CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.
Like the dog following its master, when engaged in training him to thesport in which he desires he should excel, the Lady Augusta feltherself occasionally treated with a severity, calculated to impressupon her the most implicit obedience and attention to the Knight of theTomb, in whom she had speedily persuaded herself she saw a principalman among the retainers of Douglas, if not James of Douglas himself.Still, however, the ideas which the lady had formed of the redoubtedDouglas, were those of a knight highly accomplished in the duties ofchivalry, devoted in particular to the service of the fair sex, andaltogether unlike the personage with whom she found herself sostrangely united, or rather for the present enthralled to.Nevertheless, when, as if to abridge farther communication, he turnedshort into one of the mazes of the wood, and seemed to adopt a pace,which, from the nature of the ground, the horse on which the LadyAugusta was mounted had difficulty to keep up with, she followed himwith the alarm and speed of the young spaniel, which from fear ratherthan fondness, endeavours to keep up with the track of its severemaster. The simile, it is true, is not a very polite one, nor entirelybecoming an age, when women were worshipped with a certain degree ofdevotion; but such circumstances as the present were also rare, and theLady Augusta de Berkely could not but persuade herself that theterrible champion, whose name had been so long the theme of heranxiety, and the terror indeed of the whole country, might be able,some way or other, to accomplish her deliverance. She, therefore,exerted herself to the utmost, so as to keep pace with the phantom-likeapparition, and followed the knight, as the evening shadow keeps watchupon the belated rustic.
As the lady obviously suffered under the degree of exertion necessaryto keep her palfrey from stumbling in these steep and broken paths, theKnight of the Tomb slackened his pace, looked anxiously around him, andmuttered apparently to himself, though probably intended for hiscompanion's ear, "There is no occasion for so much haste."
He proceeded at a slower rate, until they seemed to be on the brink ofa ravine, being one of many irregularities on the surface of theground, effected by the sudden torrents peculiar to that country, andwhich, winding among the trees and copse-wood, formed, as it were, anet of places of concealment, opening into each other, so that therewas perhaps no place in the world so fit for the purpose of ambuscade.The spot where the borderer Turnbull had made his escape at the huntingmatch, was one specimen of this broken country, and perhaps connecteditself with the various thickets and passes through which the knightand pilgrim occasionally seemed to take their way, though that ravinewas at a considerable distance from their present route.
Meanwhile the knight led the way, as if rather with the purpose ofbewildering the Lady Augusta amidst these interminable woods, thanfollowing any exact or fixed path. Here they ascended, and anonappeared to descend in the same direction, finding only boundlesswildernesses, and varied combinations of tangled woodland scenery. Suchpart of the country as seemed arable, the knight appeared carefully toavoid; yet he could not direct his course with so much certainty butthat he occasionally crossed the path of inhabitants and cultivators,who showed a consciousness of so singular a presence, but never as thelady observed evinced any symptoms of recognition. The inference wasobvious, that the spectre knight was known in the country, and that hepossessed adherents or accomplices there, who were at least so far hisfriends, as to avoid giving any alarm, which might be the means of hisdiscovery. The well-imitated cry of the night-owl, too frequent a guestin the wilderness that its call should be a subject of surprise, seemedto be a signal generally understood among them; for it was heard indifferent parts of the wood, and the Lady Augusta, experienced in suchjourneys by her former travels under the guidance of the minstrelBertram, was led to observe, that on hearing such wild notes, her guidechanged the direction of his course, and betook himself to paths whichled through deeper wilds, and more impenetrable thickets. This happenedso often, that a new alarm came upon the unfortunate pilgrim, whichsuggested other motives of terror. Was she not the confidant, andalmost the tool of some artful design, laid with a view to an extensiveoperation, which was destined to terminate, as the efforts of Douglashad before done, in the surprise of his hereditary castle, the massacreof the English garrison--and finally in the dishonour and death of thatSir John de Walton, upon whose fate she had long believed, or taughtherself to believe, that her own was dependent?
It no sooner flashed across the mind of the Lady Augusta that she wasengaged in some such conspiracy with a Scottish insurgent, than sheshuddered at the consequences of the dark transactions in which she hadnow become involved, and which appeared to have a tendency so verydifferent from what she had at first apprehended.
The hours of the morning of this remarkable day, being that of PalmSunday, were thus drawn out in wandering from place to place; while theLady de Berkely occasionally interposed by petitions for liberty, whichshe endeavoured to express in the most moving and pathetic manner, andby offers of wealth and treasures, to which no answer whatever wasreturned by her strange guide.
At length, as if worn out by his captive's importunity, the knight,coming close up to the bridle-rein of the Lady Augusta, said in asolemn tone--
"I am, as you may well believe, none of those knights who roam throughwood and wild, seeking adventures, by which I may obtain grace in theeyes of a fair lady: Yet will I to a certain degree grant the requestwhich thou dost solicit so anxiously, and the arbitration of thy fateshall depend upon the pleasure of him to whose will thou hast expressedthyself ready to submit thine own. I will, on our arrival at the placeof our destination, which is now at hand, write to Sir John de Walton,and send my letter, together with thy fair self, by a specialmessenger. He will, no doubt, speedily attend our summons, and thoushalt thyself be satisfied, that even he who has as yet appeared deafto entreaty, and insensible to earthly affections, has still somesympathy for beauty and for virtue. I will put the choice of safety,and thy future happiness, into thine own hands, and those of the manwhom thou hast chosen; and thou mayst select which thou wilt betwixtthose and misery."
While he thus spoke, one of those ravines or clefts in the earth seemedto yawn before them, and entering it at the upper end, the spectreknight, with an attention which he had not yet shown, guided the lady'scourser by the rein down the broken and steep path by which alone thebottom of the tangled dingle was accessible.
When placed on firm ground after the dangers of a descent, in which herpalfrey seemed to be sustained by the personal strength and address ofthe singular being who had hold of the bridle, the lady looked withsome astonishment at a place so well adapted for concealment as thatwhich she had now reached. It appeared evident that it was used forthis purpose, for more than one stifled answer was given to a very lowbugle-note emitted by the Knight of the Tomb; and when the same notewas repeated, about half a score of armed men, some wearing the dressof soldiers, others those of shepherds and agriculturists, showedthemselves imperfectly, as if acknowledging the summons.