The Scottish Chiefs

  Chapter LX.

  Gallic Seas.

  Wallace having issued from his subterranean journey, made direct toSunderland, where he arrived about sunrise. A vessel belonging toFrance (which, since the marriage of Margaret with Edward, had been inamity with England as well as Scotland) rode there, waiting a favorablewind. Wallace secured a passage in her; and, going on board, wrote hispromised letter to Edward. It ran thus:

  "This testament is to assure Edward, King of England, upon the word ofa knight, that Queen Margaret, his wife, is in every respect guiltlessof the crimes alleged against her by the Lord Soulis, and sworn to bythe Baroness de Pontoise. I came to the court of Durham on an errandconnected with my country; and that I might be unknown, I assumed thedisguise of a minstrel. By accident I encountered Sir Piers Gaveston,and, ignorant that I was other than I seemed, he introduced me at theroyal banquet. It was there I first saw her majesty. And I never hadthat honor but three times; and the third and last in her apartments,to which your majesty's self saw me withdraw. The Countess ofGloucester was present the whole time, and to her highness I appeal.The queen saw in me only a minstrel; on my art alone as a musician washer favor bestowed; and by expressing it with an ingenuous warmth whichnone other than an innocent heart would have dared to display, she hasthus exposed herself to the animadversions of libertinism, and to thefalse representations of a terror-struck, because worthless, friend.

  "I have escaped the snare which the queen's enemies laid for me; andfor her sake, for the sake of truth, and your own peace, King Edward, Ideclare before the Searcher of all hearts, and before the world, inwhose esteem I hope to live and die--that your wife is innocent! Andshould I ever meet the man, who, after this declaration, dares to uniteher name with mine in a tale of infamy--by the power of truth, I swearthat I will make him write a recantation with his blood. Pure as avirgin's chastity is, and shall ever be, the honor of William Wallace."

  This letter was inclosed in one to the Earl of Gloucester, and havingdispatched his packet to Durham, the Scottish chief gladly saw a briskwind blow up from the north-west. The ship weighed anchor, cleared theharbor, and, under a fair sky, swiftly cut the waves toward the Gallicshores. But ere she reached them, the warlike star of Wallace directedto his little bark the terrific sails of the Red Reaver, a formidablepirate who then infested the Gallic seas, swept their commerce, andinsulted their navy. He attacked the French vessel, but it carried agreater than Caesar and his fortunes; Wallace and his destiny werethere, and the enemy struck to the Scottish chief. The Red Reaver (sosurnamed because of his red sails and sanguinary deeds) was killed inthe action; but his younger brother, Thomas de Longueville, was foundalive with in the captive ship, and a yet greater prize! Prince Louis,of France, who having been out the day before on a sailing-party, hadbeen descried, and seized as an invaluable booty by the Red Reaver.

  Adverse winds for some time prevented Wallace from reaching port withhis capture; but on the fourth day after the victory, he cast anchor inthe harbor of Havre. The indisposition of the prince from a wound hehad received in his own conflict with the Reaver, made it necessary toapprise King Philip of the accident. In answer to Wallace's dispatcheson this subject, the grateful monarch added to the proffers of personalfriendship, which had been the substance of his majesty's embassy toScotland, a pressing invitation that the Scottish chief would accompanythe prince to Paris, and there receive a public mark of royalgratitude, which, with due honor, should record this service done toFrance to future ages. Meanwhile Philip sent the chief a suit ofarmor, with a request that he would wear it in remembrance of Franceand his own heroism. But nothing could tempt Wallace to turn asidefrom his duty. Impatient to pursue his journey toward the spot wherehe hoped to meet Bruce, he wrote a respectful excuse to the king; butarraying himself in the monarch's martial present (to assure hismajesty by the evidence of his son that his royal wish had been so farobeyed), he went to the prince to bid him farewell. Louis waspreparing for their departure, all three together, with young DeLongueville (whose pardon Wallace had obtained from the king on accountof the youth's abhorrence of the service which his brother hadcompelled him to adopt), and the two young men, from differentfeelings, expressed their disappointment when they found that theirbenefactor was going to leave them. Wallace gave his highness a packetfor the king, containing a brief statement of his vow to Lord Mar, anda promise, that when he had fulfilled it, Philip should see him atParis. The royal cavalcade then separated from the deliverer of itsprince; and Wallace, mounting a richly-barbed Arabian, which hadaccompanied his splendid armor, took the road to Rouen.

