CHAPTER THE FIFTH.
A tale of sorrow, for your eyes may weep; A tale of horror, for your flesh may tingle; A tale of wonder, for the eyebrows arch, And the flesh curdles if you read it rightly OLD PLAY.
"Your honour must be informed, gentle Sir Aymer de Valence, that I haveheard this story told at a great distance from the land in which ithappened, by a sworn minstrel, the ancient friend and servant of thehouse of Douglas, one of the best, it is said, who ever belonged tothat noble family. This minstrel, Hugo Hugonet by name, attended hisyoung master when on this fierce exploit, as was his wont.
"The castle was in total tumult; in one corner the war-men were busybreaking up and destroying provisions; in another, they were slayingmen, horses, and cattle, and these actions were accompanied withappropriate sounds. The cattle, particularly, had become sensible oftheir impending fate, and with awkward resistance and piteous cries,testified that reluctance with which these poor creatures lookinstinctively on the shambles. The groans and screams of men,undergoing, or about to undergo, the stroke of death, and the screechesof the poor horses which were in mortal agony, formed a fearful chorus.Hugonet was desirous to remove himself from such unpleasant sights andsounds; but his master, the Douglas, had been a man of some reading,and his old servant was anxious to secure a book of poetry, to which hehad been attached of old. This contained the Lays of an ancientScottish Bard, who, if an ordinary human creature while he was in thislife, cannot now perhaps be exactly termed such.
"He was, in short, that Thomas, distinguished by the name of theRhymer, and whose intimacy, it is said, became so great with the giftedpeople, called the Faery folk, that he could, like them, foretell thefuture deed before it came to pass, and united in his own person thequality of bard and of soothsayer. But of late years he had vanishedalmost entirely from this mortal scene; and although the time andmanner of his death were never publicly known, yet the general beliefwas, that he was not severed from the land of the living, but removedto the land of Faery, from whence he sometimes made excursions, andconcerned himself only about matters which were to come hereafter.Hugonet was the more earnest to prevent the loss of the works of thisancient bard, as many of his poems and predictions were said to bepreserved in the castle, and were supposed to contain much especiallyconnected with the old house of Douglas, as well as other families ofancient descent, who had been subjects of this old man's prophecy; andaccordingly he determined to save this volume from destruction in thegeneral conflagration to which the building was about to be consignedby the heir of its ancient proprietors. With this view he hurried upinto the little old vaulted room, called 'the Douglas's study,' inwhich there might be some dozen old books written by the ancientchaplains, in what the minstrels call _the letter black_. Heimmediately discovered the celebrated lay, called Sir Tristrem, whichhas been so often altered and abridged as to bear little resemblance tothe original. Hugonet, who well knew the value in which this poem washeld by the ancient lords of the castle, took the parchment volume fromthe shelves of the library, and laid it upon a small desk adjacent tothe Baron's chair. Having made such preparation for putting it insafety, he fell into a brief reverie, in which the decay of light, andthe preparations for the Douglas Larder, but especially the last sightof objects which had been familiar to his eyes, now on the eve ofdestruction, engaged him at that moment.
"The bard, therefore, was thinking within himself upon the uncommonmixture of the mystical scholar and warrior in his old master, when, ashe bent his eyes upon the book of the ancient Rhymer, he was astonishedto observe it slowly removed from the desk on which it lay by aninvisible hand. The old man looked with horror at the spontaneousmotion of the book, for the safety of which he was interested, and hadthe courage to approach a little nearer the table, in order to discoverby what means it had been withdrawn.
