THE LION AT BAY
The morning had broken broad and clear from the east when the door of
the prison-house was opened, and a seneschal appeared. He saluted the
brothers, and in a shaking voice summoned them to come forth and be
tried for offences of treason and rebellion against the King and his
ministers.
William of Douglas waved a hand to him, but answered nothing to the
summons. He wasted no words upon one who merely did as he was bidden.
All night the brothers had sat looking out on the city humming
sleeplessly beneath them, till the light slowly dawned over the Forth
and away to the eastward Berwick Law stood dwarfed and clear. At first
they had sat apart, but as the hours stole on David came a little
nearer and his hand sought that of his brother, clasped it, and abode
as it had been contented. The elder brother returned the pressure.
"David," he said, "if perish we must, at least you and I will show
them how Douglases can die."
So when they rose to follow the seneschal who summoned them, as they
left the chamber of detention and the clanking guard fell in behind
them, Earl William put his hand affectionately on his young brother's
shoulder and kept it there. In this wise they came into the great
hall wherein yester-even the banquet of treachery had been served. The
dais had been removed to the upper end of the room, and upon it in the
furred robes of judges of the realm, there sat on either side of the
empty throne Crichton the Chancellor and Sir Alexander Livingston.
Behind were crowded groups of knights, pages, men-at-arms, and all the
hangers-on of a court. But of men of dignity and place only the
Marshal de Retz, ambassador of the King of France, was present.
He sat alone on a high seat ranged crosswise upon the dais. The floor
in the centre of the hall was kept clear for the entrance of the
brothers of Douglas.
Crichton and Livingston looked uneasily at each other as the feet of
the guard conducting the prisoners were heard in the corridor without,
and with a quick, apprehensive wave of his hand Crichton motioned the
armed men of his guard closer about him, and gave their leader
directions in a hushed voice behind his palm.
The seneschal who had summoned them strode in first, and then after a
sufficient interval entered the young Lords of Douglas, William and
David his brother. The elder still kept one hand affectionately on the
shoulder of the younger. His other was set as usual in the silken belt
which he wore about his waist, and he walked carelessly, with a high
air and an easy step, like one that goes in expectantly to a pleasant
entertainment.
But as soon as the brothers perceived in whose presence they were, an
air of pride came over their faces and stiffened their figures into
the sterner aspect of warriors who stand on the field of battle.
Some three paces before the steps of the dais on which sat the
self-constituted judges was arranged a barrier of strong wooden posts
tipped with iron, and two soldiers with drawn swords were on guard at
either end.
The Douglases stood silent, haughtily awaiting the first words of
accusation. And the face of young David was to the full as haughty and
contemptuous as that of Earl William himself.
It was the Chancellor who spoke first, in his high rasping creak.
"William, Earl of Douglas, and you David, called the Master of
Douglas," he began, "you are summoned hither by the King's authority
to answer for many crimes of treason against his royal person--for
rebellion also and the arming of forces against his authority--for
high speeches and studied contempt of those who represent his
sovereign Majesty in this realm, for treasonable alliances with rebel
lords, and above all for swearing allegiance to another monarch, even
to the King of France. What have you to say to these charges?"
The Earl of Douglas swept his eyes across the dais from side to side
with a slow contempt which made the Chancellor writhe in his chair.
Then after a long pause he deigned to reply, but rather like a king
who grants a favour than like one accused before judges in whose hands
is the power of life and death.
"I see," said he, "two knights before me on a high seat, one the
King's tutor, the other his purse-bearer. I have yet to learn who
constituted them judges of any cause whatsoever, still less of aught
that concerns William Douglas, Duke of Touraine, Earl of Douglas,
hereditary Lieutenant-Governor of the realm of Scotland."
And he kept his eyes upon them with a straight forth-looking glance,
palpably embarrassing to the traitors on the dais.
"Earl Douglas," said the Chancellor again, "pray remember that you are
not now in Castle Thrieve. Your six thousand horsemen wait not in the
courtyard out there. Learn to be more humble and answer to the things
whereof you are accused. Do you desire that witness should be
brought?"
"Of what need are witnesses? I own no court or jurisdiction. I have
heard no accusations!" said the Earl William.
The Chancellor motioned with his hand, whereupon Master Robert Berry,
a procurator of the city, advanced and read a long parchment which set
forth in phrase and detail of legality twenty accusations against the
Earl,--of treason, rebellion, and manifest oppression.
When he had finished the Chancellor said, "And now, Earl Douglas, what
answer have you to these things?"
"Does it matter at all what I answer?" asked the Earl, succinctly.
"I do not bandy words with you," said the Chancellor; "I order you to
make your pleading, or stand within your danger."
"And yet," said William Douglas, gravely, "words are all that you dare
bandy with me. Even if I honoured you by laying aside my dignities and
consented to break a lance with you, you would refuse to afford me
trial by battle, which is the right of every peer accused."
"'Tis a barbarous custom," said the Chancellor; "we will try your case
upon its merit."
The Earl laughed a little mocking laugh.