  Meanwhile, events not less momentous took place at Durham. The instantWallace had followed the Earl of Gloucester from the apartment in thecastle, it was entered by Sir Piers Gaveston. He demanded theminstrel. Bruce replied, he knew not where he was. Gaveston, eager toconvince the king that he was no accomplice with the suspected person,put the question a second time, and in a tone which he meant shouldintimidate the Scottish prince--"Where is the minstrel?"

  "I know not," replied Bruce.

  "And will you dare to tell me, earl," asked his interrogator, "thatwithin this quarter of an hour he has not been in this tower?--nay, inthis very room? The guards in your antechamber have told me that hewas; and can Lord Carrick stoop to utter a falsehood to screen anwandering beggar?"

  While he was speaking, Bruce stood eying him with increasing scorn.Gaveston paused.

  "You expect me to answer you!" said the prince. "Out of respect tomyself I will, for such is the unsullied honor of Robert Bruce, thateven the air shall not be tainted with slander against his truth,without being repurified by its confutation. Gaveston, you have knownme five years; two of them we passed together in the jousts ofFlanders, and yet you believe me capable of falsehood! Know then,unworthy of the esteem I have bestowed on you, that neither to savemean or great, would I deviate from the strict line of truth. The manyou seek may have been in this tower, in this room, as you present are,and as little am I bound to know where he now is, as whither you gowhen you relieve me from an inquisition which I hold myself accountableto no man to answer."

  "'Tis well," cried Gaveston; "and I am to carry this haughty message tothe king?"

  "If you deliver it as a message," answered Bruce, "you will prove thatthey who are ready to suspect falsehood, find its utterance easy. Myreply is to you. When King Edward speaks to me, I shall find theanswer that is due to him."

  "These attempts to provoke me into a private quarrel," cried Gaveston,"will not succeed. I am not to be so foiled in my duty. I must seekthe man through your apartments."

  "By whose authority?" demanded Bruce.

  "By my own, as the loyal subject of my outraged monarch. He bade mebring the traitor before him; and thus I obey."

  While speaking, Gaveston beckoned to his attendants to follow him tothe door whence Wallace had disappeared. Bruce threw himself before it.

  "I must forget the duty I owe to myself, before I allow you, or anyother man, to invade my privacy. I have already given you the answerthat becomes Robert Bruce; and in respect to your knighthood, insteadof compelling I request you to withdraw."

  Gaveston hesitated; but he knew the determined character of hisopponent, and therefore, with no very good grace, muttering that heshould hear of it from a more powerful quarter, he left the room.

  And certainly his threats were not in this instance vain; for promptwas the arrival of a marshal and his officers to force Bruce before theking.

  "Robert Bruce, Earl of Cleveland, Carrick and Annandale, I come tosummon you into the presence of your liege lord, Edward of England."

  "The Earl of Cleveland obeys," replied Bruce; and, with a fearlessstep, he walked out before the marshal.

  When he entered the presence-chamber, Sir Piers Gaveston stood besidethe royal couch, as if prepared to be his accuser. The king satsupported by pillows, paler with the mortifications of jealousy andbaffled authority than from the effects of hi
s wounds.

  "Robert Bruce!" cried he, the moment his eyes fell on him; but thesight of his mourning habit made a stroke upon his heart that sent outevidence of remorse in large globules on his forehead; he paused, wipedhis face with his handkerchief, and resumed: "Are you not afraid,presumptuous young man, thus to provoke your sovereign? Are you notafraid that I shall make that audacious head answer for the man whomyou thus dare to screen from my just revenge?"

  Bruce felt all the injuries he had suffered from this proud king rushat once upon his memory; and, without changing his position or loweringthe lofty expression of his looks, he firmly answered: "The judgment ofa just king I cannot fear; the sentence of an unjust one I despise."

  "This to his majesty's face!" exclaimed Soulis.

  "Insolence--rebellion--chastisement--even death!" were the words whichmurmured round the room at the honest reply.