"I have said the room was already becoming dark, so as to render itdifficult to distinguish any person in the chair, though it nowappeared, on closer examination, that a kind of shadowy outline of ahuman form was seated in it, but neither precise enough to convey itsexact figure to the mind, nor so detailed as to intimate distinctly itsmode of action. The Bard of Douglas, therefore, gazed upon the objectof his fear, as if he had looked upon something not mortal;nevertheless, as he gazed more intently, he became more capable ofdiscovering the object which offered itself to his eyes, and they grewby degrees more keen to penetrate what they witnessed. A tall thinform, attired in, or rather shaded with, a long flowing dusky robe,having a face and physiognomy so wild and overgrown with hair as to behardly human, were the only marked outlines of the phantom; and,looking more attentively, Hugonet was still sensible of two otherforms, the outlines, it seemed, of a hart and a hind, which appearedhalf to shelter themselves behind the person and under the robe of thissupernatural figure."
"A probable tale," said the knight, "for you, Sir Minstrel, a man ofsense as you seem to be, to recite so gravely! From what wise authorityhave you had this tale, which, though it might pass well enough amidclanging beakers, must be held quite apocryphal in the sober hours ofthe morning?"
"By my minstrel word, Sir Knight," answered Bertram, "I am nopropagator of the fable, if it be one; Hugonet, the violer, when he hadretired into a cloister near the Lake of Pembelmere in Wales,communicated the story to me as I now tell it. Therefore, as it wasupon the authority of an eyewitness, I apologize not for relating it toyou, since I could hardly discover a more direct source of knowledge."
"Be it so, Sir Minstrel," said the knight; "tell on thy tale, and maythy legend escape criticism from others as well as from me."
"Hugonet, Sir Knight," answered Bertram, "was a holy man, andmaintained a fair character during his whole life, notwithstanding histrade may be esteemed a light one. The vision spoke to him in anantique language, like that formerly used in the kingdom ofStrath-Clyde, being a species of Scots or Gaelic, which few would havecomprehended.
"'You are a learned man,' said the apparition, 'and not unacquaintedwith the dialects used in your country formerly, although they are nowout of date, and you are obliged to translate them into the vulgarSaxon of Deira or Northumberland; but highly must an ancient Britishbard prize one in this "remote term of time," who sets upon the poetryof his native country a value which invites him to think of itspreservation at a moment of such terror as influences the presentevening.'
"'It is, indeed,' said Hugonet, 'a night of terror, that calls even thedead from the grave, and makes them the ghastly and fearful companionsof the living--Who or what art thou, in God's name, who breakest thebounds which divide them, and revisitest thus strangely the state thouhast so long bid adieu to?'
"'I am,' replied the vision, 'that celebrated Thomas the Rhymer, bysome called Thomas of Erceldoun, or Thomas the True Speaker. Like othersages, I am permitted at times to revisit the scenes of my former life,nor am I incapable of removing the shadowy clouds and darkness whichoverhang futurity; and know, thou afflicted man, that what thou nowseest in this woeful country, is not a general emblem of what shalltherein befall hereafter, but in proportion as the Douglasses are nowsuffering the loss and destruction of their home for their loyalty tothe rightful heir of the Scottish kingdom, so hath Heaven appointed forthem a just reward; and as they have not spared to burn and destroytheir own house and that of their fathers in the Bruce's cause, so isit the doom of Heaven, that as often as the walls of Douglas Castleshall be burnt to the ground, they shall be again rebuilt still morestately and more magnificent than before.'
"A cry was now heard like that of a multitude in the courtyard, joiningin a fierce shout of exultation; at the same time a broad and ruddyglow seemed to burst from the beams and rafters, and sparks flew fromthem as from the smith's stithy, while the element caught to its fuel,and the conflagration broke its way through every aperture.
"'See ye that?' said the vision, casting his eye towards the windowsand disappearing--'Begone! The fated hour of removing this book is no
tyet come, nor are thine the destined hands. But it will be safe where Ihave placed it, and the time of its removal shall come.' The voice washeard after the form had vanished, and the brain of Hugonet almostturned round at the wild scene which he beheld; his utmost exertion wasscarcely sufficient to withdraw him from the terrible spot, and DouglasCastle that night sunk into ashes and smoke, to arise, in no greatlength of time, in a form stronger than ever." The minstrel stopt, andhis hearer, the English knight, remained silent for some minutes ere atlength he replied.