"It will be somewhat safer," said he, "but haste you and get the sham
done with. I plead nothing. I do not even tell you that you lie. What
doth one expect of a gutter-dog but that it should void the garbage it
hath devoured? But I do ask you, Marshal de Retz, as a brave soldier
and the representative of an honourable King, what you have done with
the Lady Sybilla?"
The Marshal de Retz smiled--a smile so chill, cruel, hard, that the
very soldiers on guard, seeing it, longed to slay him on the spot.
"May I, in return, ask my Lord Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine
what is that to him?" he said, with sneering emphasis upon the titles.
"It matters to me," replied William Douglas, boldly, "more than life,
and almost as much as honour. The Lady Sybilla did me the grace to
tell me that she loved me. And I in turn am bound to her in life and
death."
The Chancellor and the tutor broke into laughter, but the marshal
continued to smile his terrible smile of determinate evil.
"Listen," he said at last, "hear this, my Lord of Touraine; ever since
we came to this kingdom, and, indeed, long before we left the realm of
France, the Lady Sybilla intended nothing else than your deception and
destruction. Poor dupe, do you not yet understand? She it was that
cozened you with fair words. She it was that advised you to come
hither that we might hold you in our hands. For her sake you obeyed.
She was the willing bait of the trap your foes set for you. What think
you of the Lady Sybilla now?"
William of Douglas did not answer in words, but as the marshal ceased
speaking, he drew himself together like a lithe animal that sways this
way and that before springing. His right hand dropped softly from his
brother's shoulder upon the hilt of his own dagger.
Then with one sudden bound he was over the barrier and upon the dais.
Almost his blade was at the marshal's throat, and but for the crossed
partisans of two guards who stood on either side of de Retz, he had died
there and then by the dagger of William Douglas. As it was, the youth
was brought to a stand with his breast pressed vainly against the steel
points, and paused there crying out in fury, "Liar and toad! Come out
from behind these varlets that I may slay thee with my hand."
A score of men-at-arms approached from behind, and forced the young
man back to his place.
"Bring in the Lady Sybilla," said the marshal, still smiling, while
the judges sat silent and afraid at the anger of one man.
And even while the Earl stood panting after his outburst of furious
anger, they opened the door at the back of the dais and through it
there entered the Lady Sybilla. Instantly the eyes of William Douglas
fixed themselves upon her, but she did not raise hers nor look at him.
She stood at the farther side at the edge of the dais, her hands
joined in front of her, and her hair streamed down her back and fell
in waves over her white dress.
An angel of light coming through the open door of heaven could not
have appeared more innocent and pure.
The Marshal de Retz turned towards his sister-in-law, and, with his
eyes fixed upon hers and with the same pitiless chill in them, he said
in a low tone, "Look at me."
The girl raised her eyes slowly, and, as it had been, reluctantly, and
in them, instead of the meek calm of an angel, there appeared the
terror and dismay of a lost soul that listens to its doom.
"Sybilla," hissed rather than spoke de Retz, "is
it true that ever since by the lakeside of Carlinwark you met the Earl
of Douglas you have deceived him and sought his doom?"
"I care not to hear the answer," said the young man, "even did I
believe that which you by your power may compel her to say. Unfaith in
another is not unfaith in me. I am bound to this lady in love and
honour--aye, even unto death, if that be her will!"
"I have, indeed, deceived him!" replied the girl, slowly, the words
seeming to be forced from her one by one.
"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal, turning upon the
young man, who stood still and motionless, never taking his eyes off
the slender figure in white.
The marshal continued his pitiless questioning.
"At Castle Thrieve you persuaded him to follow you to Crichton and
afterwards to Edinburgh, knowing well that you brought him to his
death."
"It is true!" said the girl, with a voice like one speaking out of the
grave itself.
"You hear, William of Douglas!" said the marshal.
"And at Castle Crichton you played the play to the end. With false
cozening words you deceived this young man. You led him on with love
on your lips and hate in your heart. You kissed him with the Judas
kiss. You led his soul captive to death by the drawing of your eyes."
In a voice that could hardly be heard the girl replied, her whole
figure fixed and turned to stone by the intensity of her tormentor's
gaze.
_"I did these things! I am accursed!"_
The ambassador turned with a fleering triumph.
"You hear, William of Douglas," he said, "you hear what your true love
says!"
Then it was that, with the calm air and steady voice of a great
gentleman, William Douglas answered, "I hear, but I do not believe."
A spasm of joy passed over the countenance of the Lady Sybilla. She
half sprang towards her lover as if to clasp him in her arms.
But in the midst, between intent and act, she restrained herself.
"No, I am not worthy," she said. And again, and lower, like a
lamentation, "I am not worthy!"
Then, while all watched eagerly, the marshal rose from his seat to his
full height.
"Girl--look at me!" he cried in a loud and terrible voice. But Sybilla
did not seem to hear him.
She was looking at the Earl, and her eyes were great and grey and
vague.
"Listen, my true lord, and then hate me if you will," she said;
"listen, William of Douglas. Never before have I found in all the
world one man true to the core. I did not believe that such an one
lived. Hear this and then turn from me in loathing.
