THE LAW OF THE SWORD.
"Dost thou, O traitor! thus to grace pretend,
Clad as thou art in trophies of my friend?
To his sad soul, a grateful offering go!
'Tis Pallas, Pallas gives this deadly blow.
He raised his arm aloft, and, at the word,
Deep in his bosom drove the shining sword.
The streaming blood distained his arms around,
And the disdainful soul came rushing through the wound."
_Æneid_, XII.
According to the tenour of his last conversation with his unfortunate
lieutenant, when they supped at the _Cross and Gillstoup_, Sir John
Forrester had not forgotten the safety of their mutual friend,
Vipont; and being well aware that the hostility of the king's
advocate had no boundary but death, while the cruel assassination of
Leslie, the scarcely less cruel visit of Redhall to Jane, and the
destruction of the pardon in David's Tower were taking place, he had
prepared everything for the escape of Roland from the fortress in
which he was confined.
Aware that the attention of the city without, and of the garrison
within the castle, of the governor, of the provost, and all the
authorities, was wholly occupied by the preparations for the
execution of the first sorceress to be burned in Scotland, this
gallant gentleman wisely considered the hour of midnight as the most
fitting time to achieve the liberty of his friend.
Aware that our agile acquaintance, Master Sabrino, could climb like a
squirrel, he had been employed by Forrester as the principal agent in
the adventure.
From the fields on the opposite bank of the loch Sabrino had been
shown the tower and the window of the apartment wherein Roland Vipont
was confined, and to that window, at nightfall, the active negro had
clambered with wondrous bravery and skill; and had introduced to the
tower a pair of saws formed of the sharpest steel, and a strong cord,
of great length, knotted with loops for the hands and feet, by which
he was to descend some twenty yards of the most dangerous part of the
rocks; while Sabrino, who could cling to their perpendicular front as
a fly does to the wall, was to descend without other aid than his own
black paws and tenacious feet.
At the very time that Redhall approached, and in the two figures
recognised the captain of the king's guard and the old servant of
Roland Vipont, the latter had just removed (by the aid of his saws)
the last bar from the window, and trembling with eagerness, was
preparing to descend the rope-ladder which Sabrino, with a broad grin
on his vast mouth and in his shining eyes, fastened to the remaining
stumps of the stanchels.
Who the kind person might be that had furnished and sent the bold
page with these means of escape, Roland had no means of ascertaining;
for, being tongueless, poor Sabrino was mute as a fish; and of all
his innumerable signs and nods, winks and unearthly chuckles, the
master of the ordnance could make nothing.
A plain wooden prie-dieu formed part of the furniture of his
apartment. On his knees Roland Vipont sank into it, and on a lock of
Jane's hair fixed a long, a passionate, and indescribable gaze of
love and sorrow, and then uttered a brief, emphatic prayer.
"Innocent or guilty, I will see her once again, or die in the
attempt," said he, placing the ringlet in his bosom, and preparing to
descend.
The passage of the window was easily accomplished; and reaching the
base of the tower, he found himself upon a narrow ledge of rock; the
chill wind rushed up past him, and voices were faintly borne with it
from below. There, the cliff on which King David's Tower was built
is somewhat impending, and from the broad battlements a plumb-line
might, without meeting an obstacle, be dropped to the depth of nearly
two hundred and fifty feet, to the pathway on which Sir John
Forrester and Lintstock stood on that night. If dropped one yard
beyond the rock, it would have fallen into the waters of the lake.
Roland's heart expanded in his breast; for to his active spirit,
which had writhed in captivity, there was almost a relief in the new
energy of action.
He descended with equal rapidity and boldness, for he was utterly
regardless of life; and this very carelessness was perhaps his
salvation, by affording him the means of achieving that in which the
timid or the wary man would inevitably have failed. The wild
wallflower, the strong docken blades, the long grass, the longer and
more tenacious ivy which grew in the clefts of the rocks, or overhung
their lichen-spotted brows, afforded him the means of descent after
he had passed the bottom of the cord.
In the darkness and obscurity of the night, he could not have been
seen even from the windows of Wallace's Tower or the Constable's
Tower, but now their inmates had all deserted them; for the entire
population of the castle were crowding on the battlements of the
great peel, the eastern curtain, and the spur, which overlooked the
place of execution, the preparations for which were being made on the
south side of the Castle-hill.