"It is true, minstrel," answered Sir Aymer, "that your tale is so farundeniable, that this castle--three times burned down by the heir ofthe house and of the barony--has hitherto been as often reared again byHenry Lord Clifford, and other generals of the English, who endeavouredon every occasion to build it up more artificially and more stronglythan it had formerly existed, since it occupies a position tooimportant to the safety of our Scottish border to permit our yieldingit up. This I myself have partly witnessed. But I cannot think, thatbecause the castle has been so destroyed, it is therefore decreed so tobe repaired in future, considering that such cruelties, as surelycannot meet the approbation of Heaven, have attended the feats of theDouglasses. But I see thou art determined to keep thine own faith, norcan I blame thee, since the wonderful turns of fate which have attendedthis fortress, are sufficient to warrant any one to watch for what seemthe peculiar indications of the will of Heaven; but thou mayst believe,good minstrel, that the fault shall not be mine, if the young Douglasshall have opportunity to exercise his cookery upon a second edition ofhis family larder, or to profit by the predictions of Thomas theRhymer."
"I do not doubt due circumspection upon your own part and Sir John deWalton's," said Bertram; "but there is no crime in my saying thatHeaven can accomplish its own purposes. I look upon Douglas Castle asin some degree a fated place, and I long to see what changes time mayhave made in it during the currency of twenty years. Above all, Idesire to secure, if possible, the volume of this Thomas of Erceldoun,having in it such a fund of forgotten minstrelsy, and of propheciesrespecting the future fates of the British kingdom, both northern andsouthern."
The knight made no answer, but rode a little space forward, keeping theupper part of the ridge of the water, by which the road down the valeseemed to be rather sharply conducted. It at length attained the summitof an acclivity of considerable length. From this point, and behind aconspicuous rock, which appeared to have been pushed aside, as it were,like the scene of a theatre to admit a view of the under part of thevalley, the travellers beheld the extensive vale, parts of which havebeen already shown in detail, but which, as the river became narrower,was now entirely laid bare in its height and depth as far as itextended, and displayed in its precincts, at a little distance from thecourse of the stream, the towering and lordly castle to which it gavethe name. The mist which continued to encumber the valley with itsfleecy clouds, showed imperfectly the rude fortifications which servedto defend the small town of Douglas, which was strong enough to repel adesultory attack, but not to withstand what was called in those days aformal siege. The most striking feature was its church, an ancientGothic pile raised on an eminence in the centre of the town, and eventhen extremely ruinous. To the left, and lying in the distance, mightbe seen other towers and battlements; and divided from the town by apiece of artificial water, which extended almost around it, arose theDangerous Castle of Douglas.
Sternly was it fortified, after the fashion of the middle ages, withdonjon and battlements; displaying, above others, the tall tower, whichbore the name of Lord Henry's, or the Clifford's Tower.
"Yonder is the castle," said Aymer de Valence, extending his arm with asmile of triumph upon his brow; "thou mayst judge thyself, whether thedefences added to it under the Clifford are likely to render its nextcapture a more easy deed than the last."
The minstrel barely shook his head, and quoted from thePsalmist--"_Nisi Dominus custodiet_." Nor did he prosecute thediscourse, though De Valence answered eagerly, "My own edition of thetext is not very different from thine; but, methinks thou art morespiritually-minded than can always be predicated of a wanderingminstrel."
"God knows," said Bertram, "that if I, or such as I, are forgetful ofthe finger of Providence in accomplishing its purposes in this lowerworld, we have heavier blame than that of other people, since we areperpetually called upon, in the exercise of our fanciful profession, toadmire the turns of fate which bring good out of evil, and which renderthose who think only of their own passions and purposes the executorsof the will of Heaven."
