THE PARLEY.
Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate:
It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
To these ill-timed repetitions.
Some trumpet summon hither to the walls
These men of Angiers; let us hear them speak,
Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's.
SHAKESPEARE.
Of this interview, during which there occurred one or two painful
episodes, the old abbot has left a minute account in the MS. records of
Tongland Abbey.
As he and Sir Patrick approached the castle-gate, they could perceive
a great circular breach yawning in the face of the keep, where
Meg's shot had beaten in the masonry. In many places the corbelled
battlements were demolished or mutilated. The barbican wall had
suffered considerably, and many dead bodies, with their armour buried
or crushed by the cannon shot, were making the place horrible by their
ghastly aspect, while great purple pools and gouts of blood indicated
where others who had been removed had fallen, or where the wounded had
crawled away.
For the first time the terrible gallows-knob was without a victim, the
cord which had sustained the last having parted during the concussion
of the ordnance.
Through the open gate of the fortress the abbot and captain of the
guard were able to see all these details. The grating of the portcullis
was raised, and in the archway beneath it stood Sir Alan Lauder, the
lairds of Pompherston, Cairnglas, Glendoning, James Achanna, and
others, all as usual in their armour, which was dimmed and dinted now
by daily and nightly wear. The soldiers of the garrison, who crowded
about them with their pikes, axes, crossbows, and arquebuses, seemed
hollow-eyed, wan, and pale. Hunger appeared to have become familiar
to them as danger and death; thus it was evident to the captain and
abbot that the famous larder of Thrave, with its twenty-eight cattle,
contributed by the twenty-eight parishes of the surrounding stewardry,
was becoming exhausted; for the garrison and other inmates had far
exceeded a thousand persons at the commencement of this protracted and
destructive siege.
"We have come in the name of mercy and humanity," said the abbot,
pausing at the gate.
"It is well," replied Douglas of Pompherston, in the hollow of his
helmet; "we feared you had come simply in the name of the king, and we
consider him a poor representative of either."
"In whosesoever name you have come," said Sir Alan Lauder, "I can treat
but with my lord abbot alone."
"And why not with me who am captain of the king's guard?" demanded Gray
haughtily, while throwing up his barred visor.
"Because the blood of Douglas is on your hands, as on those of your
master."
"To save whom that blood was shed, else your earl of Douglas had died a
regicide, as well as an outlawed traitor. But, whatever terms are given
or accepted, I, Patrick Gray, of Foulis, here, in my own name, demand,
that the ruffian named James Achanna be excepted therefrom, for I have
resolved to slay him without mercy, and, I hope, without remorse, at
kirk, at court, at market, or wherever I come within sword's point of
him, so help me the holy Evangels, and Him who ever defends the right!"
Achanna grew pale at these threatening words, and on seeing the fierce
and resolute aspect with which Gray spoke them; but recovering, he
resumed his malignant smile, and uttered a scornful laugh.
"Thrave has not yet surrendered," said Sir Alan Lauder; "and while that
white flag waves on its wall, even Achanna's life must be respected.
He has been loudly recommending a surrender for some days past, if
the young earl, our new chief, came not to our succour," added the
white-bearded knight with an angry glance. "Perhaps he may be less
eager now, when he learns that the avenging sword of Sir Patrick Gray
awaits him."
"Sir Patrick Gray's hostility is nothing new to me, neither are his
injustice and falsity," replied Achanna through his clenched teeth,
while darting one of his covert glances full of hate at Lauder; "so be
assured that I value his wrath as little as you may do, Sir Alan----"
"Then, as old Earl Archibald of Douglas said of Crichton and the
Regent, 'twere fair sport to see a couple of such fencers yoked
together," interrupted the old knight bluntly, "so please you to step
forth six paces from this gate, and meet him hand to hand, on foot or
horseback, and I shall be your umpire."
"Thanks from my soul, Sir Alan!" exclaimed Gray with stern joy; "for
these words I pledge my honour that your life, fortune, and family
shall be saved and protected, tide what may with Thrave."
Achanna bit his nether lip, and without advancing a pace towards Gray,
who had reined back his horse and drawn his sword as if inviting him,
replied doggedly:
"I have not forgotten the last orders of the earl, ere he rode to
Stirling; among _others_ we were to defend this stronghold to the last,
should it ever be attacked, and to be wary how we risked our lives; but
I can now see that if yonder devil of a great gun continues to pound
and punch us thus we shall be forced to surrender, lest the roof of
stone descend upon us."