"For the sake of this man's life, forfeit ten times over" (she
pointed, as she spoke, at the marshal), "to whom, by the powers of
hell, my soul is bound, I came at the bidding of the King of France
and of this man, my master, to compass the destruction of the Earl of
Douglas. Our King's son desired his duchy, and promised to this man
pardon for his evil deeds. I came to satisfy them both. On my guilty
head be the punishment. It is true that I cozened and led you on. It
is true that at Castle Thrieve I deceived you, knowing well that which
would happen. I knew to what you would follow me, and for the sake of
the evil wrought by your fathers, I was glad. But afterwards at
Crichton, when, in the woods by the waterside, I told you that I loved
you, I did not lie. I did love you then. And by God's grace I do love
you now--yea, before all men I declare it. Once for a season of
glorious forgetting, all too brief, I was yours to love, now I am
yours to hate and to despise. I tried to save you, but though you had
my warning you would not go back or forget me. Now it is too late!"
As she spoke over the face of William Douglas there had come a
glow--the red blood flooding up and routing the white determined
pallor of his cheek.
"My lady," he answered her, gently, "be not grieved for a little thing
that is past. That you love me truly is enough. I ask for no more,
least of all for pity. I have not lived long. I have not had time
allotted me wherein to do great things, but for your sake I can die as
well as any! You have given me of your love, and of the flower
thereof. I am glad. That you have loved me was my crown of life. Now
it remains but to pay a little price soon paid, for a joy exceeding
great."
But the Chancellor had had enough of this. He rose, and, stretching
forth his hand towards the barrier, he said: "William of Douglas, you
and your brother are condemned to instant death as enemies of the King
and his ministers. Soldiers, do your duty. Lead them forth to the
block!"
And with these words he left the dais, followed by Sir Alexander
Livingston. The girl stood in the place whence she had spoken her last
words. Then, as the men-at-arms went shamefacedly to take the Earl by
the arm, she suddenly threw herself across the platform, leaped
lightly over the barrier, and fell into his arms.
"William, once I would have betrayed you," she said, "but now I love
you. I will die with you--or by the great God I will live to avenge
you."
"Hush, sweetheart," said William Douglas, touching her brow gently
with his lips, and putting her into the arms of an officer of the
court whom her uncle had sent to remove her. "Fear not for me! Death
is swift and easy. I expected nothing else. That you love me is
enough! Dear love, fare thee well!"
But the girl heard him not. She had fainted in the arms that held her.
Yet the Marshal de Retz had still more for her to suffer. He stood
beside her and dashed water upon her till she awoke, that she might
see that which remained to be done.
* * * * *
It was a scene dreary beyond all power of words to tell it, when into
the courtyard of the Castle of Edinburgh they brought the two noble
young men forth to die. The sun had long risen, but the first flush of
broad morning sunshine still lingered upon the low platform on which
stood the block, and beside it the headsman sullenly waiting to do his
appointed work.
The young Lords of Douglas came out looking brave and handsome as
bridegrooms on a day of betrothing. William had once more his hand on
David's shoulder, his other rested carelessly on his thigh as his
custom was. The brothers were bareheaded, and to the eyes of those who
looked on they seemed to be conversing together of light matters of
love and ladies' favours.
High above upon a balcony, hung like an iron cage upon the castle
wall, appeared the Chancellor and the tutor. The young King was with
them, weeping and crying out, "Do nothing to my dear cousins--I
command you--I am the King!"
But the tutor roughly bade him be still, telling him that he would
never reign if these young men lived, and presently another came there
and stood beside him. The Marshal de Retz it was, who, with a fiendish
smile upon his sleek parchment face, conducted the Lady Sybilla to see
the end. But it was a good end to see, and nobler far than most lives
that are lived to fourscore years.
The brothers embraced as they came to the block, kneeled down, and
said a short prayer like Christians of a good house. So great was
their enemies' haste that they were not allowed even a priest to
shrive them, but they did what they could.
The executioner motioned first to David. An attendant brought him the
heading cup of wine, which it was the custom to offer to those about
to die upon the scaffold.
"Drink it not," said Earl William, "lest they say it was drugged."
And David Douglas bowed his head upon the block, being only in the
fifteenth year of his age.
"Farewell, brother," he said, "be not long after me. It is a darksome
road to travel so young."
"Fear not, Davie lad," said William Douglas, tenderly, "I will
overtake you ere you be through the first gate."
He turned a little aside that he might not see his brother die, and
even as he did so he saw the Lady Sybilla lean upon the balcony paler
than the dead.
Then when it came to his turn they offered the Earl William also the
heading cup filled with the rich wine of Touraine, his own fair
province that he was never to see.
He lifted the cup high in his right hand with a knightly and courtly
gesture. Looking towards the balcony whereon stood the Lady Sybilla,
he bowed to her.
"I drink to you, my lady and my love," he cried, in a voice loud and
clear.
Then, touching but the rim of the goblet with his lips, he poured out
the red wine upon the ground.
* * * * *
And thus passed the gallantest gentleman and truest lover in whom God
ever put heart of grace to live courteously and die greatly, keeping
his faith in his lady even against herself, and holding death itself
sweet because that in death she loved him.