"I do submit to what you say, Sir Minstrel," answered the knight, "andit would be unlawful to express any doubt of the truths which you speakso solemnly, any more than of your own belief in them. Let me add, sir,that I think I have power enough in this garrison to bid you welcome,and Sir John de Walton, I hope, will not refuse access to hall, castle,or knight's bower, to a person of your profession, and by whoseconversation we shall, perhaps, profit somewhat. I cannot, however,lead you to expect such indulgence for your son, considering thepresent state of his health; but if I procure him the privilege toremain at the convent of Saint Bride, he will be there unmolested andin safety, until you have renewed your acquaintance with Douglas Daleand its history, and are disposed to set forward on your journey."
"I embrace your honour's proposal the more willingly," said theminstrel, "that I can recompense the Father Abbot."
"A main point with holy men or women," replied De Valence, "who, intime of warfare, subsist by affording the visitors of their shrine themeans of maintenance in their cloisters for a passing season."
The party now approached the sentinels on guard at the castle, who wereclosely and thickly stationed, and who respectfully admitted Sir Aymerde Valence, as next in command under Sir John de Walton. Fabian--for sowas the young squire named who attended on De Valence--mentioned it ashis master's pleasure that the minstrel should also be admitted. An oldarcher, however, looked hard at the minstrel as he followed Sir Aymer."It is not for us," said he, "or any of our degree, to oppose thepleasure of Sir Aymer do Valence, nephew to the Earl of Pembroke, insuch a matter; and for us, Master Fabian, welcomes are you to make thegleeman your companion both at bed and board, as well as your visitant,a week or two at the Castle of Douglas; but your worship is well awareof the strict order of watch laid upon us, and if Solomon, King ofIsrael, were to come here as a travelling minstrel, by my faith I durstnot give him entrance, unless I had positive authority from Sir John deWalton."
"Do you doubt, sirrah," said Aymer de Valence, who returned on hearingan altercation betwixt Fabian and the archer--"do you doubt that I havegood authority to entertain a guest, or do you presume to contest it?"
"Heaven forbid!" said the old man, "that I should presume to place myown desire in opposition to your worship, who has so lately and sohonourably acquired your spurs; but in this matter I must think whatwill be the wish of Sir John de Walton, who is your governor, SirKnight, as well as mine; and so far I hold it worth while to detainyour guest until Sir John return from a ride to the outposts of thecastle; and this, I conceive, being my duty, will be no matter ofoffence to your worship."
"Methinks," said the knight, "it is saucy in thee to suppose that mycommands can have any thing in them improper, or contradictory to thoseof Sir John de Walton; thou mayst trust to me at least that thou shaltcome to no harm. Keep this man in the guard-room; let him not want goodcheer, and when Sir John de Walton returns, report him as a personadmitted by my invitation, and if any thing more be wanted to make outyour excuse, I shall not be reluctant in stating it to the governor."
The archer made a signal of obedience with the pike which he held inhis hand, and resumed the grave and solemn manner of a sentinel uponhis post. He first, however, ushered in the minstrel, and furnished himwith food and liquor, speaking at the same time to Fabian, who remainedbehind. The smart young stripling had become very proud of late, inconsequence of obtaining the name of Sir Aymer's squire, and advan
cinga step in chivalry, as Sir Aymer himself had, somewhat earlier than theusual period, been advanced from squire to knight.