"Well, and what then?" asked Lauder bitterly.
"To surrender is to hang."
"Well?"
"By my soul thou takest it very coolly, Sir Alan Lauder," said Achanna,
glad to change the subject, and elude Gray's unanswered challenge.
"I do so, Master Achanna, because I foresaw that when King James
entered Galloway, with the royal banner displayed, it would end in
hanging for some, and beheading for others--hanging especially for
thee."
"And beheading for _thee_, so I care not whether we surrender to-night
or a week hence."
"You play but ill the jovial desperado," said the Castellan with
contempt, as he turned from him.
"Yet he fights for his own hand and commoditie, as Hal o' the Wynd
fought," said the abbot of Tongland.
"I am weary of this," exclaimed Sir Patrick Gray; "coward, will you not
advance to meet me?"
"And fight with a flag of truce flying; I am not so ignorant of the
rules of war," replied Achanna, who felt that the crowd of brave and
reckless men about the castle-gate viewed him with derision; "My
courage has never failed me, sirs, though I knew the fate in store for
me, as--as----"
"As what, fellow?" demanded Lauder.
"A follower of the conquered Douglas and his outlawed adherents."
"Conquered--outlawed!" muttered those who heard him.
"Well, sir, doth not that breach in the castle wall look as if we shall
soon be the first, as surely as we are the second."
"Jibing villain," exclaimed Lauder, "beware lest I spare the doomster
all trouble, by passing my sword through thee!"
The Scots of those days had but vague ideas on the subject of homicide,
so Achanna became alarmed, and said:
"Sir Alan Lauder, remember my years of faithful service."
"And what have those years done for you?"
"Converted me from a boy to a man."
"From a rascal of one age to a rascal of one more mature; but thou
shalt hang, if Sir Patrick wills it," said the castellan, with growing
wrath; for in fact Achanna, perceiving that matters were going against
his friends, had found Thrave less comfortable for some time past, and
was anxious to escape or make his peace with the king.
"Enough of this, sir," said Sir Patrick, sheathing his sword; "let us
resume the subject of a capitulation."
"The countess--here comes the countess!" exclaimed several voices, as
the crowd of armed men divided and drew back; and Margaret, leaning
on the arm of Maud Douglas of Pompherston, approached. Eagerly and
anxiously Gray looked beyond them, but in vain.
"Oh," thought he in his heart, "where is Murielle?"
The hateful Achanna seemed to divine the thought; for a cold smile
curled his thin white lips, and a colder still as he surveyed the
countess, and remembered the proud derision with which she had long ago
repelled his boyish affection. The lovely face of Margaret was deadly
pale--white as the ruff or tippet of swansdown, which guarded her
delicate throat and bosom. She was muffled in a long black dule-weed,
or mourning habit, the folds of which fell to her feet, and on the left
shoulder of which was sewn a white velvet cross. In many places this
sombre garment was spotted by blood!
Her beautiful black eyes were bloodshot, and an unnatural glare shone
in them. She seemed scarcely able to stand; thus old Sir Alan Lauder
hurried to her side, and tenderly placed a mailed arm around her for
support.
"Well, Monk, thou who forsook, in his sore extremity, thy chief and
master," she sternly said to the abbot, "what seek you here?"
"Douglas was my chief, but _not_ my master. He is in Heaven," replied
the abbot calmly, pointing upward.
"Well, shaven juggler, who hast added his precious prayers to the cause
of the strongest," continued the imperious beauty, "say what you would,
and quickly. What errand brings you here?"
"Peace and good will. Oh, madam--madam," exclaimed the meek old abbot,
stretching his withered and tremulous hands towards her, "in the name
of Heaven and of mercy end these horrors--an aged man, a priest of God
implores it of you! James and his soldiers have sworn to take the keys
of Thrave at the point of the sword; but our young king is a knight,
alike gentle and generous, and from your hands I am assured he will
take those keys in peace, if peacefully bestowed."
"From _my_ hands," she reiterated, in an unearthly voice; "alas----"
"What _can_ she mean?" thought Gray, as a dreadful idea flashed upon
his mind; "is this sad, this wild and stern bearing the result of
remorse? can she have attempted----"
He thrust aside the thought, and listened attentively.