  Edward had too much good sense to echo any one of them; but turning toBruce, with a sensation of shame he would gladly have repressed, hesaid that, in consideration of his youth, he would pardon him what hadpassed, and reinstate him in all the late Earl of Carrick's honors, ifhe would immediately declare where he had hidden the offending minstrel.

  "I have not hidden him," cried Bruce; "nor do I know where he is; buthad that been confided to me, as I know him to be an innocent man, nopower on earth should have wrenched him from me!"

  "Self-sufficient boy!" exclaimed Earl Buchan, with a laugh of contempt;"do you flatter yourself that he would trust such a novice as you arewith secrets of this nature?"

  Bruce turned on him an eye of fire.

  "Buchan," replied he, "I will answer you on other ground. Meanwhile,remember that the secrets of good men are open to every virtuous heart;those of the wicked they would be glad to conceal from themselves."

  "Robert Bruce," cried the king, "before I came this northern journey Iever found you one of the most devoted of my servants, the gentlestyouth in my court; and how do I see you at this moment? Braving mynobles to my face! How is it that until now this spirit never brokeforth?"

  "Because," answered the prince, "until now I have never seen thevirtuous friend whom you call upon me to betray."

  "Then you confess," cried the king, "that he was an instigator torebellion?"

  "I avow," answered Bruce, "that I never knew what true loyalty was tillhe taught it me; I never knew the nature of real chastity till heexplained it to me; nor comprehended what virtue might be till heallowed me to see in himself incorruptible fidelity, bravery undaunted,and a purity of heart not to be contaminated! And this is the man onwhom these lords would fasten a charge of treason and adultery! Butout of the filthy depths of their own breast arise the streams fromwhich they would blacked his fairness."

  "Your vindication," cried the king, "confirms his guilt. You admitthat he is not a minstrel in reality. Wherefore, then, did he steal inambuscade into my palace, but to betray either my honor or mylife--perhaps both?"

  "His errand here was to see me."

  "Rash boy!" cried Edward; "then you acknowledge yourself a premeditatedconspirator against me?"

  Soulis now whispered in the king's ear, but so low that Bruce did nothear him.

  "Penetrate further, my liege; this may be only a false confession toshield the queen's character. She who has once betrayed her duty,finds it easy to reward such handsome advocates."

  The scarlet of inextinguishable wrath now burned on the face of Edward."I will confront them," returned he; "surprise them into betrayingeach other."

  By his immediate orders the queen was brought in. She leaned on theCountess of Gloucester.

  "Jane," cried the king, "leave that woman; let her impudence sustainher."

  "Rather her innocence, my lord," said the countess, bowing, andhesitating to go.

  "Leave her to that," returned the incensed husband, "and she wouldgrovel on the earth like her own base passions. But stand before meshe shall, and without other support than the devils within her."

  "For pity!" cried the queen, extending her clasped hands toward Edward,and bursting into tears; "have mercy on me, for I am innocent!"

  "Prove it then," cried the king, "by agreeing with this confidant ofyour minstrel, and at once tell me by what name you addressed him whenyou allured him to my court? Is he French, Spanish, or English?"

  "By the Virgin's holy purity, I swear!" cried the queen, sinking on herknees, "that I never allured him to this court; I never beheld him tillI saw him at the bishop's banquet; and for his name, I know it not."

  "Oh, vilest of the vile!" cried the king, fiercely grasping his couch;"and didst thou become a wanton at a glance? From my sight thismoment, or I shall blast thee!"

  The queen dropped senseless into the arms of the Earl of Gloucester,who at that moment entered from seeing Wallace through the cavern. Atsight of him, Bruce knew that his friend was safe; and fearless forhimself when the cause of outraged innocence was at stake, he suddenlyexclaimed:

  "By one word, King Edward, I will confirm the blamelessness of thisinjured queen. Listen to me, not as a monarch and an enemy, but withthe unbiased judgment of man with man; and then ask your own braveheart if it would be possible for Sir William Wallace to be a seducer."