"I tell thee, Fabian," said the old archer, (whose gravity, sagacity,and skill in his vocation, while they gained him the confidence of allin the castle, subjected him, as he himself said, occasionally to theridicule of the young coxcombs; and at the same time we may add,rendered him somewhat pragmatic and punctilious towards those who stoodhigher than himself in birth and rank;) "I tell thee, Fabian, thou wiltdo thy master, Sir Aymer, good service, if thou wilt give him a hint tosuffer an old archer, man-at-arms, or such like, to give him a fair andcivil answer respecting that which he commands; for undoubtedly it isnot in the first score of a man's years that he learns the variousproper forms of military service; and Sir John de Walton, a mostexcellent commander no doubt, is one earnestly bent on pursuing thestrict line of his duty, and will be rigorously severe, as well,believe me, with thy master as with a lesser person. Nay, he alsopossesses that zeal for his duty which induces him to throw blame, ifthere be the slightest ground for it, upon Aymer de Valence himself,although his uncle, the Earl of Pembroke, was John de Walton's steadypatron, and laid the beginning of his good fortune; for all which, bytraining up his nephew in the true discipline of the French wars, SirJohn has taken the best way of showing himself grateful to the eldEarl."
"Be it as you will, old Gilbert Greenleaf," answered Fabian, "thouknowest I never quarrel with thy sermonizing, and therefore give mecredit for submitting to many a lecture from Sir John de Walton andthyself; but thou drivest this a little too far, if thou canst not leta day pass without giving me a flogging. Credit me, Sir John de Waltonwill not thank thee, if thou term him one too old to remember that hehimself had once some green sap in his veins. Ay, thus it is, the oldman will not forget that he has once been young, nor the young that hemust some day be old; and so the one changes his manners into thelingering formality of advanced age, and the other remains like amidsummer torrent swoln with rain, every drop of water in it noise,froth, and overflow. There is a maxim for thee, Gilbert!--Heardest thouever better? hang it up amidst thy axioms of wisdom, and see if it willnot pass among them like fifteen to the dozen. It will serve to bringthee off, man, when the wine-pot (thine only fault, good Gilbert) hathbrought thee on occasion into something of a scrape."
"Best keep it for thyself, good Sir Squire," said the old man;"methinks it is more like to stand thyself one day in good stead. Whoever heard of a knight, or of the wood of which a knight is made, andthat is a squire, being punished corporally like a poor old archer orhorseboy? Your worst fault will be mended by some of these wittysayings, and your best service will scarce be rewarded more thankfullythan by giving thee the name of Fabian the Fabler, or some such wittytitle."
Having unloosed his repartee to this extent, old Greenleaf resumed acertain acidity of countenance, which may be said to characterise thosewhose preferment hath become frozen under the influence of the slownessof its progress, and who display a general spleen against such as haveobtained the advancement for which all are struggling, earlier, and, asthey suppose, with less merit than their own. From time to time the eyeof the old sentinel stole from the top of his pike, and with an air oftriumph rested upon the young man Fabian, as if to see how deeply thewound had galled him, while at the same time he held himself on thealert to perform whatever mechanical duty his post might require. BothFabian and his master were at the happy period of life when suchdiscontent as that of the grave archer affected them lightly, and, atthe very worst, was considered as the jest of an old man and a goodsoldier; the more especially, as he was always willing to do the dutyof his companions, and was much trusted by Sir John de Walton, who,though very much younger, had been bred up like Greenleaf in the warsof Edward the First, and was tenacious in upholding strict discipline,which, since the death of that great monarch, had been considerablyneglected by the young and warm-blooded valour of England.
Meantime it occurred to Sir Aymer de Valence, that though in displayingthe usual degree of hospitality shown, to such a man as Bertram, he hadmerely done what was becoming his own rank, as one possessed of thehighest honours of chivalry--the self-styled minstrel might not inreality be a man of that worth which he assumed. There was certainlysomething in his conversation, at least more grave, if not moreaustere, than was common to those of his calling; and when herecollected many points of Sir John de Walton's minuteness, a doubtarose in his mind, that the governor might not approve of his havingintroduced into the castle a person of Bertram's character, who wascapable of making observations from which the garrison might afterwardsfeel much danger and inconvenience. Secretly, therefore, he regrettedthat he had not fairly intimated to the wandering minstrel, that hisreception, or that of any stranger, within the Dangerous Castle, wasnot at present permitted by the circumstances of the times. In thiscase, the express line of his duty would have been his vindication, andinstead, perhaps of discountenance and blame, he would have had praiseand honour from his superior.
