The Scottish Chiefs
Chapter LXVIII.
Roslyn.
The day after the departure of Helen, Bruce became impatient to takethe field; and, to indulge this laudable eagerness, Wallace set forthwith him to meet the returning steps of Ruthven and his gatheredlegions.
Having passed along the borders of Invermay, the friends descendedtoward the precipitous banks of the Earn, at the foot of the Grampians.In these green labyrinths they wound their way, till Bruce, who hadnever before been in such mountain wilds, expressed a fear that Wallacehad mistaken the track; for this seemed far from any human footstep.
Wallace replied, with a smile. "The path is familiar to me as thegarden of Huntingtower."
The day, which had been cloudy, suddenly turned to wind and rain, whichcertainly spread an air of desolation over the scene, very dreary to aneye accustomed to the fertile plains and azure skies of the south. Thewhole of the road was rough, dangerous, and dreadful. The steep andblack rocks, towering above their heads, seemed to threaten theprecipitation of their impending masses into the path below. ButWallace had told Bruce they were in the right track, and he gailybreasted both the storm and the perils of the road. They ascended amountain, whose enormous piles of granite, torn by many a wintertempest, projected their barren summits from a surface of moorland, onwhich lay a deep incrustation of snow. The blast now blew a tempest,and the rain and sleet beat so hard, that Bruce, laughing, declared hebelieved the witches of his country were in league with Edward, and,hid in shrouds of mist, were all assembled here to drive their lawfulprince into the roaring cataracts beneath.
Thus enveloped in a sea of vapors, with torrents of water pouring downthe sides of their armor, did the friends descend the western brow ofthis part of the Grampians until they approached Loch Earn. They hadhardly arrived there before the rain ceased, and the clouds, rollingaway from the sides of the mountains, discovered the vast andprecipitous Ben Vorlich. Its base was covered with huge masses ofcliffs, scattered in fragments, like the wreck of some rocky world, andspread abroad in wide and horrid desolation. The mountain itself, thehighest in this chain of the Grampians, was in every part marked bydeep and black ravines, made by the rushing waters in the time offloods; but where its blue head mingled with the clouds, a stream ofbrightness issued that seemed to promise the dispersion of its vapors;and consequently a more secure path for Wallace, to lead his friendover its perilous heights.**
**This description of Ben Vorlich, written ten years before the journeyof the author's brother, Sir. R. K. Porter, into Armenia and Persia, onher reperusing it now, while revising these volumes, reminds herstrongly of his account of the appearance of Mount Arafat, as he saw itunder a storm, and which he describes with so much, she must be allowedto say, sacred interest, in his travels through thosecountries.--(1840.)
This appearance did not deceive. The whole mantle of clouds, withwhich the tops of all the mountains had been obscured, rolled awaytoward the west, and discovered to the eye of Wallace that this line oflight which he had discerned through the mist, was the host of Ruthvendescending Ben Vorlich in defiles. From the nature of the path, theywere obliged to move in a winding direction, and as the sun now shonefull upon their arms, and their lengthened lines gradually extendedfrom the summit of the mountain to its base, no sight could containmore of the sublime, none of truer grandeur to the enraptured mind ofBruce. He forgot his horror of the wastes he had passed over in thejoy of beholding so noble an army of his countrymen thus approaching toplace him upon the throne of his ancestors. "Wallace," cried he,"these brave hearts deserve a more cheerful home! My scepter must turnthis Scotia desrta into Scotia felix; and so shall I reward the servicethey this day bring me."
"They are happy in these wilds," returned Wallace, "their flocks browsethe hills, their herds the valleys. The soil yields sufficient tosupport its sons; and their luxuries are, a minstrel's song and the lipof their brides. Their ambition is satisfied with following theirchief to the field; and their honor lies in serving their God andmaintaining the freedom of their country. Beware, then, my dearprince, of changing the simple habits of those virtuous mountaineers.Introduce the luxurious cultivation of France into these tracts, youwill infect them with artificial wants; and, with every want, you put alink to a chain which will fasten them to bondage whenever a tyrantchooses to grasp it. Leave them then their rocks as you find them, andyou will ever have a hardy race, ready to perish in their defense, orto meet death for the royal guardian of their liberties."
Lord Ruthven no sooner reached the banks of Loch Earn, than he espiedthe prince and Wallace. He joined them; then marshaling his men in awide tract of land at the head of that vast body of water, placedhimself with the two supposed De Longuevilles in the van; and in thisarray marched through the valleys of Strathmore and Strathallen, intoStirlingshire. The young Earl of Fife held the government of thecastle and town of Stirling; and as he had been a zealous supporter ofthe rebellious Lord Badenoch, Bruce negatized Ruthven's proposal tosend in a messenger for the earl's division of the troops.