"From my right hand--never!" added Margaret, with bitter emphasis.
"From the hands of whom, then?"
"My youngest bower-maiden; she deserves the honour, for her father, Sir
Alan, has made a valiant and vigorous defence."
"The king would prefer them from the hands of the Lady Murielle," said
Gray, with more anxiety than caution.
"Speak not to me of Murielle!" exclaimed the countess, with a shriek,
as her head drooped; and she fainted in the arms of Lauder.
"What has happened--speak for mercy, sirs! what horror do you conceal
from us?" exclaimed Sir Patrick Gray and the abbot together.
"Look here," said the old knight, in whose keen grey eyes there mingled
a curious expression of commiseration and ferocity. He drew aside the
countess's dule-weed, and then the Captain of the Guard and the abbot
perceived that her white neck was stained with blood, her shoulder
covered with hideous ligatures, and that her right hand and arm were
gone--_gone_ from the elbow!
"Who--what has done this?" asked Gray, as his sun-burned cheek grew
pale.
"See you, sirs, what the first shot from yonder hellish engine hath
achieved?" replied Lauder, reproachfully.
"The first," reiterated Gray.
"And I would give the last blood in my heart to have the seven makers
of it hanging in a bunch from yonder gallows knob!"
Local history records that this terrible mutilation occurred when the
countess was seated at table in the hall, through one of the windows
of which the great bullet passed; and some years before the battle
of Waterloo, when Thrave, like several other Scottish castles, was
undergoing repair, as a barrack for French prisoners, a favourite gold
ring which the countess wore upon the forefinger of her right hand,
inscribed _Margaret de Douglas_, was found among the ruins, with one of
Meg's granite balls beside it; and the old peasantry in Galloway yet
aver, that in this terrible mutilation "the vengeance of Heaven was
evidently manifested, in destroying the hand which had been given in
wedlock unto _two near kinsmen_."[5]
By a strange coincidence, or an irresistible fatality, at the same
moment that the countess was borne away, it came to pass that the
man-at-arms who held the white flag let it drop from the summit of the
keep into the barbican below. Then Sir John Romanno and his impatient
cannoniers, perceiving that the flag was gone, and that some commotion
had ensued about the gate of Thrave, supposed (in those days there
were no telescopes), that the parley was broken, and that violence
was offered to the envoys, so a shot was fired from the great brass
bombarde named the Lion of Flanders.
With a mighty sound, between a whiz and a boom, it passed betwixt Sir
Patrick Gray and the abbot, entered the archway, and, by a singular
combination of retributive justice and fatality, struck James Achanna
just at the girdle, and doubling him up like a crape scarf, literally
plastered his body, armour and all, a quivering mass of blood, bones,
steel plates and splints, upon the wall of the keep, into which it was
imbedded.
The white pennon was again hoisted; but this terrible episode and
appalling spectacle hastened the conclusion of the truce and the siege.
"Bid King James ride to the gate of Thrave, and a woman's hand shall
give him the keys--withered be mine in its socket ere it shall do so!"
said the sturdy old laird of the Bass, as he broke his sword across his
right knee, and cast the glittering fragments into the moat, just as he
had done after the seizure of Earl William, in the castle of Edinburgh.
"What terms seek you?" asked the abbot.
"The lives, the liberties, and fortunes of all."
"The king is merciful, and in his name we promise these shall be given
to you," replied the two envoys, as they returned with all haste
to Knockcannon, where the king was still on horseback, attended by
Crichton, Glammis, and the principal lords of his council and army.
"You have promised over much, my good friends," said he, on hearing
the terms and the relation of what had passed at the castle gate; "yet
it would ill become me to bruise the bruised. I cannot restore this
gallant dame's dainty right arm; but by the Black Rood of Scotland, I
can wed her to a more loyal husband, with the hand she still possesses!"
And King James kept his word.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 5: This ball is still preserved by a gentleman in the
neighbourhood, and corresponds exactly in size and quality with those
shown in the castle of Edinburgh, as appertaining to the celebrated
Meg, which are of Galloway granite (from Binnan Hill), the component
parts of which, as geologists are aware, differ in several particulars.]