With these thoughts passing through his mind, some tacit apprehension.arose of a rebuke on the part of his commanding-officer; for thisofficer, notwithstanding his strictness, Sir Aymer loved as well asfeared. He went, therefore, towards the guard-room of the castle, underthe pretence of seeing that the rites of hospitality had been dulyobserved towards his late travelling companion. The minstrel aroserespectfully, and from the manner in which he paid his compliments,seemed, if he had not expected this call of enquiry, at least to be inno degree surprised at it. Sir Aymer, on the other hand, assumed an airsomething more distant than he had yet used towards Bertram, and inreverting to his former invitation, he now so far qualified it as tosay, that the minstrel knew that he was only second in command, andthat effectual permission to enter the castle ought to be sanctioned bySir John de Walton.
There is a civil way of seeming to believe any apology which people aredisposed to receive in payment, without alleging suspicion of itscurrency. The minstrel, therefore, tendered his thanks for the civilitywhich had so far been shown to him. "It was a mere wish of passingcuriosity," he said, "which, if not granted, could be attended with noconsequences either inconvenient or disagreeable to him. Thomas ofErceldoun was, according to the Welsh triads, _one of the three bardsof Britain_, who never stained a spear with blood, or was guilty eitherof taking or retaking castles and fortresses, and thus far not a personlikely, after death, to be suspected of such warlike feats. But I caneasily conceive why Sir John de Walton should have allowed the usualrites of hospitality to fall into disuse, and why a man of publiccharacter like myself ought not to desire food or lodging where it isaccounted so dangerous; and it can surprise no one why the governor didnot even invest his worthy young lieutenant with the power ofdispensing with so strict and unusual a rule."
These words, very coolly spoken, had something of the effect ofaffronting the young knight, as insinuating, that he was not heldsufficiently trustworthy by Sir John de Walton, with whom he had livedon terms of affection and familiarity, though the governor had attainedhis thirtieth year and upwards, and his lieutenant did not yet writehimself one-and-twenty, the full age of chivalry having been in hiscase particularly dispensed with, owing to a feat of early manhood. Erehe had fully composed the angry thoughts which were chafing in hismind, the sound of a hunting bugle was heard at the gate, and from thesort of general stir which it spread through the garrison, it was plainthat the governor had returned from his ride. Every sentinel, seeminglyanimated by his presence, shouldered his pike more uprightly, gave theword of the post more sharply, and seemed more fully awake andconscious of his duty. Sir John de Walton having alighted from hishorse, asked Greenleaf what had passed during his absence; the oldarcher thought it his duty to say that a minstrel, who seemed like aScotchman, or wandering borderer, had been admitted into the castle,while his son, a lad sick of the pestilence so much talked of, had beenleft for a time at the Abbey of Saint Bride. This he said on Fabian'sinformation. The archer added, that the fat
her was a man of tale andsong, who could keep the whole garrison amused, without giving themleave to attend to their own business.
"We want no such devices to pass the time," answered the governor; "andwe would have been better satisfied if our lieutenant had been pleasedto find us other guests, and fitter for a direct and frankcommunication, than one who, by his profession, is a detractor of Godand a deceiver of man."
"Yet," said the old soldier, who could hardly listen even to hiscommander without indulging the humour of contradiction, "I have heardyour honour intimate that the trade of a minstrel, when it is justlyacted up to, is as worthy as even the degree of knighthood itself."
"Such it may have been in former days," answered the knight; "but inmodern minstrelsy, the duty of rendering the art an incentive to virtueis forgotten, and it is well if the poetry which fired our fathers tonoble deeds, does not now push on their children to such as are baseand unworthy. But I will speak upon this to my friend Aymer, than whomI do not know a more excellent, or a more high-spirited young man."