  Every mouth was dumb at the enunciation of that name. None dared opena lip in accusation; and the king himself, thunderstruck alike with theboldness of the conqueror venturing within the grasp of his revenge andat the daringness of Bruce in thus declaring his connection with him,for a few minutes he knew not what to answer; only he had receivedconviction of his wife's innocence! He was too well acquainted withthe history and uniform conduct of Wallace to doubt his honor in thistransaction; and though a transient fancy of the queen's might have hadexistence, yet he had now no suspicion of her actions. "Bruce," saidhe, "your honesty has saved the Queen of England. Though Wallace is myenemy, I know him to be of an integrity which neither man nor woman canshake; and therefore," added he, turning to the lords, "I declarebefore all who have heard me so fiercely arraign my injured wife, thatI believe her innocent of every offense against me. And whoever, afterthis, mentions one word of what has passed in these investigations, oreven whispers that they have been held, shall be punished as guilty ofhigh treason."

  Bruce was then ordered to be reconducted to the round-tower; and therest of the lords withdrawing by command, the king was left withGloucester, his daughter Jane, and the now reviving queen to make hispeace with her, even on his knees.

  Burce was more closely immured than ever. Not even his senachie wasallowed to approach him; and double guards were kept constantly aroundhis prison. On the fourth day of his seclusion an extra row of ironbars was put across his windows. He asked the captain of the party thereason for this new rivet on his captivity; but he received no answer.His own recollection, however, solved the doubt; for he could not butsee that his own declaration respecting his friendship with Wallace hadincreased the alarm of Edward respecting their political views. One ofthe warders, on having the same inquiry put to him which Bruce hadaddressed to his superior, in a rough tone replied:

  "He had best not ask questions, lest he should hear that his majestyhad determined to keep him under Bishop Beck's padlock for life."

  Bruce was not to be deprived of hope by a single evidence, and smiling,said:

  "There are more ways of getting out of a tyrant's prison, than by thedoors and windows!"

  "Why, you would not eat through the walls?" cried the man.

  "Certainly," replied Bruce, "if I have no other way, and through theguards too."

  "We'll see to that," answered the man.

  "And feel it too, my sturdy jailer," returned the prince; "so look toyourself."

  Bruce threw himself recklessly into a chair as he spoke; while the man,eying him askance, and remembering how strangely the minstrel haddisappeared, began to think that some people born in Scotland inheritedfrom nature a necromantic power of executing whatever they determined.

  Though carele
ss in his manner of treating the warder's information,Bruce thought of it with anxiety; and lost in reflections, checkeredwith hope and doubt of his ever effecting an escape, he remainedimmovable on the spot where the man had left him, till another sentinelbrought in a lamp. He set it down in silence, and withdrew; Bruce thenheard the bolts on the outside of his chamber pushed into their guards."There they go," said he to himself; "and those are to be the morningand evening sounds to which I am to listen all my days! At leastEdward would have it so. Such is the gratitude he shows to the man whorestored to him his wife; who restored to him the consciousness ofpossessing that honor unsullied which is so dear to every married man!Well, Edward, kindness might bind generous minds even to forget theirrights; but thanks to you, neither in my own person, nor for any of myname, do I owe you aught, but to behold me King of Scotland; and pleaseGod, that you shall, if the prayers of faith may burst thesedouble-steeled gates, and set me free!"

  While invocations to the Power in which he confided, and resolutionsrespecting the consequences of his hoped-for liberty, by turns occupiedhis mind, he heard the tread of a foot in the adjoining passage. Helistened breathless; for no living creature, he thought, could be inthat quarter of the building, as he had suffered none to enter it sinceWallace had disappeared by that way. He half rose from his couch, asthe door at which he had seen him last gently opened. He started up,and Gloucester, with a lantern in his hand, stood before him. The earlput his finger on his lip, and taking Bruce by the hand, led him, as hehad done Wallace, down into the vault which leads to Fincklay Abbey.