"No, my lord," said he, "like my friend Wallace, I will have no dividedspirits near me; all must be earnest in my cause, or entirely out ofthe contest. I am content with the brave men around me."
After rapid marchings and short haltings, they arrived safe atLinlithgow, where Wallace proposed staying a night to refresh thetroops, who were now joined by Sir Alexander Ramsay, at the head of athousand of his clan. While the men took rest, the chiefs waked tothink for them. And Wallace, with Bruce and Ruthven, and the braveRamsay (to whom Wallace had revealed himself, but still kept Bruceunknown), were in deep consultation when Grimsby entered to inform hismaster that a young knight desired to speak with Sir Guy de Longueville.
"His name?" demanded Wallace.
"He refused to tell it," replied Grimsby, "and wears his beaver shut."
Wallace looked around with a glance that inquired whether the strangershould be admitted.
"Certainly," said Bruce, "but first put on your mask."
Wallace closed his visor, and the moment after Grimsby reentered, witha knight of elegant mien, habited in a suit of green armor, linked withgold. He wore a close helmet, from which streamed a long feather, ofthe same hue. Wallace rose at his entrance; the stranger advanced tohim.
"You are he whom I seek. I am a Scot, and a man of few words. Acceptmy services, allow me to attend you in this war, and I will serve youfaithfully."
Wallace replied: "And who is the brave knight to whom Sir Guy deLongueville must owe so great an obligation?"
"My name," answered the stranger, "shall not be revealed till he whonow wears that of the Reaver proclaims his own in the day of victory.I know you, sir, but your secret is as safe with me as in your ownbreast. Place me to fight by your side, and I am yours forever."
Wallace was surprised, but not confounded by this speech. "I have onlyone question to ask you, noble stranger," replied he, "before I confidea cause dearer to me than life in your integrity. How did you becomemaster of a secret, which I believed out of the power of treachery tobetray?"
"No one betrayed your secret to me. I came by my information in anhonorable manner, but the means I shall not reveal till I see the timeto declare my name, and that, perhaps, may be in the moment when theassumed brother of yon young Frenchman," added the stranger, turning toBruce, and lowering his voice, "again appears publicly in Scotland, asSir William Wallace."
"I am satisfied," replied he, well pleased that whoever this knightmight be, Bruce yet remained undiscovered; "I grant your request. Yonbrave youth, whose name I share, forgives me the success of my sword.I slew the red Reaver, and therefore would restore a brother to Thomasde Longueville, in myself. He fights on my right hand, you shall bestationed at my left."
"On the side next your heart!" exclaimed the stranger, "let that everbe my post, there to guard the bulwark of Scotland, the life of thebravest of men."
This enthusiasm did not surprise any present; it was the usual languageof
all who approached Sir William Wallace; and Bruce, particularlypleased with the heartfelt energy with which it was uttered, forgot hisdisguise in the amiable fervor of approbation, and half arose towelcome him to his cause; but a look from Wallace (who on being knownhad uncovered his face), arrested his intention and the prince sat downagain, thankful for so timely a check on his precipitancy.
In passing the Pentland Hills, into Mid-Lothian, the chiefs were met byEdwin, who had crossed from the north by the Frith of Forth; and havingheard no tidings of the Scottish army in the neighborhood of Edinburgh,he had turned to meet it on the most probably road. Wallace introducedhim to the Knight of the Green Plume, for that was the appellation bywhich the stranger desired to be known--and then made inquiries howLady Helen had borne the fatigues of her journey to Braemar. "Prettywell there," replied he, "but much better back again." He thenexplained that on his arrival with her, neither Lady Mar nor his motherwould consent to remain so far from the spot where Wallace was tocontend again for the safety of their country. Helen did not sayanything in opposition to their wishes; and at last Edwin yielded tothe entreaties and tears of his mother and aunt, to bring them to wherethey might, at least, not long endure the misery of suspense. Havingconsented, without an hour's delay, he set forth with the ladies, toretrace his steps to Huntingtower; and there he left them, under aguard of three hundred men, whom he brought from Braemar for thatpurpose.
Bruce, whose real name had not been revealed to the other ladies ofRuthven's family, in a lowered tone, asked Edwin some questionsrelative to the spirits in which Helen had parted with him. "In losingher," added he, "my friend and I feel but as part of what we were. Herpresence seemed to ameliorate the fierceness of our war-councils, andever reminded me of the angelic guard by whom Heaven points our way."