While discoursing with the archer in this manner, Sir John de Walton,of a tall and handsome figure, advanced and stood within the ample archof the guard-room chimney, and was listened to in reverential silenceby trusty Gilbert, who filled up with nods and signs, as an attentiveauditor, the pauses in the conversation. The conduct of another hearerof what passed was not equally respectful, but, from his position, heescaped observation.
This third person was no other than the squire Fabian, who wasconcealed from observation by his position behind the hob, orprojecting portion of the old-fashioned fireplace, and hid himself yetmore carefully when he heard the conversation between the governor andthe archer turn to the prejudice, as he thought, of his master. Thesquire's employment at this time was the servile task of cleaning SirAymer's arms, which was conveniently performed by heating, upon theprojection already specified, the pieces of steel armour for the usualthin coating of varnish. He could not, therefore, if he should bediscovered, be considered as guilty of any thing insolent ordisrespectful. He was better screened from view, as a thick smoke arosefrom a quantity of oak panelling, carved in many cases with the crestand achievements of the Douglas family, which being the fuel nearest athand, lay smouldering in the chimney, and gathering to a blaze.
The governor, unconscious of this addition to his audience, pursued hisconversation, with Gilbert Greenleaf: "I need not tell you," he said,"that I am interested in the speedy termination of this siege orblockade, with which Douglas continues to threaten us; my own honourand affections are engaged in keeping this Dangerous Castle safe inEngland's behalf, but I am troubled at the admission of this stranger;and young De Valence would have acted more strictly in the line of hisduty, if he had refused to this wanderer any communication with thisgarrison without my permission."
"Pity it is," replied old Greenleaf, shaking his head, "that thisgood-natured and gallant young knight is somewhat drawn aside by therash advices of his squire, the boy Fabian, who has bravery, but aslittle steadiness in him as a bottle of fermented small beer."
"Now hang thee," thought Fabian to himself, "for an old relic of thewars, stuffed full of conceit and warlike terms, like the soldier who,to keep himself from the cold, has lapped himself so close in atattered ensign for a shelter, that his very outside may show nothingbut rags and blazonry."
"I would not think twice of the matter, were the party less dear tome," said Sir John de Walton. "But I would fain be of use to this youngman, even although I should purchase his improvement in militaryknowledge at the expense of giving him a little pain. Experienceshould, as it were, be burnt in upon the mind of a young man, and notmerely impressed by marking the lines of his chart out for him withchalk; I will remember the hint you, Greenleaf, have given, and take anopportunity of severing these two young men; and though I most dearlylove the one, and am far from wishing ill to the other, yet at present,as you well hint, the blind is leading the blind, and the young knighthas for his assistant and counsellor too young a squire, and that mustbe amended."
"Marry! out upon thee, old palmer-worm!" said the page within himself;"have I found thee in the very fact of maligning myself and my master,as it is thy nature to do towards all the hopeful young buds ofchivalry? If it were not to dirty the arms of an _eleve_ of chivalry,by measuring them with one of thy rank, I might honour thee with aknightly invitation to the field, while the scandal which thou hastspoken is still foul upon thy tongue; as it is, thou shalt not carryone kind of language publicly in the castle, and another before thegovernor, upon the footing of having served with him under the bannerof Longshanks. I will carry to my master this tale of thine evilintentions; and when we have concerted together, it shall appearwhether the youthful spirits of the garrison or the grey beards aremost likely to be the hope and protection, of this same Castle ofDouglas."
It is enough to say that Fabian pursued his purpose, in carrying to hismaster, and in no very good humour, the report of what had passedbetween Sir John de Walton and the old soldier. He succeeded inrepresenting the whole as a formal offence intended to Sir Aymer deValence; while all that the governor did to remove the suspicionsentertained by the young knight, could not in any respect bring him totake a kindly view of the feelings of his commander towards him. Heretained the impression which he had formed from Fabian's recital ofwhat he had heard, and did not think he was doing Sir John de Waltonany injustice, in supposing him desirous to engross the greatest shareof the fame acquired in the defence of the castle, and thrusting backhis companions, who might reasonably pretend to a fair portion of it.
