THE VIGIL OF ST. CATHARINE.
The nobles of our land were much delighted then,
To have at their command a crew of lusty men;
Who by their coats were known of tawny, red, or blue,
With crests their sleeves upon, when this old cap was new.
THE ROXBURGH BALLADS.
At the outer gate of the fortress of Edinburgh (a barrier which then
crossed the narrow street of the Castle-hill) the lord chancellor was
on horseback, attended by a brilliant retinue of men-at-arms, with many
lacqueys and liverymen on foot, wearing cloth hoods of the same fashion
then worn in England, buttoned under the chin, and having deep capes,
with scolloped edges, falling over the shoulders. These hoods were
usually of scarlet cloth, and were worn with a cock's feather, placed
jauntily on the left side as indicative of some pretension to gentility.
The gaberdines of these liverymen were of blue Flemish cloth, and all
had embroidered on their breasts, on escutcheon, _argent_, charged with
a lion rampant _azure_, the arms of Crichton, with his motto "God send
grace;" and all were accoutred with swords, daggers, and partisans.
On foot beside the chancellor were his pages; one bore his sword, the
other held his horse's bridle, a third his cap of maintenance upon a
velvet cushion.
A little way within the barrier were Sir Walter Halyburton, lord of
Dirltoun, who was then high treasurer; John Methven, the secretary
of state; Sir James Crichton of Frendraught, great chamberlain and
third officer of the crown; with Patrick Lord Glammis, master of the
household. All these, like their immediate followers, were well armed;
but that circumstance excited no notice, as it was always the custom
to be so in Scotland; and a gay group they formed, as the noonday sun
streamed through the old archway, whose front was blackened by smoke
and time, upon their tabard-like jupons and hanging sleeves, the
heraldic devices on their breasts, their glittering bassinets, waving
feathers, rich sword-hilts, jewelled daggers, and gold neck-chains.
Beyond these were the hundred pikemen of the king's guard, under Sir
Patrick Gray and Sir Thomas MacLellan; and high over all this array
towered the castle rock, crowned by its old _enceinte_, or wall of
defence, and its bastel-houses, in the _three_ greatest of which, to
wit, the Royal Lodging, King David's Tower, and that of the constable,
originated the heraldic triple-towered fortress which, from time
immemorial, has formed the arms of the city.
As Douglas and his train approached, bombarde, moyenne, and culverin
thundered from the ramparts; loud and shrilly twanged the trumpets and
horns, and the great crowd assembled in the narrow street made an
immediate and simultaneous movement towards the guarded archway.
When the earl's train came near, the quick eyes of the chancellor, as
readily as those of our lover, detected the absence of the countess and
Murielle. Gray could scarcely repress his anxiety and natural surprise
at a circumstance so unexpected; but the chancellor bit his nether lip
with vexation, for Margaret, as heiress of Galloway, was the second
head of that mighty house which he had sworn to humble for ever. Then
a strange smile flitted over his usually impassible face when next he
missed the sardonic visage and stealthy eyes of James Douglas, earl of
Abercorn.
"Traitor lordling," he muttered, "thou too, in time, shalt dree thy
destiny!"
At the distance of thirty paces from the gate the earl of Douglas
alighted from his horse, and relinquishing the bridle to a page,
advanced bonnet in hand towards the chancellor, who also dismounted,
and approached in the same manner, while all present who were not
men-at-arms also quitted their saddles, or as the abbot of Tongland
says in his MSS. "_lichted down_."
They greeted each other with a cold formality, over which Crichton, the
elder by many years, and the more politic, endeavoured to spread the
shallow veil of friendly warmth and courtly dissimulation.
"Welcome, lord earl, most welcome; or shall I say, duke of Touraine?"
"I am prouder of my father's name of Douglas than of any foreign duchy,
Sir William," replied the haughty boy as he presented his hand with
cold politeness. "Here I am but a Scottish earl."
The chancellor bowed, and stifled his indignation, for in this
reply three things offended him; the earl's avowal of family pride,
addressing him plainly as Sir William instead of lord chancellor, and
then presenting his hand _gloved_--a token of mistrust.
"And this young gentleman," began the chancellor,--
"Is my brother Lord David Douglas," said the earl.
"Most welcome too; but the countess, once the Fair Maid of Galloway,"
said Crichton, with a bland smile; "will she not grace our young king's
board to-day?"