"I left her with looks like the angel you speak of," answered Edwin;"but she bade me farewell upon the platform of the eastern tower of thecastle. When I gave her the parting embrace, she raised herself frommy breast, and stretching her arms to heave, with her pure soul in hereyes, she exclaimed, 'Bless him, gracious God; bless him, and his noblecommander! may they ever, with the prince they love, be thine especialcare!' I knelt by her as she uttered this; and touching the hem of hergarments as some holy thing, hurried from the spot."
"Her prayers," cried Bruce, "will fight for us. They are arms wellbefitting the virgins of Scotland to use against its foes."
"And without such unction," rejoined Wallace, looking to that Heavenshe had invoked, "the warrior may draw his steel in vain."
On Edwin's introduction, the stranger knight engaged himself inconversation with Ramsay. But Lord Ruthven interrupted the discourse,by asking Ramsay some questions relative to the military positions onthe banks of the Eske. Sir Alexander, being the grandson of the Lordof Roslyn, and having passed his youth in its neighborhood, was wellqualified to answer these questions. In such discourses, the Scottishleaders marched along, till, passing before the lofty ridge of theCorstophine Hills, they were met by groups of flying peasantry. Atsight of the Scottish banners they stopped, and informed their armedcountrymen, that the new regent, John of Badenoch, having rashlyattacked the Southron army in its vantage ground, near BorthwickCastle, had suffered defeat, and was in full and disordered retreattoward Edinburgh, while the country people fled on all sides before thevictors. These reporters magnified the number of the enemy to anincredible amount.
Wallace was at no loss in comprehending how much to believe in thispanic; but determining, whether great or small the power of hisadversary, to intercept him at Roslyn, he sent to Cummin and to Fraser,the two commanders in the beaten and dispersed armies, to rendezvous onthe banks of the Eske. The brave troops which he led, though ignorantof their real leader, obeyed his direction under an idea they were LordRuthven's, who was their ostensible general, and steadily pursued theirmarch. Every village and solitary cot seemed recently deserted; andthrough an awful solitude they took their rapid way, till the towers ofRoslyn Castle hailed them as a beacon from amidst the wooded heights ofthe northern Eske.
"There," cried Ramsay, pointing to the embattled rock, "stands thefortress of my forefathers! It must this day be made famous by theactions performed before its walls!"
Wallace, whose knowledge of this part of the country was not quite sofamiliar as that of Ramsay, learned sufficient from him to decide atonce which would be the most favourable position for a small andresolute band to assume against a large and conquering army; and,accordingly disposing his troops, which did not amount to more thaneight thousand men, he dispatched one thousand, under the command ofRamsay, to occupy the numerous caves in the southern banks of the Eske,where they were to issue in various divisions, and with shouts, on thefirst appearance of advantage, either on his side or on the enemy's.
Ruthven, meanwhile, went for a few minutes into the castle to embracehis niece, and to assure the venerable Lord of Roslyn that assistanceapproached his beleaguered walls.
Edwin, who, with Grimsby, had volunteered the dangerous service ofreconnoitering the enemy, returned within an hour, bringing in astraggler from the English camp. His life was promised him oncondition of his revealing the strength of the advancing army. Theterrified wretch did not hesitate; and from him they learned that itwas commanded by Sir John Segrave and Ralph Confrey, who, deeming thecountry subdued by the two last battles gained over the Black and RedCummins,** were preparing for a general plundering. And, to sweep theland at once, Segrave had divided his army into three divisions, toscatter themselves over the country, and everywhere gather in thespoil. To be assured of this being the truth, while Grimsby remainedto guard the prisoner, Edwin went alone into the track he was told theSouthrons would take, and from a height he discerned about ten thousandof them winding along the valley. With this confirmation of the man'saccount, he brought him to the Scottish lines; and Wallace, who wellknew how to reap advantage from the errors of his enemies, being joinedby Fraser and the discomfited regent, made the concerted signal toRuthven. That nobleman immediately pointed out to his men the wavingcolors of the Southron host, as it approached beneath the overhangingwoods of Hawthorndean. He exhorted them, by their fathers, wives, andchildren, to breast the enemy at this spot; to grapple with him till hefell. "Scotland," cried he, "is lost or won, this day. You arefreemen or slaves; your families are your own, or the property oftyrants! Fight stoutly, and God will yield you an invisible support."
**The Red Cummin was an attributive appellation of John, the lastregent before the accession of Bruce. His father, the princely Earl ofBadenoch, was called the Black Cummin.