The mother of mischief, says a Scottish proverb, is no bigger than amidge's wing. [Footnote: i.e. Gnat's wing] In this matter of quarrel,neither the young man nor the older knight had afforded each other anyjust cause of offence. De Walton was a strict observer of militarydiscipline, in which he had been educated from his extreme youth, andby which he was almost as completely ruled as by his naturaldisposition; and his present situation added force to his originaleducation.
Common report had even exaggerated the military skill, the love ofadventure, and the great variety of enterprise, ascribed to James, theyoung Lord of Douglas. He had, in the eyes of this Southern garrison,the faculties of a fiend, rather than those of a mere mortal; for ifthe English soldiers cursed the tedium of the perpetual watch and wardupon the Dangerous Castle, which admitted of no relaxation from theseverity of extreme duty, they agreed that a tall form was sure toappear to them with a battle-axe in his hand, and entering intoconversation in the most insinuating manner, never failed, with aningenuity and eloquence equal to that of a fallen spirit, to recommendto the discontented sentinel some mode in which, by giving hisassistance to betray the English, he might set himself at liberty. Thevariety of these devices, and the frequency of their recurrence, keptSir John de Walton's anxiety so perpetually upon the stretch, that heat no time thought himself exactly out of the Black Douglas's reach,any more than the good Christian supposes himself out of reach of thewiles of the Devil; while every new temptation, instead of confirminghis hope, seems to announce that the immediate retreat of the Evil Onewill be followed by some new attack yet more cunningly devised. Underthis general state of anxiety and apprehension, the temper of thegovernor changed somewhat for the worse, and they who loved him best,regretted most that he became addicted to complain of the want ofdiligence on the part of those, who, neither invested withresponsibility like his, nor animated by the hope of such splendidrewards, did not entertain the same degree of watchful and incessantsuspicion as himself. The soldiers muttered that the vigilance of theirgovernor was marked with severity; the officers and men of rank, ofwhom there were several, as the castle was a renowned school of arms,and there was a certain merit attained even by serving within itswalls, complained, at the same time, that Sir John de Walton no longermade parties for hunting, for hawking, or for any purpose which mightsoften the rigours of warfare, and suffered nothing to go forward butthe precise discipline of the castle.
On the other hand, it may beusually granted that the castle is well kept where the governor is adisciplinarian; and where feuds and personal quarrels are found in thegarrison, the young men are usually more in fault than those whosegreater experience has convinced them of the necessity of using thestrictest precautions.
A generous mind--and such was Sir John de Walton's--is often in thisway changed and corrupted by the habit of over-vigilance, and pushedbeyond its natural limits of candour. Neither was Sir Aymer de Valencefree from a similar change; suspicion, though from a different cause,seemed also to threaten to bias his open and noble disposition, inthose qualities which had hitherto been proper to him. It was in vainthat Sir John de Walton studiously sought opportunities to give hisyounger friend indulgences, which at times were as far extended as theduty of the garrison permitted. The blow was struck; the alarm had beengiven to a proud and fiery temper on both sides; and while De Valenceentertained an opinion that he was unjustly suspected by a friend, whowas in several respects bound to him, De Walton, on the other hand, wasled to conceive that a young man, of whom he took a charge asaffectionate as if he had been a son of his own, and who owed to hislessons what he knew of warfare, and what success he had obtained inlife, had taken offence at trifles, and considered himself ill-treatedon very inadequate grounds. The seeds of disagreement, thus sownbetween them, failed not, like the tares sown by the Enemy among thewheat, to pass from one class of the garrison to another; the soldiers,though without any better reason than merely to pass the time, tookdifferent sides between their governor and his young lieutenant; and sothe ball of contention being once thrown up between them, never lackedsome arm or other to keep it in motion.