STIRLING.
Ye towers within whose circuit dread,
A Douglas by his sovereign bled;
And thou, oh sad and fatal mound,
That oft has heard the death-axe sound.--SCOTT.
To Gray it seemed as if Heaven or fate had conspired with Douglas to
keep him and Murielle separate for the period of their natural lives;
though King James assured him that his day of retribution, if not of
happiness, must soon come now.
The king of Scotland was most anxious to avoid the horrors of a civil
war with those obnoxious peers, who openly boasted, that on a day's
notice, by the Fiery Cross, they could array forty thousand men against
his throne and authority. He was really, and naturally so, alarmed by
the bond or league of the Douglases and their confederates; but the
summer passed, and the spring of the next year drew on, before the
haughty earl would agree to meet his sovereign in solemn conference at
Stirling. Then James promised Gray that all disputes would be ended,
and that the wish which lay nearest his heart--the surrender of his
wife to him--would be granted.
How vain were the hopes of the good young king; and how little could
he or any one foresee the terrible sequel to that long-wished-for
interview!
An ample letter of safe conduct was sent to the earl of Douglas, in
custody of Sir William Lauder of Hatton, a knight of Lothian, one of
his chief friends and followers; and thus armed and, as he deemed,
protected, he entered the quaint and beautiful old town of Stirling,
where James was then residing; for then, and for five generations
after, Stirling was the Aranjuez, or Versailles of the Scottish kings,
and on its decorations they were unsparing of treasure and of care.
It was on the morning of Shrove Tuesday, the 20th of February, 1451,
that the earl arrived, accompanied by Hugh Douglas, earl of Ormond;
Dunbar, earl of Murray; James, Lord Hamilton of Cadzow; Sir Alan
Lauder; the lairds of Pompherston, Glendoning, Cairnglas, and, of
course, James Achanna,--in all they were many hundred horsemen. They
made no parade or show, save of war; for all these nobles, knights, and
their followers, were mounted, mailed, and armed to perfection, so as
to be in readiness for any emergency; and they were all men of approved
and even reckless valour.
The early winter was past; the vast valley or plain, through which
the wondrous links of Forth wind like a silver snake towards the
German Sea, was assuming that brilliance of green which is the first
indication of reviving nature.
The notes of the woodlark and throstle-cock were heard in the woods of
Craigforth; the moles were busy on the fallow uplands, and the gnats
swarmed in the sunshine about the budding hedgerows; in the park below
the castle walls of Stirling, the bare-legged urchins of the town were
busy "throwing at cocks" tied to stakes--a barbarous custom by which
Shrovetide was always celebrated in Scotland, as well as in south
Britain; others were playing at foot-ball, or shooting at the butts
with little arblasts; and the shouts of their merriment rang upward
in the clear and almost frosty air, to where Mary of Gueldres and her
ladies were seated at the windows of the royal dwelling, many hundred
feet above the grassy glen. But all left their sports, and hastened to
the gate which opened towards the old Druid oaks of the Torwood, when
the brass bombardes of the fortress rolled their thunder on the still
atmosphere, and made the Ochil mountains echo in salute to the doughty
earl of Douglas, while the clarions and trumpets of his train rang
before the barrier-porte of the ancient burgh.
His family banner, twelve trumpets, with a royal herald and pursuivant,
preceded him; and as he passed up the quaint streets, where the
burghers at their windows, galleries, turrets, and forestairs, hung out
pennons, tapestry, and garlands, and received him with acclamations,
he deemed it all a tribute to his rank, and to his mighty feudal and
mightier political power; although this display was merely the joyous
outpouring of their hearts at the prospect of an amicable end being
put to the jealousy and hate which had separated the chief of the
Douglases--that line of glorious old historic memory--from a brave and
high-spirited monarch whom they loved. It was all in the spirit of the
old ballad--
God save the king, and bless the land
In plenty, joy, and peace;
And grant henceforth that foul debate
'Twixt noblemen may cease.
The earl's cuirass was of Milan steel, magnificently damascened,
studded with gilt nails, and furnished at the armpits with little
espalettes of gold. From under his open helmet, which was surrounded by
a coronet, he looked around him with a smile of surly satisfaction; but
his most powerful friend, Sir James, the lord Hamilton of Cadzow, said,
solemnly and sternly,
"Let not all this delude you, Douglas, to forget on this day the wrongs
of your race."
"Forget?" reiterated the other, grimly; "forget, said ye, Cadzow? If I
forget my father and my kinsmen, so may God, his blessed Mother, and
St. Bryde of Douglas, forget me! No, Hamilton, never shall I forget the
good and doughty Douglases who have gone before me, for their lives
were lives of danger, and their mail-clad breasts were Scotland's best
bulwarks in the stormy days of old."
"I know all that; but our bond--and the king"--said Hamilton,
hesitatingly.
"Well, he is neither priest, philosopher, nor exorcist, like that old
knave of Tongland, who has left me to my own sins and devices; so what
can he make of the matter?"
"When we are within yonder castle on the rock, he may perhaps term it
treason."
"He dare not!" was the bold reply.
"I beseech you to beware, my lord earl," said Lord Hamilton; "I have
a strange foreboding in my heart, and I warn you now--even as the
good Sir Malcolm Fleming warned Earl William--to remember that before
the gate of Stirling lies a mound, on which have rolled the heads of
Murdoch of Albany, of his two sons, of Duncan, earl of Lennox, and many
others."
"What of that?" asked the earl impatiently, as if he disliked the
subject.
"In one minute more, you will be at the mercy of the king," said
Hamilton, who was alike bold and wary.
But the earl laughed scornfully and rode on, while the majority of his
vast retinue separated to seek quarters in the town, as the castle
could not have held them.
"There is yet time to pause--even to return," resumed Hamilton, as he
all but seized the earl's rein.
"I know not what you mean, Cadzow; but I care not, and _he dare not_,"
said Douglas, as he reined up his horse and dismounted at the gate of
the castle.
Before it was a strong palisade, within which the soldiers of the
king's guard were under arms, with their helmets, corslets, plate
sleeves, and partisans glittering in the sun. At their head were Sir
Patrick Gray, and his kinsman, Gray of Balgarno, clad, not in state
dresses, but complete armour, as if for battle.
Sir Patrick and the earl exchanged angry and hostile glances as they
passed each other. There was a considerable pressure about the gate,
as the chief followers of Douglas crushed after him through the narrow
outer wicket; and there a strange fracas took place between Cadzow and
the grim old Sir Alexander Livingstone of Callender, who, after he
had relinquished the regency, had been appointed justice-general of
Scotland, with a peerage in perspective.
Sir Alexander snatched a partisan from the hands of his son, Sir James
Livingstone, who was captain of the castle of Stirling, and when
Hamilton (his own kinsman and friend) attempted to enter, he placed the
shaft across the wicket, and roughly thrust him back.
Inspired by a sudden fury, Hamilton shut down the visor of his helmet,
and, sword in hand, was rushing upon Livingstone; but the strong and
determined old knight resolutely held him back till the gates were
shut, and thus he, with many more of the earl's train who might have
proved troublesome from their number and disposition, were excluded.
"Sir James Hamilton," says history, "was very angry at this usage at
the time; but afterwards learned that Livingstone acted a friendly
part in excluding him from the probable danger into which Douglas was
throwing himself." It was a conference the end of which none could
foresee.
It is somewhat remarkable that, after a brawl which seemed so
significant of perils yet to come, Douglas (unless he was ignorant of
its occurrence) should have passed through the embattled porch of the
fortress; but now all the barriers were closed, and no course was open
but to _dree his weird_--to follow his destiny!