He had one risk of discovery alone; for, not eighty yards from where
Forrester awaited him, the pathway was crossed and defended by the
Well-house Tower.
Those of our readers who may have perused our "Memorials" of the
ancient fortress, may remember how frequently we had occasion to
mention this now ruined ravelin.
Built over a fountain, the waters of which fed the loch, this strong
square tower rose within six feet of the enormous perpendicular cliff
sustaining David's Tower. A massive wall, having an archway with an
iron gate and loopholes for arrows and musketry, secured the narrow
path which led to St. Cuthbert's Church on one hand, and ascended the
Castle-hill on the other, passing between the tower and the rock.
The guard here had the treble duty of protecting the well, the
private roadway, and the city wall of A.D. 1450, which enclosed the
Castle-hill at its northern base. The tower was entered from the
inside of this flanking wall by two doors, which, by a stair partly
hewn in the rocks, led to the first and second floors. The upper was
at that time always occupied by a party of arquebusiers, and the
light of their guard-fire streamed redly through two narrow grated
windows upon the still dark bosom of the loch, which washed the north
wall, and rolled away in obscurity towards the east end of the city.
Then the wide ravine that yawned between the southern hill of the
Modern Athens and the giant ridge of Auld Reikie, her _mither-toun_,
was an impassable gulf. Now the waters have disappeared, but the
tide of life ebbs and flows in their place. A stupendous mound and a
lordly bridge now cross that hollow glen where the fountain welled
which David, "by consent of his earls and bishops," gifted to God and
the Holy Cross, and where the queen of Robert III. held her brilliant
tournaments; and now, the red gleam of the furnace, the hiss of the
steam-engine, the clink of hammers, the hum of voices, and the roar
of the railway train rise up from its depth to scare the woodcock,
the snipe, and the wild coof, who come as of old to seek the bed
where for ages the water lay.
Once only did Roland pause in his perilous descent, to assure himself
that he was not seen. Dislodged by his foot, a stone gave way, and
as it bounded from the rocks he heard it plash into the loch, far,
far down below. There, by its margin, stood Forrester and Lintstock
listening intently, and glancing silently at each other from time to
time; for, brave and adventurous though the age might be, there were
bounds, even in warlike Scotland, to hardihood and adventure.
"If he should be afraid to descend!" said Sir John.
"Afraid?" retorted Lintstock; "I have kent him, Sir John Forrester,
since he was a bairn that couldna' blaw his ain nose, and never saw
fear in his face yet.--There he comes," added the old cannonier, as
the stone we have just mentioned rolled over their heads and fell
into the calm loch, forming a hundred circles on its dark bosom;
"there he comes--there he comes!" continued the veteran, whose
solitary eye moistened with a tear as he uttered a fervent
supplication to "Sancta Barbara, the virgin and martyr, patroness of
all bold cannoniers and artillery" (according to the military
superstition of the age), to protect his master.
In a few minutes more, both Roland and Sabrino were seen descending
the dangerous path. Lintstock uttered a cry of satisfaction.
"Courage!" said Forrester, placing his hand at the side of his mouth,
lest the guard at the tower might overhear, and fire on them.
In another moment Roland, breathless with his exertions, was beside
them, and in the arms of his old servant, who swore and wept with joy.
His hair and beard were so disordered, that Forrester could scarcely
recognise him.
"My dear friend," said Roland, sadly, "if the thanks of one to whom
life is valueless are worth accepting, take them from me a thousand
times, and a thousand more. Believe me, I am almost mad--I know not
what I do, or what I say, or whether my words are incoherent as my
thoughts."
He was frightfully pale and haggard.
"Truly, Vipont, we live in strange times--times that future men will
talk of with wonder, for we participate in deeds of which our
posterity will scarcely believe," replied Forrester, gravely; "but I
pray you, mount and begone, for we have not a moment to lose!
Instant flight----"
"Horses and arms! by what magic hast thou divined my secret thought?
Oh, my good, my kind Forrester, it is so like thee!"
"Here is your own sword--the old Italian blade you loved so well."
"I am glad thou'st brought it, for 'tis all my heritage," replied
Roland, as he buckled it on, and then unsheathed the blade and waved
it in the air.
"My castle in the west is at your service. Mount and ride, I implore
you, Vipont; for every moment of delay is fraught with danger to us
all!"