  When safe in that subterraneous cloister, the earl replied to theimpatient gratitude of Bruce (who saw that the generous Gloucestermeant he should follow the steps of his friend) by giving him asuccinct account of his motives for changing his first determination,and now giving him liberty. He had not visited Bruce since the escapeof Wallace, that he might not excite any new suspicion in Edward; andthe tower being fast locked at every usual avenue, he had now enteredit from the Fincklay side. He then proceeded to inform Bruce, thatafter his magnanimous forgetfulness of his own safety to insure that ofthe queen had produced a reconciliation between her and her husband,Buchan, Soulis, and Athol, with one or two English lords, joined thenext day to persuade the king that Bruce's avowal respecting Wallacehad been merely an invention of his own to screen some baser friend androyal mistress. They succeeded in reawakening doubts in Edward, who,sending for Gloucester, said to him, "Unless I could hear fromWallace's own lips (and in my case the thing is impossible), that hehas been here, and that my wife is guiltless of this foul stain, I mustever remain in horrible suspense. These base Scots, ever fertile inmaddening suggestions, have made me even more suspect that Bruce hadother reasons for his apparently generous risk of himself, than a loveof justice."

  While these ideas floated in the mind of Edward, Bruce had been moreclosely immured. And Gloucester having received the promised letterfrom Wallace, determined to lay it before the king. Accordingly, onemorning the earl, gliding unobserved into the presence-chamber beforeEdward was brought in, laid the letter under his majesty's cushion. AsGloucester expected, the moment the king saw the superscription, heknew the hand; and hastily breaking the seal, read the letter twiceover to himself without speaking a word. But the clouds which had hungon his countenance all passed away; and with a smile reaching thepacket to Gloucester, he commanded him to read aloud "that silencer ofall doubts respecting the honor of Margaret of France and England."Gloucester obeyed; and the astonished nobles, looking on each other,one and all assented to the credit that ought to be given to Wallace'sword, and deeply regretted having ever joined in a suspicion againsther majesty. Thus, then, all appeared amicably settled. But theembers of discord still glowed. The three Scottish lords, afraid lestBruce might be again taken into favor, labored to show that hisfriendship with Wallace, pointed to his throwing off the English yoke,and independently assuming the Scottish crown. Edward required noarguments to convince him of the probability of this; and he readilycomplied with Bishop Beck's request to allow him to hold the royalyouth his prisoner. But when the Cummins won this victory over Bruce,they gained nothing for themselves. During the king's vain inquiriesrespecting the manner in which Wallace's letter had been conveyed tothe apartment, they had ventured to throw hints of Bruce having beenthe agent, by some secret means, and that however innocent the queenmight be, he certainly evinced, by such solicitude for her exculpation,a more than usual interest in her person. These latter innuendoes theking crushed in the first whisper. "I have done enough with RobertBruce," said he. "He is condemned a prisoner for life, and a meresuspicion shall never provoke me to give sentence for his death."Irritated by this reply, and the contemptuous glance with which it wasaccompanied, the vindictive triumvirate turned from the king to thecourt; and having failed in accomplishing the destruction of Bruce andhis more renowned friend, they determined at least to make a wreck oftheir moral fame. The guilt of Wallace and the queen, and theparticipation of Bruce, was now whispered through every circle, andcredited in proportion to the evil disposition of the hearers.

  Once of his pages at last brought to the ears of the kings the storieswhich these lords so basely circulated; and sending for them, he gavethem so severe a reprimand, that, retiring from his presence withstifled wrath, they agreed to accept the invitation of young LordBadenoch, return to their country, and support him in the regency.Next morning Edward was informed they had secretly left Durham; andfearing that Bruce might also make his escape, a consultation was heldbetween the king and Beck of so threatening a complexion, thatGloucester no longer hesitated to run all risks, but immediately togive the Scottish prince his liberty.

  Having led him to safety through the vaulted passage, they parted inthe cemetery of Fincklay; Gloucester, to walk back to Durham by thebanks of the Wear; and Bruce, to mount the horse the good earl had lefttied to a tree, to convey him to Hartlepool. There he embarked forNormandy.

  When he arrived at Caen, he made no delay, but taking a rapid courseacross the country toward Rouen, on the second evening of histraveling, having pursued his route without sleep, he felt himself soovercome with fatigue, that, in the midst of a vast and dreary plain,he found it necessary to stop for rest at the first habitation he mightfind. It happened to be the abode of one of those poor, but piousmatrons, who, attaching themselves to some neighboring order ofcharity, live alone in desert places for the purpose of succoringdistressed travelers. Here Bruce found the widow's cruse, and a palletto repose his weary limbs.