by Dobbie, who had heard Trotter call for
it.
The earl made an unusually good repast, and as he picked the pullet's
bones, and drank his pint of Bordeaux, he jested merrily with his
attendant, who leant against the door, from whence he cast ever and
anon furtive and uneasy glances below the table, in search of the
missing article, for he had his own suspicions.
"Take care, my trusty Tam, take care; for now I have got that knife,
and I mean to make a good use of it on the first opportunity. Truly
thou art a simple fellow, and will be beetled by Redhall, in such
wise as thy mother never beetled thee! ha! ha! Zounds! dost thou
think this paltry house would hold me, who escaped from the Douglas
room at Stirling, where the cardinal confined me after the battle of
Linlithgow? I trow not! Be easy; compose thyself, friend Thomas,
for I assure thee I have got the knife, and will begone to-morrow."
"In your pockets?" said Tam, advancing.
"Pockets! Nay, dost thou think a gentleman has pockets in his
breeches and doublet to hold bread and cheese, like a rascally clown;
but come hither, thou mayst feel my garments."
Trotter passed his hands over the breeches and doublet of the
prisoner.
"The devil a knife is here," said he, perfectly reassured.
"Nevertheless, I have it."
"Where?"
"In my stomach. Bring me a sword, or lend me thy poniard, and I will
swallow them both also. It runs in the family. I had an uncle who
could digest cannon balls."
Tam uttered another of his hoarse laughs, and, bearing away the
wooden tray, retired, and secured the double doors as usual. * * * *
*
Next morning, at the early but accustomed hour, he undid the
accumulated bolts and locks of the inner doorway (while Dobbie
secured the outer), and entered, with breakfast on the trencher.
A cry burst from him, and he started back aghast on finding the place
void, for one glance sufficed to show that it was empty.
The earl was indeed gone!
"Ah, the _knife_!" thought Trotter, as he rushed to the window.
Every bar was in its place, and the undisturbed cobwebs of years were
still woven between them. Not a flag of the floor, not a stone of
the wall, appeared to have been displaced; and, terrified by such a
phenomenon, Tam Trotter uttered a stentorian howl of dismay, and fled
from the empty chamber.