The Scots answered their general by a shout, and calling on him to leadthem forward, Ruthven placed himself, with the regent and Fraser, inthe van, and led the charge. Little expecting an assault from anadversary they had so lately driven off the field, the Southrons weretaken by surprise. But they fought well, and resolutely stood theirground till Wallace and Bruce, who commanded the flanking divisions,closed in upon them with an impetuosity that drove Confrey's divisioninto the river. Then the ambuscade of Ramsay poured from his caves,the earth seemed teeming with mailed warriors, and the Southrons,seeing the surrounding heights and the deep defiles filled with thesame terrific appearances, fled with precipitation toward their seconddivision, which lay a few miles southward. Thither the conqueringsquadrons of the Scots followed them. The fugitives, leaping thetrenches of the encampment, called out to their comrades: "Arm! arm!Hell is in league against us!" Segrave was soon at the head of hislegions, and a battle more desperate than the first blazed over thefield. The flying troops of the slain Confrey, rallying around thestandard of their general-in-chief, fought with the spirit of revenge,and, being now a body of nearly 20,000 men, against 8000 Scots, theconflict became tremendous. In several points the Southrons gained sogreatly the advantage that Wallace and Bruce threw themselvessuccessively into those parts where the enemy most prevailed, and byexhortations, example and prowess they a thousand times turned
the fateof the day, appearing as they shot from rank to rank to be two cometsof fire sent before the Scottish troops to consume all who opposedthem. Segrave was taken, and forty English knights besides.
The green borders of the Eske were dyed red with Southron blood; andthe enemy on all sides were calling for quarter, when, of a sudden, thecry of "Havoc and St. George!" issued from the adjoining hill. At thesame moment, a posse of country people (who, for the sake of plunder,had stolen into the height), seeing the advancing troops of a thirddivision of the enemy, like guilty cowards rushed down amongst theirbrave defenders, echoing the war-cry of England, and exclaiming, "Weare lost--a host, reaching to the horizon, is upon us!" Terror struckto many a Scottish heart. The Southrons who were just about giving uptheir arms, leaped upon their feet. The fight recommenced withredoubled fury. Sir Robert Neville, at the head of the newreinforcement, charged into the center of the Scottish legions. Bruceand Edwin threw themselves into the breach which this impetuous onsethad made in that part of their line, and fighting man to man, wouldhave taken Neville, had not a follower of that nobleman, wielding aponderous mace, struck Bruce so terrible a blow, as to fracture hishelmet, and cast him from his horse to the ground. The fall of soactive a leader excited as much dismay in the surrounding Scots as itencouraged the reviving spirits of the enemy. Edwin exerted himself topreserve his prince from being trampled on; and while he fought forthat purpose, and afterward sent his senseless body off the field,under charge of young Gordon (who had been chosen by the disguisedBruce as his especial aid), to Roslyn Castle, Neville rescued Segraveand his knights. Lord Ruthven now contended with a feeble arm.Fatigued with the two preceding conflicts, covered with wounds, andperceiving indeed a host pouring upon them on all sides (for the wholeof Segrave's original army of 30,000 men, excepting those who hadfallen in the preceding engagements, were now restored to the assault),the Scots, in despair, gave ground: some threw away their arms, to flythe faster; and by thus exposing themselves, panic-struck, to theswords of their enemies, redoubled the confusion.
Indeed, so great was the havoc, that the day must have ended in theuniversal destruction of every Scot on the field, had not Wallace feltthe crisis, and that as Guy de Longueville he shed his blood in vain.In vain his terrified countrymen saw him rush into the thickest of thecarnage; in vain he called to them, by all that was sacred to man, tostand to the last. He was a foreigner, and they had no confidence inhis exhortations; death was before them, and they turned to fly. Thefate of his country was hung on an instant. The last rays of thesetting sun shone full on the rocky promontory of the hill whichprojected over the field of combat. He took his resolution; andspurring his steed up the steep ascent, stood on the summit, where hecould be seen by the whole army then taking off his helmet, he waved itin the air with a shout, and having drawn all eyes upon him, suddenlyexclaimed, "Scots! you have this day vanquished the Southrons twice! ifyou be men, remember Cambus-Kenneth, and follow William Wallace to athird victory!" The cry which issued from the amazed troops was thatof a people who beheld the angel of their deliverance. "Wallace!" wasthe chargeword of every heart. The hero's courage seemedinstantaneously diffused through every breast; and, with braced armsand determined spirits, forming at once into the phalanx his thunderingvoice dictated, the Southrons again felt the weight of the Scottishsteel; and a battle ensued, which made the bright Eske run purple tothe sea, and covered the pastoral glades of Hawthorndean with thebodies of its invaders.
Sir John Segrave and Neville were both taken; and ere night closed inupon the carnage, Wallace granted quarter to those who sued for it,and, receiving their arms, left them to repose in their beforedepopulated camp.