The Scottish Chiefs
Chapter LXXIII.
Ballochgeich.
The marshals with difficulty interrupted the mortal attack which theenemies and friends of Wallace made on each other; several of theCummins were maimed, Lord Athol himself was severely wounded byKirkpatrick, but the teacherous regent gladly saw that none on his sidewere hurt unto death. With horrid menaces the two parties separated,the one to the regent's apartments, the other to the camp of Wallace.
Lord Bothwell found him encircled by his veterans, in whose breasts hewas trying to allay the storm raging there against the injustice of theregent and the ingratitude of the Scottish lords. At sight of theyoung and ardent Bothwell, their clamor to be led instantly to revengethe indignity offered to their general redoubled, and Murray, not lessincensed, turning to them exclaimed:
"Yes, my friends, keep quiet for a few hours, and then, what honorcommands we will do!" At this assurance they retired to theirquarters, and Bothwell turned with Wallace into his tent.
"Before you utter a word concerning the present scenes," cried Wallace,"tell me how is the hope of Scotland? the only earthly stiller of thesehorrid tumults!"
"Alas!" replied Bothwell. "After regaining, by a valor worthy of hisdestiny, every fortress north of the Forth, his last and greatestachievement was making himself master of Scone; but in storming itswalls a fragment of stone falling heavily, terribly rent the muscles ofhis breast, and now--woe to Scotland!--he lies at Huntingtower reducedto infant weakness. All this you would have known had you received hisletters; but villainy must have been widely at work, for none of yourshave reached his hands."
This intelligence respecting Bruce was a more mortal blow to Wallacethan all he had just sustained in his own person. He remained silent,but his mind was thronged with thoughts. Was Scotland to be indeedlost? Was all that he had suffered and achieved to have been done invain? and should he be fated to behold her again made a sacrifice tothe jealous rivalry of her selfish and contending nobles?
Bothwell continued to speak of the prince, and added, that it was withreluctance he had left him, even to share the anticipated success atBerwick. But Bruce, impatient to learn the issue of the siege (asstill no letters arrived from that quarter), had dispatched him back tothe borders. At Dunfermline he was stricken with horror by theinformation that treason had been alleged against Wallace, and turninghis steps westward, he flew to give that support to his friend'sinnocence which the malignity of his enemies might render needful.
"The moment I heard how you were beset," continued Bothwell, "Idispatched a messenger to Lord Ruthven, warning him not to alarm Brucewith such tidings, but to send hither all the spare forces inPerthshire, to maintain you in your rights."
"No force, my dear Bothwell, must be used so hold me in a power whichnow would only keep alive a spirit of discord in my country. If I dareapply the words of my Divine Master, I would say, I came not to bring asword but peace to the people of Scotland! Then, if they are weary ofme, let me go. Bruce will recover, they will rally round his standard,and all be well."
"Oh, Wallace! Wallace!" cried Bothwell, "the scene I have this daywitnessed is enough to make a traitor of me. I could forswear myinsensible country--I could immolate its ungrateful chieftains on thosevery lands which your generous arm restored to these worthless men!"He threw himself into a seat, and leaned his burning forehead againsthis hand.
"Cousin, you declare my sentiments," rejoined Edwin; "my soul can neveragain associate with these sons of Envy. I cannot recognize acountryman in any one of them; and, should Sir William Wallace quit aland so unworthy of his virtues, where he goes I will go--his asylumshall be my country, and Edwin Ruthven will forget that he ever was aScot."
"Never," cried Wallace, turning on him one of those looks which struckconviction into the heart. "Is man more just than God? Though athousand of your countrymen offend you by their crimes, yet while thereremains one honest Scot, for his sake and his posterity it is your dutyto be a patriot. A nation is one great family, and every individual init is as much bound to promote the general good as a brother or afather to maintain the welfare of his nearest kindred. And it thetransgression of one son be no arouse for the omission of another, inlike manner, the ruin these turbulent lords would bring upon Scotlandis no excuse for your desertion of your interest. I would not leavethe helm of my country did she not thrust me from it; but though castby her into the waves, would you not blush for your friend should hewish her other than a peaceful haven?" Edwin spoke not, but puttingthe hand of Wallace to his lips, left the tent.
"Oh!" cried Bothwell, looking after him, "that the breast of woman hadbut half that boy's tenderness! And yet all of that dangerous sex arenot like this hyena-hearted Lady Strathearn. Tell me, try friend, didshe not, when she disappeared so strangely from Huntingtower, fly toyou? I now suspect, from certain remembrances, that she and the GreenKnight are one aid the same person. Acknowledge it, and I will unmaskher at once to the court she has deceived."