"The king's grace, and you, Sir William Crichton, must hold the
countess, her sister, and likewise the Lady Ormond, excused to-day; the
ways are rough and the journey long from Thrave to Edinburgh."
"True; but the measure of--of my happiness (he had almost said
_vengeance_) will be incomplete without them."
"There are Douglases enough here to supply their places," said the
earl, glancing at his mail-clad followers with a significant smile; and
Crichton said,--
"Enter, lord earl, the king's grace and the regent await you in the
great hall."
After each declining to precede the other, the wily chancellor, while
making a sign previously agreed upon and understood by James Achanna
and Romanno of that ilk, constable of the garrison, gave a hand to each
of the brothers, and led them within the gate.
There was an immediate rush among their rough and tumultuary followers
to press in after them, but the king's guard and the chancellor's
vassals, with levelled pikes, bore back alike the excited multitude of
citizens and the wild Scots of Galloway, bare-kneed and bare-armed,
with their habergeons of jangling iron rings, and the strong
barrier-gate was closed with haste and difficulty. Lord Ormond, Sir
Malcolm Fleming, Sir Alan Lauder, and a few others, in virtue of their
rank, being alone permitted to enter.
This _coup_ was the more easily effected, as at the moment of the
earl's entrance Douglas of Pompherston, his purse-bearer, cried
"largesse! largesse!" and to add to the incidental popularity of his
lord, scattered several handfuls of silver coin among the people, who
scrambled in pursuit of them, and rolled over each other in heaps,
while the reckless young earl and his brother laughed and threw more,
to increase the uproar and merriment.
Then the portcullis, a massive iron grille, was lowered slowly down in
its stony grooves, and when its iron spikes reached the causeway, James
Achanna, the double tool of Abercorn and the chancellor, exchanged with
the latter one of those deep and rapid smiles by which courtly villains
can read each other's hearts and convey a volume of subtle thoughts.
Unheeding, or unobservant of all these circumstances, the earl and
his brother accompanied the chancellor into the fortress, and as
they slowly proceeded up the steep steps and winding path, which led
in a north-westerly direction, to the summit of the rock, Crichton
expatiated on the joy this meeting occasioned him, as being the
precursor of domestic peace, of good will and unity, between his master
the king and the great house of Douglas; but while speaking he could
perceive the haughty young peer exchanging secret smiles with his
brother; so, nothing daunted, the chancellor continued to flatter, and
secretly smiled in his turn.
"Great as the house of Douglas has been----"
"_Is_, my lord," interrupted the earl, haughtily.
"Pardon me," stammered Crichton, reddening with anger to find himself
thus addressed by a boy; "I was about to say, that in ages past, its
chief glory was ever in its obedience to the crown, from whence its
greatness and its honours sprung."
"Well?" observed the boy-noble impatiently.
"Enemies have accused you of treason----"
"Yourself, for instance, Sir William."
"True--as first officer of the crown," continued the chancellor, with
a severity that increased with the bitterness that grew in his heart,
"I have blamed you deeply and frequently; but this day will free you of
all those suspicions which that unwise embassy to France occasioned."
"Sir William Crichton!"
"I am a man four times your age, lord earl," interrupted the
chancellor, speaking very fast to avoid explicit or excited answers,
"so pray excuse my grey hairs if they permit me to assume a monitory
tone and venture to yield advice. I would but pray you to execute
justice on your vast estates of Galloway, Annandale, and Balvenie with
impartiality and gentleness; and not to protect from the just vengeance
of the king, our lord and master, those lawless barons who levy feudal
war and destroy each other's towers, villages, and territories, and
by so doing impoverish the realm and oppress the people. Disobedience
to the king has been the ruin of the most ancient and noble families;
thus, I would pray you, my lord, to content yourself with the splendour
attained by your house, and the glorious name it has borne for ages in
peace and in war, nor seek to raise it above that throne in defence of
which so many of the Douglas name have died in battle. _Ave Maria!_
If you would surpass your king in anything, let it be in religion,
in bounty and charity to your countrymen; surpass him thus, and I,
whom you have long deemed your enemy, will pray with my latest breath
for the glory and prosperity of the lordly line of Douglas, and that
Scotland may long have cause to remember with joy the vigil of St.
Catherine."
To all these remarks, which so well became the station and superior
years of the chancellor, the petulant young earl disdained to reply,
save by a cold and disdainful smile or so forth; and as Crichton
concluded, they found themselves in the banquet-hall of the castle, and
in presence of the king and the regent of Scotland.