"Mount and ride, say you? Yes; but not to your castle in the west,
my dear friend--no! I have sworn to see Jane Seton once again before
she dies. Jane! Jane! that letter--ah! why didst thou send it, for
I would rather thou hadst stabbed me with a poniard? My good sword!
how great, how glorious a thing it is to be free, and to feel thee in
my hand. Now can I deal death for death, blow for blow, and blood
for blood! Oh, Forrester, I feel that wrong and oppression have made
me a very savage."
To crush his agony, he bit his lips till the blood came, and hastily,
but scrupulously examined the bridle and stirrups of the horse his
friend had brought him.
Breathlessly, and with a heart full of rage, Redhall from his place
of concealment had seen and overheard them.
"I have destroyed her, and shall he escape me?" he thought. "No, by
the Power of Heaven!" and, drawing his sword, he made stealthily
towards the Well-house Tower, for there was no time to give an alarm
elsewhere. Thrice he essayed to gain it, but in vain! for those he
wished to intercept stood right in the narrow path leading to the
gateway which the tower flanked; the cliff rose up on one side like a
wall, the deep water descended into darkness on the other.
"Hallo! we are watched!" cried old Lintstock, whose single eye was
worth a dozen of others, and had seen this dark figure which glided
near them in the gloom.
Full of rage and shame at being discovered, Redhall, who was too
proud and too brave to retreat, advanced boldly, with his sword in
his hand, exclaiming loudly--
"A rescue! a rescue! a rescue and escape! Ho, the guard! ho, in the
name of the king! treason! and breaking ward! treason! treason!"
"_Redhall!_" cried Roland, in a choking voice.
"We are lost!" said Forrester.
Roland could utter no more; he thought that destiny had delivered his
enemy over to his vengeance; and a wild tempest of holy fervour and
infernal fury filled his heart. He rushed upon him like a lion, and
they both engaged with blind desperation.
Their eyes were full of fire, their breasts burning with as much
hatred as could possibly animate two human hearts, and much more
intent on slaying each other than on protecting themselves, they
hewed and thrust, cutting showers of sparks from their swords in the
dark, while their blades rang like bells. They seemed to be
transformed into demons by their mortal hatred.
Resolved that even if himself should be slain, his enemy should not
escape, Redhall called incessantly to the guard in the adjacent
tower; and Sir John Forrester, with alarm, heard the voices of the
soldiers, who were part of his own corps of guards, and saw the glow
of their lighted matches reddening behind the loopholes, and through
the bars of the gate, as they prepared "to make service" against
those who were brawling on St. Cuthbert's roadway; in other words, to
fire on them.
Before this measure took place the combat was decided.
Stepping back a pace, and grasping his sword with both hands, Redhall
raised the hilt above his head, and dropping the blade behind him,
resolved to give a cut-down stroke, which would end the conflict and
his rival's life together; but Roland, quick as lightning, on seeing
his whole body unprotected, sprang forward, and ran more than two
feet of his double-edged sword through his body.
A groan of rage and agony escaped from Redhall; with his left hand he
grasped Roland's sword near the hilt, and fiercely writhed his body
forward upon it, to shorten the distance between himself and his
antagonist, in whose heart he endeavoured to bury a poniard which he
grasped in his right hand, and for which he had relinquished his
sword.
But seeing his deadly intention, Roland spurned him with his right
foot; he staggered backward, the blood gushed forth, and at the same
moment he rolled over the narrow path, and falling off the blade of
the sword, sank heavily into the dark water of the loch, thus being
stabbed and drowned almost at the same moment.
Roland uttered a wild laugh, leaped on horseback, and galloped madly
away by the base of the castle rock.
Forrester followed at full speed, but the frantic horseman had
disappeared like a spirit round the western side of the rock, and
even the sound of his horse's hoof's had died away.
At that instant a volley of six arquebuses flashed redly from the
parapets of the ravelin, and their bullets whistled about the ears of
old Lintstock, who immediately scrambled after Sir John Forrester;
but one pierced the brain of the poor page Sabrino, who fell dead on
the spot.
The discovery of his body next morning caused unusual consternation
in the "good town" of Edinburgh, and the expenditure of several
gallons of holy water, which were sprinkled upon the livid corpse and
the place where it lay; while the tidings went far and wide that "my
Lady of Ashkirk's devil had been found under the castle rock."