"She has deceived no one," replied Wallace. "Before she spoke, themembers of that court were determined to brand me with guilt, and hercharge merely supplied the place of others which they would havedevised against me. Whatever she may be, my dear Bothwell, for thesake of whose name she once bore, let us not expose her to open shame.Her love or her hatred are alike indifferent to me now, for I neitherof them do I owe that innate malice of my countrymen which has onlymade her calumny the occasion of manifesting their resolution to makeme infamous. But that, my friend, is beyond her compass. I have donemy duty to Scotland, and that conviction must live in every honestheart--ay, and with dishonest too--for did they not fear my integrity,they would not have thought it necessary to deprive me of power.Heaven shield our prince! I dread that Badenoch's next shaft may be athim!"
"No," cried Bothwell, "all is leveled at his best friend. In a lowvoice, I taxed the regent with disloyalty for permitting this outrageon you, and his basely envious answer was: 'Wallace's removal isBruce's security; who will acknowledge him when they know that this manis his dictator?'"
Wallace sighed at this reply, which only confirmed him in hisresolution, and he told Bothwell that he saw no alternative, if hewished to still the agitations of his country, and preserve its princefrom premature discovery, but to indeed remove the subject of all thesecontentions from their sight.
"Attempt it not!" exclaimed Bothwell; "propose but a step toward thatend, and you will determine me to avenge my country, at the peril of myown life, on all in that accursed assembly who have menaced yours!" Inshort, the young earl's denunciations were so earnest against the lordsin Stirling, that Wallace, thinking it dangerous to exasperate himfurther, consented to remain in his camp till the arrival of Ruthvenshould bring him the advantage of his counsel.
The issue showed that Bothwell was not mistaken. The majority of theScottish nobles envied Wallace his glory, and hated him for that virtuewhich drew the eyes of the people to compare him with their selfishcourses. The regent, hoping to become the first in Bruce's favor, wasnot less urgent to ruin the man who so deservedly stood the highest inthat prince's esteem. He had therefore entered warmly into the projectof Lady Strathearn. But when, during a select conference between them,previous to her open charge of Wallace, she named Sir Thomas deLongueville as one of his foreign emissaries, Cummin observed:
"If you would have your accusation succeed, do not mention that knightat all. He is my friend. He is now ill near Perth, and must knownothing of this affair till it be over. Should he live, he will noblythank you for your forbearance; should he die, I will repay you asbecomes your nearest kinsman."
All were thus united in one determined effort to hurl Wallace from hisstation in the state. But when they believed that done, they quarreledamongst themselves in deciding who was to fill the great militaryoffice, which his prowess had now rendered a post rather of honor thanof danger.
In the midst of these feuds Sir Simon Fraser abruptly appeared in thecouncil-hall. His countenance p
roclaimed his tidings. Lennox andLoch-awe (who had duly attended, in hopes of bringing over some of themore pliable chiefs to embrace the cause of justice) listened withsomething like exultation to his suddenly disastrous information. Whenthe English governor at Berwick learned the removal of Wallace from hiscommand and the consequent consternation of the Scottish troops,instead of surrendering at sunset as was expected, he sallied out atthe head of the whole garrison, and attacking the Scots by surprise,gave them a total defeat. Every outpost around the town was retaken bythe Southrons, the army of Fraser was cut to pieces or put to flight,and himself now arriving at Stirling, smarting with many a wound butmore under his dishonor, to show to the Regent of Scotland the evil ofhaving superseded the only man whom the enemy feared. The councilstood in silence, staring on each other; and, to add to their dismay,Fraser had hardly completed his narration, before a messenger fromTiviotdale arrived to inform the regent that King Edward was himselfwithin a few miles of the Cheviots; and, from the recovered position ofBerwick, must have even now poured his thousands over those hills uponthe plains beneath. While all the citadel was indecision, tumult, andalarm, Lennox hastened to Wallace's camp with the news.
Lord Ruthven and the Perthshire chiefs were already there. They hadarrived early in the morning, but with unpromising tidings of Bruce.The state of his wound had induced a constant delirium. But stillWallace clung to the hope that his country was not doomed toperish--that its prince's recovery was only protracted. In the midstof this anxiety, Lennox entered; and relating what he had just heard,turned the whole current of the auditor's ideas. Wallace started fromhis seat. His hand mechanically caught up his sword, which lay uponthe table. Lennox gazed at him with animated veneration. "There isnot a man in the citadel," cried he, "who does not appear at his wits'end, and incapable of facing this often-beaten foe. Will you, Wallace,again condescend to save a country that has treated you soungratefully?"
"I would die in its trenches!" cried the chief, with a generousforgiveness of all his injuries suffusing his magnanimous heart.
Lord Loch-awe soon after appeared, and corroborating the testimony ofLennox added, that on the regent's sending word to the troops on thesouth of Stirling, that in consequence of the treason of Sir WilliamWallace the supreme command was taken from him, and they mustimmediately march out under the orders of Sir Simon Fraser, to face anew incursion of the enemy, they began to murmur among themselves,saying that since Wallace was found to be a traitor, they knew not whomto trust; but certainly it should not be a beaten general. With thesewhisperings, they slid away from their standards; and when Loch-aweleft them they were dispersed on all sides, like an already discomfitedarmy.